Accountability
Earlier this year, Valencia County lost $2 million to an email fraudster impersonating Bradbury Stamm’s CFO. The scammer convinced the county’s finance director to switch payments to ACH to a bank account that belonged to the scammer. That should never happen, and it shouldn’t take a scandal like that for us to start asking hard questions about how our tax dollars are handled. I’ll push for real financial oversight, so problems get caught before they happen, not after.
How do we keep this from happening in the future?
- Require verbal or callback verification with a known contact for any vendor banking changes.
- Before any payment method or account number for a vendor is updated or changed, someone must call the vendor at a known phone number (not one included in an email requesting the change) and confirm the change by voice with a verified contact at the vendor.
- This SINGLE STEP would have stopped this exact scam.
- Require dual sign-off on large transfers.
- No single staff member should be able to authorize a large ACH transfer alone; a second person, ideally at a different level should have to independently confirm before funds over a certain threshold move.
- Make fraud-prevention training recurring and tested, not one-time.
- Regular training and simulated phishing tests are a standard, effective practice many organizations use.
Small Business
I’ve owned a small business in Valencia County myself for 13 years. I know what it’s like to make payroll, navigate permits, and try to build something that lasts. Small businesses are the backbone of District 1 and I’ll fight for policies that make it easier, not harder to run one.
How do we make that a reality?
- Fix the county’s own online business resources so they function.
- The business link on the county website currently has a few links that are out of date, for example it still lists the Belen Chamber of Commerce and Los Lunas Chamber of Commerce instead of the new organization, the Greater Valencia County Chamber of Commerce.
- The Bid Opportunities page hasn’t been updated on the website in about a decade. The most recent open bid on the site was posted in 2016.
- The Business Directory is completely empty.
- There appear to be 2 separate county websites serving similar functions. https://www.co.valencia.nm.us/ and https://www.valencianm.gov/
- Make it easier for local businesses to bid on county contracts.
- Vendor and procurement opportunities exist, but the information about the bids is out of date. I’ll push for more visible and accessible bid opportunities and trainings for local businesses.
Smart Growth
Valencia County is the fastest growing county in New Mexico. That’s a fantastic problem to have, but it’s still a problem if we don’t plan for it. The county’s own 2022 Comprehensive Plan lays out a framework for managing growth, including designating priority growth areas meant to concentrate development while protecting our rural land. When the plan was adopted, the county’s Community Development Director called it a “living document” that should be revisited regularly as the county changes. I agree and I want to help make sure that happens.
Here’s how:
- Keep the Comprehensive Plan up to date
- Let’s keep this a “living document” not a shelf document. Before this update, the plan hadn’t been revised since 2005. I’ll push to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Things change quickly in a fast growing county and an up to date Comprehensive Plan can serve as our north star.
- Bring more jobs home.
- The comprehensive plan notes that about 83% of employed county residents commute to Bernalillo or Santa Fe County for work (p.47). Let’s create more opportunities here so fewer of our neighbors have to commute out of the county just to make a living.
- Make sure infrastructure decisions, roads, water, services, keep pace with new development.
- We should work closely with the Village of Los Lunas and other municipalities rather than each government planning separately.
