This year marks the 30th anniversary of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, a longtime pillar of the community that’s often seen as the arts and culture hub of North County.
Since 1994, the Center has offered events, workshops, holiday celebrations, concerts, theater productions, gallery shows and more for the public to enjoy, often for free.
But this year could also mark the beginning of the biggest management change the Center has ever seen.
The Escondido City Council will consider making a request for bids for the management of the arts center. The process will allow the city to solicit proposals from any entities or organizations interested in managing the Center.
The city of Escondido owns the arts center, but the California Center for the Arts Foundation, a nonprofit overseen by a board of directors, manages it. The foundation has been managing the Center for the past 30 years, but that could soon change.
Deputy City Manager Chris McKinney told Voice of San Diego that the bid process would allow city leaders to see if there’s a more cost-effective way to operate and manage the arts center.
Each year, the city of Escondido pays a monthly management fee to the foundation for the operation of the Center and pays for all gas and electric bills for the facilities. The city also provides some maintenance and administration work either through direct payments to the foundation or through city employee staff time, according to a city staff report.
This year, the city will pay a total of $660,000 in monthly management fees to the Center, as well as $1.1 million in gas and electricity costs, plus $108,000 in insurance costs. The city has reduced the management fee it gives to the Center by more than $100,000 in the past few years because of its ongoing budget issues.
Escondido has been struggling with a structural budget deficit for the past several years. Officials estimate its average annual deficit over the next 20 years is $18.2 million.
In past years, the city has had to close its budget shortfalls with one-time funding sources like Covid relief funds, loan repayments and the city’s pension trust. But the city is running out of temporary fixes.
City staff has been consistent about the structural nature of its ongoing deficits. “Until revenue is increased on an ongoing and structural basis, the city will have to continue to rely on short-term, one-time resources to continue operations and avoid drastic cuts to city services,” staff wrote in last year’s budget.
Escondido leaders haven’t had to enact drastic cuts to city services yet, but without more money coming in, the city may soon have to consider making more cuts to city services.
“With the city being in the financial position that it’s in with the structural budget deficit and kind of struggling to provide services to the city, I think the council’s intent was to look at everything and see if there’s a more cost-effective way to get management services at the center,” said McKinney, the deputy city manager. “And really, there’s no way of knowing that without going out and soliciting and seeing what’s out there.”
McKinney said he is expecting the Center’s foundation to throw its hat in the ring if the council decides to move forward with the bid process. That’s exactly what the foundation is planning to do, said Gina Lopez, the Center’s CEO.
Ideally, the Center’s management structure would stay the same, Lopez told Voice of San Diego. The worst-case scenario would be if another organization took over and decided to make drastic changes to the Center, she said.
The Center opened its doors in 1994, but its history dates back to 1985 when Escondido voters approved the building of a $73-million arts center that would bring music, dance, theater and art to one place.
The arts center’s design was the product of a years-long competition in which 108 architects from around the world submitted entries. The public provided input on their favorite designs and, 30 years later, that’s the Center that attracts visitors from all over North County and beyond.
Its facilities include a 1,500-seat concert hall, a 400-seat theater, a contemporary art museum, art and dance studios and a full-service conference center with meeting and banquet rooms.
In addition to its concerts and theater productions, the Center also runs an extensive education program and produces over 52 free community events, such as Música en la Plaza, the Independence Day Festival, Día de los Muertos Festival and the Winter Wonderland Festival.
“We brought more than 300,000 visitors to Escondido last year, bringing in $4 million in revenue to the city,” Lopez said. “It’s a really big part of the community.”
She added that she’s supportive of a citizens initiative to place a 1 percent sales tax increase on the November ballot. A coalition of Escondido police, firefighters and labor leaders started the initiative. If it makes it onto the ballot and passes, it could generate ongoing revenue for the city.
Escondido has twice already attempted to address the structural gap by raising sales taxes, with ballot measures projected to raise around $20 million annually. The first one didn’t get past the City Council in 2020, and the second failed at the ballot box last year.
McKinney told Voice that the City Council authorized staff to prepare the bid process documents several months ago, and a council meeting to discuss releasing the request for bids is expected to happen sometime next month.
He added that the City Council has indicated they would continue providing funds to the Center through fiscal year 2025, and whoever wins the bid process will begin managing the Center at the start of fiscal year 2026.
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The structural deficit problem is caused by the cities need to pay for additional contributions to employee pension plans. Those payments are up about $13 million in the last five years, now reaching about $26m/year.
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Those payments provide zero benefit to residents. THAT is the problem that needs to be fixed. Permanently.
Good luck, though.