Our People: A professional organizer

The professional, friendly voice that callers to Clovis City Administration are likely to hear first is that of Vicki Reyes, who works as the administrative assistant to Assistant City Manager Claire Burroughes.

Reyes is a Clovis native who began working for the city 19 years ago at the age of 22. While she has always reported to Burroughes, she said, she has held several different positions in the city administration's central office.

She stays active in community affairs both on and off the job, especially with activities involving Clovis MainStreet and the Chamber of Commerce, and sometimes with the Hillcrest Park Zoo.

Her duties include recording and typing minutes, but over the years they have grown to include event organizer and other duties.

The News got a little time with her on Tuesday. Here are our questions and her responses.

Q. Your duties seem to have expanded beyond what an administrative assistant usually does. What other things do you do?

A. Mostly community events, including the Mayor's Ball, the Easter egg hunt, Smoke on the Water (the city's Fourth of July event), Chamber of Commerce events, parades...It went from 'You need to help to you need to organize it.'

Q. What do you do to organize these events?

A. Usually I organize departments. If it's a parade, I need to get all the information to the Public Works Department, police and fire departments, all of those. It varies depending on the event.

Q. So you've become an organizer?

A. Unfortunately sometimes. Some things are more organized than others.

Q. Do you enjoy organizing?

A. It's something I fell into. I had never done anything like this on a large scale. The first event I helped with was a homecoming parade. It was for was a large deployment coming back from overseas. They decided they would have a homecoming ticker-tape parade. The ticker tape was ordered in boxes. What we needed to do was put the rolls in Zip-lock bags and hand them to people in the streets. I guess it was part of "other duties as assigned." It became a little easier as I got to know people in the city, knowing who I could call and what I could and couldn't do. Some of these events got to be the fun part of the job.

Q. Do you work with community events on your own time?

A. Yes. We've done "Love the Zoo" just recently. That was a beautification project for the zoo. I've been a judge for the Christmas Light Parade for six or seven years. I help Lisa (Pellegrino-Spear) with MainStreet events. I hand out candy for Trunk or Treat, and I've planted flowers on Main Street. And I've worked with Chamber events, all outside of working hours. I also help at the Civic Center. There's a good working relationship between the Civic Center, MainStreet and the Chamber.

Q. What do you enjoy the most about your job?

A. Getting out from behind the desk. Getting my hands into things and being creative, not having to listen to meeting minutes. Meetings and minutes can be overwhelming. Something like this can make up for overwhelming. Each day is different. One day will be all meetings and minutes, the next, I'll find a bunch of inflatable guitars on my desk and I'll have to blow them up. At Easter, there will be thousands and thousands of eggs to hide.

Q. What are you most interested in, in your leisure time?

A. Music and reading. I do a lot of reading and my bookshelf is overrun. I got yelled at by the library director for not checking books out at the library and buying them instead. Right now I have two books that I have checked out and five that I bought that haven't read. I read mostly mysteries and thrillers.

In music, I was in choir from fifth grade until I graduated from high school. I took some vocal lessons and music appreciation classes. I won a soloist award in high school, and I was offered a partial scholarship at Eastern New Mexico University.

Q. But you didn't go that way, right?

A. Well, the partial scholarship wasn't a whole lot, so I went to Clovis Community College as a work-study. I got a degree in general studies with an emphasis in business administration.

Q. Have you ever considered going back for a bachelor's degree?

A. Yes, I'm thinking about it. It would require two math classes, and I'm not good at math. I'm looking at on-line classes.

Q. And when did you start working for the city?

A. When I was 22 years old. I've been here for 19 years.

Q. When did you start working with Claire Burroughes?

A. I have always worked for Claire.

Q. I know Claire is from England. Have you ever visited England?

A. No, but she keeps telling me I'd love it there. My favorite kind of weather is cold and rainy. Days like that cheer me up. Gloomy reminds me of Halloween, and Halloween is my favorite holiday, and a lot of my Halloween decorations stay up all year. My boyfriend feels the same way.

Q. And what about family?

A. I have nieces and nephews. They are everything to me, like my own kids. My boyfriend's daughter is with us every other weekend. When she comes, he says he's got two of us against him. My parents live here, and my sister and her family. I also have family in Albuquerque and Amarillo, Texas. I was born and raised here.