Arts Panel Votes to Restore $19,000 Opera Pacific Cut

Opera Pacific stands to be $19,000 better off after the California Arts Council approved a new procedure Friday that would give back grant money it previously withheld.

The Costa Mesa-based group won’t get the money immediately because “there are absolutely no funds left in this year’s budget,” council director Robert Reid said Friday. But he added: “They will definitely get their grant money next year.”

Opera Pacific briefly had its Arts Council rating and accompanying grant amount reduced from $51,000 to $32,000 last year but won a reinstatement of the rating on appeal. It was the first time that a large-budget arts group had successfully appealed a council grant action.

Although the Arts Council restored the company’s rating, there was no mechanism for reinstating the portion of the grant that was withheld.

On Friday, at a regular meeting in Los Angeles, the council unanimously voted to adopt a measure that will, retroactively, allocate money to large-budget arts groups that successfully appeal Arts Council grant decisions. The money would come from any funds left in the budget at the end of the fiscal year, “which almost never happens,” a staff member said.

If there were no leftover funds, successful appeals would be placed in a priority position to have additional or reinstated monies awarded the following year--contingent on the governor’s approval of the council’s budget.

This would be in addition to whatever funds a group may be awarded in the regular course of that year through the CAC grant process.

The only thing now standing between Opera Pacific and its $19,000 is the unlikely prospect that the governor would ax the Arts Council’s budget entirely, or the entire allocation for large-budget ($1 million and over) organizations.

When the council took its vote, Opera Pacific managing director Martin Weil sighed and said, “Thank you,” adding, “Hopefully, this will make it easier for other people in the same situation” to get grant money restored.

“Until today, I wasn’t counting on this money,” said Weil, one of only about half a dozen members of the public who attended the meeting. “Now I’m counting on the money.”

The original rating and grant reduction centered on charges that the company used electronic amplification during opera productions. Upon appeal, Arts Council members decided that the charges were unfounded.

Weil also took the opportunity to make a plea to the governor to change his mind about a proposed cut in the council’s budget for next year.

Speaking on behalf of the California Confederation of the Arts, of which he is a board member, Weil asked Gov. George Deukmejian to reconsider his proposed $3-million cut to the Arts Council’s 1989-90 budget and approve, instead, an increase from the current $15.5 million to $17.8 million for the next budget year, which begins July 1.