Even though a recent court ruling last month<\/a> declared the City of Fresno illegally negotiated the city budget in private, city leaders still plan to go into the backroom to reconcile another record-breaking budget this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the way city officials violated state law \u2014 by claiming the Fresno City Council\u2019s budget committee was exempt from a state mandate to meet in public \u2014 was at the heart of the two-plus-year lawsuit.<\/p>\n City leaders did away with the private budget committee<\/a> following an August 2023 Fresnoland investigation and a subsequent lawsuit against the city<\/a> filed by the ACLU of Northern California<\/a> and the First Amendment Coalition<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer told Fresnoland that he still plans to privately meet with multiple councilmembers at a time \u2014 but never a quorum of the council \u2014 to reconcile the city budget before bringing back a revised proposal for council approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe time is so short, between the time they (councilmembers) get their motions in and approved to the time that we have to approve the budget,\u201d Dyer said. \u201cI try to maybe have two or three (councilmembers) in a meeting at the same time, just for the sake of ironing out things.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s similar to the old practice of the mayor meeting with a private committee of three councilmembers, including the council\u2019s leadership. However, Dyer said the difference is there\u2019s no formal budget committee anymore and he\u2019s choosing who to meet with and when, instead of the city council determining that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI will spend most of my time probably meeting with the leadership of the council, which is (Nelson) Esparza and (Tyler) Maxwell,\u201d Dyer told Fresnoland, \u201cand then we’ll see who else makes most of the motions.\u201d<\/p>\n In past years, negotiations over the budget\u2019s reconciliation have led to upwards of $30 million in changes<\/a> to the Fresno city budget. A few years ago, one former councilmember described it<\/a> as \u201cwhere the rubber meets the road,\u201d in the budget process.<\/p>\n Yet despite how integral those reconciliation negotiations are, city officials are not interested in opening up those backroom conversations for the public to observe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fresno City Council President Nelson Esparza told Fresnoland he thinks the City of Fresno is sufficiently transparent with the public regarding the city budget process. He declined to say whether there is any value to opening up the private budget negotiation process to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think because the vast majority of the process is public, at some point, we have to sit down and hash out the final details,\u201d Esparza said of the private budget negotiations. \u201cI do think that there’s a benefit to being able to take the pressure off the mayor and whoever he’s talking to, and be able to, kind of come to an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n Esparza added that the private negotiations over the budget\u2019s reconciliation are no different than how public budget hearings go.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not very different at all from the conversation we’re having out front,\u201d Esparza said, referring to the city\u2019s public budget hearings.<\/p>\n But if it\u2019s not that different than an entire week of budget hearings, is that more of a reason for the city\u2019s private budget negotiations to be made public? Fresnoland asked Esparza if he had any thoughts on that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any,\u201d Esparza said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dyer also told Fresnoland he doesn\u2019t think the city\u2019s private budget negotiation process needs to be open to the public. When asked about it, the second-term mayor said that level of transparency doesn\u2019t exist for the state or federal budgets.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also spelled out what he views as a long, drawn out negotiation process that does not need to be in the public eye because it\u2019s too in the weeds. Dyer said any more transparency would mean the Fresno public would be doing the budget process themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we’re about as transparent as we should be without having the community come in and actually do the budget,\u201d Dyer said with a chuckle.\u00a0<\/p>\n The negotiations over the budget\u2019s reconciliation takes place between the city council approving budget motions mid-June and the city council considering a revised budget proposal \u2014 which comes together after the budget reconciliation takes place in private. That gets done in a matter of a couple days, usually less than a week.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the level of detail and the amount of time that it takes us \u2014 I will spend probably 40 to 50 hours on reconciliation at least,\u201d Dyer told Fresnoland.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also said he asked the City Attorney\u2019s Office whether it\u2019s legal for him to meet with less than a quorum of councilmembers every June to negotiate the budget process.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said City Attorney Andrew Janz signed off on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Janz is the same city leader who signed off on Fresno\u2019s old budget process, which Fresnoland exposed in 2023 and triggered a lawsuit over. Janz helped build a legal defense around the claim that the Fresno City Council\u2019s official budget committee was exempt from state law and its requirements to meet in public.<\/p>\n Fresno County Superior Court Judge Robert Whalen didn\u2019t buy that in his May 4 court ruling last month<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the City of Fresno is trying to relitigate the issue, despite repeatedly claiming in public<\/a> that the city already scored a \u201cwin\u201d in the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just a few weeks after the May 4 court ruling, the City of Fresno is now asking the court for a retrial. With Janz\u2019s name at the top of the motion, the city is claiming Whalen\u2019s ruling was contrary to law, the evidence in the case was insufficient, and he references an \u201cabuse of discretion by the court.\u201d<\/p>\n