I had made a follow up meeting with Rio Arriba County Manager Tomas Campos and Economic Development Director Chris Madrid at 11:30 a.m., May 3 to talk about three issues that we had worked on together for the past three years to plan the next two years of activity.
They included 1) developing a strategic plan for Rio Arriba County based on creating good jobs and gathering a group of about 25 leaders in our Valley to make this happen; 2) a workshop for both acequias and mutual domestic water systems to help these small governments get ready for new infrastructure money; and 3) a workshop on Capital Outlay projects so that all funds are used in the time allotted.
I arrived for my appointment to discover Commissioners James Martinez and Moises Morales were in the process of firing Campos and hiring Lucia Sanchez for the position. Kudos to Commissioner Christine Bustos for valiantly trying to defeat this effort.
Campos has 25 years of experience with the County, the past 12 as county manager. He has assembled a good staff team. Is it perfect? No.
Name one county that hasn’t struggled to make budgets even and tackle huge problems in the last 12 years. I work with four counties, Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba and I can tell you that the Rio Arriba team is top notch.
For those who don’t know, I would regularly text Tomas or Chris at 11 p.m. or 6 a.m. during the legislative session if I needed to check on a bill and its consequences for Rio Arriba County. I was frankly amazed that they would usually call right back. And yes, they knew the answer and I could vote in good confidence. They were a team that I could count on.
So to see Rio Arriba County commissioners fall back into old political movidas with no notice, back room deals and no transparency is disgraceful.
How do you replace a county manager with 25 years of service? You do succession planning, you advertise statewide for the position. You have an open and transparent process and you involve the citizenry of Rio Arriba County. You involve your key staff members in an orderly and smooth transition, keeping a viable, experienced team together with new management is key.
This process also puts Lucia Sanchez under a cloud. I have no problems with Lucia Sanchez, she is a good woman but this process is the absolutely worst way to bring in a new county manager.
It’s my job to work with all elected officials and county government employees. I will continue to do that. It’s also my job to speak out when local elected officials make backroom deals with no public input and no transparent process.
Susan Herrera
District 41 representative