Guadalupe City Councilmember Whitney Furness expressed a feeling of déjà vu for the second time in less than two months about the council’s decision to enact a new oversight committee dedicated to monitoring the Royal Theater project.
“I’m just not sure why we’re getting asked to revote on something that we did already,” Furness said at the council’s Jan. 13 meeting.
Furness made the comment after city staff asked the council to reconsider its September 2025 decision to appoint a five-member Brown Act board dedicated to overseeing the shuttered historic Royal Theater’s revival project.
Staff first asked the council to revisit the Brown Act route at its Dec. 9, 2025, meeting. Interim City Administrator David Trujillo suggested postponing appointing a new board because it would “cause an influx in staff reports, and we’re already falling behind on things,” he said at the hearing.
The discussion concluded with City Attorney Philip Sinco’s assurance that the council could proceed with an appointment process if the council desired.
“So we’re going to move forward with what we already decided in a previous meeting, is that correct? Sounds great,” Furness said. “Thank you.”
At the council’s Jan. 13 meeting, Sinco and Trujillo asked the council once again to reconsider taking the Brown Act route and suggested enacting a two-member ad hoc committee instead that would operate outside of Brown Act rules.
“Didn’t we already vote on this?” Furness said.
“Yes, you did vote to move forward, but obviously staff is not happy with that decision and is proposing an alternative,” Sinco told Furness. “It’s a little awkward. Staff is essentially asking you to reconsider that decision by offering the alternative.”
Interim City Administrator Trujillo said that he’s not against enacting a Brown Act board but added that he is “against multiple people calling or hindering staff from their daily duties.”
“The departments that get hammered with these kinds of questions the most are the ones that are struggling the most currently. So as a management person, I’m just trying to protect my staff because emotions are very involved in this project,” Trujillo said. “I don’t want those emotions being taken out on my staff. If they want to come out on me or whoever the city manager/administrator is at the time, whatever the case might be, that’s fine. That’s what that person is for.”
Trujillo added that the Royal Theater project’s manager Tom Brandeberry will present an update related to the project’s finances, including a cost summary Furness scrutinized in May 2025, at a council meeting in February.
The council ultimately agreed to table appointing the future five members to the new Brown Act board, based on a handful of interest letters from board applicants submitted so far, until after Brandeberry’s presentation.
“I don’t want to make any other decision than what we’ve already decided. … I think we need to just stick to our guns. The project has needed this, and we all decided that,” Furness said. “I found out about asbestos being a problem from an article in the Santa Maria Sun. … Those should be things not necessarily written about before the city knows about them. … There were no emails on it, it was reported in a newspaper.”
In late December of 2025, Brandeberry told the Sun about the project’s temporary delay due to a postponed asbestos cleanup and paperwork issues.
“It should be coming to us first instead of the news in my opinion,” Furness said at the hearing. “We’re dragging our feet on this committee.”
“To go off of a report that’s coming from the Sun is like, to me, reading the National Enquirer about aliens,” Councilmember Eugene Costa Jr. said.
This article appears in January 22 – January 29, 2026.