By Lauren Lifke
Town of Edgewood commissioners pointed out several financial missteps at their meeting on Sept. 9, including about $2 million accidentally paid to Santa Fe County over the course of the past seven years, as well as a miscalculation of overtime pay for police officers.
The agreement was for the town to pay 0.25% of its Gross Receipts Tax, and it has been paying Santa Fe County 16% to support the Santa Fe County Fire Station — 64 times the amount it should have been paying. Commissioners also discussed at the meeting a controversy in which police officers have been earning overtime for sick pay, and commissioners voted to establish a working group to resolve the problem.
The agreement between the Town of Edgewood and Santa Fe County contradicts the amount of money that Edgewood has paid for fire support, Interim Clerk-Treasurer Victoria Archuleta said.
Town Manager Nina McCracken said about six people have looked through the calculations and determined the overpayment. She said she talked to the Santa Fe county manager, who told her that he believes Edgewood should continue paying what it has been paying.
“He told me he had no polite words for us, and he didn’t know how he would talk to his commission about it,” McCracken said.
She said that in February 2024, she asked Santa Fe County Manager Gregory S. Shaffer where her constituents’ funds were going at the Santa Fe County Fire station. She said she asked five times and received nothing.
“All we know is that we have found an error, and we have to fix it going forward,” McCracken said. “It is unfair to our constituents to be grossly overpaying, and I do understand that the fire department needs funds, but they have to exist there regardless of whether we pay them or not, because they have to serve the constituents of Santa Fe County — and that’s where I have a problem.”
McCracken said she plans to get attorneys involved to figure out how the funds were calculated and what to do moving forward.
McCracken also said she was informed that police officers were being paid overtime despite not having physically worked more than their allotted 80 hours during the pay period.
New Mexico’s sick leave accrual law says overtime is paid only for all hours worked, and sick leave hours do not count toward overtime, according to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.
“In all the years I’ve worked, I have never heard of vacation time, sick time or holiday time ever being calculated in for overtime, so that’s my position,” Mayor Ken Brennan said.
District 2 Commissioner Stephen Murillo said the overtime pay was an interim status fix that was set up in September 2024. He looked through the town employee handbook and the Edgewood Police Department Standard Operating Procedure manual and found no mention of overtime policies, he said.
The commission plans to discuss overtime policies at its special meeting on Friday, Sept. 19, according to the agenda.
