Bernalillo mayor seeks to make fire chief a regular employee

Bernalillo Mayor Jack Torres is trying to take the town’s fire chief out of the political chain of command and place the job under standard employee rules, a change that would hand less discretion to the mayor and council and more stability to the fire department. The ordinance is set for Monday’s Town Council meeting at Town Hall, 829 Camino del Pueblo.

Right now, Bernalillo’s fire chief is hired by the mayor, approved by the council and can be removed without cause because the position serves at the pleasure of town leadership. Torres’s proposal would change that post into a regular employee role, with the hiring process lined up more closely with how other department heads are selected.

That shift matters because the fire chief is one of the town’s most visible public-safety leaders. A regular employee structure could make the post less vulnerable to changes in politics and more tied to performance standards, but it would also reduce the direct control elected officials now have over the department’s top job. For residents, the question is not just who signs the appointment papers. It is whether Bernalillo gets more continuity in emergency leadership or more distance between the fire department and the people elected to oversee it.

Torres has said Bernalillo may be the last municipality in New Mexico where the fire chief is hired by the mayor and ratified by the council, which is the core reason he is pressing the change. The town’s own government information says the Town Council approves the mayor’s appointments of the town administrator, town treasurer, town clerk, fire chief and chief of police, underscoring how tightly the post is tied to local government.

The department has already gone through a recent transition. Former Fire Chief Michael Legendre was recognized when he retired at the Feb. 24 council meeting, and Adam “AJ” Bonnett was sworn in as fire chief at the May 12 meeting after a competitive hiring process and unanimous support from councilors and the mayor. That makes the current debate less about filling a vacancy and more about whether Bernalillo wants to keep treating the role as a political appointment or reclassify it as a professional department head.

The town posts agendas and minutes online, giving residents a public record to compare this proposal with earlier personnel decisions. What the council does Monday will decide whether Bernalillo keeps fire leadership under the old model or moves it into a more formal employee system with clearer rules and less political turnover.