\u201cPeople don\u2019t get to see how hands-on I am as a mayor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dyer and his team are busy preparing next fiscal year\u2019s budget \u2014 \u201canother tight year\u201d \u2014 and he meets weekly with the city housing czar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more to me than just being a guy that attends events, cuts ribbons and turns dirt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dyer highlighted major milestones \u2014 such as opening the $20 million city-run animal shelter<\/a> in 2022 and the recent $150 million Fresno Yosemite International Airport renovation<\/a> \u2014 as well as his passion projects, such as the One Fresno Youth Jobs Corps program<\/a> that has employed 575 \u201chard to employ\u201d youth.<\/p>\n And while he wouldn\u2019t confirm whether he planned to pursue any higher office after his term ends, Dyer said he\u2019s still \u201cfull of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n Read on to hear about the Dyer administration\u2019s efforts and a look towards future goals, edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Question: We\u2019re entering budget season. How are you preparing for that, and how are things looking this year?<\/p>\n Answer: We started our budget preparation in late December, early January, and it\u2019s going to be another tight year. There\u2019s no question we\u2019re going to see sales tax ticking up, property tax continually growing, but what we\u2019re going to see is that our expenditures are again exceeding our revenues. And whenever that happens, we have to go through exercises that either hold vacancies and\/or cut departments. And so we\u2019re early on in the process. Last week, we had a meeting that really talked about where we\u2019re at during the mid-year, and what the revenues look like and the expenditure projection, so \u2026 it\u2019s going to be another tough budget year. I fully anticipate maintaining our attrition rates, vacancy rates, which we had at 6.18%. I anticipate that, so as we get into probably March and April, we\u2019ll have a better feeling of where we truly are. The good thing is we got all of our labor contracts done, except for one. We\u2019re still finalizing that, so we know exactly where we are going into this coming fiscal year.<\/p>\n Some of the contracts were one-year, some were two-year, some were actually longer than that, and we staggered them this time so that we would not have to have 12 different labor groups negotiating at one time. The reason the last time we did all of them as one-year was that we were uncertain about the economy.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve talked a little bit in the past about a potential public safety tax, is that still something on the table?<\/p>\n I actually have not had any discussions on any type of tax other than what we\u2019ve talked about for Measure C. I don\u2019t think that there is an appetite in our community. I do believe, in Fresno, people feel like they\u2019re being taxed enough. It\u2019s hard enough to make ends meet with energy costs that are going up and inflation and housing costs. I don\u2019t think the timing for an additional tax beyond what we have with Measure C would be appropriate now. As we move further into the end of my administration, and we get to see where we are within terms of revenues, we\u2019ll make that decision, but I don\u2019t see anything in the near future.<\/p>\n Speaking of Measure C, I understand you\u2019ve been pretty instrumental in those conversations and negotiations. How are you feeling about that? And how is it looking right now?<\/p>\n I felt really good about the process of Measure C. I never knew I would spend that many hours on the Measure C renewal, but I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours working with not just the (California Association of Councils of Governments) but other mayors and community groups, hoping that we could get Measure C on the ballot, traditionally, to go through the various cities and have them approve and then go through the (Fresno County) Board of Supervisors. But as you know, that did not happen. It fell short. (<\/p>\n I\u2019m thankful that a citizens group has picked that up and is willing to pursue a citizen-led initiative, and I support that initiative.<\/p>\n I hope that there\u2019s not two initiatives, because I think it will ultimately cause people out in the community maybe just to vote no on both. And if that happens, we\u2019re going to be put in a position as a city and throughout the county of having to live with some of the streets that are in rapid decay. And none of us want that.<\/p>\n One of your big initiatives has been repairing the roads throughout the city. How is that going? And how would Measure C potentially impact that?<\/p>\n Fortunately, we were able to pass locally a \u201cPave more now, pay later\u201d initiative for $100 million. That initiative allows us to spend a minimum of 75% of that, so $75 million on fixing our streets, fixing our sidewalks, and so that entire $100 million will be utilized for that. So that will take us through probably three years of spending. And so if this (Measure C) initiative does not pass, we have that to fall back on, but it won\u2019t last long. The goal for us is to get our Pavement Condition Index on an average at 70% or better. And so we have some work to do. … We still have about $1.2 billion in deferred road maintenance and about another $300 million in deferred maintenance on sidewalks. We need that, whether it\u2019s a Measure C renewal or a new citizen-led initiative. We definitely need those funds, not only for roads, but to continue with transit operations, as well.<\/p>\n The city of Fresno was awarded $250 million from the state for infrastructure improvements. How is that going?<\/p>\n From the onset, when we applied for the infrastructure money, that was designed to accelerate housing. That was a goal at the state level: What can cities do to allow their downtowns to be shovel-ready?<\/p>\n So we were really very close to being shovel-ready because of all the work that had been done prior to my administration, opening up Fulton Street, the changing of the environmental (review requirements) that was completed that would allow for housing to occur downtown. Much of that work was done, but what we really needed was infrastructure. We didn\u2019t have enough parking. We didn\u2019t have the infrastructure in place, like water and sewer mains, to allow for that housing to occur. We didn\u2019t have the capacity, and that was shared with me early on in my administration by my Department of Public Utilities director. So that was kind of the basis: Were we shovel-ready and how much money would we need?<\/p>\n I honestly had no idea that we\u2019d be able to get $250 million from the state, but that\u2019s what I asked for. I have a relationship with (Gov. Gavin Newsom), a good one. I have a good relationship with the legislature, and we were able to convince them that Fresno should be given $250 million.<\/p>\n And as you know, we received $150 million of that now. And then we also applied for a grant, which is an IIGC grant, and we were awarded, that was competitive, and we were awarded $43.7 million.<\/a><\/p>\n So we also knew that once we received the funding, we needed to move fast on the projects, and we have. All of the water main, sewer main infrastructure is being put in downtown and Chinatown. Next month, we will be starting the North Fulton water main, sewer main underground, so it\u2019ll be a lot of construction. We already broke ground on a 603-stall parking structure on Fulton and Tuolumne streets, and that\u2019s moving forward.<\/p>\n And then, we\u2019re through the design phase, and we\u2019ll be breaking ground in May on another 900-stall parking garage across from Chukchansi. We also went through a process negotiating and purchasing the land for that to occur from The Baker Group. We demolished a warehouse that was there on H and Inyo streets; we also purchased two properties in Chinatown, including the Bow on Tong, and that\u2019s going to be for housing.<\/p>\n So there\u2019s been a lot of work done. And then we also initiated the revolving loan fund out of that for gap financing for developers so that they can build some housing downtown, convert some of the existing buildings.<\/p>\n Many mayors in Fresno have considered downtown revitalization, though have had mixed results. What do you think your administration is doing differently to further along that growth? What is your administration doing to make sure there are policies incentivizing growth and development in downtown?<\/p>\n I think we have momentum that perhaps other mayors did not have, and we have funding that other mayors did not have. We are in a very good position as a result of the momentum and the funding and the fact that people believe, starting to believe in downtown more than ever. That\u2019s what we have going for us. The policies that have been put in place, and I\u2019ll just say, the planning and the policies that have been in place, which allows for accelerated housing development to occur downtown because it\u2019s already gone through the California Environmental Quality Act. And so we can build downtown relatively quickly. We don\u2019t have to go through any type of CEQA (project environmental review). It\u2019s all been done. And we can build up to I think it\u2019s 15 stories. So we\u2019re ready to go. The momentum is there.<\/p>\n What would you describe as your accomplishments so far, and what are you hoping to accomplish during the remainder of your term?<\/p>\n When I came into office, I had established mayoral initiatives. One of those is obviously public safety. It\u2019s foundational to everything. We\u2019ve added 92 police officers and 70 firefighters on the fire department. We created medical squads to free up firefighters and apparatus to be more available for fires. On the police side, we\u2019ve achieved a 51-year low on homicides, and we\u2019re much safer city than we\u2019ve than we\u2019ve ever been. In my estimation, shootings have been reduced. So people are safer in Fresno, sometimes the perception of crime takes a while to catch up, but I do believe we are much safer city, and we\u2019re much cleaner city. We launched Beautify Fresno. It\u2019s something I\u2019m very proud of as the mayor, because it has been sustained now for five years, and we have volunteer cleanups every weekend in our city and during the week.<\/p>\n We have about 150 cleanups that occur during the course of the year, about 9,000 volunteers come out to clean up neighborhoods \u2013 most of those neighborhoods they\u2019ve never been in before. And so I\u2019m very proud of the momentum we\u2019ve gained there, plus we created what\u2019s called quadrant crews. There\u2019s about 40 city employees who go out and clean up our city every single day, removing couches and refrigerators and appliances from alleyways and on the streets . So we\u2019re a safer city. We\u2019re a cleaner city, and then the area that was probably the number one thing that I tackled was housing and homelessness when I first became the mayor. When I first became the mayor, we did not have one single emergency shelter bed in the city. So thanks to a partnership with the state under Project Homekey [a pandemic-era state funding program to help cities purchase and convert motels into emergency shelters and affordable housing] and in partnership with Fresno Housing Authority, and with support of this council, we purchased five hotels \u2013 we did, the city \u2013 and then we partnered on four additional ones with the housing authority. We\u2019ve since purchased more on Blackstone Avenue. We went from zero beds to 870 beds, and now we have 830 emergency shelter beds in the city.<\/p>\n We also receive funding from the state for services, and that\u2019s important. And we have 40 outreach workers that we fund. They go out every single day in our city to reach the homeless. So beyond our police officers, we have outreach workers, and we partner with the Poverello House on that. So what are the results in five years, collectively, as a city that\u2019s with all of our partners, we\u2019ve housed over 11,000 people in emergency shelter, and 54% of those have gone on to what we call a safe exit. That means they\u2019ve gone back to live with family, gone into a program, or they\u2019ve been placed in permanent housing. And of the people that have been placed in permanent housing. This is something I\u2019m very proud of, 73% of them still live in that permanent housing two years later. So we\u2019re making tremendous strides.<\/p>\n Can you talk about what your administration has done on affordable housing?<\/p>\n When I first became the mayor, the year before, the city was involved in 88 affordable housing projects units, which was why we\u2019re in the housing crisis that we\u2019re in today. And so this last year, we were involved in 645 affordable housing units, and we\u2019ve been building incrementally each year.<\/p>\n Over the next two years, we\u2019ll be involved in about 1,300 affordable housing units between 2026 and 2027. Over a three-year period, there will be about 1,900 affordable housing units. The reason I said \u201cinvolved in\u201d is that we don\u2019t build, but we do offer up land, city land, we subsidize, we pursue it. When I first became mayor, we didn\u2019t have a housing unit, housing division in the city. We now have 16 people under Phil Skei that do housing, and we need that. That allows us to pursue more funding opportunities, allows us to facilitate more housing in our city, and we\u2019ve partnered with nonprofits, and we partner with Fresno Housing, and that\u2019s how we\u2019re getting things done. One thing I\u2019ve learned, if you don\u2019t have housing, you can\u2019t solve affordable housing. You can\u2019t solve your homeless issue in your city. You got to have a place for those people to go to from shelter.<\/p>\n What about when those shelters are turned into housing? Are you thinking about when those emergency beds are taken away?<\/p>\n When we entered Project Homekey, we knew that we had to transition those shelters into permanent, affordable housing, and we are working towards that now. With the partnership with Fresno Housing, two of those have already been converted. We just went to council to get two more properties over to the Cesar Chavez Foundation<\/a> \u2013 they\u2019ll be developing those. So we have a plan over the next four years to transition those hotels into permanent housing. That\u2019s a good thing. But we also have to be mindful of the fact that we\u2019re still going to need some shelter beds, and that\u2019s the reason why we\u2019ve been having joint meetings with the county.<\/a> As funding begins to lessen for the cities, we\u2019re going to need more help from the counties who have the social service funding and the behavioral health funding, and so that\u2019s the purpose of us having those meetings. Ultimately, we\u2019ll have an agreement in place that allows for us to know who\u2019s going to do what and who\u2019s going to pay for what.<\/p>\n What\u2019s something that\u2019s keeping you up at night? What\u2019s something you want to achieve during the rest of your time as mayor?<\/p>\n So there are a number of things that I hope to achieve before I leave here. Number one, we do need a transportation measure passed. That is something that I think will help the city of Fresno for decades to come long after I\u2019m gone, whether that\u2019s citizen-led or Measure C renewal. If we don\u2019t have that, we\u2019re not going to be able to provide the quality streets in our city or quality transportation for people in our city, for more public transportation that more and more people are starting to rely upon, so we need to provide that.<\/p>\n The other thing that I want to achieve is \u2014 it doesn\u2019t keep me up at night, but I certainly have a goal to get it through \u2014 is having professional soccer in downtown Fresno, and to be able to build a professional soccer stadium and to have men and women\u2019s professional soccer. I\u2019m confident that\u2019s going to happen. We have a lot of work to do over the next two years.<\/p>\n I want to see us get our senior center completed. That\u2019s $42 million-plus center that has taken a tremendous amount of effort to get to where it is<\/a>, and I\u2019ve partnered with Councilmember (Tyler) Maxwell on that.<\/p>\n And SEDA we\u2019ve already talked about. Although there would be zero development in SEDA, South SEDA during my time as a mayor, I know how important it is to the future of the city in terms of providing good paying jobs and housing opportunities for people. And I would be negligent as a mayor if I didn\u2019t pursue that with a vengeance. And then the other thing that I really need to get completed is we have not had a water rate increase or a sewer wastewater increase for well over a decade, and we are now starting to see both on the water and wastewater a significant deficit where we\u2019re going to be in the red within the next 12 to 18 months. So we need to pursue that increase and to do it in an incremental way over a five-year period, to where it doesn\u2019t have a tremendous impact on people.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know when we\u2019re going to bring it before the council, but we will be bringing something before the council probably within 2026. We have a lot of due diligence to do before that.<\/p>\n This story was originally published February 22, 2026 at 9:41 AM.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n Fresno mayor Jerry Dyer addresses a wide range of topics during a Q&A session with Bee reporter Melissa Montalvo Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 at City Hall in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n
Fresno mayor Jerry Dyer addresses a wide range of topics during a Q&A session with Bee reporter Melissa Montalvo Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 at City Hall in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n
Fresno mayor Jerry Dyer addresses a wide range of topics during a Q&A session with Bee reporter Melissa Montalvo Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 at City Hall in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n
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