EDITORIAL

You have to wonder what’s going on in the minds of Chevron officials after seeing the results of the Dec. 17 Eddy County Commission meeting.

Chevron recently donated $50,000 to support the county’s Emergency Management procurement for supplies and equipment, and $5,000 for firefighting supplies and equipment for the Eddy County Fire and Rescue Department.

Presumably, Chevron’s officials made the donations because they know how counties struggle to stretch limited dollars to take care of the people’s business.

Imagine, then, Chevron’s – not to mention the average Eddy County citizen’s – surprise when county commissioners managed to find $296,000 to cover annual pay increases for the sheriff, county treasurer and three commissioners.

And thus, Chevron’s generous Christmas gift is overshadowed by the commission’s permanent Christmas bonus to its own.

Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the resolution setting the new salaries.

Eddy County Sheriff Mark Cage and County Treasurer Laurie Pruitt are leaving office at the end of the year due to term limits, so they won’t cash in on the new pay rates. The increased salaries for those offices will go to Sheriff-elect Matthew Hutchinson and incoming Treasurer Patricia Carrasco, who will be sworn in Jan. 7.

The new sheriff’s annual salary will be $153,000, nearly double (96%) the current salary of $78,000. Factoring in insurance, taxes, a $48,000 retirement match and a $22,000 insurance match, the annual increase grows to $136,651.

The Eddy County Treasurer’s pay will increase by $54,000 (72%), from $75,000 a year to $129,000. That $54,000 raise grows to $71,000 with the additional expenses.

District 2 Commissioner Jon Henry could not seek re-election this year because of term limits and District 3 Commissioner Fred Beard decided to step down after one four-year term so they won’t benefit from the new salaries for commissioners. Neither will Commissioners James W. “Bo” Bowen and Ernie Carlson because they still have two years to serve on their current terms and the state constitution prohibits public officials from “increasing or diminishing the salaries of incumbents during their terms in office.”

But Commissioner Sarah Cordova, who was elected to a second term in November, and Commissioners-elect Hayley Klein and Philip Troost each will be paid $44,000 a year – 69% more than the previous salary of $26,000. The combined annual expenses to cover those $18,000 raises and attendant expenses is $89,000 a year.

The massive salary hikes were made by possible by New Mexico Constitutional Amendment 4, which the state’s voters approved in the Nov. 5 general election. Passage of the amendment transferred authority for setting salaries for the county’s elected officials from the state Legislature to county commissioners.

It’s worth noting, however, that the measure approved by voters merely gave counties the power to set elected officials’ salaries. The amendment did not require commissioners to rush to the public vault and grab a truckload of taxpayers’ money to give themselves and other officials enormous pay raises.

To be fair, voters must have been aware when they approved Amendment 4 by a margin of nearly 66% to 34% that it would lead to raises for the designated officials. But voters surely did not imagine how big the raises would be or that such generous increases would be handed down in one fell swoop.

County officials said the raises are aligned with similar increases in Lea and San Juan counties, two other New Mexico counties fueled by the oil and gas industry.

But why not make decisions in Eddy County based on conditions in Eddy County? And why not base raises on merit rather than a shiny new constitutional Christmas toy to play with? The raises could have been made incrementally with respect to both time and amount.

The amendment may have changed who sets county pay rates, but it didn’t change how the beneficiaries are paid. Their salaries still come from us – the taxpayers of Eddy County.

Of the raises, the most modest ones – those for supposedly part-time commissioners – make the most sense. The previous rate of $26,000 pretty much guaranteed we’d get commissioners who are retired or independently wealthy, or individuals who must maintain another job and juggle two huge responsibilities.

The new salary of $44,000 could potentially alleviate some of that and widen the pool of candidates. Potentially.

We haven’t heard much from taxpayers about all this. The raises were approved at a county commission meeting with no input from the public, and there was no hint of controversy before or after the vote. But a comment from an Eddy County resident solicited by a reporter for El Rito Media may provide a clue:

“County officials are elected by the public and as taxpayers, we should have some input, or some say about how much our officials are paid. I don’t think they should have the authority to just give themselves a raise in pay. We live in a state that is governed by laws, rules and a state constitution. We are not a state and county governed by dictators. We are governed by the people for the people! Not a communist dictatorship!”

Unable to improve on that, we will close with a few words from poet Clement Clarke Moore: Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.