Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of interviews with candidates in the March 5 city of Clovis elections. Gail Tarson will run against Victoria Robledo. Incumbent Lauren Rowley declined to run for re-election. Early voting began Tuesday and runs through March 2.
Victoria Robledo
Q: Describe yourself in two or three sentences.
A: I’m a person that wears many hats, from mother to women’s rights activist all the way to volunteer coordinator. There’s so much that I cover. I’m an ordinary citizen that is advocating for change in our community.
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: As somebody who was pregnant during that entire ordeal, and I spoke on the topic at the meeting where it was initially tabled, I don’t support continuing that fight. Clovis already has so many areas of opportunity that we need to improve that we really don’t have time to pass ordinances that are trying to restrict health care that is already so lacking here. Like I said, I was pregnant during this time, and I could not find the health care I needed for me and my son. So I guess, to have them pass this kind of ordinance while I’m asking them to help find the resources that I need is almost like a slap in the face.
Q: What do you consider Clovis’ greatest asset? And what can city government do to enhance that asset?
A: It’s our community. Our community is what really makes this place and what we can do to help, you know, build that further is invest in our community. We say that we appreciate our community and that that’s the best thing about it. Well, we have to not only say that, but do something for them as well. I believe if we invest in our community, economic development will follow as well.
Q: What do you consider Clovis’ greatest weakness? And what can city government do to strengthen that weakness?
A: There are a lot of a lot of issues that come to mind. Affordable housing, crime and health care access. But that goal really ties into voter participation or even just like resident engagement. A lot of people don’t feel represented by their local government, and so they don’t feel like voicing their struggles is worth it because they don’t even feel heard. If our local officials took the time to listen to their constituents, they not only would understand better about the struggles they face, but we could also find more creative solutions to the problems we’re facing.
Q: Any big initiatives on your agenda if you’re elected?
A: My platform consists of five different points in which I would like to go about making the city better. And the first one, of course, is the biggest issue that I see with our city, which is enhancing voter engagement. The second one would be optimizing community investments. The third point would be strategic grant acquisition. My fourth point is advocating for underserved populations. The last point is healthcare accessibility.
Q: What do you think is the purpose of government?
A: The purpose of government is to, I wouldn’t say give back to the community, but to support the community that we have. We pay tax dollars to our government. We should be able to not only be fairly represented, but to have a say in what happens in our city and our government should make that something accessible to the local everyday citizen.
Gail Tarson
Q: Describe yourself in two or three sentences.
A: I’m a conservative small business owner who is passionate about engagement in the community.
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: My position on that is what the law allows. So, if the law states that we as a community - as a city - have no legal stance to ban abortions or abortion clinics, then I’m going to support the law. I would not want to get our community in any type of legal difficulty.
Q: What do you consider Clovis’ greatest asset? And what can city government do to enhance that asset?
A: I personally believe that the city’s greatest asset is the community members themselves. The city can encourage engagement by the people in the community. Frankly, I know they do that now. And it’s a difficult thing. How do you inspire and motivate people to get engaged and get involved in the community in which they live? But again, we should continue to encourage them to engage and be involved.
Q: What do you consider Clovis’ greatest weakness? And what can city government do to strengthen that weakness?
A: I don’t consider it the city government’s weakness, but the greatest challenge is, is having enough finances injected into our economy to support our government and their efforts to do things that we as city members want. We want good roads, we want police and fire, we want adequate support for our public parks. But we’re limited by the funds. And that’s primarily because of how many people are shopping outside of our own community. In the end, the more shopping done in Clovis, the more the city will have for projects. First, we need to continue efforts to attract more businesses to Clovis. Second, we need to build on our Shop Local campaign to educate citizens on the impact on our local economy by shopping local, supporting local, and building local.
Q: Any big initiatives on your agenda if you’re elected?
A: My initiatives are primarily continuing down the path to inject economic growth to the community. I 100% support the water initiative. Without water, we have no community. We have to be forward thinking about that. Community Safety is huge and is high on my priority list. We need to find ways to not only fight crime, but to make sure the community feels safe. Infrastructure is always a big deal. All of them require funds. And again, a lot of our money is leaking out of this community over into Lubbock and Albuquerque, and folks need to see that we’re doing that, we’re building those communities. We want to be spending our dollars locally so we can build our own community.
Q: What do you think is the purpose of government?
A: The primary reason for government is to make life easier for its citizens, through the joint effort of those tax dollars to maintain the local roads, to create quality of life, to build on safety. That is the purpose of the city government, to maintain a functioning community.
— Compiled by Landry Sena, the Staff of the News
