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Jesse Jones, The Paper. — For thousands of Burqueños struggling to keep their homes cool as temperatures climb earlier each year, a common landlord workaround is now off the table — but the stronger protections one councilor fought for didn’t make it through.
City councilors voted 5-4 Monday night to approve O-26-22, an amendment to the city’s Uniform Housing Code requiring landlords to operate cooling systems from May 1 through Sept. 30 and maintain a temperature reduction consistent with how the system was designed. But the measure changed significantly before final passage. Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn, the original sponsor, removed her name after a floor amendment stripped out the bill’s core requirement that cooling systems keep indoor temperatures at least 15 degrees lower than the outside when it reaches 85 degrees. Vice President Dan Champine and Councilors Renée Grout and Brook Bassan then took over as sponsors.
Fiebelkorn told City Desk ABQ before the vote that an early-season heat wave is what kick-started the updated ordinance. In March, temperatures reached 90 degrees or higher for about a week, and some landlords refused to turn on cooling systems, telling tenants they wouldn’t turn them on until May or June. “They were just left to boil in their apartments, and that is not okay,” Fiebelkorn said. “If it’s 85 degrees or more outside, you have to figure out how to get cooling to your tenants.”
This was the second attempt to set a measurable cooling requirement in the city’s housing code. Fiebelkorn pushed for a temperature requirement in the original 2024 ordinance, which required cooling systems in all rental units but stripped a similar temperature standard through an amendment from Grout before the bill passed on a 5-4 vote.
Landlords and property managers who testified opposed the 15-degree standard, arguing evaporative coolers can’t reliably hit that threshold, and that turning systems on during transitional weather risks frozen pipes. “We don’t turn on evaporative coolers until we know the last freeze is going to happen,” said Josh Price, property manager for Maddox Management. Supporters of the amended version said it still addressed the core problem, even without a specific temperature requirement. “It talks about the season, which still defines the time frame and the reduction in air temperature,” Bassan said. “To me, that maintains the original intent.”
