McCamley steps down as state labor secretary
Face of unemployment system burdened by weight of pandemic
SANTA FE — Bill McCamley, the face of New Mexico’s unemployment system during the coronavirus pandemic, is stepping down.
The Governor’s Office confirmed that McCamley’s last day on the job would be Friday, though McCamley did not immediately provide a reason for his departure.
A former state lawmaker from Doña Ana County, McCamley was appointed as secretary of the Department of Workforce Solutions by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham shortly before she took office in 2019.
“I am grateful to Bill for his work over the last few years and in particular since the pandemic reached our state,” Lujan Grisham said in a Friday statement. “COVID-19 affected everyone in New Mexico, and the Department of Workforce Solutions was asked to step up and meet the new and unexpected and ongoing needs of so many of our neighbors.”
McCamley’s department was swamped in April
2020 after a tsunami of jobless benefit claims related to the COVID-19 outbreak overwhelmed the state’s unemployment website and phone hotline and left thousands of state residents fuming.
He apologized for the troubles many New Mexicans were facing, and added more than 100 staffers — many from other state agencies — to help run the agency’s unemployment insurance call center, which also expanded its daily hours of operation.
But difficulties accessing the system have persisted, and McCamley acknowledged in recent interviews he has at times personally intervened to ensure state residents get jobless benefits.
He also received praise from some lawmakers during this year’s 60-day legislative session for his prompt responses to constituents’ issues.
While he did not respond directly to questions, McCamley said on social media Friday that agency employees’ efforts over the past year had been “nothing short of heroic.”
“People count on your work, and you delivered,” McCamley tweeted. “Serving with you has been an absolute honor. Keep it up.”
Unemployment fund
Since the beginning of March 2020, the Workforce Solutions Department has paid out more than $3.5 billion in unemployment benefits across various state and federal unemployment programs.
While New Mexico’s unemployment rate has improved in recent months, it was still among the nation’s highest at 8.3% as of last month.
And the number of state residents employed in non-farm jobs has dropped by nearly 66,000 over the past year — from 856,200 in March 2020 to 790,600 as of this year, according to DWS data.
That’s despite several rounds of state relief packages aimed at helping businesses and workers hit hard by the pandemic and restrictions imposed in response to it by the Lujan Grisham administration.
The spike in jobless claims has led to the state’s unemployment fund being drawn down, and McCamley requested a loan of up to $285 million from the U.S. Labor Department last summer to ensure benefits would keep being paid.
A spending bill signed this month by Lujan Grisham includes up to $300 million to repay the federal loan.
But the governor used her lineitem veto authority to strike down a proposed $600 million appropriation of federal relief dollars earmarked for the unemployment fund from a separate bill, with a Lujan Grisham spokeswoman later saying it was not clear whether such an expenditure would be an allowable use of the funds.
Department turnover
The Workforce Solutions Department has also struggled in recent years to deal with a huge backlog of wage theft claims connected to the state’s minimum wage, which is currently set at $10.50 per hour.
In addition to wage enforcement, the department will also play a key oversight role once a new statewide paid sick leave law takes effect in July 2022.
That measure, which was approved by lawmakers and signed into law by Lujan Grisham in April, will require businesses to allow their employees to accrue and take up to 64 hours of paid leave annually.
Meanwhile, the departure of McCamley, who ran unsuccessfully for state auditor in 2018 before being appointed by Lujan Grisham, also marks the latest turnover in the Democratic governor’s Cabinet. While some turnover in a governor’s tenure is not unusual, at least seven agency heads have now either been fired or have left since Lujan Grisham took office two-plus years ago.
Moving forward, Ricky Serna, a former deputy Workforce Solutions secretary, will serve as the agency’s acting secretary until a full-time replacement can be identified, according to the Governor’s Office.
Serna is also temporarily serving as director of the State Personnel Office, after the state’s former top human resources officer stepped down in February to take a new job with President Joe Biden’s administration.