LAS CRUCES – Robert Paquette, a local community servant, homeless attorney, marketer and videographer, says he is running for Las Cruces City Council in District 5 to heal divisions he sees in the city.
The borough consists of the northeastern part of the city between Elks Drive and Hanger Lake Road, north of US Highway 70. Current councilor Gill Sorg is not seeking re-election.
Paquette, 56, has lived in Las Cruces for 25 years and all of them lived in the neighborhood. After moving from Seattle, Paquette received an associate degree from Doña Ana Community College, where he said he was a Crimson Scholar and had participated in student administration.
In an interview with Sun News, Paquette spoke about some of his previous jobs while living in Cruces, including working in the IT department at Memorial Medical Center, serving as marketing director for KidsKare PC Family Dentistry, and running his own business – The Market Store, a digital advertising, social media, photography, and video production company.
Most recently, Paquette headed Altitude Media Productions, another agency for digital marketing, social media consulting and content production. He closed it on September 17th to focus on his campaign.
Paquette has a passion for service, a drive he believes came from surviving stage 4 colon cancer. He said he has been cancer free for 15 years.
“My whole worldview has changed … it is now about serving others,” said Paquette. “I now know what life is about. It’s about you, it’s about me, it’s about relationships and mutual help, joy, happiness, peace … You only really notice that when you’re on your deathbed. “
Paquette’s service work includes working on the local March of Dimes board and helping to plan the first Team Zane Celebrity Waiter event in Las Cruces, organizing the first annual banquet for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Las Cruces and providing support at fundraisers and events for Cancer, Aid, Resource and Education, Inc. Also, Paquette was a Big Brother of the local Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.
Paquette founded Las Cruces Homeless, a group that campaigns for the homeless, and launched Operation HEAT, an annual fundraiser to buy jackets and other warm clothes for the city’s homeless during the winter. Paquette said he was homeless for four years as a teenager.
In 2011, Paquette received the Mayor’s Citation for Community Service.
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Through his service work, Paquette has realized that “there are people who are willing to help, but they are not asked. They help when asked. “
“This community is mature and ready to roll up their sleeves, work together and make sacrifices for the good of all, but there are barriers in the way,” said Paquette.
For example, Paquette said he found that some of the city’s regulations are an obstacle to providing some types of housing to the homeless.
Paquette said he hoped his role as city council could be used to unite the city and said he was fed up with divisions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although he said he was against vaccination regulations, he thought masks were too polarized and a reasonable way to keep everyone comfortable during the health crisis, although he said he doubted their effectiveness.
“I have no sense of whether COVID is a conspiracy or not; that’s not my problem, “said Paquette. “I’m worried about what’s going to happen to us here.”
Paquette said he was concerned about the city’s rising crime rate, particularly given the recent shortage of police officers, but said “throwing more cops at the police” and “keeping business going is not the answer”.
Instead, Paquette said the city should take the opportunity created by recent bottlenecks to rethink the structure of the police department and create “social” officer roles that would be unarmed and connect needy residents to social services, he said.
“So we’re helping our citizens, we’re not just putting them in jail and punishing them,” Paquette said. “Times change and we have to change. We have to start thinking outside the box … We have the opportunity to restructure our police department to tailor it to Las Cruces. “
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Tourism can be an “uninterrupted” source of income, Paquette said, and he believes the city has not fully taken advantage of opportunities to attract outside residents, such as promoting the downtown farmers and craft market.
“As a marketer, we haven’t even touched on what I think we can do,” he said. “I think we can get people excited about the farmers market a lot better, from El Paso, across the state, and elsewhere.”
He said he was in favor of a “pandemic tax” for large retailers that remained open while other small businesses closed last year. The tax revenue would be passed on to small businesses that had to close.
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“I’m not about rebellion. If the governor says you have to shut down, shut up,” said Paquette. “But let’s deal with the aftermath … instead of saying, ‘You’re alone.'”
Paquette said if elected he would oppose a proposed guaranteed basic income program. He also said he wanted to make the residential streets in his district safer.
Ronnie Sisneros, a licensed occupational therapy assistant; Becky Corran, professor of public health and former faculty senate chairman at New Mexico State University; and retired radio advertising consultant David Telford are also seeking headquarters in District 5.
The election will take place on November 2, and the city council seats in Districts 3, 5 and 6 will be up for election. The races for districts 3 and 5 will be decided by ranking list choice voting, as there are more than two candidates.
Michael McDevitt is the city and county government reporter for Sun News. He can be reached at 575-202-3205, [email protected] or @MikeMcDTweets on Twitter.
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