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New jail managers: Safety is No.
1
By S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GALLUP Ñ The new managers of the McKinley
County Adult Detention Facility say public safety is most important
and is the entire focus of their operation.
Management and Training
Corp., based in Ogden, Utah, is expected to take over management Jan.1.
MTC Director Lane McCotter and other representatives met Tuesday night
with McKinley County commissioners, citizens and local officials opinion
about the new operators: "I was the one against this contract and I
will continue to oppose it until you make good on your promises."
Shelly further warned them, "You hire all the people. Otherwise, I won't
vote for you and I'll oppose you no matter what you do."
In April, it was learned Shelly's teen-age son is an employee of CSC.
Staff most important
MTC Assistant Marketing Director Connie
Cruz said that details hadn't been chosen, but that present CSC employees
hired by MTC may recieve some credit for their employment with CSC,
such as a rollover for 401K participation.
"Personal interviews will be given to all who apply," McCotter
promised. "Our staff is our most important commodity. We have one
of the lowest turnover rates in our profession."
"We demand — not request — that our staff gets more training
than required by Americcan
Corrections Association standards," McCotter said.
A Mossman resident asked about the appointment of a new warden.
"If we can find someone locally with the credentials and experience
we're looking for, we will hire locally. But we are going to hire the
best candidate we can find," he said.
McKinley County Commissioner Harry Mendoza told the gathered townspeople
that part of the new contract had to do with public concern, particularly
after the September escapes. "We want to guarantee that public safety
is always our No. 1 focus," McCotter said.
He claimed that MTC has the best safety and security record in the for-profit
prison industry.
Zero tolerance
"We have a zero tolerance policy for
escapes," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure
there aren't any. But no one in our industry can stand up before you
and guarantee 100 percent that it won't happen. If they do, they're
lying."
During the last five years of managing 10 institutions, McCotter said
only three inmates had walked away from a facility. "It was when a minimum
security operation was first opened and it was a pre-release facility.
They were apprehended almost immediately," he said. "The people had
less than 30 days left on a sentence."
McKinley County Sheriff Frank Gonzales assured school officials regarding
any future escapes.
"If there's a problem, we will be at the school if you want us there,"
he said. "There wasn't money before, but there is now. If you want someone
at the school, we'll be there."
McCotter detailed plans to install a security alert system and sensors
between the roof and the ceiling and possibly reinforce fencing around
the recreation yard.
But, McCotter emphasized, the foundation of security depends on a strong
classification system for inmates, which is addressed in the contract,
and reducing idleness.
High-risk out of place
"High-risk maximum security inmates
don't belong in McKinley County," McCotter said. "I think it's a shame
that ( the facility) is in the place it's in, with all the space around
Gallup that's empty. If we had built it, we'd have put it out on 20
or 30 acres, but we have to work with what's in place."
McCotter said talks with the architect revealed that "weaknesses were
built into the facility due to lack of funding."
MTC plans to offer education programs to all inmates, including McKinley
County offenders.
"We also believe that we are the best in rehabilitating the lives of
the incarcerated," McCotter said. "Changing lives are more important
than profits, that's why we're not traded on the stock exchange. And
we expect a strong accountability of our inmates."
Prior to running corrections facilities, MTC ran 23 successful Job Corps
sites. The company has applied those principles to the jail populations,
McCotter said, adding, "We have a positive program with goals for each
inmate."
Applications for the community advisory board were available for citizens
interested in volunteering. The board will be comprised of about a dozen
local residents, clergy, and school and law enforcement officials appointed
by commissioners. It will act as a liaison and oversight committee.
Commissioners chose another private contractor after studying the feasibility
of running it as a county department. Operating expense estimates compiled
by the county finance department forecastexpenditures of nearly $4 million
per year. In addition, the $12 million debt load for construction of
the facility must be paid.
"My preference would be to have the county operate the jail, but we
can't afford it," Mendoza said. "The county would have to cut services
and lay off staff. We have no choice but to have a private corporation
operate it."
Contract items
Other items on the contract between MTC
and McKinley County include:
• MTC to pay county 50 percent of facility revenue exceeding $36
per day per inmate; and
• MTC to pay county
50 percent of inmate telephone revenue.
According to McCotter, the corporation has been in the corrections business
for more than 10 years and exceeds standards set by the American Corrections
Association. Presently, it operates 10 facilities in four states seven
in Texas and one each in California, Arizona and Colorado.
In September, MTC was awarded a contract to run the 1,380-bed Lake Erie
Correctional Institution in Ohio. "We hope that it (MCDC) will be the
model for all of New Mexico," McCotter said.
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Navajoland Inn is seeking tribal
authority over lawsuit
By Bill Donovan
DinŽ Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Ñ Romero Brown will have
his first day in court Wednesday.
The setting will be the Window Rock Tribal Court as Brown and his attorney
try to convince District Court Judge Allan Sloan that he should allow
the tribe to maintain jurisdiction over Brown's lawsuit against the
bank that loaned him the money to build Navajoland Days Inn.
The bank Community First National Bank has been trying since August
to sell the hotel out from under Brown because he hasn't made any of
his loan payments. Brown admits he hasn't made any payments but says
the bank erred in allowing contractors to build a hotel that has severe
structural problems.
Attorneys for the bank are arguing that the dispute should be heard
in state court because of a provision signed by Brown in his loan agreement
that allows any legal dispute to be settled in state court.
A decision by Sloan may be weeks or months away, leading to the loser
appealing to the Navajo Supreme Court. If the bank is the loser, expectations
are that they will appeal to federal district court to get the case
out of tribal courts.
The fact that this case may still be in the courts in 2001 is why Brown
is currently tackling another problem that jeopardizes the future of
his hotel low occupancy rates.
At this time last year, just a few months after opening, occupancy was
above 50 percent. Today, he's not reaching 30 percent.
"The downturn began when we closed down the hotel swimming pool," he
said.
That occurred last March when the ceiling and walls around the swimming
pool began peeling because of moisture from the heated swimming poll.
Brown blames the problem on the fact that the construction company failed
to install a dehumidifier and exhaust fans in an effort to save money.
Since closing down the pool, Brown said there have been numerous times
when people would prepare to check in, find out the pool was closed
and would then pick up their bags and leave.
The problem is so serious that the national registration line for Days
Inn tells people coming to this area that the hotel does not have a
pool, resulting in many deciding to go to one of the Days Inn in Gallup.
"The pool is our money maker," Brown said, adding that he felt he had
no choice but to repair the pool area, no matter how much it cost.
He convinced members of the tribe's Economic Development Committee last
week to approve a $75,000 loan for the pool and other repairs. He also
spent some $40,000 of his own funds pawning his backhoe and his vehicle
so that the pool would be put back in service as soon as possible.
Work on the pool repair, he said Tuesday, is now about 80 percent complete.
"We had hoped to have it up and running again by Thanksgiving but it
looks like the earliest that will happen is early December," he said.
It should be ready for the Window Rock Scouts Shootout that occurs in
mid-December, which sees a number of schools take rooms for their players
who enjoy swimming between games.
"I really felt bad when people came in and registered, thinking the
pool was operating," he said. Once the pool is back in operation, Brown
said he expects the occupancy rate to shoot up again to the 50 percent
level throughout the rest of the winter season.
| Top |
Baca center leveled by early blast
By Sekai K. Mutunhu
Staff Writer
GALLUP Ñ Four people were taken to the
hospital with minor injuries after an explosion destroyed the Baca Chapter
House early today. A leak in a propane gas line that was being installed
in the chapter house is believed to be the cause of the explosion, which
blew the roof off the building, collapsed the walls, and also shattered
the windows of nearby residences...
| Top |
Polacca to get NPC classrooms
Staff report
POLACCA, Ariz. Ñ A construction contract
for the long-awaited Northland Pioneer College classroom facility in
Polacca has been awarded to Evans Southwest by the Navajo County Community
College District Governing Board. Groundbreaking ceremonies will be
held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the site adjacent to the Hopi Junior/Senior
High School off Arizona Route 264, five miles west of Keams Canyon...
| Top |
Agencies study consumer act Report
due on 18 percent rate
By Jim Maniaci
DinŽ Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Ñ Two Navajo Nation agencies
received a directive Tuesday to find out whether the new tribal consumer
protection act's 18 percent interest rate is too low. The Economic Development
Committee wants the Navajo Tax Commission and the Economic Development
Division to report back on Dec. 15...
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Manager: Enjoy fireworks, not
guns on Jan.1
BY Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
MILAN Ñ Millennium fireworks project
manager Cecil Brown asked the village board of trustees Tuesday for
$2,000 to help pay for the Y2K extravaganza. He didn't get all he wanted,
but he did enlighten the board about another problem. Brown got only
a $500 commitment from Milan at its regular meeting...
| Top |
Milan board won't accept mayor's
pick
By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS Ñ A move to fill a vacant seat
on the Milan Board of Trustees failed Tuesday when Mayor Elisabeth Lopez
Rael appointed Rebecca Gomez to the position, but no trustee would make
a formal motion accepting the appointment. The seat of former trustee
Frances Waldee is still vacant and has been for several months. Gomez
is a friend of the mayor, who said that Gomez is more than qualified
to take the position after working in government and with corrections...
| Top |
Committee limits peyote use
By Jim Maniaci
DinŽ Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Ñ A major stumbling block
to historic changes in the Navajo criminal code appears to have been
cleared away Monday when two council committees met with leaders of
the Native American Church about how to handle peyote. The proposed
revisions made hallucinogenic drugs such as peyote illegal. However,
peyote is used as a sacrament in the NAC and its religious use is exempt
from anti-drug laws by the Native American Religious Freedom Act...
| Top |
Prepare for Y2K like storm
By Sekai K. Mutunhu
Staff Writer
GALLUP Ñ As the millennium hovers just
around the corner, will this mean the end of the world as we know it?
Emma and Harry Thompson don't think so but just in case they're wrong,
the couple is prepared for the worst. "We've been storing canned foods,
first aid kits and water," Emma Thompson said. "Everything that we've
covered here..."
| Top |
Group files recall against Window
Rock
By Jim Maniaci
DinŽ Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Ñ Recall petitions have been
filed against a majority of the five-member governing board of the Window
Rock Unified School District. Concerned Citizens for Better Education
filed 525 signatures with Apache County which seek a recall election
against Pauline Begay, 524 against Elmer Milford, and 521 against Larry
Foster. At least 434 signatures for each board member must be verified
by Apache County officials if the recall effort is to continue...
| Top |
Fort Defiance man has bad case
of the acting bug
By Gaye Brown
Staff Writer
GALLUP Ñ Ernest David Tsosie caught the
bug and caught it bad. He remembers when he caught the bug. It was in
Washington, D.C., when he was visiting a relative. Tsosie happened onto
the set of "D.C. Cab," a movie being filmed on location in 1984. He
hung around the set for a couple of days and watched the action...
| Top |
Domenici proposes WIPP restrictions
By The Associated Press
A congressional push by Sen. Pete Domenici is the latest attack on
the state Environment Department's effort to regulate the storage of
nuclear waste at an underground repository in southern New Mexico. The
Republican senator proposed an amendment Tuesday that would prohibit
the state from requiring financial assurance for storing mixed nuclear
waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad...
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