Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

As we go through this meeting, we'll say a little bit about the county. Some of you may not know everything the county of Fresno does.

Some of the services that Fresno does. And then we're going to go through some of the services that Fresno does. And then we're going to go through some of the services that Fresno does.

And then we're going to go through some of the services that Fresno does.

protection of neighborhoods and communities, potential revenue options, and then at the end we'll close and then we'll continue to see that community map.

As we begin a little bit about counties in Fresno and Fresno, as you look at this map, this is a map of all the counties in the United States looking in your live in front of me, I'd say, guess how many there are, but I'll just tell you

And I'm going to talk about how many counties exist here in our nation. In the United States, there are 3,069 counties.

And it's a foundation of how we operate in the county.

The state decides the power that the counties have. Here in California, we have 58 different counties. The Fresno County is one of 10 counties with more than a million residents.

Many people think we're small, but we're not small at all.

More than a million residents here in the Fresno County. And if you look at the map in front of you, we're one of the biggest counties here in the state of California.

We think Fresno County is an amazing county.

If you live here, you know. And if you live here in the county, you know. The county has the largest agricultural production in the nation.

We truly feed the nation.

Within our county, we have 15 incorporated cities and also 40 non-incorporated communities in Fresno County. For 6,000 square miles, Florida is the sixth largest county in California.

That includes the farmland, that includes cities, but then also it's not just in our population, but in the way our county is laid out.

We have all types of services here in Fresno County.

Port geography, which includes financial parts that were right either in our county or nearby.

the home of the famous Blossom and Fruit Trail, and more hours of sunshine. There are more hours of sunshine in your land almost anywhere, and it may not always be a beautiful county, forgive us if we're biased about the amazing parts of our county. When you take a look at what that means, there's a little fact sheet Cuando ven esta lámina aquí, pueden ver todas las cosas que platicamos anteriormente. Existen cinco distritos con nuestros supervisores. En el condado se emplean más de 8,000 personas.

Existen 20 departamentos aquí en el condado de Fresno.

Y se recorren más de 3,466 millas.

And then you have incorporated communities that really rely heavily on Fresno County. There are more than 6,000 square miles on the right. So just a wide diversity of things that we do. So obviously, the areas of the first call in a crisis are the last line of support when everything falls away.

At the end of the day, you can see all the cities, not just serving in the rural and underprivileged areas, but serving in the community part of Fresno County. The map that you see on the screen, the size of the county, but also where we have the green, is every part of the county that's saying that the black areas represent cities within our map is where you see the cities.

And no surprise, the biggest areas is Fresno and Clovis,

As you can tell, that's a little larger area around here where we serve about 6,000 square miles inside the county.

This just kind of shows you what that looks like on a map.

We will also show you our neighboring counties the area and counties to link all the counties that are not incorporated. So this effect is going to offer citizens. What I'd like to do now is talk a little bit more specifically about some of those services that the county offers.

So I'm going to break down what that looks like, and we'll talk a little bit about public safety,

We're going to talk about public health, the different services that the county offers, probably the area that we receive the most calls from, the health and human services, roads and infrastructure, and then a little bit about housing, use of land and environmental health, just a little bit about what we do. If we talk a little bit about public health and safety, I'm going to begin with talking about our sheriff's office. Let's talk about the Sheriff's Office.

The Sheriff's Office does what most people never see.

They provide the full control, the unincorporated security of Fresno County, while the District Attorney's Office processes criminal cases throughout the county. The Sheriff's Office operates the County's prison system, provides security in the courts, executes civil processes, patrols all unincorporated areas, carries out search and rescue operations.

When we talk about the operations within the County, across all areas of Fresno County, the Sheriff's budget is $385 million.

the largest discretionary assignment in Fresno County.

All inmates, everybody that is put in jail is cared for in the jail and housed.

As you may know, we run the Sheriff's Office and the last office in Fresno County. The Sheriff provides security. So anytime, whether that's securing the courthouse, protecting judges, securing the courts, in our different buildings here in Fresno County, That includes evictions, restraining orders, resisting orders, that would demonstrate.

They patrol all unincorporated areas of the county.

We know of the unincorporated areas that you saw on the map.

The total number of calls that our sheriff's office responded to in 2025 was 128,000 plus calls.

And then we go to the sheriff. And then we go to the sheriff. And then we go to the sheriff. And then we go to the sheriff.

And then we go to the sheriff. of what they do. Their budget is $385 million.

This is the largest Fresnoary town on the money that we're able to get. Even though we have a budget that has to be large, it's only about $500 million. It's only about $400 million that we have that's completely discretionary. So the bulk of that goes

millions that are discretionary funds.

As we talk about some of the public safety challenges that exist in Fresno County, Fresno County faces public safety challenges that go beyond the daily work of the police. the Department of Conditional Freedom and the Youth Justice Center, which is known in English as JJC. They have a budget of $128.9 million. And our Chief Probation Officer recently received a recognition for his great work in that department.

prosecutes cases for the whole county.

The Department of Probation has more than 600 employees. They are implementing new evidence-based tools to reduce redundancies and improve results. The District Attorney's Office has a budget of $62.8 million and has 248 jobs. We have a large-scale public health, La siguiente lámina es de salud y servicios humanos. La salud y servicios humanos en el condado de Fresno opera sistemas de salud pública, salud conductual y servicios humanos a gran escala, atendiendo tanto comunidades urbanas como rurales. Respuesta en crisis y servicios de salud, mental de emergencia disponible 24-7, servicios de salud mental para niños y apoyo en escuelas, treatment and recovery programs for adults, children's mental health and school-based services, treatment for substance use disorders. These are some of the points in behavioral health and services for substance use disorders. And then another area in which the county focuses right now is in service focused on behavioral health for homeless people and housing support. Public health services include control of contagious diseases and epidemiology, environmental health protection, mobile health services for rural and vulnerable communities, and the response to public health emergencies. And our public health department is always doing an excellent and hard work to make sure that everyone is safe here in Fresno County.

The public health department recently received recognition for some of the innovative work they've done.

The public health department also recently received recognition for the great work they're doing, the development and being innovative in the different areas in which they work.

Respond to a fire or a flood. These are all things that are done in our public health department.

The other thing that we offer in response to flooding is roads and infrastructure. Okay, roads and transportation is from Fresno. If you look at the miles of roads within Fresno County, it's 3,000 El condado de Fresno se encarga de 300 3461 millas en total. Y si esto As you can see on the map, it would expand throughout the United States. These 3,461 miles would reach the Atlantic Ocean. So that gives you an idea of how big Fresno County is when you put it in this perspective.

Transportation planning, encroachment permits, so many things, but this is probably the area that we receive

The Department of Public Works is in charge of maintaining more than 3,461 miles and those miles would extend throughout the country. We would reach the Atlantic Ocean. Water infrastructure and the resilience of the subterranean waters. On this slide, we're going to be talking about water specifically, the water infrastructure. Fresno County supports one of the most important agricultural regions in the country. The water infrastructure priorities include water channels, reservoirs, and reloading wells that help with water storage and regional water distribution. Community leaders identified water systems as one of the most important infrastructure priorities in the county. Esa lámina habla acerca de la planificación para emergencias y resiliencia ante desastres a largo plazo. El condado de Fresno continúa preparándose para enfrentar retos a largo plazo relacionados con infraestructura, medio ambiente y respuesta a emergencias en toda la región. long-term pressures, aging infrastructure, extreme climate risk to forest fires, challenges in water supply, greater demand for infrastructure, changes in state and FEMA refunds. The county planning priorities include underground water recharge projects, fire-resistant infrastructure, improvements in floodwater systems, regional infrastructure coordination, Incendio Creek Fire en el 2020, cerca de 400,000 acres quemados y más de 500 millones en daños de dólares.

Existen muchos otros servicios esenciales que el condado se encarga de revisar.

como protegiendo la agricultura del condado de Fresno. La agricultura en el condado de Fresno ayuda a alimentar a California y sostiene empleos, comercio y nuestra economía local. La industria agricola de nueve mil millones de dolares. Estos programas ayudan a proteger granjas, sistemas alimentarios, empleos locales y la estabilidad agricola a largo plazo. Inspectors in the county help prevent the entry of invasive pests and diseases that affect crops. Approximately 60,000 packages sent by UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL are inspected. 232 pests and diseases were identified, including citrus greening and Caribbean fruit flies. Inspecciones en cuestas de detección y cuarentenas ayudan a detener brotes antes de propagación. Más de cinco millones en fondos del condado apoyan un programa de protección agrícola, supervisión y competencia justa en el mercado, que es lo que hace nuestro Departamento de Agricultura. En esta lámina vamos a hablar de garantizando elecciones justas y precisas We have a lot of other neighborhood and community protection that we do. El condado de Fresno proporciona servicios que ayudan a proteger la calidad de vida en comunidades urbanas y rurales. El tiradero ilegal de basura, como lo ven aquí en las imágenes, en caminos rurales, canales y callejones, sigue siendo un problema constante. Funcionarios estiman que este problema cuesta aproximadamente cuatro millones al año a los contribuyentes. En el 2024, El condado fortaleció ordenanzas para combatir el tiradero ilegal y a infractores reincidentes, infractores que lo siguen haciendo una y otra vez. Otros servicios incluyen eliminación de molestias públicas, salud ambiental, aplicación de ordenanzas de seguridad pública también. En esta lámina, vamos a hablar de presiones crecientes que enfrenta el condado de Fresno. conditions of the community. One in every two residents of the county receives some type of public assistance. One in every four people receives food assistance. One in every five residents lives below the poverty level here in Fresno County. The demand for services continues to grow while income remains limited. Some of the other fiscal pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again, some of the other economic pressures that we're seeing, so again,

a good part of our discretionary revenue comes through property tax.

And that means when housing taxes decrease when they are maintained, we're in a much better place that actually uses the services that Fresno County, Fresno County, but when it's not growing fast or our costs grow faster and we're beginning to feel that our costs are increasing,

And the biggest issue that I'll just talk about briefly is federal funding cost shifts that have happened in the last two years. Some of these big cost shifts to Fresno County.

What I'm going to talk about in the next slide is cost transfers to Fresno County, such as the HR1 impacts in Fresno County. One of them is indigent care. And for those of you who don't know,

the indigenous people in California.

And in 1996, the California law requires that counties provide basic medical care to low-income people who do not have adequate access to medical services. Indigent care is basically those who don't have any health care is not administered in the same way in all of the counties in California, so it's very different in all of the counties. Fresno County is one of the counties under Article 13. Due to the impacts of the HR-1, we have seen It has estimated the cost of paying for indigent care Las estimaciones sobre atención médica para personas indigentes en el condado de Fresno, aquí están los costos, lo ven en la lámina aquí, que son entre 40 millones a 240 millones de dólares. Es un número muy alto.

Este es una noticia aún en desarrollo.

y la estimación basada en una población elegible de entre 11,000 a 30,000 personas. En esta lámina son los impactos anticipados en salud conductual. Se estima una pérdida de ingresos de 15 millones de dólares. Y también en esta otra lámina son los estimados al programa de CalFresh del condado. As you can see on this slide, an increase of 7.5% in the county's financial contribution and approximately $7.5 million annually in additional costs for Fresno. Now, how do you finance county services? It's one of the best questions that many of you may have, but at the same time, we're going to talk about this in these next slides. Because now the county is looking at the task of seeing how we are going to solve or help with some of the programs that we possibly did not contribute before. Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director. Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director. Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director. Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director.

Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director.

Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director. Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director. Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director. Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director. Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director.

Now I'm going to hand it over to our budget director.

Paige says, thank you very much.

There are folks taking advantage of the Q&A box. Please, any questions you have, feel free to post them there, and we will try to answer them.

We have a section of questions here in this Zoom call. Please ask your questions in that section of questions and answers of Q&A.

Questions that I answer on a daily basis are, can we pay for it? How do we pay for it? How much have we paid for it?

Some of the questions that I, as the Director of the Fresno County Budget, that I face is, can we pay for this? How do we pay for this?

The reality of the matter is that the county relies on a mix of low-income communities to support health services. The policy can go to the next state. So in fiscal year 2526, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.1 billion budget.

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors funded a $5.3 billion budget. The These resources allow to sustain public services provided by the county. As you can see, En la lámina, en el círculo, existen los fondos restringidos y también los fondos que son flexibles. Los restringidos se tienen que utilizar para ciertos programas, ciertos servicios que ya vienen destinados a esos fondos. Y los flexibles son fondos que se pueden utilizar de diferentes maneras en beneficio de las personas que viven en el condado de Fresno.

So over the last few years, and looking into the pictures, we continue to see costs rising, right?

So over the last few years, and looking into the pictures, we continue to see costs rising, right? So over the last few years, and looking into the pictures, we continue to see costs rising, right? Los principales retos de ingresos son el crecimiento en ingresos por impuestos. Sobreventas ha disminuido en años recientes. Los costos para brindar servicios públicos continúan aumentando. Los fondos temporales han permitido mantener niveles actuales de servicio. Y algunos de los factores externos son que los cambios en financiamiento federal continúan generando

incertidumbre para gobiernos locales.

We, of course, are doing our best to be good stewards of your... Y claro, estamos haciendo lo mejor posible para utilizar los fondos de la manera más adecuada y correcta para en beneficio de todos los residentes del condado de Fresno.

As housing sales have slowed, so have our property tax revenue

Mientras la venta de casas ha disminuido, también ha disminuido los impuestos de las casas.

En específico al condado de Fresno, durante la pandemia, vimos un incremento en la venta de casas.

But since then, six years down the road, since then, we've seen our sales tax revenues flatten. Desde la pandemia o de seis años para acá, hemos visto los impuestos de las casas que se han mantenido al margen. No ha habido mucha ganancia en esa área o en ese aspecto. En la próxima lámina, Vamos a hablar de una posible fuente de ingresos que se le conoce en inglés como TOT o TOT, que es el impuesto por ocupación temporal. El TOT es una posible medida de ingresos. Es lo que vamos a hablar en esta lámina que se presenta aquí. El condado de Fresno está evaluando un posible impuesto por ocupación temporal or TOT, as an alternative to help sustain long-term county services and operations. The TOT is a tax that pays for guests who stay in short-term hotels and rents, such as an Airbnb or those types of places. Important points, it is paid mainly by visitors, not by local residents. We want to emphasize that it is not paid by local residents. Actualmente, el condado de Fresno no aplica un TOT en áreas no incorporadas. Las ciudades de Clovis y Fresno actualmente cobran un 12% en TOT. Un TOT del condado igualaría esa tasa. Podría generar aproximadamente 4.5 millones de dólares anuales. Estos posibles usos de estos recursos adicionales ayudaría con la seguridad pública y respuesta a emergencias, preparación ante desastres, parques y espacios públicos, protección agrícola y supervisión de precios. En esta otra lámina vamos a hablar de las tasas actuales de TOT en el condado de Fresno. Como pueden ver en esta lamina, están las diferentes ciudades que ya tienen un TOT en lugar o que ya lo tienen puesto ejecutado. Las ciudades más grandes, la mayoría Clovis, Fresno, Selma, Kingsburg, está en un 12%. Como lo ven las otras, está Mendota, Ridley, en 10 y 8% respectivamente.

How would a TOT work?

A TO supervisor has a super majority and four supervisors. How would the TOT require approval by a majority of voters? It is important to know that all hands from a TO to a local, as well as the county, but this is one option for the majority of voters. Todos los recursos permanecerían localmente y por ley no pueden ser redirigidos por el Estado.

Ahora voy a pasar el micrófono a Paul una vez más. Muchas gracias a Paige por compartir toda esta información tan importante.

Y les quiero compartir unas últimas cosas que el condado de Fresno es uno de los más grandes aquí en el estado de California.

El turismo aquí en el condado de Fresno está creciendo de una manera exponencial.

Cada vez vemos a más y más personas visitando el condado de Fresno.

As we talk about closing in residence.

And so we're continuing to look at options, but Some of the key points that I would like you to take with you is that the county operates essential public security systems, infrastructure and community services, and the financial pressure on county operations continues to increase. Now I would like to present this sheet where you can send your questions to this email. And if you also have questions during this presentation, you can do them en la parte de abajo de esta presentación en las preguntas y respuestas. Tenemos varias preguntas de las áreas no incorporadas.

¿Qué significa no incorporadas?

areas, communities, towns are simply that, areas that have not incorporated as a city.

The unincorporated communities therefore rely more heavily on county services or county

the services that they're receiving, the needs of the community. But also there is a cost because when they incorporate, they're now taking on the cost of the services. And there are times that that makes sense, but there's times that depending on the size of the community, it may not. But it is decided by that.

As Ciudad de las Comunidades no incorporadas son las a las los lugares más rurales donde no existe una ciudad grande como un ejemplo sería la ciudad de Clovis que ya es una ciudad más grande o la ciudad de Fresno.

Regarding the loss of federal funding, why has there been no protest from the supervisors? We're charging our federal lobbyists with addressing the federal government. The GOP-led federal government arbitrarily cut funding, yet our...

This next question is about the loss of federal funds. Why haven't there been protests by the Board of Directors? Because H.R. 1 became law in 2025. So in 2025, We were certainly at a power order to respond to this question and like to see the comment that the H.R.1 law became a law that took place in 2000 in 2025. From us, what is happening is that if we have been sending letters, we have been advocating.

The political reality is it is now law and now shifted to the state. there are a number of things within the state where there are solutions and things to do. And to be right, state has also passed on a number of things to the county as well that needed to be right now. So that is the reason. So the board has advocated both to the state and to the federal government.

And the next question, would CLT affect those that live in Colorado and not in their primary?

Yeah, my understanding is anybody that's paying a rate at a hotel, an Airbnb, not a hotel that's in the county of Fresno, but hotels that have now been converted to a county living. Because you know we've got a number of those in the city of Fresno and one in the county. Those would not be impacted, but for hotels, you're there in any way, shape or form and paying through a hotel, it would affect what they charge.

So just, but I mean, for years, I've seen them in the canvases saying it would be part of what they're paying. And Paul, just to clarify, don't most of our cities already charge the TOT tax on the TOT in the city of Fresno?

Do you think that as many of our other cities that were on that slide that you had earlier?

They do. All of our large cities were very unique and not doing it. So we have some situations where you could have a hotel across the street that's in an unincorporated area that that is not. Having that charge because they're in Fresno County or an Airbnb.

Existe, eh? But again, I would just remind you of lugares donde algunos hoteles estan en una en una calle donde posiblemente no sea incorporada. So at this time, they are not receiving that TOT tax that we have been talking about. So with this, they would be receiving that help if it were to happen. All right.

And then one of the other questions we have is property taxes. Will property taxes increase for the coming year?

Los impuestos de las propiedades van a subir para el próximo año. And I can tell you just to compare over the last several years, it will be less almost certainly than what it's been the last several years. So we've had some unusually high growth in the last several years, as high as 8%, 7%, 6%. It's likely that this year will be closer to four and a half to five, and so it continues.

We're glad to see some growth, but it continues to increase, but our costs, unfortunately, are increasing much more dramatically, but we do expect it to grow, just not enough to cover our costs.

The last question that we have, unless we get a few extra that come in, it says if a TOT is added, could we use some of the funds to advertise vacation spots in Fresno County? This might improve the size of total revenue for our county that hospitality provides.

So what I can say to that, this is a general question for the discretion, you know, to be able to spend it on services that are most needed in the community.

That would be one of them that it is spent on. but they have the discretion to spend it based on, frankly, on what the community sees as the greatest interest. But enhancing services like that is an option.

And Paul responded that that would be an option to give more visibility to hotels or vacation places here in Fresno County.

More people losing access to housing, leading to more homelessness and more people moving out of the county, which would ultimately cost the county more.

Yeah, we're not talking about increasing property taxes.

The earlier question, the property tax growth is not about increasing property taxes. It's about the value of homes, the sale of homes, and the increases. Then this property tax growth is not about increasing the value of property taxes.

And the property tax growth is not about receiving or charging. And that just to clarify, what we are talking about is a a transient occupancy tax that is purely for hotels, Airbnb, visitors that come to Fresno County, essentially being supplemented by local taxpayers who do not pay that currently.

And we have another question from Michael Flores. He's asking, this is not a short-term solution, but is the county considering a municipally-owned utility system for electric and gas similar to SMUD. I don't know which utility district he's referring to. Our issues seem to be revenue, and I don't think PG&E has an issue with their profits.

Now, great. Appreciate the question. And there's been a lot of frustration in our community.

I know there's no immediate plan or something like that.

my understanding is the cost is probably much greater than most realized to get something like that.

I don't know if that's at this moment.

No, nothing is related to that. I can't speak to what the...

Most of the time, no. That's not part of a plan.

Do you expect to get a team of local supervisors? Are they supporting the TOT?

I really... Hence, I can't predict what they will do by my aunt today.

If you this has been this has been this has been this has been this has been this has been this has been this has been this has been this has been voters would decide.

All right. Well, right now, we don't have any other additional questions in the chat, in the Q&A.

All right. Well, I want to thank you all for joining us.

I want to thank you for your engagement. If you have additional questions, we can take a look at the email at the bottom of the screen. President Obama and President Obama and President Obama and

Thank you again for spending your lunch hour with us today.