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Council Candidate Profiles for Village Elections March 2 |
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Written by Jeff Radford
Corrales Comment
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Wednesday, 24 February 2010 |
Municipal elections Tuesday, March 2 will seat a representative from
Corrales’ long-isolated, and some would say long-neglected, Northwest
Sector.
Candidates have run from that area mostly north of Angel Road and west
of the Main Canal in at-large elections in the past with little success.
This time success is guaranteed.
Angel Road resident Melanie Scholer won a seat on the council in the
mid-1990s, but other candidates from those neighborhoods were thwarted.
In a vote by the Village Council in June 2008, Corrales switched to
districted elections, partly because they wanted to see representation
on the Village Council from that part of the community.
After votes are counted March 2, the new councillor for District 1 will be Ennio Garcia-Miera or Jim Davis.
In District 3, west of Corrales Road from Camino Hermosa south to West
La Entrada (east of Loma Larga) and Coronado Road (west of Loma Larga),
the candidates for council are Mick Harper, owner of Blue Sky
Woodworks, and Al Gonzales, site manager for the Corrales Growers’
Market.
Running for re-election March 2 are incumbent Mayor Phil Gasteyer, who
has no challenger, and incumbent District 4 Councillor John Alsobrook,
also unopposed.
No other districts will elect council members March 2, but all voters
in all districts can vote in the mayor’s race… except that the result
is already decided.
A third candidate in the District 1 race, Joseph Stefan, has withdrawn
after participating in two candidate forums. He has announced his
support for Garcia-Miera.
Polls will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 2, although absentee and early voting are already under way.
District 1 will vote at the Corrales Fire Department substation at 100
Paseo Tomás Montoya near the confluence of the Harvey Jones and
Dulcelina Curtis Flood Control Channels.
District 2 votes at the main Corrales fire station, 4920 Corrales Road, across from Rancho de Corrales.
District 3 votes on the Old Church, 966 Old Church Road, across from Casa San Ysidro Museum.
District 4 votes at the Corrales Recreation Center multi-use
building, 500 Jones Road, southwest of the Corrales Post Office.
District 5 votes at the main Corrales fire station, 4920 Corrales Road.
District 6 votes at the Corrales Recreation Center multi-use building, 500 Jones Road, southwest of the post office.
Absentee voting is done at the Village Office through 5 p.m. February 26.
Early voting at the Village Office also closes Friday, February 26 at 5 p.m.
Candidate profiles published in this issue are for contested elections
only; that is, for Al Gonzales and Mick Harper in District 3 and for
Jim Davis and Ennio Garcia-Miera in District 1.
The profiles presented here are based on tape-recorded interviews and
comments made at the February 3 and February 10 candidate forums. They
are presented here in the order in which the candidates were available
for interviews.
The District 1 and District 3 council election campaigns have been
relatively light on issues, conflicts or controversies. Most of the
political issues are transparent, with a slight, sub rosa tint stemming
from District 1 candidate Jim Davis’ involvement with Concerned
Citizens of Corrales’ 2007-08 battle against locating Corrales
International School at the corner of Corrales Road and Camino Todos
los Santos.
Davis’ active role in fighting the charter school plan was clearly an
issue for candidate Joseph Stefan, but the latter’s withdrawal from the
race has likely further diminished that as a burning issue in the March
2 election.
Instead both Davis and Garcia-Miera stress their administrative and
financial management experience; Davis with the Air Force’s medical
services and the Veteran’s Administration and Garcia-Miera with Bank of
America, Fannie Mae and now his own marketing firm.
In the District 3 Harper-Gonzales face-off, distinctions on positions
regarding Village issues have been low-key and generally harmonious.
Gonzales has focused on his connection to Corrales’ farming tradition
(the Growers’ Market and the Gonzales Flower Farm) while Harper has
emphasized his experience on the Planning and Zoning Commission,
development of the Northwest Sector Plan and participation on the
Revenue Enhancement Committee exploring ways to increase revenues for
Village government.
Council District 1
Albuquerque Veterans Administration manager Jim Davis, who lives at 120
Richard Road, and businessman Ennio Garcia-Miera, at 415 Camino de la
Tierra, are running to fill the vacant seat for District 1.
Ennio Garcia-Miera
Named as one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanics in the
Nation” in 1992, Ennio Garcia-Miera now owns and operates his own
marketing firm from home.
The 1992 distinction came from Hispanic Business Magazine based on his
high profile within the banking and financial services industry. His
career included executive positions with Bank of America in San
Francisco, GMAC Financial in Philadelphia, Fannie Mae in Washington DC
and Pueblo Financial Corporation in Woodlands, Texas, where he was
chairman of the board and chief executive officer.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” the candidate said, “I’ve gotten my ticket
punched 25 different times as opposed to the same punch 25 times, which
has given me a varied experience.”
He’d now like to apply that to helping run Village government guided by his motto “Prosperity and Preservation.”
“I am running for the position of Village representative for District 1
in Corrales because I believe that I would be able to use my education,
executive management experience, marketing expertise and enthusiasm to
maintain and improve the quality of life for Coraleños.”
He thinks he can promote Corrales’ attractiveness to bring in tax
revenue for the Village, while embracing “a carefully managed growth
plan so that the charm and rural character of Corrales is not lost.”
Although he was born and raised in Nebraska as the son of a beet field
worker, Garcia-Miera traces his ancestry back to Corrales in the
mid-1600s. He counts himself as the tenth great-grand nephew of
Sebastián Bernal Gonzales, born here in 1665. The family later had a
homestead around Clayton.
“Probably about five percent of what is today the State of New Mexico belonged to the Garcia-Miera clan at one time.”
Garcia-Miera said he has known about Corrales all his life, but didn’t
move here until 2004, when he brought his Philadelphia-headquartered
job here and then started his own business from home.
“The hustle-bustle, crazy part of my life was over and Corrales is a wonderful place to settle,” he explained.
He is president of AccuMarket Solutions, Inc. specializing in “financial consumer segmentation and predictive modeling.”
In high school, he was its newspaper editor, a wrestler, an officer on
the student council and window-washer at the local Rexall drug store
after classes.
On to college, he graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1977
having focused on Spanish, English and Latin American Studies, followed
by a master’s degree there in related subjects in 1982.
He had started a family by the time he relocated to the University of
Texas at Austin in 1983 working in administration and teaching
psychology. Two years later he was recruited into a corporate
internship program that set him on a whirl-wind career in Fortune 500
circles specializing in “emerging markets,” particularly targeting
Latin consumers.
He joined Bank of America in 1988 where he was asked to start a New
Markets Division, and then served as its vice-president for marketing.
That continued until 1996 when a group of wealthy Mexicans hired him to
be CEO of Pueblo Financial Corporation in Woodland, Texas, targeting
affluent Hispanic investors nationwide.
In 1999 he shifted into the credit card industry working in Boston for
a few years until “out of the blue” he was recruited by the mortage
firm Fannie Mae in Washington.
That led to a job offer from GMAC Mortgage in 2004. The new
position had him traveling around the country anyway, so the
General Motors-owned firm allowed him to base out of Corrales. He left
that work in 2007 when he started his own marketing firm.
The candidate says he has an economic development plan for Corrales
that will build business and still keep the community’s charm. That
involves “external” (visitors) and “internal” (local residents)
marketing campaigns.
Garcia-Miera said the main issue facing Corrales is how to preserve the
community’s character. “That is the issue, or theme, that is part of
all the other issues… the trails, the open space, the agricultural
community, the downtown area… they’re all intertwined.”
Asked what District 1 residents are most interested in, he responded,
“People are very passionate about preserving the bosque, and that
passion was very instrumental in keeping paved paths out the bosque.
Maybe people who don’t live here don’t understand that, but those of us
who live here do.”
Traffic flow is another top issue, he suggested. Controlling traffic
“is very vital to maintaining who we are as a village,” he said.
Villagers are also very passionate about zoning, he noted. “People get
very involved in zoning matters, and that’s not a bad thing. Passion
can be a negative thing when people don’t listen to each other or have
closed minds.
“What I’m about, if I’m elected, is helping people come together,
helping them be informed. I don’t want to speak negatively, but one of
the challenges that I want to help manage is to keep people better
informed, including the context and background of issues.”
A good example, he said, is public confusion about the Village’s waste water project. “People don’t know what’s going on.”
Regarding zoning, Garcia-Miera said an approaching issue will be
finding ways to preserve historic buildings in the community’s
commercial area. “Do we encourage village-size, village-type businesses
that we want? Can they do business in those old houses? Do we zone for
‘use,’ or do we zone for the architectural style that we want?”
He said voters in District 1 care about answers to those questions, if
only because “on my street, two people own major businesses in the
commercial district.”
He looks forward to studying recommendations from the Architectural
Review Task Force about preserving old buildings in the commercial
area. “It’s important for emotional reasons, but if we want to attract
people to come visit, enjoy and spend money here —which I really
believe in— preserving those buildings is important for that reason too.
“I don’t think we should have a developer come in and knock those
beautiful buildings down. I know it has happened already, and we should
stop that.”
Historic preservation, he said, “will be one of my bigger interests,
that and working with financial issues. That’s what I really want to
contribute, even if I’m not elected.”
Garcia-Miera favors development of a neighborhood commercial area in
the Far Northwest Sector with access onto Highway 528 in Rio Rancho. It
would contribute to tax revenues for Village government, he said, as
well as provide access for emergency vehicles.
He supports the current policy regarding the waste water line now being
installed along Corrales Road. ”I never shoot from the hip, but the way
I see that plan is that there phases. Once this phase is complete it
will be time to evaluate and make a decision about extending the line.
“I do not believe in making decisions when I don’t have the information. That’s the business person in me.
“But I can say this: if we have plenty of money in our coffers and if
an extension is do-able and all positive, why not? It will be needed
sooner or later. That’s just the bottom line. Even the septic systems
we have now are going to get old.”
As all candidates running for office March 2 have indicated,
Garcia-Miera favors implementation of a village-wide trails system,
agricultural preservation, keeping the bosque a wildlife preserve,
promoting sensitive new businesses, protecting ground water, starting a
no-kill animal shelter, and fiscal restraint.
“I don’t believe in being negative at all. It doesn’t get us anywhere.
I have a well-rounded experience that gives me a bigger perspective
when I work with issues. I also have a reputation for bringing
people together. I would hope people find that to be something that’s
positive and a reason to vote for me.”
Jim Davis
In 2005, Jim Davis retired from a 32-year career in the Air Force and
bought a home on Richard Road. In the previous three-plus decades, he
had set up field hospitals for combat injuries, organized med-evacs and
set policy for military medical readiness at bases all over the world.
But his retirement to Corrales lasted only three months. “I tried to
stay retired, but the VA hospital found out I was here and asked me to
interview for a position there.”
He now oversees a multi-million-dollar expansion of the Albuquerque
Veterans Administration hospital that will double its capacity for
surgeries.
That work has been appreciated. Davis has been nominated for awards
from the American College of Health Care Executives and the American
Hospital Association.
It all began because he was a native Spanish-speaker of Mexican heritage living in Tucson.
After working in the family restaurant, El Charro Cafe, following
graduation in 1972, he joined the Air Force and trained as a combat
medic riding helicopters.
But his fluency in Spanish caught the attention of superiors, and he
was sent to the language school in Monterrey, California. He learned
Russian and began a five-year stint eavesdropping on Soviet
communications from a post in Berlin, 103 miles inside the Iron Curtain.
While there, he earned a degree in business and economics at a branch of the University of Maryland.
That led to an assignment to the National Security Agency in Ft. Meade,
Maryland where he worked as a Russian area specialist. He earned his
bars as a commissioned officer there, as well as a master’s degree in
public administration in 1982.
Davis got back into the medical field in 1986 when he joined the Air
Force’s Medical Service Corps. That mainly involved finance and the
staffing of medical facilities. In 1986, he earned another master’s,
this time in health care administration.
During Desert Storm operations, Davis was deployed to Germany where he
oversaw the transport of war casualties from the Middle East to
facilities in Germany and back to the States.
In 1991, he won the Air Force’s Medical Resource Manager of the Year
award, based primarily on his financial management skills. “Then they
whisked me off to the Office of the Air Force Surgeon General in DC,”
he recalled.
During that four-year assignment, he took post-graduate courses again,
this time in microbiology. “I thought I’d retire from the military and
go to medical school,” he explained, “but I was offered a promotion to
major and an opportunity to run the whole European program Medical
Service Corps.”
That also involved bases in Turkey and programs in Uzbekistan and
Kazakhstan. “That was a very busy time for me. I was bouncing around
everywhere. I basically ran the whole thing from my lap top.”
In 1999 to 2001, Davis worked from Kirtland Air Force Base, although
two weeks each month he traveled inspecting Air Force medical
facilities all over the world. “I was considered the expert in medical
readiness,” he explained.
Ten days after the “9-11” terrorist attack on the World Trade Center,
Davis’ expertise was rushed to Saudi Arabia and its staging bases for
military action in Afghanistan.
During Operation Enduring Freedom, he was awarded a Bronze Star for his action in saving the lives of three American combatants.
But he was a casualty himself when the Blackhawk helicopter in which he
was riding made a jarring maneuver that drove his night vision goggles
into his eyeball. He was airlifted to Germany and on back Stateside.
After recovery, he was next assigned to Cannon Air Force Base as a
medical support squadron commander, and then to a North Carolina base
where he retired.
His political involvement in Corrales began when he was disturbed by
plans to open Corrales International School across the Main Canal from
his subdivision. “Through Concerned Citizens for Corrales, my wife and
I had an opportunity to get involved with something that was happening
in the community. The issue at the time had to do with the Corrales
International School. To us it didn’t sound quite right. But it was not
so much the school as it was the other issues trying to place a school
there: safety, transportation, water and the fact the Village was
violating its ordinances by doing a spot-zone.
“We took exception to the spot-zoning not to the school.”
Davis helped organize the group into a non-profit and served on its
board of directors until he resigned recently to run for council.
“The focus of the group is now more toward educating the public on
issues such as the bosque preserve, the police department and fire
department. We try to make sure there is a venue for people to learn
about their home village.”
One of the big issues in the District 1 election, Davis said, is the
sewer line. “The biggest issue I’m hearing is the six-inch sewer pipe.
This pipe has gotten the attention of all folks in Corrales, and folks
don’t quite understand why the Village has put in a pipe.
“If I were to ask people what they want, I think all of the people I’ve
talked with recently have said they would not favor the sewer pipe. I’d
agree that the pipe issue was probably not well thought out. Especially
since it has come out that the line is 2,500 feet short of connecting
the pipe to the sewer by Pep Boys. Where are they going to get the
money for that?
“And if you ask whether they should have put in the big pipe to serve
the entire village? No, that’s not what they want. That’s not why they
came here.”
Even so, he said, “I think we have to finish the project. We can’t
abandoned it, so we have to look for a sensible way to get the money
and finish it.
“The Village has also offered to subsidize the hook-ups… about $500 per
hook-up. I think that’s reasonable for the businesses because they can
write off the cost. But I don’t favor the residents being pressured to
connect. The decision needs to rest with the residents on each property
in the core area.”
Davis said he would not favor extending the sewer line to the
higher-density neighborhoods on either side of Corrales Road in that
area. “No, absolutely not. The intent was to support the commercial
core with this pipe. That’s where it should rest.”
He is also basically opposed to a municipal program for mandatory
septic tank pumping village-wide. “That’s an individual family
responsibility. They know when theirs needs to be taken care of.”
Davis was asked about his affiliation with the “Tea Party” movement,
which has been a concern voiced by some District 1 residents.
“Is my wife a staunch supporter of the Tea Party? I think she believes
in the tenets of the Tea Party… small government, more freedoms, that
type of thing. I’ve been more relegated to Corrales. My focus has been
here at home while my wife is more focused on what’s happening in Santa
Fe and in the country.”
On other Corrales issues, Davis said he hears a lot of discussion about
the Bosque Nature Preserve. “There are two issues here. One group wants
a paved bike path through there and the other group says, ‘wait a
minute, this is really for strolling and enjoying the vegetation and
animal life, and riding horses.’
“But I know the bosque is a preserve and it’s there for the residents
of Corrales, so therefore I would have to side with the villagers not
wanting to put in a paved bike path through there. They can still ride
their mountain bikes there, but not on a paved bike path.”
Davis is aware of the pending community discussion over historic
preservation in the community’s commercial area. He thinks something
must be done to avoid gradual conversion of the area into a
conventional commercial area. “I’d be against any commercial high-rise
structures.”
He would like to see the Village negotiate with Albuquerque officials
to gain some of the gross receipts taxes generated from businesses just
outside Corrales south of Cabezon Road. “We provide a lot of services
to that area, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t get some of the
gross receipts taxes from there.”
He also favors some commercial development in the Far Northwest Sector
that would bring in tax revenues. At the February 10 candidate forum,
Davis suggested perhaps a Walgreens pharmacy or a food market could be
recruited to open in that Village- designated neighborhood commercial
area.
Davis summed up his candidacy saying, “I’ve pretty much given my life
for this country and I think it’s important for folks to know that.
“I have strong experience in planning, policy, financial management and budgetary matters.”
District 3
Mick Harper, owner of one of Corrales’ longest-lasting businesses, Blue
Sky Woodworks, is running against flower farmer and Growers’ Market
site manager Al Gonzales in the race for the District 3 seat on the
Village Council.
Al Gonzales
Al Gonzales would like to replace his wife, Bonnie Gonzales, on the
Village Council. She chose not to seek re-election to the District 3
seat.
In some important ways, his win would provide continuity on topics of
high community interest, particularly farmland preservation and
retaining Corrales’ agricultural heritage.
His broad understanding of community issues arises partly from his
wife’s involvement on the council. But it’s also true that he has
attended almost as many council meetings as she over the past few years.
He was there for most of the long-running debate over a sewer line;
there for municipal budget reviews; for animal control proposals; land
use nuisance abatement and many other acute or chronic concerns.
And his omnipresence at Growers’ Market events allows frequent communication the villagers on a variety of topics.
He and his wife now farm about two and a half acres in various
locations around Corrales, about 60 percent in vegetables and 40 in
flowers.
Born in Albuquerque, Gonzales’ family moved to Flagstaff when he was
around three years old. In high school there, he favored math and
science courses but also excelled in Spanish because he considers that
his native tongue.
When he graduated in 1974 he was already working at the local Sears
Roebuck store, embarked on his 25-year career with that diversified
firm.
“Sears offered a lot of opportunities,” he found as a young adult. “It
was established as one of the best companies to work for in the late
1960s and early 1970s.” He noted that Coldwell-Banker real estate began
as a Sears company, as did Allstate insurance, and the Discover credit
card was a Sears creation.
Gonzales stayed with the retail and marketing efforts. “By the time I
finished at Sears, I was supervising 12 full-time employees and 56
part-timers,” working with a budget of nearly $3 million.
Sears moved him to Phoenix in 1979 for a five-year stint in management,
and then on to Albuquerque where he still had family. Among other
relatives, he counts Hector Gonzales as a distant cousin.
He and Bonnie moved to Corrales in 1986, so he commuted to a Sears
store on the east side of Albuquerque for a while. In 1996, he resigned
and began farming for a living here in Corrales. The decision was
partly to be able to spend more time with their three children.
The Gonzales Flower Farm produces cut flowers and vegetables on about
half of their one-and-a-quarter-acre plot, as well as working land
owned by others around the village.
They sell almost entirely at growers’ markets in Corrales and
Bernalillo. “Direct marketing is where you’re going to make all your
money,” he advised.
The notion of “sustainability” is central to Gonzales’ philosophy; that
applies to his view of Corrales’ economy and municipal government as
well as to his fields.
His personal values were instilled mostly by his great-aunt and uncle
in the Flagstaff area, he recalled. “They’re the ones who raised me
from about age five. My values, my respect for family and for other
people, I really got a lot of that from them.”
Relatives on his mother’s side were all farmers, he said, and on his
father’s side, all ranchers. Passing along family values from those
traditions is key to his approach to life and lifestyle. “That’s what
really makes me who I am.”
And that relates directly to his vision for Corrales. “Agriculture is
the basis for our rural and historic character,” he stressed. “We have
300 acres under commercial cultivation right now in the village, and
there’s 200 acres here that are being used with some sort of
agricultural activity going on, even if it has a residence on it.
“The opportunity to buy and eat locally grown fruit and vegetables at
the peak of their maturity” is an enormous plus for Corrales, Gonzales
said, and the importance of that will only grow in the future.
He and his wife first got involved in the Corrales Growers’ Market in
1996. Since then his role has grown, and he is now its site manager. He
works there five to six hours every Sunday from the end of April to the
end of October.
The market now has 75 vendors signed up from around the state.
“I look at the growers’ market here a little differently than other
people,” he explained, “in the sense that having a growers’ market not
only provides a local food resource, but it helps with economic
development in your municipality. It generates shoppers’ footsteps… it
creates a destination.
“Right now, we’re creating an additional 3,000 footsteps every single
Sunday in the market season” and some of those people will eat at local
restaurants and shop in retail stores.
He advocates establishing a food processing facility “that will open
the door for us to take all our fruit and vegetables and participate in
a ‘farm to school’ program” for school lunches at Corrales Elementary
and Cottonwood Montessori.
Gonzales favors a public-private effort to establish and operate a
no-kill animal shelter, he will work for “safe routes to schools” and a
community trail network, including a trail along the edge of the
municipally-owned Gonzales field linking the Corrales Acequia to the
library.
On another big issue, he wants to “complete our current waste water
plan and develop strategies to protect our aquifer and our community
water use rights.”
He believes the Village’s consulting engineers are right in
recommending that the waste water line be extended when possible to
higher-density residential area where water quality concerns are most
intense.
It is of paramount importance, he said, to find ways to ensure that
pre-1907 water rights stay with Corrales land, and are not sold to
outside industries, municipalities or developers.
Gonzales agrees with recent recommendations that the older buildings in
Corrales’ business district deserve protection. Even though any
individual structure might not have a great historic value, he said,
the grouping of them makes a statement about Corrales’ sense of place.
“As a group, we need to protect those buildings.”
He’s also concerned about protecting the Bosque Preserve; he advocates
implementing the recent Habitat Management Plan. “The community needs
to roll up its sleeves and we need to be part of that habitat plan.”
He asks that voters in District 3 put him on the council. “Our village
is a diverse village,” he noted. “That diversity should be represented
on the Village Council. You have to be able to represent a diverse
group of people, whether they be doctors, engineers or attorneys,
families or environmentalists.
“You’re not going to make everybody happy all the time, but you have to earn their respect and their trust.”
Mick Harper
Over the past year and especially during this campaign season,
villagers have heard a lot of talk about the need to find new revenues
for municipal services.
Mick Harper has been there, done that. He served on the Village’s
2001-02 Revenue Enhancement Committee which submitted a report to the
mayor and council on ways to boost income for Village government. He
focused on whether it made sense for Corrales to hire its own building
inspector rather than rely on State personnel.
“I did the analysis and found that not only would the inspector pay for himself, but it would actually be a profit center.”
His idea, along with many of the committee’s other recommendations, was implemented; the profits he projected are really there.
Similarly, much discussion has focused recently on preserving old
buildings in the commercial district even while encouraging economic
development.
Been there, done that, too.
Not only has he renovated and revitalized his own old building, Blue
Sky Woodworks, between Village Pizza and the Village Office, but he has
worked his way through those issues time and again in his six years as
a Corrales planning and zoning commissioner.
Harper resigned as chairman of the P&Z commission just weeks ago to run for a seat on the Village Council.
He also served on the crucial land use planning effort for the
Northwest Sector which set the development pattern for much of
Corrales’ west side.
Harper was born in Dallas and raised in a nearby bedroom community. In
high school he excelled in math and science which meant (in the
U.S.-Soviet space race era) that he was steered toward a career in
engineering or chemistry.
It took him a while to realize that what he really liked was working with his hands, creating things, especially in wood.
He worked in construction while studying at Rice University where he
graduated in 1971, and soon found himself employed as a construction
project superintendent in suburban Washington DC.
One of those projects, in Great Falls, Virginia, made a lasting
impression: a private commons development of five homes on ten acres of
farmland bordering woodlands. He’s thought about that a lot since
moving to Corrales.
But he tired of the long commute along the Beltway, so he moved to
Austin, Texas in 1972 where he learned the carpentry trade. That led to
working a portable mill for historic renovation projects in the
mid-1970s.
A friend enticed him to set up a woodworking shop in an old ghost town
near Chama, New Mexico. He did that for three years, but decided he
“wanted to eat every day,” so he moved to Albuquerque. When employers
discovered he was good at math, he worked as a job estimator for
projects around the metro area.
In the early 1980s he moved into a guesthouse at the north end of the
Corrales Valley. “I was driving by a vacant cinder block building every
day at the corner of Corrales Road and La Entrada, and I thought that
would be a great place for a cabinet shop.”
He eventually leased and then bought the property.
Master builder Nat Kaplan had a big influence on Harper’s professional
and business development. “I became his cabinet maker and did almost
all his cabinetry for 14 years,” Harper said. “He was my esthetic
mentor.”
In the mid-80s, he took on an historic renovation project in Lincoln
County; repeated business trips there fixed in his mind the
architectural style he wanted for a renovation of his own building in
Corrales.
After his work on the Northwest Sector Plan in the late 1980s, Harper
was asked to serve on the Village’s Revenue Enhancement Committee and
then on the P&Z board.
On the latter, he served along side Phil Gasteyer, Sayre Gerhart,
Gerard Gagliano and Pat Clauser, all of whom were later elected to the
governing body.
Asked why he’s running for a seat on the council, Harper replied, “Over
the years I’ve seen lots of people who ran because some particular
issue energized them. A hot button issue came up.
“For me, the whole sense of land use issues became sort of an avocation
for me, an intellectual interest, from being in the construction
business.
“It would be real easy right now to imagine that most of the serious,
emotional hot button issues are behind us. We made our peace with the
sewer, although we’ll have other parts of that to deal with.
“But among the reasons I want to be a councillor is that I was a
P&Z commissioner for a while, and that was taking care of
regulatory things. Now I want to be involved more in the legislative
side.
“I also found myself with a figurative piece of duct tape across my
mouth about a lot of issues that have come and gone. I felt like I
couldn’t properly speak out publicly because of my position on the
P&Z commission, especially after I became chairman.
“But now we do have a big-time, serious set of issues coming up before
us in this village. It’s the future shape of Corrales Road —the things
that are precipitated by activities of the Architectural Review Task
Force.
“Their report was very succinct and very good. The things that are
significant about what makes Corrales what it appears to be visually
and spiritually are as much a function of what is not there as what is
there.
“What is there has a sense of scale. The beauty of Corrales Road here
in the commercial core is that it’s a mixed-use area, commercial and
residential, and open agricultural fields.
“Now, we have a mechanism to preserve those open fields though the
farmland preservation program. And that requires the cooperation of
the landowners, of course.
“But the thing that’s real —’Holy cow! what are we going to do?’— for
me is: if we’re going to retain this character of small-scale
buildings, well-spaced, we’re going to have to write some ordinances
that are enforceable and easy to defend.
“And we’re also going to do some things that could potentially impair
the property rights of people who created this village. And I don’t
have much appetite for that.
“So, I want to incentivize that somehow. If we’re going to ask someone
to forego developing his property to its ‘highest and best use’
in the realtors’ sense of that term, then I’d like to see some program
that’s a parallel to the farmland preservation program.”
He would insist that property owners get fair treatment and not have
“takings” forced upon them. “I want to protect the interests of
long-time residents who maybe for years have had a vague or even
well-thought out plan to turn the piece of property they live on into
retirement income or a legacy for heirs.
“I’m hoping there’s a historic preservation trust that will help
us acquire buildings, or incentivize private owners to keep
developments true to historic scale, appearance and materials.
“If people ‘contribute’ to retaining the character of Corrales as we’re
beginning to define it, then I want to make sure they’re taken care of
and not trampled on.”
Harper said his candidacy offers hands-on experience and firm
knowledge of the issues. “I understand the sense of balance that’s
needed, and I’ve developed skills in my working life and time on
planning and zoning that will help on the council.
“I know how to demonstrate some leadership, and I have good, fluid reasoning.
“I listen to people and then try to pare down what’s really important
and what’s really possible. And I’m good at turning down the
temperature.” |
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