What's at stake:
The Fresno City Council moved forward with a number of budget motions during hearings this week at Fresno City Hall. They'll finalize motions by next Tuesday, which Mayor Jerry Dyer will have to reconcile with his $2.3 billion budget proposal.
The Fresno City Council is getting closer to finalizing funding requests after a whole week of budget hearings at Fresno City Hall.
At 9 a.m. every day this week, the council unpacked Mayor Jerry Dyer’s $2.3 billion proposed budget with the director of each city department.
Most city departments will institute 5% non-personnel cuts and keep a 6% attrition rate over the 2026 fiscal year, which begins in July. According to Mayor Jerry Dyer, keeping positions vacant would lead to saving $25 million next year.
During the hearings, the Fresno City Council got a sense for each city department’s budget, informing their budget motions, or requests for funding that aren’t currently in Dyer’s proposed budget.
The first budget motion, entered in by Councilmember Annalisa Perea on Monday, requested for $10,000 to be set aside for the Fresno City Council to rent the Fresno Hop trolley for special events in their districts.
This past April, Perea rented the Fresno Hop trolley for the annual Porchfest event in the Tower District. Her motion would make funding available for other councilmembers to do the same for events in their districts, too.
Councilmembers are expected to finalize their budget motions by June 10, after which Dyer will review them and pick which ones make it into a revised budget proposal. That process is typically referred to as reconciliation.
In 2023, the city’s budget process came under scrutiny in a Fresnoland investigation, which questioned whether the city violated California’s Brown Act with private budget committee meetings held every year from 2018 to 2023.
The investigation triggered a lawsuit against the City of Fresno from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and First Amendment Coalition, which is still ongoing.
While city officials maintained its budget practices were legal, the city council still disbanded its budget committee, along with 10 other committees that met privately. In June 2024, Dyer met with each councilmember to reconcile the budget, instead of meeting with a council budget committee.
Dyer confirmed to Fresnoland that he’ll be taking the same approach of meeting with councilmembers individually to reconcile the budget this year.
Through reconciliation, Dyer will end up with a revised budget proposal, which needs City Council approval to take effect beginning July. The budget could be approved by the council as early as June 17 or as late as June 26.
City Attorney asks for another half million for eviction protection
Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz requested another $500,000 to go toward the Eviction Protection Program. In Dyer’s proposed budget, the program had a $1.5 million allocation.
Councilmember Tyler Maxwell, who proposed the program back in 2021, said he’d prefer to assess whether it will need more funding midway through the next fiscal year in February 2026.
“I do wish that we had additional funds to put aside this year. $2 million probably would be my ideal number,” Maxwell said during the budget hearing. “I feel confident saying $1.5 (million) will get us to at least midyear. So I think we should come back and reassess in February and see where things stand at that point.”
Perea, along with Councilmember Nelson Esparza, said they would back Maxwell holding off on getting the Eviction Protection Program another half million dollars. However, Councilmember Miguel Arias made his own motion to give the City Attorney’s Office $500,000 for the program if needed next fiscal year.
“I support my colleague’s position of $1.5 (million) is good for now, but I’m also concerned that the message to the public would be that somehow the City Attorney’s Office would not accept all cases coming forward because of the potential for the money to run out,” Arias said.
Arias’ motion would use carryover general fund resources to provide the half a million dollars if it’s needed next fiscal year.
Tensions flare over whether council offices should tighten their budgets, too
On Thursday afternoon, Councilmember Nick Richardson said city council offices should hold vacancies, just like all other Fresno city departments. After doing some math, Richardson landed on $52,087 — a total amount he motioned to be moved from all seven city council budgets to the city’s general fund resources.
“I think it’s more symbolic than anything — more skin in the game,” Richardson said. “I think it’s a show of good faith, that we’re willing to stand with all these folks who we’re asking to participate in attrition.”
Richardson’s idea didn’t sail with most of his council colleagues.
Council President Mike Karbassi told Richardson to take the money out of his own district office budget, not everyone else’s. Extra funds from Karbassi’s District 2 office are used for public works projects, Karbassi said.
Esparza disagreed with Richardson’s idea, saying that the new member of the council was in need of edification on the reality of constituent work done at council offices representing central and south Fresno communities.
“I wouldn’t say it was a running joke — not a joke at all, but certainly an ongoing understanding — that the member who represents District 6 has always had the luxury of not having to deal with the same level of calls for service to their office,” Esparza said.
Arias went so far to say the Richardson’s idea was performative, adding that his District 6 council office has over $1 million in unspent carryover funds from when Garry Bredefeld was still on the council.
As the councilmembers discussed the matter more, Karbassi jumped in and entered a motion for the $52,087 sum of money to only be taken out of Richardson’s District 6 office entirely, pressing Richardson to second the motion.
Richardson pushed back, saying his office shouldn’t contribute the full sum and that it should be divided equally by all seven council offices.
“No, my motion is for the full amount,” Karbassi responded sternly. “You made a good point. I think we should do it. That’s my motion.”
“From District 6?” Richardson asked. “No, we said our portion — we said exactly 1/7 of that.”
“Fair enough, so when push comes to shove, you’re not going to do it — that’s fine,” Karbassi retorted.
The tense interaction led to a number of reactions on the dais, including Dyer, Esparza and Maxwell laughing out loud.
After Karbassi egged him on, Richardson ended up motioning for the entire sum to come out of his district office’s budget entirely.
Richardson wrote to Fresnoland that he proposed the minimal council cuts because he believed in the idea.
“It’s not our money, it’s the people’s money,” Richardson wrote via text. “Displaying good leadership is never the wrong thing to do.”
Budget hearings will resume on Tuesday, June 10 at 9 a.m. inside Fresno’s council chambers.
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