“That’s not right. It’s not fair, in my opinion, that one employee group has a certain set of benefits and another group or groups do not.”
— Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks
Put aside that Brooks clearly missed the preschool lesson on “Life Is Not Fair.” Instead, follow his rationale all the way out.
He argues it’s not fair that administrators have to take unpaid leave when they are serving in the Legislature but teachers get paid for teaching when in fact they are absent from their classrooms while attending legislative sessions or interim committees.
So Brooks doesn’t revisit a contract that doles out scarce public dollars for work that isn’t being done. He doesn’t set in place a policy that requires employees to use accrued leave (they get up to 22 vacation days, 10 holidays plus sick days each year) when they are handling Roundhouse instead of school business before APS pay kicks in. He doesn’t even follow APS’ jury duty policy and take the nominal remuneration while paying their full wages.
Instead, he approves the pay-for-no-APS-work paid political leave benefit for an entirely new class of employees.
Most New Mexicans — including the 105-or-so legislators who do not work for a public school system — have to be asking “Where do I sign up?’
Taxpayers must be asking, in all fairness, how many salaries or their equivalent are they expected to give Brooks’ special class of employees.
For example, taxpayers fork over an annual salary of $68,862.14 to Sheryl Williams Stapleton, who is APS’ coordinator of vocational education. They also have paid her from $145 to $180 per diem for her time spent as House majority whip in sessions and 105 days of committee meetings/legislative business, for a total of $39,000 from 2009 through July 31 of this year.
Nice work if you can get it — the lawyers, real estate agents, small-business owners and physicians who serve in the state Senate and House would undoubtedly like to receive their regular income from their regular day jobs while serving in the state’s citizen Legislature. And while the courts have ruled that unlike other public employees, teachers don’t technically work for the state because their contracts are with individual local districts, Rep. Jimmie Hall, R-Albuquerque, points out that “the last time I paid taxes, it went to pay teachers’ salaries. I can’t make that distinction.”
He’s right. The court decision that parses the difference ignores all the public policy reasons the Constitution prohibits state employees from serving as legislators — and voting themselves or their agencies money.
It’s just that dynamic, of course, that makes it attractive for APS to have a legislator or two or three on the payroll. APS Chief Academic Officer Linda Sink says as much in a memo placed in Stapleton’s file that states “we are appreciative of having a state legislator as an employee. To that end, we have established this process to accommodate this situation.”
APS also pays Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, her counselor salary whether she’s counseling students or constituents, and Sanchez can collect per diem.
That said, two hits on the public checkbook isn’t the maximum.
The public not only pays APS teacher Tim Lewis his salary at Cibola High School and his legislative per diem, but it also picks up the tab for a substitute to teach his classes when he’s in Santa Fe for sessions or attending committee meetings throughout the year. Does Brooks think a 60-day sub is fair to Lewis’ students?
That trifecta is just fine with APS board president Paula Maes, who also lobbies legislators as part of her paid job. She points out that having an unpaid Legislature narrows the pool of people who can serve to the retired or well-off. “Until we as a state stand up and pay our legislators to be up there, then employers should pay them so they can truly represent us.” Then by all means, let’s stand up and at least have the discussion.
Serving in the Legislature is without question a demanding job that requires sacrifice. Unfortunately, New Mexico’s unpaid system casts lawmakers in the role of Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” trotting out the tired excuse that because they don’t get a salary as per the Constitution, they depend on generous state pensions, per diems and pay for work they don’t do — all courtesy of the kindness of strangers who can ill-afford it.
That refrain has run out of track.
The Stapleton example is the latest to show New Mexico voters should be given the opportunity to decide if they want a professional, paid Legislature. That’s a fair question to debate.
If they don’t, and want to continue a volunteer citizen Legislature, the people who choose to serve in it should really fit that description.
This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
