February 20, 2024 – At the first Clovis City Council meeting without the aid of City Clerk Karey Cha, the Clovis City Council took the time to thank another member of Clovis public service in Mike Leonardo.
Leonardo worked for over 35 years in the Clovis region in various positions of the transportation field.
Having come from Cal-Trans to work for the City of Clovis, Leonardo mentioned that he had some initial concerns.
He then continued, “This city, I looked at how well it was run…you all pull in the same direction. You may have some disagreements on some policy things, but you’re all pulling in the same direction,” said Leonardo directly to the members of the Clovis City Council both past and present.
Mayor Pro-Tem Vong Mouanoutoua commented, “I got to see your professionalism and your knowledge of Measure C, and your ability and willingness to work with all sorts of interest in regards to transportation, and at the same time steer us all back to the purpose of what transportation is and what transportation can do for the region. I appreciate your willingness to work with everyone and to be calm through it all.”
Mayor Lynne Ashbeck read the proclamation honoring Leonardo stating, “Mike was responsible for a variety of duties to ensure the ongoing success of “Measure C”. His primary role was to carry out the board’s strategies for implementing the programs and projects funded by the 20-year “Measure C” half-cent transportation sales-tax in Fresno County.
“Leonardo eventually was promoted to District Director and ultimately held the position of Chief Engineer and Deputy Director of Project Delivery in Sacramento. May it be resolved that the Clovis City Council, on behalf of the citizens of Clovis, does honor and celebrate the retirement of Mike Leonardo.”
Towards the back half of the meeting, the City was treated to a presentation on the update of tourism by Lisa Oliveira, President and CEO of the Fresno Clovis Convention and Visitors Bureau.
As part of that presentation, Oliveira projected a slideshow and stated that the City of Clovis has been growing in social media and helped start the trend of making Clovis a destination.
“Hulu, Tripadvisor, and Expedia are some of the big ones that we’re really marketing and really trying to get people’s eyes on, and the good thing about those is they have analytics so that we’re able to track if they’re really able to see things and then getting clicks making sure that they are booking hotel rooms in Fresno and Clovis.”
In continuing to speak about tourism in the Clovis area, Oliveira stated, “Clovis Unified is a huge partner of ours, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them in having their facilities to be able to bring in new events and have people keep their families here on the weekends.”
Oliveira ended her presentation by issuing the factor that Air BnB’s do not count in the numbers provided by the Travel bureau, but when they are to come back for renewal in 2025 this is something that they would like to add on.
The council thanked her for her time and continued on with the meeting ending by changing a future meeting date and with City Manager’s John Holt’s comments regarding a change to the administrative agenda of future City Council meetings.
Due to City Clerk Karey Cha’s absence, one issue that Holt has foreseen would be the allowance of “dial-in” comments during the Public Comment section.
The public, for a time undisclosed, will be unable to dial-in by phone and issue their comments during the Public Comment section of City Council meetings.
The public will still have the opportunity to write-in comments before the council meetings, and are able to walk in to the scheduled meetings to comment, in addition to listening to live and recorded audio and video.