What’s at stake?
One city official said she was “not looking forward to the types of cuts that are going to be coming from departments” in the next budget cycle after multiple years in a row of cuts.
The City of Fresno expects another tough budget year where they’ll have to plug at least a $23.3 million hole — higher than the shortfall the city projected around this time last year.
The estimated deficit for the upcoming fiscal year was shared in an annual mid-year budget presentation during Thursday’s Fresno City Council meeting.
Mayor Jerry Dyer’s administration has already put the call out to departments to come up with plans to accommodate roughly 5% cuts.
“This is going to be the third year in a row we’ve requested cut plans from departments,” City Manager Georgeanne White said. “I know the low-hanging fruit is gone.
“Frankly, I have to say: not looking forward to the type of cuts that are going to be coming from departments,” White added, “because they don’t have a lot of options left.”
A year ago when preparing for the current budget year, the city projected a deficit of closer to $20 million, which ultimately ballooned to approximately $50 million, White said.
Dyer said he doesn’t expect the gap to widen quite as much this year due to more accurate accounting at this stage in the game. But he said he’d also be surprised if the shortfall doesn’t ultimately cross at least the “35 mark.”
While the mayor added that he’ll be looking for creative solutions to raise revenue, he thinks they’ll have to increase attrition rates “in order to make the budget balance.”
These projections come even as the city brings in higher sales tax revenue than anticipated, according to Thursday’s presentation.
Following “years of very slow or negative growth,” said Edward Chinevere, an assistant director with the Finance Department, the city expects to bring in $3.9 million more in sales tax dollars than budgeted for the current fiscal year.
Property tax has also stayed “relatively strong,” Chinevere added, coming in a little more than $100,000 short of what was expected.
New restrictions coming for sex offenders in Fresno?
During Thursday’s meeting, members of the Fresno City Council said they’re also working on legislation to restrict registered sex offenders’ ability to serve in office at the city level.
It wasn’t immediately clear what those restrictions would entail, but Councilmember Miguel Arias suggested the policy would “ensure no sex offender gets to serve in this role without some significant precautions in place that safeguard the general public and the employees that we have within this building.”
The discussion at Thursday’s regular meeting followed news that Rene Campos, a candidate who’s announced a run for District 7, is a registered sex offender, which was first reported by The Fresno Bee and subsequently made national headlines.
“I did hear some of the concerns of a potential future or former Epstein-type candidate coming to this dais,” Arias added. “I do want to be very clear, this is a public building. These are public chambers. Any given Thursday, we have kids in this room. We have families, and the last thing I want to be concerned about is whether there’s a registered sex offender in these chambers.”
Councilmember Nick Richardson added that he and his colleagues are already working with the Fresno City Attorney’s Office on the matter.
“City Hall is for everybody, but if your presence here means that other people cannot be here,” Richardson said, “that’s unacceptable.”
Attempts to reach Campos weren’t successful Thursday afternoon.
Existing state election law doesn’t specifically target registered sex offenders with any restrictions. The only code on the books regarding convictions that disqualify individuals from running for office is California Elections Code Section 20, according to Fresno County Clerk James Kus.
That section bars people from running for local or state office if they’re convicted of a felony “involving accepting or giving, or offering to give, any bribe, the embezzlement of public money, extortion or theft of public money, perjury, or conspiracy to commit any of those crimes.”
“For all felonies, while a felon is actually serving a sentence in a prison, they will have their voter registration canceled, making them ineligible to run for office,” Kus added in an email Thursday. “After completing their sentence, they may re-apply for registration and become eligible again (as long as they don’t run afoul of EC 20).”
The possible new restrictions for registered sex offenders seeking office in the City of Fresno come after the Fresno County Board of Supervisors passed its own law limiting how many registered sex offenders can live together in a single-family home.
A Sacramento-based advocacy group called the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws, Inc. has since challenged that policy in a lawsuit, claiming it violates the state constitution.
The Alliance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday regarding the new restrictions for sex offenders that members of the Fresno City Council teased.
New crosswalks and speed limits coming to school zones
The Fresno City Council also approved a slew of new investments and policies promoting pedestrian safety, particularly around the city’s school campuses.
Those investments include funding for two new pedestrian-activated crosswalks, or “HAWKs”: one at First Street and Home Avenue near Mayfair and Ericson Elementary Schools, and another at First Street and Dovewood Lane near Hoover High School.
First Street was the road 15-year-old Hoover student Rashad Al-Hakim Jr. was crossing in 2022 when a driver hit him, resulting in his death.
The $2.1 million project on First and Home, funded by an Active Transportation Program grant with local matching from the city’s SB1 Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account, also covers the cost of adding a traffic signal to the intersection of Chestnut and Weldon Avenues.
The project near Hoover comes in at just over $955,000, drawing from both SB1 and Local Pedestrian & Bicycle Facility funds.
The council also approved a new citywide resolution to lower the speed limit near city campuses from 25 miles per hour to 20.
A state law requiring the reduced speed limits in school zones across California by 2031 allows local jurisdictions to enact early implementation ahead of the deadline.
Fresno City Council Vice President Esparza, the sponsor of the resolution, said he hopes the new speed limit can be rolled out in time for the start of the 2026-2027 school year.
City documents didn’t specify an estimate the cost of replacing the speed limit signs citywide, but Esparza said in a text message on Thursday that “back of the envelope” calculations suggests that could cost around half a million dollars.
Research has shown that the risk of severe injury and death for pedestrians struck by cars decrease significantly at lower speeds.
“It really could be the difference between a close call,” Esparza said, “and a tragedy.”
Downtown housing project gets one more last chance
The Fresno City Council also approved on Thursday another extension for a roughly $81 million downtown housing project that’s already blown through previous deadlines, as well as $11 million total to help finance it.
The project is a proposed eight-story, 174-unit housing development offering a mix of affordable and market-rate apartments.
Dyer, a vocal proponent of the project, had previously proposed a “drop-dead” deadline of Saturday, Feb. 28, for the developer — The Park Partners LLC, co-managed by Mehmet Noyan and Jeff Isenstadt — to secure the rest of the financing for their project.
But as Fresnoland reported Wednesday, the mayor had a change of heart and urged the council to extend that deadline through May 15 to allow the developers time to “go to the bond market.”
“This development will be eight stories overlooking the stadium,” Dyer said, “and I think it’s going to be a catalyst for future housing to come downtown.”
The council approved the deadline extension and financing plan, but not without facing criticism from local homeless advocate Dez Martinez.
In public comments, Martinez levied multiple criticisms against the project, including that it doesn’t reserve units for extremely low-income residents making 30% or less of the Area Median Income.
The mixed-income project sets aside 70 total income-restricted units, with 35 of those for residents at 50% AMI and another 35 at 80% AMI, according to city documents.
The back-and-forth between Martinez and city officials on Thursday became heated, with Martinez angrily leaving chambers of her own accord while Council President Mike Karbassi called for a brief recess before resuming the meeting.
