Doña Ana County Manager Julia T. Brown has announced the formation of a new division of her office to respond in a timely fashion to constituent concerns and complaints, as well as to facilitate community meetings and to assist individual members of the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners in their ongoing outreach efforts.
The Office of Community and Constituent Services will be headed by longtime Doña Ana County employee – and former Undersheriff – Edward Lerma.
The office, Lerma said, will provide an improved pathway to address areas of concern while consistently facilitating clear lines of communication and feedback. The office, he said, will handle issues ranging from road concerns and animal control to expedited service provisions and complaints or concerns related to work done in the field by county personnel.
“Working directly with the county manager, the individual commissioners, the constituents and department heads, the goal of this office will be to identify and resolve issues as they arise in a manner that is as expedited as possible,” Lerma said. “It will be a challenge, but I love a good challenge, and I’m excited to launch this initiative with the confidence of the county manager.”
Brown said creation of the Office of Community and Constituent Services is designed to enhance the ability of the five county commissioners to be responsive to a vast range of needs and concerns as they arise.
“The commission districts are large and diverse,” she said, “and the county’s past efforts to assist the commissioners and their constituents have not gone far enough or been effective enough. It is my vision that by centralizing the response duties, we can improve both response and communication in both directions.”
Information from Dona Ana County