The Primary Election for District 3, Fresno County Board of Supervisors, will be held on March 5 along with all major races on the ballot. District 3 holds Fresno City College, the Tower District and unincorporated communities like Calwa.

Incumbent County Supervisor Sal Quintero is being challenged by Fresno City Council members Miguel Arias and Luis Chavez while a political newcomer arrives in Edward “EJ” Hinojosa. 

All four candidates are Democrats, meaning the seat will not flip to another party regardless of the results.

As of now, three out of the five supervisor seats are held by Republicans while the other two, Districts 1 and 3, are held by Democrats.

“The number one question I have received on this campaign has been; what do the County Board of Supervisors even do,” said Hinojosa.

The County Board of Supervisors acts as the government for all unincorporated cities in the county and regulates land use. 

Supervisors can hold positions on boards, commissions or committees related to public transportation, sanitation and water management. It chooses the heads of county departments including Social Services.

It plays a role in the approval of the county budget, roughly $4.8 billion according to the files on the County Administrative Office website. 

Quintero has held the supervisor position since he was elected in 2016, Chavez has been a council member since the same year while Arias began tenure after his election in 2018. Hinojosa is a music teacher at Gaston Middle School.

“I would broadly describe my platform as a building agenda,” said Hinojosa.

He supports constructing affordable housing, road repair and communal spaces such as parks, markets and a library in the Tower District.

Hinojosa described the current board of supervisors as “austere” and took little measures to improve the county’s problems. 

Hinojosa states his campaign to be grassroots and does not plan to take contributions from the oil industry and developers. At the same time he said he would see whether he would like to take donations from “power players” in the future.

Arias said his focus is on homelessness, housing and foster care. 

In an article from Fresnoland, Arias said “New $400,000 homes (do) nothing for the lady on a social security check of $1,000, it does nothing for the single mom working three jobs and can’t afford that house. It’s a false narrative by developers.”

He said that the current Board of Supervisors are more focused on turning the county into a “retirement home” rather than doing their jobs to help the people.

“They (Board of Supervisors) tend to have an extremely heavy hand on small business owners and entrepreneurs, while ignoring corporations who are putting their employees at risk,” said Arias.

Arias said that his current campaign has not taken “any contributions from corporations.”

According to the CampaignDocs Retrieval website provided by the County of Fresno and Fresnoland’s infographic, Arias’s campaign received donations from contractor companies such as HVL Construction Inc. and developer Peter Stravinski.

When asked to comment, Arias responded that these were transfers from his “previous council campaign account” and has not taken any corporate donors since.

Chavez said public health and improvement of foster kids care were the biggest issues that also tied into the current homelessness crisis.

He considers the county to be responsible for public health systems and social services.

“As a foster parent, I’ve personally seen foster youth be homeless at a higher rate than others,” said Chavez.

He said his solution to lower housing prices is the building of new homes from apartments to tiny homes to “have more options and bring down rent prices.”

According to Chavez, he receives funding primarily from labor unions and said that he was the only candidate to receive support from them. 

Current incumbent Quintero points to his recent work with Congressman Jim Costa to bring $7 million for road repairs in Calwa, and new motions to bring broadband internet as ways the county is helping underserved communities.

Quintero considers these needs to have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

“The most important issues are some of those that have already been started to be addressed,” said the incumbent. 

He said it is not the county’s responsibility to construct homes, but commission contractors and developers to do so. 

Two out of the four candidates will advance to the general election in November if no one gets over 50% of the votes at the primaries.

Find county district boundaries here.