Like many civically-engaged voters, I watched the July 14 Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting with high anticipation of the years-long effort of organizers in the Valley working to take ownership of the roads, trails, bike lanes, buses, and sidewalks that crisscross the county.

I was awestruck by the blatant use of partisan language, such as “scam”, “radicals,” and “outside signature gatherers” when it came to elected members of the board. I want to give credit to Supervisor Magsig’s good-faith questioning on the measure, like Bill McEwen shared in his op-ed earlier. His questioning was, in my opinion, founded in good faith — where the legislative process should be. I could tell that other elected officials had not studied it nearly in the same depth as Supervisor Magsig, nor approached it with intellectual curiosity.

However, the end result was disappointing to residents like me who saw the dysfunction over failed Measure C renewal efforts in the past. The value of fiscal prudence was used as the means to keep this off the ballot. County staff shared that 90 employees from the county are at risk of being laid off, with a risk of other local governments laying workers off. In a perfect world, an economic study would be completed and the ballot measure would be sent to the public, akin to Supervisor Chavez’s request.

Two things can be true at one time; the county can and should look at studies for major pieces of legislation making their way through the democratic process. However, choosing to undertake a study with a two-year gap at the expense of jobs, municipalities’ loss of funding, and loss of momentum does a disservice to the million-plus residents within the county’s 70 zip codes.

Better Roads and Safe Streets, like many of the proponents mentioned, is not going to be the perfect initiative when it hits the voters. Some supervisors may be in Sacramento or Washington when the consequences of today’s decision become insurmountable to the point that new construction is the only way to get improvement. Tuesday’s decision by the majority of supervisors demonstrates the voters’ will does not matter, even when millions in deferred road maintenance and sidewalk rehabilitation are sitting in municipal logs.

Stetler Brown
Clovis