Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Misty Bertrand
Q: What is the purpose of the local government?
A: The city commission and the local government are there to protect the community through the ordinances and regulations. I feel like they should also be the voice of the people by representing our community on that larger level.
Q: The city spent part of 2023 on efforts to ban abortion clinics in Clovis’ city limits. Are you interested in continuing that fight? Why or why not?
A: I am sick and tired of this fight. This is a fight that has been going on my entire life. I understand that it’s going to continue, but reproductive rights are human rights…
Politics is a trigger, abortion is a trigger. Just talking about things trigger people and we’ve been conditioned to not talk about these things.
I want us to talk about these things and get emotional. You’re supposed to get emotional, because things aren’t right.
Q: Why do you want to be mayor?
A: I was raised in Clovis and it’s important to me that all of the people have a voice and are heard. And that we are focusing on improving our community …
I’m doing this for my kid. She needs to see that not only women can do anything, but anybody can do anything. I want to show that just because it’s always been a certain way, doesn’t mean it has to be.
Q: Define yourself in two or three sentences? Who is Misty?
A: I am a mother first and have always had this community in my heart. Misty is a humanist, the people are first. We have to take care of each other or we’ll continue to destroy ourselves and this world we are creating.
Q: Tell us something you like about the job Mike Morris has done as mayor in the past four years.
A: Mike Morris has served as the mayor of Clovis for the past four years and has maintained the status quo.
Q: Tell us something you don’t like about the job Mike Morris has done as mayor. And what would you have done differently?
A: Communication should be a top priority of the mayor. As the mayor I will open communications to include all happenings within the community and not just within the government.
Q: What do you consider Clovis’ greatest asset? And what can the city government do to enhance that asset?
A: It’s the people. It’s always, always, always the people and always will be.
It’s phenomenal that we have Cannon Air Force Base because they bring such a diverse group of people here.
Having been a lifelong resident, you know one of the hardest parts of living here is making these amazing friends and then they leave. So you have little bits and pieces of your heart all over the world because you just met so many amazing and diverse people in Clovis.
We just need to keep them informed… There are a lot of things that are just not being said that could really help the community.
Q: What do you consider Clovis’ greatest weakness? And what can the city government do to strengthen that weakness?
A: Our greatest weakness currently is the lack of activities for our youth. I’m talking about the young kids in our elementary schools, but also our 20-year-olds and our college students.
We just need to have more of everything. We need more people from around the world to come here. We need to bring more of those activities, resources, economic development and those things.
I wish I could snap my fingers and it happens, and I don’t know exactly how to make it happen other than talking about it and finding the right people so that our children and their families have the resources to grow within our community.
Q: Any big initiatives on your agenda if you’re elected?
A: The main initiative on my campaign platform is increasing voter knowledge. So I would love for more than just over 25% of registered voters to turn out. I think that is something I would continue to push as mayor.
It’s super important to know what the heck is going on in your local government and to voice your opinion about that, so we can start to advocate that new energy and put that change into action.
Mike Morris
Q: What is the purpose of the local government?
A: The purpose of the local government is to foster an environment where our residents have the opportunity to lead prosperous and productive lives.
Q: The city spent part of 2023 on efforts to ban abortion clinics in Clovis’ city limits. Are you interested in continuing that fight? Why or why not?
A: I am pro-life and believe that it begins at conception and that it should be protected from that point on … The city commission adopted an ordinance which seeks to ban abortion, but that ordinance has been considered unenforceable, therefore we are subject due to our state’s position on this. I will always look for ways to exercise some local control on this issue and protect lives in Clovis.
Q: What do you like about being mayor?
A: There’s so much to like. What I like about being mayor is being directly involved in the shaping of our future for the benefit of our residents and future generations.
Q: What do you not like about being mayor?
A: There is nothing that I don’t like about it. I truly enjoy and find it to be a blessing to serve Clovis as their mayor.
Q: Define yourself in two or three sentences. Who is Mike?
A: I am a Christian, conservative family man and business owner.
Q: How have you changed since becoming mayor four years ago?
A: I have a whole lot more experience and knowledge of the inner workings here at the city level, as well as the state level when it comes to policy making and budgeting.
Q: What do you consider Clovis’ greatest asset? And what can the city government do to enhance that asset?
A: Our people. We can make moves today to invest in our infrastructure and our quality of life amenities such as healthcare, housing. We can also address public safety needs, water sustainability needs to benefit our people -- our greatest asset -- now but importantly those people who will come after us.
Q: What do you consider Clovis’ greatest weakness? And what can the city government do to strengthen that weakness?
A: Our greatest weakness is our tax base, but it’s also our greatest opportunity. We can do things to foster a healthy and growing and vibrant economy such as recruitment of industry employers that would broaden and diversify our economic base, strengthening our local economy.
Furthermore, we can take steps to incentivize and bring about more retail development in our community, which will mean there’s more money spent locally. Less leakage in our community if we give our residents more places to shop locally and that money can stay home and benefit our community, instead of being exported to other communities.
Q: Any big initiatives on your agenda if you’re elected to a second term?
A: These are not ranked based on priority, this is where my focus is as well as the team around me focus on these.
First of all is infrastructure investment, secondly public safety, third water, fourth economic development and job creation, and then fifth quality of life…
I want to see us execute on our plans to conserve groundwater on a large scale in our area. I want to see the Ute Pipeline completed by the end of this decade. We will need to continue making progress over the next four years if we are going to achieve that goal.
On the economic development front, I would love to see some manufacturing jobs brought here. I want to see our retail offering continue to expand in a form of more national retail coming to town as well as our local businesses to expand and prosper.
— Compiled by Madison Willis, The Staff of the News
