Fresno police chief’s self-inflicted wound ends potential for greater achievements | Opinion
When he stepped in front of Fresno City Hall on a crisp January morning in 2021 to take over as Fresno’s first police chief of Latino ethnicity, Paco Balderrama appeared to come straight out of a Hollywood casting call.
Engaging. Check!
Fluent in English and Spanish. Check!
Glowing recommendations. Check! (After all, he was called “a rock star in the Latino community” of Oklahoma City where he served as deputy police chief, and was the police spokesperson).
Opinion
Until his appointment to lead Fresno’s police force, Fresno had remained the only city among California’s five largest that had not had a Latino in that capacity.
Balderrama, the 23rd police chief in Fresno history, was embraced by the entire community, especially a Latino community that has felt marginalized.
All of a sudden, Balderrama diversified the police force, saw crime rates drop under his watch, and beefed up staffing by about 300 sworn officers.
At an April 2023 reception honoring him and hosted by Fresno City Councilmembers Annalisa Perea and Tyler Maxwell, Balderrama credited the drop in crime to “smart policing” and a council willing to make sure cops had the needed resources.
“Everything takes money, to put a helicopter in the air, to put police officers on the streets, to work the overtime,” said Balderrama at the reception.
Maxwell praised the police chief, saying Balderrama was the kind of police chief “that any big city would be proud to call their chief.”
“The difference is we have him and they don’t,” said Maxwell.
Now, no city has Balderrama.
What went wrong?
The background of Juan Francisco “Paco” Balderrama mirrors that of many Fresno residents of Mexican descent.
Balderrama – whose twin brother works in the Oklahoma City Police Department – was born in El Paso, Texas to a single mother, Vivi, who worked as a housekeeper. Paco was 16 when the family moved to Oklahoma City.
Balderrama, who is married with three children, notified Mayor Jerry Dyer in February that he had been involved in “an inappropriate relationship” with a woman who did not work with the city. That woman turned out to be the wife of Fresno officer Jordan Wamhoff, who is also a Madera County supervisor.
The results of an investigation found that Balderrama did not abuse his power to stop the promotion of Wamhoff so that he could continue a two-year affair with the officer’s wife. However, City Manager Georgeanne White, in a press conference, said Balderrama’s “actions cannot be justified or defended.”
Balderrama turned in his resignation, effective July 25, on Tuesday morning, and in effect ended his 3½ year tenure in Fresno.
He could have continued to build a solid reputation as an effective crimefighter and as a member of the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
With such a base, Balderrama could have become a solid contender for police chiefs of much larger cities. (Arturo Venegas Jr. was a Fresno deputy chief when he was passed over for chief in the early 1990s, then went on to a stellar career as police chief in Sacramento, and even became a finalist to lead the Los Ángeles police force in the late 1990s).
Or, he could have easily transitioned from police chief to viable candidate for political office. Mayor, assemblymember, state senator, you name it. He would have made a formidable candidate.
The self-inflicted wound has quashed such talk.
Instead, Balderrama must now repair the damage he has done to his family name he spoke about when he accepted the Fresno police chief job.
“My last name is not my last name,” he said in December 2020. “It’s one that I borrowed from my mom. My job is to keep that name untarnished and give it honor.”
Juan Esparza Loera is editor of Vida en el Valle.
The Paco Balderrama scandal needs to end. The Fresno police chief should resign | Opinion
