After the City Council unexpectedly voted 3 to 1 last night to defer defunding the Summer Music Concert series for two weeks while searching for angels to ante up $75,000, Gary Mandell, impresario of the popular attraction, was glum-plus.
With the pending death of the Redevelopment Agency, which paid the tab for the eight-week Courtyard of City Hall series, no viable sugar daddy is sitting on the empty horizon, wallet gapingly open.
Even though the Council just had purchased a speck more of time, Mr. Mandell’s grim visage was unaltered at 9 o’clock last night.
He said he long has been passing concrete suggestions for revenue sources to his bosses at City Hall. But he has not detected any movement from their end.
Mr. Mandell also was incensed when the new President of the Chamber of Commerce said merely that his group “would work to keep the series alive” without pledging financial support from the hundreds of Chamber business members.
Citing Fault
That the Summer Music Festival is starved for sponsors is almost a self-induced crisis in Mr. Mandell’s view.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” the owner of Boulevard Music said in response to the question of whether he was encouraged by the postponement of a binding decision.
“I don’t see where the money is going to come from in two weeks,” he said.
Without a coherent organization standing by to coordinate a rushed campaign, he gauges the chances of success as dim.
“This is like Occupy L.A.,” he said. “Who is in charge?
“Last year, I gave (City Hall) suggestions for what I thought they needed to do for funding before we got into this mess. But they didn’t find somebody.
“That was at least the fourth time I have said it.
“If I sound frustrated, I am not frustrated with the state (for legislating the Agencies out of business). That is transferring the problem.
“Santa Monica is not depending on Redevelopment funds (for their summer music series at the Pier).
“Relying on Redevelopment funds is, like, skirting the issue.
“When the head of the Chamber of Commerce (Goran Eriksson) is so steadfast in getting rid of the thing, well who sponsors these kinds of things?”
Answering his own riddle, Mr. Mandell said “businesses. Why doesn’t he drop a line to all of his members instead of killing every piece of culture? They might want to step up and sponsor. Then he wouldn’t have to worry about the Redevelopment Agency paying for it. Businesses usually fund the arts.
The Death Watch
“It’s interesting that the Heart of Screenland, which developed all of the musicals, has to drop its music series when other cities don’t.”
Mr. Mandell, often a punster, was in no mood to smile. After 11 years of staging weekly capacity attractions in the Courtyard of City Hall, he now was a lonely sentinel, annoyingly watching his good work and goodwill gurgle down City Hall’s soon to be busy drain.
Gone were the yearly squabbles over what genre of performers should take the summer concert stage — or whether Mr. Mandell should share the stage at least two weeks every year with the Jazz Bakery. That experiment bombed last August.
Before the State Supreme Court decision was announced 12 days ago, Mr. Mandell’s friends and supporters around City Hall were saying that this was going to be one of those rare off-seasons when the core of city leadership, for a change, was in step behind him and not pushing to oust him. Even his main Council nemesis, Scott Malsin, was gone. Peace at last. But it was short-lived.
“Whatever happens, happens,” Mr. Mandell said. “I am not optimistic. I am more frustrated for everybody who lives in the city who has to be denied the Summer Music Festival because (city) staff didn’t get it together.
“I am more optimistic than I was when I came in tonight,” he said. “I thought (Councilman) Chris Armenta said it very well. He looked at the big picture. That is what I am trying to do. You have got to look at institutional advertising. It would be difficult to tell the people up in Sacramento that part of redevelopment is advertising and promoting your product. In the same light, they were very specific in how the money was supposed to be spent.
“If I were going to sit down and transplant a redevelopment program, I would say ‘You should have a budget for advertising.’”
What will Mr. Mandell do during the next fortnight?
“Nothing,” he said.
“What can I do? I am not in charge of the sponsorships. I have told them what they needed to do. I can’t hire somebody to do that. If (the city) really wants to do this, they would say to Susan Obrow, ‘Go find us somebody. Who can we get to be the person to work on a commission to go out, find sponsors, and what do they think they can do?’
“You’ve got Sony here. You’ve got Culver Studios.
“Meanwhile, they have 40 sponsors in Santa Monica for the Pier. What do we have?”
Another Opinion
Standing nearby in the lobby outside Council Chambers as Frank Campagna, community activist and a major fan of the concert series.
He was strongly disappointed over the music series’ dangling fate.
“The city is here, among other responsibilities, to serve the people,” Mr. Campagna said. “There is no other singular activity where you serve more people per dollar spent than the summer concerts. Wherever the money has to come from, it is a worthwhile investment. The goodwill the series generates. The city’s reputation that it boosts.
“I am optimistic that it can be saved.”
