Entire Menlo Arts Commission resigns Entire Menlo Arts Commission resigns (September 15, 2004)

** With seven commission vacancies to fill, council members mull what to do next.

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

They say you have to suffer for your art. Sometimes you resign for it.

That's what's happened in Menlo Park, where all seven members of the city's Arts Commission have quit in the last two weeks. They're protesting the City Council's surprise decision on August 31 to look into repealing Menlo Park's public art law.

"After last week's vote by the council, it is now clear to me that, with the present leadership, nothing of interest or value will be achieved for the arts in this community at this time," Gil McMillon wrote in his resignation e-mail.

Mr. McMillon, Cheryl Ann Passanisi, David Elliott and June Cancell all resigned last week, joining their colleagues Laura Fechete and Patricia Daniels, who had stepped down the week before.

Chair Nancy Chillag resigned at the August 31 meeting, immediately after the vote.

The council had been expected to have a narrow discussion about the public art law, setting the level of a fee that developers could pay to avoid having to install art on their property. Instead, Councilwoman Mickie Winkler denounced the law as a means to levy yet another fee on local businesses, and said staff should look into repealing it and finding another way for the city to fund art.

Mayor Lee Duboc and Councilman Paul Collacchi agreed, with council members Nicholas Jellins and Chuck Kinney dissenting.

In her resignation e-mail, Ms. Cancell expressed shock and dismay at the vote.

"We brought a sound plan to the City Council," she wrote. "We expected to...work together for the benefit of everyone. Instead, all the work was thrown out."

The law requires developers of commercial, industrial and municipal projects costing at least $250,000 to pay 1 percent of construction costs to install art on their site. Some detractors say public art should be paid for by all residents.

City commissioners are volunteers who are appointed by and make recommendations to the council.

What's next?

Seven empty Arts Commission seats might not be easy to fill right away. Vacancies on city boards can persist for months, perhaps because of the time commitment required.

As of last week, only two residents, Martin Engel and Betty Meissner, had applied for appointment to the Arts Commission, City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden said. She added that she did not put those appointments on the council's September 14 agenda for a vote because it would have been "irrelevant" at this point: the commission couldn't meet with only two members.

Ms. Duboc said she would meet soon with Ms. Winkler, who is mayor pro tem, to decide what to do next. Ms. Winkler said she was mulling some possibilities, but declined to discuss them.

Last year, the concept of combining the Arts and the Parks and Recreation commissions to cut costs was floated informally, but nothing came of it, community services director Curtis Brown said.

Ms. Duboc said the concept has promise because the groups are compatible. When she was on the Parks and Recreation Commission, she worked with arts commissioners on endeavors including the summer concert series, she said.

Ms. Chillag disagreed, saying that as it's focused more on public art, the Arts Commission has developed very different goals from Parks and Recreation.

For more information on city commissions, go to www.menlopark.org.

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