Year in review: Cannabis, abortion top issues in Clovis

CLOVIS – The city of Clovis’ location about 10 miles from the border with Texas was central to two major developments in 2022 — legalized production and sales of recreational cannabis and abortions, which are legal in New Mexico but not in Texas.

Understanding the potential for abortion clinics to open in Clovis to serve Texas patients, the Clovis city commission has had an anti-abortion ordinance pending since Oct. 13, when it was introduced to the city commission and approved as a notice of intent.

As a crowd of 190 people watched on Nov. 3, however, the commission voted to table the ordinance, citing concerns about its legality. Commissioners thought it would be wiser to wait for possible state legislation to make abortion illegal in New Mexico or establish restrictions in the state Legislature’s 2023 session.

On Dec. 1, a proposal to “untable” the ordinance failed to win the commission’s support, but the matter continued to be discussed at the commission’s Dec. 15 meeting.

At that meeting, Mayor Mike Morris said he is in “daily communication” with lawmakers about “our ideas,” referring to the desires of abortion opponents and possible abortion allowance changes that legislators could enact during the 60-day legislative session starting Jan. 17.

During public comments, however, five men spoke in support of getting the ordinance back on the agenda and passing it.

“We’re calling on you to represent us,” Logan Brown of Portales said, “Untable this ordinance. Pass it.”

Erick Welsh of Clovis said there is no negotiation on the matter of abortion.

“Santa Fe won’t negotiate,” he said. “Neither will we.”

The ordinance remained tabled at the end of the year.

Legal recreational cannabis was introduced to Clovis in 2022, beginning on April 1. At year end, there were 14 retail cannabis dispensaries in the city, which had raked in a little less than $5.7 million in recreational cannabis product sales by the end of November.

The cannabis business was expected to thrive in Clovis because of its location next to the Texas border, and in August and September, months in which the state ranked cities based on recreational or “adult-use” sales, Clovis ranked eighth among New Mexico cities in adult-use revenues.

The city’s best month for adult-use sales was April, the first month of recreational use sales, when the city’s retail dispensaries conducted $804,083 in sales, according to data from the state’s Cannabis Control Division.

Since then, retail sales in Clovis have ranged from $665,759 in June to $735,346 in July. In the eight months from April 1 to Nov. 30, the average sales revenues for retail recreational cannabis sales has been $708,733 per month in Clovis.

Resulting tax revenue for the city, however, has been disappointing, according to Clovis Finance Director LeighAnn Melancon. The city has not seen “the windfall we were led to expect by our Legislature,” she said.

Adding up the excise taxes returned to the city from the state’s Tax and Revenue Department yields a total of $360,506 from April to October, the last month for which state figures are available.

Melancon said that while the amount of gross receipts tax due to cannabis sales is hard to determine, because it is not separated out in state reimbursement reports, she has seen no windfall increase in GRT since legal recreational cannabis sales began.

“Since it costs about $1 million a mile for streets,” she said, “we haven’t seen enough tax revenue to do even a mile of street.”

Another major issue in Clovis during 2022 was crime. The Clovis area experienced eight homicides in 2022, along with other shooting incidents in which victims were wounded.

On Aug. 17 at the Curry County Fair, there was an active shooter scare that caused some panic and fear among fairgoers. Police said that incident involved a fight among teenagers and no shots were fired.

Two bank robberies occurred within 10 days in June.

In city government-sponsored community meetings, residents said safety was a top concern.

In a city commission meeting in August, the city’s new police chief Roy Rice, who was hired in February, said there has been an increase in violent crime and youth crime in Clovis but added property crimes are decreasing, and sexual assaults and robberies are down.

Rice said that “shots fired” calls were causing much concern but said the city, which had seen five homicides in 2022 at the time, had seen worse. Clovis’ worst year for homicides was 2004, he said, when 13 homicides occurred.

“We looked at areas where shots were fired,” Rice said. “We came up with times, dates and locations and increased patrols accordingly.”

Rice noted the problems with social media as the source of rumors, especially regarding “shots fired” claims.

“When you start hearing rumors, ask questions,” Rice said. He made reference to another recent rumor about 20 FBI agents in town as an example of rumors. “I can assure you FBI agents were not here,” he said.

Rice said one way that social media rumors may be dealt with is turning social media rumors over to the district attorney and have the rumor originators testify before a grand jury.

Rice said the best way to fight crime is community involvement. He pointed out increased patrols and community involvement resulted in one “hot zone” dropping to just one call in two weeks.

Elections in March brought some new faces to the Clovis city commission. Newly elected commissioners George Jones, District 1; Gene Porter, District 2; and David Bryant, District 3 were sworn in later that month.

Voters in March also rejected three ballot questions and accepted one.

The rejected questions would have increased the proportion of voter signatures needed to authorize a recall of an elected official from 20% to 33.33%, removed term limits on city elected officials and required the city charter to be rewritten in gender-neutral phrasing.

Voters approved a question that requires any recall action against an elected official to state clearly and concisely the reason for the recall. The question passed by a roughly 3-to-1 margin.

In July, the city commission passed a budget that included $82.7 million in revenue and $95.5 million in expenses. Melancon, the city’s finance director, said the gap between income and revenue would be filled by $26.1 million in state and federal grant funds.

State grants, she said, help cover costs of projects like the $7.7 million Senior Life Center at Hillcrest Park and ongoing street renovations on Seventh Street and Norris Street.

An official groundbreaking ceremony for the senior center was held Sept. 8.

Federal grants, Melancon said, generally cover drug control, police, fire and emergency management expenses.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham visited the city on July 8 making stops at a swearing-in ceremony for new Clovis police officers, at Clovis Community College’s Allied Health building where she announced $2 million in state funding to help finance a triage education wing to be added to the building, and at a construction site for the Ute Water Pipeline outside of town.

After a two-year absence The Clovis Music Festival returned in June, with headline acts Danny Gokey, a Christian music performer who was an “American Idol” finalist, .38 Special, a Southern rock band whose 2020 appearance at the festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and La Maquineria Norteña, a Norteño band with New Mexico roots.

Another happy event was the naming of the Hillcrest Park Zoo’s baby camel. The name: Alexander Camelton. Naming privileges went to Carpet Tech of Clovis, which bid $750 to win the naming rights.

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