San Luis mayoral candidates debate

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Two candidates for mayor of this city disagreed over most issues in a debate Saturday night but found common ground on some subjects.

The city has matured politically since the days in the last decade when past mayors and council members were targeted in recurring recall petitions drives and elections.

Both the incumbent mayor, Juan Carlos Escamilla, and his opponent, Nieves Riedel, a San Luis contractor and former mayor and councilwoman, agreed that recalls should be a tool reserved for removing incumbents for wrongdoing in office, and not for targeting them over their political positions.

Escamilla and Riedel, who will face each other in the city’s March 9 primary election, met at the Cesar Chavez Cultural Center in San Luis in a debate organized by Bajo El Sol, Arizona Western College and the Community Leadership Alliance of San Luis.

One area where the candidates did disagree was the subject of economic development.

Escamilla characterized the city’s economic growth as strong despite the fact that the nation is in the grips of a recession.

Riedel, however, said San Luis does not offer sufficient employment opportunities for its residents, and said City Hall should be adding more infrastructure and creating more incentives to attract business and industry.

Riedel and Escamilla also fielded a question about whether last year’s arrest of a former police department evidence technician pointed to a need to make changes within the department.

Esperanza Zambrano, who had earlier resigned from the department, was arrested in September by police on suspicion of theft from the police evidence storage.

A judge later ordered her released from jail because she was not brought before him for an initial appearance by the police within the 24-hour time limit required by state law. The Yuma County Attorney’s Office eventually declined to prosecute the former employee, citing a lack of sufficient proof provided by investigators.

Escamilla declined to answer the question, saying the case was the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Riedel said Zambrano’s arrest was a “rush to judgment” that impugned her reputation.

The candidates also took questions from the audience, one of whom asked the mayor if council members and other city officials were making proper use of city credit cards issued to them. Escamilla asserted that there has been no improper or irregular use of the cards.

Riedel took a question from the audience about why the city had incurred a debt of tens of millions of dollars during the years she previously served on the council.

She said part of the debt had been carried over from prior councils, and said the remainder stemmed from the needed construction of new buildings to house city departments, among them City Hall and the police and fire stations.

Cesar Neyoy can be reached at cneyoy@bajoelsol.com or 539-6890.