Victoria Bryan, Executive Director of the Arts Council for Long Beach.

Today at 5:00PM, the Arts Council for Long Beach is holding its monthly Board of Directors meeting at the Expo Arts Center. On the agenda is a revision to their by-laws. They’ve revealed their belief that the State’s Brown Act no longer applies to them, and have limited public comment at meetings and closed public access to Executive Committee meetings.

Today’s meeting will be the last opportunity for the public to weigh in before the board votes to approve significant structural changes.

“I believe that the City Attorney’s office has written to you to confirm we are not subject to the Brown Act. They are the best source for you to pursue additional questions about this,” said Victoria Bryan, executive director of the ACLB.  

However, Amy Webber, deputy city attorney for the City of Long Beach, said the Arts Council was outside of the city attorney’s office’s jurisdiction. 

“The city attorney’s office does not advise the Long Beach Arts Council because it is a separate 501c3 nonprofit with its own articles of incorporation and bylaws,” she said.  

Each evaluated reasons why the ACLB should no longer operate under the Brown Act.

“While the Arts Council may receive city funding, we understand that it receives funds from other sources as well,” Webber said. “Because it appears that the other factors requiring compliance are answered in the negative, the Arts Council’s own attorneys researched the issue and concluded that they would use another process for conducting their meetings.”

Webber said the role delegated to the ACLB by the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency (LBRDA) ended with the LBRDA’s demise.

“Since the agency no longer exists, the Arts Council no longer serves to fulfill that delegated function,” Webber said.  

“We were formed as a nonprofit corporation in 1976, and for the first 30 years of our history, we did not operate under the Brown Act,” Bryan said. “In 2006, during the period when we received RDA funds that were then disbursed by the Advisory Committee for Public Art (comprised of voting members representing the City, Community, and ACLB Board) the Arts Council recognized that we should be governed under the terms of the Brown Act. Our activities were, in part, directed by the City and so, at that time, we began following Brown Act requirements.

“After the RDA was disbanded, our situation changed and our current contract with the city is negotiated each year. The funding that the Arts Council receives enables us to manage an independent grant allocation process for artists and arts organizations. Our additional activities as a 501(c)3 are funded by other private and public income sources.”

Bryan’s predecessor, John Glaza, sought clarification about this issue shortly after the RDA’s dissolution. “I asked the city attorney’s office about the Brown Act requirement and was told by Ms. [Heather] Mahood that the act still applied to ACLB,” Glaza said. “When I left the organization we were still operating under the act.”

Terry Francke, co-founder and general council of Californians Aware: The Center for Public Forum Rights, is one of the state’s leading experts on the Brown Act and has successfully litigated many cases of violations. He said that the Brown Act may apply to the ACLB board, “if the facts of its founding are as I suspect they are, i.e. if in effect the city ‘created’ it in order for it to serve functions delegated to it by the city.”

The Public Corporation for the Arts (dba ACLB) was created by the City of Long Beach to fulfill a delegated function: distribution of municipal funds to local arts organizations that met specific criteria. The City Council could have done this, but chose not to because the process would have been politically difficult.

In Chapter 2, Section 54952(c)(1)(A) of the Brown Act, it states that non-profit corporations must adhere to the rules of the Brown Act if, “a legislative body delegates some of its functions to a private corporation or entity.” The ACLB continues to receive funds from the City specifically for grants to arts organizations.

In fact, in a previous contract between the ACLB and the City reads, “since 1985, PCA and City have had a contractual relationship pursuant to which City allocated and distributed certain funds to support a broad range of arts and cultural activities in Long Beach and under which PCA acted as administrator and organizer for various arts and cultural activities and responsibilities.”

Webber did not respond to repeated attempts asking for clarification regarding the reasons the ACLB did not meet this measure, which would require adherence to the Brown Act from the time of its inception.

For those not familiar with the organization, it has a number of functions. In addition to administering municipal funds via grants, it also operates The Collaborative gallery in partnership with the Museum of Latin American Art, runs several arts programs for youth, operates an on-line artist registry, and has a full page for arts-related news in the Long Beach Business Journal, which is owned by George Economides.

According to Bryan, the contract for The Collaborative is ending in August and, so far, they’ve not found funds to renew it. According to sources who requested to remain anonymous, Director of Arts Learning Kylee Yocky is resigning from the ACLB. Shay Thornton Kulha, Programs Director, left the organization last month. In accordance with their recently revised strategic plan, they’ve hired April Economides as their Marketing and Communications Director.

Despite limiting public comment and public involvement in board meetings, Bryan said that the ACLB will strive to preserve institutional transparency.

“The Arts Council continues to welcome public attendance and comment at our board meetings,” Bryan said. “We post our board meeting agendas on our website and there is time allotted for public comment at the beginning of each meeting. Earlier this year, the board voted to ensure that our future meetings follow this structure.”

They’ve hosted quarterly “Arts Partners” meetings, “Arts Forums” with delegates from each of the nine council districts and the Mayor’s office, and the first “Open Conversations” gathering.

Michele Dobson, an attorney who represents non-profits as part of her practice, is completing her third and final term as a board member of ACLB. “It is always my recommendation to non-profit clients to avoid the appearance of impropriety and be as transparent as possible,” she said. 

Glaza echoed Dobson’s statement. “The Brown Act requirement, and our commitment to transparency and inclusiveness, helped create a more approachable and accessible organization. I also think we had a more open and effective governing structure and board member election process as a result.”

“One of many goals during my tenure,” Glaza said, “was to find ways to create greater transparency and engage community in the process. The Act helped us do that but we could have done much more, since the community is the ultimate steward of the Arts Council.”

The Expo Arts Center is located at 4321 Atlantic Avenue, and is managed by the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association in partnership with the City of Long Beach.

Learn more about the Arts Council for Long Beach, and read their new Strategic Plan.
Read the Brown Act yourself.
Learn more about CalAware.org.
Read about alleged Brown Act violations by the ACLB back in 2006.

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This article was updated on 5/4/15 at 2:45PM. It originally stated that Kylee Yocky, director of arts learning, and Laura Sardisco, gallery and social media coordinator, are both resigning from ACLB. However, Laura Sardisco remains the gallery and social media coordinator at the ACLB.