Saturday, August 5, 2006

Los Lunas adjusts salaries after study

Hopes to retain police

Jessica Dyer News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdyer@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas Los Lunas Police Chief Nick Balido hears the same thing again and again during exit interviews with outgoing officers: certified personnel say they're leaving the LLPD because they can find better paying jobs elsewhere.

"What's happening is we've never been competitive. There are a lot higher starting salaries (in the area)," said Balido, noting that police officers generally make more money in Albuquerque, Bernalillo County and Rio Rancho.

"You can't retain people in small communities like ours," said Balido.

That may not be the case much longer. The Village of Los Lunas' 2006-07 budget includes a 17 percent hike in overall salary spending — an increase spurred by a study indicating that more than half of the village's employees were earning less than their counterparts across the state. (Note: Village employees are not receiving an across-the-board 17 percent raise as incorrectly reported in a previous News-Bulletin story. Raises vary by position.)

The village contracted Public Sector Personnel Consultants of Scottsdale, Ariz., to examine how Los Lunas employee salaries compared to organizations with which the village competes for personnel. The consultants studied salaries from 15 public entities in New Mexico — including the cities of Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe — as well as information from the New Mexico Municipal League salary survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They used the data to determine a midpoint salary for each occupation within the village.

"The midpoint is considered the prevailing practice or prevailing rate" within the marketplace, said Kay Tilzer of Public Sector Personnel Consultants.

The village then created a salary range, making the minimum salary for each position 80 percent of the determined midpoint.

Ninety of the village's 150 employees were making below that minimum, said Los Lunas' Financial Services Planner Peter Fernandez.

"We were somewhat surprised," Fernandez said of the findings. "That was part of the reason for the study. We know there have been increases in the minimum starting wages over time, and we had not adjusted our starting salaries accordingly."

Fernandez said the village aims to eventually have each employee earning the midpoint salary for their position. The first step toward achieving that goal, he said, was to ensure the village was paying each employee at least the minimum.

New employees will now start at no less than the minimum salary for their position. Raises for current employees went into affect on July 1.

Existing employees found to be underpaid were raised to the minimum and given an additional 2 percent increase for each year of service up to 10 years.

"If we continue with the implementation as it is now, everyone will be at the median salary at 10 years," said Fernandez.

Village pay increases are cut to 1 percent per year after the first decade of employment.

Fernandez said this is the first time the Village of Los Lunas has had a salary schedule. "The only thing we did have was starting salaries for positions. Every year, the council would decide what kind of pay raise would be given to the staff and they were given across the board," Fernandez said.

Implementing the new salary standards meant significant raises for some existing village employees. In order to get all employees to at least the minimum, certain individuals received pay increases of more than 90 percent, while some departments saw their salary spending go up by more than 25 percent.

Salary spending for the library department increased by 43.6 percent; fire department salaries are up by an average of 35.9 percent.

But not all village paychecks ballooned. Although nobody took a pay cut, several employees whose salaries were already above the determined midpoint were given the minimum 1 percent raise. That is significantly lower than the increases of past years, said Fernandez. In his nine years with the village, Fernandez said the council had never approved anything less than a 5 percent raise.

"When you have been accustomed to receiving 5 percent a year, it was difficult, I would say, for those who did not receive at least 5 percent," Fernandez said.

The village has decided to stick to this schedule at least through the 2007-08 fiscal year, Fernandez said, at which point it might be reevaluated.

"These are salary ranges and how we manage it from this point forward is still what's going to be developed," he said.

Police Chief Balido thinks the village is on the right track. The minimum starting salary for a certified police officer increased from $24,789 to $28,087 following the study.

"What the (village) has done here is try to be as fair as possible. We're pretty close to being competitive (with salaries) in this area. I have no complaints right now," said Balido, adding that he thinks the salary modifications should benefit his department. "It's a good step, and it's a good start."

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