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DPS chief happy with pay raise for personnel
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Posted on Oct 09 2004
Great news about salary increases spread through the Department of Public Safety last Thursday after Gov. Juan N. Babauta temporarily lifted the austerity measures placed on the department with the intention of granting fire and police personnel their much-awaited pay increase, a move highly appreciated by DPS commissioner Edward Camacho.
“It’s great news and it’s about time,” Camacho said during a press conference Friday. “Our officers have been fighting for this; they deserve it. These are the officers that have been promoted for a couple of years already and it’s long overdue.”
Babauta, when reached, said that the pay raise would be “commensurate to their ranks.”
“If [officers] were not doing the right thing, they wouldn’t have been recognized with that promotion, and now that our governor has gracefully blessed us with the lifting austerity measures for this purpose…our thanks for making that happen,” Camacho said.
Camacho, however, was uncertain when the pay raise would begin.
“As soon as I see the first check, [then] I can tell you,” he said.
Earlier, a ranking official at DPS said Babauta decided to lift the austerity measure imposed on the department due to its current shortage in personnel and “morale problems.”
“The governor understands that problem so he issued this memorandum,” said the official who asked for anonymity.
The department is currently understaffed as many of its members are among the Army Reserve personnel who left last August for training in preparation for deployment to Iraq next year.
Babauta’s memorandum for DPS is “temporary” but it is “effective immediately.”
Babauta said other government agencies would continue with their austerity measures for Fiscal Year 2005 in the absence of a new budget passed by the Legislature.
In a memorandum issued to all department and activity heads on Oct. 1, Babauta said that the government will need to continue to operate under all provisions of Public Law 13-24, the last enacted budget law.
