SAN DIEGO COUNTY : Council Doesn’t Budge on ‘Political’ Changes in Arts Funding

Despite an impassioned plea by the chairman of the Commission for Arts and Culture, San Diego City Council tentatively refused Wednesday to amend the “political” decisions of a council committee that denied funding for avant-garde Installation Gallery and overturned the commission’s action blocking funding for a half dozen other groups. A final council vote will be taken June 29.

Milton (Mickey) Fredman, chairman of the arts commission, passionately urged the council to reconsider last month’s Public Services and Safety Committee vote and to stand, instead, behind criteria established this year for allocating money to arts groups. The council committee added six groups to the arts commission’s funding list of about 70 organizations.

Fredman said that the commission had been established to end a politicized approach to arts funding. Councilman Bruce Henderson acknowledged that the Public Services and Safety Committee vote to fund groups such as the African American Museum was “a political decision.”

Fredman said it was unfair to the organizations that followed the criteria to fund other groups that successfully lobbied the City Council.

“Organizations which followed the criteria are now put in an uneven position by the organizations that didn’t follow the criteria,” Fredman said.

“We went out to the arts community, and 90% said fine, we’ll do it. Ten percent said to hell with you. We’ll go to the council who have friends on our boards.” When asked, however, Fredman did not name the organizations he claimed had lobbied City Council.

Fredman agreed that the six institutions recommended for funding by the Public Services and Safety Committee were all deserving. He suggested a compromise in which those groups--including the newly organized African American Museum, the Automotive Museum, the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater, the Maritime Museum, the San Diego Inter-Museum Promotion Council and the Westgate Mainly Mozart Festival--be funded a small amount this year but compete for substantial increases in 1990, when an additional $2 million will be added to the commission’s current $5.28-million allocations budget.

Although Mayor Maureen O’Connor called for further study by the city manager’s office, the City Council closed ranks and pointedly reminded members of the fledgling arts commission that they were advisers only, and that the council members make the decisions.

Fredman acknowledged that Installation Gallery had suffered financial difficulties, including a reportedly $6,000 debt, but claimed “it is not fair to take a nine-year organization and cut them down to nothing.” At issue is a proposed grant of $42,000.

Councilwoman Judy McCarty disagreed, saying, “Installation did not meet my criteria.”

“We have a problem with Installation because we funded them last year and they weren’t able to get through the fiscal year,” McCarty later explained. “If (the gallery) can’t win support of San Diegans, why are we giving them support?

“You know, when a politician is not able to raise money for a campaign, it’s because they don’t appeal to the people. I guess artists are the same way. If they’re not able to raise money, they can’t convince people they’re any good,” she said.

In a related matter, the city manager’s office recommended reducing the arts commission’s administrative budget by $127,000 to pay for part of the additional $346,000 approved by the Public Services and Safety Committee. The remainder is to be paid from the city’s funds for downtown maintenance.

If the cut is approved, the position of public arts administrator would remain vacant until fall, said the commission’s executive director, Victoria Hamilton.