With the encouragement of the City Council, Gary Mandell will consider creating a reduced series of concerts later this year, depending on what city officials are willing to offer and if Mandell can obtain sponsorships to offset some of the cultural event’s expenditures.
The Culver City Music Festival has been produced by Mandell, the owner of Boulevard Music, for nearly a decade. It has largely been funded by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency, but due to the elimination of the state’s 397 redevelopment agencies, the majority of the expenditures can no longer be subsidized, agency officials said recently.
At a Jan. 23 joint meeting of the City Council and the redevelopment agency- the agency’s last meeting, as they are set for dissolution on Wednesday, Feb. 1- the government agencies had the option of considering authorizing city employees to engage in a fundraising campaign in order to produce a concert series at Media Park or consider a conceptual proposal by Mandell to create a truncated version of the previous summer music festivals.
Reached at Boulevard Music on Sepulveda Boulevard the day after the meeting, Mandell said there are many details that have yet to be finalized, and until they are, it is difficult to know what kind of shows the public can expect.
“Until (the city) tells me that I’m going to do it, there’s not a lot that I can do,” he explained. “I’m not going to line up sponsors if I don’t know what the parameters of what I might be doing are.”
Councilman Andrew Weissman acknowledged that the summer concert festival is a fan favorite inside and outside Culver City, but the loss of redevelopment agency funds make it impossible for the city to subsidize it during a continuing economic downturn and it was unfortunate that the festival was the first program that city officials had to consider for restructuring or elimination.
Approximately a half dozen speakers implored the council and agency to support Mandell, citing the success of the concerts and their ability to draw visitors to Culver City’s downtown area.
Weissman said he understands the importance of cultural events and how they can shape and enrich a community’s standing.
But as an elected leader, his obligation is to the city’s fiscal health.
“The nature of the decisions that the city will be facing, compounded by the elimination of revenue from the redevelopment agency makes it very challenging to do business in the same way as in the past,” Weissman said after the meeting. “ The focus now has to be on the integrity of the general fund and maintenance of our general services,” he said.
Mandell, who has also produced a series of concerts in Veterans Park for 12 years called the “Boulevard Music Festival,” said a lot of what he would plan for a musical venture would depend on how the council chooses to act. “If I’m not going to get paid, this would be considered an extension of what I’m already doing now,” he said, referring to the Veterans Park festival.
There is $7,500 remaining from last year’s concert budget, and the council could award that to Mandell to offset some of the costs of a potential summer music fest. “With $7,500, I could do at least two shows,” the producer predicted. “Maybe four, depending on sponsorships.”
Culver City Chamber of Commerce President Steven Rose thinks the focus should be on the potential job losses of redevelopment agency employees instead of cultural events.
“I find it laughable that people are worried about music concerts when there are jobs that will be affected,” asserted Rose, who as a Culver City councilman often clashed with Mandell over funding and concert acts.
Weissman said there are other initiatives that were subsidized with redevelopment funds that will soon come before the council and they too will undergo intense fiscal scrutiny. “It’s sad that we have to have these kinds of discussions,” the councilman lamented. “This will the first of many very difficult decisions.”
Mandell said there are other options for generating more revenue, such as charging for premier seating at the concert venue and soliciting donations at the concerts.
City officials plan to meet with Mandell to discuss his ideas about a possible summer festival within the next few weeks.
If his proposal is accepted, the city would provide in-kind contributions like the event space in front of City Hall and the clean up afterwards, according to a staff report. In return, the city would become a co-sponsor of the festival within the next few weeks.
“This year’s theme is ‘Show me the money, and I’ll show you the music,” the producer quipped.”
