Laguna Beach City Council Opposes Museum Merger Plan

Saying the planned Newport Harbor-Laguna Art Museum merger is not in the best interests of the city, its residents or its “cultural heritage,” the Laguna Beach City Council voted 4 to 0 Tuesday night to oppose the proposal.

The council also asked Laguna museum members to vote against approving charter and bylaw changes necessary to implement the merger. The museum membership, which has already approved the merger in principle, must vote on the additional changes by Wednesday.

“I really feel this is our only chance to save our museum,” Councilwoman Kathleen Blackburn said, encouraging her colleagues to oppose the merger. “I think the time is right to do this.”

The council voted after hearing from a string of speakers, most of them opposed to the merger. The council’s vote is intended to help kill the merger, but the city has no authority over the museum.

Councilman Paul Freeman abstained from the vote.

Council members also wondered aloud where the city would get the money to help support the 78-year-old landmark museum, which would become a semiautonomous branch of the consolidated Orange County Museum of Art if the merger succeeds. Merger supporters and Laguna Beach residents have asked the city to help fund the satellite.

Councilman Steve Dicterow said the city could put a “culture tax” on the ballot to see if voters would approve it.

Also Tuesday night, an attorney for Motivated Museum Members, a group seeking to block the proposed merger, confirmed that the group had delivered to the Laguna museum a petition signed by enough museum members--more than 180--to ask for a special meeting to vote on recalling the museum’s trustees.

The museum’s bylaws require it to schedule such a meeting within 90 days.