Pay raise still puts T or C police salaries way below nearby cities and county

If the T or C city commission really cared about the city’s police officers, they would not have accepted Chief of Police Luis Tavizon’s measly pay raise proposal. 

At the Jan. 22 city commission meeting, Tavizon proposed a pay raise that his current budget can handle. To finish out the year will cost about $40,000, he said, because he’s eliminating a position. Next year the increase will cost about $77,000, which his budget can likely afford, because he’s eliminating two more positions, Tavizon said.  

Since Tavizon has spent the first two years of his tenure trying to get the force up to normal strength, eliminating positions appears to be a desperate move. Shortly after arriving, he asked the city commission to allow him to hire officers outside the city and to allow them to take home the police vehicle, the people paying for their commute. Documents show 53 percent of the 15 officers commute. But the turnover was still, at a minimum, 27 percent. In a recent article I pointed out that the $476,000 a year the city spends on maintaining, servicing and gassing up vehicles would be better spent on police salaries, with the proviso that officers live in T or C. https://sierracountycitizen.org/the-city-should-change-pd-recruitment-and-retention-practices/ 

Tavizon has evidently come to the realization that he must increase salaries, and he’s willing to eliminate positions to get it done. 

Why, oh why didn’t he simply suggest that the money going to support the take-home-vehicle policy go toward salaries? 

Tavizon submitted documents that give law enforcement pay from the State Police, Silver City, Socorro County, Sierra County and the City of Las Cruces, but unless you took the time to make your own chart, the comparison to the city’s pay was very hard to grasp. I did the chart, but only for two positions, uncertified officers and first-year certified officers. I made sure the yearly salary comparison was apples to apples by multiplying the hourly rate by 2,080 hours, the number of hours worked in a year. Some departments may require more or fewer hours per year.

Las Cruces: uncertified, $49,920 a year/$24 an hour

                         Certified, $54,080 a year/$26 an hour

State Police: uncertified, $26,000 a year/$12.50 an hour

                         Certified, $37,000 a year/$17.78 an hour

Silver City       uncertified, NOT GIVEN

                          Certified, $53,851 a year/$25.89 an hour

Socorro Co.     uncertified, $53,144 first 6 months, $55,952 second 6 months, $25.55/$26.90 hr. 

                            Certified, $57,345 a year/$27.57 an hour

Sierra Co.         uncertified, $41,267 a year/$19.84 an hour

                             Certified, $49,940 a year/$24.01 an hour

T or C                uncertified, $38,413 a year/$18.47 an hour

                              Certified, $40,027 a year/$19.24 an hour

With pay increase, uncertified, $41,268 a year/$19.80 an hour

                                  Certified, $49,934 a year/$24.00 an hour

Why would any officer stay in T or C instead of working for Las Cruces, Silver City or Socorro County? Even with the pay increase, the city only matches Sierra County. 

The city commission thanked Tavizon for devising a way to increase salaries without going outside his budget for this year. They said nothing about the elimination of positions. 

During the meeting someone spoke in favor of voting yes on the upcoming special election, which will allow the city to take out up to $2 million in bond debt to pay the city general fund back $200,000 and the police department $230,000 for the $430,000 purchase of the PNC building at 210 Main St. and to renovate and equip the building, as well as redoing the parking lot and the building’s surround. 

That loan will be paid back from the .25 percent gross receipts tax which was initiated in 2010 to pay more-than-competitive salaries to T or C police officers to stop the revolving door. It has never been used for that purpose and the revolving door is still swinging. 

The 2023 fiscal year budget was balanced by taking nearly $1 million out of the .25 percent GRT police fund. 

As usual, the city commission never examined what effect using the .25 PD GRT for other purposes than salaries would have. 

New building, lousy police salaries for another 20 years? Revolving door for another 20 years?  

Voting no on the $2 million bond debt is no guarantee that the .25 PD GRT will then go to officer salaries. It hasn’t in the past. And the city commission already purchased the building. 

Mayor Rolf Hechler, in a letter to the editor in the Jan. 16 Sentinel, urges the people to vote for the $2 million bond. He’s even started a Facebook page which has a campaign donation link, no doubt in violation of election law and the Government Conduct Act. 

“We back our blue T or C,” is the name of the Facebook page. I call BS, given the lousy wages. 

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Kathleen Sloan
Kathleen Sloan

Kathleen Sloan has been a local-government reporter for 17 years, covering counties and cities in three states—New Mexico, Iowa and Florida. She has also covered the arts for various publications in Virginia, New Mexico and Iowa. Sloan worked for the Truth or Consequences Herald newspaper from 2006 to 2013; it closed December 2019. She returned to T or C in 2019 and founded the online newspaper, the Sierra County Sun, with Diana Tittle taking the helm as editor during the last year and a half of operation. The Sun closed December 2021, concurrent with Sloan retiring. SierraCountySun.org is still an open website, with hundreds of past articles still available. Sloan is now a board member of the not-for-profit organization, the Sierra County Public-Interest Journalism Project, which supported the Sun and is currently sponsoring the Sierra County Citizen, another free and open website. Sloan is volunteering as a citizen journalist, covering the T or C beat. She can be reached at kathleen.sloan@gmail.com or 575-297-4146.

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