[0:02] And everyone, at this time, we'll call to order at 11, 1102. We'll call to order. I make a motion that we call to order this meeting. I'll second that Madam Chair. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Have it. Next on the agenda. We have the approval of the

[0:33] The last have

[0:39] the approval of our agenda,

[0:43] so I'll second in.

[0:47] All in favor?

[0:48] Aye.

[0:49] I have it.

[0:51] At this time, we'll go on to our next agenda, which is the approval of our September

[0:57] meeting.

[0:59] All in favor?

[1:03] I need a motion?

[1:04] Yes.

[1:07] All in favor?

[1:08] I'll second that, Madam Chair.

[1:12] All in favor?

[1:13] Aye.

[1:13] Next

[1:16] on our agenda is the approval of the established annual salaries for incoming countywide elected officials.

[1:26] Can I get a motion?

[1:28] Madam Sheriff, I think before we get to the motion, we need to have a little bit of presentation about Mr. Santaville.

[1:37] Okay, we've got a seat right up there.

[1:41] We need to have a discussion about what to fill in the blanks for.

[1:44] If we approve it right now, it's blank check, but it would be up to us to figure that part out.

[1:52] So we did provide you with information over the last few weeks since our last meeting and our presentation.

[1:59] Mr. Sirstack, we also provided with all the information we presented to the board a few weeks ago on I guess it was the 15th.

[2:07] And hopefully you have some desire or some idea of which way to instruct us and how to fill this out.

[2:14] And our recommendation as far as kind of parity is to have your county clerk, assessor and treasurer earn the same amount given that's pretty standard practice.

[2:28] and the probate judge who is a part-time physician,

[2:32] a different amount, and then the sheriff get a third amount.

[2:36] That is also kind of traditional,

[2:38] and then the member of the Board of County Commissioners

[2:40] would receive the same amount there,

[2:43] but it would also be yet a fourth amount, if that makes sense.

[2:47] Okay.

[2:49] And at this point, I would recommend that you open the floor

[2:52] for discussion, or we have Director Rodden here

[2:54] to help answer any questions that you may have for staff.

[3:03] At this time we will open the floor for any questions.

[3:07] We do have two members that have better here at this time and we want to open the floor

[3:15] for discussion and also give them a chance to look over.

[3:22] Madam Chair, I'll have a couple questions to kick it off.

[3:27] Again, I know you're briefly discussing this a little bit earlier with me, but just for

[3:31] the record, if you can go over the chart that we have A and B in particular.

[3:40] And

[3:44] sure, Madam Chair, commissioners.

[3:48] So the chart that's presented, I believe, that commissioners with that is talking about

[3:52] That is this one.

[3:54] And so it has letter A and letter B and then letter C.

[3:58] The letter A is a list of the current information that we were able to gather for this presentation.

[4:07] So the top column is San Juan County's current rates of pay for these individual positions.

[4:13] And then we have the other four class A counties, which is Bernalino, Donna Anna, San Juan and

[4:18] in Santa Fe.

[4:21] Bernalo County is the only one that we're not sure exactly

[4:26] if they're gonna make changes.

[4:28] We were not able to locate anything.

[4:30] They did have a resolution that was from December of 2024,

[4:35] when all of us were kind of scrambling

[4:37] after the election occurred and we were,

[4:39] all of the counties were trying to figure out

[4:41] what we were gonna do for salaries.

[4:43] And it did list their rights for this coming year.

[4:47] They did approve their budget, they only approved some like a 1% increase for their staff, so I would not expect that they would have approved much more for elected officials coming in, but we don't have that information.

[5:01] So this is the current data that we are able to get together.

[5:04] So I took the information, and I did do an average of those four counties to see kind of where we stacked up to all of them.

[5:13] and that is the bottom row.

[5:17] And then on letter B, this is the recommendation

[5:21] of ranges to start with.

[5:23] So the 7-11, when we made the recommendation

[5:27] for the rates in December of 2024,

[5:31] we recommended a 20% increase.

[5:34] The commission at that time approved 15,

[5:38] so they left five on the table.

[5:39] In the last two years, the county has provided increases to nonrepresented staff in the amount of 7.11%.

[5:50] So it was 4.11% two years ago, and then it was 3% this year on July 1st.

[5:57] So I kind of started as a baseline for this 7.11%.

[6:01] And I went up to 12.11, which is the additional 5%.

[6:05] five percent, that the commission did not originally approve in December of 2024.

[6:12] And so those would be the rates for the newly elected or re-elected elected officials

[6:20] for January 1st.

[6:21] And then this is really just kind of set up as a jump-off point for you, and obviously it

[6:28] is up to the commission to make the decision on what you would like to pay the elected officials.

[6:33] Can you remind us what the staff increases have looked like over the last few years?

[6:40] Yeah, so I started with Santa Ball County.

[6:44] As a compensation, I don't know what my title was, I believe compensation analysts in late

[6:51] December of 19, when I started the non-represented staff had not received salary increases in

[7:02] four years so they had a pair of pick up one one year I believe it was 2% and so but they had

[7:11] not received anything. So they did receive increases in January of 2020, January of March of 2020 and so

[7:23] so they received a small increase at that time and then since then then the county manager was hired

[7:31] and we started working toward looking at the rights because we were having a very difficult time hiring

[7:38] anyone, we could not maintain, retain staff so people were leaving and so we really started looking at the compensation structure.

[7:48] And in early 2023 we did a full compensation plan for the county and so at that time the estimated amount was

[7:57] It's something close to 13 million for us to actually come up to the standard of where we should be for the market.

[8:05] The county did not have those funds and so since then we've tried to chip away to kind of be competitive in the market since that time.

[8:15] And so every year we're just trying to give a little bit more and a little bit more, but we are annually looking at the market.

[8:21] So we normally start, actually about this time, I do have about 20 years of experience

[8:30] in compensation and so I hold certifications in comp and so when we first did the compensation

[8:36] study we did outsource it and then since then I kind of take a lead on doing the market

[8:43] research and then we send that information to our external vendor and they confirm the

[8:52] information that I was able to put together.

[8:55] This last year with the rollout of a new system, we actually outsourced it to that vendor

[9:02] and they did it this last year and so for this time frame, so we run about a year behind.

[9:10] So, because the information that we're receiving, we're looking at it in November, December and January to be able to start our budgets in February.

[9:19] And so we're looking at information that occurred last year.

[9:24] So we're always running a little bit behind the market because we don't know what they're going to give this year.

[9:29] And so now we know what Bernalow County's budget was, what they provided, we can pull Santa

[9:35] Phase, we can pull Don and counties, we look at Rio Rancho and we can grab it and to

[9:40] see where our numbers kind of compare.

[9:42] And so that's kind of the history of what's been happening with the conversation.

[9:47] Well speaking of that, my research showed for 2025, the overall salary increase in San

[9:59] 12%. This is not just county work, because this is the overall salary increase, and I was wondering, can you verify that? Does this sound about right?

[10:11] Mr. Chair, Commissioner, I think what, and we had this discussion a little bit.

[10:16] But you were referring to county employees.

[10:19] Right.

[10:19] I was referring to overall salaries in the county.

[10:23] Oh, in the county, including private.

[10:25] Yes.

[10:26] Okay.

[10:26] Yes,

[10:29] I think 4% of all counties specifically, when you look at overall compensation, I'm looking at base pay.

[10:36] So when I'm saying we provided 3% in a base pay, that's our structure.

[10:41] So when you look at the structure which I provided in the packet, and it shows where every position falls within the structure, that structure shifted by 3%.

[10:50] But also when you look at compensation, it's not just about salaries, it's about the benefit changes.

[10:58] And so medical insurance goes up, dental insurance, a vision.

[11:02] The county has a stake in the payment to the medical and the dental.

[11:08] We have an 80-20 split.

[11:10] So the county pays 80% of the benefits for employees.

[11:14] And so that's an increase in compensation, right?

[11:17] So also this last year, we have a basic life insurance plan.

[11:23] and up until this year, this year or last year,

[11:29] the employees, it was a 70, 30 split,

[11:32] but the county assumed all of the payment

[11:35] for the basic life.

[11:36] So all employees have $50,000 of basic life

[11:39] when they start with the county.

[11:40] So that's an amount that we, you know, the county took on.

[11:44] And so, and all of this is to try to be

[11:46] a little bit more competitive, when we first started,

[11:50] And I say we because the county manager started about six months after I did.

[11:54] And so all of this stuff, we kind of bounce ideas off of each other to try to be more competitive.

[12:00] So we're looking at everyone because we're trying to, you know, bring in and retain staff.

[12:06] Yeah, I got that.

[12:07] Now, I think we discussed this at the last meeting.

[12:10] Your percentages in B, do they include benefits or is this straight salary?

[12:20] This is straight salary, okay, so this would be, you take this number, you divide it by 2080 and that's what they would receive as a pay and then anything if they are able to elect medical dental vision and it's the same percentages.

[12:36] The elected officials are also able to elect or decline to enroll in para and so that's an additional percentage that the employee would pay and the county pays as well.

[12:51] Is there been any material change in the employer, cost share on medical and dental?

[13:02] Has it always been 80% since the beginning of time?

[13:05] Madam Chair, commissioner is not.

[13:07] So when I first started, it was 7030.

[13:11] And so we made that change.

[13:15] So, Senator Law County was under the City of Albuquerque umbrella.

[13:19] So we were at the mercy of, I'm sorry, City of Albuquerque.

[13:24] So whenever City of Albuquerque decided to do with their rate increases, we were drug

[13:29] along with that.

[13:30] And so they would communicate and say, this year your increases are going to be 13%.

[13:34] And so when I started, one of my first things was, okay, can you send me what are claims?

[13:42] are, and they could not. They could not separate

[13:46] sand of all counties claims from the other 12 entities that the City of

[13:50] Albuquerque supports for medical insurance. And so we started looking at

[13:55] potentially going out and becoming self-funded. And so we did that in

[14:03] 223. A lot of this happened right in the 223 time frame. And so we became

[14:09] self-funded, so we removed ourselves out of the City of Apigree.

[14:12] And part of that was because of the increases that they were providing.

[14:15] But the county was still doing a 70-30 split.

[14:18] And so when we went self-funded, we also moved to an 80-20 split.

[14:22] So let me ask the second part of that question.

[14:25] 80-20 for the employee.

[14:27] Does it also include spouse and family?

[14:30] Yes, sir.

[14:30] Covered, okay.

[14:31] Thank you.

[14:34] Madam Chair, a couple of quick questions to follow.

[14:39] So, we're basically looking at 7.11 or 12.11 unless the commission themselves want to go a little bit higher than 12.11.

[14:48] Okay. So, just to put this in perspective for me, if I'm not mistaken, I may have said this, we're the third largest county now in the state of New Mexico.

[14:58] to not just, uh...

[15:00] Area-wise, I'm talking about the population-wise, and to the best of your knowledge, and this may be an economic issue, are we still the fastest growing county in the state of New Mexico? Do we know that? Mr. Chair Commissioner, I would say yes. And not in raw numbers, but as a percentage of our population.

[15:23] And does this increase whatever the Commission decides,

[15:30] From my perspective, any of Madam Chair, it kind of opens up the market for those interested

[15:36] in running for the respective offices because if I'm not retired, if I'm retired, yeah,

[15:43] I could afford to do it at whatever, but if I'm not retired and I'm interested in trying

[15:50] to serve, but I still have to support a family, this kind of starts a balance, at least moving

[15:55] in that direction. Not as much as Santa Fe. I got that. But at least it starts the process

[16:01] to open the door for a variety of people who might be interested.

[16:07] So I'm not sure what the commission is interested in, but I can tell you I'm

[16:14] you got a pass growing county. You got a vast area of space that people have to deal with

[16:20] And you have a multitude of issues that occur as a result of the growth.

[16:26] And I'm one that's trying to attract the best comp of the people, I guess,

[16:30] to be able to serve in these positions.

[16:34] And so you can't do Santa Fe, but I'd like your numbers here.

[16:41] I'm not sure Santa Fe can do Santa Fe.

[16:43] I know, well, you know, when you're the capital,

[16:50] Madam Chair, I'm not sure if there's any other questions

[16:52] or what you might be looking for,

[16:54] but I can just say at least initially.

[16:57] Madam Chair, Commissioner, so back to your first question

[17:02] about everything that's on this.

[17:04] So I can see that is on this list.

[17:07] This is range 11 and 12 of our current wage structure

[17:12] And this is where our current department heads set within the structure as well.

[17:18] So the race that we're looking at for the sheriff, the clerk, the treasurer, and the assessor who have historically been the full time positions are within the ranges that the other department heads are currently earning as well.

[17:36] For the department heads that are not in elected official positions, we have job

[17:40] descriptions for each and there are minimum requirements that someone has to

[17:45] meet from an education and or experience background that shows that they're

[17:50] qualified for this position. And so we are trying to, as you state, make sure

[17:57] that these positions are compensated to a level that we can't attract people to

[18:02] to run for office and so and our close to maybe be an equivalent to what the rest of us are earning as well.

[18:10] So it can be something that they can devote the time that we would like them for it to be successful.

[18:17] So, Mr. Chair, commissioners, I would throw in a couple of points along those lines.

[18:23] I think when we go through and we look at compensation for employees that are coming in,

[18:28] For example, some time we'll have a very well-qualified, sometimes overqualified person that applies for a job somewhere in the county, and we'd like to hire that person, they will give us an ask, and sometimes that ask is really astronomical oftentimes it is, but we'll take a look at not only what their experiences and what their capabilities are and what their certifications are, so we do a little analysis of that.

[18:53] But we also look at the other employees that are serving in the same position that they are.

[18:59] So they may be well, well overqualified for that position, but we can't afford to do two things.

[19:04] First of all, we can't pay them for a position that they're not applying for,

[19:08] regardless of what their experience is.

[19:10] We have to pay them for that position.

[19:12] And we have to be concerned about the pay that those other employees are receiving.

[19:18] You hire someone in new, you can have somebody there for 10 years experience.

[19:22] And so they don't see the 20 years experience coming in in this other position.

[19:25] So we have to balance that a little bit.

[19:27] So that's one of the ways that Ms. Rodden and her team approach the compensation picture in the county of approaches that for employees.

[19:38] The other thing that doesn't apply, and I would encourage you to kind of take that into your thought process.

[19:43] But the other thing that really doesn't apply is that we have a pay plan that we have done a very good job and

[19:49] the commission has done a very good job of following through our budget process.

[19:54] So we do market adjustments every year.

[19:56] That's where we're talking about 3.11% that moves the entire pay band up and down.

[20:02] Well, I've never seen it go down.

[20:04] We don't want it to go down.

[20:05] I certainly don't want it to go down as part of that payment.

[20:08] But we move that up every year based on a couple of things.

[20:13] First of all, what's the market doing?

[20:14] That's our first look.

[20:15] And then what can the county afford?

[20:17] the other thing we look at is time and position. So each one of those 15 pay

[20:22] bands has 12 sub bands if you will within it, 12 steps. And in our pay bands when

[20:28] you look at it, six is considered market. And if you're an entry-level position,

[20:33] you come in at one. And as you get through all the way to 12, if you say 12 years

[20:38] in that position, and we're able to, from monetary standpoint, move you up every

[20:43] year, then we move that time of position up until you're redlined.

[20:47] Then it's up to you to get the skills that you need to qualify for a higher position

[20:52] if you want a raise.

[20:53] But all of those people, no matter where you are in that pay ban, get moved up one position.

[21:00] That does not apply to elected officials, as you know.

[21:03] So you will be setting a rate for these incoming officials for four years.

[21:07] And over the last four years, we've had almost double digit spike in inflation and costs of living that have affected everyone across the board.

[21:18] Now the previous four years, you didn't have that spike.

[21:22] So we have kind of an artificial, or I don't want to say artificial, this happens in economies, but it's an unusual situation over the last four years.

[21:32] So, I wouldn't necessarily apply that approach to wage changes because we're still catching

[21:39] up with where our wages need to be because of that inflationary spike, but you do need

[21:44] to be thinking about it for these individuals who will be at that rate for that 40 years.

[21:52] Some of them will be termed out in that time period.

[21:54] Some of them will run for re-election and be successful.

[21:57] That's a discussion for another day but for right now you'll be setting somebody's wage

[22:01] for 44 years.

[22:05] And I'm sure based upon what I thought I just heard, I don't know if you're

[22:09] looking for, I'm going to offer a suggestion and if you need to be put in the motion,

[22:13] if the commission has something else. I'd be quite honestly based upon the information

[22:19] and what I've read. It seems to me for setting this for four years, the 12.11 increase would

[22:26] be something that's palatable and acceptable and would kind of open up the market a little

[22:35] bit and set that in play for the next four years whereas if I'm not mistaken, if the county's

[22:42] budget could sustain it, employees could get raises every year if I'm not mistaken, whether it's a

[22:49] three percent, two percent, seven percent, whatever it might be but they can get one every year. Is that

[22:53] That's accurate. Madam Chair, commissioner.

[22:57] Regular hourly employees do.

[22:58] Correct.

[22:59] But even this year, the market came back with a 3.49% and based on our budget, we provided three.

[23:06] So we didn't provide the full market increase that was available based on our budget constraints for this year.

[23:13] So correct.

[23:17] What this does is it sets them up for a four year timeframe.

[23:21] But if for some reason something happens with the budget for the county, we wouldn't make, we wouldn't make changes to the pay, so, so it would just say stack.

[23:31] Okay, but Madam Chair, I was thinking along those lines based on my research, Jenny, we're from 12 to 12.11%.

[23:41] I was leaning more towards 12 just to be a little conservative.

[23:48] So Madam Chair, I would move, I make a motion to move to 12.11% increase for the commission

[24:02] the Chair of the Clerk, the Treasurer, Probe and Assessor.

[24:07] I'll second that.

[24:12] Hi.

[24:20] Just one name.

[24:23] Sorry, one opposed.

[24:25] One opposed.

[24:26] Who was that?

[24:27] Okay.

[24:27] Okay, so that passes on a 4-to-1 vote and at this point that's all of the, everything

[24:40] on the agenda, Madam Chair, I would like to personally thank you for the time that

[24:44] you spent reviewing this.

[24:46] I know not all of the time you were spent doing this was in front of the cameras are here

[24:51] on the days.

[24:52] I know you've taken this very seriously and I appreciate the work that you've done in

[24:56] in the time that you spent here, we're still kind of,

[25:00] this is our first maiden voyage of the salary commission.

[25:04] So I apologize for any hiccups that we've had in this process.

[25:08] We will be starting the process sooner in the next,

[25:12] on the next go around because I'd rather have this done

[25:15] by March of the election year.

[25:18] So in this case, it'd be 2028.

[25:21] The next election cycle for county offices.

[25:24] is that way by the time the proclamation goes out and people file, they know kind of what the rules of the road are going forward.

[25:32] But I do appreciate everything that you've done here today and for the time that you spent here.

[25:39] Question with regard to our tenure. Are we done?

[25:44] Mr. Chair, Commissioner, that's one of the things we really have to address because the ordinance is silent on that.

[25:53] Well, on that matter, again, that's kind of we rush this a little fast and I appreciate your patience for this on this so that's something while we'll get with the commission and and check you'll notice there's no term in the in the ordinance and I don't want you to be captive to the salary commission for the rest of your natural lives, so we will address that here in the coming months.

[26:35] Mr. Chair, I have no idea what the media will try and do.

[26:41] If they do, feel free to refer them to my office if you would like.

[26:46] I'll be happy to just feel those questions.

[26:48] The only reason I'm asking that question, Madam Chair, members, is so that, yes, there may be one that is voted against it,

[26:56] but so that we don't get caught in a clogged mile or saying all different kinds of things that I think might not be appropriate.

[27:06] Or we may not have all the information, I'll speak for myself, I may not have all the information.

[27:15] Mr. Chair, commissioners, I can't control the media, so the media does what it does.

[27:21] All I can do is assist you with any responses that you may have, and I'm happy to do that

[27:25] if you want to make the response yourself.

[27:27] I'll be happy to take the arrows if you choose not to, just refer them to me, and I'm happy

[27:34] to explain what's going on.

[27:35] I do have a little experience in that realm.

[27:39] So I am part of my job description if you look very carefully at it, I think it's in the fine print is to take those slings and arrows and sometimes face off the pitchforks and the torches.

[27:52] So I'm happy to do that for you.

[27:57] Are there any other questions?

[28:01] Okay, at this time our meeting has been adjourned at 11.30 and we'll get a motion for the

[28:09] meeting to be adjourned.

[28:12] I'll give that motion.

[28:14] I'll second that.

[28:15] No, chair.

[28:17] At this time our meeting has been adjourned.

[28:20] Thank you everyone.

[28:20] Thank you again.

Sep 30, 2026 Salary Commission

Transcript