  We study whether the nonmonotonic behavior found in the differential cross
section of the phi-meson photoproduction near threshold can be described by a
resonance. Namely, we add a resonance to a model consisting of Pomeron and
(pi,eta) exchange by fiat and see if, with a suitable assignment of spin and
parity, mass and width, as well as the coupling constants, one would be able to
obtain a good description to all the data reported by the LEPS collaboration in
the low-energy region. The resonant contribution is evaluated by using an
effective Lagrangian approach. We find that, with the assumption of a J^P=3/2^-
resonance with mass of 2.10 +- 0.03 GeV and width of 0.465 +- 0.141 GeV, LEPS
data can indeed be well described. The ratio of the helicity amplitudes
A_(1/2)/A_(3/2) calculated from the resulting coupling constants differs in
sign from that of the known D13(2080). We further find that the addition of
this postulated resonance can substantially improve the agreement between the
existing theoretical predictions and the recent omega photoproduction data if a
large value of the OZI evading parameter x_OZI = 12 is assumed for the
resonance.
