“Deal breaker”: Rep. on fundraising group’s terms for Mexican American Cultural Center

A deal breaker. That is how El Paso City Council representative Michiel Noe described terms requested by the non-profit group trying to raise money for the Mexican American Cultural Center.

The city and the Mexican American Cultural Institute, or MACI, have partnered to see the 2012 Quality of Life project become a reality.

In 2012, voters approved about $6 million in bond money to build the center.

The plan is to retrofit the Abraham Chavez Theater in downtown El Paso to house the center. That price tag has ballooned to $35 million.

The city has committed an extra $10 million in funding. MACI members set their fundraising at $20 million, but the group is currently in the red and the partners now have very different visions.

In order to have a legal working relationship, the city and MACI must agree to a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, which outlines each partner’s role.

MACI just presented that MOU to the council, which rejected it.

Noe took issue with some of the group’s terms.

“I think this is a deal breaker for me personally. I can’t speak for council but, I certainly wouldn’t want to agree to these terms. This isn’t what we envisioned in the beginning at all,” Noe said.

Originally the Mexican American Cultural Center, or MACC, was to be built around the existing Abraham Chavez Theater.

But the non-profit group has a new idea. Members want to build around the theater, but also move into the existing building and programming.

Corinne Chacon is a former consultant for the group and current board member.

MACI also wants the city to pay $350,000 to prep a 6,000-square-foot space at the Abraham Chavez Theater site for MACI to use within 30 days.

The group also hopes the city will rethink bond money set aside for the downtown arena to help pay for renovations to the theater.

“If there is a way for the bond money to be re-engineered or reconfigured given the developments that that $25 million can come from the quality of life to address the ADA and the deferred maintenance of a property that belongs to the city,” Chacon said.

That would perhaps explain why the group is no longer trying to raise $20 million. MACI’s new goal is $8 million.

“You have raised $27,000, which I have to tell you I was a little surprised. I was given the impression that you all were going to be able to raise quite a bit of money fairly quickly,” Noe said.

There is another snag. Information given to the city’s Bond Oversight Committee in June showed in 2016, the group’s deficit was reportedly $27,472 and in 2017 it was $37,105.

“The most recent actuals that were submitted to us stated that there was $130 in cash that they had on hand at the time. And then we were advised by email without backup that currently as of May 19, 2017 that they have cash on hand of $3,250.30,” said Tracey Jerome the director of Museums and Cultural affairs.

Former mayor Oscar Leeser and the council pledged an additional $10 million for the center that was supposed to come from savings.

But Ben Fyffe, the assistant director of Museums and Cultural Affairs said it’s not clear where the money will come from.

“There was an additional $10 million that was pledged. But, at this point, where that $10 million would come from has not necessarily been identified by the city,” said Fyffe.

Once the center is built experts predict the city’s financial role will be far from over.

“At this point there have been two studies by two different consultants on this project. Both of them came back with an operational outlook that would include a 50 percent subsidy by the city to make the center work,” said Fyffe.

During a “Sunday Xtra” show, MACI member Gus Sanchez was asked if the group was operating in the red. He answered no.

Chacon, however, told a different story at the council meeting.

“Yeah, the group is in the red. We are operating in the red. It’s $30,000,” Chacon said.
City staff said there is no deadline for construction of the center. The city has hired a consultant to help the group with fundraising.

Chacon told the council a Phoenix-based lending institution named RAZA is willing to give the group $10 million. But it’s not clear if that money will be a loan or a donation.

Council set an October first deadline for a new memorandum to be approved.