D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February
2008
Engineering Change
The only newcomer on the Doña Ana County Commission, Karen Perez looks back on her first year — and ahead to ruffling some feathers.
By Jeff Berg
Karen Perez is the newest county commissioner for Dona Ana County, now celebrating one year of learning on the job. Elected in November 2006, she had never held a public office before, and only seriously thought about it after another county commissioner, Bill McCamley, and state Representative Joseph Cervantes approached her with the idea. Their pitch included observations of her abundance of common sense and the fact that she had backbone, both traits a rarity in politics.
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Karen Perez is wrapping up her first
year as a Doña Ana County commissioner. |
"I thought about it for a full month," Perez recalls. "As an engineer, I don't think like politicians do. We are problem-solving people, and I wondered what would happen if someone with common sense ran for office. I also thought, 'Who is going to vote for me? I've never been involved in politics, so if I am going to run, I am going to make a good run of it."
Perez did not have to endure a primary as did her eventual opponent, Republican Mack Haley. She did get to know and appreciate the opposition, especially at one hot, uncomfortable candidate forum in the colonia of Mesquite. With a laugh, Perez recalls, "We were sitting next to each other and Mack had brought some campaign cards with him to hand out. We both ended up using them to smash flies with!"
As the campaign went on, she recalls thinking that Haley really had a lot of credibility, and it was going to be a tough race. "I did the door-to-door work, and got lots of response from the people I visited with. I ended up going to places that my predecessors had never been to, such as Mesquite, Chamberino, Brazito and Tortugas" — colonias in the southern part of the county.
These areas in southern Dona Ana County have a much average lower income than in other parts of her district, which includes such high-end neighborhoods as Las Alturas, NMSU and the Talavera area, east of Las Cruces. "It's a strange little district," Perez says, "but I really like it. I have quite a strong following in Tortugas."
Originally from a small, blue-collar town near Framingham, Mass., Perez grew up in a household where her parents frequently served as foster parents; that brought 14 foster brothers and sisters into her life at various times. Not surprisingly, perhaps, her early work likewise involved helping the less-fortunate: Perez' background includes stints with the Peace Corps in Honduras and Ecuador, where she helped to design and build potable water and irrigation systems. She has also spent time in Egypt, as a teacher in Cairo, Peru and Western Europe.
She is a fluent speaker of Spanish, which has come in handy in her new political position. "Knowing Spanish really helped to get more backers," Perez says, "and people appreciated that someone who was a professional and not a career politician was running for office. "
Perez first came to Las Cruces in 1989 to attend NMSU, after having served in the Peace Corps since 1986. NMSU was one of several schools that offered courses that met her interest in agricultural engineering. "NMSU had the best package, so I chose it over Utah State and Colorado State," she says. She has been practicing civil engineering for over 15 years now.
Her husband Oscar is also an engineer, of the electrical variety. He recently left NMSU after 20 years to accept a position at UTEP, where he has been working for just a few months.
Two sons — Daniel, who is age seven "going on 40," and Antonio, age 10 — complete the Perez household.
Despite her election to the county commission, Karen Perez still holds her full-time engineering job at Construction Engineering and Management of Las Cruces. Her day starts at 4 a.m. and ends at 9:30 p.m.
"I really try to be a good mom, too," she says. "I have 'kid time,' for such things as soccer games, and 'husband time,' too. " She also enjoys reading mysteries and playing the piano at Mass for her church.
"On election day I was really tense," Perez recalls. "I was tallying the (vote) tapes, and was really surprised by the large margin that I won by. By 8 p.m. that night I knew that I had won."
The final tally was 5,147 votes for Perez, 4,119 for her opponent.
A brief celebration ensued with other newly elected candidates and some veterans, but then it was off to work.
"My first immediate thought when I won? 'Oh, s — t, I have to do this for four years!'"
But there wasn't much time after that to think of the future. The New Mexico Association of Counties sponsors a conference soon after the election that's supposed to make new officials such as Perez "better-informed public officials."
Perez recalls, "I walked into the conference, and it was really scary to encounter that many politicians' egos and hot air all at once. Everyone was 'on.' I looked around the room and saw four guys sitting at one table wearing cowboy hats and chewing tobacco — " Perez does neither. " — and I went over to the table. It turns out that they were newly elected sheriffs from the southeastern part of the state, from counties such as Chaves and Lincoln. And sheriffs are not your typical politicians. So I spent most of the conference with them."
She says that the conference is designed to help teach the new officials the "rules" of running public meetings and forums. Roberts Rules of Order are also reviewed.
After the conference and as luck would have it, Perez immediately became the chair of the Dona Ana County Commission — sort of by default, since the position rotates among the commissioners.
"I had never run a public meeting before — well, not a formal meeting anyway." She had done similar things in her "civilian" position, but this was all new. "It took me until July to figure out what I was doing and that there were boundaries. I had gone to almost all of the county commissioner meetings for the previous year, and had noticed that not everyone was allowed to speak. So, when I first started, I wanted everyone to have their opportunity, and ended up having the longest meetings in history. I was heavily criticized for the way I handled the meetings, but after a while, we started calling 'time' at three minutes."
Perez notes that her personality allows for her to be kind and respectful to others, but in this situation, things needed to be adjusted accordingly.