Transition Team Quizzes L.A.’s Nodal : NEA: The meeting fuels rumors that the Cultural Affairs Department chief is among the candidates to head Bill Clinton’s arts endowment.

Adolfo V. Nodal, general manager of Los Angeles’ Cultural Affairs Department, met this week with members of President-elect Bill Clinton’s transition team, fueling rumors that Nodal is a candidate to head the National Endowment for the Arts.

Nodal was in Little Rock on Wednesday to lead a conference on urban design issues organized by the Clinton team.

“There was some discussion about the NEA, but it was very preliminary,” said Nodal, noting that he had not met with Clinton himself but with two members of his transition team. “I don’t think the Clinton Administration is focused on the NEA yet. It’s really a little early for them.”

Nodal would not comment on rumors that he was being considered for the NEA post and said that he had not been approached “directly” about the job. Nodal said, however, that he had met with Clinton representatives Christopher Hyland and Rodney Slater about organizing a transition team of arts professionals from around the country. While Nodal hasn’t been given the go-ahead yet, he said the meeting could be held soon in either Los Angeles, Little Rock, Washington or New York.

Neither Hyland, a Clinton political director in charge of ethnic outreach and cultural issues, nor Slater, a deputy to the transition director, could be reached for comment Friday.

“This is the first administration in 50 years, probably the first administration ever, where they have included arts and culture as a theme,” Nodal said, noting that the Administration is looking at ways the arts can help the nation in terms of competitiveness, the use of ideas and as an aid to combatting social ills like homelessness.

Nodal has received both praise and criticism for his administration of the L.A. Endowment for the Arts, which awards about $3 million in grants annually. While the endowment was one of the first municipal programs to award funds to individual artists, it has also come under fire for its social service orientation.

If offered the job, Nodal, who formerly worked in the nation’s capital as head of the Washington Project for the Arts, said he would “definitely consider it, but there’s a lot that I’m still doing for L.A. There’s more to be done here.”

The list of rumored candidates for the NEA post has included everyone from celebrities such as Lauren Bacall to Joan Mondale, who chaired the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities during the Carter Administration. Other names frequently mentioned include Deborah Sale, who directed the council under Mondale’s leadership, and Beverly Lindsey, who is a former director of the Arkansas Arts Council.