What's at stake:
Fresno city officials convened a news conference Wednesday morning, celebrating a federal judge’s decision to block the Trump administration from taking more than $250 million in federal funding away from Fresno, as well as millions more from other local governments.
City leaders applauded a federal judge’s decision to block the Trump administration’s efforts to yank millions in federal funding away from local governments.
The decision, handed down late Tuesday, protects Fresno and a host of other local governments from losing funding based on conditions that federal agencies applied to federal grants. The conditions ordered local governments to follow the president’s executive orders.
“We did this really as a last resort,” Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz said at a Wednesday news conference. “We tried to negotiate with the federal government, but we were really put in an impossible situation where we had to choose between declining federal funds — over $200 million worth of funds — or having our city staff and our city attorneys sign off on unconstitutional and illegal terms that would have placed them potentially in harm’s way in terms of civil and criminal liability.”
Some federal agencies demanded that grant recipients strike down all diversity, equity and inclusion programs or policies, or risk losing federal funding. For Fresno, that translates to grants for airport expansion, transportation, roads, housing and environmental safety.
Just last month, the City of Fresno’s application for more than $7 million in housing funds was rejected based on new language policing rules. However, Tuesday’s federal court decision bars federal agencies from doing that moving forward.
Councilmember Nick Richardson said at the Wednesday news conference that the court order, granted by Judge Richard Seeborg of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, allows for the Fresno Yosemite International Airport to continue its expansion with the help of federal dollars.
“Our plans, our progress for Fresno Yosemite International — we’re not going to let that go up in flames,” Richardson said. “And the same goes for our police department. The same goes for the other monies that are coming down from the state and federal government.”
City leaders emphasized that the lawsuit was not political in any way, and that it was only meant to safeguard federal grants already appropriated by Congress. None of the three city leaders at the Wednesday news conference mentioned President Donald Trump by name.
“We already were spending the money. We already were in contracts with different groups, in terms of housing, in terms of airport expansion,” said City Council President Mike Karbassi. “This really was like the carpet being pulled from under us.”
Mayor Jerry Dyer did not attend the Wednesday news conference.
Dyer shared a written statement with Fresnoland on Wednesday afternoon, describing it as unfortunate that the city had to choose between losing millions in federal funding or taking legal action.
“I am grateful the judge ruled in the City’s favor, and hope that with this ruling, we can now move forward with applying for and receiving funding Fresno is entitled to, and in some instances has already been awarded,” Dyer said in his statement.
He added that federal agencies were requiring that the City of Fresno comply with policies that directly conflict with other federal and state housing and transportation guidelines.
During the news conference, Richardson also spoke to that dissonance: If the City of Fresno went along with new requirements from the federal agencies, it could’ve put millions in state funding at stake.
“Say we decided to follow the executive order and break the state law, break the federal law,” Richardson said. “That means the state money is going away. That means that our public safety money coming in for your fire, your police. SB 1 money coming in for our roads. Prop. 68 money coming in for our parks. We’d be in direct violation of state law, which means we’d lose that money.”
Janz said it’s likely the U.S. Department of Justice will appeal the ruling.
A DOJ attorney did not respond to Fresnoland’s request for comment, asking whether an appeal will be filed. The deadline to do so is 30 days after yesterday’s court ruling.
Early in the news conference, Richardson had fiery comments about government overreach from the state and federal levels:
“I have a lot of bosses. None of them are in Sacramento. None of them are in DC,” Richardson said. “Our messages to both of those higher forms of government who don’t understand how Fresno runs, and the duty that we have to the people who live here — the message is clear: Don’t fuck with Fresno.”
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