‘Witch hunt.’ ‘Dangerous.’ Tensions mount in brewing fight between Fresno politicians

Fresno politicians vying for Board of Supervisors seats called for Fresno County to “withdraw” its legal challenge against them — calling it a “dangerous” witch hunt and misuse of taxpayer money.

Garry Bredefeld and Luis Chavez, candidates for the 2024 Fresno County Board of Supervisors race, criticized Fresno County’s decision announced Tuesday to initiate a “declaratory relief action” against them after the candidates publicly defied the Fresno County Campaign Contribution Ordinance.

Bredefeld, who represents City Council District 6 in northeast Fresno, is running against incumbent Supervisor Steve Brandau to represent Supervisor District 2, which includes part of Clovis and northwest Fresno. Chavez, who represents City Council District 5 in south Fresno, is running against incumbent Supervisor Sal Quintero, his former boss, who represents Supervisor District 3, which encompasses central and southeast Fresno.

“We want them (Fresno County) to withdraw that declaratory relief that they did and not name us in this political witch hunt,” Chavez said in a news conference on Thursday morning.

Both candidates have publicly said the county’s ordinance unfairly protects incumbents by limiting how much money they can transfer to their campaign accounts. They also said they’d ignore the county ordinance and transfer all of their campaign funds to their supervisor accounts.

Chavez and Bredefeld said Thursday that the county is setting a “dangerous” precedent and misusing taxpayer funds for political purposes.

Bredefeld said the county was “weaponizing” taxpayer-funded county attorneys to stop challengers from “legally transferring individual contributions to another committee.”

Chavez said that if any candidate has an issue, dispute or concern with how he’s spending his campaign dollars, “then they can sue on their own. They don’t have to use taxpayer dollars to do this.”

In an email statement to The Bee/Fresnoland on Thursday afternoon, Fresno County spokesperson Sonja Dosti responded to Chavez’s comments, saying that “this issue of campaign contribution limits and adhering to local ordinances is not a private one between candidates, but a matter of public interest.”

Furthermore, Dosti said declaratory relief “is the most expeditious and objective method of resolution” to address the disagreement about the ordinance.

“Although the County is confident in its interpretation of the ordinance,” she said, “it welcomes the opportunity to resolve the matter through this action.”

She also said that both candidates Bredefeld and Chavez are named specifically because they publicly stated they had a different interpretation and would “violate the Fresno County Ordinance beyond what was allowed.”

Quintero declined to respond to request for comment but said that he recused himself from the vote on Tuesday. The Bee/Fresnoland also reached out to Brandau response.

Should other another board supervisor have recused himself from vote?

Bredefeld also said District 5 Supervisor Nathan Magsig, who is up for reelection in 2024, should have recused himself from the vote on the “bogus lawsuit at taxpayer expense.”

Both Brandau and Quintero recused themselves from the discussion and vote, while Supervisors Brian Pacheco, Buddy Mendes, and Magsig voted in favor of initiating the declaratory relief action against Bredefeld and Chavez.

“He (Magsig) may also have people running against him ... he should have recused himself because his vote benefits himself,” Bredefeld said. “What gives him the right legally to vote on this when they (Brandau and Quintero) recused themselves appropriately?”

If Magsig had recused himself, he said, the board wouldn’t have had a quorum and the decision wouldn’t have passed.

Magsig did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

However, Dosti said that Magsig has not yet publicly declared if he will seek re-election and that no one from his district has stated they wish to challenge the county’s ordinance.

“Therefore, there is no actual controversy involving Supervisor Magsig that would be included in the declaratory relief action,” she said.

Dosti added that recusal from the vote was not legally required but was a “personal ethical choice by Supervisors Brandau and Quintero.”

County ordinance ‘silent’ on transfers, candidates say

Both Bredefeld and Chavez said Thursday they’ve already transferred funds from their city council accounts to their supervisors accounts. In a previous interview with The Bee/Fresnoland, Bredefeld said he’d transfer $223,000 to his supervisor account, while Chavez said he’d transfer $110,000.

According to Fresno County, the county’s campaign contribution ordinance would bar contributions in excess of the $30,000 limit from other campaign committees.

But Bredefeld said the candidates are “not violating the ordinance by transferring individual donations” because the word “transfer” is never even mentioned in the county’s campaign contribution ordinance.

A memo from Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz also says the county’s ordinance is “silent” on the question of transfers.

Chavez and Bredefeld raised the question of why incumbent supervisors can transfer their campaign funds from one campaign committee to another.

“I believe they did that on purpose, so that they (incumbent board of supervisor candidates) could transfer their funds from one political campaign to the other committee,” Chavez said.

According to Fresno County, incumbent supervisors Brandau and Quintero can use their money previous campaigns.

In an email statement to The Bee’s opinion editor, Tad Weber, Dosti said “redesignation of campaign funds for the same office is specifically allowed under the provisions of the Political Reform Act (PRA) and FPPC regulations in jurisdictions that have passed their own contribution limits under the PRA. Redesignation is ONLY allowed in cases where a jurisdiction has passed its own contribution limits (2 CCR sec. 18521(b)).”

Dosti provided more details to The Bee/Fresnoland in an email statement Thursday afternoon.

She said that the Fresno County ordinance code provides that unless otherwise defined in the County’s campaign ordinances (Chapter 2.62) “the definitions set forth in the Political Reform Act of 1974...shall govern the interpretation of terms used.”

She also said that California state law’s definition of a “contribution” found in Government Code Section 82015(b)(2) includes the transfer of anything of value received by a committee from another committee.

Questions linger as the fight moves forward.

Bredefeld said they submitted a public records request to “look at exactly what the little scheme is” and requested emails, text messages, and written correspondence between all five supervisors, their staff, the county administrative officer, and the county’s public information officer.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the case would go before a judge.