Council axes four cop slots
Grants Police Department opposes elimination of the vacant positions

By Jim Maniaci
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Despite urgent pleas from members of the Grants Police Department, the City Council voted 2-1 Tuesday night to adopt a municipal budget that cuts four unfilled positions from the authorized 21 cop slots.

Mayor Joe Murrietta, who only votes to break a tie, told Police Chief Marty Vigil to return when he reaches 17 officers (including the chief and assistant chief) and the council would consider reinstating an 18th position. Councilors Modey Hicks and Walter Jaramillo voted for the budget as presented by City Manager Bob Horacek, including the elimination of the four unfilled positions. Councilor Fred Rodarte voted no, believing no more than two positions should be cut. Councilor Robert Michael Ulibarri was absent.

Vigil said including himself, the assistant chief and lieutenant, he now has 13 commissioned officers, one of whom must go through the 22-week academy to be fully certified.

The meeting lasted three hours, most of it on the police pay portion of the budget, as the mayor let everyone have their say.

Deletion of the four positions "paper jobs," the mayor called them upheld the compromise reached last week during the council's monthly study session. The compromise was to be sure there is enough money to raise the pay of all 17 positions by $2 per hour, rather than $1.75 per hour to the officers now on the staff and $1.25 per hour for any new recruits, as Horacek originally recommended.

Hicks championed the $2 "across the board" raise because it would bring the city within 13 cents per hour of neighboring Milan's police pay, which starts at $12.50 per hour. He believes the state's estimate that the 1/8th-cent sales tax increase which began July 1 would provide enough money to cover the higher raise for all.

Murrietta and Horacek disagree with Hicks on how much the new tax would add to the city's treasury. The manager explained how he arrived at his figure and the mayor pointed out he didn't want to hire people and then have to fire them for lack of funds. The manager excludes construction taxes as being non-recurring one-time revenue. He figures the tax would bring in $160,000, while Hicks believes the city will receive $240,000.

Hicks told the police-dominated audience, "If I'm right on the tax we'll have $240,000 instead of $160,000 and we'll give it back to you. Please bear with us."

The manager said the extra 25 and 75 cents would cost between $35,000 and $40,000. At the workshop he said, off the top of his head, by eliminating four positions the city would save around $150,000.

In the just-approved budget, Horacek said the main Police Department account ends up at $1,085,000 compared to the tentative and preliminary budgets allocations of $1,121,000. This is a reduction of $36,000.

All three voting members said they supported higher public safety salaries.

In his prepared text to the council, Vigil detailed the department's current operations.

"The lack of a sufficient number of patrol officers ... is hurting our ability to prevent crimes perpetrated against the citizens of Grants and is a disservice to our citizens," he said. He used a similar theme in talking about detectives who have to help out on the street patrols instead of investigating crimes and the need for a narcotics squad, a school resource officer and the time to obtain grants.

Having only two officers per shift "creates a definite officer safety issue," he said. To keep the patrol officers from burning out by having to work six straight days, he, the assistant chief and lieutenant also are doing patrols and investigations. But this takes away from their administrative duties, such as obtaining grants, he noted.

Vigil said he made the decision to maintain 24-hour coverage. The only non-Indian police agency in Cibola County with 24-hour coverage is the New Mexico State Police Division.

The chief said going from 13 to 17 officers would add only one to patrol because one would have to go into the detective bureau, one into the schools and one into narcotics although for safer operations there should be two narcotics officers.

During the discussions, Senior Sgt. Corey Allen said he spent 1.5 years of his 23 years in local law enforcement as a security officer at Grants High School. In those three semesters he confiscated two guns, nine knives and an untold amount of marijuana and harder drugs. The rest of his career was with the GPD.

Detective Moses Marquez asked the council to let the pay raise go into the officers' pockets so they could use the experience to help recruit. He requested the council do this with 21 authorized positions.

As approved for submission to Santa Fe, the city's budget would be for 108 full-time and 16 part-time positions among its 40 funds. The city began the year on July 1 with $5,672,759 in the bank. The new (current year) budget calls for spending $22,893,571. It projects an ending balance on June 30, 2007, of $3,610,048.

The largest budgeted expenses are:

• General operating $5,521,366.
• General government improvements $4,788,000.
• Payroll $4,262,693.
• Utility operation $3,599,280.

The next largest fund is the environment division for $827,861, followed by the gasoline tax at $789,068 and the golf course operating fund at $582,150. Those are the only funds of more than a half-million dollars, although the Grants Housing Authority comes in at $190 less than that. There also are two other GHA funds, $82,000 for low income rents and $25,000 for the home program.

To contact reporter Jim Maniaci in Grants, telephone 285-6184 or (505) 870-7775 (cellular).