City clerk and Navy commander says life is what you make it

Clovis election time keeps John Holt hustling

By Farin Montanez / Special to The Independent Friday, Mar. 28, 2008

Clovis City Clerk John Holt says there are people who are lucky and people who make their own luck.

The 45-year-old Navy commander, public official and proud father said he has made his own luck.

"I work my ass off at my job to do a good job," Holt said.

But what is a city clerk's job? "It's really boring stuff," Holt laughs.

Holt was appointed by the Clovis City Council and acts as its administrative assistant, record manager and project coordinator.

Holt prepares the agenda for every City Council meeting and posts it for the public. Then he keeps the minutes during council meetings and makes sure the council follows procedure.

As "the keeper of the record" Holt is the go-to guy for copies of resolutions, ordinances or anything else approved by the council. Holt scans documents into an electronic record system that makes it easier to look up a specific paper.

Another part of his job is being Clovis' public information officer. He acts as the mouthpiece for the city in case of an earthquake or other disaster. "I work with different departments to get timely, accurate and expedited information out about the catastrophe," Holt said. "Whether that be in a news release or with a reporter with a camera in my face."

Holt's mannerisms make him fit for this task. Diana Stice, deputy city clerk, says he is professional and very clear in his instructions, often drawing and writing things out to make them understandable.

"You immediately get the sense that he knows what he's talking about and you can be very secure in the answers you're getting," Stice said. The most demanding task of the city clerk is conducting the elections, which Holt says "is more complicated than you could imagine."

There is an election March 6 for three seats on the City Council, and Holt is responsible for the election process. "My life gets real nasty for six months," he said referring to the large amount of work involved in running an election.

Holt's tasks don't end there. Being the only male in the administration office of city hall, Holt occasionally must play the role of handyman.

"If there is anything that needs to be carried, I carry it," Holt said. "If there's a car that needs to be put together, I put it together."

Holt's typical workday runs from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. He has meetings for half the day and the other half he sends e-mails and makes phone calls to complete the many city projects he has written on the white board above his desk.

"My whole day is juggling to keep my head above water," Holt said. "The challenge for me right now is not getting buried in the detail." Holt can even be found in his office on Saturday mornings, finishing up projects and reports.

"I can come in from 6 to 10 a.m. because my kids sleep 'til noon on Saturdays," Holt said. "It's amazing how much I can get done when I'm alone here without the phone ringing."

Holt also finds time for his second job as a Navy commander. He has been in the Navy for 21 years and is the acquisition logistician for a project to build the new Presidential helicopter. In other words, he schedules the buying of the parts and hires people to work on the "Presidential helo," which is slated for completion in 2013, Holt said.

The project requires Holt to travel to Washington, D.C., for a week or two at a time to meet with different companies and builders, but he is glad that he can do most of his work from his home. He occasionally meets with Los Angeles-based engineers in Point Mugu near Santa Barbara to discuss the construction of the helicopter.

"The real reason we meet down there is because of the great golf course," laughed Holt, whose average golf score is 100.

How does a Navy commander become Clovis' city clerk?

"I stumbled into it," Holt said. "I've been so lucky. Without a plan I stumbled into good opportunities."

Holt, the youngest of five siblings, was born in New Mexico and raised in Seattle. He relied on a scholarship and bartending to put himself through college at the University of New Mexico.

Upon graduating in 1985 with two bachelor's degrees -- in international management and in marketing -- Holt had the option of managing a 7-Eleven or joining the Navy.

"I was 23 and single, so the Navy was a good experience," Holt said.

He joined to see the world but was stationed in Lemoore where he met his wife, Elvia. They married on Dec. 28, 1986 -- Holt is sure to keep his anniversary written on the calendar above his desk so he won't forget.

"I'm horrible at remembering birthdays," Holt said.

Military life kept him away from home, so Holt decided to leave active duty and become a reservist.

He worked for Boeing in Seattle for three years but moved back to California when his wife, who is from Tulare, grew homesick. He was hired as an accountant at Quickie Designs Inc. in Fresno but hated the job.

He left the position in 1994 to become a financial analyst for the City of Visalia. He worked in different positions for Visalia for five years and loved it. However, the commute from Clovis was taking a toll on his family life.

"It was a two-hour commute, one there and one back," Holt said. "It made it hard to make it to the kids' sports games after school. I was lucky to catch an evening game." Holt is the stepfather of three, now all in their 20s, and father of a 15-year-old Clovis High sophomore football player.

"My reason for leaving the best job in the world was to spend more time at home and to coach my son's baseball team," Holt said.

He secured a job as management analyst for the City of Clovis and became the city clerk in 2004 when the former city clerk retired. His office is conveniently located one mile from his house.

Holt golfs when he wants to get out of the house and he refinishes furniture as a hobby. Holt said most of the furniture in his house was found at yard sales and then refinished.

"I come from humble beginnings," Holt said. "We don't buy new furniture." Holt said he leads a "middle class boring life." "I wouldn't say it's exactly boring," said Holt's son, Jonathan. "For holidays and birthdays and stuff everyone in our family goes out to eat or we have big gatherings at one of our houses." Holt agrees that these kind of gatherings are customary and said his family doesn't take traditional family vacations.

"We're a traditional Hispanic family," Holt said. "Our house is the destination. There are always cousins, uncles, aunts, everyone at our house." But in June, he took his son and 13-year-old grandson James on a tour of 15 East Coast universities so that they can see what is beyond the Central Valley.

"They're both college-bound kids," Holt said. "We toured Boston College, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Navy War College, NYU to name a few. It gave them an appreciation of what is out there." Holt is glad that he exposed the boys to a different part of the country. He wants them to see as much as he saw while in the Navy.

"They think I'm a fuddy-duddy and I'm boring and I've never done anything good in my life," Holt said. "But I just want to set an example by being a good man."

According to his son, it's working.

Jonathan describes his father as hard working, precise and "just a great guy."

Friendly Faces is an occasional series about people in Clovis who make it a great place to live. To nominate someone to be profiled in this series, please e-mail Patti J. Lippert at plippert@clovisindependent.com