This story was originally published by Fresnoland.
While most people’s attention might be on the best person to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, the residents of California’s fifth-largest city are likely in for a sizable shift on the city council come January.
Four of the council’s seven seats were up for grabs in the June primary, with only one incumbent, Brandon Vang, on the ballot. As of Wednesday, it looks like he may narrowly avoid a runoff with challenger Danielle Parra, who was backed by Mayor Jerry Dyer.
That still leaves three council races to be decided in a runoff this November:
- In District 1, Rob Fuentes will take on Naindeep Singh
- In District 3, Joaquin Arambula will go to head against Keshia Thomas
- In District 7, Nav Gurm will face Ariana Martinez Lott
A fifth seat could also open up next year if Mike Karbassi is elected to the Board of Supervisors in November, potentially setting a special city council election to represent northwest Fresno in District 2.
While Fresno has a strong-mayor form of government, the council can sometimes thwart the mayor’s direction or push their own agenda — but only if a majority opts to organize themselves into ideological blocs.
There’s a lot at stake for the incoming council to decide. Dyer, with a few exceptions, has generally had productive working relationships with the majority of the council. He’s received unanimous support for his past three budgets and not much of a fight on some of the bigger issues the city has faced, from raising trash rates in 2024 and expanding the city’s industrial and warehousing footprint to stewarding the city through a tumultuous transition of police chiefs.
He’s most notoriously sparred with Councilmember Miguel Arias in District 3, whose term ends in December, over homeless shelter funding and policies like the Southeast Development Area plan, or SEDA.
SEDA could come to a vote as soon as this summer, or Dyer could punt it for the next council. Either way, if it’s approved, the city council would be overseeing budgets that prioritize whether funds will go towards expanding streets, water and sewer for SEDA, or whether those funds might be used in other parts of the city.
That’s why the Fresno City Council’s new composition in January is integral to city politics for the next several years.
But who’s using political money to influence what that future city council looks like?
Fresnoland crunched the numbers to find the largest political donors in city council races so far this election year:
1. One Fresno Coalition/Central Valley Council
Single-interest PACs and donors have often topped local donor lists in the past, so the emergence of the One Fresno Coalition, a new, seemingly multi-interest PAC from political consultant Alex Tavlian, stands out as a unicorn. Combined with its financial backer, the Central Valley Council PAC (also started by Tavlian in 2025), both have contributed over $78,000 in the primary council races in both direct contributions and independent expenditures.
The two PACs have financially backed all of the Dyer-endorsed candidates for city council: Rob Fuentes in District 1, Danielle Parra in District 5, and Nav Gurm in District 7. They also backed Fernando Alvarez in District 3, where Dyer opted not to endorse in the primary.
It’s hard to exactly pinpoint the goals of the One Fresno Coalition or the Central Valley Council PACs. Unlike large influential political committees in other cities, they don’t have a website. It’s easy to take a clue from the name, which Tavlian mimicked after Dyer’s nonprofit – the One Fresno Foundation – although Dyer told Fresnoland that he has nothing to do with it.
That leaves us with one other clue to figure out what this PAC is interested in: the donors. And if we look under the hood of the Central Valley Council PAC, we see many familiar faces, and a few new ones, too.
Leading the way as the PAC’s largest donor with over $205,000 is Atlanta-based SPH Placements, LLC – owned by David Hanna, co-owner of the private equity and venture capital firm Hanna Capital, LLC, who also owns an industrial development in Savannah. They’re a new donor on the Fresno scene in this cycle.
Some of the big waste management companies that have city contracts are in the PAC’s filings, too: $90,000 from Mid-Valley Disposal, and $20,000 from West Coast Waste. A few local developers have chipped in as well: $40,000 from Granville Homes and $35,000 from Peter Stravinski. American Ambulance also chipped in $10,000.
Some of these companies also give individually to candidates; West Coast Waste, for example, also gave $2,000 to Joaquin Arambula’s campaign committee, even as the the One Fresno Coalition/Central Valley Council PAC backed his opponent.
But contribution limits max out at $5,900 in the City of Fresno, and with California’s relatively new pay-to-play law in effect, the Levine Act, any companies who might be doing business with the city can’t donate more than $500 to a candidate within a certain period if they want to stay above board. So if a company wants to make a bigger dent in a race, a PAC allows donors to make larger contributions, even if they might have a direct stake in policy decisions made at the council.
2. Fresno City Employees’ Association PAC
City employee labor unions are typically some of the top donors to council races, so it’s not surprising to see the Fresno City Employees Association (FCEA) PAC – which represents over 900 white-collar city workers, like planners, building inspectors, or code enforcement officers – kicking in $35,000 in the four contested council races.
They backed Arambula for District 3, incumbent Vang in District 5, Fuentes for District 1, and did a double-endorsement for Martinez Lott and Gurm in District 7.
As the city continues its budget belt-tightening, labor contracts are getting more scrutiny. FCEA scored raises for their members in their June 2025 contract, which expires this December, potentially leaving some negotiating for the next council to figure out.
3. Fresno Firefighters’ Union
It’s not uncommon to see the city’s firefighters union spending pretty heavily in local council races, and it’s clear — with over $30,200 into the June primary council races — they’ve made their decisions about who will best protect their interests come contract negotiation season.
They backed Vang for District 5, Fuentes for District 1 and Gurm for District 7. In their last round of bargaining, they secured raises for their rank-and-file. But that contract is once again up for negotiation in June 2027, leaving it for the next council to figure out.
4. Richard and Karen Spencer
Richard and Karen Spencer are a local power couple who own Harris Construction, one of the largest firms in the region that builds a lot of the public buildings you see, from the Terry Bradley Educational Campus in Clovis Unified to the new public library campuses under construction in Clovis and Reedley.
Spencer is the major donor behind the failed attempts to pass Measure E, a sales tax benefitting Fresno State, and is a prolific political donor giving at all levels, from hosting fundraisers for Vice President J.D. Vance to supporting school bonds, county supervisor races, and candidates for city council in Fresno and Clovis.
The couple donated $22,700 in support of Fuentes in District 1 and AJ Rassamni in District 7.
5. Fresno Teachers’ Association
The June primary marks the first time the members of the Fresno Teachers’ Association have elected to weigh in on city elections – and, it might not be the last, said Manuel Bonilla, president of FTA, in an interview with Fresnoland.
They opted to throw in $20,000 to support multiple candidates: Fuentes in District 1, Arambula for District 3, Vang in District 5, and double-endorsed Gurm and Martinez Lott for District 7.
“What happens in the city impacts our classroom, and what happens in the classroom impacts the city,” Bonilla explained, talking about how the union has increasingly been vocal about the role teachers and schools play to address food scarcity, homelessness, and poverty. “Educators get the blame of society’s policies,” he added.
Candidates’ positions on the mayor’s proposed Southeast Development Area plan, or SEDA, absolutely played a role, Bonilla said. The union has previously voiced concerns over the potential closure of up to 11 schools in Fresno Unified if the full plan is adopted, due to enrollment losses.
Here are the rest of the 10 largest donors in the Fresno City Council primaries:
6. California Real Estate Political Action Committee at $17,000
7. Fresno Chamber of Commerce PAC at $17,000
8. Pawanpreet Dhaliwal, a local employment attorney, at $12,501
9. California Working Families Party, at $11,807
10. Youth Save Democracy PAC at $11,800
Fresnoland’s analysis was based on data collected from Jan. 1, 2025 through June 2, 2026.