With the contentious Fresno City Council meeting Thursday passing a 14-hour runtime, the author of the four ballot proposals that largely caused the controversy left City Hall in the middle of the action.

Council President Nelson Esparza’s absence came as a dozen members of the public waited all day to comment — including on the hotly contested revised term-limits proposal Esparza dropped on the public just days before. That measure would have opened the door for councilmembers and the mayor to run for third terms.

But as the public waited until 8:30 p.m. to begin talking about term limits, Esparza left the building, councilmember Miguel Arias told GV Wire.

GV Wire witnessed Esparza leave about 5:30 p.m., handing the gavel to Council Vice President Tyler Maxwell. GV Wire did not see Esparza at the dais until about 8 p.m. after councilmembers returned from closed session.

When City Attorney Andrew Janz reported out from closed session, he said that Esparza was absent from that vote. Esparza did not respond to a request for comment on his absence.

Josian Zuniga, who spoke remotely, said he had planned to take time off of work to air his thoughts on revising term limits.

“I’m glad I didn’t,” he said.

Esparza’s Good Governance Items Scrutinized

With the council returning from a month-long break, Esparza packed the agenda with his four “good governance” measures, all of which proposed substantial, last-minute changes to the city charter.

One of those was the term-limit changes, which Esparza said he had been contemplating for several years.

The language behind those proposals, however, wasn’t made public until Monday, which drew the ire of the four councilmembers who didn’t co-sponsor any of the “good governance” initiatives.

One proposal involved creating an advisory commission to help redraw council districts after the 2030 census. Councilmember Miguel Arias said that proposal had changed between Monday and Thursday. He and Councilmember Nick Richardson picked apart the language, finding loopholes and deficiencies.

“What is uploaded on the record is not what was uploaded on Monday,” Arias said.

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Unpredictable Items Make it Hard for Public Comment

Esparza in the morning told the public that the four proposals would be heard sporadically throughout the day. Meaning: in no particular order.

About a dozen people stuck it out for the meeting’s entirety.

At about 7 p.m., during Esparza’s absence, the council went into closed session for the second time. Maxwell did not respond to requests from the public about how long that meeting would take.

That hour-long session included an unannounced dinner break. About half-way through, Arias came out to inform the public about the dinner break. Richardson also came out to talk with those present, as did councilmembers Annalisa Perea and Brandon Vang.

One Fresno resident, Crystal Rocha, came to the meeting in the evening with her child.

For her, the late meeting meant she could appear in person rather than speak on Zoom.

She criticized the unpredictable order of the items presented for comment and debate.

“People didn’t have the opportunity to show up when it’s being addressed,” Rocha said.

The term-limits discussion began at about 8:30 p.m.

“This is why so many people in Fresno hate politicians,” said Naindeep Singh, who is in the Fresno City Council District 1 runoff against Rob Fuentes.

City Error Delays Development Agreement

The scattered meeting affected more than those waiting to comment on Esparza’s items.

Developer Gary McDonald waited hours for what should have been a routine approval of a sewer fee agreement to build more homes in the Copper River area.

Councilmember Mike Karbassi pulled the item because he wasn’t able to access a document on the city website, and Karbassi and Arias said they needed more time for research.

Arias motioned to delay the item to the next meeting. City Manager Georgeanne White said while the delay wouldn’t affect city timelines, it would impact McDonald’s project timeline.

“There is no time sensitivity, we were just trying to meet deadlines we had committed to. We miss deadlines all the time, no problem, we’ll just add this to the list,” White jokingly said.

Richardson — whose district the project is in — said after asking questions of McDonald and staff that he was ready to approve the item.

His request, however, couldn’t make it past Arias’ motion, which got approval from a council majority.

“Thank you for your visit to City Hall,” Richardson said.

Disclaimer: GV Wire Publisher Darius Assemi is CEO of Granville Homes. While Gary McDonald Homes does business with Granville Homes in Copper River, McDonald’s item does not involve Granville.