4 Due to Be Ousted From Arts Board

The San Diego City Council is scheduled to replace four incumbent members of the Public Arts Advisory Board today in a move some observers call “political revenge.”

The slate of six nominees to be presented to the council also would fill two vacancies on the 11-member board.

Ed Pieters, the outspoken chairman of the board, called the action, scheduled for the afternoon’s session, “a real lack of integrity.” Pieters and board members George Driver, Victor Ochoa and George Saadeh would be replaced if the nominees are approved.

The four each received a three-sentence letter last week thanking them for their service on the arts board, which was formed in 1984 to advise the City Council on arts matters.

The four terms expired last summer but Pieters said they were asked to serve an additional two-year term and they agreed. However, the office of then-Mayor Roger Hedgecock failed to put the reappointments on the council agenda to be voted on. Meanwhile, the members continued to serve because, they said, they hadn’t been asked to resign.

Pieters, a local artist who is nationally recognized for his paper sculptures, thought it strange when he received a letter from acting Mayor Ed Struiksma Friday thanking Pieters for “your willingness to serve past the time your term expired.”

“I thought what does this mean? It doesn’t mean we’re going to toss you off the arts board,” Pieters said. But when he called the mayor’s office to check on the letter, he found that was exactly what it meant.

Pieters admits being outspoken in pushing for several arts programs that have been passed, including an arts program that sets aside 2% of the city’s annual capital budget. For this year, the program is expected to generate more than $250,000 in public funds for commissioning or purchasing artworks.

“We have never really submitted to the whims of the staff members who are trying to influence the direction of the arts board,” he said. “I did what I thought was correct for the city.”

Attorney John Howard, vice chairman of the board, called the move to replace the board members “political revenge, pure and simple.” Howard said the action is an effort to “weaken the arts board by taking away some of its most eloquent voices and most tireless workers.”

Struiksma said he notified the City Council in the normal 30-day time frame that the positions were “up for appointment.” Asked if political revenge motivated the new appointments, he said, “The fact of the matter is nobody renominated any of the incumbents. Anyone could have nominated them.”

Earlier this year, board member Betty Riis, sister of former City Councilman Bill Mitchell, was replaced by Alice Silverberg. Silverberg was nominated by Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, who had defeated Mitchell in the November council election.

The six people who have been nominated for the advisory board are artist Barbara Weldon; Lynne Peterson, director of university events at UC San Diego; Stuart McLean of the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Arts; Cornelius Page, a professor at Mesa College; Consuela Miller, who has restaurant interests, and Sandra Pay, former president of the San Diego Opera.