Irvine Should Look Before It Lays Off

Thanks for calling attention to Irvine’s ill-considered plan to dismiss Cultural Affairs Manager Henry Korn (“Proposed Layoff Decried,” May 4).

In the 2 1/2 years I’ve worked with him, Korn has demonstrated an unstinting commitment to the cultural enrichment of the city’s residents, with a special emphasis on reaching out to the many new ethnic communities who now make Irvine their home.

Given Korn’s outstanding professional qualifications--not mere academic credentials, but the hands-on knowledge of the acclaimed writer, the productive diplomacy of the accomplished administrator--the issue is neither Korn nor budgets and organizational reshuffling. Rather, the decision highlights the failure in management of the city’s elected and appointed officials. In matters of culture and the arts, they have failed to discern what the people want and failed to direct the city’s cultural affairs staff accordingly.

The inevitable irony of this episode will be, of course, that sometime soon, in perhaps a year or two, officials will rediscover that Irvine wants the city to play a role in cultural leadership. And, at a great new cost, someone will commission a study, and conduct a search, and hire a staff . . .

ROBERT J. FAUTEUX

Chairman, Intercultural Advisory Committee, Irvine