CYFD Misfires Again: Sex Abuse Of 10 Year Old Foster Child Housed At Agency Office Building Is Yet Another Low Point But Santa Fe Stays Silent; Where Are The Progressive Women At The Roundhouse? Plus: NM Jobless Rate About As Good As It Gets

MLG & Sec. Vigil (Journal)

They said in a 2020 legal settlement they would stop housing foster children in state office buildings yet we get this: 

Inside the office building of the very state agency charged with protecting children, a 14-year-old foster youth allegedly sexually assaulted a 10-year-old foster child in December. The assault occurred in a bathroom at the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department’s main Albuquerque office building, according to APD.  The complex on Indian School Road houses the CYFD cabinet secretary and deputy secretary’s satellite offices, as well as the call center that screens reports of child abuse and neglect. Foster youth routinely sleep in the Albuquerque office when caseworkers cannot find them a bed elsewhere, according to children’s attorneys and CYFD employees. 

The systemic and cultural issues at CYFD are unrelenting and cry out for more attention from the administration but continue to be greeted with silence from the executive. No reform package. No acknowledgment. Instead, the state gets this blah, blah, blah: 

“We can confirm there was an incident that is pending internal and external investigation to ensure that proper placement protocols were followed,” CYFD Cabinet Secretary Barbara Vigil said. “CYFD staff are clear that children are not to be placed in offices unless every other option is exhausted, and any improper action will yield consequences.”

There's also the question of where the many female progressive Democratic House members are on CYFD's continued breakdown. The problem goes much deeper than paying more to overloaded case workers, one of the few bills from them that touches upon the CYFD disarray and then only superficially. How about some robust oversight hearings? Some real lawmaking? The Republicans have been at their best in critiquing the epic CYFD fail but they don't have the votes. 

As KTRC radio host Richard Eeds has opined: "Sometimes Santa Fe just sucks." 

AS FULL AS IT GETS

If New Mexico is not at full employment it is very close to it, according to the December stats:

The Santa Fe MSA had the lowest not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate among the state’s MSAs at 2.8 percent. The Albuquerque MSA had a rate of 3.1 percent, below the state’s whole of 3.4 percent. Farmington had the highest unemployment rate among the MSAs (4.1 percent) followed by the Las Cruces MSA (3.7 percent).

The fly in the soup remains the state's low labor participation rate of 55.7 percent. That number is arrived at when all the employed and unemployed workers are divided against the state's civilian population over the age of 16. Only Mississippi and West Virginia have lower rates. Experts say a chief reason for the declining rate here and in the nation is an aging population. Unskilled workers and low wages are also cited for the decline as is the high rate of drug addiction. 

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023