Taxpayers deserve a better Workforce Solutions

From the category of No Kidding: The Department of Workforce Solutions did not perform as taxpayers deserved over the long year of this pandemic and subsequent upheaval in the labor market.

Even before a Legislative Finance Committee report that found the department overpaid some $250 million in unemployment benefits, the anecdotal evidence of poor performance was clear.

Worse, of the alleged excess payments, the report estimates perhaps $133 million went to fraudulent claims. The Governor’s Office, ultimately responsible for the operation of executive departments, disputes the overpayment number — estimating perhaps only $105 million went out in excess payments. Either way, the numbers are both absurdly high.

Sloppy accounting was far from the only problem. People who lost jobs reported phone calls went unanswered; the website crashed repeatedly; benefits were not delivered on time; and when problems arose, there were seldom enough humans on the other end of the phones to answer questions and clear up confusion.

Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley abruptly resigned in April. He said little at the time but resurfaced when the report was issued last month to claim he left because of threats to himself and his family. After a road trip he currently is taking — documented on social media — McCamley plans to move to Texas and start over.

The withering criticism is appropriate; the threats are not. But a department that cannot do its job properly even after 14 months of trying to improve is a stain on the performance of the administration.

To be fair, the demands on the department were unprecedented.

During the height of the Great Recession more than a decade ago, the department paid out almost $815 million in a year. That contrasts to $3.7 billion over the past 14 months.

The work was all the more difficult because department workers had to do their jobs remotely to reduce the spread of the coronavirus that caused the pandemic in the first place. People with problems could not drop into the office to speak to someone in person, either. Offices were shut down, reducing claimants to the anonymity of emails or phone calls.

All of that is by way of explanation but should not be considered an excuse for what was a massive failure of performance.

There were incredible efforts — including from McCamley, a hardworking and dedicated civil servant — at Workforce Solutions, which means it can be simultaneously true that employees can work above and beyond to perform a task and the operation still flounder. That’s apparently what happened here. What must happen next is clear.

First, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham needs to sit down at a news conference — much as she has done throughout the pandemic to answer health questions — and explain what she knows about the department’s failures and how she is making sure corrections are made.

Then she needs to do her own investigation — not just about what money was paid out when, but whether the issues at Workforce Solutions arose because of outdated equipment; lack of staffing; insufficient training; poor leadership decisions; or, most likely, all of the above.

It is unlikely New Mexico will be faced with an unemployment crisis of this magnitude again — jobless claims starting in April 2020 surged from 14,000 active cases to 200,000 over three months — but many of the problems obviously are not just those of volume. A governor running for — and wanting to win — reelection needs to show voters that obvious problems have been fixed.

Workforce Solutions, now being run by acting Secretary Ricky Serna, must show a detailed plan to improve service, provide timely benefits and make sure taxpayer dollars are not wasted. No excuses. No delays. No kidding.