It appears more than 250 city employees will soon have more money lining their pockets.

The city council had a favorable response to a pay restructuring plan that will bring city of Rio Rancho employees in line with other cities in the state.

Mayor Tom Swisstack is also in favor of the plan. “We started this process and we are going to finish it,” Swisstack said. “We are not going to break our promise.”

District 5 Councilor Larry Naranjo said he endorses the idea of the study, acknowledging that city employees are being paid behind the state average and is in favor of moving forward.

By July of 2010, city employees should be at the average pay level for comparable cities like Albuquerque, Farmington and Las Cruces.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union president Cindy Benz presented the implementation plan to the council at Wednesday’s meeting.

More than 50 union members backed up Benz in the audience. The pay structure provides scheduled incremental increases over a three-year period, starting this July and continuing in July 2009 and July 2010.

AFSCME recognized in 2005 through an internal study that Rio Rancho’s employees were being paid 21 percent below market level. 2K Compliance and Training of Las Cruces, conducted an independent study that further enforced AFCSME’s premise.

The results showed that the average pay for city employees was 31 percent less than other cities in the state.

City Manager Jim Payne has acknowledged the results and has budgeted for the pay adjustments.

Benz is pleased to have Payne’s support and said he has worked hand-in-hand with the union.

During her presentation, Benz pointed out that managerial positions and police officers have seen increased salaries, but AFSCME members had not seen pay increases.

Benz, who has represented AFSCME members in the city of Rio Rancho for more than 10 years, said previous administrations had refused to implement the study’s results and that morale was low.

“Morale has been low and we were told to just wait,” Benz said. “They (previous administrations) told us they knew we were low on the totem pole, but just wait. Human resources failed miserably to keep wages up to par. People found it degrading.”

The city had no set pay scale, according to Benz. She said there was a lot of pay inequity with some employees with less experience or less time with the city being paid more than longer-tenured employees.

“People were not treated fairly in the past and this will bring us up to the market average,” Benz said. “This has taken too long. Past administrations knew this and they kept putting it off. We don’t want visionary pay, but average pay.”

As the city has boomed in population, the workload for the city’s staff has dramatically increased. With that increased workload, Benz said it is time to implement the study and begin pay adjustments.

The pay adjustments are expected to cost the city $2.6 million over the next three years.

The Rio Rancho city councilors will vote on this issue as part of the budget portion of the agenda at its next meeting on May 28.