Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CLOVIS — What fees get paid and what fees get waived? The Clovis city commission plans to vote on answers to those questions Thursday night.
The commission is set to hear recommendations from its revenue review committee during the 5:15 p.m. meeting at the North Annex of the Clovis-Carver Public Library.
The advisory committee is appointed every two years with the purpose of balancing the value its gives citizens versus the money it charges for services and facilities.
Members of the committee for 2018 were Mayor Pro Tem Juan Garza and Commissioners Gary Elliott, Helen Casaus and Chris Bryant; Derek Cockrell, Kevin Spears, Nick Mondragon and Mike McDaniel.
The review committee was specifically tasked to look at the process of waiving fees upon request, with a note that the city had waived nearly $91,000 over the last three years. During a May meeting, District 3 Commissioner Fidel Madrid stressed the city needed to either waive no fees, waive all fees or create a specific set of conditions for waivers. The commission felt his desires would be best left to the committee.
The committee’s recommendations have an overarching philosophy of waiving fees for community events but keeping fees intact if events require admission fees.
Recommendations include:
• Street closures: The $150 applies only to private events. Charges are enforced when the organizing entity or sponsor profits from the event. There are no charges for parades with no profit tie-in or demonstrations/protests, with those events requiring city commission approval. Public events do require liability insurance for $1 million.
• Ambulance standby fees: The fees are set by the state, and would be charged for any event requiring admission charges, any event with an entity or sponsor profiting or any event where the fire chief determines EMS services are necessary. No charges are issued for citywide federal holiday observation events.
• Police standby fees: Same as ambulance standby fees, except the third charging category is any event where the police chief determines security is necessary.
• Stage and bleachers: The stage is $150, or $200 with a generator, and bleachers are $50 each. It is recommended to only waive charges for federal observation activities.
• City facility room rentals: Government entities are charged a $100 cleaning deposit fee. This is not applicable to the Civic Center or Colonial Park Golf Course.
• Full park rental: The current fee is $175. The recommendation is to not charge but make the park available on a first-come, first-served basis with a permit and an agreement to clean the park after use required. Event insurance should cover the city for $1 million. There is no charge for governmental entities or nonprofit for federal holiday activity, but park cleanup is required.
• Fun runs: Applicants are not charged, but recommended to hold their runs inside a city park. Requires a permit and $1 million in liability insurance, plus an agreement to pay any requested police or ambulance standby charges.
• Splash pad and zoo admission: No charges for the city-sponsored Family Fun Day, the Clovis Ethnic Fair or the day of the city Easter Egg Hunt. Family Fun Day requires liability insurance.
• Pool fees: No charges required for the annual Juneteenth Celebration at Potter Park Pool, with a permit and liability insurance.
• Dumping fees: Waived during the annual Trek for Trash and Great American Cleanup events. Nine passenger vehicle tires allowed per household.
• Airport hangar rentals: Increases of $10 per month, effective Jan. 1. Additionally, there is a fixed-base operator office space fee of $2.38 per square foot.
The commission can accept, reject or alter any or all of the recommendations.
Other items on the Thursday agenda include:
• A request to advertise groundwater banking request for qualifications. The city has received 19 responses to its June request for information on groundwater banking and playa restoration. Following a town hall meeting on the subject, it was recommended to develop an RFQ that would include scoring criteria. The RFQ would be formulated in time for the Dec. 20 commission meeting.
• Appointment of three citizen members for the planning and zoning commission. Vincent Soule and Carolyn Spence are applying to keep their current seats, and a third seat is vacant with Connie Belcher not re-applying. John King, Jay Neff, Steve North and John Sharp have applied as well. The commission cannot appoint both Neff and Spence, since both live outside the city limits and city code only allows one member to do so.
• A letter of support to the state regarding the Curry Residents Senior Meals Association.