New Mexico
New Mexico DNC delegate reflects on the week and her push for a ceasefire in Gaza
The Democratic National Convention concluded Thursday night with Vice President Kamala Harris accepting her party’s nomination for president after days of primetime speeches in support of her and Gov. Tim Walz’s ticket. But that’s not all that was going on at Chicago’s United Center as delegates from across the country met to hash out the party’s platform.
As pro-Palestinian protesters outside the convention faced arrest by police in riot gear, New Mexico delegate Whitney Holland was part of a bloc that advocated for a ceasefire in Gaza from within the DNC. The president of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico spoke with from Chicago with KUNM’s Nash Jones for New Mexico PBS.
WHITNEY HOLLAND: My understanding, based on some of the communication we’ve had amongst our delegate bloc, is there’s like, the approved, sanctioned group of activities. And some of those were not the activities of the delegate bloc. And I’m sure there’s some overlap in that, but I think there’s kind of two streams of activist work going on right now. Inside the building, inside those caucus meetings, there’s been some disruptions. There’s been some of those interruptions, as far as like speakers and having signs or demonstrations. But, for the most part, it’s been super respectful. I mean, there is, I think across the board, an understanding and shared beliefs. And I think they’re doing a really good job of navigating that, being respectful of that. We’ve gotten buttons and flyers to pass out. But, ultimately, things inside the process are moving smoothly, and I think there’s room for different perspectives on that issue.
NASH JONES: Do you believe a ceasefire in Gaza will become part of the official Democratic Party platform?
HOLLAND: That part I’m not sure of just yet. I think there’s still a lot of hesitancy at the higher levels of the party, but I think they’re making progress. There’s good conversations happening. I think we’re on our way. And I think even the fact that yesterday, during the actual convention, they were saying the words “ceasefire” and “Gaza” in a way that I don’t think we’ve heard before. And so, there is movement. Whether it’s enough I think will be determined. But I think there is progress.
JONES: Right. Even President Biden mentioned it in his address to the DNC.
HOLLAND: Yes, correct. Again, not as much as I would have hoped to see. But, I think for him, that’s movement. I would say, like, “progress, not perfection.” And so, we’re making progress.
JONES: Well, you’re also a labor organizer and a former educator. How do those identities, those experiences, play into what you’re advocating for?
HOLLAND: So, I’m trying to get my New Mexico delegation on board with labor. Though, we have a pretty decent labor presence. But, having conversations about what that means and what that looks like. Especially the education piece. Everyone knows a teacher, everyone has a relative who was a teacher, it seems like. And so, really saying what’s happening in classrooms today is what has happened in classrooms. Like, there are common issues across generations. And so, getting those shared understandings. A lot of that has been happening.
JONES: OK. And, in addition to some of these substantive policy debates that have been taking place at the convention, it’s also an event that is full of primetime speeches.
HOLLAND: Is it ever.
JONES: And your own fellow delegate, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, was among those speeches. Her address on health care was fairly brief, it was fairly broad. What did you think of it? And do you think it represented New Mexico on the national stage?
HOLLAND: I think, even though it was brief, it’s incredible to me that New Mexico gets that platform. We see some of these other larger delegations uplifted. We were kind of joking internally, like, our seating’s a little further up in the stadium. And so, we’re like, you know, we get left behind sometimes. We’re more rural, we’re not a swing state, we’re not really a state in play. And so, I think her having that role, we were proud. I mean, it’s exciting. And I think she really captured not just New Mexicans’ concerns, but across the country. Elections have consequences, and so what’s going to happen based on the election turnout?
JONES: Well, speaking of what’s going to happen, what’s going to happen for you all as the convention closes out? What’s next for the delegation and the New Mexico Democratic Party?
HOLLAND: I think our delegation, across the board, is going to go home and get a ton of sleep. We are going late into the night. I need to recover. And then, I think, based on the conversations we’ve had and the feedback we’re hearing from across the country, what other states are doing, what even these more specific populations — like unionists, educators, what they’re doing —I think that will kind of be woven in through our party as we move forward.
Watch this interview in its entirety Friday at 7 p.m. on New Mexico in Focus on NMPBS channel 5, the show’s YouTube page, or on the PBS app.
SILVER CITY, N.M. — New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a motion to halt a $1.9 million buyout for the departing president of Western New Mexico University.
Joseph Shepard stepped down as president of WNMU after a state audit found he spent $316,000 of university money on lavish international trips, high-end furniture and other items over the course of several years. During the investigation, the state auditor’s office blamed university management and the WNMU Board of Regents for not upholding their responsibilities and enforcing travel rules.
After this, the board approved a $1,909,788 buyout last month for Shepard.
AG Torrez argues the payment isn’t supported by Shepard’s contract and “is unconscionable as a violation of public policy and the public interest.”
“This payment is an egregious misuse of public funds and a betrayal of the Board’s responsibility to act in the best interest of the university and its students,” Torrez said in a statement Monday. “Dr. Shepard voluntarily resigned, and the Board had ample opportunity to negotiate a reasonable or no-cost separation agreement. Instead, they chose to pledge nearly $2 million in taxpayer money without justification or consideration of the public good.”
The New Mexico Department of Justice is requesting the court temporarily block the $1.9 million payment before a hearing can happen. The NMDOJ is requesting the hearing be held before Jan. 15 – the deadline for the payment – or issue an ex-parte order until the hearing can be scheduled. They are also requesting the court prohibit the board from disbursing the payment until a special audit – requested by WNMU, the regents and Shepard – is complete and a report is available.
Shepard’s buyout is just one part of the board-approved separation agreement. The agreement also calls for Shepard to get $200,000 guaranteed for five years as a newly-tenured faculty member once he returns from an eight-month sabbatical. The sabbatical would begin the day he officially resigns. Then, when he returns, he will work remotely.
The agreement drew ire from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who sent a letter demanding the entire board step down. Before siding with the WNMU Faculty Senate in a unanimous vote of no confidence in the board, faculty senate president Phillip Schoenberg said he heard from the board president that the regents would comply with the governor’s order.
The faculty senate also called on the regents to rescind Shepard’s separation agreement.
New Mexico Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez described the buyout as “gross negligence and mismanagement of taxpayer funds.” Her department is also investigating this.
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New Mexico
‘My staff is spent’: New Mexico emergency management leader reflects on year of disasters
‘That house … is gonna be gone’: A drive through the McBride Fire
McBride Fire in Ruidoso, NM
Chris Bennett, For the Sun-News
This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.
President Joe Biden issued two major disaster declarations in New Mexico in 2024, the first time since 2014 that pronouncement has been made twice in the same year, according to federal data.
First, two wildfires erupted in the Ruidoso area in June. The South Fork and Salt fires and ensuing floods destroyed more than 1,500 homes and caused the deaths of two people. Then, in October, heavy rains caused devastating flooding in Roswell, a disaster that resulted in at least two deaths, as well.
In both instances, and for smaller emergencies before and in-between them, the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management responded.
Disasters of that severity require a multi-faceted response and coordination between numerous officials and local and state agencies. Emergency Management was at the center of all that, running into disaster zones, marshaling resources and fielding questions at angry town halls.
Recently, Deputy Secretary Ali Rye reflected on a year of disasters in an interview with Source New Mexico. She described a tiring year and a small-but-mighty agency that is struggling to keep up with the “before,” “during” and “after” disasters because there have been so many.
“I mean, my staff is spent. I think New Mexicans are spent,” Rye said. “I think everyone is just, they’re tired, and they’re constantly in this response or recovery mode.”
Before 2022, the state had a reprieve of nearly a decade from major disaster declarations, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency data, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic. (Rye doesn’t really count the pandemic she said, “Because everybody got impacted by COVID.”)
The 2022 federally declared disaster was a series of wildfires burning throughout the state simultaneously. On a single spring day in 2022, 20 wildfires were burning at the same time.
That’s the same year that the state experienced the two biggest fires in its history – the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire in northern New Mexico and the Black Fire in southern New Mexico. Both burned more than 300,000 acres.
The trial by fires, while devastating for communities and exhausting for staff, has at least been educational, Rye said.
“I will tell you, though, we have learned a lot over the last two years,” she said. “And I think it showed this year with us being very proactive in areas that we knew were going to get hit, or us planning ahead for fire season, for monsoon season in a more proactive way.”
That meant meeting with residents and local officials in disaster-prone areas, purchasing needed equipment and staging it there in advance, Rye said.
The ongoing fallout from the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire shows the long tail – and cumulative nature – of disasters. More than two years later, even as disasters unfolded in southern New Mexico, staff was still driving all over the state, offering state case managers to help northern fire victims navigate a tangle of bureaucracy and support to local officials still trying to rebuild roads or mitigate against future floods.
“The same staff that help in Roswell and in Ruidoso are also the same staff that help in Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon,” Rye said. “And so my staff, I mean, they travel all over the state to be able to provide the assistance and the resources to these individuals who are still in these communities that are still recovering.”
Rye’s core staff is two people, she said, though the office does employ others with the help of federal grants. “So, yeah, it’s a lot,” she said.
But it’s rewarding and vital work, she said, helping people on the worst days of their lives. The office is hiring, and Rye is hoping to convince lawmakers to increase its operating budget from about $3.2 million to about $5.6 million at the upcoming 60-day session. The extra funding would help attract and retain staff, many of whom are lured away by federal disaster response agencies or elsewhere.
As it stands, the skeleton crew can’t take as much time as needed to help a community recover or prepare before another flood, snowstorm or wildfire.
“We’re going so much that we cannot put in those mitigation efforts the way we really, truly would like to,” she said. “We’re kind of just putting Band-aids on situations to keep the state afloat.”
Patrick Lohmann has been a reporter since 2007, when he wrote stories for $15 apiece at a now-defunct tabloid in Gallup, his hometown. Since then, he’s worked at UNM’s Daily Lobo, the Albuquerque Journal and the Syracuse Post-Standard.
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