The search for a new executive director is over for an advocacy group for localities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico.
The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) recently retained the firm CPLC New Mexico to provide it with executive director services. Eric Vasquez has become the new RCLC executive director and CPLC will also provide the organization with clerical staff and a tribal liaison, according to a July 23 article in the Los Alamos Daily Post.
The newspaper reported the RCLC executive director agreement has an annual cost of about $169,000.
Reached by telephone briefly Wednesday, Vasquez confirmed he has just started on the job after being formally hired at a July 20 meeting of the RCLC board.
The coalition had been without a director since the end of February, when the board did not renew Andrea Romero’s contract in the wake of a dispute over expense reimbursements. Romero went on to win a June Democratic primary election to represent the 46th State District in the New Mexico House of Representatives.
“It is unfortunate that the whole thing happened,” because the RCLC does excellent work for the region, Vasquez said Wednesday.
The RCLC was formed in 2011 and seeks maximum federal funding for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Environmental Management operations at Los Alamos. It also works to ensure local people benefit economically from the government facility.
Vasquez served as senior policy analyst for former New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane Denish from 2006 to 2010, and has also worked in regional economic development in New Mexico. Since 2015, he has been co-owner of the Valley Daily Post online newspaper, a sister publication to the Los Alamos Daily Post. He is married to state Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard (D).
