Esparza vows to ‘fulfill commitment’ on Fresno City Council amid pending felony charge

Fresno City Council President Nelson Esparza, leading his first meeting since he was charged this week with attempted extortion, vowed to stay in office and expressed confidence that he will be exonerated.

“Time and process will demonstrate that there has been no wrongdoing in this building,” Esparza said Thursday. “Taking into consideration that residents of my district have sent me to City Hall with a mandate two times over, I do fully intend to fulfill my commitment to serving my district throughout the rest of this term as well as the next one.”

The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office charged Esparza with one felony count of attempted extortion and one count of attempting to violate the city charter. The complaint alleges that Esparza threatened former City Attorney Douglas Sloan’s employment with the city during a private conversation between the two men at City Hall in April.

Unlike many of the department heads in the city’s organizational structure, the city attorney reports to the city council rather than to the mayor’s office.

Later in April, Sloan announced that he was resigning his position to take a job as a city attorney in Southern California. It was later revealed that his new job was in Santa Monica. Sloan had worked for the city of Fresno for 16 years.

Esparza was elected to his first four-year council term representing District 7, covering much of south-central Fresno, four years ago. In last month’s primary election, he won outright for a second four-year term that will begin in January.

“I want to communicate to my colleagues, to the residents of my district and to the city at large that the people’s business will continue here at City Hall uninterrupted,” Esparza said Thursday. “Those in tune with City Hall beyond the headlines, they all know that a lot of great things are coming out of this building and happening for our community.”

He added that he intends to remain as the council’s president through the rest of this year, when the council will select a new president to lead the meetings. Esparza said he expects to “continue fostering an environment that leads to my colleagues passing successful legislation that benefits communities across our entire city.”

It was one of those colleagues, District 6 Councilmember Garry Bredefeld, who first accused Esparza in May of committing extortion by threatening Sloan’s job if the city attorney performed work for councilmembers other than the council majority of Esparza and councilmembers Miguel Arias, Tyler Maxwell and Esmeralda Soria.

Bredefeld said Esparza threatened Sloan in a private meeting in April and that’s what ultimately caused Sloan to leave his position with the city. Sloan shared details of a conversation he had with Esparza in an email. That message was relayed to several people, but never intended to become public, Sloan said.

Esparza subsequently sued Bredefeld for defamation but later dropped the case. Esparza said he withdrew the lawsuit because the city would bear the responsibility of defending Bredefeld.

Esparza is scheduled to be arraigned in September. If convicted, he faces potential fines, jail time or up to three years in state prison, the district attorney’s office said in a news release.