Española/Rio Arriba County 911 Center Director Marti Griego can claim at least a partial victory over Rio Arriba County.
The County has signed a revised joint powers agreement with the Center, Griego said at a Center board of directors meeting Tuesday.
State District Judge James Hall told Center and County officials he was going to force the County to sign the agreement, Assistant County Manager Tomas Campos and Center attorney Kathleen Kentish Lucero both said.
“We decided to just sign the damn thing,” Campos said.
But rather than celebrating, Lucero — who filed the Center’s motions in District Court to force the County to sign the agreement — seemed to have buyer’s remorse.
Lucero told the board it had been an “error” for the Center to sign the agreement because the County had not agreed to a specific percentage of a County emergency response tax fund that would go to the Center.
“Judge Hall said it would’ve been better to force the County into a specific percentage,” Lucero said after the meeting. “I regret not doing that.”
The Center’s board of directors filed a lawsuit in September 2007 in state District Court, seeking sole control of its budget and to revise the joint powers agreement that created the Center, so that it stipulated that 80 percent of the County’s Emergency Medical Services tax fund go to the Center.
The Center’s lawsuit stated, “There had been an understanding that 80 percent of the tax monies generated by the Emergency Medical Services Act would go to the 911 Center and 20 percent would be for emergency medical services provided by the County.”
But nowhere in the ballot question or the resulting “Countywide Emergency Communications and Emergency Medical Services tax” ordinance is a specific percentage of the gross receipts tax specified. Rather, the ordinance states that the revenue shall go “primarily” to operation of the Center and “secondarily” to operation of County emergency medical services.
The Center withdrew its suit in July 2008, when the County agreed to sign the Center’s revised joint powers agreement but refused to specify a percentage of the tax given by the County to the Center.
The agreement stipulated that the Center’s portion of the County’s Emergency Medical Services tax fund would be based on “historical funding,” defined as the percentages that went to the Center in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
That historical funding level comes to 60 percent, Lucero acknowledged — not the 80 percent sought by the Center.
“Citizens thought they were supporting 911 when they voted for the tax,” Lucero said. “Citizens here are essentially being short-changed.”
Lucero said there is “a very good possibility” that the Center will have to ask the other entities that make up the Center board, such as the city of Española, Santa Fe County and the Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh pueblos, to make up the difference.
“They’re going to ask why we’re approaching them for money when the County has a tax to fund the (Center),” Lucero said. “But it’s imperative that citizens have 911 service.”
Lawsuit Fallout
The reason Hall had to force both parties to sign the agreement was because County officials never bothered to sign it, even months after the lawsuit was dismissed.
The settlement agreement has stalled for several months because because the Center did not deliver formal copies of the revised agreement for County officials to sign until November, Campos said.
“We waited for the County to sign off on it,” Lucero said. “We heard they said they hadn’t received a copy even though (Griego) and the Sheriff had hand-delivered it (to them).”
But Griego said after the board meeting that she had not delivered the documents.
“The Sheriff did,” Griego said, referring to County Sheriff Joseph Mascarenas, who along with County Fire Marshal Jerome Sanchez served as the County’s representatives on the Center’s board.
“My secretary gave him (Mascareñas) the whole packet (at the Center’s board meeting) in July,” Griego said. “He called later and said he’d delivered it. (County Emergency Response Coordinator) Mateo DeVargas had a copy too. He was there in lieu of Jerome (Sanchez).”
Mascareñas and Sanchez were replaced as County representatives on the Center’s board Jan. 29, when County Commissioners replaced them with County Planning Director Patricio Garcia and Devargas.
Campos would neither confirm nor deny that Mascareñas and Sanchez were sacked for failing to deliver the revised agreement to him or because the pair were seen as allies of Griego against the County.
“I’m not going to comment on that,” Campos said.