Santa Fe committee approves charter ballot measures limiting mayoral removals and changing removal threshold

The City of Santa Fe Quality of Life Committee voted July 23 to advance two related charter amendment resolutions for placement as ballot questions in the Nov. 4, 2025 election concerning who may remove the city manager, city attorney and city clerk.

The committee approved a resolution that, as written in the packet, would require governing‑body consent before a mayor can remove a city manager, city attorney or city clerk; members then approved an amendment that would exempt an incoming mayor’s first 180 days in office from that consent requirement. The committee separately approved a second resolution to allow five members of the governing body to suspend or remove those three positions at a regularly scheduled meeting.

Committee sponsors including Councilor Pilar Faulkner, Councilor Lee Garcia and Councilor Amanda Chavez framed the measures as an effort to rebalance executive and legislative power. “I listened, [and] think that this is an opportunity to kind of balance that power and to transition our focus from politics to leadership,” Councilor Amanda Chavez said,…