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Thank you.

This is Fronteras A Changing America I'm KC Counts, thank you for joining us.

Public service can come with many challenges.

Some, like tight budgets and difficult policy choices are expected as part of the job.

Others, like threats of physical violence aren't necessarily.

At least they shouldn't be, but that's what many elected officials face as political polarization continues to reflect deep divisions and core beliefs.

It's being seen increasingly on the national stage, but it's also being seen and felt increasingly locally.

Former Las Cruces City Councilor Becki Graham joins Fronteras, A Changing America, to talk about her experience as a one term city councilor.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

This is a really important conversation.

Obviously, a big election year, especially for New Mexico, and as we move toward the general election, I want to just talk about what some candidates might be facing as they're on the campaign trail from your perspective, when you decided to run, what was that energy like?

So when I decided to run, I was, this was the first office for which I had ever run.

I was already well into my 40s so I had not stacked a political career and I had no idea what to expect.

The campaigning experience was fine.

There was nothing that really indicated what I might be in for when I won the seat.

And I think that, I very naively understood how deep political divisions were but thought that if I acted in good faith was transparent with my thought process was willing to have hard conversations that folks would at least understand if not agree with me, attempt to understand from whence I was coming, and that turned out to unfortunately not be the case a lot of times.

What motivated you to run in the first place?

So it's a two pronged, a kind of two pronged origin story in 2019, I had a really bad mountain bike crash and ended up having surgery and a long rehab process, so it was a lot of time of literally sitting and laying around thinking about what I wanted my life to mean.

So had intended in 2020 to really figure out what I was going to do, what my next step would be.

COVID happened, and that was kind of the other prong.

As I watched my mom as, a nursing administrator in a long term care facility and my husband, a member of Las Cruces Fire Department, as frontline workers serving the community and I wanted to find a way to have a more direct impact on Las Cruces, a city that I love more than ever having served.

So as you campaigned, you won office, and then you take the seat.

Yes.

Your sworn in.

And the learning curve, starts happening.

So talk to us a little bit about how you get used to the processes.

The learning curve started almost immediately from the topic that we're discussing here.

Some folks may remember, Mayor Miyagishima was still mayor but this was the first time that each of the six city council districts were represented by women.

And that became a media focus understandably local, but also nationally.

There was a lot of coverage about that.

And as soon as I had the Lascruces.gov email address, I started getting, nasty communication about that, from people who said it shouldn't matter, from people who said that women don't belong in office, the whole spectrum that you can imagine.

And so I had barely caught my breath when I started to realize, like, wow, it's not it's not just what you're doing, sometimes it's just who you are.

So you hadn't necessarily made, a bold policy decision?

No, not at all.

I, this actually happened even before my first meeting.

Because when the election, you know, you're elected in November and the stories started coming out and, like I said, as soon as I got the email address.

How did you respond?

You know, again, naively, I think initially I would try to engage these conversations again in good faith, and saying, you know, well, you know, we don't choose the media coverage, but this is, you know, a first time in Las Cruces, and I intend to show you that I have earned this seat, and I hope to talk more in the future.

What were you hearing from Mayor Miyagishima on the topic?

Or other council members who had been there longer?

I think that, I think that everyone was getting perhaps not the mayor, but I think everyone was getting the same, a lot of times these are copy paste jobs to try to get as much traction as possible across all of us, I think the more seasoned council members were already, they were unsurprised, at least as I think myself and Councilor Corran, as new councilors, were probably a little more surprised, others were not.

Could they show you the same, you know, emails basically from the same people?

Exactly, yep.

How would you describe the individuals that are sending these emails as a lot of people, or is it a handful of people?

There are regulars.

I would say, there are some that you come to expect that you're going to hear from them.

Some are anonymous.

You know it's obviously just, throw throwaway like a burner email account.

And some just pop up occasionally for certain topics that you know, are maybe going to trigger them.

Did you ever become concerned for your safety?

I really didn't.

I, I had what meets the legal definition of a stalker.

Who would drive past my house, who would park outside my house.

Occasionally taking photos on a cell phone.

Emailed me constantly.

Even during sessions, during council sessions just.

I think, just so I knew that they were watching.

But I have to say, perhaps I should have taken it more seriously.

But the individual themselves, I did not consider a particular threat, but, but absolutely experienced, this, this level of, intimidation, abuse, however you would like to term it.

How did that impact you as you were trying to pursue your goals as a city councilor?

In terms of, in terms of policy decisions, not at all.

It, this, I will say, I can say with a clear conscience I never let this affect my decision making.

What it affects is your emotional and mental well-being and your emotional bandwidth.

It's exhausting, but it is not something that I let skew me in terms of what I wanted to accomplish as a counselor.

And I think I had really solid colleagues who also refused to bow to pressure, to bad faith pressure, I should say.

We all need to be held accountable.

And I think each of us is willing to sit down and have those hard conversations and explain our policy decisions.

It's when it goes into personal attacks, threats, intimidation.

That is what crosses a line.

So I want to be really clear on that.

I'm not saying that we should not face scrutiny.

I'm saying we should not face bad faith, abuse and attacks.

At any point did you involve Las Cruces police?

I'm sure they've been involved many times in these types of situations.

I did not personally.

I knew that that was an option for me.

But again, I, I felt in my situation that might have exacerbated things more than it would have been a solution.

But there, there are times that absolutely, LCPD has been involved in things going on with council and I think have been a great partner, a good resource.

What were your policy goals when you joined the council, and how would you characterize your four years on the council in terms of the successes that you can look back on fondly?

I think a great example for, because I think it is the thing that I am happiest about, but also, was, is a great example for this conversation was passing Realize Las Cruces, the updated zoning code, the long overdue updated zoning code, and that became very contentious.

And to me, zoning is the bread and butter of a city council.

These are absolutely decisions that have historically been made locally.

And it became interesting because people who were against Realize Las Cruces, it started to tread into the idea that that is not a decision that we had the jurisdiction to make, which we absolutely did.

And the, the campaign against Realize Las Cruces definitely got nasty, in all of the ways.

So, community challenges also seem to be at the root of, public discourse, regarding members of council who people feel are responsible for certain community situations that are going on, such as people who are unhoused or substance use issues, mental health.

How did you view those issues in our community and your role in them?

What I think the, the advantage and disadvantage of serving on a city council is the accessibility.

We are intended, we are your neighbors.

We are the people that you will run into at the grocery store.

And that can be, that is intended to be and often is, wonderful.

We are supposed to be accessible.

However, our accessibility can become a disadvantage for us when policy decisions or cultural moments or social issues over which we have no control.

We are the ones who you can find.

We're there every Monday at 1 p.m., and we are the ones who then face, face scrutiny.

If you're angry at anyone from the president to the governor to your state rep, you can come to city council and, you know, when, when something would happen in the community, I knew I, you know, unfortunately, often terrible things, violent crime, pedestrian death, anything, I knew that it was going to be thrown back on us.

Even vandal vandalism?

Vandalism, from officer involved shootings to litter.

It's going to is going to come back on us.

Do you feel like there was anger on, you know, and it directed toward someone else that you were taking the brunt of, or do you feel like this was all related to local issues?

No, absolutely both.

But absolutely, as I said, I think people who are angry at everything from the federal to the state to the county level because of the degree of access, that you are afforded to your city councilor.

Did you continue to go to the grocery store?

Did you wear a disguise?

What did you do?

Too many tattoos.

I never should have been so recognizable.

No, but it's, It's a great point.

The, the, Brennan Center for justice at, the law school at NYU is doing an ongoing series, that's unfortunate, requires an ongoing series, about intimidation of public officials, and one of the things that is, is such a bad side effect of that for democracy is that officials are less likely to engage in a public event, a town hall, a one-on-one meeting if you feel that your safety might be in jeopardy and then social media is a whole other landscape.

It's such a wonderful place to connect and share information in a mass format, but it is so rife with abuse that a lot of elected officials opt-out or are very, very careful, what they will put out there.

I follow public pages, as probably most community members do, and I often see you comment and answer people's questions there in those public forums, and do you feel that it was something that, you can look back on and say, yeah, I did the right thing, or I wish I wouldn't have been so public about it?

50/50.

I think there are some people, again, where I got to have those good faith disagreements, and a lot of times a conversation that would begin on Facebook would become a longer email or a person, an in-person meeting.

And that's what, that's what we need so desperately as a community, as a country, is to sit down and have civil discourse over disagreements.

It's just vanishingly rare.

You mentioned, you know, what's bad for democracy and people not wanting to be as open, but also people maybe not choosing to run in the first place.

Exactly.

We've seen a lot of offices, and that tends to be a lot of judgeships, but a lot of offices, you know, unopposed, elected officials can run unopposed, and obviously that's not competitive.

and so one of the hallmarks of democracy is having that competition.

What do you feel are some of the solutions, if you've had a chance to, to think about ways that communities can address this issue successfully?

One of them is why I'm so happy to be sitting down here with you, just shining some light on, what an elected official may be facing, and maybe hoping that a community member who is understandably angry about something and is maybe thinking about crossing that line into personal attack, or rather, not engaging with the official directly and just going to social media and spewing out some vitriol.

Have, have that conversation.

Be willing, again, you don't have to agree, you just have to respectfully understand, or respectfully disagree.

I think there are a lot of spaces in which municipal governments, state and local governments need to step up to make their elected officials feel safer.

If we, if we start putting up even more barriers to running, you know, as you mentioned, when you look at the national statistics and the research that the Brennan Center is doing, women, people of color, religious minorities, members of the LGBTQ plus community face far more statistically, significantly more harassment and abuse than folks who are not occupying those that are not in those roles.

And, again it's going to continue to homogenize who is willing and able to run and is willing and able to continue on to run for re-election or to run for higher office.

Talk a little bit about your background and what made you a good match for city council.

I always say that if you're intellectually curious, you cannot have a better job than being a local elected because you can learn anything you want to learn.

You want to learn about public safety, about utilities, about park maintenance, about budgeting.

There is this city full of people who are not just, you know, able, but are willing to sit down with you and have you learn, and I think that's what I brought was curiosity and a feeling of, you know, so I had lived, I ran in 2021.

I had moved to Las Cruces in 2000, so I felt well established in the community and felt, you know, the, the throwaway line that I always used like, not to, not to sound unhumble, I was like, I'm smart and I care and like, what else, what else would you want, in, in an elected official?

Do you, are you concerned that smart people who care, are going to be, you know, turned off by this and will be like you and only serve one term?

I, it should not be.

It should not be a necessary condition for office to have the capacity to take abuse.

I think that's being normalized, and I've heard that so much, not just from the people who maybe are engaging in those behaviors, but even from other electeds like, well, that's just part of the job.

It shouldn't be.

That should not be normalized.

As you said, there's a there's room for scrutiny.

Absolutely.

People who have public facing positions know that there's going to also be people.

Scrutiny, accountability, and I think that most good faith elected officials are there for that, are ready to have those conversations.

I always was.

But when it crosses into bad faith actors, that's when it's a problem.

What advice did you or do you have for your replacement, Michael Harris?

Have a community.

Have a community who is willing not just to listen to you but to speak up for you.

There are recommendations, I think the term is bystander training, where you learn to intervene in a situation where you see somebody, you know, facing abuse or facing attack, and you just the act of standing up or standing beside them or saying something in the moment can be so powerful.

And yeah, we need empathetic people to continue running for office.

We need different types of people to continue running for office.

What's next for you?

Continuing on with what I've always done, which is professional writing and organizational writing, hoping to get back into the classroom.

The last time I taught for DACC was actually spring of 2020, so, COVID semester, so.

Right.

Hoping to get back into that element of community facing work.

And your mom and your husband, how did they respond to all this?

And are they happy to see you no longer representing district three?

They both are.

I think we, the three of us, all have the same attitude in that I loved the work, I was good at the job, and it saddens the three of us that I felt that for my own well-being, I should not continue in the job.

Yeah, they are both, they're both happy that, I've stepped aside because I'm more balanced, and frankly, for my mom, it it did often frighten her.

Well, thank you so much for.

Thank you.

Being so open about your experience.

I know that you're not the only one, on city council who feels that way, and who has spoken out about their own experiences as they look to serve and that you're not the only person to decide not to seek another term.

Right.

Because of it.

Any last words that you'd like to leave with our viewers?

Just that, if we will not collectively rise above this kind of discourse, then we have no one to blame but ourselves, and I think that you hear it constantly, everything is so divided, everything is so polarized.

Then be the person who is willing to take the time to sit down with someone else and listen in good faith.

Alright.

Well, former District Three, Las Cruces city councilor, Dr.

Becki Graham, thank you for being with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

And best of luck in the future.

Thank you.

It's important to have the conversations so we can make public service a good choice for future generations.

And some of our future leaders were recently honored as The Mayor's Top Teens.

KRWG membership coordinator, Liz Liano, talked with each of them, including Mayfield senior Miles Odom.

Hi, I'm Liz Liano, Membership Coordinator here at KRWG Public Media.

We're going to be talking to a top teen today, one of the Mayor's Top Teens.

So welcome Miles, and congratulations for being a Mayor's Top Teen.

So we'd love to hear a little bit about you.

What's your full name and what school do you go to right now?

My name is Miles Odom and I go to Mayfield High School.

Very nice.

So, your Mayor's Top Teen, which means that you've worked exceptionally hard and, have been doing quite a few activities.

Can you enlighten us to what some of those activities are?

I mean, I take quite a few just harder courses and dual-credit stuff to get college classes.

But on top of that, I try to do as many athletics as I can and just perform as well as I can, and basically anything I do.

That is a great, great slogan.

So what sports do you do?

I do track and tennis.

Track and tennis.

And what is your event in track?

I do pole vault.

Pole vault?

Wow, that sounds really tough.

Is it hard to get the pole to vault?

It can, It can be pretty tricky.

Yeah.

Sometimes you just kind of have to go at it and hope it works out for the best.

Wow, that's wild.

And you do tennis at the same time?

Yeah.

So you said you also take a lot of dual-credit classes?

Like which ones?

I've taken like chemistry, and right now I'm taking psychology, and I feel like they're just good ways to kind of challenge yourself while getting the college credit to put you a little bit ahead once you do go to college.

And what other activities have you been working on outside of school?

Outside of my school, I'm really involved with my youth group.

Im the youth intern and for that.

So that's what I do, spend a lot of time doing, just helping set up for that and be with the kids there.

Oh, so what is that, necessarily entail, being the intern?

It's kind of just being there to set up everything and make sure everything runs smoothly, and you get to build relationships with all of the 6th grade through 12th graders.

So you're kind of the leader having to push them and help them grow closer to God.

That sounds like a really nice exercise of community and leadership.

What motivates you to do that?

My whole family has kind of been super involved with the church and with the youth group, so they kind of pushed me to do it.

And it's something that I just wanted to do.

So it's just it's a blessing to get to do that.

That's great.

That's really wonderful to hear Miles.

So what do you want to do moving on in the future?

What schools do you want to go to?

Right now, I'm planning on going to NMSU for kinesiology because I want to be a physical therapist.

Oh, cool, cool.

So you want to stay here?

You want to be a physical therapist?

Yes, ma'am.

And do you see yourself continuing, your community service and leadership?

Absolutely, yeah.

Just from the little bit of stuff that I've done so far, it's just has like great benefits on me and just the things that I've seen other people grow and go through.

It's just something that I would love to keep doing.

Wonderful.

Is there, something else that you want to share that I didn't cover?

Another activity?

This kind of, kind of random, but something I do is, it's called American Ninja Warrior, it's like the TV show online where you do obstacle courses.

So I've been doing that for about seven years.

You've been doing that?

The exercises are?

Like practicing building courses in my backyard.

I've learned a bunch of woodworking and welding to make my own obstacles and stuff like that.

Wow very cool.

What a fun little, what a fun little hobby slash, adventurous thing in your backyard.

Cool, well, congratulations again, Miles, for being a Mayors Top Teen.

We wish you all the best in the future.

Thank you very much.

Thanks to KRWG Public Media Membership Coordinator, Liz Liano, and to Mayfield senior Miles Odom.

And thank you for watching and for supporting local programing like this.

You can watch episodes of all our local programs at KRWG.org, where you can also sign up to receive Airwaves, our monthly TV programing guide via email up to two weeks before the start of the month.