New Calexico city manager appointed
Karina Bazarte
CALEXICO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) – After more than 14 months without a permanent city manager, the City of Calexico has official appointed Ben Martinez as the new city manager.
Ben Martinez was appointed to be the new Calexico City Manager Tuesday morning.
Calexico Mayor Diana Nuricumbo says Martinez has an extensive career, from working with multiple cities in San Diego to L.A. County.
“We wanted to be very careful about who we selected because this city you know it has a reputation of having a high turnover of city managers so we wanted to ensure that this time things were going to be different,” said Mayor Nuricumbo.
However, locals on social media expressed their concerns about Martinez controversial departure from National City.
“Sometimes things don’t work out in other cities. we know this position is a very political position so it all depends on who you have as a council,” said Nuricumbo.
Martinez says he was let go due to political reasons.
Martinez says although he is not from Calexico, He does have strong ties to the community and he’s committed to helping the city grow.
Lizbeth Carbajal, a local, she is excited Calexico finally has a permanent city manager that can help the city bloom like fixing the streets.
“Homelessness is a big issue and something has to be done to protect them to help them but at the same time to protect our city and make it clean and beautiful,” said Carbajal.
Martinez says beautifying Calexico is in his plans.
“When I look at the appearances of Calexico, our streets, our sidewalks, our parks and other things, I don’t know if the pride is showing, so we need to do that together. We need to work on that together I want to see the image of Calexico improve for the better,” said Martinez.
Martinez says he signed a three-year contract with a possible extension and hopes to retire in the City of Calexico.