Borrego looks ahead to council term
Democrat, ex-city planner, to succeed Republican Dan Lewis in District 5
District 5 voters who twice elected Councilor Dan Lewis this year chose a Democrat and retired city planner, Cynthia Borrego, to represent them on the Albuquerque City Council.
In Tuesday’s runoff election, more than 11,000 District 5 voters turned out to give Borrego a 54 percent majority in the contest against her Republican opponent, Albuquerque attorney Robert Aragon.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Borrego said of her Dec. 1 swearing-in as councilor. The councilor-elect estimates she spoke with at least 3,500 District 5 residents during her campaign.
“My immediate goal is to work with (the Albuquerque Police Department) to look at how do we get more police officers on the street — number 1.”
Borrego will succeed Lewis, who lost in the mayoral runoff election Tuesday against Mayor-elect Tim Keller.
Four years ago, Lewis grabbed 66 percent of the vote to win reelection against his Democratic opponent, Eloise Gift, in a race that drew 6,887 District 5 voters.
“I think I appeal to both sides,” both Republicans and Democrats, Borrego said in an interview after her victory. “I have worked across the aisle. My experience in city government shows that I did have that experience.”
Borrego, 59, was a planner for Albuquerque and Bernalillo County for 28 years before retiring in 2010. She has served on the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority board since 2014.
The runoff election featured a stark contrast between the retired planner and an opponent who often described “city bureaucrats” as an obstacle to business development and employment growth on the West Side.
Aragon, 60, a former state representative and a member of the state Board of Finance, described himself as a friend of business who wanted to dismantle regulations he said stifle business development.
Borrego said crime and public safety surfaced often in her conversations with District 5 homeowners.
“I will tell you we have a crime crisis in our city,” she said. “I worked in the communities all across the city for years, and I’ve never seen it in this bad a shape.”
She said her top priorities will be getting more police officers on the street, cutting police response times, and completing the reform process required under a U.S. Department of Justice agreement with the city.
During the campaign, Borrego said Albuquerque needs a police force of 1,200 officers, up from the current force of about 850.
“Until we get the crime under control, young people are going to continue to leave, people are going to continue to live in fear, and that’s not a way to live,” she said.
Borrego also wants to revive community-policing strategies that she said were gutted by years of recession-era budget cutting.
“Part of community policing is building public trust with the police department,” she said. That will involve officers being “in the public eye,” and forming relationships with neighborhoods and business groups.
“Organizationally there are things that would need to happen at the police department to make it happen,” she said. “I see it almost as a healing process.”