By Mary Alice Murphy

[Editor's Note: This author did not get some of the names of speakers.]

This Silver City Town Council work session took place on July 16, 2024, at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center in anticipation of many people wishing to give public input on downtown issues.

The first section of the event covered the public input and the second brought Council discussion. Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Guadalupe Cano led both sections with a break in between.

Cano requested a three-minute limit on public speakers. "And I will not allow any attack on public officials. If there is any, I will gavel the end of your speaking time."

The first speaker discussed the need for a behavioral health unit in Grant County and crisis intervention teams in downtown Silver City. He also suggested additional lighting and cameras in the downtown area, including under bridges and in the Big Ditch, as well as the installation of audio recorders for noise ordinance enforcement.

Another speaker, a community member, proposed having a police officer at the town's Visitor Center to address ongoing incidents of threatening behavior, drug use and public intoxication. He also suggested the officer could monitor new surveillance cameras and control the area under the Broadway Street Bridge.

Renée Provencio, representing the MainStreet Project, also supported the idea of a behavioral health unit and suggested modeling it after the Farmington, NM, model. She proposed a public shelter with restrooms, showers and laundry facilities, similar to ones in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

A woman said she had been involved in similar situations in Portland, OR and in Washington state. She emphasized the need for additional lighting, cameras and foot patrols to improve downtown safety. She said taking away the downtown benches, without warning people, was not a good move, as it limits where anyone, including tourists can sit. She said she felt uncomfortable by herself in her business downtown.

Wendy Phillips said she wanted to talk about communication among the businesses and residential areas, as well as tourists, business employees, town officials, law enforcement and all downtown stakeholders and those living in the historic district and surrounding areas. "We need some sort of communication system among us, so when changes are made, we know about them.

A speaker who said they had worked with city government and project management, said they knew how easy it is to become a lazy bureaucrat. "Before we moved here, I worked in parks and I became very familiar with the unhoused, but I always tried to treat them with care. We had a shelter that a person could stay in for 30 days and try to get a job, but some chose to be unhoused."

Iris Nolascor, the Commons executive director, said they see a population of people in real need of food assistance as well as those who are unhoused. She said she has struggled with town conflicts and issues between agencies. "We need to keep compassion at the top of our hearts."

Brian Stengel said everyone needs to collaborate, just as a new collaborative effort Candles in the Wind is trying to do with MainStreet and other stakeholders to build crisis response capabilities. With donations and grants they have helped some with health care needs and transportation expenses.

Another woman speaker pointed out that one of the problems for the homeless is that housing in town is unaffordable for many. She said rental control is illegal and "gouging is protected. When someone loses a house due to not being able to pay the mortgage, buyers scoop them up and rent them at high rents. Mental health issues sometimes put greed before people."

Pamela Morgan said she would love for the Council not to allow marijuana stores downtown. "Two pot shops shut down an artist who had a group effort in Three Wise Women." She noted that Colorado has disallowed pot shops on their main streets.

District Attorney Michael Renteria said a special legislative session would try to address crime issues. He said it was a step in the right direction. "To get people into treatment facilities, the law has to be hand-in-hand with the regional facilities. Changing the law may make it easier for people to get help, but only if you can get the facilities and the staff to provide it."

A man, who said he came to Silver City in 2017. After 18 years of being unhoused, he held a sign looking for work until he got a job. "I have achieved home ownership, and I feel blessed to be in a town where my kids can experience hope. We hav five kids and we were living in our vehicle. We needed a place to take showers, and now we have one. In regards to cameras, my kids and others have been offered pills. We need enforcement to restrict businesses and individuals from selling drugs to minors. I would like to be part of the solution. I care about our community."

The meeting took at 10-minute break.

After the break, Norm Wheeler, a then candidate for the Sixth Judicial District was given a chance to speak, as he had been inadvertently skipped during public comment.

Wheeler said he appreciated the mission statement of the Town Council to say the very first sentence of the statement says to provide for the safety, health and welfare of the citizens of the town of Silver City, and "that falls right in line with what I believe and how I believe the district attorney's office should be run. I believe that the district attorney's office, through its partnership with law enforcement is what creates the safety and health of the community. I also have a founding concept that you praise people in public and you criticize them in private. Nothing good comes out of anything else, unless things are so awful, it doesn't matter. I'm asking you to acknowledge the fact that the good things and bad things that happen within a community are the result of the leadership within that office. When we want good things to happen in the community, we need to make sure we're leading that way. I'm willing to partner with you in order to do that." He encouraged everyone to vote in the upcoming election. [Editor's Note: Wheeler won the election and will serve as the Sixth Judicial District Attorney.]

Cano called on Councilor Stan Snider, who represents the district encompassing downtown to give his input into the discussion. He said he has received a lot of comments pro and con with the bench issue, but said with communication, he thought it could be resolved. He indicated he wanted to talk about the simple solutions. He thought monitoring was one, as well as installation of cameras and audio recorders in public space, but he had concerns about vandalism of the cameras.

Next to speak was Councilor Rudy Bencomo, who thanked Cano for putting the work session together.

He reminded the audience that the town was struggling to keep police officers. "The assistant city manager and I are working on that right now." He supported more cameras and more foot patrols.

Councilor Nicholas Prince said he had concerns about what the response would be to what people see on cameras, and whether catching people and putting them in jail really helps. "We need to help folks get down a better path when it comes to their health and the safety of our community." He agreed that Crisis Intervention Team models are a good tool to pursue to help people to get help. They need to be able to stabilize their day-to-day situations, which can perhaps be done with enough caseworkers and public health officials. "Perhaps we can collaborate with the state Department of Health."

Assistant Town Manager James Marshall noted a huge issue is the top down system of providing health resources in New Mexico. It did not benefit the local entities, because the state collects the taxes and then the state decides where it will go. In other states, taxes are collected by the state and then sent right back to the areas where they were collected.

He noted the outpatient services of Tu Casa are beneficial, but there is a need for inpatient services, so that people can get extended mental health treatment. "And locally, we still have a shortage of staff for these service positions." He cited programs that he was familiar with in other states, with some working well and others not. "There are so many people in need of help and nine people are not enough to help them stabilize. It may be worth a discussion about the town having a public health department."

He also noted that Tu Casa was not designed to hold people against their will. It would need a sally port and a secure place to hold them. Work is taking place to make changes at Tu Casa to accept those that want help and those who are a danger to themselves and others. "We want a system where you're doing hand offs of a patient from one level to another, so there is only one hand off and they don't feel like they've been abandoned but are on their next level to service."

Town Manager Alex Brown addressed the affordable housing issue. He noted the town is addressing workforce housing. "We have a potential of 45 units, and we are also working on development of transitional housing, another 40 units, but the infrastructure for these takes time." He said he thought transitional housing best addresses the issues that have been raised during the public input.

Prince said he hears fears that if these services are created that other communities may start bussing people in for the services.

Cano noted that part of the process is to have conversations with the county on what their plan is.

Marshall concurred that these were all viable concerns, although the real key is to provide the services. "We can't open an unhoused camp unless we can provide services to them. I don't think that having some level of service here, if well managed, will become a spa destination for the unhoused."

Capt. Manny Jaure said the SCPD already does foot patrols. "Two or three are out every shift doing it, as well as on call. It takes both. We have 15 officers available for foot patrol. We target certain areas. I also try to meet with the business owners."

Brown said the police department is fully staffed at 28. "We lost six, hired four, have one on the street, one in field training and one at the academy. Right now, lieutenants and captains are also doing night patrol and then coming into work during the day."

Prince said presence is deterrence. "I want to make sure we are present."

Brown said: "We focus on the protecting. We have to be careful not to burn them out. We are trying to have everyone on the street."

Jaure confirmed that the chief and captains are also covering shifts.

Marshall gave a snapshot of monthly calls. In April, the department answered 1,037 calls, along with 1,686 self-initiated calls, and other calls equaling 2,800 compared to 2023 with 2.703 for the month. "We are up in total requests. They are running a lot of calls. Citations fluctuate by the month. I met with the police department today. We are working to retain our quality officers and also recruiting."

Town Clerk Alfred Sedillo said the new town website will allow residents to go in, sign in and create an account where they can get information from the town, whether there's a water outage in a certain neighborhood or anything that you might need to know, so you don't have to call in to find out. He didn't have an exact date for the website, but it will also have an alert system. He said the town also has a social media site. He encouraged people to sign up and authorize the town to notify them of any outages or alerts.

Fire Chief Milo Lambert said the town had previously used Code Red for alerts, but the new website would allow anyone who has signed up to receive the alerts. "The key is to have people sign up."

Prince said the MainStreet Board is now fully staffed.

Cano said that some have requested a security guard at the Visitor Center so that tourists don't feel uncomfortable.

Bencomo came back to the housing issues and said he wasn't sure that the transition and affordable housing would be a solution to the homeless issue. He also noted that someone had talked about the lighting issue downtown at night and that at least 8 or 10 lights are out. "We encourage people, if a light is out in their neighborhood to call and let us know, so we can fix it."

Cano said she knew the meeting had focused on downtown, but "we are trying to understand everyone's concerns, so we can help. We're always available and want to hear from you. But we do have to follow a process."

Prince said housing continues to be a concern. "We need more single room apartments that take HUD. Housing needs to be regulated more. 8-10 have been converted to 'hotel rooms.'
Let's keep the conversation going so that there are more safe warm beds for people."

Cano thanked everyone for participating, and Mayor Ken Ladner thanked everyone for coming. "We are all here because we care. We want to get things donee. The wheels of government do not move quickly. We can't get complacent. We are very lucky. Mr. Brown is the envy of every other municipality. Thank you for being here tonight."

The meeting adjourned.