The Clovis City Council approved its proposed $295 million 2021-22 annual budget at its Monday, June 14 meeting.
This year’s budget consists of $247 million in operating costs and $48 million in capital expenditures.
According to the budget, the City maintains an adequate reserve for emergencies and generally restores cuts the City had to make due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Police Department
When COVID led to budget cuts, nine positions within the Clovis Police Department were frozen, including five police officers, two dispatchers and one crime specialist. The City plans to reinstate those positions.
Five officers being brought back and upcoming academy graduates will increase the Clovis PD total number of active officers to 105. This number of officers will equate to 0.85 officers per 1,000 residents.
In the past, per capita rating usually hovered over 1 per 1,000. However, at the current rate of growth of the City, Clovis Police Chief Curt Flemming believes the department is falling behind in staffing.
Clovis PD will also continue with its incentivized hiring, allowing recruits and candidates to earn up to $10,000 in bonuses from April 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022.
A replacement for public safety vehicles is planned, with Clovis PD receiving 31 cars, primarily detective and patrol cars. The department hopes to replace 15 vehicles a year, in hope that the department doesn’t have to play catch up as in prior years.
The police budget continues to see a steady increase with the next fiscal year’s 10% increase from $39.9 million in 2020-21 to $43.9 million.
“Everybody that’s been here for a number of years knows that our goals are to be the safest city in the Central Valley,” said Clovis PD Police Chief Curt Flemming.
Fire Department
A current focus for the Clovis Fire Department is the designs and constructions of its Training Center and Fire Station 2.
The planned 3,000-square-foot training center is for housing the Fire Station 2 crew for approximately one year after which it will be used as a training facility and office for the department’s training captains.
Clovis FD estimates the cost of the center at $1.6 million with completion by the summer of 2022.
Fire Station 2 is still in the design phase, expected to be finished by the end of the year, with the project bid award estimated for Spring 2022.
Construction of the fire station should start around summer 2022 and have a 2023 completion date.
Like Clovis PD, Fire Chief John Binaski said that his department is also trying to play catchup regarding its vehicles. He said that the department had been behind since the 2008 recession, with the Clovis FD only replacing two fire engines from between 2005 to 2012.
Overall, the Clovis FD has budgeted $20.4 million for the next fiscal year.
Public Utilities
The most important topic for the public utility department is water, specifically the water supply and wastewater.
Public Utilities Director Scott Redelfs said that his staff’s focus is on implementing additional water supplies for the City and strategically looking at feasible ways to achieve that goal.
He said that there would need to be feasibility studies conducted in the next three years, and the City will have to look at building a new water plant in northeast Clovis as the City continues to grow northbound.
“Right now, it looks like the better bet is to build a new water plant so that we can keep our pressures up in the system as we continue to grow north,” Redelfs said.
The Clovis Water Reuse Facility is running 2.6 to 2.7 million gallons a day, and the City is utilizing 70% of its reclaimed water. New parts to the system continue to get added as it keeps expanding.
However, Redelfs said that 100% utilization would come and he hopes it coincides with the expansion of the plant so that the City can provide more reclaimed water to areas that are experiencing expansion.
Public utilities will commit nearly 42% or $38.9 million of its $93.1 million toward water and wastewater.
Community and Economic Development
Community and Economic Development Director Andrew Haussler said the City plans to devote a lot of time analyzing post-COVID trends while focusing mainly on the city’s vision moving forward and how COVID impacts that vision.
Haussler and City Manager Luke Serpa believe that some post-COVID trends are here to stay.
The Community and Economic Development Department will turn its focus to Shaw Avenue retail corridor. Haussler said the City has a strong desire to continue maintaining a solid corridor.
Haussler said the corridor had been a success with the addition of big-box retailers, newly built hotels and Costco moving to Clovis Avenue.
“We want to keep that momentum going,” Haussler said. “But it’s going to take some visioning on what’s going to happen.”
Within the budget is an investment to bring on a consulting group to build data regarding the Shaw Avenue market. The City will analyze how much retail it has and what the market will be looking for over the next 10 to 15 years.
Haussler and his team hope to come back to the council with updates later in the year.
Excluded from the budget were the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) funds, totaling $17.3 million. Clovis will receive this $8.65 million in funds this year and the remaining balance in the second half of 2022.
When building the budget, the Department of the Treasury released an interim final guidance on how Clovis could spend the funds. As a result, the City decided not to include it in its budget, waiting on the definitive finalized guidelines from the Treasury.
Mayor Jose Flores praised the City’s departments for what they accomplished while dealing with a tight budget.
Flores said that this upcoming year would once again be challenging, and the city has tough choices and decisions to make moving forward.
Questions regarding the City’s plans for the future, the City’s direction and what expansion will look like are on the horizon.