Noble is best choice for mayor
Ihave seen that many of my fellow Santa Feans want to see the city become more transparent and responsive. They want city government and finances to make sense. They want more opportunities to have an impact in the way the we move Santa Fe forward. I agree. I believe we have an enormous opportunity in this election to create a more accountable city government by electing a new mayor who has vision and experience, a leader who isn’t encumbered by money, power and the old way of doing things. We have the opportunity to elect Kate Noble mayor of Santa Fe.
I first met Kate through Emerge New Mexico, a training program for women who want to to win elections and make their communities more livable and equitable. I immediately recognized that Kate is an extraordinary woman. She is strong and remarkably wellversed in hometown policy. She is not a typical career politician. She demonstrates a clear breadth of knowledge in the nuances and complexities of local government, which is rare.
Kate has a solid track record of creating successful and innovative community projects that bring people together and improve our economy. She launched the first two business accelerators in New Mexico, including an award-winning competition for new businesses that provides mentorship and startup funding for entrepreneurs in Santa Fe. She developed nationally recognized job-training programs for young people in partnership with organizations like Santa Fe YouthWorks and MAKE Santa Fe. She facilitated the city’s 2009 budget restructuring team, which identified efficiencies and redundancies in the city’s finances during a period of severe national recession and saved taxpayers money.
I believe Kate is the most qualified candidate for mayor of Santa Fe. She will help our community overcome its challenges. Through conversation and communitydriven dialogues, Kate will encourage participatory government, including budgeting and city spending. She will direct her administration to achieve tangible performance improvements in government departments and to deliver transparent policies (and opportunities) for local businesses.
As a former city employee herself, Kate understands the need for a city to empower its citizens and to cut through bureaucratic limitations on individual and community success. As a person who has fought in state court to marry my wife and confirm our status as a family, I support Kate’s initiatives to strengthen Santa Fe’s families, the backbone of our community.
A major item Kate wants to work on is affordable housing — an issue she realizes is one of the most intractable our city faces. Working from a set of community indicators on the gap between housing, wages and other factors, Kate will pursue a multi-pronged approach to ensure the availability of affordable housing for people of all ages. She will also strengthen the partnership between city government and public schools, exploring sharing facilities, and creating a grow-your-own program for teachers, cops and other hard-to-fill civic positions.
With the next mayor being the most powerful in Santa Fe’s history, with full-time hours and greater policymaking influence, it is imperative to elect a mayor with the right experience, work ethic and vision. Our next mayor should be someone who actually has professional experience as a policy wonk and a successful community developer.
Kate Noble is the right person for the job (and also the only woman running), bringing understanding of the mayor’s role and concrete initiatives to work on day one. There is no on-the-job training needed for her, and I think that’s the only candidate we can say that about. I hope you’ll join me in supporting Kate. She’s the best choice for a new beginning in Santa Fe.
Rose Griego-Kiel is a nonprofit bookkeeper and community activist who resides in Santa Fe with her wife and four very small dogs.