New Mexico county comparisons

Here is a list of all New Mexico counties and their population. Those in red have in place a 5 member County Commission with the exception of Los Alamos county which has a 7 member commission.

Also, Otero County will be holding a "Public Hearing" in regards to redistricting.  Here is a partial copy/paste from their web page.

"The Otero County Commission will hold a public hearing on Monday, March 19th, 2012, at 10:00 AM in the County Commission meeting room located at 1101 New York Avenue, Room 123, Alamogordo, New Mexico 88310. The purpose of the meeting is as follows:

To consider approval of Resolution #03-19-12/100-50 a resolution revising the redistricting plan for the Board of County Commissioners."

While I know that the time of the day is far from being convenient, you can always call or e-mail the Commission with your opinion.

Bernalillo 642,527

Catron 3,433

Chaves 63,622

Cibola 27,036

Colfax 12,737

Curry 44,407

De Baca 1,819

Dona Ana 206,419

Eddy 52,706

Grant 29,903

Guadalupe 4,241

Harding 663

Hidalgo 5,057

Lea 60,232

Lincoln 21,016

Los Alamos 18,074 (7 member)

Luna 27,044

McKinley 70,513

Mora 4,935

Otero 63,201

Quay 8,917

Rio Arriba 40,678

Roosevelt 18,817

San Juan 124,131

San Miguel 28,323

Sandoval 125,988

Santa Fe 147,532

Sierra 12,886

Socorro 18,092

Taos 31,507

Torrance 16,475

Union 3,817

Valencia 72,913











 

5 member Commission continued

Time to go back and recap what I have heard over the last week or so regarding a 3 member versus a 5 member County Commission.

I have spent at least part of every day in the last week talking to people in the county about the County Commission. This includes Republicans, Democrats, a couple of “decline to state” and a few who are not registered voters. I did not approach any of these people in a manner that indicated what my thinking was on a 5 member Commission, just asking their thoughts on it. I wanted their honest opinion, not what they thought I wanted to hear.

Not one single person I talked to felt that staying with a 3 member commission was in the best interest of Otero County!

Now my reasoning behind supporting a 5 member commission is rather simple. Having 5 members on the Commission gives a more diverse view of the county. Currently the residents in the mountain area have no voice on the Commission. Not one single Commissioner lives in the mountain area!
Having differing views on issues is imperative to ensuring that all the citizens of Otero County are heard and are represented.

Commissioner Rardin has stated in the past that he opposes a 5 member Commission because it might cause a “split vote” on issues and that he does not like to bring items to the agenda that he is not positive he has a unanimous vote on. While it’s nice to have everyone on the same page and always voting the same, it does not allow for open discussion on items and outside views and thoughts. If the entire Commission is going to be in agreement all of the time then why not just have one Commissioner?

But, it does beg the question of how does Commissioner Rardin know how the other 2 Commissioners will vote prior to an open meeting!

Five Member Commission

Had the opportunity today to give a short talk at the Otero County Republican Pre-Primary Convention. Great group of people by the way!

I mentioned very briefly the fact that the County has not even started the process of re-districting and as such I really was not sure what District I should claim.  While I currently live and am running in District 3, that could change depending on the re-districting. I mentioned in my talk that it could even become a five member district, something I support!

What I did not expect was the number of people that approached me throughout the rest of this meeting in support of a five member commission.

Later in the day I sat through the forum for the city of Alamogordo candidates for City Commission.
Another great group of people.

During this two hour event I had the opportunity to talk to numerous people and asked their opinion on a five member County Commission.

Including both groups of people that I talked to today and the number of people that I have talked to in general since starting my campaign, I have only heard one person state that he opposes the idea of a five member commission. That person of course is my opponent, Commissioner Ronny Rardin.

So, I'm asking you, the citizens, to please e-mail or call me and let me know what your thinking is on this topic.

I'll give this a week or so and then post my thinking on this concept as well as the results of this informal survey.
Thanks!

Decisions

The topic of my running for County Commission first came up around 18 months ago. The person that asked me if I would consider running had apparently had “issues” with county government and was not satisfied with the end result. At the time I gave it little thought.

Over the next few months I had several other people approach me on the subject and again I did not give it a lot of thought.

About a year ago when attempting to do business with Otero County the issues started to become clearer as they applied to me. After several run-ins and road blocks when dealing with Otero County, it started to become evident to me that changes were needed. It became obvious to me that a lot of the “rumors” that I had heard in the past were apparently true and that I was not the only person that was having issues.

Soon after that, the “have you considered running?” turned into “you are running, right?”
So, decision made, it was time to really dig in and see about what the bottom line problems in Otero County were.

What I will be posting here will be a combination of issues that have been brought to my attention AND confirmed, and things that I have found out in my research. I’m not going to be posting about the latest “rumor” that might be going around. You will be seeing my thoughts and ideas on how to improve Otero County for the betterment of the whole county.

I’ll be posting dates of public talks and for those that can’t attend I’ll be posting about what I talked about.
And of course I’ll be posting more about me, my education and experience, and how it relates to the Otero County Commission.
Any questions that come up via e-mail or in person that relate to the election will be posted as well as my response.
Please feel free to e-mail or call me with your questions, thoughts, concerns or just to visit.