On Saturday, a press conference was held in the law offices of Yvonne K. Quintana in Las Cruces, attended by some of the fifteen plaintiffs in the lawsuit to remove Anthony, New Mexico Mayor Diana Murillo. Attorney Quintana explained the contents of the lawsuit.
“The community (of Anthony) is seeking redress for the silencing of their votes—not votes, (but) their voices, basically. They’ve been experiencing a situation in the city of Anthony where oftentimes there’s not an interpreter available. There’s a need for interpreters at the meetings so that they can fully participate in the process. As of late last year or so, the mayor amended the Open Meetings Act policy. One of the things that occurred is that there is no longer public participation permitted in the city of Anthony. The Open Meetings Act that sets forth how they’re going to comply with the law, the City of Anthony, under the direction of Mayor Murillo, who directed the city attorney to amend the policy, have chosen to remove public participation.”
When contacted to comment about the recent lawsuit filed against her, Mayor Murillo had this to say.
“There’s no merit to the allegations at all. I mean, this has been going on since 2011. It’s just a personal attack from some of the individuals since 2011 until now. So there’s no merit at this time for any of the allegations.”
Mayor Murillo was asked if public comments would be reinstated in City Council meetings anytime soon.
“We’re planning to reinstate, but we need to have law and order. You know, I have to have law and order in the chambers when we have meetings and that hasn’t been happening. We’ll be bringing it back, but until we’re able to have everything situated and moving forward with that, we will.”
The mayor was asked about the alleged lack of interpreters at the meetings.
“That’s not true. We’ve had interpreters. The last time, there was just a miscommunication, and we because we had a meeting on a Monday instead of our usual Wednesday, our interpreter wasn’t able to attend, and there was just a miscommunication. But we’ve never prevented anyone from getting a translator there.”
Fernando Herrera, former Mayor Pro Tem for the city of Anthony and one of the fifteen residents filing the latest lawsuit against Mayor Murillo, had this to say about the mayor’s removal of public comments during last Saturday’s press conference.
“In America, you can speak your mind, even if there might be a little rudeness in it or whatever. But that is accepted in America. What was spoken in Anthony that triggered this silencing were just true facts that we were telling the board and telling the mayor. And she didn’t like that. How did she respond? By cutting our voice off.”
Attorney Quintana also cited the Mayor’s alleged misuse of public funds and property.
“The City of Anthony has a vehicle use policy. That policy says that every vehicle is supposed to be labeled with an emblem marking it as an official vehicle. That’s a piece of public property. I have photographs and video of this vehicle at the local church. What’s wrong is when a city vehicle is used for that purpose, or used for that purpose, or being used to transport people on non-related city business, that church being at church on a Sunday, that’s not City of Anthony business.”
When asked about that allegation, Mayor Murillo explained why the vehicle in question was being used.
“Well, the thing is, the vehicle had been assigned to me because I am paraplegic, I’m in a wheelchair. And we were doing a community service with the city vehicle. And so it happened to be that the vehicle broke down right in front of the parish hall where the church is at, and I was getting an assistant to help me fix the door. And that’s why I was stuck there. So they say that is a place of worship, and I guess I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Attorney Quintana said that Mayor Murillo has thirty days to respond to the lawsuit.
