Fresno DA won’t file criminal charges against council members following Brown Act probe
Citing “insufficient evidence,” the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office said it wouldn’t pursue criminal charges against any Fresno city councilmembers in connection with alleged Brown Act violations.
The Brown Act investigation, announced in June last year, was triggered following a report that Councilmember Esmeralda Soria asked three other city councilmembers — Nelson Esparza, Tyler Maxwell, and Miguel Arias — about whether “a deal” had been reached between the city and Soria’s fiancé, Terance Frazier, over the operations of Granite Park.
District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said her office received more than one complaint alleging that the Fresno City Council violated the Brown Act in connection with Granite Park, and her office was investigating.
Smittcamp, in the same news release, also confirmed an FBI investigation tied to a 2019 audit of Granite Park, but provided few details.
When the investigation launched last summer, Smittcamp also took the unusual step of requesting the city council delay all votes tied to the park.
Smittcamp said in a news release that each of the named city councilmembers was given an opportunity to provide a statement to an investigator, but each declined in a written letter from their joint attorney.
The district attorney’s office found insufficient evidence that Soria knew her presence would constitute a council majority; that action was taken based on the meeting; and that Soria intended to withhold information from the public.
Because the standard of proof is so high, the district attorney’s office will not pursue criminal charges. Rather, it will send a letter to Soria reminding her of her ethical and legal responsibilities as an elected official. The district attorney’s Public Integrity Unit has sent a number of similar letters to other council members.
“As I have said from day one, these accusations were completely false and baseless. I applaud the district attorney for officially confirming that,” Soria said. “I can only hope that my political opponents have learned a lesson and will stop wasting the district attorney’s time and our tax dollars chasing fantasies and actually focus on rebuilding our city as the rest of us have done since the unprecedented pandemic began.”
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer and Councilmembers Nelson Esparza, Mike Karbassi and Tyler Maxwell declined to comment.
Granite Park
The Granite Park saga was sparked in 2019 when an unfinished city audit found a number of problems with the accounting of park finances under one of Frazier’s nonprofits.
Since then, Fresno City Attorney Doug Sloan made public statements saying Frazier didn’t violate an agreement with the city, and former Mayor Lee Brand even defended a proposal to give Frazier more money to operate the park.
Meanwhile, Frazier said the city wasn’t paying him enough money to properly maintain the park. He also filed a claim for damages and eventually a lawsuit claiming the city discriminated against him. He’s Black, and city officials have not treated white developers the same way, he alleged. The case remains ongoing.
Smittcamp said in her news release on Wednesday that her office handed over an investigation into Granite Park to the FBI, and her office is under the impression the federal investigation remains ongoing.
COVID PPE
The district attorney’s office also investigated allegations regarding city councilmembers’ purchase of personal protective equipment. Smittcamp’s office won’t pursue violations for those allegations either due to insufficient evidence because a witness did not cooperate with the investigation.
Councilmembers can enter into city contracts for $50,000 or less without a competitive process. The Fresno city charter prohibits splitting contracts to avoid the charter and municipal code limits. The charter bid threshold is $143,000.
The district attorney’s investigation found the individual councilmembers purchased PPE from a company called MPG Global more than once. One councilmember spent $18,000 more than allowed. Smittcamp did not name the councilmember.
Both the district attorney’s office and the city attorney can pursue prosecution of city code and charter violations. However, “city authorities” knew about the overspending, Smittcamp said, and reminded city councilmember’s of the spending limits.
For prosecution, Smittcamp’s office must prove that the councilmembers intentionally tried to circumvent the charter threshold.
“In this case, the district attorney’s office is also mindful of the extraordinary circumstances of the time-period surrounding these purchases, which were for items that were in short supply and extreme demand during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the news release said. “While there appears to be a violation of the Fresno Municipal Code, these actions were known to city authorities, a co-equal actor with the district attorney’s office with regard to violations of the municipal code. The matter appeared to have been addressed in the form of reminders about the parameters of each councilmember’s purchasing authority.”
Councilmember Miguel Arias said the city controller approved the purchases, and that bid limits were overridden by the city’s COVID-19 emergency order, which remains in effect.
Arias also accused Councilmember Garry Bredefeld of making complaints to Smittcamp’s office and wasting taxpayer money.
“I appreciate the significant taxpayer funds expended to conclude baseless complaints by Garry Bredefeld do not merit further review,” Arias said. “In spite of Garry’s ongoing attempts to distract the public and the council that held him accountable for hiring and protecting a felon, our city has remained focused on providing residents COVID relief resources and housing our homeless.”
Bredefeld released the following statement late Tuesday:
“Today’s press release by the District Attorney confirmed the FBI and US Attorney’s office is investigating Granite Park and the “Federal investigation is still ongoing and active.” Details from the District Attorney’s press release also validates many of the points I’ve made regarding the unethical behavior of these elected officials at City Hall. Determining criminal behavior, however, is a much higher standard and that is now clearly in the hands of our law enforcement agencies.”
City attorney
Smittcamp recommended the city change the city charter regarding how the city attorney is hired.
Currently, the city council has hiring and firing authority over the city attorney, Doug Sloan. But, Sloan also serves the city mayor’s administration.
“An inherent conflict can be assumed from this format,” Smittcamp said. “Similar to other important city administrative positions, it would be well-advised for the city council to consider changing the city of Fresno Charter to have the city attorney be hired by the city manager and mayor, and be approved by the city council.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 6:52 PM.