FRESNO COUNTY \u2013 The Fresno Council of Governments is driving away from its joint powers agreement with the California Vanpool Authority in light of the agency\u2019s financial instability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Fresno COG Policy Board voted unanimously on March 26 to notify the authority, known as CalVans, of Fresno County\u2019s intent to withdraw from the JPA; the representative from Sanger was absent. Kingsburg Mayor Brandon Pursell Jr., who represents Fresno COG on the CalVans board of directors, said the system CalVans operates on is broken and unsustainable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really just fully support subsidizing the service, I just don\u2019t support subsidizing this organization to continue to fail when it\u2019s nonsolvent,\u201d Pursell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to its website, CalVans is a self-funded public transit agency represented by about a dozen California counties through a joint powers authority. For a small fare, riders can join a vanpool through CalVans to get safe transportation to work. CalVans provides the van and takes care of maintenance and volunteers drive the vans. The program is primarily used to transport agricultural workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fresno COG Finance Director Les Beshears explained the reason for the exit to the COG Policy Board, which is made up of mayors from all 15 cities in Fresno County and a county supervisor. Beshears said that during the CalVans March board meeting, Executive Director Sidd Nag \u201cdelivered a very stark financial assessment of the agency\u2019s financial condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beshears said CalVans does a decent job of staying within its operating budget, as 92% of its operations costs are covered with service fare revenue. However, the CalVans budget does not incorporate the cost to replace vehicles once they get old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When CalVans started in 2011, multiple agencies provided CalVans with funding to get it started with the idea that the authority would \u201ctake the ball and run with it,\u201d Beshears said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, when those vans became fully depreciated and they had to replace them, that\u2019s when their cash flow started having problems, because they do not have capital grants to buy their vehicles,\u201d Beshears said. \u201cWhat they do is they go out and lease them, and these leases have an interest cost.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beshears said CalVans ends up paying nearly $1 million in interest every year. On top of other cash flow issues related to insurance and rising costs, Beshears said CalVans also received $3.7 million from the state that will ultimately need to be paid back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re talking borrowing money again, but in 2018 and 2020 they played that game; they overextended themselves in debt,\u201d Beshears said. \u201cThey\u2019ve paid those loans off, but now they\u2019re back to where they\u2019re entering that cycle again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
CalVans has been looking at grant options, asking its members for money or requiring dues from member agencies to stay viable, Beshears said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, do y\u2019all have money to give them? No,\u201d Beshears said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fresno COG and FCRTA do provide CalVans with funding through Measure C, but that source could go away in 2027.<\/p>\n
By leaving the JPA, Fresno COG can protect its liability exposure related to the vanpool\u2019s solvency issues while still subsidizing the services provided to workers in Fresno County through Measure C funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pursell and other COG members agreed that the COG supports the mission of CalVans but cannot continue subsidizing the organization itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Per the terms of the JPA, Fresno COG must provide CalVans with 180 days notice of its intent to leave. If the financial situation turns around before then, Fresno COG could choose to remain in the JPA, COG staff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Huron Mayor Rey Leon reminded the COG board of why CalVans was started in the first place, which was to ensure the safety of farmworkers on their way to the fields after 13 people died in 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this industry, we are always subsidizing corporations, we\u2019re always subsidizing developers, so how do we figure this out to subsidize farmworkers, who are the bloodline of this industry, of this county, of this region?\u201d Leon said.<\/p>\n
Change in board leadership<\/p>\n
Also at the COG Policy Board meeting, Parlier Mayor Alma Beltran stepped down from her role as policy board chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beltran, who had been the board chair for the last three years, said she needs to focus on her campaign for Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 4. Reflecting on the position, she said she appreciated her time serving with all the other mayors and emphasized the importance of working together for Fresno County.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact of the matter is that we\u2019re more powerful as a body versus individually,\u201d Beltran said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes a difference for our communities, for the people that elected us to do the right thing for our constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendota Mayor Victor Martinez, who served as vice chair alongside Beltran, was unanimously selected to become the new chair. Pursell was appointed vice chair, and the two were also named chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Fresno County Rural Transit Authority Board.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Martinez thanked the other board members for the confidence they\u2019ve placed in him as board chair and said he is looking forward to working together with everyone on what is best for their communities.<\/p>\n
EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that representatives from Mendota and Coalinga were absent from the meeting. The story was updated at 12:25 p.m. March 30 to reflect that they were present.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO COUNTY \u2013 The Fresno Council of Governments is driving away from its joint powers agreement with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,38861,622,114,113],"class_list":["post-244521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-council-of-governments","tag-fresno-county","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244521","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=244521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}