2010 Pop Quiz: District 2

No studying in advance, no hints, no do-overs—SFR’s candidate Pop Quiz is a rite of passage for seekers of local office. This week, SFR grills the candidates for Santa Fe City Council District 2, a massive swath of turf running south of E. Alameda Street and east of Cerrillos Road (below Second Street, the border falls east of the Rail Runner tracks). Vote in the city elections on March 2.

Questions:
1.    According to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, what was the unemployment rate in Santa Fe at the end of the year?
2.    What is the largest private employer in District 2?
3.    Name two books St. John’s College undergraduate students are required to read.
4.    Since 2008, the city has invested $962,000 in Santa Fe 400th Anniversary, Inc., a nonprofit overseeing the anniversary celebrations. Based on the income generated from its only event so far, Viva Santa Fe, what is the city’s return on investment? Negative 86 percent, negative 45 percent or positive 2 percent?
5.    According to the city Convention & Visitors Bureau, how much does the average leisure traveler spend in Santa Fe on a daily basis?
6.    The city provides residents with two recycling bins. What is the proper way to separate your recycling?
7.    How many of Santa Fe’s eight sitting city councilors have Facebook pages?
8.    Who is the person in your district whom everybody ought to know, but doesn’t?
9.    Who is your most important campaign donor?
10.    Is it legal to own a pet bat in Santa Fe?
11.    The Santa Fe Police Department says it’ll need 40 more officers to patrol the areas proposed for annexation. How many officers does Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano currently have patrolling those areas?
12.    Old Man Gloom: Burn him or feed him Prozac?
13.    What are the normal weekday hours of operation for Santa Fe Trails buses?
14.    What's the biggest problem facing your district?

Answers:
Stefanie Beninato, 59, “attorney-mediator/historian”
1.    I really don’t remember. End of ’09? I’m thinking about 8 percent, but I could be wrong.
2.    Wow. Let me think about that. I think it might be St. John’s.
3.    Um. I think they’re required to read the theorems—well, that’s not a book. I want to say they’re required to read the Iliad and the Odyssey.
4.    So they invested a million and how much did they make from the event, what percent? What are my options?…I’m going to say negative 45. I don’t think the event made any money…It’s been a disaster; that’s what I would say.
5.    I’m going to say about $300.
6.    Glass in one, everything else in the other. I recycle!
7.    Oooh good question. I’m going to hope they all do. Eight.
8.    Ooh! [Long pause] That’s a really good question because there’s so many really talented people that I’ve met in District 2…I would have a really hard time choosing one person…I really can’t.
9.    Myself…Um, well, because I haven’t really asked a lot of
people yet for money. I’m beginning to do that. I do need contributions. And because I thought that if I was running and believe in myself I should donate what I consider a fairly good-sized donation to my campaign, which I’ve done…Let me just say a person that people should go to that they probably don’t in my district is Marion Haas…She’s a retired dog trainer who’s very involved in her neighborhood and in pedestrian trails and other issues in front of the city. I don’t always agree with everything she has to say, but I think she’s very direct, and I think she wants good government. We could use more people like her.
10.   I don’t think so.
11.   I have no idea. Do you give me any numbers or do I just have to guess? I’m going to say five.
12.   [Chuckles] I have a choice, Prozac or burn him? Uh. Myself, I’d probably feed him Prozac…I have mixed feelings about that question because there’s other parts of Fiesta that I really like. I think now we’ve made the burning of Zozobra so sort of sterile that it’s almost lost its meaning as well. It seems that people have no idea what Fiestas is about, except they think it’s an excuse to party. So I have a lot of mixed feelings about it, particularly the burning of Zozobra. That’s where those sorts of attitudes display themselves.
13. [Sigh] Six in the morning until about 8:30 at night, something like that.
14. I think infill development, how to do infill development. And also I think the growth of commercial zoning on the perimeter of district 2. It depends on what part of the district you're talking about, because it's an extremely large district.

Rebecca Wurzburger, 61, construction manager
1.    I think it was like 1.8—2.8.
2.    The hospital.
3.    Oh. Gosh. I go there all the time. Two books. [Pause] I’ve never looked at the required list, and I’m there every week. I would say they’re required to read the I Ching. Um, I really don’t know. That’s a shame. Something with Shakespeare.
4.    I think the major return on investment was not financial. The major return on investment was in having the community celebrate itself. I don’t think it was designed as an economic development initiative—that’s a fact…I can guess. It’s got to be way low. What was the total? It’s probably negative two percent, from a pure financial…I just misunderstood you.
5.    Mm-hmm. Do you have multiple choice on that? It’s between $150 and $500.
6.    The proper way is you have to keep the plastic separated from the glass, and you have to put your papers in a bag separate from that.
7.    I don’t have a Facebook page…I have a campaign page. I would say Ron [Trujillo] and Carmichael [Dominguez] and the mayor and Chris [Calvert] and Rosemary [Romero]—um. I don’t know if Patti [Bushee] has one. I would say at least six…I don’t care.
8.    Ooh. Everybody because we’ve got a big district. That’s a very wonderful question. I think Ms. [Elspeth] Bobbs. You know, on Canyon Road. Laurel Seth’s mother, not Laurel Seth. Sheila Armstrong’s mother—who has the garden. She’s a pretty interesting woman. She has a train and she’s lived here forever. It’s a piece of property that runs between Alameda and Canyon.
9.    Every donor. Seriously…I wouldn’t say the highest-level person is the most important donor. I certainly don’t rely on one donor, just like you don’t rely on one adviser over the years because you end up losing them because of decisions you make.
10.   Probably. [Laughs] I have no idea.
11.   Oh, well, I should know that. It’s not that many. Maybe half that.
12.   [Laughs] Oh, burn him! That’s why I moved here: Old Man Gloom. Fiesta weekend—that’s another story. We came here for a weekend and I said, ‘That’s where I want to raise my kids.’
13.  Ooh. Weekday? I think it's probably 6:30, 7 in the morning until 10 at night...I don't ride the bus.
14.   I think the biggest problem facing my district, from when I walk door to door, it’s people concern’s about the economy—which may not be a problem for all the people in my district…I’ll say it’s a major problem. People who’ve worked all their lives, lost all their incomes.