A rare appearance by a sitting member of the California State Legislature prompted Fresno city officials to break their silence about the drawn-out process to take control of Granite Park. <\/p>\n
The City of Fresno won possession of the park from Central Valley Community Sports Foundation, led by Asm. Esmeralda Soria\u2019s (D-Fresno) husband Terance Frazier, in a court ruling more than a week ago.<\/p>\n
War of words at the Spaceship: During Thursday\u2019s Fresno City Council meeting, Frazier, Soria, and supporters called on Fresno lawmakers to hold off on completing eviction and leaving day-to-day operations of the park in the hands of the nonprofit.<\/p>\n
Soria, speaking during the meeting\u2019s public comment period, criticized the city\u2019s approach to Frazier and his nonprofit. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is the end goal here? Why the obsession by some with Granite Park?\u201d Soria said during the meeting. \u201cAfter years of litigation, enormous public expense and countless hours spent fighting a nonprofit, what has Fresno gained even after the eviction? The legal disputes continue. There\u2019s an appeal pending, and initial lawsuits remain unresolved. The fight is not over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other side: Fresno\u2019s City Manager, Georgeanne White, broke her silence on the on-going fight over control of the sports complex, arguing that Soria had a chief role in the city\u2019s uneven approach to managing the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a sitting elected official that is trying to involve herself in her husband\u2019s business and trying to put pressure on a city to do something other than what\u2019s in the best interests of the city, I think that shows us why there has been such hesitation on the part of the city to do something about Granite Park for so long,\u201d White told Nexstar<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it just shows that she\u2019s been attempting to use her influence to have the city do something different than what we ultimately decided to do,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n White said Frazier\u2019s foundation has breached its lease with the city for multiple reasons in recent years. In 2022, the city raised issues over a lack of liability insurance, and in 2024, officials claimed Frazier owed more than $1 million in unpaid rent and fees. The city then sought to terminate its lease with the foundation.<\/p>\n In May, a judge sided with the city and ruled it could terminate the lease. <\/p>\n A week ago, a follow-up decision that rejected a stay of the eviction proceedings allowed Fresno to take immediate possession of Granite Park. White said baseball and other activities scheduled at the park will continue.<\/p>\n The big picture: Frazier\u2019s Central Valley Community Sports Foundation has appealed the May ruling. A ruling in favor of the nonprofit in that appeal could lead to the organization to reclaim possession of the park. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rare appearance by a sitting member of the California State Legislature prompted Fresno city officials to break…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-369805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369805","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=369805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}