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Presenter pitches countywide 'Fix Our Roads' measure, contrasts it with a competing 30-year plan
Summary
At the March 5 Sanger City Council meeting, Diana Gomez outlined a citizen-led 'Fix Our Roads' initiative proposing a 20-year, $3.19 billion plan to prioritize local street repairs and create a citizen oversight structure; she said the measure would preserve FCTA oversight and leverage matching funds while allocating the bulk of funding to local roads.
Diana Gomez presented the Fix Our Roads citizen initiative to the Sanger City Council on March 5, saying the proposal would create a 20-year, $3.19 billion funding program focused on local streets and roads and preserve existing local oversight.
Gomez told the council the plan would dedicate about 82% of revenues to a local roads program (including a stated 50% to road repair), reserve 18% for transit and reimagining mobility, and include a citizen oversight mechanism and Fresno County Transportation Authority (FCTA) involvement to ensure accountability. She said the initiative is intended to match the lifespan and forecasting model used by prior Measure C efforts and to leverage state and federal matching funds.
“It's designed to deliver up to eight times the financial impact for local streets and roads by leveraging matching dollars and is built with rock-solid citizen oversight and accountability measures,” Gomez said during her presentation.
Gomez framed the proposal against a competing 30-year alternative, characterizing that measure as more restrictive for local jurisdictions and more heavily weighted toward transit without identified projects. She said the competing plan would eliminate FCTA oversight and claimed it would both reduce local jurisdictional flexibility and jeopardize state and federal matching dollars. “The other plan...enacts a 45% increase in transit funding with 0 accountability for adding riders or reducing costs,” she said.
Council members pressed Gomez on oversight and transit distribution. When asked whether FCTA would continue oversight, Gomez said yes, and when asked whether most transit dollars would go to Fresno and Clovis, she confirmed that—saying the initiative's transit allocations would largely benefit the region’s larger cities. Gomez said the organizers plan signature collection and outreach to place the measure on the November ballot and are open to negotiating a consolidated ballot measure with competing proponents.
The presentation included project priorities for both urban corridors (e.g., Shaw, the 99 interchange, Herndon) and rural road widening and safety work. Gomez said the measure would protect funding for local jurisdictions with higher annual minimum guarantees than the alternative plan and would fund targeted transit reimagining programs and a restructured transit allocation.
The council did not take action on the initiative itself; Gomez said the next steps are continued outreach and signature gathering. The competing measure proponents are expected to present to the council at a future meeting so members can compare both proposals ahead of voter consideration.
