Anger grows over proposed pay for mayor
Citizens at public meeting decry $145K-$175K range as excessive, say ballot question was misleading
Several Santa Fe residents Wednesday night told members of a commission responsible for deciding what the city should pay a fulltime mayor that a proposed salary range of $145,000 to $175,000 is outrageously high, with some pointing to the $74,000-a-year tentative pay listed on a ballot question that voters approved three years ago.
The first of two meetings before the Independent Salary Commission to solicit public input drew several dozen people, and many of the 20 who addressed the panel said that when they voted for a charter amendment to change the job of mayor from parttime to full-time chief executive, they believed the salary would be set at $74,000 a year.
The meeting at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center was sometimes confrontational as speakers expressed anger and frustration over a salary range and benefits that could put annual compensation for the elected position as high as $245,000.
One of the speakers, Toni Montoya, called Shannon Lopez, the only Hispanic on the commission, a “token.” At a commission meeting last month, Lopez reluctantly supported the salary range for the purpose of engaging the public but called it too high.
Another speaker, Jim Williamson, pointed out that two members of the commission had contributed money to a campaign to convince voters to support the charter change, with one donating $1,500 and the other $1,000.
“That’s a potential conflict of interest,” Williamson said. “I’m not an attorney. I don’t play one on TV, but there’s definitely an appearance of impropriety.”
Another speaker, Joe Trujillo, said he had reluctantly voted in favor of the charter amendment in the 2014 municipal election. The ballot question stated that the mayor’s salary would be set at $74,000 until an independent salary commission was created.
“But I voted in favor of it with the understanding that salary was set at $74,000,” he said. “When I read in the paper that it was up to $175,000, plus the [benefits], for a possibility of $240,000, there is no word to express my frustration about this. It is deceptive,
dishonest and the proponents of the $175,000 salary should be ashamed of themselves.”
Yvonne Chicoine, who chairs the Santa Fe County Republican Party, said members of the party met Tuesday night and expressed “outrage” at the proposed salary range.
“There was universal agreement that the proposed salary ignored the voters’ intent when they approved the charter amendment in 2014,” she said. “This provides one more example of the disconnect we have in this community between those who are elected and appointed to serve the interest of the public.”
Shannon Moore Boniface, a commission member, told the audience that voters didn’t vote for a $74,000-a-year salary.
“That was just a placeholder” until the commission set the salary, she said. Referring to a chart displayed in the meeting room, she said, “You will also see on the chart that there are 121 employees in the city who make more than $74,000 a year. It would not be the industry standard for the CEO mayor to be paid less than these 121 employees he or she is managing.”
Former Santa Fe County Clerk Rebecca Bustamante called the ballot language “misleading.”
“I just am really concerned with the way the city is writing their questions on the ballot,” she said. “I think we’re going to have to really, really look at that as citizens of Santa Fe in the next election.”
Paul Hultin is chairing the salary commission, which was appointed by Mayor Javier Gonzales with the concurrence of the City Council. Hultin stressed that no decision has been made and that public input will factor into the panel’s decision.
“We’re still gathering more data, including the public input that we’re going to receive tonight,” he said.
The governing body unanimously passed an ordinance late last year that created the commission and assigned its duties. The ordinance states that the commission “shall” set the salary of the mayor by comparing the salaries of other public executives in Santa Fe County, including City Manager Brian Snyder, who is paid nearly $146,000 a year plus benefits, and County Manager Katherine Miller, who is paid $179,707 a year plus benefits. The ordinance also asked the commission to consider the salaries of mayors in cities of “comparable size, cost of living and diversity within the region.”
The commission came up with a salary range in order to solicit public input after reviewing research by three student interns from The University of New Mexico, some of which
discovered was flawed.
“Comparison to existing salaries, that simply establishes that existing salaries are far too high,” said Chicoine, who also said the ordinance didn’t compel the commission to set a salary.
“There is no date requirement,” she said. “You can say, readily, ‘We are not setting a salary.’ Or you can say, ‘We’re going to set the salary of $175,000 to take effect in year 3000.’ ”
Cyndi Conn, executive director of Creative Santa Fe, a group involved in supporting the arts, said the mayor should be paid more than the people on his or her team.
“We need to attract a leader who truly can lead the city,” she said. “I think that you get what you pay for, and so I do believe in many ways that we should look at the wage of the mayor as a CEO and as the leader of his team, and he should be paid higher as a salary than the rest of his team members.”
Some of the people who attended Wednesday’s hearing urged commission members to approach their task differently.
Gregg Bemis, a Republican businessman, commended the commission for a “very professional job,” but said it left out a “proper statement of qualifications” for the job of mayor.
“The reason why that’s so important is because the other thing you haven’t done is recognize the fact that you’re not filling a job,” Bemis said. “The job is filled by an election, not by hiring someone. What you have done is perfect if you are hiring a mayor. But you’re not hiring a mayor. The mayor is selected by the voters, and there’s no relationship between the qualifications that a mayor should have versus necessarily the qualifications that our mayors have had. I don’t believe you should be paying for a silk purse if you’re going to get a sow’s ear.”
The commission has scheduled another hearing for May 24, when the panel plans to make a final decision.