A recently released report on arts funding avoided ethics controversies and did not discuss how to help Camden's South Jersey Performing Arts Center.

The report - by Secretary of State DeForest Soaries Jr. - did not investigate, for example, whether too much money dispensed by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts goes to the state's biggest arts organizations, whose board members often include current or former arts council members.

"The arts council has already decided to look into that," Soaries said. "My staff will help them."

But in an interview, he said more money needs to be spent to complete Camden's performing arts center and improve its acoustics.

SJPAC Executive Director Barbara Fenhagen said Monday the acoustics could be enhanced, and the center could be transformed into a "warmer, more inviting place" for about $ 10 million. Indoor plants, tapestries, a new orchestra shell and a new ceiling are among the improvements she has in mind.

The $10 million she seeks is a small sum compared with the $187 million in state, corporate and private funds spent on the opulent New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, she pointed out.

Estimating what can be done and how much it would cost is being handled by the state's Economic Development Authority, Soaries said.

As the Courier-Post reported Saturday, Soaries said the arts council should stop diverting funds earmarked for South Jersey to North Jersey arts groups.

By law the arts council must give 25 percent of its money to cultural projects in South Jersey.

Over the past two years, the council has given more than $495,000 of South Jersey's money to North Jersey groups to put on shows in the South.

At some point, Soaries said, he hopes the law that forces the arts council to give 25 percent of its money to South Jersey will no longer be necessary.

"Not this year, not next year, and not the year after that," Soaries said. But at some point, when arts groups feel they can be evaluated fairly without special protections, he said he hoped the program can be eliminated.

As a result of Soaries' recommendation to stop sending their money to North Jersey groups, local arts leaders like Trevor Orthmann of the Haddonfield Symphony said Monday they are "very hopeful" that southern groups will get more money next year.

But SJPAC officials in Camden said their organization was unfairly criticized in Soaries' report.

The report says Camden officials failed to complete paperwork on time for seven of eight previouswhen? grants totaling $331,000.

That's one of the reasons, the report says, that the Camden center was rejected last year when it asked for $100, 000 more.

The Secretary of State's report also says local arts leaders were warned about possible acoustics problems long before the center was merged into what is now the Tweeter Center on the Waterfront.

Classical artists complain their music is drowned out when rain hits the Camden center's metal roof.

Fenhagen, of the SJPAC, said the state is penalizing Camden for not having the money or staff to improve the acoustics or properly finish paperwork on time.

Last year, she said, arts council staff members " recognized the staff shortage. We were told several times that these (late) filings were not a contributing factor to the denial (of the request for new funds)."

Soaries said he did not want to comment specifically on the SJPAC's application last year.

In a written statement, Barbara Russo, executive director of the arts council, called Soaries' report "a thoughtful review of all the issues and there is great support for the direction the council has taken and plans to take in the future."