Española City Manager Lauren Reichelt is out.
Española City councilors voted 5-3 at a special council meeting on Thursday, to fire her after just 108 days on the job.
District 1 City Councilor Pedro Valdez, District 2 Councilor Nanette Rodriguez and District 3 Councilor Felicia Archuleta-Toya voted to keep Reichelt as city manager but did not have enough votes to push the decision to a tiebreaker which would have been decided by Mayor John Ramon Vigil.
District 1 Councilor Aaron Salazar, District 2 Councilor Peggy Sue Martinez, District 3 Councilor Denise Benavidez and District 4 Councilors Samuel LeDoux and mayor pro-tem Justin Salazar-Torrez voted in favor of the termination.
Councilors discussed a wide range of topics related to Reichelt’s job performance, including posts she made on social media, interactions with councilors, hiring, code enforcement and more.
Salazar-Torrez said the council’s job is to make the city laws, and that Reichelt has ignored actions taken by council and has instead “hijacked” the governing body.
“You’re not an elected official,” he said. “You are an appointed official by the governing body who was elected to make decisions and vote on things.”
During her comments, Rodriguez attempted to change the direction of the discussion by mentioning a letter from the International Association of Fire Fighters Local #4339 sent to the city, defending Assistant Fire Chief John Wickersham.
Wickersham received a notice of contemplated disciplinary action from Reichelt in December.
“I personally want to say that I believe that the governing body was elected to make policy and not be involved in personnel issues,” she said.
Rodriguez said Reichelt was doing a good job.
“We’ve had projects that have moved forward,” she said. “We are seeing things being completed that we have not seen in the four years that I’ve been serving on this council.”
Public vs. Executive
Reichelt requested the discussion about her performance as city manager be held in public, and that the council not immediately go into executive session. New Mexico’s Open Meeting’s Act allows governmental bodies to go into closed session to discuss employee dismissal.
Her request led to a nearly 20-minute debate between herself, city attorney Frank Coppler and councilors about how the discussion would move forward.
“So my question is, you want to evaluate me?” Reichelt said to council. “You have not told me what your concerns are, yet when I first came on board, I stated, to the public, that one of the problems in the city of Española is that the governing body likes to go into executive sessions and do things in secret, and I would not allow that when it came to discussions about me. So if you all have something to say about the way I’m running the city, you need to say it to me here in public and not have secret discussions behind closed doors.”
After the public discussion, councilors entered into an executive session that lasted about 40 minutes, before returning to council chambers to approve Reichelt’s termination.
After the vote, Vigil named Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia as city manager, pending a final vote at the next city council meeting on Tuesday.