Candidate Q&As: Clovis District 4

The following are Q&As with candidates for a contested Clovis city commission race. The election is March 6.

Justin Hummer and Rube Render are running for a four-year term in District 4. The seat is open, with Tom Martin choosing not to run for re-election. With the exception of a followup question to Hummer, candidates were given the same questions, and asked to answer them on the spot.

Justin Hummer is an instructor for the U.S. Air Force, and serves at Cannon Air Force Base.

Why do you want to run?

My wife and I have decided that we’re going to retire out of Cannon Air Force Base and remain in the city of Clovis to raise our family. So I just want to take some personal action in the process of city politics and make sure I’m building a good community for my children.

Being in the Air Force, is there any chance you might be deployed while serving on the commission?

No, I’m in a nondeployable position as an instructor and I’m set to retire in three years.

What do you feel qualifies you for the position?

I feel that as a city commissioner you need to have a pretty good stance on analytics and processing the information that’s brought before you. I’ve got about 15 years of experience through the military in analytics and intelligence, so I plan on applying that to my position as city commissioner making decisions that are in the best interests of the taxpayers and the city.

What’s an issue you want to tackle specific to your district?

For my district I think the biggest thing is just trying to bring in more small business, more entrepreneurship and more industry to Clovis. In my district we have several small business owners, and I appreciate everything they do and I appreciate the challenges of what small businesses encounter with taxes, and hiring the right personnel and things like that.

Infrastructure is the big thing, really it’s a citywide deal but also it’s very important for the district to keep building up the industry for the city and make it appealing for people that come here to visit.

What is one simple thing the city or the commission could do to improve the lives of its residents?

I would say just the importance of securing the future for the city. We have the water assurance issue and I feel that is going to be what many people are going to be looking at. You can’t survive without water.

Is there anything the city or the commission currently handles that you think would be better in the hands of private citizens?

Not at this time. I think the most important thing is that citizens are coming to the commission meetings and addressing their opinion on matters and also addressing those same issues with their district commissioners and voicing their opinion so everyone knows where the citizens of Clovis stand, so we can make just decisions on the commission.

Rube Render is a retired project manager for Lockheed Martin.

Why do you want to run?

I have run for this position before. I have taken a keen interest in the city of Clovis and the county of Curry and their political situation since I got here in 2002. I worked, when I first got here, to familiarize myself with what is going on in Clovis. I started attending city and county meetings. I have probably been to more city commission meetings than all of the city commissioners with the exception of the mayor and Juan Garza. The rest of them have been doing what they do less time than I’ve been here.

I believe that the city government should be returned to citizens. I’m an independent thinker, fiscally responsible, and I believe that people should be held responsible for their vote. Responsibility is a big thing for me and I think I can help the city. I think I’ve been here long enough and I’m familiar enough with the problems.

What do you feel qualifies you for the position?

That is pretty much covered in my previous answer, plus the fact that I put 20 years into the United States Marine Corps and I worked in industry for another 22 years.

So my military experience, my commercial experience and my education — both my bachelor’s and my master’s (degrees) are in management from Redlands University in California — and the fact that I have shown enough interest to familiarize myself with problems in the city for the last 16 years that I have been here.

What’s an issue you want to tackle specific to your district?

One of the things that I think city commissioners should do is look at the city broadly. My district goes from Norris Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Street and from Llano Estacado to 21st. So that is a huge block of the city. And when you say what would be something that is specific to my district, you know the roads in general could always, always need help. Infrastructure is getting older, so that needs constant upgrade.

I think we are getting to a point now where the city is going to have to make some hard choices on what our priorities are. The three bond issues coming up are out there and there’s the water issues that are out there. We have some problems and I think we need to look at problems that are going to impact the city globally, rather than a specific fourth-district issue that is germane to just citizens of the district.

What is one simple thing the city or the commission could do to improve the lives of its residents?

Stay on top of the budget. Listen to the citizenry when they bring you issues and concerns. Listen to what they’re saying and try to help them. Help people with individual issues and also global ones, and work with other commissioners to help those problems.

And by the way, having been here and having attended meetings, I know all of the commissioners on a friendly basis. I know them personally rather than somebody who has met them once or twice. Every commissioner works a little bit differently. You have to talk to citizens and other commissioners, understand where they’re coming from and always try to do what you think is best for the city, not what is best for Rube Render.

Is there anything the city or the commission currently handles that you think would be better in the hands of private citizens?

I have to tell you that philosophically I believe that everything that possibly can be done privately should be done privately. I think it was Jefferson who said that the function of the government is to protect the citizenry. So the first thing you should do is make sure citizens are secure in their homes

The next thing is to protect you from me and me from you. And we do that by establishing courts of law. And then they work through enforcing the rule of law, and that includes contracts, contracts of all kinds.

The final thing is that government should do those things that the private entity cannot do. That is generally construed as things like the highway system from coast to coast. However, private industry built the railroads from coast to coast, with help from the government. If it’s possible to do a public-private partnership, I am not averse to that, but when you set up public-private partnerships you have to be careful from both sides.

I’m a small-government guy. We need to protect the population from outside forces, protect you from me, and provide those services that the private economy cannot provide on its own. All the other things that come up, you should take a real hard look and decide whether or not some enterprising business person can’t do it.

— Compiled by Staff Writer David Grieder