A proposal that was initially pitched as a way to increase the construction workforce while saving money on city-contracted projects was withdrawn from consideration during a City Council meeting Monday night.
After hearing criticism from industry members, Councilor Dan Champine changed his stance on his bill that would have required city construction contractors to dedicate a fraction of labor hours to apprenticeships.
Champine moved to withdraw the ordinance after hearing more feedback on the bill at Monday’s City Council meeting. Councilors approved the withdrawal on a 5-4 vote.
YES: Brook Bassan, Dan Champine, Renée Grout, Dan Lewis, Louie Sanchez
NO: Joaquín Baca, Tammy Fiebelkorn, Klarissa Peña, Nichole Rogers
“It is with a heavy heart that I am doing this,” Champine said. “When I initially supported this bill, I did so with the conviction that it would serve the community’s best interests. However, after discussions involving feedback from various stakeholders, including constituents, experts, advocacy groups, I began to realize and understand that the implications of this were incomplete.”
The ordinance would have required contractors for construction projects that cost more than $2 million to dedicate 10% of a job’s labor hours to apprenticeships.
Jim Garcia, executive director of the Associated Contractors of New Mexico, told councilors the percentage mandate would lead to “numerous waivers and instrumental paperwork on every project.” Garcia used the current I-25 construction as an example and said offering incentives instead of mandates would “help companies continue to promote the trade.”
“That’s a $275 million project with 400 employees on it,” Garcia said. “If this were enacted and under the same direction of the ordinance, that would require 60 apprentices on the project. Right now, there’s only one apprentice on that project. We love apprentices…We would hope that you would think this through a little bit more, take a little bit of time and come back with maybe another way we can present this.”
On the other hand, Lateesha Vigil, with the New Mexico Chapter of the National Electrical Contractor Association, expressed the chapter’s “unwavering support” of the bill.
“These measures will not only make it easier for contractors to win bids, but they will also create a ripple effect throughout the economy, helping businesses grow, creating more jobs and fostering a healthier, more resilient industry,” Vigil said.
Champine said approving the bill felt like “putting the cart before the horse” and there needed to be more emphasis on the “build-up of these numbers and support the programs to increase these numbers, instead of mandating numbers that we don’t, as many of these people said, we don’t have.”
The bill’s cosponsor, Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn disagreed with Champine and said she thought the point of the ordinance was lost.
“I do think that young people in our community have a right to a career path that gets them out of poverty, folks that have been laid off, perhaps some of the people we’re talking about that are transitioning out of being unhoused, being housed and looking for a future,” Fiebelkorn said. “Those folks have a right to move forward and to find a job that gets them on that career path, and this is one of the ways to do that.”
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