SIMI VALLEY : Arts Group Leader Stepping Down

After a year as head of a Simi Valley arts group that runs a small city-owned theater, Acting President Bill Appleton is stepping down.

Appleton, 46, has informed the board of the Simi Valley Cultural Assn. that he is leaving the group to spend more time with his wife and three children, ages 11 to 16.

“Like with a lot of volunteer organizations, you find the more you give to them the more they demand,” Appleton said. “You get to the point where you take a look and say, ‘My God, I’m never home and I never do anything with my family.’ ”

Appleton, who works as a video and still photographer at GTE in Westlake Village, said his resignation marks the end of his work with the association.

“I’m the type of person that when somebody wants me to do something, it’s really hard to say no,” Appleton said. “It wouldn’t work for me to just try to cut back. I really have to cut the whole thing off.”

Under Appleton’s leadership of the association, the city agreed to waive the monthly fee it charged the group to lease a 90-seat theater near the Police Department, enabling the association to put its profits back into the theater.

“I have the deepest respect for Bill and his commitment in everything that he undertook,” board member Irene Silbert said. “He did quite a lot to help our relationship with the city.”

Appleton will be replaced by Acting Vice President Jan Glasband, 42, a commercial graphic artist who joined the association a year ago.

Glasband will serve as acting president until the association holds elections in the spring.

“Our immediate goal is to continue to work together to increase interest in the arts in Simi Valley,” Glasband said.