LAGUNA BEACH : Arts Festival Board Eliminates Position

Just six months after naming Bruce Lloyd general manager of the Laguna Festival of Arts, the festival board has released Lloyd and eliminated that job.

Spokeswoman Sally Reeve said the position was cut because board members decided that they would rather deal directly with department heads than work through an intermediary. Before Lloyd was hired, the general manager position had been vacant for about 10 years.

“It was a short-term experiment that didn’t work,” Reeve said, adding that what happened is “certainly nothing against Mr. Lloyd.”

The festival departments include the Pageant of the Masters, in which models pose in representations of famous artworks.

Lloyd, a management consultant and Laguna Beach resident, was hired in January. The nine-member board voted unanimously to eliminate the position Aug. 6. Lloyd was previously general manager of the private University Club of Los Angeles and of the Waialae Country Club of Honolulu.

When the board hired the general manager, some artists objected, saying that they had been excluded from the process and that Lloyd appeared to have no experience in arts administration.

Reeve said that Lloyd was recruited by an employment agency and that the board had interviewed about a dozen people before choosing him.

Lloyd will be on the payroll until Sept. 15, Reeve said.