Good morning! It’s Wednesday, May 20. This is Rob.
Eternal sunshine? Clear skies and highs in the mid-90s. NOAA
Why? Hey, what’s with the tree nets? Fresnoland Food
Round Two: Fresno’s Costco fight enters its next round. The Fresno Bee
1. Is the city a little more transparent now?
Four months after city officials promised transparency reforms, it seems they’re close to delivering, Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad reports.
Fresno’s first ever public transparency portal appears to be functional through a beta test page on the City of Fresno’s website.
It doesn’t yet have all the functionality that city officials want, but a workshop this Thursday will likely have more information on next steps for the portal’s development.
Councilmember Miguel Arias: “What I’m going to look for is how close does the portal, as currently designed, meet the ultimate transparency test that we should be striving for. If it doesn’t, then on Thursday we’ll say we want additional features and then go ahead and proceed.”
-Omar S. Rashad, investigative reporter
2. Fresno’s campaign finance matryoshka doll, revealed
Some people turned their heads a few weeks back when a new, seemingly Mayor-Dyer-aligned political group started running ads for a moderate slate of candidates to take over the majority of the Fresno City Council. It’s only natural that people would assume a PAC called the One Fresno Coalition would be associated with the mayor, after all.
Was anyone really surprised when it turned out to be Fresno’s most infamous slashie, Alex Tavlian, behind it all? The political consultant who collects new PAC names like my kids collect Pokémon cards?
(Mayor Dyer did not seem too thrilled by the association, according to his comments made to the media.)
I have to give credit where it’s due to his elite trolling of the mayor:
“Nearly seven years ago, our mayor brought the vision of One Fresno to our city. 2026 is proving consequential for our city’s future, and we want to embrace candidates who will carry that vision forward,” Tavlian told GVWire.
However, three of the four candidates that the One Fresno Coalition is supporting have either endorsements (Fuentes, Gurm) or money (Parra) from Dyer. So Tavlian isn’t entirely wrong?
But Alex, as we know, is merely an operative to support moneyed interests. So knowing his affiliation doesn’t really help us that much with understanding who is actually behind the PAC, and more importantly, what interests and causes they might be tied to.
That ends now! A $25,000 donation from the Central Valley Council was recorded in the One Fresno Foundation’s filings on the city website, filed on May 14.
The same Central Valley Council PAC that is also run by Alex Tavlian.
But good news! It’s not a dark money PAC, and we can follow the contributions pretty easily. There’s some familiar names on there – Granville Homes, Mid-Valley Disposal, West Coast Waste and Madera developer Peter Stravinski all have some hefty contributions, along with mystery Atlanta-based company SPH Placements, LLC.
So far, the One Fresno Coalition has spent about $33,400 on independent expenditures to elect Rob Fuentes, Fernando Alvarez, Danielle Parra, and Nav Gurm. They’re also supporting a few other candidates in the greater Fresno metro. With a $25k contribution recorded, that leaves another nearly $9,000 unspoken for by donors. Looking forward to the next round of filings!
— Danielle Bergstrom, editor-in-chief
3. Fresno County ICE transfers fall 38%
Transfers of inmates from the Fresno County Jail into federal ICE custody fell by just over 38% last year, even as the Trump administration ramped up record-level arrests, Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina reports.
Sheriff John Zanoni, in his annual report to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, said his office transferred 63 inmates to ICE last year, down from 102 transfers in 2024.
California’s TRUTH Act requires local law enforcement agencies that allow ICE access to people in custody to present annual reports at public meetings.
Immigration advocates acknowledged the sharp decline in Fresno County in 2025, but argued the goal should be “zero.”
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
