Fresno long overdue for deep conversation on race. Just don’t lump in fired city clerk
When venerable Fresno activist Mary Curry spoke about her father and brothers fighting overseas for their country, only to come home and be forced to sit in the back of the bus, I felt that.
When Pastor B.T. Lewis brought up Fresno’s well-documented history of redlining and how the economic and social disparities created by such blatant systemic racism continue to stymie the city’s Black community, I felt that, too.
Unless you’re devoid of sympathy, it was impossible not to feel the exasperated, emotional wallop delivered by several members of the Fresno Black Leadership Collective who sounded off on last month’s dismissal of City Clerk Yvonne Spence during a Tuesday morning press conference at City Hall.
Pastor D.J. Criner, a front runner for the unofficial title of Fresno’s Most Powerful Speaker, presented a list of organizer demands. Chief among them is the creation of an antiracism task force that would review the city’s hiring and firing policies “to ensure people are being treated fairly and humanely in spite of cultural differences” as well as create action plans to address employment and career advancement, access to affordable housing and inclusion of Blacks in decision-making government bodies.
“Please understand that many times our quest for truth and justice is uncomfortable,” Criner concluded. “But sometimes you’ve got to make folk uncomfortable in order to show them that their level of comfort is unjust.”
Truer words have seldom been uttered.
There’s no disputing Fresno’s racist past. The blatant discrimination is written into the city’s earliest real estate codes. Nor is there any dispute that many policies and decisions enacted in the decades since have created an unfortunate reality where the city’s Black residents, most of whom live in southwest Fresno, on average attain lower education levels, work lower-paying jobs, breathe more polluted air and live shorter lives.
The figures collected by study after study don’t lie. Quite the opposite, in fact. Every data point exposes the same uncomfortable truth. Regardless of Mayor Jerry Dyer’s One Fresno mantra, this city has never really engaged in a deep, honest conversation about race. The time to stop dodging and address the subject head on is long overdue.
All that being said, the impetus behind Tuesday’s gathering is the wrong place for that reckoning to begin. Because there’s simply no evidence or reason to believe Spence’s June 14 firing had anything to do with her skin color.
I get why Black leaders are angry over the Fresno City Council, by a 4-3 vote, relieving Spence of her duties following 12 years as City Clerk. I get they have questions and want answers.
“This was a misappropriation of their power that employed a methodology that was cruel, unprofessional and further affirms concerns of Fresno’s Black citizens that black people are being deliberately and strategically eliminated from the few positions of power and influence we once held in this city,” Lewis said.
Why did Fresno City Council fire longtime clerk?
Aspects of Spence’s dismissal don’t make surface-level sense, none more than the pay increase she received in March. If a council majority had issues with Spence’s job performance, why bump her salary by some $25,000 three months before showing her the door?
But a misappropriation of power? Cruel and unprofessional methods? Part of a deliberate and strategic agenda designed to keep Fresno’s Black citizens from attaining power and influence? Sorry, I think that’s more rhetoric than truth.
Because Spence’s firing is a personnel matter, no reasons were given, nor could they be. One month later, individual council members remain reluctant to discuss the reasons why. Anything they say could be (and likely would be) used against the city in a future lawsuit.
Here’s what I know and have been able to piece together: Dissatisfaction with Spence among some of Fresno’s elected leaders, on both sides of the political aisle, is in no way a recent development.
Some of that has spilled out into the public arena, such as when Measure P proponents were furious at the City Clerk’s office for placing wrong language on the ballot measure. Or when the council agenda requires numerous corrections. More examples have been kept private.
Recent raise not tied to Spence’s job performance
As far as the recent raise, sources say it was the result of a comparative study (how much Fresno pays top bureaucrats compared to other cities) and not a reflection of Spence’s job performance.
Again, none of this is meant to refute Fresno’s history of racial inequality or the disparities that exist today. It solely concerns the termination of one longtime city department head.
Another of Tuesday’s speakers — Dr. Venise Curry, Mary’s daughter — expressed discontent that since Spence was let go, there are no longer any Black faces on the dais during City Council meetings. I get that, too.
However, it’s inaccurate to say African-Americans are not represented in city government leadership positions. Deputy Mayor Matthew Grundy is Black. So are Assistant City Manager Gregory Barfield, Deputy City Attorney Tina Griffin and Deputy Chief of Police Phil Cooley. Former council member Oliver Baines chaired the Fresno Commission on Police Reform. Even Criner, one of the most vocal advocates for giving Blacks a seat at decision-making tables, in 2020 was a City Council appointee to the Planning Commission.
Is that good enough? Absolutely not. Fresno has a long way to go until its minority communities, including Blacks, achieve anything close to equity. Is that discussion worth having? Absolutely. I’m just not certain that Spence’s firing should be lumped in.
