Sen. Helms-Type Edict Is No-No, ACLU Tells City : Censorship: Costa Mesa vice mayor says the policy will not contain restrictions on arts content and will apply to all organizations seeking money from the city.

Members of the Costa Mesa City Council, who at their last meeting ordered the city attorney to draft new policies on awarding arts grants, were warned in a letter Thursday of “vigorous opposition” from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California if there is “any attempt to enact Helms-type language.”

The ACLU letter was prompted by broad content restrictions proposed by two Costa Mesa residents, John and Ernie Feeney, in a letter to Mayor Peter F. Buffa, which he passed to City Atty. Thomas Kathe as a possible model for new arts grant contract language.

Vice Mayor Mary Hornbuckle said Thursday that she had not yet received the ACLU letter but that she understands the language being drafted will not include content restrictions and will be “rather generic” compared to that proposed by the Feeneys.

In wording that mirrored language proposed by Sen. Jesse Helms for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Feeneys proposed this clause: “By accepting this grant, the recipient agrees to neither visually nor verbally, deliberately denigrate anyone’s race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical handicap, marital status, sex or age.” The Helms proposal was rejected by Congress.

In a statement, the ACLU said the Feeney proposal “fails both the spirit and the law of the First Amendment.” The language, the statement continued, “is vague and overbroad” and provides “no fair idea to either the artists or the government officials evaluating applications as to what art will be denied funding by the city.”

Hornbuckle said she has been told that the new contract language will require that organizations provide strict accounting showing that none of the money is used for political activity, a procedure that Hornbuckle said is widespread, but will not include content restrictions. Furthermore, the language would apply to all organizations that receive funds from the city, not just arts groups. The draft language could be put before the city at its meeting Monday.

The brouhaha started when the city, acting on a complaint by John Feeney, delayed distribution of $175,000 in cultural arts grants to investigate whether South Coast Repertory used any city funds in printing and distributing flyers supporting the NEA. Such an expenditure would have put the city in the position of endorsing a political activity, according to Buffa.

The funds, including $30,000 for SCR, eventually were released when the theater company assured the city that no public money had been used for the flyer.