The New Mexico state capitol on June 12, 2023. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)
New Mexico’s legislative leaders say they’re working on finding more space for a growing force of support staff, but a long-term fix won’t come anytime soon.
By the time lawmakers come to Santa Fe in January for the next regular legislative session, the building several officials believe is the solution still won’t be designed.
And it’s been years in the making.
Office space for legislative workers is expected to be freed up once state officials finally manage to build a new office building for the state’s executive branch, which for the last 14 years has been planned for a piece of state-owned land just across the street from the New Mexico State Capitol, also known as the Roundhouse.
Money to get the project started was set aside more than two years ago, but the main sticking point appears to be a disagreement between local and governments over whether or not state officials are allowed to demolish four vacant homes sitting on the project site.
“This project is really very important because it has implications for the Capitol and the space that’s needed at the Capitol,” recently retired Legislative Council Service director Raúl Burciaga said in August at the most recent Capitol Buildings Planning Commission meeting.
“By moving forward with this, it will allow us to expand some of the areas within the Capitol, and allow more space for session staff, which is bursting at the seams,” Burciaga said. “It is a long-term project, but it is necessary.”
An architectural firm’s rendering from 2021 shows the planned state of New Mexico executive office building superimposed over a photograph of the New Mexico State Capitol and surrounding area in the city of Santa Fe. (Courtesy of New Mexico General Services Department)
The Capitol Buildings Planning Commission in 2011 said the new building could “achieve significant savings” by relocating the State Treasurer’s Office and the State Auditor’s Office out of buildings the state rents from private landowners and to the state-owned Capitol campus.
But the General Services Department, the state agency in charge of the project, has not yet decided who will occupy the building, said spokesperson Joe Vigil.
The historical significance of the 1930s-era “casitas,” as legislative officials call them, was upheld by the city of Santa Fe Historic Review Board in 2014, Burciaga said.
State officials asked the city board to demolish the casitas but was denied, said GSD Deputy Secretary Anna Silva. The point of disagreement was over the building’s design, she said.
The state has since hired an architectural firm to design the building, and in August started determining its size and who will occupy it, she said.
Then, a joint committee of state and local officials will discuss the final design. In situations like these, state law requires state and local officials to work together to protect historic buildings.
A kickoff meeting is scheduled for late November, Vigil said. The date will be announced soon, he said.
Silva said the process would take three to four months, which would mean the final design won’t be ready until February, at the earliest.
The discussion about the executive office building presents “complexities,” House Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque) said Oct. 15 at a meeting of the the Facilities Review Subcommittee, which he chairs.
“I think that there is more space in the hopper coming for our staff,” he added. “Clearly, we’ve outgrown the building.”
The subcommittee is part of the Legislative Council, a group of lawmakers from both chambers who oversee all legislative work between sessions. Its members didn’t take any final action on Tuesday, and they’re expected to meet again at the end of the Legislative Council meeting scheduled for Dec. 4.
“We’ll keep this conversation going, and I suspect we’ll be taking action here in due time,” Martínez said.
Legislative Council Service ‘in dire need of space’
The Legislative Council Service helps lawmakers draft bills and conduct legal research. Its workers are charged with giving all lawmakers accurate and impartial information about legislative problems.
The Council Service’s staff directory indicates it has 68 people working for it, including managers. Between 2014 and 2018, its staff maxed out at 49 people, according to its biennial reports.
The agency “really is in dire need of space that’s in proximity to other coworkers, space that allows us to hire the employees that we need to be efficient in our work,” Executive Director Shawn Casebier Casebier told the subcommittee.
In all, the Council Service needs permanent space for upwards of 13 workers, Casebier said.
The problem is particularly felt in the Council Service’s accounting department, she said, which needs eight to 10 workers to efficiently and effectively process thousands of vouchers and reimbursements. The department has only three workers, she said, after losing someone last week who moved to another state agency.
“In order for us to get up to that level of full employment in that department to effectively do their jobs, we do need more space,” Casebier said.
Their workload has increased since they started onboarding newly hired district staff for lawmakers, she said.
The number of new faces on the payroll will continue to grow. Legislators running unopposed in the elections next month can already hire district legislative aides, and those victorious in contested elections can start hiring in December.
NM lawmakers get training to hire district staff
The need for more space “is really one of the biggest arguments for that executive office building,” said Senate Majority Floor Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe).
Wirth said the executive office building “kind of got derailed a little bit, but we need to see where that is, and get it back on the tracks.”
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported in June the state General Services Department paused its proposal for the new building to allow state officials to design it in collaboration with the city of Santa Fe.
Moving state offices into the new building would help by freeing up space in the State Capitol Annex next door to the Roundhouse, Wirth said.
In the meantime, Casebier said she identified space used by House of Representatives staff on the Roundhouse’s fourth floor “that I believe would really meet our needs now and a little bit into the future.”
“I think there needs to be conversations with stakeholders and ensuring that all the people who may be affected are given the space they need as well, while recognizing that the Council Service really can’t continue to do our current job, or the work that’s going to be required of us into the future, unless we do gain some additional permanent space on the fourth floor.”
If the accountants can move there, there would be more room for the Council Service’s five-person Human Resources department, Casebier said.
HR is working out of a legislative committee room, Casebier said. Those rooms often get reserved by the committees assigned to them, so they can only be a temporary space for the workers.
“So in the next couple of weeks, months, we’re going to have to figure out a permanent space for them,” Casebier said.
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