Cory Lewis
• 27 years old.
• Unmarried with two children.
• Owns C.L. Landscaping.
• Española Valley High School graduate.
• Was a member of the Española Fiesta Council in 2007.
Which persons and what activities are important to you in your personal life? How and why are they important to you?
My kids and family are always number one. I like to play basketball, go to the gym.
Why are you running for councilor? Name your top three initiatives, and explain how specifically you will accomplish them.
Public safety is a big thing. I think as far as pay goes, we need to be equivalent to our neighboring cities. That way we can get more officers in here and make our safety better, and less burglaries and less crimes, drop the crime rate. We need good water and sewer systems for better quality of life. We need to bring our morale back up in the city. Just getting everybody together and making everybody one team.
What specific problems in your neighborhood prompted you to run for Council?
The neighbors were talking about break-ins and the cleanliness of our streets. Our medians aren’t looking right. They’re trashy, they’ve got trash on them. You know, cleanup is a big thing, especially in the business I’m in, that’s what we do. We make peoples’ homes more beautiful. Our valley is beautiful, but it could look more beautiful.
Where do you get your political support?
Well, you know, the thing is, I’ve been a local businessman for 10 years, selling automobiles. Been around politics the whole time. Sold a lot of politicians an automobile. I know everyone here.
What leadership roles have you held? What specific experience do you have that qualifies you to help run a city?
I was assistant manager of Pep Boys. Again, as a certified sales professional, you’re pretty much you’re own company. I sold a lot of automobiles due to the fact that I knew what I was doing and just taking care of people. I’m a people person.
Which of the two mayoral candidates do you support?
That’s a tough one. I think I’m going to have to go with Alice (Lucero). She’s been a friend of the family for many years. She’s a neighbor, down the road. But man, that’s really a tough one, I wish we didn’t have to state one.
Do you support retaining Acting City Manager Veronica Albin and Public Safety Chief Julian Gonzales, or replacing them? With whom would you propose replacing them?
Well, I think they’re doing a good job. But I think we need to take a look at the total productivity of their job performances.
lummeting revenues have forced the city to slash its budget several times over the past two years. How do you propose keeping the city solvent in the long run?
We need to look at the whole picture and see what’s a necessity versus a want.
Among the services the city provides — utilities, street maintenance, recreation, library, public safety — on which would you invest the city’s limited resources, and which would you be willing to cut?
Without public safety and public works we’re nowhere in this city. And of course when I say public safety I mean the Police Department and the Fire Department, so you know. And I guess recreation would be a minor cutback. But not much, because at the same time we need to take care of recreation for our children. We need recreation also.
Last year, the city lost two of its three auto dealerships and its only department clothing store. What will you do to keep businesses in the city and attract new business?
It comes down to shopping locally, keeping our tax dollars in the city. We need to bring in new businesses such as department and clothing stores. We don’t have one so people are going to Santa Fe. That doesn’t do much for the city of Española. We should just look at some major franchises. We have properties, you know. We could make money off of them.
The Police Department hasn’t been fully staffed for years, and it is struggling to catch up with several unresolved murders and a rash of burglaries. Describe specific steps you will take to improve public safety.
First of all we’d start by getting our salaries up to par with our neighboring cities and putting an incentive out there for more officers to come in. And getting an actual neighborhood watch committee would help our burglaries.