What's at stake:
The Fresno City Council greenlit new parking projects and began clearing the way for a new police helicopter.
The City of Fresno will develop a new downtown parking structure near Chukchansi Park, take over wastewater services in Pinedale and connect the residential community of Daleville to the city’s sewer system.
The city will also sell a home it owns to cover expenses on a new police helicopter. Additionally, the city extended contracts and increased homelessness funding for five organizations by more than $5 million using state funds.
Most of these matters were part of the regular Fresno City Council meeting’s consent agenda on Thursday — made of 31 items all approved with a single vote without discussion.
However, one consent agenda item that did get pulled for discussion by Councilmember Miguel Arias was about the city-owned home set to be sold. He asked city staff to explain what the home’s sale revenue would go toward — a specific detail not included in the agenda item’s staff report.
“Our intent is the revenue from that is going to be used in the 2025 budget to offset the cost of the first year payment of the new police helicopter,” responded City Manager Georgeanne White.
The city is now set to sell the home, located at the intersection of Brix and Swift avenues in northwest Fresno. The home was first acquired by the city in 1993 for the Fresno Fire Department, but in 2010, the city’s police department began using the home for its background investigators. In 2020, the investigators relocated elsewhere and the home has been vacant since.
The city’s plan to acquire a new police helicopter became public when Mayor Jerry Dyer announced it in his proposed budget presentation for the 2025 fiscal year before the Fresno City Council. On top of sale revenue from the city-owned home, the city is also counting on revenue from selling one of its helicopters — which is two decades old — to cover the cost of the new helicopter.
State funds to finance new downtown parking structure
Across the street from Chukchansi Park, the city is planning to build a new 40,000 square foot multi-level parking structure on H Street with “roughly 900 spaces,” according to a city staff report.
Once built, the parking structure will be owned and operated by the city and its construction will be financed by state funds for infrastructure in downtown Fresno.
Last December in a Fresno Bee report, experts, downtown business owners and community members questioned why tens of millions of state infrastructure dollars were going toward building parking structures in downtown Fresno.
Fresno City Council helps with wastewater and sewer infrastructure in neighboring communities
Wastewater services in Pinedale will be transferred to Fresno after the community’s utility district found its services are redundant with services the city and county already provide the community.
The city will move forward with obtaining ownership of physical infrastructure from the Pinedale Public Utility District. Additionally, the transfer of ownership will include $3.2 million to the city to cover ongoing repair and maintenance of wastewater assets.
Fresno will also be constructing sewer infrastructure for the residential community of Daleville — just south of Fresno — to address its aging sewer infrastructure.
A city staff report cited Daleville residents’ “strong desire to abandon their septic systems and connect to the City’s sewer collection system.”
“Some of the residential septic tanks are reported as failing,” according to the staff report. “All are likely contributing to high nitrate levels in the groundwater as substantiated by 77 percent of domestic wells sampled indicating nitrate levels above the Maximum Contamination Level (MCL) for drinking water.”
The sewer main construction will be funded by the California State Water Resources Control Board, according to the staff report.
Fresno City Council extends homelessness funding contracts
The Fresno City Council also gave one-year extensions to existing homelessness services contracts with five organizations, along with more than $5 million in additional funding from California’s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention grant program
The contract extensions and increased funding went to Golden State Triage Center, Mental Health Systems, Clarion Pointe, Turning Point of Central California and the Marjaree Mason Center.
Advocates and public officials call attention to a potential ballot measure
Just before Thursday’s City Council meeting, several local organizations rallied outside City Hall and called on voters to reject the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, a ballot measure that could end up in front of California voters in November. If passed, it could impact local measures that depend on tax revenue. It’s currently being debated by the California Supreme Court, which could boot it from the ballot by next month.
Fresno Councilmember Luis Chavez and labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta led a news conference in front of Fresno City Hall. Huerta said the measure should be renamed to the “Taxpayer Deception Act,” and emphasized how it would impact tax revenue that supports schools, emergency response, parks, libraries and affordable housing.
“We have to remember we have a government of the people, by the people, for the people,” Huerta said at the news conference. “Realtors should not make it more difficult for people to govern their own cities and raise the funds that they need for their own cities.”
