Analysis: Kimberly McCoy is asking tough questions about Measure P. The Fresno City Council should listen.

By Doug Hoagland

The immediate future of Measure P arts funding comes before the Fresno City Council on Thursday, March 26. If Councilmembers give their OK, they will finalize what the city’s top managers wanted all along: the city’s parks department controlling the $5 million that nonprofit arts organizations and artists compete for annually.

If this is a crossroads – following the implosion of the Fresno Arts Council over an alleged embezzlement – it was only reached after negotiating as many curves as you find on the mountainous highway to Yosemite.

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The saga of Measure P: See past coverage in The Munro Review’s comprehensive archive

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The most recent curve: a new assertiveness from Kimberly McCoy, chair of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission, a nine-member volunteer body that provides oversight to Measure P. McCoy upping her game adds another piece to an already-complicated task.

She apparently doesn’t want to talk about this. Like City Manager Georgeanne White and City Director of Communications Sontaya Rose Schmdit, McCoy doesn’t respond when I reach out for comment about Measure P business.

Speaking of White, McCoy recently duked it out with her verbally over whether the city has responsibility for Measure P checks that bounced because of the alleged embezzlement. Their back-and-forth expanded to other topics and got contentious, with McCoy at one point telling White to stop blaming the Commission and the arts community for the Measure P mess.

Junior jobs

On Thursday, the City Council will get a recommendation to add three new, full-time, permanent positions to the City’s parks department. They’re junior-level jobs, but they’re the final piece that will complete the department’s takeover of the grants program. The Arts Council administered the program until a former employee allegedly embezzled $1.5 million in Measure P funds, prompting the City to basically fire the Arts Council.

McCoy opposed creating the three new positions at the March 16 meeting of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission. She wanted guarantees that the people hired to fill the jobs would have an arts background, and what she heard from City officials didn’t satisfy her.

McCoy said that two of the new positions call for outreach and coordination in the arts community, making an arts background essential. “You have to know where the arts communities are in order for you to do effective outreach,” she said.

Responding, parks Director Aaron Aguirre said he’s certain the hiring process would produce three new employees with both arts knowledge and financial/grants expertise. Shelby MacNab, assistant parks director, said an arts background would be “preferred” for applicants.

McCoy brushed aside Aguirre’s assurances, telling him, “we can go round and round” on the issue. She then voted against recommending the three positions to the Fresno City Council, which has the final say. The vote was 5-2 with two absences. Commissioner Jose Leon Barraza also voted “no.”

A side note but nonetheless interesting: Instead of creating three lower-level positions, Barraza said he likes the idea of Fresno hiring a Director of Cultural Affairs. “There has to be clear accountability as to who’s in charge,” he said. Of California’s eight largest cities, Fresno is the only one without a cultural affairs office, division or officer.

New focus

McCoy’s willingness to speak her mind on the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission is not new. She’s advocated forcefully for park improvements funded by Measure P. What’s new is her focus on the arts funding, which is 12% of Measure P monies.

It’s unclear how her assertiveness could affect the City’s current scramble to finish disbursing 2025-26 grant money or its future work launching the 2026-27 grants program in partnership with the Commission. Whether the parks department will administer the grants beyond 2026-27 – or whether the City will seek out another nonprofit arts agency to take it over – is unclear.

Give McCoy credit. At least she’s asked publicly what happens after 2026-27. City officials respond that they’re focused on straightening out the current chaos. McCoy is asking questions that put city officials on the record when they answer, and even their non-answers tell the public something.

I’m not the only one who’s taken note of McCoy’s new posture on arts funding. Predictably, not everyone sees her assertiveness the same way.

McCoy appears OK with “rocking the boat” and asking hard questions of City officials, said Erin Burd, executive director of Arts Enrichment For All. “I believe she is invested in the arts and culture community, and now she’s speaking up because she does see and hear us, and she wants to make sure, moving forward, that our voices are represented.”

But an arts administrator, who asked not to be identified so as to speak candidly, said: “I like Kim, and I believe she has the best intentions. She may be making a lot of noise, but I don’t think she knows anything more than the other Commissioners. I’m very skeptical about the level of information they’re getting or seeking out prior to their meetings.”

A key role

McCoy has stepped out in other ways that might not be as attention-grabbing, but they seem consistent with her new approach.

She appointed herself to the Commission’s Cultural Arts Subcommittee along with Commissioners Laura Ward and Vincent Trillo. The subcommittee plays a key role in crafting guidelines that establish how much money grant applicants in different categories can apply for. “Kim will make sure she’s well versed in the details,” said the arts administrator who asked not be named. The Subcommittee’s meetings will now be open to the public, which critics demanded to ensure accountability in the grants program.

She has pushed city staff for better communication, stating on March 16 that Commissioners had to wait about two weeks in February to receive information after the embezzlement became news. “We didn’t hear anything,” she said, calling the delay “very unacceptable.” The arts administrator said that McCoy and other Commissioners should seek out what they want to know. “It’s all well and good to say the Commission should get information but why wait to be spoon fed it by city staff,” the administrator said.

Perhaps the most striking example of McCoy’s assertiveness came when she tangled with City Manager White at February’s Commission meeting. It was the first meeting since the embezzlement had become public, and both McCoy and White appeared on edge.

McCoy began by wanting to know whether city officials had discussed financially covering bounced check fees and other charges incurred by 2025-26 grant recipients because of the alleged embezzlement.

“The answer to that is ‘no,’ ” White said.

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McCoy then asked if it had been considered. “No,” White again replied, adding: “I’m not quite sure where that money would come from. If we’re able to recover any [embezzled] money and we start paying out damages, then that means there’s not enough money to pay grants. I’m not quite sure what the expectation is.”

McCoy explained her expectation with an analogy: An employee’s checks start bouncing – and their bank begins charging fees – because an employer made a mistake by not direct depositing a paycheck.

White: “So, I would understand that if I was the one who did it. The City didn’t do this. The Fresno Arts Council did this.”

Appearing to allude to the City having financial responsibility for Measure P, McCoy asked with a quizzical tone: “You don’t think any responsibility falls on the City to repay those financial [damages]?”

“From where?” White asked. Should the money come from the police, fire or parks departments, she wanted to know.

McCoy said “yeah” because “you want to make good because this is, for a lack of words, a B.S. show right now.”

White rejected taking money from other departments.

She and McCoy then sparred over whether there were financial safeguards in the City’s now-terminated agreement with the Arts Council to run the grants program. McCoy said there were no safeguards; White said there were. McCoy said if safeguards existed, they weren’t followed; White said they were followed.

To applause from the audience, McCoy countered that if White was correct “we wouldn’t be having this conversation, if [safeguards] were followed, because $1.5 million is missing.”

More dissension followed. White spoke about the now-terminated agreement and role of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission in the grants process. McCoy, her voice raised, said: “Don’t try to put the blame on this Commission for doing its job.”

White then recalled how the City in 2023 wanted to administer the arts grants by giving that responsibility to the parks department. But, she said, the arts community rose up in favor of the Arts Council getting the job.

“Now it sounds like you’re putting blame on the arts community for sticking with the Arts Council,” McCoy said.

Who’s right?

Having watched that exchange, the arts administrator told me that McCoy was right to push back when White seemed to blame the arts community for rallying in favor of the Arts Council in 2023.

In the first place, the administrator said, the Measure P initiative spelled out a role for the Arts Council. The initiative reads that the grants program “shall be implemented by the Commission in partnership with the Fresno Arts Council, or its successor local arts agency.”

Secondly, the administrator said, it’s never a good look for a top official, like White, to come to a volunteer group, like the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission, and start tossing around blame. “This is not a way to foster collaboration and resolution of a problem,” the administrator said.