Family Feud

City Council takes on the city manager—again

The names roll off Santa Fe City Councilor Patti Bushee’s tongue as if she’s announcing the lineup of a major league baseball team.

"Pino. Coss. Curry. Mier. DiLuzio. Romero. Lujan. Kepler," she says. "Let's see. Am I forgetting any of the other city managers I've worked with?"

Baseball ended a month ago. But politics is always in season-especially in Santa Fe, where it’s a rite of passage for city managers to squabble with the governing body.

In the latest brouhaha, City Manager Asenath Kepler's fate is likely to be decided at the Nov. 29 City Council meeting. After less than a year on the job, Kepler has run afoul of many city councilors over a property tax hike, personnel issues and communication skills. On Nov. 17, the man who appointed her, Mayor David Coss, publicly called for her resignation, a call she has refused, also publicly, to heed.

"It's like I'm watching a movie," City Councilor Matthew Ortiz tells SFR. "And I've seen this movie before."

Like most municipalities, Santa Fe's mayor and City Council act as the governing body, with the mayor serving as chief executive officer. The city manager is appointed by the mayor and approved by the council. While the mayor and City Council set policy, the city manager administers the daily operations of city government. Only the City Council can remove the city manager.

According to the Washington, DC-based International City/County Management Association (ICMA), the average tenure for a city manager is seven years. In Santa Fe, city managers are lucky if they last two.

"I've heard of some rocky relationships between the city council and the city manager, but that sort of turnover is atypical," ICMA spokeswoman Michele Frisby says.

Bushee, currently the longest serving councilor, has seen eight city managers over 13 years. One of Kepler's last remaining allies, Bushee says that an overbearing City Council contributes to the history of rocky relations.

"I think the Councils I have served on have tended to misuse the threat of gathering votes to fire city managers as a way to get control of city government," she says. "I think our senior city councilors are just having a hard time adjusting to Asenath's proactiveness."

City Councilor Karen Heldmeyer, a Kepler critic, has seen four city managers in six years. She believes the role of the city manager needs further scrutiny; Heldmeyer is co-sponsoring a resolution with City Councilors Rebecca Wurzburger and Miguel Chavez to clarify the city manager's powers.

"You have different city managers, different mayors and different city councilors all interpreting the city manager's job differently," Heldmeyer says.

Former mayor Sam Pick, who served from 1978 to 1980 and then again from 1986 until 1994, believes, like Bushee, that it's the Council that needs to change.

"We have a very micromanaging City Council in Santa Fe. In other parts of the state, you have city managers that stay on for 20 or 25 years," Pick, who had four city managers, says. "A true city council is one that just does policy and stays out of City Hall during the day. But that's not the case here."

Another former mayor, Debbie Jaramillo, believes that the current problems rest with both City Council and the mayor.

"It's a big mistake to let the City Council rule beyond the city manager. I was witness to city councilors who wanted to be mayor, and the more power you give them, the more complicated the personnel issues become," Jaramillo, who went through three city managers between 1994 and 1998, says. Her brother Ike Pino was fired by the City Council; David Coss stepped down under pressure from the Council; and Ron Curry served out the remaining year and a half of Jaramillo's term.

"As for this situation, I think David should have stood by Asenath. For him to get rubber legs at the behest of the Council is very bad for business," Jaramillo says.

Pino disagrees: "The Council has a right to weigh in on important philosophical issues affecting the city. So communication ends up being the key. If the city manager is communicating with the Council, then things should balance out. If you're not, they fall short," Pino says. "You also have to be mindful of the authority you have as city manager. And you can't step outside your authority and go public.

Pino served a total of four years in two separate terms as city manager (from 1991 to 1993 and 1994 to 1996) before he was removed by the City Council amid controversy surrounding then-police chief Don Grady. He held the position for longer than any other city manager in recent history.

"I'm personal friends with both David and Asenath. But theirs is like a marriage where the couple has fallen out of love," Pino says. "David feels like there is good reason he can't continue with her, and so she cannot function as a manager anymore. There's no way to recapture the cohesion they once had."

For her part, the embattled city manager sees her plight as evidence that the current system needs revision.

"We're in the 21st century, and we need to redefine how our government works," Kepler says. "Obviously, the old ways have not worked. There is something to be said for a strong city manager who is politically independent. Perhaps this is the discussion that needs to happen in order for the city to move forward."

At press time, Coss stayed mainly mum. The mayor is pushing for a change to city elections so that a new mayor has more time to vet key management positions. He also recounted a story of how when he was first hired as city manager in 1996, someone handed him an article from a trade magazine that jokingly advised city managers to negotiate a severance package immediately upon taking office. Six months later, Coss himself was gone.

Says Coss: “It’s a really difficult job. You essentially have nine bosses.”

Letters to the Editor

Mail letters to PO Box 4910 Santa Fe, NM 87502 or email them to editor[at]sfreporter.com. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. Letters will be edited for space and clarity.

We also welcome you to follow SFR on social media (on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and comment there. You can also email specific staff members from our contact page.