Doña Ana County has made what to some is an eyebrow-raising hire in its Health and Human Services Department.
Eyebrow-raising because it’s former Sunland Park Mayor Jesus “Ruben” Segura. The Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting that he’s been making $51,396.80 annually as the head of one of five divisions in the department since he began work on May 26.
Segura, who shocked the local political scene in January 2008 when he didn’t file to seek a fourth term in office, left the Sunland Park job in March of that year.
According to the Sun-News, he will “oversee a DWI grant program, meant to ensure DWI violators comply with their sentencing terms, and a pool of health-care dollars meant to improve access for uninsured and underinsured in the county.”
Silvia Sierra, the director of that county department, told the Sun-News that Segura has a master’s degree in public administration and has done a good job thus far.
Segura and county officials have a long and controversial history because of a fight over the development of Santa Teresa, a community west of Sunland Park. Growth there was tied up in legal battles for more than a decade until Segura and Doña Ana County commissioners struck a deal in 2006 that gave both governments a say in the process. Before that happened, Segura led protesters in burning “Richardson for Governor” T-shirts in front of a television camera because the governor backed a plan that would have left Sunland Park out of the process.
Segura’s fight with the county included standing up to a threat of arrest when the sheriff’s department showed up to stop the city from digging a utility line along a state highway. The city and county were racing to provide services to the Santa Teresa area and the county commission had, earlier that day in 1997, approved a moratorium on such development in a meeting that may have been held without the required public notification.
When Segura refused to stop construction, he was arrested. The charges were later dropped.
After leaving elected office, Segura started a south-county newspaper last September, but it folded several months ago.