City manager resigns

Tucumcari City Manager Jared Langenegger has resigned from his post, effective April 11.

Langenegger made the announcement at Thursday’s city commission meeting. After an executive session following the meeting, the commission, all expressing reluctance, accepted Langenegger’s resignation.

District 1 Commissioner Ralph Moya, smiling, voted “no” on accepting the resignation.

Moya, as did the other commissioners, expressed gratitude to Langenegger for his service and regrets at his leaving.

“You’ve done a good job,” Moya said to Langenegger during commissioner comments. “I’m very happy to have had you as the city manager.”

During the 1980s and 1990s when he served on the commission, Moya said there was constant conflict between commissioners and the city manager, but that has not been true with Langenegger aboard.

Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield, District 3, told Langenegger, “I can’t thank you enough. I will miss you,” adding that Langenegger had remained steady through “hell and high water” as city manager.

District 4 Commissioner Robert Lumpkin told Langenegger, “You will be missed.”

District 2 Commissioner Amy Gutierrez said to Langenegger, “You have done great things. I’m sad to see you go.”

District 5 Commissioner Todd DuPlantis told Langenegger, “I wish you the best.”

As he announced his resignation, Langenegger said, “I believe the city is moving in the right direction,” and urged that the commission continue “to work toward growing our city.”

On Friday, Langenegger said he was leaving because, “It’s time for a change. It’s time to move on and do something else.”

He will be “pursuing other opportunities,” after April 11, he said.

“We have done a lot of good stuff” he said of city government during his time as city manager. “We’ve accomplished a lot, and I can’t regret anything we’ve done, maybe not perfectly all the time, but the city has made great strides.”

Langenegger is leaving a job that pays more than $83,200 per year. In 2015, the commission approved a four-year contract to retain Langenegger.

Since Langenegger began his duties in October 2014, the city commission has acted with consistent, usually unanimous unity on policy matters and city projects.

While Langenegger has been the city manager, the city has:

• Helped five business ventures expand or begin operations in the city using $490,000 in Local Economic Development Act funds, including the Tucumcari Mountain Cheese Factory, Buena Vista Labs, 3D Shovel company, Rugged, Inc., and a waste-to-energy plant planned for an abandoned ethanol plant in the city. Buena Vista Labs shut down after the death of owner John Mihm in December 2015, and Rugged, Inc.’s owners left the city in 2016. A LEDA arrangement also is paying for expansion of a water line to serve a new Fairfield Inn under construction at Mountain Road and Interstate 40.

• Made progress toward revitalizing downtown Tucumcari with assistance from New Mexico Main Street, and the state Great Blocks and Metropolitan Redevelopment area programs.. Improvements will include repaving of streets, new sidewalks, curbs and gutters; improving storefronts, and restoring the Princess Theater on Main Street.

• Launched a controversial nuisance ordinance that strengthens enforcement of property cleanup, demolition of dangerous abandoned buildings and removal of unused and unusable vehicles from city streets. The ordinance received an initial “no” vote from Commissioner Moya, who later supported it against efforts to repeal it. It also sparked an attempted recall of city commissioners in 2017 that was sponsored by Keith Hayes, a Tucumcari business owner.

• Supported the county’s successful efforts to certify Quay County as a Work Ready Community by the ACT testing service. Langenegger has made taking ACT’s Work Keys assessment a requirement for applicants to city jobs, and required existing employees to take the assessment. The Work Keys assessment measures workplace-related skills in mathematics, reading and finding information on charts and graphs.

• Launched a disc golf course at Five Mile Park. Langenegger sketched out the basic design for the course and led efforts to install concrete tee-off platforms and the baskets that mark “holes” on the course.

• Revamped pay structures for city employees, providing raises for all, especially police, fire and emergency medical personnel.