Grants faces shortage of officers

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — By the end of this week, Grants Police Department will be down nine positions out of the 21 authorized, said Grants Police Chief Marty Vigil.

In February four officers, including a sergeant in investigations, resigned to take positions with other departments in the area, two of those with Milan Police.

Twenty-year veteran Sgt. Steve Sena is retiring, Lt. Maxine Spidle is expecting a child and will be out at least 10 weeks on family leave and detective Sgt. Georgette Chee resigned a couple of weeks ago due to being charged in a domestic violence case in connection with battery and child abuse.

Vigil said he has taken his narcotics officers out of their department and has put them on the street to be able to try to keep protection and service to the city as high as possible.

Testing applicants

"We are already testing five applicants for positions," he said.

"I expect to have some patrol officers hired and ready to go to the law enforcement academy in July," he said.

"At least two to three, hopefully more, will be going to the academy," he said.

The law enforcement academy is now 20 weeks long.

Officers who attend are paid their wages and a stipend for food for each day by their individual departments.

Earlier this month, the public approved a public safety sales tax of 1/8 of 1 percent on a citywide ballot. It is estimated to bring in about another $180,000 a year.

"I expect to sit down with City Manager Bob Horacek this week and discuss how much we will be getting, how much the fire department will get."

Raises for officers
Vigil said whatever he receives from the tax, which begins being collected in July and should start flowing into city coffers by September, he intends to put into raises for officers.

"I am revamping our entire wage scale to increase recruitment and retention," he said.

Vigil said he has asked Horacek to fund the police and fire departments based on staffing or the amount of each department's budgets.

Milan Police Chief Jerry Stephens said he will be looking at the budget and sending a letter to Village of Milan Manager Carlos Montano so that the police department can continue to be competitive in wages with the new budget year beginning July 1.

Vigil said two or three times each week Cibola County Sheriff's deputies and New Mexico State Police officers are responding to various police calls in the city when Grants police are not available.

"Sometimes our officers are tied up with an arrest or on calls and can't respond," Vigil said.

"They then have the option to take jurisdiction in the case or turn it over to us when one of our officers becomes available," he said.

Starting wages
The starting wage for an uncertified officer at Grants Police, one who has not been through the law enforcement academy and has not been certified as a police officer by the state is $9.50 per hour, or $18,240 per year. Certified officers start slightly higher at $10.37 per hour, or $19,910 per year.

Officer Jeff Marez and detective Sgt. Sylvia Torrez left Grants Police and joined the Milan Police Department at higher wages earlier this month. Both are certified officers at $12.50 per hour at least.

Milan officers start at $10 per hour uncertified, or $20,890 and $12.50 per hour certified, an annual salary of $26,000.

Lt. Harry Hall said the Sheriff's Department's non-certified officers start at $9.05 per hour, which is less than Grants police, but when certified they are paid $11.21 per hour, or about $22,300.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197, or e-mail: tiffin.independent@yahoo.com.