Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 37

NEW MEXICO Friday, March 24, 1995 Albuquerque Journal Page 3, Section ohnsoiii May Restore Exam Prog ram 0 iVeto Axed Child Abuse Evaluations "I never made claim I would be flawless." Thorn Cole JOURNAL CAPITOL BUREAU Gov. Gary Johnson convictions in cases of child sex abuse. The governor told reporters that in eliminating the money, he thought hospitals could institute procedures for exams, eliminating the need for a specific, centralized program funded by the state. Johnson said, however, that it may turn out the program is Ml would find replacement funding for the program if it is determined it is needed. That money would come from the Children, Youth and Families Department, he said.

i Schwartz said Thursday that he was told by the administration that the program would be funded. Kathy Wright, a deputy district attorney in Schwartz's office, said that more than 90 percent of the office's successful prosecutions for child sex abuse involve medical evaluations performed by Para Los Nifios. Wright said Thursday that she couldn't provide statistics on the number of prosecutions. The governor said he was also re-examining his decision to cut $200,000 for another program that provides for videotaped interviews with children who may have been sexually abused. Johnson shaved a total of $36.4 million from the $1.5 billion bill passed by the Legislature.

He said the cuts a total of 234 line items weren't meant to eliminate services. The Para Los Nifios program in 1994 received $192,000 from the state, its sole source of money. Its physician, Dr. Renee Ornelas, examined hundreds of children from around the state at University Hospital in Albuquerque last year. The program also has a social worker and a secretary.

Law enforcement officials, including Bernalillo County District Attorney Robert Schwartz, said the demise of the program would make it tougher to obtain Johnson: Admits he may have erred SANTA FE Gov. Gary Johnson said 'Thursday that he might have erred in veto-ving government funding for a statewide program that provides medical evaluations for children who may have been sex-! dually abused. "I never made claim I would be flawless," Johnson said at an impromptu news conference outside the Capitol. The governor last Friday used his line-vitem veto power to remove $200,000 for the Los Nifios program from HB2, a gov- "eminent budget bill for the fiscal year "beginning July 1. The videotaping program now operates in the counties of Santa Fe, Bernalillo, Curry and Chaves and had plans to expand this year to Dofia Ana, San Juan, Eddy, Lea and Cibola counties.

The program hasn't ever received state funding but says it needs it now to continue operating and expand. A child is interviewed by a specially trained questioner and the tape can be used in grand jury investigations. needed because of special expertise required to conduct the exams. "Potentially, it's a mistake we made," he said. Johnson added that the administration Critics i A "1 Chaves, Lea Run Tight Race For Prison Mi srea Mayor Chavez, PHASE stcptLekiBfe Bill: DA Pint-Sized Protest Terence Shelly, 5, left, his brother Luther, 8, and Krista Couper display a sign Thursday with some of the signatures raised on a petition against the building of the Montano bridge.

Opponents of the bridge were waiting to meet with Mayor Martin Chavez. AARON WILSONJOURNAL By Deborah Baker ft possible esFi ri, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Parents Fear Measure Would Ban Spanking By John Robertson JOURNAL POLITICS WRITER "rfkTWif SANTA FE Lea County has been on the inside track for a new prison the southeast, but competitor Chaves County cautioned Wednesday not to count it out. "We're regrouping and trying to come up with a proposal that will keep us in the running for this facili-! ty," said Don Cox, head of the Roswell Chamber of Commerce. County and city officials and representatives of the chamber met Wednesday afternoon to work on a package that Roswell Mayor Tom Jennings said would be similar to Hobbs, in neighboring Lea County, is offering. "We are very competitive here," Jennings said.

On Gov. Gary Johnson's desk are bills that provide for two new prisons, one in Guadalupe County and one in Lea, Chaves or Santa Fe coun-ity. If he signs the measures a com-; promise plan worked out by Democ- ratic and Republican leaders Johnson 1 would choose the iocatin of the second regrouping site. Tigris- ons would and trying to ube built simulta- 1 Conservatives are lobbying Gov. Gary Johnson to veto a bill they fear would make spanking their children a crime, but supporters say the critics are off base.

"I would ask that, before they pick up the phone, they ought to read the bill," District Attorney Bob Schwartz of Albuquerque said Thursday. The president of the New Mexico Christian Coalition, Tony Olmi of Albuquerque, said he's worried that, under the bill, "parents could be penalized for disciplining their children for spanking." Olmi said he and other New Mexico conservatives see the measure as a potential erosion of parental rights. Even though the word "child" was amended out of the bill before the Legislature adjourned March 18, Olmi said the remaining definition of household members would leave the door open to prosecution of well- Silver City Mill Cleanup Devised Negotiated Plan Needs Judge's Approval ircISLnTflnE By Scott Sandlin JOURNAL STAFF WRITER icome up meaning parents. But the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Danice Picraux, D-Albu-querque, said, "That was not my intention." She said the measure has nothing to do with spanking or parental discipline.

House Bill 512 was drafted by the New neously. Hobbs is offering a $5 million inr.en- a mill site, the Little Walnut Creek stream bed and its mill valley tributary. Aisling said the site, which is at about 8,000 feet, is used by local residents for recreational purposes. "The risk is a long-term risk of someone being exposed to (the waste materials) on a daily basis as well as by contact," she said. The proposed consent decree calls for the companies to pay nearly $1 million to the EPA to reimburse costs already incurred in the cleanup.

A somewhat unusual feature of the agreement provides for state and federal offices overseeing natural resources to be paid for resource damages. The New Mexico Natural Resources Trustee, an office established about two years ago, will get $35,000, and the comparable federal agency in the Department of Interior will receive $165,000 under terms of the consent decree. The timetable depends in part on when Vazquez signs off on the consent decree. "We're contemplating the first dirt will move at the end of next summer," Aisling said. ing up the tab, could renegotiate the terms of the deal.

Kathleen Aisling, the EPA official in Dallas overseeing the cleanup project, said Thursday that the plan calls for trucking out nearly 71,000 cubic yards of tailings and waste pile to a still-undecided location for reprocessing to reclaim metals. The proposed consent decree settles a federal lawsuit filed late last week by the U.S. Justice Department against Bayard Mining Mining Remedial Recovery Company of Price, Utah, and Viacom International, the successor companies to the companies that operated the mine and mill from 1919 to 1950. Arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, lead, zinc and other metals were left in the soil from the mining and milling of lead, zinc and copper. Water leaching through the tailings creates acid that has polluted Little Walnut Creek and could spread to other locations throughout the creek's drainage.

The cleanup plan calls for the contaminated tailings and sediment to be removed from the Hazardous wastes that have been blowing in the wind and leaching into the groundwater for the past 45 years near Silver City are the cause for a million-dollar cleanup. Terms of an agreement were filed this week in federal court for the Cleveland Mill Site, an abandoned mine and mill tailings pile designated as a Superfund site in 1989. A proposed consent decree spells out legal terms worked out by state, federal and private negotiators to clean up the waste. The public will be allowed to comment on the proposal for the next 30 days. The decree requires the approval of U.S.

District Judge Martha Vazquez before it can become final. Federal officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have estimated the cleanup cost at $6.5 million, but it could go higher. If the cost exceeds $9 million, the companies performing the cleanup, which are pick Mexico District Attorneys' Association as a tool for distinguishing domestic violence cases from other assaults and batteries, said Schwartz, who lobbied for the association and the bill during the recent legislative session. "This bill is intended to do one thing and one thing only," said Schwartz.

"At this moment there is no (crime of) domestic violence in New Mexico," he said. "There is no way to detect this as a crime." Currently, he said, judges have no way of knowing whether people they sentence for domestic violence have criminal histories of domestic violence. Any prior charges and convictions would be listed in rap sheets only as assault and battery, he said. The same dilemma exists when people are bonded out of jail after arrests, Schwartz said. A repeat domestic violence offender could be bailed out without officials knowing that he or she had prior convictions for spousal abuse, Schwartz said.

The offender could return home hours after the most recent incident to commit the same crime again, he said. Digest prose, poetry and art work, will not be published this year unless funding is found, staffers said. industry groups have objected to the legislation, saying local zoning and land-use planning were the best ways to control development. tive package, mcludmg land, roads and utilities. -Don COX, cox and Roswell Chamber Jennings said of Commerce they i want to release par ticulars of the Chaves County proposal until it's final, Johnson "wants the best deal for 'the state; at this point, it's coming I from Hobbs," the governor's press secretary, Diane Kinderwater, said i Wednesday.

But Kinderwater said Johnson is lopen to other proposals. "He's saying, 'If you can beat the proposal Hobbs has, I'm willing and ready to look at Kinderwater said. Santa Fe was added to the mix at i the last minute by area lawmakers who wanted to give the county the i option of getting into the fray. But lit's an unlikely competitor. There is general agreement that any replace- ment for the decrepit main facility at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, Jnear Santa Fe, should be located where else because of Santa jFe's high cost of living, The Guadalupe County prison Iwould have at least 500 beds, 'expandable to 2,200 beds, under the legislation.

The second prison would have at least 1,200 beds, expandable to 2,200 beds. Hobbs is offering a 640-acre site at jthe Hobbs Industrial Air Park. The Jcity would extend water and sewer service to the site at no cost to the state. Electricity, natural gas and telephone extensions would be provided by the utilities, and Lea Coun-ty would extend the roads. Total sav-i'ings to the state: nearly $5.19 million.

Mayor Jennings brother of Sen-late Majority Whip Tim Jennings, a Democrat said Chaves iCounty would offer a site midway Roswell and Artesia that is adjacent to the Roswell Correctional a minimum-security facility. The land is privately owned but "could be acquired, he said. Udall Pushes Colonias Bill LAS CRUCES Attorney General Tom Udall wants Gov. Gary Johnson to take another look at impoverished subdivisions he visited during a campaign stop last year. Udall, along with Las Cruces Mayor Ruben Smith, also urged Wednesday that southern New Mexico leaders support a bill designed to stop the spread of the unimproved subdivisions known as colonias.

"I can't imagine a piece of legislation more worthy of the governor's signature," Udall said. "We're seeing Third World conditions in Dofia Ana County." Colonias exist mainly in counties along New Mexico's southern border, but officials in parts of northern New Mexico also have encountered problems with such subdivisions. Johnson has said he was considering vetoing the bill. The governor said Thursday that he personally hadn't reviewed the legislation but had reservations about it. "It would probably help the colonias.

But I also understand that as a result of signing it we might put property rights in jeopardy throughout the whole state," Johnson said at a news conference in Santa Fe. Several real estate and construction Johnson Pitches Fuel Options SANTA FE Gov. Gary Johnson delivered a sales pitch for alternative fuels for cars and trucks Thursday. Johnson, at a news conference outside the Capitol, touted a measure he signed into law week that will provide tax incentives starting in 1996 for use of alternative fuels, such as compressed natural gas and propane. "This is a really big stimulus for fleet owners throughout the state to switch over to alternative fuels," Johnson said of the new law.

j. By providing lower tax rates to make alternative fuels more competitive with gasoline, Johnson said, it should encourage use of the fuels and help increase the number of service stations that offer those fuels for vehicles. Alternative fuels, Johnson said, can lower air pollution from cars and help reduce engine wear. He also said that increased use of alternative fuels could help natural gas producers in New Mexico. Staffers Fight for Magazine LAS CRUCES Staffers of New Mexico State University's literary magazine want student leaders to reconsider and approve funding for the publication that some deemed vulgar and too sexually explicit.

The student Senate this month denied funding for the annual magazine after some members reviewed the 1994 issue. El Ojito staff met Wednesday to discuss the issue with student leaders. Magazine supporters said the Senate was trying to legislate morality and hinder artistic freedom. "There are a lot of students who don't want their money paying for this," said Crystal Edmonson, a student senator. "Prove this is worth the funding and get it from somewhere else." Joe Watts, editor of El Ojito, said magazine supporters will try to get the school's Associated Students to reconsider.

The magazine, which features students' District attorneys could theoretically prosecute parents for spanking under existing law, but do not, said Schwartz. "We don't prosecute people for disciplining their children," he said. "We prosecute for abusing their children." Picraux, referring to court record-keeping, said, "Right now, there is no distinction between a barroom brawl and domestic violence. "We're trying to track what's going on in domestic violence. If a person is convicted (of domestic violence) five times, we know the penalties aren't working," she said.

The bill awaiting Johnson's action would define assaults and batteries against "household members" as specific crimes. Picraux said that all people defined as household members in the bill are adults. Domestic violence offenses, under the bill, would range from petty misdemeanors to third-degree felonies. .1.