Poll suggested to test support for arts center

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- The city’s arts commissioners might have the money to

poll residents and prospective donors about their willingness to support

a proposed arts and education center, but city officials have informed

them that only the City Council can approve such a study.

“The commission does not have the ability to contract with”

consultants to conduct a study, said Hallie Strock, the city’s cultural

arts coordinator.

The Arts Commission’s hands will be tied until a council-appointed ad

hoc committee on the center concludes its work, Strock told commissioners

last week. No deadline has been set, however.

Councilwoman Norma Glover, who has chaired the ad hoc committee until

now, said she didn’t expect to continue in that role after the new

council members are sworn in Dec. 12.

“The new mayor will be naming a new committee,” she said Friday,

adding that she expects Councilman-elect Steve Bromberg to take her post

because the land for the arts center is in his District 5. “I will not be

working with the committee.”

The $12-million project on 3.5 acres of open space behind the Newport

Beach Central Library has pitted the Arts Commission against members of

the city’s Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission.

Along with community groups such as Stop Polluting Our Newport, the

parks commission opposes the center on the vacant land.

With only a few parcels of open space left in the city, arts center

opponents have said the project would diminish Newport Beach’s greenbelts

even further.

Still, arts commissioners began talking about studying the proposal at

their meeting Wednesday, which was held at the library, just a few yards

below the proposed site of the arts center.

Commissioner Don Gregory said an anonymous donor had agreed to put up

an undisclosed sum to pay for the study.

In addition, the donor already has pledged to contribute a minimum of

$1 million to the project, he said, adding that the amount might increase

if the study shows overwhelming community support for the center.

“Then that minimum [pledge] of $1 million could turn into more,”

Gregory said.

While he supports the study, Gregory said he is concerned about

polling people on their willingness to make donations.

“Politically, it’s more important to have general support” for the

project, he said.

Fellow Commissioner Catherine Michaels said getting information on

potential financial backers was equally necessary.

“We don’t just want to find out for ‘X’ thousands of dollars that

people support a location” for the center, she said. “We also want to

find out whether they are willing to pay for it.”

Michaels, a management consultant for nonprofit organizations, said

she had conducted similar studies for other projects.

Although she said it was impossible to put a price tag on the study,

such endeavors typically range from $15,000 to $75,000, depending on how

many people are interviewed.

But talk about hiring consultants to do the study is premature, said

LaDonna Kienitz, the city’s community services director and librarian,

who serves as liaison to the arts commission.

The commission was “really just gathering information,” said Kienitz,

who did not attend the meeting.

“They are in no position to be doing anything,” she said. “This is a

council issue.”

Kienitz said council members would have to accept a donation for the

study before the city could commission such a survey.