Karen S. Kim
The City Council's decision to fund certain arts organizations at
the expense of others has sparked some grumblings of discontent.
The council Tuesday doled out $57,100 to nine community
organizations and individuals who put in requests for funding.
Last-minute allocations of $5,000 each to the city's chess club and
Glendale Junior Chamber of Commerce for the Days of Verdugo Parade
left some members of other publicly funded arts organizations feeling
a little shortchanged.
To accommodate the two late additions, the council pulled $10,000
from the funding expected to go to each of the seven other arts
organizations requesting money -- including Glendale Symphony
Orchestra, A Noise Within, Character and Ethics Choir, Glendale
Community Concert Assn., Lark Musical Society, Aramazd Stepanian and
Zadik Zadikian.
Each organization received only 82.5% of their expected funding.
"It is disappointing, puts us in a little bit of a bind in the
short run, but as with all things, we'll get over it," said Pam
Ellis, executive director of the symphony.
"But I don't see the connection with the arts," Ellis said of the
chess club and parade. "I think they're worthy of funding, but I
don't know why it came out of this piece of the pie. They're not a
78-year-old community tradition like we are."
The Glendale Symphony received about $8,250 of its expected
$10,000 in funding. The amount had already been whittle down from its
request of $25,000 by the Arts & Culture Commission, Ellis said.
In addition, Ellis suggested Mayor Rafi Manoukian, who abstained
from voting, might have asked fellow Councilman Frank Quintero to
fund the chess club. Manoukian is on the chess club's board, and
Quintero suggested funding it with $5,000.
"Absolutely not," Manoukian said. "Personally, I don't think the
chess club should have gotten it because the funds were already
allocated. It shouldn't have come back like that."
Quintero said his decision to fund the chess club had nothing to
do with Manoukian.
"I didn't even know he was on the board until much later in the
process," Quintero said. "From the very beginning I thought it was an
excellent idea."
The funding allocations passed on a 2-1 vote, with Councilman
Dave Weaver abstaining.
"They had their favorites they wanted to play," Weaver said. "I
didn't. I don't like politics. They disagreed on who would get what,
and I said to hell with this. It's not fair for the council to sit up
there and start playing games, playing politics. When you let five
politicians sit there and make decisions about which arts
organization is going to get funding, I think it's wrong."
Quintero disagreed.
"It was my idea to contribute more money to the arts," he said.
"It's also my feeling that we are elected officials, we are
ultimately responsible for the money that is entrusted to us, so we
should make the decision."
