The Munro Review demands public records as Measure P grants process heads for final vote

---

In April, mayoral appointees to the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission refused a request from The Munro Review to release the names of the 43 volunteers and 137 applicants.

So, on April 17, The Munro Review filed a Public Records Act request with the City Attorney’s Office seeking the information. By law, that office had 10 calendar days to Indicate whether the records being sought can legally be released or whether they are exempt, and provide an estimated date for disclosure if they aren’t exempt.

That deadline passed without any communication from the City Attorney’s Office to The Munro Review.

After inquiries by The Munro Review, the City Attorney’s Office acknowledged that the request got lost in its system. The Office now says it is gathering the information from the Fresno Arts Council, which has a contract with the city to run the grants program.

Recent Measure P stories: AS SELECTION PROCESS FOR MEASURE P GRANTS BEGINS, THE MUNRO REVIEW ASKS FOR OPENNESS
And: WITH AN OCEAN OF TAXPAYER MONEY AVAILABLE, MEASURE P ARTS FUNDING IS SURE TO RAISE COMPETITION AND QUESTIONS
And: GROWING PAINS: IS FRESNO CITY COUNCIL MICROMANAGING MEASURE P ARTS FUNDING?

But whether the city will produce the requested information before the May 20 public meeting was unclear as of Sunday, May 12.

The lack of transparency in a process that involves taxpayers’ money is troubling, said two officials who advocate for First Amendment rights. “Ensuring absolute transparency in the allocation of public funds is imperative, and that includes disclosing the identities of volunteer evaluators, as well as the nonprofit arts organizations and artists who submitted grant applications,” said Jim Boren, executive director of the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State. He also is a faculty member in the university’s Media, Communications and Journalism Department, following a 48-year career at The Fresno Bee, where he retired in 2018 as Executive Editor and Senior Vice President.

Boren continued: “Taxpayers’ confidence hinges on understanding potential biases, such as overrepresentation within evaluator groups. Secrecy breeds suspicion. Transparency gives credibility to the process.”

David Loy, legal director of the California-based First Amendment Coalition, told The Munro Review there is a “compelling public interest” for making public the names of the 43 volunteers and 137 applicants. “The public has a right to know who’s deciding – or at least making strong recommendations about how public funds should be allocated – and also who’s applying.”

The public needs information to determine whether “potential nepotism or cronyism” are at play, Loy said. “That’s why we have a Public Records Act. It’s the people’s right to know and decide for themselves.”

Identifying the 43 volunteer grant evaluators and their professional backgrounds also would allow the public to decide, “Are they qualified to do this job?” Loy said.

He sees no reason why the Cultural Arts Committee of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission refused to release the information, forcing The Munro Review to file a Public Records Act request. “I suppose they could try to argue that privacy rights outweigh the public interest, but I don’t find that persuasive,” Loy said. Attorney Laura Ward and businessman Scott Miller make up the Cultural Arts Committee. They are part of the nine-member Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission, a body established by Measure P, the 30-year sales tax increase approved by Fresno voters in 2018 to raise millions of dollars to boost parks and arts in the city.

Measure P funding for the arts was delayed first by legal challenges to the initiative and then by bureaucratic infighting at City Hall. But finally, a three-month application period opened at the end of 2023 for nonprofit arts organizations and artists to submit their proposals.

During that period, the Fresno Arts Council asked for volunteers with artistic or community involvement to score the grant applications. The volunteers began their work in April using criteria developed by the Fresno Arts Council and included in guidelines approved by the Fresno City Council.

The Munro Review has no paywall but is financially supported by readers who believe in its non-profit mission of bringing professional arts journalism to the central San Joaquin Valley. You can help by signing up for a monthly recurring paid membership or make a one-time donation of as little as $3. All memberships and donations are tax-deductible.

Scoring the applications was scheduled to continue into early May, when the volunteers would make funding recommendations based on the scores. The Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. on May 20 at City Hall to consider those funding recommendations. Whether the Commission will vote up or down on all the funding recommendations in a single vote or conduct separate votes on individual recommendations is not clear. Kimberly McCoy, chair of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission, did not respond to texts on May 2 and May 11 seeking details on how the Commission will vote.

In an April interview, Ward said keeping secret the names of the volunteer evaluators was important so the volunteers could review and score the grant applications “independent of outside influences.” She added: “We’re concerned that applicants might try to influence the selection process.”

Loy said that could happen, but added: “We don’t hide the names of City Council and Planning Commission members. We don’t hide the names of our legislators. That’s politics. That’s democracy. That’s how it’s supposed to work.” There’s a remedy to any lobbying that might occur, Loy said: provide training so the volunteer grant evaluators understand their names will be made public and they are prepared to disregard any outside pressure.

Ward also said withholding the names of all applicants is a best practice of state and national arts organizations that give competitive grants. Loy responded: “The California Public Records Act applies to everybody.” Furthermore, he added, the California Constitution says that the people have a “right to know all information pertaining to the people’s business and the business of government. There is nothing more fundamental to governmental accountability than knowing how the government is making decisions about how to spend public money.”

In a final justification for not releasing information, Ward said The Munro Review had a potential conflict of interest because Donald Munro, publisher of the website, applied for a Measure P grant for the website, including for coverage of Measure P. (The Munro Review disclosed that in an article published in March.) Munro disputed Ward’s contention, stating his only goal is to ensure transparency and accountability in the grants program.

Loy said Munro’s status as a grant applicant is irrelevant. “Every member of the public has an exactly equal right to public records regardless of any interest they have in the underlying dispute or subject matter.”

Doug Hoagland is a freelance writer in Fresno. He spent 40 years working at Valley papers, including 30 years at The Fresno Bee. The first play he saw was a 1968 production of “Show Boat” at McLane High School.