Roads and infrastructure
Roads are the most basic function of government
Porterville has dramatically increased road repair over the past few years by using City crews and local control. The $5,000 Charter rule is still a limiter. Measure U would restore local control, make fixing roads and infrastructure more affordable, and support local jobs and local growth.
Local crews already proved the point
Road repair is not a side issue in Porterville. It is the work residents see every day, and it is one of the core jobs a city exists to do.
Using local City crews, Porterville has already increased the amount of road work getting done. That is local control in practice: Porterville employees, Porterville paychecks, and more streets repaired.
Section 61 still treats ordinary maintenance like a major contract once the cost exceeds $5,000—a threshold that has not changed since 1971. That cap holds back the very method that has already produced more road work.
Measure U removes that cap. The City would have Charter authority to keep using its own crews for repairs, resurfacing, and maintenance, instead of being forced to bid out work that City employees can do.
Keep public-works dollars in Porterville
Measure U would remove that cap so the City can do more road maintenance—and keep taxpayer dollars in Porterville instead of bidding ordinary street work to out-of-town contractors. Local crews keep the work here.
California imposes expensive and unnecessary mandates when it comes to public-work projects. A rigid Charter bidding requirement written before today’s state rules locks Porterville into that system. Measure U replaces that requirement, giving more flexibility and avoiding expensive state mandates.
How does this benefit the People? Everyone benefits. Keep more money in town, use tax dollars more effectively, get better infrastructure, and increase local wages and more jobs.
A $5,000 rule from 1971 should not control Porterville forever. In July 2026 buying power, that threshold is about $41,000. Routine street repairs should not be trapped by a figure written more than fifty years ago.
Mayor Greg Meister: keep fixing the roads
Mayor Greg Meister has made road repair a mandate. We agree with him, and we are sharing his message.
“Before my advocacy, the City was only repaving about 5 lane miles per year. There are over 600 lane miles in Porterville. It would have taken over 100 years to repave all the roads. Through my constant pressure and advocacy, first as a Councilmember and now as Mayor, we are now repaving more than 30 lane miles per year.”
“That is a sixfold increase in productivity in just a few short years.”
“And we did not get there by simply throwing more money at the problem. By using City crews instead of relying solely on expensive outside contractors, we are repaving roads at a fraction of the cost, keeping tax dollars local and supporting local jobs.”
“California’s infrastructure regulations are broken. In some cases, they drive costs up by as much as 20 times what it would take to do the job in any normal state.”
“Even after we increased road repair progress sixfold under my leadership, we are still now limited by outdated restrictions in our City Charter. That is why I am asking for your renewed approval to Keep Fixing The Roads.”
“That is one of the most basic and core functions a City is supposed to do: fix roads.”