What Changes Did Fresno Arts Council Make to Remain County’s Art Rep?

After a $1.8 million embezzlement fiasco involving taxpayer dollars mired the nonprofit in controversy, the Fresno Arts Council appeared before the Fresno County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, asking to remain as the region’s representative for arts funding.

The ask comes after the group says it has implemented substantive changes to the structure of the organization, including hiring an independent firm to handle finances.

The resolution, which was approved unanimously at the supervisors meeting, means the arts council can keep the “local partner” designation with the California Arts Council. While the group will not handle any county money, that designation opens the region up for grants from the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, said interim executive director Andrea Mele.

Mele said none of the group’s paid leadership is still in place, and that they have instituted oversight that will prevent the theft from happening again.

“We mentor, encourage, and facilitate members of our community to achieve their artistic goals,” Mele said. “The Fresno Arts Council is committed to earning back your trust through vigilance, transparency, and tireless dedication to the grants and programs we manage.”

Outside Hiring Firm to Handle Transactions

Mele said they’ve instituted several structural changes following the theft, including hiring an outside firm handle not only monitoring, but transactions. She said board members daily track banking activity and review and sign for every payment.

Karen Simpson, vice president of the arts council, said she and another board member — both of whom have accounting backgrounds — are going through every past check, including canceled ones, to make sure the proper person deposited it.

The group also parted ways with paid leadership, Simpson said.

“One was terminated, and one I would rather not comment,” she said.

She did not provide additional information about who those people were or about how the theft went on for so long without anyone knowing, a question asked by Fresno County Board Chair Garry Bredefeld.

County Administrative Officer Paul Nerland offered some reassurances to board members saying the agreement does not involve county money.

“When something like this happens, the entities do become the strictest and the best to work with because of the experience that they had, that would be our expectation,” Nerland said.

Arts Council Helped Make Fresno an Arts Hub: Bohigian

Earlier this week, former operations manager Suliana Caldwell pled guilty to one county of wire fraud in federal court.

Since that controversy, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded the nonprofit a project grant that has now gone out to nine local artists in rural areas, Mele said.

Those areas include Auberry, Sanger, Selma, Coalinga, Firebaugh, Del Rey, Kingsburg, and Yokuts Valley. A call to Mele by GV Wire was not immediately returned for further details.

The nonprofit runs other programs including one with Selma Unified to bring art to classrooms. The nonprofit also runs the Fresno Poet Laureate program.

Former Fresno Poet Laureate Megan Anderson Bohigian said it was because of the arts council that the Poet Laureate role has become so widely known.

“Fresno is known internationally as a poetry center. It’s partly known that way because the arts council has continued to create programs that bring art, bring poetry to county schools,” Bohigian said at the meeting.

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