Kate Noble has the skills and heart to be our mayor

Iam honored to be the chairman of Kate Noble’s campaign for mayor of Santa Fe. Let me tell you why I believe she will be an excellent mayor.

Kate and I worked together at the city for six years. She has hands-on experience inside the city and has been effective in making our government work for all of us. Also important, Kate is a Santa Fe native who grew up here, went through our public schools and, like me, graduated from Santa Fe High. Kate has known Santa Fe as a child, a teenager, a young adult, a wife and a mother. She has worked in the city and on the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education. She has the skills, the understanding and the heart to be our mayor.

After a decade as a journalist at BBC News, Kate came home to Santa Fe and began working for the city, first as a consultant, and then, in early 2008, in the Office of Economic Development. She headed the Housing and Community Development Department for 3½ years. She wants Santa Fe to be a community where families can live, work and thrive.

Kate started at the city right before the recession hit. We needed someone to work with the city’s organizational structure and the budget figures; someone who could take a complicated set of city programs, see the whole picture and move our entire organization through a difficult time. When I asked Kate to help, she did what we needed. She was excellent at facilitating our budget restructuring team. We worked hard to keep the city’s budget in the black, and we did so without laying anyone off.

As my colleague at City Hall, Kate developed policies to implement the city’s “living wage.” She was the city’s driving force behind the successful MIX Santa Fe initiative, which has created networking opportunities and support for entrepreneurs and small businesses since 2009. Kate performed award-winning work with Santa Fe’s nonprofit organizations, including affordable housing advocates, the business incubator, youth organizations, educators and activists for a safe, clean and sustainable environment.

Kate understands City Hall’s 18 departments and their sometimes obscure functions. Even more important, she has a well-established working relationship with city employees. She knows how to get things done, to make government function well for the whole community, how to make Santa Fe un lugar para todos.

I’m excited that Kate is running for mayor, and not only because she represents the next generation of progressive leaders in Santa Fe. She has a collaborative and inclusive leadership style, and that’s important to me. Kate will strengthen our sanctuary city policies and our tradition of being a welcoming community. She values the contributions of our immigrant and LGBT friends and neighbors. She respects and listens to people who have different views from hers, and works to understand where they are coming from.

We need smart, competent, energetic and forward-looking leadership. With her experience, insight and deep Santa Fe roots, Kate Noble is my choice for mayor of Santa Fe. I urge you to vote for Kate.

David Coss was the 41st mayor of the city of Santa Fe and served from 2006 to 2014.

She knows how to get things done, to make government function well for the whole community.