Welcome to election 2026 coverage on KRWG Public Media.

We're conducting candidate forums and interviews and contested races around the region on radio, online and here on television.

I'm KC Counts.

And this is the Dona Ana County Board of Commissioners district three candidate forum featuring declined to state candidate Susie Kimble and Democratic write in candidate Julia T. Brown.

Democratic candidate Willie Madrid did not respond to our invitation to participate.

Each candidate will have one minute to answer each questions.

We'll alternate who answers first.

We ask that candidates do not mention each other by name, and the first question will go to Miss Kimble.

What in your background has prepared you to serve as county commissioner for district three?

To be honest, until I was appointed in February by the governor, nothing prepared me to be a county commissioner.

I had no idea how much was involved.

And I've learned a lot over the last eight months as a can, as the commissioner, I fill in for Shannon Reynolds when he, resigned to run for Chester, the governor appointed me.

And I've learned a lot.

But my background has been in behavioral health, mental health, business development kind of things, and working with people in the community to bring services together to bring people to what they need and to build, rapport with people and trust.

And I think that's very important as a commissioner.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Brown.

Well, I would have to say everything in my background has prepared me.

My education, my life experience, my work experience.

I'm a lawyer, a former administrative law judge, former county commissioner of Dona Ana County, former city manager for the city of Sunland Park.

And until I resigned to run work for the state Economic Development Department, talking to businesses interested in relocating to New Mexico and those already here wanting to expand.

All right.

Thank you.

The state auditor's special audit of Dona Ana County highlighted 42 findings of failure in county management and culture that need to be addressed.

What is your opinion of the way the County Commission has responded to the audit so far, and how, if elected, do you plan to work to correct those issues?

Well, I think they have gotten off to a good start in terms of providing responses and sharing that information with the public.

as well as on the website.

But when there is a breach of trust or a loss of trust, it takes a lot more aggressive of, proactive work to regain the public's trust.

And so I think that the county has a bit more work to do in terms of explaining what happened with those findings and showing that it, is committed to accountability going forward as well as transparency.

All right.

Thank you.

I do believe transparency is very much needed at the county.

And the audit has been, a learning experience for, I think, everybody at the county, because I think a lot of these things have gone on for some time through different administrations, and it's taking a while to get to the root of the issues.

And we're seeing the departments bring the issues back to us and saying, this is what we're doing, this is what we're doing.

And as you know, our manager that was on staff when this came through, has, has gone from the county now.

And so there's a change in that dynamic as well.

And so we're working toward bringing in a new manager, but we're also bringing in a consultant to help to help us decide, you know, which departments might need a little more help, might need a little more restructuring.

And I think as a commissioner, what I see is the departments are working very hard to find the remedies, to find the answers.

And in fact, for Open Meetings Act, they're going a little bit farther than we were requested to go to ensure that we don't come across those issues again.

So I think the county's working very hard.

And as all things county, it seems to take longer than you want it to.

Right.

Miss Kimble, the county currently has three acting county managers.

Talk about your hopes for the next county manager, and what type of leader you would wish to hire.

I'd like to hire someone who is very, very familiar with the legal aspect of being a county missioner.

The county manager.

The legal aspect of working for the commissioners and what happens in the meetings.

Like I said, we've had some open meetings, discussions, and in the past, I'm not sure we were advised quite well by our county manager.

So I'd like to see one who's got, experience in, in, municipalities in counties in, in legal issues that have to do with, what we're dealing with commissioners.

And I think that's very important.

This person needs to be a coalition builder and not a divider and work with the commissioners, listen to the commissioners, go with what we're leading on and not take their own path.

And so they need to work very well with the commission and well with the community as well.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Brown.

Well, there is a dichotomy, if you will, between the role and responsibility of the commissioners and that of the county manager and the staff that reports to the county manager.

of course, in the ordinary course of events, the commission only has one employee, and that's the county manager who is then responsible for oversight of all of the departments and all of the employees in the department.

for putting together the budget, that is proposed to the commission and for carrying out the day to day operations and policy mandates that the Commission puts in place.

All right.

Thank you.

How will you address transparency in county government as a commissioner?

I would say much the same way as I have always, governance to myself in terms of transparency, having an open mind and open door and an open ear.

and it's a two way communication.

When you elect someone to office, you don't just abdicate your responsibility and let them go off and do whatever it is they think is best.

You need to stay in contact with them.

What I like to call inReach and of course, the commissioners need to do outreach so that that flow of information, that input, that feedback is ongoing.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Kimble.

I've, as I've shown, being a commissioner since February.

I listened to my constituents.

I listened to residents, even if they're not in my district.

I listened to them about issues and I find that that's very valuable, and they're very appreciative of that.

Oftentimes someone will call and they say, we've got this issue.

Can you help?

Can you help whether I help or not?

You know, I usually will send it to the managers.

Assistant managers say we've got a flood issue like we've had so many this morning, and I can send it on to staff in the county and they will handle it.

People want to be heard.

And I think that's very important.

And I bring up a lot of things at the commission meetings that I asked questions about, because I know people want to know about them.

And I don't think one of the things I did, I don't think they feel like we're giving them enough mission information at commission meetings.

And as a matter of fact, we had originally on the agenda, it said approvals on the agenda, action items.

I had that change to action items.

So it didn't appear that everything was going to be approved because I want the the community to know what we're talking about and what we're doing.

All right.

Thank you.

Tell us how district three is unique and what specific needs exist.

There's so many needs on the rural roads, the the rural areas for water.

for for road infrastructure.

Even out in chaparral, they're struggling with sewer lines and, and street lights.

And so Dunnellon County District three is, is very unique because it goes all the way over to White Sands Missile Range.

It goes all the way to the east Mesa.

Several of our roads washed out in these last couple of weeks in the floods.

So they need a lot of infrastructure.

They need a lot of support.

We also need to start looking at how we can help those people with private roads, because the county can't actually work on private roads.

And so we want to help people find grants or funding or, ways to solve the issues that they're having every single rainstorm.

And I think that that's, that's very important.

And I that's where I think our biggest issue is right now in my district, anyway, I've gotten very many calls about the floods and the roads.

And, you know, if somebody fixes one piece, it pushes it off to another piece.

And so there has to be coordination everywhere.

So I think that's probably the biggest issue in district three right now.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Brown.

I would say one of the unique aspects of district three is, of course, its proximity to the border and the fact that it contains colonias.

the county, in fact, has the largest number of colonias in the entire state.

And so we have a lot of areas that are deficient in terms of infrastructure, water issues, utility issues, roads and streets, storm drains.

And, the fact that because we're in the desert, people don't always prepare for what monsoon means and how hard and fast that water falls and the ground can't absorb it.

And so you've got flooding.

All right.

Thank you.

obviously in the south part of the county, many of those colonias, exist in that part of the county.

And being constructed in Santa Teresa is Project Jupiter a how would you deal with Project Jupiter and data centers that may impact residents of your district if elected?

Well, while it's not physically in district three, it's close enough that it has an impact on what happens in district three.

I think the county could have and should have been much more transparent, and its process of making a decision about Project Jupiter and going forward, there is a need to really kind of make up for lost time, if you will, and to ensure that the public has the information they need.

the commission needs to be more collaborative and working with not just county management, but with the other elected officials, with nonprofit and community based organizations, associations, businesses, and making sure that that exchange of information takes place because everybody who has to make decisions about anything needs to be knowledgeable.

That's time.

Thank you very much, Miss Kimble.

As a commissioner, I've asked the questions at every meeting possible.

What's going on?

What do you mean by this?

What do you mean by that?

And I intend to continue to ask the questions that my my residents have asked.

And people from other parts of the county as well have asked, what about the air?

What about the water?

What about this?

And I will continue to ask those questions, because I was not on the commission when the vote was taken on Project Jupiter.

I'm not opposed to Project Jupiter in itself, but the way it came about was very, appears dishonest.

And I don't know that it was dishonest.

I don't know that there was, anything nefarious going on, but the community feels like there was.

And the trust needs to be built again.

And so I want to ask the questions.

If I think and I try and ask it at a commission meeting, or if somebody says to me, we need to know about this, we need to know about that, I ask it as a commission meeting, at a commission meeting as well, because if I ask it if I get a chance to talk to the people that are developing it, they tell me something.

That's just me knowing it.

I want the people in the county to know what's going on, and it's very important to me to bring those questions out in public and let people know, yes, we're listening.

We know what your concerns are and we're trying to find the answers as well.

All right.

Thank you.

Recent county meetings have been contentious because of this issue, with residents turning out to voice, sometimes loudly, their opposition to the project.

How do you believe those situations are best handled with dignity and respect for everybody.

And that's part of the problem.

It feels like tensions get high and then reactions from the commission sometimes are high as well.

And we need to stay calm.

And I will tell you, one of the commission meetings I was at and this is when Oracle was there, we had 14 security people in the room that made everybody a little anxious.

And I think that needs to be handled in a different way.

I don't believe that the people that are coming to the commission meetings want to hurt us.

They want to be heard.

And so I think adding more security and more, you know, attention to it raises the temperature.

And I think we need to just do it more calmly and let the people speak.

That's one of the big things.

If we cut off public comment or shorten it, that really caused us grief.

And I think we need to let the people speak because it's really important to them to talk to us and let us know what they think and what they feel and what they fear.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Brown.

Well, certainly I don't mean to discount the importance of Project Jupiter and the absolute need for people to be able to voice their concerns and to speak at the same time, the commission faces many issues that are pressing for the county.

and so while people who want to speak may not agree that there should be a time limit on how long they can speak, in order for the commissioners to be able to cover everything on that agenda, when they're meeting there, there has to be some decorum and there has to be some time limits.

And so balancing the equity, if you will, between the need to address all of the issues the commission has to deal with and making sure that those who want to speak specifically on Project Jupiter have an opportunity to do so is critically important.

All right.

Thank you.

What opportunities for economic development and new, well-paying jobs do you believe should be pursued?

Well, I don't think we should dismiss out of hand any idea that an entrepreneur because we need to be talking to startups all the way to small businesses, to those that have been established for a while, to big companies to see what all of them have to say, and then do the necessary due diligence and partnership with the state Economic Development department and the contract, such as movida, who work with the county and the city on such things to determine which of those is the best fit for our market and our residents.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Kimble.

well, I think, big industries coming into the county are very important.

And we should invite as many as we can.

And we did have a conversation about if we say no to things like Project Jupiter, other industries probably won't consider us if we come across as hostile.

But there's also so much growth opportunity with small businesses.

We need to support the small businesses like in chaparral.

There would be more businesses if we had better sewer systems.

And so there are companies that don't want to build if there's only septic service.

And so we need to look at some of the infrastructure that's also going to help economic development.

For example, if somebody wants to have a home daycare in chaparral, the homes are given their permits based on the capacity of the home and the size of the septic tank.

If they can't afford to put in a new septic tank, they can't bring 4 or 5 kids in for daycare during the day.

And so there are need there need to be some supportive measures done for small businesses to help them grow.

There's a grocery store in chaparral that really wants to grow.

It would be nice to help them find some funding and grow and maintain the business as a home owned grocery store, rather than somebody else coming in.

Thank you.

How can the county commission support efforts to protect dwindling water supplies in the region and make sure residents have safe, clean drinking water?

That's a really big issue in Dona Ana County because we have so many separate water companies.

We have mutual domestic water companies, we have private water companies, we have CRRUA down in Sunland Park, and it's very hard to work on them.

They're regulated differently.

So it would be very difficult to bring them all together.

But I think a policy to support them and to help and to the testing doesn't even come from the county, but the testing needs to continue.

Dona Ana County needs to look at small water companies that perhaps we could work a little better with.

And we're exploring some of those because we see, you know, we had a woman talk at one of our commission meetings.

Why is my well dry?

Why is my well dry?

Well, it was because of the water company of where she is.

It wasn't because of anything else.

And her wells a little low.

And this was actually a private woman, and she couldn't hook into the local, water company.

So I'd like to see more support for the local water companies to try and if not standardize, at least collaborate.

Thank you, Miss Brown.

I think there needs to be a bigger effort to inform the public about how these different public service entities water companies, mutual domestics, investor owned utilities, private owned utilities, work and how the the rates are set and what goes into that, because that will help consumers make better decisions about conservation and about what kinds of, ventures they are trying to go into.

that also, Dona Ana County sits on one of the largest pools of brackish water in the country, and I'm thrilled to see that there is now an effort just beginning to study desalination and how that water can be put to use and made potable and made more usable.

All right.

Thank you.

So earlier this year, county commissioners tabled a proposed, memorandum of understanding with the Mescalero Apache Tribe to jointly manage an amphitheater on or near the county fairgrounds.

Please share your opinion on this issue.

Well, I looked at what the MOU said and it had no details.

It had no structure.

It didn't mean anything.

And I asked, why do we need this?

And I was told, well, we can't really talk to them until we have an MOU.

I didn't believe that.

And so when I talked to people in the area, they were like, you know what?

The Mescalero wanted to put a casino right over here or whatever they wanted to put by a mountain there behind that area.

We don't know what they want.

And so I did some more checking and some more talking, and I found out we didn't know what they wanted.

And so my opinion was we need to at least table this or stop it.

And we did.

We tabled it to a date and voted on it later.

We didn't want to go ahead with the MOU.

And now there's been a lot of change with the Mescalero.

administration.

And so I think we're a little bit relieved that we didn't do that.

But it came to us and it felt a little bit like a mini.

Oh, you have to do this soon.

We have to get it done.

No, no we don't.

We need to take a step back and think about it.

Okay.

Thank you, Miss Brown.

Well, ironically, I live in the neighborhood where the mystery project was being proposed, and I was stunned and shocked that the state land commissioner was prepared to move forward with basically no information about what this was going to be, how large it was going to be, precisely what it was going to be, and why it was going to be.

and so I applaud the action by the commission.

And I think that that kind of close examination of issues that come before the board is exactly what's needed.

All right.

Thank you.

And animal welfare is a growing concern, a growing challenge in the region.

What thoughts have you given to how to improve conditions for companion animals?

Well, animal well welfare really is a big issue both at the shelter and in those situations where people become aged or infirm and and can no longer personally care for their animals.

But studies have shown over the decades of the importance to the physical and mental health of being able to have some connection to animals.

And so I think that we can do more to explore, kind of fostering animals, putting together programs where people can spend time with animals even though they can't take them into their dwellings.

there's a lot that can be learned about the relationship between people and animals.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Kimble.

My biggest concern with animal welfare in the county is the dogs that are not companions, that are, especially in the rural area, that just roam the area, and people are a little afraid to walk in the evenings because they're dogs.

And it's not just in chaparral.

That's just where I get the calls about it.

And I'd like to see more enforcement in support of the dogs that aren't homed, whether they're running around in packs or whether they're, you know, lost.

And they do have a home and they just can't get back.

I think it's a very big issue.

And we do have the county veterinarian.

We're doing spay and neuter clinics to try and help people, because a lot of people just have their pets and they can't afford to spay and neuter.

And so if the more of that we can offer, I think is better for animal welfare as well, because they don't want to be homeless and eating out of trash cans.

So I think we need to do more work with that, because I do and do know people treasure their animals and they they do help people live better lives.

I wouldn't be without my dog.

And so it's very important.

And I know that the there there are a lot of spay and neuter programs for cats, but we need to just do more and more and more.

All right.

Thank you.

And with the couple of minutes we have left, I'd like for you to offer any closing thoughts or additional information about yourself or your campaign that you think voters should know?

Well, I, have kind of grown up from, the time that I was six years old and participated in the first lunch counter, sit in demonstrations and in Oklahoma City.

to being a grass roots, kind of person, fighting city hall and working for people who may not have had the same kind of opportunities or experience that I have been blessed with.

And so I think it's important to continue to do the kind of outreach to make sure that all of our stakeholders, which include residents, businesses, institutions, and community based organizations are part of the ongoing effort to move the county forward.

All right.

Thank you.

And Miss Kimble.

Since I was appointed to the commission, I've been out in the community.

For example, last night we were at the Southern New Mexico State Fair for the opening ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the fair in our community at the Dona Ana County Fairgrounds.

This morning, I did International Walk to School Day with an elementary school in my district with about 100 children and their families to show, to ensure safety and to promote walking and healthy habits.

And then this morning, I've taken a lot of phone calls about flood.

So I'm accessible.

I'm available.

I've, I've learned a lot being on the commission because you don't learn a lot of it outside of the commission.

So.

So I've learned a lot, and I've been developing relationships.

And importantly, most importantly, I listen to people.

I've helped people.

There was a house up until Brooke Road that I got torn down that had been complained about for a very long time, that had been ignored.

And so people are like, well, you know, maybe she really does listen.

And I have been listening and I think that's very important.

And I continue I want to continue to do that by serving on the commission.

And I look forward to that.

And thank you both for being with us.

declined to state meaning no party affiliation.

Susie Kimble thank you so much for your time.

And Democratic candidate Julia T. Brown, thank you for being here as well.

Thank you for the opportunity.

And a reminder that Democrat, candidate Willie Madrid declined to respond to our invitation to be here and participate in our forum today.

Thank you for watching.

Election 2026 coverage on KRWG Public Media.

You can find our forums and interviews with candidates and contested races around the region at KRWG .org Early voting in New Mexico runs through October 31st and Election day is November 3rd.

In Texas, early voting begins October 19th and runs through the 30th.