Audit looms over Art Center

Eron Ben-Yehuda

As the revamped Huntington Beach Art Center opens its first exhibit

Sunday, accounts from the previous administration remain unsettled,

prompting an audit.

The desire for an audit, approved last month, grew out of concern about

missing funds and expense records, said Michael Mudd, the center’s new

director. He wouldn’t say how much money and what type of expenses are

unaccounted for because he won’t be certain until after the audit wraps

up next month. “It would be unfair for me to speculate.”

But as head of a new staff at the center, Mudd said he wants to make sure

they begin on “solid ground.”

The shake-up began in April when a budget deficit of more than $300,000

led to a major reorganization that saw Mudd replacing the center’s

founding director, Naida Osline.

Osline, now the city’s special events director, said the center, which

received tremendous scrutiny under her watch, kept its books in order.

“There was nothing hidden about how the art center was operated.”

The city’s community services director, Ron Hagan, said pressure to

review the way the center spent its money came from the Huntington Beach

Art Center Foundation, a traditional donor often critical of the exhibits

presented under Osline’s direction. A firm will review accounting

procedures that led to cost overruns at the center, in addition to

ensuring that future donors have more control over how their money will

be spent, he said.

Osline suspects the audit is little more than a final salvo in a cultural

war she fought when the center, as part of its reorganization plan,

switched from cutting edge exhibitions to more conventional offerings.

To protest the center’s new direction, Osline’s staff of five employees

quit, forcing Mudd to fill in the ranks with new recruits.

The center had earned critical acclaim for showcasing art on such topics

as UFOs and the skateboard subculture, but that turned off donors, such

as the foundation, which the city hopes will help erase the center’s

budget woes.

“There was a lot of personal attacks on me by a lot of people,” Osline

said. “I don’t want to be blamed [for the audit] because I did a really

good job.”

The co-chairman of the center’s foundation, Gerald Chapman, disagrees and

expects an audit will prove him right. “We’re not too pleased about a

whole lot of things that went on there.”