Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer channeled his inner comedian when discussing a term limit proposal he co-sponsored that failed to generate traction.
Dyer co-sponsored with Council President Nelson Esparza a controversial proposed resolution introduced last Monday that would have asked voters to amend the charter to allow the mayor and council members to serve three consecutive terms, or 12 total years. Right now, the city charter allows them to serve two consecutive terms, then they must sit one out before running again.
The eleventh-hour push to place four “good governance” measures on the Nov. 3 general election ballot came as a surprise to some councilmembers as well as the public last week. Even Fresno County’s top elections official called the package of measures “relatively rare.” With little time for public input, the proposals garnered scrutiny, swift criticism and pushback.
The term-limit proposal was indefinitely tabled Thursday evening after around a dozen people spoke in opposition.
During a Rotary Club of Fresno meeting on Monday at the Cornerstone Convention Center, Dyer made light of the issue and criticized the media coverage of the proposal.
Dyer said Monday that if the Council had approved the term limit change idea, it would have gone before the voters for approval. If it passed, he would still have had to be reelected, he said.
“You would have thought by what people were saying, including the media (and the Fresno Bee), that we were just going to get some type of an anointing and get an automatic third (term), and that wasn’t the case,” Dyer said.
Political science experts who spoke with The Bee said there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to term limits and cities across California have varying rules. Some cities, such as Los Angeles, allow councilmembers to serve three consecutive terms. But the some local officials, experts and a government watchdog agreed the timeframe in which the bill’s authors attempted to push the proposals was “clearly not enough time” for ballot measures and reforms of this magnitude.
“We had a 14-hour council meeting last Thursday, and people lined up — I don’t know where they all came from — but they lined up to bash me and say what a horrible person I was, and why we shouldn’t have third terms,” Dyer said to laughs.
“And so they tabled the motion. Rightly so, I wanted to get home,” he said.
“So I leave in January of ‘29 — I’ll be happy to do so. Just kidding,” Dyer said. “So that’s it. No more four-more-years talk.”
Krista Aranda with stickers against a third term for Mayor Jerry Dyer listens closely during a Fresno City Council meeting Thursday, July 30, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com Dyer said supporting three-term proposal was a ‘mistake’
Even before the Council voted on the item, Dyer started to distance himself from the term limit proposal.
In an interview with The Bee Thursday afternoon, hours before the Council voted to table the term limit proposal, Dyer said he made a “mistake” in supporting the item. He said the proposal wasn’t his idea and that he was approached two weeks ago asking if he’d consider a third term and support the proposed charter change measure.
Dyer said he got a call from a councilmember when he was home one evening with his wife. Dyer declined to name the councilmember, citing their ongoing professional relationship.
Dyer said he initially was not interested in serving a third term, but after talking it over with is wife and others, he told the councilmember he’d consider a third term if he still had the passion and energy for the job when his term ends in 2028.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer listens closely during a Fresno City Council meeting Thursday, July 30, 2026 in downtown Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
“The mistake I made was agreeing to attend the press conference and the mistake I made was agreeing to be a co-sponsor of it,” Dyer said. “If I had it to do over again, I would say, I don’t want anything to do with it,” he said. “If Council wants to bring this forward, so be it.”
Councilmember Miguel Arias — who criticized the process in which these proposals were introduced — said Dyer’s comments were important.
“I give him credit for acknowledging that there were mistakes and missteps in the rollout of this proposal,” Arias said.
Council president defends proposal
Esparza, the other sponsor of this item, still stands by the proposal idea.
He said during Thursday’s meeting that the question of term limits had been on his mind for some time. He said that the current charter allows for a “loophole” where people could in theory cycle through their seats indefinitely.
Critics pointed out that only a handful of politicians have served again in city positions after serving two terms. Esparza said he “resented” the criticism that this could have been self-serving, since he will no longer be at City Hall after his term ends in January. Esparza will face Bakersfield Republican Shannon Grove for a seat on the Board of Equalization in November.
He defended how the proposals were brought forth 72 hours before they were to be voted on.
“This is very straightforward. This is not a complicated proposition,” Esparza said at a July 27 news conference announcing the term limit proposal. “Folks have the week here to review and ask questions.”
He also told The Bee that once he knew the city would be asking voters to weigh in on the half-cent sales tax this November — a stopgap measure in light of the uncertainty of a Measure C transportation tax renewal — he “felt these governance questions belonged in front of them in the same election since we as the City would already be occupying their ballot.”
Esparza also said voters would have had three months before the item would have gone to voters in November.
The deadline to place items on the November ballot is Aug. 7.
Fresno Bee Reporter David Taub contributed to this report.
The Fresno Bee
Melissa Montalvo is The Fresno Bee’s accountability reporter. Prior to this role, she covered Latino communities for The Fresno Bee as the part of the Central Valley News Collaborative. She also reported on labor, economy and poverty through newsroom partnerships between The Fresno Bee, Fresnoland and CalMatters as a Report for America Corps member.