County Support for Arts Council Thrills Backers : Funding: Local arts officials say they are happy despite administrative office’s recommendation of $235,200 less than they requested.

The head of a local ad-hoc committee urging formation of a countywide arts service agency said Tuesday that he is “thrilled” by recommendations for a similar agency made Monday by the county administrative office.

The county office recommended that the Orange County Board of Supervisors explore development of such an agency and designate it as the board’s “state-local” partner, or official arts representative to the state. It also suggested that the county use $50,000 in park funds to support the proposed agency.

The ad-hoc Committee to Form an Orange County Arts Council had recommended a first-year operating budget of $285,200, with nearly half to come from the county. Committee Chairman Charles Desmarais said he is not bothered by the $235,000 difference.

“Our immediate response is that this is fabulous,” said Desmarais, director of the Laguna Art Museum. “The county administrative office has basically recommended the same things (our) committee has recommended.

“Rather than focus on the disparity between what we wanted (and the administrative office’s recommendations), our group will be more likely to focus on what high-quality art resources can we provide to our community,” Desmarais said.

While the committee’s funding recommendations “still stand,” he added, determination of an ongoing budget for the proposed agency should be the agency’s own decision, and not the committee’s, which plans to disband once an agency is formed.

The county report was requested by Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, who asked for a study of the county’s role in arts support. Historically, county funding of the arts has been minimal. Riley had not read the report by Tuesday morning. A meeting of supervisors’ aides to review the report is planned for next week, according to Riley aide Stephen Blanchard. No action on the recommendations is scheduled.

Meanwhile, Desmarais answered concerns of Harvey Stearn, a California Arts Council member from Irvine who has said the committee’s outline for an arts agency is too broad and may duplicate efforts of existing organizations, particularly Orange County’s Business Committee for the Arts. Stearn is a longtime board member of the BCA, a nonprofit organization that encourages business support of the arts and offers some technical assistance to arts groups.

“We have no intention of duplicating efforts of the BCA,” Desmarais said. “The reason that the report is extremely broad is to allow a new local arts agency to set a more particular agenda. We didn’t want to tell another group exactly what to do. We wanted to say, ‘Here are some basic needs that could be filled.’

“There is a range of needs that the BCA has no interest in and no mandate to address,” Desmarais added. “Those needs, we think, ought to be addressed by some other agency.”