Angels Gate Arts Center Hit With Additional Setbacks

The Angels Gate Cultural Center, whose recent board election is being contested by members who say the vote was tainted, has suffered a series of additional setbacks--one of which could jeopardize a pending lease agreement between the arts center and the city.

The new string of problems has prompted one city official to suggest that the board of the San Pedro cultural center review the performance of its executive director.

“To be frank with you,” said Mario Juravich, aide to Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, “I just think that the cultural center doesn’t have a competent staff there.”

Lease in Question

Since the beginning of October, the center for the arts at Angels Gate Park has:

Lost its corporate status and its status as a California tax-exempt, nonprofit organization because of its failure to file a past tax return. Although Angels Gate officials say they have filed the return, Juravich said his office will ask the city attorney to determine whether the loss of tax-exempt and corporate status affects the lease.

Lost the right to use two of its facilities--a barracks and bunker--because they do not conform to city electrical standards. The closure prevents the center from holding theater productions and resulted in the cancellation of a Halloween Haunt two days before the holiday.

Lost money--the center’s budget for October was $4,000 in the red, although center officials said Angels Gate is ahead $1,500 for fiscal year 1988, which began in July.

George Beck, president of the Angels Gate board, told board members Monday night that “we knew (October) was going to be a bad month, but we didn’t know it was going to be that bad.”

Despite Juravich’s statements, Beck said the board is supportive of Executive Director Roberta McFaden Miller. “I recognize that Bobbie Miller has strengths and weaknesses as does any other human being I’ve ever dealt with,” Beck said. “The board is cognizant of her strengths and weaknesses and feels that on balance she has done a super job.”

Review Recommended

But Juravich said the board should conduct a review to see if the problems are due to “the negligence of the executive director.”

“Somebody should be held responsible,” he said.

Angels Gate Cultural Center had been a private, nonprofit corporation licensed by the City of Los Angeles to run cultural and arts programs at Angels Gate Park, which was once part of Fort MacArthur. The center lost its tax-exempt and corporate status Oct. 1.

The cultural center makes its home in a group of converted Army barracks on about seven acres of the park, which sits high on a bluff with a splendid view of the Pacific and Los Angeles Harbor. The center offers studio space to artists and holds classes in dance, ceramics, painting and acting, among other disciplines.

When the corporation was first licensed by the city in 1981, it envisioned building a privately financed, multimillion-dollar cultural complex complete with a 500-seat drama theater and an art gallery.

By 1986, however, those dreams had failed to materialize, and city officials who were concerned about how the center had been managed decided to seek proposals from other organizations interested in running the center.

When no other groups applied, the city decided to grant the center a three-year, rent-free lease. That lease was approved by the Department of Recreation and Parks in August but has not yet been approved by the city attorney. The center currently operates on a month-to-month extension of their license agreement with the city.

Final approval of the three-year lease is being delayed by the dispute over the September election of 15 board members. The board is elected by the center’s 340 members.

The ballot was structured in two sections to ensure the reelection of 13 incumbents. The first section listed 13 seats and the incumbents’ names and asked voters to pick 13 names. The second section listed three candidates and asked voters to choose two. Miller, the executive director, acknowledged enclosing unsigned notes in some ballot letters instructing center members on which two candidates to pick.

The candidate who lost, Anne Alberts, was not one of the two recommended by Miller. Alberts has accused Miller and the board of orchestrating the outcome of the election, a charge they deny.

Board members say the two-tiered ballot was structured in accordance with the spirit of the bylaws, but said the bylaws are confusing and are being revised.

A lawyer for Alberts said she will file a suit against the center.

Prompted by complaints from Alberts and other center members, Flores and officials of the Department of Recreation and Parks have asked the city attorney’s office to review the election.

Mark Brown, the lawyer for the city who is looking into the matter, said he hopes to have a report by next week. However, Brown said he will not decide the outcome of the election, which he said is the cultural center’s private business.

“I will be advising the city as to what impact the . . . challenge to the election might have on our relationship with” Angels Gate, Brown said.

Brown could not say what effect the suspension of the center’s corporate and tax-exempt status will have on the lease. He said he would be reluctant to enter into a contract with a suspended corporation, but noted that if the center has its status reinstated it may not make a difference.

He did say, however, that the center must maintain its tax-exempt status as a condition of its license with the city.

Diane Gill, harbor district recreation supervisor for the Department of Recreation and Parks, said the department will look into the suspension.

There is disagreement over the year for which the cultural center failed to file a tax return.

According to Jim Reber, a spokesman for the state Franchise Tax Board, the cultural center did not file a return for 1986.

However, center officials insist that the year in question is 1984. Beck and Thomas Towse, a former board president who is an accountant, said notification of the lack of filing was sent to the home of a former board member, who did not notify Angels Gate officials. Neither Beck nor Towse would identify the former board member, and both say 1984 was before their election to the board.

Reber, however, said that if the forms had not been filed in 1984, the corporation would have been suspended by 1985.

The impact of the suspension is unclear. According to Reber, it means that the center has lost its right to do business in California as a tax-exempt corporation. However, Reber noted that Angels Gate is still covered by its federal tax exemption, and therefore donors should not be concerned about losing their deductions. An Internal Revenue Service spokesman agreed.

Reinstatement Expected

Towse and Beck say that they expect the corporate status to be reinstated by the end of this month.

As for the electrical problems at the barracks and the bunker, Beck said the cultural center hopes to bring the barracks up to code. Repairs to the barracks, which houses a darkroom, a small theater and some art studios, should cost about $2,000, Beck said. He said the cultural center is trying to raise money for the repairs.

The bunker, which belongs to the Coast Guard, will be more expensive to fix because in addition to electrical repairs, asbestos must be removed from heating ducts. Beck said the center can’t afford these repairs.

Angels Gate used the bunker as a backstage area for its outdoor amphitheater. Theater productions relied on the bunker for electricity, bathroom facilities and dressing rooms.

The Coast Guard has rescinded its lease with Angels Gate and has no immediate plans for repairing the bunker, a spokesman said.

Despite its problems, Beck said the cultural center still has hopes for building an arts complex. The long-term plan, he said, is to ask for a 20-year lease after the current three-year lease expires. With a longer lease, he said, it will be easier for the center to raise money.

Over the short-term, Beck said, Angels Gate Cultural Center just hopes “to try to survive these crises that come up.”