Emergency management personnel from across New Mexico opposed a Senate bill backed by Gov. Bill Richardson that would move the state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management under the Department of Public Safety, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported. Joel Arnwine, Eddy County emergency manager and president of the New Mexico Emergency Management Association (NMEMA), recently sent a letter to Richardson calling the move a step backward. "My colleagues that serve as local emergency mangers throughout our great state and our partners in NMEMA all have negative recollections of emergency command, control and coordination as well as day-to-day administrative issues that existed under the arrangement," Arnwine wrote in the letter.
Meanwhile, The New Mexico Independent, reported that the New Mexico House of Representatives killed a similar proposal. Local firefighters and sheriff’s officers opposed the bill, the Independent reported, because they had not had a chance to discuss what it would mean for their budgets.
Read the Carlsbad Current-Argus and New Mexico Independent articles for more information.
