September 13, 2023 – Much like their “Vision, Mission, and Goals” Workshop held in April earlier this year, the City of Clovis came together, this time inside of a City Council meeting to discuss updating the mission statement of the city going forward.
Having not been updated in the last ten years, the city plans to craft a mission statement by evaluating the vision of the city looking towards the future.
Mayor Lynne Ashbeck believes that this type of conversation will lead to the city “…holding on to what makes Clovis, Clovis” and believes this to be the exact point of the exercise.
With involvement from the public, City Manager John Holt also stated that the conversation needed to be public and “candid” so that City Staff and City Council alike could have an honest discussion about what Clovis values.
An attempt was made to try to illustrate the core values across the city that all department heads would be able to agree on as well as discuss at length the importance of each to each department.
Every department has their own set of values and the hope was to combine those into one larger overhead for the entire city.
A few members of the public spoke at the meeting and added their thoughts that whatever happens in the new draft, the old term “inclusive” be changed to “welcoming”. Their reasoning behind this change was due to the “political implications” behind the word “inclusive” and their thoughts that “welcoming” could bring the same value without those inferences.
Councilman Drew Bessinger added his thoughts to “do the right thing” for both Clovis and its residents through a quote he remembered from his time in the Clovis Police Department.
“Is what you’re gonna do or not do legal, is what you’re gonna do or not do ethical, is what you’re gonna do or not do the right thing to do. And if you can say yes to all three then you’re in good shape.”
Mayor Pro-Tem Vong Mouanoutoua stated towards the end of the discussion that as of now, Clovis should not be content with comparing themselves to the “neighbor to the west”, that neighbor being Fresno, but instead compare themselves to the best cities throughout California.
“Stop talking about being better than them, and talk about how to be better than everyone else in the state,” said Moanoutoua.
The plan going forward is to edit the statement and find more ways to engage the public in divulging their thoughts on the mission statement.
This could include the possibility of either an in-person or virtual town hall as well as holding another city stake-holder meeting where City Staff and Council will speak to certain city residents in order to determine the more important aspects of the City’s vision.