Arts Festival Members Vote on Recall

Hundreds of members of the renowned Festival of Arts held a special meeting Saturday to determine whether to launch a recall of the festival board.

Many festival members have been highly critical of the board’s plan to move the festival to San Clemente next year after its lease in Laguna Beach runs out.

The Festival of Arts has been a Laguna Beach institution for the last 68 years and annually attracts 225,000 visitors who spend about $6 million on restaurants, parking and trinkets in the seaside resort.

After years of squabbling between the festival and Laguna Beach over the $585,000-a-year rent, San Clemente offered the festival a 20-acre site that could be ready by May 2003. Annual rent would begin at $1 and increase to a minimum of $150,000 by 2014.

Whether a recall election is held will be determined by a simple majority of those who voted Saturday. If the recall election is approved--results are not expected to be made public until Tuesday--ballots will be mailed to all 2,700 Orange County members.

More than 250 Festival of Arts volunteers recently signed a petition to keep the show in Laguna Beach.

“The pastoral setting and ambience of Laguna Beach, along with its rich cultural heritage, makes Laguna Beach the perfect setting for such an event,” the petition reads. “We hope that the Festival of Arts board of directors will acknowledge and respect our wishes as pageant volunteers.”

The volunteers delivered the petition to the festival at its board meeting Tuesday.

Most of the festival’s plans for the San Clemente site were unveiled last month at a San Clemente City Council meeting. At that meeting, festival organizers said the new festival home would include a 3,000-seat amphitheater with retractable roof, a high-end restaurant and possibly an art institute.

Saturday’s ballots were being counted by an auditing firm hired by the festival. Results will be posted on the grounds, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, within 72 hours of the close of the meeting.