Center cuts staff to save cash

The Orange County Performing Arts Center announced Friday that it laid off about 6% of its full-time staff and an additional 3% of its part-time staff this week as it goes through what management is calling the most difficult financial situation the center has ever faced.

No programs will be affected, though, according to Vice President of Marketing Todd Bentjen. All of the music and theater events scheduled at the center along with community outreach programs at local schools will continue as planned.

The center has more than 100 full-time and 100 part-time employees, and the staff cuts, which hit a total of 10 employees, took place Wednesday. They were the first the center has seen in years, according to President Terry Dwyer.

Without the savings brought about by the budget cuts, the center’s financial analysts were projecting that it would run a deficit this year, but the cuts should allow them to balance the budget, officials said.

Last year, the center had a small surplus from normal operations but lost about $13 million when an insurance policy it bought to insure the bonds it issued to finance the construction of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall lost all of its value because of the housing market’s dive.

That loss was not a factor in the latest cuts, though, Dwyer said. The measures were more a preemptive strike to combat some frightening trends that analysts were seeing, such as flagging ticket sales and donations coming in smaller and later than usual.

By cutting costs to mirror those projected decreases in revenue, the center should be able to avoid cutting programs next year as well, according to Dwyer.

“We’ll be in reasonably good shape if we finish up this year successfully. This too shall pass, and we’re confident about our future,” he said.

Many area arts institutions have seen a decline in donations from individuals and businesses in the past year. Orange County saw its decades-old opera company, Opera Pacific, shut its doors in November, canceling the rest of its shows midseason.

Opera Pacific, which presented its shows at the Performing Arts Center for years until it folded, recently sold off its possessions and vacated its building in Santa Ana.

In addition to the layoffs at the center, other measures are being taken to cut costs. A hiring freeze has been instituted on several open positions, and center employees will forgo attending conferences and professional development events to save on transportation, lodging and food costs.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].