Property owned by Fresno County is poorly tracked and maintained, and leaders must get it organized or risk lost tax dollars and mismanaged assets, the Fresno County Grand Jury said in a report released Thursday.
The grand jury conducted 15 interviews and reviewed Fresno County records in its search, which showed an incomplete list of properties owned by the county, no apparent plan for the use of individual parcels and was in need of better planning by leaders rather than waiting to react to problems as they arise.
Different departments within in the county provided the grand jury with property lists that did not match one another — ranging from 265 properties worth $1.4 billion in value to more than 500 parcels of $2.65 billion, the report said.
“Overall, county departments were unable to provide accurate, up to date, easily searchable data that included all county holdings, either owned outright or leased, and vacant or not,” the report says.
“The grand jury concluded such a database does not exist.”
Fresno County Grand Jury report
The county holds 3,938 acres of property. The largest use of such property is part of the landfill or its future growth, and the second most common is parks. The third largest by acreage is property designated as vacant, the report found.
The lists of vacant lands include empty lots and those with buildings that are not used, the report says, but much of the records included little or no documentation about what the empty land will be used for or how the county acquired it.
The grand jury said that lack of planning can lead to unnecessary expenses or missed opportunities in real estate.
For example, the old University Medical Center building at Cedar Avenue and King Canyon Road has about $1 million a year in upkeep expenses despite sitting unused. The grand jury concluded the county has sunken at least $16 million into it over almost two decades though it could have been demolished in 2007 for half that cost or less.
The county sold that property late last year for $6 million.
The county is also on pace to take a loss on vacant and unused farm land on De Wolf Avenue near Selma it bought at $4.6 million in 2007 that has since been appraised as worth about $3 million less. “The grand jury could not determine whether the deal was the result of incompetence or malfeasance or other factors,” the report says.
Another property — a county island in Fresno called South Park Circle Drive — was listed as a 2.21-acre park but is an empty dirt field marked by tire tracks and missing most common signs of a park — like grass, picnic tables and restrooms, the report notes.
Many other properties were sitting unused without any clear plan for a future use or attempt to turn the property into a money-making real estate venture.
“The number of property entries that raised questions was large enough to lead to the conclusion that the county is not fully managing its real estate portfolio — that some properties were just there — not part of any overall plan, not systematically maintained, and not regularly reviewed by county administrators or the Board of Supervisors,” the report said.
Recommendations on vacant land
The jurors wrote in the report that Fresno County’s shortcomings are not uncommon among counties, but leaders must reel in the county’s needs to be effective managers.
The grand jury ended its report with 11 recommendations to Fresno County with deadlines later this year from September to December, including the development of a master list and master plan for the hundreds of properties owned by Fresno County, as well as acquiring better mapping and search tools.
The grand jury also recommended the county come up with a plan to improve parking options downtown for its employees.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors and the Office of Administration said in a news release later Thursday they would provide a full response to the report within the 90 days that is typical for a grand jury report finding.
The administration’s statement Thursday noted recent efforts by leaders to improve the county’s properties, citing improvements like the work being done for a new home for the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, a new substation for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and the Clovis Campus, which consolidated county offices.
The statement also noted plans for libraries in Clovis and Reedley, the West Annex of Fresno County Jail and a new facility for the Agriculture Department, to name a few.
“In short, more progress has been made on county facilities in the last five years (than) the last 25 years combined,” the statement said.
Source Agencies
