Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by viewers like you.

>>Nash: This week on New Mexico in Focus with early voting underway, we wrap up our coverage of the Santa Fe mayor's race with Hopefuls Garcia and Greene.

>>Garcia: I am somebody who lives by what I call the three E's, effective, efficient and for everybody.

And that's what government should be doing.

>>Greene: We're going to focus much more on how to make local people own the future and be a part of the solution.

>>Nash: Plus, we dive deep into a fatal police shooting that could help determine what police accountability looks like in our state going forward.

New Mexico in Focus starts now.

>>Nash: Thanks for being here.

I'm Nash Jones on Valentine's Day in 2022, Ginny Boawn implored a Torrance County sheriff's deputy not to hurt her son, Travis.

They were standing in a hospital room after Travis had hit her with a hammer during a mental health episode earlier that day, Ginny asked whether the deputy was trained to deal with someone experiencing an acute mental health crisis, as Travis was.

The deputy said he was.

Ginny said there were no weapons at the home and asked the deputies not approach her son with their guns drawn.

But the opposite happened when deputies arrived at the house within 90 seconds They fired multiple shots at Travis, striking him nine times and killing him.

Tonight, Ginny and Travis's, sister Emma tell their story for the first time after news stories about the shooting were badly oversimplified and misreported, and we'll learn why the lawsuit that they filed against Torrance County could help shape policing in New Mexico going forward.

But first, with early voting in full swing and set to expand beyond the confines of County Clerk's offices this weekend, we return to Santa Fe to wrap up our coverage of the race for mayor in the capital city.

We began this series more than a month ago, bringing you interviews in various forms with the candidates vying to succeed Alan Webber who is not seeking reelection for a third term.

You've heard from six of those mayoral hopefuls in previous shows.

This week, we will introduce you to the final two.

They are City Councilor Michael Garcia and County Commissioner Justin Green.

Let's kick things off with Garcia, who just this week earned an endorsement from the Santa Fe New Mexican.

>>Nash: Michael Garcia, thanks so much for the time.

>>Michael: Thank you for having me.

So you are serving your second term on city council.

I imagine a lot of Santa Fe voters are familiar with you, particularly your district two voters.

But for those who aren't.

I'd like you to introduce yourself, and we'll get to your resume in a second.

Let's focus though, right now on on your personal history, your life experiences that you feel like position you well for the mayor's office.

>>Michael: Sure, and so grew up here in Santa Fe.

Grew up on the South side, the Bellamah neighborhood.

And, that's where I spent my whole formative years of my life.

After graduating from high school and went on to college and, but currently, I live in the Hopewell Mann neighborhood, which is one of the most in the neighborhood in our community.

I'm a husband, father of three, got kids all the way from college age, got to college freshman at Yale, eighth grader at Saint Michael's High School, and a toddler attending pre-K right now.

And so I'm somebody who really feels I have, my finger on the pulse of what's going on in our community, whether it is as a parent, as a community member, or as somebody who just really wants to ensure that the voice of local residents is heard.

>>Nash: And tell me more about your career, and your resume, how that prepares you for the mayor's office, but also how it reflects your values.

>>Michael: And so after graduating high school, I went to the University of New Mexico and earned an undergraduate degree in political science and a master's degree in public administration.

Those begin to set the foundation for, really allowing me to have the the skills, not only the skills, but the experience to be mayor.

When I completed my undergraduate degree, I entered what it's called AmeriCorps Vista service, and that really offered me the opportunity to really learn how to grassroots, organize and bring community together.

I traveled throughout New Mexico, focusing on issues that affected New Mexico youth, in particular youth poverty issues.

And so I worked hand in hand with community members, whether it was in urban areas, rural areas, to work to develop community based solutions and really the goal was to break cycles of poverty of our young folks.

I'm a current city councilor, and so I really understand what's going on with city government right now.

Whether it's my gut, my experience with the current government, I work for AmeriCorps, Vista, currently in the federal federal sector.

I've been working for the federal government for about 15 years.

So that experience, allows me to really understand what it means to be an effective public administrator.

I am somebody who lives by what I call the three E's.

Effective, efficient, and for everybody.

And that's what government should be doing.

And so I've been doing that for nearly 20 years.

And as a city councilor, I've been able to really focus on how we bring that philosophy to local residents needs.

>>Nash: And you've said that as a member of the city council, in some ways, you were bringing, a perspective that you hadn't been seeing in city government.

I'd like you to reflect on what you're seeing in the Weber administration.

You've been a vocal critic while sitting on city council.

You're not running against Alan Weber, but you are running to replace him.

So, what about his administration do you feel like you're going to shift?

And what, if anything, would you keep around?

>>Michael: So I would say vocal critic might be a bit harsh, Holding holding folks accountable.

At the end of the day, that's the job of the city council.

We're supposed to hold each other accountable.

Hold local government accountable.

And, I guess I was holding his administration accountable and make-- for making sure that resident's needs were met, making sure that we were taking action that was ultimately going to benefit the entirety of Santa Fe and not a select few, and ultimately working to ensure that there was transparency in government and unfortunately, that did not seem to be some of the mantra of the Weber administration.

>>Nash: So transparency, accountability.

Are those some of the primary ways that you see shifting, the mayoral office under your administration?

>>Nash: Absolutely.

And in addition to that, community engagement.

And so one of the first things I'll do as mayor is work to establish a South Side mayor's office.

So City Hall is currently located in the downtown area of the north side of the city.

I'm going to open up the South Side mayor's office.

I want to ensure that local residents have access to their mayor, and we begin to re shift, revision and refocus where needs in our community should ultimately be met.

And, and, I really feel that by moving the mayor's office, and working there part time will be we will really begin to have a robust community engagement process.

>>Nash: Before we move on to some of your specific policy platforms, I'm interested in whether there's anything, that you envision, if elected.

Continuing that Alan Weber has spearheaded in his time.

>>Michael: Well, I think maybe one initiative is our guaranteed income program for college students.

It allows for folks that are attending college to be able to have some additional resources that would allow them to continue their education and in particular, young working families.

It's a priority of mine to ensure that we are providing all opportunities for young folks in our community.

I want to ensure that, whether you come from a privileged background or somebody that is living off public assistance, there is equitable opportunity for everybody in Santa Fe.

>>Nash: You call your policy platform a blueprint to success.

There's kind of four key areas that you highlight into that, can-- before we get into the nitty gritty of each of them, can you kind of outline what are your four priorities under the blueprint?

>>Michael: For public safety affordable housing, basic city services, and modernizing government.

>>Nash: And first on the list is affordable housing and homelessness.

So let's take those one at a time, starting with homelessness.

>>Nash: How do you feel about the city's approach to the rising number of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Fe?

What would you change, policy wise, strategy wise?

>>Michael: So policy wise, I would begin to work to allocate more resources.

And what I mean by that is we need to ensure that there are support systems that are really built up and established, whether it is for mental health support services, substance abuse services, economic development, economic opportunity such as job training, skill building, employment opportunities.

I really want to ensure we're building that framework that will ultimately help lift folks out of these situations, that that are leading them to be unhoused.

>>Nash: How do you feel about the recent partnership between the city and urban Alchemy, which is taking over operations of what was formerly known as Pete's Place, the shelter?

How do you feel about that partnership?

And and would you employ Urban alchemy to do some of what you're talking about in terms of expanding the resources?

>>Michael: Well, let's take two steps back to really understand where I come from in my, philosophy with urban alchemy.

So when the city decided to terminate the lease with, the interfaith shelter and bring in urban alchemy, I was the only person on the governing body that did not vote in support of that.

And there were two big reasons.

One, I really felt we needed to support the current contractor with the issues that were at hand.

A lot of the complaints and concerns were, public safety issues that were outside of the boundaries of the actual shelter.

I really felt that the city needed to be held accountable in regards to ensuring that there were public safety measures in place.

Example is if something were to happen at your house, are you going to be responsible if somebody was causing mischief outside of your house on the street without your permission?

Permission?

That's not going to be the case.

And that's what was happening with the shelter.

And so I really felt the city needed to step up.

Now, when it comes to monetary resources, I did not agree with terminating a contract with the local provider and then bringing in an out out-of-state provider at ten times the value of a contract.

To me, that, in some sense shows that we do not support local.

We we did not put out an RFP for local, providers to apply.

There was an emergency procurement process that, was was under done.

And so I did not feel that was an appropriate process.

And now moving forward with urban alchemy that they're in place, I want to ensure that they have all of the tools to be successful.

I do not wish any, negative, ill will towards them, but I want to ensure that when we're working with this specific population, we're all working towards the goal of improving the lives of those that are ultimately the guests of the shelter.

>>Nash: How do you reengage local organizations that have been doing this work in Santa Fe for years?

>>Michael: You bring the stakeholders to the table.

You begin to have a community collaboration.

And I and I really feel that it's critical that the city begin to, not only lead the charge of having this community collaborative, but ultimately working to ensure that there were resources behind it.

It's great to bring organizations together, but we ultimately need to ensure that there are resources and that there is ultimately a strategic plan in place to ensure that organizations aren't competing for resources, organizations aren't duplicating services being provided.

And ultimately, we understand who is doing what and what the end goal is for everybody.

>>Nash: Now, housing, what's your plan to increase the number of affordable housing units in Santa Fe?

>>Michael: So I'm going to continue what I've been doing as a city councilor, as a city councilor, I've been very successful in the affordable housing topic.

I was the councilor who helped to lead the charge of fully funding the Affordable Housing Trust Fund at $3 million a year.

I, as mayor, I'm going to work to increase that above 3 million.

My hope is 5 million.

But this is our budgeting.

I've.

Once I'm in there, I can begin to really determine how much more resources.

But my goal is to allocate more utilizing city land.

As a councilor, I worked to, donate 19 acres of city land on the north side of town to develop affordable housing.

We always hear the concerns from residents that, affordable housing is on the south side of town.

Now, this will be an affordable housing development on the north side of town.

And then in addition, when we look at the Midtown campus, I was, one of the folks that led the charge to increase the percentage of affordable housing that will be developed on that campus from 20% to 30.

So utilizing those same strategies of, you know, looking at city land as a benefit in how we can ultimately develop affordable and workforce housing.

Now, in addition to that, what I want to do is really work to, increase the opportunity in regards to the area median income level that ultimately determines who qualifies for affordable housing benefits.

The city of Santa Fe primarily relies on an 80% area median income, and what that means in a financial value is that a family of four earning $79,000 or less will qualify for affordable housing benefits.

I want to raise that AMI to 150% that way folks earning $105,000 or less can qualify for affordable housing benefits.

We then begin to attract teachers, firefighters, police officers, our blue collar workforce.

And the reason why I would initially stop at the 150% AMI's is that is where the New Mexico, Affordable Housing Trust Fund will fund projects up to.

Okay.

So that's that's kind of that baseline.

We can ultimately go to 180% and I think that's where I would look at having maybe three categories 80% and below, potentially funded by the federal government, 81% to 150% funded by the state, and then 151 to 180 funded by the city.

It's my priority to ensure that we are doing everything we can to keep our workforce living here in Santa Fe.

>>Nash: You mentioned the Midtown campus.

You actually live in that neighborhood.

There's been some concerns from community members who live around the campus, around the potential that city redevelopment there could lead to gentrification, could lead to displacement.

The city, has contracted with community groups, in an effort to stabilize the neighborhood.

How do you feel about that effort in in your own backyard?

>>Michael: And so this is actually one of the big reasons why I ran for city council in the first place was because, one, I believe we all want the Midtown campus to be successful, but the negative impacts of a successful redevelopment ultimately to ripple effects that lead to gentrification.

And so I was one of the champions who helped to lead the initiative in charge for the neighborhood stabilization plan for Hopewell Mann neighborhood.

I really feel that these are the structures that need to be in place that will ultimately allow for whether it's a long term family that's been there for generations, or somebody who recently bought their home there.

It will provide the protections that will allow for community to stay in community.

And so that's my priority.

>>Nash: Santa Fe has the kind of immigrant friendly policies that have put the target on cities back from the Trump administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

There's been threats of federal funding, rollbacks or pullbacks, even prosecutions.

How do you feel about Santa Fe's immigrant friendly policies as they stand?

Will they change under your administration?

>>Michael: So the we will continue to remain an immigrant friendly community under my administration.

I'm already exploring how we can strengthen protections for the immigrants in our community and ultimately, the civil rights of all the residents of Santa Fe.

And so we're, currently working towards, introducing an ordinance that would, be very similar to the law that was passed in California where ICE agents would have to, be identifiable, no mask, wear identification that way If ICE were to, show up in Santa Fe, there would be easy ways to identify the individual.

We want to ensure that, in situations, residents could be who can easily identify who, when, where folks are that might be potentially apprehending individuals in our community.

The police had an opportunity that day to go to my mom and brother's house and be the heroes, and they chose not to, and they altered trajectory with my life and my family forever.

>>Nash: Reporter Cailley Chella's story on the police shooting of Travis Boawn is coming up in about 15 minutes.

And thank you to Councilor Garcia for sitting for our questions.

If you would like to hear more from that candidate, you can find an extended interview on the New Mexico in Focus YouTube channel.

But don't go anywhere just yet because we have another candidate for Santa Fe Mayor to introduce you to.

Justin Green is serving his first term in the Santa Fe County Commission.

He's also a small business owner and architect who had a hand in the build out of some key public spaces in Santa Fe, as well.

I'll let him fill you in on the rest as he makes his case for the capital city's top job.

>>Nash: Justin Greene, thanks so much for making the time.

>>Greene: Thank you, Nash.

It's great to hear your voice in a person.

[Both Laugh] Years and years of, hearing you coming out of my radio.

>>Nash: Well, thank you for listening.

You've been a county commissioner for a little over two years.

I imagine a lot of voters, at least in District 1, are familiar with you.

But for city-wide voters who are not yet.

I'd like you to introduce yourself.

Let's start with your personal history, your life experiences, and we'll get to your resume in a moment.

But life experiences that you feel like have positioned you well for the office of mayor.

>>Greene: So, I'm an architect by training and -- a small business owner, had my MBA from UNM, so have some Lobo in me, and then have been a small business owner and, real estate and architecture development professional for 30 years.

Working in Santa Fe for -- pretty much my entire career working on redevelopment projects like the railyard and development projects like the convention center.

I was a co-founder of the board for Warehouse 21 and helped the farmers market get a permanent location.

And so, I've been committed to this community for many years and applying myself to community development projects.

>>Nash: Yeah, you moved to Santa Fe after college.

What would you say to voters who think the mayor should be homegrown?

>>Greene: A farmer friend of mine told me that he doesn't question where the water comes from in the acequia.

Some of it comes from rain.

Some of it comes from snow.

Some of it comes from a spring.

But it all nourishes our community fields, and it helps us grow.

So, as somebody who's been committed and -- to this community for 30 plus years, that's about as homegrown as you can get at the end of the day.

>>Nash: Okay.

You mentioned a little bit about your resume.

I'd like you to expand on that, and in terms of how it reflects your values and -- how you would approach being mayor of Santa Fe?

>>Greene: Yeah, so as an architect, we learn to build projects big and small for other people.

Right?

We don't build for ourselves, necessarily.

We take, the community or the client's interests into heart and incorporate that into something that is could be the rail yards, could be the convention center.

And so we work and assimilate people's ideas, into building and into a community facility.

The same thing with one of my businesses.

We deliver food and work with local restaurants.

And so, we are a best practices leader, with one of our businesses, we have the first all EV fleet in the country.

We only work with locally owned restaurants.

We don't work with chains, we don't work with fast food.

And so, we try to keep that Santa Fe ethos in how we operate as both been best practices and just -- you know, the homegrown, aspect -- >>Nash: How will that show up as mayor?

>>Greene: So, we're going to do much more focus on local businesses and promoting local businesses.

When we work on our general plan and how we work in housing, we're going to focus much more on how to make local people own the future and be a part of the solution.

So, for instance, we have, a little bit of a out of focus, aspect to the way development is happening here in Santa Fe currently.

And we need to bring it back to how locals can be a part of the solution so they can help develop the properties.

They can help own it.

It's programs like helping ADUs, Accessory Dwelling Units, those are where local people own the solution to our housing crisis.

And so, that's one of the aspects there, too.

>>Nash: We'll get more into the specifics of your platform and while you're not running against Mayor Alan Webber, you are running to replace him.

So, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the job that he's been doing over his two terms.

What specifically do you see as key failures of the Webber administration?

>>Greene: He was a little, indecisive and -- I can't judge why he was there like that.

I do want to give him, a little bit of credit for starting the general plan, because that is the rewrite of the general plan is something that is going to set the stage for our future in Santa Fe.

And so, it might have taken him a few years to get started on that and a bunch of delays.

He's definitely started some things more recently that -- can carry over to the next administration and have the opportunity to be guided by somebody like myself, who can make sure that it really is in tune with the goals of Santa Fe.

>>Nash: Great.

Well, that was my my next question was, what do what do you see as possibilities for continuation under your administration?

It sounds like the general plan.

Anything else?

>>Greene: General plan; the Code Rewrite.

I think, is another one.

There's the beginnings of working on a wastewater treatment facility.

I don't know, if I feel confident that that is ready to, to really move.

And I think there's a lot of work that's going to be needed there.

The Midtown redevelopment has taken way too long, but we, we've got some good action in the last few months.

So I think that there's these baby steps that have happened, maybe too little, too late, but there's things that we shouldn't, you know, throw out.

>>Nash: I'd Imagine a redevelopment plan with your background in architecture.

You'll be able to plug in to that a unique way.

Is that something that excites you?

>>Nash: Absolutely.

yeah, that is -- you know, with my experience on the rail yards and using the Metropolitan Redevelopment Act, that was the rail yards was the last time the MRA was used in Santa Fe.

And we've enacted that here in Santa Fe for Midtown.

And we definitely need to use that as a tool to the redevelopment for the best of the community.

>>Nash: Let's dig into your platform.

First, kind of an overview.

You call your platform, Get Stuff Done.

You have about ten priorities outlined under that heading.

Can you just briefly list what some of those are?

Before we dig into more of the nitty gritty of them?

>>Green: Sure.

So, overarching everything is going to be management and communication and transparency.

And I call that, you know, just basic good governance because of all of the nine other verticals.

If, you don't have good government, good governance and management, you don't get any of those priorities done.

So first off, we need to make sure that our, our city manager and our mayor are able and our and our city council are able to govern effectively to make sure that the projects that Santa Fe, community, wants are able to be, executed.

>>Nash: And that's why that's prioritized overall -- >>Green: Every one of those verticals are essential.

But the most essential if you want to work on housing, if you want to work on public safety, if you want to work on water security, if you want to work on infrastructure.

If you don't have decent or very solid project management and transparency and effective community, organization for this, you don't get anything done.

And so, over the top is good governance.

Then the second most important part is housing.

Housing impacts our public safety.

It impacts our education.

It impacts our health care.

It impacts our families here.

And so all of those all of those verticals need, housing as well.

>>Nash: Okay, and you mentioned public safety, economic opportunity, family friendly Santa Fe Infrastructure, that works.

Invest in every community, a sustainable future and water security are some of your other -- >>Green: Absolutely.

Those are all pretty standard aspects of Santa Fe that we've needed for generations.

The housing issue has become a big issue for our public safety, as I mentioned, for our education, for our, you know, even for water and for our economic development, if we don't have workforce living here, if they're commuting up from Rio Rancho and from other places, we don't have a community that is vibrant.

And so, housing overall.

>>Nash: Yeah so, let's talk about houseing Obviously, very connected is, homelessness.

On your list, you call it real solutions to homelessness.

What isn't real about the city's response to rising homelessness under the Webber administration?

What specifically would you change about policies, priorities, strategies?

>>Green: The Webber administration worked with this Built-for-Zero concept, which has some value, but it had more -- less building And almost zero results at the end of the day.

What we need is a one-door campus.

This is similar to what's going on in Albuquerque with the Gateway Center, but more specifically, the Haven for Hope, in San Antonio is a model that I would build a Santa Fe facility on.

It offers not only, overnight shelters for, for people in need, but it has daytime services wraparound services with mental health care, behavioral health care, physical health care, job training, and the wraparound navigation services that allow people to get on their feet and get into a much more permanent housing solution there.

And that's a progressive program where if you come in with, a behavioral health substance disorder, that you would progress and get treatment and maybe mental health and maybe physical health maybe job training.

And then after 6, 9, 12 months, you're able to actually find permanent housing that -- >>Nash: How do you see the recent partnership between the city of Santa Fe and Urban Alchemy, which has taken over operations of the shelter previously known as Pete's Place?

And how would that plug in to this kind of one door, solution that you're talking about?

>>Green: Yeah so, Urban Alchemy is sort of you know, we have to be optimistic with this.

We hope that they're successful in addressing the acute situations that we have right now.

But currently, you know we need to work with those local partners, such as Interfaith that operated Pete's for so many years.

Their model had some issues being purely pretty dependent on volunteers.

And it's tough to get volunteers to clean up needles in a parking lot.

And it's tough to get volunteers to clean people up off the street outside your facility.

And so there's some value to the, the urban alchemy model, where it's employee accountability, where they can ask employees to actually go do some of the dirty work that otherwise wouldn't be welcome to ask a volunteer -- >>Nash: But you want to expand that continuum of services, it sounds like.

>>Greene: So, I don't know that I would say that either organization is ready to do the full one door facility.

And so, in Albuquerque at the Gateway Center, I think there's eight organizations that will be housed under the full facility at the Gateway.

And, that, you know, everyone's different.

Some do the overnight care, some do detox, some do drug treatment, some do medical care.

Some do mental health care.

And so, we would have to go find those local operators to help with that.

>>Nash: Now we can't very well talk about homelessness without talking about housing as well.

You're calling for housing for all.

How do you get that done?

>>Greene: Well, we're building a lot of the wrong housing right now.

And so, you know, being architecturally trained and, having developed homes around Santa Fe fo, you know, 30 plus plus years, I understand the difference between, one type of house and another type of house.

And we need to focus on housing for locals.

Less, or more than, building homes for second home buyers.

And Santa Fe has been focused on second home buyers and for, for lab workers and some higher income renters, for a little too long right now.

And it fills a gap.

But we really need to refocus our efforts -- >>Nash: Is that just a priority shift, a policy shift, or are you talking about, zoning issues, permitting issues?

How do you get it done?

>>Greene: So, a little bit of all of those.

So, the first part is that general plan and making sure that the general plan is is made for what's called a Missing Middle Typology of architecture, of building.

And that is smaller development.

So, instead of a 300 unit development that is apartments for some segment of the workforce that it might be locally owned, developments in duplexes, triplexes and quads that are affordable for locals to be owners and a part of the solution and become landlords.

>>Nash: You've caught some flack on the campaign trail as an owner of a number of vacation rentals.

What would you say to a voter, frustrated with the lack of available housing in Santa Fe?

Who wonders why your family owns four properties, none of which are available for Santa Fe residents to live in?

>>Green: One of them, I live in with my wife.

And, and then we operate three short term rentals.

We have operated those for 16 years at this point, so long before any of this became, quote unquote, a crisis.

We have preserved those homes.

Two of them are historic in nature and have redeveloped them instead of allowing them to be, torn down, as was the, you know, the most likely outcome if somebody else had purchased them in those days -- >>Nash: But why operate them in short term rentals rather than long term?

>>Greene: Finances.

We put a lot of money into these homes and the economics of it don't quite work for anything in the affordable class of homes -- >Nash: How much passive income does your family get from those homes?

>>Greene: I don't know if that's appropriate, but it's -- we charge anywhere from 250 to 495 a night.

>>Nash: For a Santa Fean who can't afford even one home in this economy and in this, rapidly increasing, unaffordable city, what's your plan to make Santa Fe not only a place where folks can can work, with good jobs, but where they're not commuting in, and they can actually live in the city and work?

>>Greene: Yeah.

So, it's a spectrum and it's a regional strategy.

Right?

So, if somebody wants to live here, we should provide them with housing that is appropriate and is affordable for them.

Also, if somebody lives in Española because their families lived in Española for generations, but they work in Santa Fe, we shouldn't demonize those folks as well.

We should be part of a continuum here.

And if somebody lives in Rio Rancho and their partner works in Albuquerque, it makes sense for somebody to have a good job in Santa Fe and still live in Rio Rancho.

There's no -- We don't do -- >>Nash: But for folks who want to live in Santa Fe.

Folks who are from here even and feel priced out.

>>Greene: Yeah.

So, we need to build housing for that, community, for all of our community.

And that goes to the ADU and the multiplex, style of housing with a multiplex, you can have multi-generational housing, which is really the old housing typology of northern New Mexico.

That goes way, way back that we've given up.

We've gone to single family homes that sort of make it where its too expensive to own a single family home.

But when you have a home with 2 or 3 rentals on the property, whether you decide to rent it to a police officer or a teacher, or to have your children come home from college and get their feet on the ground here in Santa Fe, it gives you an opportunity to own some of that future there.

>>Nash: Thank you to Justin Green for meeting up with us in Santa Fe and to our production crew for helping us bring you back to the city to round out our mayoral coverage.

As with all of our top tier candidate interviews, you can find a longer version of our conversation with Commissioner Green on our YouTube page.

But let's put the election down for now and finish out the show with a story from in Focus reporter Cailley Chella and executive producer Jeff Proctor.

We're going to introduce you to Ginny Boawn and Emma Weber, the mother and sister of Travis Boawn, who Torrance County sheriff's deputies fatally shot in 2022.

This is the first time either of them has spoken publicly about the incident or about Travis's life.

Their hope is to set the record straight about what happened to their loved one.

After a series of local media reports that simply repeated the police version of events three and a half years ago.

You also meet their lawyer, who is suing Torrance County under the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, in a case that could at least partially define that relatively new law.

Here's that story.

>> Boawn: They took everything from us as a family.

I mean, how do you tell the children that the police, who you're supposed to be able They're supposed to be there to serve and protect.

That they killed their favorite uncle.

>> Cailley: Torrance County sheriff's shot and killed 37 year old Travis Boawn while he was having a psychotic episode over three years ago.

>> Collier: He would have killed her.

>> Cailley: The story authorities shared at the time didn't mention Boawn's mental illness.

They said they were forced to defend themselves when a suspect came after them with a hammer while responding to a domestic violence call.

>> Officer: Hey, I got contact down here.

>> Cailley: The family says that's not how they see it.

>> Weber: On the day that my brother died, it felt like the police had done the worst possible thing they could have done to me and to us as a family.

And then they somehow managed to make it worse in the way they told their story to the public.

And so they took his life.

And then they took it again and again.

>> Cailley: Today.

Travis Boawn's mom, Ginny Boawn, and his sister Emma Weber are speaking out for the first time since his death.

>> Weber: Travis was, really easy.

He was a really easy baby.

He was quiet.

And he actually, his whole life, he was fairly quiet.

And he was always happy, always smiling.

He loved baseball like most boys.

And he hardly ever talked.

But with my dad, he talked his ear off.

He had followed his grandpa John.

You know, farmer John around when he was three and.

And so as he got older and as he went to work on the family farm, he, you know, when we would talk, there was so much pride and like, he was Farmer Travis and he was living up to somebody who had been a role model to him >> Boawn: He worked on the family farm and helped around the house.

And then Emma started having children and those were by far the best years.

He adored her children.

He liked carrying them in backpacks in the woods, you know, on hikes.

And he liked swimming with them at the pool.

They adored him.

They really adored him.

So there were lots of really good years there where he was functioning pretty well, actually.

>> Weber: I think that is an amazing thing about Travis was that in part because of his disease, because he never quite felt like he fit in the world.

He was so patient with other people.

>> Cailley: His family started noticing changes in his behavior when he was about 16, but say Travis didn't get seriously sick until he was about 20.

He wasn't diagnosed with schizophrenia until years later.

>> Boawn: The early years of the disease were by far the hardest, because we couldn't get the help we needed.

Also, it took quite some time to get him diagnosed.

>> Cailley: After seven years of trial and error, they finally found a medication that worked.

And for about a decade, things were stable.

He was golfing again, traveling and making memories.

>> Weber: He was able to go to Washington with us for our wedding.

I have this image in my head of Travis just standing out on the deck at the lodge in Washington, holding this jar of raspberry that's going to be drizzled over this cake, and he was just so excited that he was going to get to consume this later that day.

And just being so happy that he could be there and that he could be with his family, and that he could be present and that he could engage again.

I felt like I actually got my brother back.

>> Cailley: But when Covid hit, Travis was no longer able to go to the hospital to get his medication, a monthly injection, as often as he needed to.

>> Boawn: They decided to put him on the same medication, but it was a three month, dose, and he immediately started going downhill.

>>Cailley: On February 14th, 2022.

Ginny called her son's doctors to try to find a new solution.

When Travis overheard the conversation, it triggered an episode of acute schizophrenia.

>> Boawn: That's when he attacked me.

>> Cailley: Travis attacked his mom with a hammer.

>> Boawn: I eventually was able to stop him just because I'm very stubborn.

It was survival.

>> Cailley: Still, she knew she needed medical attention and drove herself to a local clinic where health care workers called police.

>> Boawn: I spoke with the officer for it seemed like quite some time.

I begged him not to kill my son.

>> Cailley: After assembling a team, sheriff's deputies descended on Ginny's home, where Travis was still in an active psychosis.

>> Officer: Let me see your hands.

Drop it.

Drop it!

Get on the floor >> Cailley: within 90s of arriving.

Deputies shot Travis nine times.

>> Officer: Let me see your hands.

He's right around this.

Here.

Stop right there!

285 dispatch.

Shots fired, shots fired.

>> Cailley: He was pronounced dead minutes later.

>> Weber: I didn't find out about any of this until around 5:00 that night.

My mom called.

She said she was lost, but she was okay.

I didn't need to come to Albuquerque.

And I immediately started trying to find my brother because I assumed wrongly, he had been taken by the police either.

To the mental hospital, or to jail And, I just needed to know where he was.

To know that he was safe.

I don't know how the state police got my phone number but to my recollection, they called me and they told me that my brother was dead.

And you really, It's one of those moments in life, like before my time.

The assassination of JFK or the World Trade Center bombing or 9/11 That you just you remember exactly where you are and what you're thinking and what you're feeling in the moment that you learned this new piece of information.

And I will carry that with me forever.

I was initially told that they I think they told me they weren't supposed to notify me over the phone.

But that, because I'd been looking, they felt like they needed to and that they needed to notify my mom.

And so I got my family out of bed and into the car and drove Albuquerque so that I could go and be in the hospital with my mom.

While they told her not what they had done, but that my brother was dead, as though it was just a thing that had happened.

Absent their control.

>> Cailley: And now Travis' family, is seeking justice.

They filed suit against the Torrance County Board of Commissioners and Sergeant Ryan Collier of the Torrance County Sheriff's Office, alleging that they violated Travis's rights under the New Mexico Civil Rights Act.

The case is set for trial in March of next year.

>> Weber: We're in part here because the system made us come here.

>> Cailley: Travis' family say they feel let down, not just by the deputies who responded the day he was killed, but by the system they believe allows people in crisis to be met with force instead of help.

>> Weber: We had to file a complaint on Travis' behalf, because if we didn't file a complaint on Travis' behalf, we were tacitly endorsing the actions of the police that day.

>> Cailley: Ginny says she told law enforcement everything they needed to know to be able to manage the situation without using deadly force.

>> Boawn: He wanted to know if there was a gun in the house.

I said, no.

>> Officer: Not that I can remember.

>> Boawn: No guns?

Nobody else.

No other people.

I told him that Travis is paranoid schizophrenic and that the drugs were no longer working, that they were making him very sick.

I told him that if I could stop the attack, that certainly four of them could stop an attack.

Because I'm 71 years old and only 130 pounds.

Not real big.

He told me that he had been trained in how to take care of the mentally ill, but I don't think his training was very good.

>> Cailley: New Mexico law mandates law enforcement take a minimum of 40 hours of crisis management training, which includes de-escalation techniques and how to handle someone having a mental health crisis.

And in this case, the deputies said they had received that training.

In fact, Sergeant Collier teaches it.

>> Collier: I'm an instructor for the formerly HB 93, dealing with persons with mental illness.

I have patrol response to CIT, which is, I'm drawing a blank.

>> Interviwer: You said response to CIT?

>> Collier: Yes.

I don't know I'm drawing a blank for CIT Critical incident, I can't remember what the “T” stands for right now.

>>Cailley: But the family's lawyer, Laura Schauer Ives, says Sergeant Collier didn't fully understand the training or its intended purpose.

>>Laura: So Sergeant Collier, who was one of the shooters in the hospital room, Ginny had asked him if he was CIT trained, and he said that he was he was, in fact, trained.

And he actually trains other officers in crisis intervention as well.

However, when when I asked him what the main takeaway he had was from that training, it was simply that-- and this is actually untrue, That mentally ill people are more dangerous and more violent, which clearly should not be the main takeaway from that training.

>>Cailley: So he had the trainin but he did not understand the training.

>>Laura: He had the training and yeah, didn't understand it or chose not to understand it.

>>Cailley: Chris Burbank served as the Salt Lake City Chief of Police from 2006 to 2015.

He's also a former advisor for the center for Policing Equity.

He spelled out exactly what law enforcement officers learn in CIT training, and what tools they should be walking away with >>Chris: If they're calling it CIT, There is actually a model that goes along with it and so it should be very similar.

I couldn't go to the extent to saying it's identical, and it's the same because it is still about instructors, right?

So everyone has a little bit different exposure, but the idea is that it's a consistent program throughout the nation who participate in that.

So they see first hand, they learn medications, how they interact, what someone looks like when they're not on their medication, maybe when they've taken too much medication.

And so it's the idea or notion that when an officer arrives on a scene or hears about something going on on the radio, that they can immediately start to assess, okay, this is what I need to do in order to have a successful conclusion to the event tonight, which is not always about arresting people and taking them somewhere.

Sometimes it's just a matter of saying, are you on any medication?

Have you taken your medication tonight?

What can I do to just kind of change the circumstance?

Because what we're dealing with is people who are in crisis, right?

They have mental health issues or conditions that because of circumstances that evening, that day, have risen to where they are maybe uncontrollable or at least dangerous enough for someone to call the police.

The number one takeaway should be there are alternatives to force and arrest that need to be considered.

When individuals are experiencing mental health crisis.

Number one most important thing that as the officers recognize that they do a better job and can look at alternatives to arrest and force >>Cailley: The family and their lawyer argue that had Sergeant Collier followed his training, he would not have violated Travis's rights and Travis would still be alive.

>>Weber: hours, you know, collectively, months, years of my life worrying that Travis would He would be harmed by the police.

And if they had spent even half that time trying to prevent things like this from happening.

Travis might still be with us.

And he's not.

Because the system hasn't made them change >>Cailley: Schauer Ives is hoping to do just that and legally change the way the system works.

>>Schauer: The New Mexico Constitution has always been independent from the federal Constitution.

But there was not any statute that enabled us to sue under the Constitution until recently.

And so though there have been determinations like, interpretations of our Constitution in the criminal law, setting there, hasn't there really haven't been much in the civil law setting.

And so now we are just able to pursue actions on behalf of new Mexicans and give force to, to our Constitution, which has which has different language and different provisions.

>>Cailley: The New Mexico Civil Rights Act is a relatively new law.

It went into effect just four and a half years ago.

It allows people to sue government officials and agencies in state court for civil rights violations.

Travis's case could be the first case of its kind to see a courtroom, and if it's successful, it could set a new precedent in New Mexico.

>>Schauer: What we would like to achieve in this lawsuit is to make clear as as I've said that, How a police officer approaches a situation matters constitutionally.

I hope that our state courts, take into consideration the significance of what officers do.

In these kinds of operations before they put themselves in a position to, make that life or death decision.

So essentially, the federal court has not been perfectly clear.

The U.S.

Supreme Court and our federal circuit courts have not been perfectly clear about what we as a society expect from law enforcement constitutionally.

We hope to clarify our state law that, you know, officers need to utilize, the tools that they've been given to address mental illness in the field, and they need to do basic good decision making and not put themselves in danger, thereby creating a need to shoot and kill somebody.

I hope the enforcement will take seriously the training that it receives.

With respect to dealing with people in mental health crises.

You know, people suffer from mental illness, and there is a way to make an encounter with law enforcement far less lethal.

And when you don't do that, you should be held accountable.

>>Cailley: Burbank says the New Mexico Civil Rights Act and the potential interpretation of Travis's case could be a good thing across the board.

>>Burbank: It's good for America, right?

We have made the mistake, and it's partly where we find ourselves as far as the distrust that exists in law enforcement throughout the nation is the fact that we have only looked at that 30 seconds or one minute.

Well, I'll tell you what.

You be a police officer for two hours, and I can make you take a swing at me enough so that I can respond and take use of force action.

That would be wholly inappropriate under the circumstance.

But given that 30 seconds, Oh, no.

That's absolutely correct.

And while that's an extreme case and an exaggeration.

Right, time and time again, we have officers who do not take them in, right, they approach things before they should.

They develop.

They they cause the urgency in order for them to use force.

Now, not all of these are intentioned or ill, meaning.

But there are officers that are not considering this.

And we have made the mistake.

And this is why, you see, you know, from cases to George Floyd going back to Los Angeles in 1991.

Right.

Rodney King incident.

We have officers that are not taking into account all measures that they should in order to de-escalate the situation before it becomes a serious problem.

And not taking that into consideration has contributed greatly to the mistrust, the lack of confidence that this country has in American policing.

>>Cailley: And Schauer Ives isn't unsympathetic.

She says she knows that law enforcement officers face real challenges.

>>Schauer: It's a difficult job that they've chosen to do.

And the reason that we provide them an immense amount of training and support is so they can do that safely.

You want people to be well trained and implemented, implement this evidence based training.

This training doesn't just exist to protect the Travis's of the world.

It also exists to protect the officers.

And, you know, it's more likely when it goes wrong, it's more likely to, the burden will fall usually on the person, on the suspect.

But that's not always true.

And everybody, everybody involved in this deserves better.

>>Cailley: But she also says that in some cases, like Travis's officers are creating the problem themselves.

>>Schauer: When I've been talking about officer induced jeopardy or sort of a reckless approach that that the officers didn't, create time, distance and cover, they put themselves in danger, thereby increasing the likelihood that they were going to have to use deadly force.

That's obviously dangerous for everybody.

>>Cailley: Though he wasn't familiar with exactly what New Mexican law enforcement is trained on.

Burbank says time, distance and cover is something officers commonly learn all over the world.

>>Burbank: When you have time, when you have further distance from it, and when you have cover or protection from the event taking place, that actually works in favor of the officer.

And the idea is on the use of force continuum.

So it's a basically a scale that says as the violence of the individual increases, then the police officer response increases.

And so time cover and distance actually reduce your need to use force or to intervene immediately.

>>Cailley: We reached out to the Torrance County Sheriff's Office but they declined an on camera interview, citing the pending litigation.

More than a year and a half after its filing, the lawsuit is still in its early stages.

But for Travis's family, the case is about more than courtrooms.

It's about ensuring that what happened to Travis can never happen again.

Or if it does, at least police will be held accountable.

>>Weber: Police had an opportunity that day to go to my mom and brother's house and meet the heroes, and they chose not to go.

And they altered the trajectory with my life and my family forever.

>>Cailley: For New Mexico in Focus, I'm Cailley reporting.

>>Nash: Thanks to everyone who contributed to this week's show, and thank you for tuning in.

And a quick heads up.

Early voting expands to more locations this weekend.

I sat down this week with the president of the state's League of Women Voters to learn about their nonpartisan voter guide.

And while we'll bring you that full conversation next week, if you are filling out your ballot before then we've thrown it up on YouTube for you as a resource.

Also next week, join us for the latest installment of Indigenously Positive, our collaboration with New Mexico In-depth highlighting stories of native joy and empowerment.

You won't want to miss it.

Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by viewers like you.