A contract with the city’s organist who has played at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park for 10 years will be taken up by the San Diego City Council in June before her contract expires on June 30.
The Natural Resources and Culture Committee has heard the contract of Dr. Carol Williams twice and they voted 3-1 May 18 to send it to the City Council after unsuccessfully trying to find specific funding to pay her.
Williams plays at a one-hour free concert every Sunday and has other official duties as the city’s lone civic organist. She averages a 30-hour week that includes rehearsals and practice, and the suggested salary of $28,860 per year would make her one of the lowest paid city workers.
Williams does also receive a salary of $35,798 from the Spreckels Organ Society as its artistic director plus health benefits, according to a City Council report.
During the summer, Williams also plays at 11 free concerts on Mondays. “She sometimes plays for the fifth graders in the park on Fridays,” said Charles Ballinger, a member of the Spreckels Organ Society.
“It will be San Diego’s loss if we can’t retain Carol Williams. The city is getting a great bargain here,” said Ross Porter, the general administrator for the Spreckels group. “She’s a first rate talent.”
“Every week the program is different,” said Ballinger.
The Sunday concerts have always been free due to conditions set down nearly 100 years ago when philanthropists John and Adolph Spreckels gave the pipe organ to the city in a deed of gift. In a Dec. 31, 1914 ceremony, the organ was dedicated on the condition the concerts would always be free.
A Council report says the organ is the world’s largest outdoor pipe organ. The city began funding the position of civic organist in 1926.
The contract with Williams is structured for 10 years in the amount of $286,000, and would last until June, 2021. The funds would come from the park and recreation department, which has been hit with budget cuts due to the city’s ongoing deficit.
When the Council committee heard the matter on April 20, they voted 4-0 to seek funding from the Commission of Arts and Culture and other sources. The Commission informed the committee they had no funds available to pay for Williams’ salary, something that infuriated 5th District Councilmember Carl DeMaio.
At the May 18 meeting, DeMaio held up his cell phone that he says showed a picture of “sushi art” that the Commission of Arts and Culture is funding. DeMaio said if they have the money to support “sushi art,” they should find the money to pay Williams since they have a $6 million budget that mostly includes grants.
A proposal to pay the salary from hotel room taxes is “an accounting shell game,” said DeMaio, adding that Transient Occupancy Tax funds go into the general fund anyway.
“It’s an arts and culture program,” said DeMaio.
Part of DeMaio’s motion was to request the Commission of Arts and Culture look at their grants again to see if they could support funding for Williams. 6th District Councilmember Lorie Zapf voted no, but did not explain her reason.
DeMaio also suggested that perhaps each councilmember could donate some money out of their own district budgets to pay for Williams’ contract.
