Thread by @AndyHS

City of Fresno’s Budget hearings continued today at 9 am! The Fresno County Board of Supervisors will be meeting at 10 am so I will only be able to Live Tweet one the meetings. Drumroll, please And the winner is...the always popular Budget Hearings !

Here are the budget proposals “in the pot” as Council Chair Luis Chavez said a lot the past week.

You can watch beginning at 9 am @CMACTV on the Government channel 3 #Fresno

Meeting is beginning at 9:06. All Councilmebers present except Bredefeld. City Attorney Sloan reads the definition of a balanced budget according to our Charter. Chavez:City has some federal dollars,reserves and Measure P funds to work with. Infrastructure budget items will all

be included into one single vote Rebuild Fresno . Soria:add 14,16, 58, 59 together. Esparza:1/4 of a FTE in Parking Personnel to VA Area. Also item 42 about Pilot litter clean up. Personnel out of Public Utilities. Maxwell:$500,000 for acquisition of El Dorado Park. Also money

from Large Park and put towards Level 4 Bike Lane on Barstow. Also start a Climate Action Plan and go after resources towards that. Also misters for El Dorado park. Also necessary funds for the Granite Park. Karbassi:Motion 49 remove item 49 and replace that for sidewalk project

also $400,000 for Doorbell cameras for homes south of Shaw. Maxwell:withdraw 29, restructure Master Fee Schedule.Amend #70 for rehab old Winery near Discovery Center from $200,000 up to $500,000. Withdraw #99. Soria:Clarify #1 $2.8 million; #19 to implement Mural Parks project:

Also direction to come back with Parks Ranger program to come back in 30 days. Also PD who buy homes in South Fresno. #43 Neighbor Beautification to include homeless in program at $250,000.#45 Trolley between Tower and DT purchase for ARP budget. Tower District Specific Plan

Update $400,000. #73 on arts Maxwell #46 Motion to update Fax committee more often. Zero Fares update. Arias:#15 withdraw. #24 South Tower Park with some from General Fund and rest from Measure P. Police Reform and external PD Contract negotiations. #53 $2 m for affordable single

family homes in West Fresno. #81 $5 million for SB1 road projects. #92 $350,000 #87 $5 m will be adjusted to General Fund or ARP funds to give General Fund flexibility. Esparza:#54 withdrawn as duplicate. #65 amend with direction to find money from ARP#67 to find those funds from

ARP or any other Federal programs to give flexibility. Soria: Workers Comp on p. 117 Want to reduce it to reflect increase from 2022 from 2020 to balance the budget. Esparza: #95 $98,000 for ISD Security analyst. Karbassi: can we get an updated list? Esparza: $6 million from ARP

to give us budget flexibility. Mayor approves! Esparza things ARP will allows us to us up to $20 million but $6 million is more conservation. Chavez:place Immigration Affairs committee into Mayor's Community Affairs Office. I want to have a point person to make sure Notary

program and legal fund. City manager: with these new changes we will need an update on this. We do like the flexibility. Esparza:asks City Manager "Can you smell that sausage? We will get it budgeted. " Chavez: We will have a mid-year budget changes too. Esqueda: Zero Fund
game

$170 Million over two years from ARP (American Rescue Plan); Measure P $29 m this year and $38 M next; FAX ARP =$26 M and Airport is $9 M. Mayor:State is projection to use $12 B state wide over two years for affordable housing. Can use some for freeway graffiti cleanup and home-

-less. Chavez:Infrastructure Bill winding its way thru Congress should be good for Fresno as this is the 5th largest city in California. Karbassi: hard to balance budget when we don't know how we can actually spend ARP? Need to decide what we should cut now just in case. Chavez:

we don't have to make that decision now. Karbassi: I have faith in Uncle Joe but not Congress. Soria: We are living in unprecedented times with this funding. We owe it to our community to truly rebuild Fresno, our neighborhoods. NOTE: Five Minute break to be sure public can watch

the hearings online ( I have been able to do so)

Back online at 10:06. Still no Bredefeld. Street trimming $2.8 m over 10 years. #2 cost estimate for $28 one time #3 withdrew. #4 increase reserves by $4 m. Fails with Chavez and Karbassi voting Yes. Karbassi: we are spending fake money. Chavez: we have healthy reserves. Karbassi

I guess I am only fiscally responsible. #5 no fund adder for Economic Development Coordinator (No funding).Item #7 on LGBTQ+ Community coordinator Fails 2-4 with Karbassi and Chavez voting yes. Karbassi:take the flags down as my democratic colleagues voted no.( position was added

to another department is what i think actually happened and was approved) #10 approved #11 tax liability due withdrew. Arias thanks for the administrative help with this. #12 Keep code Enforcement in City Attorney's office. Approved 6-0 #13 move PCN from FAX to Fire Dept

#14 Purchase Ashlan and Valentine for Fire station and funded by ARP #16 ARP for Fire Training #17Fire Dept to get ballistic vests from any available funding sources#18 withdrawn #19 Mural Arts Project Provide funding to get this started. #20 withdrawn #21$8 m for parks passes.

#22 Park Ranger with 30 day to come back how this may happen from Measure P #23 playground replacement at Woodward and Roeding

#26 Crime Scene #27 Bike Patrol back to full funding by Fall #28 Contract Policing #29withdrawn #30 new positions for PD Arias: already baked into budget so withdrew #31 Quarterly reports on filling sworn officers #32 withdrawn #33 what budget to get Dispatchers up to 95% of in-

coming calls #34 redirect non emergency calls Still waiting on memo #35 Money to finish police memorial

#36 Contract Policing to pay off duty officers to incentivize them to go to higher crime issues. Esqueda: wants to be sure we are not asking for more money from some than others. Karbassi gets testy. #37 lateral officers from $10k to 20K Karbassi: get mad at me but not on my

constituents. We need to get PD to stay in Fresno and not go to other cities. We need to be competitive. Esparza and Karbassi get mad at each other over LGBTQ issue when Karbassi stood behind Mayor with Eaton Plaza. Chavez gets them to calm down. Karbassi apologizes to public.

#37 fails 2-4 #38 raise first year base salaries to be same as Clovis PD in order to compete.Esqueda: $1200 different. Problem is raising first level raises all other tiers. Karbassi: I guess we are not pro-public safety. Soria: how does our benefit program with Clovis? Karbassi:

younger people don't think of benefit program and we have a great one. Karbassi: withholds this item for now #39 hire 20 Community Service Officers (CSO) Esparza: mayor is already raising CSO and PD officers. Chavez: this will raise customer service and free up officers to do

other issues. Mayor wants this staggered. Arias: i want the unfilled job openings completed before we approve more. Karbassi: incentives will solve that but Council just voted that down. Chavez: easier to hire CSOs .Mayor: easier but don't have enough trainers. Fails 2-4

#40 upt o $20k to encourage PD officers for new officers to buy house South Fresno. Esqueda: 40% PPD who live in Fresno currently live south of Shaw. What is upper limit before we take this incentive away? We have funding for 800+ officers . Karbassi: why approve this but not

other incentives? We are supposed to be One Fresno but now we ask to have them live in South Fresno? Apples to Apples but Arias is trying to make it Apples to Oranges when arias brought up labor Agreement Mayor Brand created. Soria: each of us have a reason for approving one over

another incentive. Karbassi: why not make this Citywide? Soria:we have more challenged neighborhoods Approved #41 withdrawn #42 two person create District 7 pilot program for two person litter program. Esqueda: your moment to shine. Esparza: taking from one project to another.

all from Public Utilities. I am asking Administration to find the remaining funds. Esqueda: we balanced the budget but council needs to do the same. Esparza: amend motion to take balance from Beautify Fresno budget. #43 Tower District beautification .Soria asks for homeless to

be hired. Take from Beautify Fresno if needed. Esqueda: we just took their $1.2M base budget Citywide and place all into District 7. Arias: Esparza initially wanted to give flexibility but Esqueda wanted him to find those funds and so he took it from Beautify Fresno instead.

Soria: any funds from HEAP left? We are doing what Mayor wants to do with cleaning Fresno but we are more specific locations. Esparza: total cost of Pilot is $470,000. Subtract $267,000 to fund from convenience Center. Directing rest from the $1.2 M Beautify Fresno. I wanted it

to be taken from DPU budget.Not taking all $1.2 M. Chavez: we have a pot of money so why are we arguing over $200,000? #44Network specialist contingent on getting Wifi on Busses. #45 Trolley contigent on ARP. Arias: flexibility so it can come from any resource.

MaxwellClimate Action Plan: Can we add solar etc when we do this more comprehensive discussion? Karbassi: Hard to know if ARP will cover this or not. I will withdraw for now so i can talk with Maxwell.#49 we had put all infrastructure into this one . Approve all of those in one

Vote just happened. #50 River Access Karbassi: this will entice more investment.

Maxwell: Does this include traffic signal you showed me on a tour? Arias: is this General Fund? Karbassi: my district is losing out so far. But it can come from any source.#51 CFD district in an area like D-7? waiting for memo. #53 already approved #54 graffiti positions #55

#55 fails. #57 increase Council Budgets. #58 and #59 street maintenance put into infrastructure. #60 approved. #61 bike patrol for Kings Canyon.Chavez: currently on golf carts. Want Bike Patrol. 61a-b already approved #62 Express development team eliminated

#66 $3 million will be brought up Thursday too.#68 withdrawn. #69 Tower District Specific Plan up to $400k #70 $200k for old winery now $500,000 #71 find location for Economic Development . Arias and Soria want to use current City owned sites.#72 reduce to $75,000 for ICSE travel

suggests Maxwell. Chavez: we have never had presence there. Barfield We did when RDA was still in existent. #73 Facade program #74 Allocate $190,000 for motion #5 (Karbassi is not present currently and he is maker of these motions. )#75 Two resource analysts in PSD

#75 on two postions fails 1-4 with Chavez voting Yes. Approves with only one position. #76 Blackstone Czar One of those positions in Economic Development will be dedicated to this. #78 Approve CAO list #79 H Street Warehouse Food Vendor.Already added to Infrastructure package.

#80 Code Enforcement Resource Team flexibility :Fails 1-4. Assistant Manager White asks questions. Arias says we will discuss this later. #81 office Space 2nd withdrawn by Chavez. #85 UMC land Acquisition. Esparza: mayor seems open on purchase with ARP funds. Probably need to

look at under Closed Session. Chavez had recused himself for this item. He is back.

#88 Swim lessons.Passed last Thursday so it can be withdrawn, #89 Move ongoing temps from ARPA to General Fund$600,000. Esqueda:We had temporary employees so we put them in ARPA. Mayor: roll over every year. Karbassi back. Fails.#90Fire Drill School to ARPA. Arias: We will impact

the General Fund with this?A: Yes. Arias: i am uncomfortable with this without knowing exactly what our total will be. Karbassi agrees to hold off for now. #91 Employee Compensation (pay increases) out of General Fund. Arias: labor mangement Act determines we get a 5 year outlook

Fails 2-4. #92 legislative intern program $250,000. Arias: Will match current program. We will still needed to design it and bring details forward. White: interns would get jobs at end of internship ( I think it is what she said)Arias:Parks has money set aside to train a jobforce

via Measure P .Soria: matching grant from Workforce. Some of these interns go on to work in other City departments. karbassi: Need to make sure our council staff comes out of this. #93 Withdrew. #94 housing implement or Mobile Home #95 Additional IT security.

Going over additions from early in morning. Maxwell: El Dorado park acquisitions. Large Park to bike lanes on Barstow. $400K for Climate Action Plan Granite Park funding if this is approved this Thursday. Soria recuses herself. Esparza:1/4 FTE to be put into VA parking district.

Works out to 10 hours a day. $6 M for revenue replacement. Esqueda: 4.1 % is amount we can get from Feds. math may be a challenge. We historically grew at 5-6% We may qualify for zero. Esparza: Amend Up to maximum allowed amount then,. May be very little after we started at $20 m

originally. Chavez: Clerk's Office will compile this new list and Council will be back after lunch to tackle it. (I assume they are coming back around 1:30 per usual).

Back at 2;14 pm. Esqueda:we have added $28 M
to budget but with everything there is a $5 m gap. Three teams of graffiti with one funded by Cal Trans. Soria: #84 she will get the info for that sent soon. Maxwell: add CSO's and CSI's. Arias: meet with Administration to work with

Council to work on the budget gap with resolution to get that done by this Thursday's council meeting. Mayor: CSOs add 15 on top of the 10 already and 5 CSIs Karbassi: some items withheld. Please include those in talks on especially solar as it will save us money in the future.

Also Ring doorbells or any company that will work with us . A $100,000 pilot program. Maxwell:clarification on job coordination available yet? Henry: will try to get it finished ASAP. Chavez: we didn't take public comment today as this is a continuation of that meeting. Public

can however speak on Thursday. Please register ahead of time. Arias: thanks staff for all their hard work. Soria jokes "thanks Henry for finding the money ahead of time" 😆
Next meeting is this Thursday at 9 am. Budget vote plus Regular meeting.

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