Voting for two seats on the Clovis City Council is under way now that the Fresno County Elections Office has mailed absentee ballots.
The city election is on March 3, but more than 70% of the votes are expected to come from absentee ballots as they have for the past two council elections. Voters will choose from among two incumbents and one challenger to fill two council seats.Incumbents Lynne Ashbeck and Nathan Magsig are seeking their third four-year terms. Both supported placing Measure A - a one-cent sales tax increase to support city services - on the March 3 ballot.And that's where they diverge from their challenger, Douglas Foster, a lawyer who opposes the measure If approved by voters, the sales tax would raise about $13 million a year for public safety, parks, road maintenance, recreation and senior services. The money is meant to make up for revenues lost as a result of the recession and the housing slump. The Clovis City Council has cut $8 million in the past two years and has announced its first layoffs since 1993.Clovis City Council members receive $1,102 per month.Here is a look at the three council candidates:Lynne Ashbeck Ashbeck, 54, is a regional vice president for a hospital advocacy organization.Before joining the council, Ashbeck served on the city's planning and personnel commissions. She has lived in Clovis for 36 years.Ashbeck says her accomplishments on the council include creation of a Citizens Academy that allows residents to see the day-to-day workings of the city and efforts to rejuvenate Shaw Avenue and the southwest part of town. She also recently called for an economic-stimulus program for the city. Several business owners met with the City Council about programs the city could develop to expand Clovis' tax base after a meeting with the City Council.The council directed city staff to reduce costs for some business licenses and building permits, and offer incentives to businesses that will create jobs and generate tax revenue.Ashbeck said she supports Measure A because state and federal governments cannot touch the money it raises. Ashbeck said she does not support taxes, but that Measure A will give Clovis local control."It's a more complex discussion than 'do you want a tax or don't you?' " she said. "It's about the kind of community you want to live in, and are you willing to invest in the community?"But if the measure fails, the city will have to make additional cuts that could cost Clovis its edge as a safe and clean city, she said."A big issue will be managing expectations on citizen response with declining revenues," she said.Measure A opponents have no ideas to solve the city's budget crisis other than economic development in an economy that has little economic development to offer, she said. Measure A would allow the city to set aside money for economic development programs, she said. And, despite the sour economy, she said the city must proceed with its general plan update - its blueprint for city growth - so Clovis is prepared when housing and commercial growth rebounds again.Douglas FosterFoster, 36, an attorney for a Fresno law firm, separates himself from the two incumbents because of his opposition to the Measure A sales tax measure.He said he would have supported Measure A if it was used to support public safety and had an expiration date. He said it's a permanent fix for a temporary problem. "I think the primary thing people like about Clovis is that it's so safe and so secure," he said. "If you are going to do this, it needs to be earmarked the right way. …It's too big, and it's just too much in this economy."He said Measure A is emblematic of a "crisis mentality" that seeks higher taxes when a financial situation worsens.Some of the city's budget problems can be addressed through privatizing services for parks and adding volunteers for parks, recreation and senior services, Foster said.He also said the city's pension obligations are too high and must be renegotiated if possible. Foster said the city can save money by moving its elections to the same date as other cities, and by dropping its quarterly city newsletter.He is seeking a temporary moratorium on business fees and wants to freeze development fees. One fee he wants eliminated is the city's business license fee.Those changes would attract new businesses and keep existing ones from leaving the city, he said."Development fees in Clovis are high, and red tape is thick [compared with other cities]," he said.Building only homes will turn Clovis into a bedroom community, he said. That could pose problems, since it costs more to provide services to homes than to businesses, he said.Foster said his differences with the council are philosophical, but he admires its members."The City Council is such a great group," he said. "As opposed to the mess in Sacramento, our council gets things done."Nathan Magsig Magsig, 32, is an executive director of a nonprofit group that builds affordable housing.He grew up in northeast Fresno and went to Clovis Unified district schools. He has lived in Clovis for nine years. Magsig supported placing Measure A on the ballot but has declined to state publicly whether he will vote for it.Ultimately, with any tax measure, tax increases should only be made by the voting public," Magsig said. "With this particular measure, if voters choose to pass it, 100% of the money will stay in Clovis."He said only about 14 cents of every tax dollar is returned to the city, but the city provides the bulk of services residents rely on - public safety, water, sewer, trash pick up, roads, recreation and parks.Magsig said the city operates efficiently with about five employees per 1,000 residents. That's better than Fresno, which has eight employees per 1,000 residents, he said. The city, he said, also has a history of handling sales-tax dollars responsibly. In 1999, Clovis voters passed a three-tenths of a cent sales tax for 15 years to build a new The city also will need to work on its vision for the future as it begins to update the city's general plan, its blueprint for growth, he said. Magsig said he envisions a future with developments similar to Harlan Ranch, which has more homes per acre than most Clovis tracts but doesn't have the feel of a high-density subdivision.But>voters' decision on the sales-tax measure will dictate whether Clovis can hire police and firefighters, undertake road upgrades, parks maintenance, and bolster its recently slashed recreation and senior programs, he said.If the measure fails, Magsig said, the city will have to cut more expenses. "We will continue to cut to make the budget balanced, and the services to the residents will continue to diminish," Magsig said.