Nechero lands new, improved county position

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Usually when someone gets a new job with the county government, the new employee settles in quietly to his new duties.

But not Bill Nechero.

In the last month, the city councilman has had two jobs with the county government and for both of them, county officials have had to answer questions from the media about whether he got his job on his own or because Harry Mendoza was wheeling and dealing behind the scenes on his behalf.

The speculation was fueled by the fact that Nechero was a close political ally of Mendoza, the city’s mayor. And Mendoza, who had served on the McKinley County Commission for eight years, was known to still have a lot of friends within the county government.

“I had no idea that he had applied for (either) of the jobs,” Mendoza said. “I’m glad he has a job but I had nothing to do with it.”

County Attorney Doug Decker said he was somewhat surprised when he received calls from the media last month shortly after Nechero had started work at the county adult detention center in the property department.

He was surprised because of all of the jobs within the county government, the ones that are probably the easiest to get are with the adult detention center.

“We always have a high turnover over there and are looking for people,” he said.

Many of the people who are hired at the detention center are young and many use the training to get a higher-paying job elsewhere, such as in the county sheriff’s office. Which is why if someone who is a little older applies and they meet the minimum qualifications, they have no trouble getting hired.

Just as the dust began settling over this job, word came out that Nechero had applied and was hired for another job, one that paid more than the detention center job, from $10 an hour to $15 an hour. Again, said Decker, came the speculation.

Nechero’s new job, as a DWI probation officer, was advertised only for county employees and besides Nechero, three other county employees applied for it — Marilyn Thomas, Elderick Morris and Tawni Chavez.

A review panel, consisting of Claudette Foultz, Cynthia Esponsa, Marlene Lee, Bernice Martinez and Donna Goodrich, interviewed the four applicants and scored the four on various criteria. And Nechero got the highest average score.

Nechero received a 81, Thomas a 70, Morris a 69 and Chavez a 61.

“They all met the minimum requirements but the review board felt that Nechero was the best candidate,” Decker said.

That decision has been criticized because on the surface the candidates who were rejected had more experience in handling DWI matters. One had 13 years as a alcohol abuse counselor.

Decker pointed out, however, that the position required the ability to supervise people and to keep track of those on probation, not counseling them and the panel evidentially decided that Nechero was the most qualified.

Martinez said she wasn’t influenced by anyone in her decision on how to score the various applicants and she didn’t see any collusion between any of the people on the panel. “We did our own score sheets,” she said.

Decker said he views the whole controversy as nothing more than “politics” and feels that the county hiring process was fair to all of the applicants.

Mendoza said that after Nechero sold his gas station on U.S. Highway 66 and Boardman, he did come to the city to see if he could be hired there.

“But there were no openings,” he said. “If there were and he was qualified for the job, he probably would have been hired.”

If he had accepted a city position, however, he would have had to give up his $15,000 a year city councilor position which is why Nechero was also looking for jobs in the county and state governments.