Bernalillo County Tries to Make Knee Jerk Reaction Appear Legitimate

Bernalillo County announces, “Former jail warden in Pa. brings 30 years of corrections experience to Bernalillo County.”

The new Director/Chief of MDC (Metropolitan Detention Center)is Ramon Rustin, of Pennsylvania. Mr. Rustin appears to be more than qualified for the position. This story is not directed towards Mr. Rustin but towards the decisions made by Bernalillo County Officials.

When the citizens hear of these types of appointment, it makes them wonder. The primary question is; why didn’t they hire someone from New Mexico? We have a large pool of New Mexicans who are qualified. We have native New Mexicans and others who have made New Mexico their home, who are unemployed and could use a job. Notwithstanding, there are many other New Mexicans who are looking for a job change or an upward promotion.

The County Manager, Thaddeus Lucero, the Deputy Manager, Tom Swisstack, and the County Commission should be ashamed of their actions. As you know Thaddeus Lucero has been the County Manager for many years and has left a trail of misdeeds in his ruins. Given Lucero’s record; he is probably not the best person to include in or have any say in the decision making process. The County is supposed to be deciding Lucero’s fate in the next few days. It is assumed, that if they dump Lucero; they will do another “Nationwide search,” since there is “nobody” in New Mexico that is qualified to perform certain County duties. Maybe the County Officials are going to follow Mayor Berry and his administration in making “A Berry Bad Mistake.”

Here is what traditionally occurs. An outside person is brought in, they stay long enough to get a second retirement from our retirement system, and they leave our State with that pension. This does nothing but hurt our State long term. The County administrators need to quit being short-sighted and look at the bigger picture. Any job should be given to a local person before going out-of-state. Swisstack stated that there were over twenty-two applicants.

"We are extremely fortunate and delighted to have Ramon join our team," Deputy County Manager Tom Swisstack said in an announcement of Rustin's appointment on the Bernalillo County website. "His long history in corrections and demonstrated leadership make him an excellent choice to take on the challenges of being the MDC Chief of Corrections."

Read more: ABQNews: UPDATED: New MDC Director on the Job http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/abqnewseeker-mainmenu-39/26478-new-mdc-director-on-the-job.html#ixzz1BYLXr4ad
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Our public officials need to be more accountable to the tax payers and take care of our citizen’s before they go on a shopping spree across the Country. What’s ironic is; our public officials talk about how bad the economy is and how high unemployment is, only to turn around and recruit someone 2,000 miles away to take a job from a New Mexican. If our officials are going to "talk the talk; then they need to walk the walk!"

Sweet Deal

Tonight the Bernalillo County Commission will take up - as it does every two years - County Manager Thaddeus Lucero's employment contract. After a review of the contract, we have to admit that it's a swweeeet deal.

The county manager basically runs the day to day county administration with direction from the County Commission. For his service to the county, Mr. Lucero will receive $150,000 for the period of September 20, 2009 through September 19, 2010 at which time the manager's compensation jumps to $162,500. And it gets better...

Should the county commission approve a pay raise for "full-time regular unclassified employees," the county manager would receive the same percentage pay increase. No, we're not done yet...

Lucero in his role as county manager will have both employer and employee P.E.R.A contributions paid for by the county. In addition, his travel expenses, registration fees, private office, vehicle, expense account, administrative assistant, and professional societies memberships all picked up by the county. And there's more...

Under the terms of the county manager's contract, Lucero receives 6 hours of sick leave per pay period convertible to annual leave upon termination, 40 leave days per year, and 3 personal holidays a year all of which can be carried forward "from year to year without limitation." Don't worry, despite the apparent lack of leave (that's sarcasm) Lucero also gets paid for all county recognized holidays.

Did we mention healthcare? Well... it's in there too.

Like we said... It's a sweet deal that guarantees an 8% pay increase in the second year and pretty much picks up every other possible expense including retirement all at a time of high unemployment and increasing governmental revenue shortfalls.

In light of the current economic status, we wonder how the county commission can justify a guaranteed pay increase. Here's another little problem... county receipts are down and spending is up. Shouldn't the county manager be subject to a pay reduction if revenue shortfalls force the county to reduce compensation for its other employees through pay reductions or furloughs? We'd think so, but then again we're not getting $312,500 in guaranteed money with just about everything else in our lives paid for.

The county commission tends to fly under the radar. If this were the city, you can bet there'd be hell to pay.

----- Update -----
It didn't take but a few moments for our County Eyes to chime in with one very important factoid. County employees have not had a raise in two years, yet this new county manager contract includes a programed 8% raise in addition to a raise this year.

We understand that the county is suffering from a drop in revenues that require adjustments to spending. But shouldn't the county manager suffer from the same economic realities? We're just sayin'...