New city manager weighs in on area, issues

Who: Larry Fry

Position: Clovis city manager

Born: April 12, 1959, Pampa, Texas

Education: Carlsbad High School, 1977; Point Loma College (San Diego, California), 1980; Eastern New Mexico University, 1988

Family: Wife, Regena; children, Megan Shaw, Jeremy Fry, Courtney Fry

Larry Fry is finishing up his third week on the job as Clovis’ city manager. He began his duties April 13, following the previous week’s retirement from Joe Thomas.

While Fry notes he’s still learning the ropes — his business cards arrived at his office Thursday, and his San Diego Padres pendants are yet to be hung on the somewhat empty walls of his office — he and his wife Regena have enjoyed one aspect of Clovis. That’s the shorter drive to Lubbock, so the two can see Jeremy and Courtney, their twin son and daughter attending Texas Tech.

Fry sat down with us to answer some questions about how he got here and what he sees on the horizon.

Easy question to start: You’d pretty much consider yourself a New Mexico person, despite your San Diego college years?

I grew up mostly in Carlsbad, gradated from high school there. The mayor will tell you the stories about how we used to play basketball against one another, between Carlsbad and Clovis. I’ve been in Roswell the last 30 years after being in Carlsbad for the better part of 15.

So far, what do you see as similar between Clovis and Roswell?

There’s a lot of similarity, being in the eastern part of the state. That’s not to say they’re exactly the same, of course, but I think (they) share a lot of characteristics with each other being only 110 miles or so apart. There are a lot of connections between the cities in this part of the state.

What’s different?

Roswell, you obviously have the alien factor down there. Tourism is an important part of the economy in Roswell. Probably the agricultural aspect of Clovis is more significant, though agriculture is important in Roswell. Roswell is further away from Amarillo, Lubbock; Roswell is three hours away from anywhere. If you’re going to take a trip from Roswell and not fly, you’re going to be in the car at least three hours to get to an airport. Clovis is closer to that. It’s a little of this, a little of that. Of course, the base makes it different up here. The other thing that is the difference is Roswell has an abundance of water, and water is such a huge issue here.

Over his final few months, Joe Thomas kept many departments filled with interim heads because he wanted to leave his successor the opportunity to select his own team. Where would you say you are on that process?

What I’ve tried to do thus far, and I’ve only been here less than three weeks. I’m still in the early stages of everything, but I’ve been meeting with the different department heads, spending time with each one of them in their world to understand what’s going on, how things are working and what some of the challenges are. I do plan to finish that by early next week, and I will meet with the commissioners individually to get their perspective. At that point, we’ll move ahead and start to advertise for those positions.

You took part in the District 4 town hall meeting Tuesday, and it was evident that city officials and the residents who attended considered it a success. Is that something you’d want to see replicated in other districts, or in the city as a whole?

I think it was successful, let me start with that. It was done with the impetus of the two commissioners in that district, Commissioner Bryant and Commission Martin. I think it was successful, and if the others have similar feelings that certainly is something that could be useful in different parts of the community. They put a lot into the planning and trying to invite people to come, and that probably led to a big part of the success. It was a good exchange of information, and I thought it was very useful.

One thing I’ve learned about the city manager’s position is that many things reach your desk because nobody else in the city could handle it. What were some of those experiences in Roswell?

There would be many. One memorable one was a tragedy where we had a Gulfstream crash about three or four years ago during testing of the G6. Roswell has a lot of testing for the different companies. There was a plane being tested. It crashed on landing, killed two engineers and two pilots. Going out there and dealing with that situation and the employees of Gulfstream — I don’t know if you can prepare for that, but it’s one of those things as city manager you will deal with. They are tragedies, and you’re representing the city.

Another one I would mention is the school shooting (at Berrendo Middle School in January 2014). The mayor and I had gone up to Santa Fe to meet with the governor. Just as we’re getting to the edge of Santa Fe, I get a phone call from the fire chief. The police chief is behind him while he’s telling me what happened. We were with several people, and immediately the police chief made arrangements with the New Mexico State Police to bring the mayor and I back down. I won’t tell you how fast we made it down in the state police car, but we were turning around to deal with the aftermath of a school shooting. (Gov. Martinez) came down that day also, along with the secretary of education. I guess as city manager — and Joe would have told you the same thing — you just deal with this wide range of everything.

There are almost 400 employees here; Roswell had about 550. You have the breadth of these different activities, any one of which can be an issue at any given time. That’s why these department heads are so critical to deal with situations in their areas of expertise. But when things really happen, we get involved and could get involved in anything.

What’s one part of Clovis where you still need to gain familiarity?

I think it’s just continuing the process. I’ve used the almost three weeks to meet most of the employees, different community leaders. It’s just a continuation of that process, to get to know people better and know what they’re doing and how they fit into the community. A community like this is made up so much of the people who contribute to it, and many people fill different roles and wear so many hats you have to see who fits in each (area).

What do you see as the biggest challenge for the rest of the year?

I think again, it’s hard to say how long it takes, but it’s getting acclimated to the community. It’s a wonderful community, and obviously I’ve been familiar with Clovis. My dad (Marvin) graduated from Clovis High, but that would have been 60-some odd years ago, and he left Clovis around 1950 to join the Marines and go to Korea. You have familiarity with Clovis, but to live here and contribute to the community is different from what I’ve known before. We’re trying to figure out the lay of the land and how we can help make Clovis a better place to live.

Same question, except with long-term challenges?

You probably know many of them yourself — the water situation and the pipeline project and dealing with an increasing demand for services with limited resources. The mayor spoke about hold harmless (Tuesday at the District 4 town hall) and the phase-out, and how Clovis will lose $180,000 in fiscal year 2016 it otherwise would have received. In fiscal year 2017 it will be $360,000 and so on. Dealing with the infrastructure, those things are important to the community.

This is probably premature, as you’re still setting up the office, but how long do you envision yourself being here?

I really don’t know how to answer that question. I envision this being my last job. Of course, I envisioned Roswell being my last job too (laughs). Things change. I don’t have any timetable at this point. I want to be here as long as I can contribute.

What did happen in Roswell to change that?

I probably wouldn’t emphasize it too much. But in a general sense, there are 10 councilors and a mayor down there; largest in the state. Of those 11, seven are new since March 2012. After the 2014 election, with three new councilors and a mayor, they wanted a change more than anything else. I didn’t get pushed out, nobody asked me to leave. I just felt like it was time to do something different. In May, I resigned, and the mayor asked me if I would stay through the year, which I did. We left on very good terms, and nobody’s upset with anybody to the extent I’m aware of. It was just time for something different.

Anything you’d like to add?

I’ve really enjoyed getting into Clovis, spending my first few weeks here, and I look forward to being part of the community.

— Compiled by Deputy Editor Kevin Wilson