NM DOJ investigation finds City of Las Cruces broke state transparency laws in city manager hiring process

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- A state investigation found the City of Las Cruces broke the law earlier this year in the way they hired their new city manager.

Now, the city will have to re-do the hiring process.

The New Mexico Department of Justice says the city violated the Open Meetings Act while they were in the process of selecting Ikani Taumoepeau to replace Ifo Pili as city manager back in April.

The letter from the DOJ, which was published by the Las Cruces Bulletin, was sent to Mayor Eric Enriquez, Mayor Pro Tem and District 4 Councilor Johana Bencomo, and City Attorney Brad Douglas back on December 20th.

It says the city violated state transparency laws by holding only one public meeting on April 1st that discussed the hiring of Taumoepeau, and text messages between city leaders showed his selection was already determined in a closed session on March 20th, which the DOJ says is illegal.

According to the letter, selections of finalists “must occur in an open meeting, as these are matters of public business and affect the public.”

The DOJ says this means Taumoepeau’s selection is now voided, as the proper public meeting requirements weren't met.

The letter also gives the city two options to fix the situation.

The city can either hold a meeting with the public to disclose everything discussed during closed session, and then approve the selection of a city manager by "public and open vote of a majority of the city council."

They say the city can also recruit and hire a city manager by a new series of meetings that comply with the state’s transparency laws.

ABC-7 reached out to the City of Las Cruces for comment, and their communications director sent us a statement from City Attorney saying Brad Douglas.

It says "[the city] will take immediate action to remedy the deficiencies the AG identified. [The city] will take this as a learning opportunity and make improvements in the future. As the AG acknowledged, [the city has] already made corrective action regarding the closed meeting statement requirements.”

ABC-7 will continue to update you as soon as we learn what decision the city makes regarding the city manager hiring process.