Changing of the Guard
Council meeting tonight: Outgoing mayor's trustee pick faces opposition from newly elected mayor's supporters
[ANALYSIS]
If you thought the political jockeying for Cloudcroft’s village leadership was resolved with the November 4th elections, think again.
With about six weeks left in his term, outgoing Mayor Tim King has put on tonight’s agenda a recommendation to appoint Matt Willett to the trustee seat left vacant since Trustee Tabitha Foster resigned on August 27.
There is currently one trustee position open. Under village procedures, the mayor recommends a candidate, and the council of trustees votes to approve or not. In the event of a tie, the mayor casts the deciding vote.
What should be a routine appointment of a qualified trustee has run into opposition from some vocal supporters of newly elected mayor Dusty Wiley, who have, since early October, tried to pressure the mayor and the council to refrain from filling the empty seat, demanding that the appointment be left to the new mayor.
Newly elected Trustee Danny Hardwick has been encouraging his supporters to show up on Monday in opposition to King’s move to fill the seat.
“At the meet and greets, we made it pretty clear from the 3 trustees that were there (Hardwick, Hamilton, McCoy), it should be left up to the new mayor to pick the new trustee. So, I’m kind of upset that they’re going to try to, you know, do it any different.”
“I don’t have any problems with Matt. I just have problems with the way that this is being handled with Tim.”
At the meet-and-greet, a Reader-moderated candidate debate on October 14th, Former Mayor Craig Turner asked the trustee-elects whether they think the fourth trustee seat should remain open until the new administration is in place. Current voting member Trustee Jim Maynard did not weigh in at that time.
Turner, whose surprise resignation less than one year into his four-year term put King in the mayor’s chair, takes issue with the mayor to try to fill the seat.
“I haven’t been asked by Mayor King or Mayor elect Wiley to consider the open position. I was asked by dozens of villagers to run for trustee this election and I chose not to. I know if given the opportunity Mayor elect Wiley will ask those interested to apply. I do believe without any doubt that Mayor elect Wiley should be able to select his trustees. I don’t think a lame duck mayor should do this. It’s unethical and vindictive It’s just plan wrong. I know that that a very high percentage of the Village feels the same.”
Mayor Pro-tem Jim Maynard, who has decades of public service history in Cloudcroft, doesn’t agree:
“Do we have the legal authority? Yes. Do we have the moral responsibility to perform our jobs that we took an oath to? Yes. Mayor King is still the mayor of Cloudcroft to the last minute of his term.”
“If he nominates someone and we know they’re a qualified person, why would I not vote on it?”
What is the Role of a Trustee?
The dispute raises a basic question: what is the role of a trustee, especially in relation to the mayor?
Are trustees a kind of cabinet of the mayor’s office? Or are the trustees — who are elected by the public — more of a checks and balances body, with the power to approve expenditures and hires?
Trustee Keith Hamilton, recently appointed on August 20th, and then elected to a four-year term on November 4th, says:
“My understanding of the function of a village council with a mayor, and no other authority such as a city manager, is that the trustees are more like the legislative branch whereas the mayor is the executive branch.”
”It was even explained that way to me when I was nominated, by an existing trustee, who has apparently changed his position. I especially feel like the council is a means of checks and balances when the mayor/executive purposefully keeps the council in the dark about what will be on the upcoming agenda until the law requires the disclosure.”
Mayor Tim King agrees on the role of trustees. When asked, he wrote:
“The board of trustees is the legislative branch of the municipal government, analogous to Congress or the state legislature. The trustees are not analogous to cabinet members of the executive.”
Collateral Damage
Facebook posts from both campaigns in the final weeks of the election created bad blood, which fuels tonight’s showdown. Opponents of Mayor King have been encouraging their supporters to attend the evening meeting in solidarity with the effort to stop the appointment.
One side effect of the dispute is that someone many residents view as a strong addition to the council, Matt Willett, is facing opposition not over his qualifications but over who nominated him.
Willett is a Cloudcroft native and a successful business owner at High Altitude and the Cloudcroft Brewing Company. He chairs the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board, previously served on the Lodger’s Tax Advisory Board, and produces the popular annual High Altitude Classic Bike Race. He has volunteered on numerous community projects over the years. He is well-known and respected throughout the community.
Despite his support for Mayor King in the election, Willett says, “I have no issue with Dusty. I’ll work with him just as I’ve worked with every previous mayor that we’ve ever had, from Venable to Denney to Turner to King. The biggest thing is I want what’s best for Cloudcroft. So if Wiley is doing what’s best for Cloudcroft, then he’s got my 100% support.”
Trustee Keith Hamilton says:
“I’m going to be perfectly blunt. I like Matt, and I think with his experience and knowledge, he would be a great member of the council.”
“As you know, mayor-elect Wiley has asked those who are interested in the open seat to submit an application in early January. If Matt had done that he would have very likely been my first choice. The way this has been done has completely changed my opinion.”
“If Matt Willett truly wanted to serve his community, like I do, then he should and would have thrown his hat in the ring back in August like the rest of us.”
If not Willet, who?
Mayor-elect Wiley has invited interested parties to contact him and promised to conduct a thorough review of candidates. In a Facebook post on Wiley’s Mayor Elect page, he wrote:
“Since the trustee seat has remained open for months now with no issues, emergencies, interruptions, or impact on Village business, there’s no urgency to fill it immediately. The position will be filled in January, following a transparent and fair process under your new administration.
Starting 1/2/2026, I’ll accept applications from interested community members, review them, and hold interviews before making an appointment at the January 2026 organizational meeting.
This approach ensures stability, continuity, and respect for proper procedure in the Village of Cloudcroft.
I also want to reaffirm what was said publicly at the 10/14/25 Candidate Debate: Trustee Keith Hamilton, Trustee-Elect Danny Hardwick and Trustee Gail McCoy all agreed that any appointment of a new trustee should wait until January, when the new administration is seated.”
Questions have arisen about whether former Mayor Craig Turner—who resigned abruptly in his first year and has remained largely out of public view until making a show of endorsing and campaigning for Wiley—may be positioning himself for appointment as trustee under Wiley. Turner has strongly opposed, in public and online, King’s use of his power to fill the seat.
The idea that Turner might return to the council by appointment doesn’t sit well with many, including Trustee Jim Maynard. He said:
“Anyone who has quit their responsibility should not be allowed to participate in the future. You violate all the trust of everybody that voted for you. You violate your own oath that you took. If the only way someone can handle representing the village of Cloudcroft is if they’re never told No… You can’t build a village on losers.”
“Cloudcroft’s recent history is defined by those who quit from Dave Venable and from then on, look at the chaos we’ve had. So when somebody writes our history, this is going to be an era that’s defined by those who quit.”
“That’s really what we get into when someone has betrayed the trust we gave them, then why would we go back for seconds? They can’t explain that to me.”
“In Craig’s situation, if he’d said, Look, guys, This isn’t going to work for me. It’s tearing me apart. Our hearts would go out to him. We know how tough that is. But if he’d say, I can’t do this anymore. I’m going to give you 30 days. We got to figure out what happens next. I don’t want to drop the ball on you, but I just can’t play anymore. That would have been very respectful.”
“That gives you time. But there was no debriefing from Craig to Timothy. There was no, Hey, guys, let me show you the deals I’m working on. He dropped the ball, and more or less it was, Screw you guys. That’s what to me is just terrible. So why would I want him to be affiliated with our community in any way? You can’t trust him. That’s my two cents.”
The Reader reached Turner by text on Sunday to give him an opportunity to express his thoughts. Turner wrote:
“I didn’t run for trustee, and I haven’t applied to be considered for appointment. So the idea that I “don’t deserve to come back” simply doesn’t apply. If at some point in the future I choose to run, the community would have the opportunity to answer that question themselves.
“**Again, Hannah, I’m only consenting for you to quote me if you print the entirety of my answer, precisely word-for-word as written.”1
(See full quote in footnote.)
Another Seat?
The appointment of a new trustee took an interesting twist Friday night when the agenda for Monday’s meeting listed an item to vote to approve current and newly elected Trustee Gail McCoy as a paid library aide.
Pre-meeting speculation is that McCoy will resign as a trustee tonight, creating another open trustee seat.
McCoy’s current term ends at the end of this year, and it appears unlikely that anyone will be appointed to serve the final weeks.
The two-year position she was elected to on November 4th begins in January, when, presumably, the power to recommend a new trustee to the council will fall to the new mayor, Wiley.
From Promises to Process
New Mayor Dusty Wiley’s promise to assemble a ‘dream team’ will be tested. Can he reconcile bruised feelings, attract talented new contributors, and retain valuable employees and contractors?
As Monday’s meeting brings debate over appointments and timing, the bigger question is: what comes next?
The timeline (see below) of resignations and appointments over the past year reveals a pattern of swift decisions and frequent reversals — the kind of turbulence that can erode trust and hinder performance.
For Mayor-elect Wiley, the test begins not with campaign promises but with process. How will he navigate selecting a new trustee(s) in a way that restores public confidence after months of rapid turnover and behind-the-scenes tension?
The coming weeks will reveal how Wiley defines fairness, transparency, and collaboration from the mayor’s chair — values that will shape every hire and appointment that follows. He might also borrow a lesson from historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals, which examines how Abraham Lincoln built a cabinet that included some of his fiercest rivals because he believed they were highly qualified to do the job.
But for tonight, the current council holds the vote.
Monday night’s Council meeting is scheduled to be livestreamed on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/VillageOfCloudcroft.
It will be interesting to see which way the camera faces.
Go Deeper
Timeline: Turnovers, Appointments, and More
Trace back the path that led us to today’s controversy with our reverse timeline of signifcant events:
On November 17th, the Village Council will meet at 6p.m. We’ll see you there.
November 15th, the Village of Cloudcroft Facebook page shared this agenda:
November 13th, Trustee-elect Danny Hardwick shared a Village of Cloudcroft announcement for the Monday, November 17th special meeting. Hardwick wrote, “At the meet and greet, all three of the trustees running said that whoever won the election should pick the new trustee,” and called villagers to attend the meeting.
November 10th, Mayor-elect Dusty Wiley sent a public Facebook message referencing Mayor Tim King, stating that he will accept letters of interest for the open trustee seat on January 2nd, 2026.
Wiley won the election on November 4th, winning 164 votes to Mayor King’s 124.
At the October council meeting, and later at a Wiley meet-and-greet, Craig Turner and Wiley alleged that King’s campaign signs were too large. King had no comment.
On October 25th, King rebutted a Wiley campaign announcement that former Chief of Police Roger Schoolcraft would return in a lengthy post on his campaign’s Facebook page, addressing endorsements from a “Former Mayor” and a “Former Police Chief.”
October 17th, Turner announced that former Chief Schoolcraft would “return as Police Chief under a Wiley administration!!” and said Wiley is “assembling a dream team.”
Candidates met for a public forum and debate at the Lodge Pavilion on October 14th. There, Turner asked the Trustee candidates a pointed question about if they would wait to appoint a fourth trustee until after the new administration was in place.
Turner, through his rebranded official Mayor Facebook page, endorsed Wiley and began campaigning for him on October 5th.
The election campaign kicks off. Both Wiley, King, and the Trustee-elects speak on record at filmed forums and open-to-the-public events.
Chief of Police Rolando Hernandez resigned on September 15th, citing personal reasons.
Former Trustee Tabitha Foster resigned her position as Clerk in a letter dated September 8th, citing personal reasons.
The council confirmed Foster to work for Cloudcroft Village as Clerk on September 2nd.
Mayor King announced Foster’s resignation as trustee on August 30th. Write-in candidate filing deadline on September 2nd passes with no candidates.
Foster resigned her position on August 27th.
Candidate filing deadline with the Otero County Clerk is August 26th. Tim King and Dusty Wiley file for the mayor’s race. Keith Hamilton, Gail McCoy, and Danny Hardwick apply for the three trustee seats on the ballot.
Trustee Nick Hanna stepped down for active duty orders. Trustee Keith Hamilton is appointed to fill the vacancy.
July 15th, 2025, former Clerk Jolyn McTeigue is unanimously relieved from her duties by the council.
On July 1st, Chief Hernandez and Officer Daniel Sepulveda were hired. Weeks later, Sepulveda and Officer Chris Swanson are terminated from their positions. Swanson was terminated for alleged misconduct while on duty.
March 27th, 2025, Clerk McTeigue is hired.
Chief of Police Roger Schoolcraft resigned, effective December 2024.
Tim King is appointed Mayor. Nick Hanna is appointed to fill King’s vacant Trustee seat.
Mayor Turner abruptly stepped down during a village meeting on December 6th, 2024, after the council did not approve the hiring of a Financial Clerk.
Village Clerk Julie Pinson resigned in December 2024.
Village office and police department staff exit en masse in May 2024.
Shortly after the April 2024 public budget meeting, Turner announced a request for a forensic audit.
Newly elected Trustees Tim King and Tabitha Foster join veteran council members Jim Maynard and Gail McCoy in January 2024.
Craig Turner was elected by popular vote and began as Mayor in January 2024.
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full text of Turner’s 11/16/25 response:
“Well, I respectfully don’t consider stepping down to force action after trustees denied my repeated requests to authorize hiring a financial clerk to address the serious financial issues uncovered last year as “quitting on the Village”.As you know, within days of my resignation the Village brought in outside professionals to address those problems. My decision was based solely on what was necessary to safeguard the Village’s finances. Anyone familiar with the financial situation at the time already knows why those actions became necessary. Leadership sometimes requires decisions that aren’t politically convenient but are essential for the long-term health of the community.
I understand that the “quit on the Village” line is intended to be insulting and critical toward me, but I also know that stepping down to force necessary financial action was the RIGHT decision for the good of the Village. So to those who say I wouldn’t deserve a trustee seat, for the unnamed “sources” who say I would not deserve to come back because I “quit on the Village”, I’m presuming those comments are coming from individuals aligned with Timothy King, as that narrative has been repeated by him and now his supporters since the day I stepped down. Using that talking point didn’t resonate with the community when trustee King first used it last December, and it doesn’t seem to carry much credibility now either based on my support for Dusty and his landslide victory.
More importantly, I didn’t run for trustee, and I haven’t applied to be considered for appointment. So the idea that I “don’t deserve to come back” simply doesn’t apply. If at some point in the future I choose to run, the community would have the opportunity to answer that question themselves.
**Again, Hannah, I’m only consenting for you to quote me if you print the entirety of my answer, precisely word-for-word as written.”