New City Manager Pledges Transparency; Billing Dispute Between Payne and Rardin Boils Over at Alamogordo Commission Meeting Public Comments

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — The Alamogordo City Commission convened Tuesday night, July 14, with Mayor Sharon McDonald presiding over a meeting that mixed a hopeful message from the city’s newly hired manager with a pointed public dispute between former Mayor Susan Payne and Commissioner Josh Rardin over unpaid city accounts.

City Manager Stockwell Emphasized Openness

Just two weeks into the job, the city’s new manager used his first substantive report to the commission to stake out a policy of transparency. He told commissioners that after 14 days on the job, he has found city staff “well informed” and “dedicated,” and credited public works and public utilities crews for retention ponds around Benito Lake that performed as designed during a recent heavy runoff, keeping mud, ash and fire debris out of the city’s water supply.

He also used the report to clarify what he described as an open-records policy for commissioners themselves: correspondence and documents sent to commissioners by city staff, he said, are not confidential and can be freely shared with residents who ask. He said his direction to staff has been to err on the side of releasing information rather than withholding it, adding that only a small, defined category of material needs to remain confidential.

Payne Confronts Rardin Over Water Bill

The evening’s most heated moment came during public comment, when Susan Payne, a former Alamogordo mayor, told commissioners she had been contacted repeatedly after a prior meeting by residents asking whether she owed money to the city. She said she was startled to learn she had been placed on a delinquent-account write-off list, and said Commissioner Rardin had specifically flagged her account and urged her to pay it.

Payne said she paid the roughly $537 balance by check despite not understanding why it was owed, and that she was told the city does not offer payment plans for such balances. She then turned the confrontation back on Rardin, invoking a 2021 commission meeting at which he disclosed — and recused himself from voting on — a roughly $1,600 personal water-line balance that was ultimately written off by the commission rather than paid by him directly. Payne challenged Rardin to “pay his bill” the same way she had paid hers.

A memorandum from that period, dated May 24, 2021, from then-Customer Service Manager Nichole Sierra to Accounting Manager Sue Ashe, shows a total of $9,141.97 in miscellaneous accounts-receivable write-offs submitted for commission approval, covering delinquent accounts through June 2017. Handwritten notes on the document attribute $1,630.71 of that total — about 17.8% of the entire write-off batch — to Rardin’s account.

Coverage of an exchange two weeks ago published by 2nd Life Media Alamogordo Town News reported additional details.

Possible Ethics Questions

New Mexico’s Governmental Conduct Act requires public officials to recuse themselves and not to target and use the position for personal benefit. Questions raised publicly center on whether a sitting commissioner targeting a member of the public when his personal debt was written of which presents an appearance problem distinct from a strict legal violation. While maybe not illegal the AG would likely rule unethical.

Subdivision Ordinance Pulled Again

Before public comment began, the commission struck an ordinance addressing subdivision regulations from the agenda — the second time in recent meetings the item has been removed rather than taken up for a vote. No new timeline was given for when the ordinance might return. With that item off the table, the airport fee increase (detailed below) stood as the only substantive action the commission took Tuesday night; the rest of the meeting’s agenda consisted of reports, remarks and routine consent items.

Public Comment: Who Spoke and What They Said

Five members of the public addressed the commission:

• Wendy, 100% Otero — Housing priorities and legislation. Speaking on behalf of the housing advocacy group 100% Otero, Wendy asked residents to get involved in shaping a new state housing bill by taking part in statewide surveys the group is using to gather input. She framed the surveys as a tool for building the evidence base needed to advocate for funding and policy reforms, and was explicit that the bill’s scope should go beyond homelessness: she pointed to vacant and underused housing stock and broader community revitalization as priorities the legislation should also address, arguing that a narrower focus on homelessness alone would leave those issues unaddressed.

• Kim Murillo — Call for transparency and accountability. Mario delivered the sharpest criticism of city leadership heard during public comment. She alleged that recent decisions around city manager appointments broke with proper hiring protocol, and went further to allege that city staff or residents who have publicly raised concerns about city government have faced retaliation as a result. She called directly on commission members to be more open and to hold themselves individually accountable, framing transparency not as a courtesy but as a necessary step toward what she described as healing, truth and justice within city government.

• Johnny Powell — Acknowledgment of city support for community events. Powell used his time to thank the city rather than criticize it, praising staff for successfully organizing the recent fireworks show. He said the event had a tangible, positive effect on community engagement at the International Space Hall of Fame Foundation, where it was held, and credited the city’s coordination for the event’s success.

• Jerry Martinez — Concerns about retaliation and need for cooperation. Martinez condemned what he described as ongoing retaliation within the commission, calling for commissioners to unite around transparency and the city’s overall welfare rather than internal conflict. He also used his comment to highlight local support programs, specifically First Nations Second Chance, which he said helps veterans, domestic violence victims and unhoused individuals in the Alamogordo area.

Commissioner Remarks and Airport Fees

During the commissioner remarks portion of the agenda, Mayor McDonald was the only commissioner to offer public comment on community matters, reminding residents of the citywide cleanup event scheduled for Saturday, July 18, at the Dudley Community Center starting at 7 a.m. No other commissioner spoke to community matters, volunteer efforts, accessibility improvements or the weed-control and gift-bag questions raised in connection with cleanup sites; the agenda item passed without further discussion or input from the rest of the commission.

The commission then unanimously approved its consent agenda, including Resolution 2026-21, which raises fees at the White Sands Regional Airport. The changes include lease-rate increases tied to a 2.7% CPI adjustment and a rise in commercial landing fees from $0.30 to $0.40 per landing, intended to align with federal fee parity. As noted above, this was the only substantive action taken by the commission Tuesday night.

The meeting adjourned

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