EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) -- The City of Las Cruces violated New Mexico's Open Meetings Act throughout its process of hiring a new city manager earlier this year and the hiring is invalid, the New Mexico Department of Justice said. According to the findings of the NM Justice Department, the hiring of new City Manager Ikani Taumoepeau "lacked compliance with the OMA (Open Meetings Act)" and "therefore is invalid," according to documents obtained by KTSM. Ikani Taumoepeau officially appointed as Las Cruces City Manager "The only open meeting at which the City Council ever discussed the selection of the new city manager was its April 1, 2024 meeting," the document stated. "At that meeting, the City Council had already selected its candidate and negotiated an employment agreement. "The City Council's opaque process deprived the public of any opportunity to meaningfully participate in the selection of the new city manager," the document said. The NM Justice Department added: "(The) concern is that the City Council never discussed or took any final action in an open meeting to select Mr. Taumoepeau as the final candidate for the city manager position. The City Council should have held an open meeting to take anyfinal action related to selecting its new city manager before publicly announcing an offer, eithertentative or final, and certainly before any contract negotiations." Among the open meeting violations the City of Las Cruces is found to have committed are: failure to decide the scope of the city manager search in an open meeting and using what appeared to be a rolling quorum; using a closed session to narrow the candidate field to three people without discussion in public; and taking final action on hiring a city manager in a closed meeting outside of a public session, which was called the "most egregious" violation. "It is our office’s opinion that the City Council engaged in closed deliberations and invalid finalsactions prior to the single, open public meeting held to discuss the hiring of a new city manageron April 1, 2024. These actions deprived the public of any meaningful opportunity to participatein, or even witness the deliberations on, a question of significant public importance," the New Mexico Justice Department said. The Justice Department said the City of Las Cruces can correct these actions in one of two ways. The City Council can hold a public meeting that is compliant with the state's Open Meeting Act, summarize all discussions and comments made outside of public meetings and then vote on the actions in public. The second alternative is to start the entire hiring process over again, the Justice Department said. "We advise the City Council to immediately address the OMA violations associated withthe selection of the city manager and cure them with one of these two alternatives," the Justice Department said. "Given the gravity of the subject matter, we recommend that the City Council address this matter either at a special meeting or at the next available City Council meeting. The NMDOJ also requests that the City Council alert the NMDOJ of any corrective action it chooses to take, notices of meetings, and any decision stemming from these violations," the NM Justice Department added. We have reached out to the City of Las Cruces for a response.