OTTON KEEPS LAGUNA ART MUSEUM JOB

William Otton, director of the Laguna Beach Museum of Art for the past 4 1/2 years, has disclosed that he is staying in the Laguna Beach post after considering several possible administrative jobs outside of Southern California.

In a phone interview Monday, Otton said he had “just signed” a 3-year pact with the Laguna Beach museum. Although he will be earning the same salary, $40,000 a year, he will be receiving additional fringe benefits and will have a contract for the first time, he said.

Museum board officials Monday confirmed that Otton was now employed on a contractual basis.

Earlier this year, Otton said he had accepted--but later turned down--an offer to be director of the Rockford (Ill.) Art Museum, a Chicago regional museum that is planning a major expansion. He said other jobs he had considered included directing posts with the San Jose and the Monterey Peninsula art museums.

Otton said he has been “well aware” of speculation that he might leave the Laguna Beach museum at a time when the museum was embarking on a large-scale expansion, including reconstruction of the museum’s main site.

“This kind of job search was part of my field; you keep all your (job) options open,” said Otton, who was associate professor of art at Corpus Christi State University in Texas before joining the Laguna Beach museum.

“But I’ve decided to stay here (Laguna Beach),” he said. “There’s so much happening here and the board has been quite supportive. I want to stay to see the expansion here fully completed.”

In a key staff decision last June, the museum board--acting on Otton’s recommendation-- terminated the post of chief curator of exhibitions and collections that had been created only 11 months earlier. The job had been held by Robert McDonald, former director of the Art Museum of Santa Cruz County and former chief curator of the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.

Otton said he had “made a mistake” in urging creation of the chief curator’s post last year. He said such a post should be filled after the Laguna Beach museum’s main site is reopened in 1986.

Reconstruction began last week on the main site, closed since April 26. Otton said Monday the structural expansion is now expected to cost about $200,000 more than the originally estimated $850,000.

The museum board is to decide Aug. 29 whether to continue its “satellite site” operation at the South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa beyond 1985.