It looks as if the City of T or C is not going to settle Sean Barnes’ whistleblower case; at least the city commission didn’t take action after holding a closed, executive session on the litigation June 10.
Barnes has asked for a jury trial, which is his most likely chance of being treated fairly. Hopefully this body of peers will see that Barnes, with his limited individual resources, is a David facing a Goliath.
The city has the vast resources of the public’s coffers and can conjure a cast of shadow-players to create a convincing legal narrative. T or C, as a top employer with monopolies on water, sewer, trash and electric services, can exert enormous pressure in a small, poor, rural town that has few job opportunities.
I read the court filings and was struck by the big-brother reporting and documents the city has gathered against Barnes. It is not a good sign when the witness list is the same for the plaintiff, Barnes, and the defendant, T or C. I fear the city has turned city employees who are fearful for their jobs. I hope the jury can sense the shadow-play enacted behind the curtain. I hope they do not take the city’s disciplinary reports and employee testimony at face value.
This is the second lawsuit within three years against the City of Truth or Consequences that involves the city’s employment of the mayor’s relative. Nepotism is expensive for the taxpayer.
In 2023 the city paid Erica Baker $200,000 in a settlement agreement. She had pointed out that the then-Mayor Sandra Whitehead’s son-in-law, Michael Lanford, was not certified and therefore could not work as a city police officer. https://sierracountycitizen.org/t-or-c-pays-erica-baker-200000/
Then-City Manager Bruce Swingle fired her, probably at the Mayor’s insistence, but the city settled before that could be aired in open court.
Now we have a second case, filed about a year ago, by Sean Barnes, who pointed out that O.J. Hechler, Director of Community Services then and elevated to Public Services Director recently, was hired in 2017 despite having a felony conviction in 2014 and still being on parole through 2024, according to court documents.
I couldn’t find the city’s personnel policy that predated the current 2021 policy, but Barnes, in good faith, reported that the past and present employee policy prohibited O.J. Hechler from being hired in 2017 because he was still on parole (until 2024, according to court filings, when his record was expunged) and his crime conflicted with his job duties.
He was caught stealing a canopy in a Las Cruces Park and in possession of a controlled substance according to Las Cruces police reports and depositions and other court filings under Sean Barnes vs. City of T or C.
Then-City Manager Bruce Swingle fired Barnes in April 2023, probably at the direction of Mayor Rolf Hechler, who is O.J. Hecher’s father. There is no chance Swingle will ever testify he was doing the mayor’s bidding.
Swingle now works for PreReal, which has spent $50 million or so in buying up property in the area. PreReal recently wanted the local governmental entities to join them in funding a marketing, economic development organization, and Mayor Hechler was an enthusiastic pre-roll-out promoter, which was relayed in a Sentinel article. Swingle, as city manager and now as an employee of PreReal, has worked hand-in-hand with Mayor Hechler for years in favoring business interests using city resources. They are cronies, and cronyism is first cousins with nepotism.
Before firing Barnes, unlike Baker’s firing, Swingle did a better job creating a record of escalating disciplinary consequences–as required by the personnel policy.
The court filings show that O.J. Hechler came up with five disciplinary actions that attempt to show Barnes was a bad employee, but they read like petty spying reports:
–two disciplinary letters in his file relate that he, as the parks supervisor, revealed confidential information to a hiree, i.e., he told them the truth about their employment prospects with the city.
–he was written up for accidentally “clipping” a pedestrian with the truck mirror. The law enforcement report cleared him and held the pedestrian at fault for not crossing at a cross walk in the dark.
–he didn’t “follow the chain of command” by bringing an employee to Human Resources to discuss a transfer to another city department. He should have brought the employee to O.J. Hechler, director of Community Services.
–he spoke to three other supervisors under O.J. Hechler to see if they too had to bring all their purchase orders to him first. They didn’t, only Barnes did, causing delays. He spoke to “at least one supervisor” about O.J. Hechler’s felony, and was written up for insubordination, unprofessional and unbecoming behavior.
Speaking of the son-of-the-mayor’s checkered past in relation to his fitness to exert fiscal oversight and control was deemed a fireable offense by Swingle.
Similarly Swingle had fired Baker for reporting the city carried major liability in maintaining the fiction that then-Mayor Sandra Whitehead’s son-in-law was a certified law enforcement officer.
Hopefully the jury will see what stress was exerted on fellow employees to shadow-play that the city was an equal opportunity employer that hired and fired based on meritocracy. Under current City Manager Gary Whitehead I believe the city has moved toward meritocracy.
Sierra County District Judge Mercedes Murphy has scheduled a motion hearing on the city’s request for summary judgement on July 14 at 1:15 p.m. A three-day jury trial is to start September 14 at 9 a.m.
Please see a previous article on this lawsuit here:
https://sierracountycitizen.org/new-court-case-against-city-nepo-baby-vs-whistleblower/
Please see a news article and Facebook posting by the Las Cruces Police Department on O.J. Hechler’s felony arrest: