A Complaint Judged by Colleagues: Why Alamogordo's Handling of the Al Hernandez Complaint Breaks From Its Own Precedent

Alamogordo NM- Twice before, the city hired outside counsel to examine commissioners' conduct. This time, fellow commissioners reviewed the complaint themselves, and a supermajority rule could end it on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the Alamogordo City Commission will decide whether a Code of Conduct complaint against one of its own members, Commissioner Alfonso "Al" Hernandez, goes any further. City Manager Robert Stockwell placed the matter on the agenda. The complaint has already been through a first review, but not by an independent investigator. It was reviewed by a panel of Hernandez's fellow commissioners.

How the process works

Under the city's code, the complaint first went to a three-member Preliminary Review Committee made up of fellow commissioners. According to the agenda report, two of the three found "No Cause" on all four counts, and the third found "Cause" on all four. By the commission's customary practice, that committee is made up of its three senior members, which in this case means Mayor Sharon McDonald, Commissioner Josh Rardin, and Commissioner Stephen Burnett. To be confirmed by IPRA request.  The agenda report does not say which member voted which way.

Because of that split, the city code requires the full Commission to decide whether the complaint goes any further. Hernandez himself cannot vote. The motion needs five affirmative votes. With Hernandez recused, that means five of the six remaining commissioners must agree. If the motion falls short, the complaint is over. If it passes, the complaint will be scheduled for a later meeting where its merits will be heard. Tuesday's vote does not decide whether the allegations are true. It decides only whether anyone will examine them.

In practice, two commissioners can end the matter. If just two of the six eligible members vote no, the complaint dies without a public review of the evidence.

What's behind it

The complaint comes as a video clip from a public meeting with the city's airport board circulates online. In the clip, Hernandez appears to call the leader of the city employees' union "stupid" and says she is causing problems for the city. 

This matters beyond one heated moment. When an elected official publicly disparages an employee representative, the city, not the commissioner, carries the legal and financial risk. Local reporting has counted more than $1 million in taxpayer-funded settlements tied to alleged oversteps, including issues involving former Commissioner Al Hernandez and other commissioners.

A break from precedent

Alamogordo has handled complaints about commissioners differently before. In 2023, after former City Manager Brian Cesar accused commissioners of interfering in city operations, the city hired attorney Clara Burns of Kemp Smith LLP. She interviewed the mayor, every commissioner, and city employees, protecting the employees' identities because they feared retaliation. Her report found credible evidence that commissioners had interfered with management and pressured staff. Commissioner Rardin was among those named.

In 2025, the city returned to the same firm over concerns that the city manager search was biased against Acting City Manager Dr. Stephanie Hernandez. That investigation found corroborated evidence that a commissioner had dismissed her qualifications, and concluded the process had been tainted.

Both problems were uncovered by outside counsel. Neither would likely have surfaced through a panel of commissioners reviewing each other.

According to an internal city staffer, the decision not to bring in outside counsel this time was Stockwell's. That official said, in paraphrase, that this is exactly why past leadership pushed for outside investigations. In their view, nothing good comes from officials policing themselves. A city manager should not lead or investigate the people he works for, and the city should not rely on politicians to hold each other accountable without independent oversight.

The conflicts in the chain

The concern is not only about the process on paper. It is about who fills each role.

The city manager serves at the commission's pleasure. When the commission hired Stockwell this June on a 5–2 vote, Commissioner Baxter Patillo moved to hire Stockwell, and Commissioner Al Hernandez seconded the motion. Local reporting on a failed 2016 hiring attempt also says the motion to hire Stockwell was put forth by then Commissioner Al Hernandez. The administrator who chose not to seek an outside investigation owes his job, in part, to the commissioner named in the complaint.

The review committee raises similar questions. Rardin and Burnett have voted alongside Hernandez on this year's most consequential personnel decisions, including the April vote in which Commissioners Josh Rardin, Stephen Burnett, Al Hernandez, and Baxter Pottillo voted to force Dr. Hernandez out through a financial settlement tied to an EEOC complaint she had filed. If the two "No Cause" findings came from commissioners who routinely vote with the accused, the public has reason to doubt those findings. If they did not, the city can clear that up by saying so.

A weak rulebook

The city's own rules make things harder. Commissioners have already identified two separate code-of-conduct ordinances, one passed in 2014 and another in 2022, that overlap and contain inconsistent language, particularly regarding complaint procedures and remedies. Staff were asked to merge or repeal them, and the issue remains open.

Defenders of the current system argue that commissioners answer to voters, and that a high bar protects them from politically motivated complaints. That argument has merit. But it doesn't explain why the city used independent investigators in 2023 and 2025 and not now. Residents also have options outside City Hall: the city attorney has previously reminded members of complaint options through the New Mexico Attorney General or State Ethics Commission.

Questions for Tuesday

Why did the city manager decline to use outside counsel, when the city did so in both recent cases involving commissioners' conduct? Which committee members found "Cause," and which found "No Cause"? Did any committee member consider recusing, given their voting history with the commissioner under review? And if the complaint dies Tuesday, what record will the public ever see of what was alleged and why it was dismissed?

The commission meets Tuesday, September 22, at 6:30 p.m. Public comment is open at the start of the meeting but members must sign up prior to 630 to speak 

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