December 16, 2022: No more than a week ago, Diane Pearce recast herself from regular citizen Diane Pearce into Councilmember Diane Pearce. How and why did she accomplish this? “I’ve always had that kind of political bug, I suppose, or at least interest on the side of information and policy.”
However, what is more out of the ordinary for Councilmember Pearce is the fact that she’s actually on the forefront of politics, one of the faces now, of an entire city. “In terms of actually being a candidate and putting myself out there to serve in public office, that is brand new. That is not something I had ever anticipated, although government and politics was something I was interested in for a long time.”
Something else relatively new to Councilmember Pearce is her residency in the City of Clovis, a topic that came up during her two runs for political office, one in 2022 and her previous attempt in 2020.
Relatively short compared to other political elites in the City of Clovis, Diane has only lived in Clovis going on four years. She explains that her move from Fresno came, “Because of the values that the community promotes and puts out there, we just felt that it really aligned with who we are and what we want.”
To Pearce, this just demonstrates the attraction that is the City of Clovis, and why many would make the move to the town. “I am of the large number of people who have chosen to make Clovis my home more recently than some.”
At least one of those longer-living Clovis residents, Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig, became an outspoken proponent for Councilmember Pearce during her run for office, while also being a person whom she calls “..a friend for a long time.” Knowing that certain members of Clovis can have a certain credibility, like Supervisor Magsig and Mayor Jose Flores, Diane Pearce welcomed the favor of an endorsement saying, “That stamp of Clovis native approval I think really helped in kind of making sure that the people understood that I’m all in on Clovis.”
Councilmember Pearce also offered her thoughts on how the election of 2020 helped her prepare for the battle amongst ten candidates that was 2022.
“I had the opportunity to knock on thousands and thousands of doors of Clovis voters and meet the residents and have some of that experience under my belt. When this opportunity came up, it was just kind of an extension of that first campaign.” Because of this, Diane felt that she had a connection with a lot of the community members and really felt that it gave her a “leg up” on the rest of the candidates.
In speaking about that connection with the community members from both of her election cycle campaigns, she realizes a lot of the problems on the forefront of their minds.
“I know that we do have a public safety issue, and not only is it the most important to people when everything is going well, but it’s one of Clovis’ claims to fame, being ‘Safest in the Valley’.” She explains that whether this means funding for the police department or other public safety avenues such as the fire department, she looks forward to “tackling” these challenges head on.
“The second issue is the homelessness issue, and the difficulty with that topic is: One, you always want to make sure that we’re addressing those things in a compassionate manner. We are talking about our fellow human beings and treating them with dignity and support.” At the same time, Pearce recognizes that the issue of homelessness can also become worse if “..you don’t handle it at the outset…It’s creeping in and becoming more and more of a problem.”
In order to keep from being “behind the eightball”, Pearce hopes to begin addressing this issue so that the City “…can get a handle on it”.
Councilmember Diane Pearce rounded out her informative interview by remembering those members of the Clovis City Government that have served before her and stated, “Clovis has been critically successful because of the people who have come before, and I feel that it is an obligation to continue that.”
“I’m very excited and humbled and privileged to be able to serve this great community with a fantastic and storied history, but with a future that is just as bright and just as exciting, and I look forward to being a part of it.”