Laguna Beach Arts Alliance hosted City Council Candidates’ Forum to discuss the arts
By MARRIE STONE
Photos by Jeff Rovner
On Saturday, Sept. 14, the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance (LBAA) hosted their traditional City Council Candidates’ Forum, giving our community the opportunity to learn each candidate’s position on a variety of topics impacting the arts and art-related issues in our town.
Stu News Publisher Tom Johnson moderated the event, posing 13 questions to the four candidates, as well as allowing for opening and closing statements. Members were asked their position on a variety of topics ranging from additional parking to affordable housing for artists to the utilization of the Festival of Arts (FOA) grounds in the off-season.
Included below are several highlights from the discussion. The questions and responses have been edited for brevity and clarity, and not all questions appear.
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Stu News Publisher Tom Johnson moderated the event, attended by candidates (L-R): Hallie Jones, Judie Mancuso, George Weiss and Bob Whalen
Meet the candidates (in alphabetical order)
Hallie Jones, a third-generation Laguna native raised on Laguna Canyon Road, comes from a long line of artists. As executive director of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, Jones led efforts to protect California’s coastline and waterways, building community support for Laguna Canyon’s biodiversity. Currently, she serves as executive vice president and chief program officer at Crystal Cove Conservancy. If elected, Jones intends to focus on artists’ live-work spaces, as well as streamlining processes at city hall to move things forward at a quicker pace. “Our communities are evolving, so we need to ensure city hall is evolving, as well,” Jones said.
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Hallie Jones, executive director of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, is a first-time candidate for City Council
Judie Mancuso has been a Laguna resident for 30 years. With an early career spent leading large teams in the Information Technology industry over a span of 20 years, Mancuso is the founder & CEO of Social Compassion in Legislation, sponsoring more than 70 state bills, with 25 signed into law. She’s also the author of Because They Need Us: My Political Fight to Save Animals. “If you want to take a deep dive on who I am, why I’m running and why I feel qualified, it’s definitely in here,” Mancuso said, urging the public to buy her book.
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Judie Mancuso, author of “Because They Need Us,” is running again for a seat on the City Council
George Weiss was elected to the City Council in 2020. He’s published a series of articles and recapped most city council meetings on his website, which he offers to the public for purposes of transparency in government and accountability in spending for residents.
He’s an advocate for the music venues in town (including the work done by Rick Conkey at the Cultural Arts Center, Laguna Beach Live! and the music series put on by the city in the park). “The amount of music and art in this town is extraordinary. I’m also a music fan. We have an opera company that’s formed with two full-time opera artists who live in town, Arnold Livingston Geis and Oriana Falla.” Weiss would like to see more opera performances available in town. He’s also a proponent of finding more live/workspaces for artists, acknowledging the work that’s already underway.
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George Weiss, seeking reelection, has served on the City Council since 2020
Bob Whalen was first elected to the City Council in 2012. He’s served three terms on the City Council and five times as mayor. Whalen has a long history of public service, including serving on the city’s planning commission for four years and on the Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education for nearly 10 years, prior to his council service. He has also served on several local nonprofit boards, including the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach, SchoolPower, the Laguna Art Museum and Laguna Beach Little League. He currently serves on the board of the Orange County Community Foundation.
“One of the things I’m most proud of on the council is recommending the approval of $1 million matching grants for both the Playhouse and the Laguna Art Museum in celebration of their 100-year anniversaries,” Whalen said. “We need to continue collaborating with the arts community and strengthening their efforts. Money isn’t something the arts tends to have a lot of, but the city can assist in some very positive ways. I look forward to increasing that collaboration as we move forward.”
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Bob Whalen has served on the City Council since 2012, including five times as mayor, and seeks reelection
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Questions Posed to the Candidates: Do you support additional parking in the arts district? If so, where? If not, what are some alternatives?
Whalen: I do support building a lot behind city hall. It’s in the design phase now. That will be a location for city parking and ample additional public parking. It’s the right thing for both the Downtown businesses and the Arts District.
Jones: If we do build a parking structure, I support doing it behind city hall. It’s important we don’t have a structure that sits empty nine months a year. We need a year-round structure. That location would provide parking for attendees of events, city employees, local business employees and visitors. Important considerations include the location, the design (fitting in with the character of the community), fiscal responsibility and multiple uses.
Mancuso: We have too many cars in town. People don’t want a garage there and it’s been voted down. I’d take a wait-and-see approach, but I support building a structure in Parking Lot V and have electric vehicles shuttle people in and out.
Weiss: A parking structure can’t be funded by the city because it’s not for residents. Parking creates more congestion coming into the center of town. It’s not good for pollution or for the residents. Maybe we could build a garage at Act V and bus people in. I only support parking under very limited circumstances.
How would you describe the importance of arts as it relates to Laguna Beach?
Jones: The arts are deeply entwined with who we are as a community, as well as an economic driver. The arts bring roughly $80 million a year into our community, so they keep our town alive and vibrant.
Mancuso: As much as we say the arts are important, we aren’t walking the walk. Visit Laguna got $1.599 million last year. The Museum, Playhouse and LCAD each got only $319,000. That doesn’t prove to me we care about art. It proves we care about tourism. We need to bring Visit Laguna’s number way down and give it to the arts.
Weiss: I agree with Judie’s sentiments. In Europe, you see public support for artists. In Germany, where I was born, there are 6,000 opera performances a year. We need to increase support for the arts monetarily and find the funding.
Whalen: There are two components to the arts in our community and why they’re important. One is economic. A study done a few years ago by the Americans for the Arts called Art & Prosperity 6 showed the economic impact in town is $89,000,000/year, 1,800 jobs and $3,500,000 of revenue generated for our local government. The other component is what makes Laguna an interesting, enriching and fulfilling place to live. We get to experience all these wonderful artists and performances, so we need to keep them vibrant.
With respect to Judie’s comment on tourism, understand that’s not money the city awards. That is self-assessed by the hotels and divided up 1% for the arts and 1% for the visitor’s bureau. I think we’ll have a chance to readdress that issue next year when it comes back to us.
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The 2024 LBAA City Council Candidates’ Forum was well attended by the community
Artists say this summer was their worst ever at the festivals. How do we reinvigorate our residents and draw visitors who are willing to invest in the arts?
Mancuso: None of us want to leave our homes when it’s so congested. The over-tourism and traffic mean everyone suffers. It’s not new. I ran in 2016 and 2018 over the same issue. I’ve heard artists want a Fringe Festival to take place after the summer when tourism dies down and the buildings are empty. Maybe we could shift funds and draw locals to come then.
Weiss: This is a trick question because the larger issue is that tourism can devastate our town and our tide pools. We need to keep people out of the town. That will require a major effort because our location is attractive and a state resource for the beaches and the open space. We have to protect the town and keep it vital for the arts.
Whalen: It’s true that activity hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels for most venues, including the Playhouse and Pageant. There aren’t easy answers. We need to brainstorm with the LBAA and member organizations on how to reinvigorate the art scene. I know local hotels are interested in developing packages for their guests to incentivize them to visit arts venues. That’s one piece. But we need to brainstorm because there are no easy answers.
Jones: I agree, there’s no easy answer. I would argue the issue isn’t the people. The issue is the cars, the congestion, the behavior and the environmental impact of day-trippers who might not have the environmental ethic we wish they had, nor to the commitment to our arts community that some might prefer. I like the idea of working with the community, working with hotels and putting together opportunities for arts patrons to spend time in our community experiencing the breadth of what we offer.
Do you support performances, art exhibitions or other art activities on the St. Catherine’s property?
Jones: Absolutely. That’s a wonderful facility and we’re not using it to its full capacity. Parking is challenging, so we can’t support a crowd. But there’s an opportunity for gallery space or exhibitions that people can move through, rather than everyone attending a specific event.
Mancuso: I think all city buildings should be utilized if they have the capacity. If the building is available and has parking, it shouldn’t be limited to St. Catherine’s.
Weiss: I’m not sure it’s needed. You’ve got a lot of venues in town, including the Forum Theater and the Artists Theater, that are rarely used. We need a database showing how often these arts venues are used and what events they have because they aren’t used that much. St. Catherine’s was supposed to be a community recreation center. I could see using the space for meetings and other things.
Whalen: St. Catherine’s is a tremendous asset. It’s an opportunity to enhance the arts. It could be used for rehearsal space, which the Playhouse and Dance Festival currently don’t have. The Museum has several thousand pieces of art in storage. We could host shows there to display that art. I encourage arts organizations to talk to us because this is affordable space (compared to other locations) because we own it.
People want more done on the FOA grounds in the off-season? How would you like these grounds utilized?
Mancuso: I like the idea of a Fringe Festival. It would start when everything else ends and residents could be more involved.
Weiss: Unfortunately, the Irvine Bowl gets cold at night so there are some limits. Santa Fe does an indigenous arts and crafts show for a week. They invite artists from small communities all over Mexico and South America to display and sell their work. They pay their expenses so the money they make goes back to their indigenous communities. It’s wonderful and we could do the same.
Whalen: There are three different venues on these grounds: the Irvine Bowl, the Forum Theater and the green. I would like to see more events in the Irvine Bowl in the off season and I know there are conversations happening with the FOA now. The Forum Theater has tremendous potential, but it needs to become ADA compliant. We’re working on that. People love music on the green in the summer, and I think we could do similar events in the offseason. The FOA invested tremendously in this asset and there are ways we can use it more effectively.
Jones: I like the idea of having diverse offerings. That’s what the community wants. Opening the Irvine Bowl to year-round music is something to explore. We need to be careful about it, but it’s an interesting idea. There should be a variety of things in this space, like the Coast Film Festival and nonprofit galas. Anything that increases visitors who are committed to the arts in our community, but mostly that serve our residents.
Do you support the development of artist live-work housing and, if yes, where would you put it?
Weiss: I do. We need to provide a funding mechanism that’s not available today. I propose we tax the 2,400 investment properties for homeowners who don’t live here a small fee. That could be millions of dollars used for affordable housing for artists. I don’t have specific locations, but you could buy affordable housing that’s in danger of becoming unaffordable. Homes that aren’t being used – neither rented nor lived in – might be purchased by the city.
Whalen: We are in the process of forming a community land trust, a combination of public and private revenue, to be invested in affordable housing for artists and seniors. There are a few locations in the canyon where we having existing artists housed that may be up for sale soon. That’s an immediate targeted need. We’ll look at other locations as they come up in town. I also hope to work with LCAD for artist housing if there are opportunities to add housing at LCAD locations.
Jones: Housing is probably the biggest issue facing our arts community. It’s extraordinarily difficult for working artists to live in town. I’m a fan of adaptive reuse, of looking at properties – particularly in the canyon – currently used as artist live/workspaces, even if they aren’t currently permitted that way, and streamlining the process to make it easier for people to live and work in the places they already live and work. That will protect the character of the canyon and protect the character of our town. I love the idea of a land trust, which will make this mission-based, rather than a for-profit venture.
Mancuso: Affordable housing is important. Many seniors would agree with that. There are different factions of folks who want affordable housing, so who gets prioritized? Artists are at the top of the list, but it needs to be prioritized by the community. The housing trust must ensure the money goes to affordable housing and that it stays affordable and isn’t a bait-and-switch with rising costs. We need to work with real estate professionals to get an inventory of all the vacant buildings in town and try to broker deals with existing buildings.
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(L-R) Hallie Jones, Judie Mancuso, George Weiss and Bob Whalen. Weiss and Whalen currently sit on the city council.
Do you have new ideas or initiatives related to the arts that you would pursue once in office?
Whalen: I’d like to see the Laguna Beach Recreation Center [the old St. Catherine’s property] utilized more for arts groups. That’s an asset we have and can deploy. We would also benefit from brainstorming sessions with a small task force about tangible things we can do to reinvigorate and reimagine things.
Jones: Some of this is happening organically between the arts and other community organizations in town. Art + Nature is an amazing example. The environmentalists and arts community collaborated on some creative and comprehensive ideas that will percolate around the community. The Museum is about to announce an Upcycled Couture program with nonprofits and environmental organizations. That cross-mission collaboration will give rise to the next era of arts in this community.
Mancuso: The funding is upside down. Housing is another issue. Collaboration, working with LCAD, LBAA and all organizations and bringing thoughts together and coming up with new ideas or existing ideas that haven’t been acted upon.
Weiss: I mentioned the idea of having a craft fair to benefit people in international indigenous communities who aren’t well off. A week-long event where indigenous people can stay in volunteer homes in town. All the money would go back to their community. I could see that in the offseason. I’d also like to see us doing more opera and classical voice events.
Why do you deserve the vote?
Mancuso: I’m running again because I’ve lived here for 30 years and am not happy with the way things have progressed. We encounter the same issues over and over. The only action we ever see is in an election year, then things go silent. When I ran eight years ago, the budget was $90 million. Now we’re at $145 million with less population and we still don’t have enough money.
I didn’t write a book for no reason. I wrote it because I’ve been getting large things done for a long time. I have a lot to give to make this stuff go away and bring solutions to the table.
Weiss: During my term, I sponsored the climate action plan. I want to complete that during the next four years. We’re making progress with solar on city buildings, electrifying our fleet. If we electrify everything that can be electrified, we can cut 85% of our carbon footprint and become a cleaner, quieter place.
I’ve served on the environmental sustainability committee for the last four years. We’ve made good progress on several issues.
We bought St. Catherine’s to use as a recreational center. That’s a promise we made to the community, and we should keep it.
I’m not sure about [undergrounding the powerlines] on Laguna Canyon Road. We haven’t proven the fire risk can’t be solved some other way.
I want to look at hybrid solutions for the Forest Avenue Promenade. It could be used as a historic street during the week, available for parking. During the weekends, it could be a venue for residents and visitors to use. That’s a way to ease into the Promenade.
Some of my goals are solving congestion, public safety and crime mapping.
Whalen: I’m proud of my record. Judie says nothing happens when it’s not an election year. Well, we acquired St. Catherine’s. I’ve negotiated the transfer of the beaches in South Laguna from the county to the city. We now control that area, and they paid us $22 million in connection with the transfer.
Laguna Canyon Road is, in my opinion, a critical project for wildfire safety, aesthetics, bike and pedestrian lanes. Crazy numbers like $150 million get thrown around. It will never cost $150 million.
I want to work on affordable housing for seniors and artists. There are lots of buildings Downtown that could be refurbished. That’s starting to happen with the Rivian and the White House. Much more can be done to revitalize Downtown.
Managing public safety is always number one for me. I’m proud of the work I’ve done with Mayor Kempf, spending $23 million on implementing a wildfire safety plan. That will help all of us have accessibility to fire insurance.
Jones: I want to wrap up by thanking all of you for the work you’re doing in our community and for the arts. I feel optimistic and excited about the work that’s happening and want to bring my depth of experience in nonprofit management and environmental conservation work to the community. I look forward to moving ahead with building affordable housing and artists live/workspaces. We need solutions-oriented leadership on the council, and I’m excited to be part of that.
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Moderator Tom Johnson thanked the candidates for their professionalism throughout the forum
The next forum, moderated by The Voice of Laguna, is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 15 from 6-9 p.m. at the City Council Chambers located at 505 Forest Ave. Seating is limited. The Candidates’ Forum will be available to live stream and be recorded for viewing on YouTube. No RSVP is necessary.
