EDITORIAL:Drawing a line in art affairs

In a small town such as Laguna Beach, it is likely that people in positions of political or municipal power may have personal activities and pursuits that create an appearance of conflict — or may put the person in actual conflict between personal interests and public duties.

Laguna’s city attorney, Phil Kohn, recently issued a memorandum to all commissions, boards and committees spelling out these potential conflicts for elected and appointed officials and how the Political Reform Act of 1974 addresses them.

Simply put, the general rule is that “No public official at any level of state or local government shall make, participate in making or in any way attempt to use his official position to influence a governmental decision in which he knows or has reason to know he has a financial interest.”

Public officials who have such a conflict have a ready remedy: They may simply recuse themselves from deliberating on such a matter. This happens frequently on the City Council, when a council member steps down from considering or voting on a matter within a certain distance of his or her property.

The city also has its own code of ethics, which prohibits public officials from participating in matters where the official “suffers from bias or prejudice, or has prejudged a matter set for public consideration so as to be incapable of giving a fair and impartial hearing.”

This is a more subjective standard but may be even more important to retaining trust in government.

It is also extremely important that public employees who are entrusted with handling public funds or recommending actions or approvals are not seen as personally benefiting from the influence they wield.

Because they are not elected, city employees do not have the ability to “recuse” themselves. They serve day-to-day, making numerous decisions and taking numerous actions that benefit some and deny others’ benefits. The influence they wield is subtle and behind-the-scenes, unlike appointed or elected officials who make decisions in public — or else risk the wrath of a watchdog public.

In the city’s cultural arts sector, local artists are constantly competing for art projects, exhibit space, grants, honorariums and many other things that are the life-blood of any struggling artist. (And what artist isn’t struggling?)