1998 -NMSC- 43, State ex rel. Haragan v. Harris

• Decision Date: 21 October 1998
• Docket Number: No. 24365,24365
• Citation: 968 P.2d 1173,1998 NMSC 43,126 N.M. 310
• Parties: , 1998 -NMSC- 43 STATE of New Mexico ex rel. Maudene HARAGAN, Pauline Clark, David C. Sanders, Jake Lopez, Board of County Commissioners of Roosevelt County, Pat Snipes-Chappelle, Gordon N. Crane, Judy Dorothy Woodward, Sandy Padilla, W.L. Mobley, Rita Torres, Joyce Deavours, W.A. Snipes, Patricia Aragon, James McSwane, and Eugene Gilbert, Petitioners-Appellees, v. David HARRIS, Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, and Jeff Condrey, Director of the Local Government Division, Respondents-Appellants.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 1173

968 P.2d 1173

126 N.M. 310, 1998 -NMSC- 43

STATE of New Mexico ex rel. Maudene HARAGAN, Pauline Clark David C. Sanders, Jake Lopez, Board of County Commissioners of Roosevelt County, Pat Snipes-Chappelle, Gordon N. Crane Judy Dorothy Woodward, Sandy Padilla, W.L. Mobley, Rita Torres, Joyce Deavours, W.A. Snipes, Patricia Aragon, James McSwane, and Eugene Gilbert, Petitioners-Appellees, v. David HARRIS, Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, and Jeff Condrey, Director of the Local Government Division, Respondents-Appellants.

No. 24365.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Oct. 21, 1998.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 4, 1998.

Daniel A. Bryant, Ruidoso, for Petitioners-Appellees.

Hon. Tom Udall, Attorney General, Elizabeth A. Glenn, Assistant Attorney General, Peter Franklin, Department of Finance and Administration, Santa Fe, for Respondents-Appellants.

OPINION

McKINNON, Justice.

¶1 Petitioners are elected officers from various counties who happened to be at midterm on the effective date of a salary increase. They, along with all elected county officers in their respective counties, were granted a salary increase by their local county commissions in accordance with NMSA 1978, § 4-44-12.3 (1991). All of the pay raises were to be effective on January 1, 1995, without regard to whether an officer was in midterm or starting a new term. See id. Because many elected county officers serve staggered terms, this effective date fell in the midst of a term of office for some officers, like Petitioners. Respondents, the Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration and the Director of the Local Government Division of that department (collectively, the Department), refused to approve county budget amounts for the raises of those county officers in midterm, citing Article IV Section 27 of the New Mexico Constitution. The effect of this action was to deny to Petitioners and about 165 others ¹ the salary increases their counties had decided were merited and due, while their colleagues who happened to begin new terms on January 1, 1995, were granted increases in compensation.

¶2 Petitioners challenged the Department's action in district court by seeking declaratory judgment and a writ of mandamus compelling the Department to approve the midterm salary increases. After trying the case on stipulated facts, the district court entered declaratory judgment in favor of Petitioners and issued the writ of mandamus ordering the Department to approve all county budgets which granted salary increases for midterm officers. The Department appealed, and the Court of Appeals certified the question to this Court.

¶3 We now reverse the district court's judgment. We hold that the midterm increases violate Article IV Section 27 of the New Mexico Constitution, which provides that compensation for public officers shall not "be increased or diminished during [her or] his term in office, except as otherwise provided in this constitution." N.M. Const. art. IV, § 27.

DISCUSSION

¶4 At issue in this case is the relationship between two state constitutional provisions. Article X Section 1 provides:

The legislature shall at its first session classify the counties and fix salaries for all county officers, which shall also apply to those elected at the first election under this constitution. And no county officer shall receive to [her or] his own use any fees or emoluments other than the annual salary provided by law, and all fees earned by any officer shall be by [her or] him collected and paid into the treasury of the county.

N.M. Const. art. X, § 1 (emphasis added). Article IV Section 27 provides:

No law shall be enacted giving any extra compensation to any public officer, servant, agent or contractor after services are rendered or contract made; nor shall the compensation of any officer be increased or diminished during [her or] his term of office, except as otherwise provided in this constitution.

N.M. Const. art. IV, § 27 (emphasis added). We first indicate whether the "county officers" named in Article X Section 1 are "public officers" as that term is used in Article IV Section 27. In State ex rel. Baca v. Montoya, 20 N.M. 104, 108-09, 146 P. 956, 957 (1915), this Court held that in the absence of an appropriation from the legislature, an appointed deputy county assessor could not be paid a salary because he was a "public officer" within the meaning of Article X Section 1. See also Pollack v. Montoya, 55 N.M. 390, 392-95, 234 P.2d 336, 338-39 (1951). Clearly, all of the elected county officers here are public officers.

A. ARTICLE X SECTION 1 CONTAINS NO LANGUAGE THAT WOULD EXPRESSLY OR IMPLIEDLY "PROVIDE OTHERWISE" THAN THE RULE IN ARTICLE IV SECTION 27.

¶5 Article IV Section 27 states a general rule that salary changes shall not ¶6 There is no language in Article X Section 1 that provides for an exception to the prohibition in Article IV Section 27. The first sentence of Article X Section 1 does grant the Legislature the power to set county officers' salaries: "The [L]egislature shall at its first session classify the counties and fix salaries for all county officers, which shall also apply to those elected at the first election under this constitution." N.M. Const. art. X, § 1 (emphasis added). However, there is no expression or implication in this language that salary changes can be made effective before the expiration of current terms. Cf. Blackburn v. Board of County Comm'rs, 67 Wyo. 494, 226 P.2d 784, 787-88 (Wyo.1951) ("[N]either by express provision nor by implication does [the Wyoming constitutional provision analogous to Article X Section 1] say that salaries of county officials could be increased or diminished after their election or appointment and during their term of service."). A constitutional provision that grants salary authority to the legislature, without more, must be subject to the general rule. This language appears to be exactly the kind of grant of legislative power that Article IV Section 27 was designed to limit. See Board of Comm'rs v. Henry, 33 Okla. 210, 126 P. 761, 762-63 (Okla.1912).

become effective before the expiration of current terms. That general rule also accommodates an exception: changes effective in midterm can occur if a provision in the Constitution "provides otherwise." Article IV Section 27 thus requires us to examine the particular constitutional provision (not, as the dissent suggests, a legislative enactment) and to determine whether it is governed by the general rule or the exception.

¶7 Petitioners argue, and the dissent apparently agrees, that the language in the second sentence of Article X Section 1, "no county officer shall receive ... any fees or emoluments other than the annual salary provided by law," implicitly grants "plenary, unfettered power to the legislature to set salaries." They conclude that exercise of such power is an exception to the Article IV Section 27 bar on midterm changes. We cannot agree. By this language the framers implicitly acknowledged the power of the Legislature to set the salaries of county officials; however, nothing in this language expressly or impliedly authorizes salary increases to be made effective before the expiration of current terms. Further, Article X Section 1 furnishes no guidance on when salary changes may be made, which also supports our view that the general rule applies. See Blackburn, 226 P.2d at 788 ("Indeed, there is nothing in the language of [the Wyoming analog of Article X Section 1] ... which could in a fair interpretation of that language convey to the ordinary mind of the electorate that anything was intended which would interfere with the prohibition as to the alteration of salaries embodied in the phraseology of [the Wyoming analog of Article IV Section 27]."). We simply cannot read this language as permitting salary increases for county officers to be effective before the expiration of current terms. ²

¶8 The purpose of the language in Article X Section 1 on which Petitioners rely is to replace the fee-based system of compensation operated by the counties prior to statehood with a salary-based system controlled by the Legislature. See State ex rel. Gilbert v. Board of Comm'rs, 29 N.M. 209, 213, 222 P. 654, 655 (1924); cf. Thomas J. Mabry, New Mexico's Constitution in the Making--Reminiscences of 1910, 19 N.M. Hist. Rev. 168, 173 (1943) (At the time the state constitution was drafted in 1910 "[b]oth parties were united in its purpose to end the pernicious and extravagant fee system for county officers."). While this provision undoubtably required the Legislature to shoulder more authority in determining the compensation afforded to county officers, it still shared much in common with the purpose of Article IV Section 27. Both provisions are intended to preclude arbitrary variations in compensation that might "harass and cripple ¶9 The fact that the Legislature delegated the salary decision, within limits, to the counties in Section 4-44-12.3 does not alter our conclusion. Both the abolition of the fee-based system of compensation and the rule against midterm salary increases are intended to prevent fluctuations in compensation that result from political pressure and conflicts of interest. See Gilbert, 29 N.M. at 214, 222 P. at 655 (framers intended to substitute a salary system of compensation for the fee basis that had existed); cf. Blackburn, 226 P.2d at 792 ("The primary reason that so many states have provisions against the practice (of altering a public officer's compensation by legislative enactment during [her or] his present term) is to relieve the pressure brought to bear upon lawmakers to grant increases." (quoting Russell R. Storm, Jr., Note, Constitutional Law--Rights of Public Officials in Nebraska to Changes in Compensation During Terms of Office, 30 Neb. L.Rev. 112, 114-15 (1950))). We are not persuaded that having the counties instead of the Legislature set the...