City Council overrides commission recommendation and increases Measure P grant caps to $350,000 for larger, established organizations
By Doug Hoagland
Despite some heated opposition, the Fresno City Council on Thursday approved guidelines for Measure P arts grants that will allow some large, so-called legacy organizations to seek $350,000 in the next round of funding.
Before the vote, opponent Alicia Rodriguez said the Council’s approval would smack of an “elitism” opposed by community members. “People are wanting to throw up in their mouths. We’ve had it. Do the right thing.” Rodriguez, chair and co-founder of The LAByrinth Art Collective, wanted a $150,000 cap on legacy organizations.
Keep track of Measure P: Reporter Doug Hoagland won a 2026 Gruner Award for best news story for staying on top of Measure P. See past coverage in The Munro Review’s comprehensive archive
Elizabeth Laval presented a counterpoint to Council Members. She said grant guidelines that include the $350,000 provision are “the most fair distribution” of Measure P funds. “I’m hoping we give [these] guidelines a chance,” said Laval, president of the Fresno City & County Historical Society.
The City’s parks department will now use hundreds of guidelines in a 35-page document to begin the process of awarding nearly $6.5 million during the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
In approving those guidelines, the City Council brushed aside a recommendation that organizations like the Historical Society, Fresno Philharmonic and Fresno Art Museum could apply for no more than $150,000. The advisory-only Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission recommended the $150,000 cap in May.
Thursday’s vote was 6-1 with Council Member Nick Richardson, who represents northeast Fresno, voting “no.” He told The Munro Review he objected to the City Council ignoring the recommendations of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission – the “subject matter experts” in his words.
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Richardson added: “I think it comes back to the purpose of the money in the first place. If the purpose is to expand access, well access comes with barriers, and if you’re a million dollar or multi-million organization there are markedly fewer barriers to your access than there are to the individual or smaller organization. It seems pretty black and white.”
Access vs. stability
Smaller, so-called grassroots arts organizations contend that expanding access to arts and culture is a major goal of Measure P and therefore deserves equitable funding. Legacy arts organizations say Measure P is designed to provide financial stability to core institutions.
It’s incorrect that legacy organizations will automatically get $350,000 in the next round of Measure P funding, Michele Ellis Pracy, executive director and chief curator of the Fresno Art Museum, told Council Members. In the first place, applicants rarely get the full amount they ask for. Secondly, “We have to compete for it,” Ellis Pracy said. “We love to compete.”
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Ellis Pracy is among those in the arts community who regularly address issues related to Measure P in public forums. On Thursday, several new participants emerged in the public discussion. Crystal Rocha, a poet, painter and mosaic artist, was one of them.
Rocha supported the $150,000 cap and opposed increasing it to $350,000. Giving legacy organizations access to more Measure P money would be unfair to the grassroots arts community doing projects never dreamed of by the legacy group, Rocha said.
Her focus remains on Measure P’s 28 remaining years and the needs of smaller arts organizations. “It’s about making room at the top for organizations that aspire to be at the level” of the Fresno Philharmonic or Art Museum, she said. “If we get that opportunity for people to grow, it would be wonderful.”
Brown Act violation?
After the vote, Rodriguez of The LAByrinth Art Collective said it was “fishy” – and possibly illegal – for the City Council on June 4 to appoint a temporary ad hoc committee comprised of Council Members Miguel Arias, Tyler Maxwell and Brandon Vang. Their assignment: Review the guidelines recommended by the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission.
City Manager Georgeanne White proposed the ad hoc committee and said it would be a way to “see what you all may want to see changed” in the guidelines recommended by the Commission. A week later, the recommended $150,000 had been axed and replaced by the $350,000 cap.
The cap applies to arts organizations with $1 million or more in revenue in fiscal year 2025 that apply for grants to support operations (examples: rent, utilities, staff salaries). Those organizations can now apply for $350,000, or an amount not to exceed 20% of the organization’s annual revenue, whichever is less.
Rodriguez said the last-minute switch from $150,000 to $350,000 was an affront to the work of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission after it spent several months considering public input before making its recommendations. She also said it might be a violation of the Brown Act, the state’s opening meeting law, for the three Council Members to have played a role in increasing the cap. (According to the First Amendment Coalition, which promotes press freedom, the Brown Act applies to standing committees but not ad hoc committees.)
“I’m not a lawyer, but I would look into it,” Rodriguez said.
