City officials have contracts extended
Measure is meant to help as Santa Fe transitions to new mayor next month
Top city personnel will stay at their posts an additional 30 days after the end of the Gonzales administration next month to provide for a smooth transition period between mayors, the City Council decided this week.
On a 5-1 vote, councilors approved extensions to the contracts of City Manager Brian Snyder and City Attorney Kelley Brennan, both of whom would otherwise see their deals expire at the conclusion of Mayor Javier Gonzales’ term.
Both said they would continue on in a transition period if the council approved the idea.
The resolution also exercised a similar 30-day renewal provision already built into the contract of City Clerk Yolanda Vigil.
The next mayor, who will be elected March 6, is scheduled to be sworn in March 12. He or she will be the first “strong” mayor in Santa Fe, with sole authority to fire the city manager, attorney and clerk.
The incoming mayor’s top administrative appointees could come before the City Council for consideration at the scheduled March 28 meeting at the earliest.
The extensions will help ensure ongoing concerns, such as budget negotiations, are not interrupted, said Councilor Chris Rivera, who introduced the proposal.
Councilor Joseph Maestas, the lone vote against the extensions, unsuccessfully proposed an amendment that would have explicitly terminated the three officials’ contracts at the end of the 30-day period.
Maestas, one of five candidates for mayor, said the temporary renewals would be an imposition on the next city administration, and he argued a clause in Snyder’s contract — which allows the city manager to revert back to his prior position in the city water division — “sends the wrong message” to the other at-will employees in the city.
“They don’t have any protection to get a classified position,” Maestas said. “I think this contract is too open-ended. I think we ought to clarify it. … I fundamentally don’t think it’s right to allow [Snyder] to burrow in.”
Snyder, who earns almost $143,000 a year, said he was “not comfortable” with Maestas’ proposed amendment, and Maestas’ council colleagues generally agreed.
“I think that Mr. Snyder has met his obligations to the city under his contract, and I think we need to meet ours,” said Councilor Mike Harris.
Councilor Peter Ives, another candidate for mayor, said he supported the extensions “from a continuity perspective” but added he was no particular fan of the reversion clause.
“I would certainly be an advocate for changing that on a going-forward basis,” Ives said. “If someone is going to be service in a high-level capacity with the city at the salary being paid, to me, it doesn’t make sense … to have a provision where they come back automatically into a classified circumstance.”