{"id":421998,"date":"2026-08-02T20:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T20:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421998\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T20:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T20:48:11","slug":"firm-studying-fresno-county-transportation-tax-accused-of-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421998\/","title":{"rendered":"Firm studying Fresno County transportation tax accused of conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

A consulting firm commissioned by Fresno County to study the impacts of the local transportation tax proposal \u2014 called Better Roads, Safe Streets<\/a> \u2014 was also involved in the creation of a rival initiative unveiled earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Fresno County spokesperson Sonja Dosti on Friday confirmed the county contracted VRPA Technologies Inc.<\/a> for the roads measure study. She said in an email the contract carries a maximum payout to the company of $166,000.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the tax proposal say VRPA will not be able to produce a fair report because members of the company\u2019s team are also architects of Fix Our Roads<\/a> \u2014 an initiative that was designed to counter ideas in the Better Roads, Safe Streets plan. Both proposals would have extended the county\u2019s expiring 30-year-old half-cent tax that goes toward transportation, called Measure C.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s a conflict of interest,\u201d Parlier Mayor Alma Beltran said Wednesday during a Fresno Council of Governments Policy Board meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be biased because it\u2019s the opposition looking at the measure.”<\/p>\n

Katie Doerr, assistant county counsel, responded during the meeting that staff have found no problem with the contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be a perception,\u201d she said, \u201cbut as far as legal conflict, there is none.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange came during a tense meeting of the Policy Board, which consists of Fresno County mayors and one supervisor. Various mayors warned their cities risk losing millions of dollars for transportation projects if nothing replaces Measure C when it expires June 30.<\/p>\n

The Better Roads, Safe Streets citizen\u2019s proposal aiming to replace Measure C secured enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Instead of voting to place the proposal on the ballot, county supervisors on July 14 voted 3-2 for a study<\/a> by county staff on the proposal\u2019s impacts.<\/p>\n

They raised concerns that the proposal\u2019s details left too much room for future litigation, but also criticized its focus on environmentally-friendly projects and the involvement of progressive community groups in its creation.<\/p>\n

The impact study is expected to be presented at the supervisors\u2019 Aug. 11 meeting, which is four days past the state\u2019s deadline for placing local measures on the November ballot.<\/p>\n

\u2018Opposition\u2019 studying Better Roads, Safe Streets proposal<\/p>\n

Revealed in February, the Fix Our Roads tax plan was created as an alternative to the ideas that would eventually form the Better Roads, Safe Streets plan.<\/p>\n

Better Roads, Safe Streets intends to allocate 65% of tax revenue for local streets and 25% for public transportation. The Fix Our Roads idea pitched allocating 82% of revenue for roads and 18% for public transportation.<\/p>\n

In March, Fix Our Roads architect Mike Leonardo presented that plan<\/a> to the Board of Supervisors. He told The Bee on Thursday he is contracted with VRPA Technologies, the firm chosen to study Better Roads, Safe Streets. Leonardo added that the company is contracted to perform only \u201csome\u201d of the report.<\/p>\n

In Leonardo\u2019s Fix Our Roads presentation to the supervisors, VRPA President Georgiena Vivian was also listed as a Fix Our Roads creator.<\/p>\n

Vivian and Leonardo declined to comment about whether VRPA would be able to fairly assess Better Roads, Safe Streets after having worked on a rival plan.<\/p>\n

Fresno County says staff will ensure objectivity in tax proposal study<\/p>\n

Dosti, the county spokesperson, said in her email to The Bee that county public works and planning staff and administration will \u201cfully review and vet all information and analysis submitted by VRPA for accuracy and objectivity, then submit the final study to the Board.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStaff who oversee this project are non-partisan and will ensure the study\u2019s final product is based on facts, not opinion,\u201d Dosti said.<\/p>\n

Dosti added that the county ultimately decided to contract a firm for the study because staff concluded they did not have the workload capacity to complete the analysis on such a short notice. Because of the timeline, she said, staff needed to identify experts who \u201cunderstand Fresno County\u2019s local and regional road systems and with whom the County already has an on-call contractual relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVRPA Technologies has professionals with longstanding experience in transportation planning in Fresno County, making them uniquely qualified to support the Department in meeting the Board\u2019s directive and required timeline,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Erik Galicia<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea\u2019s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A consulting firm commissioned by Fresno County to study the impacts of the local transportation tax proposal \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-421998","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\/421998","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=421998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}