The Fresno Documenters are a group of local residents who are trained and paid to attend and take notes at local public meetings where officials decide how to spend public money and make important decisions about your community. Each week we publish their full notes and create short, easy-to-read briefs analyzing the decisions that were made.
Documenters
Fresno City Hall wants to raise monthly utility bills. They set the hearing between Christmas and New Year’s Day
Yearslong discussions on water and sewage rate hikes in the City of Fresno are about to come to boiling point, as the Fresno City Council on Tuesday initiated the process to increase rates. The 45-day process, which the state requires through Proposition 218, culminates with a hearing at a special city council meeting scheduled for…
Political hit? Racial profiling? Routine Fresno traffic stop? Critics demand probe into candidate’s arrest
The arrest and quick exoneration of Fresno City Council Naindeep Singh this week sparked an angry backlash and hard questions for City Hall, and now many are calling for independent investigations surrounding the city’s hot-potato handling of the politically-charged fallout. Singh’s arrest over the weekend was quashed by Tuesday afternoon, complete with a rare personal…
Fresno City Council approves $1 million for legal defense fund for immigrants
The Fresno City Council voted Thursday to set up a $1 million legal defense fund to support immigrants in the city facing threats of deportation. The agenda item, sponsored by Councilmember Miguel Arias, passed with an amendment restricting eligibility to residents of the city who have not been convicted of any criminal offense. The legal…
Does Fresno County’s Friant Ranch new town have enough water to get through another big drought?
For three decades, developers have tried to build a new town at the foot of Friant Dam. On Tuesday, Fresno County supervisors may finally approve one, based on a water plan built on a claim the federal government says is false. Friant Ranch is a billion-dollar new town proposal just south of the community of…
Fresno residents dodge city utility bill increases for now — but probably not for long
The city’s utility rates for water and sewage services have not increased in nearly a decade. The proposed increases, according to city documents, show that the increase would result in an additional $1.77 each month to a typical resident’s water bill. Sewage costs would likely decrease by about a dollar. But in a 6-1 vote…
Fresno has twice the gravel it needs. A split commission still couldn’t decide on San Joaquin River blast mine
CEMEX’s proposed blast mine on the San Joaquin River stalled before the Fresno County Planning Commission on Thursday, when commissioners deadlocked 3-3 — a split that amounts to a preliminary denial and sets up a likely appeal to the Board of Supervisors at a date yet to be determined. Fresno County’s meeting hall was packed…
‘Stay home.’ Anger and fear mount over the latest anti-immigrant crackdown in Fresno County
While the federal government remains mostly silent on the widely-witnessed and apparently ongoing anti-immigrant crackdown in Fresno and other parts of California, local watch groups and advocates estimate that around 70 people have been detained in Fresno and Madera this week. Huy Tran, executive director of SIREN told Fresnoland that the preliminary estimate comes from…
Fresno County eyes new trash contracts and scrambles to help Shaver Springs water issues
A Fresno County Supervisor pledged $100,000 of his district’s operating budget to provide relief for the Shaver Springs community’s poor water quality issues. It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday how the money might be used. The motion by Supervisor Nathan Magsig, backed unanimously by the board, directed county staff to study possible solutions for the community’s poor…
Privatizing Fresno County’s library is an uphill fight and it doesn’t have the votes — yet
Conversations around privatizing Fresno County libraries are heating up, and while potential cost savings and program changes remain enormous question marks, one thing is clear — supporters of the idea don’t have the votes to make it happen. At least not today. And with a report due back to the Board of Supervisors as soon…
Fresno County Planning Commission OKs a new $1.1 billion Friant-area city for seniors
A $1.1 billion mega-project for the Friant area is heading towards a final vote at the Fresno County Board of Supervisors next month after the county planning commission unanimously recommended approval Thursday. The project, known as Friant Ranch, is decades in the making and aims to build a new town roughly the size of Fowler…
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