Emotions run high on Measure P commission as challenges over equity stall grant distributions

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“We need the Commission to vote to accept the recommendations for funding now,” the Arts Council statement said.

 Meanwhile, Michele Ellis Pracy, executive director and chief curator of the Fresno Art Museum, emailed a similarly urgent appeal to museum supporters about the meeting, stating: “We need to pack the Chamber!” The Fresno Art Museum is recommended to receive $342,264 in Measure P grants, but that money is in limbo along with the rest of the $8.7 million.

Emotions are running high on the Commission. Ward said in a statement that she and Miller have been “kept in the dark” about details as the Commission held a July 1 special meeting to reconsider grant amounts announced on May 20 as well as related issues. Then at the July 1 meeting, the reconsideration was “summarily dismissed” by a majority of Commissioners and the issue pushed to July 15 “without any discussion or consideration of the very human impact” on grantees waiting for Measure P money, Ward said.

She said in her statement: “To all of the arts community members who are counting on this funding and are watching it slide into bureaucratic quicksand, please know that the Cultural Arts Subcommittee is heartbroken with you and remains your steadfast advocate.”

Ward told The Munro Review that giving Measure P grants to the six would reach one applicant (Reading and Beyond) based in southeast City Council District 5. Barraza has pointed to the fact that only two District 5 applicants are recommended for grants, and it is among the sticking points holding up the release of grant money. (Only four organizations based in District 5 applied, Lilia Gonzáles Chávez, executive director of the Fresno Arts Council, said at the July 1 meeting.)

Links to Measure P grant recommendations

• General Operating Support for Established Organizations
• Project Specific Support for Established Organizations
• General Operating Support for Emerging Organizations
• Project Specific Support for Emerging Organizations
• Fresno Arts Council May 20 draft presentation to Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission

Furthermore, Ward said, all six applicants are led by and serve Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Funding them would further the city’s Cultural Arts Plan to uplift and encourage “artists and culture bearers who are underrepresented and have been traditionally underserved,” Ward said in her statement.

Aside from Reading and Beyond, which would receive $40,000 in the proposal from Ward and Miller, the other five applicants and proposed grants are The Dream Again Project ($40,000), Mighty Community Advocacy ($37,600), Hella Fresno ($35,997), Choummaly Keodara ($28,000) and the Iranian Culture and Art Club of Fresno ($8,000). Funding the six would use less than 25% of the approximately $800,000 left in Measure P’s budget for 2024.

Ward said based on her research the six reflect Fresno diversity in the following ways. Reading and Beyond is Hispanic led and was initially formed to reach low-income Spanish-speaking families. The Dream Again Project is led by an African-American man. Mighty Community Advocacy is led by a Guamanian American and includes a LGBTQ+ focus. Hella Fresno is a Hispanic male artist. Keodara is a Laotian American woman who teaches Laotian dance. And, the Iranian Culture and Art Club was formed by Iranian Americans to support and celebrate the Persian community.

It’s unclear whether the proposal from Ward and Miller will satisfy Barraza, who has raised the fairness issue at Commission meetings. Barraza told The Munro Review: “The challenge for us as  Commissioners is what do we do to comply with the intent, requirements and objectives of Measure P.”

Asked when he could see the Commission finishing the current reconsideration process – and releasing the $8.7 million – Barraza said: “I think it could happen sooner than later if we are able to come up with a commitment to have a targeted allocation of funds to those districts in the city that were not adequately funded.”

In the meantime, some arts organizations that had expected money on July 1 are facing difficult decisions. For example, the California Opera Guild – recommended to receive a Measure P grant for $65,120 – has postponed a planned summer production of a new jazz opera written for children themed around Mexican fairytales and folklore, said Diane Nixon, director of education. Other planned productions are scheduled to proceed – some in venues near or in south Fresno – but Measure P money is needed for them, Nixon said. She pointed out that California Opera performances serve residents in all Council districts, adding: “There are many different ways to ensure equity besides the addresses of organizations.”

Giving Measure P grants to the six applicants might break the logjam at the Commission. But it does not address the question whether expanding access to the arts – a promise of Measure P – should or can be measured by counting successful applicants from Fresno’s seven council districts or even certain neighborhoods within those districts.

Recent Measure P coverage:

DOWNTOWN FRESNO PARTNERSHIP AND LAOTIAN DANCE GROUP PUSH BACK AGAINST FRESNO ARTS COUNCIL OVER MEASURE P GRANTS
And: MEASURE P GRANT RECOMMENDATIONS APPROVED BY FRESNO CITY COMMISSION
And: 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?

Ward and Miller propose that the Commission – once it resolves the current controversy –  develop “a targeted process . . . intended to specifically reach and serve the communities of Southeast, Southwest and Central Fresno to help achieve the intended equity outcome.” The Arts Council and the Commission would work with community-based organizations to make arts organizations and artists in southwest, southeast and central Fresno aware of Measure P opportunities and help them become eligible to apply for grants, Ward said.

In a separate interview, Barraza said any successful effort would involve providing more technical assistance to organizations in south Fresno on such issues as how to attain nonprofit status. Organizations must have nonprofit status to apply for Measure P grants. 

But, Ward in her statement raised a possibly complicating factor to those efforts. She said arts and culture organizations are moving their principal place of business from Fresno County into the City of Fresno to become eligible for Measure P funding. “Targeted efforts to support Southeast, Southwest and Central Fresno should take into consideration how best to ensure that it is the traditionally underserved community members who are reached, and not a potential influx of applicants who relocate there for the purpose of increasing their chances of benefitting” from Measure P, Ward said.

How the Commission has arrived at this point – with grants stalled, division on the Commission spilling into public view, Commissioner Christina Soto backtracking about a key vote, and Gonzáles Chávez apologizing to the Commission – follows this timeline. Some events outlined below are characterized by a lack of clear communication by and among city staff and Commissioners as well as silence from key officials about the process of spending millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money.

May 20: After nearly a six-year wait – caused by legal and bureaucratic battles – the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission received recommendations on how to spend up to $9.5 million in Measure P funds. The recommendations on which nonprofit arts organizations and individual artists with eligible fiscal sponsors would receive Measure P arts grants came from the Fresno Arts Council and the cultural arts subcommittee.

Critically, as it turns out, the Arts Council did not provide the Commission with all the information required by its city contract. The contract required the Commission receive and approve a list of recommended grantees, grant amounts, project titles and a brief summary of the project location, scope and schedule, and anticipated impact.

The Commission’s May 20 agenda – accessible on the city’s website – had attachments listing only each grantee, average score from review panels, amount of money requested, amount eligible for and funding recommendation (ranging from 75% to 100% of the requested amount). No other information was part of the agenda. With little discussion, the Commission approved the recommended grantees and grant amounts in four separate votes. Barraza voted no four times, and Commission Chair Kimberly McCoy voted no twice. 

Unsuccessful applicants had 10 days to submit appeals to the Commission.

May 23: The Downtown Fresno Partnership filed an appeal because five of its grant applications were rejected by the Arts Council and never considered for Measure P funding.

May 29: Keodara, who runs the Laotian youth dance group, submitted an appeal. Given Measure P’s intent to prioritize organizations and programs that support and expand diverse or youth engagement, she questioned why she received no funding.

June 13: Ward told The Munro Review the Commission would hear the appeals. The Commission was next scheduled to meet on June 17.

June 14: City staff removed the appeals from the Commission’s June 17 agenda. Ward said she wasn’t notified of the change and had no additional information on that day. The city’s parks department and City Attorney’s Office provide staff to the Commission.

June 17: At the PRAC’s monthly public meeting, Ward asked parks director Aaron Aguirre to provide information on when the appeals would be heard. He said there was a “procedural issue related to the Expanded Arts and Culture grant program” and the City Attorney’s Office “requested us to work on the curing process” before proceeding with the appeals.

Aguirre did not say the “curing process” involved addressing the Arts Council’s failure to provide the Commission with all required information at the May 20 meeting. Ward told The Munro Review that she took Aguirre’s comments as referring to the appeals process – which is what she had asked about – and not the entire grants program, which was not part of her question.

At the end of the June 17 meeting, the Commission approved a reconsideration of the grantees and grant amounts plus reconsideration of the missing information it didn’t consider on May 20 because it wasn’t provided. The Commission set July 1 for that meeting.

June 18: The Munro Review sent a Facebook message to McCoy with questions about the July 1 meeting. There was no reply.

June 20: The Munro Review texted McCoy about the July 1 meeting. There was no reply.

June 20: The Munro Review texted City Spokesperson Sontaya Rose with questions for Aguirre of the parks department about the July 1 meeting. There was no reply.

July 1: Barraza began his remarks at the special meeting by pointing out that Measure P applicants from southeast Fresno’s Council District 5 were recommended to receive only $260,000 of the $8.7 million. He said “another district” – later revealed to be the downtown-southwest Council District 3 – is recommended to receive $3.8 million. “That is not fair,” Barraza said.

Organizations like the Fresno Philharmonic are recommended to receive “major allocations,” he said. “I respect those groups. They do their cultural duty in our community, and they deserve to be part of this. It’s not about ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ It’s about spreading the benefits of this allocation to all parts of the city,” Barraza said. (The Fresno Philharmonic’s office is in northwest Fresno Council District 2, and it holds concerts at downtown’s Saroyan Theatre and at the Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall in northeast Fresno. The Philharmonic is recommended to receive $310,500 in Measure P grants.)

In response to Barraza, Gonzáles Chávez said many of the city’s arts organizations are based downtown and in the cultural arts district – both part of District 3. Those organizations serve the entire city, she added. In the next round of Measure P funding – which is scheduled to begin later this year – the Arts Council will need to do “greater outreach” to arts organizations and artists in southeast Fresno, Gonzáles Chávez said.

In her opening remarks to the Commission on July 1, Gonzáles Chávez offered an apology. “It appears that I did leave out a bit of information that you should have received, and so for that reason we’re here” she said, referring to what was required in the city contract. “But I don’t believe it was significant enough to cause us to totally change the decision that was made on [May 20]. So I urge you to support the original recommendations . . .”

(When contacted on July 12 by The Munro Review, Gonzáles Chávez gave a more nuanced assessment of the missing information. She said: “While we provided most of the information required, there was a different interpretation of how and when project/program timeline and impact was to be submitted.”)

At the July 1 meeting, Commissioner Soto offered a different apology. She said she would have voted “no” instead of “yes” to approve the recommended grantees on May 20 if she’d had the breakdown of grantees by City Council districts. Soto lives in District 3, but, she said, that district has distinct and different areas: downtown and a portion of the Tower District, where some grantees are based, and her part of the council district, which is west of Freeway 99. “It makes me kind of sick to be perfectly honest . . . Ultimately, the people in my community will never see the fruit” of the 2024 Measure P grants, Soto said.

“I just want to express my disappointment and to apologize to my community, in particular, for the way I voted. I should have informed myself better, and I wish I had held off until we had all this information to make a decision.”

Soto joined Barraza, McCoy and a new commissioner, Rose Caglia, in voting to push the reconsideration to the July 15 meeting. Ward, Miller and Vice Chair Jon Dohlin voted against that. Two commissioners were absent.