FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Mike Karbassi has announced he is stepping down as the Fresno City Council’s president amid his campaign for a Fresno County Supervisor seat.<\/p>\n
Karbassi will officially be stepping down from his position on Monday, March 16, at noon.<\/p>\n
He has endorsed city council vice president Nelson Esparza, who represents Fresno’s District 7, to succeed him. Other councilmembers must elect the next council president.<\/p>\n
In a statement to Action News, Karbassi wrote: “I’m excited to devote my full attention to campaigning for a better Fresno County and continue fighting for Fresno residents while representing District 2.”<\/p>\n
Karbassi is campaigning for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 1 race this November. Incumbent Brian Pacheco is not seeking re-election for the supervisor’s seat.<\/p>\n
The following is an email Karbassi sent out to his colleagues on Friday:<\/p>\n
Dear Colleague,<\/p>\n
It has been a tremendous honor to have your trust in leading the Fresno City Council for two consecutive years. I have been grateful for the opportunity to work alongside you to move Fresno forward.<\/p>\n
Together, we bridged the divide with the County of Fresno to reduce the cost of living and expand the housing stock for Fresnans.<\/p>\n
Effective Monday, March 16th at noon, my term will end. While this transition marks the end of my time as Council President, my commitment to the City of Fresno and our constituents remains unchanged.<\/p>\n
I’m proud to support Council Vice President Nelson Esparza to take the gavel and hope you will join me in supporting him to step into the leadership.<\/p>\n
We face big challenges this year, beginning with our budget.<\/p>\n
I will continue to focus my efforts on expanding our tax base, fighting for affordable housing for all Fresnans, and maintaining the level of public safety protection and essential services that our residents have come to expect.<\/p>\n
I look forward to continuing our work together to strengthen our neighborhoods, support local businesses, and ensure Fresno remains a great place to live, work, and raise a family.<\/p>\n
Thank you for your partnership and dedication to our city.<\/p>\n
In Service,<\/p>\n
Mike Karbassi<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Mike Karbassi has announced he is stepping down as the Fresno City Council’s president…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[100385,112,114,113,100384,294],"class_list":["post-219212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-100385","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-mike-karbassi-stepping-down-as-fresno-city-council-president","tag-timely"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}