Festival Members OK Vote on Recall

Members of Laguna Beach’s popular Festival of Arts have overwhelmingly approved a recall vote for the organization’s beleaguered directors, under fire for considering a plan to move the annual event to San Clemente.

The decision, announced Tuesday, came just one day after festival vice president Lance Heck resigned to protest a proposal to move the event from Laguna Beach, its home for 68 years.

“It saddens me that politics and name calling have become the focus,” he said after submitting a letter of resignation citing differences with other board members.

The festival will send ballots within 60 days to its estimated 2,700 voting members in Orange County.

In June, the San Clemente City Council approved a plan to lure the festival to 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. The offer followed years of squabbling between the festival and Laguna Beach, which last year charged $585,000 in rent.

The nine-member board now has four open seats. Before Heck stepped down, Richard Bianchino resigned earlier this month citing personal reasons; David Young stepped down in May after more than 50 years on the board; and Hedy Buzan, whose father served on the board in the 1960s, left late last year. Young and Buzan both cited the rent and relocation controversy as factors in their decisions.

The recall decision “was combative, and it doesn’t secure the greater goal of keeping the festival in Laguna Beach,” Buzan said Tuesday.

Robin Hall, a festival member who helped spearhead the recall vote, said, “I know a lot of people who are optimistic.”

But festival president Sherri M. Butterfield expressed confidence that the board will prevail. “If my mail is any indication,” she said, “I’ve had about 75 e-mails and letters in the past week from people who have an open view and welcome the board’s decision to support the arts and operate independently” from Laguna Beach.