Fact check: Do you have to quit your job to be on Fresno City Council?

Fresno Unified trustee Brooke Ashjian has taken to Twitter multiple times now insisting that Miguel Arias, the district’s chief information officer, plans to keep his job if elected to the District 3 Fresno City Council seat and is asking for time off work to campaign.

Arias, however, said that sort of decision would be premature at this point.

“The voters haven’t decided who will represent them in November,” he said.

Ashjian tweeted over the weekend, “We got a guy that works in FUSD (management) and thinks he can be on city council and keep both jobs and double dip the taxpayer?? Miguel Arias 250k a year??? NOPE!”

“Should Fresno Unified allow teachers to adapt their schedules to allow them to run for City Council?” he said in another tweet, tagging local Republicans.

If Arias wins the council race, he will re-evaluate his schedule at that time, he said.

“I’m like any other family,” he said. “We always have to evaluate the time constraints with work-life balance and home balance. We do this every season, figuring out if my daughter will play softball, take music classes or do taekwondo. It’s a natural reflection for anybody, including myself, to engage in.”

Arias said he took vacation time in May to campaign “so critics couldn’t claim I was both campaigning and working at the same time.

“Like any other employee, I have a right to take vacation and to utilize it in whatever activity I wish,” he said.

Arias led the crowded June primary race with nearly double the votes of the second-place finisher. He will face Tate Hill in a runoff in November for the City Council District 3 seat currently held by Oliver Baines, who is termed out.

Ashjian, who declined to comment for this story, supports Hill. In an emailed response, Hill said he is “committed to being a full-time representative for the people of District 3 and utilizing all my assets to bring financial resources, jobs and revitalization our into neighborhoods.”

Hill works as a senior management administrator at Access Plus Capital, a nonprofit that provides training and loans to small, minority and women-owned businesses and is linked to the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission. He did not say whether he would quit his job if elected to the City Council.

Ashjian and Arias publicly clashed in the past, when Ashjian called for Fresno Unified to fire the staff who allowed a Bee reporter on a school site to survey students.

Arias said Ashjian’s tweets resemble divisive, national rhetoric.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s fashionable to tweet,” Arias said. “But what matters to most people, and what matters to me personally, is not what people tweet about but the people we serve. Tweets are not going to put food on the table, fix our parks or deal with the transient population.”

Other council members’ work

The current council members approach their careers and council duties differently.

Council President Esmeralda Soria continues to teach part-time at Fresno City College. But when she was elected, she quit her job working for former Assemblyman Henry T. Perea. She said the council pay, about $65,000, is a modest income that doesn’t cover her mortgage, car payment, insurance and student loan debt.

“There are very few individuals who have the luxury of relying on that as their sole income,” she said. “I’m a millennial who is strapped with college debt. I have over six figures in college debt. I went to law school.”

Soria gave credit to her staff, which includes two full-time employees, two college students who work part-time and interns. “I have a tremendous team behind me that helps me on the day-to-day issues that constituents call upon,” she said.

District 4 Councilman Paul Caprioglio, a longtime local attorney, continues to practice while in office. He noted that the council position in Fresno officially is a part-time, nonpartisan office.

“I continue to practice my trade because I love it,” he said. “I love the law, and I love being a lawyer.”

He, too, noted the council pay is not high enough to pay for his children’s college tuition and law school tuition.

District 3 Councilman Oliver Baines couldn’t continue working as a police officer after being elected. “It was very different for me,” he said. He runs a solar development company but joked that all council member’s businesses suffer while they’re in office.

District 5 Councilman Luis Chavez and District 7 Councilman Clint Olivier work their elected position as a full-time job.

Olivier, who previously worked as a broadcast journalist, said he quit his job the day before he announced his council run. “Being on Fresno City Council sucks you in,” he said. “We have big city problems that require your full-time attention. Most folks, when they get in here, realize that and start doing more city stuff than outside stuff.”

Chavez worked as a staffer for former councilman Sal Quintero, who now sits on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. “I made the commitment early on to make this a full-time job,” he said. “I think the residents deserve that.”

Councilmen Steve Brandau and Garry Bredefeld, who represent north Fresno’s District 2 and District 6, both scaled back their businesses after taking office.

Bredefeld owned a private psychology practice that he’s since shut down. He also scaled back his hours working at the Veterans Affairs hospital, where he still works part-time. “If you’re going to be effective and get the job done, you’ve got to commit the energy and the time,” he said.

Brandau continues to own his carpet-cleaning business, but he said he probably makes one-third of the profit he did before being elected. He planned to continue operating his business full steam, but quickly learned being on the council is a full-time job. He said it’s made him appreciate the work of running his business.

“It’s cathartic for me,” he joked. “It’s completely opposite of City Council. It’s really a blessing. I just can’t operate at the level I used to,” he said.

For the most part, the council members agreed that doing the job of an elected official while continuing their other jobs is a balancing act.

Brandau put it simply: “It is what you make of it.”