A deep dive on the Measure P funding process: Is the Fresno City Council micromanaging?

A three-month investigation for The Munro Review by Fresno journalist Doug Hoagland offers a behind-the-scenes view of the arts funding process for Measure P. I built a special page to present his story. One of the quirks of WordPress is that people who are signed up for email notifications for new posts don’t receive those notifications for pages, so I’m sending out this additional post to help get the word out. Click here to read the story.

We’re talking here about a lot of money: $7 million this year alone. Through a lot of digging (and efforts to speak with a lot of close-mouthed city officials), Hoagland learned that the citizens commission called for by Measure P has so far been treated with a fairly heavy hand (aka ignored) by the Fresno City Council. He raises an interesting question: Do we really want local politicians making decisions about arts funding?

If you’re into the arts, you’ll want to read more about the “growing pains” for a funding mechanism that could do great things for the local cultural scene — and also create some big headaches.

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