PORT ANGELES — The City Council at its monthly work session Tuesday will discuss options for funding the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center director position for the remainder of 2012.
The meeting is at 5 p.m. in the Port Angeles City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
The arts center needs $52,000 to fund salary and benefits for the position for the rest of this year, Fine Arts Center Foundation President Linda Crow of Port Angeles said.
“It’s an all-important meeting, and I can’t say I’m not nervous, but I’m very eager to find out the outcome of it,” Crow said Friday.
Crow said a candidate whom she would not identify said she wants the job, which is being vacated Friday by Jake Seniuk, who is retiring after 23 years as director.
Mayor Cherie Kidd said Friday the council will not make a decision on the request at the Tuesday work session.
The next regular council meeting is 6 p.m. July 3 in the council chambers.
The Arts Center Foundation will discuss a future course of action at its regular board meeting open to the public at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Port Angeles Senior Center, 328 E. Seventh St., Crow said.
Crow said the prospective candidate has said she would wait until Friday before deciding her next step.
“A lot depends on what comes out of the Tuesday meeting,” Crow said.
The director candidate “will work with us to do what is possible,” she said.
But if it appears that funding is not available, “I don’t know what we’ll do,” Crow said.
“At this moment, we don’t have a Plan B.”
The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting calls for a mid-year review of the 2012 budget and a discussion of 2012 funding requests including the Fine Arts Center’s.
“The general fund has a lot of challenges, not just adding additional items that would come out of the general fund, but just taking care of existing commitments at this time,” interim City Manager Dan McKeen said.
“Unfortunately, there are many requests out there that would have a positive impact on the city,” McKeen said.
“It would be difficult to provide funding to those items that require a general fund contribution. Hopefully, we can try to come up with a creative idea that doesn’t impact the general fund.”
The full-time director is a city employee whose position falls under the parks and recreation department.
The job pays $54,257 to $64,850 a year.
The center’s annual budget of $178,000 is supplemented by $38,750 in city funds, with a trust fund, an endowment and donations generated by volunteers and fundraising events making up the rest of the budget.
“We have been relying on volunteers to raise the funds to pay for the position in years past,” Crow said.
“We came to the realization this year that we were not able to do that as volunteers,” she said, estimating volunteers have in the past raised as much as $100,000 to help cover the center’s budget.
Also employed at the center is Associate Director Barbara Slavik, who is retiring at the end of 2012, Crow said.
After Slavik retires, if a new director is hired, “we need to figure out what to do from there,” she said.
Crow said the arts center informed the city earlier this year that the facility could not meet its budget.
A city-Fine Arts Center task force that was set up to find ways to make the center financially viable recommended the city take over the balance of the director’s salary for 2012, Crow said.
“Our ultimate hope in the future is that the director’s salary would be paid by the city, and we will go into the 2013 budget process requesting those funds,” she said.
“The emphasis is [the director] is a city employee, and it stands to reason that the salary would be paid by the city,” Crow said.
“The center is part of the whole community in that it draws tourists and can be helpful for economic development in the area.”
Crow said the task force is composed of City Council members Max Mania and Sissi Bruch, city Recreation Services Manager Richard Bonine, city Parks and Beautification Commission member Fowler Stratton of Port Angeles and Arts Center Foundation representatives Vicci Rudin, Betsy Robins, Seniuk and Crow. Former City Manager Kent Myers also was a committee member.
“The [director candidate] we have is a game-changer, not just for the arts center, but the entire city,” Stratton said Friday.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
