The Edgewood Town Commission voted unanimously to raise town employees’ salaries by 8% as part of a cost of living adjustment (COLA).
Before the vote at the regular June 10 commission meeting, Edgewood Police Chief Roger Jimenez said, “We need to be comparable, or at least competitive with some of these other agencies and other towns. Every time we increase [salaries], Santa Fe County increases, Bernalillo County increases. And so that’s the hope that we keep our employees here and working in this community.”
The commission cited inflation and employee retention as reasons that the COLA increase should be approved. Jimenez added that previous pay increases have already helped the Edgewood Police Department attract staff.
“We have a waiting list of about 10 qualified applicants who are looking to leave other agencies to come over here,” Jimenez said. “These are cream of the crop officers that we can pick from other agencies because of the equipment that you all have provided, because of the training provided and the pay increases that you all have provided. So it’s working.”
Town Manager Nina McCracken said that she sees similar trends in the Town Clerk’s Office.
“I think we have become that place where people want to work,” she said. “[In the Clerk’s Office] we had about 12 applications. And I know they’re just filtering in nonstop.”
Mayor Ken Brennan praised employees like Jimenez and McCracken for the quality of their work and said, “they deserve this.” But Commissioner Sterling Donner said that it is important to remember COLA increases should remain separate from performance-based raises.
Although the proposed raise is a little less than the 10% raise Bernalillo County employees will get this year, it is larger than the raise Torrance County employees received. In a May 2024 Torrance County interim budget session, commissioners agreed on a 37% increase in matching contributions to Public Employee Retirement Association of New Mexico retirement accounts for county employees but they did not receive a salary increase.
In addition to a salary increase, Edgewood police will also be getting more staff. The commission voted unanimously to hire three full-time police officers.
Before the vote, Jimenez said hiring more officers would not only increase safety in the community but also reduce the amount of overtime that the city must pay to officers who are required to assist with tasks such as transporting inmates to detention facilities outside of Edgewood in addition to working their full-time hours.
Commissioner Jerry Powers expressed concern that high crime rates in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County could result in crime overflow into the Town of Edgewood and said having additional officers will help Edgewood police deal with potentially rising crime rates in the town.
The commission also voted unanimously to hire two full-time animal care technicians for the town animal shelter. Jimenez said that hiring new employees will help the shelter achieve its goal of staying open to the public seven days a week from nine to five.