Commission approves legislative priorities on 3-2 split; members spar over voter ID

BERNALILLO — The Sandoval County Commission voted 3-2 to approve the proposed legislative priorities for the 2025 session at the Nov. 13 general meeting with Katherine Bruch and Josh Jones voting against it. These priorities go with the county’s lobbyist during the session.

The first priority listed is legislation that would change the Inspection of Public Records Act, which is used by commercial companies, media and the general public to access records, to exclude certain law enforcement records “so as to not interfere with on-going investigations,” it reads.

They also hope legislation provides that commercial and bulk requesters pay for their own research costs instead of placing them on the taxpayer. Additionally, they ask for legislation to discourage abusive and serial requests, to prevent attorneys from using IPRA as a substitute for discovery, to extend the timelines for responding to requests and to allow fees to be charged for the cost of labor in responding to broad and burdensome requests. For the county, this change is viewed as an improvement.

The second priority listed has to do with emergency services. The county asks for legislation that creates funding for annual licensing fees required for radio communications as a part of the state’s 700MHz interoperable communications system.

Thirdly, they ask for legislation that changes the makeup and powers of the Law Enforcement Academy to increase authority and to enhance the ability of the LEA to track, discipline and make determinations regarding the continued certification of law enforcement offices with a history of disciplinary issues.

Their next focus is on mental health in the county with a hope for legislation aimed at securing funding and support for mental health resources and crisis intervention teams.

“This includes initiatives to enhance the availability of services for behavioral health and substance abuse. Additionally, efforts will be made to increase training for government employees to assist individuals experiencing behavioral health crises effectively,” it reads.

Lastly, the county lists legislation allowing partners to enter into public-private partnership agreements to facilitate public projects, creating the public private partnership board, creating the public private project fund, providing for an exemption in the procurement code, authorizing grants, loans and bonds, providing powers and duties, providing a delayed repeal, requiring reports.

As a supplement to these general priorities outlined by the county, commissioners discussed their own priorities:

One item in particular drew a lot of discussion:

1. Legislation that provides a fix for inconsistencies between the decoupled GRT increments passed in the 2019 Legislative Session, and NMSA 1978 70-20E-90(D), which requires Class A counties without a county hospital to dedicate the entire amount of revenue produced by the imposition of the second 1/8 increment to the support of indigent patients who are residents of the county.

2. Legislation that allows all Class A counties access to Industrial Revenue Bonds as a tool for economic development within its boundaries whether incorporated or unincorporated.

3. Legislation to amend NMSA 7-2-14.3 to eliminate the requirement that the county commission every two years conduct both a public hearing and a vote on the low-income tax credit.

4.“Per Board of County Commissioners Resolution 6.22.22.10, legislation that calls for improvements in voter processes including: Photo ID, Efficient Removal of Inactive Voters, Prohibiting the Use of Unsupervised Ballot Drop Boxes, Absentee Ballot Chain of Custody, and Post-election Audits.

5. Legislation to give counties the same exemption from the requirements of NMSA 13-6-4 already possessed by municipalities so that counties will not need state approval to dispose of junk personal property.

6. Legislation to increase the funding for the New Mexico Matching Fund to help counties pay for construction and renovation of county projects.

7. Any legislation that reduces the authority of the Board of County Commissioners or decreases the taxation authority of the board.

8. Legislation to end the unfunded mandate that counties provide facilities to state agencies such as the district courts (required by NMSA 34-6-24), the district attorneys (required by NMSA 36-1-8.1), and the Health Department (required by NMSA 24-4-2).

9. Unfunded mandates that create a strain on Board of County Commissioners or decreases the taxation authority of the board.

The item that had the most discussion was the item about voter ID.”

Jones moved to have the item removed completely.

“It drastically affects people and constituents within my district. I’ve worked with folks from tribal country within the VRC (veterans resource center) over at CNM, that had difficulties getting IDs because of their address and GIS system so much so that they had to use a family member’s address in Albuquerque to be able to get their identification, so I’d like to make a motion to strike item four from the list,” Jones said.

County Manager Wayne Johnson pointed out that striking the item would not affect the resolution that calls for voter ID as a legislative priority.

However, Jones moved forward with his motion, which was seconded by Bruch.

“I’m glad that Commissioner Jones decided to move forward on this item. My comment is more around the comment that the manager made. That resolution, it’s separate. It’s a separate item from this conversation. It’s something that we previously approved as a commission and resolution holds virtually no power. But it does stand in this case. We’re moving on with something that we are choosing to do for the upcoming legislative session, and then it would need our support to have our lobbyists and to have all of us go out and talk to these specific items or items,” she said.

Commissioner Jay Block took the opportunity to argue that the commission has approved this item for the past two years.

“Photo ID, voter ID, over 80% of the American public wants that. A high percent, vast majority of Democrats wanted it, a vast majority Republicans want it. The clerk has already been working — very well I might add — removing inactive voters off there, so she’s doing that. I don’t know why we’re against that,” he said.

He added that he would like to see unsupervised ballot drop boxes go away.

“I would love to see those off and out of the country because everyone else would, and we’re seeing them destroyed and vandalized. People’s votes aren’t being counted. Someone just said something about, ‘We want all votes to be counted.’ Chain of custody; we obviously want absentee ballot chain of custody. We want chain of custody on all ballots so everyone’s vote is secure. And we already do a certain amount of postal. The clerk knows this post-election notice anyway. So this is something that it’s a bad move. Anyone can get a photo ID. It’s not that difficult. This is 2024,” he said.

He also said he thinks it would send the wrong message to people of the county.

“By the way, I think we have a bunch of election issues around the country. Even if Trump won, there’s a bunch of red-state issues I’m worried about, anyway. I can’t support this because we came together. We’ve put a lot of work into this, and now we’re trying to remove it and I can tell you, I wouldn’t support this up in the Roundhouse,” he said.

Bruch and Jones voted in favor of this deletion and commissioners Dave Heil, Mike Meek and Block voted against it, so the deletion didn’t pass.

Bruch commented after the vote that she knew that would be the case.

“I think it’s important for people to understand voting rights and how that has worked in this country historically,” she said.

Shen then went into American voting history, giving specific examples of how voting has been made difficult for different groups throughout time. She referenced laws that restricted voters in the African-American population as well as women and Natives. She also referenced some more recent restrictions. The full details of her comments can be watched in the meeting video accessed on the county website.

“Over the past 20 years, the Supreme Court has restricted and further restricted the rights of Americans to vote, and we have seen many states act in this way, and I, for one, cannot continue to support this because I think all New Mexicans deserve the right to vote,” she said.

Heil thanked her for the “history lesson,” and the commission proceeded to vote on the priorities, which passed on a split vote down the same lines.