Fresno parkway puzzle: Why did San Joaquin River Conservancy board fire top executive? | Opinion

For the last 15 years, I’ve tried to inform readers about the state-funded effort to assemble a recreation and riparian corridor along the San Joaquin River between Friant Dam and Highway 99.

A river parkway for residents of Fresno and Madera counties to enjoy. Just like so many other parkways and trail systems built along rivers in metro areas throughout California, from Sacramento to Bakersfield and the Bay Area to Los Angeles.

There should be no reason, besides our own defeatism and incompetence, why we can’t have something similar.

During most of that time, the lack of progress on the San Joaquin River Parkway has left me frustrated and dismayed. But right now, just as things are starting to turn the corner, I’m mostly puzzled.

How come? Because Wednesday morning in closed session, the governing board of the San Joaquin River Conservancy voted 11-1 (with two abstentions) to terminate executive officer John Shelton, the state agency’s point person for the river parkway.

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Why did Shelton get fired following 4½ productive years on the job? Board members aren’t saying. Their only public disclosure is a non-enlightening statement courtesy of chairman Mike Karbassi, the Fresno City Council representative:

“The San Joaquin River Conservancy Board thanks John Shelton for his service as executive officer since November 2018. Our focus now turns to the future and finding the next leader to advance our important mission of developing and managing lands for public access, recreation and restoration of floodplain habitat along 22 miles of the San Joaquin River.”

Karbassi and other board members either declined further comment, citing the private nature of personnel manners, or didn’t reply to my messages.

The 16-member body consists of elected leaders from Fresno and Madera (both the cities and counties), state agency representatives and appointed public members. Two seats are vacant.

‘I’m really disappointed in the board’

Reached by phone following a goodbye lunch with staff, Shelton said he was not given any clear reasons for his dismissal. However, Shelton did sense he had fallen out of favor with certain board members, mentioning by name Karbassi and Bryn Forhan, the city of Fresno public appointee who served as chair in 2022. Others, he speculated, may have been persuaded by them.

“I’m really disappointed in the board in that I think they’ve been shortsighted,” Shelton said. “They demanded too much. Now that I don’t work for them, I’ll say the board needs training on how to work on these issues. They’re hard and complex.”

Since the conservancy’s formation in 1992, progress on the San Joaquin River Parkway has been stifled by bureaucracy, politics and a lack of funding for maintenance and operations.

In 2021, Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula seemingly addressed the O&M problem by securing $15 million in the state budget to manage parkway properties for five years.

However, that did not seem to satisfy board members who during meetings frequently raised concerns that the O&M money wasn’t going out the door fast enough before the funding window expires. So far, $3 million has been spent with another $7 million encumbered into future contracts.

Much more so than previous executive officers, Shelton made community outreach a priority. Before he took over, the conservancy had no social media presence. Today it has a Facebook group with 1,200 members. At the same time, the number of community organizations involved with parkway projects and volunteer efforts has increased from two or three to more than a dozen.

All that is primarily Shelton’s doing.

One might think the board would be thrilled to have more public involvement in the San Joaquin River Parkway. That’s the ultimate goal, right? But when one of those groups (Fresno Building Healthy Communities) invited state Sen. Anna Caballero and Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria to tour Camp Pashayan and hear about efforts to extend the Eaton Trail from 99 to the Milburn Overlook, certain individuals were less than thrilled.

“Some of the outreach I’ve done, (board members) got worried about,” Shelton said.

River conservancy down to two staff

No immediate replacement for Shelton was named. Following his termination and another expected departure, the conservancy will be down to two full-time staff: program analyst Rebecca Raus, who primarily handles contracts, and newly hired recreation officer Cheryl Moxley.

Until a few years ago, the conservancy faced a major perception problem: Millions of taxpayer dollars went to purchase properties along the envisioned 5,900-acre parkway to which the public had little to no access.

Shelton helped change that by informally opening areas that had previously been closed. (River West, Ball Ranch and Ledger Island are good examples.) He also served as the conduit between the conservancy and a multitude of community groups that have gotten involved with the parkway, be they various Boy Scout troops or organizations such as RiverTree Volunteers and the Fresno Canoe and Kayak Club.

Shelton was instrumental in the concept development of Circle V Ranch, a planned indigenous and environmental resource center on a Madera County property overlooking the river. Until he came along, the conservancy made no effort to engage Native American tribes.

Besides all that, he works weekends. I recently visited Ball Ranch on a Saturday afternoon and encountered a sweaty Shelton, shears in hand, trimming a cactus plant in the parking lot.

Surely, that’s not in the executive officer’s job description.

“I really enjoyed doing this work and am optimistic that over time the conservancy is going to do great,” Shelton said. “But I’m worried about the next couple years.”

Me, too. From my vantage point, firing the most active executive officer in recent conservancy history makes little sense. Now board members, perhaps more than ever, are on the hot seat themselves.