Morning Word Header
COVID-19 by the numbers
New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 1,309 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the statewide total so far to 274,155. DOH has designated 241,669 of those cases as recovered.
Bernalillo County had 304 new cases, followed by Doña Ana County with 200 and San Juan County with 167. Santa Fe County had 41 new cases.
The state also announced 12 additional deaths; there have now been a total of 5,039 fatalities statewide. As of yesterday, 424 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, a nearly 9% increase from the day prior.
Currently, 82% of New Mexicans 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 72.4% are fully vaccinated. Among that demographic, 9.2% have had a booster shot. In the 12-17-year-old age group, 62.5% people have had at least one dose and 54.3% are fully inoculated. In Santa Fe County, among those 18 years and older, 92.8% have had at least one dose and 82.3% are fully vaccinated.
New Mexicans can register for a COVID-19 vaccine here and check eligibility for a COVID-19 vaccine booster here.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Report sounds alarm on state contracts
According to a new report from the Legislative Finance Committee, no-bid contracts surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an accompanying rise in both waste and fraud. According to the report, the number of sole source and emergency procurements logged on the State Purchasing Division’s website has grown from 275 to 1,065, and the combined value of these procurements has grown from $100.5 million to $314.9 million. The number of emergency procurements by state and local governments, along with public school and higher education entities—spurred by the pandemic—was more than five times higher in FY21 than in FY20. Much of the emergency spending was by the health department, the report notes, under a $200 million blanket emergency procurement authorized by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. While the Department of Finance and Administration discontinued emergency authorization for DOH procurement in June, ongoing contractual payments will continue, including $25 million for testing, contact tracing and personal protective equipment, as will an approximate $364,000 thousand contract to Momentum Santa Fe, the consulting company of former Deputy Secretary of Tourism Audrey Herrera-Castillo, to manage $7.6 million in contracts to community organizations to promote COVID-19 vaccines through June 30, 2024. “Despite multiple warnings, hurried emergency PPE purchases led to instances of fraudulent and mishandled purchases,” the report notes, and “by summer 2020, the Department of Health had already pre-paid for millions of dollars of PPE, some of which were never delivered or accounted for.”
Multiple state agencies used a different healthcare exemption to competitive bidding to join a $492.9 million noncompetitive contract with Santa Fe-based Falling Colors to serve as an administrator for the Behavioral Health Collaborative and several other functions. This exemption, the report notes, “may be outdated and allow for hundreds of millions of dollars in noncompetitive purchases to occur.” The Falling Colors contract began in August 2017 as a 36-month, $160.7 million contract and has been amended 27 times since then. “Under the latest amendment, Falling Colors is now authorized to receive up to $135.9 million in indirect costs over the five years of the contract. In other words, through multiple amendments, the total cost of the contract has grown over 200 percent, and Falling Color’s share of those contract costs has grown almost 800 percent,” the report notes. Lawmakers in yesterday’s hearing expressed concerns regarding the new report’s findings, with House Majority Leader Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, noting: “We have a responsibility to ensure the public’s money is being well spent. Yes it was (during) COVID-19, but with all due respect that sounds like an excuse to me.” The report notes that despite a prior report on the same issues, only two key recommendations have been implemented.
Webber raises nearly half a mil for campaign
Campaign finance reports from all three City of Santa Fe mayoral candidates filed early this week show incumbent Mayor Alan Webber has raised just over $448,000, and nearly $45,000 in the most recent reporting period spanning Oct. 8-25. In comparison, City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler has raised close to $150,000 in total—and about $13,000 during the most recent reporting period—and Alexis Martinez Johnson has raised all together about $18,700, and about $2,000 over the last three weeks. Webber’s contributions include two from people with connections to the Santa Fe Reporter: Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum contributed $1,000 and is married to one of SFR’s owners, and Charles Meeker, former mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed $500 and is the brother of one of SFR’s owners. SFR co-owner Richard Meeker (who donated during an earlier reporting period) plays no role in SFR’s coverage or endorsements. Writer George RR Martin also contributed $2,500 to Webber’s campaign, as did his wife, Parris McBride Martin. Vigil Coppler’s contributions include $2,500 from Steven Chavez, CEO of Integrated Control Systems in Albuquerque; $100 from New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner Joseph Maestas; $100 from former City Councilor Bill Dimas; and $200 from state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, among others. Martinez Johnson received approximately 15 donations in the last reporting period, the largest of which was $1,000 from Faye Miller of Santa Fe.
Early voting ends Saturday
Tomorrow marks the last day for City of Santa Fe voters to cast ballots early prior to the Nov. 2 local election. If you’re planning to vote today or tomorrow, you can check early and election-day voting locations and even wait times for early voting sites on the Santa Fe County Clerk’s website (the wait times appear to always be zero). If you need to drop off an absentee ballot, you can find locations here; if you already voted absentee, you can track your ballot here. And if you’re feeling left out because you aren’t registered to vote, it’s not quite too late. Santa Fe County voters can register today and tomorrow at all the early voting locations. Be sure to bring a photo ID showing your address. There will not be same-day voter registration on Election Day. Not sure what’s on your ballot? You can look up a sample one for your district here. If you’re still considering your options and want more feedback, be sure to pick up SFR’s endorsements, in the paper edition currently on the street and online (and you can read all of SFR election coverage here). If you need a refresher on how ranked choice voting works, you’ll find that here. When you’ve accomplished your civic duty, here are some puppies to restore your equilibrium.
Council OKs $15/hour for workers
ICYMI, Santa Fe City Councilors Wednesday night unanimously voted to raise the hourly wage for the 217 employees who currently earn below $15 (those who already earn at least $15 an hour won’t see a raise). Doing so means the city now now meets the standard set by labor activists to “Fight for $15,” although many city leaders and workers alike maintain that $15 an hour isn’t necessarily enough to stay afloat in the Santa Fe, amid rising costs for housing and other life necessities. “There’s been a movement due to COVID and this lack of workers in private industry...to up the minimum wage themselves to attract workers and if the private sector’s willing to do it, then there’s no reason why the government shouldn’t take the lead,” District 3 City Councilor Roman “Tiger” Abeyta told SFR. District 2 City Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth says increased gross-receipt taxes from a busy summer enabled the minimum wage increase. As for raising wages for all employees to $15 an hour through the city’s Living Wage Ordinance (it currently sets the minimum wage at $12.32), Romero-Wirth says first discussions need to happen about whether that should be a statewide or local initiative, while Abeyta says businesses and nonprofits would need to weigh in first.
Listen up
In conjunction with the Museum of International Folk Art Museum’s exhibit Yokai: Ghosts and Demons of Japan, Japanese and US storytellers Michael Dylan Foster, Satori Murata, KONO Junya, APSU Shusei and Zack Davisson will share their favorite scary stories from the world of Yokai at 8 pm tonight on YouTube.
And, whether you’re sporting a costume this year or steering smaller humans around the neighborhood in search of sugar, your Halloween can only improve with the help of a playlist. Enter New Mexico PBS’ Trick or Treat Tunes playlist, featuring an array of genres, from the B52s, “Devil in My Car” to Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare.” Inspired and not just as a means of procrastinating, The Morning Word also made a Halloween playlist, which may or may not be finished.
Santa Fe and the return of Halloween
Nothing says Halloween quite like watching wig-wearing men play guitars. At least that’s our story. Consider grabbing a few masks and heading to Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery tonight for Moby Dick and Sabbath, or tomorrow night for Tech or Treat with Team Everything or Sunday, aka actual Halloween, for Heartless Bastards. Those three events barely scratch the surface of Santa Fe’s return to some semblance of a Halloween weekend (you’ll find some of these in this week’s SFR Picks, as well as the weekly calendar). Looks like a Halloween costume contest is going down at Palace Prime on Saturday night; trick or treating at Santa Fe Place Mall returns on Sunday and, also on Sunday, stop by the Design Center between noon and 4 pm for a Halloween Celebration featuring artist-made puppets telling stories in true halloween style; live music from the Wonky Tonks and Carlos Medina, DJ Audio Buddha and more. We’re sure there’s lots more going on out there, but that should get you started.
Data shows climate impact on tribes
A new study seven years in the making quantifies the impact of climate change on Native Americans as a result of forced relocations. “Historic land dispossession is a huge factor contributing to extreme climate change vulnerability for tribes,” Kyle Whyte, one of the study’s authors, who is a University of Michigan professor and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, tells the New York Times. The study’s authors created a database comparing the historical land bases and land loss of 380 individual tribes with present-day reservations and found 160 of the 380 tribes they examined have no federally or state-recognized land, and the remaining 220 had on average 2.6% remaining of their historical land base. In addition to having less land, tribes were pushed farther from their original lands and into areas with less hospitable climates. The story cites Laguna Pueblo as one example, where “the average annual precipitation on the tribe’s current land is about half of what its historical lands receive.” US Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-NM, who chairs the House Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States, commended the infrastructure bill President Joe Biden is pushing, which includes $216 million to help tribal nations with climate resilience. “That is not enough,” Leger Fernández said. “But it is more than we have ever received.”
Santa Fe diners can eat al fresco this winter
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down restaurants, state and local government created permitting for outdoor dining. Those exemptions were set to expire at the end of this month, but will now continue through April. Specifically, on Wednesday, Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber introduced a resolution to the City Council that will extend alcohol service in the various outdoor dining areas, aka parklets. Webber’s move follows a six-month extension for such permitting also issued earlier this week by the state Alcohol Beverage Control Division. According to a news release, the city extension will also allow impacted businesses the opportunity to seek longer-term lease agreements with the city. Webber’s resolution was an about-face for restaurant owners, who had received letters from the city earlier in the week telling them they needed to “deconstruct and vacate any and all outdoor dining installations [and] remove associated barriers” by the end of Sunday. While Webber’s ordinance won’t be in effect until November, the city won’t be enforcing the Oct. 31 termination date, he tells the Santa Fe New Mexican.
All clear for Halloween
We head into the weekend with a sunny day ahead, a high temperature near 63 degrees and north wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south in the afternoon. According to the National Weather Service, the whole weekend looks sunny and pleasant, with a high tomorrow close to 67 degrees. Halloween Sunday also looks clear, with a low around 36 degrees should your trick-or-treating have you outside in the dead of night. As for that prescribed burn in the Santa Fe Watershed, expect smoke to linger at least through tomorrow morning.
Thanks for reading! The Word thought reading this National Geographic story about bats today seemed apt.
