On the eve of a pivotal Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting, the local Better Roads, Safe Streets<\/a> coalition made one final plea to the county board \u2014 home to some of the transportation sales tax campaign\u2019s most vocal detractors \u2014 to respect the will of thousands of voters.<\/p>\n The coalition learned last week that the Fresno County Clerk\u2019s Office validated enough of the voter signatures they\u2019d collected<\/a> \u2014 just over 22,000 \u2014 for their proposed replacement of Measure C to qualify for the November ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the question of when exactly the county will get to vote on the measure is in the hands of the county supervisors as they decide on Tuesday<\/a> to either take a ministerial vote to place it on the November ballot, or delay the vote by requesting staff conduct a study of the impact of the measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n Any delay runs the risk that voters won\u2019t have the opportunity to vote on a Measure C replacement before the 40-year tax expires in 2027, and that critical funding for the county\u2019s struggling roads, sidewalks and public transit systems could lapse.<\/p>\n Several prominent local Republicans in the political-spectrum-spanning Better Roads coalition made direct addresses to the conversative-majority, five-member county board at a news conference Monday, framing Tuesday\u2019s decision as a matter of respecting democracy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are either a government by the people and for the people,\u201d said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, \u201cor not.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to encourage the board of supervisors tomorrow: set aside the personality conflicts,\u201d Fresno\u2019s Republican mayor later added. \u201cSet aside the political rhetoric. Set aside who might be right or who might be wrong, and let\u2019s do what\u2019s right for the people in Fresno County.\u201d<\/p>\n At least one county supervisor, Board Chair Garry Bredefeld, has suggested he may want to request a study<\/a> of the measure\u2019s impact, a process that the county would have until Aug. 13 to complete \u2014 well past the Aug. 7 deadline to qualify for the November ballot.<\/p>\n The Better Roads campaign has already provided the board<\/a>, however, with an analysis of the proposed measure\u2019s economic impacts, conducted independently by the firm PerberaParis, LLC. The study projects the creation of more than 68,000 jobs and a total of roughly $13.5 billion in economic output if voters approve the measure.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also unclear whether Bredefeld will have enough support from his colleagues to move that forward, as his fellow board members haven\u2019t clearly signaled<\/a> how they plan to vote on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n That includes fellow conservative Nathan Magsig. In an interview on July 10, the supervisor said he needs some additional questions answered by proponents of the Better Roads measure before he can make up his mind \u2014 and that he hopes they\u2019ll be addressed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Magsig said he\u2019ll be seeking clarification on county-specific provisions written into the Better Roads measure, including on what their responsibilities are when it comes to private roadways and prioritizing spending for disadvantaged communities first.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of requirements that are specific to the county, which puts a tremendous burden and may even make it impossible for the county to fully utilize the the revenues from the (Better Roads) measure,\u201d he said, \u201cso I need to get some answers to some questions before I determine if a study is needed, or if it can just go straight onto the ballot.<\/p>\n \u201cMy hope is that there will be individuals who helped craft this \u2014 the language to it \u2014 at the meeting,\u201d he added. \u201cThe proponents of the initiative need to be there, so I can ask questions of them \u2014 some clarifying questions \u2014 and I think that will go a long ways.\u201d<\/p>\n What else did the proponents of Better Roads say on Monday?<\/p>\n Other local Republicans took the mic on Monday to urge the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to clear the path for Better Roads to land on the November ballot, including longtime coalition member, Mendota Mayor Victor Martinez.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time in a long time,\u201d said Martinez, whose city is home to some of the worst pavement conditions<\/a> in the county, \u201cwe can see a better future for our roads and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n Fresno City Councilmember Nick Richardson, another local Republican who voted alongside his council colleagues<\/a> to formally support Better Roads last month, also urged detractors not to let perfection \u201cbe the enemy of progress\u201d when evaluating this tax plan.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, if I know my constituents in northeast Fresno, when they look and they see things like 75 million dollars annually in infrastructure (funds) coming to the City of Fresno to fix roads, to fix potholes, to fix curbs, gutters (and) sidewalks, to increase ADA accessibility, to make sure that our veterans and active duty military alike are going to have free transportation around this city that they call home,\u201d the U.S. Marine Corps reserve officer said, \u201cI think I have a pretty good idea of where my constituents are going to fall on this.\u201d<\/p>\n In his remarks on Monday, Clovis Mayor Vong Mouanoutoua \u2014 also a Republican \u2014 took swings at a rival group of local transportation and political consultants called \u201cFix Our Roads\u201d that had announced intentions to gather signatures for its own Measure C successor plan<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard people describe this coalition and this process as \u2018radical\u2019 to scare you, to scare others. I want you to know that there was a second measure \u2026 They had no coalition,\u201d Mouanoutoua said, \u201cand they paid no attention to process.<\/p>\n \u201cLet all of us know what is more \u2018radical.\u2019 Is it radical to invite thousands of residents from more than 70 ZIP codes? Is it radical to listen to them? Is it radical to have gathered legally necessary signatures and to earn the right to have this measure in front of all the voters in Fresno County?\u201d<\/p>\n In an email July 8, Fresno County Clerk James Kus confirmed his office hadn\u2019t received any updates from the Fix Our Roads campaign on the status of their signature-gathering.<\/p>\n Mouanoutoua has announced a bid<\/a> for Magsig\u2019s seat on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors as the current supervisor seeks office as a state senator<\/a>. But Mouanoutoua is facing off against other hopefuls including a peer at Clovis City Hall. Clovis Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce has also announced her candidacy \u2014 and was among the local elected officials to publicly back Fix Our Roads<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an op-ed piece for GV Wire on Monday<\/a>, Pearce called for the supervisors to force more study and delay the Better Roads ballot vote for two years while allowing Measure C to expire without a replacement in sight.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sky won\u2019t fall in the next two years,\u201d she wrote, \u201cand maybe some much needed (common sense) will prevail in the interim.\u201d<\/p>\n Better Roads forecast the measure will create 68,000 jobs in 30 years<\/p>\n While the supervisors weigh whether to request an additional study, the Better Roads campaign submitted an independent economic analysis of their proposed measure to the county on July 8.<\/p>\n The analysis was prepared by PenberaParis, the firm of local economist and former Senior Fulbright Scholar Joseph Penbera.<\/p>\n In a brief media availability before Monday\u2019s news conference, Penbera confirmed he\u2019s prepared economic analyses for hundreds of clients, including the biggest companies in the world and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n Penbera has also prepared past analyses of Measure E, the proposed tax measure to benefit Fresno State that has failed twice at the ballot box, that went before the board of supervisors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was the guy that did that one as well, and nobody had any problem with it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt went right through the supervisors.\u201d<\/p>\n The Fresno County Board of Supervisors meets at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday at the Fresno County Hall of Records (2281 Tulare St.). You can also review the meeting agenda online<\/a> and tune into the meeting remotely with YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fresnoland.org\/2026\/07\/13\/better-roads-safe-streets\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fresnoland.org”>Fresnoland<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fresnoland.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/cropped-Fresnoland_FacebookProfile.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fresnoland.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=89970″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fresnoland.org\/2026\/07\/13\/better-roads-safe-streets\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fresnoland.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Julianna Morano, Fresnoland July 13, 2026 On the eve of a pivotal Fresno County Board of Supervisors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-398108","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\/398108","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=398108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}