To reassure the public that donations toward Guadalupe’s Royal Theater project won’t be channeled into other uses, city leaders agreed on a new go-between for future contributions.
During the Guadalupe City Council’s May 27 meeting, City Attorney Philip F. Sinco explained staff’s reasoning for nominating the Guadalupe Community Action Coalition (GCAC) to fill this role—despite instances where the board and city management overlap.
“In full disclosure, some people think it’s kind of strange to have the city administrator as the [GCAC] president, and the finance director as the treasurer. But there are three other non-city people on the board,” Sinco said at the meeting. “With the way [GCAC] was set up, the city wanted to have some control over it, but not legally have control over it.”
Alongside City Administrator Todd Bodem and Finance Director Janice Davis, the nonprofit’s five-member board includes Michael Jimenez, Garret Matsuura, and Emilio Handall, according to GCAC’s website. The nonprofit meets once a month to help the city seek funding for community services by assisting with grant applications and other programs, Sinco told the council.
Under current projects, the sole item GCAC’s website lists is the Royal Theater project with no additional text as of June 3—minus a subtitle that reads, “Project updates coming soon.”
“Moving forward, is there a way that maybe we can just get some updates from the GCAC?” Councilmember Whitney Furness asked staff. “Because I don’t think previously we have had anything.”
Furness serves on the Royal Theater’s capital campaign committee and raised similar transparency concerns about the project during the council’s May 13 meeting.
“Well, technically they’re not required to give you any updates,” Sinco told Furness on May 27 when asked about the GCAC nonprofit’s obligations to the city.
“But, on this MOU [memorandum of understanding], they will have to give you updates,” Sinco added. “I believe, … on a monthly basis.”
That MOU designated GCAC as the Royal Theater Project’s official fiscal sponsor, thanks to a 5-0 approval vote from the council later during the May 27 meeting.
Before the vote, staff gave the council an alternative to consider, in which the city continues to directly accept financial donations for the Royal Theater project. In both scenarios, the city itself is the ultimate beneficiary of these funds, according to the staff report.
“It just seems to make good sense to have a nonprofit organization out there as well that can accept the donations on behalf of the city,” Sinco said. “There are some people that would be hesitant to maybe make donations directly to city government for whatever reason.”
This article appears in Jun 5-15, 2025.