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Fresno—s capital projects budget keeps projects rolling as city awaits $100M GOBIS installment
Summary
Capital Projects Director Dennis Anbia told council the department—s proposed FY27 budget of roughly $139.7 million is largely steady year-over-year; council pressed on vehicle replacement, staff vacancies and grant-funded placeholder projects including a $100 million GOBIS allocation and infill infrastructure grants.
Dennis Anbia, director of Fresno—s Capital Projects Department, told the council the department—s proposed FY27 total is approximately $139.7 million, a small decrease from the prior year driven by shifting personnel charges to client department budgets rather than an actual staff reduction.
Anbia described CPD as the city—s project-delivery arm and said the department processed more than 2,000 invoices totaling about $153 million in the current year. CPD currently manages roughly 270 projects; 86 were in active construction and the department expects to complete 72 projects in FY27. Key projects highlighted included downtown water and sewer line replacements, the North Fulton parking garage under construction and a proposed 600-space parking structure (authorized for construction previously), a 911 emergency call center expansion and several parks and fire-station efforts.
The council pressed Anbia on staffing (140 authorized positions with 21 vacancies, 13 of them engineering roles), and on equipment and technology asks: CPD requested replacement of 10 aged inspector vehicles and upgrades to high-powered design workstations and AutoCAD licenses. Anbia said the personnel budget decline reflected budgetary reallocations to project budgets rather than cuts to headcount.
On grants, Anbia said the department budgets substantial non-general-fund dollars, including a $100 million grant placeholder labeled GOBIS (the city is anticipating the next installment in FY27), and an infill infrastructure catalytic grant (IGC) where $5.4 million is budgeted for FY27. He emphasized that many major capital projects in the FY27 portfolio are funded by state and federal grants (ATP, STBG, CMAQ, Safe Streets programs) and by Measure C dollars; the FY27 capital slate includes an expected $89 million in state funding for the Blackstone—McKinley grade-separation project.
Council members asked for follow-up on project timelines and on the city—s standards for vehicle replacement; Council Member Arius pressed fleet staff to provide details of the fleet replacement formula and asked whether electric vehicles have different thresholds — fleet staff said the city has insufficient replacement and failure data for EVs yet but monitors mileage and age and typically uses a 10-year/100,000-mile guideline for most vehicles.
What happens next: CPD will provide additional follow-up data on vacancies, the Butler Avenue project timeline, and fleet inventory numbers requested by council members. Council also asked staff to provide lists of projects included in the PaveMore Now paving program and other capital rollouts for FY27.
