Quote of the Week
“The City of Fresno was in violation of the Brown Act …”
Judge Robert Whalen, who ruled this week that the Fresno City Council broke the law.
This Week in Fresnoland
Fresno Unified can’t ‘claw its way out’ of enrollment spiral?
Over the last 10 years, thousands of students have disappeared from Fresno Unified campuses, with enrollment losses hitting elementary schools and southside campuses particularly hard.
A report from Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad and Diego Vargas asks new questions about school closures that district leaders definitely don’t want to answer.
District officials don’t dispute the enrollment losses or the looming school closure debate with some internal estimates ranging from three schools to as many as 11 or more.
But, the potentially devastating news is that experts who spoke with Fresnoland say there’s little California’s third-largest school district can do to reverse the financially crushing trend.
Meanwhile, other nearby districts, like Clovis Unified, are reporting record-high student enrollment.
Judge says Fresno broke the law. City claims victory?
More than two years after a Fresnoland investigation exposed illegal budget activity at Fresno City Hall, a Superior Court judge on Monday sided against the city, concluding the City Council violated California’s Ralph M. Brown Act.
The Fresnoland probe of August 2023 led by investigative reporter and assistant editor Omar S. Rashad revealed years of closed-door, behind-the-scenes meetings where elected leaders routinely hashed out multi-million-dollar spending plans well away from the public’s prying eyes.
Despite the overwhelming evidence — which included internal warnings from the city’s Brown Act compliance officer — elected city leaders, many of whom are currently campaigning for higher office, spent taxpayer dollars to defend a process in court that they had already abandoned after Fresnoland’s reporting.
City attorney Andrew Janz, in his comments on the ruling, said it was a victory for the city, since the judge didn’t force them to change how they approach their budgeting process. He also said they were considering an appeal of the verdict to continue defending a defunct process.
A $40 million question
The City of Fresno has opted not to apply a new ‘vehicle miles traveled’ fee for Costco to move out of its aging Shaw Avenue building and into a nice, big new space farther north, forgoing about $40 million in lost fee revenue, Fresnoland’s Gregory Weaver reports.
Critics of the plan say it’s a big giveaway to a large corporation by exempting it from the city’s vehicle-miles-traveled mitigation fee program, a system to offset the climate impacts of new development by funding traffic-reduction projects elsewhere.
“The amount of money that is potentially being foregone here is almost twice the city budget deficit,” said Daniel Brannick. “Even paying half would close the city’s budget gap.”
Waiting for the bond market?
Citing unspecified “global military conflicts” they said temporarily stalled bond-market financing on a long-delayed downtown housing project, the City Council on Thursday once again extended yet another “drop deadline” to the struggling project.
“Coming in at a sticker price of about $80 million,” Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela writes, “The Park At South Stadium housing project is a proposed eight-story, 174-unit apartment development on the northwest corner of Fulton and Inyo streets, neighboring Chukchansi Park and the Brewery District in downtown Fresno. Seventy of those units are expected to be set aside for affordable housing.”
The Park Partners LLC, a Fresno-based developer group co-managed by developers Mehmet Noyan and Jeff Isenstadt. They’re expected to get the rest of the financing for the downtown housing proposal, about $70 million, through the bond market. City leaders said they expect only a two-week delay.
Democracy time
It’s election season in Fresno County and ballots began hitting local mailboxes this week ahead of the upcoming June primary.
This week, Fresnoland began rolling out our detailed candidates guides for the June 2 election.
Julianna Morano takes you inside the four-way race to fill the City Council’s D1 seat (westside, Tower District, Fresno High) and Pablo Orihuela examines the three-candidate contest for the city D7 chair (Blackstone, and Fresno High to Sunnyside).
Omar S. Rashad breaks down the D5, southeast, race — the only race to feature an incumbent. And Gregory Weaver gets down to brass tacks with the crowded, seven-candidate field competing for the D3 race.
With dozens of races on the ballot and key issues on the table, we’ll take you past the politics and into the actual policy positions, breaking down where they stand on everything from SEDA development and school closures to housing and homeless policy.
Outside the Lines
Gisselle Medina took a look at two high-profile city council candidates seeking to become the first-ever Punjabi Sikh resident elected to Fresno City Hall. Fresnoland
After more than a year in the penalty box, the City of Fresno reestablished its pro-housing designation with the state, a wonky and critical classification that immediately qualifies the city for tens of millions in housing grants. Fresnoland
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office gathered at Courthouse Park for the annual Peace Officers Memorial ceremony this week, honoring officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. KMPH
American Sign Language interpreters are demanding higher pay and better hours at Clovis Unified schools, where, YourCentralValley reports.
Local raisin production is expected to reach its highest level in years, exceeding 200,000 tons, the Business Journal reports.
The Madera MadTown Robotics team is this year’s robotics champions. ABC30
The Fresno City Attorney’s Office hosts a Waste Tire Amnesty Day at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 9 at 1805 E. California Ave., giving residents the chance to dispose of unwanted waste tires free of charge.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office will present its annual Truth Act forum at 9:30 a.m. May 19 at the Hall of Records. Fresno County
Block Beat
Sunnyside: More than 635 students at Ayer Elementary School received brand new athletic shoes Friday through a partnership between Shoes That Fit and longtime community supporters Lou and Dena McMurray.
Fairgrounds: Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live is coming to the Fresno Fairgrounds for the first time ever with an outdoor show. More information here
South Fresno: ‘Cesar Chavez Boulevard’ officially becomes three streets again. The Fresno Bee
Downtown: Fresno’s relatively late adoption of the coworking space model is picking up momentum. Business Journal
