By DANIEL J. CHACÓN
The Santa Fe New Mexican

• • • • • After a failed special session and pressure by the governor to take action on crime, public safety is in focus at Roundhouse

When lawmakers return to Santa Fe for this year’s 60-day legislative session, unfinished business from the summer will be hanging over their heads.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham didn’t hold back after lawmakers gave her public safety proposals the cold shoulder during a special session she convened in July, adjourning sine die five hours after gaveling in without giving any of her proposed bills so much as a hearing.

Lawmakers argued the measures, which included ones dealing with the highly sensitive topics of mental competency in criminal cases and involuntary commitment to mental health treatment, were changing “hour to hour” and could lead to unintended consequences if rushed. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat serving her second and final term as governor, called it one of the most disappointing days of her career.

“For the Legislature to ignore these stark realities is nothing less than a dereliction of duty,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement at the time, adding most Republicans would have passed her proposals, had Democrats not stood in the way.

Democrats fired back, accusing Lujan Grisham of twisting the facts in a rare display of dissent with their party’s standard-bearer.

But as lawmakers prepare for the session that starts Tuesday, they claim the strife with the governor is water under the bridge. Both sides say they’re committed to working together for the betterment of New Mexicans.

‘In the heat of politics’

“It’s really important that we don’t lose sight of everything the Legislature has accomplished with Gov. Lujan Grisham over the last six years,” Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said in a statement.

“There will always be disagreements, and we certainly had some tough ones over the summer, but there’s too much at stake to let that stop us from working together with the executive to deliver for the people of New Mexico,” Stewart said.

House Speaker Javier Martínez, also an Albuquerque Democrat, echoed the sentiment.

“In the heat of the moment, in the heat of politics, really, folks say stuff all the time,” he said. “From my perspective, I don’t take anything personally. Politics is a tough sport. You’ve got to have a thick skin. But more importantly, we are there to work on behalf of the people of New Mexico.”

For her part, Lujan Grisham said she isn’t feeling an undercurrent of hostility, noting the lines of communication are open, and interactions are taking place.

“We all agree that there were a lot of sort of missteps before, in the calling [of the special session] and right after,” she said. “Those missteps, on both sides, are not creating a perception that we can’t work together for any of us in this session. That should not translate to that my job is ever easy or that they think that I’m going to be a pushover. We’re going to come to, I think, the best balance that we’ve ever had. Let’s see if I’m right.”

Lujan Grisham said she doesn’t have “a slew of Democrats” in her office pleading to carry her bills, but she said a Democrat will carry all “except probably” a proposal dealing with the pretrial detention of defendants accused of violent crimes.

“That one’s a heavy lift,” she said.

Bills to address crime and behavioral health in New Mexico are poised to take center stage from the get-go.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Peter Wirth said recently lawmakers plan to expedite a package of public safety and behavioral health bills and get them up to the governor’s desk in the first 30 days. The package of public safety bills will start in the House, and the Senate will consider the behavioral health package first.

“We’ve communicated this expedited approach with the governor and have her buy-in,” Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said in a statement. “This plan will provide us ample opportunity to debate and discuss these critical priorities while giving us time to address all the other important legislation introduced in the 60-day session.”

Wirth said “there is no question” New Mexico has a health and public safety crisis.

“We committed last summer to find the right solutions, and our interim committees have worked hard to craft effective public safety legislation that will truly make a difference,” he said.

Needs and wants

Lujan Grisham said the proposed public safety bills are in her “priority clutch” for the session.

“It’s really time that we recognize we’re at a crisis in our state where violent crime and repeat crime is going down around the country, the opposite things are happening in New Mexico,” she said. “That is a sign that many of the systems we rely on to keep us safe are failing, and there’s not enough accountability.”

Lujan Grisham said she wants to fight human trafficking and push for higher penalties for convicted felons in possession of a firearm.

“Repeat dangerous bad actors do not belong in our communities,” she said.

Lujan Grisham plans to pursue a few other gun-related proposals, including an assault weapons ban and changes to the so-called red-flag gun law that allows for the temporary seizure of firearms from someone who might be at risk of harming themselves or others. Family members and others can petition a judge to issue the seizure order.

“We’re going to expand how it works,” she said, adding law enforcement is on board.

As currently written, the law does not list law enforcement in the definition of a “reporting party,” creating confusion and some resistance over whether police can petition for temporary seizure of firearms.

Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, said the idea is to make it easier get guns out of “unsafe hands before a tragedy happens.”

“The way it’s written now, the AG’s Office said law enforcement can do it, but we have judges that are disagreeing with that opinion,” she said.

Another change sought in the proposed bill would eliminate a provision giving individuals 48 hours to relinquish their firearms.

“That’s a very dangerous situation for 48 hours, Viscoli said.

The governor also said she “needs” bills dealing with mental health competency and commitment to ensure repeat offenders get mandatory treatment.

“If we’re dismissing every case because people aren’t well enough to stand trial … there has to be something else,” Lujan Grisham said. “So if you’re not committed to a program or you’re not an inpatient dealing with a mental health issue, with a drug addiction, you just cycle right back in.”

Judges have tools to mandate treatment, but compliance is poor, leading to warrant issuance and incarceration, she said.

“People need accountability,” she said. “If you don’t have it, you have chaos.”

Martínez said Democrats’ priorities include ensuring New Mexicans struggling with addiction or behavioral health problems have access to services “while at the same time equipping our prosecutors, our judges, our criminal justice system with the tools to ensure that those who commit crimes can be held accountable and those who need that help, need that support, can receive that support.”

Lawmakers are floating proposals to expand behavioral health services with a $1 billion trust fund that would spin off investment revenue, plus $200 million right away for behavioral health infrastructure. One of the state’s biggest gaps has been its workforce, creating concerns about its ability to handle an onslaught of mandated treatment.

Santa Fe police Chief Paul Joye and Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza both expressed hopes for policies and funding to address “repeat offenders” as well as behavioral health issues.

“We’re trying to build up the [Alternative Response Unit] program with [the fire department], and we’re trying to get more help,” Joye said. “In the behavioral and mental health field, I think anything that gets the workers in that field more money and makes the career more sustainable for them to have a family and to live in New Mexico is really good for us.”

Mendoza mentioned bail reform and funding for mental health and addiction problems as legislative priorities for him.

“I would definitely like to see progress on dealing with the bail reform issue and keeping violent, repeat offenders in jail, and for us to revisit the red-flag laws for clarification,” he said. “In terms of funding, we would like to see a continuation of funding for law enforcement retention and recruitment and, of course, funding and legislation dealing with mental health issues and addiction, which goes hand in hand with public safety.”

No ‘love and kisses’

Republicans, meanwhile, say they’ve been ready to deal with the state’s crime problem.

“Democrat legislators have laid out a list of legislative priorities going into the session that mirror Republican priorities and bills [that] have been introduced for many years, and they also mirror the priorities of the governor’s special session, so we stand ready to address these public safety issues,” said Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte.

Brantley said crime in New Mexico has “become so terrible” the Legislature realizes it needs to take action.

“It bewildered Republicans that the Democrats didn’t have an appetite,” she said. “But regardless of what has happened in the past, if they are expressing a want and desire to address it today, we stand ready to help them, and I am optimistic that meaningful results are on the horizon this legislative session.”

GOP leaders in the House echoed the sentiment.

“I’m happy that Democrats, after several years, have finally realized that crime is an issue, as far as going and taking some of the bills that we’ve introduced in the past and rebranding them, putting their name on it,” House Minority Whip Alan Martinez, R-Bernalillo, said during a House Republican legislative briefing. “I’m really excited about that.”

House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong of Magdalena said getting the work done, not who gets credit, is what matters.

“We’re excited that the Democrats have finally decided to join us to help find solutions to crime,” she said. “Rebranding some of our bills, that’s OK. We don’t care how it gets passed or who passes it. Let’s get what’s right done for the state of New Mexico.”

Brian Sanderoff, an Albuquerque political analyst and longtime pollster, said no one needed a crystal ball to know the special session the governor called in July was a trainwreck in the making.

Leading up to the 60-day session, he said he’s read comments indicating the two sides are willing to work together, though none suggesting they’re working hand in hand and have come up with a joint package. Still, he said there’s a “better chance” the governor and lawmakers will reach agreement on legislation during the upcoming session.

“Both sides really want to convey the message that they’re taking public safety very seriously and want to get something done, and sure, part of that is due to the fact that there are sensitivities on both sides as to what happened last year and the fact that they weren’t able to accomplish as much as they would have liked,” he said.

At the same time, acting quickly on legislation opens the door to other possibilities.

“If you pass something really quickly, the governor would have to act on it and, hopefully, if they came to terms, the governor would sign it,” Sanderoff said.

“But if the governor were to veto something and it was still early in the session, then there was still room for either passing additional compromise legislation or perhaps even attempting an override,” he said. “It’s good news for the state of New Mexico that they are talking as if they’re willing to work with each other, but we’re not seeing, you know, love and kisses from them at the same time.”