COMBO Head Quits Rather Than Take Cut in $75,000 Pay

Robert W. Arnhym, head of COMBO, the countywide arts funding agency, resigned Tuesday after being told that his $75,000-a-year salary would be cut.

Arnhym’s decision also was influenced by the news that the City Council planned to consider forming an arts commission that would diminish the role of COMBO, a private organization, in arts funding.

COMBO President Harold B. (Skip) Starkey said Arnhym resigned as executive vice president and chief operating officer rather than submit to the pay cut.

The Combined Arts and Education Council of San Diego County has been under fire for a year because of its operating costs. Arnhym’s salary, which represented 22% of COMBO’s $336,000 expenses last year, was specifically criticized.

Starkey advised Arnhym on Tuesday that, because of City Council scrutiny and increased public attention, he was forced to reduce Arnhym’s pay. “I told him we had to make drastic cuts,” Starkey said. “He said ‘I can’t take that kind of reduction in salary,’ so he resigned.”

Arnhym, whose resignation was “effective immediately,” was unavailable for comment. A COMBO staff member said Arnhym was “very upset.” Arnhym had been involved with COMBO in various capacities for 20 years.

The City Council action influencing Arnhym was the likelihood that the Public Services and Safety Committee will recommend formation of a public arts commission that would be responsible for granting hotel and motel tax proceeds allocated by the city, a COMBO news release said Tuesday.

Councilwoman Gloria McColl, chairwoman of the committee, said she had sent a memorandum to the city manager Monday suggesting a study of the “overall structure of cultural arts allocations” by the city. On Tuesday, McColl asked that the study include the possibility of establishing an arts commission with responsibility for all arts fund grants.

The City Council currently considers allocations to several museums and other arts organizations on an “as needed” basis, in addition to money earmarked for COMBO.

McColl said she had studied funding in Seattle, San Jose, Denver and Los Angeles, and found “we are the only city that does it the way we do.”

Since 1973, COMBO has received an increasing share of the money the city provides for the arts. Last year it received about $900,000.

The Public Services and Safety Committee was due to consider the city’s arts funding programs today.

Meanwhile, without Arnhym, COMBO is “like a ship without a rudder,” COMBO spokeswoman Linda Shirer said. She added, however, that “COMBO has every intention of continuing on as a fund-raising agency.”