Kozberg Elected Chairman of California Arts Council

Joanne C. Kozberg, a powerful figure on the Los Angeles arts scene, has been elected chairman of the California Arts Council.

Kozberg, a Republican appointed to the council in 1986 by Gov. George Deukmejian, is vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Music Center, president of its Blue Ribbon support group, which donates $1.8 million annually, and vice chairman of the Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee, a key planning board for the future home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic slated to open on Bunker Hill in 1993.

Kozberg, a former senior policy consultant to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), succeeds Harvey Stearn, a Mission Viejo land developer who served two one-year terms as council chairman.

In taking the gavel at the council’s first regular meeting of 1989 held here Friday, Kozberg, 44, praised Stearn, particularly for helping to launch the council’s first fellowship program for individual artists.

Stearn, who with council member Bryan (Whitey) Littlefield, was recently reappointed to the council for another four years, lauded Kozberg: “She brings to this post an unusual degree of administrative skill and a knowledge of what’s happening in the field.”

The 11-member council, assembled at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, also elected two vice chairmen, Littlefield of Long Beach and Sally Arnot of Eureka. They succeed Joyce E. Pollock of Sacramento.

In another key action, the council voted on a method to trim $3 million, or about 20%, from its current $15.6 million budget--should it have to make that reduction.

The cut, which would shrink the council’s 1989-90 budget to $12.6 million, was proposed by Deukmejian earlier this month. It is the largest council budget reduction he has ever recommended. But the matter now goes before the Democratic-controlled state Legislature, which could restore some or all of the $3 million before the new budget is signed into law on July 1.

The council’s reduction method would, with some exceptions, trim all council grant programs equally by about 20%, or $2.8 million, rather than eliminating any single program, Stearn said.

The exceptions are smaller reductions to programs that if trimmed too drastically could lose critical federal or private sector matching grants. In addition, if the $3-million trim is required, the council voted to cut its $3.1-million administrative budget by only about 7%, or $224,000, to avoid staff layoffs or salary reductions, Stearn said.

“We feel that (the council staff) is the muscle by which our grant programs are allowed to happen,” he said.