Testy and zesty

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Things got a little testy at a recent Guadalupe City Council meeting. 

Any guesses as to the topic du jour? 

Ding, ding, ding! Yes. It was the Royal Theater renovation project—you know the one, with grant issues, cost issues, redesign controversy, and the failed potential ballot initiative idea. Residents have complained multiple times about the lack of timely information provided to the public about the project and the issues that affect it.

And now, it seems, the project lead—Tom Brandeberry—and one of the sitting City Council members—Whitney Furness—don’t exactly get along. And that tension was on full display May 13 when the two went tit for tat and talked over each other in the middle of a public meeting. Tears were shed; voices raised. 

Brandeberry updated the council on project costs, but I guess didn’t he feel the need to get too deep into the specifics.

While soft costs for the project penciled out to a little more than $2.9 million, the breakdown he included with his presentation only totaled up to a little less than $2.2 million. A $700,000 difference. Hmm. A little strange. 

I’m not sure what city staff thought was going to be the council’s response, but Furness questioned it like any good taxpayer-dollar purse-holder should. 

She called his report unacceptable: “This is not a full accounting. This is a generalized number. … I think that the project needs to be audited from top to bottom.” 

Brandeberry said he wasn’t required to provide specific individual costs. But then, why include any specifics at all? City Attorney Philip Sinco jumped to the rescue! 

“We weren’t really planning on doing what you were expecting,” he said. “It wasn’t intended to be in the weeds.” 

Yeah! It was just partial weeds—15 items, to be exact, that don’t total up to what we told you was the cost estimate. Sinco said that city staff could work on getting the totals, though. 

“This is the worst information I’ve received on a project, and I have worked on projects—big projects,” Furness said. “I just don’t see how there’s no oversight.” 

Brandeberry, who’s been in on the Royal Theater renovation circus since the beginning, said Furness, who serves on the project’s capital campaign committee, was unwilling to work with him. 

“I’m telling you that this project can’t work if you’re going to be that person you are right now,” Brandeberry said. “I can’t see a project working with the degree of distrust you have for me.” 

Zesty! But Furness is just a reflection of the broader community. She said she’s been trying to recruit Guadalupe residents to serve on the capital campaign committee—which still doesn’t have a chair yet—and she can’t get anyone to bite because “nobody trusts that this project is going to happen.” 

That doesn’t bode well for the city trying to raise the remaining money it needs to complete the project. How much is that again? Ooh. I’m not 100 percent sure. I didn’t know I was going to be asked that today. 

Just kidding! 

I only have the estimate from the report, so don’t hold me to it, but $10.7 million-ish. 

I wish Guadalupe luck. And some trust.

The Canary trusts nobody. Send your lies to canary@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in May 22 – Jun 1, 2025.