Setting the Record Straight- Holden Resignation and Commentary

AlamogordoTownNews.org and KALHRadio.org prides itself on reporting with the best information available at the time of publication of a story. All stories we publish are sourced with multiple sources to confirm the version of events as they are unfolding at the time of publication. We comply with the standards of the Independent Nonprofit New Association to provide the best information available at the time of publication of our news releases.

Due to citizen interest and questions we ran an original news release concerning the sudden resignation of Alamogordo City Manager Rick Holden we reported "Unconfirmed reports state that an escalation accured between Commissioner Rardin, another commissioner and Rick Holden with his immediate resignation."  We are now correcting the record on that statement.

We also reported in that same story that in order to get an official verification of the facts that "AlamogordoTownNews.org has sent an IPRA request and a request for a statement to the city clerk and city attorney requesting copies of documents related to the resignation and for further details to be made to the public."

Many of the documents from that request have now been previewed. We stand by a majority of our reporting that the resignation was triggered by a meeting and an escalation that occurred. Regardles of the political spin by the mayor, we do want to issue a public apology to Commissioner Josh Rardin.

The information provided to ATN prior to the release of official documents was incorrect, as such we "alleged" Mr Rardin was the commissioner involved in the meeting with Mr. Holden prior to his resignation. That has now been proven with the public records release to have been an inaccurate allegation as sourced.

To set the record straight, it was not commissioner Rardin that attended nor facilitated the meeting it was commissioner Mark Tapley

We regret the error in reporting and wanted to officially correct the record, from an "alleged incident", to a "confirmed incident" with an official acknowledgement of participants, now that we have official confirmation from released conversations from the city of Alamogordo via the public records request. 

Specific to Holdens resignation, he has gone on record that he resigned to maintain his "well being."

It is obvious that the pressure of the situation of running the city of Alamogordo, and the pressure, especially around recent water rate increases, has driven significant resentment from citizens and certain business leaders toward city leadership.

What is unfortunate, is one city business owner, Josh Ramsey, has not complied with city ordinances around days for legal watering, but wants to pressure the city for a decrease in his water rates as a commercial irrigation customer. He also suggested getting the state involved...

As a part of the public records request we secured text messages between the business owner and Commissioner Tapley on conversations leading up to the meeting of which occured and led to Holdens resignation...

Thus as suggested by the texts and reported by AlamogordoTownNews.org there was escalations in dialogue between the city and the business owner and the meeting did occur between the business owner, Commissioner Tapley and Rick Holden. Then the meeting occurred on the 19th and by 10:2o am, following the meeting; Mr Holden sent a resignation to the commission. 

The chart below shows water usage by the business associated with the account in question. Those days highlighted in red are days in which watering occurred in violation of the local city ordinances related to allowable watering. This is a snapshot of multiple days in violation of city code...

It appears via the dialogue this business owner feels the rates are excessive and he should not have to comply with the ordinance that outlines legal watering days.

The city was aware of watering on days that are in violation of code, and yet the business was never cited by code enforcement for violating the ordinance on legal watering days.

Mr Holden sent an email to the city commissioners outlining the escalating issue with this business owner and addressing that the issue was becoming "intense" 

Mr. Holden outlines that the city does not have a large number of irrigation customers. That is true in fact the list is minimal...

Commentary:

Many more questions come into play with the resignation of Mr Holden. The speech by the mayor attacking our reporting did not do justice to the dissapointing loss of Mr Holden. 

Other questions the public must consider is how does the public reel in certain business owners that operate from a position of entitlement expecting special treatment by the city verses the public at large.

The water rate increase was large and could have been mitigated had prior commissions reacted responsibly and increased them accordingly. Instead the city faces a daunting infrastructure challenge of which its not well equipped financially to handle. Modifications to rates or reductions to certain businesses and not to the public at large could result in a major revolt by the citizens at large. A rollback in rates as approved while desirable to the masses could result in a default by the city on its borrowing obligations or  prevent it from future borrowing in order to fund water, road and infrastructure investments and improvments. The city has failed for a decade to address infrastructure in a manner that serves its citizens and now the present commission under the guidance of Rick Holden was playing catchup and as such is in an unprecedented and uncomfortable position. The question for city leadership is do they courage to continue the path forward and address the infrastructure challenges now or due to the pressure and resignation of Holden will they step back and kick the infrastructure challenges even further down the road to eventual collapse? 

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