Arts Council Administration Under Fire

One of the state Assembly’s Democratic leaders has blasted the staff of the California Arts Council for spending money on itself that it could be spending on the arts.

“The council’s administration is bloated at the gills,” Speaker Pro-Tem Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) charged at an Assembly subcommittee hearing here Wednesday. “And its mission has become how can we make life easier for the bureaucrats, instead of how can we fund” artistic achievement.

Roos’ attack on the arts council’s administration under director Robert Reid marked the first time that Reid has come under fire in the Legislature since his appointment more than two years ago by Gov. George Deukmejian.

In an interview after the meeting, Reid denied that there is any fat in the council’s administrative budget and denounced Roos’ attack.

“None of these people (in the hearing) have ever been to” the council’s Sacramento office, Reid said, red-faced with anger. “You have to come and see how many of our staff people are working on two or three projects at a time.”

Roos, a member of the Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee No. 4 that oversees the state’s arts budget, harshly criticized the arts council’s administrative spending. He claimed that 24.8% of its proposed $15.6 million budget for fiscal 1988-89 would be spent on administration, versus the 13.2% of a $48.4 million budget that New York’s arts council will spend to run its programs, for instance.

Roos’ claims led subcommittee chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) to postpone consideration of a council budget increase (probably until the end of May, an aide said) pending a legislative analyst’s scrutiny of the council’s administrative spending.

Gov. Deukmejian’s proposal to add $1.1 million to the council’s current $14.5 million budget would bring its total to $15.6 for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1. The California Confederation of the Arts, the state’s arts advocacy organization, and staunch legislative arts supporters are hoping for at least $3.9 million more.

Not since Reid’s predecessor Marilyn Ryan held office has council administration been castigated in the Legislature. In 1985, Ryan clashed with both Waters and Roos over various issues, including their concerns over grants to minority arts groups.

A related issue largely prompted Roos’ attack Wednesday. The assemblyman was angered over the rejection, by arts council staff, of a first-time application from the Los Angeles-based Armenian Film Foundation for a $44,000 grant. The application was rejected primarily because it was handwritten, not typed, as the council policy requires.

Reid defended the typewritten requirement, saying that it “gives every applicant a fair chance” and “makes life easier” for some 400 volunteer grant panelists who annually evaluate about 3,000 applications (most at least 30 pages long).

But Roos interrupted Reid’s explanation, almost shouting: “We’re not in the business of making your people comfortable.”

Reid said that the handwritten application would have placed the film foundation at a distinct disadvantage against competitors. “The panel will think it’s shoddy compared to others,” he said.

Council deputy director of programs Juan Carillo added that the foundation’s application was the only one out of about 1,000 received so far this year that hadn’t been typed.

Assemblywoman Waters called for the analysis of the council’s administrative budget and put on hold a vote to increase its fiscal 1988-89 budget. “We have a problem here that has to do both with sensitivity (toward the Armenian Film Foundation’s application) and the legitimate question” of excessive spending, she said.