PRC investigator announces candidacy for Santa Fe County sheriff
Anaya has worked for city police, sheriff’s office
Manny Anaya, an investigator for the state Public Regulation Commission, is the third announced candidate to succeed Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia, who is term-limited from seeking another four-year term.
Anaya, 66, is a former Santa Fe County sheriff ’s deputy and a former Santa Fe police officer.
In the June Democratic primary, he will compete with at least two other candidates for the $78,555-a-year post: Linda Ortiz, 49, a retired Santa Fe County lieutenant who served 25 years with the sheriff ’s office and ran unsuccessfully for the top job in 2006, and former Maj. Adan Mendoza, 45, who retired from the sheriff ’s office in 2016. No Republican has run for sheriff in Santa Fe County since 2002.
An Albuquerque native who graduated from Rio Grande High School, Anaya said he has lived in Santa Fe since the early 1970s. He and his wife have three adult children and are now greatgrandparents, Anaya said.
Anaya’s résumé says he started his law enforcement career as an officer with the Santa Fe Police Department in 1980. Anaya said he was a beat cop who would walk neighborhoods. He said getting to know one’s community is a core part of police work.
In 1985 he became a traffic officer. Investigating fatal traffic accidents led him to get training in how to analyze crashes at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
“It became a science to me,” Anaya said. “Some of it was very tragic because I handled a lot of fatalities.”
Anaya was a traffic officer with the police department until 2000, when he went to work for the Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office as a deputy until 2006. From 2006-09, he worked as an investigator for the state Motor Vehicle Department and then as a bailiff for Michael Vigil, the former state district court judge, for another three years. Since 2012, Anaya has worked as an investigator for the state Public Regulation Commission, specializing in motor vehicle inspections.
Should he win, Anaya said, his first tasks will be to observe and ask questions about the agency’s efficiency.
He said he would first listen to sheriff ’s deputies and others about any changes that need to be made at the sheriff ’s department. He said he also wants to get out to all areas of the 2,000-square-mile county to ensure its roughly 148,000 residents are best served by the agency.