SR-305-005 (2)
Council Meeting: January 28, 2003 Santa Monica, California
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Staff
SUBJECT: Contracts with the Santa Monica Playhouse and the Santa Monica Historical
Society Museum for Funds Approved During the Fiscal Year 2002-03
Budget Approval Process.
Introduction
This reports requests that Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute
contracts with the Santa Monica Playhouse and the Santa Monica Historical Society
Museum for funding approved with the adoption of the FY 2002-03 City Budget.
Background
In January of 2002, Council directed staff to respond to funding requests from the Santa
Monica Playhouse and the Santa Monica Historical Society Museum. After meeting
with both agencies and making a thorough examination of the requests, staff presented
Council with options for both agencies which were reviewed by Council at its budget
meeting on June 18, 2002. At that time, the City Council voted to approve $75,000 for
the Santa Monica Playhouse and $22,400 as a matching fund grant to the Historical
Society, with funding requirements as proposed by staff.
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Discussion
Santa Monica Playhouse
The Playhouse is a non-profit professional theatre and educational conservancy,
concentrating its efforts in three areas: the creation of live theatre, an educational
conservatory program, and community outreach. The Santa Monica Playhouse marked
its fortieth anniversary in 2002 at its current site on Fourth Street in downtown. Its
current lease is up and the Playhouse is negotiating the purchase of the 50% of the
building that houses its program for a yet-to-be-determined price ranging from $1 to
$1.5 million. The Playhouse must make a down payment of at least $500,000 in order
to generate monthly payments that are comparable to their current rental costs.
On June 18, 2002, Council placed the following requirements upon this funding:
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City funds be used solely to support the purchase of the current Playhouse
facility;
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City funds be matched, at a minimum, on a one-to-one basis by the Playhouse
through its capital campaign.
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Final release of City funds be made when all necessary funds are raised;
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The Playhouse ensures it will be open to the public and continue its current level
of programming at this location;
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The Playhouse continues to operate its programs at this facility for a designated
period of time commensurate with the level of City funding;
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The Playhouse hold quarterly status meetings with City staff until fundraising
goals are met.
Santa Monica Historical Society
The Santa Monica Historical Society Museum is a nonprofit foundation founded in 1975
to collect and preserve the history, culture and art of the City of Santa Monica. The
Museum began operations in 1988 with the mission of providing access to historic
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documents, photographs and artifacts. The Museum presents changing exhibitions
showcasing various aspects of Santa Monica’s history, lecture series, film showings,
docent-led Discovering Your Community tours to local elementary schools, classroom
presentations, and various community events such as award dinners, holiday
celebrations and an annual community picnic.
The Historical Society Museum’s funding request was prompted by the Outlook
Newspaper’s donation of its entire archive of photographs and newspapers covering
more than 120 years of Santa Monica history to the Museum. The Museum plans a
multi-year project to preserve 250,000 images and negatives from the collection and
catalogue 30,000 images to make them available to the public, of which 6,000 images
would be available on-line.
On June 18, 2002, Council placed the following conditions upon this funding:
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City funds be used solely for expanded, qualified, experienced staff to coordinate
volunteers and interns to begin the preservation of the Outlook collection and
ensure its incremental access to the community;
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City funds be matched on a one-to-one basis by the Museum to purchase the
necessary preservation materials and supplies for the project;
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The Museum ensure that its facility will be open to the public a minimum of two
days per week;
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The Museum make a specified number of photographs available to the public
within a 12 month period starting with the receipt of funds. (The funding request
estimated that with $50,000 of support approximately 50,000 images could be
catalogued and 1,500 images made available on-line by the end of FY 2002-03);
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The Museum hold quarterly status and technical assistance meetings with
representatives from the Cultural and Community Services and Library
Departments.
City staff is now ready to execute agreements.
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BUDGET FINANCIAL IMPACT
Funding for these two contracts was identified in the FY 2001-02 Budget and has been
incorporated into the FY 2002-03 City Budget. The amount of $75,000 for the Santa
Monica Playhouse is budgeted at account 01274.544390 and $22,400 is budgeted at
01560.569130 for the Santa Monica Historical Society Museum.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute
contracts with the Santa Monica Historical Society Museum and the Santa Monica
Playhouse for the funds previously approved by the City Council.
Prepared by: Barbara Stinchfield, Director, Community and Cultural Services
María Luisa de Herrera, Manager, Cultural Affairs Division
Hamp Simmons, Coordinator, Cultural Affairs Division
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