Mayor tells Fresno councilmember to ‘f--- off,’ but denies threats while making apology
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, in a phone call this week, told Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld to “f--- off.”
The mayor confirmed the conversation Thursday through his communications director.
The conversation occurred Monday afternoon after The Bee reported that Dyer withdrew the city from a proposed state pilot program that would have allowed some bars to remain open until 4 a.m. Bredefeld, who opposed the pilot from the beginning, criticized Dyer in The Bee for supporting the program in the first place.
After the story published, Dyer and Bredefeld had a heated conversation over the phone in which the mayor raised his voice, said Sontaya Rose, the city’s communications director.
“They did eventually calm down, and the mayor apologized for raising his voice,” Rose said. “For the mayor and his perspective, he told Garry that he is working hard to move the city forward and that constant attacks in the media and on social media are just a distraction. The phone call ended after 17 minutes and they were calm.”
In a statement to The Bee, Bredefeld called the conversation “disturbing.”
“I did have a disturbing phone conversation that was initiated by the mayor earlier this week regarding my opposition to his putting Fresno as a pilot city to expand the hours from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. for drinking alcohol,” Bredefeld said. “I will not share the details of the conversation, but I let the mayor know very clearly that I will not be intimidated by any threats, and I will never back down.
“I will oppose any policy that is destructive to the citizens of Fresno and SB930 is exactly that,” he said. “My job is to represent my constituents to the best of my ability and to improve Fresno, and I will not be deterred in any way or by anyone from accomplishing this.”
Two City Hall sources told The Bee that Bredefeld told them about the conversation, and it was implied the mayor suggested he and Bredefed meet outside and that a physical altercation may occur. A third source said Dyer told him the conversation got “nasty,” but learned secondhand of an alleged challenge to a fight.
Rose flatly denied the mayor ever made any such threat.
“The mayor would never jeopardize his ethics or who he is by threatening any physical violence. So that did not happen, at all,” she said. “The mayor, and anyone who knows the mayor, knows that he is not a violent man and would not threaten to fight someone. That is blatantly false.”
Bredefeld, in his statement, would neither confirm nor deny whether the mayor threatened or intimidated him.
The mayor did ask Garry to talk in person versus over the phone, Rose said, but he never threatened to harm him.
“The mayor has since reached out to Garry and asked him if they could talk and get things sorted out,” Rose said. “He is trying to work this out with him, and we do want to continue working with Garry.”
Rose said that was the first time the mayor used profanity in 30 years, and he’s typically very careful not to use profanity. The closest he comes to using profanity is using the abbreviation “BS,” she said.
The conversation is the latest closed-door confrontation to spill out of Fresno’s City Hall.
Last year, sources told The Bee that the former city manager stormed out of the building before taking a vacation and eventually resigning.
Last month, the Fresno County District Attorney charged Fresno City Council President Nelson Esparza with felony attempted extortion for allegedly threatening the former city attorney’s job. An arrest affidavit detailed City Manager Georgeanne White’s interview with investigators, where she alleged former City Attorney Doug Sloan called Esparza a “pissant millennial.” Sloan since has disputed White’s recollection.
Bredefeld also has done his fair share of public name-calling. He often refers to Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Esparza, Tyler Maxwell, and Esmeralda Soria as the “corrupt gang of four.” In response, Arias has called Bredefeld “Councilmember Chicken Little,” who always cries that “the sky is falling.”