Counties conference to bring traffic, income

CLOVIS — Most residents of Clovis, assuming they go on with their daily routine, are not going to notice the city is hosting the annual New Mexico Association of Counties Conference this week.

It might, however, be a different story if they wanted to book a hotel room, or visit a local restaurant for lunch, or drive anywhere around the Clovis Civic Center or Clovis Community College.

It’s those parts of the city that will feel the biggest impact, with more than 700 signed up for the conference running Tuesday through Friday.

“We’re anticipating around $215,000 in direct spending in the county,” Curry County Manager Lance Pyle said of the conference, noting that some of the later registrants are having to book hotel rooms in Portales because Clovis has none left. “This is our third time having the conference. It was very successful; the city was very welcoming.”

Curry County last hosted the conference in 2013. It would likely be easier for the NMAC, which is based out of Santa Fe, to hold the conference either in its home city or the Albuquerque metroplex. But Joy Esparsen, government affairs director for the association, said conferences in the Clovis-sized tier of cities tend to do better because there are probably at least a half-dozen conferences going on every week in Albuquerque and one can get lost in the shuffle.

Some officials from other counties will be in Clovis on Monday, as part of New Mexico EDGE certified training. Classes include such topics as General Human Resources Law, Building a Professional Workplace, Creating a Service Oriented Culture, IT for Non-IT Users and Microsoft Excel training.

The conference serves as a meeting point for the NMAC’s board of directors. Pyle is a member of the association’s insurance multi-line pool board.

Outside of meetings, seminars and discussions are scheduled for topics including election modernization, cannabis regulation, cyber crime prevention and best practices for pretty much any county office like the clerk, assessor or probate judge’s office. It’s throughout these sessions, and between-session conversations, that many county officials talk about how to make their counties better.

“The networking piece is huge,” Esparsen said. “You learn from other counties what’s working and what’s not.”

Sens. John Arthur Smith and Stuart Ingle will have a panel discussion on working across the aisles in the state Legislature, and Ingle is scheduled to receive a leadership excellence award from the association along with Sen. Mary Kay Papen.

But there’s something for the county employees who spent most of their days around their counties instead of offices. The conference will feature a Roadeo competition for county road departments, with a demonstration 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday and an 11 a.m. ribbon cutting. The crews will work during the morning giving a microsurface treatment and fog sealing for the Brady Street entrance of the Curry County Fairgrounds.

Free-time activities for those attending the conference will include a Tuesday afternoon golf tournament at Colonial Park Golf Course, a Tuesday evening 5K at Hillcrest Park, a Wednesday night sock hop, a Thursday night barbecue and dance and tours of Clovis landmarks throughout the week. Also, the county will have donated windmills on site for attendants to paint as part of a community art project.

The association is a 501(c)(6), which is a non-profit educational association that is allowed to advocate for public policy. Esparsen said the association usually works with legislators pretty well, “because we find many of them are former county commissioners.”