At a special community meeting Monday night hosted by Bernalillo County Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada, county employees voiced concern about a proposed behavioral health ordinance the commission is set to vote on next week.
Employees pointed out what they said are potential pitfalls in the ordinance 鈥� everything from adding more services to departments that are already stretched thin, hiring new managers that may come from out of state, changes to where and how funding could come in, and more.
But the most common concern is that the changes would come in the form of an ordinance, rather than a resolution which Commissioner Quezada said makes it harder to make improvements.
鈥淎n ordinance is law. Usually, we do everything with resolutions which means it鈥檚 not law, and if things aren鈥檛 working, they can adjust, and I think it should be fluid,鈥� he said.
Jessica Jaramillo-Salazar, the interim director for Behavioral Health Services, said the new draft of the ordinance was written without any input from the employees who do the work every day.
鈥淭hen all of the sudden we get hands on the new ordinance that was deferred and it鈥檚 completely re-written,鈥� she said
Quezada said he likes the idea of trying to improve behavioral health services, but that it should be done with direct input from the staff, 鈥渁nd they鈥檙e really not on board at all,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd some private providers also came in, and they have a lot of concerns鈥�
The ordinance will be in front of the commission for vote on June 25. Quezada says he hopes the other commissioners recognize that change is needed, and that action on the ordinance is deferred until there is more input. If not, he says he鈥檒l be prepared with amendments.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
