Parks, Recreation, and Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Right now? Okay. Well, just want to point out that the work of the five year evaluation committee, it's underway. Commissioners Dolan and Duran are part of that process and we've already had three meetings and have requested data from the Department of Parks and Recreation. We've gotten the information and so we're gonna be working very hard in looking at the overall performance of the program, how we comply with the requirements of measure P, and all of the other components.

And as we prepare our work, we did separate the components that pertain to parks versus the culture arts component. But we have a lot of evaluation assessment to complete and we are looking forward to come back to this commission with a report and a draft report and recommendations. Thank you Madam Chair.

Thank you. Commissioner Duran? No update for me at this time. Thank you. Commissioner Miller?

Nothing from me. Thanks.

Thank you. Vice Chair Ward?

Thank you, Chair McCoy. I'd like to acknowledge the emotional and psychological toll felt heavily by the city's art and culture community over the past two weeks from the embezzlement of the Measure P Arts and Culture Program funds at the Fresno Arts Council. The far reaching impacts of the criminally selfish action taken by one individual are not yet known. It appears this betrayal was committed by a member of our own community who likely didn't realize that the sum of $1,500,000 indicates severe enhancements for wire fraud charges under the federal sentencing guidelines. I know from personal experience that federal wire fraud cases are not resolved swiftly and require significant patience.

However, federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice have a ninety five percent success rate in prosecuting these crimes, because they're meticulous in recreating the timeline of when money was moved where it went, and who was unjustly enriched by the crime. In this time of confusion and chaos, it's great the city is prioritizing the year two EAC grant program recipients that will be made financially whole. And I look forward to the workshop presentation coming up on the agenda tonight, where hopefully we can get additional information about what's known and next steps. What's needed now is clarity and improved communication. With that, we'll hopefully be able to continue to move the program forward in a positive direction for year three.

Each dollar that the art and culture organizations receive from the EAAC grant program for both operational and project grants is critical to the recipients. A concern I want to put on the record is about trying to stay on track for year three, whether the grant guidelines can be timely revised, or if the year two guidelines must be carried forward into year three for an RFP that opens before the summer and avoid further delay. I've been asking for a PRAC to appoint the Cultural Arts Subcommittee since December. In December, many community members spent time and energy contributing their thoughts about improving the grant process. With no Pratt Cultural Arts Subcommittee, there's no mechanism to propose updated grant guidelines for approval by the commission, and then recommendation to the city council.

We've received a lot of feedback from the community about areas of concern and opportunities for improving the program. Many can be addressed with technical and process updates outside of the grant guidelines. However, if the Cultural Arts Subcommittee is not appointed until our next meeting on March 16, then proposed guideline revisions would come to PAC on April 20 at the earliest, then go to City Council in May. RFPs for year three would open after the council adopts new guidelines. I hope community members provide feedback to the park and city council on how this specific issue should be addressed. Thank you.

Commissioner Collier?

First I would like to thank the parks Recreation Department for stepping up to

the plate and helping us take care

of this problem. I had a friend who just came tonight and sent a letter to the Parks Commission I mean, the Parks Department. They got money and then their check bounced. And their all the things they set up to do to do their project, they've had to cancel, And they've had to change their venue. And they're lucky that they didn't print all their posters yet. I understand that dilemma is facing a lot of you. And that's the thing that we're going to work on and zero in on. And I don't mind saying I seek God's wisdom as we move forward.

Commissioner Kercharski? Thank you. Commissioner Dolan?

No comments at this time.

Thank you. We will now move on to city administration and park staff reports and comments. Does anyone from the administration have any reports or comments for the commission?

Don't have a report this evening. However, I'd like to note that city manager Georgianne White is here to give an update on the expanded access to arts. I'm not sure if we wanna go now, Angela, if we can hear that item or if we had one more item?

Is this related to the workshop or

to Yes, the this is the workshop.

I will defer to the chair if she wants to. We can skip over if you want to do the workshop, and then go back to the administrative comments.

No, I'll prefer to keep it in order.

Okay, that's the only comment I had this evening.

Okay. Thank you. Park staff?

Thanks. Chair McCoy. Had no comments at this time. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now move on to unscheduled communication. Would any member of the public like to speak on any issue within the jurisdiction of this commission? You will have up to three minutes. If you would like to make a comment regarding any of the scheduled hearings, comments will be taken when each item is heard. Any comments related to the expanded access to arts and culture will be held until the appropriate hearing item. All these cards are for the EAC on the agenda? Okay. So then we'll go ahead and move on to workshops. ID number 26Dash254, workshops, update on expanding access to arts and cultural grant program.

At this time, I'm gonna ask the commission to hold any questions related to the EE, EAAC grant program until we get to hearing items. Will someone from the Parks Department please begin the presentation?

Good evening, Chair McCoy, commissioners. I'm Georgia Ann White, city manager for the City of Fresno. Before the staff gets started on the presentation, I just wanted to come in and say a few words. I know each of you did receive a memo from the staff last week going over a little bit as to what has transpired. So first of all, as you know, we were all caught a little off guard as to what has happened.

So in trying to get our arms around information that we are being provided, we did neglect to immediately send an email out to all of you. And so our apologies for that. But we were just doing our best when presented with some pretty earth shattering information, and being inundated with media inquiries, and trying to find a way to communicate. And also, we Council Member Arias and I, did attend a meeting that was held by one of the grant recipients or fiscal sponsors. And I just want to clarify That meeting, we happen Councilmember Arias, Mayer, and I happened to be in city hall meeting on a completely separate issue.

And Councilmember Arias informed us, oh, there's a meeting tonight with members of the arts community that's being held. And I was like, oh, well when is that? Oh, it's at 05:30. And we looked at the clock, and it was literally 05:25. And I said, are you going? He goes, well, I wasn't invited. And were you invited? I said, no, we weren't invited. And so we looked at each other, and we said, we should go. So we literally got in the car, and flew down to the Tower District or up, I should say, to the Tower District.

And showed up at the meeting, introduced ourselves to the host of the meeting, and offered ourselves to be available to answer questions that we could answer at that point in time. So it wasn't a meeting that we held. It was a meeting, I would say, that we crashed. And people were very gracious to allow us the opportunity to speak. Information, of course, was very shocking to people in the arts community.

And, you know, I think there was a lot of angst and anxiety in the room about what is going to happen. And we did our best to respond to questions with very limited information available. But once again, it was a last minute, literally at the moment, the meeting that we found out about. We just, we showed up. So, we do, staff is here to, present a little bit of the timeline as to what information that we do have.

And we will answer questions to the best of our ability. And we are also going to be putting something out on our website tonight. And we do have a dedicated email and phone number available for people interested in information. But we are going to put information out which will be, frankly, very duplicative of what's provided to you tonight, and probably duplicative of what has been reported in the media. But we know that the media doesn't always get it right.

And so we thought it was important that we get something out on the web page that is produced by the city. So those folks that are interested can get information firsthand from us. Once again, we still don't have all the answers. But we will go ahead and put something out probably first thing in the morning. I don't think we'll have time to do it tonight.

But it will be very duplicative of the information that's being presented to you all tonight. And we will do our best, if anything new comes up new and unexpected comes up to do our best to make sure that we get notification out to you all as commissioners prior to the information getting too far out there. So I'm going to turn it over to the staff, to Shelby McNabb from the Parks Department, who is going to do the presentation. I'm going to stay for as long as I can in case any questions come up that the staff's not able to answer. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening.

Thank you.

All right. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Shelby McNabb. I'm assistant director in the Parks Department. Tonight, I'll be presenting an update on the Expanded Access to Arts and Culture grant program.

Technical

difficulties. Alright, so this update will go over a timeline of the information that we know so far. So I'll be going over each slide in detail to brief you all on the information that is available. So on February 5, the city of Fresno was informed by the Fresno Arts Council board member that an employee had embezzled approximately 1,500,000.0 in Measure P funds. The individual responsible is no longer employed by the Arts Council.

On February 6, the city of Fresno met with the Fresno Arts Council and provided and was provided a spreadsheet indicating paid and unpaid grantees. As of 02/1326, the spreadsheet is available on our website. You can access that with the link provided there. On February 6, the Fresno Police Department initiated a criminal investigation into the matter. And on that date as well, the city of Fresno terminated its contract with the Fresno Arts Council effective February 20 and requested return of all documents and funding.

The city will conduct a forensic financial review of the organization. The city will pursue all available legal avenues, including litigation, to recover taxpayer funds. On February 6, the Fresno Arts Council also released a statement. On February 9, the city of Fresno began reconciliation between the Fresno Arts Council's list of paid and unpaid grantees provided on February 6 with the list that the Fresno Arts Council presented to PRAC on 10/13/2025. So we began to reconcile what was reported versus what all came before you you all late last year.

On February 10, the City of Fresno established a dedicated phone number and email for organizations to provide their agreement and any other relevant documentation. We've listed that number as well as the email address for your convenience. We are reviewing everything that comes in and collecting all the information that's been provided. On February 20, that was the deadline for Fresno Arts Council to return to the city any and all unearned payments, funds, and any city owned property records, documents, and materials in Fresno Arts Council's possession or control that relate in any way to the agreement or the expanded access to arts and culture grant program. So that was this last Friday.

And on February 23, which is today, we are bringing an AAR, which is an amendment resolution to you all as a step to appropriate funding for cultural arts into the park's budget. We'll have a presentation on that in a moment with the next workshop. This is a critical item to ensure any funding that is recovered can be appropriated within the city's budget. Right now, on an ongoing basis, what we are doing is continuing to reconcile financial and contractual items for the cycle two grantees. As you can imagine, there are many contracts and documents that have been received.

We are working with the city attorney's office and risk to determine next steps for contracting with grantees. And moving forward, applications for the third cycle of measure p funding will be administered and implemented by the city of Fresno, of course, in partnership with the commission. We are pledging to bring ongoing updates to you all during monthly PRAC meetings in addition to what city manager mentioned about posting. PRAC meetings are held consistently on the third Monday of the month, and for everyone's convenience, we've listed those dates. You are able to attend in person or online, so either option is available to the community to ensure that they receive the updates.

So, I'm gonna open it up to questions. I'll do my best to answer with the information that's available. Otherwise, I think city manager, pull pull my sleeve if you wanna come. But any questions at this time?

Thank you, Shelby, for that, presentation. I do have a couple of questions before I pass it on to the other commissioners. Many grantees have not received partial or full funding?

We are still in the process of reconciling that information with the information that Fresno Arts Council provided.

And what is the timeline to get the last cycle of grants played out fully to all grantees?

Okay, I'm not used to being on this side. Okay. One thing I'll say with regard to the number of grantees who have and haven't been paid. Without doing the reconciliation, we just received information last Friday. We don't know if it's complete.

We hope it's complete. Everything we have is information that has been provided to us by the Arts Council. I can't validate for its accuracy. I can I'm happy to tell you what we were told at the time, which was at that time there were 33 that had not received their first 90% payment. And there were 98 is that right?

I don't have my sheet in front of me. What was the one that did receive their 90%?

Let me hang on.

Believe it was 98, but he'll double check me that had received 90%. So but then all of them, none of them have received the 10%. But, once again, we haven't independently verified that information. We received documentation from the Arts Council on Friday, and we need to verify that. So everything, all of the information that we have is information that they have provided to us. So I would say it's secondhand. I hope it's accurate. Did I have the 98 right?

You were close, 96.

Oh, 96. I was close. 96. Since that spreadsheet was provided to us, For instance, we got a letter today by one of the grantees who said that their check bounced. And I think it may have been your friend, Ms. Caglia, who said, hey, the check bounced. It was for an event that was supposed to happen in April. We don't have enough time. And so we're going to we want to cancel our grant agreement. We don't want our money anymore because we don't have time.

That doesn't include any of that. So all the information we have is what was provided. As far as the timeline, that's our first priority right now is cycle two. So is reconciling. We got the information on Friday.

We are very actively reviewing it, going through, and figuring out who is owed what. We have to overcome some hurdles on the contracting. Because the contracts were between the Arts Council and the grantee. And now the city is going to need to be the entity that is going to have to pick up and write checks. And so we have some hurdles that we're working with our attorneys and risk management on to figure out the easiest and best way to move forward with getting the cycle two people paid.

At the same time, we are starting to think about cycle three. But in the grand scheme of things, cycle two is the higher priority to us right now. We have received communications from people who are very eager for cycle three to, get moving. And I appreciate that. But, the same hurdles that we're going to need to get through as far as contracting, insurance, those are going to be present for this we're going to have to figure that out for cycle three as well.

So I'd rather just figure it out for cycle two, and then hopefully have the same process moving forward for cycle three. So timeline I'm not going to give you a timeline that we can't I think it would be artificial if we just told you what the timeline is. All I can tell you is it is a very high priority that the staff is working on every day to reconcile. And as soon as we have an update on an actual timeline, we will make sure and communicate that to you and to the public.

Okay. Question. Of the 96 grantees who have received 90% of their funding, were they returning grantees from cycle one? Or was it a mix?

Don't know.

Okay. And moving forward with cycle three, we're going to have to be very flexible with the timeline due to the circumstances that took place for cycle two. So I know that everyone's eager for cycle three to start, but we have to figure out cycle two, and we have to be very flexible with the next timeline that's coming out for cycle three in order for everyone to be able to have their documents ready and have their I's dotted and their T's crossed. And third quest well, final question is

Chair McCoy, really quick, because I'll forget.

Okay.

One thing I want to make sure and we heard this from the arts community. And we feel very strongly about this. So grantees who received their money late, but have a grant agreement that says they have to be complete by June 30, we're going to find a way to be flexible on that. I can tell you, this is not a final decision. But at least we're very interested in giving a grantee a full year to perform from the date they received money.

So we're interested in that. Once again, no final decision. But if in previous cycles they were given a year to perform under a grant program, and that was the intent of the program, of getting a grant and having a timeline be where you have a year to be able to complete your program and spend your funding, we're interested in being flexible on that. I don't think we have any intent if somebody just received funding '5 to hold them to a June 30 deadline. That's one of the other contracting issues that we're really trying to think about and work our way through.

So I just want to make sure that that's clear. Because I know there's a lot of anxiety out there from grantees of, oh my gosh, I'm supposed to you know, I just got my money in November. And I'm supposed to be done by June 30. We will have information out, I hope, in the short time frame that will formally notify people that they're not going be held to that June 30 deadline. But I can tell you that certainly the intent of the mayor, of our council, that's our position.

Think it's only a matter of fairness, and I would hope that this commission would see that as well, that grantees should not be treated unfairly or held to a very unfair standard. So, just wanted to respond to that before I forget, because I'm getting old, and I'll forget if you've got too far down the path.

No problem. I think that extended timeline needs to be done for all grantees in cycle two due to the unfolding of the 1.5 in Bells and Mill fallout from the Fresno Arts Council. I think that's only fair. My last comment on this matter is I understand that the city has now housed it underneath the Parks Department to be able to administer the rest of the grant funding. Moving forward, this might be a little premature, but I'm gonna ask anyway, has there been any discussion of having another arts agency to oversee it to replace the Fresno Arts Council that's here locally?

Or has there been talks of having someone out of state or from the state of California?

So I can tell you what the administration's position is. And I believe that the council supports this as well. For cycle three, we're keeping it in house. To let the reins go of having another organization that has never been through this process, have never administered large amounts of taxpayer dollars. For me, and for us, don't think that's a good idea, and nor do we support it.

I can't speak to future councils future cycles. But for cycle three, which is just around the corner, we intend to implement and administer that funding once again in collaboration with this commission. But the function is very heavily administrative. Where there is a role for any and I think I'm quoted in this in media outlets, and I completely stand by this that we don't profess, the Parks Department, the administration profess to have any experience in judging artistic merit. So when it comes to, ultimately in cycle three, if there's a process to where there is a role for any sort of judgment on artistic merit not quite sure what the guidelines are going to be we would definitely need to engage people who have expertise in that area.

And that is not anybody in the city of Fresno. So that sort of answers your question in that I think that there is anything when it comes to scoring, anything that might involve judging artistic merit, we would be very interested in having somebody from outside the city be involved in that. Personally, I think we should look at to include also outside of the community. Whenever we have competitive processes in the city of Fresno and we're judging qualifications of something, we always include somebody from outside of the area who's in the same business to help judge proposals. Because it gives us a little bit of a different perspective.

And I think it always adds value. And then it also helps eliminate any accusations of conflict of interest. So if you just have folks from the local community who are all applicants and may be in a different pot of money, I think we heard a lot about a lack of transparency in the last process. And we really want to make sure that there is a high degree of transparency. And then I think what includes transparency is any avoidance of appearance of conflict of interest.

So that's where we are right now. Once again, no final decisions. I'm just sharing thoughts and discussions that we've been having. I hope that helps.

Yeah. I think another thought is to make sure that the panel understands what cultural means to each ethnicity group that is applying. I think that's something that we heard loud and clear in this chamber from many of people that are here tonight and others on Zoom, that that was an important part, that people just didn't understand what culture meant to them with some of the applicants. So making sure that that's a requirement, not so much as either you understand what culture is or you know how to read a financial statement or a financial sheet. It needs to be both in order for it to be a fair process.

And also consider of having those meetings open to the public. That's something that this commission has fought for. We heard it. We wanted that loud and clear. Some misconceptions have been said that we passed on having those meetings open. That's not true. We just felt it didn't serve the community of artists well enough to have it just on our meeting every third Monday of the month. We felt that those meetings need to be open to the public, and we know that they're going to meet more than once a month. So that's the reason why we're still fighting for those meetings to be made open to the public. And thank you for your time. And I'm going to go ahead and pass it to my vice chair, and then we'll go this way and come back this way.

And let me know if your question is for me or for Shelby.

Okay, great. I was wondering, so I guess if we're looking for this is going to be administered under the city parks department, have you already started to identify? Is there going to be a point person, or a few people who are in charge of and responsible for this process?

So right now, no. At the very moment, no. But we certainly will make sure that there is. We're definitely going to need to add a little bit of human resources into the process, just from a paperwork perspective. And I think, once again, right now, I know Shelby has been sort of leading the team of course, Erin leading the team on the 'twenty two cycle and the reconciliation.

So that's what we're focused on right now. But we absolutely will definitely have a contact person to make sure that everybody is very clear on who is going to be leading that effort moving forward. So I think, as Shelby mentioned, for right now, for cycle two, any questions or anything like that can go to the email address. And we are making sure that that email address is getting manned. And the right person who can answer that particular question, if we're able to answer at this point in time, we'll make sure that the right people are answering.

A lot of it has been collecting information. When we attended the meeting I think it's been two weeks now. Gosh, time flies. Two weeks ago, we had encouraged people who had fully executed grant agreements to go ahead and send them to us, because we weren't sure how long it was going to take the Arts Council to send us their agreements. And so I was hopeful that all of the people who had not yet received funding like if they had an agreement, would get it to us right away so we could start working.

And as of last week, we only had had 22 people who had sent us in their agreement. So between those 22 and the documents that we got from the Arts Council, you know, we're going to once again, we'll focus on that. Shelby's been doing the reconciliation, the lead on that. But the phone number, and the messages, and the email addresses, we'll do our best. But I can tell you right now, we're not prepared to answer cycle three questions other than, you know, thank you for your feedback. I appreciate your input. We're not yet there. We're focused on cycle two. And we'll let you know as soon as we're ready to go on cycle three. That's been, I think I received two personally, and that's been my response.

Just I know it's vague, but that's all I really have right now.

Yeah, I mean there's a lot of different things that I think need to be addressed before year three can even be like meaningfully discussed and opened. I've heard things like the reporting, you know, the reporting requirements don't apply well to organizations that receive the operating grants as compared to the project grants. A lot of the questions seem oriented towards arts, not culture, and why there needs to be revisions to language in the questions that are being asked, as well as this thing I was bringing up about the guidelines revision, is it's a very community informed process. And as Chair McCoy was saying, I think there's been some misconception put out, unfortunately, around what our commission was hoping to achieve by having it as an ad hoc subcommittee that voluntarily adhered to and complied with all of the requirements of the Brown Act. But when that subcommittee exists and works, it works really hard in some very intense bursts.

But it needs to meet with people and find out, you know, what are all these areas of concerns, and what can we address, and what are things that we can't address, you know, right now, and those sorts of things. And I'm just hopeful that when you guys are organized to identify who is that point person, that they can start working with the commission to having kind of these, you know, meaningful discussions with the arts and culture community? Because there's a lot of things we've been asked to change, and fix, and address. And we have had no ability to do any of that since October.

So I think, you know, I kind of look at it as a community outreach process that we do when we're building a new park, or making revisions. And I think that the Parks Department does a pretty decent job at going out into the community at kind of the places where the community is for that particular topic to gain community input. And there definitely are productive ways to have that type of dialogue with the community. So I wouldn't think it would be a whole lot different than that, in that that's what we do. That's especially given the amount of Measure P dollars, and how much work, you know, we've been able to do as far as new amenities and parks, and brand new parks.

And all of those have been informed by community input. And that has been by going out into the community, and not just sitting in the room here at city hall and asking people to send us their suggestions. So I think that, we have a pretty good, idea. And so we could sort of follow a similar process. It's a little bit different.

But as far as, you know, gaining community input from the right stakeholders, it just is determining who are the right stakeholders and sort of going out into that stakeholder community. And I think this commission can certainly be helpful in helping to make sure that we aren't missing any of those boxes as far as, you know, who are the art stakeholders? Who are the culture stakeholders? All those different things that you have heard feedback that, you know, that itch hasn't gotten scratched. And so I think you guys could play a really valuable role in helping us make sure that we're not missing anything.

I'll tell you, right, nothing's ever perfect. Nobody's ever perfect. Are we going to ever make 100% of the people happy? No. That's just human nature.

But our goal is always to like shoot above 100. And if we come in a little bit below, I mean, is a success. So I feel kind of as evidenced by when we're moving forward on a new project, and we're getting ready to award a contract, and we're going to construction, you rarely hear people coming in saying, hey, we didn't want any of that. We wanted this instead. Maybe a little bit of disagreement because we didn't have enough money to do every single amenity.

But for the most part, I think people have felt like there's been a pretty decent process. So I think that you all have a really important role to make sure that information is getting passed on. So please start taking notes as to what you're hearing, as to what needs to happen, how the guidelines maybe need to better define the difference between arts and culture, whatever's important. I can't remember the phrase. There was a phrase I heard and I can't remember it off the top of the head.

I don't know if you guys remember it related to culture. And it was one of the criticisms I heard. And it was something informed culture I don't remember. I'm going to misstate it, so I don't want to do that. But to me, was like, yeah, Okay, that makes perfect sense.

To make sure that what culture means just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Physical art projects may mean something to different people, right? Culture may mean different things to different people. But certainly you want to make sure that the people who are proposing cultural activities, that we're listening to like how they define culture, right? And not what may be a preconceived notion.

So I think as we go into the grant guidelines for cycle three, we really need to dig into that. And make sure that we're really clear on sort of the definitions being different for arts and culture. And I think you bring up a good point. I wasn't aware. But it does make perfect sense because it sort of aligns with some other things as far as the reporting for operational is different than reporting for a program, which is different than reporting for a construction project, which is different than reporting for a cultural celebration.

All different sort of metrics of how you would report on those. And if it was a one size fits all, I can't speak to that because I haven't seen that material yet. But that would make perfect sense that the reporting would need to be specific to that type of a grant award.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that this program has continued to not reach lots of different parts of the city of Fresno, and residents in different areas. And we see it then in the applications that are received. And so last year, I had brought up with a member, I think the city has the Office of Community Affairs, has at least five different individuals who are kind of liaisons to different parts of the community. And I had talked to one of them about, you know, is this something where maybe some of the commissioners as volunteers can help work with you to reach your community, to help share the information about this opportunity and what's required to be eligible. And at that time, I was I think it was indicated it was maybe like too political, because public art is always political.

And it wasn't something they particularly wanted to engage with.

I But No, we did actually put that out.

I talked with one of your representatives again recently. He was like, you guys just need to come do it. Last year, we wanted to see the Arts Council to take a stronger role in going out and reaching underserved parts of the community and individuals who we're not seeing applications from. And the way they worked their workshops, I think, were through, once they received letters of intent, then disseminating information more focused on that, other than a public meeting here at City Hall. But I think it would be really important and helpful this year to try to, if we could, with city support, work with those liaisons and try to make sure we are getting more information out into the underserved parts of the community about what the opportunity is, and hopefully getting more applications turned in.

Yeah, I think last year we did put the applications like, hey, call for projects. I think they did put that out on their social media channels. I don't know that I'm sure they didn't. We are very we don't always it depends on what it is as far as they're city employees. So making sure that it's very clear that what they're out there promoting is certainly within the level of appropriateness of a city employee.

I can tell you, once again, you know, I would tell you, it was a little bit different. You know, we had offered many suggestions about grant guidelines, contracts, everything. And all of our suggestions were rejected for the most part. And so it's very difficult for things that we were encouraging things to be included that would make it better. And then say, yeah, no, we're not going to do that.

And then, you know, a couple months later say, hey, would you go out and use your staff time to go promote this? That was a little bit difficult for us. Moving forward, I think we have the opportunity that we're all very, very comfortable moving forward with whatever the guidelines are, whatever the grant process is. And whenever it is a process that we are driving and intimately involved in, we kind of pull out all the stops. You know, we'll actually put it out to council members, too, who are very, very active in their neighborhoods going door to door, and see if they're willing as they're going out and handing out different information in their districts, if they'll help us, and anything as our community liaisons, or different events, and different community events where they may have a tent, or whatever, to have the information available, and that they're educated to be able to talk about it.

So I think that's something that could definitely be improved upon for cycle three.

Thank you.

Hi. I just wanted to know, do you know how many grants were their checks bounced?

I do not know. No, I don't know for sure. I know I've been told Okay, I know the one because I read a letter today that was directly from the person. And then I believe I heard secondhand that there were a handful. I can't put a number on it because once again, we don't have the data firsthand. I'm really hesitant to put too much details on things that we haven't validated. So I have not seen them. Our staff has not yet seen them. But we've heard it's a handful.

That one group I told you that turned their money well, they didn't turn their money in. They turned in a letter to the city of It's going to go to Mr. Egari basically saying, we don't want the money. We're you know, cancel our contract. And I wonder how many more we're going to have of that.

Right. I don't know. Like I said, this letter is dated February 20. I just got a copy of it today. So only because I know firsthand, because it's here, I know what they said. But I haven't I haven't personally heard from any other grantees whose checks have bounced. Me, personally, this is the one I've seen. But as we reconcile the documents and we're able to reconcile financial information and bank statements, that will obviously be the best source. But we haven't had a chance to do that, nor do we know that we have all of that information yet.

Thank you for coming and being here. This has definitely been disappointing and shocking to hear about from the Arts Council, except for maybe for some of the artists that came here and tried to warn us about some things that weren't maybe up to speed. So thank you. I don't think they're surprised. I've been shocked. But I did want to say thank you to the city of Fresno for stepping in as quickly as you did. Sitting on the Pratt Commission going like, oh, no, what do we have to do? Seeing that the next day, you canceled the contract. You're doing an investigation. This is my first time in the official context hearing anything, and I'm picking up stuff.

I was just happy to see that you and others from the city were out there taking responsibility. Because that, for me, is kind of like, well, who's going to pick this up? This could be quite the mess to pick up.

It is a mess.

Yeah. So thank you. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for taking swift action. That brings some reassurance for me to say, Okay, this isn't just like being swept aside. You're actively engaging in it. So my question really is around clarification. Does the city intend to take on all the roles and responsibilities that the Fresno Arts Council had in this measure P funding from round one and round two? Because I imagine there's stuff from round one, like with checking in with grantees, and finding out if they finished their projects, and all this. There's like a lot there. Does the city intend for round one and round two to take on all those responsibilities at this point?

So what I'll tell you is cycle one financial information, that is part of the reconciliation that we have to do. And unfortunately, the way that the contract the timing of the contract, the way the contract got executed, and the grant period, you would think that we would have already been able to evaluate cycle one. We couldn't. Because by the time our time to release the cycle two money, right? The cycle two money, we hadn't yet we didn't have cycle one money.

So we couldn't hold up the cycle two money like we did for cycle three, right? So I think everybody knows we would not release the cycle three money going all the way back to October, when we had the request. Okay, we're ready for cycle three. And we said, no. Until we get all of the information in. And that information was cycle one and cycle two. So I think the mayor said, are we sure that everybody on cycle one got their grants? And I said, no. But if they didn't, I think we would have heard about it as far as people not being paid their cycle one grants. We still have to do that reconciliation.

So we still have to go back and reconcile cycle one. Make sure that everybody who was owed money got paid money, didn't get paid any more money, and did what they were supposed to do. That's part of our work that we are going to have to do in addition to the cycle two.

So are you saying we know what step we're on right now, we're not sure the extent of the responsibilities we'll take on? Or are you saying yes, we're going

to Well, take on financially, our responsibilities so under the I'd have to go back. All I know, all we know about what the Arts Council did, 100% what we're sure about is what we contracted them to do, which was the administration of the funding and the administration of the grant program. Okay? That's what we contracted them to do. But I know they did more than that.

Right? They did the call for projects. They did there were a lot of things that they were involved in detail oriented that we weren't a part of. So that is something for cycle three. We're going to do it all. I'm not we're going to have other people involved, but we intend to do it all. We intend to figure out and work to see what the guidelines should be. We intend to do the call for projects. We intend to figure out how to evaluate submissions. We intend to process the paperwork and the payments and the agreement.

So for cycle three, and we intend to do it all, what all is once we get all the documents and we go through because they were required to give us everything. We'll be able to go back and look. We'll look at what the call for projects look like, hopefully what their evaluation sheets look like. We plan to do it all for cycle three.

Thank you.

City manager, thank you very much for coming up here and talking to us tonight, and talking to the public. I'm sure I speak on behalf of the entire commission when I say it's great that you're doing that. And it's greatly appreciated. Just a question, though. The $1,500,000 number sounds like it's being put forth with utter certainty. And at the same time, we're saying that we haven't fully reconciled what the Fresno Arts Commission and the city have in terms of differing records. How are we so sure about the 1.5 if we're still not done?

We're not. Okay. We've said that's what was reported to us. Okay. So I don't vouch for the accuracy of that number. That was the number that was reported to us.

Okay. Just want to clarify that we're not and part of that, I guess, would be that $1,500,000 if we use that number, represents a percentage of the overall amount that was granted over the course of the cycle. And is that matching up with what you're finding in terms of the number of grants that haven't been distributed and the amounts still withheld for the 10%?

That's what we're working on.

Okay. So we're still working to

match that? Yeah, record. Like, we just got documents on Friday.

Okay.

So that was the deadline. There were a number of documents provided to us, I think electronically, and in boxes. And so we're going through those.

Yeah.

I know that you mentioned in your opening remarks about extending the deadlines for grant completion. Do you have any idea about what that extension deadline will be? Any idea of how much time?

So I would say, at a minimum, this is, once again, we operate under information that we believe to be true.

Sure.

If the intent of a program is to have a year to implement your program, then people should get a full year at a minimum. And if and so, if they were shortchanged because they got a check so late, we would definitely extend it. I think so that's what I would say. If for some reason and I don't know this yet if the way that the program was structured was that, you know, they just had to end by June 30, but you were never in there was never the intent to give you a full year like whatever the intent of the program and what was communicated as to how much time somebody would have, that is the minimum of what they should have. Okay.

I got that. So that would be sort of rolling on a case by case basis as opposed to an absolute deadline for everybody?

I think so. Because I think people got their checks at different times. And if somebody's check bounced, and if we're coming in and people are just going to be getting a check from us for cycle two I'm just making this up. Do not hold me to this. Let's say March 15, then they should have the full time period. They should not be penalized for what's happened.

For what it's worth, I think that's right. Right? You want to take this case by case. And then just the last, I guess, comment. I just want to restate something you said, which I think you said the city is great at the sort of funding administration part of this.

Doesn't want to be involved necessarily, or doesn't see that their expertise lies in deciding questions of aesthetics or impact or the other really important criteria for I just want to underscore that that's a really smart decision. And I think that will go a long way towards rebuilding the credibility, the whole process, if everybody stays in that area in which their expertise lies. So thank you.

Commissioner Miller.

I think it's probably another question that can't be answered but since the beginning of this meeting a news media outlet has released a name and is there is there any kind of idea as to whether this money can be recovered, or in what percentages, or if it's really missing, or if somebody has it? I know that's probably not something you can actually answer. But

Law enforcement is involved, both Fresno PD and the FBI. And I'm just hopeful that as much of it, whatever it is, can be recovered. I don't know. I just have to go through the process of law enforcement. I don't have any concept of percentage. I don't.

Fair enough. I think it's just a question

of I handle everyone's would like 100%. I don't think that's probably realistic.

Thank you. Do

you think it may be more than the 1.5?

Don't know. I can't speak. I have secondhand information. I hope not. But I can't until there's a full forensic accounting and law enforcement investigation, all I can say is what was reported by a board member to us, and by the executive director.

Do you think do you think after the city does its reconcile of all the documents that were submitted that you'll be able to say, yes, it's more or no, it's not more or it's exactly the 1.5 that's missing from what you see so far from the documents that are being reconciled?

I think if we had all of the financial information, all of the banking statements, all of the grant awards, It's kind of just basic accounting then. Having said that, we would have to consult with law enforcement. I mean, there's an active law enforcement investigation. And what we don't want to do is do anything that could jeopardize the investigation that would limit any ability to get any money back. So it's kind of like balancing your checkbook, right?

I don't know if people do that anymore. My kids don't even know what that means. But if you go through, you have copies of your bank statements, you know what checks went through, you can match it up to the grant agreement, it's pretty simple. But don't know what level of nefarious activity was going on. So that will have to be I think law enforcement is pretty good at putting these types of things together and figuring out what's real and what's not. So I'm hopeful that they'll be successful in their investigation.

Are you still missing documents or financial records that you still haven't received on the part of the Fresno Arts Council? Are those and if so, are they still coming in at your request? Or they're falling on deaf ears?

So we received on Friday a lot of information. Whether or not it's complete, we don't know yet. We had a list of lots of things that were missing. And so as we go through all of the documentations that were provided, we'll go through and figure out what was provided. In addition to financial so originally, we were requesting the financial information just to do our pursuant to the agreement.

But then once we canceled the contract, then we said, you have to return everything to us. Every single measure P, arts and culture funding, all of the work papers, all of documentation. So I think we need to focus on, of all the information, the financial information, and the cycle two grant information, as far as the various grant agreements, insurance documents, all of that. So we don't know yet. We just got all the information on Friday. But we are going through it as I don't know as we speak at this moment, but all day today. I think it came in like late afternoon on Friday. And they've been going through it today, and they will continue to go through it.

Thank you. Commissioner Duran, I apologize.

Thank you so much for being here and answering our questions directly. My question is, and because most of any answers that I would have wanted to know have been answered to the best they can now. For anyone going online to access the spreadsheet that was shared, my question is, for the top of the headings, for some of them that are cut off, I can assume. But if anyone's curious, is there any way to confirm what is in those headers? And if anything of note is cut off?

On the web page?

Yeah, so the spreadsheet of the unpaid grantees.

I haven't actually looked on the webpage. Was something cut off, Erin? Or was that the complete document?

This is the document we received from the President's Arts Council on that date. So, that was a scanned copy of what we actually received.

Okay. So we don't have Okay.

That was the document we received. I received. I committed to the art community that I would post what I had. That was all I had. So that and when I keep saying that was the '33 and the '96, that's where I got those numbers from. So that's all I have. I think one page says unpaid, another page says paid. That's all. There was nothing cut off. That's just the completeness of the document, or lack thereof.

Okay. And just to add to that, Commissioner Zari, it was a hard copy that was given to us. It's not electronic copy. So that's all we had. So I can't go back and tell you what headers are there. It's a hard copy that we received.

Yeah, received a hard copy. We scanned it in and posted it that way. I didn't have it electronically.

Got it. Do you know if that will eventually be able to be shared if we receive the digital copy? Or can it be updated?

So anything, we have to consult with law enforcement every step of the way. So whatever we are able to make available that isn't interfering in an investigation, we're happy to do that. I'm going to tell you right now, we're not going to be able to get uploaded two boxes of information and volumes and volumes of information that has been provided to us. Because the time like, that's the same people that I need to be going through the information. And so my focus for staff time right now is to be going through it, reconciling it, and not uploading it to the web.

At some point, can it be yeah, it becomes a public document at some point when it's not part of a law enforcement investigation.

Okay. Thank you. And that helps, too. Because I assumed it was all digitally shared. And so even to know how many, I can imagine, physical documents there are to physically go through, I think, help, helps inform what's going on. Thank you.

Commissioner Barrazza.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a couple of quick questions. One, I noticed that you advanced a lot of money, 90%. And to the you just made a statement a couple of minutes ago.

We didn't advance the money. The Arts Council the way that the program works is the Arts Council, once a grant award was decided and let's say for even numbers it was $100,000 The way it worked was they would get 90% up front, and then the 10% at completion. That was the way that the Arts Council administered the program.

Do you know how much has been advanced, the 90% component?

It was the 98 applicants. It's on that spreadsheet. Once again, what has been reported to us? I don't know if it's 100% accurate. Do you have those numbers on the spreadsheet, Aaron?

I do. It's from our reconciliation based off of kind

of Yeah. What we

Can you just go off of what was on the spreadsheet that the Arts Council provided?

The 96. I have kind of two different, we had to kind of that. But based off of our reconciliation Karen,

we can't release Okay. Our reconciliation

Then no.

It's just, what's I on the

have the spreadsheet up.

CAROLINE Okay.

We don't have it tabulated, though.

CAROLINE Okay. What was on that page?

CAROLINE spreadsheet says that MELISSA: 98 were paid out.

Oh, was 98. CAROLINE It was right.

JULIE WOODRUFF: And it was $4,672,238.77 That was not. And then on your unpaid, you have 33. But I do recognize one recipient on there that I believe declined their award Not because of me. Yes.

Not me. I know you. It says you. But it's not me. It's the Arts Council.

I'm not with the Arts Council. And I haven't been on that board since June '3.

But

your spreadsheet says that $970,467

The Arts Council spreadsheet.

Their spreadsheet, that was the first payment amount that has not yet been paid out, the $9.70.

Okay. And the

observation I wanted to make is that I've seen some correspondence that we've gotten from some of the smaller organizations, the emerging organizations. I noticed there are quite a few that have not been, have not received any funding. I'm just kind of curious whether there's a high concentration of small groups or emerging organizations, we call them, that have not received their funding. Whereas the larger organizations have gotten most of their money. Do you would you agree that that is the case? Or what is the

I can't can't so I know that the folks who got operating support received their funding. Which are the

no? No, it's mixed. It has to do with, I think, when organizations submitted all their final documentation and where they were in line to get paid. Because I think it was the checks bouncing that revealed there was insufficient funds available. But there are some applicants that were operating support grant recipients in large dollars who did all the things they were supposed to do, who have not yet received any Okay.

I'm sorry. I got an email, I thought they said they did. So the list that we have does not I don't know enough about them. It lists them by name. And you can go on that spreadsheet and look. We can direct you to where the link is on web page. I don't know enough about the organizations to know whether, if they're small organizations, the 33 that didn't get the funding. I can't speak to that, because I don't have personal knowledge. I don't know the organizations. So I wouldn't want to mis say. But you can go on and look at them to determine whether or not they're the small emerging. I personally do not know that.

And then, Madam Chair, I want to point out that I, as a commissioner, want to listen to the community as to what they would like to see in the future. You pointed out, we I think you say I, or we will do this, will do that, and I mean, which is perfect. Obviously, the city government has a responsibility to the fiduciary responsibility to watch what's going on, and that is your job, without a doubt. However, WIS commissioners have also ideas, and our sheriff pointed out the possibility of maybe a different agency taking over that function with the proper controls and checks and balances. It is possible.

And then I want to point out that measure P has very important mandates that of components that were promised to the public. And I think that will continue to be scrutinized. And this commission has a role pertaining to that too. And I know that you point out that city staff and the commission could have a role. But I just hope that you also, at least as one commissioner, realize that we're very interested about solutions, about improving conditions, about avoiding that this type of incident occurs again in the future.

However, please don't forget that we want to also make suggestions along the way of what we think would improve the picture. And, we're very concerned about emerging organizations because they're more limited in resources, and they do a wonderful job in promoting art and culture in our communities. And so do the larger organizations without a doubt. However, resources are very necessary to promote what's important in our communities, and we want to spread the benefit to all parts of the community. And one of them happens to be one suggestion that was made about the ratio of, I believe it's 80 or 20, or I don't if it was 90 or 10, about the possibility of expanding the participation of nonprofit smaller organizations, which I think is a good idea.

And so, we may not have the same solutions in mind, but I think we all want to improve conditions. And I just wanted to make that observation.

Yeah, thank you. I think I said that absolutely. You absolutely have a role. So, I'm like, tell us what you're hearing. You guys are eyes and ears out there. Tell us what you're interested in. We definitely need to do a lot of community engagement. 100% support that. I think what I was talking about when I said what we do a good job as so one, we do a good job at writing the check, you know what I mean? The paperwork, the financial document, at making sure that the accounts are balanced and the checks are written to the right people for the right amount and compliance.

But we also what we do is we also do a good job at implementing and organizing and setting the meetings. It's more to the administrative work of the community outreach. The community outreach is a community outreach. It's feedback from the public. I think I used examples. We go out to the public. So we need to go out into the communities. We definitely need feedback from you as commissioner. So I 100% agree with you, commissioner. And yeah, if you took it as I was saying that we're going to do it without you, absolutely not. We absolutely need to hear from the community. And we absolutely need to hear from the commissioners. And I agree, under the ordinance, you guys definitely have an important role.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Okay. I apologize in advance. I'm going to stay for as much as I can of public comment, but I'm not going be able to stay the whole time if it's anything like our council meetings. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now move on to hearing items. Hearing, ID number 26Dash253. Hearing presentation regarding measure p category four annual appropriation resolution. Will someone from the parks department please begin the presentation?

Hello and good evening. Madam Chair, Vice Chair and members of the Commission. Tew Zhang, Business Manager with the Parks Department. And, I'm here this evening to present on the Parks Department Measure P Category IV Annual Appropriation Resolution. Before I proceed too far into the presentation, I just want to note that I will be referring to the annual appropriation resolution as an AAR throughout the presentation.

So, in tonight's presentation, I will review what an AAR is, why it's needed, and then also discuss the purpose of our AAR submission. This will be a brief presentation. However, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions towards the end of the presentation. So please do hold your questions towards the end of the presentation. Myself, along with staff, will do our best to answer your questions with the information that we have.

So what is an AAR or an annual appropriation resolution? It is a legislative act by a governing body such as our city council that authorizes specific budgeted expenses for the fiscal year. It can also be utilized by the city departments to allocate funds for various revenue sources from various revenue sources for functional use such as program service delivery and operational delivery. But ultimately, an AAR grants legal authority for municipal agency like the Parks Department to incur obligations and make payments within set limits. Why is an AAR needed?

As mentioned in the prior slide, it provides legal authority for the city to spend public funds and without an AAR, departments are not able to issue payments or make purchases without council approval. Furthermore, an AAR also provides documentations which breaks down how funding how funds are allocated and expected to be spent across departments. And, if an AAR gets adopted by City Council, it will in turn establish the official budget and authorize the parks department to reallocate any return funds to the FY twenty six budget. So, in light of our AAR requests, which will go to council later this week, we are seeking to appropriate 1,500,000.0, which is contingent on the amount of Measure expanded access to arts and cultural funds returned to the city by the Fresno Art Council. The funds will only be made available and expended by the parks department up to the amount of funds received.

And then lastly, these funds will be used for cycle two grants following any reconciliation as mentioned by the city manager earlier. That concludes the presentation, and we'll open it up for any questions that

you all may have.

Thank you for that. Would any member of the public like to make a comment regarding the AAR resolution? Any comments related to the arts and cultural grants would be heard in the next hearing item. You will have up to two minutes. I will now close public comment. Oh, we have someone online. Oh, someone coming up.

Good evening, I'll be quick on this one. Kylo Pishmet, executive director of South Tower Community Land Trust. Along with this AAR, it might be appropriate to include language that any funds recovered by the city of Fresno from the lost Measure P funds go back into the Measure P pot, so there's not any lack of clarity that those measure P funds aren't coming back to the city of Fresno for other uses. Would also encourage the city to seek damages because many of our organizations are experiencing financial harm because of this. That it's not just the missing 1,500,000.0, but the additional damages that are done to our organizations, and that those resources be identified to the organizations being harmed, as well as potentially some financial training and capacity building for Fresno Arts organizations so this kind of thing isn't repeated.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lisa Flores, you have three minutes.

Good evening, everybody. Lisa Flores. I'm a community engagement consultant, and I also have over, oh goodness, twelve to fifteen years experience doing grant administration at the state level, dealing with both state and federal funds. So this grant administration stuff is very full school to me. And one of the questions I have about this AAR, the appropriations document in front of you is, are they building capacity for grant administration?

And are they going to have people who actually have grant administration experience employed in the Parks Department to make sure this does not happen again and they can administer the arts program? And also, too, are they going to have a special unit of accountants? Because obviously, it's time. And I agree with Kyle. There should be a way that those individuals who have obtained grants and had checks bounced and now have to pay like banking fees, dollars 45 a check that you write for your rent or whatever, it adds up pretty dang quick.

And there should be a mechanism in which they can recover some of that funding as well. That's all my comments at this point. I'll be back. Thank you.

Anyone else online? No? Okay. I will now close public comment. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments regarding this this item? I have a couple of questions. In regards to one of the comments that we just heard in the chamber, has there been any talks about financial damages that some of our grantees have received such as late bounce check fees and operating charges?

The answer to that is no.

Has it been considered?

No. No. We're just trying to get people funding of their grants. I'm not quite sure where that money would come from, given the difficulty. So if we're able to recover any 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 of

I think the expectation and I could be wrong is that if I worked for you, and your HR department forgot to give me a paper check when everyone else was receiving a paper check and normally we get direct deposit and I have my checks coming in bouncing because of an error from one of your employees, I think I'm expecting for you to pay those charges that I incurred.

So I would understand that if I was the one who did it. The city didn't do this. The Fresno Arts Council did

understand it. But because the city was contracted with the Fresno Arts Council, and now that the city has terminated the contract with the Fresno Arts Council, and has in house it within the city and the Parks Department, You don't think any responsibility falls on the city to repay any financial From

where? I guess my question is, is where are we so are we supposed to take money from police department, the fire department, the parks department

Yeah. To No. Because you would want to make good, because this is a lack of words, a BS show right now. No one's seen this coming.

If if

It's it's all unfortunate, right, that this has happened. And there were no safeguards or nothing in between the contract with the city and the Fresno Arts Council to prevent There

were safeguards.

Well, then they were not followed.

They were followed.

Then we wouldn't be having this conversation if they were followed. Because 1,500,000.0 is missing. So

I'll go back to if you want to get specific, we'll go back to what I said. The terms of the agreement were followed. The time period of the audit was followed. That's why cycle three was not released. Because the Arts Council, with this commission approving and recommending to the council the grant guidelines

Because we're only a recommendation body. So what You recommended it? Yes. We did. Because we felt good with it going forward. Now if we would have had knowledge that 1,500,000.0 was missing, we wouldn't have recommended it. So don't try to put blame on this commission for

doing doing it on commission. Job. I would say Start putting The city of Fresno.

It was a simple question.

The city of Fresno I will repeat it. The city of Fresno did everything it was supposed to do under the agreement. If people want to be angry with someone, be angry with the Fresno Arts Council. Because I will go back to the days to the days in this chamber when the city wanted to administer the money from day one. And the arts community came out in force in this full chamber and demanded that the Arts Council was better suited to administer this program.

Now it sounds like you're putting blame on the arts community for sticking with the Fresno Arts Council. About these people. I tell But they're part of the community regardless if these people are not here or not.

So Chair McCoy, here's the deal. City wanted to administer I this said Chair McCoy, here's the deal. That's what I said.

Okay.

What did you think I said?

I don't know what you said. That's why

I asked I said Chair McCoy, here's the deal. The city of Fresno wanted to administer the program under extreme comments from many members of the arts community. Maybe not these parts of the arts community, but this chamber was full time after time during PRAC and during city council meetings. And ultimately, the decision was made to allow the Arts Council to do it, because the Arts Council said, and stated, and had the support of this community that they were better suited to administer the funding, the program. We entered into an agreement with them.

The agreement was followed. The timeline of the agreement, the city's first opportunity under the agreement to receive financial information was in September 2025. That was the way that the agreement and the timing of the way that the cycles of the funding. Because the way that the cycles of the funding went out, that was the timeline. It was not ideal.

I agree. But this but that was our first opportunity. Because there was such a desire to get the money out in the community. We had to enter into an agreement with the Arts Council. Our first opportunity to request information was September 2025. That is exactly what we did. That's exactly what we did. And we did. And and the agreement, the information was not sufficient, which was why we did not release the third the third cycle of funding. So the city followed the agreement.

It followed the agreement. I wish there would have been quarterly reports in that agreement. There weren't. That wasn't ultimately what was negotiated. It was an annual report. That was what was came before counsel. That's what ultimately was, I believe, before this body before. It went to counsel, and that was what was approved. The city did nothing wrong. I stand by that 100%.

It is a very unfortunate situation. The thought that we have 33 people who have received no funding. No funding. We're focused on getting them grant awards, and and there's the discussion that we're gonna go take money in the middle of a budget year from another department in the city of Fresno to fix the Arts Council's mistakes, we're not doing that. This administration is not gonna do that.

You do it for any other department. My next question is, just for clarification, any money that's recovered in regards to Measure P will come back to Measure P just for clarification, because Measure P money is only used for parks and arts. Just wanted to clarify that. Does any other commission have any other questions?

Hold on a second. But I I wanna make sure that we're a 100% clear on this. If the city does not receive any returned money from the arts council in time, like any in a reasonable amount of time. And we use other funds in the city to pay the grants, non measure P funds we use non measure P funds, general fund money and then we get money coming in from measure P, it would reimburse those general funds.

Makes

sense. It would keep to make sure that the 12% of measure P that is for arts and culture, it would be the 12%. We're trying to make we're trying to find a way to, if we have to come up with another source of that funding, and then money is recovered, that it goes back to reimburse that general fund. That's the only Mhmm. Correction I want crystal clear for purposes of transparency. But 100%, if we get if the Arts Council returns money to us, and it's Measure P dollars, 100% is Measure P dollars.

Makes sense. Commissioner Verrazza. I have a

regarding I'm sorry. Go ahead. No funds are recuperated or returned to the city of Fresno, would it be possible that because the grants that didn't get funded are not getting any money, that from future revenues that we're generating from HARP, that they be first in line to get funded. I, as a commissioner, would support that because they went through a competition already. They were promised funding.

They have activities in their own organizations where they might even have incurred some expenses. Therefore, I just kind of wanted to get a clarification on what can they expect if those stolen or whatever the proper term is, funds do not are not recuperated by anybody. Can what would be the process to ensure that they get funding, that they are first in line to get funded?

So we actually that was one of the first things we looked at. And we were hopeful I mean, frankly, that would be the easiest and most expeditious way. And for legal reasons, we're not able to use third cycle money to fund second cycle grants. So we you're 100% right. If we don't get any money returned, we are trying to identify other funding sources within the city.

And the reason why I feel so while I understand, I don't think you know, I don't think we're talking about, you know if it's just a handful of people that had to deal with bounced checks out of 135 grantees, I don't think we're talking about, you know, the cost of a $30 bounced check for a handful of people. If I think it depends on what the term damages mean. Because I've heard that in other areas thrown around a lot. So we are already looking at other funding sources, to put together 1,500,000 ish, assuming that's how much folks have been short changed, to move quickly to get people funded. Is going to be in the middle of a budget year.

We're going to have to figure that out. And it's going to have to be general fund. We can't use transportation funding. We can't use fax funding. So it's going to have to be general fund. And it'll likely be out of the Parks Department, is what we're looking at. I do want to add, we are looking and working on filing a claim with the Arts Council's insurance. Our agreement with the Arts Council has all sorts of indemnity provisions and insurance provisions. Whether or not that is a claim that will be accepted by their insurer. That will be up to them.

But we are going to proceed down that direction to file claims to also try and recover any possible funding from that direction.

Thank you.

JULIE: Commissioner Collier.

JULIE: Hi. Thank you for all your information. This is head spinning.

Most

businesses and most organizations have a backup plan. And it's usually in the form of a bond to cover any problems. Does the Arts Council have a bond?

No. They have an indemnity agreement and insurance policies that names the city as an endorsed the city. I don't know the proper insurance terminology. But it's more than just a certificate of insurance. We're a named insured, and there's an endorsement.

And the problem becomes, a lot of times, when you if, in fact, somebody is arrested and this turns out to be a theft, that's going to be excluded from a lot of insurance coverages. So we do bonds on construction type projects, and the public works department, those types of things. But in these types of contracts, contracts for services, it's generally more indemnified in case something happens, and someone breaks their leg, and they try and bring the city in, then the Arts Council would have to step into our place. But we also are named as an insured on various levels of insurance.

Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions from any other commissioners? Thank you. Is there a motion to recommend City Council adopt the forty first amendment to the annual appropriation resolution number twenty twenty five-one hundred seventy nine appropriating 1,500,000.0 returned to the city by the Fresno Arts Council.

I so move.

Thank you Commissioner Kalia. Is there a second?

Second.

Who said second? Thank you Commissioner Dolan. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. This item is approved. We're gonna move on to hearing ID number 26Dash231. Hearing to receive public input on expanded access to arts and culture grant. Will any member of the public like to make a comment regarding this item? You will have up to two minutes, and I have the cards up here. First person I'm gonna call is Camilla Sutherland. Not in chamber anymore? She She left? Okay. Thank you.

Next person would be Laurie Hunter.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I am with the Fresno City and County Historical Society. And we literally just today received information on how to reach out regarding any kind of issues with checks. We also had a check that bounced on one of our projects. So I will be submitting that information to the city tomorrow.

And that is, as everyone has stated, it's been very difficult. And I can appreciate the city stepping in and trying to make some sense of all of this. It's been very difficult for everyone involved. So, I just want to thank you for helping with this whole entire process, and in any way that you can. So, thank you so very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next person, Alicia R. Thank you, and you will have two minutes.

Alicia Rodriguez, Labyrinth Art Collective. I didn't write anything down, because I'm just going to talk. First of all, I just had a lot of things on my mind. But in watching some of this circus unfold today, I'm going be real honest, it's kind of disconcerting to watch. I'm just gonna be a observation. And, I've never done this in chambers. I've never done this anywhere. I don't bring this up in rooms. People know me for years without knowing this. But, I'm just gonna bring up very briefly that I do run an art collective.

I do also, I'm also employed in the scientific industry with a bachelor's in physics and a master's in environmental engineering. And the only reason I bring that up is I'm not gonna be told one more damn time that my observations and the community's observations that are valid are not valid. We stood in here many times calling transparency issues very specific concerns, not emotional, and it keeps getting framed as emotional. I'm quite sick and tired of that. Accused of accusing people because they're worried about how they look.

I don't care about that. I'm not a politician, and I know some of you all are, but I'm sick of hearing people argue back and forth about community engagement when they don't have the first idea what it has been like to spend years immersing yourself in community and building that. And the only reason I mentioned that is because we brought these concerns to the to the floor. And moving forward, there is nothing nothing acceptable less than full transparency of whatever body takes this over. I don't care whose fault it is. Fix it. Oh, and as far as the money and not coming up with check fees, I think that's a very small ask by the way. The community also brought concerns about measure p funds going to the cops for park rangers, which is shit. I'm sorry. And pulled from Measure p.

When they have over half the general fund, and we're talking about like, you know, 4 or 5,000,000 here with Measure p arts and culture, that's $257,000,000. So over half of that money goes to the cops, and we're getting it pulled from the arts programs for that. Like, let's look at privilege. Let's look at the structures and let's quit. And those of us in the community who stand Arts Council and said how great they were.

Next speaker, Johannes. Thank you. And you have two minutes.

I want to quote this commission on the 10/13/2025, about 05:36PM. Vice Chair Laura E. Ward, quote, public comments have included misinformation and personal attacks that grow wilder and bolder each week, and make me think that I am not the only one in these council chambers with a creative writing degree. What started with twisted words grew into very personal statements against individuals getting at their integrity and character, and most recently allegations of illegal activity, end quote. I forgive vice chair Ward for making these statements.

So instead, let's live in a world of non fiction, shall we? On September 15, September 29, and October 6, members of the Fresno community came to this commission and we warned you, begged you to address inconsistent and inappropriate behavior by Fresno Arts Council on the grant admin side. On October 13, we were told by this commission our concerns were overreacting and spreading misinformation with creative writing. However, we now know from statements by city manager George Ann White on September 30, Fresno Arts Council missed key financial reporting deadlines. In October, the city refused Fresno Arts Council's request for third for the third round of measure p grant cash because their financial reporting was so inconsistent.

And now we all know that Fresno Arts Council has lost over $1,500,000 of our measure p funds. So for the record, with no exaggeration, in September and October, at the exact same time, we were begging our representatives to address issues on the grant admin side. Our representatives were fully aware that they were also issues on the grant financial side, but still chose to dismiss our dismiss our cries for help. Are you planning to dismiss us again now? I asked this commission for two very simple things.

One, please start listening to your citizens when we ask you for help. Stop dismissing our passion and labeling it as hysterics. And two, please work with the public to fully overhaul the current transparency process for this grant. Whoever takes over this grant after after Fresno Arts Council, whatever new rules are made, it's clear after hearing everything now that none of it will matter unless full transparency is in place to enforce accountability. I'm not asking you to say, well, it Thank

you.

Next speaker, Amy Kitchener.

Good evening. I'm Amy Kitchener with the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. I'm just going to make a few recommendations about moving forward and just to think about what the city really needs. And I think the city needs to create a cultural affairs department that knows what it's doing and hire a professional director of cultural affairs who can oversee this process. You know, people go to school and have careers doing this kind of work.

It is not rocket science. And it will be very important for the city to step up into this role of the eight major cities in California. Fresno is the only one that doesn't have a cultural affairs department with a professional staff. They will be able to steward cultural policy and help build a strong field. Also, second, community processes and input need to be centered in building a better infrastructure than presently exists.

We need to center artists, culture bearers, youth, and the diverse communities of Fresno. And it will take time to establish community trust and engagement. And we should stop all processes for round three measure p until we can get a good process in place. And we can't afford to rush forward with a broken system, and we owe it to the taxpayers to do better. Thank you.

Thank you. Next person is Cami, I think I'm gonna butcher this up, Cecilia? Next person, Kyle Lopez Schmidt.

Hello again. I come here to speak for the South Tower Community Land Trust. We were awarded $70,000 for a project to do a mural at Broadway Parque in our neighborhood. That was a park that we led the community organizing to establish that park in our neighborhood. We never received a contract, never received any funding.

Not through our own fault, and I think the city's role in this is important. After the awards happened in October 13, later in October, we received draft guidelines for a city mural approval process, which was entirely new for any mural or public art on city property or right of way. And we worked diligently to respond to those standards that the city wanted to go through. This was Georgians White's department who provided this to us. It added a three month timeline onto our process that was uncompensated and unplanned for.

We finally got approval for the Arts Council to proceed with our contract one week before the embezzlement story broke, so we never received our contract. What I think is important to think in this context is, one individual, yes, did harm to our community, but the systems that we created did not create the environment for this program to succeed. The Arts Council was not set up for success with the right accountability measures, the right reporting measures. You all have not been given the information. I don't think anybody of you have probably seen the city's mural guidelines for their approval process.

We really need to work on the transparency and the collaboration in this building of artists, public officials, and city employees, so that we can really advance the arts in our community and think about this in a comprehensive way, not just about conflicts. Know, I think a lot of artists

Thank you. Next speaker, Smiley.

Thank you, commissioners, this meeting. But I've got to be honest with you guys. Well, first of all, my name is Smiley G. And I am EAAC recipient sponsored by thank you. Sponsored by Dulce upfront, who's been leading the way in transparency.

And I'm grateful for them because, listen, I wouldn't have even known about this meeting if it wasn't for them. And that bothers me. Because if I didn't receive this message from my fiscal sponsor, How would I know about this? And I was awarded money. So that bothers me about transparency.

This whole mess really fucking bothers me. Forgive me if that's if I can't use that word in the city. But listen, we have an individual in the community that stole money. Do we know who this person is? This is outrageous.

This is beyond craziness. It's been so emotional, this whole process. And it shouldn't be, because we're just trying to provide arts and culture to the community. So I hope that you all can figure this stuff out and really help the community.

Thank you. Next speaker, Derek Payton.

Hello. Derek Beighton, Root Access Hackerspace. There's a lot that I could say. And a lot of it would echo what others have already said. I was not super flared up walking into this meeting, but after everything that I just witnessed, man, emotions are running high.

But, I want to speak about the future structure of EAAC. And, I understand the city's desire to step in more directly, given everything that's happened. But, we are super uneasy with the city owning the entire EAAC process from end to end. The city grant processes are often slow and rigid. And by the city's own admission, they're not an arts agency, and they have no business in making judgments based on artistic merit.

Further, Fresno Municipal Code section seven-fifteen oh six, subsection b, subsection four, paragraph b, states that these grants shall be implemented by the commission in partnership with the FAC or its successor local arts agency. The ordinance did not contemplate a full internalization by the city. If the city absorbs the entire EAAC process, we risk increasing barriers for artists rather than reducing them. So I wanna ask the structural question, why does one entity have to do everything? If one entity controls applications, panels, compliance, disbursements internally, even with good intentions, public trust becomes harder to rebuild.

There's no structural reason for the city to run every aspect of this. And I would advocate for a three pronged approach where you have an arts informed community body to design the application process and run the review process. That keeps the evaluation grounded in artists and cultural practitioners. Second, to build on Amy Kitchener's recommendations, a city department of arts and cultural affairs to provide oversight, ensure alignment with the cultural arts plan, and public

Thank you. Next speaker, Jamali.

Thank you. Hello, my name is Jemily Kedara. Thank you for the opportunity to come here to speak for my group. My group dance name is which is the Lao dance group. It was passed on from my teacher. She was one of the last royal dancer from the last king of Laos until I became a communist. So I was her apprentice, and now I want to want to carry on the dances to the new Lao Lao American students. Because most of my students are not just Lao. They're mixed with different race. African, Hispanic, Mexican, Caucasian.

So I want them to learn the dances so they can know their culture, their heritage. Last year, I was granted 28,000, but, not be not easily. I was denied, and I appealed twice to get this amount. This year, I was granted 14,000, but not yet because I'm I'm one of the small groups I'm merging. I agree with Amy Kishner that we should have culture of fair departments because they need to know about the culture.

In order for you to be the judges, you have to understand the culture and not just based on favoritism or just judging people, not having any evidence. My dance group is one of the dance group that served the law the Fresno community all year long. A few that I named PACE for the elderly people from Fresno Center, Black History Van, Native American, Mexican, American, schools, culture, and nonprofit organization everywhere. One month, we at least perform twice twice a month. We are the most active loud dance group in Fresno that I know.

We have not seen anybody dance more than, my group. Not this in. So why we're getting so little grant and not being recognized for the stuff we do for the community? You could check out on Instagram and also Facebook because I have, like, thousands of pictures and also videos to prove that I practice the Lao culture. And, also, I'm doing a big, big event for May, which is already approved by the city of Fresno at Granite Park. I'm gonna be the main one that leads the culture park department because I know of the

Thank you. Candace Penegras. Candace?

Hello. Hi. I'm Candace Pendergrass. I'm the vice president for museum services with the Fresno City and County Historical Society. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak today.

I appreciate everyone's efforts to help us all move toward a successful and impactful program for arts and culture in the city of Fresno. I would like to just add my voice to the record today and request that as round three is developed, that in addition to the requested transparency that is of such concern, that you also insist on stability and dependability in a newly devised program. The grant program should be designed in a way that when applications are opened, closing dates are included, along with definitive announcement dates and award dates, and that those dates are honored and fulfilled upon. It's extremely difficult to write and operate a budget and fulfill an organizational mission when award dates can slide by six months or more. Getting back to the July 1, June 30 schedule would be ideal.

Also, I appreciate that there is an extension for grants that were funded late. But I would ask that those that have already accelerated their programs to meet the original deadlines still be allowed to complete their grant reports, their final reports on time, and apply for their 10% final payments without having to wait. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker, Dante Ehrlich.

All right. First of all, thank you very much for the commission for being here today. This is my first time addressing such a commission. So if my words overstep, please, I ask that you forgive me. My name is Dante Erlong. I am the director of the Asian American Writers Coalition, sponsored by the Fresno Center. We are one of the 33 that, it turns out, were not awarded any actual money, which we had to find out through expandedarts.com. So thank you where credit were, and giving credit where credit is due. I will just say that there was definitely as I will also support Amy Kitchener's statement that there needs to be a cultural arts branch because I'm Asian. And when I say that, most people and I say I'm Hmong.

People in the room will know what that mean. Some people don't. And they say, oh, Chinese. And I'm like, technically correct, I suppose, if you wanna go by ethnicity. But it's a culture, and cultures are a lot more complicated than that. I'm also a break dancer. And I had to explain like, okay, so is there a culture to hip hop? Well, it's not tied to one ethnicity. And those are the conversations that I have to have with people who often are in positions of power and allowed allocations to certain cultural arts grants. And last but not least, I will say that the artists are hot blooded and passionate groups of people, as you could clearly see here.

A consultant of mine has discussed the possibility of legal action, which I find ludicrous. I myself will probably not take initiations, but I cannot speak for my fellow artisans if timely resolutions cannot be met. We're all in the same boat and it's on fire, and I hope that for all of our stakes within this room, we could achieve that resolution quickly, and that those resolutions can be executed in a timely manner. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker Gabriel Lozano.

Hi. My name is Gabriel Lozano. I wanted to be known that before Measure P was even in existence, I donated three hundred of my hours to go advocate for Measure Peace. So before anybody was thinking about art and stuff, I donated my time, and then that's where it's at. I've worked with George Ann and her staff, and I've always received respect from her.

And I can tell you that they're working as hard as they can to get this under control. And to argue over 1%, even 1%, about check reimbursements, I think there's too much that we need to find out about before we get into those type of anger discussions. I've also audited for Godshocks back in the day for Mr. Levy. I worked in the cost accounting.

I've done payables. I've done invoices. My suggestion is that we when we if we have somebody financially responsible for sub grants or a grant, that we have requirements that you check quarterly, and if they don't pass the quarter, that you start checking monthly, and you oversee this, so that you get control of it right away. Giving out 90% is a little bit too much to me. When you look at grants, and you're a year, you should have an audit of that three months after the end of the grant.

So, I think that those will help. But I can guarantee you, working with the staff, that they're working diligently to try to take care of this. It's an unfortunate incident. One person ruined it for a lot of people. So I think you need to show little patience, give it time. We just don't know all the information. Some of us aren't privy to all the information. I understand you're angry, but it's not going to solve anything, yelling at each other. Everyone have a great day, and I hope you have even better week.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, Omei Lopez.

I'm sure you've got nothing to say to me. For a couple years I've been doing so much work informing and educating people, having workshops. We fiscally sponsored 21 emerging projects of the sixty, one third. 70 applied as us as a fiscal sponsor. I have years of experience. I'm not just a DJ and run an organization. Yes. I have my degrees. Yes. I've been a community organizer for many years.

Deaf years. Scapegoated, people that were my friends when I was trying to tell them what was going on, the lack of transparency and accountability. Stepped away. 10 foot pole like a like a leper. And I asked you to look at those transcripts to listen to this.

This is not just about the 1.5. Because just as myself overseeing 21, it's not just me that has to look at the accounts. I look at my bank our bank accounts every week. I have accountants, CPAs, and other people that review it. So it's not just on a person like Suliana of embezzling. There's the executive director, Lilia Chavez. Talk about arrogance by multiple people in this space. At the Fresno Arts Council, the city city council, the subcommittee, silence. And I just ask you to sit down with us and talk. Don't do you're doing work on the back ends.

I know people are because I'm getting calls.

Next speaker, Jasmine Moore.

Hey look, we're the same height. Hello

everyone, my name is Jasmine Moore. I am one of the recipients of the EAAC grant. I was there during the meeting that Dulce upfront held, and what I noticed, what I observed was misreported, risk missed reporting deadlines without escalation. Allowances for blurred accountability and false compliance. When they bring you a data dump, you send them back.

You don't do the work for them. I've worked in corporations where we built infrastructure, and that is not how we do things. Language framing structural issues as individual structures struggles, they're dealing with a lot right now. That's their job. That's what they're supposed to deal with.

And transparency concerns from the from the community without structural response. What I would have liked to have seen was escalation procedures, transparency rhythms, decisions doc decision making document and compliance triggers. These are all things that actually make the system function. People are afraid of the system because of things like this, because people can sidestep and deflect and say it's not our problem when it's a structural issue within the city and their contracts and their contractors. It's not the contractors fault, it's the city's responsibility.

When you hire people you're responsible for them. So to sidestep the responsibility of making sure that you make people whole, because this ordinance is that this percentage is paid out. Not that we just kind of might figure it out and some people are gonna have to get a haircut. That's not how that works. So build the structures. Work with people who have systems thinking because these are individuals who are just doing their job. Thank you.

Thank you. Monica

Serta. Monica Serta.

Good evening. My name is Monica Sedva. I am

a local

creative and a former EAAC panelist. I'm also a local business owner, so I've definitely invested in this community, even with money I didn't have. Being on the panel, I saw how unfair the process was and the lack of transparency to the community and how culture only makes sense when it's a favored FAC project. The community screamed to be heard and told you of concerns over the lack of transparency and how FAC was dropping the ball. And to hear that by manager White that FAC was not upholding their expectations.

So this was known ahead of time when we were being made to feel like we were crazy or being dramatic. When we came to you guys kicking and screaming and saying, hey, please listen. So I say this to you now, let this be a lesson to you. When the community raises a concern, listen.

Next speaker, Erin

My voice can carry.

My name is Erin Bird, and I'm the executive director of Arts Enrichment for All. We are also a fiscal receivership for some projects. And, I'm coming in with today is concerns that our projects are having with the unknown. Right? Do, when will they get their 10% reimbursement? How do we file our reporting? And all those questions that are up in the air. So, I like the idea of giving some grace where grace is needed when it comes to deadlines, but not at the expense of those who have then met their deadlines, who have done what they needed to do to be successful. Grants are a competitive process. We don't get them all.

Sometimes it doesn't feel fair when we know we have such a great project. It happens. What I do want to bring to, like others have said, is I actually went to the special city council meeting that happened this week, after this came out. And my request was simple. My request was bring those fiscal agents to the table, have them be part of the conversation, because we have solutions. We have experience in the grants game. We didn't just get here willy nilly. We have built businesses. Nonprofit organizations are businesses. Let us help you with this side of the business.

We understand culture. We understand art. And we've asked over and over again to be part of the conversation and to be have a seat at the table. And, honestly, if you're gonna get through this expeditiously, you need us. You need our help. K? And then the other piece of that is looking at the timelines moving forward and the guidelines moving forward. We need to really take a look at that because words matter. And the words that are listed in the cultural arts plan are very clear. Yet guidelines changed last round because some people didn't like the way that they were coming out, and they said that wasn't the intent behind the words. Words have meaning.

Thank you. Next speaker, Brisa Pacheco. Do we have anyone online?

Y'all, I'm a young adult here in Fresno. And I do like to say when I first came to this room, I expected a room full of adults and professionals. And what I just seen here is that it reminds me of high school. It reminds me of middle school. Because what I just witnessed here with people speaking, people yelling each other, do better. That's all I'm gonna say. Do better than this. That's it.

Any speakers online?

Yes, we have Hugo Morales. You have three two minutes.

Yes. Can you hear

me? Yes.

Okay. Yes. My name is Hugo Morales, and I'm the founder and co executive director of Ravi Pilingue. We are a nonprofit who also is a major recipient. And we are in support of ACA's recommendations through Ms.

Amy Kitchener. The city of Fresno should create a cultural affairs department and hire a professional director of cultural affairs who will oversee the process as well as service the city in all matters related to the arts and culture, including policy development and expanded services to cultivate a strong field. The community process and input needs to be centered in building a better infrastructure than presently exist. We need to center have this center on artists, culture bearers, youth, and the diverse communities of Fresno. And that person, that professional will be our leader.

And and with all due respect for the city, the next round should involve and engage people from Fresno who are independent and diverse in the panel process. We need a panel process of resonance, which have respect for our community engagement. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker online.

We have Yolanda Randalls. You have two minutes.

Okay. Hi. Good evening, everyone. Yolanda Randalls, Director here at West Fresno Family Resource Center. So and I do apologize if this information had already been shared. But we were a recent grantee of Measure P. We had a signed contract and we began the work. And so we have reached out to the City of Fresno. We've sent information and to date we have not received any feedback. So I was just wondering if you all can share what's the process.

What's I understand there's a lot of information, a lot of processes that need to be in place, but we've already started expending, you know, some of the work in this contract. So now our fear is like, do we do? Do we stop? Do we you know, we've hired folks. Do we lay them off? Like, what do we do? And so we were just wondering if we can get some type of direction. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker?

Lisa Flores, you have two minutes.

Good evening, and sorry to say that this is just a mess. First off, you never do a one year report. You do a quarterly report because that's how you find out the health of each grant, and you make sure that people are expending money at an average clip. And if someone has a problem with their grant, you take care of it as soon as possible. The grant administrator should have been out and about dealing with every single grant recipient to make sure they had everything that they needed to be a successful project.

Contracts not being administrated, they're executed, shame on you, Georgeann. What I think should happen is I think that the grants should be taken out of Measure P and put in under the city so the allocation can come out of the general fund. That way, any damages and when I speak of damages, I mean financial damages like bounced check fees or paying back employees for lost wages that they have incurred should come out of the general fund. And once the legal part is settled and there's restitution being given, then that can go back into the general fund. But I don't think any measure any current Measure P funds that wasn't already allocated for these projects should be expended above that.

As far as your next round of measure P, I think you need to put a halt to your next cycle of France until you can get this whole Mijgas settled because right now, it's a mess, guys. It is a serious mess, and the rot starts with the city manager.

Thank you. Anyone else on line? I will now close public comment. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments regarding this item? We will now move on to the next hearing. I

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to know when are we going to appoint a subcommittee for the Cultural Arts? I realize that right now there's work being done, But things take forever sometimes in our structure. It's my opinion. I know you don't agree with me.

But I think it is important that we start preparing to revise the guidelines for whatever checks and balances, protection, transparency. And when we were having some of your presentations, your hearings, part of the problem was that we were operating under guidelines that had to be adhered to. And we, as commissioners, could not change them because they had already been approved by the council. But we now have another round of opportunities to fix things, to improve things. And I really would like to see that we start moving in that direction and not really just indefinitely delay it.

Heck no. We're going to build good things. And I also want to point out that a lot of good things have happened with Major P. A lot of good projects. A lot of good work has been done. It could be a little bit better, and that's why we want to do, present good projects to the community that approved Measure P and deliver what we promised. That's the reason why I feel that we need to start thinking of a timetable to implement phase three of the measure P culture arts component.

Thank you for that, Commissioner Barraza. I hesitated on putting that formation of the subcommittee on this agenda tonight because we had not received any information on what was going on with the Fresno Arts Council and the missing monies. So I knew that this meeting was going to be about that to where we can get some clarification and some understanding since we were not informed until last Friday when the memo came out and we met today. So next meeting moving forward, we will form the subcommittee and then we'll be able to proceed on and look at the guidelines and do any adjustments from what we have heard from the public tonight and from prior meetings as well because that has always been the game plan. Right?

But thank you for raising that concern.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Thank you. I will now move on to the next hearing, ID number 20Six-two32. Hearing to receive public input on allocations related to measure p, updates to the parks master plan and cultural arts plan, and annual parks department budget and capital improvement plans. Would any member of the public like to make a comment regarding this item? You will have up to two minutes for comment.

Kyle O'Pishmidt, South Tower Community Land Trust. I wanted to comment, recently, the South The Tower District specific plan update was passed, and the environmental documentation within it had something concerning, that the lack of parks within the Tower District is a significant and unavoidable environmental impact that our community has to continue to live with. We have onethree of an acre per 1,000 residents in this Tower District, specifically the South Tower District, with not a clear game plan on how to improve that to the three plus acres per thousand residents called for in the general plan. I want to continually offer to be a partner in acquiring property, identifying locations for parks within the South Tower District, and would recommend highly that construction resources get allocated towards both Dickey sorry, San Pablo Park underneath the freeway that now is a beautiful art gallery, but has no amenities for people to participate in, As well as Ted C. Wills Community Center, which both dramatically need work, and would contribute to better park space within the Tower District.

Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else online? Alright, I will now close public comment. Does any member of the commission have any questions or comments regarding this item?

Unrelated to EAC. We're working on a Futsal tournament actually at the new Roading Park Futsal Courts. I think that they're being built with Peace Level Futsal. And we're having some challenges around the new, I guess there's new policies with insurance, liability insurance. And there are just more increased requirements this year than there were in the last couple years.

And we're trying to like play catch up with this new requirements that we were not privy to. And we've gone back and forth with our insurance company for the last month that don't want to adhere to the new requirements that the city of Fresno has around waivers and liability. And I just want to know if you guys can look into that more to like inform folks in the community in the arts and cultural and parks recreation world about these new requirements. Because we're having a really hard time getting it through. So that we can actually work in collaboration with Peace Level and Futsal for this tournament.

And I can imagine that it's going to be an ongoing challenge with other groups trying to do activities in parks. So that's all.

Thank you. Any other member in the chamber or online have any comments before I close public comment? Thank you. I will now close public comment. Again, does any of the commissioners have any questions or comments regarding this item?

With the last young lady said about changing requirements, Mr. Ogieri, is that something that you're taking care of in your department? She mentioned that the trouble, the hoops that they have to go through to get a park. Is that an ongoing problem or is it a one time deal or?

It hasn'92t been brought to our attention and I know we'92ve worked with other foot salt groups to reserve our facilities so I'92d be happy to meet with you to figure out where that hiccup is and we easily work with them to get that result. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions from the commissioners regarding this item? It is seven fifty seven. This has been a very productive and a rich meeting. Thank you all for coming out. As always, I would like to conclude this meeting in loving memory of Doctor. Francine Apuda, who is one of our commissioners whose guidance and presence is deeply missed. Thank you for joining us. Have a great rest of your evening, and good night.