Arts leadership trading places

Barbara Diamond

Festival of Arts President Bob Henry switched offices Sunday with

Vice President Anita Mangels.

“I am doubly honored because I also am liaison to the membership,”

Mangels said. “The board serves at the pleasure of the membership and

I hope we never let [them] down.”

Mangles, a Laguna Beach publicist and resident for 14 years, was

elected to the board in November, running under the banner hoisted by

David Young to keep the festival local.

Incumbent Young and newcomer Carolyn Reynolds also were elected in

a landslide repudiation of the notions to license the Pageant of the

Masters to other sites and to hire a pricey executive director to do

the job that had previously been done for nothing by the board.

“It has been said that our theme last year was ’70 Years and Still

Standing Still,’” Mangels said.

Henry informed the festival board of his decision at a private

meeting prior to the luncheon. Festival bylaws automatically move the

vice president into the top spot if the president resigns. Officers

are elected by the board.

“There were tears in some eyes -- I don’t know if they were for or

against,” said Henry.

The 84-year-old Emmy-winning producer-director said business

commitments forced him to step aside. He will concentrate his energy

on the preparation of “Flip Wilson Show” episodes for cable

syndication.

Board members John Campbell, Bob Dietrich, Ann Webster, treasurer

Young, secretary Reynolds attended the meeting. Kathleen Blackburn

and Diane Reardon had other commitments.

Being a festival board member is not a sinecure.

In 2000, a board decision to move the festival and pageant to San

Clemente led Young to resign from the board on which he had served

for more than 45 years at the time. A dramatic recall swept the

sitting board from office and installed Young, along with Scott Moore

and Bruce Rasner, who led the recall effort.

Those three appointed Robin Hall, Reardon, Dietrich and Campbell.

When Hall resigned, Blackburn was invited to sit on the board.

Henry and Webster were elected in 2001 and will be up for

re-election this year. Webster said Sunday she probably will run

again.

Rasner was elected board president in 2002, but his championship

of unpopular proposals by the festival’s first-ever executive

director cost him the membership’s favor, putting him at odds with

Young and board members and board candidates in the 2003 election who

agreed with the festival’s elder statesman.

“Thank goodness, David was re-elected,” Webster said.

Pageant Director Dee Challis Davy said the Orange County Arts

Cultural Legacy Award for Community Visionary to be presented later

this month to Young by Arts Orange County affirms his view of the

festival and the pageant.

“He has remained loyal to the Laguna Beach arts community

throughout the 50 years he has been associated with the festival,”

Challis Davy said.

The November election gave Young’s supporters a majority on the

board.

Executive Director Steve Brezzo resigned prior to the election. He

subsequently filed suit against the festival, three board members and

one former board member. Brezzo claimed working conditions were made

too intolerable for him to continue.

Mangels, 51, has been active in politics and community affairs.

Locally, she served as treasurer for the Laguna Canyon Conservancy.