In Guadalupe Councilmember Whitney Furness’ experience, the only way to get clear info on the Royal Theater project’s status is with “quite a bit of pointed questions,” she told the council during its July 22 meeting.
The kind of questions that sparked a heated discussion between her and the multi-year renovation effort’s project manager Tom Brandeberry back in May, after Furness scrutinized Brandeberry’s latest summary of soft cost estimates.
She noted that the report’s line items added up to less than $2.2 million, although Brandeberry’s projected total for all soft costs was $2.9 million.
“I don’t feel confident in the numbers you sent. … This is not a full accounting. This is a generalized number,” Furness told Brandeberry at the council’s May 22 meeting. “I think that the project needs to be audited from top to bottom. … I just don’t see how there’s no oversight.”
Exploring some kind of additional oversight for the Royal Theater project was one of the Guadalupe City Council’s goals while revisiting the issue at the council’s July 22 meeting.
To achieve the kind of transparency Furness was seeking, City Attorney Philip Sinco asked council members if they would consider forming a new Brown Act committee, similar to the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission—complete with agendized meetings and minutes available to the public—except solely dedicated to the Royal Theater project.
“It’s likely that it would have to comply with the Brown Act. … Minutes would be shared to publicly ensure transparency,” Sinco said. “It would be an advisory and monitoring body working collaboratively with the project manager and reporting both to the City Council and the campaign committee, and the GCAC [Guadalupe Community Action Coalition].”
Sinco clarified that while the latter two agencies already work on initiatives tied to the Royal Theater project, “right now there isn’t a community body that could advise the council.”
“The capital campaign committee was designed to function on one thing, which is raising money for the project,” Sinco said. “The GCAC is not involved in anything other than just accepting the money, but it obviously has potential function in the long-term for the Royal Theater itself. One of the reasons it was created [was] to assist with historic tax credits.”
The council ultimately directed Sinco and staff to look into the Brown Act committee option along with potential alternative routes toward a more informal ad hoc committee.
“When I first read through this and I looked at the proposed makeup of the committee, it looked pretty cumbersome,” Councilmember Amelia M. Villegas said. “Another committee doesn’t quite sit well with me, … but I would strongly support some degree of oversight simply because of the scope of this project, and we’re a small town.
“Everybody’s looking at it.”
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 10, 2025.