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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
City Hall Salaries Boosted
By Dan McKay
Journal Staff Writer
About a week after the city election, a handful of city employees received pay raises, including a 67 percent bump for an aide to the mayor.
Scott Forrester, an assistant to Mayor Martin Chávez, whose term ends Nov. 30, saw an increase in his annual salary from roughly $48,000 a year to a little under $80,000, officials said.
An information technology official got a 48 percent raise, while an attorney in the Legal Department was moved elsewhere and got an 8 percent hike.
Ed Adams, Albuquerque's chief administrative officer, defended the Forrester raise. He said Forrester has acted as the city's chief of staff for weeks, and the pay raise reflects that.
Forrester still makes less than the city's last chief of staff, Bianca Ortiz Wertheim, who left about six months ago, he said.
"We need a chief of staff to help manage the office in the interim period" while other top officials are working on the transition, Adams said.
Forrester's new status might not be permanent. He's an unclassified employee who serves at the pleasure of the mayor, so his employment could end next month when Mayor-elect Richard Berry takes over.
City Councilor Brad Winter, a longtime critic of Chávez, said there shouldn't be big changes in pay during the interim period between administrations.
"I just think it's a bad idea," Winter said. "I think everything in the transition period should (remain) stable."
Berry, a Republican who served in the state House, defeated Chávez, a Democrat and three-term incumbent, in the Oct. 6 election. Berry will take office Dec. 1.
Winter asked Adams about rumors of big pay raises during a City Council meeting earlier this week. Adams responded that the meeting was not an appropriate forum for personnel discussions.
The City Charter prohibits the council from getting involved in personnel issues or executive functions. Councilors do approve the budget, however, and this year they authorized enough funding to give rank-and-file employees a 3 percent raise.
Two other employees also received raises last week. According to city officials with access to payroll records:
n Danny Nevarez, an information technology official in the Environmental Health Department, saw his pay boosted about 48 percent, to around $102,900.
Adams said Nevarez is "an absolutely amazing employee" who was nominated for a raise by his department director. Adams said Nevarez is a longtime employee who was underpaid and that he has been taking on additional duties to help other city departments, which is saving money. He is a classified employee, meaning he has certain job protections during administration changes.
The city's environmental and economic stimulus Web sites, which Nevarez worked on, have won national recognition, Adams said.
n Greg Smith, an attorney, received an 8 percent increase in pay — to about $111,000 a year — and was transferred into a different job. He used to work as an attorney for the city and is now a contract manager in the Department of Municipal Development.
Adams said Smith's new job came about after the previous municipal development director retired. An interim director was hired and Smith took on additional responsibilities, including managing staff and handling construction contracts. The arrangement worked well, the interim director decided, so Smith was moved over, Adams said.
"He was doing a lot of work outside the courtroom," Adams said. "That turned out to be a benefit to municipal development. It was a byproduct of having to adjust workloads with the loss of the director."
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