Thursday, May 11, 2023Media Beat: New ABQ Journal Boss Faces Challenges And Hard Landing Continues For Ronchetti, Also: Guv Pandemic Powers ExplainedThere’s a new boss at the Albuquerque Journal, but he does not come from local stock or a big city. Patrick Ethridge has spent most of his journalism career in small markets in conservative Nebraska and Indiana. Ethridge takes over as executive editor of the newspaper at the end of the month, replacing Karen Moses, who is retiring after a lengthy career. Ethridge’s immediate challenge will be navigating new territory in a majority minority state after coming here from the culturally homogenous Midwest. At 45 the new editor gives the state’s oldest and largest circulation newspaper a bit of a younger face. Moses and her predecessor Kent Walz both led the paper into their late 60’s. Journal publisher William Lang stated the obvious in announcing the new hire, saying job one will be to transform the Journsl digitally as the printed edition slowly but surely fades away. Ethridge has a lot of experience with the Internet, but the secular trend of a waning interest in local news and the difficulty of making the digital product as financially rewarding as the old print edition are steep hills to climb. The conservative editorial policy and news lean of the Journal is not expected to change with the new editor. HARD LANDING It’s been a hard landing for former TV weatherman, Mark Ronchetti. After two unsuccessful statewide races, one for the US Senate in’20 and the other for Governor in ‘22, Ronchetti is now soliciting advertising and public donations for a twice weekly hour long podcast he is producing with his wife Krysty. Ronchetti has apparently been unable to re-enter the TV world, most likely because of his political exposure. In short, he has become too hot to handle. Politics and the weather don’t mix. In his first podcast Ronchetti notes that he has two daughters rapidly approaching college age, and wonders about his and their future financial security. Ronchetti does not rule out another run for political office but six months after his gubernatorial defeat he’s trying any way he can to stay out of the unemployment line. Ronchetti has also filed a lawsuit against one of his media consulting firms seeking damages because of the way they unveiled his campaign websites. He claims they put them up too early and forced him to leave his TV weather job earlier than planned. That job reportedly paid him about $200,000 a year POST PANDEMIC POWER Despite widespread grumbling, the extraordinary powers given to the Governor during the Covid public health emergency remain fully intact. Efforts to limit that power at the Legislature have fallen flat. We asked Santa Fe attorney Cliff Rees, one of the authors of the original public health emergency legislation, to update us now that we are in the post pandemic era: The concern expressed by the sponsors of bills to restrict the powers of the Governor during a declared PHE is the possibility that a Governor will abuse the Governor's powers granted in the NM Public Health Emergency Response Act (NMSA 1978) without legislative oversight. The NM Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Governor's use of the public health emergency orders vis- a- vis closing NM businesses in her response to COVID-19 in: 1) MLG v. Reeb, NM Supreme Court Opinion issued November 5, 2020; 2) MLG v. Romero, NM Supreme Court Opinion issued February 15, 2021, and; 3) State v. Wilson, NM Supreme Court Opinion issued June 7, 2021, demonstrating there is expeditious judicial review of the Governor's actions during a PHE. The NM Legislature empowered the Governor and the Secretaries of Health and Public Safety to enforce public health emergency orders restricting business operations through the use of civil penalties imposed by the Public Health Emergency Response Act. Lujan Grisham v. Romero, 2021-NMSC-009, February 15, 2021: The Governor and the Secretary of Health are authorized to restrict or close businesses when necessary for the protection of the public during a pandemic and the renewed temporary closure of indoor dining at restaurants and breweries was not arbitrary and capricious. State v. Wilson, 2021-NMSC-022, June 7, 2021 : The issuance of the State's public health orders during COVID-19 do not support a claim for a regulatory taking requiring just compensation nor do the public health orders' restrictions on business operations regarding occupancy limits and closures support such a claim. Furthermore, the businesses must exhaust administrative remedies in the Public Health Emergency Response Act before seeking judicial relief. The PHERA was enacted by the 2003 Legislature in the aftermath of 9/11 after an extensive public process during calendar year 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11, including at least 8 Town Hall Meetings statewide and at least 3 presentations to Interim Legislative Committees. It received only 1 negative vote on the Floor of each House. Not addressed in previous legislative debate is why the Governor has such extraordinary public health powers in the first place. The answer is that NM is one of about 10 US States that has a centralized public health system where almost all of the State's public health police powers are vested in the Governor and the NM Department of Health (DOH) since DOH was created during The Great Influenza, aka The Spanish Flu, in 1919.
In 1919, 7 years after Statehood, NM was the only State without a State Health Department. Other States have hybrid public health systems which share public health powers between the State, Counties, Cities and Municipalities. The PHERA is based on the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (December 21, 2001) developed by the CDC to assist States in the development of public health laws to respond to a public health emergency. The Model Act does include a section addressing the termination of a public health emergency by a State Legislature but both Governors Johnson and Richardson asked the bill drafters (I was one of them as an Assistant General Counsel for the NM Department of Health) not to include these provisions in the PHERA. The NM Legislature's part-time status, lack of salary and lack of staff expertise to perform oversight during a PHE (with the possible exception of fiscal oversight by the LFC) constitutes an additional compelling argument for a year-round professionally staffed Legislative Health and Human Services Committee to provide oversight over future public health emergencies that will likely occur when the NM Legislature is not in Session. This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023 |
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