Music Center’s Lost Luster

* I read your article “Music Center Head Sought Payment for Political Gifts” (April 26) with utter amazement and disbelief.

For many years San Fernando Valley arts and cultural groups have received a disproportionate and inequitable share of city and county cultural and arts funds. It would appear that Esther Wachtell and at least one other high-level official of the Music Center knew how to influence elected officials to increase public funds for a downtown nonprofit organization--the Music Center.

If your reporter’s facts are true, Wachtell’s behavior should be investigated by city, county, state and federal entities. Likewise, if Mayor Tom Bradley is shown to have violated the spirit and intent of the City Cultural Affairs Department competitive grant process procedures, he should be held accountable to proper authorities, if any. It would also be interesting to determine if Bradley acted alone or consulted with others to give the million-dollar grant to the Music Center and/or its companies.

My figures indicate this one deal is close to 10 times the amount allocated to all San Fernando Valley arts and performance groups during the last two-plus years. Since no Music Center company has ever worked with the San Fernando Valley Arts Council to optimize whatever limited outreach programs they conduct, I challenge the Music Center to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of their “trickle down” approach. Wachtell’s $200,000 annual salary plus expenses is completely indefensible from any equation defining public arts benefit.

JAMES (JERRY) DOMINE

Woodland Hills