Paper Purge by Art Festival Board Draws Attention

Employees and artists at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts said they have witnessed documents being shredded and bags of papers being torched in a kiln on the famous grounds, but festival board members contend that it is nothing more than a little autumn housecleaning.

Still--with a large chunk of the festival board having been recalled and suspicions rampant--nobody seems to know quite what to make of the situation.

Five board members, who drew fire when they tried to move the 68-year-old art festival to San Clemente, have until Tuesday to clear out. And until they leave, employees and artists said, they don’t know what they will--or won’t--find.

“We are shredding. It’s standard,” explained Sherri M. Butterfield, a recalled board member and the mayor of Mission Viejo. “There’s nothing odd about it. Most businesses will destroy old or outdated documents.”

Jon Tschirgi, a stage manager who has worked for the art festival for a decade, said he has seen shredded documents left for the trash hauler at least every other day.

“Every one of us at the festival agrees that there has never, ever been this quantity of shredding,” Tschirgi said. “It’s surprising to me there’s any paper left in the administrative office.”

Employees said it appears that paperwork--at least 50 bags of it-- has been shredded or burned in the kiln and then put out with the trash. Exhibiting artists said they don’t know if anything will be left for new board members to thumb through.

“No one has a clue what they’ve shredded,” said Bruce Rasner, a photographer and now a candidate for a seat on the board. “It’s very unsettling to the members and the artists. These are documents that ought to be available to the new board to get this festival back on the right track. It shouldn’t be the board’s decision what to throw away, because they are leaving.”

Butterfield said that only multiple copies of documents, obsolete personnel records and old ticket-order lists have been destroyed.

“It caught everyone’s eye because we are leaving,” she conceded. Butterfield said that all festival records, including minutes, financial reports and check stubs, are kept in a computer.

“Nobody is destroying anything that is detrimental to running the business,” she added.