Los Alamos County candidates pitch transparency, experience, and spending discipline

In a county of 19,419 people, the next council will help steer a $367.9 million budget, shape housing policy and decide how much of government residents can actually see. That was the backdrop Thursday at the UNM-LA Student Center, where the League of Women Voters Los Alamos brought together the full slate of County Council candidates, Jason Chappel, Theresa Cull, Joseph Granville, David Hampton, Melanee Hand, Steven Lynne and Eric Stromberg.

The sharpest divide in the race is not over a single project. It is over how Los Alamos County should tackle a housing shortage that has dogged the community for years. A 2019 housing market needs analysis found the county needed more than 1,300 rental units and more than 375 houses, with the most acute gap in the so-called missing middle, households earning roughly $60,000 to $100,000. County leaders have already shifted toward using existing housing units as part of an affordable-housing strategy, while budget talks also have considered dedicating one-quarter cent of gross receipts tax to the housing fund. The next council will decide whether to lean harder into that approach, push new construction, or do both.

Spending discipline and transparency were the other two tests candidates used to define themselves. Chappel said he wants more transparency and a stronger community voice, while also keeping an eye on spending and small businesses. Stromberg, who spent six years on the Los Alamos County Board of Public Utilities, said that experience gave him a close look at how government works, but also showed him that decisions can be made without enough public information, pushing him toward a more open-door style if elected. Lynne leaned on 28 years of county experience, including time as county manager, saying he already understands how the system works and how to turn ideas into results.

Those arguments matter because the council controls decisions that reach into utilities, development, roads, budgets and services in a county that remains New Mexico’s smallest by area and whose government footprint is large because of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the local economy built around it. The forum also arrived in the middle of early voting for the June 2 primary, which the League called historic because it is the first in New Mexico open to all registered voters. Early voting runs May 5-15 at the Los Alamos County Municipal Building at 1000 Central Ave., then May 16-30 at both the Municipal Building and White Rock Town Hall at 139 Longview Drive.