Alma M. Beltran has served as Mayor of Parlier since 2014, when she became the city’s first female and first Latina mayor; she was working as a correctional officer at the time. Born in Reedley to parents who had migrated from Guadalajara, Mexico, she grew up in Reedley before marrying and settling in Parlier in 1993. Early in her tenure she worked to address widespread broken water meters causing inflated bills and to keep the city’s police department intact. She also serves as President of the Fresno Council of Governments and is a 2026 candidate for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors’ District 4 seat.
In September 2024, a Fresno Superior Court jury awarded former Parlier Police Chief Jose Garza $1 million after finding he was unlawfully fired in 2021. Garza testified that Beltran and the city manager at the time tried to shut down an investigation into embezzlement by a city employee and ordered him to stop communicating with the Fresno County District Attorney’s office about it; when he refused, he was terminated. Beltran has disputed the verdict and denies Garza was fired over the investigation. Garza now serves as police chief in Coalinga.
Parlier has seen substantial staff turnover during Beltran’s tenure, cycling through six police chiefs and six city managers, and reporting has documented that she has repeatedly missed payments on her own water bill to the city she leads. As she campaigns for county supervisor in 2026, a political opponent has funded an opposition website citing the Garza verdict, staff turnover, and the water-bill issue to call for her removal as mayor and has filed a Brown Act open-meetings complaint against her and the Fresno Council of Governments; these particular claims originate from a political rival and should be weighed with that in mind, separate from the jury’s findings in the Garza case.
