Sheriff recall needs to play out in court

Letters to the editor

Your coverage of the impending recall of De Baca County Sheriff Gary Graves was, well, interesting ... especially the comments of Curry County Sheriff Roger Hatcher.

Hatcher is president of that esteemed organization of law enforcement professionals, the New Mexico Sheriffs’ Association. Don’t confuse this group with the New Mexico Sheriffs’ and Police Association, which conducted an investigation of the De Baca County Sheriff’s Department a few months ago and made a number of serious recommendations, all of which Gary Graves ignored.

The group Curry County’s sheriff is president of fears the recall of Graves because it might set a precedent. Hatcher says every elected official has a concern about this case. Agreed. It could mean the people of other New Mexico counties might have a little say in how elected officials in their respective counties take care of — or don’t take care of — business.

It could mean the folks whose tax money pays the bills for these elected officials might have a say in how their money is spent.

Graves, Hatcher and the folks in their group would love to see this recall go away and I have a simple solution: Curry County currently has openings for deputies. Hatcher, who has spent quite a bit of time in De Baca County the past two years supporting Graves in public meetings and court proceedings, could hire Graves. He’ll fill a position and give the folks of De Baca County some needed relief at the same time. That way, efforts to recall Graves will go away. The De Baca County Chamber of Commerce might vote Hatcher its Citizen of the Year.

My advice to Hatcher is to shut up, stay out of De Baca County’s business and let this recall play out. It seems there are plenty of problems to deal with in Curry County, the new murder capital of New Mexico. And if a judge finds there isn’t enough evidence to warrant a recall, Hatcher’s motives will be served.

Dennis Cleaver

Fort Sumner

Web poll questions directed reader

I found the tone of a recent newspaper Internet poll on public employee salaries inappropriate.

It was worded to direct the reader to come to the conclusion that “Yes, they are paid too much.”

How do we know that? Did the articles that preceded the poll take into account the years of education and training necessary to become qualified for the positions filled?

Did they take into account what portion of the wages being paid was base salary and what portion was overtime?

In the case of the police personnel, a large portion of the wages paid was overtime, brought on by the current understaffing condition. In any case these people didn’t arrive at this salary or wage level by accident and it was not some unfair twist of fate. They reached their position through hard work; it was not a gift.

I am also offended that you would publish a poll on the front page of your paper (referring to the newspaper Web site at http://www.cnjonline.com) that is in fact a referendum on whether a family should move from this city or not.

In Neil Nuttall’s position as school superintendent, it is inevitable that some people will be unhappy with him. No one in his position is ever going to make everyone happy, and the primary respondents to that poll are going to be people who are upset with him. Would you want a poll published querying whether the readers of the paper would like to see the editor or publisher leave?

Fat chance!

These two polls cross the line of good taste and good fun and became directed, in a harmful way, at good decent people who are contributing to the community in a positive way and doing a good job at what they do.

Nathan McCreery

Clovis