Fresno City Council delays vote on ordinance designed to protect residents from illegal lab

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno City Council is delaying a final vote on an ordinance designed to protect residents from an illegal lab setting up shop in the city.

As the council meeting got underway Thursday morning, councilmember Garry Bredefeld suddenly pulled the ordinance from the agenda.

"I want to make sure that we have the best, most effective ordinance there is. I'm not interested in just rushing it and getting it approved today. There are some concerns, I want to address those concerns, once we address those concerns, and we will, we will bring back to the Council for adoption," said Bredefeld.

Bredefeld said Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest lab operators in the nation, raised concerns with the ordinance that had been unanimously passed on the first vote by councilmembers just three weeks ago.

The proposed law came after it was discovered an illegal bio lab in Reedley, operated by Prestige Biotech and Universal Meditech, had refrigerators full of chemicals, human blood, COVID and pregnancy tests, and about 1,000 mice.

It was also revealed the lab had operated in Fresno just months earlier before moving following a building fire.

The new ordinance would require organizations operating labs in the city to first obtain proper local, state and federal licensing -- and require notification to be given to the city, council members, and residents and businesses within one thousand feed of the lab.

Anyone found in violation could be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to one year in a county jail and a $1,000 fine.

RELATED: Congressional subpoena issued to the city of Reedley over illegal lab

Bredefeld said the legislation is meant to address new labs -- but there were concerns raised about the impact on existing labs that patients rely on every day.

"We want to make sure that the ordinance that we bring forward is effective and doesn't impact anybody in our community today that's operating legally and appropriately safely. We don't want to impact any of those folks. We want to get the bad guys, not the good guys," said Bredefeld.

Smaller doctor's offices have also taken issue with the proposal.

In emails obtained by Action News, an attorney representing the county reached out to medical groups asking if this would impact their clients.

One replied quote, "As written, probably applies to every lab in town because they probably have most of those pathogens come through their labs on a routine basis."

In a letter to councilmembers, the California Clinical Laboratory responded to the ordinance, writing, in part:

"Although we believe the Proposed Lab Ordinance is well-intentioned, it is overly vague and raises many questions about what it encompasses. If implemented, the Proposed Lab Ordinance would present an additional unnecessary regulatory requirement for California clinical laboratories and businesses operating in Fresno and presents the possibility that healthcare providers in Fresno may choose not to provide certain services to avoid running afoul of the Proposed Lab Ordinance, thereby impacting patient access to care. Accordingly, the California Clinical Laboratory Association opposes the Proposed Lab Ordinance."

Bredefeld says councilmembers will start meeting with Quest next week and hope to have the ordinance back before the city council and adopted within 30 days.

Action News did reach out to Quest for comment but has yet to hear back.

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