Museum Merger Foes, Supporters Sound Off

Several hundred vocal opponents of the Newport Harbor-Laguna Art Museum merger clashed with supporters Monday night at a meeting to vote on 19 initiatives designed to overturn the agreement.

A final vote count on this latest effort to dissolve the consolidated Orange County Museum of Art is not expected until Wednesday, when proxies will have been tallied and voting rights verified.

Applause and boos punctuated emotional speeches from people on both sides of the issue, with many anti-merger members complaining that their questions were not answered.

“This agreement was designed to fail,” said Vern Spitaleri, president of Motivated Museum Members, the opposition group. He referred to the agreement between the new museum and the Laguna Heritage Corp., by which the corporation will raise some $22,000 a month to keep a satellite museum open in Laguna Beach.

Charles Martin, one of the two trustees who engineered the merger, said that like a child, “it cannot be divided.” He appealed to the anti-merger group to put their differences aside.

Balloting at the Sheraton Newport Beach Hotel marked the third time that members of the Laguna Art Museum have voted on the merger but the first time that the membership of both institutions has been polled. The merger was approved in the first two tallies but by increasingly slim margins.

Trustees of the two museums agreed to the merger in February.

One question before the voters on Monday was whether to replace trustees with members of Motivated Museum Members.

Another resolution proposes canceling the sale of the rest of the Paul Outerbridge photography collection, which the Laguna museum had consigned to auction. In April, 29 of the Outerbridge works sold for $938,200; the several dozen remaining pieces are to go on the block in October.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Raymond J. Ikola denied a Motivated Museum Members request to reverse the merger, saying the group failed to support contentions that trustees violated laws in conducting the two previous referendums.