Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Where's Matt? Yeah, right back here. Everybody ready? Good. All right, thank you all for being here today. I'm gonna be very direct with you. because that's what the people of Fresno County deserve, direct, honest information. What's happening in Sacramento right now is one of the most brazen attacks on local democracy and local government that I've seen in my career in public service. And I've seen a lot. As usual, in order to understand, you have to follow the money. Before I discuss this corruption, let me remind you that 40 years ago, Fresno County residents, desperate for what they felt t

Let me just say something before I introduce Diane. The process also, you mentioned the steering committee, got corrupted very early. Ashley Swearengen's group came before the COG before I got there. I'm on there now. And basically threatened the COG, which is 15 mayors plus a county representative, that if they weren't going to get their way in what they wanted in the measure, they would run their own citizens measure. And that intimidated me. the mayors, and that's why they allowed them to put 13 members of their group on the steering committee. There were only about 20 before then. So they

Yeah, we will take questions for anyone that you have.

We're having an election law specialist that we've already contracted with come and speak to us. and we will see what it is. I can tell you this, though. I'm all for it regardless. There's a principle here that we have to fight for in addition to fighting for residents from this corruption that's taking place in Sacramento right before our eyes. How much money are you willing to spend? We'll see what it costs.

No, I don't think we have to. I mean, you know, we're the accountants.

We will see what standing we have. Listen, I don't take corruption lightly, and I don't take Sacramento screwing my constituents lightly. I'm going to do everything I can. The fight has just begun. I don't give a shit what they do in Sacramento. The fight has just begun for me. And let me finish. And I think it's just begun for my fellow colleagues, the other two that don't support this monstrosity. And we'll see what happens. The legal issue is what they've done is unconstitutional. They're violating election law. We followed election state law. They didn't like what we decided to do, so they

It's not a roads tax. It's to get people out of their cars, use public transportation, put bike lanes all through Fresno County. It's like Newsom with trying to get rid of the combustible engine and have everybody drive electric cars. No. Then in some way? Well, it benefits them in their radical ideology and in their environmental wacko ideology. Yeah. They don't care what people want. They know better. That's what most left-wing radicals think. They know better than everybody else. And so they're pushing this agenda because that's what they believe in. I'm pushing the agenda that we ought to

the law bill if newsom signs the bill what is at stake for the entire state if that happens what's it what's at stake is that they can do this to any county they disagree with i mean this sets the precedent for that and this in a disgraceful manner soria gutted her own bill that was to help hospitals in distress. Patients who need hospitalization will now not get it because of these two idiot politicians who are bending the knee to Ashley Swearengen and these other radicals, because they're all aligned together, and have turned their back on Fresno County residents, Madero County residents, wh

Fix our roads initiative? The other initiative? I don't know. I'm not responsible for it. I don't know. That other initiative. Let me say one thing. I want to add on to what Buddy said. Ashley Swearingen, when she was mayor, It was well known she did not want growth. If you talk to developers, if they're honest with you, many of them have told me that she told them she's not interested in development. She doesn't like development. And as a result of that, the development that should have been going to the north jumped the river, went to Madera. And you see what's going on there. They're expand

No, no, I had no knowledge of what they were doing. And I'm sure nobody up here knew until we found out about it. Didn't know about the letter that was sent from the two mayors. Didn't know what Ashley was doing. But then we started hearing that something was in the works. And then it came out.

Well, you know, this hand-wringing now of these mayors that supported this crappy measure, I would say to them, Supervisor Mendez and I tried to negotiate with these folks a multitude of times. And I said very clearly early on, we can't do 120 miles of bike lanes. A 30-year tax measure doesn't work. I know Northwest, Northeast, and Clovis last time voted down very strongly the 2022 measure. What they're proposing is not going to pass. I believe it's going to be voted down again because it's not doing what the people want. And I said it every month at COG. And like Mayor Tuttle says, it was ign

Well, and that's... Totally. And that's why this general tax that you're proposing I believe has a lot of problems because they keep talking as though it's a specific tax. And the other issue, it's a general tax, which means there are council members who want childcare for all. I don't know where they're getting that money. So this would be an open pot of 50 or $60 million. And I can guarantee you, that the people who are on that board, as well as the ones that are coming on, are very left wing, want to tax and spend, have a lot of agendas that they're going to need money. And I can assure the