S.F. official no longer employed

Lilia Chacon, who moved from Chicago to Santa Fe just over a year ago to join the administration of Mayor Alan Webber as the city’s spokeswoman, has been terminated.

Her last day was Monday. “We appreciate the work of Ms. Chacon during her time with the city and wish her all the best in her future endeavors,” Kristine Mihelcic, the city’s constituent and council services director, said Thursday.

Mihelcic would only say Chacon had “separated” from the city. She said she couldn’t go into details because it was a personnel matter.

Chacon did not immediately

return a message seeking comment.

A former television reporter and anchor with six years’ experience as a public information officer for the city of Chicago, Chacon said last year she always wanted to return to New Mexico, where she spent nearly five years working for Channel 13 in the mid- to late 1980s.

“We used to joke about it at Channel 13 that New Mexico is like ‘Hotel California,’ ” she said at the time, referring to the classic rock song by the Eagles. “You know, you can check out but you can never leave.”

Chacon left journalism in January 2011 to work as public relations director for the city of Chicago’s Treasurer’s Office for four years. In September 2015, Chacon served as the Iowa press secretary for the 2016 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

After working on the Sanders campaign, she went back to work for the city of Chicago in May 2017 as communications director for the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection before joining the city of Santa Fe, also as communications director, in May 2019.

Mihelcic said the city plans to advertise the job opening soon.