Commission deciding on next mayor's salary seeks public comment Tuesday

Apr. 29—The Santa Fe Independent Salary Commission is on a tight timeline to decide the salary of the city's next mayor, with a deadline Tuesday set by an ordinance.

The commission, appointed April 19, will hold a meeting Tuesday evening with an opportunity for members of the public to weigh in on the discussion. The seven-member group met for the first time Friday and again Monday morning.

"I would hate to have this meeting tomorrow and have an empty house," Commissioner Fabian Trujillo said at the Monday meeting.

Speakers at Tuesday's meeting might include Mayor Alan Webber, who earns $110,000 annually. Commissioners said they would like to have Webber address the responsibilities of the job and how many hours a week he dedicates to the position, which includes public meetings, ceremonial duties and administrative work.

City staff is working to provide the commission with data on the salaries of comparable government officials in New Mexico and elsewhere, Human Resources Director Bernadette Salazar said. She noted, however, Santa Fe's governance structure, in which the mayor is full time and also a member of the City Council, is a rarity that makes comparisons difficult.

Salaries for other New Mexico mayors are relatively low, Salazar said, though many don't serve in the role full time.

Commissioner Stefanie Beninato said it will be important for people to offer input on the mayor's pay Tuesday evening based on the role and not their opinions of Webber or anyone else who might run for the job in the November 2025 election. The new mayor will take office in 2026.

"I hope if the public makes comments tomorrow that they're going to not focus on why they don't like this mayor but on what they think the salary should be and why, as opposed to personality," Beninato said.

The commission's tight turnaround time was due to a low number of applicants, interim City Clerk Geralyn Cardenas said, adding the deadline for applications had to be extended multiple times.

The seven commissioners were selected by the city Ethics and Campaign Review Board from a pool of only eight. Previously, commissioners were chosen by the mayor, a practice that raised concerns about a conflict of interest. The Tuesday deadline to set the salary is to ensure it is decided before any candidates declare they are running for mayor.

So far, neither Webber nor anyone else has signaled an intention to run next year.

At Friday's meeting, members of the Independent Salary Commission asked city staff if there was any way they could get more time to do their work. But they didn't seem to find any options.

The salary commission first convened in 2017 after being appointed by then-Mayor Javier Gonzales, who opted not to run for reelection. In May of that year, the commission decided by a vote of 4-3 to set the next mayor's salary at $110,000, which went into effect after Webber took office in 2018. That salary was not changed by the 2021 commission, Salazar said.

Many other city leaders earn more than $110,000 a year. According to 2023 data, City Manager John Blair had a salary of $172,500 and former City Clerk Kristine Bustos-Mihelcic made about $133,000 at the time of her departure. Former Community Health and Safety Director Kyra Ochoa made $146,000, and the public works director made $145,000 last year.

Albuquerque has an independent salary commission selected by the city's Accountability in Government Committee. The commission voted last year to increase the next mayor's pay 10% to about $146,000.

Members of the Santa Fe commission have indicated they will factor in the cost of living in Santa Fe and the responsibilities of the job when deciding the salary.

Beninato said she is concerned if the salary is too high, people will run just because of the money. She also suggested she would support a cost-of-living increase.

Commissioner Bridget Dixson, president and CEO of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce, said she would like the mayor to be able to afford to live in the city they represent — though someone who lives outside city limits would not be eligible to run for the office.

While she noted Beninato's concern, "I do think we need to take into consideration the cost of living and how it continues to increase," Dixson said, wondering aloud whether it would be feasible for someone making the mayor's salary to afford today's median home price, which she said is $680,000.

Trujillo said politicians, especially in the New Mexico Legislature, tend to be "people who are wealthy or people who are retired, because there's no pay for them." He doesn't want that for Santa Fe.

"I would like to see a robust slate of candidates running for mayor in this next election," he said.