County to seek new MDC chief

Interim administrator Tom Ruiz will stay on to help ensure continuity

The search is on for a new Metropolitan Detention Center chief.

Nine months after retired court administrator Tom Ruiz was brought in as the interim jail administrator, Bernalillo County has launched a national search for the position and is hoping to hire a new chief late this summer.

“Bernalillo County is committed to becoming a national leader on jail and mental health reform, which saves tax dollars and improves public safety,” County Manager Julie Morgas Baca said Friday in a news release. “We’re looking for a permanent jail chief who will continue to make safety a priority for the Metropolitan Detention Center staff and inmates, while also focusing on efficiency, transparency and accountability to the community we serve.”

The county posted the position on its website on Thursday and is also advertising on several job sites. The posting comes less than six weeks after the Bernalillo County Correction’s Officer Association announced a noconfidence vote against Ruiz, saying it had no faith in his leadership and that his abilities were not appropriate for leadership at MDC.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with the no-confidence vote,” Morgas Baca told the Journal. “I have the utmost confidence in (Ruiz).”

In its news release, the county states that Ruiz has stabilized the jail since his arrival, and that he will help train the new chief and remain at MDC “to support the county manager’s mission to improve the Metropolitan Detention Center for staff, inmates and taxpayers.”

“A lot of hard work and tough decisions have been made, and we want to sustain those going forward by keeping Mr. Ruiz on board during the transition and to continue to assist the county on phasing out of the McClendon lawsuit,” Morgas Baca said.

“I want to ensure that the incoming chief will have all of the tools he or she needs for success, including the opportunity to hire individual members of the management team, such as assistant jail chiefs.”

The county jail marked a major milestone last year when a federal judge adopted a settlement that outlines a path to ending 20 years of litigation over conditions inside MDC.

The settlement was due, in part, to the jail’s progress in reducing its inmate population after years of overcrowding. The detention center has also been working to improve medical care and overhaul mental health services.

Nevertheless, county commissioners continue to be frustrated by overtime at the jail, among other things. The county spent more than $7 million on overtime for detention center employees last fiscal year.

Anyone interested in the job has until May 20 to apply.

The county has had difficulty hiring MDC chiefs in the past.

Last July, the county manager rescinded a job offer to Michael Watkins of Texas after county staffers had trouble verifying his work history. And former MDC Chief Phillip Greer resigned in October 2015 just 10 months after he was hired through a national search.