A meeting called to quell fears among North Central Solid Waste Authority employees about the organization’s troubled finances ended Nov. 19 with what one Authority Board member called a “gripe session” about management.
The discussion between two groups — four Board members and about 30 employees — initially focused on problems with illegal dumping and basics of the Authority’s budget. But after about an hour Board Chairman and Assistant Rio Arriba County Manager Tomas Campos asked interim Authority Manager Michele Martinez and Operations Supervisor Steve Madrid to leave the room, saying some employees feared retaliation for complaining about their bosses.
What followed was a string of complaints from the garbage collectors who said conditions at work have deteriorated recently as the organization cuts corners to save money. Workers said they had been stripped of overtime pay, harassed about taking sick leave and written up for petty infractions.
“Employee morale at North Central is at an all-time low,” administrative assistant Jose Castillo said.
The Authority is $1.44 million in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, the city of Española, the state’s Risk Management Division and its vendors, according to Authority documents. It has yet to pass a budget for this fiscal year, although one was due June 30. The Authority’s Board includes a representative of each member governments: the city, the County and the Ohkay Owingeh and Santa Clara pueblos.
The disgruntled employees seemed to speak freely despite repeated warnings from Campos that they weren’t necessarily assured anonymity because the meeting — at which there was a quorum of the Board — was being recorded and a reporter was present.
“We’re like prisoners at our own jobs,” driver Ralph Marquez said, referring to what he said was overly harsh discipline for minor infractions.
Many of the complaints were directed specifically at Martinez or Madrid. Board member and Española District 2 Councilor Alfred Herrera defended Martinez specifically, noting she had just been promoted to interim manager Nov. 18 and she had major financial problems to worry about.
“She’s under an awful lot of pressure,” Herrera said.
It should be noted that Herrera is a strong supporter of Martinez’s sister, Acting City Manager Veronica Albin, who has publicly stated she is supporting his mayoral campaign.
Harold Goodnight, a driver, was particularly vocal about a policy he said kept him from getting overtime pay one week because he needed to leave work a half-hour early one day. If employees work more than eight hours in a particular day, but later in the week miss work because they are sick or otherwise absent without giving notice, they aren’t paid the overtime rate for the day they worked more than eight hours, he said.
“We’ve been stripped of our overtime,” Goodnight said.
The same issue was brought up the day before when former employee Ernest Bermudez told the Board he was retaliated against for complaining to Martinez about the overtime policy. Bermudez said Nov. 18 his termination last month was directly related to his complaints, which he took to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.
Documents provided by Bermudez show former Manager Joe Lewandowski later informed Workforce Solutions the discrepancy was due to a “miscalculation” on Bermudez’s timecard and he was paid $28.
Martinez declined to speak about Bermudez’s situation because it was a personnel matter, but she defended the overtime policy, saying it is clearly outlined in the Authority’s Personnel Policies and Procedures. The policy states “sick leave, vacation leave, holiday, leave without pay or other non worked hours shall be included in the work period for purposes of computing overtime pay.”
Workforce Solutions spokeswoman Carrie Moritomo said it would be against the law not to pay overtime if an employee worked more than 40 hours in a week, but not necessarily because one worked more than eight hours in a single day.
There are exceptions for certain professional positions and agricultural workers, Moritomo said. She said any worker who feels they have been underpaid can file a wage claim with Workforce Solutions, as Bermudez did.
Martinez said it was the Board’s idea, not hers, to have her and Madrid leave during the second half of the meeting, although she said she agreed to do so voluntarily.
“I think I should have been able to respond,” she said.
Martinez, who typically transcribes the minutes for the Authority’s Board meetings, said she planned to do so for the Nov. 19 meeting as well, meaning she would listen to the entire recording of the complaints. Herrera and Board member Dino Chavarria said they expected a different member of the office staff would transcribe the minutes.
Martinez insisted no employees would be retaliated against for complaining about her or Madrid.
Herrera said the initial purpose of the meeting was not to criticize management, but to reassure the employees that the Authority was working to fix its finances.
“It was really not set up to be kind of a gripe session,” he said.