Gonzales: Mayor pay range is ‘too high’
Commission should consider lowering salary for full-time position, mayor says
Mayor Javier Gonzales on Wednesday thrust himself into a growing debate over how much the mayor of Santa Fe should be paid once the job goes from part-time policymaker to full-time chief executive next year.
In a series of tweets, Gonzales said he appreciated the work of the sevenmember Independent Salary Commission but urged the panel to reconsider a proposed salary range of $145,000 to $175,000 a year, plus benefits, calling it “too high to ask taxpayers to cover.”
“I am urging them to give serious consideration to lowering the range as they listen to public input before making their final decision” May 24, Gonzales wrote on Twitter, where he has more than 5,000 followers.
Gonzales said he respected the independence of the commission, which he appointed with the advice and consent of the City Council.
“I know firsthand the demands of the office and the time commitment it takes to fulfill the duties of the office,” he tweeted.
Gonzales, who was traveling to Portland, Ore., to attend the Democratic Attorneys General Association meeting to speak about a range of issues, including Santa Fe’s sanctuary city policy, did not return a message seeking comment.
But city spokesman Matt Ross said the mayor did not get involved in the commission’s work until the group of volunteers said they wanted to solicit public comment.
“It was important for the Independent
Salary Commission to do their work independently to come up with their proposal without any interference,” he said. “At this point, it’s reached the stage where public comment is appropriate, not only appropriate but important. It’s a public discussion that has real ramifications for our city moving forward.”
Ross noted that the commission scheduled a meeting to solicit public input at 6:30 p.m. May 17 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
“The time has come for people to start weighing in on the commission’s proposal that they’ve put out there,” he said, “and they put it out there for the purpose of soliciting public input, and the mayor felt it was important to weigh in.”
One of the members of the commission, Bill Smith, president and CEO of the Santa Fe Community Foundation, said the mayor’s input, as well as the public’s, is welcomed.
“The range was set based on a review of relevant data from our own city public employees and from surrounding jurisdictions, just as directed by the charge to the commission,” he wrote in an email. “But of course, that is but one part of the process. The public comment — including that of our current mayor — is of great weight as well as we set a final salary. The more data points the better.”
Paul Hultin, who chairs the commission, said the panel is still in an information-gathering mode.
“We are listening,” he said in an email. “A salary outside the range proposed for public comment is certainly possible based on new data and feedback we receive on May 17. That’s why we scheduled a meeting solely to receive public comment and additional compensation data.”
Ross emphasized that the process of setting a salary for the mayor was set in stone the same day Gonzales was elected.
In the 2014 municipal election, Santa Fe voters considered nine amendments to the city charter, including a proposal to make the job of mayor a full-time position with the authority to fire the city manager, city attorney and city clerk without council approval. The charter change, which voters approved, requires the mayor to work with city staff to prepare an annual budget and to identify his or her legislative agenda for each upcoming year.
The ballot question stated that the mayor’s salary would be set at $74,000 until an independent salary commission was formed.
City Councilor Ron Trujillo, the first and so far the only person to announce a candidacy for mayor, said the commission should stick with the $74,000 salary for the mayor. He called the salary range of $145,000 to $175,000 “outrageous.”
“I think the commission definitely needs to go back and reassess this again,” he said, adding that he believes voters thought the salary would be $74,000 when they approved the charter change.
Last year, the governing body unanimously approved an ordinance creating the commission with the sole purpose of setting the mayor’s salary. The ordinance says, “The commission shall be independent from the office of the mayor and the governing body so as to remove all conflicts of interest.”
The ordinance directed the commission to set the salary of the mayor by comparing the salaries of other public executives within Santa Fe County, including the county manager, the city manager and the superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools, “as well as the mayor’s salary in cities of comparable size, cost of living, and diversity within the region.”
The commission decided to look at cities in New Mexico, Colorado, West Texas, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona. Finding cities with a mayorcouncil structure in what is known as a strong-mayor form of government was the commission’s primary criterion.
The commission recruited three interns from The University of New Mexico to help with research, which turned up eight cities. The commission eliminated one with the highest pay, Salt Lake City, and the lowest, Pocatello, Idaho, and settled on a salary range of $145,000 to $175,000.
But a review of the commission’s research by The New Mexican, which first reported on the proposed salary range in Tuesday’s edition, revealed several discrepancies. For example, the commission listed the salary of the mayor in Provo, Utah, as $155,307. But Wayne Parker, Provo’s chief administrative officer, said Tuesday the salary is actually $109,500.
Parker said Provo has a commission that recommends what the mayor should be paid. The commission completed a compensation study in March. It recommended raising the mayor’s salary from $109,500 to $120,000 a year.
“In addition to its high rate of growth, Provo has both its own power department and its own commercial airport,” Provo’s compensation commission reported. “These place additional duties and responsibilities on the Provo mayor which are not faced by the mayors of other Utah cities of comparable size. The Compensation Commission states that these extra duties, combined with the other issues inherent to a city the size of Provo, warrant a higher level of compensation than the mayor has been receiving.”
The cost of pension and other benefits for Santa Fe’s full-time mayor would add about 40 percent to the compensation package. According to figures provided to The New Mexican by the city Human Resources Department, the total compensation package for the mayor receiving a salary of $145,000 would total $206,000 a year. If the commission set the salary at $175,000 a year, the total compensation package would be nearly a quarter-million dollars.
Hultin, the commission chairman, said the commission doesn’t need to start over.
“We are following up and doing more research and analysis on the issues raised in your reporting, including the Utah cities,” he wrote. “We expect to have additional data for public review and comment at the May 17 meeting.”
Whatever the commission decides will not be permanent. The ordinance that authorized the appointment of its members to four-year terms, and no more than two terms, says, “The commission shall have the sole power to review and set the mayor’s salary no less than once every four years.” The mayor appoints the chairperson.