“Probably wrong, probably old-fashioned, probably inaccurate and probably behind the times.”
That’s how Española Municipal Judge Stephen Salazar described how he’s been getting paid for nearly a decade.
Salazar, who earns $38 per hour, has submitted a time sheet to the city every other week since he was first sworn into office in June 2002. In March, Salazar claimed on one of those time sheets to work eight hours when he was out campaigning for re-election and 16 hours during which the judge was in Las Vegas, Nev., to attend a college basketball game, Salazar confirmed last week.
In fact, Salazar said he did not work at all the week of March 5-9, except possibly by phone March 5. His time sheet shows he worked five, eight-hour days.
“That’s the way they want to record my pay, through a time sheet,” Salazar said. “That’s the mechanism that the payroll department wants me to fulfill. The time sheet is just a piece of paper that triggers payroll to pay me.”
Salazar said he does not accrue vacation, sick leave or personal time. When asked, the judge estimated he’s taken three to four weeks off of work during the past 12 months.
The upshot is the city has no reliable way of tracking the judge’s time out of the office.
“I’m an elected official that gets paid a salary,” Salazar said. “I take time off. There’s no way I can account for every single hour in 52 weeks.”
Roger Makin, a spokesman with the New Mexico Municipal League, said the judge is not a city employee, so there is no need for him to file a time sheet. The city is charged with paying municipal judges to enforce municipal ordinances, and owing to a separation of powers, the judge sets his own hours, Makin said.
“Just pay him an annual salary,” Makin said. “His hours are totally up to him. In essence, he might not be there every day. Every town has particular accounting functions and methods. He’s not an employee.”
Makin confirmed Salazar’s statement that an elected official is paid a full salary even if he works only one day per month. Neither statute nor city ordinance specify how many hours Salazar ought to work to collect a paycheck.
City Finance Director Joyce Sandoval said Monday every city employee is charged with filling out a time sheet.
“It’s always been difficult,” Sandoval said. “Who is the judge’s supervisor? Is the Judicial Standards Commission his boss? I don’t know. I can’t speak to whether it’s appropriate or not.”
Salazar said he approached both Sandoval and former city manager James Lujan during the past year about his time sheet.
“I’ve taken the initiative,” Salazar said. “I am not the city manager’s boss. I am not Joyce Sandoval’s boss. I am not their supervisor. It seems like a really easy solution. It’s an old-fashioned system in effect for a while and it’s time to get it changed.”
Sandoval said she doesn’t know when the current pay process for a municipal judge began or the particulars of what the judge needs to do to earn his salary.
“I don’t know the history of how municipal judges get paid,” Sandoval said. “There’s some disconnect of how it should function.”
Sandoval said every city employee, except elected city councilors, fills out bi-weekly time sheets.
“Councilors are paid to attend meetings and it’s not a job,” Sandoval said. “The judge has an 8 to 5 job in the sense he has to be where he’s doing his job.”
Interim city manager Joe Duran said Tuesday he planned to meet with Mayor Alice Lucero to discuss the issue and to decide whether to change the way Salazar is paid. Some other cities require municipal judges to fill out time cards, Duran said.
“We’re looking at it for auditing purposes and accountability,” Duran said.
An auditor has never questioned how the judge is paid, Salazar said.
District 4 Councilor Cory Lewis said the mayor, councilors and the judge are equals, and councilors should not determine the judge’s schedule — although legally the Council does set his salary.
“(Salazar) has the same authority but in a different area,” Lewis said. “From what I know, Judge Salazar is doing a great job. There’s always people in the other camp casting stones. Live and let live.”
The Rio Grande SUN has filed a formal complaint concerning Salazar’s time card practices with the state Judicial Standards Commission. The Commission Tuesday recommended Salazar be sanctioned for willful misconduct in a separate case (see related story on homepage).