Decision was tabled until Sept. 23, when her nomination was approved in a 7-1 vote
After several months of searching and at least one failed attempt at hiring someone, Española has a new city manager.
In a 7-1 vote during the Sept. 23 Española City Council meeting, the council approved Lauren Reichelt’s nomination.
It is a position she never expected to have, but she said she is ready to take it on.
When she received the call from Mayor John Ramon Vigil about her nomination, her initial response was surprised silence.
“I called him back and said, ‘You know, maybe I would be interested because I really love working in this community and I think what I’ve discovered over the course of my career is that I’m definitely not a state bureaucrat,’” she said. “My calling is to advocate for my own community.”
Reichelt was extremely proud to be approved in a bi-partisan vote.
District 4 City Councilor Samuel LeDoux was the only person to vote against Reichelt’s nomination. During the meeting, he raised concerns about her social media posts regarding her political beliefs and concerns about the actions of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
She said her opinions have not changed, but she has decided to pause these types of posts and focus on working together.
Reichelt knows she will not be in the position long term. The city manager is appointed by the mayor and elections will occur in March 2026. Vigil has not yet said whether he will run for re-election.
“I could get a lot of stuff started and get the right partners at the table and help people to develop a vision and a set of milestones that they’re aiming for and dates that they’re going to hit those milestones and funding sources,” she said.
Priorities
Homelessness and substance abuse are two of Reichelt’s top priorities.
“We have many really excellent services in or near the city in terms of healthcare and substance abuse, and the question for me, is how to connect those to public safety so that we can maximize their effectiveness,” she said.
Reichelt was the director of the Health and Human Services Department at Rio Arriba County for 26 years, and during this time, she worked directly on programs and policies to address these issues.
While her department saw a 30% decrease in overdoses during her tenure, they discovered people could not find permanent success without stable housing and a job they felt good about, she said.
When asked about spending the opioid settlement funds awarded to the city to address these issues, she said she has ideas, but wants to speak with the experts within the city first and learn about their visions for the future.
“I don’t want to come in here like I have all the answers because I don’t and people who have been working on the problems do have ideas that are really valuable that we have to hear,” she said.
She also plans to continue the conversation about building a jail within the city.
While working for the county, she ran the medication-assisted treatment program for opioid use disorder at the Rio Arriba County Detention Center. The program faced many challenges due to its location that caused it to be inefficient and ineffective. They often said the program would be much easier to run if the jail was located in Española.
“This seems to be the direction the council wants to go in,” Reichelt said. “We have a $12.5 million budget and you’re not going to build your own jail on that budget. But it’s conceivable that we can work with the surrounding governments, all of whom need the same thing.”
Española Presbyterian Hospital is creating a new medication-assisted treatment wing and by working with them and places like El Centro Family Health, together, they could easily bring this program to a local jail, she said.
Reichelt is also anticipating the appeal of the Special Use Permit of the Pathways Shelter.
Administration
Reichelt will inherit many administrative challenges as city manager.
The Vigil administration has become known for in-fighting and complaints. Within the last several months, the city clerk and human resources director have filed ethics complaints against three city councilors, an employee filed a police report against the mayor for sexual assault and tense exchanges and raised voices are not uncommon at council meetings.
Reichelt is not shying away from it.
“What I really like about it is people are such a mystery, and how do you manage people who are fighting with one another?” she said. “That’s the thing I’ve always loved to do is get people on the same page and aligned around visions that they feel passionate about so that they are excited to do the work.”
She is spending her first days on the job reaching out to every department director to learn about what they do, what they care about and what they need. She plans to do the same with the elected officials.
Reichelt said she plans to be present at city hall so she can be the central point of communication and shut down back-door communication channels.
“One of the problems the city’s facing now is people dropping the ball,” she said. “They’re dropping the ball because nobody knows who a communication is going to and nobody is directing it.”
Reichelt said she is currently investing most of her efforts in reviewing the city’s finances.
“We have such a small budget to figure out where we are bleeding money that we could stitch up and prevent that from happening and where we have opportunities to raise revenue so that we can complete the projects we’ve started and better serve the community,” she said.