‘Slush funds’ vs. ‘political witch hunt.’ Fresno councilmembers clash over credit cards
Flowers for birthdays, AirPods, candy apples for Halloween, movie tickets for interns, candy, and bicycles for children were just a few expenditures made by Fresno City Councilmembers in the last two years.
Those items were paid for with city credit cards out of the operating budgets for Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza, Tyler Maxwell, and Esmeralda Soria.
Their council colleague Garry Bredefeld blasted the spending during a Thursday news conference at City Hall. Bredefeld accused the four councilmembers of using taxpayer money as a “slush fund” and questioned whether they broke the law and other city policies.
“This is just some of the outrageous expenditures that these council members have done for their own personal and political gain,” Bredefeld said. “These folks have forgotten who they work for.”
Bredefeld passed out hundreds of pages of invoices detailing the expenses, but many of the charges listed on credit card bills didn’t have backup documents such as receipts, he said.
Bredefeld, the lone Republican on the council, said he was critical of what he calls “the gang of four” on the council (which includes Arias, Esparza, Maxwell, and Soria) because their expenditures were the most egregious. Councilmembers Luis Chavez and Mike Karbassi also used their district operating budget and city credit cards for meals, turkey giveaways, charitable donations, travel, and advertising. Bredefeld does not use a city credit card.
Bredefeld also criticized the number of staff the four councilmembers employ, saying two staffers should be enough.
Response from councilmembers
The councilmembers in question pushed back on Bredefeld’s claims.
Esparza, the council president, called it a “political witch hunt.” He said the items he purchased with his council budget, such as a television hanging in his office, will stay at City Hall after he’s gone or were reinvested into the community.
“I don’t think any council member is going to be willing to apologize for the dollars they reinvested back into these underserved neighborhoods,” he said. “I’m not going to apologize for candy apples for underserved children in my district that we hand out during Halloween and in conjunction with our Fresno Police Department. Really, we’re creating a great deal of social capital when we’re putting these events on. …I’d venture to say that each council member would have no problem answering to their constituents about the different expenditures that they decided on for their respective districts.”
When he was campaigning for city council, Esparza said the No. 1 complaint he heard from constituents is that they only see their representatives during election season. The current council focuses — and spends money — on community outreach and engagement, he said, in an effort to not repeat the pattern. That’s also why, Esparza said, many of the council districts employ more than two staffers.
“For the councilmembers who are representing central Fresno, south Fresno, it is very much a resource-intensive operation to represent and deliver for these residents in these parts of town,” he said.
Maxwell said it was “ironic and disingenuous” for Bredefeld to criticize him for communicating with the 80,000 residents he serves since Bredefeld often holds news conferences costing city resources and staff time.
“Are we an active council district? Absolutely. That’s what we were elected to do,” Maxwell said. “The truth is we have on average, less than $10 for every constituent that we represent in our budget.”
Bredefeld specifically criticized Maxwell’s spending on a 16-page glossy brochure that Maxwell called a newsletter and said his staff was hand-delivering to residents. Bredefeld alleged the newsletter violated mass mailing laws because it contained Maxwell’s photo and campaign logo.
Maxwell said he met with the city attorney multiple times about the newsletter, which he’s handed out at community events.
City Attorney Doug Sloan on Thursday clarified that he and his office don’t personally review credit card charges on a routine basis after Esparza and Maxwell sent out a news release Thursday saying his office routinely reviews expenditures.
In the news release, Esparza and Maxwell called on Bredefeld to bring forth policy solutions to the city’s many issues, such as housing, jobs, public safety, and cleaner streets.
Later Thursday, Soria also brushed off Bredefeld’s accusations, calling them a “political stunt and a 15-second sound bite.”
“It’s sad that a councilmember must create drama to feel relevant in his position by making news when there is no news,” she said.
She also defended her community events and thanked Bredefeld for highlighting them.
“Community events highlight the good in our districts and provide an opportunity for families to come together and obtain information on city resources, something that Mr. Bredefeld knows nothing about as was evident in his latest charade,” Soria said. “These family events also provide some support to the small businesses who are contracted to make things like cookies, candy apples and photography.”
Councilmember Luis Chavez declined to comment for this story.
Councilmember Miguel Arias did not immediately return requests for comments. However, he did allude to Bredefeld’s allegations in a tweet, saying “I didn’t waste time listening to my irrelevant peer’s latest side show. We get elected to solve problems not to (throw) spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks.”
Bredefeld calls for audit
Bredefeld said he plans to call for an independent audit of every council district’s budgets. He also called for all city council district credit cards to be rescinded and for each councilmember to only have two staffers.
Councilmember Mike Karbassi welcomed the audit. Karbassi said he would turn in his city credit card, and if he’s spent money in an inappropriate way, he wants to know so he can fix it.
“Everyone has a different style. I think that while there’s a lot of sensationalism, what Gary said is true. There was definitely a misuse of funds,” Karbassi said. “Now, we have a right as council members to determine how we spend that money, but we’re not entitled to determining how the public feels about that. I definitely think we should be more transparent.”
Karbassi said he thinks some of his colleagues made bad judgment calls on how they used their council budgets.
He called for more policies and guidelines on how councilmembers should spend their operational budgets, including earmarking money for certain things.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said in a statement that city administrative orders establish uniform standards and procedures for use of city credit cards and reimbursements.
“Anytime these types of allegations are brought forth, they create an enormous amount of concern and if not addressed appropriately can create a tremendous amount of distrust by the community of its government,” Dyer said in a statement. “The city manager and I will be discussing the appropriate level of review to include an independent external audit. This is the ensure that expenditures by all city of Fresno credit cardholders comply with the current policies to identify practices.”
The city’s administrative order 1-9 outlines who receives a city credit card and how it should be used. It says that city credit cards “may be used only by those authorized and only for the purchase of goods or services for the official business of the city of Fresno.” It also requires all credit card purchases to be backed up with proper documentation, including the date of the purchase and what the item or service was.
“Misuse of the card will subject the card holder to disciplinary action in accordance with City policies and procedures relating to disciplinary action and termination for cause,” the administrative order reads.
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 2:29 PM.