Fresno City Hall file photo by Omar Rashad | Fresnoland

Quote of the Week

“I think anything that deals with public money should always be accessible and open to the public. If you’re meeting and discussing how a budget is going to be spent, the public has every right to know.”

– City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld is calling for open budget subcommittee hearings. A recent report from Fresnoland’s Omar Shaikh Rashad questioned whether current Fresno City Council meeting practices may be in violation of the Brown Act.

This Week in Fresnoland

Fresno City Council mostly silent on Brown Act questions

It’s been nearly two weeks since Fresnoland published its investigation into the Fresno City Council’s budget subcommittee – and only one of the city’s elected leaders has called for more transparency.

Councilmember Garry Bredefeld told Fresnoland’s Omar Shaikh Rashad that the city attorney should investigate whether the city council has broken any laws but said the council should open the committee to the public regardless.

The other Six Fresno City Councilmembers, along with Mayor Jerry Dyer and City Attorney Andrew Janz remained silent on whether the city’s budget process should be more transparent with the public going forward.

A Fresnoland review of California’s 10 largest cities found that only Fresno, claims a Brown Act exemption for its budget subcommittee.

The City of Fresno received yet another grant to improve downtown – $44 million this time.

Mayor Jerry Dyer said that the money will serve as a catalyst for the forthcoming revitalization of Downtown Fresno, reports Omar Shaikh Rashad (Fresnoland). The money, which is coming from a special fund through the California Department of Housing and Community Development, will accelerate housing builds downtown and in Chinatown. More specifically, it will be the areas between Inyo and Tuolumne streets; Van Ness Avenue to H Street; and between the F and G streets in the Chinatown Area, from Inyo to Fresno streets, Tim Sheehan (Fresno Bee) writes.

Improvements will entail 470 new units on the southside of Tuolumne Street, 290 at the location currently occupied by a warehouse on H Street south of Inyo, 71 units made from refurbishing the Bing Kong Association building on China Alley between Kern and Tulare streets and 85 units through refurbishing the Peacock Building on F Street.

Ugh, another one? The Dyer Administration moves forward on a new Clovis in southeast Fresno.

Seventy years ago, Fresno swallowed up miles of grape and fig orchards to put homes along the banks of the San Joaquin River – now the city could reach eastward, Gregory Weaver (Fresnoland) writes The Southeast Development Area (SEDA) would add 45,000 to house as many as 150,000 people to the city’s edge. SEDA would be 16 times the size of northeast Fresno’s Copper River project and seven times larger than the Riverstone and Tesoro Viejo communities in Madera. Great, we love housing, we love people having homes to live in.

But consider the logistical hurdles: houses house families, and families need schools. Sanger Unified deputy superintendent told Fresnoland that 16 new schools would be required for the new community, and he has no idea where his district will find the money. Clovis Unified’s first SEDA contribution, a new high school set to open in 2025, is already dealing with water and sewage concerns. Notably, fiscal analysis hasn’t factored in water infrastructure costs for SEDA. 

It is unclear how many, if any, of these new homes will be considered “affordable housing.”  

But the real big-ticket item, concern wise, is Fresno’s carbon footprint. The 2021 climate plan will reduce CO2 emissions by 559,000 tons a year. SEDA will increase emissions by 510,000 tons. A year.

A historic Latino VFW post in Fresno is fundraising to repair its roof.

After World War II returning Mexican American veterans came home to, well, the same racism they left behind, Juan Esparza Loera writes for The Fresno Bee. Organizations meant to support veterans, like Veterans of Foreign Affairs (VFW), shut them out. As is often the case, a vulnerable minority meant to fall through the cracks of an inadequate support infrastructure instead defies fate by patching the hole themselves – building their own infrastructure. The E.G. Henry Gutiérrez VFW Post 8900 hall now boasts 345 members and is a pillar of the community for everything from dances to quinceañeras.

Now there’s a giant hole in the roof. According to the fire department, it’s the result of aging infrastructure plus overheavy air conditioning units. The VFW post has had to refund $40,000 in down payments to individuals and groups that have booked the hall through 2024 thanks to the collapse.

Graduation rates at Fresno State aren’t meeting expectations. 

Fresno State is just barely below the statewide six-year graduation goal of 70% at just 69%. Their statistics for graduating in four years are worse: just 35% when it’s supposed to be 40%. Nearby CSUs like Stanislaus and Bakersfield have even lower numbers, per this story from Rachel Livinal (KVPR).

Explanations vary, but COVID is the most obvious culprit. How hard is it to commit to being a student when class is just a string of awkward pauses as a professor lectures to a Zoom room full of black squares? 

On the other hand, community colleges are playing their part: 45% of transfer students graduate within two years at Stanislaus and Bakersfield, which meets one of the statewide goals.

Outside the Lines 

DSS is implementing a new online portal for registering and maintaining your social services benefits. The new site, which goes live Aug. 31, will allow users to submit documents, change benefits amounts, handle renewals, and track the status of applications, Fox 26 reports.

California is suing a school district over its efforts to rescind and restrict protections for transgender youth. 
Fresnoland has added three new staff members: Rob Parsons, senior editor; as well as beat reporters Julianna Morano and Pablo Orihuela.

Block Beat

AUBERRY ROAD: The Fresno County Planning Commission just greenlit the expansion of a remote observatory seven miles east of Auberry. The expansion will include a break room and additional observatory rooms for amateur remote stargazers. Fresno Documenters

CLOVIS: The Clovis Senior Center is raising money for a new piano. ABC 30

FIG GARDEN: La Boulangerie, a popular bakery, reopened Tuesday. They closed temporarily due to a small fire in the exhaust fan in the ceiling above one of the restrooms on Sunday. Fresno Bee

Department of New Construction

KASTNER: A temporary use permit was issued for Planet Pumpkin, an annual pumpkin patch with free admission in the area of East Nees and North Bond avenues. The pumpkin patch opens Oct. 1 and features carnival rides, food, face painting, a DJ dance party for kids on Friday and Saturday evening.

TOWER DISTRICT:  A temporary use permit was issued to Goldstein’s Mortuary & Delicatessen for a beer garden on Sept. 30 with food and other vendors.

Around Town

The Lune Wine Bar & Eatery is hosting a coaster painting workshop this Thursday at 6 p.m. Coasters are one of those mundane, forgettable things that you only notice when they’re really cool. Here’s your chance. Downtown Fresno

Do you have bad taste and a misplaced sense of nostalgia for Limp Bizkit? Are you… sigh… a “freak on a leash?” Well Strummers has a balm for your delusions with their Sugar: The Nu Metal party this Sunday, at 9 a.m. Strummers

Next Week in Public Meetings

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Tommy is the author of Toplines, the Fresnoland newsletter curating the top stories in the Central Valley. He thinks he's very funny.