Live-tweet thread by Andy Hansen-Smith:
June 16, 2022 Fresno City Council meeting! With this meeting occurring in the middle of budget hearings several items have already been continued to the June 30 meeting. A WORKSHOP on Measure C and whether it should be a ballot. #Fresno @fresnoland
Among the Consent Items 1-L Actions pertaining to the Palm Avenue and Belmont Avenue Class IV Protected Bikeway Project – Bid File 3848 (Council Districts 1, 3, and 7): 1. Adopt a finding of Categorical Exemption per staff determination pursuant to Section 15301/Class 1 of the
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines 2. Award a construction contract in the amount of $1,236,120 to VSS International, Inc. of West Sacramento, California
1-M RESOLUTION – Adopting a list of proposed Public Works projects to receive Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account funding for City Fiscal Year 2023.
1-N BILL B-13 (Intro’d 6/9/2022) (For Adoption) – Amending Management of Real Property Ordinance, FMC sections 10-701 – 10-706
1-O BILL B-14 (Intro’d 6/9/2022) (For Adoption) – Amending Filing a Notice of Appeal, FMC section 1-407, to remove automatic stay on enforcement when filing an appeal (Subject to Mayor’s Veto)
Full Agenda:
Watch live beginning at 9 AM on @CMACTV
Meeting begins at 9:07. All Councilmembers are present. Harmony Free Will Baptist Pastor Trent Walley with the Invocation.@kmkarbassi has pulled 1-M from Consent Calendar to Contested Consent On SB-1. Arias tables 1-I and 4-A to future meeting uncertain. 1-E Pulled by
@Maxwell4Fresno and 1-G by @MiguelArias_D3 @GarryBredefeld records a NO vote on 1-F Cannabis item
No Ceremonial items this morning. Council Reports: @MiguelArias_D3 My colleague’s social media post Bredefeld have gotten attention. If I Go Right Garry will Go Left so I won’t comment. @MayorJerryDyer could comment as Bredefeld is his councilmember. @Esmeralda_Soria Thanks
everyone for the Pride Flag Raising Ceremony at City Hall. @D7Esparza Happy Pride! Joined Mayor and Granville for ground breaking in Tower District. Housing , housing, housing! Also Real Estate organizing invited me to their function. Also the pet hair on my desk last meeting
turned out to a pug from one of staff members @_agmunoz ! Arias:thankfully that was solved as it was keeping me up at night he jokes. (Council seems tired and punch drunk form Budget hearings!)
Unscheduled Public Comment Portion:@LisaYFlores1 Nelson should check out the book Noodle the Pug book! Also when is the Council going to sanction the Councilman at the end (Bredefeld). What is his kink? due to his social media posts.When do we stop the hate coming from this dais
I hope God has mercy on his soul. Robert McCloskey:Can we keep cooling centers open when temperature hits 100+? The protracted heat is what puts risk on people. April the Council approved portable bathroom but when will it be rolled out? Homeless advocates need to be heard on
housing for homeless. @LovesMercy A homeless person is on the way to speak. Others were given notices to vacate in 30 days as she was at homeless shelter triage too long. They have done everything that was asked of them but there is no permanent shelters to go to.Anyone can go to
the community center at any time but they cannot bring their pets. Accommodations need to be made.Temperatures of 95+ should be trigger to open the shelters as a cooling http://center.Next:Cindy Pombino: Cooling centers need to be at least 100 to open. Handi Ride for
elderly and those in wheelchairs. They should be open in every district too.Advertising the cooling shelters is needed too. Next:Timmy Too Much: The homeless in Parkway have had poor treatment from Staff. No visitations are allowed. Even prisoners get visitation! An off duty
security guard was allowed to visit but not a person’s family members? Staffing does not know what it is like to be homeless and the struggle.Rooms maintenance is poor too. Next:Shawn Robinson: President of Edison Baseball League. I am wondering why Nielson Park was left out of
budget? This park has flooding and broken down gates. Other than lawns being mowed I have not seen much being done. It is the only baseball park in West Fresno. Sadia Khan:Measure C is not ready for the ballot. FCOG has not been transparent and meetings are at times the working
cannot be there.I ask you don’t consider it for 2024 Ballot but wait until 2027. Kimberly McCoy:Nielsen Park is a forgotten park and needs TLC. Irrigation that doesn’t flood and other maintenance is needed.
Contested Consent 1-E @LuisCha70215912 recuses himself) Authorize the one-year extension of the Subrecipient Agreement between the City of Fresno (City) and Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission for social service transportation in Urban Fresno County for a projected FY 22-23
Operations Program & Budget amount of $1,306,500 Staff:EOC was selected to be social provider such as Headstart and Veterans free shuttle into downtown. @Maxwell4Fresno Why isn’t Fresno County responsible ? Staff Moises Styff:Part of FCOG so the County does have a say. $1.4 M in
urban area and $700,000 in rural. None of the city money’s would provide rides to rural OR Clovis. A variety of vehicles are used such as refrigerated cargo vans for food delivery, Head Start school busses. You would go through EOC to use these services and not City. No city
funds used and paid with a % of FCOG (Fresno Council of Governments) budget. @MiguelArias_D3 What services for Golden Palms Mobile Park?Staff Joe:a route to get to grocery stores etc. Arias:They want to get to Vallarta. Arias:Urban includes Clovis? Staff:No. They have their own
Clovis have changed their bus routes to Peach after County moved Social Services Dept. Arias:Were we ever reimbursed from Measure C to re-route our bus line there? @gregorybarfield Cost was neutral but the impact to individuals and total cost is unknown. Arias:we were asked to
pay for cost of rerouting #28 bus line and we said NO as County caused this. We do know the impact as individuals from West Fresno have to ride for 3 hours to access it. Any Measure C funds for it? Staff:Measure C is used for staffing? APPROVED 6-0
1-G Approve the State of California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency’s (BCSH) California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) joint service plan and local homelessness action plan as an individual applicant for the third round of Homeless Housing,
Assistance, and Prevention Program (HHAP) @kmkarbassi Asks a person in audience to put the his sign down. I can’t make you but as a God fearing person to another can you?
@LuisCha70215912 returns for this dais. @MiguelArias_D3 Has Naomi’s house closed at Poverello? 2020 infamous
trailers the Governor gave to City and County to house homeless. They seem to be empty. Staff:I will find them for you. Arias:Homeless should be occupying them.Please get back to Housing Committee when you do APPROVED 7-0
1-M **RESOLUTION – Adopting a list of proposed Public Works projects to receive Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account funding for City Fiscal Year 2023.
@kmkarbassi What is the gas tax allocated to us? Scott Mozier:$11.6 M and some from carryover list.
karbassi:I often see projects on there year after year. Mozier:we tried to combine them but State would not let us. We can only share the new items separate. On Audubon and Lexington has a $1m project to put in a round a bout to slow down traffic. June 2023 on this phase. It will
be totally completed by Spring 2024. Karbassi:Audubon mitigation is needed and something tragic may happen. Starr Elementary left turn needs help.@Maxwell4Fresno I had same question about same projects keep showing up. Mozier:If approved today they will all be fully funded.
We have had to fill vacancies due to retirement or leaving for another position/job. Covid can take out an entire crew.Maxwell:can we be let known when projects are not fully funded so i don’t have false impression. APPROVED 7-0
3-A WORKSHOP – Measure C3 Renewal @MiguelArias_D3 we would like the presentation and then hear from public.
Public Engagement included 14 Workshops and Community Meetings. 2800 surveys received. This was a high response. 80-81% would approve it if on ballot no matter the length. Very little opposition where typically 20% are against automatically.Little change despite income levels.
80% wanted local roads repaired and we don’t have a good funding source. County and City road needs are very similar. Local Choice Local Control is important and Council would be best to determine where it is used locally.
Larger percentage is allocated for neighborhood local road needs than in past. Less for new freeways this time around. some for bicycle/pedestrian including Safe Routes to Schools. We think the agencies will allocate the funds to be spent in disadvantaged areas but we require at
30%. It could be 100% if wanted. Fresno County has the most roads of any California County so there is a 25% for that but Urban areas get the majority at 75%. This is also close to population split.$4.3 Billion to City of Fresno over next 30 years.
Projects can change so we will look at it again in 15 years.
Why 30 years? We can spend half of the money on roads and half on other programs.A PCI of 70 over 20 years would take most of measure C so 30 years better. Also bonding can start now. Better roads will result in lower emissions.
Even when presenting the negative arguments 70% would vote for it. 2024 Election has Presidential on ballot so we want to avoid that. There is a move at State level to take away local control so we need to get it on the ballot now.
@MiguelArias_D3 We will hear from Community and then a Q & A. Veronica from @LCJandA We have been engaged since it was presented in January 2020. We have 30+ organizations with us. Unmet Need process at FCOG and other. Investment in transportation can bring healthy communities
and connectivity. (Slideshow)Fresno Can do Better. We asked them to take a pause and then Covid shut everything down. We had a representative as part of Technical Committee. We asked to have more engagement with community. We were at table and had ideas but were told that didn’t
happen. DRIVE also asked for community engagement. Executive Committee in May 2021 a series of letters went out. When Community is put in driver’s seat good things happen like Measure P. They added 5 more additional seats to the 27 member seat. Then we were told the 27 CBOs that
reached out would share 1 seat OR DRIVE would be given seat so we said NO. Measure C dollars were used for this. That money could have been used better. 5 additional seats were given including @LCJandA in September 2021. We submitted goals in January 2022 and were the only agency
to do so. We were told there was some overlap but some were not. Nobody could tell us how equity was being addressed. Allocation percentages are arbitrary. Significantly reduces funding for much needed public transit. Need to account for Climate Change. No workforce or local jobs
requirement. The public oversight committee will only receive reports but no real decision . We DO support Measure C. The current Measure C doesn’t expire until 2027. We have time to make this better. What is the real transit need? Conduct an accurate analysis of need. State is
zero emissions and thus we need to apply for those grants. We have all invested in Measure C but we don’t have public transit. This $4 B is hard earned taxpayer dollars. We are not doing anything to build support from community.This would lock us in until 2057! Many won’t be here
to see the true impact. WE can be a model for not only the Valley but the State. Lets not give away this opportunity! @D7Esparza As this is a workshop there will be no public questions. @Maxwell4Fresno Thanks the FCOG group fro their presentation and it is a tough task.Transport-
-ion is a passion for me. I got Zero Fare passed for our busses. Growing up public transit was very important as I grew up in poverty. COG did extensive polling and people in poverty relied on public transit. It bothered me to hear people say “public transit” is an idyllic dream.
Median income of those who ride on the bus is $13,000 which is well below poverty. Year after year we saw bus ridership has increased until pandemic. It is starting to increase. A large chunk comes from West Fresno and Central Fresno. If we didn’t have Measure C to match State
grants we would not have those for public transit. A percentage for public transit is 12% but we need 19% just to meet bare minimum. Fresno is a poor community and many don’t have a vehicle. That is why we invest in various transit like trails. I can’t promise this Measure will
support our working class society. @kmkarbassi Are there any plans to use workforce to keep more money locally. Some want to go to a vocational school.Staff:Fresno’s PLA doesn’t prohibited from using Measure C.Smaller towns like Fowler probably doesn’t have the population for a
PLA. 80% of the money decision comes from Council. You can require labor training but not everyone may support it and keep this measure from passing. Karbassi:6 of the 7 councilmembers support it. Staff:Labor is on our community. @Esmeralda_Soria The projects on Tier 1 and Tier 2
come from where? Staff:COG created a list from local agencies priority and divided those by Rural and Urban. We formed a technical working group and took urban were broken down into their priorities. Scott Mozier , Clovis rep and White from County. Consultant did independent rank
-ing that gave us something to look at and refer to. Cash flow and need of the project helps us. Soria:the 15 year lock in on priority seems long. Staff:it was midway and transportation projects take a long time. We could make it 10. Amendments have to go through a process and it
not easy. Only happened 6 times including allowing litter pick up to be included.High Speed Rail Heavy Maintenance project was amended into it. Soria:we know where the State is going. What can we do to help that? Staff:EV , solar, and EV charging has already been happening.
These are all eligible. Looking at charging stations on SR 99 project. Soria:we need to be sure local area reaches its goals. Staff:best made by local politicians elected by the community. If a road is built by Measure C a bike lane must be added.Soria asks about bonding.
Staff:this measure c won’t expand like current measure does. It would be more maintenance projects. 30% dedicated to disadvantaged was arbitrary and it could be more. Soria:most of County is disadvantaged. Perhaps 70% Staff:Just a caveat to keep eye on the good roads and not let-
ting those go bad. Soria:we want good paying jobs for local workers. PLA is not required but we should have some benchmarks about local hires in this measure. We need to make this investment change people’s jobs. I don’t see that in this so far. I was not allowed to be on the
Measure C Executive Committee but I was told if i was on it would make it TOO Fresno leaning even though TWO Clovis reps are on there! Staff:I think we should go back and look at a local hire goals.@MiguelArias_D3 What is the timeline before you reach County Supervisors?
Staff:we posted for public comments and expires June 27.FCOG meets June 30th to approve , modify etc. If approved then FTCA board meets July 20th. Tony Boren and myself plus some staff make that decision. We will finish draft and then FCOG will hear from public. Fresno has one
representative on COG. Arias:we are half the population! Staff:It is still hard to pass without Fresno approval. Arias:but it does happen even though Fresno was against. How many reps from Fresno on FP (sp)? Mayor and Soria. Clovis one. Supervisors 2 . Paul Sahoda reps rural at
At Large but Urban At large is not filled as both Clovis and Fresno have to agree. This new measure C makes it easier to appoint by executive. Arias:My city it the only that has term limits where Harry Armstrong was on for 40 years where we are only one year. How is that local
control if Fresno is half the population. What is disadvantage? Staff:will need to bring that definition back. I don’t think there is a hesitancy for local hires. We did have community groups early but we were looking for 2 from each like ag, etc so we could keep committee small.
I know of at least one committee member uses public transit. We had more than two public workshops including at Fresno Convention Center. We went with COG when they met with groups so more like 6-7. On Bonding FTA board makes that decision. Arias:we had to walk districts in order
get elected. Most of my district wants their roads would be repaired but I have to decide do I support Fire or Police. Measure C has led the largest city in Fresno County at a disadvantage and non term limits of Supervisors gives them an advantage even though we provide the bulk
of revenue. The current Measure C has led to sprawl and Fresno streets to http://degrade.How does Clovis with 10% of population gets 2 seats on Committee but Fresno with 50% of population gets one? Staff:Ashbeck is from Clovis but didn’t represent them. If we kicked off a
mayor to put Soria on it would have been difficult. If we just added her it would have been a quorum problem. Arias:local funds can only be used for repairing the roads but not sidewalks etc? Staff:local control allocation took out some of the pavement repavement to bare bones.
Money is still there but we moved it from repairs to local control bucket. If you move 7% out of local control to transit it still is 11%. Arias:COG baked in these percentages that doesn’t allow sidewalks to be put in. Staff:we hope local control allows a complete street.
Arias:Additional lane on 41 was not decided by us.Staff:urban committee made those decisions and not Tony Boren or myself. (Boren speaking from off camera and not near the microphone) Arias:I am struggling with local control. We are 55% of population but we don’t get 55% of
revenue. We are 55% of population but we don’t have 55% on the committee. The limits of local control puts older neighborhoods at a disadvantage. This as written takes local control from Fresno and hands it over to Clovis to decide transportation for the next 30 years. This
measure is still looking at 1980’s transportation vision such as the late Harry Armstrong who got 168 (Or 180?) out to Clovis using his lack of term limits. I am trying to get a Measure C that cleans the air and makes it a city my 15 year old daughter wants to move back to Fresno
after college. I am not interested in a Measure C that subsidized Clovis and madera Sprawl. I am not sure Supervisor Buddy Mendes would know public transit if a bus hit him. Bredefeld:those were good questions but the letter you sent may not represents all of us up here.
Arias:I will bring it back to us. Brefefeld:that would be good. Council breaks for Lunch. They will go straight into Closed Session from there.
The Council will return to Budget hearings Monday June 20th with Vote on Motions June 23rd. Next Council meeting will be June 30th with final vote on budgets then as well.
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Originally tweeted by AndyHS (@AndyHS) on June 16, 2022.