TikTok video spurs report on Fresno County’s real estate management

Fresno County lacks a strategic plan to guide the management of its real estate assets, which could lead to missed investment opportunities, unnecessary maintenance costs and more.

Those are some of the findings from a Fresno County Grand Jury report released Thursday titled “Toward Lasting Improvement: A Review of Fresno County Vacant Property and Real Estate Practices.”

A TikTok video sparked the investigation, according to the grand jury report. A recruiting video by Fresno County’s Internal Security Services boasted responsibility for more than 500 buildings with 26,000 annual calls for service, indicating a high need for officers to secure these properties.

The annual security expenditure for the University Medical Center campus in Southeast Fresno and other Fresno County properties is about $2.5 million, according to the report.

The Grand Jury sought to uncover how many vacant or derelict properties are owned by the county and if they contribute to community blight.

The grand jury found that information provided by the County Internal Services Department and Assessor’s Office indicated problems in tracking, managing and planning for future real estate needs.

“The challenges of investigating what appeared to be a straightforward topic proved to be significant, however, and the lack of consistent data ultimately urged a broader scope of exploration, which evolved to a more general review of real estate holdings, practices and management though the focus on vacant properties,” according to the report.

On Thursday, a statement from County said the Fresno County Board of Supervisors and County Administrative Office had previously identified issues highlighted in the report inherited from prior administrations and have been working to address them.

The investigation involved 15 interviews, reviews of property lists provided by the county, agendas and minutes from the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, internet research and even site visits.

The county owns 3,938 acres of land and 406 properties, according to the report, though there were some inconsistencies found in tracking properties within departments.

“No comprehensive real estate plan exists that treats property as an asset rather than merely cost to be managed, nor is there evidence of a comprehensive capital maintenance plan that realistically anticipates the appreciating cost of deferred maintenance over time, essential to realistic budgeting,” according to the report. “The current approach may well result in missed investment opportunities, unnecessary maintenance costs, false starts and unexpected liabilities.

The report listed some examples of real estate tracking and management shortcomings, including a parcel that was listed as vacant actually being the site of a branch library building.

There were also examples of the County carrying low value properties on its books, with efforts to offload them facing delays, false starts and inadequate planning, according to the report.

One of the county’s largest properties consists of 90 acres on DeWolf and Elkhorn avenues near Selma that was purchased in 2007 using Tobacco Securitization funds — restricted for non-commercial use — for a proposed ag center. The purchase price was about $4.6 million — more than $50,000 an acre, according to the report.

Later, the property’s highest and best use was determined to be agricultural, and it was appraised for $17,000 per acre or $1.5 million, a decline of $3.1 million from what the County originally paid, according to the report.

“Making a bad situation worse, funding restrictions prohibited the land from being leased for farming, which would create income to recover some of the lost value, according to the report. “The Grand Jury could not determine whether the deal was the result of incompetence or malfeasance or other factors. Communications between departments is a likely factor here, as is the complexity of the County’s many funding sources. Sixteen years later one of the largest Fresno County properties remains vacant and unused.”

According to the statement from Fresno County, there are plans and active work to either declare parcels as surplus or to use them, including the University Medical Center Campus and Selma ag property.

The report attributed some of the problem to gaps in institutional memory within the County.

“Current County employees are more the victims of this history than its agents,” according to the report, “and the Grand Jury found those interviewed to be responsive, forthcoming and conscientious as well as aware of the shortcomings identified in this report.”

Fresno County pointed to significant progress mentioned in the report, such as the renovation of the Rowell Building for the District Attorney’s office, a new animal services facility and consolidation of social services offices into the former Pelco campus.

A recent capital projects update received by the Board of Supervisors includes progress on a master strategic facilities and deferred maintenance funding plan, according to the statement.

“In short, more progress has been made on County facilities in the last five years than the last 25 years combined,” according to the County.

Fresno County has 90 days to provide a formal response to the report.