Española City councilors are unhappy about the performance of several city directors and appointed officials and are calling for a new standard of professionalism throughout the city.
The comments came after several issues that occurred during the July 22 regular council meeting. These included the failure of the city clerk’s office to include all director reports in the meeting information packet, directors failing to attend, a director explaining the difficulty they are having hiring and spending money within their department and a tense exchange between an appointed and elected official.
“Maybe it’s time for this council to start giving directives, and I think there’s individuals out there that don’t think we can, but we can,” District 3 Councilor Denise Benavidez said.
She specifically named Human Resources Director Sally Baxter, and the need to hold her accountable. Baxter did not attend the meeting and the meeting packet contained a one-page report from her department that listed who had been hired and terminated for the month of June.
“I think HR needs to be held accountable for the job they’re not doing,” Benavidez said. “I mean, to me, people get paid a salary to do a job. If they’re not doing the job, maybe that needs to be looked at.”
The city’s immediate future is complicated by an absentee mayor and no official city manager.
The July 22 meeting marks the seventh consecutive absence by Mayor John Ramon Vigil, who last attended on June 24. The same day, the Rio Grande SUN published an article online detailing a police report filed by a city employee who accused him of ongoing harassment and workplace abuse. According to the report, she said Vigil also sexually assaulted her at a Santa Fe restaurant in October 2024 in front of former city manager Eric Lujan.
In May, the council approved a settlement agreement allowing Lujan to voluntarily resign and retain his salary while holding a temporary position. Vigil said in a telephone interview at the time, that he had a plan to hire a new manager by Aug. 25, and that while City Clerk Carla Martinez had not been officially approved as interim manager, she was already acting in that position.
The council voted to reject naming Martinez as the interim city manager at its July 8 meeting. She is one of the employees whose professionalism was called into question at the July 22 meeting.
District 4 City Councilor Samuel LeDoux detailed several issues he has with Martinez, starting with an email exchange earlier this month.
LeDoux emailed Martinez on July 16 to ask for an executive session to be listed on the July 22 meeting agenda to discuss a personnel matter involving an appointed official.
“Not sure what you mean,” Martinez wrote in response. “I need to identify specifically what you are calling for the executive session in the agenda, it cannot be vague.”
LeDoux then replied that it would be for an evaluation of her job performance. Instead of listing it on the agenda, Martinez denied LeDoux’s request.
“After conferring with City Attorney Frank Coppler and Mayor John Ramon Vigil, the executive session that you have requested to evaluate the city clerk is denied at this time,” Martinez wrote. “Ordinance says that the city clerk and appointees shall be evaluated annually, and that took place in May.”
The reason provided by Martinez is false, but the lines of her authority are blurred due to her acting in the dual position of clerk and unapproved city manager.
According to city code, the mayor appoints the city manager, clerk, attorney and the police and fire chiefs once they begin their term as mayor. These appointments must be approved by the council. All city employees are then subordinates of the city manager, but the council retains the authority to discipline and terminate the positions.
Neither city code nor New Mexico State statutes require the clerk to get approval for the agenda from the mayor. It is unclear why the mayor has control over the agenda while not attending meetings.
According to the New Mexico Municipal League website, “in most municipalities, the Municipal Clerk prepares the agenda in consultation with the presiding officer, although it may be prepared by the City Manager, if there is one. Unless there is a standing rule that officers or department heads notify the clerk of matters they would like on the agenda, he or she may have to ask them what they expect to report or bring before the governing body.”
Benavidez also said she received phone calls from multiple directors about a meeting led by Martinez earlier that day, during which “she instructed or encouraged those directors to start contacting us city councilors because we are not doing our jobs.”
Benavidez said she does not understand why Martinez was running director meetings when they rejected her interim appointment.
“This Council, this governing body, is here to tell you and remind you, you were not voted in that capacity,” she said. “Why you continue to act in the capacity? I don’t know.”
Other Concerns
LeDoux also highlighted several other concerns he had with the meeting’s agenda.
There were no meeting minutes to approve during the July 22 meeting. The last time the council passed minutes was on July 8 when they approved minutes for the May 13, regular meeting. According to the New Mexico Open Meeting’s Act, the city clerk is responsible for creating a draft of the minutes within 10 working days, and the minutes are to be approved at the council’s next meeting with a quorum.
In response to LeDoux’s comments, Martinez said she has not received additional minutes from the stenographer hired by the city.
There have been nine regular and special meetings since May 27. Further delays are expected because the clerk’s office lost its budget to pay the stenographer.
Next, LeDoux expressed his concern with the clerk’s decision to indicate public comment will be limited to two minutes per person. Typically, meeting agendas do not have a time limit listed and people are allowed to speak for three minutes.
LeDoux also referred back to his email regarding his request for an executive session to be listed on the agenda. While it is not typical for an executive session to be listed, he said he believes it should be included going forward.
He and Martinez also shared a tense moment during the vote to approve the July 22 meeting agenda.
District 4 Councilor Justin Salazar Torres attended the meeting virtually, and when LeDoux attempted to make sure Martinez took his vote, she cut him off.
“Councilor, will you let me finish?” she said to LeDoux, and did not allow him to finish his statement.
Later in the meeting, Benavidez said Martinez’s response to LeDoux was unacceptable.
“Ma’am, if you ever disrespect another city councilor like you did Councilor LeDoux a few minutes ago, that needs to stop,” she said directly to Martinez. “Don’t do that again, because I will stop you. Do not disrespect this governing body again, and do not continue to do that. This governing body is going to take control.”
Social Services Department
During her report to Council, Social Services Director Michelle Fraire said she is having difficulty conducting regular business within her department.
Despite reaching out to Baxter several times, she has not been able to conduct interviews to hire members of the opioid outreach team, and is unable to utilize opioid settlement funds.
Fraire’s director’s report was one of those not included in the meeting agenda packet, but was instead directly given to councilors. During her presentation, she provided some details about the rising number of overdose deaths in the city, but the information was not yet publicly available as of press time because the clerk’s office failed to post it on the city’s website.
Other Matters
During the meeting, Española City Police Chief Mizel Garcia said the city does not have an active contract with an attorney, so no one could represent the city during municipal court cases.
“Prior to the departure of our city manager, the contract for our city attorney was not filled,” Garcia said. “As a result of that, I believe we had 11 DWIs that had to be dropped.”
According to the municipal court’s monthly financial report, no DWI cases were filed in June. Municipal Court Judge Joseph Madrid said that as of the day of the meeting, the city still did not have an attorney who could prosecute DWI cases.
Garcia said his officers will refile the 11 DWI cases in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court.