Multiple Española City Councilors openly disagreed with the findings in a $20,000 organizational assessment of the city, presented at the Jan. 27 council meeting.

The 15-page report hones in on the action, or inaction, by city councilors to address issues caused by a small budget and the impact fentanyl has on crime, health and housing within the city. It also alleges that since the city is one of the area’s higher-paying employers, councilors wield their power for political gain and ignore “policy, data and evidence” while making decisions.

The report also highlights personnel issues within the Fire Department and Social Services Department that former city manager Lauren Reichelt attempted to address prior to her termination in early January.

Harmony Solutions’s President and chief organization coach Greg Stuart completed the assessment after observation and meeting with councilors, department directors and other employees. According to the company’s website, it “provides strategic executive coaching, organizational alignment, and executive support organization grow with clarity and confidence.”

“There is a counterintuitive situation in Española to avoid solving the most complex problems,” Stuart wrote in his report. “This condition causes Department Directors to leave City Council meetings scratching their heads in confusion, at best, and disgust, at worst. The situation is that the expansion of resources in the city creates income sources for residents that councilors cannot control.”

Fire and Social Services The report’s assessment of the ability of personnel within the fire department to conduct social services programs coincides with comments made by Reichelt prior to her termination.

Assistant Fire Chief John Wickersham went to the Public Safety and Finance Committees in December, as well as the full council, seeking support for a Post Opioid Recovery Team (PORT) within the fire department. The council passed the PORT policy and also agreed to house one of the two new care navigator positions to be hired in the Social Services Department within the fire department.

Later that month, Wickersham emailed Reichelt to question the delay in hiring for the care navigator positions. Over the next 12 days, they, along with then-Social Services director Michelle Fraire, exchanged emails regarding the positions and the direction of services. In the end, Reichelt wrote that she would not be pressured by Wickersham to hire anyone and that he had no experience in establishing an effective social services program.

Stuart addresses this situation in his report.

He wrote that the Fire Department asserted itself into the management of the Social Services Department during a time of uncertainty, but that the department “found it difficult to yield to greater capacity and competence in Social Services that was represented in the city manager.”

“This led to a significant conflict between the Fire Department and the City Manager,” the report states.”

When Reichelt attempted to implement her plans as city manager, the lack of standard operating procedures made it easy for council to derail her plans. “The council has an incentive to benefit staff who help them to maintain their power base,” the report states. “If the City Manager inadvertently trips on a ‘sacred cow’ when implementing plans for the improvement of the general well-being of the city, that could spell trouble unless there are guardrails to prevent it.”

Stuart addressed the spending of the opioid settlement funds in his analysis of the Social Services Department. According to the report, Fraire failed to “gather public input to develop a comprehensive plan for use of the opioid funds that aligns efforts and maximizes their effectiveness.”

“As a result, the department operates in a vacuum,” the report states. “The city should be working with the Rio Arriba Community Health Council to ensure input by the community’s knowledgeable health care providers.”

Stuart also recommended that instead of supporting the building of a jail, councilors should instead focus on the creation of a diversion court. Prior to her termination, Reichelt released a memo outlining her plans to put the Social Services Department within Española Municipal Court and work with Judge Joseph Madrid to start this program.

“The single most effective evidence-based practice that the city can employ to reduce rates of substance use and homelessness is Jail Diversion Court,” the report states. “(First Judicial District Court Judge Jason Lidyard) collaborated with Rio Arriba for approximately a decade with tremendous success and Judge Madrid is willing to attempt it.”

In response to Stuart’s analysis, District 4 Councilor Samuel LeDoux said that people may act hesitant when they hear the phrase “evidence-based solution” when it comes to tackling the opioid crisis.

“This has been impacting us since the Vietnam War, so with that in mind, I’m just a little hesitant,” he said. “It’s always, ‘Here, oh, there’s this evidence based solution that can come and impact a lot of things’ because we’ve tried a lot, and I hope you realize that.”

District 2 Councilor Peggy Sue Martinez said she believed Stuart’s report was “gossip based.”

“That’s all it seems like to me,” she said. “Like you sort of had conversations with people, and you believed wholeheartedly what one person was telling you or whatever.”

Council The scope of works states the project would focus on structure, staff and accountability; identify operational and cultural issues impacting performance; develop a 100-day road map for the incoming city manager; and provide evaluation tools for evaluating the city manager’s first 100 days on the job.

Councilors had not been provided the report prior to the Jan. 27 meeting.

Police Chief and City Manager Mizel Garcia said he did not receive the report until later in the week, and was then able to forward it to the councilors.

He does not have plans to take any immediate action based on information provided in the report.

“It’s just a review of what the evaluator observed, and we’ll go forward from there if it can help us in any way with the directors or can help me in any way to better facilitate how we operate in the city,” he said.

Contract Questions about the city’s contract with Harmony Solutions arose soon after it was announced.

Mayor John Ramon Vigil told councilors about the planned Harmony Solutions organizational assessment in an Aug. 13 email. One week later, at the Aug. 20 Finance Committee meeting, LeDoux said he was concerned that the contract never came before Council.

According to the meeting minutes, Committee Chair District 1 Councilor Pedro Valdez said he was aware Vigil was in conversation with the company, but was not aware if Stuart had already begun working.

Finance Director Patrick Varela said he just learned about the contract the week prior, as it had not gone through the city’s procurement process.

Stuart said he had the opportunity to watch the finance department’s diligence “up close and personal” when it came to his own contract.

“That department is a stickler for policies,” he said. “My contract was one. The mayor said, ‘Come on in, let’s get started.’ And the finance department said, ‘Well, we got to go through some processes.’ And they did.”