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Morning Word
City hosts police chief Q & A
At 6 pm this evening, the City of Santa Fe will host a public question-and-answer forum on the City’s YouTube channel with its two finalists for the police chief job: SFPD Deputy Chief of Operations and Interim Chief Paul Joye and Rio Rancho Police Department Deputy Chief Andrew Rodriguez. Each candidate will have up to three minutes to introduce themselves, answer a series of eight questions submitted by residents through a community survey and provide closing statements. All the qualified candidates participated in community panels with local leaders and organizations, and Joye and Rodriguez had additional sessions this week as well as meetings with Mayor Alan Webber, city councilors, City Manager John Blair, Director of Community Health and Safety Kyra Ochoa and City Attorney Erin McSherry. Blair said tonight’s forum will provide the “broader public” the opportunity to see the finalists “respond to some of the most urgent questions posed in our community survey. I will take their responses into account in making the decision. I invite and urge all Santa Feans to tune into the broadcast.”
Gov signs budget, crime legislation
Yesterday marked Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s deadline to sign bills passed in the legislative session (unsigned bills are considered “pocket vetoed”). One big bill she signed included the almost $8.5 billion state budget—nearly 14% higher than last year—for fiscal year 2023 (albeit with a few line-item vetoes). Among other items, the budget allocates $190.5 million for 7% raises and a minimum $15/hour wage for all public education staff; $77 million to increase teacher salary minimums; $24 million to combat hunger through the Food, Farms and Hunger initiative; $75 million for the expanded Opportunity Scholarship; $72 million for new law enforcement recruitment and retention funds; and $50 million for the Local Economic Development Act program. “This budget makes transformative investments exactly where they’re needed: from historic raises for New Mexico educators and growing the country’s most expansive tuition-free college program to creating a new fund to hire public safety officers and unprecedented funding to fight food insecurity,” the governor said in a statement. The governor vetoed Senate Bill 48, which would have raised salaries for judges and allocated $50 million for a variety of other projects and programs throughout the state. “I am unconvinced that SB 48′s distribution of over $50 million in funds for various projects upholds principles of fiscal responsibility, or, on the whole, represents a wise investment at present,” the governor’s veto message reads. Her rejection of SB48, the Albuquerque Journal reports, has angered lawmakers, who are now considering a special session to override her veto.
The governor also signed House Bill 68, a package of crime-related measures, including $50 million for a police officer recruitment fund; increased penalties for gun crimes; increased death benefits for the families of peace officers killed in the line of duty to $1 million; $9 million to establish the Violence Intervention Program Act; and elimination of the statute of limitations for second degree murder.
SFPD hybridizing its fleet
Amidst rising gas prices nationwide and in New Mexico, the Santa Fe Police Department will be upgrading its fleet with 42 Ford Interceptor Utility Hybrid vehicles. According to a memo provided to city councilors, 93 vehicles in the department’s fleet need replacing. The new vehicles will cost $3 million; SFPD plans to spend $1 million of the department’s unspent money for vacant staff positions on the equipment purchase, with the rest of the cash coming from gross receipts tax revenue. The council approved SFPD’s request Wednesday as part of $11.5 million in budget adjustment resolutions. In addition to the fuel savings, the department notes the vehicles will be more comfortable for drivers, particularly for “large statured officers” who often are too big for the sedans currently in use. Last month, the City Council approved the purchase of 17 new electric vehicles—mostly 100% electric Nissan Leaf Pluses—to replace vehicles across five departments. In a statement at the time, Mayor Alan Webber said the purchase, made with a state capital outlay grant, was another “step forward” for the city “as a leader in combatting climate change.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
March 9:
New cases: 341; 514,511 total cases
Top three counties: Bernalillo County with 81; Santa Fe County with 54, 21 from the 87507 ZIP code, which ranked first in the state yesterday among ZIP codes with the most new cases, and 12 from 87505, which ranked fifth. Doña Ana County had 39 cases.
Breakthrough cases: According to the most recent weekly vaccine report, between Feb. 7-March 7, 44% of COVID-19 cases were among people who had not completed a primary vaccination series; 28.2% were among those who had completed the series but had not received a booster; and 27.8% were among those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. For hospitalizations, those figures change to 61.9%, 18.7% and 19.4%. The percentages shift to 63.9%, 18.7% and 17.4% for fatalities.
Deaths: 16, 10 of them recent and six from more than 30 days ago, including a Santa Fe County woman in her 70s with underlying conditions. Santa Fe County has now had 253 fatalities; there have been 7,026 statewide. Hospitalizations: 176
Vaccinations: 91.9% percent of adults 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 78.2% have completed their primary series; 44.9% of adults 18 years and older have had a booster shot; 12-17-year-old age group: 71.2% of people have had at least one dose and 61.3% have completed their primary series; Children ages 5-11: 38.9% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 30.1% have completed their primary; Santa Fe County: 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 87.1% have completed their primary series.
Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
If you missed the New Yorker’s profile in January of Santa Fe-based writer Julia Cameron, it’s worth a read and provides the back story for her best-selling book The Artist’s Way; how Cameron developed her “morning pages” concept; and her other thoughts on the creative process. You can also hear directly from Cameron at 6 pm this evening during a virtual event from Collected Works Bookstore, in which Cameron will discuss her newest book, Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection, (a six-week program based on The Artist’s Way), with her editor Joel Fotinos. Register here.
Las Golondrinas’ close-up
El Rancho de las Golondrinas, for us, summons memories of the Harvest Festival and the Santa Fe Renaissance Faire. We think of sheep shearing and lavender harvesting and frolicking horses dressed up like unicorns. But the living museum in La Cienega also makes a good backdrop for high fashion, according to the Wall Street Journal story “Embrace Breezy Southwest Fashion This Season.” The story on spring men’s fashion proclaims Las Golondrinas as “the ideal backdrop for effortless styles,” and is where photographer Annemarieke van Drimmelen and stylist Giovanni Dario Laudicina shot models Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos for the story. “New Mexico is a very special place in my heart,” says van Drimmelen, who has visited regularly since her father moved here about 12 years ago. “The light is absolutely phenomenal—the way it reflects on the earth. It brings this amazing warmth.” As for stylist Laudicina, he let the location inspire final looks: “including a silk pale blue Giorgio Armani shirt or light blankets from Ralph Lauren Home and Hermès, while the ranch’s warm colors inspired a palette of beige and orange.”
The great outdoors
The annual Banff Mountain Film Fest kicks off the first of two nights at 7 pm this evening at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, and even the trailer is exhilarating. The program benefits the Santa Fe Conservation Trust and includes two separate nights of programming, as well as a virtual tour option for those who want to view at home. Tonight’s seven-film lineup includes Precious Leader Woman, about snowboarder Spencer O’Brien’s journey from childhood to the world stage, and Jump To Zero, the story of three BASE jumpers who find new ways to follow their passion while reducing the impact on their environment. Tomorrow night’s program includes six movies, such as Always Higher, about Lysanne Richard, one of the world’s best international competition high divers, and Never in the Way, featuring Chicago-based bike messenger, Nico Deportago-Cabrera.
Here comes something
Expect a wintry day of sorts. According to the National Weather Service, Santa Fe has a slight chance (40%) of snow showers between 8 and 11 am, then a chance of rain showers. Otherwise, it will be mostly cloudy with a high near 45 degrees and south wind 10 to 20 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Another chance for snow tonight (a 90% chance this time) with accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.
Thanks for reading! The Word looks forward to perusing the finalists of the 2022 International Booker Prize.
