P&Z commissioner quits over mayor's comments

Robin Fornoff

A Clovis Realtor resigned from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday, saying he may get involved in a recall of Mayor David Lansford.

Brent “Bud” DaBell said he was resigning because Lansford called Barack Obama an illegitimate president and “the carnal manifestation of evil.”

“Any belief that Mayor Lansford’s position will not be a tipping point in future endeavors and government funding for Clovis ... can be nothing but naive,” DaBell said in his letter of resignation. “I feel that my time can be spent more productively serving the city of Clovis by looking into the possibility of a recall election.”

DaBell, contacted at his real estate office, said he hasn’t started a recall effort, “Not as of yet.”

“As time goes along,” DaBell said, “we’ll see what happens.

“I stand by everything I wrote and that’s pretty much it. I don’t have a giant agenda here. I just totally disagree with him (Lansford).”

DaBell is a broker for Remax and was the listing agent on the former Colonial Park Country Club golf course recently purchased by the city.

Lansford, a three-term former mayor, returned to Clovis politics after a four-year hiatus. He was elected March 6 in a landslide, taking 63 percent of the vote in a contest against Gayla Brumfield.

Lansford’s controversial views of the president drew national attention after his election.

Several attempts to reach Lansford for comment were not successful. He has said his personal beliefs about Obama have no bearing on local politics or issues in Clovis.

Former Curry County Commissioner and Clovis businessman Tim Ashley said he believes Lansford’s election will be good for the city.

“I think that David did an excellent job his 12 years previously as mayor,” Ashley said, “and will do it again.”

Ashley is owner of Clovis Concrete Co. and a member of the High Plains Patriots, a conservative political group that has forced two special elections through petition drives.

DaBell’s resignation may be the precursor for a showdown on the city commission over what some have called Lansford’s extreme national political views.

Commissioner Bobby Sandoval said he plans to ask the newly elected mayor at Lansford’s first commission meeting on Thursday to disavow his association with the ATLAH Media Network and its controversial leader, James David Manning.

“I believe that the present mayor is putting us in jeopardy of losing state and federal funds,” Sandoval said, “because of his personal beliefs, which I think should have remained personal.”

Sandoval also said he would support any recall effort “for the same reasons that Mr. DaBell has written here in this letter."

“I agree completely with what he (DaBell) says,” said Sandoval.

Any recall effort would require filing a petition with signatures of at least 932 registered voters, according to City Clerk LeighAnn Melancon. She said the number of signatures must be more than 20 percent of the 4,657 voters who cast ballots in the March 6 election.