Grants Mayor Fires City Manager

Above, Grants, New Mexico Mayor Martin Hicks on Monday. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Things are still "in flux" (to put it mildly) in the small town of Grants, New Mexico.

On Monday, Mayor Martin Hicks declared that the city's businesses may reopen despite Gov. "Malevolent Michelle" Lujan Grisham's lockdown orders.

On Tuesday, Mayor Hicks fired the city manager, allegedly for not opening the municipal golf course (it seems there's more to the firing than that).

According to KOAT Channel 7 News:

GRANTS, N.M. — One word that is seen on red T-shirts all over town describes what is going on in Grants – defiant. 

In yellow letters over a yellow Zia, those shirts are being worn by the mayor and businesses who decided to open up this week despite the governor’s public health order telling them not to.

"I want to survive. I want to see all of my fellow business people survive,” said Carolyn Newton, owner of Re Runs thrift store. “So, If I have to wear a shirt to make a stand. I am wearing a shirt.” 

One person probably not wearing one of those shirts, is the now former City Manager Linda Jaramillo. She says she was fired Tuesday morning by Mayor Martin Hicks because she refused to reopen the city’s golf course after Grants received a notice of violation from the state police the day earlier. 

Hicks had ordered all of the employees to keep the golf course open. 

“I still stand by my actions in defending the city’s golf course staff and their desire not to violate the governor’s health order,” she said in a telephone interview. “Our staff was not comfortable in breaking the law and opening the golf course.”

Could someone tell me exactly what "law" is being broken? The lockdown orders by the governor are by Executive Orders, which only affect state agencies, not ordinary citizens. We have constitutional protections against dictatorial actions by politicians.

It looks like things are turning nasty. Get out your popcorn, folks!

To read more, go here.