Three candidates in S.F. races breezing to reelection
City judge, 2 councilors who have not drawn opposition campaign lightly
Even though she’s running for a second term in the only citywide position on the Nov. 5 ballot, Santa Fe Municipal Judge Virginia Vigil hasn’t spent a single penny or knocked on any doors this election cycle.
District 3 City Councilor Chris Rivera, who also is seeking reelection, has participated in a handful of candidate forums but hasn’t canvassed neighborhoods in his southwest-side district since qualifying to appear on the ballot.
The same goes for City Councilor Renee Villarreal, who has been handing out yard signs at what she calls Spill the Beans meetups with voters in the north-side District 1.
Santa Fe’s only city judge and the two incumbent council members all have one thing in common: They’re running unopposed and sailing toward another four-year term.
“It’s always much easier to run a campaign when you don’t have an opponent,” said Vigil, who squared off against a trial attorney in a spirited race when she sought the judgeship in 2016.
Rivera, who also ran unopposed in 2016, described his reelection campaign as “very easy” and “kind of laid back.”
“It is concerning that people may not be interested in politics or in running, but from my standpoint, running unopposed, it’s pretty nice. I would recommend it to anybody,” quipped
Rivera, who is seeking a third term on the City Council.
Villarreal said she did “considerable outreach to constituents” when she was collecting $5 contributions to qualify for public campaign financing through house gatherings, door-to-door canvassing and other events.
Unlike candidates in contested races who qualify for $15,000 in public financing, Villarreal got a check for only $1,500.
Of that, she has spent less than $140 on her reelection bid, according to the latest campaign finance reports.
“After qualifying for public campaign financing, my strategy has been to provide spaces for constituents to join me for conversations about how we can best address the needs of our community,” she said. “I held Spill the Beans meetups at various local restaurants and coffee shops in District 1. These meetups have been successful, and I am considering continuing them into the future.”
Vigil, 69, a former prosecutor and Santa Fe County commissioner who was appointed to serve as a substitute Municipal Court judge for about two and half years before she ran for the seat, said the campaign hasn’t necessarily been easy.
“It hasn’t been a particular breeze because of all the negative publicity,” she said, referring to a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former employee who alleges the judge fired her after learning she had lodged a Judicial Standards Commission complaint against Vigil.
Vigil said the complaint “never [had] any merit,” but she declined to discuss it in detail.
“I don’t even know if I can talk about this because there’s litigation involved,” she said.
Despite the complaint, Vigil, who is paid about $106,500 a year as judge, said she’s eager to continue her work on the bench.
“I did a pilot project for night court that I hope to resurrect next term,” she said. “That worked really well for a while, but I think I need more coordination with other agencies to make that happen, and that didn’t happen for the pilot project.”
People in the community appreciated the night court effort, she said.
Vigil also plans to continue to offer a safe surrender program that allows people with outstanding bench warrants to have them quashed and their fines forgiven, though they may have to pay other fines and fees associated with the original case.
“If there’s a bench warrant, [police] are automatically required to incarcerate that individual,” she said.
Vigil handles a wide variety of cases, from traffic tickets to drunken-driving charges.
“The Santa Fe Police Department is processing more DUIs through Municipal Court than they ever have,” she said. “Prior to me coming on board, they were processed through Magistrate Court. We have tripled the DUI cases that are processed through Municipal Court.”
That doesn’t mean there are more DWI cases filed in the city, she added.
Vigil said public safety is at the top of her priorities.
“I’ve operated the court in a way that would make justice fair and fairness easily accessible to the community,” she said.
Fairness is also at the heart of Rivera’s reelection bid.
The former city fire chief described himself as a champion of Santa Fe’s southwest side, a growing part of the city that some contend has been neglected by City Hall in the past.
“The last four years, I think [I’ve] really been trying to get infrastructure issues addressed here in the district,” he said.
In his next term, Rivera said, he plans to make sure those infrastructure projects stay on the track.
These include construction of a new fire station at South Meadows Road and N.M. 599, as well as a new Southside Teen Center. Costs for both projects are higher than originally estimated.
The cost of the teen center, for example, was $4.1 million in 2016; an updated cost estimate for the project, which now calls for a gymnasium, is about $7 million. Rivera said the teen center will likely have to be built in phases.
“It’ll probably take four years if not longer
to get a teen center built and up and running,” he said. “I think we’ve been talking about that long enough, and I think it’s time to actually do something.”
Rivera said the south side of Santa Fe also has a champion in Mayor Alan Webber.
“I’ll give credit to the mayor. He made a commitment to really making sure that all parts of the city were addressed, and he hasn’t failed on his promise with regards to District 3,” Rivera said.
Other projects Rivera promises to “keep an eye on” include improvements at the intersections of South Meadows Road and Agua Fría Street, as well as Agua Fría and Cottonwood Drive, and planning for the third phase of the Tierra Contenta housing subdivision.
Rivera said he will also push for a second phase of improvements at the southside SWAN Park.
“That’s the only large park in our district, so to get Phase 2 of that I think is important to the constituents,” said Rivera, who chairs two council committees, public safety and public utilities.
Villarreal, an active member of the city Finance Committee, is seeking her second term. The former city planning commissioner called her first term “the most exhilarating, challenging and exciting job” she’s ever had.
“It’s kept me on my toes since day one, especially because I had to hit the ground running, dealing with some of the most difficult issues that we were facing at that time,” she said, referring to a $15 million budget deficit that forced the governing body to make cuts.
“The hardest decision [in the last four years] was digging out of the $15 million budget deficit,” she said. “We had to make the tough decisions about where we needed to trim in our city government while not compromising the delivery of our city services.”
Villarreal counts the decisions involving the budget deficit and “getting on more solid financial footing” among her biggest accomplishments.
“The fact that I’ve been more in tune with the equity piece, making decisions that are more equitable and just, is an important lens that I think I have brought to the council,” she said. “It’s centering the voices of community members who are most impacted by policy decisions and have the most to lose. That’s why I care about equity and justice in our community.
“If I could wave a wand about past developments that have not served our communities, our older neighborhoods, and have contributed to gentrification, I would,” she added. “But right now … if I have a decision to make, then I will look at all aspects as it relates to a social justice lens.”
While she hasn’t individually sponsored many major pieces of legislation, Villarreal is especially proud of co-sponsoring a resolution in 2017 that reaffirmed the city as a welcoming place for immigrants and refugees. The resolution called for a series of policy changes designed to keep residents’ personal information private, including preventing city employees from inquiring about or disclosing someone’s immigration status “except as required by law.”
Villarreal was the lead sponsor of a resolution that created a task force to look into the possibility of creating a public bank in Santa Fe. The idea of a public bank in the city faltered, but Villarreal said it laid the foundation for the state to look into it.
In her next term, Villarreal said she plans to work on myriad issues, from affordable housing and workforce housing to making sure the city’s boards and commissions have gender equity.