Land Use, Planning and Zoning Committee - Regular Meeting

I'd like to welcome everybody to the Mr. uh Mr. Chair. Sorry, one moment please. I'm waiting for the uh live stream. Okay, apologies. No worries. And there it is. We are live. Thank you. I'd like to um um welcome everybody to the committee on guidelines for negotiations for 2026. Um, first we will go ahead and call this meeting to order and do a roll call. Councelor Champine present. Councelor Bison, I am here. Councelor Rogers

here. CEO Single Coo Whan

here. We are we do have a quorum. Um moving on to the agenda. First uh election of the chair um person for this typically that we do go back and forth between um city and administration. Do I have any nominations for the chairperson? I would like to nominate Council Champine. I have a nomination of um councelor Champine as the chairperson. Do I have a second?

Can I process question? Yes, ma'am. You said typically it switches from a council to the administration. Yes, ma'am. and but no. Okay. Thank you. Um as as of last uh meeting I was elected the chairperson to act as the chairperson. Um so at this point that typically that we would go back to the city council. Second. Second. We have this a and a second. Can I get a call to the vote? Councelor Bassan. Yes, Mr. Doran.

Yes, Councelor Rogers. Yes, Miss Single. Yes. Okay, Mr. Willen. Yes. Councelor Champine. Yes. Okay, that passes unanimously. there person Champine, do you want to move to the next election of the chair, vice chair? Sure. We'll move to agenda item number two and it's election of the vice chair. Do I have any nominations for the vice chair? Don't all speak at once.

Can I nominate myself? I will nominate Michael for vice chair. Can I get a second? I'll second that. Seconded by the CEO. I got you. I see the little green circle around you. All right. Any other nominations? We have a first and a second. Madame clerk for a roll call. Council progress. Yes. Mr. Dory. Yes. Councelor Rogers. Yes. Miss Single. Yes. Mr. Willard. Yes. Sorry, I'm switching to my computer. Yes, councelor Champine.

Yes. Perfect. Thank you. That passes unanimously. All right. Item number three. Uh, okay. One second. Mr. Newly elected vice chair, would you uh like to continue with the agenda? I'd be glad to, sir. Thank you. Okay. I move for approval of the March 28th, 2025 um minutes. Second.

Thank you. U Miss Enriquez, if you could um take a vote on that. Councelor Bassan. Yes. Mr. Doran. Yes. Council Rogers. Yes. Miss Engle. Yes, Mr. Willen. Yes, councelor Champlain. Yes. Okay, that passes on a 6

for So, the purpose of the guidelines committee is to f facilitate communication and coordination between the mayor and city council concerning collective bargaining strategies and shall be composed of three city councilors and three members of the mayor's staff. that it is to entertain presentations by the employee organizations um for collective bargaining agreements. Um this is between the time that of opening um negotiations and the beginning of our negotiation sessions. Um, we do have the AF all of the ASME units have opened. CWA, the Communication Workers of America have opened as well as APOA, the Albuquerque Police Officers Association. Uh, we will um entertain any presentations that they may have. Um, at this point, CWA communication workers, would you like to go first?

Yes. Hold on a moment. having video issues. Sorry about that.

Do you want me to share screen or do you want to? Uh, if you want to share it, that would be great. Yeah, might be easier for you.

Okay. Thank you everyone um ladies and gentlemen that are the council that are here. Um so lost you guys again. This is just not working out right now. Sorry. Okay. So, Albuquerque Community Safety, right, ACS, still the baby of the city. Um, and we're looking to show our appreciation to not only our employees, but also so show the value that they present in our community and for our city. um who we are um where the third branch of emergency responders is how we have been defined. Um we are right next to police and fire. Uh it is a safety sensitive position. We do have to still be sieges cleared past the FBI background to do this job. Um also have plenty of background in behavioral and mental health. um any all the way from our CRS who are kind of our starting positions um our outreach, our triage all the way to our behavioral health responder twos. Uh we respond to emergency situations. We are dispatched by APD dispatch um to calls suicides um suicidal ideiation uh suicides that

aren't in progress um and sometimes they are whether it be like medication things like that um mental health crisis people that are dissociated not lucid um we also have been doing a lot of or we do all of the um most of the welfare checks and have found plenty of people that have needed medical help um on the brink of passing or people that have passed and luckily we were there in a timely manner to actually so they didn't by themselves. So we work in a lot of hazardous situations. We also work with the unsheltered. We work in homes that aren't necessarily in the best of conditions. uh people who do use substances and we are in those um in those environments. Uh things that could change in a at a moment's notice and we currently are doing this without any type of hazard pay and also not officially being seen at first as first responders. um as I explained some of these um a wide range of crisis um kind of the thing is is if it's not criminal and it's not medical immediate medical um we are dispatched to it. Police ask us to take it, fire asks us to take it. Uh we go down down and outs uh even small fires um at this point with our our extinguishers in the back. We've we've done those types of things or we do those types of things on a daily bas basis. Um we contact a lot of different community resources. Uh we connect people to community resources. Um our department has uh because of the need that we have requested um we needed a little more

than just in the- moment help. We now have navigators that um kind of do a followup um and help some of those things as well, which is great uh because we're our own resource to help hand handhold individuals that can't navigate the system. I I mean, I'm not having a mental health crisis and I know the system and I have um trouble navigating it. So, um, we are that first response to connect those individuals that aren't able to navigate that system so they can become housed or they can get the help they needed, get connected with um, aging and disability resources, all of those things. Um, and some of the things the guidelines that we do adhere to. Um our job qualifications at a minimum um requirement to work is an associates degree in psychology, criminal justice or social work. And this CRS um our outreach and then some um experience in community outreach. Uh we do if they've been had experience um that does sometimes oversee the uh college degree. However, this is the actual requirements to work for the department currently. Thank you. I'll go to the next one. So, currently we still even though actually for the first time in 3 years, we're finally almost at capacity. Um, however, we are having a hard time holding on to our community responders because of the pay. um when they can go to a county or a nonprofit and get paid more for the same type of job on sometimes with less responsibilities, it's hard to keep those individuals with us that we

desperately need. Um OJT, they go to OJT, start working in the field, and they find out that it's not necessarily a job that they um they didn't think the job was what it was, right? they have it this idea until they go out and they start interacting with our our consumers, our individuals and find out, no, actually I'm not cut out for this. Um, some, like I said, safety issues, the non-competitive pay, not being seen as first responders. Um, officially, uh, it really is hard to retain these employees. Um, we also have had some struggles in the last few years with bargaining and appropriation. Uh, we've been advised that the only way that we can bargain any kind of raise as if the city council, you wonderful people, um, actually appropriate it for our union. Um, and trying to find the process and understand the process in doing this has been a journey. Um, it's not very uh, transparent. it's not cut out. So, we're learning as we go. Um the first year of bargaining, it took six months to get it in place. Um and we didn't necessarily um get what everybody else got. Um in 26 again, it was another fight for anything. And um you know, we really everything that we get isn't because the department does it of their own valition. It kind of is forced upon them. Um in 26 we were finally seen as non-exempt where before we were exempt and we and it had been um something that we had asked for for years at that point. Um however the do got involved and you know forced the situation. So it's been a lot of frustration um and

hopefully this year isn't the same way. Um we want to keep our pay competitive. Um I mean county is paying uh CPSWs which are um just people that are certified uh community workers um about 60 grand a year which is less um requirements that are needed for our CRS. And so I mean when we're saying we're not necessarily being competitive in that field are VHR2s um those that are licensed those that aren't can go to and get jobs that are paying more as well in different areas. So we want to keep those people because they do want to do this job but unfortunately with the raising prices that we are all filling I think in this uh day and age it's just hard to continue with the um with the mission. Um so as we've been told multiple times in the bar at the bargaining table the council has to appropriate so that we are able to allocate where the funds go. So we hope in doing our presentation today

you froze for one second Sheree but I think you're back. Okay. So, you ready for the next slide? Go ahead. Yes. Okay.

Sorry about that, guys. The wind is doing things, I think. Um, all right. So, last year we I think I don't know if you guys remember those that were here. We did give this um this table this table has been updated with our current salaries, but still what we our goals working towards. We want to get to the midpoint and hopefully if we can get there, you know, um I don't know that it'll happen this year, but this is kind of what what our goal is. Um like I said, we we know that it's a lot of money. We're not necessarily asking to get there today. Um we're just letting you know what what we would like to get to. Um as you can see, our community responders are very low um of the as far as the funds are concerned. at their pay rate and which is one of the reasons we're having a hard time keeping them. Okay, go ahead and go to the next one again. Other pay requests we wanted to or we are wanting longevity pay um for the response that we do to show the people that we want to keep them that they are valid and uh valuable to the mission of the department. Uh we would also like to increase our shift differential for the individuals that work shift grave yard. Um we were able to increase them last year um a little bit and we want to increase them some more this year and add a day shift for those that work before 800 a.m. Um so and sorry there's a miss a mis um type in there that so we have people that start at 6:00 and 7. So, those people would get um additional shift pay for the couple of hours that they are here before 8:00 a.m. regular business hours. Go ahead to the next one. So, in asking this, we are asking to acknowledge the value of our responders for the job that they do every day for

our community. uh recruit, retain qualified behavioral health professionals through competitive pay, which allow for better coverage in the field, coverage to respond to calls in a timely manner, and staff to use time off and cover for sick when needed, um which decreases burnout, which um has been happening. And we really want to be able to say, you need that time off, go ahead. It's not we we need you here. We need your mind here um and focused. Um so and we will be also asking to bargain one other article uh to help with the fluidity of the department and the field responders. Uh that article I believe this year is going to be uh article six. Um so I believe this will increase our effectiveness, our efficiency and assist Albuquerque community in a time of crisis. Um and that is it's just gaining more momentum with everything that's going on in the world. Um with all of the fears that people are having in the community, not just for um individuals that are in poverty, but for themselves um and their identity. Uh go ahead and go to the next. We are asking the council, so I did the math. Um, with the changes that we are asking, we are asking the council to appropriate 350,525 additional dollars to whatever the department budget is asking. Um, this is specifically for the bargaining unit employees. There are 60 of us approximately right now. Um, and again, this will help us be competitive, be seen, at least be acknowledged to a degree as a first responder, even though we aren't officially done. Hopefully that will change as well. Um, and like I said, we our people work hard. Um, I do

have a little bit of a possible 6% raise. Um, it's not necessarily good concrete, the shift pay, the longevity times 60 people times 26 weeks, uh, or 26 paychecks, sorry, which is the math. And I do have a breakdown if anybody would like to see that more, I can send it to an email. Um, is there any questions or Megan? Do you have anything to add to that? I don't have anything to add. Should we um I'll stop sharing and let the chair resume. Are these going to be here's just a question just a quick question is this these are just presentations correct at this time

that is correct it is just presentations okay we aren't really going through a question period unless uh or is it if anybody has any clarification that they were confused about something or have I mean we taking questions at this point that is correct it's only for a matter of clarification of the presentation. Okay. Do any of the committee members have any clarification questions for Miss Sports Johnson? Hi, Councelor Rogers here. I just would love to get the breakdown that you mentioned for how you arrived at the dollar amount. So, that would be great.

I I will send that out to by email. and Miss Borch Johnson as well as all of the other presenters, if you can email the um all your presentations to me so I can distribute them to all of the committee members. Uh that would be appreciated. Uh Miss uh Mr. Chair, I have one question um of clarification from uh Miss Borth Johnson. Um I I can't recall from last year's negotiations and I just wanted to make sure I I think you had a slide related to last year's negotiations in terms of what occurred. Um did you all in that process negotiate and did your negotiations include bringing um the employees that were below minimum pay to the minimum?

Uh we attempted but it was not successful.

Thank you. And then one followup for councelor Rogers. Um, so can you include that in the information that you send us as well? Cuz what I caught was that you said specifically the 60 bargaining unit me employees. Um, so that would be great to have that as well. Yeah.

Thank you for your presentation. Um, CWA, Miss Borcher Johnson, Miss Green, appreciate that. We'll move on to the next bargaining unit which will be ASME.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, this is Joel Viel with uh, representative for Ask Me Council 18 here on behalf of our four local bargaining units here. And um, let me just uh, put up our presentation real quick. And let me make sure that I've got this on where it is ready to go here. Okay. Oh, oops. Sorry. It's when I just put it on. It was trying to on there. Okay. Can everybody see that? Okay. All right. There we go. Oh, yeah. Better.

Okay. All right. So, um our main issues for uh our negotiations are is really focused around the class and compensation study. Right. So, um, here we got three basic, uh, issues here that we want to deal with. First of all, there's still several positions that are below the recommendations of the class and comp study. More importantly, they're below just our basic market value for what we need to be to be competitive in this area, right? And, um, we're also still trying to address a lot of the pay disparities that happened as a result of uh, the way that the Penino settlement was uh, implemented here within the city. Um there were a lot of uh grades that even though they may be higher levels, the actual pay in those positions actually have lower graded positions making higher money than the higher graded positions. So there's a lot of wage compaction and and in some instances just just the disparity in the wage levels themselves are uh still trying to be resolved there. Um and lastly, most importantly, you know, even the full implementation of the study after we're done with this is only going to bring uh our employees at the 25th percentile of the market rate, but it doesn't really do anything to address the competitive with the market average. Right? So, um with within ask me, we have four different locals that we deal with. Uh ask me local 624, it represents the blue collar and it also represents the transit locals. So there's two different collective bargaining agreements that we deal with in that area. Um, ask me local 2962 is our clerical uh local. Ask me 3022 is our M series which represents the supervisory series which is basically an amalgam of the different uh other locals like the blue collars uh employees, clerical employees and security employees once they become supervisors they go into

this local itself. And lastly, we have local 1888, which is our security local. And so, regarding some of the issues that we're wanting to deal with as far as the class and comp right now, um currently right now, um the second phase of the plan was to go into effect last year, right? The third phase is supposed to be implemented. It's actually supposed to be completed this year. So, technically, we're already a year behind in the implementation of this study, right? And more importantly, after the proposed three-year phase in, the end of the goal is to get to uh our employees at the floor at the 25th percentile of the market rate. Meaning 75% of these employees are going to be making more, right? Uh uh in other markets than what our employees would be here within the city of Albuquerque, the largest market here within the state of New Mexico. Um the study still doesn't address the compaction issue as we stated there between the job titles or the chain of commands affected by the penal suit. And we want to put in everybody's uh head here that it doesn't have to be this way. The Equal Pay for Women's Act actually recognizes seniority as a legitimate factor in determining pay for our employees. And so we're looking to try to have some level of separation so where people can acknowledge the years of service that people have done here, right? And not have to be compacted down to one issue there. So, I want to kind of briefly go over for those that may have forgotten or are not familiar with the issues there dealing with the penal settlement, right? Um, so basically the the way that the settlement was resolved here, dealing with very justifiable uh uh issues that needed to be resolved, right? But the way that it was implemented just left a big flaw there because the implementation basically uh was this where there were mixed position or where there were positions that existed that were of mixed gender. If there was a male that was the highest earner in that department or or in that job title, excuse me, the city just

simply moved all of those employees up to that same wage of the highest paid male without regard to seniority or anything else. At the same time, positions that were not in that situation, those employees were not moved at all. Right. So, as a result, this created several of these positions where there was a higher grade that you may have been in a higher grade, but you were actually uh make less in a lower graded position because those people had to be moved up to a maximum of their areas or in some places if you as you saw in that class in competit points making 150 percentile of what that market study was, right? And so what this has done, this has caused morale issues due to the wage compaction and the wage disparities and it's undermined more importantly our seniority rights within our collective bargaining agreements that we were you know the attempt of what we were were trying to structure there. So just to give you guys an overview of where we're at here at this point um in the blue collar unit uh we have 167 job titles within that bargain unit. Um, of those 48% or excuse me, uh, 48 titles are still under the 50th 15th percentile, right, which what was supposed to be implemented last year, right? We have 75 of those positions that are still under 25%. So, as you can see there for at for our bargaining unit there, almost a third of them, right, are are still under the 15th percentile as far as those job titles go. for clerical, right? We have 50 job titles in there in that bargaining unit. Of those, 11 of them are still under the uh 20 or excuse me, under the 15th percentile, right? And of those 17 titles are under the 25th for the M series. Uh it's even more pronounced, right? Of those 236 job titles that they have there, 90 of those, right? Constituting almost 40% of those jobs are under the 15th percentile at this

point, right? much less where they're supposed to be at at this coming year at the 25th, which is 108 of them, right? Almost half of that bargain unit is under the 25th percentile. So, as you can see here, um just to kind of give you guys even a broader overview because this is just getting to that floor that we're trying to get to the goal to in in the blue collar unit, we have 145 positions that are below market value, below the 50th percentile. That's almost, as you can see there with their 167 titles, that's almost all of them, right? That are even under the 50th percentile market value, even though we should be the market setter here within the state of New Mexico. For the white collar employees, we have a total of 34 positions, right? A very significant amount, at least 75% of their titles that are still below market value. And of the M series, uh about twothirds of those, 161 positions that are below market. So, and we understand as as CWA noted in theirs, these are long-term goals to maybe get us to that market. But what we should at least be trying to do is fix these things that that class and comp study told us with regards to the floors. Right? At this point, we should be the goal should be to try to fix this 25th percent to get us to that 25th percentile. So, what we're asking for in our general economic proposal that we're going to be making to the city, we're going to be asking them to fully fund and or the funding to fully implement the class and comp study for and this is what we're asking of of of the council as well. We're asking that um the funding to fully implement the uh class and comp study for our bargaining units be done. We're also looking at if possible or in l if something is not able to happen to fully be able to implement those some funding for the longevity plans in order to at least be able to start fixing the problems now that we're already talking about stopping the bleeding. How do we move forward here from this point forward to

start making this a rational pay plan here within the city of Albuquerque? And lastly there, we're going to be asking for the ability for each local to review a specific amount of job titles in order to make sure that there's appropriate placement. So that this is an we imagine we're going to have to be doing this on an ongoing basis to make sure that we're not falling behind. So um this is what we're asking for at this point. Um as far as the different locals, that will be a general ask of our four local uh uh units there. But in addition, each local will have uh specific things that they're going to want to be bargaining as well. For local 624, our biggest uh uh thing that um we had heard back from our membership was that they do want to start seeing some type of uh uh um

focus or concentration going into our longevity plan, right? And so we will be discussing that as well for local 2962 for our clerical bargaining unit. They're actually wanting to look at sick leave and vacation acrals. A lot of these uh a lot of her uh uh bargaining unit uh for our president there, Jasmine Aras, uh h have uh a lot of uh uh women there that are looking at having to have extra demands there with with with needs for their families. So, that's something that they were focusing on. They're focusing on as longevity as well. And um lastly um they're looking for specifically a reclassification of their teaching assistance there. Um there were recent changes there in the requirements for those people in that area and we're wanting to make sure that they're properly. We don't know whether that was actually done whenever they took this market study into consideration. Right. Um for local 1888, this is our security local uh metro security, animal welfare, and uh parking enforcement. They're looking at uh requesting a reclassification for their security officers because right now they are still working uh de facto as enforcement there in the transit uh system as well. They're still doing transit security yet they are not being paid as somebody that's still dealing with the issues that they're dealing with with addition to that dealing with the issues there at transit. For local 3022 uh we are looking at uh longevity for them as well and uh for themselves as uh the clerical is looking for reclass for their teaching assistants. We're hoping to look at a reclassification for the teachers in there as well because they were also affected by uh the the changes that had gone on there and and you know to the defense of the city, right? The changes are specifically they're asking for stricter guidelines in order to be able to uh oversee our kids here within the city of Albuquerque. they are now

mandating that people either have a bachelor's degree to uh uh with the focus on teaching there for uh the child care services and for the teaching assistant that they have an associates uh in that as well. Um so as those demands have gone on there from the state and stricter uh requirements in order to do that we're going to be asking that that be taken into consideration there because if you look at their pay consider and and compare compared to other job titles in there it just doesn't make sense. And lastly there um we're looking for the ability as we stated there for the locals to uh review job titles there for appropriate placement. So uh with that being said that is basically the conclusion of our presentation and we thank you for uh the opportunity to be able to present this to your board and we will also stand for questions if you all have any.

Thank you Mr. Val. Does any of the committee have any clarification questions for Mr. Val or the uh ASME presidents. Thank you Mr. Chairman. This is Samantha Single again. Um Mr. Just for clarification, since I asked the last question of CWA, uh during last year's negotiations, did you all include in your negotiations bringing um any positions or individuals within below the class and comp minimum to the to that minimum pay?

Yes, ma'am. That was actually done last year. We we implemented the first phase of the plan. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other of the committee members have any clarification questions for ASME? Thank you. As me, if you could also send the your presentation to me so I can distribute it to the committee members, I would appreciate that. We'll do Chairman Dor. Thank you, Mr. Bureau. Um, moving on, we have next is APOA. Hello. Can you guys hear me? Yes, sir.

Hold on. Let me turn this down so there's not an echo. Yeah, all the way. All the way. I'll get it.

Okay. Sorry about that. Um, chairman, counselors, distinguished members of the administration. My name is Sean Willoughby. I am the president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association. We represent the rank and file police officers from lieutenant on down. the Albuquerque Police Department, the prisoner transport unit, and our transit safety officers. Right after I'm um through here, if you would also give the opportunity for u Gregory Mandreon um to kind of tell you a little bit about our PTU position and our transit position. Um he heads more of that up and knows the issues more intimately than I do. Um but let's talk about APOA. I don't have a fancy presentation for y'all today. Um, I've usually have a fancy presentation, but I I did not do one this time. We're worried about the environment and saving trees. And if you need any of the data that I am going to give you, I will be happy to get it for you. Um, there's some changes uh coming to the Albuquerque Police Department. I just want to um formally just extend my appreciation to the leadership of council and the leadership of Tim Keller's team. Um, we have all been cognizantly trying to get on track of making the Albuquerque Police Department a competitor in the in this region and in the state of New Mexico um for years now. And I I believe that we have all worked together reasonably on that goal and we have made good strides, but we still have work to do. Currently, um there are two attributes I believe in our pay structure that we are not competitive in the state of New Mexico, which is a concern to me because the officers of today are generationally much different than the officers of yesterday. um they are more loyal to the bottom line and the bottom dollar than they are to the ideology of agency and and the camaraderie of just you know finishing an entire career uh with one police department like my entire

generation of officers are. Um we are um underpaid when it comes to the beginning four years of a a police career. That's from the academy through the first four years of employment as a young police officer. We uh do not compete with BCSO, our sister agency. We do not compete with state police in that genre. Um we also have a concern that has been brewing for some time. As you all know, congratulations to everybody in this committee. The DOJ is gone. Thank God. But one of the attributes that the DOJ has brought to the Albuquerque Police Department is we have hired so many supervisors, there's enough of them to follow around police officers with a dustpan and a broom. This is a very um this system is is very common in agencies where DOJ consent decrees um have lingered for for years and years and years. Um we have more supervisors and stagnation in our sergeant and lieutenant rank that is going to be coming over the next few years. We have more supervisors than we need. Um and and we also have a lack of pay for sergeants and lieutenants in the latter more experienced parts of these career paths. So the only way to get, you know, a genuine raise as a supervisor is to test for lieutenant. And the only way to get a a raise as you as you're a lieutenant is to test for um you know, to give be given the opportunity of political appointment for command. um that's not going to cut it in the next in in the future of APD because you're going to see a an immense slowdown of allocating more emotional opportunities within the police department. Um and in state police the latter parts after 5 years of experience as a sergeant or as a lieutenant um they are significantly we are significantly under the bar when it comes to pay scale and compensation. Um so that is something that we are looking at. um you know uh the

Albuquerque Police Officers Association are going to be bringing ideas forward to try to close that gap both in the beginning of the career and for our supervisors who have longevity in the rank which I think is a necessity. There's a couple other you know threats that are just around the corner. There's a lot of rumors going around that we've um been we have benefited the Albuquerque Police Department and the city have both benefited from a retention bonus for police officers who are who are of age to retire. Uh we had a very big problem with attrition. We had 60 to 75 police officers retiring every single year annually and they created a retention bonus for these officers after 19 years of service. Um, that pretty much closed the back door. We saw a significant a significant reduction in retirements, which allows the Albuquerque Police Department to really focus on hiring to close that manpower gap. Um, but that that retention bonus is soon to be going away. It's rumored to be going away for budget concerns, and that's fine. Um, it was a benefit while we had it. If it should go away, um, then it goes away. But there's 120 people that are taking advantage of that bonus. And the Albuquerque Police Department is kind of caught between a rock and a hard place where we have 120 people that are taking advantage of that bonus and are eligible to retire and can walk out the door. So, as soon as those retirements have an uptick again and we get back to the realm of 60 to 75 retirements annually a year, um you're going to see um the problem that we have in the Albuquerque Police Department at it's going to it's going to be a hard time getting folks in the door due to the lack of of of just even regionally competitive pay. Um and you're you're going to have a hard time keeping folks here uh because they're eligible to retire and can move on to other opportunities within their life. Um, retention bonuses have the tendency to do that. I mean, they're not

something that can that can last forever, but it is definitely a threat um in an agency that has an overtime budget that is ridiculous. I mean, you you you the Albuquerque Police Department is not it's an essential service for the city. You have to have enough officers to respond to the calls for service and to the emergencies and to the level of crime that this city has to deal with. We're still top five in the nation. Um, it's a great place to be a police officer. We have a lot of highaction calls. We have very experienced officers. I had uh just the joy in my career is pretty much unbelievable that we got paid to do this is that's how much that that's how great being a police officer is. Uh that being said um structurally we really need to be um conscientious of some of the changes that are coming down um as we as we mark into this new negotiation cycle. APOA is not opposed to a multi-year agreement with the Keller administration. Um the APOA is not opposed to a one-year agreement. Um but but those are those are our sticking points. We want to make sure that the Albuquerque Police Department is the highest paid police department in the state of New Mexico. That is our goal. Um and then we're going to try to attack being the highest paid regionally. Um but being highest paid in the state of New Mexico is essential. the the city of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Police Department expects more from Albuquerque Police officers than any other agency in the region. Uh we have more liability. We have more in investigations. For instance, I'll give you an example. I think BCSO had 17 internal affairs investigations last year. Again, they're a smaller agency. Um they have about 450 cops. They're now fully staffed. Um but 17 we had 17 to 1,800. Um so uh we that we hold our officers accountable and we investigate them into an oblivion. Um that is a cause and

effect of the DOJ consent decree. Uh but it's harder to be a police officer in the city of Albuquerque than it is to be a police officer anywhere in the state. And when we're not competing regionally, um, we have a problem on our hands that we need to address because I don't think the Albuquerque Police Department is going to admark on, um, on not holding their officers accountable. I don't think we're going to throw away everything that that we've gained um, through the DOJ process. We have changed pretty much every single attribute of our policies. over 244 policies have been changed to accommodate and to get into compliance and to um to get our department into a respect of that the DOJ could exit Albuquerque and we could take control of our own department. Um all of these feats were hard fought. They took over a decade. They cost the taxpayer of this community an exponential amount of money. Um and we're not going to just throw it all away. So, it's not going to immediately change to 10 years ago. And we um we need to ensure that we have the amount of officers that this city deserves um um for for the response that they expect. Um other than that, I'm open for any questions. I'd like to turn it over to to our our transit and PTU. Um that's what we're thinking um going forward. Um that's what you're going to see in our proposals to the city. Um, we're definitely going to want to increase that that rate of pay in the beginning and we're going to want to make sure that our supervisors that have to stay in the rank are going to compete with other agencies. Um, and that's that. If you guys have any questions, I'm open.

Mr. Chairman, I have a couple questions for Mr. Willoughby before we move to um the other gentlemen. I just want to quickly um ask a two questions. Mr. Willie, when we talk about com um pay competitiveness within the market, do we consider um the uh benefits package and actual take-home pay as it compares?

Uh yes, ma'am, we do. Um so, I mean, when when I'm just focusing regionally, right, everybody is very similar in the state of New Mexico, especially BCSO. Um BCSO has mimicked their bargaining package off of our bargaining package. they give a lot of the same um items that we have earned through the city of Albuquerque to their deputies over there. So when you're comparing with BCSO, it it is really almost apples to apples. Um besides the fact that it's less challenging to actually perform the duties of a police officer in that agency because of the um it's just not the same. We we provide more scrutiny to our officers. State police is very similar. They have the take-home car packages. Um they have very similar insurance. We are all we all have the same retirement packages. Um I mean quiet as it's kept just so you know um even the BCSO retirement county pay into the city employee retirement is similar to ours. It differs by by like 1%. So I mean when when you're looking at BCSO um I find it like a personal challenge. I'm embarrassed that their officers and deputies make more money than our officers do in the beginning of their career. I don't believe that should ever happen. Um we are the largest police department in the state and we deal with the majority of the crime that this state has to offer. Um most state police officers have never experienced crime like Albuquerque. They come to learn how to deal with high crime areas um in our agency and in our streets. So, I mean, these these officers are pretty much cream of the crop. You could throw them anywhere in this country and they would thrive. Um, they're also um they've adjusted quite profoundly to the increased level of scrutiny over the years and I I just think that they're a

valuable commodity and we need more of them and that that is definitely that sentiment is shared um amongst everyone. But there are some pitfalls. We need to really strategically think about um levels of retirement because you think to yourself when I was when I was a rookie police officer in the academy, I graduated with 45 to 50 police officers. My academy class started, I believe, with over 57. We graduated with 48 cuz some folks just weren't ready. So, I was one one six-month class out of three classes that were going that year. So, the attrition rate and the impact that it has on the police department is pretty devastating when you're talking that you have the potential to lose, you know, 90 to 100 experienced police officers from your agency in an annual basis. And the the attrition rate for the police department over the last 25 years ranges between 45 to 60. So, um, you know, when I'm comparing regionally and I'm we're just trying to get to beat BCSO and state police. I would like to see the Albuquerque Police Department the highest paid um regularly in in the state of New Mexico no matter what. Um, I would I think there should be a charter amendment to that to that degree. But, um, you know, that that being said, I'm only focusing on on apples right now. we can't even get into to regionally because there there's some agencies that we we we beat and there's some agencies that we don't even compare to um at all within you know a 1,000 mile radius of of the state of New Mexico. So thank you so much for the question but I just just let you know we are

I have a few more Mr. I just want to sorry waste of time I want to roll through them pretty quickly so I hope that's okay. Um uh just to be clear, you're saying that B uh Bernalo County provides pays 100% of health care for their um personnel. Uh well, Bernalo County doesn't have the the 100% of healthcare for personnel as part of the retention program. The 100% of health care is only provided um in my understanding for officers over 19 years of service as um it's an added benefit to those that are receiving the um the retention bonus. And my my concern is that there I've heard rumors um that that bonus is is going to go away and I think that that would be a negative.

That's my next question. Um did the union uh did you all negotiate bargain for that retention bonus and if so what year? There was three years ago. There was anou associated with that and um you know we we tried to bargain that into longevity last year um to to keep that bonus at the very top to kind of we we wanted these folks to stay like there's so many benefits personally to to to stay in the state of New Mexico. Now we can get 100% of retirement and we wanted to motivate the senior officers to do that to prevent retirements. Great. But it did not go through. We we had to sign anotherou.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Willoughby. Those were my questions. Yes, ma'am.

Do any of the other many members have any clarification questions for Mr. Willoughby before we move to Mr. Monron? Mr. Mandrgon, the floor is yours. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to keep this fairly short. So, a lot of the same things that we're going to be negotiating for, the things that Sean outlined in his presentation. who's going to give some background specifically on what the prisoner transport unit and the transit unit does uh for the agency for local law enforcement in Bernalo County. Uh right now the prisoner transport unit is a countywide operational backbone. So our officers transport prisoners for every law enforcement entity in the Bernalo County. So, San Dieia PBLO is Pueblo, uh, Bernalo County, New Mexico State, APD, our aviation officers, pretty much anyone that gets arrested in this county is going to go through the prisoner transport center. Uh, this isn't a support function for APD. It's a basically a force multiplier with measurable outcomes for the entire county and for law enforcement. We deal with getting everyone to jail in a safe manner. Our incidents have been minimal. when there's issues with MDC, which there have been quite a few since COVID, uh, our unit is the one that soaks up those incidents and maintains operational accountability for the rest of the law enforcement officers in the county. So, basically, our officers take those prisoners, get the worst of the worst, you have nobody happy to go to jail. We transport those people to MDC from the field. So we've started field operations now where we actually go out to the officers, pick up arrests on the field so those officers can get back to the local patrol duties and then we manage those the individuals until they actually get booked into the jail which is oftent times a hourong uh ordeal and figure we're doing this for van loads of 20 to 30 people at a time um most days.

our operational capacity for just mobile transports going out to the field and picking up those prisoners. We started that halfway throughout the year last year that totaled over 1,500 transports. During that time, there was zero incidents with those pickups and eventual booking into MDC. Uh our unit just it does a good job. It can handles itself well. Officers are usually young officers. They come in, they gain valuable law enforcement experience. They go through the same training that the APD officers do. They go through not a full academy because they're not sworn law enforcement. These are professional staff that APD hires, but they go through an APD academy minus the law block. They go through uh annual firearm qualification, defense and tactics training. They're eligible to become BIT certified, which makes them trainers in the department. We've had individuals on our unit become firearms uh certified so they're able to train officers for the firearms qualifications. And so this is a big step uh in the department. So we have people that have been here 20 years. We have people that use this as a stepping stone to get into sworn law enforcement uh agencies. The my hope with this is we're trying to retain and keep people by also getting people in the door. That's been something that we've struggled with in the past and continue to do. APD puts a lot of money and time into an individual and my hope is that we're able to retain these people so that they continue on. I've been here for 11 years. I believe this is a unit that greatly benefits law enforcement in Bernalo County and we have out measurable outcomes for that. Uh anytime that you have an officer going up to MDC from the field, you're taking a officer that would be responding for calls for service. you're taking them out for oftentimes half of a shift just to get a single prisoner booked. And I'm not just speaking for AP. I'm speaking for every law

enforcement see in this county that relies on us. Tied to our operations, you have faster responses for calls for service because you're keeping those officers in the field, increased officer visibility because those officers are staying there, then just greater overall efficiency for all the departments that our unit serves. So from a financial standpoint, this isn't a cost-saving model. You're basically maximizing sworn officer availability without increasing their patrol levels, like I said. So anytime you have an officer that's going to be doing our duties, you're taking them from their primary duties of law enforcement in Albuquerque and like you said with the deputies, Bernley County. So, it impacts sworn law enforcement greatly when our unit is unable to retain officers to carry out those duties. And APD and the city has touted that professional staff or one of the things that they're trying to keep up just so you're not tying up an officer. This is something that they brought in the National Guard to do. National Guard couldn't do the same job responsibilities that the prisoner transport unit did. They were brought in to do PSA type jobs. So, they didn't carry firearms. they weren't trained in defensive tactics or anything like that. So, our officers, we have that uh availability and we deal with these individuals on a daily basis. So, one of those things where you have to bring an outside entity in and it's shown that they're not able to do the job that we do. Uh what we're trying to do is fill recruitment gaps that we're getting because a lot of our guys they do go to sworn law enforcement positions either with APD or throughout the state after a while but they get great training while they're here and a lot of those these are 20-year-old 21 year old kids coming in their main focus is to get a sworn law enforcement position. So, we're building great officers that do funnel into APD. Specifically, the retention

issues that we're facing is same thing that Sean said with the retention bonus. That was something that our officers were able to receive as well. We have about five officers now out of a 30man unit that are going to be leaving just because the retention bonus is in question. And then same thing on the front end of our staffing. We have uh individuals that are 21 years old. They've seen that they've been able to grow in this position, gain valuable experience, and they want to either continue their law enforcement career with AP or with other agencies throughout the state. But this the impact that our unit creates specifically is monumental. With this place closed, you see arrests go down. You see officers out of the field. Uh just to speak on their transit safety officers. So their job is quite similar just the way that they're a force multiplier for sworn officers. So they handle a lot of the calls. So mainly their job duties are similar to a PSA and security. So they maintain the uh ATC, the bus station downtown on First and Gold. uh our officers are the ones there maintaining the transit system there and then the bus stops throughout uh Albuquerque. So these key calls for service down a lot of these uh calls that come up are able to be handled by our professional staff. It doesn't require sworn personnel intervention and just the impact that that creates for public safety by keeping those officers out on the street doing what they're supposed to be doing is measurable and it'sly helpful for the city of Albuquerque. That's all I got. You guys have any questions?

Do any committee members have any clarification questions for Mr. Moulder? Mr. Dorian, Mr. Chair, I do have a question. Uh, I'm wondering, uh, does is there any funding that comes from the county or any of the PBLO since you are actually driving out of the city of Albuquerque to be able to help these neighboring areas? No, there is not. Currently, right now, we only have an MOU with probation and parole. And it's my understanding that probation and parole is the only one that actually supplies any funding uh to the department, but it's not specifically to the unit. It's to general fund. Okay. So, the city's paying for us to service unincorporated areas of the county and all of these PBLO as well without getting any of that funding back to us.

That is correct. Yes. Thank you. Do any other members have any clarification questions? All right. I'd like to thank all of the unions for your presentations. Um, I do move that we move into executive session.

Mr. Chair, I do have one comment. I'm sorry. I didn't have a question for them, but before we go to executive session, I do for those that are on this call, I just want to make sure to add that I appreciate all of what you do. I if you are not aware, I recently had a proposal that would get would have gotten $56 million so that we could go ahead and increase wages or have more wages for new employees of the city of Albuquerque. So, I definitely am looking forward to this negotiation process and seeing what the council is going to be able to come up with as a resolution for making sure that we can become more competitive and more retentive. Thank you, councelor Muzan, for that.

I hope that the counselors can find something in these pockets of the mayor's budget that they're talking about. Thank you, Mr. Montoya and councelor Bison.

Mr. Chair, just want to echo councelor Basson's comments, but I want everyone to be reminded the budget starts with the administration. And so I know in one of the presentations it said that the council has to appropriate things. The budget starts with the mayor's office and the administration before it comes to council. So, just I would just want everyone to remember that and I hope that our administration is coming up with a plan. Um, and I've been asking for that since we received the comp plan. Um, I don't see the HR director on here. Um, who I think is the one responsible for coming up with a plan. um and not just the unions coming up with their own plan because we have a lot of folks not protected by bargaining units that also are in the same in the same boat and don't have the um the advocate advocates that they do in a union. And so I just have to be reminded that and remind everybody I want to I want to see when we receive the budget in city council that the administration has already planned for these things and put it in the budget. We in city council uh historically don't ever change the mayor's budget by much by a lot. And so our call my colleagues I think we need to do more if the administration doesn't there are decisions that we have to make internally to do what we need to do for our employees. And so I just want to remember remind everybody of that. Thank you.

Thank you. Councelor Rogers. Do we have any other comments before we move to executive session? Um, Mr. Doran, this is uh I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, this is Samantha Single. Um, I just I think it's imperative to make sure to respond because I think the implications in the comment are um interesting based upon our commitment between the administration and city council. We are really focused and have committed publicly to work together um in this budget process this year to ensure that we're working through these matters. I think we all have a shared goal of um employee compensation being a primary focus. It has been for the entire time this administration has been in place that um it has not been the case from um in previous administrations that raises were um included every year and insured for the employees. And so when we put together the budget, we absolutely put together um funding related to compensation. And then of course um we'll honor always the collective bargaining unit's right to negotiate with related to those funds and ensure that you as as we talked about today actually in terms of what did and didn't get um prioritized or um put on the table last year related to compensation. It was very much in honoring uh where the unions and their their representatives um brought to the table. So, I appreciate every one of the groups that are here today because I know that each of you uh come to the table focused on representing your employees that and your members and ensuring that we're all focused in providing compensation for our employees um as best as we can in a what's going to be a very challenging year. And um I think we've been really transparent with our um bargaining uh partners and how challenging this year is going to be based upon our finan

fiscal and financial conditions um that we're facing as a city. And so I appreciate everyone being here and being so transparent in your goals. It's very helpful I think as we all come together. Thank you Dr. Single. I appreciate that. Any of um any other members have any questions or comments before we go to executive session? Hearing none, I move that we move to executive session. Do I have a second? Second.

Councelor Rogers. Thank you. Um if we can take a vote for this, Miss Enriquez. Councelor Ban. Yes, Mr. Doran. Yes, Councelor Rogers. Yes, Dr. Single. Yes, Mr. Willen.

Mr. Willard. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Thank you, Councelor Champine. Yes. Passes on a 6 vote. Thank you, Mr. Cornelius. If you can move us all into a um roof.

Okay, it looks to me that everybody is back from the session. So um during the executive session I can confirm that we only spoke about u matters related to the guidelines committee. Moving to the next um piece of business is any other business. Do any other committee members have any other business before we um adjourn. Seeing none I make a motion that we do adjourn. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. And I believe we need to do we call a vote for that. I believe. Councelor Bassan. Yes.

Mr. Doran. Yes. Councelor Rogers. Yes. Dr. Single. Yes. Mr. Willlet.

Yes. Thank you. Councelor Champine will vote. Thank you. I adjourn this meeting of the guidelines committee for the year 2026. I will get to all of the members any presentations that are sent to me by the unions. I'll get those emailed out as soon as possible. I'd like to thank you guys all and you all have a great weekend. Thank you. Pink.