When my husband and I moved to Guadalupe in 1997 and bought our first home, we did so because we saw potential. This little coastal city was frozen in time and offered beach weather without a high price tag. Granted, if the city had a dollar for every time someone said they saw potential, Guadalupe’s money troubles would not exist.
While some are shocked at the vote to stop the Royal Theater project, some of us are asking why it was approved and started in the first place.
Having served this community of Guadalupe as its first woman mayor from 2012 to 2014, I know exactly how the city mismanaged special funds (water, sewer, streets, lighting) operated prior to my term.
With the help of former City Administrator Andrew Carter, we stopped that. Sadly, the city has returned to its mismanagement of enterprise funds shortly after Andrew Carter’s departure in mid-2016.
Mismanagement and misallocation are politically correct ways of saying that they the city illegally used special funds to support the general fund without formally establishing any loans or developing any plans for repayment, which can only occur if there was a legitimate loan for repayment; this did not happen.
Many remember the raids of the corrupt Guadalupe Police Department in the 1970s and again in 1983. It is time for a “fiscal raid” in Guadalupe, a reckoning. It is time for the City Council and prior city administration to be held accountable and liable for their terrible actions that include years and years of the ongoing, illegal transfers from the enterprise special funds to the general fund.
During my term as mayor, we proved that the city can be run properly. Yet the City Councils, city administrators, and finance directors since then (current management staff excluded) have commingled funds, worked without audited financials, and ignored many grand jury reports dating back to 2003, and a state controller audit.
It is time for a ‘fiscal raid’ in Guadalupe, a reckoning. It is time for the City Council and prior city administration to be held accountable and liable for their terrible actions.
Never mind the numerous times over the last 30 years that projects were poorly managed or the grant funds that had to be repaid. The aforementioned parties are fiscally ignorant and do not have the capacity to understand their responsibilities and the long-term consequences of their actions when money is missing from these funds. They lack integrity; they are not even embarrassed by what they’ve done.
Guadalupe touts its disadvantaged status to obtain federal, state, and local grants courtesy of the taxpayers and other donors but does not treat that funding as the precious resource it is. Instead, those funds allow them to play a shell game, which ends with those taxpayers and donors being defrauded.
Some will recoil at my choice of words.
That is exactly what I want.
This council, prior councils, those elected since my departure, plus the management staff need to be held accountable to the full extent allowed.
The City Council members need to take responsibility for the mess they have created and start doing the hard work they are elected to do. Either that or officially throw in the towel and start the disincorporation process because they apparently lack the ability to understand basic finance principles and the integrity required to sit at the dais.
During my term in office, we proved that you don’t have to steal from special funds to run the city.
Guadalupe has a structural budget issue that needs to be addressed forthrightly, not through a culture of willful and knowing mismanagement.
Frances Romero was mayor of Guadalupe from 2012 through 2014. Send a response for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in September 10 – September 17, 2026.
