Fresno County is increasing transparency to approve proposed $5.3 billion budget, after blowback

Fresno County residents can expect more transparency in this year’s county budget hearing process, after years of criticism over its truncated budget process.

Last year, the county passed their $5.2 billion budget in about 92 minutes.

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors will begin budget hearings later this month on their $5.3 billion proposed budget, with the addition of eight scheduled presentations from county department heads.

Freshman county supervisor, and former Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld campaigned to introduce the changes leading up to his election win last year, and even during open sessions at board meetings. 

“I’ve very clearly said I needed, in order to support this budget, to have department heads from what most would consider some of the more critical departments — and departments that have a lot of resources that the public access a great deal — to come before the board and make a presentation so that board members and the public can address, question, inquire about what’s taking place in those departments,” Bredefeld told Fresnoland in an interview.

In recent years, the county’s budget hearings have had presentations given by staff on an “as-needed” basis. The hearings would also be presented through categories on the budget — like “General Fund” and “Capital Projects” — instead of by county departments. 

This year, eight of the county’s 20 departments are scheduled to give public presentations: behavioral health, district attorney, probation, public defender, public health, public works and planning, sheriff, and social services. 

Fresno County Communications Director Sonja Dosti told Fresnoland that the county administrative office selected the eight departments based on “primary services that the County delivers.” She added that these departments have also “experienced impacts based on federal or state cuts.” 

Bredefeld, an ex-city councilmember, says that these changes make the county’s process much more similar to the city’s.

“That, to me, is the important part of any budgetary process,” Bredefeld said. “I think the City of Fresno historically has done that in a very lengthy process, which is good, and the board is doing that now as well.”

The City of Fresno’s public budget hearings take place in late spring, with each department making a presentation. The process is much more lengthy than the county’s. 

This year, the process for the city’s budget, which totaled out at a record-breaking $2.3 billion, took about a month to complete. 

The county budget hearings will have the same rules for public comment as it does for its normal board meetings: three minutes maximum per person, and a 15 minute cap for each department. However, the board’s chairman has the discretion to extend public comment. 

Bredefeld, who has said in the past that he would like to see the county’s public comment policy changed, said he’d support time extensions during the budget hearings. 

“The main thing is that the public has the ability and the right to comment,” Bredefeld said. “If it needs to be extended beyond 15 minutes, I will certainly support that. I would assume the board would support it as well.”

But in order for an extension on public comment to be warranted by the chair, enough members of the public will need to show up during the budget hearings. Bredefeld said he hopes changes to the county’s budget process motivate residents to look more closely at the proposed budget this year, and participate in the hearings.

“I would love that,” Bredefeld said. “I don’t think the public has been engaged, but I think maybe that’s because they haven’t had these kinds of public presentations in the past. The city has every department present before council, and the public is certainly more engaged there. So it’s my hope that the public will be more involved with the county budget as well.”