Valencia County Commissioners tried to give a one-time pay increase — a holiday bonus by another name — to its employees this year but have run into trouble with the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (DFA).

“We have met resistance from DFA. They want clarification as to the purpose of the pay increase — what it’s intended to do,” said County Manager Eric Zamora.

According to law and legal opinion, the county can’t give a bonus to employees.

“We anticipated this issue with DFA and discussed it at length,” said Adren Nance, a county attorney.

Nance said the county is barred from giving a pay increase retroactively. It will need to show that the pay increase isn’t retroactive but the result of employees having successfully completed tasks based on predetermined criteria.

“I think that legally we are in the right, so we’re just going to have to sit down with them,” Nance said.

The county hasn’t given its employees a pay increase for nearly two years, according to Wilma Abril, the county’s budget manager. County commissioners gave a one-time pay increase to employees several years ago with approval from DFA.

“We were not able to fund raises for the employees this year and this is a nonrecurring expense to provide some financial assistance to the county employees,” Zamora said.

If approved, employees will get $300 before taxes. The total one-time cost of the increase is more than $74,500.

The county is meeting with DFA on Tuesday and will try to address the department’s concerns.

This page was published on December 11, 2009 at 12:02pm and is filed under Archive.