![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Fresno-County-public-works-official-Mohammad-Alimi-attended-a-Dec.-11-2025-Measure-C-Steering-Commit.jpeg\")
<\/a>Fresno County public works official Mohammad Alimi attended a Dec. 11, 2025 Measure C Steering Committee meeting. (GV Wire\/David Taub)
\nVotes on Trails, Spending Requirements<\/p>\nThe steering committee also took up several other proposals during an extended Thursday night meeting.<\/p>\n
After four rounds of votes over 45 minutes, the committee approved \u2014 24-2 \u2014 a staff recommendation to add 120 miles of new bike or trail facilities by 2057, split 70%\/30% between urban Fresno\/Clovis and the rest of the county. Mona Cummings of Tree Fresno sought to increase the mileage to 150 but could not find enough support.<\/p>\n
The committee also proposed several transportation goals, including 15-minute frequency for urban bus routes and rural travel times comparable to personal vehicle use. COG staff made language tweaks that satisfied transportation experts from the county and from the cities of Fresno and Clovis who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n
The advisory group said the Measure C oversight board will meet quarterly. Although the current requirement is only once a year, the board has already been meeting more frequently. Measure C will also be required to develop a whistleblower and anti-fraud program, with information posted on its website.<\/p>\n
A proposal by Veronica Garibay of the Leadership Counsel for Accountability and Justice \u2014 to remove the U.S. citizenship requirement for serving on the citizen oversight board \u2014 was not pursued. Members must be at least 18, live in Fresno County, and be U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n
A Measure C spending plan was already approved last month by the steering committee and the policy advisory board. It calls for allocating 65% to existing neighborhood streets and roads, 25% to public transportation, 5% to regional connectivity, 4% to transportation innovation, and 1% to administration.<\/p>\n
COG Executive Director Robert Phipps warned that the reduced administration share \u2014 down from 1.5% in the current Measure C approved in 2006 \u2014 could force cuts within the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get what you pay for. There\u2019s not enough money or resources to meet the additional requirements the committee expects,\u201d Phipps told a group of public works officials on Friday.<\/p>\n
Local jurisdictions may have to make up the difference, Phipps said.<\/p>\n
Experts Cautious of Steering Committee Plan<\/p>\n
A group of public works officials \u2014 the COG technical committee \u2014 met Friday morning and voted not to recommend the steering committee\u2019s suggestions.<\/p>\n
Alimi said he was stunned the committee increased the spending requirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 12% makes no sense,\u201d Alimi told his colleagues. He said disadvantaged communities make up less than 8% of the population and 2% of the roads.<\/p>\n
He said it was \u201cnot fair to the rest of the county\u2019s residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI get it. They have needs. I\u2019m not trying to ignore them. But it seems they have the loudest voice \u2014 and that doesn\u2019t mean they should get the biggest share,\u201d Alimi said.<\/p>\n
He said the draft contains many errors, inconsistencies, and ambiguities that need to be corrected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis document has more holes than Swiss cheese,\u201d Alimi said.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Clark, the city of Fresno\u2019s planning director, said the technical group\u2019s role can sometimes be \u201cfrustrating.\u201d She was among several officials who made recommendations that essentially reversed many of the steering committee\u2019s proposals.<\/p>\n
Organizing the Meeting Bureaucracy<\/p>\n
The steering committee first had to decide how to run its meetings, which had previously been conducted informally.<\/p>\n
Amber Crowell, representing the Center for Community Voices at Fresno State, suggested using Robert\u2019s Rules of Order to govern the meetings. Last week, Mark Keppler \u2014 hired by COG to preside \u2014 said he was unfamiliar with Robert\u2019s Rules. Larry Westerlund objected, and the group agreed to a compromise: ten minutes of discussion before any potential motion.<\/p>\n
Attendees joked beforehand about the meeting ending at the usual 5:30 p.m. stop time. But because this was the true final meeting, there was no hard stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting awfully specific for guidelines,\u201d said Lee Delap, who represents the county, after a lengthy debate over trail mileage.<\/p>\n
Although the committee has 38 members, only 30 are considered active, and 25 attended at the start of the meeting. Only one of the three members representing the city of Fresno \u2014\u00a0 Westerlund, a former Fresno City Councilmember \u2014 was present. Chuck Riojas was absent, as he has been for several recent meetings, and Ashley Webster, an alternate for Karen Musson, was also absent.<\/p>\n
Several times, a new comprehensive motion required staff to take extra time to type up the language and display it on a screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three months behind schedule \u2014 and absorbing several bumps along the way \u2014 a Measure C advisory group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[93,112,114,113],"class_list":["post-92511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-featured","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92511","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=92511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}