Grants cops air salary complaints
Pay is poverty level

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — Time will tell whether a passionate plea by cops, their families and friends about salaries will do any good.

Many of the Grants Police officers people who risk their lives each minute they are at work, and who have to worry about retribution to them or their families from crooks they have taken off the streets qualify for food stamps if they are married and have two children.

Starting pay for an uncertified Grants officer is $8.87 per hour and when an officer becomes certified the salary increases to $10.82 per hour. The bottom line is, Grants pays its police officers less than any other surrounding law enforcement department. Acoma and Laguna police get about the same salaries as certified State Police officers, who earn $15.59 an hour for a rookie officer.

Officer Corey Allen returned to the department after a retirement following 20 years of duty. When Allen began as a rookie police officer 20 years ago his starting salary was $7 an hour. "Now, 20 years later, the salary for a starting officer is $10.82 per hour," Allen said. "I think the city needs to get real.

Poignant words come from Mary Vigil, wife of Police Chief Marty Vigil and Carla Gallegos, a Grants businesswoman.

"I would like to thank the Grants Police Department for protecting my family as well as protecting the criminals from themselves," Gallegos said.

She talked of the criminal element in Grants. "One of the things I believe to be true of Grants is that we have a larger criminal population than other cities of our size because of the three prisons we have in our community," Gallegos said. "When an inmate is placed in our prison system, their family usually follows and resides here along with the riffraff that they associate with."

Gallegos said she is friends with the police chief and his wife. Gallegos said she has seen how the lives of police families are affected when daddy, or mommy is a cop. "They rarely have holidays together, they work nights and overtime on a continual basis, they are called out in the middle of the night, nothing can be planned without something happening to cancel it or change it, their kids' events are missed, the majority of the time they are home the kids are asleep or at school and there is constantly the underlying fear of death or serious injury," Gallegos said.

Gallegos said she filed a freedom of information request with City Hall and got a copy of the wage schedule showing salaries of employees, but not the names to match the salaries.

She said some of the overtime pay officers get comes from grant money, not city budget money. "My understanding is that the police department has not had a raise, other than cost of living, in several years," Gallegos said. "That is not a common practice in other city governments and I believe this is unacceptable."

Silver City starts its officers at $13.25 per hour. Gallegos said Silver City is a town comparable in size and industry to Grants.

Gallegos said police officers cannot be compared to other city employees, who also serve the public. "They have a different reality," Gallegos said. "The reality is that police officers die. Lloyd Aragon died. There will be police officers in the future that will die. We know it, they know it and their families know it."

The wife of a 17-year police department veteran, Vigil said officers serve because they chose to make a difference in the world. Vigil said the city of Grants is blessed to have the kind of police department it now has.

"I was fortunate enough to go with Marty to the office one night and a call went out about a stabbing," Vigil said. "I accompanied him to the scene and sat in the car. I can tell you it was the most exciting thing that had happened to me in a long time."

She said she did not get out of the car, but she listened to the police radio. "There was tension in the air as they tried to find the man in question. You knew that not only were the officers concerned for this man that ran out of the house, he was supposed to have a weapon and it was thought that he was injured."

Vigil paused for just a second and then added, "As they searched for this man I prayed that none of the officers would be assaulted either."

As the wife of a police officer she said she well knows the tension he husband lives under. "Thankfully the training for these officers rises with the threat levels, but these men and women that wear a badge must continue to constantly train and qualify yearly to maintain their certifications," Vigil said. "Not only do these requirements demand passing, but the stress alone of being at a constant alert level while at work can cause this officer to have mental mood swings, which can cause problems at home, not to mention them having to work overtime and on holidays."

Vigil said she remembers going alone to functions and parties in the 15 years of her marriage. "I have always known that the nature of his job forced us to be second in his life," she said.

Vigil said the New Mexico Department of Income Support shows $1,961 supporting a family of four qualifies for assistance. Several of the officers, all the way to corporals, would qualify for assistance. "I know that many of the families in the police department have both parents working because they just can't get by on what the city pays," Vigil said. "Well, I can tell you that money is a well-versed topic in our of our officers' homes."

Even promotions can turn sour. Vigil said when Lt. Mike Trujillo accepted the Lieutenant's job, he lost $9,000 per year in salary. "How do you expect advancement to occur at the police department when you make less than the sergeants because you cannot receive overtime?" Vigil asked. She added that advancement up the chain of command with more responsibility and accountability should be rewarded with a pay increase.

Chief Vigil, at the city council meeting Monday, said he would like to see the starting salary increased to at least $12.63 per hour.

Mary Vigil on Wednesday said the pay situation at the police department is at a critical stage. Her husband is the highest paid officer on the force, yet Mary Vigil said, "We have to watch every penny we make."

Neither Vigil nor Gallegos feel the council will approve the kind of salary hikes which would put the Grants Police in the same ballpark with officers from surrounding agencies. But as Vigil said, "I am upset and fit to be tied. I will not let this go. I will go to every city council meeting until they do something, one way or the other."

— To contact reporter Tom Purdom call 285-6184, or e-mail: writer@cia-g.com.