Local News in Brief : Culture Center Head Quits

The Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, which is just recovering from a series of setbacks, is losing its executive director.

Roberta McFaden-Miller, who has held the post for four years, announced her resignation Monday night before the center’s board of directors. She said she is leaving to purchase a country inn in Northern California in order to be near her mother.

The center, a nonprofit organization with 340 members, has been licensed by the City of Los Angeles to hold classes and provide studio space to artists in former military buildings at Angels Gate Park. Miller’s reign has been marked by complaints that she drove artists away by creating internal conflicts, although she has also been praised as energetic and hard-working.

Her resignation, effective Sept. 1, comes just as Los Angeles officials are about to sign a long-awaited three-year lease with the center. The signing had been delayed in the wake of the center’s troubles, which included a temporary loss of its state tax-exempt status and charges that Miller influenced the election of directors by sending notes to members telling them how to vote. The election was held again.