Council Meeting February 15, to vote Barnsdall OFF the RFP!

January 25, Council Meeting. Arts, Parks, Health & Aging

Listen to audio for this meeting, which updates on developments concerning the RFP/proposed privatization of Barnsdall Park. ( Scroll down and click on ‘Arts, Parks, Health & Aging.’)

Letter to Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council on Barnsdall for L.A City officials via Culture Committee.

on Barnsdall for L.A City officials via Culture Committee.
by Save Barnsdall on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 6:46am
THE COMMITTEE WILL ASK THE BOARD TO SEND THIS LETTER

The Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council.

1/10/2011

To whom it may concern,

Barnsdall is a community space as well as a place of artistic activity and production. Furthermore, it occupies a unique niche within a creative and influential city. The very fact that some of the most important artists of the of the modern world have convened on these grounds right next door to the studio spaces that our local school children inhabit while taking their first creative steps, is just one example that speaks to the prestige yet versatility of Barnsdall.

The staff at Barnsdall, many of them “as needed” and the various community support groups work together to deliver a world class product that is accessible to every citizen in the community. What is that product?  To allow people to express themselves artistically, to enable people to gather as and with community, to offer a respite from stresses of the urban environment, to enrich our children with knowledge, to enrich ourselves, the list goes on and on.  We believe that these benefits far outweigh the perceived burdens of cost.

The Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council in its role as the “village voice” has, as of this date, received 125 letters from our stakeholders making it very clear their desire that Barnsdall be removed from the RFP list. Please remove Barnsdall from the RFP list. We do not believe that Barnsdall can deliver the same product in the same way if it were controlled by an NGO.

We insist that the Department of Cultural Affairs and the City Council look first at high salaries both within the DCA (the DCA director makes over $180,000 per year) and at the City Council (a City Council person makes over $180,000 per year), and further, we ask that you reduce management positions at the DCA, before Barnsdall is “contracted out” to a NGO.

Barnsdall is unusual in that it manages to deliver on its mission yet maintain a community presence that is down to earth. We believe that this is what is so special about Barnsdall.
Can Barnsdall be improved in many ways? Possibly. Barnsdall possibly can deliver its products and services in a more cost-effective way. Let us begin that discussion. In order to do that, we need numbers. Please supply these to us with a detailed breakdown of the cost to run Barnsdall presently.

Thank you
Tomas O’Grady,

Board Member Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council

addressed to:
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa adam.cooper@lacity.org
Council member Hahn councilmember.hahn@lacity.org
Council member Huizar councilmember.huizar@lacity.org
Council member Garcetti counciulmember.garcetti@lacity.org
Council member Smith councilmember.smith@lacity.org
Council member Rosendahl councilman.rosendahl@lacity.org
Council member Wesson councilmember.wesson@lacity.org
Council member Alarcon councilmember.alarcon@lacity.org
Council member Perry Jan.Perry@lacity.org
Council member Cardenes councilmember.cardenas@lacity.org
Council member Koretz paul.koretz@lacity.org
Council member Labonge councilmember.Labonge@lacity.org
Council member Parks councilmember.parks@lacity.org
Council member Zine councilmember.zine@lacity.org
Council member Reyes councilmember.reyes@lacity.org
Diana Olivares, President, Rampart Village NC diana.olivares@sbcglobal.net
Karen Hallock, Secretary, Wilshire Center-Koreatown NC karenlee45@hotmail.com
Charles Dougherty, President, Greater Wilshire NC chasdougherty@aol.com
Debbie Wehbe, President, Central Hollywood NC debbie@chnc.org
Paul Neuman, Co-Chair, Silver Lake NC paul.neuman@silverlakenc.org
Anastasia Mann, President, Hollywood Hills West NC president@nnwnc.org
Susan Swan, President, Hollywood United NC sswanla@gmail.com
Lance King, President, Greater Toluca Lake NC lance.king@gtlnc.org
Cary Adams, President, Midtown North Hollywood NC president@midtownnoho.org
Ron Ostrow, President, Greater Griffith Park NC ronostrow@ggpnc.org
Sonia Rubin, Administrative Manager, Mid City West NC admin@midcitywest.org
OLGA GARAY DCA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR olga.garay@lacity.org
Saul Romo DCA Assistant General Manager saul.romo@lacity.org
Will Caperton y Montoya DCA Director of Marketing will.caperton@lacity.org
Ernest Dillihay DCA Facilities Director ernest.dillihay@lacity.org
Felicia Filer DCA Public Art Director felicia.filer@lacity.org
Joe Smoke DCA Cultural Grant Program Director joe.smoke@lacity.org
Leslie Thomas DCA Community Arts Division Director leslie.thomas@lacity.org
Ray Beccaria DCA Administrative Division Director ray.beccaria@lacity.org


Rally at City Hall!

Friends, artists, families and community members, please join us at City Hall this Wednesday for a rally and press conference to Save Barnsdall! Happy New Year!

Council Meeting Audio

December 14, Council Meeting, Arts, Parks, Health and Aging

Council Meeting scheduled for Tuesday December 14th

Tomorrow the city council will be discussing the fate of Barnsdall Park and other community arts facilities. Significantly, one of the items up for discussion is a motion to identify funds needed to keep RFP slated community arts facilities open until June of 2011.

If you would like to personally let our city council know that you support a city operated Barnsdall Park until June and beyond, please sign up to make a 1 minute comment to the committee. The message can be as simple as: “Remove Barnsdall from the RFP List.”

Arts, Parks, Health & Aging Committee Meeting

DATE: 12/14/2010 at 8:30 a.m.

CITY HALL, Room 1010

200 NORTH SPRING STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

Here are the Arts related items on the agenda-

(1) Continued from November 23, 2010
Chief Legislative Analyst and Department of Cultural Affairs reports relative to a Request for Proposals to transition Cultural Art facilities to public-private partnerships. (Also referred to the Budget and Finance Committee)
Fiscal Impact Statement Submitted: Yes
Community Impact Statement: None submitted

(2)
10-0773-S1
Continued from November 23, 2010
Motion (Hahn – LaBonge) relative to the Request for Proposals to transition 14 City- controlled cultural art facilities to public-private partnerships, while considering the proposed nonprofit leasing policy.
Community Impact Statement: None submitted

(3)
10-0773-S2
Motion (LaBonge – Hahn) relative to identifying funds to keep art facilities considered for the Cultural Affairs Request for Proposals operational by the City through June 30, 2011.
Community

The Barnsdall Alliance At Thai Town This Weekend

The Barnsdall Alliance will be representing in force in Thai Town this Saturday , December 11, during the beautification event entitled. ‘A Greener Thai Town Los Angeles.” Beginning at 8am and continuing for much of the morning,  up to 15 trees donated by the Royal Thai Consulate General will be staked and planted along Hollywood blvd. between Normandy and Western.

Many city officials are expected to attend and the inauguration ceremony at 8:30 am, Including councilmen Tom LaBonge and Eric Garcetti, as well as the mayor himself.  Thai community and business groups such as The Thai Community Arts and Cultural Center, Thai Rotary Club, The Thai Association of Southern California and the Thai Chamber of Commerce will also be represented.

Thai Town is just blocks away from Barnsdall Park and every year for over 12 years Thais from all over Los Angeles County have convened at the park for the Annual Thai Cultural Day every September. This year’s 18^th annual event hosted over 1200 Thais and non-Thais coming together to celebrate food, dance, music, and Thai art.

Representatives of the Thai Community have been vocal of their objection to the city’s plans to partner out Barnsdall Park to a private non-profit. The Alliance will be at the event to inform the wider public of this intent and to make it clear that we support the Thai Community and future Thai Cultural Days at Barnsdall Park.

If you want to support this effort to keep Barnsdall open and public and OFF THE RFP list, look for us in Orange T-shirts in Thai Town, near 5310 Hollywood Blvd(near Western), the earlier the better (between 8.00-8.30), as we sign-in with other volunteers to plant trees with our neighbors in the Thai Community.

City Council Announces Imminent Closure of Barnsdall Park By the End of the Month

On November 23, two days before Thanksgiving, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs announced that they are out of the funds necessary to keep Barnsdall Park and facilities open past December 31st. (To access the full audio of that meeting you can click on the link to the right of this post) As of this post, that leaves us with 26 days to see whether or not the city will indeed comply with DCA director, Olga Garay’s, assertion that ‘there is no plan B’ to keep park programs running into next year or beyond, without the partnership of private-non profits to take over their costs.

To this end, the Chief Administrative Office (CAO), who has been charged with overseeing the Request For Proposals, or RFP, process to solicit these partners has proposed rents at 4% of market rate. That would mean a facility such as Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery with a square footage of 16, 700 feet would cost a partner $1, 169/month. Utilities included. That is less than a 2 bedroom apartment rents for downtown.

On November 24, the council motioned for the CAO to find bridge funding to keep all community arts facilities that are currently slated for partnerships open until the RFP process is complete. What happens next remains to be seen.