Commentary: Tuesday was a long, difficult day, and hard to write about.
A county-hired consultant reported to the commission on why the sheriff's office has adequate numbers of personnel. Then a long parade of DASO personnel passionately disagreed. Later, DASO top brass attacked the study at a press conference.
Sheriff calls consultant a hatchet-man, County says consultant is the best in the business – and authored a Department of Justice staffing document the Sheriff had relied on earlier. Consultant says 12-hour shifts are better than 10, Sheriff cites a study showing 10 is better than 12; consultant says 20,000 calls per year, DASO says 100,000.
Who's right? Ask me after I investigate further.
More important: what's going on in this long-running dispute?
Sheriff's deputies are angry. No raises for years – while a county-hired consultant working with the human resources department recommended raises for HR employees. (The raiselessness arose partly from the deputies' union's decision to focus on other issues.) Watching officers young and old leave for better-paying law-enforcement jobs. Working with old equipment. Deputy Ken Roberts demonstrated Tuesday how deputies often have to hold a radio as high as possible to make it work.
The county administration is frustrated. I like Kiki Vigil, but sometimes his manner magnifies problems. Yesterday he stood up and loudly called Commissioner Billy Garrett a liar. (I looked into it, and found no lying. As usual, there were two differing interpretations of an ambiguous situation. Both Billy's view and Kiki's were honest, I think.)
Recently, using an outside vendor to repair cars, Sheriff Vigil exceeded the approved $10,000, and even the $50,000 the county manager had authority to approve. The commission was asked to approve all this after the fact, and declined. A law-enforcement official who dislikes both sheriff and commissioners told me a while back that the sheriff exceeded other budgets; and a commissioner privately confirmed that.
The sheriff says he's walking the streets in support of challengers for commission seats. He may not realize that some voters find it intimidating that a man with a gun is visiting to tell them how to vote. What also isn't clear is which came first: did his frustration with the county government lead the Sheriff to seek change, or did political considerations lead him to make honest differences more vitriolic than they needed to be?
Tuesday, most DASO personnel spoke pretty angrily to the commission. Mostly, the commissioners took it, with good grace.
Garrett gave a long, heartfelt response, and made some good points, including a 25% increase in DASO's budget; but I cringed at his reaction to criticism that commissioners haven't ridden along with deputies: “Maybe I should do it, for the optics. But our job is making policy here,” was a troubling answer, from an otherwise great commissioner.
It was hard to watch DASO officers bash commissioners for an hour. I know good people on both sides. Under the previous sheriff, some bad things happened to these officers. A few talked to me, and I wrote about it, despite threats to them and to me. I respect and like those officers. I've also talked at length with the commissioners. I respect and like them. We're lucky to have them serving – even if we don't agree on every issue.
I'm not on any side. I'm telling friends at DASO that certain commissioners are trying really hard to be excellent public servants, and are doing a lot of good. And I'm telling friends on the commission that many of those deputies were yelling from honest frustration, not mean-spiritedness. A ride-along could only enhance understanding.
Peter Goodman is a local writer, photographer, and sometime lawyer. He initially moved to Las Cruces in 1969, holds two degrees from NMSU, and moved back here in 2011 with his wonderful wife. This is his most recent Sunday column in the Las Cruces Sun-News. His blog Views from Soledad Canyon contains further information on this subject, as well as other comments and photographs, and past newspaper columns.
[Let me make one thing clear: based on the past few years, I'd vote for the re-election of Wayne Hancock or Dr. David Garcia if I lived in their districts. I say that despite having criticized the county administration on certain issues, notably the sluggishness with which county manager appears to have dealt with personnel issues and the concern among some county employees that despite her initial promise she's become part of the problem. First of all, that isn't the only issue facing the commission. There are many others, some of them complex. These two men have brought integrity and experience to the table and have tried to deal with issues fairly and with good judgment. By and large, they've done well. And I trust them both. Once you get past the slogans and sound-bites, they're both working hard to represent us well.]