Guadalupe council dissolves capital campaign committee, creates Royal Theater oversight committee

Guadalupe City Council voted on Sept. 9 to rescind its prior action creating a capital campaign committee for the Royal Theater project and to establish a temporary oversight committee that will operate under the Brown Act and report to the council.

City staff presented the recommendation at the meeting, saying the previously formed capital campaign committee had legal status as a Brown Act body and that staffing that body would be burdensome. “I apologize for my error on that,” the staff presenter said, explaining staff had concluded the existing arrangement needed clarification.

The move comes as the city reported preliminary bids for the Royal Theater renovation: city administrator Mary Pozzoli told the council the low bid opened Sept. 9 was $9,355,000, followed by $9,780,000, $10,575,000 and $10,643,000. Pozzoli said the engineer must still review unit prices and other line items before the city makes any award.

Council and staff spent more than an hour debating how to balance community input, transparency and staffing burdens. Staff recommended either rescinding the earlier committee and creating a temporary advisory body made up of fewer than a quorum of council members (which would avoid some Brown Act requirements) or formally creating a Brown Act oversight committee with membership, agendas and minutes. Staff also said one person should be the centralized contact for the capital campaign, rather than a dispersed committee.

Council member Funesse said the community’s repeated requests for clearer information made a regular, transparent meeting schedule necessary. Others argued a smaller two-member advisory group that meets as needed would be less resource-intensive for staff. Staff said those two members could meet with the city administrator, finance director and city engineer on an ad hoc basis; the council retained final authority to set the committee’s structure.

Council acted on two motions. First the council voted to rescind its prior actions creating the capital campaign committee; that motion passed unanimously. Second, the council voted to create a temporary, Brown Act oversight committee to advise on the Royal Theater project; that motion passed with one member recorded as voting no. Councilmembers said the oversight committee’s membership and formal appointments will be set at a future meeting.

The council also discussed whether Tom Bradbury, the city’s engineer, or another staff member should serve as the single point of contact for the campaign; staff said it has previously considered hiring a consultant but that community-based leadership had been the preferred approach. Members asked staff to return with a clear role description and appointment timeline for the oversight committee and for any campaign coordinator.

The council’s formal motions and votes will be reflected in the minutes; staff said appointments to the oversight committee would be agendized for a future meeting.