Ad Hoc Panel to Run Cultural Arts Center

The Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center underwent a changing of the guard Monday night that officials say they hope will make the center run more smoothly.

The City Council voted 5 to 0 to dissolve the Arts Center Commission and relieve its members of the task of overseeing the center’s daily operations.

Now, an ad hoc panel made up of city officials will run the fledgling theater and gallery. The former commission members will stay on as part of the Cultural Arts Center Foundation, which focuses solely on raising a $2-million endowment plus about $100,000 a year to pay for overhead of the building.

Simi Valley council members Sandi Webb and Bill Davis, and Planning Commissioner Mike Piper will continue to serve on the ad hoc panel that will make decisions on how the center is operated.

But the council agreed to appoint two additional ad hoc members to join them--including one former committee member and another person whom the council will choose later.

The council also voted to expand the fund-raising group’s membership from five to up to 21 people.

Davis said the decision to relieve the commission of the burden of running the center was a good one.

“I think they really had more [work] than they knew what to do with,” Davis said. “The bottom line is there are just so many hours in the day and so many days in the week and you can only do so many things.”