Recall Bloc Says It Has Signatures

Motivated Museum Members, a group trying to block the planned merger of the Laguna and Newport Harbor art museums, has gathered enough signatures to call for a vote to recall Laguna museum trustees--at least one of whom isn’t sweating the effort.

By Sunday morning, about 140 of the Laguna museum’s 1,800 members--50 more than necessary under museum bylaws--had signed MMM’s petition requesting a special meeting to vote on the trustees’ ouster, according to MMM president Vern Spitaleri.

Spitaleri said MMM plans to deliver the petition Tuesday. The museum would then have 35 to 90 days to schedule the special meeting, according to MMM’s attorney, Belinda Blacketer of Laguna Beach.

Trustees contend the merger could be completed in 26 days. But Spitaleri believes the state attorney general, who must approve the merger, won’t “allow it to happen” if a threatened recall is pending. The attorney general’s office could not be reached over the weekend.

Laguna trustee Darrel Anderson, a member of the museum’s executive committee, said he wasn’t surprised by the number of signatures MMM has compiled given the “completely one-sided . . . misinformation” the group has issued. He said he is confident a recall attempt will fail once voters have been given both sides of the story.

“I wouldn’t be concerned at this point,” he said Sunday.

MMM wants the Laguna museum to remain independent. Under the proposed merger agreement, the museum would remain open as a semiautonomous satellite of the consolidated Orange County Museum of Art.

Anderson said he does not know whether a recall could be voted by those museum members attending a special meeting or if a quorum would be required.

Museum members, who approved the merger by a narrow margin late last month, are voting now on charter and bylaw changes including one that would allow members to vote by proxy.