RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) — The mayor of a small New Mexico city who allowed businesses to open Monday has fired the city manager.
Grants Mayor Martin “Modey” Hicks confirmed he fired City Manager Laura Merrick Jaramillo on Tuesday but declined to give a reason.
Jaramillo’s friend Jesse Daniel James said the firing came after she told Hicks that he was putting staff at risk by reopening the city-owned golf course. The firing came hours after Hicks told protesters in the small western New Mexico town of 9,000 residents that the time had come to end the shutdown despite warnings from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.