New municipal judge, councilors sworn in

Connie Lee
Carlsbad Current-Argus

CARLSBAD- Janet Ellis scored two victories this year; the first against cancer and the second against her opponent for municipal judge in her first city race.

"I beat cancer and now I'm the judge," Ellis said. "I'm so excited. My year is going on better and better. It can't get much better than this, so I'm pretty happy."

Janet Ellis signs documents confirming her spot as municipal judge.

Ellis was sworn into her new position Tuesday and said that she was nervous, but confident that she could succeed in her new job.

"I'm a little bit nervous, at first. When you consider that these are people's lives that I'm going to have an effect on, at some point, it makes you nervous. I'm praying that I do the right thing. I believe in prayer and that's going to help me," she said. "I have the background for it, I'm legally trained, I'm an attorney. I've been both a defense attorney and a prosecutor, so I've been on both sides of it. So I have a good idea of how it should go forth in the court and what should happen given the circumstances. I plan to be fair."

She also said that winning the spot as municipal judge was welcome news after overcoming her fight with cancer.  Ellis beat two other candidates, Fred Joe Hill and Martin Mills, for the job. She won 436 of the total 782 votes cast for municipal judge.

Magistrate Judge Henry Castenada led the ceremony to swear-in the officials at the city's council chambers at 101 N. Halagueno St.

Ellis' swearing in followed that of the newly re-elected city council members.

Sandra Nunley smiles after being sworn-in as a city councilor.

Edward T. Rodriguez, Ward 1, Sandra K. Nunley, Ward 2, Jason G. Shirley, Ward 3 and  Janelle Whitlock, Ward 4, swore in first to retain their positions on the city's council.

All four incumbents ran unopposed during the elections, which were held the previous week on March 1.

The city councilors and municipal judge will all serve four-year terms.

Janet Ellis swears-in as the city's new municipal judge.

Connie Lee can be reached at 575-628-5516.