Alamosa County Commissioner District 1 candidate Rick Needham says he would be a “no” vote in the deliberations among the current board of county commissioners on whether to allow concealed carry weapons inside the commissioners’ chambers and other county office buildings.
Needham made that point and others in talking about his candidacy during this episode of The Valley Pod. He is challenging Commissioner Lori Laske in a District 1 race that will be decided in the Nov. 5 election.
“It’s something I’ve been interested in doing for quite some time. Family life and things like that kind of prevented that because this is a full-time job,” he said. “This is a commitment that I’m able to make now since I’m semi-retired.” Needham is a former Alamosa Police Department detective sergeant and former chief of police for Monte Vista.
“One of my big issues, I guess, is the Alamosa County Commissioners (board) is made entirely of Republicans. I think we need a little bit of balance. I’ve been to some of the meetings this year and I’ve seen that if I were there, some of the issues that have come up would not see the light of day.
“That’s compelling enough I suppose, but also I’ve been in public service most of my life and it’s compelling for me to want to become involved in my community and I’ve been here 50 years, so it is my community. I identify as being from Alamosa and I think I can serve and I think I can do a good job. I’ve got the education, experience to do that.”
Needham said he took objection when the county commissioners earlier this year considered a resolution to declare Alamosa County off-limits to the relocation of migrants from the U.S. southern border.
The three county commissioners ultimately backed down from the resolution. Now they’ve been discussing opting out of a new state law that prohibits firearms in sensitive spaces like local and state government office buildings.
“My preference is that guns shouldn’t be allowed in government buildings. That’s my preference,” Needham said on The Valley Pod.
“If I were on the board, I would say ‘No.’ Government meetings can be contentious, just like courtrooms can be contentious. Guns aren’t allowed in courtrooms unless it’s by law enforcement and even if their law enforcement, if they happen to be party to the action, say a divorce proceeding, child custody issue, they’re not allowed to bring a weapon into the hearing either or into the building just because emotions can get high … So when you bring a firearm into any situation where you have the potential of it being used, it’s a deadly weapon and it may not be used in the right way.”
On The Valley Pod episode the candidate also talked about Alamosa County’s master planning process, housing, economic development, among other topics. Listen in.For more election news, visit Alamosa Citizen’s Election 2024 section.