Clovis-Curry County LEPC Meeting: Bylaws Revision and Emergency Planning Updates - March 18, 2026
Clovis-Curry County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) Meeting Summary
On March 18, 2026, the Clovis-Curry County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) met to discuss a major revision of its bylaws, receive updates on emergency planning efforts, and hear reports from member agencies. The meeting began without a formal quorum but proceeded under agreement to continue discussion and make a recommendation.
Discussion Items: LEPC Bylaws Revision
- The committee reviewed a proposed rewrite of the LEPC bylaws, originally approved in 2003. Key changes reduce the required voting membership from 18 to 11 organizations to facilitate achieving a quorum.
- Removed organizations include: Canon Air Force Base (to become an ex-officio, non-voting member), City of Clovis Safety Officer, Public Works Director. Clovis Police Department and Curry County Sheriff's Office were combined into one law enforcement seat.
- Added transportation services to align with federal LEPC guidance.
- The chairperson role is changed to 'information coordinator,' with the new chairperson to come from either Clovis City Commission or Curry County Commission, rotating annually.
- The mission statement was clarified: the LEPC fulfills SARA Title III requirements while serving as an all-hazards planning body, focusing on partnerships, community resilience, and support for disaster response and recovery.
- Standing committees were reduced to two: Exercise Planning & Design and Community Awareness. Ad hoc committees (e.g., bylaws committee) may be created as needed.
- Meetings will remain quarterly (January, April, July, October) on Wednesdays at 3 p.m. A bylaw review will be conducted annually.
- A missing section for Canon AFB as ex-officio member was noted and will be added.
- The revisions will be sent to the Clovis City Commission and Curry County Commission for adoption and then incorporated into city and county codes.
Reports
- Emergency Management Coordinator (Ruth Ann Swiliford):
- Hazard Mitigation Plan: Contract signed with H2O Partners; kickoff meeting expected soon with community input.
- Emergency Operations Plan (EOP): In progress, comparing current plan with state crosswalk; a sheltering and evacuation plan section will be added.
- Conference attendance: Attended Region 6 IAEM Conference in Houston; learned about integrating project management into emergency management.
- Training opportunities available at PreparingNewMexico.org.
- National Preparedness Month event scheduled for September 26, 2026, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Clovis Community College Commons area; first aid demonstration planned with EMS division of CCC.
- Tabletop exercise for volunteer fire departments being organized; next meeting for exercise planning and community awareness is April 28 (Tuesday) at 10 a.m. in city hall small conference room.
- Fire Department: Note on dry brush and early fire season; Curry County burn ban in effect (indefinite, subject to conditions).
- Volunteer Fire: Report on checking a satellite hotspot that turned out to be manure pile.
- United Way: Operating 211 line for local resource information; involved in multiple projects.
- Excel Energy: Working on I Access for photos; tier two reports reviewed; some companies filed late but now caught up.
- Southwest Cheese: No update.
- Communications Coordination: Discussion on mass notification tools – city uses HyperReach, county uses Savvy Citizen; IPAWS alerts go through emergency management office for cell tower broadcasts. Public information can be sent to the coordinator for dissemination.
- Next regular quarterly meeting: June 17, 2026 at 3 p.m.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken due to lack of quorum, but the committee reached consensus to forward the draft bylaws to the City of Clovis and Curry County commissions for adoption after adding the Canon AFB ex-officio language.
- The committee will revisit membership applications once bylaws are approved, potentially forming a temporary membership committee.
- The hazard mitigation plan kickoff and EOP updates are progressing; sheltering and evacuation plan will be a new addition.
- The National Preparedness Month event and tabletop exercises are scheduled.
Meeting Transcript
Oh the number. Oh wow. There we go. Good afternoon, everybody. Um we'll do roll call via the sign in sheet at the door, so make sure you sign in before you leave. Um we do not have well I don't think we have a proper quorum at this point. Who do you have? I have well, Mr. Lucera would be energy or utilities. Let's see, where's my old list? Yeah, she'd sent me an email previously. Yeah, Elaine's here. Right across from you. And then local utility. Are you afraid of each other? I saw like there's a bunch of papers there. Oh maybe somebody's saying you would have been fine. I recommend that we go ahead and have this discussion and make a recommendation still knowing that we don't have a quorum, and the reason why we're doing these bylaws is because we can't get a quorum. Okay. Sounds good. So we're gonna jump to new business, which is discussion and recommendation regarding the LEPC bylaws. Um are the old are the well current bylaws that were approved back in twenty uh two thousand three. Because there are quite a few changes in here. Some of the key changes have to do with membership and who is needed to be represented. We have narrowed that list down a little bit. It also moves me from chairperson to information coordinator. And we'll put hopefully somebody from one of the either the city or the county commission as chairperson. Just following the current format of all city boards and committees. Our list of other organizations that need to be represented. I think went from like 16. 16 or 17. Where'd that list go? One, two, three, four. How do we still have eleven? I think the old list was no, the old list is more than eleven, I think. Yes. We went from 18 to 11. So hopefully that'll make that all make getting a quorum at each meeting easier. So can we can actually conduct business. The ones that we took out were representative from Canon Air Force Base because they should be an ex officio member anyway, not a voting member. Then we took out City of Clovis Safety Officer. We took out public works director. We combined Clovis Police Department with the Curry County Sheriff's Office. I'm trying to think of what else. There was we added transportation services. This was on we were following the guidelines from the there's an LEPC, a federal LEPC handbook that lists agencies that should be involved. And we went off of that list plus the list that we had currently. Other changes included rewriting the standing committees to align what we currently have in place and making sure ad hoc committees was in there. So if we need any other committees along the way, such as bylaws committee, we can add those until their task is completed. The bylaws stated quarterly.
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