Clovis has a couple of things going for it...
First, they've got a council that's been together longer than most married couples.
And second... Foresight.
Council member Nathan Magsig attributes the city's ability to give pay raises to management's conservative efforts since 2007.
It was then that council members recognized the coming economic challenges.
The housing market was slowing down, and revenues weren't coming in.
That's when then-city manager Kathy Millison, and then-finance director Rob Woolley, began working with the city's bargaining groups.
Nathan Magsig, Clovis Council Member: "Council and management staff cut themselves first, and then the bargaining groups were willing to take a lot of those cuts as well. If it wasn't for the fact that management, as well as the bargaining groups, decided to take those cuts early on, we would have major problems today."
Instead of budget cuts, the city of Clovis is looking at getting service levels back to normal, or as close to it as possible.
And council members have made that a priority during budget talks over the last few years.
As they prepared for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, city officials worked the raises into the budget, even before they approved them.
Magsig: "Of course they were small raises, but there's a lot of cities out there where employee groups are have to face 10-15% cuts. So we're proud in the city of Clovis, that over the course of the last five years, we've almost doubled our reserves."
Those reserves are now at nearly 12% of the general fund... That's an increase of about 5%.
As far as the raises, employees will get a 1% pay raise this year.
They'll be getting 2% next year.
Rob Woolley, who is now the city manager, says the raises are a way of saying thank you to the employees who've endured budget cuts over the last five years.
Clovis is also working to increase its reserves to 15% of the city's $56 million general fund.
TXT 24
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