Still No Clear Resolution On Summer Music Festival

The City Council had hoped to vote Monday night on a staff recommendation that would keep alive the 2012 Culver City Summer Music Festival, albeit in a somewhat revised format. However, after over an hour of public comment and discussion, the council decided to postpone the decision for at least another two weeks.

Following the abolition of the Redevelopment Agency and the $75,000 that would have come from the agency to produce the summer series, to postpone a decision on funding for the 2012 festival until Monday night’s meeting.

During that two-week period, Gary Mandell, who owns and runs Boulevard Music (and who has been in charge of the festival for the past 11 years), proposed producing a festival called the Boulevard Music Festival. It would be on a smaller scale, take place in Media Park – the festival’s original home – and Mandell would undertake to find sponsors for the event.

There is currently $5,500 in past sponsorships available for the festival, and an additional $2,000 reallocated from the 2011 Sony cultural events contribution. After much discussion, City Manager John Nachbar said it could be possible to allocate an additional $7,500 to the festival from the City’s discretionary fund, to provide $15,000 in total for the 2012 festival.

However, in what became an ongoing circular argument, council members asked Mandell how much money he would need to produce one show, while Mandell continued to counter that it would depend on how many sponsorships he could obtain and whether or not services routinely provided by the city for this event including set up, cleaning and maintenance etc. could be run by volunteers, and who would pay for the sound system.

Eventually, the council members agreed to postpone the vote for at least another two weeks to allow Mandell to meet with city staff to discuss the issue further. In addition, Councilmember Jeffrey Cooper said that if the City were to provide a minimum of $7,500 for the festival, then the title of the festival should become the Culver City Boulevard Festival.

Despite Mandell stepping up with his proposal, in which he stated he would not be making any money from the event himself, several people said they were opposed to a private individual running the event.

Ronnie Jayne and Michelle Bernardin, both Culver City cultural affairs commissioners, but who spoke in the public comments period as private citizens argued against Mandell’s proposal.

“Whoever puts these concerts on will be getting some waived fees from the City,” Jayne said, while Bernardin said if Mandell could come forward and propose his own music festival then an RFP process should be opened up to the public, “to make it an open and fair process,” she said.

However, Councilmember Christopher Armenta said that while an RFP process and another idea proposed in public comment – to have the Cultural Affairs Commission’s ad hoc subcommittee discuss the issue further and try and generate sponsorship – were all well and good, they would be great ideas for 2013 but for 2012 continuity was key.

“I’m trying to find some way to save this program,” Amenta said, thanking Mandell for stepping up at “what could be the final hour.”

The council eventually agreed to hold off on any further decisions until Mandell meets with city staff to discuss the issue further.

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