Fresno city budget passes with big boosts to public safety and neighborhood improvements
The Fresno City Council on Thursday voted to adopt a $1.4 billion 2021 budget that includes historic levels of funding for public safety and neighborhood infrastructure.
The council voted 5-2 to adopt the budget, with Councilmembers Garry Bredefeld and Mike Karbassi voting against it. The vote came after two weeks of deliberations on each city department’s budget in which the council proposed over 100 amendments to the proposed budget.
Mayor Jerry Dyer and the affirmative councilmembers praised the budget as one that reflects Fresnans’ priorities and required a lot of political compromise.
“This budget is really not just symbolic,” Councilmember Esmeralda Soria said during a news conference at City Hall on Thursday. “But it really means something because it’s going to change the future of Fresno.”
Higher-than-anticipated sales tax revenue from big box stores and auto sales combined with American Rescue Plan funding and Measure P tax dollars put the city in an unprecedented position to fund infrastructure projects and make big staffing boosts to public safety. Plus, with the COVID-19 pandemic slowing, residents are venturing outdoors and spending money. They’re also getting back to work.
“It is no question that our economy is growing rapidly in our city, post pandemic, and it is growing faster than what we had expected,” Dyer said.
Since Dyer rolled out his proposed budget about a month ago, sales tax revenue increased the general fund by $28.6 million to a total of over $400 million, he said.
The adopted budget adds 12 new police officer positions, 10 new community service officers and 42 firefighters. More funding also was added to the parks department, bringing that department’s budget up to $20 million, after Measure P authors pointed out the proposed funding level did not meet Measure P requirements.
The adopted budget also satisfies the councilmembers’ “Rebuild Fresno” platform and the mayor’s vision to beautify neighborhoods with millions for tree trimming and road paving. The city also will hire several new code enforcement officers to tackle blighted and vacant buildings and beautification efforts.
The mayor and council made those budget priorities after hosting community meetings with residents and the mayor in each council district. Dyer said he also met internally with city staff to hear their needs. Councilmember Miguel Arias said it was important for him to host virtual community meetings on budget priorities since the pandemic physically locked residents out of City Hall.
“That’s why I believe this budget overall reflects the needs of this entire community,” Dyer said.
Budget opposition
Karbassi and Bredefeld both said they voted against the budget because it didn’t give as much money as they wanted to the police department.
Karbassi said there were a lot of good things in the budget, but ultimately he voted against it because it didn’t do enough to address the city’s “public safety crisis.” He also said he didn’t believe it reflected the values of his council district.
“In order to vote for this budget, I would have needed to see more of a foundation to start seriously recruiting and retaining officers — something we have struggled with prior to the unprecedented numbers of convicted criminals being released onto our streets early,” he said.
Bredefeld called the budget “shameful” and questioned why certain park projects were getting funding over certain police items, such as hiring more dispatchers and funding recruiting and retention efforts. He called the plan developed by the police chief and mayor to recruit more officers “smoke and mirrors” and accused councilmembers of funding pet projects.
Councilmembers Luis Chavez and Arias pushed back against those claims, pointing out that the council granted the police chief’s budget requests and even went beyond his asks.
“I respectfully disagree with the picture that was painted, because if you look at the budget from last year to this year, we’ve increased the budget for the police department significantly,” Chavez said at the news conference. “So I don’t want the public perception to be that we’re not supporting our police department.”