By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
KRTN Multi-Media sat down with new City Manager Neil Segotta to cover some issues that have come up in recent weeks and go over some of the things effecting the City of Raton.
Segotta was born and raised here in Raton and graduated from Raton High and spent two years at UNM before moving on to the Pheonix Institute of Technology where he received a Senior Drafting certificate and then went to work at the York Canyon Mine west of Raton. After the mine closed, he worked for Scott Berry and Shield’s Survey.
Segotta was voted out of the commission in November of 2025 and as the end of the year approached City Manager Rick Mestas tendered his resignation sighting health reasons for leaving the city manager post. This reporter had a conversation with Mestas before he left and was told “I am leaving for health reasons”. While the optics looked suspicious to some it was a simple matter of timing and the commission felt Segotta being familiar with the operations of the city and his connections in Santa Fe he was asked to fill in as interim City Manager until another city manager could be hired. Speaking of Santa Fe connections, the city received $10.8 million for Lake Maloya Dam improvements from the state Water Trust Board which Segotta feels was in part due to his relationship with Mr. Fordy
The city commission narrowed the field down to four candidates and after interviews the commission decided to hire Segotta as City Manager. Mayor Lori Chatterley noted in her comments after the decision that she felt Segotta was the right choice to help the city move forward. Commissioners Campbell and Schuster as well as Mayor Pro-Tem Honeyfield echoed that sentiment while Commissioner Hoger was against the move.
There have been comments that Segotta is for a Data Center, and he noted that this reporter has been the only person to ask him about his feelings on a data center. He said he had mixed feelings about a data center and at the June 9, city commission meeting he will present a 6-month moratorium on any kind of data center in Raton while the commission works on ordinances to control such an enterprise in case the city is approached for such a project.
In the name of transparency Segotta noted he has not had a government vehicle except when he was working at the Senior Center and had to travel to the other centers in the county. Also, he noted that he has tried to be more responsive to citizens. He feels he has gotten to about 95% of the calls he recieves. He feels that the city needs to do a better job with social media and will be working to find a solution that works. Documents like the Commission Agenda, budget or ICIP are online and open to the public but personnel files are private and not available to the public. The city commission meetings are open to the public and can be viewed online at KRTN’s Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@KRTNRadioFMAM and may even try having coffee with citizens at a local café.
Raton is one of about nine other municipalities in New Mexico that have a city manager city commission form of government. The city has looked into the other forms of government, and a mayor commission form of government would give the mayor a lot more power to do things within the government than a city manager has. Changing the form of government would be costly according to the Director of the New Mexico Municipal League. As Segotta noted he has to answer to five bosses unlike a mayor who is pretty autonomous.
The primary purpose of the city government is to run the city and provide those services that the citizen’s require such as streets, sanitation, parks and recreation. Economic development is handled by the economic development director but is not a primary function of city government. With online sales increasing yearly how can the city ask an individual to open a retail business and compete with online sales. This is something the city will have to work with as they seek to bring business back to Raton. Succession plans for existing businesses are another concern as many of the local businesses don’t have one. In a family-owned business, the kids are looked upon to carry on the business as happened to other businesses in Raton’s past for example the DiLisio stores and International Bank. But as Segotta noted the kids are not sticking around and striking out on their own for other adventures.
Outdoor Recreation is one area the city is working on to make Raton a destination. It is hoped that combining the Bartlett Ranch, Buck Ridge property, Sugarite Canyon State Park and Fisher Peak State Park that we can have a big recreation area to draw outdoors enthusiast. The Indian Casino is still an ongoing project albeit a very slow one as they deal with federal agencies, Indian agencies and the state but it is progressing and while the city will have to deed the land to the tribe Segotta stressed that, that won’t happen until the very last thing before construction starts so that if it falls through the city will retain the land.
He also noted that the Kearny Film School was moving along but again very slowly as issues with an old building are addressed and yes in hind sight it probably would have been better to have demolished the building and started over but once a single dollar of the federal money was spent the city was obligated to move forward or repay the feds the money received. Segotta noted that it should be ready for occupancy in the next six months, but they will have to seek other funding for equipment. Segotta noted that Covid really impacted the project with cost increases and slowdowns.
Streets are a big concern as the city deals with aging infrastructure and almost 72 miles of streets within the city limits. It was noted that it would take about $1.2 million a mile to redo all of Raton’s streets. The city is able to get funding from the NMDOT, but that funding only goes so far. The cost of asphalt paving is about $120 a square yard so chip sealing is one way to extend the life of a street without the expense of asphalt paving. The city uses the gas tax money as matching money and only gets two cents per gallon of gas. The gas tax is calculated on per gallon basis not the price of gas.
In closing Segotta noted that Sugarite Canyon has some new cabins that they hope will open to the public this summer and he is excited about the future and what the city could accomplish. He added that this is home, he was retired and could have walked away but was bored to death and he went to to say that he grew up here and he loves this community and wants to see it prosper and grow.
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