Paul Goldie A Laguna Beach resident with...

Paul Goldie

A Laguna Beach resident with more than 20 years of experience in

the art world as a manager and owner of an art wholesale company,

Goldie has volunteered for the pageant for seven seasons.

He thinks the newly elected board should stop scaring people about

the inflated money problems that some on the current board talk

about.

Financially, Goldie wants to look at different departments to see

where cuts can be made and where the board can increase revenue to

make the festival operate more efficiently.

“We need someone with a business background, an art background and

we need more participation [on the board] from volunteers,” Goldie

said.

For the last two years, Goldie has volunteered on both casts of

the pageant.

“When elected to the board of directors I will do everything in my

power to bring back the dignity, trust, openness and love that has

been lost over the past several years with the festival,” Goldie

said.

This is the third time Goldie has run for the board.

Richard Hawthorne and Paul Goldie will run as an alliance.

Richard Hawthorne

The 28-year Laguna Beach resident has been a pageant volunteer for

the last three years and has served on five different boards of

directors.

Hawthorne’s first aim as a board member will be to bring in a

general manager/executive director at a reasonable salary. He said a

$75,000 to $85,000 salary for the job sounded more suitable than the

$175,000-plus Steve Brezzo reportedly earned.

“Our lease with the city requires that we hire a general manager,

and we would need one even if it didn’t,” Hawthorne said.

While he said he understands the need for limited closed-session

board meetings, Hawthorne said the newly elected board needs to

interface more openly with festival artists, members, staff and

volunteers.

Endorsed by current board member Bob Dietrich, Hawthorne brings a

background in finance and a 28-year career in the commercial real

estate business, along with an apolitical approach to solving

problems.

Hawthorne believes the festival grounds need to be maintained and

improved, but the board needs to find more cost-effective methods

toward improvement.

“This is a divided board that I hope to bring harmony to,”

Hawthorne said.

Richard Hawthorne and Paul Goldie will run as an alliance.

John Hoover

A Laguna Beach resident and 11-year volunteer with the pageant,

Hoover wants to build on the festival’s financial strengths without

franchising it away from Laguna Beach.

Hoover has more than 25 years of experience in real estate,

finance, property management and contract negotiation, and has been

active in several community nonprofit organizations -- which includes

serving as president and treasurer of the Laguna Boys and Girls Club.

His expertise would be valuable to any organization, but

particularly to one that has challenges with lease and vendor

agreements, financial negotiations and restricted parking, Hoover

said.

Upon his election, Hoover hopes to improve the parking situation

for festival attendees and bring back appropriate food vendors.

Hoover, who has run for the board before, is devoted to keeping

the progress of the festival moving forward while retaining its

unique qualities.

Anita Mangels

Running on a slate with David Young and Carolyn Reynolds, Mangels

would like to eliminate licensing the Pageant of the Masters as a

topic of discussion.

“Licensing would be the beginning of the end of the pageant as we

know it,” Mangels said. “Once you use licensing, you’re killing the

goose with the golden eggs. It’s a short-term, quick fix that will

hurt in the long run.”

Mangels called the current board’s spending priorities

“questionable at best,” and hopes to combine her former profession in

accounting with her current job in public affairs to help solve

financial and interpersonal struggles.

Mangels has a long history of nonprofit experience in and outside

of Laguna Beach and has served as treasurer for a number of political

campaigns. She feels her background would mix perfectly with Young

and Reynolds to fill the three open board seats.

“We’re running as a slate because of our unique balance of

skills,” Mangels said. “Carolyn’s been an exhibiting artist for years

and David has 50 years of institutional knowledge of the festival and

an undoubtable dedication and commitment to the original mission.”

Mangels wants to see a board that listens more to what members and

volunteers think about the future of the festival and pageant, and

wants board meetings to focus more on open discussion.

Bruce Rasner

The current festival board president, Rasner said he’d like to

continue the progress the board has made after decades of neglect in

upgrading the pageant.

Rasner wants the board to continue implementing the goals of its

visioning process that began after the Keep the Festival in Laguna

Beach campaign four years ago. Rasner was president of the Committee

to Keep the Festival in Laguna Beach.

“We need to meet the challenge of being fiscally responsible as we

make our grounds more useful for arts and community activities,”

Rasner said. “At the same time, we need to maintain the ambience on

the grounds and heritage of the 71 years of the festival.”

Rasner has exhibited his photography at the festival for 14 years

and has 29 years of experience as a practicing attorney in Orange

County.

“My background as an artist and attorney allows me to keep to my

goal of not having a corporate mentality, but approaching issues in a

businesslike fashion,” Rasner said.

Rasner said he demonstrated his commitment to the community and

festival by helping keep the festival in Laguna four years ago and

has inaugurated a number of improvements on the grounds since being

elected to the board.

Carolyn Reynolds

An exhibitor at the festival for the last 18 years and a 21-year

Laguna Beach resident, Reynolds wants to add some joy and goodwill to

a board she says has become too stodgy for the scene.

“I want to bring some soul back into this thing,” Reynolds said.

“It’s a corporate refrigerator over there. I want to bring some fest

back to the festival.”

Reynolds said she wants to change the mood of the board’s meetings

from something nasty or boring to events that artists, volunteers and

members of the public will want to attend.

“All the rules are set up to encourage a lack of participation,”

Reynolds said, “and that’s just not right.”

Reynolds is running on a slate with David Young and Anita Mangels.

David Young

A current member of the board who’s been president several times

and was first elected to the board in 1954, Young wants to keep the

festival simple -- more like a country fair than an extravagant

scene.

“The [board] majority now is out of touch with what the people and

artists of Laguna Beach want,” Young said.

Young, an Emerald Bay resident, said things haven’t been right at

the festival for about the last six years, and that he wants to stay

active on the board until he sees a change.

“This festival and the pageant are Laguna Beach’s,” Young said.

“I’m not interested in seeing any ideas that take them other places.”

Young formed the Festival of Arts Foundation and helped initiate

the high school scholarship program, which awards about $100,000 a

year, and an annual grant program of $50,000 to support art endeavors

by local organizations.

Young is running on a slate with Anita Mangels and Carolyn

Reynolds.