|
Candidate Forum Feb.10 at Old Church |
|
|
Written by Jeff Radford
Corrales Comment
|
|
Sunday, 07 February 2010 |
Voters will have a chance to put questions to candidates running for a
seat on the Village Council on Wednesday, February 10 at the Old Church.
The candidate forum sponsored by the Village of Corrales will begin at 7 p.m.
Village elections are Tuesday, March 2. The last day to register to vote in the that election was February 2.
Mayor Phil Gasteyer is unopposed in his bid for re-election to a second four-year term.
Election to seats on the Village Council are now districted; only the
seats for Districts 1, 3 and 4 are up for grabs in the March election.
In District 4, the incumbent councillor, John Alsobrook, is unopposed.
So the real election campaign action is in District 1 in the northwest
corner of Corrales where there is no incumbent and three candidates are
running, and in District 3 where Councillor Bonnie Gonzales is giving
up her seat.
Her husband, Al Gonzales, wants to take her place on the council, but he faces another District 3 candidate, Mick Harper.
Candidates in District 1 are Joseph Stefan, Ennio Garcia-Miera and Jim Davis.
A map showing the voter districts is published elsewhere in this issue.
The boundaries for District 1 are roughly described as the area
west of Corrales Road from Angel Road north and west to the Rio Rancho
city limits.
District 3 is (roughly) the central-western part of the village, from
Corrales Road west to Rio Rancho from West La Entrada and Coronado on
the south to Camino Hermosa on the north.
District 4 is generally west of the Corrales Acequia (“first ditch”)
from West La Entrada - Coronado on the north to Windover on the south.
Terms for councillors representing Districts 2, 5 and 6, as well as
municipal judge, do not expire until March 2012. So Councillors Pat
Clauser, Sayre Gerhart and Gerard Gagliano will continue serving on the
council with the victors from the March 2010 balloting.
Candidate profiles based on interviews will be published in the February 20 issue of Corrales Comment.
In District 1, Jim Davis is a founding member of Concerned Citizens for
Corrales. He lives on Richard Road, west of Loma Larga. He is an
administrator at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Albuquerque
currently overseeing construction of additional operating rooms.
Davis moved to Corrales in 2005 after a 32-year career in the Air Force providing medical services.
Joseph Stefan lives on Paseo Mesa Alta Oeste along the northern
boundary with Rio Rancho. He has worked in the in-flight division of
Southwest Airlines for 14 years.
Stefan said he wants to be sure Corrales’ proposed “Access A”
intersection at Highway 528 and Northern Boulevard is minimally
disruptive to quality of life in the Far Northwest Sector. He would
like to explore prospects for Corrales to get its own middle-school,
perhaps as a charter.
The third candidate in District 1, Ennio Garcia-Miera, lives along Camino de la Tierra where he conducts a marketing business.
He has been an executive with Bank of America, Fannie Mae and GMAC
Mortgage. In 1992, he was named one of the “100 most influential
Hispanics” in the U.S. by Hispanic Business Magazine.
In District 3, Al Gonzales is best known as site manager for the
Corrales Growers’ Market. He and his wife own and operate the Gonzales
Flower Farm off Old Church Road. They have lived in Corrales since 1986.
Gonzales has had a career in retailing, primarily with Sears Roebuck
starting in his high school years. He opened a Sears store in Flagstaff
in 1979 after which he was promoted and relocated to Phoenix.
Five years later he was relocated as a Sears manager to Albuquerque. He
left that career in 1996 to operate the Gonzales Flower Farm full time.
The other candidate in District 3 is Mick Harper who lives on Calle
Roja, near the top of Camino Arco Iris. He is owner-director of Blue
Sky Woodworks which he started in 1982. His business is next to Village
Pizza at the corner of Corrales Road and West La Entrada.
Born in Dallas, he has lived in Corrales since 1981. Harper has served
as chairman of the Corrales Planning and Zoning Commission since 2007,
and has served on that crucial board for the past six years. He
resigned when he announced his candidacy for Village Council.
Harper said he has long been interested in land use issues due to his
career in woodworking for residential construction. “Now I want
to be involved in the policy end of issues,” he said. |
