OCPS Will Appeal Lower State Grant : Funding: Arts Council concern about salaries, diversity are misplaced, director says.

IRVINE —  The Orange County Philharmonic Society will appeal the state arts council’s decision to reduce the society’s 1994-95 grant by more than one-third, society director Dean Corey said Monday.

A council program manager said last week that the grant was lowered to $20,687 from $33,005 last year because the California Arts Council is concerned that the society’s administrative salaries are increasing while the salaries it pays artists are declining. Further concerns, the program manager said, were a lack of cultural diversity among the group’s board members, and what the council considers insufficient board involvement in outreach programs.

Corey said Monday that the administrative “salaries probably went up a little, but not significantly.”

On the grant application, he said, “I consolidated all the salaries, which makes it look like they took a big leap. Previously, they had been scattered around--in the marketing budget, the development budget, the administrative budget and the education budget. . . . Evidently, we didn’t footnote that properly.

“On the other issues, we don’t have enough of a diverse representation on board membership, but we certainly are diverse in the people we serve, probably more than any other Orange County arts group.”

Corey said he will file the appeal after he receives the arts council’s written notification of its action, in about three weeks.