By Amanda Martinez
Special to the SUN

Two hopefuls will try to unseat a long-time Rio Arriba County political figure in the race for District 2 commissioner.

Incumbent Alex Naranjo will face Española Public School District Board member and local business owner Dale Salazar and La Mesilla Volunteer Fire Department Deputy Chief Kedrick Mendez.

Naranjo was first elected in 2018. If he wins, this will be his third term on the Commission. He previously served as a school board member and magistrate judge.

Salazar ran for commissioner in 2022 and lost to Naranjo. This is Mendez’s first bid for the position.

While Salazar and Mendez both share concerns about the budget, Naranjo believes the county is headed in the right direction.

Naranjo sees the latest audit as an improvement on prior years.

“Just recently, there was about 10 findings and there were 12 at one time, so I need to find out, what I’m going to do, is find out what those deficiencies are,” Naranjo said. “We had an exit audit about a month ago and I asked the same questions and some of those deficiencies are a few years old, so we need to know how to eliminate them. If we have any deficiencies, let’s take care of them.”

Salazar and Mendez both believe their experiences in the private sector will help them improve the county’s financial standing.

Mendez works at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a facility manager, where he oversees operations, infrastructure and budgets. He previously worked as a utility superintendent and oversaw major infrastructure projects.

He wants to see more accountability and make sure that the money is being spent on constituent priorities.

“The issue isn’t just how much we spend, it’s how we spend it,” Mendez wrote in an email. “We need to ensure funds are focused on priorities like public safety, infrastructure, essential services, and supporting our rural and agricultural communities.”

Salazar owns and operates Leroy’s Excavating, which he took over in 2002 after his father passed away. His family opened the business in 1983 and has sold material to and completed projects for the county over the last three decades.

He knows how the county runs its procurement operations and is familiar with its processes, he said, giving him a dual perspective.

Roads are always a concern in county elections.

According to Census data, the county is nearly 6,000 square miles in size. Many of the county’s roads are unpaved and are in remote areas.

Salazar wants to move away from relying on the state’s purchasing agreements. Instead, he said, he would support following the procurement process to seek bids for things like roads and building projects to get the best deals possible. He also wants to start a material recycling center to save on supply costs.

“We could actually produce our own materials for these road projects that we wouldn’t have to buy,” he said. “We can process it, charge the contractors X amount of dollars to dump it there for the processing fee and then in turn, the county would have their own materials for these roads.”

Priorities

Naranjo said one of his priorities as commissioner is examining how the county utilizes its different facilities.

“First of all, we have numerous facilities throughout the county and I want to see those facilities being utilized, not just for meeting places,” he said. “Whomever the commission and management was back then, they erected those facilities in different communities to be intended to be utilized by the elderly. Some of those facilities are not being utilized the way I wish they would be utilized for seniors.”

Both Mendez and Salazar said public safety will be their first priority as commissioner.

“People do not feel safe, you know, going into Walmart, I’m just talking here in the city,” he said. “But it’s happening throughout the county with homelessness and squatters and just individuals that are into bad situations.”

Mendez is focused on working with all the legal jurisdictions in the county to fight the drug epidemic.

“To address this, we need a balanced approach supporting law enforcement and first responders, expanding access to treatment and recovery programs, and investing in prevention, especially for our youth,” he said. “We must also bring our communities together, tribal governments, local communities, and the city government working as one to create long-term solutions and a safer future.”

Naranjo believes the Rio Arriba County jail is a huge financial burden for the county. He and Salazar support building a regional jail in Española.

“The detention center in Tierra Amarilla is the biggest problem we have, maybe because it’s in an isolated area,” Naranjo said. “I think we do what we can as best as we can, but sometimes there can be problems with recruitment. Not too many people want to go from Española to T.A. Let’s face it, it’s an operation that doesn’t bring any revenue. I’m not sure how much it costs us, $4, $5, $6 million a year and we get nothing in return. I’ve always thought of the idea of having a regional jail in Española, even though the county seat is in Tierra Amarilla, 80-90% of the inmates are from Española.”

Naranjo also wants the county to follow through on its commitment to build a new nursing and rehabilitation facility.

Voters passed a $30 million bond in 2019 to build a new facility, but the project hit a standstill.

“So when that thing passed, if it had been me, I would have immediately started work on that nursing home, but instead they blamed COVID and a change of administration,” Naranjo said. “What was going to be $80 or $90 a foot turned out to be $800-$900 a foot. So when I came in last time, I was making sure we’d move rapidly. Hopefully it will become a reality in 6-7 months.”

Absentee and early voting begins on May 5. The primary election is June 2 and Election day is Nov. 3. The Española Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Rio Grande SUN will host a candidate forum for county commission candidates on Saturday (4/18). Doors open at 3:30 p.m. and the forum begins at 4 p.m. at the event center in the main building of Northern New Mexico College.

Managing Editor Jennifer Garcia contributed to this report.