Nathan Magsig: Happy to Have Served the People of Clovis

Nathan Magsig and family. (Photo contributed by Nathan Magsig)

Growing up, Nathan Magsig never knew he would live in Clovis. But living in a Christian household, Magsig’s family knew they would end up wherever God wanted them.

“My father was a pastor so wherever there was a church that needed my dad, that’s where our family would be,” Magsig said. “In the late 80’s there was a church in Fresno called Friends Community Church that was in need of my father so that’s what brought my family here.”

When Magsig and his family moved from Southern California to Clovis, he began attending Clovis schools. After attending Kastner Intermediate and graduating from Clovis West, Magsig attended Fresno State where he achieved a degree in Criminology.

Throughout his time in high school, he started to develop a high interest in government and politics so he started to do some research. After taking a look at some of the elected officials in town, Magsig noticed that most of those officials were attorneys so he decided that if that’s something he wanted to do maybe the answer was a degree in criminology.

“I was going to go to law school and eventually work at a DA’s office and become a deputy district attorney and then some point down the road, maybe in my early 30’s run for city council,” Magsig said. “But I was blessed like all good plans, as time moves forward God has a plan for all of us and I was blessed with the opportunity to serve in local government a lot sooner than I could’ve ever imagined.”

The first opportunity to serve the people of Clovis came at a young age for Magsig as he was first elected to serve as a City Councilmember in 2001 at the young age of 24, becoming one of the youngest councilmembers to be elected.

“My passion is people and I truly enjoy government and planning for the future so in 2001 the citizens of Clovis saw fit to allow me to serve,” Magsig said. “I served as a councilmember starting in 2001 and then I blessed to serve my first term as mayor for the city of Clovis 2005-2007 and then again from 2015-2017.”

Magsig has held numerous positions serving people, especially in the community of Clovis, but those opportunities have not come without doubts and hard times. He has been blessed with opportunities to serve in various positions but along with winning elections there also comes defeat, some more impactful than others.

“I ran for county board of supervisors eight years ago and lost and that experience wounded me deeply, it was a difficult loss for me and at that moment I started questioning myself and contemplating whether or not I would hang up my involvement in local government right then,” Magsig said. “My wife has been fantastic for me cause you know I’ve faced my own challenges individually and she’s always been right there to stand at my side and provide encouragement and that has just been an incredible blessing.”

Magsig is happy that he decided to remain involved in local governments after a tough time in his life because he’s been able to accomplish a lot in providing for the people of the city of Clovis. Some of the projects that he has had a hand in, some more than others, as an elected official in Clovis range from the research and technology park to something as simple as a sewer plant that allows expansion in the city of Clovis for the next 30-50 years.

He put an emphasis on bringing more jobs to the city through expanding business parks in town, with the most recent one being the expansion of Dry Creek Business Park which will bring over 1,000 jobs to the city with that expansion alone.

Magsig accomplished a lot during his 16 years of serving the people of Clovis, especially in his two terms as mayor, but he says all the thanks really goes to his staff and his fellow councilmembers and that he’s just been lucky enough to have a hand in so many great projects.

Magsig’s last day as mayor was Jan. 3, but he still has not stopped serving the people of Clovis. He now serves on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors as the District 5 Supervisor providing for the city of Clovis, a city that his wife and three kids are happy to call home.