Greg Ortega
• 40 years old.
• Single.
• Works at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• Bachelor’s degree in political science from New Mexico State University.
• Has never run for office but is a former legislative analyst with the State Senate.
Which persons and what activities are important to you in your personal life? How and why are they important to you?
Well first of all, my faith in God is really important to me. After that, my family, my parents — my mom lives in Dallas, (Texas), my dad lives here so I spend a lot of time between the two because they’re family, of course. Outside of work, I’m a weaver. I’ve been a weaver ever since I was a kid. I watch a lot of sports. I like to watch basketball, football, that kind of thing.
Why are you running for councilor? Name your top three initiatives, and explain how specifically you will accomplish them.
I think one of our number one things we have to deal with is the budget, first of all, and make sure that we’re operating within our means. I think public safety is something that we really need to take a look at. How do we hire more police officers, get more police officers on the streets? And of course city beautification. That’s something that we need to look at so that we can attract more people into the city, especially businesspeople.
You have never held public office before. Where does your political support come from? What knowledge and experience do you have that would qualify you to help run a city?
My political support obviously comes from my family and a lot of friends of my family. My family’s been here forever. My dad’s very well-respected in this community, and my grandparents are well-respected. I was a political science major. I’ve worked in city government, with the (Española Municipal Court). When I was in high school, in the summers, I worked for the city of Española. I have run many campaigns while I was in college, and I’ve worked the state Legislature a couple of times as a legislative analyst. I worked at the (state Public Regulation Commission) for a period of time. So I have knowledge of state government, local government, the judicial system.
What specifically is broken, missing or requires improvement in your neighborhood that prompted you to run?
In my neighborhood specifically, I think our roads aren’t maintained very well. We have potholes, there’s dirt on the road, that sort of thing. They’re not swept on a regular basis. The streetlights don’t always work — sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. It’s a great neighborhood, the people are great and so forth but also, a neighborhood watch is something I think would be appropriate, going back to public safety.
Which of the two mayoral candidates do you support?
I’m not supporting either one of them. I’m worried about getting elected myself, so I’m staying out of the mayor’s race myself. You know, I’ve talked to them both, and I think I can work with both of them.
Do you support retaining Acting City Manager Veronica Albin and Public Safety Chief Julian Gonzales, or replacing them?
Well, I think we need to seriously look at both of those areas and see what the mayor, whoever that may be, wants to do. Initially, that’s something that the mayor’s going to make that decision, and of course the Council has to ratify it. But I think if the mayor works with all the Council, and we make a decision as a group, as a whole, then we go from there.
Among the services the city provides — utilities, street maintenance, recreation, library — on which would you invest the city’s limited resources, and which would you be willing to cut?
At this point in time, I think public safety needs to be number one. We need to invest more resources in public safety. At a City Council meeting a few weeks ago, the chief had indicated to the Council that in order to get the Police Department where it should be, we should have 45 police officers. And we have much, much less than that right now.