New Laguna mayor puts focus on the arts

As Laguna Beach’s new mayor, Bob Whalen said the city’s arts community needs a spark.

Some arts institutions in town are operating on narrow margins, while others struggle to find venues for their work, Whalen said Monday as he discussed goals for the coming year. Undergrounding utilities and making headway on improvements to Laguna Canyon Road are also at the top of his list.

But Whalen, 61, who has lived in Laguna Beach for 30 years and enters his third year on the City Council, spent considerable time discussing the city’s arts scene, for which Laguna is renowned.

Local artists need a central location to showcase their work, while groups like Laguna Beach Live! could benefit from having dedicated facilities to showcase their work, he said.

“When I look at the history of Laguna Beach, two traits come to mind: natural beauty and that this is an arts community,” Whalen said. “We need an art renaissance in town.”

Candidates in November’s City Council election floated the idea of a cultural arts center in Laguna, and Whalen believes it’s an idea worth looking into.

“If there is an interest in a cultural arts-type building, then perhaps it could be a public-private partnership,” said Whalen, who has spent 32 years as a public finance attorney at Stradling, Yocca, Carlson and Rauth, which has a Newport Beach office.

Whalen specializes in bond work for state and local agencies including, school districts, counties, cities and water districts.

Encouraging donors to earmark funds for the arts would be crucial to success, Whalen said, referencing the recent $10 million gift that Mission Hospital Laguna Beach received for its emergency department from PIMCO co-founder Bill Gross and wife, Sue.

“Part of our job [as City Council members] is to inspire conversation in the community that leads people to look at issues, think differently and be willing to take bold steps to create a better Laguna,” Whalen said.

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BOSTON BORN AND RAISED

Whalen grew up in Boston with three younger brothers and in 1975 graduated from Harvard University with a degree in urban studies. Deciding he needed to experience a different part of the country, he moved to California.

Whalen graduated in 1978 from UC Berkeley’s Hastings College of the Law, where he met his wife, Kirsten. After law school, Whalen took a job as a law clerk for federal District Court Judge Ed Schwartz in San Diego for a year, and eventually worked at a Los Angeles firm before securing his current position with Stradling in 1982.

Whalen served on the Laguna Beach Unified School District board from 1997 to 2006 and on the Planning Commission from 2008 to 2012, the year he was elected to the council.

Current Laguna Beach Unified Trustee Jan Vickers worked for six years alongside Whalen on the school board and noted his penchant for listening to others.

“He’s a very conscientious steward of public funds,” Vickers said, adding that Whalen pushed for a cap on healthcare costs for district teachers and classified staff.

“He’s very knowledgeable, always well prepared and a calm leader,” Vickers said.

In addition to the arts, Whalen said another focus will be revising the Downtown Specific Plan, which the city has already started to work on.

Urban planning firm MIG has been hired to help prepare the update and will focus on reaching out to the public for suggestions and developing recommendations. The company could look at building heights, use of public space, parking and traffic circulation. MIG closed a portion of Ocean Avenue for three hours in November to gather community input on street improvements.

Whalen said he will ask the council to vote within the next two months on a proposal to close a portion of Forest Avenue to vehicles at certain times “to promote greater pedestrian activity downtown and increase sales for the merchants.”

As for placing overhead wires underground, the city currently takes a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach. Whalen said it may be more cost effective and efficient for the city to devise a comprehensive plan.

“It takes five to six years from planning to underground utility poles,” Whalen said. “Half that time is spent on planning. One of my ideas is to do front-end planning where all the involved entities do their drawings so when you get to a particular neighborhood, we don’t have to wait to plan it.

“Would the community support a bond measure to underground utilities? It’s a public safety and aesthetics issue, but primarily a public safety issue. There is a fire risk and traffic safety risk [cars running into poles]. History shows that cities which have undergrounded utility poles see property values go up. Imagine having unobstructed views of the ocean or hills if you get the poles underground?”

Whalen said being a public servant is a balancing act. He admitted he took flak for not supporting Louis Longi’s 30-unit artist live-work project in Laguna Canyon.

“That was a difficult decision,” Whalen said. “I support the [artist live-work] concept, but didn’t feel a facility of that scale was appropriate given our current land-use rules.”

He said he wants to hear various viewpoints and tries “hard not to pre-judge” or “think I have the answer.”

“If you listen long enough and study hard enough, the right path will make itself evident,” Whalen said.