Supervisors Urged to Form County Arts Service Agency

The Board of Supervisors should explore development of a countywide arts service organization and consider using $50,000 in park funds to support the agency, according to recommendations made Monday by the county administrative office.

Such an agency should be designated by the county as its official arts representative to the state, the CAO said. Orange County is one of only two counties in California without an official arts representative. Such representatives can obtain state and federal grants and then redistribute the funds to local arts groups.

“I believe that there is a role for the county in support of the arts,” County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider wrote in a cover letter accompanying the recommendations.

Schneider made the recommendations after Supervisor Thomas F. Riley instructed the CAO in December to conduct a study of the county’s role in arts support.

The county had an official arts representative, the Orange County Arts Alliance, until December, 1988, when the alliance voted to dissolve in the face of management and funding troubles. But the county never gave major funding to the alliance, and historically, county funding of the arts overall has been minimal.

An ad hoc committee of 27 local arts leaders, called the Committee to Form an Orange County Arts Council, has also recommended formation of a countywide agency. In addition to helping with funding matters, such a centralized organization could serve a variety of needs ranging from promotion of arts education to formation of a systematic plan for local arts activities in the next decade, say committee members.

The CAO study, which analyzed arts support programs in Orange County and in other California counties and cities, took into consideration the committee’s recommendations.

The CAO suggested that the board direct the CAO and the Environmental Management Agency to develop a plan to be presented to the board during its fiscal year 1990-91 budget hearings to begin in July.

The plan should examine alternative structures, including a private, nonprofit agency independent of county government, a partnership between the county and the private sector, and a county advisory commission that would probably not engage in significant funding.

“We would like to define what areas the county can take part in and what areas are most properly attached to the private sector,” said Sharon O. Lightholder, county senior administrative manager.

The county must determine whether $50,000 in Special District Augmentation Funds usually reserved for activities in county parks could be used to support an arts agency, according to the CAO report. The Environmental Management Agency manages these Urban Parks Program funds.

The CAO recommended against use of county general fund dollars for an arts agency. A recent CAO financial forecast indicated that the county may be facing a budget deficit of up to $63 million in two years.

The Committee to Form an Orange County Arts Council has suggested a first-year budget of $285,200 for an arts agency and urged the county to contribute $125,000 in cash or in-kind services.