Laguna and Festival sign lease

Barbara Diamond

After six sometimes contentious and sometimes downright nasty

years of negotiating, the city and the Festival of Arts signed a

lease Tuesday night.

“We took the time to make sure that all ambiguity is gone,” Wayne

Baglin said.

The council approved the lease 4-0. It was signed at the podium by

members of the Festival board and on the dais by the four council

members present. Steven Dicterow was absent.

“I feel wonderful about being here tonight,” Festival board

President Bruce Rasner said. “The measure of a contract is that it

benefits both sides. We all wanted the same thing and I think we got

it.”

The signing was taken out of the order it appeared on the agenda

so that retiring council member Paul Freeman could participate.

Freeman, Dicterow, Baglin and Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman all

negotiated at different times on behalf of the city. Negotiations

were begun six years ago at the suggestion of then-Mayor Wayne

Peterson, hoping they would be concluded before the old lease

expired.

Rasner and Bob Dietrich negotiated for the Festival after a

previous board was recalled while trying to move the festival to San

Clemente.

“For two years, I have been sitting in a little room with one

other council member, usually either Paul or Wayne, and Bruce and

Bob,” Kinsman said. “Mostly we met over there because they have food

and our city manager is known to be parsimonious, so we don’t have

food.

“I love you all,” he said. “You are the reason the Festival is

still here.”

Outgoing Festival board President Scott Moore said he signed the

lease on behalf of all the artists who rallied to save the Festival

for Laguna.

“I attended the San Clemente City Council meeting the night

[ousted board President] Sherri Butterfield signed the letter of

intent to move,” board member John Campbell said. “I stood up and

said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen don’t pop your champagne corks too

soon.’”

Kathleen Blackburn, who served the city as mayor during a

particular trying time with the Festival now sits on the Festival

board.

“I am thrilled this is finalized,” Blackburn said.

However, a couple of glitches have cropped up, said by both sides

to be easy to resolve.

The current legal description of the property the Festival

occupies at 650 Laguna Canyon Road doesn’t allow even the present

buildings to exist on the site, according to Rasner, let alone allow

the expansion plans.

City officials said it would be rectified.

The Festival board also requested a letter from the city verifying

that the council agreed with the interpretation of some language in

the contract as understood by the board.

Primary terms of the contract:

1. The lease term is 40 years, retroactive to Oct. 1, 2001, to

apply to the current festival season.

2. Payment to the city will be 3.5% of revenues from Pageant of

the Masters tickets, grounds admissions and rents paid to the

Festival by food and beverage vendors.

3. The Festival will pay 6% of those same revenues into a Festival

Improvement Fund. The fund will be used only for improvements to the

Festival grounds, agreed upon by the council and the Festival board.

4. Performances of the Pageant and the Festival are required to be

held on the festival grounds in Laguna Beach.

5. The city of Laguna Beach must be the primary location for the

Pageant.

6. Any assignment of the lease is subject to city approval.

7. The city has final authority on subleases, if there is

disagreement among the four members of the Irvine Bowl Policy

Committee, comprised of two council members and two Festival board

members. Two members of the City Council will be appointed at the

Dec. 17 meeting to serve on the committee. The committee will be

charged with ensuring that the bowl facilities are used in accord

with the terms of the lease.

8. A study already underway on the feasibility of building a

300-space parking structure behind the Laguna Playhouse will proceed.

The Festival will continue to have the use of the parking behind

the Playhouse, the city park nursery on Olive Street, and the city

will continue to sell the Festival parking spaces in the city

employee lot, number and cost to be determined.

Capital improvements began this year in anticipation of the lease.

Replacement of an inadequate storm drain was started in September

when the festival season ended.

Construction of shops for carpentry, sculpture and painting is

next on the agenda.

Plans for renovations also include a new facade, improvements to

the bowl, conversion of the Festival Forum Theatre into a museum to

house the Festival’s art collection and a construction of a new

theater.