Maybe it was the intimate lighting at the Northern New Mexico College auditorium, or the sparse crowd mostly filled with each candidate’s supporters, but the Española Valley Chamber of Commerce mayoral debate Feb. 21 had a decidedly subdued atmosphere.
Perhaps the biggest contributer to the placid tone of the evening was the absence of Robert Seeds. Chamber President Jeff Atencio announced before the debate that Seeds had accepted the invitation but canceled earlier that day, citing a sinus-related illness.
Despite the empty chair and table designated for Seeds on the auditorium stage, mayoral candidates Alice Lucero and Peggy Martinez soldiered on with a debate that centered around the city’s economic development.
As the incumbent mayor, Lucero based her argument for re-election on a platform of steady economic progress with the promise of more progress to come.
Lucero touted the businesses her administration brought to town, the programs she helped establish or fund and the projects that would bring more economic opportunity to the city, like the Española Valley Softball Fields.
“Some people say, ‘Money is so short. Why are you building softball fields?’” she said. “We’re building softball fields to bring people to Española. When we build a state-of-the-art facility, people are going to come to host tournaments in our city. We will bring people here to visit our local businesses, our local restaurants.”
Lucero said the planning and zoning process for businesses is cheaper and more cost-effective than nearby Santa Fe and Taos.
While Lucero promoted the light at the end of the tunnel, Martinez said most people didn’t perceive Española as a burgeoning economic power.
“We suffer from a horrible, horrible, horrible image problem,” Martinez said.
She said the city needed to build a new municipal jail, stick to a master plan for all city projects and offer incentives for businesses to come to Española, including the waiver of utility hook-up fees.
Like the Feb. 12 city union-sponsored candidate forum, the candidates’ answers were light on specifics.
But that didn’t stop Chamber Executive Director Kelly Duran, who acted as the debate’s moderator, from trying to challenge the candidates.
When Duran asked how each candidate would attract more Los Alamos National Laboratory employees to Española as residents, both Lucero and Martinez said they would work to make the city more attractive.
Unsatisfied with their answers, Duran said the candidates should think of more comprehensive ideas like down payment assistance programs and gave them another chance to answer the question.
While each candidate offered a couple more ideas, Duran admonished more thought on the issue in the future.
“I would challenge both of you to get those neighboring counties and look at what they’re doing with clustered housing developments,” he said. “I challenge you to look at those affordable housing options. What I mean is marketable housing.”
Duran challenged Martinez specifically, when he asked her what kind of professional development she would undertake to overcome some people’s perception that she was over-emotional.
When Martinez began to shift the topic to the city’s lack of a non-interim city manager, Duran interrupted her and asked her to get back on topic. After being reoriented, Martinez said she would improve her public speaking skills and work to communicate with the City Council.
While the candidates mostly stuck to their own talking points, there were a couple of moments of direct opposition.
When Martinez said opening a new municipal jail would offer the city the best chance to combat criminal and substance abuse issues with local youth, Lucero questioned the economic feasibility of such a project.
Lucero said the Rio Arriba County jail in Tierra Amarilla has a yearly operating budget of $6 million. If the city jail ran on a similar budget, it would take up almost half of the city’s budget.
“We just can’t afford a jail,” Lucero said.
Martinez got her own opportunity to rebut one of the mayor’s answers when Lucero said she did everything she could to communicate with the current Council.
“My rebuttal is that in the time that I’ve been on the Council, I have not had a conversation with the mayor in two years outside Council Chambers,” Martinez said.
The candidates also had to tackle issues that hadn’t been prime talking points of their campaigns, like the city’s graffiti problem.
Martinez said rampant vandalism only increased the need for more public safety.
“Right now if you call 911, vandalism would be the bottom of the totem pole and you might not get a response from a police officer,” she said. “But I really think if we do enhance the public safety department, we could really put a dent into vandalism.”
Lucero said graffiti could be fought with a city-sponsored mural program where young people could paint walls with art instead of vandalism.
“Instead of having these young people destroying property and wasting a lot of tax payer’s money to clean it up, let’s give them a venue where they can do something tasteful,” she said.
As attendees turned in their comment cards after the debate drew to a close, they were greeted in the parking lot by fliers attached to each car, with a list of endorsed candidates from the union-sponsored Feb. 12 candidate forum.
The list stated the union endorsed Lucero for mayor, Pedro Valdez for the District 1 Council seat, Elaine Herrera and Michelle Martinez for District 2, Leo Marquez for District 3 and Anthony VanderVossen for District 4.
Union officials will have to wait and see if their endorsements reflect the results of the election March 4.