Officials update county pay plan

Curry County has an updated pay plan for its employees but a sheriff’s spokesman doesn’t think it goes far enough.

Lt. Mike Reeves recently told commissioners the new entry-level scale for deputies is $2,000 less per year than Clovis pays entry-level patrol officers.

Entry-level sergeants make $7,000 less a year than Clovis police pay, Reeves said Tuesday, calling the new minimum salary scales “woefully inadequate.”

Entry-level salaries are a major tool in recruiting officers, Reeves said, and “if they (recruits) can go across the street for a buck or two more, they’re going to do it.”

The minimum salaries commissioners approved Tuesday include $34,189 for deputies and $41,657 for sergeants. The maximum is $62,485 for sergeants and $56,608 for deputies.

Commissioners Tim Ashley and Wendell Bostwick noted the minimum salary is just that and the sheriff always has room to negotiate a higher salary with recruits.

“I hear what you’re saying,” Bostwick told Reeves, “but I am supporting the recommendations.”

Bostwick said it is good business practice to set minimums and maximums for job classifications and never pay less than the minimum or exceed the maximum.

Ashley added he believes salaries are a budget issue and better dealt with in that arena.

“We can go department by department and look at local needs,” said Ashley.

County Manager Lance Pyle noted the new plan will help in recruiting staff at the perennially understaffed jail. It raises entry-level detention officer minimums from $11.92 to $12.52 an hour and booking officers from $9.78 to $10.80 an hour.

Other adjustments under the plan include raising the monthly cell phone stipend from $35 to $50.

The county will create a committee to consider the possibility of offering extra money to bilingual employees. Clovis and Portales employees are paid an extra 29 cents an hour if they are bilingual, according to the county’s consultant, S Resources of Santa Fe.

Commissioners also approved the consultant’s recommendation to increase the rate of pay of each employee whose current rate is below the new minimums.