{"id":128376,"date":"2016-02-17T07:06:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T14:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=128376"},"modified":"2016-02-17T07:06:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T14:06:42","slug":"bill-would-give-los-alamos-county-officials-full-time-jobs-hefty-pay-hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/02\/bill-would-give-los-alamos-county-officials-full-time-jobs-hefty-pay-hikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill would give Los Alamos County officials full-time jobs, hefty pay hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_56542\" class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-56542\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg\" alt=\"A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.\" width=\"771\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-336x220.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-1170x764.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">With the Senate and House both giving the OK, the bill now goes to Gov. Susana Martinez for her consideration.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Four elected officials in Los Alamos County could receive almost a tenfold increase in pay through a bill that cleared the state Legislature <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1593450981\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Tuesday<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The sheriff, assessor, treasurer and county clerk now are part-time positions that pay $6,889 a year. The bill would allow the Los Alamos County Council to upgrade the jobs to full-time and set higher salaries.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2016 legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/10\/nmpolitics-net-cant-exist-without-your-financial-support\/\" target=\"_blank\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Under the legislation, the sheriff’s pay could be raised to a maximum of $68,654 a year. The assessor, treasurer and county clerk could receive up to $65,855 annually.<\/p>\n<p>Even if the Los Alamos County councilors change the jobs to full-time status, no salary increases would take effect until the first day of the term of those elected to the offices.<\/p>\n<p>State senators approved <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legislation.aspx?chamber=H&legtype=B&legno=18&year=16\" target=\"_blank\">the bill<\/a> <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1593450982\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Tuesday<\/span><\/span> in a 32-5 vote. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, D-Los Alamos, had previously cleared the House of Representatives 61-0. Now it goes to Gov. Susana Martinez for her consideration.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Espa\u00f1ola, said he supports the bill as a way to improve government efficiency. Because Los Alamos has part-time elected officials making less than $7,000 a year, deputies have to be hired to do much of the work, said Sen. Martinez, no relation to the governor.<\/p>\n<p>“This allows them to be full-time employees and be paid full-time salaries,” he said.<\/p>\n<p>Los Alamos, a city and a county, is home to well-paying federal jobs that make it one of the most affluent communities in the country. It has a population of about 18,000. It is the smallest county in New Mexico geographically, at 109 square miles.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Milan Simonich at (505) 986-3080 or <a href=\"mailto:msimonich@sfnewmexican.com\">msimonich@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>. Follow his Ringside Seat column at <a href=\"http:\/\/santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">santafenewmexican.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four elected officials in Los Alamos County could receive almost a tenfold increase in pay through a bill that cleared the state Legislature on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3250,1179,107],"class_list":["post-128376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-legislative-session","tag-los-alamos","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}