Sanchez was in office in 2010 when the decision was made to cut almost all employee salaries — including police and firefighters — during an extremely tight budget year.
The city announced Thursday night it had reached an $8 million, no-fault/no-admission settlement with the local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
The union sued the city after firefighters’ pay was cut even though a multiyear contract approved by then-Mayor Martin Chávez said they were to receive raises that year. Firefighters instead received a 2.47 percent wage reduction in fiscal year 2011.
“We, unlike the federal government, cannot operate in a deficit,” Sanchez said in an interview Friday.
Sanchez said he believes the city had the authority to cut firefighters’ pay and the city may have won if the dispute had gone to trial.
“I thought this was going to end up in court,” Sanchez said, though he acknowledged the potential that a court case could have ended up costing more than the settlement. “I’m glad to see this is over.”
The pay cuts occurred as the city was struggling to cover costs during the Great Recession. Then-Mayor Richard Berry said pay cuts were painful but critical to avoiding layoffs.
“We had to make some very severe budget cuts,” Berry said in 2014, prior to firefighters receiving their first raises since the cuts. “Today I think we have a great foundation to move forward.”
Alicia Manzano, spokeswoman for Mayor Tim Keller, said in an email Friday that the settlement was in “the best interest of the taxpayers.”
In defending the cuts, Sanchez cited a 2002 amendment to the city’s municipal code that states the City Council must review and approve multiyear contracts annually “and adopt a resolution providing an appropriation or deappropriation or both to cover the cost of the contract.” It also states such contracts must contain reopening language for economic items.
Diego Arencón, president of IAFF 244, said the pay cuts have hurt recruitment and retention and the settlement will help repair the damage done to union members.
“We don’t perceive this as a tremendous victory for either side,” he said, but added that he considered the settlement “decent.”
In 2015, the city settled a similar case brought by the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association that included $5 million and increasing wages to $28 an hour.
The APOA also argued the city failed to negotiate the pay cuts, instead unilaterally excluding the pay raises from that year’s proposed budget.
“This (settling with the city) was huge for the Albuquerque Police Department and I’m so pleased the Albuquerque firefighters are on the way to doing that as well,” said APOA President Shaun Willoughby.
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