Outgoing Anthony mayor announces ethics complaint against successor

ANTHONY – In the final minutes of her last public meeting as Anthony’s mayor on Wednesday evening, Diana Murillo gave a farewell address thanking the city’s board of trustees and city staff, including law enforcement. She urged the governing body to serve Anthony residents “with honesty, integrity and humility.”

Then she delivered a parting blow to her successor, announcing she had submitted several grievances that had been filed during the summer by city employees against the city’s elected trustees, including the incoming mayor, to the New Mexico State Ethics Commission and state Department of Justice.

“Elected officials cannot be held accountable through the city’s internal policies,” Murillo said. “The only way for the complaints to be reviewed and investigated without judicial involvement was to submit the complaints to state agencies tasked with investigating the activities of local governments and their officials.”

Trustee Gabriel Holguin, a prominent critic of Murillo since being elected to the city’s governing board at the age of 20 in 2021, ousted her for the position of mayor in the Nov. 4 election by 238 votes, claiming 59% of the votes tallied in official results. 

The two have exchanged accusations of malfeasance and ethics complaints, and abortively sought to remove one another from office through the courts. As recently as March, Holguin and some of his colleagues explored the possibility of a new lawsuit aiming to oust the mayor based on allegations she did not live in city limits, which Murillo denied. A group of residents including Trustee Fernando Herrera sued Murillo in 2023 accusing her of misusing public funds and other offenses, but the case was dropped.

The complaint, dated Sept. 30 and signed by attorney Benjamin Young, specifically alleges Holguin and Trustee Jose Garcia have presented a “pattern of retaliatory activity toward certain employees” and violated the Governmental Conduct Act and Open Meetings Act. The behaviors described in the letter include belittling city staff, terminations of employment without due process, violations of procurement code and self-dealing.

The state DOJ confirmed it had received the complaint and assigned it to an attorney in its Government Counsel and Accountability Bureau. SEC Deputy Director Amanda Bierle said, “the (Ethics) Commission cannot confirm or deny the existence of any complaint or disclose information related to alleged violations.”

Holguin said he was out of town and unavailable for comment. Garcia did not respond to queries from the Journal.

The letter cites meeting minutes from 2025 in which Holguin made motions to terminate certain employees in open session, before the public.

At the May 7 meeting, minutes report that Holguin moved to advertise the City Clerk position and have the current clerk, Karla Oropeza, reapply for her job in competition with other applicants. Murillo cast a tie-breaking vote to reject that motion. Holguin and Garcia then brought a successful motion to change the organizational structure so that the clerk reported to the governing body instead of the mayor or city manager, a dual role Murillo had filled since the departure of Mario Juarez-Infante as the city’s top administrator in 2024.

At the same meeting, trustees voted 3-1 to terminate Code Enforcement Officer Albert Herrera, with Trustee Daniel Barreras dissenting. In a previous meeting on April 16, minutes document that the trustees similarly voted to terminate Public Works Director Eleazar Roman and coordinate a date for a police escort to vacate his office.

The actions typically passed on a 3-1 vote, with Holguin, Garcia and Herrera voting in tandem. The three also passed a 2024 no-confidence vote in Murillo’s leadership.

“More often than not, Trustee comments become a time for certain Trustees to air the grievances about employees they dislike, often calling them to the podium and cross-examining them,” Young's letter states.

The document also seeks an investigation into whether Holguin, who works as a paralegal, funneled employee complaints to the firm where he worked, provided confidential information to an attorney involved in litigation against the city or sought to use his position to cancel traffic citations issued by city police.

In an interview after his election win, Holguin said “repairing the public trust” would be his top priority as mayor. 

He’ll have to begin by hiring a new city clerk. On Wednesday, Oropeza had the final word before adjournment, announcing her resignation.

“I have made repeated efforts to address a hostile work environment created by several board members and the incoming administration,” she said. “With the upcoming change of administration, it has been made clear that there is no intention for me to remain. … For the sake of my professional integrity and well-being, resignation is the only appropriate course of action.”

Algernon D'Ammassa is the Journal's Southern New Mexico Correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.