Despite a six-figure budget cut and mandatory monthly furloughs for all city employees, the city has created and filled one new job, hired someone for an existing position, promoted an employee to fill another vacancy, and continues its search for two more hires.
In the past month, the city has hired a new fire chief, an administrative services director, and an administrative assistant for the city manager and mayor.
The most recent hire was Julie Sanchez to fill the brand new $39,680-a-year administrative assistant position under City Manager James Lujan.
Lujan said he was looking to hire someone internally but instead went with an outsider.
Sanchez worked as second-grade teacher at Victory Faith Christian Academy before coming to the city, her resume states. Before becoming a teacher in 2008, she worked as a pharmacy clerk at Wal-Mart, a teller at Bank of America, and as a “sails” clerk at AutoZone. Sanchez is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in education.
Sanchez beat out nine other applicants for the job, including individuals with experience as administrative assistants and in records management and bookkeeping, city documents state. The pool of applicants also included city Planning and Zoning code enforcement officer Berlinda Trujillo, whose resume states that from 2000 to 2002 she worked in the city clerk’s office as a records manager. Trujillo did not return a call for comment.
Sanchez said she loved her job as teacher but as a single mom she needed to better provide for her family. Of her lack of local government experience, she said the staff at the city has been helping her.
“You have to multi-task,” she said. “Basically, it’s just the same as class but with different paperwork.”
Several facets of the new administrative assistant position mirror the existing job descriptions of the city clerk and deputy city clerk, prompting at least one city councilor and the city’s union president to question the necessity of the new job.
According to city records, the city clerk is supposed to provide administrative support “including, but not limited to typing correspondence for the mayor, city council and city manager; assist in answering and handling of correspondence for mayor, city council, city manager; receipt and distribution of mail.”
The clerk’s job description also states the clerk will relieve the city manager of administrative details as assigned by the city manager.
The city’s job description for the deputy city clerk position — a post Jessica Martinez held until Aug. 11, according to Information Services Director Joaquin Maestas — states the deputy clerk will manage the city manager’s budget, schedule appointments for the mayor and city manager, answer and screen phone calls, and schedule travel arrangements.
Martinez made $34,998 a year — about $5,000 a year less than Sanchez will make — to do that job, city records state. She could not be reached for this story.
District 1 Councilor Pedro Valdez said he recalls Lujan stating he was going to try to look internally when hiring an administrative assistant. Valdez said the administrative assistant should know state and local government and how it operates.
He also said the position isn’t necessarily needed because of the deputy city clerk and city clerk positions.
District 4 Councilor Cory Lewis saw it otherwise.
“If there’s a need, then there’s a need,” he said.
Lewis said he imagines Lujan’s job can get pretty overwhelming and from what he’s heard Sanchez has been doing a pretty good job.
Maestas, who is also the city’s employee union president, said while he understands existing positions, especially in the water and wastewater division, need to be filled because of understaffing, he would have liked to see the city save some money and perhaps alleviate some employee furloughs rather than create a new job.
New Finance Boss
The city has also promoted financial analyst Joyce Sandoval to the position of administrative services director, which oversees the Information Technology, Finance and Utilities Departments. Sandoval had been named acting administrative services director earlier this summer when former administrative services director Ron Archuleta resigned weeks after being sentenced for a first-time DWI offense and amid allegations he showed up to work May 6 hung-over from the previous night.
Before coming to the city in 2008, Sandoval worked as comptroller for Northern New Mexico College, according to former college finance vice president Andres Salazar, who oversaw Sandoval. He said Sandoval left not under normal contract circumstances and said she had difficulty with managerial duties.
“She had trouble managing people,” he said. “She’s really not a people person.”
Salazar said people within the college’s finance department tried to work with Sandoval, but it didn’t work out. Sandoval had her comptroller position stripped from her in December 2008, and she was offered another job as an accountant with the college, Salazar said.
“She’s not incompetent,” he said of Sandoval’s accounting skills.
Salazar said Sandoval was a fair accountant and on a scale of zero to 10, he would give her a five.
As for her new position with the city, Salazar said he had concerns about Sandoval managing other people.
As administrative services director, Sandoval manages at least seven people, with two more positions in the Finance Department currently vacant.
Sandoval did not return calls for comment.
Fire Chief Laying Low
The city has also hired Stephen Branch as the new fire chief. Branch’s resume states he served as a lieutenant with the Los Alamos Fire Department until 2008, but Los Alamos Fire Chief Doug Tucker said Branch retired from the Department in 2008 without management experience, a prerequisite for the city’s top fire job.
“He was one of our more experienced officers,” Tucker said.
Tucker said Branch ran the station and was a training instructor at the Department’s fire academy for new recruits.
After retiring, Branch went to work as the assistant director of engineering and safety officer at Encantado Resort in Santa Fe until January of this year, his resume states. Tucker said that may be where Branch got his management experience.
“I have not personally witnessed it,” he said.
Calls to Branch at his home and office were not returned, and neither Mayor Alice Lucero nor Lujan returned numerous requests for comment.
The city refused to provide the applications for all three positions discussed in this article until days before Lujan made job offers to fill the posts.
The city has also solicited resumes for a procurement officer and grants administrator, though these positions had not been filled as of Tuesday.
Resumes and applications for all these positions are or will be posted on the Rio Grande SUN’s website under the “Our Government” tab. Click on the link titled “City of Española Public Documents.”
Of the city’s $11.4 million fiscal year 2012 budget, $7.7 million, or about 67 percent, is designated for employee salaries and benefits, according to budget documents the city submitted to the state Department of Finance and Administration.
That figure reflects the mandatory 12 furlough days for all city employees in fiscal year 2012.