LOCAL NEWS
The forum explored how investing in addressing environmental concerns could help create jobs as part of our country’s economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
Lefthand provided information on Rocky Mountain Youth Corps’ collaboration with tribal communities and public land management agencies to provide servicelearning opportunities to Native American youth and young adults and other young people seeking a professional and personal development experience.
Mary Ellen Sprenkel of The Corps Network spoke about the history of service and the conservation corps in providing young people with work opportunities in resource management.
She also offered recommendations for policies and investments that could help the corps expand and engage more young people in conservation work, particularly in communities of color that have been historically underrepresented
The interim leader and deputy secretary of New Mexico’s Higher Education Department have left their positions, adding to the turnover in top positions within Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration.
Kathie Winograd, who had been leading the department since former Secretary Kate O’Neill resigned, departed the agency after her temporary contract expired in late June.
Around the same time, Deputy in the conservation workforce and have been hardest hit by COVID-19.
The Corps Network’s recommendations, presented by Sprenkel included:
• Funding for projects not only on federal public lands and waters, but also funding for similar projects at the state and local level;
• A preference or set-aside of appropriate shovel-ready projects for Conservation Corps;
• A preference or set-aside of funding and resources for corps run by and/or engaging currently underserved and under-represented populations;
• An increased investment in youth and workforce development funding in addition to increased funding for project work;
• Increased uniformity and utilization of the Public Lands Corps hiring authority;
• Longer-term agreements and projects;
• And a waiver or reduction of the 25 percent match required by
Secretary Carmen Lopez left her position to take another job, according to a July 1 letter from the governor’s office to higher education leaders in the state.
“Governor Lujan Grisham recognizes the unique opportunities and substantial challenges higher education is currently facing and we are diligently working to appoint a Cabinet secretary as soon as possible,” the governor’s chief operating officer, Teresa Casados, wrote to university presidents, chancellors and other higher education leaders.
Stephanie Rodriguez, the governor’s senior policy adviser for education, and Workforce Solutions Deputy Secretary Ricky Serna are now overseeing the department “over the next several weeks” until the governor appoints a new secretary, the governor’s office said.
The departures come as public universities and colleges in New Mexico are preparing for austere the corps when partnering with federal resource management agencies on projects.
“The Corps Network, our 130 member corps, and the 25,000 young adults they annually engage, commend the committee for considering the important role that the restoration and outdoor recreation economies can play in economic recovery and job creation,” said Sprenkel.
“Further, we urge the committee to consider the inclusion of specific provisions that would drive the impact of such a stimulus package beyond multimillion dollar investments in huge companies for large, expensive projects to smaller, but equally important investments in projects that will benefit more people and more communities, and develop the next – more diverse – generation times as the state has reduced previously approved higher education spending amid a huge budget shortfall caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The news also marks another example of executive branch leaders stepping down during a time of local and national crisis.
On Friday (July 10), Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel, who has been key to coordinating the state’s coronavirus response, announced she intends to retire in the near future.
Olivia Padilla-Jackson, former Cabinet secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, left her post at the end of May — just as her agency was gearing up for a special legislative session to fix the budget gap.
In total, Cabinet secretaries at seven departments have left their posts, or announced they plan to do so, since Lujan Grisham took office 18 months ago. That’s nearly of outdoor enthusiasts, resource managers and environmental stewards.”
“The importance of youth corps organizations such as RMYC is instrumental to the communities we serve,” said Lefthand to the committee. “I myself am an alumnus of the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps. Over 20 years ago I testified in front of the Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C., as a youth, in support of the Collaborative Forest Restoration Program that has benefited New Mexico on a landscape scale regarding conservation efforts across the board.
“Now all states have access to CFRP funding. I feel this is my calling because I am sitting here in front of you today, coming full circle being a witness attesting to the importance of youth corps around the nation and the impact it has to the economy locally, nationally one-third of the departments under the governor’s authority, according to a state government organizational chart published by the Legislature.
Additionally, the former director of the state’s Office of African American Affairs, William Scott Carreathers, resigned in June. Lead state epidemiologist Michael Landen also stepped down from his role last month.
Lujan Grisham has said in the past that she keeps a demanding work schedule and pace for herself and staff members, sometimes starting early in the morning and continuing until night.
“I’m tough to work for,” she said in an interview last year.
Asked whether that work ethic might have played a role in the recent resignations, spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett gave a oneword answer.
“No,” Sackett said. O’Neill, who was secretary of the department until March, stepped down “to attend to family matters at the outset of the pandemic,” Sackett said.
Winograd, who is the former president of Central New Mexico Community College, was then and globally and on many levels addressing the needs of our youth and the communities we serve.”
Serving on the subcommittee is U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colorado, who last month introduced the House version of the 21st Century Conservation Corps for our Health and Our Jobs Act – a bill introduced in the Senate in May by Sen. Ron Wyden.
Among other provisions, the bill would direct $9 billion through the Department of Labor to support workforce development at Service and Conservation Corps. The bill is co-sponsored by two other members the subcommittee: Chairwoman Deb Halaand, D-New Mexico, and Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California. brought on as Lujan Grisham’s higher education adviser. Over the next three months, she oversaw the department while Lopez continued as deputy secretary.
Winograd is retiring, while Lopez has taken a position as senior democracy director at the State Innovation Exchange, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit, the governor’s office said.
For now, Rodriguez is overseeing day-to-day operations of the Higher Education Department, while Serna is supervising budgetary issues and plans for campuses to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Together they will provide leadership and oversight at the department in addition to managing some critical priorities that intersect with your work,” Casados told higher education leaders in her letter.
Rodriguez and Serna also will work on the implementation of the Opportunity Scholarship, a Lujan Grisham-backed program aimed at providing free college tuition to New Mexico residents, according to the letter.