Roosevelt jail employee pay increase tabled

PORTALES — Roosevelt County commissioners on Tuesday tabled a request for detention-center pay raises despite concerns expressed by numerous county officials.

County Manager Amber Hamilton and Roosevelt County Detention Center Administrator Mark Gallegos informed commissioners that as of Sunday, Curry County will increase its starting pay for detention officers from $12.50 an hour to $13.82 an hour to curb the problem it is having with retention.

“We’ve been consistently paying less than Curry County,” Hamilton said, adding that Roosevelt County pays a starting salary of $11.13 per hour for detention officers.

Hamilton said later a proposal of five step increases was presented to increase the beginning salary for a detention officer to $12.60 per hour.

“We want to increase salary to be competitive, so we don’t end up in the same position as before where we are short-staffed,” Hamilton said.

County Finance Manager Becky White said Curry County put the pay increase into effect to “stop the bleeding” of employees.

Sandra Stewart confirmed Tuesday that the Curry County Detention Center had 23 officer vacancies as of last week.

Stewart said staffing issues at the Curry County facility have been going on for a long time, and there are usually a number of factors that can contribute to that.

“When you have a series of administrators and none of them stay long, that’s very hard on a facility,” Stewart said. “Over the years, there’s also been some bad press and groups who weren’t always supportive of the detention center, and I believe those could have contributed to it as well.”

“I can’t tell you what all the causes are, but I can tell you sometimes offering a pay increase helps,” Stewart added, saying the county has also lowered the hiring age from 21 to 18 to help curb the problem and is looking into utilizing temporary employees.

“We are trying to approach it from every conceivable outlook to make it a better place to work, and the pay is just one of those tools,” Stewart said.

Roosevelt County Commissioner Shane Lee on Tuesday said Roosevelt County does not have the resources to match Curry’s pay rate.

Hamilton and Gallegos agreed but said they need to increase the base salary somewhat to be competitive, because a high volume of officers will leave to go to Curry County if there is more money offered.

Gallegos told commissioners he took a survey at RCDC, asking officers if they would leave if Curry County made the increase, but Roosevelt County did not offer an increase.

He said about eight officers said yes, so the county could be looking at an eight to 10 officer loss if they do not make their salary more competitive.

“I’m just going to be straightforward with you,” Gallegos told commissioners. “What Curry County is doing is going to have a huge impact.”

Commissioner Jake Lopez said the detention center industry is always going to be competitive, and the county does not know for sure what the impacts of Curry County’s pay increase will be.