Pension Promises

Santa Fe firefighters who work in the field are losing out on thousands of dollars in retirement contributions because of the way their shifts are scheduled and reported to the Public Retirement Agency of New Mexico.

They also make less in retirement than department employees with the same rank and salary who work 9-5 at a desk.

In November, officials at the City of Santa Fe said they could not do anything to solve the problem without legislative support.

Now, firefighters are holding their breath as they wait for a vote from the New Mexico House of Representatives on a bill that could fix the problem.

Santa Fe is not the only city in New Mexico where it occurs.

Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, says firefighters in the area he represents have also raised concerns that they might not receive the pension benefits they were promised. This legislative session, Muñoz is the sole sponsor of a bill aimed at correcting the record-keeping issue.

Senate Bill 62, the Public Employee Retirement Pay Changes Act, provides a simple solution: It changes the legal definition of "salary" to include overtime hours for positions in which that time is part of regularly scheduled tours of duty.

The bill passed on the Senate floor by a vote of 33-9 on Saturday, then received a do pass recommendation late Tuesday night from the House Labor, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee.

"This affects every professional firefighter in the state," says Robert Sanchez, president of the New Mexico Professional Firefighters Association, who waited along with firefighters from a departments in Los Alamos, Española, Santa Fe, and Bernalillo for hours Tuesday afternoon for the committee meeting to begin.

Muñoz tells SFR he feels optimistic the bill will make it all the way to the House floor and pass. However, he says representatives have not given him any indication as to how they plan to vote on it and, with only a few days left in this year's short 30-day session, time could be quickly running out. The session ends at noon on Thursday, Feb. 20.

"I really hope they pass this one," he tells SFR in his office at the Roundhouse. "If you are working for something, you should get the benefit. It's no different than getting cheated out of payroll."

In November, firefighters approached the Santa Fe City Council with a plea for the city to fix the problem. At the time, representatives from PERA told SFR the city could easily adjust how it logged firefighters' hours in the payroll system and report them to PERA. Yet city finance managers said the matter was more complicated, claiming that only a legislative change to PERA law could create a long-term fix. City Council decided to postpone taking action until after the 2020 legislative session.

At the heart of the issue is both how firefighters' shifts are scheduled and how salary and overtime are legally defined.

According to federal labor law, a regular work week for firefighters is 53 hours, or 106 hours in a 14-day payroll period. Anything more is considered overtime.

According to New Mexico state law, retirement benefits are determined by an employee's salary. PERA determines the figure based on the number of non-overtime hours they work. Government employers are required to report an employee's hours to PERA and make pension contributions for the hours reported. They do not make contributions on overtime hours.

In Santa Fe, the city regularly schedules firefighters to work one 48-hour shift every six days. Because the shifts fall on different days each week, the number of actual hours worked in a 14-day pay period varies from 96 to 128 per pay period, but the city only reports up to 106 hours a pay period to PERA. According to Santa Fe firefighters' own analysis, that leads to field workers' hours being under-reported by 8.3% annually.

This means that two fire department employees who have the same rank and salary could end up receiving different amounts from their pension funds during retirement if one works in administration and the other works long field shifts.

A battalion chief whose position and rank entitles them to a $92,000 annual salary is promised a pension of $64,474.20 a year; however, in reality will only get a pension of $59,103.85 because of the under-reported hours. An administrative position making the same annual salary would take home the higher amount.

If Muñoz's bill becomes law, Santa Fe will not have to change how it reports firefighter hours to PERA, but it will have to pay out a lot more per year to cover the pension contributions for firefighter hours that were not previously reported.

"We've tried so many avenues already, it really took us a long time to figure out this solution," says Sanchez, noting many cities have struggled over the last year to come up with temporary fixes.

Santa Fe City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler also sat in the room, waiting to testify on behalf of the City Council in support of the firefighters.

Sanchez says, "We just want what's fair, to get benefits for our scheduled time like any other public employee."