A new law meant to curb so-called "double-dipping" could seriously compromise security at state District Court downtown and at Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said Wednesday.

The law, signed by Gov. Bill Richardson on Tuesday, aims to stop public employees from returning to work in government jobs and collect both a salary and a pension. Now a retiree in the Public Employees Retirement Association system will have to wait a year and give up their pension if they take another government job.

And while the approximately 1,500 state and municipal employees who already collect a salary and a pension won't have to quit, they will have to start paying into the PERA system again. The new payments will not increase the employee's pension after they quit.

"I call it a return-to-work tax," Solano said. "It's a direct pay cut."

Currently, five deputies and a sergeant work at District Court, and one deputy is posted at Magistrate Court. Four of those seven employees, who are all retired police or corrections officers, will have to begin contributing between 7 percent and 16 percent of the $18 to $23 an hour they currently make, he said. The county is figuring out exactly how much it will be, Solano said.

If all four of those deputies decide to quit rather than begin PERA contributions again, Solano said he can't afford to pull deputies off the street to work at the courthouse. Instead, he said he will operate the courts without much, if any, security.

"The court will go lacking," Solano said.

If a deputy does quit, Solano explained, he could use their salary to hire another deputy. However, his policy is to hire only certified law enforcement officers, which have become harder and harder to come by and require a year of training. In addition, he said, it's hard to get young deputies to work at the courthouse as opposed to working the streets.

The first position to go will be the deputy assigned to Magistrate Court, he said, which isn't legally required. At state District Court on Catron Street downtown, the two remaining deputies and one sergeant will be ordered to concentrate on transporting and guarding prisoners, Solano said.

"I'll be honest with you," Solano said, "they will be doing transports. There will be no security. If I lose half (the deputies), there's no way I can do transports and security."

Solano said that might mean having no one available to man the security checkpoint at the courthouse's front door.

"It could pose serious problems at that courthouse," he said. Solano pointed out that deputies got into a shootout with a suspect in front of the courthouse in the mid-1980s, and a lawyer was shot dead on a sidewalk near the courthouse in 1999.

District Judge Michael Vigil, who is chief of security at the courthouse, called the possible lack of security "frightening."

"The number of prisoners brought to this courthouse could not be safely done with three deputies," he said. "We're stretching it now with the people we have. Reducing it to three is a recipe for disaster."

Vigil also said the double-dipping bill could affect bailiffs at the courthouse, many of whom are retired law enforcement officers.

Sgt. Vanessa Pacheco, security supervisor at the courthouse, said deputies transport between 300 and 600 prisoners a month to the courthouse. In October, deputies transported 306 inmates to the courthouse from Santa Fe County and 29 others from outside the county, according to statistics furnished by Pacheco. During the same month, deputies arrested 113 people at the courthouse for warrants and other reasons, the statistics say.

Deputies also must pick up prisoners arrested around the state on local warrants, keep peace in the courthouse and transport defendants newly sentenced to prison, she said.

"There is no possible safe way to effectively operate and do what we're assigned to do," Pacheco said.

Deputy Dan Nava, 57, worked nearly 23 years for the Santa Fe Police Department and has worked at the courthouse for nine years. He said he is weighing his options and might stay on because he is guardian for his 14-year-old grandson and needs the benefits. Still, if he has to pay 16 percent of his salary, he said he might look for other solutions.

"I don't get anything for that money," he said. "I'd be paying it out and it's just gone."

Nava said he'd be worried if security went lacking.

"People who come to this courthouse are not here to have a good time," he said. "They're here because they have a problem."

The new law will apply to government employees who retire after July 1.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.