Who Will Decide? Consultants bid on the future of arts in Eugene. BY MELISSA BEARNS The bids are in from agencies interested in working as consultants to help the city of Eugene create a plan to develop arts and culture over the next few decades. Five different organizations submitted proposals by Friday, March 24 to work on the city's Cultural Policy Review (CPR), a project with a $250,000 budget. On March 2 the city posted a request for proposal (RFP) for outside consultants to "develop an action-oriented arts and cultural plan that focuses primarily on downtown Eugene." The money is allocated for a two-year period, during which the plan is to be completed. Previously, city staffers were very clear to specify that while one consultant could be awarded the entire project, it could just as easily be completed by multiple consultants. The RFP detailed the work the consultant or consultants will do, including marketing and promoting the arts in Eugene, identifying existing arts organizations and facilitating more collaboration and cooperation between them, assessing the current audience and working to increase the numbers of arts supporters and consumers, and identifying funding sources. The RFP was advertised on the city's website and through the Oregon Procurement Network. In addition, buyers from the city notified businesses across the country and even in Canada. The five businesses to respond were KJ Smith Associates (Eugene), Jerry Allen and Associates (Soquel, Calif.), LORD Cultural Resources Planning & Management (Washington, D.C.) Wolf Keens & Company (Cambridge, Mass.) and ArtsMarket Inc. (Bozeman, Mont.). The proposal from Jerry Allen and Associates was rejected as "non-responsive" according to Mia Cariaga, buyer in the city Purchasing Department. When the RFP was first launched, the city came under fire from community members and people involved in the arts community who objected to the city outsourcing a project with such a local focus. UO Cultural Forum Director Darrel Kau was one of the most vocal critics. He sent an e-mail to city council members and Mayor Piercy objecting to the RFP, saying most of the responsibilities the city wants to hire consultants to fulfill are actually jobs the city's Cultural Services Department should be handling. In addition, he raised concerns about whether or not a company from outside Eugene or even Oregon could do a good job and effectively perform a complete evaluation of the current situation in the city. He asked why the city would outsource a project that could and should be done by locals who know the current scene and situation, everything from who the current players are to the city's reluctance to fund the arts. At the time, city officials including Executive Director of Library, Recreation and Cultural Services Angel Jones and Interim Cultural Services Director Laura Niles responded by saying that they hoped local organizations would submit bids. Now the bids are in and only one of them is from a local business. But Niles pointed out in an e-mail that the RFP itself stated that experience in the Northwest was a minimum requirement. "The four [approved] proposals met the minimum," she wrote. "Being informed of the region's historic low government financial support of cultural institutions (as compared to nationwide statistics) is an important element in designing sustainable strategies for the future delivery of services that will be identified as high priority by the process." But despite repeated calls and e-mails, city officials have never answered the actual question: Can a business from outside Eugene, whose employees never have or will live here, come up with a plan to develop arts and culture that will fit the politics, character and nuances of the city? While some arts organizers are concerned that the answer is no, others say maybe an outside company would do a better job. Alex Brokaw is a long-time Eugene resident and one of the people who helped pull together the arts consortium that kept the Jacobs Gallery open when the city cut all funding in the late '90s. "I would be interested in what someone from outside Eugene would have to say about what we've been doing," she said. "[The arts community] is a relatively small group of people. We all know each other and everybody talks to each other so we all have somewhat similar ideas. Someone could come and interview people in Eugene and study what's been going on and have a more detached opinion. They might be able to see things the local arts organizations are missing." The people reviewing the bids, dubbed the Mayor's Committee because the committee members are being selected by Mayor Piercy, include members of the city's Cultural Services Advisory Committee as well as other representatives from the arts communities. Andrew Toney of Lane Arts Council is a committee member as are Tina Rinaldi, former director of the Jacobs Gallery, Kirk Boyd of Willamette Repertory Theatre and other members of the Hult Center staff and resident companies. The city did not provide a list of current committee members by deadline despite numerous requests for the information by both phone and e-mail. Even the selection process from the Mayor's Committee has been somewhat controversial. Initially, the only people invited to be on it were in some way linked to the Hult Center. Following Kau's criticism of the entire process, people from a broader cross section of the arts in Eugene were included. While the city has broadened the number of organizations currently involved and in the loop, many of the key local arts organizations felt the city had done little to help keep them informed on what was happening with the project. Members of DIVA requested a copy of the RFP from Niles who directed them to the purchasing department. DIVA followed up, contacting the purchasing department, but never received a copy of the RFP. "More information coming out to the community would have been a good thing," said Toney, executive director of Lane Arts Council. "Truly, until Darrel sent that e-mail, I don't think the larger community or the key arts players and supporters were aware of the status of the project." In addition, the city has not returned repeated phone calls and e-mails from EW requesting various pieces of information for this story. Meanwhile officials continue to say they want this process, which could effectively guide the development of arts in Eugene for the next few decades, to be an open process with lots of involvement from the public. Monday, April 4 the current members of the Mayor's Committee are meeting to go over the bid proposals and discuss the scoring process that will be used to select the consultant.
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