By Mary Alice Murphy

To begin the Grant County Commission work session on Feb. 22, 2022, County Manager Tim Zamora said: "I am seeking direction from you [commissioners] on the step plan, so I can come back with recommendations."

He said on the table was the latest job classification study. "We developed some steps and tried to keep the steps to be implemented every three years. They include minimum, medium and maximum steps."

Zamora described the three steps for each level of job classification. "Different positions fit into different grade levels," of which he gave examples.

"If we implement this step plan, we wouldn't have everyone lined up," he said. "We wanted to make sure that no one would lose money. For instance, the current detention center positions fall between step 2 and step 3, and a laborer would fall between steps 8 and 9, so they would be bumped up to the next step. If we hired a new laborer, he would start at step 1, until he had experience and then he would go to step 2. This plan is similar to the step plan implemented in the Sheriff's Department."

District 2 Commissioner Javier "Harvey" Salas asked if the step plan was only for hourly workers.

Zamora said the plan would cover everyone except for the county manager, who is on contract.

District 3 Commissioner asked about hiring new employees with experience and asked if it meant the county, by giving, for instance the detention center administration a certain level, it gives them a certain number of years longevity.

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce asked how this all fit into union negotiations. "If they come in and ask for a raise, what if they don't have the required experience? This doesn't make sense to me."

Zamora said the step plan is based on longevity with the county and experience. "It is not based on merit or cost-of-living."

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne said the plan is similar to how it works at public schools. "When the union negotiates, it increases each step in the table."

Zamora agreed. "If the negotiations have the county giving everyone a 1.5 percent raise, it would raise every step across the scale."

Ponce asked what that does to the morale of the employees. "If you have worked here for 10 years, and a new employee comes in and jumps over you, that's not going to make you happy."

Salas said a good formula would have to be designed for those that come in with years of experience. "If we accepted this today, what kind of budget would we be facing?"

Zamora said because the Sheriff's Department is still working on its step plan, he would have to come back in March with a new step plan from the one the department has now. "It will need some adjustments. But just to get started, we are estimating it will cost almost $100,000."

Browne asked about someone retiring and the county bringing in someone new.

Zamora said they had not worked on retirement.

Browne said he thought the estimate was high, because a replacement would come in at a lower wage. "The actual costs as we go out in years, I believe the estimates are overly conservative."

Edwards said she wanted part of the discussion to include merit and COLA increases. "Will this make it harder to give merit or COLA raises because we have to remember that in general, we have a fairly flat budget year to year?"

Browne said gross receipts taxes increase with inflation. "Without inflation, we won't need COLA increases."

Salas said just the current longevity costs are about $57,000 a year. "To me it seems the step plan would not impact costs by much."

Zamora said the original impact would be about $100,000, which does not include the Sheriff's Department or grant funded positions such as the DWI program and Corre Caminos.

Edwards said she was not convinced this plan "is getting us to what we're trying for, which is to get to recruitment and retention. We want to recruit high-quality employees and retain them. I'm not convinced we need to jump into a step plan. If we hire someone at market, we have to raise the current employee to market. My other challenge is there are other things we need to address in recruitment and retention. We don't have an adequate HR (human resources) department to address these issues. We have talked about increasing the HR department and some other departments don't have enough employees. I see concerns about what we are tying the future to. If we OK the step plan without knowing what the future holds, it could cause a backfire. I don't like the idea of just having a step plan. We need staff development and merit in the mix to keep good employees. I do understand all of those who have worked so hard on this plan and are saying: 'Oh my God.'"

Ponce said he is focused more on longevity, of all those who have been dedicated and loyal through thick and thin. "To retain them, we need to do something better. For recruitment, we need to present something to hire them and keep them. The Sheriff's Department discovered with their step plan that a year later there was an error. Will we fall into this? It is hard for me to look at the step plan and see fairness."

Browne said the plan was developed to reach fairness. "We paid for the classification study with the goal of fairness. This table shows us we are starting new laborers, which are primarily men, on par with office jobs, which are primarily women. I think there is a gender equity issue."

Edwards said she didn't see fairness. People need flexibility in hiring employees.

Salas said he saw a need, as Edwards pointed out, for merit and longevity.

Ponce said he thought department directors would be the ones to "tell us what the jobs entail. In any entity, HR is the biggest part. We are so lacking in HR, with only one person doing a bunch of jobs. We need someone for training, for doing education. It seems like we're going to put a rate on something we don't know about."

Edwards said all the levels—64—made it challenging.

"I don't see this applicable to the way schools do it," Browne said. "We have too many different jobs in the county."

Edwards said she thought the jobs at the Detention Center and Sheriff's Department are also different from other jobs in the county.

Zamora agreed that deputies, detention center employees and court security employees are the most challenging to recruit, hire and retain.

Edwards asked the single HR employee, Renae Calloway, if she has an electronic system for the different jobs she does.

"No," Callaway rather emphatically said. "It's called a file cabinet."

Zamora said he has money in his county manager budget for an assistant manager to also help with HR.

Ponce said he had too many questions on the plan. "I don't like the idea of locking us into something and then having to fix it. And where's the money coming from?"

Zamora said: "We don't have an answer on the money right now. And we still have to go through union negotiations. My assumption is that longevity would go away and go into the step plan."

Ponce noted that would go up each year. Salas questioned the impact on the budget.

Edwards pointed out that the full benefit plan the county offers every employee should be part of what people consider when they are applying for a job with the county.

District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings said he didn't think anyone would want to begin at $12 an hour, and "I don't think most people look at the benefits package. Is money the issue with the deputies, the court security and the jail positions? I see heads nodding."

Edwards said with New Mexico State Police salaries going up, the county loses its capacity to be competitive with law enforcement salaries. "And we can't throw enough money at a detention center job."

Browne said after the county put so much money into the classification study, "it's disappointing to me that we can't do something with it."

Ponce said: "They were the 'experts,' but I'm thinking what do our employees think."

"I need to know if we need to keep working at this plan," Zamora said. "Without your telling me what to do, I'm not sure we need to put more work into the step plan."

Billings said he wants his own employees to be happy, because they work harder, "if I pay them what they're worth. When I can't get someone to do a job, I have to find someone who will. Sometimes, I call 'my' plumber—he doesn't work for me, but we have a business relationship. And that's the reason I can get one over to fix a problem at someone's house, because I have worked on the relationship. I treat my employees well and with money. I think we need to focus on where we can and cannot recruit. The test is: Can you hire someone?"

Salas said his experience is that a person goes into a low-paying job just until he can get into a better paying job.

"Yes, we want to retain," Billings confirmed.

Zamora asked if it was clear that he was not to do anything else with the step plan. It was.

During county reports, Edwards said she thought it would be better to have a recruit and retain plan. And she would like to have an economic development plan update. "I would also like to have on the radar an update to the county comprehensive plan."

Salas said he would like a meeting where the commissioners talk about all the projects underway and planned.

Browne had no report. Billings had no report.

Ponce said he had appreciated the discussion, as well as the work put into the plan. "Our greatest interest is in our employees we hire."

They went into executive session and made no decisions afterward.