By Mary Alice Murphy

At the regular Youth Advisory Committee, Sixth Judicial District Judge J.C. Robinson opened the meeting.

Committee member Priscilla Lucero pointed out that it would be preferable to have a committee board member to take notes. Robinson asked JPO (Juvenile Probation Office) Supervisor Rachel Medina to take notes.

Lucero noted that because a quorum was not present at the previous meeting, the minutes could be approved only for discussion purposes, as no action was taken.

"Our minutes and our notices should follow the Open Meetings Act," Lucero said. "I request an OMA resolution be on the agenda for next month. And if we go back to the bylaws of this group), we are in violation by meeting only quarterly. We should be meeting monthly. I request that also be on next month's agenda to choose someone to help revise the bylaws."

Robinson noted that the meeting last time should have only been the executive committee, not the full board.

Lucero said that Cobre Schools Associate Superintendent José Carrillo had been chosen to be on the executive committee, but "as we did not have a quorum, we should also put him on the agenda to have a vote to approve him for the executive committee."

Bianca Padilla, Juvenile Justice Continuum of Services program coordinator, reported that the Children, Youth and Families Department Associate Deputy Director Nick Costales had notified her that her program Grant County Continuum of Youth Services had received the award for the Attendance Success Initiative. Padilla thanked everyone who had helped her with the application. It resulted in $279,00 each for two years, with $136,000 going to Silver Schools and $143,000 going to Cobre Schools, with the same amount for the year following.

She noted that the deadline for submitting invoices is June 22 for Grant County. "We've already submitted them to the town on June 11. It should zero out for the town. We might revert some travel money to the county. The end-of-year report to CYFD is due July 30. July 6 is the last day to get reimbursement for the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee. It will restart with the fiscal year. The JJAC grant was already approved by the Grant County Commission, so we're good to go. We need to execute sub-contracts."

Lucero commended Padilla for getting more assistance for the schools. "I'm glad Silver and Cobre have worked with her."

Audie Brown, Superintendent of Silver Schools, said they stay in frequent communication.

On the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, Grant County Manager Charlene Webb said she had a meeting with Patty Vowell of the initiative for about an hour. "It was questions and answers about my knowledge of the program, our support of the program and the community collaboration. What I told her were the challenges and the strengths of the program. She also interviewed Jacob Zamora on the finances and how we manage grants."

"She also asked me to commit, which I did on behalf of all of you, which I didn't think you would mind, to peer-to-peer support to help other counties develop programs like ours, so they would know what our successes and challenges are."

As for next steps, Webb said she would go through the training for sure, but "I don't know how many can commit from the county or this committee. The training will be by OJJDP (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) the end of August into September. We talked a lot about the importance of the Annie E. Casey Foundation."

Lucero asked if members of this committee could also attend to which Webb said she thought so. "I will forward the information as I get it. They reiterated how wonderful our program is, nothing we don't already know, and how successful we are, and our program is a model. I give the credit to all of you."

Medina said the office is still looking at filling Padilla's position, as she is currently a contract employee. "The deputy director may come down and reorganize our program, but he wouldn't commit to a date."

Webb said she would try to get a face-to-face with him. "He talked to me about his budget cuts, how low our number of cases was. He shared with me that we do such a good job 'we'll figure out how to do it even if we don't fill the position.' I took offense at that because we are successful, and we are because of the position filled by CYFD. I said we shouldn't be punished for doing great things and we would struggle a little if we were not able to fill the position. He will be getting a letter from the Grant County Commission. We will have the legislators put pressure on (CYFD Secretary Monique) Jacobsen. I'm not going to give up. We will keep pushing for the position. The other option would be the county would have to contract for the position. It would be ideal to keep the continuum going forward. I will ask for 20 percent on top of the grant award. (Silver City Town Manager) Alex (Brown) and I have talked about picking up the shortfall."

"I wouldn't hold my breath for the position," Robinson said.

"I don't give up," Webb said.

Gary Stailey said he had run into Rep. Rebecca Dow the other day. "She asked me about the position and what we were doing. She said she and (Senator) Howie (Morales) would write to Jacobsen."

Medina said as long as she has Bianca in her corner, everything's going fine.

"I understand that Bianca is good at this," Robinson said. "But we have 18 cases in JPPO. That's six cases per person. If CYFD is going to punish us, we will have to do it in house."

Humberto Cruz said he has about 20 to 25 juveniles on surveillance at present. "But not everyone is on surveillance. Chris (Arvidson) has about the same amount."

Medina said the expectation is that the officers will have to do more field work. "They already spend a lot of time in the schools."

Lucero said Morales had asked her last year how many were being serviced in one year. "I did research and came up with about 1,700 in one year. So, we are benefiting from this program. He used it as a selling point to keep the funds intact and articulated it to Jacobsen, the Senate Finance Committee and to legislative interim committees."

Webb said the grant agreement with the county for the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee had been approve. "Since the county is responsible for the continuum coordinator and for the scope of work, I don't feel comfortable in splitting the work, so the burden falls on the county."

Margaret Begay, Adult Drug Court Manager said the memorandum of understanding between the county and the city, "which is our fiscal agent, has the money flowing down to the courts."

Webb said it was different from their agreement. Begay said it must be two different pots of money. "And the county is responsible for the coordinator," Webb said.

"I am willing to fund a contract," Brown said, "because it affects our grant. I don't want it to impact the town, so that we might not be able to get reimbursements or something like that."

"Or get the data we need," Webb said. "We need an extreme amount of data to meet requirements."

Robinson clarified that if CYFD was not willing to fund the position, the town and county would undertake it.

"As a last resort," Webb emphasized.

Padilla talked about the budget. She said $94,663 would be for JJAC for community youth building. "We have to match it at 40 percent for $37,865 back to the grant. We have already met that for the year with in-kind services, and donations and such."

She said the legislative budget for this year is $90,000 to fund some of the programs.

"We talked about after-school tutoring," she said. "We also talked about wilderness or career readiness training. One Friday or Saturday a month we would provide the career readiness training. They are always asking for jobs."

The budget also has one position for drug and alcohol work. "I want to raise counseling to $25,000 because she always runs out of money. Last year she had 34 kids. She usually has between 30 and 35 during the school year. Usually it drops in the summer, but she has 17, which is a lot. "

Cruz said Hidalgo Medical Services takes forever to get kids assessed. "If the kids can't go to HMS, they come into our office. They are getting younger. We had a few that were 8 years old. It's very beneficial to have Deborah Berry as our counselor. Parents don't know how to get services at HMS."

Padilla said the counselor was paid $24,820 this year, but numbers always pick up in the spring.

Cruz said they would anticipate an increase in elementary kids needing counseling. "It's a three-month wait for counseling at HMS."

Padilla said the counselor is taking a test in order to be certified to bill Medicaid.

Gary Stailey, Community Youth Building Program Coordinator said the only difference in the budget is whether to choose career readiness and tutoring.

"In the second proposed budget, we would keep two drug and alcohol facilitators, wilderness and career readiness, but not tutoring," Padilla said. "I like the first option with tutoring better. What do you think?"

Cruz said tutoring is more beneficial.

Robinson concurred and said it had been beneficial.

Stailey asked Superintendent Audie Brown if he could offer tutoring at the schools. "It's very unlikely with our current budget," Brown replied.

Padilla said the entire budget for everything they are doing would be $501,000.

Lucero brought up the topic of noticing the Youth Advisory Committee meetings to the public. She suggested advertising them. Webb said she pays a flat fee to this publication and she could send the notices through the county as an in-kind service.

Padilla said in comparing budgets, last years was $390,000 and this year a bit over half a million. "My recommendation is option one to include the after-school tutoring and career readiness." The budget was approved.

Robinson said the next meeting would be in September, on their quarterly schedule, but Lucero said they had to meet next month to do the Open Meetings Act resolution and to create a committee to revise the bylaws to state that quarterly meetings rather than monthly meetings would be held. "We have to be in compliance with our bylaws, so we have to execute the changes."

The regular meetings are held on the second Monday of the month.

"The town's contract with Bianca will expire at the end of June," Alex Brown said. "I will extend it for three months out of my budget."

Medina asked: "Even when we get a new person, can we keep Bianca on for a time to train the new one?"

"We want to keep the momentum going, so yes, she should stay to train," Lucero said. "We want to look for additional funding to continue the betterment of the community."

The next meeting will take place on Monday, July 9, at noon, to formalize the OMA and name a bylaws committee.