How should Fresno spend $1.7 billion? Debate begins on roads, police, mental health
Fresno City Councilmembers got their first glimpse of Mayor Jerry Dyer’s proposed budget during Thursday’s council meeting and offered a few of their thoughts on the mayor’s proposals for police, mental health services, and roads.
Dyer first presented his proposed $1.7 billion budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 to news reporters on Wednesday. He highlighted adding police officers and firefighters, new housing programs, and higher-than-anticipated tax revenue for parks.
City officials perhaps have unprecedented opportunities with this year’s healthy budget, thanks to state and federal funding for the COVID-19 pandemic. That also means the mayor’s office and city council likely will have even more disagreements over how to spend the money, which will come during the city’s budget hearings for each city department in mid-June.
“I know it’s going to be dissected and modified, and there will be budget motions — hopefully not as many as last year,” Dyer quipped with the councilmembers on Thursday while thanking his staffers for their hard work. “But I do know there will be modifications made to it, and that’s the way our system works.”
Police
Councilmembers had the most questions about the police department budget, which Dyer previously put together as the former police chief.
Councilmember Tyler Maxwell said his support of adding police officers would be contingent on returning bicycle patrol officers to the El Dorado Park neighborhood in his district.
Dyer and Police Chief Paco Balderrama assured Maxwell that already is in the works, which appeared to also be news to other councilmembers.
Balderrama told the council that the bicycle units would return to the El Dorado Park and Tower District neighborhoods by the end of June. Additionally, he hopes to add similar units to each of the city’s other policing districts. He’s working to secure grant money for bicycle units, but even without the grant funding, the plans are in motion.
“Every single district will have a bike team,” Balderrama said. “I see the value in having those police officers on bikes, engaging with the community much better than a police car, and we want them back.”
At Councilmember Mike Karbassi’s request, Balderrama also elaborated on a new street racing team. The team will include a sergeant and 10 motorcycle officers who gather intel on street racing events. Balderrama said most of the complaints he receives are about street racing and homelessness, not violent crime.
The department’s motorcycle unit used to be around 80 officers strong. It currently has 11 vacancies, Balderrama said, and he hopes to strengthen the unit to 60 officers in the years to come.
Mental health
To address one of the recommendations made by the Commission on Police Reform, Dyer proposed allocating about $600,000 to a mental health triage and response team.
The money would fund a mental health professional in the police department’s dispatch center for up to 18 hours a day to assess who should be responding to calls. Depending on the circumstances, a health clinician may be deployed instead of or in addition to officers.
Councilmembers were quick to criticize the proposal, noting that mental health services are Fresno County’s responsibility, not the city’s.
Councilmember Miguel Arias, for example, said the money would fund a response to a mental health crisis rather than a proactive approach to providing mental health services.
“I will push back a little bit on mental health,” Dyer said in response. “Mental health is not our responsibility. I think you alluded to when you consider the behavioral health department in the County of Fresno budget far exceeds that of our police departments; we’re going to rely on them heavily to partner.
“But we’re going to do our part with the money we have allocated to do mental health triage in response, but we still need the county to step up and provide those services to us,” he said.
Balderrama agreed that providing mental health services should not be done by police officers, but because they often respond to dangerous situations involving mental health, they will continue training for de-escalation and mental health crises.
“My police officers are not counselors. They’re not clinicians. They’re not psychologists,” Balderrama said. “
Roads
Arias criticized Dyer’s proposed budget, noting that it included a record amount of money but not a record amount of spending for south Fresno neighborhood projects, such as fixing roads. He showed photos of crumbling residential streets to drive home his point.
“I know we have a lot of projects in here, but for the neighborhoods like the Tower District, west Fresno, south Fresno, it doesn’t fund any significant new projects to finally fix the streets that have been broken for 40 years.”
Councilmember Garry Bredefeld raised similar concerns for roads in his district, noting there are areas where children don’t have sidewalks to use.
Dyer said there’s nearly $40 million in additional funding for infrastructure through American Rescue Plan Act funding, including street paving.
Both Dyer and Bredefeld pointed out the city has about $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance for streets.