Regatta for State Jubilee is Canceled

California’s 150th birthday is coming up next year. But don’t make those party plans yet.

A fund-raising effort to pay for the state’s major celebratory events continues to flounder, forcing the cancellation of a tall ships race planned for this summer and raising questions of whether there will be much of a statehood anniversary bash next year.

In the year since Secretary of State Bill Jones was appointed to revive the state’s limping sesquicentennial project, contributors have added only $180,000 to the corporate kitty that was to cover most of the cost of the ship race, as well as a statehood observance that is still in the planning stages.

The problem, sesquicentennial officials said, is that the San Francisco to San Diego schooner race did not appeal to corporate marketers, who also wondered why the state wasn’t contributing more to the events.

Jones is lobbying for additional state money and says several million dollars in corporate contributions may yet come in for the major statehood commemoration in September 2000, which has yet to be fully planned.

But one legislator who has followed the matter is not optimistic that there will be enough funding to stage anything major.

“At this point, I think it is highly unlikely,” said Assemblyman Michael Machado (D-Linden), who previously looked into charges of inept 150th anniversary celebration management that preceded Jones.

Although several sesquicentennial officials praised Jones’ efforts, Machado said he thought Jones’ team had not been sufficiently focused or realistic about what it could accomplish.

“There wasn’t enough attention given to what was going on and to hold people accountable,” Machado said.

The assemblyman said he could not support a bid for more state funding unless a management plan is developed to address his concerns.

As for legislative interest, he remarked, “I think most of the Legislature has had a hard time spelling sesquicentennial, much less understanding it.”

A spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis said the governor wants to see a full accounting of anniversary activities before he can respond to Jones’ request for help raising private funds.

Davis’ predecessor, Pete Wilson, asked Jones to oversee the statehood celebration plans in the wake of criticism that they were being bungled.

The sesquicentennial commission envisioned three years of celebrations to commemorate the discovery of gold in 1848, the Gold Rush the following year and California’s admission to the Union in 1850. Hundreds of small regional events have been planned, along with several larger ones to draw statewide attention.

Wilson restricted state support to about $2.9 million spread over the three years, expecting the rest to come from the private sector.

Mervyn’s donated $2 million last year and the sesquicentennial group has steered other corporate money to regional events and traveling historical and arts exhibits, which Jones said have been well-received.

But he said $4 million to $5 million was needed to hold the tall ships race, which was scheduled for this July, along with $3 million to $4 million to stage a statehood celebration next year.

Last weekend, Jones reluctantly decided to cancel the tall ships race because they lacked the money to bring the ships here.

“There was not the response I would have liked,” acknowledged Jones, who said he personally spoke to dozens of corporate representatives on the phone and met with more than 15 of them. “I’m not pleased with the result. I’m sorry we did not do better.”

State Librarian Kevin Starr, chairman of the sesquicentennial commission, speculated that “perhaps the connection with major corporations in California is more tenuous than we thought. But then perhaps the tall ships as a concept does not offer the opportunity for marketing we thought it did.”

The ship race would have commemorated the scores of sailing ships that carried prospectors to the state during the frenzied years of the Gold Rush.

Both Starr and Stockton attorney Donald Geiger, president of the sesquicentennial foundation, spoke favorably of Jones.

“My observation is Bill Jones has gotten behind it and personally spent countless hours in the corporate community,” said Geiger. “I don’t fault his efforts one bit.”

Smaller events are being held around the state. Last fall, about 17,000 people attended a gold panning contest in Coloma, where gold was discovered.