NM DOH Spending with Workforce Agency Skyrockets During last Eight Years – Retiring CFO Benefits From Insider Deal

During the Lujan Grisham Administration DOH Outsourcing Workforce Rises Steadily from $237,000 in FY 2019 to more than $15 Million in FY 2026 – CFO Gets Big Deal – Retirement Boost and is Brought Back as Contractor for $220,000/Year, the Day After Retiring.

As The Candle reported almost a year ago, a study conducted in 2024, by McKinsey & Company, measured the organizational health of the Department of Health and revealed an agency with significant low morale.

Morale was so low that then Department of Health Secretary Patrick Allen wrote in an email to department employees the study “portrayed an organization that has some specific, significant challenges related to Leadership, Accountability, Direction, Coordination and Control, External Orientation, Innovation and Learning, Capabilities, Work Environment and Motivation.”

“Our lowest overall scores however, were in the areas of Financial Incentives and Rewards and Recognition. Financial incentives are tricky in the public sector, but I’ll talk more about that later in this message.”

Barely three months after Allen sent his very revealing and honest email to the employees of DOH, Governor Michelle Lujan announced he was “stepping down.”

The Governor offered no reason for Allen’s resignation – and appointed Gina DeBlassie as her new Secretary of the agency.

Despite almost two years with DeBlassie at the helm, morale at the Department of Health continues to decline.

As The Candle reported a year ago, morale was also a result of favoritism towards a handful of management employees, including outsized pay raises received by the agency’s human services director that totaled about $22,000.

The low morale seems reinforced by the outsourcing of work to an employment agency at inflated prices, while the agency management ignores addressing systemic pay structure disparities.

DOH employees reached out to The Candle after publishing a story in June about high level favoritism provided by Deputy Secretary LeAnn Behrens to retiring the agency’s Chief Financial Officer Shawnee Romo.

The June article also detailed how Romo was able to grow her salary from about $116,376 a year in 2022, to more than $170,000 at the time of her retirement.

In a deal was arranged by Behrens, who created a contract with the employment agency ATA Services, Inc., which then hired Romo back as its employee the day after she retired on June 30, 2026 – enabling her to combine her retirement with a new paycheck.

And what a deal it is.

The Candle received documents which show that the Department is being billed for Romo’s return at the rate of $110/hour, compared to the $82.75/hour she was making as a state employee the day before she retired.

ATA and DOH have budgeted 2,000 hours for Romo to work from July 2026 through June 2027.

That means Romo is being paid at a yearly rate of about $220,000, or more than $47,000/year than when she retired.

Although the retirement agency cannot reveal details of her retirement, it was able to confirm that Romo is likely eligible to receive her monthly retirement benefit a month or so after her retirement date.

And while it is unknown precisely what that monthly benefit would be, given the approximate $50,000 boost in pay over her last few years working for the state, that retirement benefit has an initial value based on the average of the highest three years pay (in the neighborhood of $150,000/year), which is then calculated via a formula, including the number of years in state employment, a percentage of the average, and after beneficiary schedule package is chosen, a monthly benefit is determined. (See note of clarification below.)

It is significant that the contract DOH has with ATA for Romo’s services totals more than $338,000 with ATA’s fees and GRT, etc.

The Candle has emailed DOH regarding Ms. Romo’s deal – but beyond responding to a records request, the agency is silent.

Perhaps, as the Lujan Grisham Administration comes to a end over these next four months, they are busy lining up a few more deals for the people at the top?

Given the history of favoritism at the top, there should be no doubt why morale is low among the folks who are the backbone of the agency.

Over the next two months, The Candle will be reporting on other contracts that DOH and other agencies have had with ATA over the past several years – Below is a graph displaying the skyrocketing increase under Lujan Grisham’s administration just at DOH.

(The spending data used for the chart above is taken from the reported contracting of the Department of Health on the New Mexico Sunshine Portal for fiscal years 2019 through 2026, and the fiscal year 2027 spending data is a projection based on what has been reported for the first two months of fiscal year 2027.)

If DOH, or anyone else, cares to respond to this story, we will consider updating our reporting. (Any factual corrections will be updated.)

(Note of clarification: An earlier version of this article identified the value of the retirement benefit to be about $150,000/year, and while it serves as an initial figure for value, it is part of a more individualized determination based on years of service, age, and other factors.)