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Welcome to our lane opinion panelists for the week we're joined in studio this week by former state representative Justine Fox young so glad to have you back at the table a warm welcome back to retired reporter Steve Terrell who spent decades at the Santa Fe New Mexican and I mean decades and former state senator Dede Feldman she's here almost a decade in our state legislature we start this week with a look at a new Council appointed to advise the state children youth and families Department Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham created the council through an executive order meant to restructure the department she's called quote dysfunctional now the group held its only scheduled public meeting last week when acting cofd secretary Teresa Casados introduced six members now they include a former CYFD secretary we'll talk about that a child advocate a foster care support provider and more now during Thursday's meeting each council member explained how their backgrounds will inform their priorities will gain into those priorities as we move through this conversation but let's start here with the makeup of the group Center let me start with you are these the voices cuifd needs to hear from right now the makeup of this group how does it settle in your gut well you know this commission comes on the heels of a previous commission which actually had a rather wide representation from the community this one is a little tighter I think although one of the things that interested me was the fact that Sandra Begay who was a judge in children's Court apparently withdrew from this from this commission and one of the recommendations of the previous commission was that there'd be more Native American involvement and more attention given to placements do we know why she withdrew her name reporting on that I do not know maybe somebody else does but um I don't know I mean there are so many withdrawals including the secretary that resigned and now is on the commission wants to withdrawal a period of the administration we're at that point that's real that's a point that's a point yeah um by the way I know you know this but it's judge Catherine be gay Catherine right I know you know that as well um you know the council doesn't have a timeline in place for any action it's only Department issued priorities are retaining Foster families and employees and Justine those are important goals but you know given the concerns about accountability within the department should the council have any specific mandates to get after or is this just feeling just a little Council and mandates are like oil and water I guess I'll just back up and say you know the problems that this agency are so long-standing and so intractable that I hesitate to sit here and say I have Solutions and so I I you know I'm strange oddly tentative you know Gene but but um we always have a council when we don't have Solutions we always as a council when nobody wants to be accountable and I think that's that's where we are I think this is a missed opportunity for the administration to really lay out some hard plans and and really look at true reform which is creating a vacuum and allowing the attorney general and others you know to start looking at okay well what are we really going to do you know maybe on a case-by-case basis Raul Torres has said I'm coming in you know you you guys can ignore my legislative initiatives the governor can poo poo it I'm going to use my um you know my authority and come in where I can and address some of these systemic issues of racism and um and so I think that's a real missed opportunity for the government I think it's really problematic because things are being addressed to a piecemeal so I don't think I don't have high hopes for the commission but I'm not sure a mandate right would get us there but we we need good leadership and instead we have an interim secretary who's not answering questions you know well maybe we're going to have closed door meetings maybe we'll let you know what we're up to and that's not a good start it is kind of the signal isn't it of what Justine just mentioned some of the meeting is going to be for the public some of them are not we kind of peel back in history though Steve turtle on Justine's Point here the last Advisory Board the enhancing delivery of services steering committee that was what the name of it was finished its work submitted its recommendation no discussion about turning them into policy and what happened was during last week's meeting former member of the steering committee spoke up calling it insulting and disrespectful to disregard the hundreds of hours that was put in does that speak to a disconnection here like something's not quite stitched together here when in doubt start a committee um yeah it really it really does uh and that that you know they're not the only agency that's done this through the years I remember this oh they're going to have a study and it's going to lay on a shelf and uh pretty soon someone will just toss it and the whole lack of transparency I know they had one meeting public uh recently but uh you know that well maybe we'll have uh some more and maybe we'll have uh you know closed door meetings it seems like uh what's going on here and and I agree with Justine complete uh uh missed opportunity when you think about it Senator um you know no account who's who's the one to put the Mandate down I guess that's my question if folks are looking for a mandate can only come from a couple of folks right it can't come from inside their their own body do I have that wrong well I mean there are mandates and there are recommendations and they can come from on high or they can come from an outside Ombudsman or they can come from the attorney general or the courts can say or the courts or the court which is already active here and still the change has not come that has been embedded in the recommendations and the Mandate internal mandates so there really is it is an intractable problem and it's I mean just imagine what it would be like to work for CYFD imagine what it would be like to go into somebody's home as a social worker and know that the decision that you make is whether that person gets to see their child or not no wonder there's a morale problem no wonder there's every every committee that meets says there needs to be a culture change that's right and that the department needs to have um you know an internal Reckoning about is this a safe place to work is there a psychologically nurturing environment within the department do caseworkers have enough time that's right to handle all the psychological cases and stresses and are there and right they've already admitted and are we taking on the problems we can really fix because some you know we tag CYFD with failing every time something happens to a kid and it's not always the agency we button down this transparency thing with you Justine the acting secretary has said that the council members will be empowered to hold public meetings or forums around the state on their own but no specifics were given was that sort of a kick down like totally punting yeah I mean yeah and and I don't know why you know the governor came out strong with his executive order laid out something of an agenda this session and I'm not privy to the details I don't know where it fell apart but that you just can't you can't start your DOA you can't start like that right exactly right I'm not sure if that answers the issue let me go to something else I'll start with Steve three years ago you might recall Steve I know you did the state settled what's referred to as Kevin's lawsuit of course which alleged trauma impacted children in New Mexico foster care lacked safe appropriate and stable placements and Behavioral Health Services in the state system two court mandated annual reviews followed the settlement the state received a failing grade each time is there enough urgency to fulfill the court ordered reforms made in Heaven's settlement before we get on to something else that seemed just a huge mess it's a huge uh Cesspool really what what if they you know the two failing grades in a row right and they're heading for a third probably um so uh no I I I'm not sure what needs to be done here but uh again that what they're doing ain't working yeah I apologize the Kevin S settlement sorry about the guy not Kevin Sullivan my father do you have a thought on that Senator yeah um the thing is that the Kevin S settlement as I understand it was that the department was supposed to uh to provide care knowing that it was trauma induced this is the term now the trauma induced and yet the department uh in its um toughest cases needs support behavioral health support from other agencies and the services just aren't there especially for the teenagers who are the real tough cases they can't even get anybody to house the teenagers and so they're now you know in in homeless shelters and that needs to be addressed but it's not just that department there has to be help in terms of Behavioral Health Services and other backup housing options for this population so the department has got to work with others and I do I have heard the um Teresa Casados talk about that and how she wants CYFD to feel that they're they that other agencies have their backs and I think before you can really do that the Administration has to air all those gory details I mean that's what an executive order should say it should say we don't want any teenagers in a housing shelter homeless shelters I mean that's we're going to end that this year you know but nobody wants to talk about it one more thing before we get out of the subject the governor as you uh folks remember pocket vetoed a bill that would have created a news a new civil rights division to sue the state on behalf of children quote harmed by government neglect and incompetence end quote instead of giving the AG that Authority the governor created this Council which is how we start this conversation that's right that's right what's that say about the administration's commitment to the well-being of the state that seems like a reasonable step for to a lot of people what do you think about that but what Mr Torres wants I don't know that I know enough to have a position about what whether another office is going to fix it but I do think um it was not well orchestrated and I did not hear the governor articulating a clear position as to why she opposed and she pocket vetoed the bill she never put out any message and so it sure looks bad and you've got you've got Mr Torres you got the AG I think sincerely you know looking to attack this problem and which is unusual you know and this is a problem that doesn't always sit front and center in the Press so I think again it's a missed opportunity I mean I think agencies ruin in the same direction here are they rolling against each other going in a circle I mean Mr Torres has a reasonable request it would seem well I mean and it was uh the idea that there has to be some sort of outside oversight some sort of grievance procedure that is not just going back to the department is those that was in all the recommendations from these other uh from these other commissions thank you for saying that and you know the legislature also turned down a lot of the recommendations of these commissions too it wasn't just the governor vetoing that civil rights uh section The Proposal I I don't know but they had a proposal for an outside Ombudsman that was turned down they had a proposal from representative Marion Matthews for increased transparency and that was turned down by the legislature so I don't know exactly what recourse there is right now right that's a good point let's finish with this Steve what access does the department owe to foster parents meaning in the in this you know Youth Care other stakeholders in the equation what do we owe these people apparently a lot of them are owed a lot of money well I think they haven't received no they they definitely uh should have a seat at the table and uh uh you know they're they're directly affected yeah same Senator same thing I totally agree and I I don't know whether the current commission has a foster family in there or as part of their members I think the other one did but it seems to me that there's a former foster child that's part of the uh part of the commission but not a current uh Foster family that's interesting does that make a difference in your mind well you know as Foster families are where it's at I mean that's that's who we're relying on to take care of holding payment and ignoring their agreements this is not a great recruitment strategy it's a hard job good last point there from Justine thanks to our line opinion panel we'll be back here at the table in less than a minute to talk about the latest development in an appeal that could that could send the failed pnm avongren merger back to the public regulation commission for reconsideration