2 responses

1. 

   Ted Morgan

   June 18, 2026 at 11:24 am

   It is hard for me to understand why our City Hall needs a City Charter has been accepted by the people of the City and requires an Amendment process that must be approved by a majority of the voters who review each amendment individually and is only accepted by a majority vote. (there actually are other alternatives but each of them involves a vote process by the citizens of Alamogordo). But it is necessary and meaningful as well.

   The multiparty political system is one way to have this benefit, but our City population is low enough that we are not required to have a classic “television type” of Mayor and City Council representation. For one reason it is more economical to have our Commission / City Manager type of government. The number of offices and support personnel needed for the television Mayor – City Council would mean our City Hall would likely be at least twice the building size it is now. So our City Charter was originally based on the City Commission / City Manager type of government.
   This means it is focused on the “Business Known as the City of Alamogordo” and it is run by the City Manager who is also known as the “Chief Executive Officer of the City of Alamogordo”.

   The savings of doing this is significant both in personnel and in business. The City has to trust the City Manager to make it work though. He has to be a highly qualified individual in both education and experience and have an established reputation based on ethics and references. The education system of the US has evolved to meet this requirement by creating a University Degree level of Engineering Management at the BS, MS, and PhD levels and this is the type of education the City Manager of the Business known as the City of Alamogordo needs to have. We have a never-ending drought unlike any other region of the USA and we have no ground water such as a river or a lake replenished in our Basin itself.

   So the Federal Government and the State Government have both recommended we have a water supply that is based on the technology of Desalination which is re-enforced by the plentyful supply of Brine Water that is underground in our City and County. But this is complicated by the fact that there is a significant amount of potable water scattered around in our Basin as well and it is sufficient in volume to serve as well water for individual houses, farms, and even ranches around the County. But the problem with that is Alamogordo is a City and we want to grow which means we need for potable water.

   We can do that but it has to be done by placing the high-rate water wells in the City Limits or in the County area around the City. And would mean a traditional City Limits circle around our City and another City Water Access Limits circle surrounding our traditional City Limits. This protects the water rights of people who have wells in the County around our City.

   So our City Manager requirement is no longer met by qualifications of someone with an MBA Degree because it only suits the Administration part of City Manager scope of work. We now need and Engineering Manager of MS or PhD level with some overlapping experience in the Science of Water Desalination and a serious appreciation in the Hydrology / Geology fields. A PhD in Business Public Administration obviously does not meet our requirements.

   Having posted all of this now let me ask. What are the qualifications and the function of the City Commission? Are they qualified to run the Desalination Plant of today and for our future? Well, someone with degree in politics and business administration would be a recipe for economic disaster for us and maybe already has done that in the past 15+ to the tune of 10’s of millions of $$. For well over the past 15 years the City Commission has maneuvered themselves into the position of making the decisions of a City Manager and a real economic disaster is now ahead of us down the road. Right now we have a $54,000,000 Desalination Unit and Administration Building going to waste in our Industrial Park and honestly, to me, we are on the way to wasting $$100 million in poorly designed Desalination plumbing in just a few years UNLESS WE TURN THIS AROUND NOW.
   Out City Charter provides for the position of City Manager to run our City business and I suspect we are on the edge of having the AG or the Governor restore our City to the City Commission / City Manager form of government that we are supposed to have ACCORDING TO OUR CITY CHARTER.
   We just need to get the Human Resources on track to specify the qualifications of the City Manager we must have; and when that person is on seat we must reorganize the Management in City Hall to be ready for all of the new aspects that our City Business must handle in a professional and efficient manner that we need. If Human Resources needs help in planning a re-organization and hiring specific qualified personnel, then it is their responsibility to hire people with short term contracts for that purpose. The City Commission must not interfere in Human Resources business. What qualifications do they have to do so? None!

   Our City must develop a potable water system that is not only the best quality tap water but also has proven reserves of brine water that can be produced on short notice and represents extra capacity of proven fresh potable water in measurable gallons per day volumes available to us. It must be sufficient to allow us to eliminate our dependence on effluent water and on restricted watering hours. If we have enough water to expand our City size, then that is the impression we need to provide. The City will only have trade-out of Air Wings at Holloman if we stay as we are.
   But if we set up our water utility Department(s) to tie-in a significant amount of wells in or around our City with Desalination, then we can insist our Congressmen and Senators in Washington bring us additional Air Wings to build on what we have and also to begin a master plan to increase our Civil Service population.

   It is time to adhere to our City Charter, to expand our Water Desalination Capacity continuously for the next 20 years, and at the same time conserve our Mountain water. it can be done, and the State of New Mexico and the Federal Government have proven they will support our community if we do it. I think the Federal Government and the State of Texas suports El Paso with the expansion of Ft Bliss in the same regard.

   The City Charter must be re-instated with conviction and dedication by obtaining and supporting a City Manager who is a top notch Engineering Manager and also has proven experience in administration and engineering field work. One of the best City Managers in the country is what we need. Followed with a management reorganization to support him. We should also have a “Manager, Engineering and Water Conservation” reporting directly to the City Manager with this position being responsible to fill-in for the City Manager if the position is vacant for longer than one day. All of the needs for the City Commission to fill-in for the City Manager will be eliminated, and this position will be confirmed for that purpose in the City Charter, as the City Manager position already is.

   The City Commission must stay in the City Commission Chambers when the City Hall is closed. This is the intention of the City Charter now and it is clearly stated in it. The Commissioners are valuable to the successful operation of our City but are not qualified in any way to run our city business at all. The Charter is clear in their work responsibility intentions.

   I’m sorry to state this but it is necessary to get our City back on track like the City charter intends. Even now, the Commission holds private secret meetings at the drop of a hat; and that must end by Amendments to the City Charter that are approved by the people of the City.

   The Commission must also support Human Resources while they develop a shortlist of City Manager, candidates, and the Commission must not interfere in the process. The City commission can request HR be monitored in the this work they are specialists in and that is the extent of their authority with HR in these matters. At least 3 highly qualified candidates for City Manager must be identified by HR with their calculated ranking, all for the City Commission to select from. The City Commission therefor meets the City Charter hirin requirement the City Manager by letting the Human Resources provide a qualified short list of at least three people and the Commission selects from that short list.

   And everyone needs to realize the high salary the best quality City Manager will be paid will still be saving us money over the incompetent decision making we have from the “over eager to decide things” City Commission, who seem to only be comfortable in private secret meetings which the public does not have real-time access to or access to recordings after the fact. That must become a thing of the past, now!

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2. 

   Ted Michael Morgan

   June 18, 2026 at 9:09 am

   1997 is the incident date in this article. 29 years ago. And this disregard for the City Charter keeps on happening, going from peak to peak, with never any significant mention of the CITY CHARTER at all.

   The Chaerter is the only solution for the interested public in these issues, so to me it is not a conincidence that it is never mentioned. It is intentional.

   The interested people in understanding the issues should look to the City Charter document. Nothing else. Don’t get didetracked by claims that not enough people vote, or not enough people attend Commission meetings. Those claims have come up plenty over the past 29 years. They are diversions because time has proven that people blaming themselves for what is happening is actually part of the problem.

   Everyone should talk in terms of incidents anad situations that happen and then RELATE THEM TO THE CITY CHARTER. It is what is needed.

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