Council funds requests

Laguna Beach’s Relief and Resource Center, not the Cross-Cultural Council, got the largest share of city grant funding this year.

Twenty-six nonprofit art and community organizations have plumper pockets since the June 17 City Council meeting.

The council approved $213,500 in Community Assistance Grants with only two changes to the recommendations by council members Kelly Boyd and Elizabeth Pearson, who reviewed applications and recommended allocations. The council also divvied up an unallocated $2,300 to bump up already funded grants.

“We desperately need an increase,” said Laguna Beach Live! founder Cindy Prewitt, making a successful pitch for more funds.

Prewitt said the concert series is costing more as it expands and musicians are costing more, partially due to gas prices.

She asked the council to add $5,000 to the $8,000 recommended by the sub-committee. She got $1,300.

On Iseman’s recommendation, the remaining unallocated $1,000 was tacked onto the Coastal Family Therapy Services’ $5,000.

The highest allocation was $21,000 to the Laguna Beach Relief and Resource Center, followed by $20,000 to the Cross-Cultural Council and $15,000 to the Community Clinic.

“I want to thank you for your support,” said Friends of the Laguna Beach Library spokeswoman Sandy Hovanesian.

The council approved a $14,000 grant to the Friends, just $4,500 less than requested.

In all, 33 organizations applied for grants, which are funded by lease payments from the Festival of Arts.

“Typically, we tried to keep funds for use in Laguna Beach,” Pearson said.

Grants in five figures also were awarded to the Chamber of Commerce, the Boys & Girls Club, Friends of the Sea Lion, Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. and Sally’s Fund Inc.

Pearson, who is the executive director of the South Coast Medical Center Foundation, did not participate in discussions nor vote on the $5,000 allocation to the hospital.

Several organizations previously awarded grants did not apply this year: Clean Water Now!, ACTION, Brain Power, Rescuing Unwanted Furry Friends — which nevertheless got a $500 grant — and the Laguna Beach Plein Air Painters Assn., which had an in-kind $2,000 grant, equal to an estimated cost of bagging parking meters during the association’s invitational.

Applied for, but not funded, were applications by Auto-Free Orange County, Friends of the Hortense Miller Garden, the Laguna Beach Film Society, Sawdust Festival, Soul Adventures Inc., STOP GAP and Trauma Intervention Programs. The city also bagged meters on Laguna Canyon Road for the Rotary International Classic Car Show, which used the city’s employee parking lot and rented barriers to enclose the lot.

Boyd and Pearson recommended grants for repeat applicants after confirming they had used the money from the previous year as outlined in the applications.

BARBARA DIAMOND can be reached at (949) 494-4321 or coastlinepilot@latimes.com.