Board speaks on festival

Mike Swanson

Three incumbent Festival of Arts board members, all Laguna Beach

residents, questioned the credibility of some of the board’s harshest

critics this week after a Saturday forum they said was fraught with

misinformation stemming from more than a month of unsubstantiated

rumors.

Former mayor Kathleen Blackburn, John Campbell and Bob Dietrich

spoke out Wednesday in defense of comparisons to the previous board,

whose members were recalled, and accusations that those who support

board President Bruce Rasner and Executive Director Steve Brezzo

don’t care about Laguna Beach.

“We have the city’s best interest at heart,” Blackburn said. “We

care about this city’s heritage, its traditions, and though some

people don’t want you to think so, Bruce [Rasner] does, too.

Sometimes his manner’s a little rough around the edges, but nobody

cares about the festival and pageant as much as Bruce.”

The Saturday gathering on the grounds featured speeches by eight

candidates running for three open spots on the board. Two candidates,

Rasner and senior member David Young, are running for re-election.

Artist Myron Van Ness said that though he didn’t support Rasner, he

certainly didn’t support what any new candidates were saying, either.

“All it was, was a ‘Beat up on Bruce Rasner day,’” said Van Ness,

a festival exhibitor for 21 years. “I felt bad for him. He’s made a

few mistakes, and he isn’t the kind of guy who’s all that likable,

but deep down, I think, he has the festival’s best intentions in

mind.

“But I didn’t see anybody Saturday that I’d support,” Van Ness

said. “Neither side has presented itself very well.”

Van Ness mentioned the festival board’s reported plan to franchise

the pageant among the art community’s concerns, which Campbell

pointed out as one of the most upsetting rumors.

“Not once has the word franchising come up on the board,” Campbell

said. “There’s no way in hell we would do something like that.”

Discussions have been made to license the pageant, not franchise

the pageant, Campbell said, but even those discussions have been just

that -- discussions. Nothing concrete has come from those

discussions, he said.

Becky Christensen, managing attorney with the William Levin

Intellectual Property Group in Laguna Beach, said there are several

kinds of licensing agreements one can get, so it’s difficult to

compare licensing to franchising without knowing what kind of license

is being sought. Franchising, however, typically involves a bigger

bundle of intellectual property with more rules attached, she said.

“I would suspect that the reason why they’d want to differentiate

between [franchising and licensing] is because some licenses allow a

more narrow use,” Christensen said. “Franchising is almost always

immediately associated with McDonald’s, and I’m sure they want

nothing to do with that.”

Campbell and Blackburn said discussions with International

Creative Management were improperly leaked to the press by a board

member who wasn’t happy the discussions were taking place at all.

“What got a lot of people so upset out of the gate is that we

didn’t bring anything to them, and there’s a real simple answer to

that -- we didn’t have anything to bring,” Campbell said.

Blackburn said that in her eight years on City Council and her

year and a half years on the festival board, she’s seen that board

members are most effective in their decision-making when they discuss

differences among themselves first before going public. Members of

any board should always consider the health of the organization as a

result of your actions, she said.

“Disagreements are a part of being on any board,” Blackburn said.

“But it’s very inappropriate and unprofessional to take something

you’re upset about and try to make the public as upset as you are,

especially when you don’t have your facts straight.

“[Licensing] has only been one thing that’s been considered, but

because of how this all started, it’s being incorrectly seen as the

only thing,” she said.

Festival artist Terry Thornsley said that it’s too bad the

licensing idea ever came up, because there’s just no way a majority

of the art community would support it. He attributed its entrance

into the festival to Brezzo, who Thornsley doesn’t believe should be

employed by the board at the salary he reportedly earns.

“He doesn’t understand the show,” Thornsley said. “He hasn’t spent

enough time with the artists to get in tune with what we think is

important. I don’t know enough facts to get into anything about his

past, I just know his ideas so far haven’t reflected the art

community’s attitudes.

“But I know I’d feel guilty receiving that much money from an

organization that makes its money through its volunteers,” Thornsley

said. “It’s almost obscene.”

Some in the art community have grumbled about Brezzo’s past at the

San Diego Museum, questioning his hiring in light of reports that his

expense accounts were often exorbitant.

Blackburn, Campbell and Dietrich said the board did an extensive

background check on Brezzo before hiring him and found nothing wrong.

Dietrich added that Brezzo was at the museum for 19 years and raised

its endowment from $6 million to $60 million, and that the board

couldn’t find anyone at the museum to say anything bad about him.

Blackburn said that as a nonprofit organization operating on a $6

million to $7 million budget, the board needed an expert to manage

its growing funds and the pile of legal debt amassed by the last

board. Dietrich said the last settlement involving the former board

was just reached last month.

“It’s typical for organizations like ours to have an executive

director,” Blackburn said. “When you’re managing this much money, you

need an expert, and we found one in Steve.”

Laguna Beach residents haven’t given Brezzo or the current board,

whose members other than Young are relatively new, enough time to

make rash judgments, Campbell said. Brezzo’s there to take care of

some of the things the board isn’t expert at handling, and he

shouldn’t be judged after less than a year of service, he added.

“The thing people have to understand most is that we’re here for

the artists,” Campbell said. “If we see something that isn’t good for

the artists, the festival or the city, then we’re not going to do

it.”

Campbell’s wife, Lu, has exhibited at the festival for 25 years.

Campbell, who’s lived in Laguna Beach for most of his life, said

people shouldn’t be so scared about the festival growing, as its

history proves that it gets progressively bigger.

“The show used to be two, then four, then eight weeks,” Campbell

said. “We’ve had to hire a special-events coordinator part-time, then

full-time, to manage the grounds during the 10 months it isn’t in

session. Growth isn’t out of the ordinary.”

Young has repeatedly said the festival and pageant are fine the

way they are, and that the trend toward making things bigger has

nothing to do with the festival and everything to do with money.

“[The board majority is] thinking, ‘Boy, this is big business, and

we’re going to run this big business,’” Young said. “They aren’t

thinking about the city or the artists, no matter what they tell

you.”

Artist Monica Dunham said she’s afraid to believe what she reads,

as the recalled board was quoted in newspapers saying it had every

intention of staying in Laguna before trying to make the move to San

Clemente.

Van Ness doesn’t see the correlation.

“This board doesn’t deserve to be compared to the old one at all,”

he said. “They haven’t done anything but talked. It’s just too bad

[Rasner] doesn’t communicate well with the artists. I appreciate his

vision to improve the festival, but everything’s always coming out

wrong.”

Blackburn said she hopes that should the issue remain a hot one

from the public perspective, people will get their facts straight

before writing letters to the newspapers.

“The best way to effect change is to get involved,” Blackburn

said. “It’s very upsetting to keep seeing people who have nothing to

do with the festival venting their frustrations about something

they’d know a lot more about if they volunteered.”