A shake-up into the oversight and goals of the City of Española’s Social Services Department occurred Monday, after City Manager Lauren Reichelt released a memo formulating her plans for the city’s jail diversion program objectives.
The Social Services Department will be located in Municipal Court and the city will hire two care navigators for the diversion program. These two positions are at the center of an internal conflict that has led to at least one employee receiving an official notice of contemplated disciplinary action due to communications related to the hiring process.
The two care navigator positions will help people with non-violent drug charges obtain medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder and support for substance use disorder and other illnesses, instead of incarceration.
Española Fire Department Assistant Chief John Wickersham received the notice of contemplated disciplinary action in an email from Human Resources and Risk Management Director Sally Baxter on Christmas eve.
According to the notice, the contemplated disciplinary action can include suspension, demotion or termination of Wickersham’s employment.
“In an email thread beginning on or about December 22, 2025, you engaged in insubordination which included harassing emails sent to me, copying other department heads and the city council,” the notice states. “You violated the chain of command. Copying the City Councilors on the emails created the appearance of a rolling quorum and engaged the councilors in a discussion they cannot respond to without perpetuating a rolling quorum.”
Former social services director Michelle Fraire emailed Baxter and Reichelt on Dec. 15, asking for an update on hiring for the care navigator and Post Opioid Response Team (PORT) positions.
Over the next 12 days, Reichelt, Baxter, Fraire and Wickersham exchanged emails regarding the hiring of a hybrid care navigator/emergency medicine technician to work with PORT under the supervision of the Fire Department.
The email thread referred to in the disciplinary notice included Fraire, who resigned from her position via email on Saturday.
In a telephone interview, Reichelt said she received two separate emails from Fraire and her attorney regarding her resignation and they said she was involuntarily resigning.
Fraire’s attorney did not return a message left by the SUN regarding her resignation.
Emails
According to the emails, Reichelt asked Fraire to provide her with a care navigator job description. Reichelt asked for it to clearly state that the role’s primary duty is care coordination, and while they may be a Fire Department employee, they are strictly assigned to social services duties and will not do other fire department tasks. She also clarified that an EMT is preferred, but not required, for the position.
The city would post the job advertisement when they returned from the winter closure, Reichelt wrote, and she asked Fraire to complete the job advertisement and send it to Baxter no later than Dec. 24.
Fraire adds Wickersham to the email exchange on Dec. 22 and wrote that hiring “will be delayed until January 2026.” She also included the city council members in the message, but did not directly address the communication to them.
Wickersham replied that he was concerned by the delay.
“As we approach the new year, I strongly hope that we can move past repeated delays and prioritize filling this position without additional excuse,” Wickersham wrote. “Timely action is essential to stabilize operations and support both staff and the community we serve.”
Reichelt responded that there was no delay, she would not be pressured into hiring for the position, and that he has “no experience establishing effective social services and no idea whatsoever what is involved.”
“I am now questioning whether it is wise to place any of Michelle’s staff under Fire as she is perfectly capable of managing them on her own and is far more cognizant than are you of what will be needed by a team of care navigators,” Reichelt wrote. “While it would be nice to have EMTs in social services, it is not necessary. I will look at the job descriptions which were just sent a short time ago and edit them to remove mention of Fire or EMTs.”
Wickersham wrote back that Reichelt’s comments were a personal attack.
Later that evening, he sent an email directly addressed to the city council members to “formally document concerns regarding the continued delay in implementing the Post-Overdose Response position.”
Wickersham cited a vote at the Dec. 9 city council meeting where they approved the presented PORT policy and one of the two care navigator positions being within the Fire Department.
This is when Reichelt responded with her concerns about the creation of a rolling quorum and called his actions “grossly insubordinate.”
Councilors
Councilors discussed the Post Opioid Recovery Team three times in December.
The Public Safety Committee voted on Dec. 3 to approve the placement of a care navigator/EMT within the fire department.
The next day, Wickersham presented the same plan to the Finance Committee, but it was tabled due to them wanting more information from a city attorney.
It was then brought before council on Dec. 9, which Wickersham referenced in his email to councilors later that month.
Council approved the PORT policy and procedure and one navigator position under the fire department.
It is unknown whether the vote is valid. The agenda for the meeting lists the action item for approval of the PORT policy and procedure.
It does not include language regarding the job being under the fire department.
Diversion
Program
The Jan. 5 diversion program objectives memo from Reichelt states neither of this positions will be housed within the fire department and that a program like PORT and law enforcement diversion require “a robust set of policies and agreements with partners in the community describing linkages to include who qualifies, referral procedures, roles and responsibilities, etc.”
“Every time I have assigned this task to our social services director with support, the Deputy Fire Chief immediately sent out an email to council incorrectly stating that I am delaying the hiring process and substituting a brief proposal for PORT for the requested policy manual,” the memo states. “Placing a document on city letterhead and putting the word policy in the title does not make it sufficient. This tells me that Fire Department leadership has neither the understanding of health programming required to run the program, nor respect for the chain of command needed to trust them with the task.”
Reichelt also wrote that the city already has the majority of services in place to run a diversion program, and that she has actively been working with the Española Hospital, Rio Arriba County and treatment facilities and “needs only to hire, develop the legal agreements and policies needed to form an operational network, to purchase vehicles and to bring on board a contract program evaluator to guide our efforts.”
The funding for it already exists, the memo states.
“Because the program is evidence-based and is recognized nationally as effective, it will be sustainable beyond the current duration of the opioid settlement money,” Reichelt wrote in the memo.