Full Profile · From the Interview Record
Arvin Trujillo
≈ 4 min read · or listen, or skim the bold lines
B · From the record Summaries are drawn from Cal Nez’s interview. Quotations are not published until checked against the recording. How we verify →
Candidate Snapshot
Background & Why They’re Running
A mining engineer with a 40-year career — former Division of Natural Resources director (about 12 years under Presidents Begay and Shirley), an APS government-affairs manager, a Four Corners economic-development CEO, and an NTEC director — Trujillo runs on three priorities: rebuild the working relationship among the three branches, restore a customer-service mentality among Navajo Nation employees, and drive economic development.
Where Arvin Trujillo Stands
Each topic below is drawn from the interview — the question Cal asked, and a short summary of the answer, generated by AI from the interview recording.
Restoring the Three Branches
Cal asked: Why does the president-council conflict persist even when former delegates become president?
Trujillo credits communication and not taking debate personally — “this is business.” From his DNR years he debated delegates, stayed focused on results, and amended projects to win their support. On systemic change, he'd use the existing majority and supermajority process to move near-term change rather than overhauling the whole system, recalling how long the 88-to-24 council transition stalled progress.
Navajo Nation Employees & Service Delivery
Cal asked: How do you fix government's responsiveness to people?
Trujillo wants to rebuild a customer-service, service-delivery culture among employees through a strategic process and their buy-in — pointing to how he changed the Division of Natural Resources' mentality toward innovation and faster, more digital processes.
Economic Development, Energy & Revenue
Cal asked: How will you multiply the budget “pie” instead of just slicing it?
Trujillo notes revenue fell from $225–270 million in the fossil-fuel heyday (two plants, five mines) to roughly $150–175 million today (one plant, one mine), so the Nation must diversify its energy portfolio and find new revenue, supporting enterprises and small businesses to share in it. He cites a long record — the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, the first New Mexico water-rights settlement, lifting the Bennett Freeze, four-laning US 491/550, the Monument Valley hotel, the Farm Bill census, and extending the Four Corners/Navajo Mine lease to 2041.
“Open for Business,” Capital & the NBOA
Cal asked: Do you support the Navajo Business Opportunity Act?
Trujillo says the Nation acts “closed to business” and must show it's open — handling compliance and applications promptly and using enterprises' expertise so deals don't stall and collapse. He backs the NBOA's Navajo-preference classification but stresses training and workforce development, and flags the core problem that reservation entrepreneurs can't borrow against land or sell a business the way off-reservation owners can — an equity-access gap he'd work to close. His driving reason: bring young people home.
Veterans
Cal asked: Whose responsibility are veterans — the Nation or the federal government?
Trujillo says the Nation should take the lead, working with state and federal agencies to locate and even build veteran services on the Nation, since today veterans travel far for care. He points to his record securing federal and state support — Senator Domenici on Navajo-Gallup appropriations, Governor Richardson and TIGER grants for the highways — and notes the federal push to devolve responsibility to states and tribes (like the amended TERA energy rules) as an opening for the Nation to lead.
Topics in the Interview
- Background & Three-Part Platform
- Restoring the Three Branches
- Navajo Nation Employees & Service Delivery
- Economic Development, Energy & Revenue
- “Open for Business,” Capital & the NBOA
- Veterans