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6-10-2026 5:16am
“The Honor of a Lifetime”: Dr. Stephanie Hernandez Bids Farewell, Names Chief Kunihiro Acting Assistant City Manager
Chris Edwards
Editor
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — In what she confirmed would be her final appearance before the Alamogordo City Commission, Acting City Manager Dr. Stephanie Hernandez used her closing remarks Tuesday to do two things at once: steady the organization she is leaving and tell the public, plainly, how the city arrived at this point.
Before her farewell, Hernandez announced an administrative move designed to cushion her departure. After what she described as careful consideration, she appointed Police Chief David Kunihiro as Acting Assistant City Manager to help carry the city through a heavy transition period. The appointment, she emphasized, was within her authority and was not intended to box in whoever the Commission ultimately selects as the next city manager.
Hernandez will remain in the office through June 30, she said, for the single purpose of transitioning Assistant City Manager duties to Kunihiro and protecting continuity in city operations. Tuesday, however, was the end of her time at the dais.
Why Kunihiro
Hernandez framed the appointment as practical rather than political. For 21 months she has performed both the City Manager and Assistant City Manager roles, and more recently picked up portions of the City Attorney function while that position remains unfilled — leaving directors and staff anxious about what July, the city’s heaviest transactional month, would look like without her.
“While I could simply leave on June 30 and allow others to figure that out, I respect my directors, employees, and the citizens too much not to do what I can to help create some stability.”
She said Kunihiro already oversees roughly a third of city personnel and some of the most difficult departments — police, code enforcement, animal control, dispatch and compliance — and already handles a high volume of decisions just below the Assistant City Manager level, which should make the handoff smoother.
“Chief Kunihiro is responsible, fair, and reasonable. I have come to appreciate his leadership because he advocates for staff while also holding his people accountable. I have also come to appreciate his presence in moments of tragedy and his grace under pressure.”
Hernandez drew a sharp line for the public: an Acting Assistant City Manager is not an Acting City Manager. Kunihiro’s appointment, she said, does not elevate him into the top role upon her exit. “A person can only hold one acting City role at a time,” she said, adding that the City Manager decision still rests with the Commission alone.
How the City Got Here
Much of Hernandez’s speech was a measured, on-the-record account of a leadership saga that has played out publicly for nearly two years — and that now sits at the center of ethics complaints and threatened litigation against the city.
She recounted notifying the Commission in September 2024 that she had applied for the permanent position, her first interview in April 2025, and being told she was the highest-ranked candidate — only to see that recruitment canceled in May 2025 as “tainted.” In January, she logged on for a scheduled interview and waited roughly 20 minutes before learning it had been canceled because the other two candidates had withdrawn, rather than the Commission choosing to interview her. She called it “an eye-opener” and “a turning point.”
“Through all of this, I have been patient. I did not push. I did not demand a resolution when many people in my position would have demanded one much earlier. I continued doing both jobs without complaint because the work still had to be done, and the City still had to function and the citizens deserved better.”
She also addressed the seven weeks that elapsed after a March 10 vote without a contract — a contrast, she noted, to the three previous city managers, who had signed contracts the same week they were voted in. With the traditional route stalled and her own burnout mounting, she said she was advised the EEOC process could serve as an alternative negotiation avenue, and she presented two options for the Commission to accept, reject or counter.
“While the outcome was difficult, I recognize that the Commission ultimately made a decision I had asked them to make. Continuing without resolution was no longer sustainable for me, for staff, for my family, or for the organization.”
The reference is to the April 28 vote, in which a 4–3 Commission majority accepted a settlement tied to her EEOC complaint — a decision that effectively ended her path to the permanent post after roughly two years in an acting capacity. The city now faces a simultaneous vacancy in both of its most critical administrative roles, with the City Attorney also departing.
A Pointed Message on Charter and Authority
The most consequential portion of Hernandez’s remarks echoed the core allegations in the pending litigation and ethics complaints against the city: that certain commissioners have overstepped their authority by going around the city manager to direct staff directly — conduct critics say violates the city charter and New Mexico’s Commission-Manager statute, and that has fueled the city’s chronic manager turnover.
Hernandez did not name names. But she did name the pattern.
“During that transition, I sincerely hope the constant bypassing of the City Manager and going directly to directors stops. I hope Chief Kunihiro is given the ability to oversee the directors assigned to him and be successful. When decisions are made that someone disagrees with, I hope those concerns are discussed professionally and directly, rather than used to build opposition against the City Manager or staff.”
“I have now seen this pattern with multiple City Managers. Going around the City Manager to directors has undermined the position, weakened the organization, and created unnecessary conflict. It was a source of contention for my predecessors, and it has been a source of contention for me as well. If this organization is going to stabilize, that has to change.”
That diagnosis lines up with the legal exposure now hanging over the city. Citizen complaints filed with the New Mexico State Ethics Commission and the Office of the Attorney General — along with civil litigation that has been threatened against the city — center on allegations that a bloc of commissioners directed staff beyond the manager in violation of the Commission-Manager Act (NMSA § 3-14-12(C)), and conducted key personnel decisions through closed executive sessions in possible violation of the Open Meetings Act. Local reporting has tied those allegations most often to Commissioners Josh Rardin and Stephen Burnett, among others, and has documented more than $1 million in taxpayer-funded settlements connected to similar oversteps over the past decade.
Hernandez tied that dysfunction directly to the revolving door in the manager’s office — at least seven city managers since 2015.
“In my view, that is one of the central reasons Alamogordo has experienced so much City Manager turnover. The issue is not only who sits in the chair. The issue is whether the Commission as a whole — and not individually behind closed doors — has provided clear priorities, a stable policy direction, and the organizational discipline to allow the City Manager to execute them.”
Setting the Record Straight
Hernandez also used the public setting to push back, directly, on accusations that she had been a leak to the press — speaking, she noted, while members of the media, the Commission, staff and the public were present.
“I have never been someone who needed to be in the spotlight… So to those who have suggested it could be me leaking confidential information, it is not.”
What she had done, she said, was answer honestly when a citizen, employee or commissioner asked her something she could lawfully answer. And she offered a pointed observation about others.
“There have been many times when I have logged on to read public comments or heard information in the community and realized that certain individuals or industries knew things that I did not know. At times, it appeared that information may have come from executive session or private discussions. So those who are quick to cast stones should first consider whether they are standing in glass houses.”
Standing Up for Staff
Some of her most heartfelt comments were reserved for city employees, whom she described as working under constant public scrutiny in a community of more than 31,000 people.
“They miss vacations, family events, and sometimes compromise their own health to show up for this City… when they criticize a City employee, that employee may have given up time with their own family, sacrificed their own health, or their own peace of mind to try to make today a little better for the citizens of Alamogordo.”
Advice on the Way Out
Hernandez closed with what amounted to a governing roadmap, arguing the Commission’s priorities should fall, in order, on the budget, the city’s future through planning and ordinances, and only then the City Manager position.
“The budget tells the story of where the City is headed… Without the funding in the appropriate place, nothing else matters.”
She urged the Commission to modernize ordinances with growth in mind, noting Alamogordo has added only about 3,000 net residents since the 1990s, and then to select and genuinely support a manager allowed to make hard decisions.
“The Honor of a Lifetime”
Hernandez ended with thanks — to her husband, children, parents and brother; to former Mayor Susan Payne, whom she said she had leaned on since the loss of Officer Ferguson; to Mayor Sharon McDonald; to the commissioners who worked with her in good faith; and to the directors, managers and employees who, in her words, “kept showing up.”
“I can leave knowing I did what I could. By God’s grace, I believe the City is a little better today than when I started. Not every decision was perfect, but every decision I made was made with the greater good of Alamogordo in mind, not for any specific group, person, or political interest.”
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve my hometown.”
Her last day with the city is June 30, 2026.
A copy of her speech issued directly via press request from the city of Alamogordo may be found at
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