Deputy City Planner, City Attorney Retires

Deputy City Planner Orlando Ramirez is retiring after more than 30 years of service with the City of Clovis. (Jorge Rodriguez/Clovis Roundup)

At Monday’s city council meeting, a farewell ceremony was held for Deputy City Planner Orlando Ramirez, who will be retiring at the end of the year. Ramirez served in the City of Clovis for over 30 years in several positions with his last one being the deputy city planner.

Ramirez was recognized by his peers with a video presentation that showed him throughout the years in photos with coworkers. He was praised for his work and his leadership through his tenure and was also celebrated for his work for the City of Clovis. Ramirez made several projects for the city of Clovis which included a pod belly pig ordinance and the main designer for the entry sign on Shaw Avenue. 

Public utilities presented Ramirez with a street sign that had his name as a recognition of his years working for the city. He was also handed a plaque that recognized all of his positions he maintained during his time with the city of Clovis.

Ramirez thanked everyone for their kind words and said he was grateful to have work for the city and even when times were tough the city was there for him so he was always there for the city. He went on to mention how he grew up in the small town of Mendota and how he had no plans of getting into government or going to college. However, thanks to some great people he was able to get an education and later on landed the job with the city. 

“I thank you for the amazing career that I had, I tell all our staff this is the best place to work with the most amazing people,” Ramirez said. “We have the best planners in the state and I believe that to this day and now we’ll have a new generation of planners and I encourage them to keep striving hard and work with passion.”

Later on in the meeting there was another farewell said to another long time city employee who will be retiring next summer. David Wolfe, the City Attorney will leave his position on January 1 and Scott Cross will be replacing him.

Wolfe is set to retire from the Lozano Smith Firm where he is a partner by next summer, but has decided to leave his position as Clovis city attorney by the end of the year. The City of Clovis has a contract with the Lozano Smith Firm for professional legal services and Wolfe was appointed as city attorney.

Wolfe’s position will be filled by Scott Cross who has worked with Wolfe in the past and knows the position well. 

Wolfe was thanked by the council and by city manager Luke Serpa for his dedication and for his work for the city of Clovis. Mayor Drew Bessinger gave Wolfe a city challenge coin in honor of his service for the city and much like Ramirez he was also given a street sign with his name on it. 

“Working for the City of Clovis has been the best possible job I could have ever asked for, I have been able to use my legal training with my passion for urban planning to better the community,” Wolfe said. “I loved helping the community…working with everybody here, I loved this job.”

Jorge Rodriguez has a passion for journalism and wants to bring the community information and great stories. After high school Jorge joined the U.S. Army and while in active duty he was deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While in college he worked for the Fresno City College Rampage and the Fresno State Collegian newspapers. He graduated from Fresno State in 2019 with a degree in print journalism.