FRESNO COUNTY – Residents in south Fresno County will have the chance to decide who they want to represent their communities at the county level during this primary election.
Five candidates for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 4 seat will appear on the ballot June 2, all hoping to take over from retiring Supervisor Buddy Mendes. Candidates include Alma Beltran, Rey Leon, Margaret Mims, Narinder “Nick” Sahota and Charlie Soto.
Mendes, who has served on the board since 2014, simultaneously announced in October 2025 that he would not seek reelection and supported Mims as his replacement. Unlike his colleagues Brian Pacheco and Nathan Magsig, Mendes is not seeking election to a state legislative office and is instead retiring from his career in public service.
District 4 stretches across the south side of Fresno County, from the foothills in the east all the way to the start of the coastal ranges in the west. It serves a majority of the incorporated cities in the county, including Coalinga, Huron, Kingsburg, Selma, Fowler, Reedley, Parlier, Sanger and Orange Cove. It also represents the unincorporated communities of Del Rey, Caruthers, Laton, Riverdale, Raisin City, Lanare, Five Points, Burrel and Malaga.
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name. Mineral King Publishing was unable to reach Leon for individual comment as of press time.
Alma Beltran
Alma Beltran is currently the mayor of Parlier, a position she was first elected to in 2014. Though she was raised in Reedley, Beltran has lived in Parlier for a long time and seen the community grow a lot, she said.
A retired correctional officer, Beltran first became involved in city politics when Parlier had issues with water utility billing and widespread water shut-offs. She started to research the issue, attend city council meetings and eventually became more involved in other city issues as well.
Beltran said she is running for the county supervisor seat because she feels District 4 has been underserved for a long time.
“You have Huron, you have Coalinga, you have Orange Cove, Parlier, who have not really seen the benefit of what the county does for our communities that they represent,” Beltran said. “I want to be able to deliver like I have been able to deliver for the city of Parlier; I want to do the same for the rest of the rural communities.”
With nine incorporated cities in the district, Beltran said she would prioritize the communities and projects that need the most attention. Just like within a single city, Beltran said there are many different areas of need across the district and not everything can be resolved at once or in one year.
One issue that Beltran wants to focus on is the drinking water quality available to residents in District 4. After years of infrastructure projects, Parlier recently put to rest an issue with high levels of 1,2,3-Trichloropropane in its water. Helping all communities, including ones without an incorporated city, have clean, safe drinking water is something Beltran said she would look into.
Another issue is infrastructure, particularly around the quality of roads and presence of sidewalks, Beltran said. With regard to road needs, Beltran has been supportive of the efforts to renew the county’s transportation sales tax, Measure C — and put a replacement measure on the ballot when initial renewal efforts stalled.
While Fresno County works to find ways to increase its revenues, Beltran said she would also look at the county’s budget to identify wasteful spending, such as on programs that are not functioning well, before raising taxes or increasing fees.
“I don’t want to tax them and keep taxing them,” Beltran said. “That’s the easiest fix, instead of just really looking at our expenditures, like what are we spending money on? That’s how we were able to tackle things in Parlier.”
If elected, Beltran said she would be a leader who assists constituents, hears what they and other community leaders are asking for and works together to address their concerns.
Rey Leon
Rey Leon is currently the mayor of Huron, a position he was first elected to in 2016. Leon grew up in Huron, attended the University of California, Berkeley and then returned to the Valley.
At a District 4 candidate forum hosted by media outlet GV Wire in partnership with Community Media Access Collaborative, Leon said he is running for supervisor because he believes there needs to be strong leadership at the county level to support working families.
Much of his work as mayor has revolved around pulling down funding for infrastructure in Huron that improves safety, security and mobility.
“I’m here to run for supervisor District 4 because I think our county could do way better than we’ve been doing,” Leon said at the forum on April 13. “We are the largest county in the region of the San Joaquin Valley, we are the home of the fifth largest city in the state and we could do much better as the county that has the highest ag revenue in the world.”
During the forum, Leon said some of the issues he would like to address in the county are the impacts of drought on the westside, particularly the loss of agricultural jobs as a result of fallow land, workforce development and opportunities for youth engagement.
Margaret Mims
Margaret Mims is a former law enforcement official, having previously served the community as the elected Fresno County Sheriff for 16 years up until her retirement in 2022. She was born and raised in District 4 and said the supervisor position is the only other elected office she has ever been interested in.
“I missed local public service, and being familiar with the county and its operations, I made the decision to run for his (Mendes’) seat,” Mims said.
Mims said the main roles of a county supervisor involve constituent services, setting the county budget and acting as the policy board for the county as a whole. She said she is prepared to engage with the community as a supervisor considering that in law enforcement, “that’s what we do every single day.”
As county sheriff and a patrol deputy, Mims said she’s been in every community and probably driven every roadway in the county.
“I’m already very familiar with our communities,” Mims said. “I’ve been in every single one of them, worked with their local police departments — if the communities have one in the incorporated cities — so those partnerships are already established.”
Similarly, Mims said she is familiar with every department and department head in the county and would be well prepared to take on the new role of supervisor.
While others running for office may say they want to create more jobs, Mims said she looks at the supervisor position slightly differently. It’s not about specifically creating jobs, but is about creating a pathway and atmosphere that encourages businesses to come to Fresno County and create those jobs, Mims said.
“For instance, we’ve got a lot of fallow ag land. Solar companies are coming in, which will increase revenue, because that’s a tax base. They’re going to be paying taxes for infrastructure that they build on that property,” Mims said. “So creating the pathway to be business friendly is what I see my job is as a supervisor.”
Mims said the ability to provide adequate public safety is her number one issue. Beyond that, she said Fresno County’s next challenge is being able to support its ag economy. At a value of $9 billion, Mims said supporting agriculture is important because it touches everyone — farmers, farmworkers, packing houses, truck drivers and more.
Mims’ final priority is making sure that Fresno County provides quality public service.
“I want to hear that we’re delivering quality public service,” Mims said. “That’s my wheelhouse. I love public service, and I missed it while I was retired, so even though we can’t make everybody happy, at least we need to be responsive.”
Nick Sahota
Narinder “Nick” Sahota currently sits on the Selma Unified School District Board of Trustees, is president of the Selma District Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and runs Central Valley Engineering and Surveying, Inc.
Sahota is a lifelong resident of Fresno County, graduating from Selma High School, Reedley College and California State University, Fresno. He is also a farmer and an active volunteer in the Selma and Fresno areas.
He said he decided to run for supervisor after hearing the same concerns from people across the community, especially small business owners and farmers who felt like their voice wasn’t being heard. These concerns include rising costs, housing affordability, water availability and failing infrastructure.
In addition to serving on different boards and committees and overseeing county departments and their budgets, Sahota said a supervisor should be someone who helps out where they are needed. As supervisor, Sahota said he would engage with the community just as he has done through his different work and his time as a school board trustee.
Sahota said that he would not want to burden residents with more taxes as a way to increase revenues in the county. Instead, he said the county needs to be more accountable and manage the funding that it does have.
To address water issues, Sahota said the board of supervisors should work on more water storage discharge projects and maintain strong relationships with irrigation districts throughout the county.
Sahota said he would work with communities in District 4 to reduce barriers to residential development, ideally increasing access to housing.
“Being in this community for so many years, and definitely I know what they need,” Sahota said. “If I get on the board, I will work with the cities to do smart planning, where we need to expand our affordable housing, streamlining the development process, … and when we reduce the cost and the barriers, we could create more housing opportunity for working families, and that’s what we need out there.”
Additionally, Sahota said the county should expand its workforce training programs to help encourage economic development. He would also like to see Fresno County engage in more marketing to attract higher paying industries to the region.
Although he would be new to the position, Sahota said his time on the Selma Unified school board has given him experience dealing with large budgets. He said his background in engineering and working in the public sector means he also has a strong understanding of other county operations and would need little explanation when reviewing projects that go before the board of supervisors.
Charlie Soto
Charlie Soto is retired from the United States Navy and is currently a tax auditor for the IRS. He lives in Kingsburg, has previously served on the Kingsburg Planning Commission and is a volunteer with the local Knights of Columbus chapter.
Soto said that for the past few decades, the area has dealt with water issues, high property taxes, poor roads and poor service within Fresno County that he’d like to see improved, which is why he is running for supervisor.
By poor services, Soto said he was referring to things like how the community takes care of its unhoused residents. While he doesn’t believe in just giving people houses, he said he thinks there are ways the community can come together to get people off the streets and into better living conditions.
Soto said a county supervisor should be the first representative of the people.
“Politicians usually take this opportunity and find ways to benefit small groups that will move them forward,” Soto said. “But the issue that county supervisors face is they’re missing a large swath of people — the people that are not covered, the people who are not able to protect and defend themselves. … County supervisors need to be the individuals that protect our people who are seen in the foreground.”
Soto said one of the biggest issues he sees facing District 4 right now is water. Regardless of if someone is a farmer or not, Soto said the chance of another drought is something that people can’t afford. If elected, he would work to add more water recharge basins in the district and bring up the area’s groundwater levels.
Something else Soto would like to do is work with other counties in California and even other states to push forward an agenda that would build a national aqueduct system. Soto said this “audacious idea” could help alleviate the water crisis in the American West by bringing water in from the eastern side of the country.
If elected, Soto said he would host public forums on a regular basis where people in the district can actually come and talk to him face to face.
Being new to the position, he said he would ensure he is familiar with the county’s General Plan and would review the last five years of discussions that have been had on the board of supervisors.
“Because even though I’m going forward with new ideas and proposals, I need to understand how we got to this point by looking back at some of our historical archives and understanding where we were trying to go, where we’re at now and where we want to be,” Soto said.