Father Lucas Grubbs, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Churches, center, speaks during a news conference where faith leaders pushed for passage of Senate Bill 17. The bill would ban certain dangerous weapons and put a variety of new regulations on gun sellers, including a minimum age and background checks for workers. Photo by Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican
Santa Fe New Mexican Staff Report
Senate shenanigans: As the clock winds down at the state Capitol, expect Republicans to try to drag things out to prevent pieces of legislation they oppose from passing.
Case in point: During Monday’s Senate floor session, Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, requested a “call of the Senate” ahead of third reading of legislation. A call of the Senate is a procedural move that requires every member of the chamber to be present for a vote.
After the doors of the chamber were locked, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Paula Ulibarri said two senators were unaccounted for: Joshua Sanchez, R-Bosque, and Nicole Tobiassen, R-Albuquerque.
“They’re the only ones missing at this time,” she said. “Sen. Sanchez’s secretary is in the process of tracking him down. Sen. Tobiassen is in Arizona with her husband.”
Tobiassen’s husband, who contracted West Nile virus, is receiving neuro-rehabilitation out of state.
While the Senate conducted other business, including messages from the governor and committee reports, the chamber didn’t take up any bills.
Another medical malpractice angle: As New Mexico lawmakers aim to reform the state’s medical malpractice law, Rep. Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe, has brought forward a bill to exempt independent medical providers’ personal assets from judgements in medical malpractice.
The House Health and Human Services Committee Monday advanced a committee substitute of that measure, House Bill 195.
Szczepanski said the bill stemmed from her conversations with independent medical providers, who worried plaintiffs might pursue their personal assets as part of a medical malpractice award.
“There’s a lot of fear that they would lose everything that they had earned — their college funds for their kids, their homes, their vehicles,” she told the committee. “There’s a lot of fear in these cases.”
However, Szczepanski noted HB 195 is “not an alternative” to broader medical malpractice legislation currently under consideration.
Civil commitment support: A bill to make it easier to force people to receive mental health treatment — a proposal some lawmakers have resisted in recent years — advanced from the House Floor Monday.
Senate Bill 3 would change the legal definitions of serious “harm to self” and “harm to others,” which determine whether a person can be ordered into mental health treatment against their will — a legal process called involuntary civil commitment.
“Instead of waiting for a concern to turn into a crisis, Senate Bill 3 allows courts to consider a fuller picture so they can better determine whether a person needs to be directed into mental health treatment,” House sponsor Rep. Pamelya Herndon, D-Albuquerque, said in a news release. “By creating more paths to treatment, we can help those who are struggling get the support they need, while also preventing avoidable harm in our communities.”
The bill passed the House in a vote of 58-10, with some Democrats joining Republicans in voting against the bill after citing concerns about the constitutional freedoms of people with disabilities and the state’s lack of mental health resources.
The bill, which was amended by the House Judiciary Committee Feb. 5, must return to the Senate for concurrence before heading to the governor’s desk.
Faith leaders support gun control: A group of faith leaders gathered outside the Roundhouse Monday morning to push for passage of Senate Bill 17, which would ban certain dangerous weapons and put a variety of new regulations on gun sellers, including a minimum age and background checks for workers.
The Rev. Talitha Arnold, United Church of Christ in Santa Fe, said SB 17 “affirms life for all New Mexicans,” and would help combat gun violence as well as suicides.
The Rev. Erica Lea-Simka, of the Mennonite tradition, said New Mexico’s high rate of child death by firearm “isn’t a political problem. It’s a moral debt.”
“Clergy, including myself, spend our days walking with families who have been torn apart by these gun violence statistics,” she said. “I am one of the ones who helps them try to find words for the silence left behind at the dinner table and in their name, we have to act for the love of all that’s holy. We have to act.”
School board suspension: The House Education Committee voted 7-5 to advance House Bill 185, which would authorize the secretary of the state Public Education Department to suspend an individual school board member.
The bill — sponsored by Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo, Rep. Brian Baca, R-Los Lunas, and two others — also lays out the process for this suspension: It would require the secretary to first issue a notice for remedial action and for at least 30 days of inaction to pass. Under the bill, the secretary would also have to provide written notice of the grounds for suspension and the processes for reinstatement and challenging the suspension.
Currently, the state Constitution allows voters of a school district to recall elected local school board members in an election, which requires a petition with a certain number of voter signatures. State statute allows the Public Education Department to suspend an entire school board, individual superintendents or individual principals.
“We can’t fire a whole school board, it just creates chaos,” Herrera said.
During HB 185’s hearing, Marvyn Jaramillo, president of the New Mexico School Boards Association, said hundreds of the organization’s members are opposed to the bill.
“House Bill 185 is not a minor adjustment to oversight, it is a fundamental shift of power away from local voters and toward a single appointed official,” Jaramillo said. “This is not accountability, this is disenfranchisement.”
Other past or present school board members raised concerns about the public education secretary being given the authority to remove someone in a locally elected position.
HB 185 is endorsed by the Legislative Education Study Committee. It now heads to the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee.
Quote of the day: “Sen. Trujillo and I sit next to each other in Senate Finance. She was in an incredibly jovial and wonderful mood this morning, so I was wondering if the senator would tell us: Does she take a shot per touchdown or does she take a shot per the number of points scored at that moment?” — Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, ribbing his colleague, Sen. Linda Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, who said it’s a family tradition to drink a shot every time the Seattle Seahawks score a touchdown.