With multiple topics discussed at Monday’s City Council meeting, the following article will be presented in a summarized format.
Men’s health was brought to the table.
To begin the council meeting, the City of Clovis’ representatives took the time to proclaim the month of June as “Men’s Health Month”. The proclamation read by Councilman Bob Whalen, a proponent for exercise and health in his own right, read “Whereas despite advances in medical technology and research, men continue to live on average five years less than women.” Whalen went on to state in the proclamation that Native and African American men have the lowest life expectancy. Upon mentioning the Men’s Health Month Website that has been established at www.menshealthmonth.org, Whalen finished the proclamation by stating that the City of Clovis will ” …focus on a broad range of men’s health issues including heart disease, mental health, diabetes, prostrate, testicular, and colon cancer.”
Then, the council brought up the TOT tax they intend to place on November ballots.
Presented to the council as a public hearing, City Clerk Karey Cha summarized the past discussions and events taking place regarding the approval of this tax. What started with a call for help from Police Chief Curt Fleming morphed into six meetings of the Citizens Advisory Committee in which discussion was held into how they could give the police department the proper funding with which the Chief had asked for.
The City’s final decision came at their May 9th City Council meeting in which they decided to propose a Transient Occupancy Tax that will affect those buildings housing mostly out of town visitors to the community of Clovis. A 2% tax increase will be proposed on the ballot as a general tax come the time of the November 8th General Municipal Election. The City Council approved this action at Monday’s council meeting.
There was discussion on the proper wording for the ballot to which Mayor Pro-Tem Lynne Ashbeck had concerns. With the possibility of asking for further funds in future elections, Ashbeck believes that asking for $500,000 dollars at a time is going to be too demanding on the public and won’t last as a long term solution. As of now, the $500,000 the council is asking for from the public on the November ballot is only the start and nowhere near the original numbers the police department feels it needs to be properly staffed.
The public works department held a vote for multiple districts.
A short discussion was had on the recent diagram and assessments for the 2022-2023 Annual Levy for Landscape Maintenance District Number 1. A vote to improve the lands through proper funding was held in two zones, zone #1 and zone #5. In zone #1, the vote passed with 63% but in zone #5, they missed the vote by two votes at 50.09%. Because of this, Assistant Public Utilities Director Glenn Eastes reported that the public works division will resort to reducing watering, mowing and edging, and will only remove playground equipment without replacing if damaged or broken.
Finally the council discussed the possibility of creating a Historical Society.
One of the last items on the agenda also turned out to be one of the most important for a select group of citizens that were also present at the meeting. The item on the agenda was to consider a request to create a Historical Preservation Commission. The request came ultimately from citizens’ push to fight against the tearing down of the Carnegie Library, a building that now stands under the Clovis Chamber of Commerce’s discretion.
Historically, the City of Clovis has never had any type of historical preservation society, and it’s due to those who wanted to save their Carnegie Library that there looks to be one now in Clovis. The council considered the item and directed staff to get started on creating the commission, a move that the council deems “will get done”.