3 OFFICIALS BALK AT AID FOR FESTIVAL

Los Angeles Festival organizers ran into a sharp and unexpected political roadblock Tuesday afternoon when they appeared before a City Council committee seeking “special event” status and city co-sponsorship.

Co-sponsorship of the 3 1/2-week festival, which begins Sept. 3, would mean a waiver of certain fees for installing banners along downtown and Hollywood streets,as well as obtaining the assistance of various city departments. Additionally, the festival--successor to the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival--wants the city to cover the costs of renting various pieces of equipment, from forklifts to portable toilets, amounting to about $25,000. The waived fees are about $1,500.

Signaling displeasure with the issue from the start, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s Finance and Revenue Committee, said slowly: “This is a fascinating one--a very fascinating one.”

Yaroslavsky questioned the justification of the city granting special favors to a $5.8-million festival, which is now projecting a surplus of $200,000, at a time when it turns away less affluent arts groups.

Although the roadblock may only be temporary--the three-man committee voted to hold the matter over for a week for further study--this was apparently the first political obstacle in the festival’s otherwise smooth path. It was also apparent that, as Yaroslavsky noted, an extra $26,500 was not going to “make-or-break” the festival. Still, prestige is involved.

“We have a list of people, we just slammed the door in their face,” Yaroslavsky said, speaking of grants recently awarded through the city’s Cultural Affairs Department. “Last month we cut them--some offbeat, some mainstream, none of them running a $200,000 surplus, none of them with the kind of corporate sponsorships that you (the festival) have.

“So my conscience tells me,” he added, “whether it’s more appropriate to say, ‘Dip into your surplus,’ or ‘Take some of your surplus and invest it in some of the other arts enterprises that are taking place all over town (and operating) on a shoestring.’ ”

Yaroslavsky, who is touted as an opponent of Mayor Tom Bradley in 1989, also appeared to be challenging the mayor, who is acting on the festival’s behalf by formally addressing a letter to the council asking for special status.

However, Yaroslavsky was not alone in his criticisms. He was joined by his two committee colleagues, Councilmen Robert Farrell and Richard Alatorre.

Farrell mentioned community complaints about lack of local black participation in the festival, while Alatorre asked why South Central (which Farrell represents) and East Los Angeles (which Alatorre represents) weren’t included as festival sites. Although Alatorre indicated he might not oppose the extra city money going toward the festival, he added: “I don’t think you can get a real accurate view of what Los Angeles is about in 12 square (downtown) blocks.”

Farrell noted that “three times in the past month” the council has heard complaints involving local minority participation in the festival. Two weeks ago, for example, Dance Umbrella, representing community interests, asked the council for money to produce a separate minority arts festival to coincide with Los Angeles Festival. No action was taken.

Outside the committee room, Farrell sounded more incensed. He indicated he would like to see the Community Redevelopment Agency take back its $1-million challenge grant to the festival. “Is it in the bank? Has the check been cashed?”

A spokesman for the agency said the second $500,000 check to the festival was delivered two months ago, and “we don’t see any reason to take it (the money) back.” He said they have fulfilled the requirements of community outreach, making about 10,000 tickets available, either free or to senior citizens and students at reduced rates. The spokesman added that the festival also met CRA requirements by holding a majority of the events downtown, and by crediting the agency through sufficient “publicity” for giving the money.

Asked by Yaroslavsky to justify “the city paying when you have a $200,000 surplus,” Leigh Drolet, an associate festival director and general manager, explained that the money would be used to help fund the next festival planned for 1989.

“Do you think $26,500 is going to be the make-or-break point as to whether or not this festival goes on?” Yaroslavsky shot back.

Drolet responded that the festival was “a gift to the city of Los Angeles . . . that will take place primarily downtown, in theaters and outdoors.”

“We waive fees for people who are losing money,” answered Yaroslavsky after his colleagues spoke. “That’s not to say we wouldn’t consider waiving fees for the festival, but when you’re running this kind of surplus. . . .

“We are engaged now in a vigorous screening process on a lot of other arts groups,” Yaroslavsky continued, “and the kinds of grants that other arts groups in this town apply for, who are not typically the beneficiaries of some of the sponsors of the festival, who can never get in the door to talk to some of these sponsors.”

As chairman of the finance committee, which reviews the mayor’s budget, Yaroslavsky was referring to this being an unusual budgetary year for local arts groups.

During the budget process this spring, the mayor cut the cultural grants budget from $975,100 to $507,900, and the matter went to Yaroslavsky’s committee where another $55,000 was added, bringing the arts-grants budget up to $562,900.

However, in June when the cultural budget went to the council floor, there were so many additional requests from council members--27 more arts groups to be funded at $140,510--that the council sent the matter back to Yaroslavsky’s committee. There, according to Yaroslavsky’s chief deputy Alisa Katz, the additions were trimmed to $105,500, “with some groups coming in at a lower amount and others cut altogether.” In July the council approved the changes for fiscal 1987-1988, with a total arts-grants package of $668,400.

Besides the CRA’s $1 million, the festival also received $2 million in Olympic surplus money from the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and is projecting a minimum of $1.4 million in ticket sales.

Corporate sponsorship accounts for nearly all of the remaining $1.4 million in the $5.8-million budget, including $500,000 from Times Mirror Co., $250,000 from Occidental Petroleum and $125,000 each from Security Pacific and AT&T.;

After the meeting, Tom Schumacher, an associate festival director, said he was surprised by the committee’s reaction. “We have done quite a lot of corridor work, we spoke with all the deputies, and not one of them requested more information from us.”

He added that the festival is “presenting local artists” and will “reflect a multicultural nature. Earth Players and Market Theatre from South Africa with ‘Bopha!’ (a play about apartheid), Urban Bush Women (a New York-based dance group). The late Joe Liggins’ Honeydrippers is a local (black) group. There are black artists in a number of productions. There are black artists in ‘Mahabharata’ (Peter Brook’s nine-hour epic based on Sanskrit legends from India), Bella Lewitzky has three black performers and one Pacific Islander.

“It’s obscene to go through who has black artists,” Schumacher added. “This festival was not designed to be a celebration of Los Angeles arts; it’s a celebration of international arts. . . . We’re giving away 4,000 Cirque (Le Cirque du Soleil, Canada’s theatrical circus) tickets in outreach to youth organizations in East Los Angeles. We’re not raping the community here.”

Festival officials also pointed out that while the city’s average cultural grant ranges from $2,500 to $5,000, major grants still go to major institutions, including $50,000 to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, $35,000 to the Mark Taper Forum and $25,000 to the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Echoing the international theme, Valerie Fields, the mayor’s cultural aide, sniffed: “Different officials have different views. The mayor sees Los Angeles as a world cultural center. Other people may have a more parochial view.”

Asked about the international perspective, Farrell retorted: “Everything is local. It’s not international streets. These are city of Los Angeles streets.”

Festival Director Robert Fitzpatrick, who also directed the Olympic Arts Festival, was not present at the committee meeting Tuesday. As the new president of the $2-billion Euro Disneyland project to be erected outside Paris, he is at Disney World this week in Orlando, Fla.