§ 50-73. Oversight.

(a)

Advisory board.

(1)

An advisory board is hereby created, in compliance with section 2-242 of the Bernalillo County Ordinances, to replace the public safety advisory board and is designed to guide the county to operate safe and secure detention facilities that strive to meet or exceed national standards and constitutional requirements.

(2)

Members. The board shall be made up of nine members, five of which shall be selected by each one of the commission districts and four shall be at-large members. The terms of the members shall be four years with the four at-large members terms being staggered starting with two year terms and the five district selected members starting with four year terms. The board shall elect its own chair and vice-chair.

(3)

Qualifications. Each member shall have expertise in one of the following areas: jail or corrections management; law; government financial management; institutional medical care; behavioral health; or other equally related field.

(4)

Duties of the board.

a.

Ensure that the standards for detention facilities in the county protect the health, safety and welfare of Bernalillo County's citizens, staff, and the inmate population;

b.

Review and study the data from the detention facilities compliance program and ACA compliance requirements;

c.

In reviewing reports provided to the board by the county detention facilities, if a majority of the board finds that the response to an incident or an investigation by the county detention facility is inadequate, they may authorize audits or investigations to be conducted by an independent investigative firm for possible non-compliance with operational, ACA or Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards, potential violations of use of force policies or potential failures to meet best practices;

d.

Any firms hired to conduct independent investigations at the request of the board shall be hired through a competitive bid process.

e.

Work with the county jail experts required under paragraph (b) below; and detention facility management to solve issues discovered; and report to the county commission at a minimum of annually concurrently with the jail experts hired by the manager;

f.

The board shall act in an advisory capacity to oversee operations of the county detention facilities and to make recommendations to the county manager and county commission in order to guide policy in order to ensure best practices and the most efficient operation of these facilities;

g.

Deliver educational updates, including the regularly produced reports involving detention facility challenges and accomplishments through a formal stakeholder and public outreach program;

h.

The board shall meet at least once per quarter;

i.

The board shall adopt rules and regulations for the procedure by which they may authorize audits or investigations noted above in subsection (a)(4)c. All authorized audits or investigations shall be forwarded upon completion to the county manager for appropriate action. The board shall also receive a copy of any audits or investigations for informational purposes and in furtherance of their advisory role in making recommendations to process improvement as noted in subsection (a)(4)f. The board shall have no authority to recommend discipline for any county staff member as this authority is dictated by the county personnel rules and any applicable collective bargaining agreements.

j.

All meetings of the board shall be subject to the requirements of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act, NMSA 1978, § 10-15-1 et seq.

(5)

Per diem. Subject to appropriations by the county commission, each board member shall be allowed a per diem reimbursement for each meeting they attend in an amount not to exceed the amount allowed in the New Mexico Per Diem and Mileage Act, NMSA 1978, 10-8-1 et seq.

(6)

Board staff and reports. The chief administrator of the Metropolitan Detention Center shall provide the staff necessary to support the board. The chief administrator of the Metropolitan Detention Center or his or her designee shall attend all meetings of the board and present a report at each board meeting on the status of the county's detention facilities. This report shall, at a minimum, contain a report of all cases of alleged excessive force or staff misconduct and any cases of alleged failure to provide medical care that have occurred since the last board meeting. The reports shall include all allegations and disposition of the allegations of acts listed in this paragraph whether in the form of inmate grievances, law enforcement reports, lawsuits or any other formal or informal reports.

(b)

The county manager shall contract with independent experts in the operation of jails and detention facilities. The independent jail experts shall work with the advisory board to provide regular independent oversight of Bernalillo County adult detention facilities to ensure that the county is following or exceeding nationally recognized best practices. During the period that the federal court orders the county to hire experts those three experts shall fulfill this requirement.

(1)

At a minimum, the experts shall provide oversight of jail operations, health care and mental health care.

(2)

The experts will visit county detention facilities at a minimum on a quarterly basis and make themselves available to county management and the advisory board to address concerns, obtain feedback and make recommendations on problems or concerns with operations, healthcare and mental healthcare.

(Ord. No. 2015-19, § 3, 6-9-15)