Santa Fe's New City Council

DISTRICT 1: Signe Lindell

Signe Lindell says that as a new freshman councilor representing Santa Fe’s northwestern District 1, she’s going to get right down to work. That’s a fitting piece of rhetoric for someone tasked with representing the district that regularly turns out the highest amount of registered voters to the polls compared to the rest of the city. Furthermore, she’s taking over a seat vacated by Councilor Chris Calvert, a three-term representative who established himself as a supporter of environmental causes. On Tuesday night, after it became clear that she handily defeated Michael Segura for the post with 69 percent of votes, SFR asked what her first task was going to be at City Hall. She responded that she’s “interested in issues of the watershed, economic development and affordable housing.” But the river isn’t the only thing that flows through her district. The businesses in the Plaza are also some of the biggest drivers of tourism money for the city’s economy, yet the sporadic closure of bars and nightclubs in the city serves as a reminder that money—like the water—sometimes dries up. Signe, though, wants residents to be able to live affordably, too. “When people live here, they spend their paychecks here,” she tells SFR.

DISTRICT 2: Joeseph Maestas

Councilor Rebecca Wurzburger’s departure from the District 2 seat she held for 12 years left the most crowded ballot for any City Council race, with five candidates vying to represent the northeast district that covers the high-end art scene of Canyon Road all the way to the intersection of St. Francis and St. Michael’s drives. Joseph Maestas’ thin margin of victory—he had 34 percent of votes compared to 25 percent for Rad Acton—might be attributed to the fact that he faced four competitors, but he also faced questions of his public service as the one-time mayor of Española. He’ll have to prove himself on Santa Fe’s governing body, and he has big ideas to do just that, envisioning that the city can remold St. Michael’s into an incubator for jobs, art and education that would attract young talent. He points to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center—Santa Fe’s biggest private sector business—and the Santa Fe University of Art and Design as two institutions that can be the basis to attract a hub of activity that can unite the north side with the Southside. “It’s got great potential to be an economic catalyst for Santa Fe,” he says. But as he tells SFR on election night, “The first order of business is going to be [to work with the new mayor in] the transition and the reorganization of government.”

 DISTRICT 3: Carmichael Dominguez

The Southside is always a fashionable campaign topic. Mayoral candidates frequently invoked the working-class district. Javier Gonzales and Patti Bushee both pointed in that direction in saying the city needed to expand employment there and to create more opportunities for upward mobility on the Airport Road corridor. Southside residents again elected Councilor Carmichael Dominguez to represent District 3 with about 45 percent of preliminary votes, just squeaking past challenger Marie Campos, who carried 37 percent. It’s one thing to talk about the district, but Dominguez has proven that he’s taken action on it like creating the overlay district that encourages health care and jobs while discourages alcohol sales. “We’re going to continue the momentum that we gained on the Southside and make sure we continue to empower people,” he tells SFR. His challenge will be rallying the historically apathetic district. Angelo Jaramillo, son of former mayor Debbie, finished the race last with 17 percent of votes.

District 4 Ron Trujillo uncontested

Santa Fe Reporter