The leadership of the largest city employee union has endorsed incumbent David Coss in the Santa Fe mayor's race, which could mean thousands of dollars for his bid to win a second four-year term.

However, not all of the rank-and-file members plan to help with his re-election campaign.

A contingent of union members backing former city manager Asenath Kepler in the March 2 election showed up at a sometimes heated meeting Tuesday night at the headquarters of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3999, which has about 700 full dues-paying members.

City bus driver Jose Garcia, who faces a runoff election for the union presidency on Jan. 20, said after the meeting that fewer than 48 members took part in the endorsement decision, although he didn't provide an exact number.

Regardless of the outcome of his runoff election with city Wastewater Division employee Lawrence Vigil, Garcia said, the formal endorsement of Coss will stand.

The amount of campaign funds contributed will depend on decisions by national and state officials involved with distributing funds from AFSCME's political action committee.

Garcia, who chaired a five-member committee that recommended support for Coss, said the key issue was fear that Kepler might support privatization of some city operations that would mean a loss of public-employee jobs.

Coss, a one-time union official, has stated adamantly that he is against any privatization. Kepler hasn't categorically rejected the idea, but has emphasized that she would only back such a move as a "last resort."

"My first obligation is to the city workers and making sure that we have done everything we can from a management perspective to make an enterprise successful without the need for privatization," she said in an interview Tuesday.

While Coss enjoyed broad union support in the 2006 mayoral race, in this three-way contest with Kepler and City Councilor Miguel Chavez, he didn't win endorsements from the city's two public-safety unions.

Leadership of the unions representing police officers and firefighters have endorsed Kepler, who as city manager got a reputation as an advocate for frontline city workers and helped push for a property-tax levy to increase funding for public safety operations.

While those endorsements aren't likely to yield any union cash contributions to go along with campaign volunteers, Santa Fe Firefighters Association president David Jenkins said he thinks public-safety union endorsements carry weight with the voting public.

About 15 or 20 members participated in his union's endorsement decision, said Jenkins, a rescue technician with the Fire Department.

The primary factor cited by both the firefighter and police unions is concern about city plans to annex areas of the county, mostly on Santa Fe's south side. Representatives of both unions said their members have serious concerns about whether the city will adequately fund staffing and equipment needs for their departments.

Although his 130-member union also is backing incumbent city councilors in the election, Santa Fe Police Officers Association president Allan Lopez, a patrol sergeant, said his 13-member executive committee was drawn to Kepler's position that the city needs to slow down on annexation because understaffing might endanger city workers and residents.