Samaniego's Controversial Hire?

The buzz around the courthouse lately is about who Judge-Elect Samaniego is going to hire for his staff. Word around the courthouse is that is going to be Chris Acosta.

As I mentioned yesterday, Acosta appears to be Carlos Sierra's "in" to local campaigns. She was Carlos Sierra's "in" to the Samaniego campaign. There are many in the courthouse that are concerned that her hire could signal Carlos Sierra's "in" into County government.

Sierra famously declared war on three politicos following an arrest a few years ago in an article in the El Paso Times. Two of the three politicos he declared war on were at the County. One still is, which would likely have an impact on the working rapport at the County.

Samaniego has faced several stumbles on his way into office. Sierra working on his campaign, taking credit for his victory, came to light shortly after Samaniego won a very tight election against John Cook. That was a major controversy and Samaniego's credibility took a ding because of the way Sierra ran his PAC against former County Judge Veronica Escobar in her congressional bid.

Not sure how long Samaniego is going to allow his staffing decisions to affect his relationships with other leaders but there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.

Acosta is apparently going to be a Senior Policy Analyst, although there was some fears that Samaniego was going to bring back the "Chief of Staff" position that was eliminated years ago following the public corruption scandal.

A source at the county says that Acosta interviewed for the Senior Policy Analyst position at HR last Monday morning. And several sources say Acosta was not happy about having to interview for the position but that Samaniego wanted everything to be as by the book as possible with hiring.

Sounds like it would be a big promotion for Acosta who I think makes around $40-$50K per year working for Sheriff Wiles. She'd be making around $70k in the Senior Policy Analyst position.

Although I don't know what her policy background is, I think most of her experience has been in communications.