What's at stake?
As part of a slew of city code changes, the city council amended the city's anti-encampment ordinance to give law enforcement more tools to uphold the law.
The Fresno City Council approved changes to the city’s anti-encampment ordinance that, at least on paper, gives law enforcement more tools to punish violators of the law.
The amendment codifies loitering as a violation of the ordinance and gives the city attorney more tools to pursue penalties against reoffenders of the law, among other things.
The amendments, which were part of a package of items that included other changes to city code, were approved in a 6-1 vote, with north Fresno Councilmember Nick Richardson dissenting.
Richardson said that he had privately conferred with Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz and agreed to remove the amendment over “wording that didn’t seem to be with the intent of the ordinance.” Richardson questioned whether the language implies anybody standing and sitting at a park could be in violation of the ordinance.
“I think the wording needs to be tightened,” Richardson said, urging the council to postpone the vote until next month..
However, Council Vice President Miguel Arias and Council President Mike Karbassi urged the council to pass the amendments as soon as possible following calls from constituents.
“I’m pretty tired of getting complaints by residents because they want to use public spaces and they can’t,” Karbassi said, citing common angst shared by residents who feel the presence of unhoused residents in spaces like parks, schools and libraries makes those public amenities undesirable.
Before the council vote, the city attorney said the ordinance should pass legal scrutiny.
The amendment was eventually approved and removed the “sit, lie, or sleep” wording from the ordinance’s subsections, keeping “camping” as the sole term used to define an act that would violate the law but without fully defining what would constitute illegal camping.
The city’s ordinance defines camping as activities that include “sitting, lying, sleeping.”
Fresno carves out $12 million to renovate a landlord’s building so city police can rent it
The Fresno City Council unanimously approved to allocate $12 million toward renovations on a building the police department will eventually move into and call their new headquarters.
The cost was included in a $56 million public safety bond announced earlier this year.
The bond saw the police department commit to moving their headquarters across the street to their current site at 2314 Mariposa Mall. The move came following calls from officers and local officials, who cited the dingy and unsafe conditions of their old headquarters, including the presence of asbestos and lead.
Council approved the $12 million appropriation through a procedural vote on the consent agenda.
Council and FUSD aim to keep funding community aquatics programs in 2026
The council also voted to apply for up to half-a-million dollars in reimbursement from the Fresno Unified School District to fund the city’s summer 2026 aquatics programs.
The program would bring funding for resources like lifeguards and staff for swimming programs in up to seven schools: Bullard, Edison, Fresno High, Hoover, McLAne, Roosevelt and Sunnyside.
The city says in their staff report that the collaboration also serves a means of supporting youth employment. The City of Fresno employed 80 students last year for the program.
Richardson, who has experience as a lifeguard and water polo player, has shown interest in continuing to fund the city’s youth aquatic programs before. He redirected a portion of his salary to offset a proposed fee increase to the city’s swim lesson program earlier this year.
