With the California Center for the Arts, Escondido continuing to run in the red, city leaders last year decided to offer other entities the opportunity to manage the venue. There were just one — the independent nonprofit already managing the Arts Center. The city had issued requests for proposals to manage the venue last June and created an ad hoc committee to review what was expected to be a number of interested applicants. By the 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline, the California Center for the Arts, Escondido Foundation, which already manages the venue, was the only organization that had submitted a proposal. California State University, San Marcos had been the only other entity to tour the venue last year, a prerequisite for submitting proposals, but CSUSM apparently had backed out. Escondido City Clerk Zack Beck said receiving just one proposal may have thrown a curve in the plan for the ad hoc committee to review and narrow down applicants before making a recommendation to the full City Council. “I believe it was done under the assumption that there would be multiple RFPs to review as opposed to just one,” he said. “I don’t know if they’re going to change course now because only one was submitted.” The idea to look for new management was in response to the arts center’s ongoing structural budget deficit, meaning costs continually are greater than revenue. The city already had found new funding for the Arts Center as well as the library through the federal American Rescue Plan Act. AAPA will fund the library for two years and the Arts Center for one. “There’s a clock associated with both of those,” Beck said. “The council will have to decide whether both are coming back on the general fund or if they’re looking for something different.” Since the city first considered finding a new manager for the Arts Center, another new funding source emerged in November with the passage of Measure I, a one-cent sales tax designed as a deficit solution in the city. Beck said it’s possible that revenue from the new tax could address the structural deficit issue with the Arts Center. The City Council has scheduled a visioning workshop for noon Feb. 12 in the Mitchell Room at City Hall to discuss how to use Measure I funding and other issues.