Fire chief hire waiting on city manager

There won’t be a new fire chief in Clovis until there’s a new city manager to hire one.

That’s the direction retiring City Manager Joe Thomas is taking with both the Clovis Fire Department and the Clovis Municipal Airport — both currently headed by supervisors with the interim tag.

Whether the tags are lifted for Interim Fire Chief Mike Nolen and Interim Airport Director Cody Mills or they’re replaced with other applicants — Thomas felt right to leave the decisions up to his successor.

“The interims have been named,” Thomas said, “and it would be up to the next city manager to assemble his team, so to speak.”

The Clovis city commission plans to meet in executive session following its 5:15 p.m. Thursday meeting to discuss the next step in the process. So far, the commission has interviewed six of the 29 applicants for the position.

The commission has interviewed:

• Justin Howalt, Clovis’ city engineer

• Larry Fry, former city manager for Roswell

• Larry Pannell, city administrator for Electra, Texas

• Alan Grindstaff, former city manager for Crowley and Jasper, both Texas

• Scott Randall, former city manager of Auburn Hills, Michigan

• Jonathan Batt, an attorney from Lone Tree, Colorado

Mayor David Lansford said last week the Thursday executive session will be a decision point for whether the commission wants to schedule additional interviews or hone in on the candidates its has interviewed.

The fire department is under the supervision of Nolen, promoted from battalion chief when Ron Edwards resigned March 6. The airport has been under Mills since the July retirement of former director, Gene Bieker.

The new city manager will also be tasked to find a new police chief, as Steve Sanders has told the city he intends to retire sometime later this year.