Private-public partnership agreed upon for arts and education

center

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT -- An ad-hoc committee of library board and city Arts

Commission members decided Tuesday on a governance model for a proposed

arts and education center.

The model will be presented to the public as part of a study to

determine the community’s need for such a facility. It also will be shown

to companies when soliciting private donations.

Roberta Jorgensen of the Arts Commission and Patrick Bartolic, a

library trustee, presented the committee with six different options, with

varying degrees of private or public control.

The committee swiftly narrowed the selection down to three models and

eventually chose one in which the city owned the building, but the center

had a separate governance.

Under the model, the Newport Arts Foundation or another nonprofit

group would oversee the board, and the Arts Commission, public members,

library trustees and Newport Beach staff would jointly make decisions.

Council members John Noyes and Jan Debay both supported the model because

it would allow the most people to get involved.

“It’s a great opportunity for partnership,” said Noyes, who added that

while he thinks the city is good at overseeing parks and other public

facilities, art “needs more freedom.”

But the voting was not without debate.

There was significant concern as to whether the governance should be

private or publicly controlled. Some members felt the city should oversee

the center, while others argued that under that scenario, the committee

could not then request private donations.

If left to the city, board Chairman Jim Wood said, taxpayers would be

responsible for about a half-million dollars a year -- something most

residents would not agree to.

The committee plans to meet again Sept. 22 to detail precisely how the

governance board would be structured.