What's at stake?
Jerry Dyer was elected in 2020 in a spring primary election that saw him defeat an established Democratic Party candidate. This time around, the former police chief-turned politician, faces two inexperienced challengers who are running without endorsements or any major financial backing.
Mayor Jerry Dyer is running for a second term to lead California’s fifth largest city over the next four years. However, two low-profile challengers are seeking to replace him in office: Samantha Dussell and Jim Barr.
Fresno is the biggest city in California’s San Joaquin Valley, home to more than half a million residents. The mayor’s office is in charge of overseeing the city manager, preparing an annual budget and also has the power to veto legislation that comes out of the Fresno City Council.
If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote in the March 5 primary election, the two candidates with the most votes will head to a runoff in the November general election. Dyer’s two opponents, who have never held political office before, say they want to change Fresno for the better.
Jerry Dyer
Dyer, 64, was elected in 2020 in a spring primary election that saw him defeat an established Democratic Party candidate. This time around, the former police chief-turned politician, faces two inexperienced challengers who are running without endorsements or any major financial backing.
Dyer pointed to a few key successes since he took office in January 2021. His expansion of the city police department, increasing its budget to $261.9 million, has allowed its staffing capacity to grow 900 sworn officers.
Additionally, the budget for the city’s fire department also expanded by about $50 million during Dyer’s first term in office to about $127.6 million last year.
Dyer also brought up the work done by volunteers in his initiative Beautify Fresno, who have cleaned up “trash, graffiti, and blight” all over the city. Additionally, he said that while there’s more to do to address homelessness, his administration has taken the subject seriously, including with Project Off Ramp.
Dyer’s first term, which began during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, included at least two controversies that saw the Fresno mayor reverse his positions on issues that put him at odds with some of the city’s marginalized communities.
The day after he objected to the city raising the Pride Flag in 2021, he reversed his position on the matter after an outpouring of criticism.
The Fresno mayor again drew criticism when, in response to Hamas militants attacking Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, Dyer flew an Israeli flag at Eaton Plaza, which he did without consulting the local Jewish community in Fresno. In his remarks that day, Dyer failed to acknowledge Palestinian civilian suffering and chastised pro-Palestine protesters at the event. Frustrations from Palestinian residents in Fresno grew over him siding with Israel in its occupation of Palestine.
While he pushed back against criticism initially, he later apologized to the Palestinian community at a news conference in December, but he notably excluded the same Palestinian activists who had been urging city officials to take action.
On policy accomplishments, Dyer touted his record on everything from public safety to affordable housing and homelessness and said he expects major policy wins in a second term.
“You’re going to start seeing a lot of the things that we worked on in the first term come to fruition in the second term,” Dyer told Fresnoland.
On homelessness, Dyer said Project Off Ramp had positive results in removing 650 unhoused unhoused people from near Fresno’s freeways. He told Fresnoland that 75% of them had a “safe exit,” which he referred to as unhoused people either obtaining permanent housing or moving in with relatives.
Dyer added that there’s more work to do on homelessness to make sure those who are chronically homeless get the support they need and get off the streets. He said there’s more Fresno County could be doing as well.
“It is so important that the County of Fresno fully implement in a timely fashion the CARE Court that has been brought forth by the governor,” Dyer said, “which provides a system for mandating treatment.”
On housing, Dyer touted a statistic in the current fiscal year budget: New affordable housing units built by developers during Dyer’s administration, along with those that will be completed by the end of 2025, represent a 1,644% increase in new affordable housing units when compared with the prior five-year period.
His office confirmed via email that, in 2023, 258 affordable housing units were built in Fresno. His office projects another 1,007 affordable housing units in 2024 and another 1,034 affordable housing units in 2025.
Dyer doubled down on his stance against rent control in Fresno, saying it would stymy housing development in the city and rub landlords the wrong way, enough to make them flee Fresno. He added that rent control would lead to landlords making less money and, likely, fewer investments in their rental properties, which he said could spur substandard residential communities in Fresno.
When asked what his administration is doing to alleviate rent burden on Fresno residents, he pointed to the city’s eviction protection program, which was proposed by councilmembers Nelson Esparza and Tyler Maxwell back in 2021. He did not point to any current programs addressing the burden on renters prior to eviction.
When asked why the city did not find a way to fund the Emergency Rental Assistance Program after federal and state funding ran out, Dyer said there was no appetite from the Fresno City Council during budget negotiations last year to keep the initiative.
While he noted Fresno City Councilmembers’ appetite, the Fresno City Charter gives the mayor full control over what makes it into the annual city budget. Dyer also cast doubt on whether the city budget’s general fund dollars could be used to bring back the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program in the future.
“In two and a half years, we spent $67 million (from ARPA),” Dyer said. “That would be a tremendous burden on our general fund.”
On jobs and the economy, Dyer said this year’s city budget will likely be leaner than past budgets because of union contracts that require raises for city workers, so the budget will not likely have room for new programs, especially one for rental assistance.
“It’s going to be challenging enough to keep us from being in the red as a city with declining revenues,” Dyer said. “So we won’t know until we see our actual numbers — what we’re going to be able to afford or not afford.”
In the eight months of the current fiscal year, Dyer said sales tax revenues are down, and it’s a signal to be more prudent with the city’s budget planning, which began in February.
“We do anticipate, based on numbers that we track on a monthly basis, that we’re going to see far fewer revenues this year than we have in the last three years,” Dyer said.
On city hall staffing, Dyer pushed back against the idea that there’s been a lot of turnover during his administrations. Since he took office, the directors of the following departments have changed:
- Fire
- Public Utilities
- PARCS
- Finance
- Transportation (FAX)
- Airport (FYIA)
The city also hired Paco Balderrama in 2020 to lead the police department, which Dyer led for almost 20 years.
Fresno’s City Clerk and City Attorney are also not the same as when Dyer first took office, although the city council appoints those two positions.
Additionally, former City Manager Thomas Esqueda resigned right in the midst of heated police union contract negotiations.
Dyer maintained that there hasn’t been much turnover.
“I think we’ve had quite a bit of stability,” Dyer said. “There have been a handful of people that have left, but quite frankly, not not very many.”
Samantha Dussell
Samantha Dussell, 55, is a Fresno resident who has previously worked in retail, customer service, food service, restaurant management and bookkeeping. Dussell said she is currently on state disability insurance but knows she would be able to carry out the tasks of the mayor’s office.
While Dussell has never held political office before, she said her experience in customer service has taught her many life skills. She wants to make sure that city government is working for the average resident.
Dussell said she wants to make Fresno City Hall more transparent. She cited Fresnoland’s investigation into whether Fresno’s budget process violated state law for the last five years. She also took issue with annual secret budget committee meetings.
“Everyone is upset that there’s no transparency,” Dussell said. “I definitely think we need to bring that.”
Additionally, Dussell said she wants to use the mayor’s office to unify the county and the city in their approach to issues they’re both grappling with.
“It doesn’t make sense to be separate,” Dussell said. “Fresno city is in Fresno County. I mean, we live together, we’re not separate countries and we need to bring unity.”
Dussell is most motivated about wanting to address the issues of elder abuse in Fresno, and she wants to streamline the approach that first responders take when addressing such cases.
Dussell said she tried to get a family member out of an abusive situation and was unsuccessful and said there are issues with how different agencies work together to respond to elder abuse. She added it should be taken as seriously as child abuse.
“We have so much technology that they can use on the field to help the officers streamline everything — just making it easier so that way if there’s an alleged abuse situation, all the information can be collected and it can be transferred to the detective who will actually do the investigation,” Dussell said.
On housing and homelessness, Dussell said the city needs more affordable housing and that it shouldn’t be sectioned off into specific communities.
“I’ve heard and interacted with people in the community and they’re like, ‘Why can’t we go up north? Why are we segregated to this area?’” Dussell said.
Although she did not have any specific plans to increase affordable housing, Dussell said she would need to assess what agencies provide help to Fresno residents. She added that Fresno’s city councilmembers need to find common ground with Fresno County’s supervisors over the tax-sharing agreement.
On jobs and the economy, Dussell said no business owners would want to set up in Fresno considering the state of city government, specifically what she sees as mismanagement at Fresno City Hall.
She questioned why Fresno’s city officials should be visiting countries on the taxpayer’s dime, referring to Dyer’s visit to Münster, Germany with councilmembers Luis Chavez and Mike Karbassi.
“Why do you have to take more than one person on a trip? That’s ridiculous,” Dussell said. “That’s a vacation. We have technology where if I want to go to Germany, I just have to call someone up from Germany and have them point their phone — we could FaceTime.”
Jim Barr
Jim Barr, 65, is a recently-retired Fresno Unified School District teacher of 25 years. He said that now that he’s retired, he wants to jump into politics.
Barr previously vied for a Fresno Unified School Board seat back in 2022, but came in third place. Now, he’s shifted his attention to city government.
“I want to learn more about the political system and I want to encourage people of all ages to not be afraid to ask for things from the government or to understand what the function of a local government is,” Barr said.
He specifically highlighted how he would try to better engage with marginalized communities in Fresno. Citing Palestinian residents’ unhappiness with city officials’ public stances on Israel and Gaza, Barr said that he would make sure to listen to what community members want.
“I would reach out to the Palestinian groups, the Venezuelan people that are displaced,” Barr said. “Those are uncomfortable topics, especially in these last weeks before the election. I would be open to more conversations with diverse groups.”
On housing and homelessness, Barr said it’s important to look at models elsewhere including Milwaukee. He thinks more multi-family housing should be built in Fresno and that high speed rail could bring a big change to the city at large.
On labor and economy, Barr said to attract more businesses and above-minimum wage jobs, the city’s infrastructure needs to be better.
“To make things more attractive to have higher wage jobs, you want the roads to be fixed,” Barr said, adding that Fresno’s roads and public transit need to be improved. Additionally, Barr said high speed rail would be a long term benefit for Fresno’s economy.
Who is endorsing the candidates?
Dyer
- Fresno Chamber of Commerce
- Fresno Police Officers Association
- Fresno Firefighters Association
- Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1027 (Fresno City Bus Drivers)
- Fresno City Employees Association
- City of Fresno Professional Employees Association
- Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings Building Trades Council
- Carpenters Local 701
- Fresno Association of Realtors
- California Apartment Association
- Councilmember Garry Bredefeld
- Mike Karbassi
- District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp
- Former Mayor and Assemblymember Jim Patterson
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