FRESNO COUNTY – Residents of west Fresno County will have many options to choose from during the primary election as they decide who they want replacing their current representation on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
There are six candidates who will appear on the ballot June 2 for the District 1 Fresno County Supervisor position. Candidates range in age, experience and physical location throughout the district, but all hope to bring a community-focused mindset to the board of supervisors.
Current District 1 Supervisor Brian Pacheco announced in December 2025 that he would not be seeking another term on the board and would instead pursue election to the State Assembly. He was first elected to the board in 2014.
Candidates for the seat include Lupe Flores, Omar Hernandez, Mike Karbassi, Maria Pacheco, Eric Payne and Felipe Perez. If any candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, they will be elected to the position outright. Otherwise, the top two vote-getters will move on to a runoff election in November.
District 1 spans across the northwest side of Fresno County, including portions of west Fresno, the unincorporated communities of Easton, Biola, Tranquility, Three Rocks and Cantua Creek and the cities of Kerman, San Joaquin, Firebaugh and Mendota.
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name. Karbassi provided Mineral King Publishing with written responses to questions due to scheduling conflicts.
Lupe Flores
Lupe Flores has lived in District 1 for all her life and currently resides in the city of Mendota. She recently retired from a career with the California Employment Development Department, where she worked as a senior deputy labor commissioner.
Flores currently serves on the Mendota Unified School District Board of Trustees and is entering her 21st year as a board trustee, she said. Her passion has been serving the community and seeing students succeed. She said she wants to continue her public service representing District 1 on the dais for Fresno County.
“One of the key things to me running is that we can continue or make a better place to live, work and raise a family, where people feel safe, where our children can get a good quality education and families can have a real opportunity to succeed, whether it’s a small business or a good job, and that’s why I’m running,” Flores said.
The primary role of a county supervisor is someone who has fiscal accountability over the county budget, Flores said. They should also be a voice for their district, advocating for the area’s needs at the state or federal level.
Flores said she has started to research the duties of the county supervisor and the issues currently facing the county to prepare for the role if elected. She said she is researching, listening to board meetings and reading through the budget, “because the budget tells you everything.”
“It’s a story,” Flores said. “It’s a story of all the programs that are run through Fresno County. … So there’s a lot you must learn and entertain, and that’s how I’m learning my new job.”
Flores said the most pressing issue facing the district is infrastructure. From rural areas to urban Fresno, she said she has heard constituents complain about poor sidewalks and road conditions. She also views water allocations as an important issue for the westside, she said.
Omar Hernandez
Omar Hernandez grew up in Riverdale and currently lives in the city of San Joaquin. He serves on the board of trustees for the West Hills Community College District and works for Rep. Adam Gray’s Congressional district office.
Hernandez wants to be a county supervisor because he said he’s always seen a lack of resources, attention and opportunities in the area, especially as a younger person growing up in a rural place. In a county supervisor, Hernandez said he thinks District 1 needs a champion.
“I think that this particular seat is one of equity,” Hernandez said. “It’s a part of the county that’s been a long time forgotten or just not invested in, and I think that we need a champion that fights for a lot of different things.”
That includes bringing in funds for infrastructure, revamping already existing industries and investing more in workforce development training, Hernandez said.
To help the county increase its revenue and overall tax base, Hernandez said he has been researching value-add models of agriculture and talking to people on the westside about how they can increase the value of the products they are already growing.
For example, he said he has been talking to a farmer in Huron about growing agave plants and finding local uses for the plant once it’s harvested. If that expanded in the area, that could bring further manufacturing, technology and managerial jobs. This way, instead of bringing in a foreign industry to the region, the county could build up its already existing workforce, Hernandez said.
Hernandez said he is not “naive enough” to think that there won’t be a learning curve if he’s elected to the board of supervisors; however, he said he is a quick learner and would make certain he meets with all departments to understand how they all operate.
“I think the first year is going to be a year of research, of sitting down with everybody in the different departments and seeing what their issues are, understanding how we can maneuver budget stuff and so I think a lot of it comes from talking to people that do the work,” Hernandez said.
Mike Karbassi
Mike Karbassi was born and raised in Fresno and has spent the last seven years on the Fresno City Council as a representative for northwest Fresno. Throughout his time on the council, he said his top priorities have been public safety, infrastructure and improving parks and community centers in his district.
He told Mineral King Publishing that he wants to step up to the county supervisor position to ensure the community is represented by a public servant who is prepared for the job.
“The County has a $5 billion annual budget and is responsible for critical services, including public safety and social services,” Karbassi wrote. “We need a leader who is prepared to go to work from day one. The stakes are high for our residents, businesses and farms, and we can’t afford someone who needs on-the-job training.”
In addition to his time on the Fresno City Council, Karbassi said his many years working in small business has prepared him for the role. On the city council, he has experience balancing a multi-billion dollar budget, Karbassi said, while also ensuring funds are allocated for projects in his district.
For constituents living in incorporated cities, Karbassi said it is the role of the county supervisor to be supportive of the mayors and city councils in those cities. For those who live in unincorporated communities, a supervisor should essentially act as a mayor and serve as the advocate for constituents when they feel the county isn’t working for them, Karbassi wrote.
If elected, Karbassi said he would continue to hold community meetings on a regular basis throughout the district, attend city council meetings on the westside and work directly with residents and small businesses.
As the county looks for ways to increase its revenue, Karbassi said that fallow ag land being converted to solar farms can improve the county’s general fund revenues. However, he said the county will also need to consider the impact this will have on ag workers, especially in the farming communities of District 1.
Time spent walking door-to-door in District 1 has shown Karbassi that some of the most common issues facing constituents are poor road conditions, illegal dumping and public safety, he wrote.
“The challenges are many, but the more I meet with residents and hear their stories, the more confident I am that we can work together and make significant improvements over the next few years,” Karbassi wrote.
Maria Pacheco
Maria Pacheco was raised in Kerman, where she has served as mayor since 2022. Pacheco and her husband have six children, and after receiving her GED in her 20s, she went on to obtain her associate’s and bachelor’s degree in social work. In May, she’ll graduate with a master’s degree in macro practice social work from California State University, Fresno.
Throughout her life, she has worked with nonprofits that support teen girls in crisis, adopted a child from the foster care system and engaged in advocacy work for her community.
Pacheco said she came into her position as mayor with no political background and had immediate successes in bringing a shuttle program to Kerman that transports students to Fresno City College. She also helped bring in $4 million in funding for the city, and said it was at that time that she realized she loved the ability to create positive change in the community.
Pacheco said she wants to be a county supervisor because she wants to continue to do this work.
“Working here as the mayor for the city of Kerman, I’ve been able to really champion change for my community in a very positive and good way, and I wanted to expand that,” Pacheco said.
She said a message she wants people to get from her successes is that “we cannot wait until we are ready.”
“No politician should come into a position and think they know it all and have all of the solutions if they have not yet been amongst the community to hear what it is from the community that they want,” Pacheco said.
If elected, Pacheco would work with her mentors like State Senator Ana Caballero and Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria who have gone through this kind of work to ensure she is prepared for the position.
Pacheco said some of the main issues facing District 1 include access to education and pathways to jobs. Additionally, regardless of if someone is in a rural or urban area, she said everyone is struggling with affordability and accessing resources.
“I really am running for the betterment and the good of the people, and I really am trying to make this a community-led effort and to be the positive change that we all need so badly in this area,” Pacheco said.
Eric Payne
Eric Payne was born and raised in southwest Fresno where he still lives. He is the executive director of the Central Valley Urban Institute, a regional nonprofit that serves six counties in the San Joaquin Valley. Payne also previously served on the State Center Community College District Board of Trustees from 2012 to 2020.
Though he resides in a more urban area, Payne grew up on the rural side of Fresno and graduated from Washington Union High School in the unincorporated community of Easton.
Payne said he is running for county supervisor because families are being “squeezed” with rising costs. With small businesses closing their doors and farmers on the brink of bankruptcy, Payne said he wants to be a voice to fight for the needs of the constituents of District 1.
Something Payne would like to address is ensuring that families have access to home ownership in both the rural and urban context. Not everyone wants to own a home in a high-density area, and Fresno County should be able to produce housing stock for residents who are looking for both an infill development lot or an agricultural residential lot.
As Fresno County looks to increase revenues, Payne said he thinks the county needs to be sure it is collecting developer impact fees and is setting itself up to be prepared to capture potential state funding from housing bonds.
A county supervisor, Payne said, should be someone who integrates themselves into the community. They should listen and be a champion for road fixtures, additional lighting and filling social service gaps.
“Somebody that can be a conduit for county services to the neighborhood level, so ensuring that those resources are connecting to the neighborhood, but more importantly that Fresno County employees are working just as hard as Fresno County residents to ensure that those services are delivered,” Payne said.
Payne said he would be ready to be a supervisor on day one because he is an experienced leader who has managed large-scale budgets and knows how to connect with other leaders on the issues important to residents.
Felipe Perez
Felipe Perez has served on the Firebaugh City Council, including terms as mayor, since 2014. He has spent his career in community economic development and outreach work, and is currently the community engagement director at the nonprofit SocioEnvironmental and Education Network (SEEN).
Perez said he wants to be a county supervisor because he knows the lack of resources that residents in west Fresno County have and it has taken a lot of fighting to get what they need. Residents in District 1 have not been represented by people who reflect the majority of the population, he said.
A county supervisor should be connected with the entire community, Perez said.
“We are 96,000 that we vote, and they never, ever walk in their district and the rural areas,” Perez said of current representation.
Perez said he has walked the entirety of District 1 to talk to residents and understand the issues facing them. He has seen that many communities do not have enough resources, such as mental health programs, and said he would like to see the county supervisors bring more services to the rural areas at least on a monthly basis to help communities.
Being new to the position, Perez said he would continue talking with constituents to get to know their needs and be prepared to serve them as a supervisor. Having worked at California State University, Fresno and in the nonprofit sector, he said he understands firsthand the work that needs to be done to bring more resources to communities.
As solar farms pop up on the westside, Perez said the county needs to make sure that it is collecting development fees and tax revenue from those businesses so they are paying their fair share.
Perez said he sees job creation as the number one issue facing District 1. When solar projects cause ag workers to lose their jobs, Perez said the county needs to support people’s ability to move into different industries.
“We need to train our people that are working in the fields and give another door for those skills, because we already have people with a lot of skills,” Perez said.