Menlo Park Arts Commission loses its commission Menlo Park Arts Commission loses its commission (August 31, 2005)

** Community arts to be a focus of Parks and Recreation Commission.

By Renee Batti

Almanac News Editor

Unwilling to divert money now budgeted to other city projects to fund an Arts Commission, a divided Menlo Park City Council last week decided to shift art-related matters to the purview of the city's Park and Recreation Commission.

Councilman Andy Cohen had asked the council to consider recruiting new members for the seven-person commission, which has been inactive since all members resigned last year in protest of the council's withdrawal of support for the "Percentage for Arts" public arts ordinance.

The vote to shift responsibilities for the city's arts programs to another commission -- thereby making an arts commission unnecessary -- was 3-2, with Mayor Mickie Winkler and council members Lee Duboc and Nicholas Jellins in favor.

For years the Arts Commission had sponsored community concerts and public art programs, and several years ago it developed the Percentage for Arts ordinance to require developers of projects costing at least $250,000 to spend the equivalent of 1 percent of their construction costs to install a piece of onsite public art.

The ordinance was enacted in 2002, and rescinded last year. Although new arts commissioners were not recruited after the mass resignations, the council asked staff to research options for arts programs, including public art, in Menlo Park.

Meanwhile, the staff time -- about 10 to 15 hours per month -- that had been spent in support of the Arts Commission was diverted to other programs in the Community Services Department. And with a leaner budget this year and a gloomy forecast for the city's financial picture next year, the council majority was unwilling to place an additional burden on staff time by reactivating the commission.

The staff is expected to finish its research on arts programs and to issue a report by January, prompting some council members to call a discussion of reactivating the Arts Commission premature.

But Councilman Cohen, who has lamented the break-up of the commission as a development that has left the community poorer, argued that the city should recruit new commissioners now who would help the staff with its research. "We don't need any money; we need seven volunteers," he said.

Councilwoman Duboc countered that "nothing is zero cost in the city." After a sometimes heated discussion about the path to take, Ms. Duboc offered a new option: appointing "a few people interested in arts" to the Parks and Recreation Commission and expanding that body's role to include a focus on arts programs.

Two parks commissioners' terms expire in September.

The council agreed to wait until the staff report is completed in January before expanding the Parks and Recreation Commission's purview, but Ms. Duboc said she will attend the next commission meeting to talk to commissioners about the council's decision.

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