Fresno City Council June 30,2020
Final Budget Votes as well as CARES funding decisions. Due to Council President Miguel Arias’s son contracting COVID-19 today’s hearing will be done via Zoom.
Final Budget Votes as well as CARES funding decisions. Due to Council President Miguel Arias’s son contracting COVID-19 today’s hearing will be done via Zoom.
Special meeting on Covid 19 expenditure approved. Mayor’s Chief of Tim Orman explains it. (Sound garbled) (documents Sent out early this morning) $45.5 million in community investment. $10 million for health clinics in SE and SW Fresno; UCSF $5 million mobile testing , testing 
in SE and SW Fresno; 75% of the expenditures in SE and SW Fresno, Save our Small Busisness loans, beds for Homeless; Child Day Care Vouchers for Essential workers, Small Farmers to donate goods; Retrofitting City Hall; City Hall Teleworking networks, Protective equipment;
Preservation of City Services $25 million. $13 Million put into a contingency fund waiting to see how flexible Federal government will be on what is covered by Covid 19 dollars (maybe in July). @PaulCaprioglio wants to know if SE Fresno counts as Fresno State and its students?
Orman: this provides the buckets jr pota of money and now details to decide where exactly it goes. Caprioglio: will every district with a need get funding or just SE and SW Fresno? Need to be equitable. So today:SE/SW has been disproportionately effected especially far far South
Mine and Caprioglio districts may not get as much. Caprioglio: every district has issues like El Dorado Park. He can’t favor this vote otherwise. Chavez: county will provide Covid-19 by zip code. Two weeks ago showed it was mainly in SE/SW and we need to spend accordingly.
Soria:supported $100,000 for businesses expanding social distancing. Which bucket is it in? Some non profits have been vandalized while shut down too. Can we help? Arias: arts and culture have a bucket. Karbassi: all non profits as it is federal dollars? Soria: CBOs are
getting funding already.karbassi: good points. Arias: at this time doesn’t exclude any non profits. Orman: bring those non profits that need help to our attention. Soria: healthcare buckets and there are youth who are interested in mental health services. Bredefeld:we have
had little time to read over this as it showed up at 8 am this morning. Many changes to this. Lots of people had input on this but four councilmembers did. This has to stop as it is hard to make decisions dealing with millions of dollars without much time to read. SE/SW Fresno
has lots of issues and Nexus problems like a grocery store. This doesn’t accurately show what we voted on to give $30 million to these areas. Timeline of only six months to spend this money wisely. Chavez:Bredefeld is correct but we had to work thru to find out if these items are
elegible and spent by December 31 deadline. We decided these were the best choices. Thanks Karbassi and Bredefeld for identifying the $30 million. Food distribution on these areas allowed us to delegate $1 million. Bredefeld: not being critical but getting this at last minute
makes it a problem. My only concern.Chavez: each of these items on this template will have to come back for us for final decision. Orman apologizes but hard to meet with Ad hoc Committee and not violate Brown Act. Arias: $10 million for health clinics; additional testing/ contact
tracing; food distribution will be $1 million per month for next six months. Small Business grants were lessened as staff is overwhelmed but we can add more to bucket.This is a framework but there will be contracts eventually for each of these. @D7Esparza Solid plan and worked
with various non profits. More money for childcare vouchers please. @kmkarbassi an apology was made in past but now we are back to same situation. Was it because Ad hoc Committee wasn’t able to meet with mayoral staff? Could I have gotten a heads up? No money for broadband for
neighborhoods that doesn’t have it and causing students need to go to school just for that. Food distribution is good but what we need is a grocery store in SW Fresno. @MayorLeeBrand these are unprecedented time, $90 millions and rules changing day by day. It is hard. Completed
at 5 pm yesterday. If we get thru summer but if there is another spike in October? We cannot economically to survive another shelter in place. Arias: I will commit to providing council with monthly reports and we can decide if we need to switch bucket amounts. Karbassi: we just
need to include all 7 Councilmembers. We want lasting effects in SE and SW Fresno. Legal counsel: council can change this at anytime. Karbassi: save our small businesses program would be helpful in south Fresno. Aria: TCC is helping to leverage a grocery store in SW Fresno
Orman: $25 milllion in offset from salary defferals. Caprioglio: what is vote count to change these later? A: 4 votes. Extra staff can be used to make this go faster. Finance Director Mike Lima: elegible expense under Covid guidelines but using existing staff is harder as they
have to be 100% dedicated to CARES. Hiring outside staff may be better. Approved: 6-0-1 (Bredefeld absent ).
Moving on to adopting Continuing Resolution. Soria:Motion 58 regarding graffiti abatement. And would like it moved to PARCS Rather than Code Enforcement. 50B mural is willbe under PARCS as well. Bredefeld: why move it? A: mayor’s office was more comfortable have it under Parks.
Bredefeld: Can parks handle this service that is very well respected and successful. Soria: lots of tagging done in parks and murals is a natural fit in parks. Quan: TJ Miller is well suited to handle Graffiti Abatement team. Bredefeld doesn’t agree. Approved 50A /50B by 6-1
Soria: neighborhood safety salary positions moved to PARCS for prevention work, tattoo removal , manage Advance Peace. Approved 5-2 with Karbassi and Bredefeld against. Karbassi: city attorney’s budget motion I Made. Carryover dollars led to some miscommunication. Modify that
some dollars added to CAO budget should solve it. Approved 7-0. (Sound garbled )
Public comments: A’ungullique Jackson: thanks council for coming together for investing in South Fresno and Parks. @LisaYFlores1 doesn’t like new way of signing into Zoom. Also dog park for Roeding Park. Look at using old vehicles for broadband for neighborhoods. Sam Frank:
Rep for City Employees and the hard work the Council is doing. Also prayers for Arias’ son. @LovesMercy Brandi: would like homeless item taken off PD budget but in another part of budget. Taskforce sans PD. Homeless are different when respected and partnered. Marisa Moroza:
Urges Council to remain bold with youth. They would like PS funds transferred to better public transportation from FAX police force for bus passes. Complete neighborhoods infrastructure. @FresnoBarrios Grecia Elenes : glad that Advance Peace survived budget. Housing, Parks.
Need to follow thru and use a systemic changes. Mary Curry: West Fresno has been long neglected. DAWN Program. Kimberly McCoy: community expenditures for West Fresno. Wishes Advance Peace was fully funded. Dez Martinez: homeless Taskforce has code enforcement but no social work-
ers included. We need Safer for homeless families and women. EOC didn’t hire any homeless to work. (Sound garbled again)
Chavez: very challenging Last few weeks with budget and Covid. Mobile testing will be great by UCSF. Important for County provide zip codes and demographics. Caprioglio: thanks chavez and soria for their work on budget which is toughest in his time on Council. Thanks City Manager
Quan, Rudd and Souza. Esparza: pushing status quo on how we spend city budget and made good things happen.Bredefeld: I did vote earlier but my feed was off. Should be 7-0. Soria: it has been a tough budget. What we have here is better than originally presented. Thanks the public
for stepping forward to help direct this budget. $320,000 for youth jobs. $300,000 for Youth Mental Health investment. Infrastructure and housing but especially health. Competing needs throughout city. Need to grow the pie. City needs its fair share from County. I want to make
sure public knows our reserves are on the table in the fall and not just rely on CARES dollars. @MayorLeeBrand thanks everyone for working together on this unprecedented budget. I appreciate the continuing resolution to know what our situation will be in Fall. Big thank you!
Caprioglio thanks City Attorney and President Miguel Arias for their hard work. Arias: I can’t wait for 2020 to be over. Hmong mass shooting, Covid, peaceful protest and an earthquake. Budget doesn’t cut staff or services. But if federal dollars doesn’t increase we may have to
lay off staff , tap our reserves. Thanks everyone for thoughts and prayers for his son. Karbassi: we are not even halfway thru 2020. We all want the same things for Fresno. Approved Budget with each department setting aside 10% contingency approved 7-0
Arias: thanks mayor and says Mayor Brand got his Continuing Resolution. This concludes Council meeting for today. Next meeting will be July 16!
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Thanks again to @CMACTV for their broadcasting of Fresno City Council meetings!
