Fresno has almost $2 billion in taxpayer money to spend. More transparency is needed | Opinion

It was gratifying to learn that Annalisa Perea, the new president of the Fresno City Council, has interest in making the city’s budget process more public this year.

Specifically, she wants to revamp how the City Council considers Mayor Jerry Dyer’s nearly $2 billion proposed budget when hearings start in late spring.

The council’s budget subcommittee — three members who hammer out final terms of the spending plan — has operated in secret meetings in recent years. A local news website, Fresnoland, reported last year about the sessions, and that led to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and First Amendment Coalition.

Their contention is that the city is violating the Brown Act, the state measure that requires the public’s business to be done in public, with a few exceptions. Deciding how to spend taxpayer money is not among them.

Only in Fresno

Bee columnist Marek Warszawski outlined how the budget process worked last year:

Dyer presented his proposed budget in May. In June the council held two weeks of hearings that were open to residents who wanted to comment on the spending plan. Council members then proposed revisions through budget motions.

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Last year, the seven-member council put forth 120 motions, “of which 75 (with a price tag of nearly $30 million) wound up being either entirely or partially funded by the city’s $1.87 billion fiscal year 2024 budget,” Warszawski reported.

Negotiations on the budget motions then took place between Dyer’s team and the council subcommittee, without the public able to see what was happening.

“A lot of sausage was being made in the back room,” Dyer told reporters during a June press conference.

That quote hearkens to a bygone era in politics where the leadership would gather in smoke-filled rooms and come up with a final budget or policy — whatever was at issue. But in 2024, back-room dealing must have no place in Fresno’s city government.

For one thing, the city is a outlier. Of California’s 10 largest cities, only Fresno has a budget finalizing process that is out of public view.

Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, San José, Long Beach, Oakland, Anaheim, Bakersfield — all of them keep budget meetings open to the public.

No budget subcommittee?

Perea told Bee staff writer Melissa Montalvo that she may not form a budget subcommittee this year. She will seek advice from City Attorney Andrew Janz about how to use subcommittees and will outline her program next month.

If Perea through her position makes budgeting more public — especially in its final steps — that will be a distinction worth noting. It will go along with her being the council’s first openly gay member.

Closed-door dealings contradict the openness and transparency Fresno’s elected leaders say they want to practice. If anything, the city should do its utmost to involve residents in budgeting. It is taxpayer money, after all.