As state legislators and Gov. Susana Martinez begin negotiating the fiscal year 2015 budget on the eve of the state’s 30-day legislative session, an increase in the state budget could have an impact for at least one Española municipal judge.
If the budget is increased, Española Municipal Judge Stephen Salazar could be the highest paid employee in the city. Thanks to an ordinance the Española City Council passed in 1984, the municipal judge’s salary is equal to the magistrate court’s salary, which is currently $79,537.
Under the ordinance, if the magistrate judges’ salaries rise, so does the salary of the municipal judge.
A Jan. 3 press release states the Legislative Finance Committee is proposing a 5 percent increase in judicial salaries as a part of a 4.3 percent state budget increase.
A 5 percent increase would set Salazar’s annual salary at $88,516. Barring raises to other city employees, Salazar’s new pay rate would surpass that of interim city manager Joe Duran and E-911 Director Marti Griego, who currently hold the top two spots.
For the past two years, legislators have followed the lead of the Judicial Compensation Commission, which was established by the legislature in 2004, to recommend judiciary compensation and benefit plans to the Legislative Finance Committee and the state Department of Finance and Administration.
Bill Fulginiti is the executive director for the state Municipal League and a member of the six-person Commission.
Fulginiti said an increase in state revenue should increase the chances of a judiciary salary increase.
“There’s a possibility this year there’s money for increased judicial compensation,” he said.
Another advocate for higher judicial pay, state Administrative Office of the Courts Director Artie Pepin, is confidant this could be the judges’ year.
“I’m hopeful and optimistic that we can see money for judicial compensation,” he said.
Martinez, however, is less optimistic about a judicial salary increase. In a press release distributed by the governor’s office, Martinez’s proposed budget did not include any language about judiciary salaries.
“We do hope to address some of these compensation issues and disparities through targeted reforms in the upcoming session,” Martinez’s Communications Director Enrique Knell wrote in an email about state employee salaries. “This does not include judges.”
Even as he advocates for higher judicial salaries, Pepin admitted salaries have increased “a lot” since the city passed the ordinance in 1984.
As it stands, Salazar makes more than municipal judges in municipalities with similar and larger populations. Comparing Española’s salary list to other cities, Salazar makes more money than municipal judges in Gallup, Hobbs, Sunland Park, Silver City, Socorro and Grants.
Municipalities of similar sizes — Grants, Silver City and Socorro — pay an average judicial salary of $32,335, while cities double and triple the size of — Gallup and Hobbs, respectively — averaged a salary $61,844.
Despite having a population almost twice the size of Española’s, Sunland Park Municipal Judge Lizette Salinas hit the bottom of the list with an average salary of $20,000.
The judges compared to Salazar have varying levels of experience. While the municipal judges in Sunland Park, Silver City, Grants and Hobbs are all finishing out their first four-year term, Gallup Municipal Judge Linda Padilla and Socorro Municipal Judge Frances Cases have a combined 39 years on the bench. The municipal judges studied averaged nine years of experience compared to Salazar’s 11.
Even with Salazar’s comparatively high salary, the Council has shown no signs of repealing or amending the ordinance.
Mayor Alice Lucero said she had never heard any discussion of repealing the ordinance in her time as a city clerk and while on the Council.
“I realize that it’s a lot of money for a city with a small budget,” Lucero said about Salazar’s annual pay.
Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Salazar said it’s an issue the Council should revisit, especially considering the amount of outdated ordinances that were cleared off the books when the Council passed a new code of ordinances in November.
“There’s a lot of things back then that we haven’t gone back to,” Dennis Salazar said.
Stephen Salazar has already cost the city more money than anticipated since taking the bench in 2003.
The city paid $15,000 in legal fees for Salazar to defend himself in various litigations. The city agreed to pay an additional $7,700 in legal fees in 2012 for a Supreme Court hearing, but the decision was rendered moot when the state Supreme Court blocked the city from giving Salazar any municipal funds in the case.
Salazar racked up legal fees to defend himself against 2007 allegations that he acted improperly in a domestic violence case and a 2012 incident where he illegally issued an ex parte order to release a motorcycle belonging to the son of a fellow church member, among other things.
Both times, Salazar was found guilty and was ordered to serve probation. Salazar also served a 90-day suspension for the 2012 incident.
Salazar did not return requests for comment.