Jan. 11—One of the first constituent calls Alexandra Wylie answered as the newly hired district legislative aide for state Rep. Tara Lujan was — as she put it — kind of chaotic.
The caller, a man, was upset. He said his dog had cancer. He didn’t have the money to pay for its surgery. He insisted Lujan, a Santa Fe Democrat, knew someone who could fork over the cash.
Wylie took a deep breath. Then she went to work, researching free veterinary services before calling the man back to pass along the information.
“I think we got it handled correctly even though it was, at first, a little bit startling,” said Wylie, 23.
Her intervention reflects a new way of doing business with New Mexico’s legislative leaders: For the first time, members of the state Legislature have full-time paid staff.
Wylie is among the first wave of aides lawmakers have started to hire as part of a larger effort to professionalize the Legislature, which is the last remaining citizen, or all-volunteer, legislature in the country.
After a set of policies approved last year paved a path for each of New Mexico’s 112 lawmakers to hire a legislative aide, some legislators are focused on what they consider the next logical step to modernize the Legislature: a salary.
Lawmakers are once again planning to introduce a constitutional amendment in the upcoming 60-day session that would do away with a ban on legislative salaries and create an independent commission to set their pay.
‘You kind of get what you pay for’
Though similar efforts have failed in the past, advocates of the modernization effort contend the hiring of district legislative aides helps their case as the staffers start to deliver results, from answering constituent calls to doing research.
“We have a governor with a strong voice,” said Rep. Joy Garratt, an Albuquerque Democrat who has advocated for full-time staff. “We have the judiciary, but because we are so part-time, I feel the legislative voice doesn’t have the prominence it should.”
A paid Legislature “is part of a broader need to modernize how your state representatives and senators support the districts and the constituents,” said Rep. Kristina Ortez, D-Taos.
New Mexico remains the only state in the country that does not pay its legislators a regular salary, although they do qualify for retirement benefits and receive mileage and per diem during legislative sessions and other meetings.
“I think that you kind of get what you pay for in some cases,” Ortez said. “It is a full-time job, but I am a working mom with two children, and I have to get paid to live as well, and that is just the reality of the situation for many of our legislators who are struggling on the daily with balancing paid work and civil service. I think it’s kind of ridiculous.”
Ortez said she’s only able to handle the job of being a legislator because of her support network, which includes a partner and an ex-husband who are extremely supportive, a mother who flies into New Mexico to help her care for her children during legislative sessions and friends who also pitch in.
“You can’t it do unless you have a network of people,” she said.
A salary for legislators would allow a more diverse group of people to serve, she said.
“It just opens it up to the possibility of actually having representation that truly represents the people of New Mexico,” she said.
‘There’s only one of me’
Meanwhile, lawmakers say the hiring of district legislative aides has lifted a weight on their shoulders and allowed them to serve their constituents better.
“There’s only one of me,” Garratt said. “I have a part-time job that I do myself, so it just means that the needs, requests, concerns of New Mexicans can be met in a more thorough and punctual way.”
“My district legislative aide attends meetings when we’re double booked,” state Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, said during a recent legislative preview event hosted by the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce.
“I was in Las Vegas [on Tuesday morning] for a major countywide meeting. She was on a Zoom with Torrance County, so that way we can get all of our business done at the same time,” she said.
In an interview, Stefanics said she and her legislative aide “are finding [their] way together.”
“I’m hoping it’s going to give the constituents some more access to services,” she said.
The policies approved by the Legislative Council last year to allow for the hiring of legislative aides also allow for liaisons for each caucus in the House and Senate. The Legislative Council Service estimated it would need eight to 10 additional staff to provide administrative and logistical support — for a total of 120 to 125 new employees.
Most aides are getting paid about $57,786 a year.
The state is rolling out the hiring in phases.
Incumbent lawmakers who ran unopposed in November were allowed to hire a district legislative aide first. Incumbents who won contested races will be next, followed by new lawmakers, including those who were elected to a different chamber.
Some legislative aides work in offices, including existing government buildings, while others work remotely. In certain instances, lawmakers in overlapping or neighboring legislative districts are eyeing regional offices.
State Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, said he unknowingly hired his district legislative aide before lawmakers had the green light to do so.
“I called her right away and started to feed her stuff to do,” he said, adding the aide, Donna Cyr, is uniquely qualified for the job after previously working for former U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, as well as during last year’s legislative session.
Gallegos said he was anxious to bring on a legislative aide who could help him handle a broad range of constituent concerns.
He said he didn’t remember whether he was supportive of full-time paid staff for legislators at the outset but his aide has already proven effective. She’s taken on a wide variety of tasks, he said.
“I guess my normal knee-jerk reaction is, ‘What is it going to cost and who are we taking it away from?’ Last in education. Last in public safety. There’s so many things we’re last in, that, I think I was cautious,” he said.
“But I think I see the value of it,” Gallegos added. “If we’re going to do this anyway, I think my constituents deserve first-class treatment, and that’s what this sort of does. It steps up what I’ve done for the last 12 years [in the Legislature] and gives me a level of expertise that will focus on each one of my constituent needs in a different dimension than what I do on my own.”
A work in progress
Shawna Casebier, director of the Legislative Council Service, said she didn’t know how many eligible lawmakers have already hired a so-called DLA, or district legislative aide.
“I know our HR department is working tirelessly to get them onboarded, get the paperwork ready, get them set up to do their work,” she said.
Casebier said their duties are set in policy adopted by the Legislative Council, a bipartisan group of lawmakers.
“District legislative aides may provide support that would include correspondence, scheduling, policy research, constituent services at the local level, organization of nonpartisan town halls and other duties assigned by the legislator,” she said, adding any questions about the appropriateness of a duty should be referred to the Legislative Council Service and the district office liaison for discussion.
“I do understand that legislators are asking DLAs to perform a wide variety of tasks,” she said. “Some legislators may be more focused on the administrative assistance a DLA will provide and others are looking at more policy work from their DLA.”
By state statute, the offices of the chief clerks are responsible for state-level constituent services, Casebier said.
“We are providing the DLAs with trainings to assess what is a local issue of concern versus a state-level issue of concern that should be referred to the chief clerks,” she said.
Casebier said the hiring of legislative aides is going smoothly but called it a work in progress.
“There are certainly a lot of questions and policy points that were not initially contemplated in the policy that was adopted by the Legislative Council,” she said. “So the working group that the Legislative Council appointed to consider the issues continues to meet, and that group will be bringing back policy recommendations.”
Lujan, the Santa Fe Democrat whose district legislative aide is Wylie, said the staff support has freed her to focus on developing legislation and handling other high-level duties.
She called Wylie an “exceptional” employee with outstanding organizational skills.
“She’s already cleaned up all my email,” Lujan said. “She’s organized everything. … Having someone that can organize you and organize your schedule and everything, it’s immeasurable.”
Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.