Alamogordo NM
10-28-2026 6:02am

Fired project manager airs retaliation claim as city manager tries to cut him off, other details of heated Commission Meeting

ALAMOGORDO — A fired city project manager took his case to the public microphone Tuesday night, and City Manager Robert Stockwell tried to stop him. The man the commission called on to settle the dispute, an attorney for the city's insurer, said the former employee had every right to speak.

Justen Boyle, the city's former senior project manager and ADA coordinator, told the Alamogordo City Commission on Oct. 27 that he believes his firing was retaliation for raising accessibility and code-compliance concerns with Human Resources. He asked for two extra minutes. His grievance was on the agenda for the closed-door executive session later that night.

"This is entirely inappropriate"

Boyle had barely finished describing his work when Stockwell broke in.

"Mayor, this is entirely inappropriate," Stockwell said. "It's public comment. He has a grievance before the city commission” (of which names him and his former Director) as named parties in violation of city rules. “It's going to be heard tonight in executive session, and he's addressing the very issues that that is subject to."

"If you let me finish my speech, you'll understand why I'm up here," Boyle replied.

Mayor Sharon McDonald turned to Clint Nicely, risk services director for the New Mexico Self-Insurers Fund, which handles the city's insurance and claims. Nicely told the commission he is an attorney but was not acting as the city's attorney on this matter.

"If the question is directly whether a person who has a grievance before a public body is able to provide public comment during the public comment period provided for by the municipality, my answer to that question would be yes," Nicely said.

The mayor let Boyle continue. The exchange can be heard at the 8:15 mark of below… 

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Boyle's account

Boyle said he worked for the city from April 2024 to May 2026, helped build the Community Development Department "from the ground up," and completed 20 projects on his own before other staff were hired.

He said he had no prior disciplinary write-ups. In a July 13 meeting, he said, Community Development Director Shelly Barron told him, "You are not going to get fired," but also said, "You have escalated this to HR repeatedly, so I am matching you step by step."

"As the city's ADA coordinator and senior project manager, raising compliance concerns was part of my responsibility," Boyle said. "I should have been able to fulfill that responsibility without fear of retaliation." His termination may also be covered by state whistleblower protections. 

Boyle said he took approved FMLA leave in August after the birth of his son. His work access was removed while he was out. On Sept. 28, his first day back, he was sent home and notified of a contemplated termination. He was told on Oct. 6 that he was fired.

He said he filed a timely grievance, but the city canceled his hearing less than 24 hours beforehand and referred it to the commission, leaving him three weeks without pay. He said Section 4-16(H) of city personnel policy requires mutual written agreement to extend grievance deadlines, and he never agreed. He said the provision HR cites, Section 4-16(J)(3), carries the same process and timelines.

"Employees should be able to raise concerns about accessibility, city ordinances and public spending without losing their livelihoods for speaking out," he said.

The city has not publicly responded to Boyle's allegations. Barron did not address them during the meeting. The city commission after closed door session ordered an independent investigation. 

Commissioners ask for decorum

The temperature rose with the next speaker. Resident Kim Great White Owl Marillo read the city's mission statement, which promises service with "honesty, integrity, compassion, fairness and commitment to excellence," then told the dais, "You have failed. You have failed. You have failed."

She said she was tired of hearing about employee harassment and of paying for lawsuits. "Who pays the legal fees? Taxpayers," she said.

She singled out Mayor Pro Tem Josh Rardin. She said he wants the city to recoup money while carrying unpaid debts to the city and expired registration on his truck, claims AlamogordoTownNews.org has not verified. She said he and Burnett pays more attention to the golf course than their districts, and she has heard nothing from Burnett after three police standoffs, including a SWAT response, near her home. She also cited an unrepaired sinkhole at Indiana Avenue and Lovers Lane.

When she turned to another commissioner Hernandez and said, "Your hatred comes out of your pores," Rardin and Commissioner Al Hernandez objected. "Please don't point at us," Hernandez said. Marillo answered, "You can't stop me from who I am," and asked the mayor what she planned to do about decorum. The mayor asked her to finish her statement.

After she sat down, the mayor said, "I'll address it." A commissioner shot back, "You weren't addressing it. I asked her to not point, and that's all she had to do was not point."

The call for civility from Hernandez drew notice from those who follow the commission. A video clip from a city airport board meeting appears to show Hernandez calling the leader of the city employees' union "stupid" and saying she was causing problems for the city. City Manager Stockwell filed a Code of Conduct complaint against Hernandez. A three-member review committee split 2–1 on whether there was cause, sending the question to the full commission on Sept. 22, as Town News reported.

https://youtube.com/shorts/THi1Cm40-Rw?is=6S5XJZOE9F0PMWvM

Neighborhoods and LEDA projects

Ryan Sauers urged the commission to take its beautification and vacant-property enforcement plans beyond White Sands Boulevard. He pointed to his own Neighborhood Pride Initiative, sent to the mayor, and asked for a balanced approach that pairs enforcement with voluntary help for residents in the city's poorest neighborhoods.

Beth Crabtree came to correct the record from the previous meeting. There, Stockwell and Rardin questioned the status of LEDA economic development money awarded to the White Sands Theater and Rad Retrocade on New York Avenue. Town News reported afterward that neither official had checked the projects' status first, and that the owners had submitted receipts and status updates.

Crabtree said the two "erroneously stated the status" of the projects. She called their remarks "irresponsible, uninformed" and said they misrepresented the facts to the public. "The fact was never obtained," she said, adding that the new city manager "should know well before he speaks out about something." She also criticized the commission for voting 7–0 to keep Dr. Stephanie Hernandez as city manager, then reversing course on a split vote behind closed doors.

Five-month-old minutes pulled from consent agenda

The commission pulled Item 3 from the consent agenda for an explanation. It asked commissioners to approve minutes from a May 5, 2026 special meeting that "were inadvertently left off for approval on May 26."

City Clerk Rachel Hughes said the draft minutes were finished within 10 days but were accidentally left off the May 26 agenda. She said the commission had four meetings in those two weeks, and would have had five if a May 5 budget meeting had not been canceled. Staff caught the omission last week and put it on the agenda right away, she said. "It was a mistake, and now we are curing that by putting it on here."

Commissioner Stephen Burnett moved to approve, seconded by Hernandez. Before the vote, a commissioner, Rardin asked whether the city had self-reported to the Secretary of State or the Attorney General. Hughes said she was advised the city did not have to self-report. The minutes were approved 6–0.

What the law says

The New Mexico Open Meetings Act sets two deadlines for minutes. Under NMSA 10-15-1(G), draft minutes "shall be prepared within ten working days after the meeting" and "shall be approved, amended or disapproved at the next meeting where a quorum is present." The law adds: "Minutes shall not become official until approved by the policymaking body."

By the clerk's account, the city met the first deadline but missed the second. The next meeting with a quorum after May 5 came and went without the minutes, as did every meeting for roughly five months. In that time, the May 5 special meeting had no official record.

The act does not require a public body to report itself, so the clerk's answer is consistent with the statute. The act is enforced by the Attorney General, district attorneys, or private citizens who sue. New Mexico courts have accepted later corrective action at a properly noticed public meeting as a remedy for some procedural defects, according to case annotations to the statute.

Whether Tuesday's vote fully cures the lapse is a legal question the commission did not discuss. The approval makes the May 5 minutes official, but it does not change that they were not approved on the schedule the law sets.

Rardin calls for audit of New York Avenue money

Rardin answered Crabtree during commission remarks by repeating his claims. He said that on past LEDA projects, the city approved funding and paid invoices as work was done. On the two New York Avenue projects, he said, "if I'm not mistaken, a million-dollar check was cut to both of those individuals," and "we have no clue where it's at, where it's been spent, or how we would recoup it."

He suggested no compliance process was in place and that taxpayer money was at risk. "There's two million dollars of it sitting down there," he said, and asked that auditors examine the spending this year. "It's nothing against the business owners," he added.

At one point Rardin told an audience member, "Madam, I'm talking. Can you please refrain?"

The contracts tell a different story. Copies Town News obtained through a public records request set out reporting requirements for both projects, and the owners are meeting them, as Town News previously reported. Both owners say they have submitted receipts and status updates and plan to invest more than $1 million each of their own money. The city's first formal LEDA check-in under the contracts is due at the end of December. Stockwell later told Town News he was "uninformed of the status of the two properties."

Residents can check for themselves. The LEDA agreements are public records, and anyone may request copies from the city under the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA).

Fire Station 2 gets concrete pad, asphalt drives

The commission voted 7–0 for the lower of two options on Change Order No. 4 with National Construction at Fire Station 2: $173,159.84, rather than $254,816.81.

The approved option puts about 20 feet of concrete in front of the apparatus bay doors, where engines park, are washed and are staged. The north and south driveways and north parking area get 3 inches of hot-mix asphalt over an 8-inch compacted base. The original design left the driveways as dirt.

Barron said concrete is more durable, but both options meet the station's needs. She put the difference at about $100,000, or "about a Starbucks a day" over a 20-year life. The fire chief said every other station started with asphalt bay pads that had to be replaced with concrete within about 10 years, while asphalt driveways have held up. Staff noted a New Mexico Gas line under the north parking area, which is cheaper to reach under asphalt.

Hernandez made the motion; Rardin seconded. Commissioner Baxter Patillo, listed absent at roll call, voted remotely, bringing the tally to seven. The money comes from Fund 69, which a commissioner said holds $6.06 million.

Earlier, the commission approved the agenda and the rest of the consent agenda, Items 2 and 4, each 6–0. The mayor proclaimed Nov. 1 Extra Mile Day. Stockwell had no city manager's report.

Eight lawsuits and Boyle's case behind closed doors

The commission voted 7–0, on a motion by Hernandez seconded by Burnett, to go into executive session under NMSA 10-15-1(H)(7) to discuss threatened or pending litigation in eight cases against the city: Blaylock, Collier, Cellular, Hubbard, Miller, Romero, Romo and Stonecipher. Nicely of the Self-Insurers Fund joined that discussion.

Under 10-15-1(H)(2), the limited-personnel-matters exemption, the commission also took up a matter regarding the senior project manager, Boyle's former title. HR Director Michelle Osborne was to brief commissioners.

Alamogordo Town News reached out for comment on Boyle's allegations and not yet heard a further response 

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