SILVER CITY — The Grant County Commission meeting on June 8 focused heavily on law enforcement and public safety issues. No fewer than 10 sheriff’s department employees spoke during public input, along with a private citizen and a Bayard town councilor, all asking for increased pay for deputies.
County Manager Charlene Webb explained that the ordinance under consideration would ask voters to repeal a 10-year sunset clause on a 2012 law that funds the county’s emergency communications system using an increment of gross receipts tax.
“It’s critically important that this ordinance passes, and this is the first step in moving it forward,” Webb said. “We will also see a special election on Aug. 22.”
District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne emphasized that this would not mean a tax increase, simply the continuation of an existing tax.
The 10 officers who spoke for about 20 minutes or so touched on several common themes — that the department was losing employees to other agencies that paid more, that the job was difficult and at times traumatic, and that they were overworked including covering calls for municipalities that didn’t have 24-hour law enforcement.
While commissioners cannot respond during public comments, they had more to say later during Sheriff Raul Villanueva’s report.
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