KC Counts talked with Hull, the Republican candidate for New Mexico governor, about some of the top issues facing the state.
This interview aired in 2 parts. Here is a transcript:
KC Counts:
Mayor Hull, why don't you start by telling us a little bit about how you've developed your plan for education in New Mexico?
Gregg Hull:
Absolutely. So working with people across the state and talking to superintendents, talking to school teachers, and actually talking to a lot of parents as well about some of the things that they'd like to see happening in our school districts across the state. A big one that we looked at was the New Mexico Kids Can Report. that really identified some issues around education. And so as we looked at the various different concerns, looking at the root cause was something that we needed to take a close look at. And what we're seeing really, in my opinion, and I can kind of bookend our plan here on this, is on the front end, that K through three, by the time kids get to the third grade, making sure that they're reading at a third grade level. And so it's so important that, there's this saying out there and I don't know who coined it, but I'll use it at this point that from K through three, you learn to read and after that you read to learn, right? And so if kids aren't reading, After that, they're not learning what they need to. And so we want to make sure that they have every opportunity. I also did meet with the former governor of the state of Mississippi, where they had the Mississippi miracle. And there were a lot of things that we talked about when it came to literacy coaches in K through 3 and some of the other programs that we want to look closely at to help develop our education plan and help our kids be as successful as they can possibly be. And then on the other side of it, looking at what was interesting, some of our middle school to high schoolers, and it's something that we invested in pretty heavily here in Rio Rancho, was career technical education and making sure that kids that want to go into a trade or would have that opportunity to really get that kick started in high school and get interested in a career path as early as middle school. So looking at those different aspects, that's what really kind of drove some of the decisions we've been making on how we want to implement and promote education throughout the state. The other thing that we want to look at is making sure that our Secretary of Education is consistent for four to eight years. We had a high turnover in the last eight years as secretaries of the PED, and I think that develops a lot of inconsistency. Well, I don't think it, the school districts have said it, develops a lot of inconsistency and unpredictability when it comes to curriculum and how they need to move these various different school districts forward.
KC Counts:
What are your plans to address public safety?
Gregg Hull:
Absolutely. I have a known reputation for being very pro law enforcement and making sure that our first responders, whether that's police or fire, have the equipment and the resources they need to do the job that we're asking them to do. So I'm going to very much work with our local police departments to understand the resources that they need and make sure that we build the strategic plans around what they're trying to achieve, whether that's homelessness, whether that's behavioral health issues, whether that's juvenile crime, or whether that's just regular property crime. Any of these items should be built into more or less a strategic plan that says this is the way we want to approach these things and this is how we want to get this done and these are the resources that we're going to need in order to achieve these goals. I think one of the biggest things we're going to have to look at going into office next year, it's my intention to put together a committee of professionals, including law enforcement, psychologists, behavioral health experts, to start walking through the juvenile code. The juvenile code, the child code has not been updated in decades. And quite frankly, I think it's lost pace and relevance with where our youth are in today's day and age. So going through there and working with legislators and professionals to understand what we need to do to help get a grip on some of this juvenile crime, I think is going to be critical to being successful within our communities because a lot of times our law enforcement officers feel like their hands are really tied when it comes to some of this juvenile crime and what's going to happen when they get into the system and are they just going to be turned right back out on the street to commit more crimes? So these are top priorities and we've got a plan in place on how we're going to work with local communities because I have always asserted that if you can bring crime down in the local communities, you're going to bring it down statewide. If you improve education in the local communities, you're going to improve your numbers statewide.
Part 2:
KC Counts:
Everybody's talking about it. The rise of the AI data centers, it feels like whack-a-mole right now, popping up all over communities across the state. And people are really pushing back against it. And we've started to see that enter kind of the national political conversation. But for New Mexicans, what is your position on AI data centers, how they should be regulated, if at all, and what their role would be in our future economy?
Gregg Hull:
Yeah, I absolutely believe that they should be regulated, number one. Now, and I've said this time and time again, and I'll say it again without not changing my narrative, is that I neither endorse, support them or oppose them. What I think you have to do is you have to look at them. And first off, you need to make sure that they're cited properly. And then second off, can we use these as economic development tools to help solve some of the, quite frankly, the water and energy problems that we're having in this state. And my only thought process on this is before we say yes, let's get through all the questions. And if they don't line up and if they're not a good fit, we're not going to force them into a community. I'd never let that happen. But if you found a good place, let's say down in southeastern New Mexico where it was a good fit, we could perhaps use the producer water down there for the cooling system. So we weren't tapping into any of our into any of our freshwater resources or down there where you've got some energy resources that might be able to be utilized to actually function these things. Let's work with these data centers to build out technologies, energy technologies like SMRs, small modular reactors, because that's where these things are going. And if you can work with them to where they overbuild that energy source and then backfeed it into a local grid where we can actually reduce people's power bills and they have no impact on the local water sources, if we can get all that regulated and if we can see our way to seeing that done, then we get to a strong maybe. But these things have to, yes, be heavily regulated, and they have to take into consideration all environmental conditions, and they have to be respectful of the natural resources that we have available in the state of New Mexico. And if that can't happen, then they can't be here. And so that would be my approach. But from an economic development standpoint, if we could make all the pieces of the puzzle fit and we found the right site and got the right conditions, you know, I would look at that.
KC Counts:
So let's talk about the Children, Youth and Families Department, what you think in terms of how we got to the place where we are and how to get back on the path where we should be.
Gregg Hull:
I think we got to the place where we are is because we're trying to achieve outcomes meaning we're trying to get to reunification. I think we're trying to get to, we're trying to get to statistical successes before we make sure that we cover the safety issue, the underlying safety issue. So once again, I think we've pushed to reunification and it creates, It creates the idea that that's the only success metric. And quite frankly, the success metric that we really need to be looking at is has the situation that created the problem been resolved? Number one, is the child going to be safe getting home or going back into that environment? And if not, we need to take the appropriate amount of time to make sure that the safety issue is resolved before we move to reunification as soon as The other thing that I think that we really need to look at that I feel has been diminished in the state of New Mexico is helping to rebuild and really put a lot more effort into building the pipeline of foster parents in our state. Now, all of this is good talk unless you have open communication and transparency within the department. And so working very closely with the Office of the Child Advocate, I want to see a lot more oversight into in this department to make sure that there's an oversight office that says we know what's going on in CYFD and we know how things are being handled and that there's accountability for some of the things that are happening. So once again, this is a multi-phased approach, but I can tell you that it would be the top priority going into office.
KRWG Public Media has conducted an interview on the same topics with Deb Haaland, the Democratic candidate for New Mexico governor. You may visit the KRWG News Election Center for that interview and more.
