PORT ANGELES — The City Council mulled its options for funding the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s $52,000 shortfall at a work session this week in anticipation of making a decision at its regular meeting next week.
Interim Port Angeles City Manager Dan McKeen presented funding options to the council Tuesday.
The options included contracting with the center to create art for the waterfront improvement project, borrowing from the general fund, drawing from reserves or cutting an existing program or programs to cover or help cover the expense.
The strategies will be reviewed and decided upon at the regular City Council meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St., Mayor Cherie Kidd said Wednesday.
“We all love the arts center,” she said.
“That’s not the point,” she added.
“The point is that in this difficult, down economy, everyone is having to cut back, so we just have to see what we can do without cutting essential services.”
The arts center, located at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd. in Port Angeles, is unable to raise the funding through volunteer efforts, arts center foundation President Linda Crow said.
The facility is seeking $52,000 for salary and benefits for the remainder of 2012 to fund the soon-to-be-vacant director position.
The request is a one-time-only expense. It would be in addition to the $38,750 in city funds that now supplement the arts center’s annual budget of $178,000.
A trust fund, an endowment and donations generated by volunteers and fundraising events make up the rest of the spending plan.
Longtime Director Jake Seniuk is retiring Friday, and arts center officials — none of whom spoke at the work session, which are meetings reserved solely for discussion by council and city staff — have said they have a prospective candidate who wants the job.
The director is a city employee whose annual salary will be $54,257 to $64,850.
“We’re still hopeful that we’ll come up with a solution,” Crow said after Tuesday’s meeting.
The arts center is not making the candidate’s name public.
Artwork contract suggested
During Tuesday’s meeting, Community and Economic Development Director Nathan West said about $10,000 to $20,000 in artwork planned for the waterfront project possibly could be done under a contract with the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.
But council member and former Mayor Dan Di Guilio cautioned that the city could find itself “in a trap” to contract with the arts center for other projects.
Interim Finance Director Byron Olson said he is “rather intrigued” by the option of making a general-fund loan to help fund the facility.
“It allows the city some flexibility without actually committing,” Olson said, predicting that the economy will improve over the next three years.
“With that improvement, it offers one of the best opportunities without asking for money out of savings or reallocating” funds, Olson said.
McKeen said reallocating money from an existing program or drawing from city reserves, which total about $3.3 million, would require supermajority consent of at least five of the seven council members.
Councilman Max Mania is on a city-fine arts center task force that was set up to find ways to make the center financially viable.
“I don’t think anyone wants to cut willy-nilly into reserves, but there are reserves,” Mania said.
The task force also has recommended the city permanently fund the director’s position.
That would cost an additional $62,000 of city support to the arts center budget, according to McKeen’s presentation.
Discussion into solving the arts center shortfall occurred the same evening that Olson presented a midyear budget report that focused on declining revenues and rising costs.
Budget challenges
Some of the budget challenges faced by the city, according to Olson and McKeen:
— Sales tax collections face a shortfall of $74,000 as of May 31 and a potential year-end shortfall of $176,000.
— Liquor-excise-tax losses will total $100,000 by Jan. 1.
— Criminal justice expenditures face $200,000 in unbudgeted costs.
— Real estate excise tax proceeds, which pay city debt service, may need to be subsidized by year’s end.
— There may be other 2012 funding requests that the council would have to consider.
McKeen said he will re-evaluate the filling of vacancies in city staff as they occur to save additional money and that some vacancies already are not being filled.
Belt-tightening strategies will include reviewing travel and conference expenditures and possible program and service reductions, he said.
The city is seeking public comment on “citizen needs and desires” for the 2013 budget at an August council meeting, according to Olson’s presentation.
A proposed 2013 budget will be presented to the council at its Oct. 23 meeting.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
