The former site of the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho in Nampa is without much of its usual equipment after previous management was ordered to remove “thousands of dollars” worth of appliances, donations and artwork when it vacated the building.
“The place is just devastated,” said Daniel Martinez, a longtime volunteer and former board member of the center. “They took anything they could get their hands on. The bottom line is, that building is of no use to anyone in the condition it’s in.”
Removed from the building were over a dozen computers, tables, hundreds of chairs, plates and silverware, large kitchen equipment — including refrigerators, commercial prep counters and a sink, artwork, a projector, the Wi-Fi server and router, sound equipment, the phone system, janitorial tools and even the trash cans.
Not only was it legal, it was court ordered.
Martinez acknowledged that previous management, a seven-member board led by Humberto Fuentes, director and treasurer, had the legal right to take the items when vacating the premises.
But, he said, much of the equipment had been donated by individuals and businesses for the community’s use.
“The whole idea of having the Hispanic Cultural Center is to serve the community,” Martinez told the Idaho Statesman. “Removing all those things from the building is not serving the community at all. It’s doing the exact opposite. It’s doing a disservice to the community.”
The computers were given to the center by technology company Hewlett-Packard, the Wi-Fi system by Boise-based Good Heart Technology, and artwork that once filled a second-floor gallery was sponsored by Simplot, the Boise agribusiness giant.
A large stainless steel logo, now gone, had been donated by Metalcraft, a precision sheet metal fabrication company in Boise. The logo previously hung from the wall behind the building’s front desk. The city has since filled the holes in with spackle and painted over the wall.
During a walk-through of the building Aug. 15, the Idaho Statesman observed donation placards still on the walls of many of the rooms.
Former management packs out
Fuentes told the Statesman that he and some volunteers took most of the building’s belongings to a unit at Republic Storage in Nampa in mid-July. He said he was required to remove the items.
“They gave us no warning,“ Fuentes said by phone. “We had to pack everything and be out.”
The center was ordered to leave the colorful, geometric building at 315 Stampede Drive in July after city officials sued in December to end the center’s lease over disputes with how management was running things.
The city owns the 33,000-square-foot building near Lakeview Park and began leasing it to the center in 2002 for $1 a year. The lease was set to expire after 50 years.
Initial court documents filed by the city said the center breached the terms of its lease with the city when it failed to deliver services to the Hispanic community outlined in the lease, such as hosting various activities and community-oriented programs; maintaining the building, parking lot and grounds; and providing proof of liability and fire insurance.
The city said it brought its concerns to the center’s leadership in a “friendly and informal way” as early as March 2021 and again in August 2021 and January 2022, but it became apparent that Fuentes was “not willing or able” to comply with the conditions of the lease.
“Having exhausted many efforts to gain compliance informally, it was clear that the (center) was not willing to to abide by its obligations with the lease and serve the community in the manner that was intended,” the lawsuit said.
Poder of Idaho, a nonprofit that supports Latinos and immigrant communities, wrote a letter to Nampa Mayor Debbie Kling in September 2022 that detailed alleged mistreatment, violations and grievances related to the center and Fuentes.
The letter said that as Poder brought more activities and events to the building, it was met with hostility and contempt. Poder also recalled stories of community members and organizations being hurt or “ripped off” by Fuentes and asked the city to evict the center from the building.
At a gathering in July, some Hispanic community leaders showed their support for the city taking over the building. They said they had watched the space deteriorate and become an exclusive place for only a handful of individuals.
“They’re saying that the place was falling down and in terrible condition,” Fuentes said. “That’s not true. (The city) never offered to help us at all. We’ve answered everything that they’ve asked for, and we were surprised that they took that action.”
‘Twenty years worth of stuff’
District Judge Gene Petty entered a default judgment in February after representatives of the center failed to appear or file a response to the city’s lawsuit within the 21 days required by law after being served.
The center then asked the court to set aside the judgment, saying its attorney didn’t see an emailed three-day notice of the judgment because Gmail moved it to a spam folder.
Petty denied the motion. He ordered a writ of restitution to evict the nonprofit. It was carried out by the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office on July 10, according to spokesperson Joe Decker, who said a final walk-through of the building was conducted a week later.
”The court said that we needed to get all the stuff out or else the city would dispose of it and charge us,” Fuentes said. “We were in a bind, because we are a volunteer organization. I struggled that week to get volunteers to help us move the computers, some of the personal files and all the stuff. It was 20 years’ worth of stuff that we accumulated.”
The writ of restitution ordered the center to remove its “goods and chattels” from the premises, and said if the items were not removed, the city would be authorized to seize them. Chattel is personal property that can be moved from one location to another.
“Sadly, anything that might be donated to a nonprofit entity that occupies a space can be taken with them if they have to move on to another space,” Rick Hogaboam, chief of staff to Kling, told the Statesman by phone. “I can understand the heartache that some people feel at seeing (the center) remove items that might have been donated with the intent that it was to go to the building.”
He said there was a last-minute dispute over some of the artwork on display in the building, including a replica of the Mexican Independence Bell. The bell was donated in 2022 by Mexican business owner Enrique Michel Velasco through the Consejo de Comunidades Hispanas A.C., a nonprofit that supports Mexican migrant families living in the United States. It was one of the few artifacts left in the building.
Fuentes said he’s still fighting to take back the space and operate the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho as he had before.
Looking ahead
The city is now working on a plan to turn over the building’s operations to the Hispanic community.
Hogaboam told the Statesman that the city is honoring all commitments made by prior management, including the leases of the businesses that remain in the building, such as Nuestra Gente Wellness, Maria’s Counseling and Cocola Broadcasting Co.
He also said it will honor the events and groups the building regularly hosts.
Krista Gaona-Cortez, development services analyst for the city of Nampa, grew up practicing dance at the center. She said that over the last two decades the building has been used for a number of activities, including for weddings, galas, baptisms, church services and Quinceañeras — the tradition that symbolizes a girl’s entrance into womanhood. It’s also been used for voting booths, health and immunization fairs, haircuts, back-to-school photoshoots, free tax aid, tortilla-making classes, citizenship classes and Spanish and English classes.
There are also two dance teams and a mariachi band that meet there each week, as well as a grandparents’ support group and the Hispanic Seniors of Idaho, who gather at the building once a month for potlucks.
Gaona-Cortez said the center is continuing to hold those events, even with the loss of equipment.
“It’s really been a community effort the whole way through,” she said. “We’re doing our best to host events without creating any additional impacts. We’ve also been fortunate to get tables and chairs on lease that have allowed us to keep going.”
‘A lot of potential’
Hogaboam said the city is having discussions with community stakeholders and taking requests for proposals for the use of the building.
And the city is working to recoup some of what’s been lost.
It’s also made a slew of improvements to the building since previous management left, like deep cleaning the carpets, washing the windows and replacing broken light fixtures, and has more plans in the works, according to Hogaboam. He also said the city is getting assessments done on the HVAC system and the broken water pump that originally supplied a fountain near the entrance of the building that now sits dry.
“There’s been a lot of deferred maintenance, and that’s part of what we’re trying to address,” he said. “We want it to be clean. We want it to be safe.”
Martinez said he’s looking to the future and hopes the community can pitch in to help the center.
“It’s a wonderful building, and it has a lot of potential,” Martinez said. “We want to utilize it more. We want it to be better than it used to be.”