A complaint to the Fresno County District Attorney says the agencies overseeing the county’s transportation tax have been concealing public records. The Fresno Council of Governments, however, says its Facilitation/Synthesis Committee is “hardly secret.”

Nonprofit advocacy group Guardians of Growth, led by chairman Brooke Ashjian, who formerly sat on the Measure C Renewal Steering Committee, filed the complaint Friday with the DA’s Public Integrity Unit, according to a news release.

The two committees have different tasks in preparing Measure C to go before voters. The steering committee recommends a spending plan while the facilitation committee helps organize the meetings for the steering committee.

Ashjian said the facilitation committee has been operating in secret and is part of a coordinated effort to hide the Measure C process. The public can watch steering committee meetings, but facilitation committee meetings are not publicly available.

After Ashjian was denied a membership roster and minutes for the Measure C Facilitation Committee, the group filed a complaint saying the body is subject to the Brown Act — meaning its decisions must be made publicly available.

Fresno COG’s public records response offered clarifications to Ashjian to help with his request.

At issue are claims that a new ballot measure is in the works for the transportation tax, meaning it would no longer need the two-thirds approval when it goes before voters in June 2026. Ashjian says there are “concerns” the committee was created as a way to finance a citizens’ initiative through the nonprofit Central Valley Community Foundation.

“The decision of whether roads get fixed or a light rail gets built are being made in a smoke-filled backroom at the Fresno COG offices between a small handful of politicians and nonprofit activists,” Ashjian said in a statement. “Fresno County voters deserve to know whether our tax dollars are being illegally used to develop a ballot measure that worsens our potholes in favor of pie-in-the-sky, going-nowhere ideas from the Bay Area and Los Angeles.”

Fresno COG Chair Alma Beltran said in a public letter to SJV Sun, which first reported the story, that the committee was created to bring together public input from COG and from advocacy coalition Transportation 4 All. It also creates recommendations for steering committee agenda.

“The process has been open and completely transparent to any Fresno County resident wishing to participate,” Beltran said in her letter. “Mr. Ashjian’s complaint and assertions of ‘nefarious, bordering on illegal purpose are just that — assertions — and poorly supported ones at that.”

CVCF’s Mission Was to Preserve Measure C: Swearengin

Community Foundation CEO Ashley Swearengin told GV Wire the foundation’s mission has been to preserve the splintering Measure C after a loss in 2022. She said Measure C is vital for county residents, and foundation board members wanted to bring together differing interests rather than have them create their own voter initiatives.

“Measure C is critical to the future of Fresno County and we need as many people as possible to be involved in helping to decide what our future is going to be and then building a measure that helps support that future,” Swearengin said.

Swearengin said they’ll abide by any decision, including making the committee subject to state rules about transparency.

“This process so far — and I’ve been paying attention to these things for a couple decades now — it’s the most open, transparent, and publicly engaged process for building a Measure C that I’ve ever seen,” Swearengin said.

Supervisor Buddy Mendes Left Committee Because of Brown Act

Fresno COG attorneys ultimately decided to make the committee an ad hoc committee and not subject to the Brown Act, Swearengin said.

The facilitation committee formed around the same time Fresno Council of Governments created its steering committee in May.

Videos of its meetings are unavailable as its considered a staff-developed committee assisting with staff-level work in preparation for steering committee and board meetings, said Robert Phipps, executive director of the COG.

Fresno County Transportation Authority Chair and county supervisor Buddy Mendes told GV Wire he left the facilitation committee in July after his own concerns that the group should be subject to public meeting rules.

He said despite claims the facilitation committee only makes recommendations, it sets agendas for the steering committee.

“If you’re illegitimate, what the hell are you doing telling the steering committee what to do?” Mendes said. “You can’t have it both ways.”

Clovis City Councilmember and facilitation committee member Lynne Ashbeck said there is nothing secret about the process and she’s said who is on the facilitation committee several times.

“We have been transparent all the way through with everything from data to participants to how the steering committee is working its process…” Ashbeck said. “We were advised early on by (COG) counsel that it did not rise to the level of a Brown Act Committee. And should the opinion change, we will adjust.”