Ex-DA’s Office administrator running for City Council
Trujillo seeks departing Dominguez’s seat
Larry Trujillo, who used to oversee several programs in the District Attorney’s Office in Santa Fe, is running for the District 3 City Council seat held by Councilor Carmichael Dominguez, representing the city’s southwest side.
Trujillo, 60, said he admires the work that Dominguez — who is not seeking re-election — has done during his 12 years on the council and would like to continue his approach.
“Carmichael did a great job of reaching out to people,” Trujillo said. “I think I could do that, too.”
Trujillo becomes the third declared candidate to succeed Dominguez, who is completing his third term on the council. Former Santa Fe County Manager Roman “Tiger” Abeyta, 43, who now heads the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe, and Jim Williamson, 42, an accountant who formerly was director of consumer relations for the state Public Regulation Commission, previously announced their candidacies.
Trujillo moved back to Santa Fe in May after living in Rio Rancho for 10 years. But, he says, he grew up in Santa Fe, attending elementary school here as well as De Vargas Junior High, Santa Fe Mid High and Santa Fe High School, from which he graduated in 1974.
Trujillo enrolled in The University of New Mexico, where he was elected to the student Senate. He graduated in 1980.
During the deadly New Mexico State Penitentiary riot in 1980 — in which 33 inmates were killed — Trujillo showed up outside the gates to try to help relatives of inmates and prison staff. “I knew a lot of people,” he said. “I tried to get information for the families.”
The district attorney at the time, the late Eloy Martinez, later got wind of Trujillo’s efforts during the riot and called
him to offer him a job in the special riot prosecution office.
Trujillo subsequently worked as an administrator for the two district attorneys who followed Martinez — Chet Walter and Henry Valdez — heading the victim and witness assistance program, the worthless-checks program and the preprosecution diversion program.
Later, Trujillo assisted the state Attorney General’s Office, when Patricia Madrid was attorney general, in a program targeting pyramid schemes. In later years, he worked for Attorney General Gary King’s program aimed at fighting illegal production of methamphetamine. “I never realized until then how many meth labs were in New Mexico,” he said. “I had a book with 50 pages filled with addresses of meth labs.”
Trujillo is making his first bid for elected office. But he said he has been involved with other campaigns, including those for district attorney candidates and former Municipal Judge Tom Fiorina, with whom he worked in the riot prosecution office.
Trujillo, who is divorced, has one grown daughter and four children. He is the grandson of a former Santa Fe County Democratic Party Chairman, J. Frank Trujillo, who also was a probate judge and a deputy U.S. marshal.
Contact Steve Terrell at 505-9863037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at www.santafenewmexican.com/roundhouse_roundup.