Council approves 1.5% pay raise for firefighters

Recurring funds will need to be found

Albuquerque’s firefighters will receive a 1.5 percent raise after all, as city councilors voted to approve a resolution granting the pay increase during Monday night’s meeting.

Councilors and sponsors Ken Sanchez, Don Harris and Isaac Benton, as well as Councilors Klarissa Peña, Cynthia Borrego and Pat Davis voted in favor of the legislation.

Councilors Trudy Jones, Diane Gibson and Brad Winter voted in opposition.

A similar resolution died at the last meeting on a 4-4 vote.

Harris said the raise brings firefighter salaries up to the level they would have been in 2010, had they received raises promised in their contract. Instead, their pay was cut due to a budget crunch.

“As we work together to get a handle on the public safety crisis, we truly appreciate the Councilors who voted for improving recruitment and retention for Albuquerque’s firefighters and paramedics to better serve the public,” Diego Arencón, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 244, wrote in an emailed statement.

Benton had voted against the previous bill, but cosponsored the one approved Monday, which included transferring more than $761,000 for use for affordable housing projects.

“We do have a lot of neighbors who are rent-burdened,” Benton said.

The raises cost around $211,000 in one-time money for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2018 and Chief Financial Officer Sanjay Bhakta said the approval means an offbalance budget for Fiscal Year 2019.

“It balances for the remainder of the year,” Bhakta said.

Council Finance Officer Stephanie Yara said the council will have to amend the budget it receives from the mayor on April 1 to find recurring money to pay the raises.

Language in the bill states “that it shall be the policy of the City Council to identify and include recurring funding for this 1.5 percent wage increase for Fire Union employees in the Fiscal Year 2019 operating budget and subsequent years.”

“In other words, we’re already pledging GRT from 2019, correct?” Councilor Gibson asked Bhakta, who agreed.

The City Council had approved a 1.5 percent raise at the beginning of the fiscal year and agreed to consider an additional 1.5 percent raise midway through the year if gross receipts tax revenues were high enough.

The revenues were below expectations, leading Gibson to vote against the resolution.

“We never made any promises for a 3 percent raise,” she said.

Councilor Jones, too, opposed the measure.

“I think we are foolhardy to put something in that we don’t have a budget for in the following year,” Jones said.

City officials have reported a shortfall of as much as $40 million for the upcoming fiscal year.