{"id":346783,"date":"2026-06-04T17:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/346783\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T17:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:55:10","slug":"fresno-city-council-to-discuss-measure-p-arts-grant-changes-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/346783\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno City Council to Discuss Measure P Arts Grant Changes Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a special meeting on Thursday, the Fresno City Council will reveal how a recreated Measure P committee will determine eligibility for the millions of dollars in arts grants.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited rules come as the city of Fresno takes over control and administration of the tax money.<\/p>\n

With the meeting set to begin no earlier than 3:30 p.m., councilmembers will consider the creation of the Parks, Recreation, and Arts Commission Ad Hoc Committee.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That advisory committee will recommend on how future arts grants should be determined before heading to the council for approval.<\/p>\n

Ad Hoc Committee Follows Measure P Debacles<\/p>\n

Artists have been awaiting rules governing the third round of Measure P arts grants. City Manager Georgeanne White previously told the public that she and Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer were hesitant about evaluating artistic merit.<\/p>\n

White also said that she wanted outside voices heard in awarding the grants to avoid accusations of favoritism about the Fresno Arts Council\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

The Fresno Arts Council began administering the grant money after a contentious fight in 2023 about the arts portions of the 3\/8-cent sales tax measure. That tax primarily benefits city parks.<\/p>\n

After the arts council took control of the grants, it was revealed that one of its employees, Suliana Caldwell, embezzled $1.8 million from the nonprofit.<\/p>\n

Caldwell pled guilty in April<\/a> to stealing the funds in a plea agreement negotiated with federal prosecutors. She is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 10.<\/p>\n

Following that controversy, the city reclaimed Measure P arts money to distribute arts grants<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a special meeting on Thursday, the Fresno City Council will reveal how a recreated Measure P committee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-346783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}