Hard-line library battle softens up

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- At the 11th hour, just before the Newport Beach Public

Library Foundation was about to get kicked out of the very institution it

was created to serve, library trustees have gone back to the negotiating

table.

The struggle over financial control of the foundation that has spanned

more than a year became so heated in the last three months that it landed

in the City Council’s lap last week. The council, concerned the fight was

pitting some of the community’s finest citizens against each other,

offered the group professional counseling, among other suggestions.

While foundation chair Dave Carmichael embraced the idea, trustee chair

Jim Wood said the board had already spent far too much time trying to

resolve the dispute. Trustee Patrick Bartolic later said he stood by the

decision.

Now, however, Wood says he and the other trustees are ready to come to

the table and start from scratch.

“I wanted to talk about the other issues that were dividing us,” Wood

said, adding that once he realized the discussion could be expanded to

include those other problems, the trustees were more open to talk.

Wood said the issues included moving the foundation’s office within the

library, and sponsorship over the Distinguished Speakers Series, which is

a joint event but charged to the foundation.

Although it was the foundation that was supposed to be kicked out of the

library, Wood insisted that this new move was not related to the dispute.

The decision was well-received by Carmichael.

“We are on the road to solving this,” he said.

He added the trustees have not backed down from their original concerns

regarding financial misconduct. Last October, the trustees accused the

foundation of spending 50% to 70% of its donations on operating costs,

gleaning from the $1.5 million endowment fund and keeping murky financial

records. However, an audit did not reveal any discrepancies.

Still, trustees insist they just wanted a more clear understanding of how

donations were allocated in order to protect the library’s good name to

protect against any hint of scandal.

“If the city manager was embezzling money, they would look at the city

council,” Bartolic said.

In the meantime, some foundation members, in light of the growing

allegations, speculated that perhaps the dispute was prompted by their

refusal to support Wood’s vision of turning the library site into the

community’s cultural hub.

Last week, foundation member Don Adkinson said the problems with the

trustees began when the nonprofit entity refused to support the board’s

plans to build $200,000 arches in front of the library.

The foundation had also refused to endorse the proposed $12-million Arts

and Education Center that would be built next to the library, even after

a presentation that Wood and other supporters made.

Wood and other trustees, however, deny the accusations and say the

foundation’s refusal was not a problem.

The man credited for bringing the increasingly disparate parties together

is Mayor John Noyes.

Despite a reluctance on the council’s part to get involved, relations

between the two sides had almost descended beyond repair.

“I think things are in a better frame of mind,” Noyes said. “I’m very

optimistic.”

The two groups will meet again next week to begin solving their

differences in earnest.