10-12-2026 5:33am

Tularosa trustees approve raises for 20 village employees

Chris Edwards Editor

TULAROSA — The Village of Tularosa Board of Trustees approved hourly raises for 20 village employees at a special meeting this last week. The raises went to workers in the police department, utilities, the clerk's office, the library and solid waste.

The board voted on each raise separately. The increases ranged from 50 cents to $2 an hour, and most will be paid from existing department budgets.

Finance staff told trustees the general fund can absorb the rest. Budgeted revenues of $2,175,151 exceed expenditures of $2,044,107, leaving about $131,044. About $19,569 of the raise costs will come from those revenues.

Police chief: no line item for overtime

Police Chief Geraldine Martinez requested raises for six employees. She told the board her department has no overtime line in its budget, so it moves money from other line items to pay it.

"We try to make the best coverage that we can provide for the village," Martinez said. The department logged about 4,606 overtime hours last year, costing a little over $30,000. It still finished the year at 98.4% of budget.

Martinez asked the board to pay future raises from the general fund, since raises usually come after department budgets are set. She said the state Law Enforcement Protection Fund helped this year, but "who's to say next year they do away with that."

The board gave $1-an-hour raises to dispatchers Albert Barella, Sarah Light and Ornelas, and $1.11 to dispatcher Deidre Dugger. The four staff police radios and phones around the clock and cover each other's 12-hour shifts. Administrative secretary Patrick Macharino received $1.09, and Officer Daniel Sepulveda received $1.

The police raises cost $22,104 including payroll taxes. That comes from a line item budgeted at $23,000.

Utility crew gets $2 raises

Utility Supervisor Angel Vorbeck requested raises for his crew. "I can't do my job without them," he said. "They're the real backbones of everything that we do every day."

The board approved $2 raises for Nathan Bittenker, Brett Signs, Carlos Montoya, Samuel Bentonker and Christopher Chavas. Assistant supervisor Jonathan Salazar received $1.50.

One trustee said the utility department had been overlooked for years while raises went to police and office staff. "They're the ones that are out here every day: wind, rain, snow, weekends," he said. "They're doing the heavy lifting."

Trustees also discussed setting automatic raises for workers who earn state water and sewer operator certifications, so they would not have to wait months for board approval. Bittenker and Signs, who work at the water plant, have until January to reach their certification levels.

The board later approved a $2 raise for Vorbeck himself at Mayor Deborah Cooksey's request. Board members credited him with turning around the village water system. Cooksey said complaints about utility work, once a daily occurrence, have stopped. "I haven't had a call in over a year," she said.

Clerk's office, library and sanitation

Village Clerk Rebecca Garcia requested raises for three employees: $2 for Valerie Delgado, who has managed the village budget for 21 years; $1.52 for Sonia Gilliland, a 32-year employee in accounts payable; and $1 for Karina Duran, who runs the village Motor Vehicle Division office. Garcia said Duran recently received a perfect state audit and will leave the village in December.

Garcia said the village has had one audit finding a year since 2020, down from 11 in the audit she inherited. The remaining finding involves capital asset records, which her office is working to correct.

Cooksey raised library director Linda Vigil's request from $1.50 to $2. She said Vigil runs the summer reading program and keeps the library open with one part-time employee and a volunteer. "Linda is out of sight, out of mind," Cooksey said. "But she does a terrific job."

The mayor also bumped the village sanitation driver's raise to $2, saying he kept working through serious health problems. Garcia called him "a one-man band" who manages his own budget and maintains the trucks.

The board also approved a 50-cent raise for Michelle Dormy.

Debate over the clerk's raise

The sharpest discussion came over Cooksey's request for a $2 raise for Garcia. Cooksey listed Garcia's duties, including procurement, human resources paperwork, records management, audit compliance and state transportation grants. "Everything I do in this village has to go through Rebecca," she said.

One trustee objected. He said Tularosa already pays its clerk $30 an hour, the second-highest among villages its size, against a statewide average of $20.11. He noted grant writing had been reassigned and that the village had hired another employee at $24 an hour to ease Garcia's workload. "I think it's a little excessive," he said.

Cooksey countered with clerk pay in other villages: $45 an hour in Estancia, $40 in Bosque Farms, $35 in Capitan and $31.25 in Ruidoso Downs. She said several of those villages also employ deputy or finance clerks. She disputed that duties had been taken from Garcia, saying the new hire is still learning the job.

Another trustee spoke in Garcia's favor, crediting her with most of the village's recent grants. He said she found a way to keep grant money for the village splash pad when it was at risk of being pulled.

The mayor called for opposing votes and declared the motion passed.

Because it was a special meeting, there was no old or new business. The board adjourned after the final vote.