Oct. 6—CLOVIS — The Clovis city commission will decide between four applicants to fill their District 1 vacancy Thursday night, with a business owner, mental health executive and two military contract employees in the field.
Scheduled to appear at the 5:15 p.m. meeting at the North Annex of the Clovis-Carver Public Library are James Burns, George Jones, Justin Nutt and Michael Thalleen. Whoever is selected will replace Leo Lovett, who resigned in September due a career move to Las Cruces. Whoever is appointed will be expected to serve through at least March, and the remaining two years of the term will be up for election March 2.
The commission has until Friday to fill the vacancy, 30 days after Lovett's official resignation from the commission.
The candidates, listed alphabetically:
— Burns is owner of the Burns Do-It Center hardware store. He believes the major challenges for the city are completing the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System and attracting investors for housing and retail operations.
— Jones is a director of complaints and investigation for the U.S. Air Force, and first came to Clovis in 2004 as active duty Air Force. He sees the biggest challenges moving forward to be water supply, the continued mitigation of COVID-19, economic development and keeping Cannon Air Force Base. Jones is the only applicant who ran for the position in 2020, and finished fifth in the seven-person field.
— Nutt is a mental health executive and consultant who relocated to Clovis in 2019. He believes the biggest challenges facing Clovis are mental health and substance abuse, water supply and dealing with COVID-19 in ways that support growth from the challenges instead of allowing defeat.
— Thalleen is a contract instructor with Credence Management Solutions, and has been in Clovis since 2008. He believes the biggest challenges for Clovis are resource acquisition and management, eliminating a city identity as a sleepy Southwest town and appealing to younger generations.
Other items on the Thursday agenda include:
— Introduction of an ordinance that would allow the city to apply for an economic development project to extend the city water system to the Clovis Regional Airport.
— A memorandum of understanding allowing Cannon Air Force Base's 26th Special Tactics Squadron to use the regional airport as an alternative site for military jump operations.
— A waiver of dumping fees from noon Friday to noon Monday, in association with Saturday's Trek for Trash cleanup event. The dumping of tires would be limited to nine per household.