Fire, police bargaining agreements approved

The two-year deal includes police officers’ longevity pay

The city recently executed multiyear collective bargaining agreements with unions representing Albuquerque’s firefighters and police officers.

The agreement with the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 244, includes salary compensation increases of 3 percent in fiscal 2019 and 2020.

The paramedic pay plan incentive increased by $350,000 in fiscal 2019 and $202,000 in fiscal 2020.

The city’s agreement with the Albuquerque Police Officers Association includes salary compensation increases that average 10 percent in fiscal 2019 and 4.5 percent in 2020.

The new contract calls for officers next year to start collecting longevity pay bonuses based on their experience. Those bonuses will range from $100 to $600 every pay period starting when an officer gets five years of experience.

Both agreements were approved by the City Council last week.

EQUITY REPORT: A reader inquired about a Journal story published last week on the equity report the city released, titled “An Equity Profile of Albuquerque,” which examined dozens of indicators of economic and social inclusion.

The reader asked for clarification of some statistics showing that poverty and working poverty were on the rise in Albuquerque.

Here’s the key — the report defines “working poor” differently than the federal poverty line measure.

The 2014 federal poverty line figure used in the report is about $24,000 a year for a family of four, while working poor is defined in the report as someone working full time but earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line figure. That number comes to about $48,000 for a family of four.

An article on the National Center for Children in Poverty website states that the federal poverty level measure is based on methodology developed in the 1960s and now widely recognized as outdated.

The equity profile released last week was prepared by PolicyLink and the University of Southern California’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and in collaboration with a host of community organizations.

Read the full report at: http:// nationalequityatlas.org/reports/ equity-profiles.