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Alamogordo commission approves city manager contract amid public outcry over hiring process
Summary
After prolonged public comment and debate about transparency, the Alamogordo City Commission voted 5–2 on June 23 to approve a city manager contract for Robert Stockwell; residents asked the commission to publish hiring criteria and documentation and several speakers cited open‑meetings concerns.
The Alamogordo City Commission on June 23 approved a contract to hire Robert Stockwell as city manager following a contentious public comment period and hours of discussion among commissioners.
Commissioner Baxter Patillo introduced the agreement and said commissioners had been in contact with Stockwell since July 2025 and again in January 2026. Patillo and supporting commissioners said the appointment is authorized by the city charter and that the commission held multiple executive sessions to discuss the hire. Patillo said the contract before the commission largely follows the same form and benefits used for prior city managers.
Residents and several public commenters urged the commission to remove the contract from the consent agenda and subject the hire to a fuller, public vetting process. Katie Owens asked why the city manager position was not publicly posted, requested the date Mr. Stockwell’s materials were submitted and raised questions about the $180,000 salary in the contract. Other speakers, including Kim Great White Al Marillo and Jan Brending, asked the commission to publish the candidate criteria and scoring used by any recruiting firm and the commission’s documentation supporting the decision. Multiple commenters referenced active litigation or open‑meetings complaints and said the public deserved more transparent records about the process.
Commissioners defended their actions as lawful. Several members said they had advertised the position via a recruiting firm in July 2025 and again in January 2026 and that commissioners set a published salary band (noted in the meeting as $150,000–$185,000) to broaden the candidate pool. Commissioners also said Mr. Stockwell met the city‑charter qualifications for the post. Commissioner Warren Robinson voted against the contract on procedural grounds, saying he had no problem with the candidate’s qualifications but with how the process was handled.
At the end of debate the commission voted to approve the contract; the clerk recorded the vote as 5 in favor and 2 opposed. Following the vote, commissioners encouraged members of the public to request records directly if they wanted to review payouts or contract history and offered staff assistance to locate public reports.
What’s next: The contract takes effect per the terms approved by the commission. The commission also moved into a closed executive session to discuss pending litigation at the end of the meeting.
Sources: public comments and council discussion at the June 23, 2026 Alamogordo City Commission meeting. All quotations and attributions are taken from speakers who addressed the commission at the meeting.
