Fresno City Council Adopts FY2027 Budget on June 23, 2026
Fresno City Council Adopts FY2027 Budget on June 23, 2026
On Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 9:00 AM, the Fresno City Council voted to adopt the Fiscal Year 2027 budget, concluding a multi-day hearing process. The final budget totals $2.56 billion, with a general fund of $546.41 million, and includes numerous amendments made during the meeting. The council approved a balanced budget after resolving a $34.5 million shortfall through revenue enhancements and expenditure reductions.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Chris Thompson (animal welfare advocate) thanked the council for increased spay/neuter funding and requested planning for FY28 to dedicate at least 10% of the Fresno Animal Center budget to community spay/neuter programs, emphasizing prevention as cost-effective.
- Galilea Juarez (representing Nastra Communidad Adams) asked for attention to infrastructure needs in the Adams area, including a park and community input on development.
- Giovanna Morales (Leadership Council) expressed appreciation for continued funding for eviction protection and the Adams neighborhood park, urging collaboration with residents on park design and guideline updates.
- Brandy (identity not clear) criticized HEART team operations, alleging inhumane treatment of homeless individuals including destruction of belongings and lack of accessibility, and called for accountability and collaborative approaches.
- Ariana (resident) spoke in favor of police alternative programs like Atlanta's PAD initiative, opposing expansion of HEART, and highlighted the difficulty of explaining homelessness to children.
Discussion Items
- Mayor Jerry Dyer presented a detailed reconciliation of the budget, noting that the council had approved 99 motions totaling $49.91 million, of which two-thirds were funded. Funding sources included $1.6 million in extra interest revenue, $440,000 from card room revenue (after court ruling), $330,000 from a settlement, $410,000 from property sales, $500,000 from EIFD adjustments, and other shifts. He highlighted key investments including $2 million for early learning, $1.8 million for eviction protection, full funding for Advance Peace ($1.276 million total), $825,000 for spay/neuter, $500,000 for a new park near Adams Elementary, and $1 million for Tower District beautification. The budget also includes $75 million for street/sidewalk construction, two firefighter drill schools, an additional HEART team, and $21 million for a regional fire training center.
- Councilmember Miguel Angel Arias proposed and successfully moved to allocate $50,000 from District 3 infrastructure funds for an independent audit of Diamond Baseball Holdings' operational agreement for Chukchansi Stadium. He also discussed other district priorities.
- Councilmember Brandon Vang amended motion 37 to split $60,000 among three organizations (Families in Action, FIRM, Hope for Encounter) from the same funding source, which passed.
- Councilmember Mike Karbassi introduced multiple amendments: (1) reallocating existing park funds to be eligible for sites west of Highway 99 (passed); (2) allocating up to $200,000 from Riverside Golf Course Capital Fund for First Tee program facility improvements (passed); (3) adjusting motion 5 for Sweet Potato program from $25,000 to $20,000, with $10,000 from District 2 and $10,000 from District 1 (passed); (4) restoring motion 97 for the African American Community Council by reducing motion 18 and using District 2 operating funds (passed); (5) renaming the public safety memorial fund as the Devin P. McGuire Public Safety Memorial Fund (passed 7-0); (6) adding $20,000 to Sister Cities International (motion 98) using unused funds from Cesar Chavez Boulevard renaming (passed); (7) making additional $50,000 for the Police/Fire Chaplaincy a mid-year priority (passed). He also questioned funding sources for Stallion Park and yellow light timing.
- Councilmember Annalisa Perea praised the budget as family-friendly, highlighting funding for child care, teen moms, LGBTQ health care, domestic violence services, eviction protection, library in Tower District, sidewalk repairs, spay/neuter, and other community initiatives. She echoed the mayor's call for county to support nonprofits.
- Councilmember Tyler Maxwell (Vice President) made a motion to name the public safety memorial fund after Devin P. McGuire (passed unanimously). He also supported the budget overall.
- Councilmember Nick Richardson made a motion to approve the budget items (A through F) with all amendments, which superseded previous motions, and also moved to approve the GANN limit.
Key Outcomes
- Adoption of Budget Resolutions: The council voted to adopt FY2027 Salary Resolution (item A), Position Authorization Resolution (item B), Annual Appropriation Resolution (item C), and Property Tax Override Ordinance (item F), all with amendments incorporated—passed unanimously (7-0). The GANN Appropriation Limit Resolution (item D) passed 5-2. The Investment Policy (item E) was also adopted.
- Final Budget Figures: $2.56 billion total; General Fund $546.41 million; Enterprise and Internal Service Funds $1.12 billion; Special Revenue $891.97 million.
- Amendments incorporated: All motions made during the meeting (audit, fund redistributions, naming, mid-year priority) were included, maintaining a balanced budget.
- Call to County: The mayor and council emphasized that the city cannot bear the full burden of social services and urged Fresno County to increase support for nonprofits.
Meeting Transcript
All right. All right, good morning. We're going to go ahead and get this uh get this meeting started. Welcome to the uh what is presumably the last day of the city's budget process for FY twenty-six twenty-seven. Uh clerk, would you please call the roll? Good morning, yes. Councilmember Perea. Here. Councilmember Carbasi. Councilmember Arias. Vice President Maxwell. Present. Councilmember Vang. Present. Councilmember Richardson. President Esparza. Present. Seven members being present, we have a quorum. Fantastic. Let's go ahead and ask folks to, if they can, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilmember Richardson, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Algiance? Your left and our right place, right here we are, military wall present the military salute and salute our pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States America. All right, I'll understand a motion for approval of the agenda. We do have some changes to the agenda or announcements to read. Okay, all right, go for it, Clark. Thank you. With regard to item A, ID twenty-six-seven nine five regarding the resolution to adopt the fiscal year two thousand twenty-seven salary resolution for exhibit B has incorrect maximum salary for city manager position. Salary range should be one nine nine three five to two eight two three four. The uh fiscal year twenty-six salary range currently states the range as one nine nine three five to two three two three four. There was a transposition error in that the three was entered instead of an eight. With regard to item C, ID twenty-six-seven nine nine regarding the resolution to adopt FY two thousand twenty-seven annual appropriation resolution, exhibit B, page three, section three, motions not advanced. Number seventy-six should read Pave More Now as selected by District Four. It currently reads District Seven. Budget motion not required, nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars for a hawk on first and Fairmont. That are those are the announcements and changes to the agenda. Thank you. Seeing none. But nonetheless, it uh did give me um an understanding of what your district priorities and really to help uh formulate the um the final budget, as well as uh for me to be able to share with each of you the limitations that we face this year uh as compared to years in the past with all of the budget requests and uh not sufficient funding to cover those. As I shared with you during the uh initial budget presentation, um the city of Fresno faced a 34 point five million dollar um budget shortfall, which needed to be reconciled in order for me to present a balanced budget to you, which we did at that time. And I want uh just let you know how extremely challenging that was due to the limited revenues uh that we have as a city as compared to the growing expenses, uh much of that driven by inflation as well as uh contractual obligations uh with not only unions but also with many of our vendors for technology. So, as part of the budget hearings, council approved 99 motions totaling 49.91 million dollars, uh, which would impact either the general funds, special revenue accounts, grants, or enterprise funds. Uh the council uh has since been provided a reconciliation summary of those budget motions, and this is broken into four sections and is contained within exhibit B, and all of you were uh presented those, I believe, yesterday. At the request of uh several council members, I will summarize all 99 motions in detail. I'm just kidding, you know I won't do that to you guys again. Uh I will spare you the line item detail, but I I do want to give you somewhat of a 30,000 foot look, uh, but um also some depth on some of the things that uh we are funding. So, first, in section one, uh it contains 41 motions that are either fully or partially funded, totaling $9.3 million uh of these motions. Of the motions, uh $5.5.0 million dollars was supported by the general fund. $4.6 million was supported by either grants, uh special revenue, such as Measure C, Measure P or SB1, and then $12,000 was supported under enterprise funds. The additional $5 million in general fund motion was funded by the following um enhancements in our revenues. Uh number one, additional interest projected in FY27 to increase by $1.6 million uh plus um in uh capital.
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