Scott Forrester, an assistant to Mayor Martin Chávez, whose term ends Nov. 30, saw an increase in his annual salary from roughly $48,000 a year to a little under $80,000, officials said.
Greg Smith, an attorney, received an 8 percent increase in pay — to about $111,000 a year — and was transferred into a different job. He used to work as an attorney for the city and is now a contract manager in the Department of Municipal Development.
Danny Nevarez, an information technology official in the Environmental Health Department, saw his pay boosted about 48 percent, to around $102,900.
Frankly, no matter what excuse is given these raises are appalling. Our Eyes tell us that since the Once Almighty Alcalde lost the election earlier in the month, Hizz Honor has been busy squirreling away his minions and busily trying to reclassify his unclassified friends. One such reclassification was Director of Parks and Recreation, Jay Evans who was recently moved from his unclassified directors position in Parks and Rec to an over $80,000 a year classified position running Open Space.
The intent of the Chavez administration is to protect their minions while leaving them behind as land mines ready to explode on an unsuspecting Berry administration.
Moving Marty's Minions doesn't exactly protect them from termination. Moving someone from an unclassified position to a classified position doesn't remove the probationary period where the city can let the "newly acquired" classified employee go for pretty much any reason in the first 90 days. Marty's moves only make it more difficult, not impossible.
In light of the current economic situation, the Berry transition team needs to take a hard look not only at Marty's many minions but at the positions that were created to reward them. Now's the time for many of these positions to disappear along with their occupants - which would save all of us a boat load of money.
More importantly, Mayor-elect Berry would be setting a good example for the rest of the city by trimming his at-will staff before he even takes office despite Marty's attempt to trap him into keeping Marty's Minions.
The intent of the Chavez administration is to protect their minions while leaving them behind as land mines ready to explode on an unsuspecting Berry administration.
Moving Marty's Minions doesn't exactly protect them from termination. Moving someone from an unclassified position to a classified position doesn't remove the probationary period where the city can let the "newly acquired" classified employee go for pretty much any reason in the first 90 days. Marty's moves only make it more difficult, not impossible.
In light of the current economic situation, the Berry transition team needs to take a hard look not only at Marty's many minions but at the positions that were created to reward them. Now's the time for many of these positions to disappear along with their occupants - which would save all of us a boat load of money.
More importantly, Mayor-elect Berry would be setting a good example for the rest of the city by trimming his at-will staff before he even takes office despite Marty's attempt to trap him into keeping Marty's Minions.
32 comments:
Why is Trudy Jones going to bat for ultra-liberal, "Mr. Multiple Conflicts of Interest" David Campbell? Why is she attacking "born-again Christians" in Joe Monahan's blog? Is she really a Republican?
Marty's Minions need to go, but so do Christian-basher Jones and her ethically-challenged buddy David Campbell. Berry screwed up on these two.
Unscrew it, Berry!!
This is such BS.
Beery needs to clean out this filthy bird cage. Don't keep ANY
unclassifieds. They were loyal to Marty. They will never be loyal to you.
Put your own people in. Keeping the old crowd just because they know the job is crap. New people can learn the job and quite frankly will do a better job.
Your own people will be loyal to YOU. !!!
Marty is just like that turd, circling the bowl after you flush and he's gonna leave a streak on the bowl after he's gone. I hope Berry makes good moves to clean our toilet bowl in Albuquerque. Bye-bye Marty, ya little turd!!
Was this the same city that talked budget shortfalls. Could'nt fill positions. Did away with some positions that served the public. Looks like the elections was a blessing. I guess Martin Chavez never plans on running for office ever again. WHAT AN #$%^&&**
LETS NOT FORGET THE PROMOTION OF THREE COMMANDERS IN APD. ONLY ONE HAS DONE HER TIME MASON THE OTHERS ARE ALL PAYBACK AND LET ME DO YOU A FAVOR. SCHULTZ CONTINUES WITH THE GOOD OL BOYS BY THESE PROMOTIONS. THE TREND CONTINUES. YOU THINK WE WOULD HAVE LEARNED WHEN MCCABE GOT THE FAVORITE AND WAS PROMOTOED TO DCOP AND HE CARRIED ON THE TRADITION AND PROMOTED HIS BEST FRIEND PIE FACE HUDSON.
BERRY WE ALL VOTED FOR YOU TO CLEAN UP AND MOVE OUT THESE PEOPLE. THEY ARE AT WILL EMPLOYEES AND NEED TO LEAVE. SID NEEDS TO GET BACK ON TRACK AND BE THE DIVISION IT WAS. WE HAVE GOOD DETECTIVES LEAVING SID CUZ IT IS SO SCREWED UP.
Don't forget Mark Shepherd, Greg Payne, and Lawrence Torres either. Make a clean sweep. Start at the top, because trust me, the ones who are doing all the work? They are at the bottom. They aren't the ones with the huge salaries. They are the peons making shit for doing everything. Don't think for a second that the top brass in any dept is actually doing the work. You can promote from within. Find the ones that the lowest of the low actually respect, and that should be who you put in charge. They will know.
Do you think that the people that STILL thought Marty was a decent guy have finally opened their eyes after this? It's finally in the light.
Don't forget about Mark Shepherd. He had his head so far up Marty's ass you could see his eyes when Marty opened his mouth.
you hate lawrence because he his smarter than you and got his for himself...twenty short years and its all over do not forget..I think he screwed us over dont forget that too..but the day you walk out of this trap no one remembers who you are so get yours while you can...why is everyone bagging on scott forrester? thats dawne robertos brother,,,shes the editor in chief of this blog....doesnt make sense
Let the new Mayor measure the worth of everyone. What goes arounf comes around.
Eye, we all agree Barry should start by eliminating all the positions Chavez created as political pay offs. THE FIRST POSITION TO BE ELIMINATED SHOULD BE DARREN WHITES!
Then BOWDICH , WALSH, the list goes on and on. If Berry is a man of his word (during the election process) then he could save millions by cutting these useless positions!!!!!
Lets see if the new Mayor has any balls, and takes the raises away! How can any raise be justified during these economic times. Its no wonder the public doesn't trust government.
You boneheads. Mark Shepherd and Torrez can't be touched. They have been with the city over 10 years. Berry does have to follow the federal labor laws. Forrester is done, he does not have 10 years. You all need to stop bagging if you do not know the facts
Mark Shepherd has only been with securty for 4 years!!!! He is retired from APD. This was Marks reward for helping MARTY 4 years ago...... Mark is a double DIPPER!!!
Please Mr. Berry look into the City Security Unit.
Lawrence Torrez smarter than someone? No, probably just weasle-ier. Wow, he got a new word named after him. He'll always be a back stabbing, non-working jackass!
It's all about CYA. Take care of yourself because nobody cares about you.
Mark Shepherd is an at will employee, as well as his 4 LT's. With 10 sgts, 4 lts and under 100 actual employees to do the work, there is obviously something wrong there. Especially when they are all driving brand new cars, trucks and in Mark's case, SUV... Why would he need an SUV? Must be for the weekend since he takes it home. During the day, it's never off the pavement. He traded in the one with shrink wrap for a plain unmarked one, why would that be? He doesn't do alot of driving during the day, maybe just to City Hall and back, so maybe someone needs to check the mileage on it.
Why are the other city facilities paying for twice the officers than they actually have working at their facilities? Where is that money going? Why have the officers not had any training for the last 3 years, and yet all are carrying asps that are supposed to be requalified with every two years? Why have officers been given this equipment without ever having been trained at all? Why has there not been any training in street survival, verbal judo, cpr, first aid, or any of the skills these officers need?
Why, when it was proven that Mark lied on his application, Nick Bakas was a reference and on his hiring board, that he had none of the qualifications that he said he did, and there were two other candidates that scored higher than he did (even with his faked credentials), why, did the city (Marty) pay the other two off and keep him? That is our taxpayers money folks, pissed away on complaints that would have resulted in the firing of anyone else. Lying on your application is a biggie, and then continuing to lie about your qualifications in hearings? Perjury.
He is dirty. His Lt's that he has surrounded himself with are dirty. From time sheet fraud to harassment and creating a hostile work environment, it is something well worth looking into, and dismantling, from the top down. The officers do a great job considering what they have to work with, lack of training, lack of staff, (except management), lack of equipment, and being harassed, spied upon, underpaid, and unappreciated. Promote from within, train, thin the management down to less than half of what there is, and hire more of the people that actually do the work. They are public safety, should be hired as such, treated as such and paid as well.
"why is everyone bagging on scott forrester? thats dawne robertos brother,,,shes the editor in chief of this blog....doesnt make sense"
You are a total Moron. I have one brother who lives in Denver and his name is not Scott. And I have no time to be editor in chief of this blog,so please get your facts straight Mr. Anonymous, your investigative skills leave much to be desired.
Poster @ 10/23 9:37AM makes an excellent point, but to take it a bit further--I work in a city department that utilizes city security. These security officers have saved us staff from members of the public that are: crazies, drunks, crack-heads, pedophiles, gangsters, you name it & city security takes care of us...BUT management in this un-named department actually tells the officers they "didn't handle that situation very well" or "that they did this wrong, or that wrong." I won't name the department but, I'd like to know how administrators that sit in their offices all day know anything about law enforcement? Why don't they come down from their offices and work with the public for just 1 hour & see what it's like?? How dare they tell officers how to do their jobs! How can they get away with this--why doesn't the brass in city security tell them "hands off let our officers do our jobs"
FYI- The morale among city employees (peons, in other words) is the lowest I've seen in the 12 years I've worked here. Mayor Berry needs to get rid of duplicative, upper management that do nothing all day & get paid to do it!!
Way to go Dawn, dont let any of them boyz take you down. Everyone likes to talk about stuff they don't know about.
Please Mr.Berry, look at The Citys Fleet Managment Division. The Fleet Manager, Tony Baldonado; also lied about his qualifications and he and his awful wanabee mechanics are going to kill a 34 soon. PLEASE BRING BACK THE POLICE GARAGE!
"How can they get away with this--why doesn't the brass in city security tell them "hands off let our officers do our jobs"
I'll tell you why, because they are worthless as managers, Mark Shepherd's motto is that "we provide a service" and his only goal is to pacify Marty's other managers. He doesn't care about his employee's, they have been told that they can be easily replaced, creating a hostile work environment. People get hurt, and he doesn't give a shit. His only goal is to spend his budget on his management. The officers spend more time trying to cover their asses than in doing their jobs. That's not a way to treat your employee's, not a way to run a dept, but is it any wonder? He was a shitty cop, he's a shitty manager with no qualifications to be one.
The officers used to be told to not be friendly with the staff at their facilities, as it led to looking the other way. Now all they are supposed to do is kiss the ass of all staff at all departments. This is not what the job is. They are not providing a service, they are providing safety. Security. People who deliver bottled water provide a service. He and his management need to go!
The abve post explains a lot. Nobody has the city security officers backs, not even their own management. That sucks because the officers I work with are stand-up, honest guys working to pay the bils just like rest of us worker bees. I feel sorry for all JSeries. IMO I think their union needs to do better by them.
A bunch of whiners. Good job EYE. This is now the whiners website blog. I may stop reading here. Booooring
J series Union? Send in your dues, thats all they want anyway! Need them for anything and you'll get ineffective representation that amounts to none at all. The union is a joke!
If City Security personnel want to be treated, paid, and trained like officers, then go to the academy and be an officer! I know several people that have used security as a step into the academy. Stop bitching and follow their steps.
Me as an officer of city security, I am very unpleased with chief shepards unprofessionalism, the fact that he does not care about is his officers, he cares only about what benifits himself,the lack of training,and proper equipment,(like new radio's, instead of used ones from the fire department) and the fact that he spends budget money on new vechicles for him and his lieutenants.We are so top heavy in city security that there is not enough officers to cover all post. I am hoping with this new mayor elect richard berry that he will look into these issues with upper management and talk to the officers, on how to make this a better department, and also the fact that we are public safety but are not treated like public safety, we are here to provide safety for the citizens of albuquerque at city events, and city facilities
The J series union is a joke? I was pretty proud of my rep standing up to all the asshole management at the bid today. She stood her ground against how many supervisors that were there?
My management tried to make the union look bad, it was all a set up and the union rep didn't allow it, even though all of them were yelling at her. What they did do though was make themselves look worse, so in reality, it backfired. You can't rule by intimidation when the person is not intimidated. Good for the union, (today at least).
Before the election, Mayor Chavez said that he took care of the people of Albuquerque. Wrong!!! He took care of his CRONIES, X-BODYGUARDS & his DOG!! Adios!! Even if Berry doesn't turn out to do anything good, I'm glad I won't have to look at Chavez again!! Chavez spent alot of money on EXPENSIVE emblems for City vehicles but oops no money for the WORKING people. I would rather just see City of Albuquerque written on the vehicles and see more money on the paychecks. Anyway, the vehicles have to be stopped so you can actually see the expensive pictures! They don't do a thing for me. Chavez, hopefully you can take Mark Shepherd with you so he can continue to guard your body and get the hell away from the entire City of Albuquerque!! When I first started reading these comments acout Mark Shepherd, when he first became chief of security, I was appalled at how awful people spoke of him. I even wrote something nice about him then myself! Now that I know and have seen what he has done, I can understand why they wrote those awful things! Very disappointing!!
mark sheppard for chief!
Mark Sheppard for Thief!!
Bring back officer Varela
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