Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Sunland Park: Aguilera Ousted for Ousting Luz Vargas

Jaime Aguilera, city manager of Sunland Park, was fired last night at about midnight, after a lengthy five-hour meeting. He had been convicted of wrongdoing in California several years ago before becoming city manager in Truth or Consequences, where he was hired in spite of his criminal record. The immediate cause of his firing was his dismissal yesterday of Librarian Luz Vargas, who was physically removed from her office by city police after she had complained about irregularities in the management of the city. For many years Vargas has fought the Camino Real landfill, which has long been a point of contention among city residents, most of whom would like the landfill to cease operations. Many of these opponents were angered by Vargas' firing and they showed up last night to protest, indicating they believe Aguilera is in cahoots with landfill managers to silence opponents of the project. Many residents of Sunland Park believe that Camino Real managers have paid off public officials for many years to protect the interests of the unpopular landfill.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

This was bound to happen, these are the types of characters that we deal with in Sunland Park, N.M. from Luz (aka Tinieblas) Vargas and Jaime Aguilera (aka Mr. Miyagi) Governor Blagojevich (aka Martin Resendiz)and his girlfriend or boyfriend I dont know what he is Daniel Salinas (aka Christian Chavez) its a circus and the town does not really like any one of them. Sadly all of them are corrupt and we're paying the price.

Anonymous said...

You have this wrong. Ms.Vargas was fired for circumventing procurement policies (spending city funds without proper authorization) and for both verbally & physically threatening a City Councilor in front of several witnesses. Mr. Aguilera was INSTRUCTED by Mayor Resendiz and the Council to fire Ms. Vargas. Unfortunately, the Sunland Park City Council is spineless and caved into pressure from Councilor Salinas, who is the actual power on that city council and the reason that Ms. Vargas has a job. She has NO experience for the position, this was purely political pay back - as was the case with most City of Sunland Park department heads prior to Mr. Aguilera's arrival there.

Many in the community are outraged, as Mr. Aguilera has been credited by the State Dept of Financial Affairs as being responsible for getting Sunland Park back in compliance with state procurement policies, employment policies, and on a sound financial footing. The City Council is now taking action that will intentionally bankrupt the community, undoing all of the positive work that has been accomplished in the past year.

The City of Sunland Park admits that they have terminated Mr. Aguilera WITHOUT CAUSE. The City will descend back into the pit it was in prior to his arrival - corruption, mishandling of public funds, cronyism at City Hall. The honest people of New Mexico are looking forward to the day when the Dept of Financial Affairs takes over the town & corruption charges are filed against Mayor Resendiz, Councilor Salinas & the rest of their pals.

Gazelle said...

Good riddens to bad rubbish. I only wish the Truth of Consequences City Commission had as much spunk and spine when Aguilera did the very same thing to a long time city employee.

Micaela said...

Fernando, you are entitled to your opinion. But you speak like if you really knew them, AND YOU DO NOT!!