New Mexico's Child Protective Services Division director leaving
May 23—New Mexico's beleaguered child welfare agency, which has been beset by high vacancy rates and staff turnover, is losing its Child Protective Services Division director at the end of the month.
"I know that this leadership change has far reaching effects and want to assure you all that we have a plan in place to ease this transition," Teresa Casados, acting Cabinet secretary of the Children, Youth and Families Department, wrote in a memo to employees last week after Emily Martin announced her departure.
State Sen. Crystal Diamond, R-Elephant Butte, said during Tuesday's meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee, which heard a presentation on child protective services in New Mexico, the resignation of another "big position" at the agency initially sounds "scary."
"But at this point, I wonder — and this is going to sound very hard — if that's not good news," she said.
"Perhaps the few remaining staff that you have inherited, not all, but some of them, are part of the problem," Diamond told Casados, who stepped into her position last month following the resignation of former CYFD Secretary Barbara Vigil.
In response, Casados said the agency "has some amazing employees," including Martin.
"I think her loss is going to be felt across the agency," Casados said.
