Fresno City Council
Fresno is the sixth largest city that sits at the heart of the central valley. Fresno seems to be a big city trying to stay small. Over the past five years Fresno has seen record growth from population to developments. The small town politics are gradually changing to represent the character of its neighboring cities in the southern part of California. The city council meeting I attended reflected the small town mentality with big town decisions. Issues ranged from declaring the dog of the month to decision on policies that would affect millions of taxpayer’s dollars. To best illustrate my experience at the council meeting I will first give some introductory information, followed by a general outline of the council meeting. Then I will discuss the issues addressed at the meeting and their outcomes, followed by a description of the council member dynamics.
General Information about the Fresno City Council
The Fresno City Hall is a fairly new building that sits in the center of downtown Fresno. The building has been described as everything from Darth Vader’s helmet to a can of opened sardines. While and eyesore to some, City Hall has been used in several movies for its futuristic appearance. Although to some, the appearance of a building may say nothing, but I would argue that the architecture of the building is analogues to state of the city. City Hall is a modern building resting in an historic district that gradually is seeing more and more large corporation developments. Fresno and its farming town roots are being invaded by the large business and bay area commuters. City Hall represents that pockets of modernity that are beginning to color Fresno. The Fresno City Council consists of seven districts represented by the following members: Tom Boyajian Brian Calhoun Cynthia Sterling Larry Westerlund District 1 District 2 District 3 District 4 Mike Degas District 5
Jerry Duncan District 6 Henry Perea District 7
All the members attended the meeting. Also attending the meeting was Hilda Cantú Montoy (City Attorney), Becky Klisch (City Clerk), Dan Hobbs, (City Manager),
Andy Souza (Assistant City Manager), and Yolanda Salazar (Assistant City Clerk). The Council Chamber is a large open room that sits, roughly, 200 people. The council sits behind a large semi-circular desk. Behind the members is an intimidating wall with view screen when articles need to be displayed for the audience. In an informal town, this room is formal.
General Outline of the Meeting
Fresno City Council Meetings commence at 8:30 AM every Tuesday. At 8:30 AM there were only a handful of people there aside from the council members and a few staffers. However there was dog. All council meeting are televised over a city channel, so each week they give a “Dog of the Month” award to a pet from the local animal shelter in hopes of finding an adoptive family. This weekly ritual surprised me. Council Member Boyajian conducted the ceremony. I would say that it was a political move but who would be paying attention to a pet show that early in the morning. Still, Boyajian came down from his seat and was very welcoming to the dog and the person from the shelter. He spoke briefly with several people in the crowd. Overall, I though it was nice to see a city of almost 500,000 people do something so small and insignificant. The dog show was followed by another weekly ritual, the prayer of invocation. Each week a pastor or priest pray for the members of the city to begin the meeting. I am not sure if this is common for cities to do but I would imagine that this does not go on in San Jose or Long Beach. The prayer reflected the conservative nature of the central valley and Fresno. I remember after the court case involving “under God” in the pledge of allegiance came out, one of the Council Members announced on camera that that person should get out of America. Although that story has nothing to do with the meeting directly, I feel that it very mush characterizes the reason and values behind someone having a prayer to begin a meeting. The meeting proceeded with by a vote and approval of the council minutes from a prior week and the acceptance the agenda for the current days meeting. These both passed, however Council Member Duncan asked for a continuance on an approval vote for a Zoo Board representative to the following week, which was not upheld. After the
agenda was approved two of the council members took floor time to discuss issues with the rest of the council. Council Member Duncan rebuked a local news station for running a story in which they falsely encouraged Fresnans to challenge traffic tickets due to the result of a vote that was passed the week before. Although I do not know the exact content of the article, Duncan was very upset (as were the rest of the council) at the news station. A local cameraman received the brute of the message. Calhoun followed Duncan by addressing several “dumps” or eyesores that were located in his district that happened to be adjacent to the only freeway that runs through Fresno. He requested that the council discuss possible options to remove such displays so too improve the ascetic beauty of Fresno. These few spontaneous addresses were followed by the approved agenda. The approved agenda contained the various ordinances, resolutions, problems, etc. that were to be discussed throughout the meeting. Although the agenda contained many different topics for discussion, and a time allotment for each, the majority of the meeting was given only to several of the dominant issues of the day. The agenda did not seem to even matter. This might be common, as I would expect it would be, but I have no prior experience with Council Meetings.
Issues That Were Discussed
Throughout the meeting there were people moving in and out of the chamber. The council members rarely left their posts, only to confer with another member. Often herds of people would come and go, pending the issue at hand. However there were no more than fifty people or citizens at any given time. Most of the people, that I could tell, were connected with a particular issue. Other included, staff or simply those who enjoyed going to council meetings. Two of the major routines that I saw were: 1) Council president Degas referring to the City Attorney for proper procedure and; 2) A constant battle between who was listening and what needed to be repeated. I will discuss this more later.
Appointment of Zoo Representative: In the last election of November, Measure Z passed which gave the Zoo a grant from the city and established a partnership between the Zoo
and the city. Measure Z was the most contested ballot measure in the local election due to the tax dollars that were to be spent on a failing Zoo. Part of the agreement was that the city would get to appoint three representatives to the Zoo board who would be in charge of revitalizing the Zoo and the surrounding Rodeing Park. The city took nominations and applications a decided on two women. This meeting represented the confirmation day and allotted time for any objections to the two nominations. Council Member Calhoun had immediate objections to one of the two applicants. He stated on the grounds that she had no prior service to the community and had not been in Fresno long, that someone else with a history of contributions to Fresno should be appointed in her place. He supported the appointment of another women instead. This sounded like a little political jockeying. The Council member appeared to try and put in his own man (or woman). The other members quickly recognized this and argued that the two women were picked by their past experience and qualifications, not any previous merit. The two women were allowed to speak on their behalf to Calhoun’s objections quite openly. The floor went back in forth, but was finally decided that each of the women were the right people for the job and were appointed with a 6 to 1 vote. Although it did seem political I did find Calhoun’s argument appealing. He believed that someone with further service to the community should be appointed. The women he objected to had only been in Fresno a short time. I could see that Calhoun had an appreciation for loyalty and service. He was given his time to speak and although he lost in the end, made the women fight for her place. She was not given a time restraint, as neither were the council members. The deliberation was relatively fair for all parties. The council gave time to anyone who might have other comments but there was not any. This happened frequently throughout the day. Although it was the first action of the day, all the council members were attentive to the proceedings. This was the close to a long battle and I believe they were anxious to vote and be done with it.
Granite Park Agreement and Development: Two years ago Fresno began a city development project of a sports complex in east Fresno. The Sports complex was built in a lower income area in hopes to attract local at risk youth. Surrounding the park are several vacant lots and deteriorating shopping centers. There were two issues the Council
had to deliberate upon; 1) Whether or not to approve a 40 acre development across from the park and; 2) Approving a contingent debt purchase agreement between the city of Fresno and the Bank of the West. Both of these measures passed. The development group involved was well represented. As soon as the measure passed, half the room left. Most of the people there, as far as I could tell, were