Triple Spaced Again
Merilee Dannemann is a longtime New Mexico journalist. She has written freelance for many local newsrooms and served as the Taos correspondent for the Albuquerque Journal. Find her online at triplespacedagain.com
DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has been disbanded as of late November. What a relief.
DOGE was supposed to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in government. It may have fired as many as 260,000 federal employees, although many were rehired because, as it turned out, their jobs were important and they were needed.
The DOGE fiasco points to a critical issue in the endless debate about why government agencies exist. Among some conservatives, there’s a basic disrespect for government agencies and the people who work in them – the notion that government employees are faceless bureaucrats soaking up taxpayer money without producing value.
Much of government, in fact, is quite the opposite. What’s troubling right now is not too many useless people in government but shortages of urgently needed professionals.
The issue was illustrated when I read about the shortage of pipeline inspectors in the Albuquerque Journal a few months ago.
You’ve probably never heard of pipeline inspectors. Neither had I until I read about this shortage.
But when you hear the term “pipeline inspector” you can immediately guess what they do and how vital their job is, because pipelines carry dangerous materials like natural gas. Maybe you remember the horrific accident in the year 2000 when a pipeline exploded and killed two families who happened to be camping nearby, in a location near Carlsbad. According to reports at the time, that explosion was caused by a rupture in the pipeline.
The reports did not say whether more frequent inspection might have detected the problem before it became deadly. But recent reports say a shortage of inspectors might lead to fewer inspections.
The Pipeline Safety Bureau is a division of the state’s Public Regulation Commission. The PRC currently is not listing job openings in that category so we can hope the shortage is over and New Mexico pipelines are getting enough attention to keep us safe.
Meanwhile, we keep seeing shortages in category after category. Here are just a few.
The poor Children, Youth and Families Department, which never seems to get a break, recently reported that it expects to recruit 132 new caseworkers by the end of the year but admits that’s not nearly enough to meet the requirements of the governing lawsuit. No surprise. Social work requires not only a set of skills but also a special kind of emotional fortitude that is hard to come by.
CYFD is also way below its goal in recruiting foster parents. That’s not exactly a profession but an urgently needed service, imposing huge responsibilities on its recruits. The agency has signed on just 93 new nonrelative foster homes, far below its mandated target of 265 for this year.
It’s well known that the state has a shortage of teachers. In particular, I have wondered how the state can possibly comply with the terms of the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, which requires culturally relevant teaching, presumably by teachers who know the culture. Only about 3% of New Mexico teachers are Native American.
Recently I learned New Mexico has a shortage of accountants. This issue has been given some publicity by State Auditor Joseph Maestas. Accountants are needed not only to help you with your taxes but to balance the books of local governments. Maestas said local governments are required to submit audits in order to get state or federal grants, and if they can’t get the audits done they may not qualify for grants that they are otherwise entitled to.
I’m wondering whether increasing respect for public service work will help attract more qualified people into these jobs. In the meantime, if you happen to know a pipeline inspector, please thank him or her.
Merilee Dannemann’s columns are posted at www.triplespacedagain.com. Comments are invited through the web site.
