O.C. MUSIC / CHRIS PASLES : Philharmonic Society Plans for Financial Freedom

On the rebound from a serious cash-flow problem, the Orange County Philharmonic Society has shelved merger talks with the Pacific Symphony and is launching a 40th anniversary campaign to raise enough money to ensure its financial and artistic independence into the 21st Century.

The goal is to raise $500,000, to be split evenly to pay for concert presentations and educational outreach programs. The society has set June, 1994, as the fund-raising deadline.

Although the society owes $100,000 in rental fees to the Orange County Performing Arts Center and still needs to eliminate an accumulated deficit of an additional $110,000, board president Steven A. Lupinacci said the society’s finances are steadily improving.

“Contributions have been going up, and season subscriptions are ahead of projection,” Lupinacci said.

“We have a very seasonable business, from a cash-flow point of view. We’re now in the higher cash- in flow part of the year. So we’re in the debt liquidation part of the year, rather than the debt accumulation part of the year.”

To focus on the fund-raising campaign, the executive board recently voted to “put on hold” merger talks with Pacific Symphony, Lupinacci said. A merger had been discussed as one way to stabilize both organizations’ financial problems.

Plans to find a replacement for Erich Vollmer, who resigned as executive director in January to take the same post with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, are going full speed ahead. Twenty people have applied for the job.

The society expects to pay off outstanding rental fees to the center by June, Lupinacci said. The center tacitly extended the society a line of credit by allowing delayed repayment until new subscription money and donations began to come in.

In doing so, however, center officials voiced objections to some of the society’s programming, specifically, a series of non-classical concerts that would bring the likes of the Chieftains, Ballet Folklorico de Mexico and Les Ballets Africains.

“We still need to convince the center that our programming meets a community need and meets our mission,” Lupinacci said.

On the other hand, even when the society repays the money, it won’t “mean much in terms of (the center) letting us off the hook,” Lupinacci said.

“They can impose conditions unilaterally. I don’t have any way to say yes or no to it. They can impose those restrictions with or without our consent. It’s their hall, ultimately.”

Lupinacci and other society officials want to put the best face on things.

“We’re looking forward to working with them. We can’t exist without them as our partner in the community. So there’s no point in doing anything except working with them as a partner.”

Meanwhile, the society seeks “to be independent of any external funding source,” he said.

“We really have the ability to do that because, unlike many organizations, we don’t have fixed operating costs to any degree.

“For years and years--38 years to be specific--we’ve financed the drought months internally, because we’ve had a surplus.

“Our surplus was eroded two or three years ago because of rising concert costs, and we had to turn to outside sources temporarily to finance it.”

Both Lupinacci and Gary M. Mattison, OCPS director of development, say they feel that raising $500,000 is a realistic goal. The campaign will be led by board member Fritz Westerhout, while State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) will serve as honorary chairwoman.

“The money will give us a little more operating freedom and the chance to stabilize,” Mattison said.

“Every nonprofit organization proceeds with a delicate balance between program expansion and organizational stability. We need to keep our feet on the ground.

“Next year, we’ll look at establishing an endowment and where we want to go in the next 40 years. A lot of that will come from the next executive director.”

The new money will not go toward retiring the accumulated deficit. But Mattison said there are plans to “retire the deficit at the end of the next fiscal year.

“This is a critical year and a critical campaign for us,” Lupinacci said. “Regaining financial independence is always a critical thing for an organization. But this is a year, make no mistake, in which we will achieve financial independence.”