Council Rejects Arts Fund Plan for Costa Mesa

The Costa Mesa City Council on Monday rejected an ambitious funding plan for an arts and tourism agency that could have increased support substantially to the city’s cultural organizations. At the same time, the council voted to give $400,000 to an upcoming retail promotion and arts festival based at South Coast Plaza.

Since August, when the council created the Costa Mesa Tourism, Arts and Promotion Corp. (TAP), there had been discussion of earmarking more than $2 million for the agency via a new fee charged hotel guests. The money would have been used for arts and cultural events and promotional activities, in hopes of attracting more tourists to the city.

The council will discuss the matter again at its next meeting, July 2. But citing budget constraints, the council voted Monday to give the agency only $25,000 in administrative support, effectively scotching any significant arts programming plans. The city already has budgeted $175,000 for 1990 grants to arts groups to be distributed through its Cultural Arts Commission.

“We came close to a $1.8-million deficit this year and had to cut proposed staff positions” to balance the budget, Mayor Peter F. Buffa said.

On the other hand, he said, the “Festival of Britain Orange County--1990” could function as “an excellent test case” to gauge whether city-supported arts or promotional events can bring worthwhile returns on the dollar, Buffa said. The festival is being sponsored in part by South Coast Plaza, owned and operated by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons Inc., whose managing partner, Henry T. Segerstrom, and his family have donated millions of dollars in cash and land to the Orange County Performing Arts Center and South Coast Repertory, both in Costa Mesa, and other county arts organizations.

“Even using the most conservative estimates of council staff, the great majority of the $400,000 given by the city will be returned, and if we go with British Festival estimates, a great deal more,” Buffa said.

City Finance Director Susan L. Temple said the city could expect nearly $300,000 in current and deferred revenues through sales tax from the festival, planned for Oct. 12 through 28. Festival officials give a more optimistic estimated return to the city of $600,000 over the next several years, based on a prediction that $20 million worth of British goods will be sold at South Coast Plaza during the event. This is expected to be above and beyond the normal retail sales for the mall, which in 1989 averaged $13.8 million per week.

“The truth is probably somewhere in between” those two estimates, and it is likely the city will end up with a $400,000 return, Temple said after the meeting.

“It all boils down to: Do you want to spend up to $2.5 million (on TAP) to find out if this approach works, or spend $400,000 to find out,” Buffa said.

TAP chairman Mike Chitjian said Monday that he is disappointed with the council’s action but will continue to press for major TAP funding.

“Costa Mesa arts organizations are in dire need of additional funding. (The current $175,000 given out through the city’s Cultural Arts Commission) just doesn’t address their needs,” Chitjian said.