Heath Haussamen / NMPolitics.net
First Gentleman Chuck Franco, right, with Gov. Susana Martinez. The two are shown here in Las Cruces on Election Day in 2010.
The state’s first gentleman has taken a job with Doña Ana County, where he started work Monday as the chief deputy county assessor.
That means Chuck Franco and his wife, Gov. Susana Martinez, will be traveling between Las Cruces and Santa Fe as the Republican wraps up her second term, which ends on Dec. 31, Franco said.
“I’m here during the week and I’m back and forth on the weekends,” Franco said in an interview. “Or vice versa — I’ll go up there; she’ll come back down here.”
Franco will be earning $34.08 per hour in the full-time job, county records indicate. He plans to work for three months as the chief deputy to current Assessor Andy Segovia, who also leaves office at the end of December.
Term limits prohibited Segovia, a Democrat, from running for re-election this year. His previous chief deputy, Paul Ponce, ran for the seat but lost in this year’s Democratic primary. Ponce has since left the job to take a position at New Mexico State University, Segovia said.
That created the opening Franco is filling. Franco said he and Segovia both like horses and have known each other for years. Franco applied earlier this year to fill the open job as director of the Doña Ana County Detention Center, but the county has opted to leave that job vacant until at least January, Franco said.
So when he ran into Segovia one recent day, he asked if Segovia knew of any jobs. “Andy asked me to help him out for his last three months,” Franco said.
Segovia said the job is a natural fit for Franco, who served as Doña Ana County’s undersheriff before Martinez was elected governor in 2010 — an equivalent job in an independently elected official’s office within the county. Franco also worked in the assessor’s office when he was in college, Segovia said. The first gentleman is a former law enforcement officer and magistrate judge.
“I was looking for somebody that has some government experience,” Segovia said, “…somebody that could step right in and help me out.”
Franco said he’s still interested in running the jail when the county’s administration opts to fill that job.
“That’d be a nice challenge for me, dealing with 900 inmates and 200 employees,” he said. “From what I’m hearing it may be available the first of the year, but until then I’m here.”
And yes, that means Franco and Martinez plan to live in Las Cruces after she leaves office at the end of the year, he said.
“For the moment, that is the plan,” Franco said. Martinez’s brother in nearby El Paso, Texas is ill, “so we’ll be trying to help out there,” he said. And Martinez and Franco are full-time caretakers for her sister, who Franco said is “also not doing well.”
“So we’re going to be dealing with her family and hopefully be successful,” Franco said. As for any other plans Martinez might have once she leaves the governor’s office, he said, “I’m sure she’s had some conversations with people, but I’ll let her respond to that.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham and Republican Steve Pearce are battling in the Nov. 6 election to replace Martinez in office. In Doña Ana County, Democrat Leticia Duarte Benavidez and Republican Christopher Schoonover are running to replace Segovia.