Anonymous complaint alleging conflict of interest targets Fresno council member
Councilmember Brandon Vang was the target of an anonymous conflict-of-interest complaint filed with a state regulator over spending on a street near his southeast Fresno home, but the city leader says he followed the rules.
A complaint submitted June 25 to the Fair Political Practices Commission claims Vang committed a conflict of interest when he motioned to include in the budget spending on a traffic study for California Avenue close to his home.
The FPPC, the state’s political finance watchdog tasked with enforcing the Political Reform Act, confirmed Thursday that it received the anonymous complaint, but said it has not made any findings so far.
Vang made a motion at a June 10 budget hearing to spend an estimated $100,000 on a “road diet” study for California Avenue from Clovis to Fowler avenues. The council voted unanimously to approve the budget, including the study, on June 17.
Before making the motion, Vang questioned Public Works Director Scott Mozier about the feasibility of reducing the roadway from four lanes to two.
“As I recall, it is the result of a few accidents around that corridor, and also the history of drag racing between the two lanes going each direction, especially during the summer months, and so that safety has been paramount in making the request by constituents living along that California corridor,” Vang said on June 10.
The written anonymous complaint says the vote on “an unusually-specific stretch of road” would have “a material effect” on Vang’s property.
Vang’s home is less than 200 feet from the area to be studied, according to a Google Maps measuring tool.
According to FPPC regulation 18702.2(a)(7), elected officials should not vote on property “located 500 feet or less from the property line of the parcel unless there is clear and convincing evidence that the decision will not have any measurable impact on the official’s property.”
Vang responded to the FPPC in a letter on July 9, according to a spokesperson. He wrote that under Fresno’s strong mayor system, each council member can make budget motions that go into a “hopper” but are not legally binding.
It is up to the mayor to decide which of those motions go into the budget, he said in his letter to the FPPC. Vang voted on the budget as a whole.
“Since the only vote I took was on the budget as a whole, it is my understanding that since the budget document benefits the public generally, there would be an exception to the conflict rules where a certain project near my place of residence may benefit me personally and incidentally,” his letter says.
Vang has before been accused of improprieties by an anonymous group, having been targeted by campaign mailers funded by a shadowy group called the Fresno Future Forward PAC.
The mailers were later connected to Alex Tavlian, a political consultant who has worked the campaigns of a number of local elected officials. It’s unclear who contributes money to the PAC.
This story was originally published July 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM.
