{"id":48556,"date":"2026-02-06T15:49:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=48556"},"modified":"2026-02-06T15:49:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:49:43","slug":"heres-to-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/heres-to-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s to Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Last year, an envelope addressed to me arrived at NMPBS; its sender was not\u00a0identified.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0received many such parcels in a 24-year journalism career, so I opened it with a mix of tempered excitement\u00a0and skepticism. Inside was a cache of documents purporting to show that Jay Mitchell, who heads the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Claims Office, received a $266,000 payment\u00a0for smoke and ash cleaning costs at his Angel Fire home and casita.\u00a0
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Mitchell\u2019s wife, Lisa, received\u00a0roughly $250,000\u00a0for losses she claimed for her real estate brokerage business in the Northern New Mexico ski town, which sits more than an hour from\u00a0the epicenter of devastation wrought by this state\u2019s largest-ever wildfire.\u00a0\u00a0

I knew the context\u00a0immediately.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0because\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0been reading journalist Patrick Lohmann\u2019s reporting in the online news outlet Source New Mexico.\u00a0So, I knew that many people\u00a0who\u2019d\u00a0lost their homes, their property, their pets \u2014 and their way of life \u2014 were still waiting for promised compensation from FEMA.\u00a0

Meanwhile, the man in charge of making sure those folks were made whole got a check with relative speed and ease.\u00a0

In short order, NMPBS teamed up with Source to\u00a0get to the bottom of\u00a0what happened. It was a natural partnership:\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0known Patrick and admired his\u00a0work\u00a0for many years.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0even\u00a0brought some of his people-first\u00a0journalism about Hermit\u2019s Peak-Calf Canyon and its aftermath\u00a0to New Mexico in Focus<\/a>.\u00a0And I worked for several years at the\u00a0Santa Fe Reporter\u00a0with Patrick\u2019s boss, Source Editor-\u00a0in-\u00a0Chief Julia Goldberg,\u00a0who\u2019s\u00a0a friend and a fantastic editor.\u00a0

Toss into the\u00a0mix\u00a0multimedia\u00a0journalist\u00a0Cailley Chella, the\u00a0NMiF\u00a0team\u2019s newest member, and we had ourselves something of a dream team.\u00a0\u00a0

Patrick and Cailley worked for months on the story, with\u00a0assists\u00a0from Julia and me. Along the way, Patrick laid hands on some more documents. The reporting deepened and expanded. In the end, Patrick and Cailley\u00a0produced some of the best accountability journalism\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been a part of since I came to NMPBS\u00a0three years ago.\u00a0\u00a0

Patrick\u2019s\u00a0story published last week<\/a>, and I cannot recommend in strong enough terms that you read it, if you\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0already.\u00a0Almost\u00a0immediately\u00a0after the piece went up on Source\u2019s website, members of New Mexico\u2019s congressional delegation called for Jay Mitchell\u2019s resignation.\u00a0A couple\u00a0days\u00a0after that, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham\u00a0said Mitchell should step down<\/a>.\u00a0

This week, I am thrilled to show you\u00a0Cailley\u2019s\u00a0broadcast version<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0this difficult\u00a0investigation. As always,\u00a0she put\u00a0impacted\u00a0people first in the telling, leaving no doubt about what\u00a0this story means.\u00a0
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There\u2019s\u00a0no way to know where this is headed next; there never is with these kinds of stories.\u00a0But working with highly skilled journalists, who also happen to be friends, at another news organization allowed us to\u00a0do something that, alone, we never could have\u00a0accomplished: expose some potential wrongs and present our findings both online and on the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am grateful for the partnership,\u00a0for Cailley,\u00a0Patrick\u00a0and Julia\u00a0\u2014 and I think you will be too.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer<\/p>\n\n\n\n