August 28, 2024 — Boulder Arts Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:08] Through August 28, our Commission name will open with a slight rattle of the. you know. Are you waiting the week to order? 1st matter of business will read the agenda. It just changes that. or some of them language look different. Okay, then. move it on to our land of acknowledgement. The city of Boulder acknowledges the city is on the ancestral local lands and unceded territory of indigenous people who have traversed lived in and started lands in the Boulder Valley since time in the North

[1:01] those indigenous nations include the Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne. Nancy. Funny to show me to at least the city of Boulder recognizes that those now living and working on these international events have a responsibility to acknowledge and address the past, and must work to build a more just future question from last week. I know this was last meeting was a little hard here online. From a neat bar here I was able to. Yes, I was able to. Very fine. Thank you. That's all right. We're going to move on to approval of the last minutes. We've got both June and July everybody should have an updated copy in front of them. This is amended from what went out

[2:01] in the package, because there were a number of any he has to edit the and we're going to start on the June minutes I can go through. There's some grammatical recommendations I made that were highlighted, and then I also have on both. I have some more contextual edits that I'd like to recommend the first.st It's on June under public participation. And there was an exchange between Georgia and Gaia from Missouri. and in reviewing the video I thought it was more accurate to say that so highlight that the name was speaking from her recollection of the tape. So maybe that's adjusted in there.

[3:03] And that's simply that they having disciplinement. And I want to. That was the only substantive thing for Jim. Anybody else have any changes. And then moving on to July again, there are some typos that have been edited. What are the changes. Maria was that we misspoke, and I collected that one that that happened. And then I suggested that we, under item 60, add just a line saying that we did send some time discussing the applications for the pipeline leadership, pipeline scholarship. and those were my edits. Anybody else. Females get rid of chain

[4:06] questions on comments on us, just get it to the almost a free. according both the Jan and July, as all in favor changes. But you know, all right moving on to board participation. I believe the public participation guidelines city has engaged community members to help create a vision for productive, meaningful, and inclusive civic conversations. This digit supports invisible and emotional safety for community members, staff and council, as well as democracy of all ages, identities. lived experiences and political perspectives. More information about this vision and community engagement process. Please visit our website.

[5:04] The following are examples of rules of quorum found in the vulgar revised code and other guidelines that support these will be upheld during the meeting all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related. Any business. No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person. obscenities, racial ethics, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to definitely participants are required to sign up to speak in advance and use the name they are commonly known. Individuals must display their whole name before meeting the web. In-person participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement, verbally or without loss. Traditionally, support is shown silently through American family blossom.

[6:00] Excellent! You're gonna have to sign up with the 2 bedrooms, 25 attending virtually, and we are running. and nobody in the audience hear us moving on to commission business. We have a new anything that they like to add citizens involved. Okay. I can offer a liaison update. Nope, that's it. okay, I think my my comments before we could move on to liaison update. I had a liaison

[7:09] with the dance company lemons and shake show on the 14th and the 15th at the dairy center, and What I gathered from the meeting is that they are an established 25 year plus company on the struggles with the fact that they are constantly competing with every up and coming half baked idea. And as we look at the rubric in terms of the impact of programs related to that could be quality and how we measure quality fits. But yeah, relate to how long or professional or experience. Yeah. applicant is and then. because I am now representing down here at Social Club. I will also share this.

[8:03] The same weekend on the 14th and 15th is our event steam fest, which we received, and our education, grant for which I'm very grateful for but yeah, preparing for that event which is going to be 2 days of family friendly steam programming, activating our entire space with live music. I'm producing a science and circus show. We're gonna do a trash. The runway competition maker projects like creating Sid from toy story, Franklin toy creations with kids, experiments with liquid nitrogen, right ice flavor tripping. Also it's fun stuff. Mini salsa lesson salsa dancing not salsa making. I do that. We had lots of thumbs up, and so Commission is invited to attend, and I know that also invites us all to come to their show, and I'm gonna try to make it to the one on the 14.th Thank you so much.

[9:02] Sure be moca. Selected their 5 shortlisted architects for the North Mulder campus. They're on the website. So if you're all interested in the teams, it's a combination of international teams with local architects. So it's exciting. The second phase in that selection is to do now. Rfp, which is in process and then boulder metalsmithing. I'll be meeting with them at Noble's 1st Friday on the 6, th and they have an open studio, so encourage everyone to go and see we go. I attended. I'm a liaison for band of tufts, and I attended the closing night last weekend in They were at the Ellie Culkin Opera and they did a piece that was on the Bronte sisters and brother come to find out, and, as usual, it was a quirky, immersive experience. They are so fun. You know. They have a rock band. We were singing Punk rock songs from the nineties. There was a dance party we moved to probably 6 or 7 locations within the cockins.

[10:20] They have everybody crying by the end, you know, it was just, and they do really good work. So now that their production run is over, I'm hoping that for next meeting I'll have a chance to sit down. And my grandson what I would be going to happen. They did their test run with the joker, which is really interesting to see, because, like, they weren't entirely off script. Yeah. And we're able to test their puzzles with us. And in a more kind of like test audience capacity. So I wish I would have seen the final version. It's very cool.

[11:02] Okay, firstly, Lauren, thank you for the warm handoff, as always, with our reassignments and our assignments for our renewed assignments for the liaisons. It's always so helpful to have that warm handoff so out of that, just over the next month throughout September, I'll be meeting with Juliet, who some of you may remember as working at the dairy center, then the Library Foundation. She's a new development director for the Museum of Boulder as well as Christopher, their executive director. We've got a meeting coming up in 2 weeks the Boulder Philharmonic. They have their season opener next Sunday, which I think is the 8th I have a meeting scheduled with Nick at E-town, as well as Travis at Orlando Shakespeare Festival there season is closed out, and they'll have the next season. Announcement party at the end of October, and then we have a board meeting the following day.

[12:06] so I'll be able to hear where the numbers came in for having not had the Mary Rippon Theater this year as well as next year, and find out where the numbers came in this year. And then we heard Michael from Jaguar literature festival came here last month. and I've got to reach out to him yet, but I also had a coaching session with Viva Theatre recently and met with leadership from them, and talked about capacity and fundraising and board development. And out of that conversation we also kind of came up with the idea for their 1st kind of big fundraiser they've ever done, and we've got the Gordon Gam Theater in the dairy ranting for Sunday afternoon, September 20 second, and we're going to show a film called Ghost Threat. One word, 2 words of horrible film ghost, like one word, September 20 second, and then we're going to do a a kind of a daily casual gathering in the lobby afterwards, when we do an ask for the organization but Ghost Light is a new film that's out.

[13:06] It will show very, very briefly, in very select theaters in Colorado, and I didn't get a chance to see it then. But it's about the transformative effect of being involved in community theater, which is exactly what they do. And so many other organizations do. So again, that's Sunday, September 20. Second it. It'd be really fantastic to do that, plus the Gordon gambles 250 people. So let's go. I think a question of Boulder Phil, I think I saw that we just joined other organizations free library, free tickets to the library. Talk about that in that program. Yeah, I did not have that discussion. Yeah, I think that's that's interesting. Or maybe all of the organization. That's a great collaboration. Yeah. alright, we've heard word from somebody online that we need to project our voices. We need to put on Jeffrey's theater hat and sing and speak to the back row through the screen.

[14:06] if you've gone back and listened to any of the recordings, it is extremely quiet coming through online. So just I'll remind you if you're getting quiet and introverted. and that will probably help a lot. Great any other topics from the community. At this point. I had a couple of items. I just wanted to touch on. We had our Commission equity training, which was great. So thanks for putting that together. and it was a confidential space. So there's not really a lot of room to talk about what happened or what we talked about. But we did have a really good conversation, I think related to

[15:03] commissioned commissioners. How are we going about the growth and things like that? So that was really good. And I wondered if, there was an update about the Grants manager position. How is that going? Very close? So hopefully, very soon? Yeah, that's thanks, man. Yeah, you're welcome. Cool. That's all. Those were my questions. public arts, public art. Welcome everybody. I have a loud bow loud. I have a public art. I'm gonna give a public art action items which I'll require a vote, and then I'll go through a few progress updates for some of our projects. So the first.st So our action item is the election of our new standing selection panel member, Aaron Winston. He's the artistic director of groundworks which is formerly the studio arts builder.

[16:05] He's replacing Mark Villarreal, who is on the same selection panel and the Commission for several years. Yeah. So Aaron's been a staple at the studio since 2,006, so he's been there for almost 20 years. And is a highly regarded member of the arts community. So you all should have received his resume in the packet. So if there's any questions or comments. I'll make a motion. I'll move to approve. Aaron says last name with with Winston Winston. Thank you. Join the standing extension panel. Bring membership correct? Haven't? Second, that I have a favor. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you very much. I think that's gonna be a great addition. Yes. So onto some progress updates artist Sharon Dowell is installing

[17:00] her public artworks along North Broadway. The North world. Art district. We will, I will be, and also Sharon Dao will be at the Novo 1st Friday next next Friday, September 6, 6 so we'll be talking about the work handing out some little flyers about our dedication, which will happen on September 17.th That event will likely happened closer to the North Boulder Library. She's also installing panels on that little bridge over the trail right there. So we encourage you all to attend Lauren and I will send out an email reminder as we get closer to date. And like, I said, we'll have more info soon, but if you drive up there you'll you'll see progress. So should be complete by September 17.th Any questions on that Western city campus art selection members have selected 10 finalists to create proposals for 3 locations at the future campus. We are hoping to schedule our final presentation and selection meeting for October.

[18:05] Not going to go into too much more detail. But if there are questions happy to answer, and Maria is our serving as our voting member on the standing on the Art Selection panel from the Commission, so I don't know if you have any comments about. Sure, I was just going to give you compliments for running a really really thorough process. You went through a lot of artists have a great discussion and involve very efficiently going back. And so sort of yeah, we did have 220 applications for our Plaza project, a hundred 83 for our lobby and atrium project, and 53 eligible applications for our mural project. So, and the mural is on Colorado. Correct? All Colorado artists correct? And then the other 2 were an international. Yeah. Okay, so thanks for all your work. Any other questions on that other than maybe just a little clarification for anyone who's tuning in or watches the recording because these are big ticket items. But what this.

[19:08] what I'll let you describe it more and more fully. But what this is, it's it's art that's being commissioned for installation inside of the new campus is going to be built where the old hospital is, and the idea that we've got this runway to do it is that the architecture and the buildings are being designed around whatever artists chosen. This is correct. I wouldn't go as far as, say, the buildings being designed around the art. But correct, we are spending correct. We're spending close to a million dollars on permanent site specific public art for this location at the top end also. And this is the future Western city campus. So yeah, there'll be 2 suspended artworks, one in the main lobby of the pavilion, and one in the atrium of the parking garage 4 or 5 stories of 2 dimensional art in the parking garage at the elevator base, and then a project in the small plaza at the rear of the building.

[20:03] And then the architectural design team who's in the selections are not voting members. But to to your point, it integrates lighting around the hardware infrastructure requirements. What the heck is this? And why are we talking about this now, when we're, you know, years out from from ground breaking, it can never start too early with these projects. And to Maria's point, yeah, we're just trying to make sure we coordinate so that the installation is seamless. Right? Once the building started congrats on all of them. The next project update. Our standing selection panel invited 20 artists from around the world actually to invited them to apply for an experiment in public art, lecture or workshop opportunity. Here in Boulder through 2,025, 5 of those artists have responded with proposals. So I will return next month after we work with our standing selection panel to review those proposals and come back to you with

[21:09] funding. Our tours are doing really well. So we kicked off kind of a public art, you know. Pilot tour program. They they occur on most Wednesdays at 5 30 Pm. And Saturdays at 9 Am. And they both end at the Boulder farmers market in Pacific area. if you would like to attend one of these tours. I wouldn't even bother signing up. You can just email me, and we'll just make sure you have a spot. So you you see a date. You can go to the website and check out our dates. But if you're interested, feel free to shoot me an email, or obviously, you can sign up online as well. The 2 coming tours are both sold out, but there's still there's still a handful of other tour dates so feel free to. and even if they're sold out commissioners. You're welcome to just attend. It's gonna be seasonal. Yeah, it's gonna end

[22:02] right now. We have them ending the end of September. I think we might get a few more in October. But yeah. we I actually am going to present at junkyard social on September 24.th So this is the Tuesday before our next Commission meeting. At 5 30. I'll just be talking about the public art process. So if you're interested in learning about all the hoops we have to jump through to commission new permanent site, specific public art for the city. feel free to attend and invite your friends again. Any questions. Right? Thank you. Thank you. We have progress updates. Is that was that? I know you have a lot more going on. So okay. community vitality, budget presentation. Give an intro for this I do. I have a brief introduction before Elliot. Sorry to steal your spotlight.

[23:04] but so you saw in your packet at the 2025 short term needs assessment. Thank you for anybody watching, and for those of you that participated in reviewing this with us. It's going to be going out soon to all of the participants. They they see all of the work, how it came out on the other end. But a few highlights before we get into the budget. Just so you have a sense of for 2025. What budget team and staff are looking at like, here's the research that we did. Here's what they were looking at whenever we were like building these budgets right so. And we'll go into these more in a little bit. But in the preamble for general operating support grants. The 4 highlights are to extend for 4th year with an inflation increase to fully fund the 5 organizations that were previously partially funded to allow organizations to move tiers. So several have grown in the last few years, which is amazing. So, and allow new applicants for a 1 year term.

[24:09] We are also. They also recommended that we continue the expanded rental assistance. So the venue affordability and the artist hiring incentive grants that we begin to build a maintenance reserve. So we we've had maintenance funding every year in the budget. But this would be a reserve, for if and when things need some love. that we add an additional staff member to manage the work associated with the increased funding, and that we contract a consultant for longer term planning. So with that quick question about that, yes, the fully fund 5 organizations previously partially funded. Yes. refresh me on which those work. Sure. They were specifically, I mean sponge cake, boulder, ballet, greater boulder youth orchestras. the big dream and

[25:00] boulder, Phil, those are the 5 partially funded, and those are the ones that refund. There was a decision round, and then the next year more funding came in, so they were partially funded. Oh, we added them on. Yeah, I would not remember what that was about. Right? Yeah. cool. So, Elliot, and then pull up your. We are joined this evening. Thank you. By Elliot Levanti, our actually. What is your title, William? Sorry business services, senior manager. Somehow, internal businesses. As in the department administrative services. I'm not sure if you're our accountant or assistant both, I assist in the accounting. Okay? So we're going to go over the 2,025, proposed Budget. And you'll kind of get a little bit different presentation than our other commissioners have had the city manager as well as a few other team members. What's on the Executive Budget team has gone through all of the proposals from across the entire city and made some pretty hard decisions. You'll see a little bit about the city manager's notes in terms of our budget constraints this year you heard about it last year? In terms of the general fund.

[26:22] we'll talk about a little bit more. And they have basically produced a package that's going to go to city council. And as the city manager's recommended budget. so in the process of all this, what that means is, we now have something to present to Budget to ask them to approve. Previous commissions did not have that being sent to to council. So they have some updates coming in September. Spoiler alert. So a little thing about our agenda here. The formation and the roles and responsibilities. This kind of dictates more towards our general improvement districts that we manage, but it has a lot of into our, especially now that we have a dedicated sales tax portion for arts heritage.

[27:07] We're going to talk a little bit about the key accomplishments that everyone has done here, and then we'll get into a little bit more of the specifics of budget, and we'll have some follow up at the end with some suggested motion language. So some margin culture, key accomplishments. Quick here. So a lot of money has been awarded in the Grants program. As Lauren mentioned, some more funding has been provided, and then we still have the arpa dollars that we've been working on chewing away at with some of the things, and then we tend to find some money in old programs and contracts for public art? So really going through not only what we have funding for, but looking back and saying like, okay, does this funding still make sense for this program or this project? And if not, can we realign it some way? So we've had a lot of success this year. Kudos to the Arts and culture staff really diving deep with us business services team and really looking at individual contracts and incumbents and making sure that we're getting the funding where it's supposed to be so. Some of those specific programs we've seen.

[28:18] that was installed this year. That was awesome to have that done. We had the Boulder Arts Week sponsorship, and then the big one here the 2025 short term needs assessment. So with the sun setting of a cultural plan. We wanted to make sure we had some sort of bridge year available, so that this new funding that comes in isn't for not, and that we can actually appropriate it in a way that makes sense to the community. Still. falls back on the cultural plan as it's kind of guiding light, but also kind of brings in some of the new initiatives that we are finding in some new requirements that we had, as well some big works on progress to Brendan's presentation. Earlier we have the Western City Campus constantly doing the public art collection nerding out on data collection and putting it into geocache or geospatial, I should say information, so that we can have a way of really managing it and having a great maintenance program on it. The Boulder Arts blueprint and the creative neighborhood projects are still ongoing.

[29:19] And we're going to talk a little bit about some funding that's going to be in 25 for that and then we have the artist census and the venues. Brendan is the signage project still working. The signage project is will hopefully kick off next year. Because I'm not we. We still have to review all of the artworks that city has. And then what actually is maintained by our program. So we're still going through that process. But once we finally determine exactly what our collection consists of, then we can kick off a new signage plan.

[30:00] So a little bit about the cycle. Though the I don't want to say life and death. That's how I feel afterwards. But the the overview of the process. It really starts with you all. And you guys have a lot of input into, especially like the grants programs and kind of like, how depending really comes into the arts community here in Boulder. So we try to take those along with council priorities along with the community's priorities and start to figure out, how do we develop a budget based on the resources that we have? To really meet those needs? And then we have to pull that into the work plan. So the other resource constraint is humans. So there's obviously the money component to being able to accomplish things. But we also have to have the people to be able to spend. The money sounds contradictory, but it is hard to spend money sometimes, especially in government and then we look at our financial projections and our strategic planning to make sure that we do have the funding for this. We never want to get in a situation where we're continually operating at deficit, we're spending more than we're taking in so we try to balance the needs of what we're trying to achieve along with the resources that we have, and then understand how those financial projections work to that advantage.

[31:17] and then that all leads right into the development of the actual budget itself. We then submit that to central Finance, the executive Budget team that I mentioned is made up of the city manager's office, and then a rotating panel of directors from departments. It's 2 directors. And I believe every 2 years it changes. So it kind of rotates those directors. So every director kind of has a different flavor. And a different way of helping get through that budget process. So ebt then takes the budget and says looks great. It doesn't look great. Change this. Do this, do that can't afford this those types of things. And then it helps us really come up with a solid plan to then be able to present that to council. That they can then have

[32:00] their final say, and the actual approval of the appropriation. and then we do it all over again. So some of the funds that we manage within community vitality. Are the ones here on the board. You'll see Arpa still on there. Of course, that will be sunsetting in the near future. But it is still something that we're, you know, working on to spend and make sure we get the money out the door. Oh, yes, the American Rescue Plan act is what Arpa stands for that is the second. I guess. Well, they had multiple tranches within Arpa, so I can't really call the second trance Covid funding. But the cares act. If you remember the very 1st funding from the Covid pandemic. That was really the oh, my gosh! The world's coming to an end! Let's get a whole bunch of money out the door and make sure we all can turn our lights on to. Okay, we have the dust settled. Arpa is now going to stand up to either bolster other communities or make communities whole again. From any lost revenue. City of Boulder fared pretty well throughout the pandemic in terms of revenue. So we had an opportunity to use those awkward dollars to really fund new initiatives

[33:14] which comes at a cost beyond the money side of it. Because now it's do we still have funding for ongoing support for those same programs? So that goes back to that council priorities and the community inputs and everything in that development budget process. Ccs community culture and safety which is now the community culture and resiliency and safety tax. It's more of a capital tax. We do have a dedicated 1% portion of those sales tax for public art and for capital art, if you will, which is great. So that's an ongoing funding source. Not an insignificant amount of money. Sorry, Brendan. Some other funding that we have so citywide. And when I say citywide, it's more. Where is this money collected? Not necessarily. Where is this money spent? So the arts, culture and heritage tax that was passed to a funding collected on a citywide level. So that sales tax.

[34:14] that helps bolster up arts and culture. And then, of course, heritage. So we wanted to bring that in. And and it gives us a little bit more flexibility for thinking about ways. As community vitality. We really focus on our 3 strategic pillars of cultural vibrancy, district vitality and access for all. And of course, arts and culture has a big component of the cultural vibrancy here within boulder but also was that heritage component of it, and how arts and culture can also support some of those like walking trails and those types of things. So it's a great way for us to have a little bit more flexibility for how arts and culture money can be used for those types of things. Then, of course, we have the general fund, which is also a sales tax. And that goes city wide, and that is the one that is the most restricted in terms of available funds, the least restricted in terms of what it can actually be spent on. So that's the general fund, and then we do have

[35:11] 4 districts. One of the districts has kind of 2 overlapping districts, and they collect property taxes on the residents and businesses, and then we also have some funding that comes in from product revenue like our parking branches. Sorry. Yeah. I think when my tenant went up a little bit when I heard funding portrayals out of parks budget arts, I guess. Is it? Can you? Against arts, culture and heritage? Can you talk a little bit more about that? And I think that's very good advocate. Obviously not going through up on trails. Infrastructure. Yeah, it's not. It's walking trails in terms of like, how do you incorporate art into those trails? Not building an actual trail? Okay? Yeah. So it's more about the heritage component of it like, how do we celebrate the heritage and the culture of the community with those kind of like infrastructures? So it's not

[36:08] building of the infrastructure, but more of like, how do we incorporate our into that infrastructure? Yeah, good question. So the different types of revenues and expenses have kind of touched on this a little bit. We talked about the property taxes, the parking revenue. We also lease some spaces. So all of our garages are multi-use. They all have either some sort of commercial use in them or retail space as well. You'll see that in our storefronts here at this garage, also on spruce. We have commercial properties. At Randolph we have the St. Julian Hotel. We have the Trinity garage with affordable housing. So they all have different uses beyond just parking vehicles. Rtd, with the bus depot. So with that allows us to produce some lease revenue as well. That helps bolster up the district and helps us maintain our assets and provide some program dollars as well.

[37:02] Other revenues that we have. Beyond that we have some agreements and some other uses in place, and they'll use that. Help us collect some revenue for lost revenue of spaces that would have otherwise been collected, say, on street revenue. Then our expenses all kind of fall into those general categories of Government expenses. So this year similar to last year. It's really been a constraint budget, or one time dollars are a little bit easier to come by than ongoing dollars, and the reason being is, we have a much more accurate picture of one time funding than we do about projecting out into the future, say 4, 5, 6 years. So things that are ongoing really rely upon the accuracy of those projections for those future years. whereas one time we can say, yes, we did collect this amount of revenue, and we do have a little bit extra money here. That being said this year was

[38:06] incredibly constrained, as our city manager mentioned, and we really had to limit our abilities on taking on new positions and new initiatives. And what that meant is, we really need to refocus or focus on realigning unspent dollars. So if we have programs that say had unspent dollars at the end of the year, and then other programs that were overspent, how can we ship that funding to still make sure we achieve the goals of that program that's underspent, but also be able to bolster up the programs that are overspent. So that was the realignment process. This year. We had a big, heavy expansion on capital projects, specifically managing our garages and the new dedication of our sculpture and heritage. Obviously the big budget highlight for us. And then we're really starting to focus big on business and employee support. So that's really where a lot of our enhancements are going

[39:01] with the districts. some headwinds which I'm sure you have all heard about in the news initiative 50 and initiative 108. There were 13 bills introduced into the special session for the State legislators of those 13 4 are only surviving. So I don't know how well those are going to make it through, we will see. But what this means is any property tax revenue, which not only do we have that in our general improvement districts. We also have city boulder property tax as well across the entire city. Could be potentially capped. So that's just something that we're thinking about as future funding needs. Budget staff tend to be very conservative when it comes to projections. And we'd rather underestimate how much we're going to bring in. And that way it comes in hopefully, higher. So we're not making a mistake of spending more than we're actually bringing in.

[40:01] I have a question. We enhance enhancements focused on business and employee support. Can you just give an example or 2 of what that would entail? So what are the programs that we provide for our general improvement districts? Is the ecopass so the ecopass program has been historically well, it's changed a little bit. But recent historically great word has been provided to just full time employees within the general improvement districts. We're finding that we have enough capacity within our budget to be able to provide that to part time employees. So that's something we're really expanding there and then. We're also finding ways to find some additional funding to support the businesses within our general improvement districts, and then, of course, we have our general operating support grants and a lot of the arts and culture stuff and how that supports the businesses. So we're really finding that from Covid and the impacts to businesses in the community.

[41:00] that we have an opportunity to help them and help create a strong culturally vibrant business make up here within the districts as well as across the city related again to the sales tax, or arts, military heritage. How transparent will that budget be to to all of us! And I think you know, I already hearing in the media about some of that model. Will that will that be transparent? And can we review all? See that? And yep. 100 so the Fund financials should have been provided in the meeting packet. So if there's specific questions about the fund financials, we could talk about the 6 year. Health of the Fund. Do you all get that? Sit in your presentation? It might be in the next few slides. I said. 6, 6 year projection. Yes, the 6 year projection is the what we refer to as the fund financial fu nd not fu n, although it is extremely fun. So that gives a little bit of transparency in terms of like where the dollars are going towards for the programs. And then we can talk a little bit. Actually, in the next couple of slides, we'll talk about the

[42:14] expenses related to operating versus personnel versus transfers. And any questions that you guys have in terms of what that money is actually being spent on. I'm happy to have answer, and then it will be published in our Budget book as well. Every year we publish the budget book so you can see everything that the budgets going towards now in terms of like specific line items, I guess technically, if you started clicking in the charts within our budget book, you could figure out how much did we budget for miscellaneous purchase services or miscellaneous consulting services? But it doesn't tell you specifically like how much is going towards small general operating support grants or medium. Right? That doesn't. We don't have that high level. Sorry we don't have that detailed level within our budget. But we can certainly divide it

[43:02] with the headwinds are basically being updated daily in the sense of at the Capitol today there was a special session that's currently in committee that is less aggressive than the other initiatives that would end up on the ballot. And if it gets passed, it would. it would basically cancel out 2 of those 4 of those. Yeah. Yeah. So yes, the Governor Polis has specifically said he will not sign any legislation until the initiative. The ballot authors, if you will pull their ballots from this year's so it's it's up in the air they have until, I believe. September 6.th Yeah. this is Labor day holiday. Nothing like under the gun. But yes, I was very surprised to see today that 9 out of the 13 bills all lost. Yeah, sorry. It's a good time to be in budget.

[44:02] So this is a summary of our budget changes across community vitality. Of course there are some things in here that you'll see about arts and culture. I say, gap year in my slide. I apologize. It is the bridge year. There's no gap here. Alright. so our biggest thing. Remember going back to the realignments there. So we talked a lot about how important it was for us to do realignments. And you'll see on this slide. There are 2 bullet points about realignments and a lot more about enhancements. There are a lot of realignments that we did that are not really super great. It's like moving some money from admin to other work groups to help with office supplies and those types of things. So we kept those office side just to hopefully keep it somewhat entertaining. But a big portion of it was we were shifting. We found that even though we are expanding the ecopass program, we still had savings. So we can support some maintenance operations. To make sure that we do maintain these buildings at a high level. So they are around for a long time.

[45:06] And they're also safe and accessible all those different things. And then we did find that we could do a decrease in our general fund transfer. So we were able to free up some general fund dollars. However, comma we had to use that money to pay for credit card processing fees. So a little bit change in our products. But that's kind of one of the real environments. We did our major enhancements, though. We are going to continue the ambassador program. So if you've been downtown or on the hill and you see our ambassadors, they they have the downtown ambassador shirts. That's a program that we help fund along with our partners at Dvp, and also Cu boulder so we're continuing that again, and then we will continue the outdoor dining program. Which I'm sure you've seen the parklets on the right of ways for the businesses who have been able to expand their footprint again. Going back to the business support. And then the arts and Culture Bridge year and the program expansions. And I'll get into that. I do have some very high or very detailed specifics about some of the one time funding

[46:11] and then from the capital highlights. Side of thing again. Lots of work within our garages. So Cmgc is our construction manager, general contractor. So it should be technically a hyphen. There. And it is. It's basically trying to do the design and the bill at the same time. So we find a lot of efficiencies and spending money in that process. So that's going to be starting in 2,025, and then kind of going back to our garages and those maintenance operations. We really, you know, we've heard from community members that not everybody feels safe parking in a garage. So we really want to highlight some security enhancements in our garages. Things like cell phone connectivity in the basement things like lighting cameras, those types of things and then that 1% for public art on capital projects. As we continue to explore that policy? Not just the Ccrs amount, but also, how do we leverage our partnerships with other departments who have capital projects to insert more are into those projects at a better time.

[47:15] Then, when it's over. So this yes. Oh, perfect. I had it pulled up in an email, thinking I didn't remember it. So I put it in here. So these are the very specific things that are within the recommended budget. So this is what is going to be going to council? So they will more than likely not be looking at it at this level. Okay, so just as a caveat now, there. They may have some specific questions about what is the arts and culture heritage tax funding. and it is on us, ie. Staff, the city of older, to be able to answer these things. So we have these in our back pocket. But this, this is a big slide on what the funding is actually going to be

[48:05] everything you see here, with the exception of the Arts Arts Grant program, specialist is considered operating dollars. So the Arts Grant program specialists would then be considered personnel. And to Lauren's point, that is an expansion of the staff that's kind of required and necessary to maintain a good Grants program, especially when we're adding $432,000 next year into that program. Some other funding. You'll see there is the cultural plan update. So that's going to be a 1 time expense. And it's 1 time in 25 and probably one time. Every 5, 10 years. Right? We don't really anticipate having to do a cultural plan or something like the cultural plan update every year. So that's not an expense we should see carried forward so that 165,000 should then, in theory, free up for other

[49:00] operational type expenses. We have the experiments in public arts. We have the public art, maintenance reserve, and we have the creative neighborhoods all more money for Brenda to manage, and that again is all one time. And you'll notice actually everything on this slide is one time We we looked at that and kind of had a little bit of a shock at first, st but then started to chew on. Why was one time a better decision and ongoing? And we we really started to lean heavily on. We need to get this cultural plan update in place. We really need to get the community involved and engage to really understand how we want this money spent going into the future. So we knew we had that bridge year in 25. So say, let's strike while the iron is hot. Make sure we have good funding in place for those businesses and those organizations who are around, and those ones who maybe missed the market last time to be able to get them, that one time funding, knowing that 2026 is going to be our year to really develop

[50:02] a great budget that's going to be more indicative of the future programs that the arts and culture and heritage actually support before we leave off that you can actually just questions on it. Okay, great. Yes, I have one question. So, Brendan, all the funding public art created neighborhoods. This is which you that's an experiment. weren't those in the previous budgets? This is not we had, I think, this year we have 30,000 in maintenance. See experiments in public art. We had a 1 time. That's 300,000, but I'm probably only going to spend about 50,000 this year. There's still some Arco funds that I'm trying to spend down for experiments. and then creative neighborhoods. I think we actually this year that that was funded through our problem as well. So this those funds will not be available next year which

[51:03] live with passengers like that. I think some picture. So the next slide here. So this is the community vitality budget, right? So you're gonna see some numbers on here like we didn't know we had 14 million dollars in expenses. That's the entire department. So within our department, with with managing the general improvement districts with our district vitality program, with our parking, with our maintenance, with our enforcement. This encompasses everything that we we achieved in our budget, if you will. So you can see it's a very substantial increase from 24 to 25, almost 33% increase. Of course, a large portion of that is capital but even a 16% increase across an operating budget is a fairly substantial budget increases, and we feel very confident that we are going to be able to achieve everything that we want to with that budget and a big portion of that is having that additional fte, the grants program. So that we have that extra capacity going back to the resources. It's not just money, it's people as well.

[52:16] So this is our capital improvement plan. We can spend a little bit of time on this. We don't have to spend a whole lot of time on it, but it kind of gives you an idea of what we have to do as a department for over a course of 6 years to really think about. How do we maintain our assets that we currently own right, take care of what we have. But also, how do we invest in new programs and and continue to meet the needs and really meet those strategic pillars of cultural vibrancy, district vitality and access for all. And you can see here with the affordable commercial program, we've had that as an ongoing budget allocation. And we're really going to hit it hard next year. We think that to really stand up that program and really define it and make sure we hit the ground running again, going back to that business support.

[53:04] Something else we're going to be doing is spending some additional dollars up on the hill to do some street scrape renovation. So I'm really hoping we can incorporate a lot of art into that. We're already incorporating a lot of art into the University Hill with our different crosswalks or different murals. And it's it's really becoming quite the district and really kind of coming back. We saw the Moxie Hotel when it opened up as an opportunity to reinvest back into that district to really make sure that as people come into Boulder staying in that hotel or going to the Conference center. That they're like. This is a wonderful community. I want to come back, and I want to give you more money. I mean, come back and visit so here is the proposed arts culture and heritage budget. So this is the specific budget just for these programs we mentioned. So you can see the majority of it is in operating dollars. Again, going back to the questions about the slide where it showed those one time. So most of that funding is in those operating dollars.

[54:13] That being said, it's an expansion from previous years. So it did increase funding. So if we were to look at the 2,024 budget for arts and culture, which is a little bit different than arts, culture and heritage because it didn't have a dedicated sales tax. It was relatively smaller. So this is a great expansion. And again, this, this feels like a very doable amount to chew off while still reserving enough in the fund balance that going forward, we have capacity and room to expand programs, create new programs. So that gives us that flexibility. And you'll kind of see that reflected in the 6 year projections of fund health. So you can see the projections for next year is about 3.5 million is what we're anticipating. And then each year is a little bit of an increment over that. Our partners at cu in their business.

[55:09] college college of business they're the ones who help us create those projections for the sales tax, and they they have given us always historically kind of like a 3 tier like this is our lowest estimate. Second to lowest, you know, mid 5 tier. I guess we, as an organization, have traditionally gone with the very conservative outlook from Cu and gone even more conservative. We are switching that that kind of happened last year. Yes, for the 24 budget, was it? The 23? Can't remember when I was in Central Finance? And we started thinking, let's get our projections more accurate what we're actually bringing in. So we have a better understanding of what we can actually afford. So that's what you'll see here. So feel very good about that. 3.4 7 8, I would say. If anything, it's on the low end. So it may come in higher, but it does give us enough wiggle room that we can say

[56:01] we confidently can spend 2.8 million dollars and have enough budget left in the future years to do that expansion when you say you're being less conservative on the income side for that. And they were rating at one to 5, and that we were basically using a 6. No, we were both one being the most conservative we were using like a point 0 5. 0, so one being the most conservative 5 being the most optimistic. Where are we coming in now? As opposed to one or point 5? So we're like, Okay, great. Thank you. I didn't know if we got like 4 or something and gone crazy. Jeff, get excited about that. Yeah, we we. And it wasn't so much that we wanted to be able to say that we could spend more. But we wanted to be more accurate with how our funds actually looks going forward.

[57:00] So that's that's 1 of the reasons we started to switch that protocol a little bit. We appreciate that questions and feedback stride. I know I'm sorry I love it, I'll say thank you so much. And it has been wonderful plugging into the community department, because now we are on the ground, for, like Brendan has been working, starting out capital projects. We're working with other departments on urban design projects like on things here and there that I would have had no idea like from the library department, because you just don't get that sort of overlap. So it's other ways that we can work hard into every yeah, no, it's really nice to get that perspective where we've been in as as you get close to preparing to present and get the vote from council, is there anything that we, as a commission or individuals individual commissioners, or as citizens, can do to lobby or campaign to

[58:13] to be sure that things are passed. I'm going to speak optimistically and say, we have a beautiful budget. They will pass it. Okay. That being said the schedule of Council meetings for the budget. The 1st one is September 12.th That is a study session. So the public is welcome to attend. But no public comment on October literally just published all this October 7, th no. 10th and the 24, th I can send it up. Yeah, we can send you guys the specific dates. Those will be the actual public hearings. Of the budget. So the 1st reading and the second reading. So anytime a change in ordinance and budget appropriation is considered an ordinance change. It has to go through 2 readings

[59:03] and usually one's on consent, and one is public hearing the budgets 2 public hearings which is unique. But it's great, for it's a great opportunity for the public to be able to come in and speak on behalf of the community. So that that will be in October. So that would be the opportunity to be able to have, and and you would reach out to us if you if you feel, would be moving to do so. Yeah, I mean, I think I think right now, going forward with the budget that we have. It feels very achievable and very doable. It also feels flexible enough that we do have that going forward to be able to think about it. And the other thing is, you know. thinking about the arts, culture and heritage, and as it builds a fund balance, it could mean one of 2. Well, more than one or 2 things. Let's not make it black and things. you can expand programs. Or you could do big investments, right? So it has that opportunity as it's creating its own fund balance to be able to do those types of things. So that's that's the beauty of having a dedicated sales taxes. Now we know we can watch the the pot grow, so to speak, or we can constantly go into the pot. There's that flexibility now. And I think the cultural plan update is going to be a big portion of that and help them dictate. Do we

[60:25] program all the dollars? Do we reserve some to be able to do a larger investment into the future? You know, what are those needs within the community, and what does it look like? The other thing I will add to is that the general fund? I. I was not surprised when all of the program. Dollars for arts and culture went with the arts, culture and heritage tax and a portion. That's because the general fund was relying upon the sales tax that got dedicated. So it makes sense. To be able to do that balance and given the constraints this year. It's one of those things that, I think would be hard to not be able to do things.

[61:08] maybe to answer your question. They're very difficult right now. We did not. We're not proposing any motion language. We don't need you to formally approve the budget, but if you are all compelled to include a motion in your motion, you're meeting with support certainly include that notion. And oh, yeah. thank you. Chris. would anyone like to make a motion mission recommends approval of the 2025 community vitality proposed budget, including

[62:02] 2025 through 2030 capital improvement plan, and that particular line, almost 167,000 right. the second part of it, including the 2,02520 30. That's a 6 year. Capital improvement plan. Okay, that's not the not the fund. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. 3 to seconds special questions. That's my hesitancy as well. The economy suggests 71 go to the 1st shot. It was 8 weeks ago.

[63:04] How would the emotion be shifted that that you would feel comfortable. Who was the slide with the icons again? Can you go back to that? Oh, yeah, let's take a vote on the first.st Sorry, I'm not sure that's on the table. So all in favor. all opposed. Okay, So talking about how to ship this language. if we're doing this as a statement, as a commission, I I want to make sure we're quoting them things that are beyond our scope as a customer. Yeah. Nicole. or on the side of the pythons. Didn't that have just the Arts Commission? Yes, this. These are the additions. So this is not the full budget. Maybe we can even better commercialize this

[64:05] and quite the right language. Sure, I think you had a slide with that charge. Specifically for a team. I I don't think you need to like make specific budget numbers or line items in the motion like this. You could just make a motion that you recommend approval of the artisan culture portions of. and that that will cover everything you saw. That's pertinent to your spreadsheet. is there? Nodding from your agenda. Yeah, I'm fine with that. Give a math recommendation on it. Or could we also name up parking roads after Caroline Tax

[65:11] proposed budget issue? And that's just not. But look at that right? So the floor is open for another motion. Somebody, would like to make one. I, I move that the arts Commission recommends approval of the 2,025 community vitality proposed budget as pertains to arts, culture, and heritage.

[66:03] Second. all in favor. unanimous, great. Thank you all for your insight. Thank you, Elliot. Yes, thank you. Wonderful great grants program. Yes. Evening. Tell me. okay, so we have grant matters. And then the cultural Grant cycle blueprint. Step 2. Let's just start with our Grant report single report. at the meeting. You have these options approve, approve questions not approve, cancel, or postpone pending answers to specific questions. This is your motion language, unless you'd like to discuss, and I can take this down.

[67:07] No, I'll move. I'll move it with really great Forks and Bowler symphony. That's what I can. Any discussion. the comments the comments people want to make about their reports. As always I was excited to see what people could do with some support. I love the springboarding that all of us did for so many different organizations. Yeah, yeah. alright, all in bigger. That's alright. Thank you. So our cultural grants cycle blueprint. Step 2. just putting this up briefly, these are the points that we discussed the last meeting, things that you asked, that we take one pastors things that you asked, that staff come back with some recommendations that means to address them in the upcoming year, if possible.

[68:04] The 1st piece in passing around is a recommended financial structure. So we waited till after the budget had gone in again. Elliot. To bring up. Can you please? Yeah. that little screen there as good as it is. Okay. So we have an additional column here to see the difference in increase from 2025. This is aligning specifically to the short needs. The short term needs assessment. Right? You have renewals with an inflation, increase the organizations. Moving tiers, you have organizations being fully funded instead of partially funded, and the majority of the new funding that approval, that 430,000 is in this difference, increase for general operating support at Lori.

[69:02] The other piece I wanted to right now is where it's highlighted, there those are previously funded in part not entirely in part by Arpa funds. So we are. Can we receive support? 25 1,000 to continue that arpa funding. This is something that Elliot mentioned, that now that Arpa funds are are moving out, people are very satisfied with those awards that came up in the needs assessment. They, they said, please continue those. And so now we are going to continue doing so. That's not specifically an increase, though that's a continuation of what we've been doing right? Which leads our oh, I'll move it down a little bit which leads your Grant budget to over 1.4 million dollars. And are the community projects in arts education at the same number of yeah, those are the same number which I didn't know if there was any extra love to add additional ones to it, given the increase in applications. Well, they've always done very, very well, like people have loved them very well, we did not.

[70:05] It's sort of a chicken and egg piece that we did not ask about those in the needs assessment. so didn't feel comfortable of asking for that in a budget increase for the upcoming year. It's 1 year for for the one year. I I understand that for the one year. Yes, that being said, I think our North Star is to yeah, right? Right? That being said, too. You'll notice that in these new categories, and these new categories, 2 in the extra large category. 4. And that these are estimates like we generally. But we. these are estimates based on record, based on recommendations from the consultants and our own estimates. Right? Of how many people we think will be changing tiers applying new. If these, if we don't get all of these applicants. If we don't award all this funding, we have a mechanism that we have already used to look at Grant funding push part of the way for the year, and perhaps move some to other categories. Right? So we've done this before, where there's funding left over from the Grant categories. We look at them, and we can dedicate some of those. That's right. Right.

[71:20] Lauren, on the leadership pipeline. Was that a? It was just one this year, right? We had 2 this year. Yes. yeah. Given, this may be a little in the weeds. So you direct me if it is but given the fact that we may be expanding the number of grants in each category. Is there any sort of recommendation on going back to that meets granting criteria line? Oh, like rather than just going all the way down the line. That would be. That's a wonderful question for a longer discussion. Okay? Right now. Well, it's also like, if we want to change the grant system so

[72:02] drastically, we want to be sure that we do that fast way, and that we're doing the best version of that possible. So I want people smarter than me. Some consultants to look at other best practices around the country. Right? yeah, but a very, very good question, but because what we are looking at in the future is a lot more funding to support our organization like, how do we do that? And then best. perhaps easiest way possible. Right? Okay. So we have one to be a few pages, 3 pages of process improvements and feel free to bring things up as they come up. of course. And we'll talk through them. But I also want to talk through these staff recommendations as. and then the next slide, I think, will also answer a lot of questions. I'm excited for it. So some of the concerns that all might be addressed on my next slide is

[73:03] the perceived bias, or perceived impropriety or actual bias, or actual impropriety and decision making step one is to update and verify the appeal process which we got to know very intimately this year. We can work on. We will work on verifying that that will happen, but also creating a panel for Grant making, and I ask you to hold off on that one for a second, because I do want to talk through. That second is the weight of the scores in the scoring system creating a panel for grant making, but also this is one that is a little. But it was not addressed in the needs assessment, and I would like to see some of our contemporaries how they're doing that right like, how are we best? How are they best addressing the challenges of using this word system right? An option is to remove the highest and lowest scores. I feel like that is a little kind of jumping the gun concerns regarding the consistency with diversity, equity, inclusion, and applying the rubric

[74:02] increased training with the Arts Commission which we began, and which we I hope to continue in part with this commission. But then also later, you get training when you begin as a commission, and then, you know. Like, let's continue that every couple of years. As we get new commissioners, you can all realign on the things that are really important to you. Right but also to create a panel for Grant, making an option just to carry on as we are, which you know. And then commissioners applying for grant funding. We can also create a panel for Grant. Maybe. Sorry I'm going with this, but I would for that. That's another one, I think, is important, the needs assessment to not look at it. It is important to a big study if that is viable in a community of the size and a community that is, this, plugged in and connected to each other and on boards and right. We don't want to be pulling people off supporting arts organizations right?

[75:00] And I don't want to transfer whatever issues we have by not addressing them and just putting them off onto another body. You know what I mean? Oh, sure. Right? Okay? So the big recommendation which I I think, addresses some of our biggest concerns is doing a pilot of Grant panel. We're not including details here, because again we want to. We staff want to investigate and be sure that we're doing the best version of that but it would take it would improve our system in a number of ways. Heightened conflict of interest regulations. We can build into their eligibility whatever requirements we want. we can ask that they list out every conflict of interest we could. You know, ask them not to join as panelists, that there is some conflict of interest. They don't have to live in the city of Boulder, like commissioners do, so we can look more broadly.

[76:00] We can contract them and and would pay them, because, as you all know, is a very expensive process, right? And with contracts they have a certain set of requirements that would be perhaps heightened or different than what we can hold Arts Commissioners to. It would help all of you and your conflict of interest as applicants, so it would help remove that challenge that we have in a small community. it could help our efforts to ensure diversity and expertise, background and perspective if we're able to look to hire panelists. We would figure out how this looks best. But you could continue to review camp Review. Look at scores, look at applications. Continue to vote on the final words which you do need to as part of our city law. So you would still want to. You would still be voting on the final words. But we can integrate the Commission. How you are comfortable, right in looking at applications. If you're concerned about a score, you can bring it to discussion right? There are

[77:09] different ways of doing all these things, which is why we don't have details right now. But, this is our proposal for our pilot in 2,025, which because it's not enlarged in our operating support application year, too. This is a good year to do a pilot version of this and see if we work. You're not stuck awarding something for 3 years, 5 years, right? because the general operating support, which is also our largest grants. They would you would continue to look at their reports and things too right. and continue to be liaisons and be plugged in with our community. do you? I know you don't have any of the details, but are you? You have a feeling as to how involved, the Arts Commission would be in the process for that panel, like determining the process for you with that panel. So where I'm going with this is, we have. We have a panel for

[78:07] public Arts and the Arts Commission role is to just say we approved that they that they went through the process as they were supposed to, and came to a decision, and whether or not we like it or not, what we're voting on as a process. So I am assuming that it may look something like that where it's, you know, are we that we're reviewing their process? And if that is the case, are we going to be involved in creating that process. I would imagine, especially for timing, then the upcoming year. Our rubric. I think we need some adjustments, right? We need to adjust some things in upcoming year. However. we would stick with that rubric, and all of you are looking at that rubric and helping us edit and improve that rubric right? Perfect. So you have a different a little, a little bit more intimate

[79:01] work in the Grants program. Right? Also, as I've mentioned. We can talk about how much access that you want, or that you feel like we need to applications to looking at the final scores. You are obliged by code within the Grant program in a different way than you are by the public art program. So I want to be sure that we're all comfortable with what? How much input and how much knowledge you have of what's happening? Right? that answer your question probably as much as you know right now. Yeah, yeah. I think, yeah. Good question. Yeah. You're not convinced. It answers our question. I'd be interested to see the business case on this the business case? Yeah, as far as you know. Why, why, it's why it's being recommended, and what's important about it. and and

[80:00] and really kind of the timeline. And and what are what involvement? We have as an arts commission. we're not doing a lot of the sport sure right well, I think it goes back to many of the concerns that were raised with the grand right? Yeah, that's the logic behind. This is that we can adjust things while you're still involved in the rubric while you're still involved in the system itself. Right? And we can hold panelists to or paid panelists contracted panelists to a different right? And we can put in different rules and regulations for a paid analyst rather than a right? Yeah, sure. Sure. Oh, sure, yeah. So something which is would be a timing concern.

[81:04] But that, as you've noticed when you, when you are all discussing discussing things with commission, you need to do so if it's going to be something made as a decision or voted upon, you have to discuss in a public meeting, and these meetings like a panel meeting and discussing things which you know applicants have said. I would like to be more involved. I want to extend myself right. Sometimes people just do better speaking than maybe writing a panel would have more flexibility with how they interact with the applicants. Then I commission that all of your decisions and discussions have to be public. But these are all also. We have to figure out details. I will say that with us, moving an instruction. At this point we can build out. We're still aiming to build out a grant program for you to vote on in October. Yeah, can you go back there. And I

[82:02] I just wanna clarify what I think I hear you saying, because my concern, when I look at the concerns in our process is that. How do you avoid these just being kicked down the road to a different group of people? It's just another group of human beings, you know, acting in the ways that they are biased and that they, you know, and and yeah, and who, you know, have their own issues with consistency. And Dn, it's a different set of humans, and not really addressing underlying issues other than what we can tackle in the rubric. And what I think I hear you say is that that that these types of things you anticipate controlling through contract contractual relationship? I would love to hear more about that. I I would really like to hear more about how.

[83:00] what kind of contracts you're gonna be able to buy a specific. And so how city has used this? My strategy is certain. Things shared about how that thank you for verbalizing my concerns where I did not do that. Very well. That's exactly what I wanted to say. Okay. yeah. And there may be answers, I, just, Oh, yeah, I would. I think it's a big change that. Yes, thank you. And if any of you think of things. If you wake up in the middle of the night learning how to verbalize it, you can email me and ask me, call me. And like, we want to talk through this and and hear what you think about it. Right? I. That being said, we're also we have colleagues that done this before we have other cities to work with. Right? Like I. I think this is going to.

[84:12] We'll do some good work in the afternoon backwards. Wasn't this commission increased to 7, just for the purpose of reviewing grants. And so with that with the Commission, and reduced down to 5. Or I thought that was one of the reasons there's nothing inherent about having that would mean anything to achieve. It's true that the one load. not only for the grants, which is the biggest portfolio, but also the process far too early as our relationship. It was just a lot of work as compared to other advice.

[85:00] right? And so I think that it's worth considering in this the future, about what's most efficient. but certainly not for this pilot, and I don't thinkers decided. Would that be a concern. I think that would be sort of a flaw. You know what to do with your conditions generally. Efficiency. That said this. Doesn't you have a whole lot of this work honestly, because you know, you still have top of our selection panels that you have to survive. There's all these other things that are happening, so we would just have to see how that affected it. But I wanted to add a little bit. I'm sorry before I go on. Is that that was not a concern, just a question. So, yeah, that is a question I just wanted to add to that one element to look at as we continue discussion, how

[86:00] friends people might help. That we're talking about is that they would have a job description. And that job description would be to conduct the their role in story and and up to the criteria. You have a job description as well, and that's the roles and responsibilities that city Council assigned to you that's described in code, and that you know those are not exactly the same thing, and that would mean that the standards to which we hold you are to represent the community well, and conduct these meetings and appearance will still matter. because conceivably their job description would be something bad. you know, meet all the necessary requirements of conducting, storing, and that is, I think, the key to why, this is one of 2 things. Why, this would be really efficient, for, for what you want to get done is that staff can build a job description. I understand that job description and require people to meet those standards.

[87:01] and you know that that just makes it. I'm not expecting anyone to fall short of those standards. What I'm expecting is that we would sit down and be able to say, This is your dog, your dog, deliver, and then bring it to the arts. For instance. looking forward to learning more about the recommendation. But when we had such frustration 3, 4 months ago, I remember Matt specifically saying, this is the process, and this is what we have to look around. And I thought, Well, maybe we would look at changing the process. But maybe this is changing that process in a way. So I'm looking forward to learning more on this. Thank you. Think it. I have some idea I want to share with the Commission. but I think it comes goes back to your point, Caroline. because it sounds like you kind of still want to have a little oversight over some of the grant scoring as a commission. So maybe one idea is taking a cue from the public art process which is having

[88:07] somebody from the Commission serve as a voting member. So maybe you divide those buckets of grants. You have a grant outside Grant group that you're paying. We also pay our community members to attend these meetings to select public art. But one of you is also a voting member for each of those buckets, and that you can come to these meetings and report back on the story process. Just an idea. It's a little similar in Cci. We we monitor the Grand Cannabis so time and they have some time for discussion to review the Grants. And then they had discussion and made a final decision somewhere for timekeepers and interesting question. So yeah. it's a good solution. I mean, it's always nice to have you know. Have a Commissioner help tell the story of the process that the group went to to select whether it's public art or grant recipients.

[89:08] but still also accomplishes some of these things at once. And further, to that, too, we have more process, improvements and other. So stepping back, the Commission is looking at the system, and how the system? Right? So I think that is, we have 2 more slides. This one just gets up that also, the Commission is helping us include the system itself. That then the panel is enacting that system right? So you're not being like pulled out like, Oh, that's a problem, and I can't solve it. I can't be involved in it. Right? One is interesting seeing quantities and applications. So. This is another. I'm sorry to say a lot of these are this, but says, quote, until we we can review with the consultant for right like looking at best practices

[90:03] and there is an option to add a section in the Grant applications, right or quantitative estimates. And we talked about the challenges with that. And we also need to think about the arts versus return on investment, like if that is the right way to think about art. But I need somebody smarter than me to think about that and then encouraging collaboration. Also, I am real curious how other organizations and communities do this. and if there's a good solid way to sort of lead from behind in this way, right? And then one more slide of process improvements, and then I'll open it up for discussion again. I think Marianne has a couple of things too. concerned with the timing of project grants missing programs early in the year one I can do pretty easily. We can open the artist sharing incentive grant earlier in the year. So this one we is a lottery style, and it's eligibility, and then a lottery style, and we can open that up earlier in the year, which is a fairly easy shift that we can do in the upcoming year, and the rest is, please help us figure out a timing. Because

[91:06] if you do, you know decisions at the end of the year you're always going to have a part of the year where it's really challenging, because it's hard to plan a year out, right? You know. Nonprofit runner. Somebody running a nonprofit like so we have to think about that. But I think that's a longer term discussion, shifting or splitting the calendar. The quantity of community project grants as you brought up. Thank you. It is always disappointing to have to define so many people when there's so many good projects, but for this year. We let's look at it after we award the y'all all y'all award the general operating support grants and then revise the leadership pipeline process.

[92:02] and then all I have left are, well, maybe I'll just here. So the schedule we are leaving the general operating Support Grant decisions in spring. It should be. You'll do that big review of all of the one year recertifications. We call them right, that big report, and then we will have some new applicants right next year to the same. you'll be looking at 8 Grant categories 80 to 100 and individual applications, and looking from February to the fall. However, that might be, a panel looking at a lot of those now. Is there any clarifying questions? And I'll take this down to just if somebody's watching invite you to watch the session. Would you like zoom? Sure, I had a few suggestions. think of kind of suggestion related to 2 organ organizations. Submitting for a grant together is that each organization write a separate statement or letter about how it's beneficial to their organization. So there's obviously that kind of joint statement by the project. Good individual letters. And my hope was this, would make sure that both

[93:15] both nonprofits or organizations were equally vested, and that it was beneficial to both of them. It wasn't very well subordinate technical organization. So put a couple of them see if someone sticks correct. That was one suggestion, and then the other was to add a statement under the project grants that we support fair and equitable pay, equitable pay for our artists. and keep it simple so that we had some discussion. These are all out of I tried to kind of parcel through the discussions. We've had the last few things. This came from the discussion of feeling that the artists were only getting a small portion of the project. So

[94:03] right, instead of going all the way and saying that needs to be a minimum wage, or that has to be certain percent increase. If that's the image like a checkbox. Is that what you have in mind for now? I think we think we'd ask them to address that, maybe. How are your, how are your, how is the artists being definitely paid. Perhaps it's it's kind of loose there's not a metric there proposals there, they'll they'll see a line item for it. Right? I think one of the things we had talked about in the past that brings up to that is The way that we look at the actual expenses in the reports. and whether that becomes a more

[95:02] meaningful review, because I think one of the issues that came up was through those reports, and somebody looking and saying. Wait a minute. This isn't actually what happened. This isn't actually what got paid out. But that was on the 1st report or midway report, not in the application, correct yeah, that's him, yeah. so does it like that those 2 work together, what I 1st suggested to Lauren was transparency to the artist, you know, in the application. And I'm fortunate. you don't think there might be some challenges there with the yeah. For which category of brands is this project? So that was my experience. And please those people, I've worked the nonprofit. I just would have to think about that and ask around more about sharing your application documents to your consultants, staff, or, you know, like there is a

[96:04] privacy concern there that I'm not totally so. Yeah, some of the projects where the artists might be a full time employee of that organization, so they wouldn't be getting anything conceivably. and the the project will be a program that they're doing that one year, or production of some sort. They have to be on staff at that organization, so they would receive something extra. They're they're on payroll. So I think that the goal is to make sure that everyone's paid fairly for their like. That's what I feel like. That's what we should advocate for. Is it just as simple as a statement force that through an artist shouldn't be working for $5 an hour. Let me look into that one and see if there's other. I think I'd recommend as a minimum just to stay, that we

[97:07] Project branch. And again, that would be the minimum. Oh, sure, it's just to bring it to everyone's attention. That would be partisan. Okay? And we'll accidentally thank you. These are all good. And I'll look at the the I mean asking for a letter describing partnership is like a Whoa. but the small requests that have a big benefit to the organizations, too. Right? But yeah, I feel like, not just necessarily heard the creative nations voice more clearly than I think that would that issue may have gone away. or maybe

[98:01] lesser than so that's what I'm suggesting. Both voices. that project and collaboration. Okay. yeah, bring it to the conclusion for the next meeting. Good thanks, thank you. Thank you for this, and it's just for some. We do have a public comment here. and doing something. any comments we covered. And I believe they have about wait about this, the ships to yeah, improvements to the grants process. I think a lot of it's really interesting. Be able to. are you? With the same questions you have works for me.

[99:01] It includes the process and city makes you feel that those ratios you, too. But you know devil won't be able to do this. Yeah. And I don't blame anybody on time. Good question. Sure. Yes, is there a plan for when that might start, and who it is? Our people got very soon? So they'll start in a couple of weeks after they selected. But we'll bring them in as soon as they're selected, then. No, I just didn't know. Oh, sure, yeah. folks have helped us through the Yes recommendations with the Community and Commission. I'm glad.

[100:18] Okay, just some next steps for your thoughts, your calendars. step 3 will bring you. We already have our proposed financial structure. We'll see if there's any shifts in from City Council level. But proposed solutions to some of the concerns that we've asked, and some of your questions. Thank you. And then a proposed schedule. So we will. you know, write out the actual grant schedule, so you can see how that looks. Sort of you know that all of those details, and then grant info sessions. Still Tbd, November, December. But I like to get them on people's calendars. And if people are watching oh, oh, sorry! Oh, thank you.

[101:00] Yes. and those are our grant in both sessions. We post them usually one online, one in person, and we'll have simultaneous translation at one of them and record it. So we'll have a version in Spanish as well, because the questions that are asked give you a great insight as to what's going on. Yeah. we usually ask one or 2 commissioners, Max, you're not. We're not right exactly and they do really appreciate asking you questions directly. Right? And then just some upcoming dates. I'm working with Anna Sybia, who we met with for equity and leadership training. We're going to do another round of that. We're going to talk about the group with her, too.

[102:01] and that'll be in September, so we have some like speedier guidance for the upcoming year. But then land acknowledgement Committee. We have booked with Ernest House and our colleagues affiliates. And Amy Kane, who work in that and specifically, with tribal nations. So gonna be doing a a training, a consultation, a discussion is going to be really good. I'm really looking forward to it. To talk about kind of bigger ways and other ways that the Arts Commission can lean into that are further than your landing. Right? That's what this discussion started like a year ago. and then your retreat will be. October 23, rd 2 to 7. So we have on there. It'll be a root certificate. Can you remind me who is on our land acknowledgement Committee within the Commission? at this point. It's actually everybody's invited to that one. It'll be a training like our equity and leadership. So if it's training just means we do post about it publicly. But it is not open to the public because you're not making decisions. And you're not discussing things that you might be making a decision right? This is a way for all of you to

[103:10] be thinking and talking and collaborating, and it'll be similar to that. It might be recorded, though, just for some other things that details. Thank you. Everybody. Yes, moving on to Lauren. Click great. Alright October retreat. It's a 5 h meeting, and we at the next meeting? We're gonna have to make some decisions about the agenda and

[104:05] and an activity. Did you want Commissioner input on that? Yeah, yeah. So those who were at the Retreat last year. Remember? That we had. What was our activity? Oh, great actually specialize in bringing working groups together around their mission and value. Yeah, so that's that's fair. But I would like to also open it. For if if you have thoughts or recommendations on an activity of that nature that you would like to include, or somebody that you'd like to have Staff see that they're available to come and help. What about inviting Anna back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[105:02] Yeah. You like her? Oh, yeah, I think she could be really excited about that. Sure, she could help bring things. Yeah. like the ones that we want to look at. so if you have any other thoughts, in addition send them to lauren circus performances something a fire that's awesome. And so not out with a bang, but a little vibration.