City Council OKs Funds for 66 Special Arts Projects After Debate

In a 7-2 vote Monday, the San Diego City Council agreed to spend $566,914 for 66 special arts projects by local organizations. Councilmen Ron Roberts and Bruce Henderson voted against the expenditure.

The amounts for individual projects range, for example, from $1,428 for dance workshops at three high schools--sponsored by the Betzi Roe/Creative Movement Workshop--to $39,220 for an aviation and aerospace camp for seventh- and eighth-graders students, sponsored by the International Aerospace Hall of Fame.

In between are allocations of about $4,000 to $12,000 that will pay for art exhibits, educational theater programs, plays and musical shows throughout the city. All of the projects will take place by June 30.

Monday’s vote came after an hour-plus, sometimes contentious debate that originated last December when the special-projects recommendations by the Commission for Arts and Culture were presented to the council.

Some council members, led by Mayor Maureen O’Connor, at that time expressed objections to the recommendations, saying the projects did not reflect the original intention of the commission’s Special Projects Program.

O’Connor said the projects were not designed to bring in tourists, as originally intended when the program was set up in conjunction with the Hotel/Motel Assn., which provides the transient occupancy taxes that pay for arts programs.

That debate, on Dec. 10, ended in a 6-0 vote asking the arts commission to explain why the grants did not agree with the council’s understanding of the program. O’Connor repeatedly said the program was set up to fund blockbuster arts programs to attract visitors from out of town.

At Monday’s council meeting, Jess Flemion, chairwoman of the arts commission, explained that the commission had followed the guidelines established in 1990 for a pilot program approved by the council that spent $89,615 for 27 projects on small and large arts organizations.

Like the 1991 program, the earlier projects were designed to promote art in San Diego neighborhoods, including many small and relatively inexpensive multicultural and educational programs.

On Monday, Flemion said that, if the program is to continue, a policy is needed to avoid misunderstandings. However, she asked the council to vote for funding as recommended for this year’s projects, saying, “We felt that it was too late to make any significant changes to these recommendations.”

O’Connor, expressing impatience with the process, asked for a compromise vote that would approve the commission’s recommendations, with the caveat that the commission come up with a policy that “truly reflects the intention of the Special Projects Program.

“At the eleventh hour, I think compromise is the most prudent approach,” she said.

After the vote, Flemion expressed relief that the request had been approved. “We’re taking this one step at a time,” she said. “I’m glad they understood that this was the right way to go.”

She said it will be “one to two months before we would be ready to go to the (council’s) Rules Committee” with a policy for future programs.