Long-simmering drama over Fresno sports complex coming to courtroom near you | Opinion

One of Fresno's most pointless and convoluted sagas has reached its third act.

City Hall and a politically connected developer – the connection being Terance Frazier's marriage to state Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria – are putting up their dukes over Granite Park.

Coming soon to a courtroom near you. Not to be confused with Frazier's ongoing civil rights lawsuit against the City of Fresno that names Mayor Jerry Dyer and other current and former city officials as co-defendants.

"When people don't pay their bills, then we have to move forward," City Manager Georgeanne White said after giving Frazier's nonprofit three days' notice to vacate the 20-acre sports complex in east-central Fresno for failure to pay $1.3 million in back rent, PG&E bills, sewer and water fees and billboard revenues.

"I mean, this is going on for years now."

Frazier responded 48 hours later by calling White's assertions "lies" and pledging his Central Valley Sports Foundation won't cave to the city's demands.

"We are not backing down," Frazier said. "The city's actions are illegal and, more disturbingly, immoral."

The latest salvo between Frazier and City Hall raises the curtain on what should be the final scenes of a prolonged feud that stretches back two mayoral administrations and has soaked up more public discourse than it rightfully deserves .

But that's what happens when personal animosities, both the very real and possibly imagined, overlap with public business.

Despite the dearth of sports fields and green space in general, Fresno blundered Granite Park from the start. In 2004 the city council co-signed a $5.2 million loan to a developer who partially built the sports complex but soon went belly up, leaving the place essentially abandoned.

By the time Frazier's CVSF entered the picture in 2015, Granite Park was a literal weed patch next to the 168 freeway. City officials were only too happy to hand over a 25-year deal to run things.

Granite Park turns sour It didn't take long for the relationship to deteriorate. By 2018 the city was already making a stink about late payments, and the following year (in response to a public records request from an aggrieved business partner of Frazier's) it released an audit of Granite Park that purported to show improper bookkeeping and unaccounted money.

Frazier contended the audit released by the city was "incomplete" and damaging to him both personally and professionally. He fired back with a racial discrimination lawsuit and, in an amended complaint to that filing, charged Dyer and other city officials with dissuading others from doing business with him.

Soria's presence on the Fresno City Council while all this was happening added another layer to the conflict. Council members who didn't like Soria (and/or unsuccessfully opposed her for Asembly) used Granite Park to lob accusations about liability and favoritism. Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp wielded it to investigate supposed Brown Act violations by Soria's council allies.

So much furor over a few baseball and soccer fields used by youth sports leagues and to host occasional concerts and events.

Fast forward to 2024, and things have changed. Thanks to Measure P, the City of Fresno has taxpayer dollars to operate Granite Park. They don't need, or want, a nonprofit doing that job.

At the same time, the sports complex is no longer a weed patch. Its fields and grounds are well-maintained – even though Frazier claims the complex operates at a six-figure monthly deficit.

"Let's not forget what Granite Park was before we stepped in: a neglected, overgrown dumping ground," Frazier said. "The city's motives are clear. They want the millions of dollars of value we've created."

Why Frazier won't 'walk away' If neither side budges, it'll be up to a judge to determine whether those "millions of dollars" worth of improvements legally constitutes back rent, sort out the other monetary disagreements and decide who gets the keys.

And that's just about Granite Park. Looming in the background is Frazier's larger civil rights complaint against the city filed in U.S. District Court.

Although two different lawsuits, they sort of bleed together so far as Frazier is concerned. He believes the city is persecuting him over Granite Park in the same way it voted down his South Stadium project, nixed his United Health Centers development in southeast Fresno and demolished his buildings on H Street by surprise.

That became apparent Friday when I asked Frazier why he simply doesn't "walk away" from Granite Park since it's losing money and causing so much strife.

"Hell no, I'm not giving it up," Frazier responded. "I may give up all my real estate and all my investments, but my purpose is to save these kids' lives because that's what God did for me."

As Frazier spoke about how parks and playing baseball kept him off the streets while growing up in his hometown of Oakland, his voice broke with emotion.

"I didn't go to this park to make money," he added. "I'm a developer. I'm an investor. I put my heart and my soul in these parks because I want another kid to come out of here and be like a Terance Frazier."

The battle over Granite Park has reached its final act, at long last.