The Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, the longtime anti-poverty organization that’s struggling to close a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, reportedly has laid off as many as 16 administrative staffers.

They include Michelle Tutunjian, the chief operating officer who was named acting CEO late last year when the commission put CEO Emilia Reyes on leave, and chief of staff Karina Perez.

Fresno EOC officials did not respond immediately Friday to requests for comment.

Fresno EOC, which oversees programs such as Head Start, the Local Conservation Corps, and WIC, began depleting its budget reserves several years ago when expenditures started outpacing revenues. Commissioners were notified as early as 2022 of net deficit spending.

Related Story: When Did Fresno EOC Finances Start Their Downhill Plunge?

Last fall, Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula put a spotlight on the agency’s troubled finances when he appointed himself to the commission and then wrote a letter noting that Fresno EOC has been “hemorrhaging” money. Arambula called for a forensic audit to determine how the agency’s money had been spent and who authorized the spending.

Interim CEO Brian Angus told GV Wire on Monday that the commission’s audit committee was expected this week to move forward on identifying an individual or firm to conduct the audit.

Angus was CEO before he resigned in 2019, when Reyes was hired to lead the agency. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

Leaving Mendota

The staff cuts reportedly will impact the provision of services in the community. One such cut is Fresno EOC’s service center in the AMOR Wellness-Neighborhood Resource Center in Mendota.

Davena Witcher, AMOR’s executive director, told GV Wire on Friday that Fresno EOC had provided notification it would be vacating its 3,800-square-foot space on May 1. Fresno EOC had moved in Aug. 1 and was providing several services to the community, she said.

Witcher said agency officials told her that the move was due to several factors, including changes in federal funding and the agency’s budget deficit.

“They have committed that once they get themselves sorted out, they will be back,” she said.

Workers who help residents sign up for low-income utilities assistance programs learned in late January that their jobs might be on the line.

(Disclosure: GV Wire Publisher Darius Assemi is an AMOR board member.) 

A staffer who asked not to be identified by name out of fears of retribution told GV Wire earlier this month that he and about 20 other co-workers were called to a meeting where they learned they would be laid off on March 7 due to budget constraints. At the time, spokesman Jose Moreno III told GV Wire that the job cuts would not affect how the agency provides those services to the community.

Related Story: Fresno EOC Energy Assistance Staffers Get Layoff Notices

The layoffs represent a small percentage of the agency’s total workforce of 1,100 employees.

Angus has said at recent commission meetings that he is taking budget-cutting steps but has not elaborated in open session.

Big Deficit

As of December, Fresno EOC reported revenues in 2024 of $169,788,500 and expenditures of $171,081,574.

The private, nonprofit agency was created during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. The goal of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was to obtain equality of opportunity in education, employment, health, and living conditions for every American. Fresno EOC was one of 900 Community Action Agencies created through the act and was founded in 1965.

The agency serves more than 100,000 Fresno County residents annually through more than 30 programs. The programs include Head Start, School of Unlimited Learning, Local Conservation Corps, food services, Women Infant and Children, and energy services.