City Council passes resolution calling for special legislative session on crime; Governor's office says no session will be called

Two resolutions, proposed in response to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public health order focused on the carrying of firearms in Bernalillo County, passed the Albuquerque City Council on Monday, days before the order is set to expire.

The first resolution, which passed 7-2, petitioned the governor for a special legislative session on crime and called for a legislative focus on funding behavioral health programs, an existing warrant enforcement program and changing the pretrial detention process.

The second asked councilors to “reaffirm” their commitment to Second Amendment rights and urge the governor to abstain from limiting the rights of gun owners. It passed more narrowly, with the four bill cosponsors Renée Grout, Brook Bassan, Louie Sanchez and Dan Lewis voting in favor along with Councilor Trudy Jones .

The governor’s public health order, which was enacted in early September, prohibited both concealed and open carry of firearms in the county for 30 days following the shooting death of 11-year-old Froylan Villegas as he and his family left an Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game.

That initial version of the order was quickly challenged, scaled back by the governor and will end Friday. A federal judge, meanwhile, on Tuesday extended a temporary restraining order keeping the state from enforcing gun restrictions for at least a week. (See story, A1.)

Both of the City Council resolutions were sponsored by four of the nine councilors, meaning sponsors only had to recruit one “aye” vote for each to pass.

Lewis said he didn’t think the first resolution was controversial.

“It’s for solutions,” Lewis said. “... Let’s talk about some solutions we believe would move the needle and reduce crime.”

The resolution was finalized on the floor, as councilors drafted and debated changes to the language of the bill. Both Councilors Isaac Benton and Klarissa Peña criticized certain language used in the original resolution in regards to mental health and addiction, but after a handful of alterations, both ultimately voted in favor.

However, Council President Pat Davis, who voted against it, expressed reservations about directing the actions of another body of government. Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn said she would like to see a special session but called the bill “political posturing” for demanding the governor call one.

“She has said no,” Fiebelkorn said of Lujan Grisham. “Instead of antagonizing her … telling her how she should do her job, I think now is really the time to come together.”

Instead, Fiebelkorn said, the suggestions should be included in the legislative priorities bill that is passed annually by the council.

Caroline Sweeney, a spokesperson for Lujan Grisham, said the governor has not changed her mind on the special session in light of the resolution. An amendment to the resolution ensured that copies would be sent to the governor, the Legislature and the city’s state legislative delegation.

“The governor has been clear — she does not intend to call a special session,” Sweeney said in an email to the Journal. “She is working with legislative leadership to prepare for the upcoming legislative session … the governor welcomes input on legislative changes and policy investments from partners around the state.”

During the last legislative session, Lujan Grisham signed three crime-related bills. While two of the three were related to property crimes, she also signed into law a bill that made criminalized “straw purchases” — the purchase of firearms for another who is banned from owning guns or planning to use the weapon in a crime.

When Lujan Grisham signed the legislative package, she said she’d like to pursue several firearms proposals in the coming 2024 session. The governor “will continue to focus on pursuing legislation that creates a safer New Mexico through comprehensive reforms,” Sweeney said, which include a 14-day waiting period on gun sales, an assault weapons ban, and a higher age restriction for firearm purchases.

In February, state legislators shot down a bill that would have automatically deemed defendants charged with certain crimes, including first-degree murder and felony child abuse, too dangerous to be released before trial. Keeping people accused of firearms-related crimes in pretrial detention was one of the major ideas included in the City Council resolution passed Monday. The governor also has expressed support for similar measures. Sweeney said the governor has pushed for “rebuttable presumption” in every legislative session.

The state bill, proposed during the 60-day session, was questioned on its constitutionality and whether it would presume guilt before convictions. Others said the bill used unreliable factors to predict if someone would commit new crimes after being released, and challenged assumptions that keeping more people in jail awaiting trial would actually improve public safety.

At the City Council meeting Monday, Councilor Sanchez said the much-criticized “Arnold Tool,” which calculates the odds that someone will commit a crime while released before trial, is “just not working.”

Sanchez also called for mandatory sentence enhancements for gun crimes, including among youthful offenders, and stricter enforcement of laws against low-level crimes.

“You will serve time if you commit a crime with a gun,” Sanchez said.

Following the September public health order, Bernalillo County Manager Julie Morgas Baca wrote to the governor, asking for a $2.1 million increase in funding in anticipation of an increased number of inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center. That funding has yet to be approved.

Over the past six months, Morgas Baca wrote in a letter to the governor, Bernalillo County’s largest jail has seen an average daily population of 1,460 inmates. She added that 350 more inmates would put the jail at capacity, after asking to reopen four cell pods and fund the hiring of additional correctional officers to accommodate an increased jail population.

Candace Hopkins, a spokesperson for MDC, said in an email to the Journal the jail can house up to 1,950 inmates under the McClendon jail reform case settlement. An MDC official said there were 1,630 people housed in at the jail as of Tuesday afternoon. Although there are no immediate plans for inmate transfer, Hopkins said, MDC is working with the Governor’s Office to discuss potentially transferring MDC inmates to state Corrections Department facilities, if the population continues to grow.

Although Councilor Peña voted in favor of the first resolution, she raised concerns about seeming to advocate for an increase in prison populations. In the resolution, a declining statewide prison population was cited, with a projected 3% decrease in 2024. In response, Peña said the majority of incarcerated people are jailed for minor infractions, or could be homeless or struggling with addiction. She added that people of color are disproportionately imprisoned for minor offenses.

“Are we saying that the prison population should be full?” Peña said.