by Jesse Jones, The Paper. — Edgewood has a new mayor, and Devon Taylor got the job in a way he never saw coming. The 33-year-old Army veteran and real estate developer said he was sitting in a commission meeting this summer when former Mayor Mike Rariden suddenly nominated him to take over. Taylor said he sat in stunned silence before realizing he would have to cast the deciding vote for himself, a moment he called “incredibly awkward.”
Taylor said his top priority as mayor is fixing the town’s finances while making government more transparent. He worked with the town’s IT staff to build a live budget-tracking tool that lets residents see how the town spends money by department, including what the police department spent on a specific payroll date, broken down by quarter or year, without showing individual employees’ names. Taylor also helped negotiate Edgewood’s fire service agreement with Santa Fe County. He said he opposes a separate effort to disincorporate Edgewood. “I don’t like the surrender mentality,” Taylor said. “You should band together and be a community… and move one’s foot forward, no matter how bad it is.”
Taylor served in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division and deployed to Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013. After leaving the Army, he worked in construction and real estate development, building market-rate apartments as well as affordable housing through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. He started that work in Las Vegas, Nev., then moved to Phoenix and Albuquerque before moving to Edgewood in 2025. He said he grew up in a politically engaged family where current events were regular dinner-table conversation. Now, he wants residents to know they can approach him and that he is committed to serving the community. “I’m just trying to do my one tiny part in the community to help move it forward,” he said.
The town now needs to fill Rariden’s former District 5 seat. According to the town’s social media post, commissioners will interview eight candidates on Saturday, Oct. 10, including Adrian Chavez, Gary Person, Meridithe Conant, Doug West, Roger Rivera, Linda Holle, David Abbott and Diane Stearley. Filandro Anaya, the ninth candidate, is scheduled to be interviewed on Tuesday, Sept. 22. The post does not specify whether that meeting has been rescheduled. The public is welcome to attend.