A survey from the coalition of community groups guiding Fresno County’s transportation tax renewal bid has two elected officials questioning how the community meetings were conducted.

Transportation 4 All released on Monday its findings from 4,500 responses about how future Measure C tax money should be spent. People by-and-large prioritized road repair, the survey said. Following that, people wanted sidewalk repairs and public transit.

Sandra Celedon, president and CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities, said the group held 34 community meetings between April and August.

“Where instead of decisions being made behind closed doors, we, the Transportation 4 All Coalition, asked residents — parents, youth, seniors, and workers — to tell us what matters most for their neighborhoods and their daily lives,” Celedon said at a Monday news conference.

At the June 26 meeting, Fresno COG members agreed to share data between Transportation 4 All and a group of county mayors. Fresno COG agreed at the meeting to give the coalition 12 seats on the 36-member steering committee.

Reaction to the findings has been mixed. Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer told GV Wire they pretty much square with what residents have told him. However, two elected officials outside of Fresno questioned the results presented by Transportation 4 All.

Only Reedley Residents Mayor Saw at Meeting Were Paid to Be There

Two elected officials, however, questioned attendance and survey results.

Reedley Mayor Matthew Tuttle attended two of the meetings in his city, and the only people he identified from Reedley were high school students paid to help facilitate the meeting. He said he talked to about 80% of the attendees.

People told him they came from Parlier, Sanger, and other areas. He said it’s good to see people from other areas, but he expected to see more Reedley people.

He estimated that about 20 people attending each of the Reedley meetings weren’t facilitators or support staff.

“Transportation 4 All has released the over 4,500 responses of what the county needs in the transportation tax. For me, that’s misleading,” Tuttle said. “There are other examples as well, but that’s the biggest glaring example of the misleading information.”

Tuttle also criticized the usage of Seattle, Washington’s transportation tax supporting public transit. He said Seattle’s geography and demographics don’t resemble Fresno County’s and were  misleading. He suggested using Tulare County’s Measure R as an example of what a transportation tax can accomplish in a county with large rural areas.

Mendes: ‘Pretty Shady’ Results

Fresno County Supervisor and Fresno County Transportation Authority Chairman Buddy Mendes said the results were “pretty shady” because he doesn’t know how questions to attendees were formulated. He said he also wanted to see data.

“If it was a clean deal, they would give you lists and have that data readily accessible,” Mendes said.

Transportation 4 All did not provide GV Wire with raw data. Transportation 4 All would not accommodate multiple requests from GV Wire for more in-depth questions beyond the presentation given at the news conference. The organization did provide this statement:

“Transportation For All hosted 34 community sessions throughout Fresno County. We intentionally held sessions in central locations within areas around the county, so that residents living in nearby communities could have access to participate in a city close to where they live. Attendance ranged from 10 to 300 residents per session. The findings reflect over 4,500 responses. ”

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said the survey results lined up with what he’s heard. He said the vast majority of future Measure C funding must be spent on repairing streets and sidewalks.

“The survey results presented by T4All are for the most part consistent with community feedback I have received during my time as mayor,” Dyer told GV Wire in a statement. “The most pressing transportation need in Fresno County is repairing our crumbling roads and broken sidewalks. In the City of Fresno alone, there is over $1.5 billion in deferred maintenance for this infrastructure.”

Road Repairs Were Biggest Priorities for Respondents

Transportation 4 All’s community meetings brought people in from 72 different zip codes — the five most attended being in Fresno, said Tania Pacheco Werner, executive director at the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State.

The biggest meetings were in Fresno in the 93727, 93722, 93706, 93703, and 93702 zip codes, Pacheco said. The next biggest ones were in San Joaquin, Reedley, Orange Cove, Mendota, Firebaugh, and Huron.

Calls to Clovis Mayor Vong Mouanoutoua were not returned about Clovis meetings.

Road repair, sidewalk repair, and public transport were the biggest things people wanted, Pacheco said. She said people prioritized roads near schools, parks, and community centers.

“People definitely want their roads in existing neighborhoods to be fixed, to be maintained, and for there to be new roads where they don’t have any or they haven’t had any for a generation or two,” Pacheco said during the meeting. “They also want better and more accessible public transportation. They really do think that there are improvements to be made to those bike lanes, trails, and sidewalks.”

Pacheco also said people want rural connectivity. She said even people in Fresno wanted more public transit options connecting rural towns.

“That was actually surprising to us,” Pacheco said.

Systemic Barriers Explain Why People Don’t Use Public Transit More

Werner said many respondents don’t have sidewalks to get to their homes or schools or jobs.

The coalition also asked about public transit. Werner said while 29% said they prefer using their car to public transit, the combined responses as to why public transit isn’t used represents systemic barriers.

Of those who don’t use public transit, 19% said it takes too long, 16% said it doesn’t go where it needs to go. Another 12% said there is no easy way to get to a bus stop from where they live.

“While definitely there was a portion of people that said I prefer using my car or another of transportation — that was definitely part of the ethos of why people don’t use public transit — the majority of people don’t use it because there are barriers to them using it,” Pacheco said.

Werner added that while many respondents said they don’t need public transportation yet, their ability to drive later in life was a factor.

Mendes said many of the asks from the public are already in Measure C. The Fresno County Rural Transit Agency provides rides to residents throughout Fresno County to downtown Fresno and Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

Pacheco Werner said residents also want rides to other locations in the city such as hospitals and colleges.

Mendes said flexible funding to cities allows them to build sidewalks where needed. Sidewalks in some rural areas don’t always make sense and can cause flooding.

Road Repair Allocation Will Be Biggest Factor: Kingsburg Mayor

Tuttle said while most people can get behind road repair, the real matter is how much a renewed Measure C allocates for road repair. He said to substantially fix roads in Fresno County, allocation will have to be higher than the current 65% rate.

Celedon said the results prioritizing road repairs match up with Fresno COG’s results. Celedon, who is running for state Assembly, is not on the steering committee, but at the Aug. 27 steering committee meeting, members from Transportation 4 All suggested programs such as light rail, electric scooter programs, microgrids for public transit stations, and climate mitigation.

Tuttle said given the number of programs added, he doubts the proposal the steering committee will give the Fresno COG will meet the county’s need.

“If we want to raise that pavement condition, then we need more than 65%. With all these categories and subcategories that the renewal steering committee has come out with, I can only imagine what they’re going to go through (Thursday night) at their meeting,” Tuttle said. “Putting a little bit in every single pot, it’s gonna be so diluted.”

Kingsburg Mayor Brandon Pursell told GV Wire the allocations have to be right if Measure C is to pass.

“My constituents want better roads. Plain and simple. The only chance this has of passing in Kingsburg is if the allocations are right,” Pursell said. “I still have my concerns over (Transportation 4 All) having so many voices on the steering committee.”