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| Socorro County Looking To Hire Corrections Officers |
| By mymountainmail.com |
| Published: 05/29/2009 |
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Short-Staffed Detention Center Hurries To Hire New Officers by: Mike Sievers - For The Mountain Mail The Socorro County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday created an advisory board to address ongoing problems with the county jail, which is facing what amounts to a severe staff shortage after two of its 13 officers resigned last week. The commissioners approved the appointments of 11 people to serve on the board. They are Evangel Maldonado, Phillip Anaya, Joe Carillo, Levi Lovato, Cindy Chavez, Les Torres, Lawrence Montano, Tina Van Winkle, Jason Jones, Dr. Scott Donofrio and Luis Aguilar. They represent local law enforcement, the district attorney’s office and the district court, the state Children, Youth and Families Department, the county commission, the detention center, probation and parole and Socorro Mental Health. Commissioner Rumaldo Griego nominated Aguilar, who regularly attends commission meetings, as a community member to serve on the board. County Manager Delilah Walsh told the commission that the detention center is hurrying to fill the open positions. Walsh said the jail has a good staff and the officers work extra hours to make sure everything is covered. “It’s not an easy job for the officers, and the last thing we want to do is overtax them,” Walsh said at the meeting Tuesday. One of the problems with officers working extra to cover the staff shortage is that the county ends up paying overtime. The detention center has already put the county $750,000 over budget for the current fiscal year. Walsh said the jail is not going to get any less costly, and time is running out for the county to find funds to replace the $1.4 million in federal monies that come through the Payment In Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, program. Congress has approved full funding for the PILT program only through 2012. That money goes into Socorro County’s general fund, which covers the detention center. Detention Center Administrator Evangel Maldonado reported to the commission that the jail’s head count was 50. In other business Tuesday: • The commission approved the budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Every county employee will receive at least a 2 percent salary increase, an increase that was mandated by the commissioners going into the budget hearings. Walsh said every department head made some sacrifices and most of them restructured their staff to make the raise possible. She said the average raise will be about 4 percent, with some departments giving their employees an 8 percent raise. Walsh said the higher raises reflect larger workloads those employees will take on. “Everyone was very creative,” Walsh said. She said the county will see a 4 percent overall budget increase. She said much of the credit for finishing the budget so early in the year goes to County Finance Director Roberta Smith, who prepared the budget the county will submit to the state Department of Finance and Administration in June. “I’d just like to commend you and Roberta on a very good budget,” said Commission Chair Rosie Tripp. Commission Vice Chairman Danny Monette said the county is a lot farther along in the budget process than it was at this point when he was a commissioner eight years ago. “It’s nice to see that we can actually give the employees a pay raise and that we can fund some of these programs,” Monette said. Commissioner Griego said while other counties have raised their tax rates to raise revenue, Socorro County’s tax rate has remained relatively low.Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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