ABQ administrator got hefty pay raise to stay at city hall
One of the top executives under Mayor Richard Berry received a 15 percent raise this year to stay at City Hall. Michael Riordan, Albuquerque’s chief operations officer, is now making nearly $150,000 a year under a raise approved by his supervisor, Rob Perry, the mayor’s top administrator, in February.
In a memo, Perry said he authorized the increase because the University of New Mexico had reached out to Riordan about applying for a higher-paying job there as director of facilities and the physical plant.
Perry said he surveyed the pay of similar executive-level management positions in Albuquerque and decided to boost Riordan’s salary in line with the average of the jobs he surveyed: $149,600.
That ended up being a 15 percent increase over Riordan’s old salary of roughly $130,000.
Perry’s Feb. 5 memo included an interesting roundup of what people in jobs similar to Riordan make, including:
$177,000 for Mike Hammam, CEO and chief engineer of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.
$155,000 for Jeffrey Zumwalt, the UNM director of facilities/physical plant.
$146,000 for Dewey Cave, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments.
At City Hall, management employees who aren’t represented by a union received a 1.5 percent raise in the 2016 fiscal year.
ART landscaping
A judge hasn’t ruled yet on the litigation aiming to halt the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project.
But opponents and supporters alike are still trying to win people over to their side.
Last week, the mayor — an enthusiastic supporter for the project — highlighted the landscaping that’s planned for the bus stations, which will lie in the middle of Central Avenue.
Each station will have a theme based on a unique native plant. Where there’s room, the medians will also have native and low-water-use plants.
“The stations will look dramatically different from other street corridors around the city,” said Mimi Burns, chief landscape architect for the ART project.
Burns works for Dekker Perich Sabatini, a design firm that’s working on the project.
Many stations will have raised planters that help serve as a buffer between the station and passing traffic.