What's at stake:
Fresno City Council President Mike Karbassi wants to create an election integrity unit following a messy council election in March. But the person behind the chaos a few months ago is political consultant Alex Tavlian, who also works for Karbassi and helped get him elected twice. In an interview this week, Karbassi said he never talked to Tavlian about the controversial mailers, and never questioned the political consultant about violating state and city election laws. Karbassi has also announced a bid for Fresno County Clerk in 2026, although he hasn’t filed to run yet.
Mike Karbassi says he wants political players in Fresno to follow election laws and be held accountable.
Just last week, the highest-ranking member of the Fresno City Council made a budget motion to fund an election integrity unit at the City Attorney’s Office, citing a messy District 5 special election back in March.
Just like newly-elected Councilmember Brandon Vang, Karbassi said he has also been the victim of “a very inappropriate mailer,” referencing his ongoing lawsuit against Esmeralda Soria over material her state assembly campaign sent to voters in 2022. Karbassi told Fresnoland in a Tuesday interview that those mailers are reason enough for a local election integrity unit.
However, Karbassi clarified that the proposed unit wouldn’t be able to police language in campaign material. It would only be able to enforce existing campaign finance laws, which includes filing campaign disclosure forms on time.
“We have a lot of election-related laws, and the public needs to be assured that we’re going to enforce them to protect their election process,” Karbassi told Fresnoland, adding that a dedicated unit would be able to press charges and enforce the law aggressively.
But it remains unclear how such a unit would prevent or deter the controversy associated with the March special election. Right now, Fresno’s city code sets limits on campaign contributions and requires compliance with state law.
Controversy erupted in March when Fresno Future Forward, a newly created political action committee (PAC) sent disparaging mailers attacking Vang. As alleged by Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz, the PAC — run by political consultant Alex Tavlian — violated state and city election laws for not filing required disclosure forms. Voters in March didn’t learn who was behind the contentious mailer until weeks after the election.
Karbassi said Janz’s office should have a specialized unit to continue enforcing election laws, and hold everyone accountable — from candidates to PACs.
“Really it’s about making sure if you do have an (independent expenditure), that you’re filing properly,” Karbassi told Fresnoland. “If you don’t file that we will pursue charges against you for not doing that.”
However, in the aftermath of the messy March special election, Karbassi told Fresnoland he didn’t talk to Tavlian about the mailers sent by the Fresno Future Forward PAC. Karbassi has been a long time client of Tavlian, who helped Karbassi get elected to the Fresno City Council in 2020 and in 2024.
Since 2019, Karbassi’s political campaign account has paid $98,738 to Park West Associates, a political consulting firm run by Tavlian. While Karbassi does have more than one political consultant, none of them have been compensated as much as Tavlian.
Additionally, in 2022, Karbassi’s District 2 government office signed a $45,000 contract with Local Government Strategic Consulting, another firm run by Tavlian. His office signed another one of those contracts with Tavlian’s government consulting firm in 2023.
Tavlian is also an executive of the nonprofit Restore Fresno, which received $25,000 in behested payments in 2023 at Karbassi’s request. The nonprofit’s address is the same as Karbassi’s Persian rug store in northwest Fresno.
Fresnoland reached out to Tavlian for an interview, but did not get a response. California’s state politics watchdog is currently investigating Tavlian over “potential violations of the campaign disclosure provisions of the Political Reform Act.”
Karbassi is far from the only politician who has sought Tavlian’s services. The political consultant helped Mayor Jerry Dyer’s 2020 mayoral campaign. Tavlian has also been a political advisor for Garry Bredefeld, Luis Chavez, Buddy Mendes and Nathan Magsig, all of whom are county supervisors.
Additionally, Tavlian has worked on campaigns for Measure T in Madera County, Clovis Unified’s Measure A school bond and the Fresno Teachers Association.
When asked why he didn’t question Tavlian about sending out disparaging mailers and violating state and city election laws amid the District 5 council election, Karbassi said he didn’t want to talk about it.
“I’m going to stop this portion of the conversation because I’m very, very aggressive about separating my elected position from a political campaign,” Karbassi said.
Karbassi said that talking about his political advisor would violate a “strict firewall” he has between campaigning and governing. Karbassi also declined to talk about running for Fresno County Clerk. He hasn’t officially filed to run for the elected position yet.
Should the City Attorney’s Office police city elections?
Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz has a challenging job representing the City of Fresno in all legal matters. He also has seven bosses, since the Fresno city charter gives the City Council full appointing power over the role.
In a May 6 episode of the Fresnolandia podcast, Janz said it’s already “incredibly difficult” for his office to balance having seven different bosses. In some cases, his office is tasked with drafting policy for two different councilmembers who have opposing views on the same issue.
“Every day is a tough balancing act and the way that I try to get through the day is to just remember who my client is, and that is the city of Fresno,” Janz said on the podcast.
When asked about whether the City Attorney’s Office should be policing local elections, Janz said last month it may not be a good fit for his office.
“You could think of a situation where I’m potentially investigating one of my own bosses,” Janz said on the podcast. “So that really creates a weird situation for me and my investigators.”
Karbassi, on the other hand, said the City Attorney’s Office shouldn’t have any difficulty enforcing election laws as a nonpartisan office.
“Even though you have councilmembers that have a political party one way or another, we also do follow the law, and we do it in a political way, whether we’re talking about law enforcement matters or civil matters,” Karbassi said. “We’ve done it in the past. I don’t see why this is any different.”
For Karbassi’s election integrity unit to take full shape, the $120,000 he called for needs to be included in Mayor Jerry Dyer’s revised budget proposal, which will be brought forth later this month.
It’s unclear if Dyer will put funds toward the item, as it’s competing with dozens of other funding requests made by councilmembers during budget hearings this month.
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