September 24, 2025 — Boulder Arts Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:01] We are recording. It is September, excuse me, Wednesday, September 24th, 2025. Welcome to the Boulder Arts Commission meeting. I will now call roll. Cheryl Cardoso is not online yet. Maria Cole? Here. Jeffrey Cav? Present. Phil Patzenberger is not here yet. Caroline Kurt? Here. Guya Binet? Here. Galdene Doyle? present! Alright, I will turn the meeting over to Chair Kirk for procedural items. Great, welcome to our meeting, calling to order. And I do have one change to the agenda that was sent out, and you'll see under number 8 for the grants program, we do have one grant report. to approve, so that has been added. And with that change, I'd like to, solicit motions to approve the agenda. So that's on page 310 of this month's pandemic. We should have one. I second. All in favor?

[1:08] Really? That is unanimous. Great, thank you. And you'll note that on the agenda, if we look at the time allotments for each of the, issues. We are going to be going past 8 o'clock. So I will be trying to keep us on time. Please don't be offended if I cut you off or ask that we move discussion to another time. And there are a few of our regularly scheduled portions of the meeting that I'll ask that we compress as we get to that. With that said, I'll read our land acknowledgement. The City of Boulder acknowledges the city is on the ancestral homelands and unceded territory of Indigenous peoples who have traversed, lived in, and stewarded lands in the Boulder Valley since time immemorial. Those Indigenous nations include the Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Manchi, Pawnee, Shoshone, Sioux, and Ute.

[2:05] The City of Boulder recognizes that those now living and working on these ancestral lands have a responsibility to acknowledge and address the past, and must work to build a more just future. All right, next item is approval of the August 2025 meeting minutes. For a second. Any discussion? That's, like, adjustment. Yes. Tiny adjustment, for the… On page 3, when I am discussing my liaison, it says tangible singers, and it should be cantable singers. Thank you, Ella, Yella, and I will update that. Thank y'all. Great, with that amendment to the motions, all in favor of approving the minutes? That's unanimous. Great. Thank you.

[3:01] Do we have any online participants for public participation? If anyone online would like to participate, please raise your hand now. Excuse me. I am not seeing any raised hands on one. Excellent. We have two signed up for public comments, Jan, and then Kathleen. Welcome to… please come… maybe in this area, so that the… Camera gets the key up. And then, just briefly, Cheryl is online, she's video off, and she said that she will be voting via hand up. Excellent, thank you. Have we said? Sure! That's fine. There you go. The microphone's in the room are open to see it. Okay. I can… we'll have 3 minutes, and I'll just give you a signal up here, getting closer. Okay. So I'm Jan Burton, live here, I'm a big advocate for the arts. I attend many of the arts.

[4:09] Go ahead. And I'm here to advocate for the arts. So, the first thing I'm going to do is pass around A sheet that was produced by the Colorado Music Festival. With the assistance of the arts economic calculator that is on the, the city's website. I think Matt introduced this, or Barna introduced this, so… Because I think it's really, really important for us to understand and really buy into the economic impact of the arts. Because I think most of us like the arts, we love the arts, we advocate for the arts, but we don't really understand the economic value of it. And I think in this day and age, when the city is basically a hungry beer when it comes to budget, and we are fighting for dollars for the arts, we need to be able to tell that story. So, what this, what the Colorado Music Festival has shown is

[5:10] that their total economic impact to the community is $950,000. They get $55,000 in grants. So, the ROI to the total economy is about 17 to 1. The ROI in estimated taxes that gets paid to the City of Boulder is 5 to 1. So that means $55,000 goes to them. And five times that much comes into the city's coffers. That is a story that needs to get told over and over, and I really see this Commission as helpers in doing that. Now they aren't there. I asked them if they would come. Frankly, it's not worth their time. They can recruit, an individual donor to give as much money as they're getting from the city. So, that's… that's a fact.

[6:01] So… I'm going to advocate tonight for the nonprofits, the City's own blueprint Research. The number one item, I think I've mentioned this before, is improving support for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. That was rated a 93%. And so, I want to tell a brief story. I worked at Apple Computer. How am I doing on time? Got about 40 seconds, okay. I worked at Apple Computer for 12 years. You may not remember this, but in the late 90s, they were close to going under. Very close to going under. There was a king of the UA, or someone that was buying shares in the company. Long story short, Steve Jobs comes back in. And he starts wiping out entire divisions of the company, the server division, the printer division, all this stuff, and all of this, you know… But that's what cleared the route. That's what cleared the way for the creation of the first iPod, and then the iPhone. Often, we need to clear our ways of thinking in order to empower those that really can be transformational. Being transformational is what the two-way ballot measure was all about. It was not about incrementalism. So I would really encourage you to think about that as you look at the budget and how we're allocating budget.

[7:17] So, thank you very much. Thank you, Jeff. That's brand new. Hi there, colleagues, former colleagues. I'm Kathleen McCormick. I was on the Arts Commission for six and a half years, until 2023, a couple rough years during COVID, and look where we are now. It's so much… I mean, we didn't even know two years ago that all this wonderful activity would be happening, that we'd be… that we'd get Sundance coming to Boulder, and that we would have this wonderful two-way ballot measure. It's a lot more money for the privacy culture. I'm here to say hello tonight. I try to stay abreast of what y'all are doing. I talk with, Lauren frequently,

[8:07] And I wanted to encourage you to keep a close eye on the budget, because while there's $2 million for grants this year, which is a lot more than last year and the year before, there's another… there's $740,000 that are Devoted to transfers, cost allocations, and reserves. And that is $300,000 more than it was in last year's budget. So things like that are sort of chipping away at the total amount of money that arts and culture… that artists and arts organizations could be benefiting from. The other thing I want to encourage you to be involved in the comp plan, because it's very important for the next 10 years of how our city evolves, to be… to make it clear that we are an economic engine, the arts and culture, do a lot, to make a healthy, sustainable community.

[9:01] And, it's very important to be involved in this, comp plan process, which I know you'll be discussing tonight. And, Finally, I want to let you know that I'm also a member of the Create Boulder Board of GM, and I don't speak for the board tonight, but I do want to report that we have a Facilities and Venues Committee that has been looking into, for the last year or so, or more, been looking into how we could Help, you know, partner with the city to create more affordable… more venues, facilities, and more affordable ones. So we have on our committee, architects, developers. Next month, we'll be looking at a couple of really exciting potential projects. that will create more space for arts and culture. So, and Maria is a member of that committee, so I'm sure she will report, and probably could already last report. What we're working on. So, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to… Thank you.

[10:08] And I'll give a plug, I think this is an appropriate time, there was a link in the materials to the survey. Do you want to say more, just so I don't thinking about that? The questionnaire. Yeah, the questionnaire. Oh, sure. Yeah, because I just started. Hello! Thanks for the tee up, Kathleen. Yeah. Well, we're going to get to the Boulder Comprehensive spell and the update, but I, if you can fold into the comments, just to remind people that we have a live link questionnaire now. But before we hit that, thanks for the public comments, and we have liaison updates and commission work items. And because we're really limited on time, I do want to invite people to do liaison updates, but any comments that you have about upcoming performances, or how performance works were in the past, if you can please hold those until our next meeting, and what I think

[11:15] is most important for today is if we have any feedback from the community that we're hearing about the plan or, you know, really important issues for the community. I have one piece of feedback from something that I saw that ties into issues that we've been dealing with on the Commission in the past. I went to the Boulder Ballet. Last weekend, and I was encouraged and heartened to see there were a lot of, non-white bodies on the stage, and I know that's been sort of a topic of conversation. And, so I just wanted to pass that on. Applies to what we've been talking about. Anybody else have… I'll be sure that I, sent this agenda to all my liaisons and encouraged them to reach out to all of us, or… and we got one comment, so we can talk about that. Did you see that, Sarah? From Motus theater? Oh, so hopefully we can talk about that during the grants.

[12:16] Great. Thank you. Okay, we're gonna keep speeding along then. I was at the same Boulder Ballet performance, and I also saw Asian folks on stage, as well as gay folks on stage, so it does align with our the E&I initiatives on the… on the, Commission, as opposed to making more about this. Great. Any important updates on Commission work items that cannot wait until next month? Great. All right, we'll go on to the comprehensive plan, then. Sorry. That's how they were next, so I was like, amazing, Tina! Sarah and Kalani from, the Comprehensive Planning Team, welcome, and thank you so much for joining. We're one of, I think, 6 or 7 commissions and boards that are, getting some direct input and feedback.

[13:11] So maybe if you'd like to introduce yourselves, too, with your titles, please, thank you. And, welcome! Well, hello, thank you, and thank you, Kathleen, for the two. Connie and I are here to talk to you about the comp plan update. As Lauren mentioned, we are in a bit of a hoard's roadshow. I was mentioning to some of my colleagues that I know what rock stars feel like when they go to a city and say the wrong name. Like, they're like, you know, because there's so many different boards that we're going to, but I know you're the Arts Commission, and we're really happy to be here. And I, am going to talk about the comp plan update. So, as I said, I'm Sarah Horne, this is Kalani Pahoa. We're both on the long-range planning team at the City. I am a senior planner, and Kelani is our guru-less urban designer, and we're happy to be here to talk about the update, and especially to hear your perspectives on how arts and culture can help shape the city's future.

[14:05] suck. So, what we're hoping to do this evening is to give you a quick overview of the comp plan and the major update process, share how we're approaching policies and land use in the update, and get your feedback on policy direction. You might be wondering what your role in the comprehensive Plan update is. And even if you're not, I'm going to share it with you right now. Most boards and commissions, including you, serve as an advisory role during the update process. That means your feedback will help us set policy direction, and hopefully your support down the line will be really valuable when the plan goes for adoption in the summer of 2026. And it's important to note that the comp plan will inform, and is informed by the arts blueprint that arts and culture are working on right now. And it's also important to note that staff, including subject matter experts from Community Vitality, like Lauren and Matt, and many other departments in the city, are working hard on the update with us.

[15:01] And that we… they help represent the cities and your areas of interest during the process. So, and I have to say that working with Lauren and her team and Matt has been an absolute joy, and they've brought a lot of creativity and energy to the process, and it's made it really special, so we really appreciate that. And, just an FYI, for the plan, the adopting bodies, there's four adopting bodies, two in the city and two in the county. City Council, Planning Commission, and the Boulder County, Board of Commissioners and their Planning Commission. So we have to go to four bodies for that. So, as we go through the presentation tonight, if you'll keep in mind that we'll discuss these key questions, related to the comp plan approach, supporting professional artists. arts and culture, amenities and gaps, and Boulder's future as an arts and culture destination. So we'll capture your feedback when we get to the questions tonight, and then we'll consider it as we continue to iterate the policy and land use recommendations we're going to be, Drafting.

[16:00] And so we'll also continue to work directly with Lauren and Matt and Arts and Culture team, to refine the policies, and Lauren is the conduit between you and us, the comp planning team, for any additional feedback that you'd like to share between now and December when we take our draft recommendations to Council. So… Now to the comp plan. Okay. So, I think Kathleen knows, but some of you might not know what is a comprehensive plan. Well, it's Boulder Valley's long-range vision, and it's an aspirational guide for how our community will evolve over the next 20 years. It includes policies and a future land use map and strategy that help staff, boards, policy makers, and the community manage change and move toward the vision. We update the plan every 10 years, and this step update is especially meaningful because it marks 50 years of comprehensive planning in the city, and it gives us the chance to step back, reimagine Boulder's future, and partner with the county to guide growth in the Valley.

[17:03] It's also a state requirement. Every city over 2,000 people must have one, so it's both an opportunity and an obligation. So, I think it can be helpful to visualize the impact of the plan, sort of in the way you see at the bottom of the screen. It sits at a 30,000-foot level, like the cruising altitude of a plane, and represents the big picture that shapes all city work. Then at 10,000 feet, we have various plans, including subcommunity and area plans, which are more focused. And then at the ground level, we use tools like zoning and the code, to bring the vision and ideas and the plans to life. And so now that we've talked about the comp plan, where does it apply? Well, it applies to the entire Boulder Valley, which is everything inside city limits that you see in yellow on the map on the screen, and plus parts of unincorporated Boulder County that are in the green on the slide surrounding the city. And the area, the entire planning area is divided into areas 1, 2, and 3, and these relate to how we provide urban services.

[18:05] In the planning area. And if you want to dig deeper, you can explore these areas. We have online maps of the city, and in the current comp plan, it has more of a description of these. So, when we think about planning in the city specifically, it happens at a few different levels, which I briefly talked about. At the very top, that 30,000-foot level I mentioned earlier, we've got the sustainability, Equity, and Resilience Framework you see at the top of the screen. That's the really big picture, and the seven objectives at the top guide all city work. Then the comp plan, which documents the 20-year vision and lays out policies and land use for the city and the valley. And it shapes things at the 10,000-foot level, like the citywide strategic plan, which is in the light blue, and that lays out midterm priorities, and then department plans, like the Arts Blueprint. Are on that green line, and they, they, along with budgets and sub-community and area plans, come next. And then at the ground level, like I mentioned, we get into the nuts and bolts, the budget, capital projects, and zoning standards, which are the tools that make all these plans, all of the things in these plans, real.

[19:14] So, now that you know everything, almost everything maybe, about comp planning and planning in the city, what does the update process look like? Well, for this update, we kicked it off, late last year, starting with a Boulder Today, which you see on the left side of the little diagram. In that phase, we focused on current conditions. We then moved to Phase 2 earlier this year, which is a Boulder Tomorrow. And in that phase, we talked to community members about their vision and priorities for the future. And that… we're now in Phase 3, and this is the yellow piece you see on the screen, and this is the major phase where the bulk of the work is being done. We're working through policy updates and land use updates. And then next year, we'll move to Phase 4 of Older Future, and that will be drafting the plan for adoption in the summer of 2026.

[20:01] So, throughout this process, we've been engaging the community like never before… Right? And this is thanks in large partnership to our partnership with the Office of Arts and Culture. And so, through the Experiments and Public Art program, we've combined art, community voices, and city planning to explore issues and share hopes for the future. From our kickoff at the Dairy Arts Center, to interactive theater experiences with MODIS, to illustrations for existing conditions with Cal Bracken, and community mapping through Voicing Boulder, an online platform with Chris Carruth. Arts and culture have helped us connect with people in really meaningful ways. And we're also planning to wrap up the project as we started with our final community event at the Derry Arts Center later next year. And then, based on feedback from our engagement, we've drafted a vision for the plan that's about belonging, creating opportunities, and sustaining the health of the Boulder Valley for future generations. And this vision directly relates to the sustainability, Equity, and Resilience Framework Objectives, which I touched on earlier, and you see on the right side of the screen.

[21:08] And these are the same objectives that the Office of Arts and Culture is using for the Arts Blueprint. So, we're aligning the work of departments with the framework to ensure we're all on the same page in how we're thinking about what we're doing moving forward. And through engagement, we've also gained a clear picture of the issues community members really want us to address in this update, which you see on the screen here. And while these are areas of focus where people felt we needed to dig in more during this update, we'll be covering all sorts of topics in the comp plan. These are just top of mind right now for many people in the community. And even though arts and culture isn't listed as a standalone area of focus, it's a significant topic of conversation. And we'll be including, policies that relate to it in the update. It's not listed here, but not being listed here also means that a lot of community members feel we're heading in the right direction related to arts and culture, because it's not… it's not something they think there are big gaps. I mean, there are some, of course, that everyone is talking about, but they feel that we're going in the right direction and making improvements, so that's… that's good news.

[22:13] So, okay, now that you have a picture of what the comp plan is and the work we've done to date, I'll just talk quickly about our specific approach to policy and land use updates for this. Round. And, it has two major components, community-wide policies and a land use strategy map. So before I share our approach to policy updates, I just want you to keep in mind some of these key themes that we're considering related to arts and culture. Investing in arts and culture, supporting education and community resources, strengthening support for local businesses and affordable spaces. We've heard this from many community members related to a variety of things, arts and culture included. And thinking about our visitor economy, especially with Sundance in our future. So… so for our policy updates, our approach, right now our plan has over 200 policies.

[23:02] And we've heard from community members, policy makers, and staff that many are repetitive, are captured in other documents, or conflict. So, in this update, we're aiming to create policies that are clear, simple, and flexible or resilient, so they can guide us without locking us in as conditions change, as we saw with COVID. You know, there are things that happen that we need to adapt to, so we're trying to open the comp plan up to that. And we're also focusing on the what and the why in the comp plan instead of the how. And we're… we're hoping that that lets departments and boards kind of figure out the way that they put the policies into practice, rather than us dictating. So… or the comp plan, not me, but the comp plan dictating. And similar to our approach for policies, we're also reexamining how we think about land use. So instead of a parcel-by-parcel kind of micromanaging of land use, which the current plan

[24:02] does, over time, it's turned into that. We're moving toward designations that are more at a neighborhood scale, so the goal is to plan for places, you see on the left side of the screen that reflect community identity. To allow for more mixes of uses in locations, so housing, work, and culture can coexist, and provide more choices so the community can adapt over time. So… To do that, we're testing a new framework for land use designations that has four main classes, or categories, to guide future development and redevelopment. So, you see on the left side of the screen, the first class is neighborhoods, which includes different mixes of housing and amenities, place, you know, cafes, things people can go to. Then we have hubs. Which you see the second line here, and those are, hopefully lively areas with commercial and residential uses mixed. And then we have networks, the third category, which includes parks, open space, and recreation, and rural lands. And then finally, we're considering an institutions category for civic, university, and industrial land uses.

[25:06] And this new approach, as I mentioned, gives us flexibility, is clearer, and it gives us the ability to integrate various priorities into land use, rather than kind of siloing a land use like we've done in the past. So… To put all that together, this is just a concept example of how that might look in a neighborhood. So, a community hub, which you see in the middle of the screen in the kind of reddish color, that would be a central destination that could serve multiple neighborhoods and have, like, those, They have arts and culture amenities in it, for example. And then the darker yellow around the neighborhood, too, would be a mix of housing and multifamily developments, mics around the hub, so that would create walkable options for people to live, work, and socialize in those areas. And then the neighborhood ones might have a bit lower density in those neighborhoods, which is the lighter yellow you see on the screen. And then the networks, the parks, and greenways would be sprinkled throughout.

[26:05] everyone would have access to this. So that's an overview of our approach. And then we just quickly have some milestones we want to share with you. So I think you mentioned the Statistically valid survey is online right now. There's an online open participation survey, too, the exact same questions online for anybody in the community to take. The statistically valid survey was mailed to 5,000 households in Boulder, so that will be that option for Those residents who get that, and then anyone can take the online survey, and there are several questions related to housing, climate, business. older adults and our youth population. So I'd encourage you all to go online and take that. If you didn't get one, if you get one at home, take it. And then on December 11th, we are going to share our recommendations with Planning Board and Council in a joint study session, 4 hours, so… We're getting ready for that, and then we'll work on revisions to recommendations based on their feedback over the winter, and we'll come back to boards in March of next year with our draft plan to share with you.

[27:10] And then if all goes well, we'll be finalizing the plan in the spring and going through the adoption process in the summer with both the city and the county. And if you're interested in more information about the plan or engagement opportunities, anything comp plan, visit the project website of olderfuture.org. There's a lot of good information out there. So, that's it. Thanks for letting me share a bit about the comp plan update and this process. And now I think we'd like to hear some thoughts. on these key questions. We look forward to your feedback. Kalani and I are here to answer any questions about the update you have, and, I can read the questions and hand it over to the board for discussion, I can hand it over to you now to start the process, and like I said, we'll capture the feedback.

[28:00] Great. Yeah, thank you. Why don't we leave the key questions up? And just open the floor, we can talk about… focus on these key questions. I do have a question that comes out of Your presentation you just gave. And it kind of ties together just some general thoughts I've been having in general. On this… on the slide with the seven different areas, and you mentioned, well, there's not really any talk about arts and culture, because people think we're doing a good job. And that's positive, and then I also worry about having a comprehensive plan that doesn't have any direct language or direction around arts and culture, and that when things aren't stated in a plan, they get forgotten and discounted. So, I'm wondering… what you would say to that. I would say that, and I should have been more clear, but the key areas of focus are really, the way that we've had community conversations, because when we've met with the community, they say, we need more work on safety, we need more… so it's a way to organize the community conversations we've been having around the comp plan.

[29:12] And those are not the only areas we've talked about, those are just where they think we need to dig in more. So we will cover arts and culture, and we will specifically call it out in our policies, and as an aside, the map behind you, Lauren's been working with her team on people sharing places they'd like to see, and so we will consider that as part of our land use map update as well, and think about those designations, the kinds of uses that we will put in the descriptions. So. It did sound like that, and I apologize for that. We definitely are going to include it. Excellent. Great, thank you for that. And, you know, to… to the… public speakers' points of how art just impacts all the areas. As I was reading those seven areas, I could think of, you know, there's so many ways that the arts support those, so… And they do. And I did mean to say that in my notes and forgot to skip it, but that they, they do,

[30:09] if we do include any… any information about those areas of focus, arts touches on all of the things, and can impact all of those areas, so… Thank you. Yes. Kind of a good follow-up with that. In the previous comp plan on page 21, it talks about arts and culture, and it's pretty much a softball approach. It says, there's a growing interest in arts and culture. And I would like to recommend a more robust statement about the importance of arts and culture in this community, and it's indicative of Sundance coming here. So I think the strengths of the cultural community is drawing more international attention. So, well, I guess the question is, will that statement be rewritten to, more reflect, I think, the interest in arson culture? The need for culture. Yes, and I can say that we are revisiting all of the policies, and we are

[31:02] We are drafting some new policies, some revisions to policies, and we will include a statement about the importance of arts and culture and policies that relate to that. We're trying to make the policy statements more, active, and, like, and more, direct in terms of what our stance is on certain issues, so we are definitely considering that, and we'll take that information. we're reworking them now. We don't have the policies to share yet, but… What would be an example, though, of a more active approach to how you would address the arts, rather than a growing interest in the arts? The city… and this is not actual, this is hypothetical, but the city, Promotes arts and culture in X, Y, and Z. I mean, we're gonna… we're not gonna say there's a growing… We might say some things like that, but rather than say there's a growing interest and we might do something, we want to change it to a more active burp. The city actively promotes arts and culture.

[32:06] in community, where people have said, we need more of it, or… and that's totally hypothetical, but… and I don't know if that exactly answers your question, but we are working on making it more direct. The link. Good question. The proposed zoning map changes, are those a reflection of the things that the community is asking to see more of, or is that based upon broader City priorities. it's a land use map, just… and I know you said… the land use is… it's a reflection of what community has told us, and we're looking at the land use map, and it's so kind of parcel by parcel, that we're trying to broaden it, because a land use map is really the 20-year vision. What do I want the community to be in 20 years? So, we've heard every… like, not everyone. There are some community members who don't want to see any change. We know that. There are other community members who would like to see a lot of change.

[33:09] Many community members have said we want to have more walkable areas, we want to be able to walk to the place we work, walk to the place we go eat, walk to the place we play, and the land use right now Needs some tweaks to make that. vision a reality. So, we are using community for that. Thanks. And I assume that if these changes are implemented. Things within those zones would still have to apply for a use change, or would it be an automatic thing? Yeah, I think that, it depends on what the zoning district changes are, along with those land use changes, and it may be that some would have to, and some wouldn't, depending on how substantial the change is. How does the livable, like, if we look at that specific goal of Boulder, how does that fit into it in terms of housing.

[34:01] I know it's outside of arts and culture, but I'm just curious. There's a couple of aspects to livable. I can't hear you. I'm sorry, I think there's a couple of aspects, livable, that includes affordability and access to services, so it might include, walkability, to certain uses, or to jobs. In other services, like schools and those types of things. And the land use, like, the land use, we're trying to create that more mix of different kinds of… of housing options to be in different neighborhoods, like, to allow… townhomes, let's say, in single-family neighborhoods where it might work, or create situations where people who live in the city can walk to work so it's more affordable to get to work, rather than drive. You know, so there's a lot of factors involved, but housing is definitely a big piece of the… Multifaceted. On the question slot… Sorry, your lady has their hand up. Oh, yeah.

[35:00] Go ahead, Yalet. Just my quick note, just kind of, seconding what Maria said, with encouraging more active language, I would, like, really encourage something along the lines of, like, the language of the value of arts and culture in every land use category. Personally. I think every… every category that you showed, I think, should have arts and culture, like, embedded within it, and, language around… around the value of that. Something… something like that, I don't know, it was just my… my thought. Maria? Oh, thanks. This is not… Because Maria tends to ask the same questions that I do, so I'd rather just her just ask the question. No, this is in the weeds, on your, you know, 30,000 down to the AMP scale, set the AMP scale. So, related to question number two, the Boulder Revised Code, Chart 6.1, does not allow art studios in R1 designations.

[36:08] And, this… the definition of art studio is probably what everyone at this table and everyone in this room is actually doing in their homes, and the zoning code doesn't allow that. So, is… is this comprehensive plan a means to… because this is pretty light, you know, what they're saying an art studio is, and you're not allowed to do it in your house right now. So, is this comprehensive plan a means to change this zoning code? So, actually, it aligns to support artists and actually, recognize what's really going on in this community. I would say that one of the ways that this, this comprehensive plan, you could have an objective, like. that would say, very directly, we want to see more art studios allowed in residential areas, or more broadly across the city. That, in turn, will trickle down to when this is adopted, the zoning code, I think. Have some of those changes made to make that, this new screening in some areas.

[37:04] or if it's not a new screen, we'll look at it in more detail. Can you give you that feedback right now, since you're here? So that's my feedback, and that's what I'm hearing from the community, is a lot of people realize that they're not in compliance with the zoning codes, because they're painting, or… They're welding? Welding. You're not molding! But this just talks about, yeah, it's pretty loose. You're an artist, sculptor, photographer, jeweler, potter, craftsperson, furniture maker, cabinet maker, or other artist. basically, you're out of compliance, I think, with the current zoning code. And we've been, we've asked the question, and we've heard from community just along those lines, you know how we have ADUs? We allow ADUs now? There is… there are cities that allow commercial. Yeah, conversion space. Conversion spaces, so you could have a shop or something in your home. So, that's part of, kind of… I mean, the studio piece is something that we would look at, probably, along with that.

[38:08] But we've heard people who are… would like to have businesses out of their homes as well, and so that kind of runs along with… Right, because there's artists running businesses as well out of their homes. Right, right. So we… I mean, I think that there is an opportunity. If we get the feedback that we need to open that door. What's your recommendation to all of us to advocate more strongly than we are right here to get that incorporated? Put it in the notes? We will be taking that. It sounds very official. Put it in the notes, we'll consider it. I mean, we're considering everything, we can't include everything, but… and also talk to your council. Members and your planning board members. I think that this will get, looked at again, the language, the specific policy language.

[39:00] Let's go… who… do you want to go next? I'll go next. And then, I have a comment to send you. Wait. The largest portion of this particular slide for key questions is specifically to the individual artist. And kind of the, the… implying that it's basically gig economy workers of that sort. I want to make sure that there is a continued focus and… And a acknowledgement for the growth, within the plan, for the growth, the capacity building, the sustainability, and the cultivation of existing and emerging small, medium, and large organizations. And what their impact is to education and community building and culture and to revenue generation for the city.

[40:25] Thank you. My comment was around unused commercial space, and I would love to see, the city being more supportive, either some sort of subsidy to allow short-term uses of that space towards arts and culture, or incentivizing… disincentivizing commercial landowners from just sitting on vacant space waiting for the France grew up. I know we have limited impact on private property owners, but whatever the city can do, it's kind of a bad situation.

[41:10] I got that too. Great, thank you. Did that cover your comment? Yeah. So, I'm, I think in terms of number 3, What's missing is really a place for the arts community and, like, just people to gather and, have, like, cheap drinks, like, you know, the concept of the dive bar, or, like, cheap restaurants, like, it doesn't exist in Boulder, and I… and I think, like, I live in North Boulder, and we have all these, like, Friday, Quiz Friday, and all these things, and there's just very limited options for people to go out and stay out late, and there's not this culture of, like, let's get a band, or let's have jazz, or, like, there's just… it doesn't exist in Boulder, and I'm from New York City, and I think it's sort of a missed opportunity for us to not with those spaces, and I know Roots Music Project tries to do something like that, but, you know, it's still… it's still up there, and in downtown Boulder, or walkable to neighborhoods, it just doesn't exist, and I'm sure it's something to do with zoning.

[42:16] We're also, and this is just something that you can, like, look into on the website, and we will be sharing with Council that we have a community assembly. That is one of our engagement, tactics, and it's 48 community members who meet on… I think they… they're meeting for 7 Saturdays, like, all day Saturday, and they're learning. this isn't exactly, but tied to it. 50-minute neighborhood, and the concept of having places to walk and, like, places to hang out, like, within 15 minutes of where you live, and they are studying that, and they are going to come up with recommendations for that, that they will share with Council. And depending on what council decides, we will probably include some of that in the comp plan, and that will speak somewhat to what you're talking about. So that… and it's a really cool, like, prep, like, engagement tactic we're using that they use in Europe often, so it's a cool concept. So they're working on that and talking through some of those issues.

[43:11] Any comp plan that has more dive bars, I… Thank you, Mario. So I'm curious to hear, what you're thinking on the Civic Center, and second question is, about the Noble Cultural District. Is that the only cultural district? Can that be extended? Can that be replicated to… so… Yeah. Those two questions. So what's the… what's the thinking on the Civic Center? Is there gonna be, culture at the heart of the Civic Center? And the second is the… What's the park? Civic Center Park? Yeah, I mean, it's called the Civic Center. And then the Novo Creative District, as I understand that, they're… you know, I don't… maybe that's a question. I don't know if there are incentives in the city for that.

[44:08] what's the structure of that? Can it be extended farther down Broadway? Further, you know, starting to become an arts corridor with BMOCA considering to move up there? So, yeah, what is a cultural district, and the one that we… that I know of, can it be extended? further embrace North Boulder. I think that this process out there, that's one of the, recommendations of the board, is to look to investigate other areas. There should be, arts districts or, designations, kind of like the map there at the back. We could definitely explore that and bring back those recommendations. the policy language. As far as what the Civic Center is doing, I'm not sure that I'm the best to speak to the details on the the cultural experience that they're planning right now. But it is kind of a mix of things going on.

[45:03] That area? Arts, history, you know… Got the bandshell, they've got some acidity buildings down there, so… And they're considered… I mean, I think that that's a big piece of the… Idea is arts and culture, and they want to activate the space. more hours into the day to do that. We need more events and more cultural things, and parks… our Parks Department is in charge of that, and there is a website, and Shihomi Kirigawa is the project manager, and she, you know, would be happy to share more information about what's happening there. And we can also bring information back to you. I think what might be helpful also is defining what a cultural district within Colorado is, because there are very, very specific constraints within that, and what describes that as far as size and what that costs. And if there's a difference that the board feels, like, for these recommendations. Arts District, it's the cultural district.

[46:02] Put around that. Simple policy language. We can definitely take that back to. And I think it's also a factor. We can do so much, and then the market has to help do things, too, in terms of districts and creating those commercial spaces, or… or, you know, galleries, or whatever you want, or performance spaces. Like, the private sector has to also pitch in to make those things a reality. We can open doors and create easier processes for those things to happen, but it has to be a partnership. Well, it seems like, you know, synergy between like-minded cultural institutions is really what makes an area, you know, thrive. You know, look at Nobo. If you just had one of those little studios, no one would go there, but it's all… all of them together make that… I think that that's, one of the things that, if you look at the comp plan, as it helps drive other, sub-community plans, or the North Boulder sub-community plan, and this was something that was, very actively

[47:05] worked on for, like, two decades to really get to the point there, so I think that that's one of the things you're doing right now, is helping us frame up where this will affect new sub-community plans that are coming in, or new area plans, too, so… which is good input. And we work on those, and we like working on those. Yeah, when we're not working on this, we work on those, so… Yep. I think just as, as a nod to number 4, I mean, I think that amazing thing's happening in terms of this being a destination, and the concept of how arts and culture interweave into all these different areas, and strengthening those relationships is what's going to drive that forward. And… it's what distinguishes us from being a bedroom community, you know? And… And going… bringing a lot of great things, we just need to continue to support it.

[48:06] Yeah, I was… I mean, I… I agree with Carolyn. I think what we are doing well is providing support, the transparency, you know, all this… all this work that goes into providing funding for these many, many arts organizations, and… but I… I think it goes back to having the commercial aspect. Like, people have to show up, and I get that feedback all the time from my liaisons, like, why… why don't people go out? Why don't they show up? Like, why is it so hard to motivate the Boulder community to go out there, and I don't think anybody's been able to crack that nut, but that's not… Because of what's not happening here, I just think we are creating those opportunities, and people have to take M. That's it. I mean, yeah, to piggyback off of that, and to connect it to your last point, yeah, you can walk down Pearl Street at 9, 10 o'clock, and it's just dead most of the time these days. Like, yeah, there's…

[49:02] kind of a… I don't know if that's a market gap or something, if everybody, yeah, wants to… Stay home after 10 o'clock, or they just don't know what's going on. Yep. Yep. I mean, that's the puzzle. Yeah. As far as the night economy, that's… And that's something… Strengthening the economy, that helps strengthen our school culture. That's another concern. Yeah, that's something we've been thinking about, and an idea of these. We're trying to flesh out. I don't know what happened. You speak to somebody who lived here 30 years ago, and they'd be like, I used to buy as a millennium? And you're like, really? Because now… Nothing is happening. Maybe one last question. Where do museums fall under your conceptual land use? Is that institutional?

[50:01] Yeah, we're still, working on that, and, it would fall there, we think. We're still working on how that… how it would totally play out, but that's… More than likely, or maybe, I don't know. I mean, there might be hubs, you know, we're still kind of working that out. Right? Yeah. I will say, too, though, sometimes we see civic and institutional uses mixed into, like, regional hub areas, innovation… And, community areas, so, Just like we see schools extended single-family residential areas as specific institutions. So it may be a mix of the… where we have some standalone opportunities, and then some mixed location opportunities, too, so… That'd be helpful, then, in your conceptual diagram, if you had a little blue dot in the middle of the pink up, then. These should translate at one point. We're hoping that one example where you show the map, that it does actually have a regional, like, a map-based

[51:06] There might be, like, a blue dot there in that community. That's great. Yep. Are there any specific questions for us, other than those four? Well, those are… I think those are the questions that we had, and Lauren is thinking of too, right? And I think… I think we got great feedback. I think we can look at these and see what we… what will help us, and then if we need any more, like, further, we can, like, maybe connect to the floor. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Lawrence. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can we contact you if we have… Absolutely. Yeah, your information with Lauren? Yeah. Did you want me to put something in the chat, a link to the survey, or were you talking about something? I just want to… it's in our materials for this meeting, so I just wanted to remind people.

[52:05] And having the link within your slides was very helpful. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, email is in there, too. And you get ready to email. And Lori's just forward. Chris? Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. It was great to meet you all. And hopefully we'll see you again. Thank you. Enjoy the tour. Moving on is… Oh, yes, you're hats. Oh, it's coming alive. Eric? Yes, oh yes. Oh, he's here. Okay. Beautiful! Hi! Elliot, we're ready to move to you! Well, I'm not there, but I'm here. Yes. Guess I'm here, which makes me there. I don't know if that makes sense. Good evening, Commissioners. My apologies for not being able to be in person. But I did want to take a moment this evening to go over the budget. It has since been released since we last talked. I know we kind of had a preemptive conversation regarding the budget for Arts Commission, specific to the Arts, Culture, and Heritage sales tax.

[53:12] I did a walkthrough of said budget on OpenGov from 2025, and of course, the website has completely changed. So… I will say it is hopefully more user-friendly. The navigation of the website does seem to be a little bit better, so hopefully that's easy, but I will be pulling up a few individual links for the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund. As well as the budget policy, but why don't we dive right in and get into the presentation here? Alright. So tonight, let me make sure I'm navigating this correctly. We'll breeze through the definitions again. I know we covered those in August. We'll look at the full City Manager's recommended budget specific to the Community Vitality Department, the Community Vitality Capital Improvement Plan, which does have some dedicated funding for arts.

[54:16] We'll look at kind of a 3-year comparison. The caveat there, as you probably saw in multiple footnotes, is the difference from general fund to the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund, and what that kind of looks like, going back and forth. So there's some nuances in the budget comparison, but, hopefully we can discuss those, and then we'll look at, the, timeline, kind of where we are with, the budget adoption process, and we'll hopefully get some commission feedback, and time for questions. Again, here's another slide, just, you guys saw this, I think, in August as well, kind of talking about the different, kind of.

[55:01] definitions of the words that we use. I know transfers and cost allocations and internal services and reserves, and all of those kind of… get a little muddy in terms of it's not language we normally use. So I did want to kind of disclose some of what that information is, what it actually means, and what it means for the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund. There are really no transfers right now for, the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund. Nor are there really any internal services. Well, I take that back. There are for the computer replacement funds, but the majority of what you see and some line items that might be a little confusing is really the focus on the cost allocations. And those, again, are really to help, reimburse the general fund for services that are provided by things like the city attorney's office, city manager's office, the communications department, etc.

[56:06] Where they help, kind of, bolster up the programs, as well as, the administration of just staff, as… and other… things such as IT support, to… which are traditionally funded and are currently funded through the general fund. So it's a… it's a way for us to pay back For the services, rather than paying for a contractor. Reserves is definitely one that's a little, interesting here. This is part of our budget policy, citywide budget policy. Section 7 requires every res- every fund To have a reserve, and really what those reserves are for is, for stability, stabilization in the event we were to see a significant change from what we projected to be the revenues versus what were the actual revenues. Or in the event of an emergency where the, say, entire economy closed down and we weren't actually bringing in revenues.

[57:06] it ensures that we can continue all of the programs as well as projects that we dedicated and really earmarked for that specific year without a hiccup. So it's a way, we kind of call it the rainy day fund, if you will, for lack of a better term. But again, it's a citywide policy for every fund across the city to maintain that 16.7, which is basically 2 months out of the year for funding to make sure we don't skip a beat on any of our operations in the event of an emergency. One thing I will mention on reserves, it's, it's a little… different in terms of how they show up in future years, so they are, they roll over, if you will. You'll see the beginning fund balance on the fund financials actually reflect the ending fund balance plus reserves.

[58:06] So that's… it doesn't show up as a source of a revenue, because it's not really a source of a revenue, it's more just the balance of the fund. But it does continue to carry over, so it's not additive. You're not adding 16.7% every year, you're just taking the 16.7 and it fluctuates based on the budget throughout the year. And then I mentioned fund financials. Again, that's just a document that really kind of highlights the revenues and expenses, or as we refer to as sources and uses, from the previous year, the actuals, and then kind of projects out future years, and then The next year's budget, and what we are recommending for those programs. Looking at CV's budget as a whole, you can see here the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund, and this is 100% out of the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund. This doesn't have any funding from any of our other dedicated funding sources within Community Vitality.

[59:08] It's broken down really in two parts, in this slide here between non-personnel and personnel. Personnel is literally just that, it is just salaries and benefits. The non-personnel is everything from the grants program, to public art, to sticky notes, to printing, to postage, everything that you would think of that is not paying for the people, if you will. Those… that's kind of how that differentiates between the two. And then the sources there on the left, that is reflective of all sources in Community Vitality. It is not just the arts, culture, and heritage dedicated sales tax. It is also the property tax, as well as some of the revenue that we receive for parking products. Moving into our capital improvement plan, you can kind of see here how it's broken down,

[60:04] The purple, if you will, at the bottom, that is the portion of the capital improvement plan that is dedicated for art, in this specific instance, for public art. It comes from the Community Culture Resiliency, and Safety Sales Tax. That is also another dedicated sales tax for community culture resiliency and safety. The 1% for public art, what that does is it allows us to look at other CCRS-funded capital projects, say, for instance, Fire Station 2 or Fire Station 4, and gives us some, some budget to be able to put towards an art installation at, say, Fire Station 2 or Fire Station 4. So it just automatically allocates 1% of that specific CCRS fund, for that specific person… purpose, excuse me.

[61:03] The other thing I will highlight here, you will see two other funds on this slide, the KJID, the Central Area General Improvement District, which is basically the General Improvement District, which is downtown. As well as the Boulder Junction Access District, which is the Boulder Junction area, east of downtown. There are some large capital projects that are going to be happening there in the next year. The 1% for capital exempts those dedicated funds from contributions to 1% for public art, but it does not say that we have to exempt them from public art. The beauty of us having arts and culture and community vitality is we can leverage the talent of the staff in arts and culture to help us figure out how we can incorporate art into some of these projects. That being said, there's not any dedicated, specific ones that we have earmarked, but we certainly work closely with the arts and culture staff for those specific ones, and figure out ways that we can incorporate art into what would otherwise just be a parking garage.

[62:15] Looking at the specifics of the arts, Culture, and Heritage tax, again, lots of caveats here due to the transition, from 24 to 25, from general fund to arts, Culture, and Heritage. The sources there, I'm gonna start at the very top line. I know it's 2026 recommended, so we're kind of going, future years, but really what I wanted to highlight there is, if you see the quote-unquote sources, that $488,000 That's gonna be the… the… anticipated beginning fund balance in January 1 of 2026. So, in theory, we should have $500,000, coming or staying in the fund at the beginning of 2026 to help us afford

[63:05] All of the programs that we want to do in 26, and then we'll have additional revenues, or sources, such as taxes or investments, earnings from investments, in that fund as well. And that remaining balance that you see there, that is the estimated remaining balance plus the reserves. So that's kind of how the reserves get treated. Again, those are there for emergency purposes, and allows us to ensure that in the event of emergency, we can continue operating Without any disruption of services. You'll see I've broken this down, between personnel and non-personnel, and you can kind of see how the… the… revised actuals, which… or, excuse me, the revised budget, which is a little bit different than the adopted budget. It reflects any sort of changes that, staff put forward for Council to consider, and then, were approved in terms of the, what's called the Annual Adjustment to Base, ATB is an acronym that we use.

[64:11] And it also reflects any sort of, contract carryover. So, any obligations that we said we were going to pay in, say, the previous year, but didn't actually get out the door. Due to sometimes the projects are either delayed, or sometimes the invoices come in later, but that money still needs to be readily available to pay contractors. That can also be part of the reserved budget. So you can kind of see how the budget has fluctuated, from year to year, more so on the uses side. The reason why the sources don't show up in 24 is because there wasn't dedicated sources for arts and culture. It was a… portion of the general fund, and if I were to put the general fund revenues on here, it would Really skew things as it's,

[65:02] Mennies of millions, rather than, the $3.5, $4 million that the arts and culture collects in sales and use tax. So really, we can focus kind of more on the uses of things and how the growth of Specifically, how not just the growth, but also the dedication of that sales tax has really impacted the amount of funds that we have available for specific arts, culture, and heritage programs. Another slide that kind of breaks it down, and I think, probably a little bit more, specific to some of the programs that are operating out of the Arts and Culture Workgroup. is, this slide here. So you can kind of see, again, the salaries and benefits, or the personnel, if you will. Is there at the top, and then the operations and admin, again, that's, that's the post-it notes, that's the, the, the printing or postage, or, if we, if, a consultant,

[66:07] needs to be hired or paid for, such as, like, with the Boulder Arts Blueprint, and some other additional costs for operations like training, would also be included in there. the community programs, Lauren did a great job of helping me define those here a little bit more. Things like the Boulder Arts Week, some sponsorships that we have with some other organizations, any summits or forums, those are all And that line item, the grants program, which, is the bulk of the budget for arts and culture, is in that line item, and you can kind of see how it… fills out there. I will say that to be programmed $45,000, that allows for a lot of flexibility for the arts and culture staff to be able to, work more throughout the year and have that appropriation available. To be able to be programmed without a specific earmark.

[67:03] And then lastly, the fund requirements. As I mentioned from the citywide policy, we have the reserves, the cost allocation going back to the general fund, compensating For the staff that provides the administrative support for the arts and culture programs, as well as the staff there, you'll see that they're reflected. And you can kind of see the difference between the use of funds and kind of the sources there with the ending fund balance of around $291,000. So, I don't want to, take up too much of your time. I know you guys have a whole busy schedule, but I do want to open the floor up for questions before we dive into any sort of next steps. We have about 15 minutes left for questions and wrap up.

[68:02] Any questions for Elliot? The 2B programmed fund, was that… did that exist in 2025? And if so, what did that look like, or how did that process work? Great question. So, in 2025, the… you'll… you may recall, it was our, kind of. I want to say, I think we changed the term here, but gap year, where we… we're in this process of trying to figure out how do we program these dollars based on the Boulder Arts Blueprint that was just getting stood up in 2025, and due to the development timeline of the 2025 budget back in 2024, You're gonna get my ears all screwed up here in a minute. We… we did not, have that kind of necessity to be able to have that to be programmed. I will say in 2025, in this year, we did actually go to Council, for an adjustment to base to increase some grant funding. So we didn't have that line item, it was more of a, we have some fund balance, so…

[69:17] What this does is it allows us to, lack of a better term, expedite the opportunities for expenditures and investments in the community without the going to Council asking for an adjustment to base in, say, March, April, May, or November timeframe. Ellie, I have a question about the transfers and cost allocations between 2025 and 2026, and it looks like there's an increase of, like, around 60%. Can you explain that? I can, yeah. So, the 2025 cost allocation, and it's, and it is just the cost allocation, there is, I know it says transfers and cost allocation, but there… there are no transfers, so to speak.

[70:08] But the reason being is the 2025 cost allocation was based on the 2024 budget. So, the budget in 2024, was significantly lower. You can kind of see there was a… it was a $1.9-ish million dollar budget, as opposed to a $3 million budget in 2025. And the cost allocation is kind of reflective of the overall budget. So it's not a like-for-like, it's not a, it goes up by X in the budget, so the cost allocation goes up by X. Which is great, but yeah, that's… that is the reason why the cost allocation went up so much, is the amount of services necessary to support the arts, culture. Workgroup and programs, when… as the budget grows, the service is also required to support it grow.

[71:12] Ellen, I've often described the reserve as, you know, rather than even a rainy day fund, I kind of equate it to, like, you know, HOA reserves, where you're holding on to things for the next, you know, potential big project, or ongoing maintenance, particularly for public art. Is the reserve requirement new? And… when was it implemented? Oh, let me start with the first one, because that one's easy. It's not new. He's not been good at working that into the budget, correct? It's always been in the budget, so when arts and culture was in the general fund, the quote-unquote reserve for arts and culture would have been the general fund reserve. So, that's… that's kind of how that would have worked. So, if you were to look at the fund financials for the general fund, you will also see reserves, albeit they are 20%, not 16.7.

[72:10] That was Council's direction, quite a few years ago, that they had a target of a 20% reserve for the general fund to ensure the safety of services and the continuity of operations. At that level. So that's really where they… they wanted to make sure, because the General Fund supports all sorts of things, like police and fire and communications and HR, etc. that they wanted to ensure that it wasn't just 2 months, but it was more 20%. So the reserves for arts and culture would, in theory, been baked into the reserves of the general fund, because arts and culture was funded by the general fund. Right, and then when 2A funding was passed and implemented, and the general fund that was there for arts and culture was cut, we then had to absorb our own reserves.

[73:12] So, yeah, that's one way to look at it, is to absorb the own reserves. It became, I would say, much more transparent in terms of what the reserves were. Thank you. Yep. I have a question about the estimated remaining balance. Sure. If the budget holds, and we have $291,000 at the end of the year. Does that… is that then something that we can allocate to grantees who didn't get funding, or is that… Required to be rolled into our reserves, or what happens with that? Great question. So, the ending fund balance after reserves, and actually, let me go ahead and share my screen with this here.

[74:06] What you probably see on my screen right now is the budget policy. I apologize. This is also on our, online budget books. What you're looking right now at is OpenGov, our online budget book, but really what I want to focus on here is the fund financials. The lovely document, as Lauren would call the Fund Financials. These numbers here, at the very bottom, this Ending Fund Balance After Reserves. That is money that can potentially be programmed, and I say potentially because it does take an approval from Council to use that money for grants for any, any, really, programming that the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund can support. So it is, it is 100% on the table. It would just require, Council to adopt and appropriate those funds.

[75:07] The funds that are, I wouldn't say, unavailable, but are there only for an emergency, is this reserve line down here. So that's kind of how that differentiates a little bit, is the ending fund balance after reserves is… say, money that you still have in your checking account that you could spend. The total reserves is the money you have in your savings account or your retirement account, I guess would be more appropriate here, that you do not want to spend unless you absolutely have to. Okay, I have a follow-up question to that. One of the things that we've been talking to public art about is maintenance costs. For our collection over time. Is there, maintenance costs baked into any of these numbers? And if not, is that estimated rebound… remaining balance something that we can start to create a fund for that?

[76:05] That's a great question. I'm gonna… I'm gonna start the answer, and, hopefully Lauren can correct me if I misspeak. But I will say that the public art budget line item that you see there on the screen, in 2026, we're looking at a request of $243,000. Has programming for things specific to public art, but also has some maintenance dollars in it as well. With the projected use of dollars from 27 through 2031 going up, there is kind of an annual baked-in inflation. And I'm speaking specifically to the use of funds. I am not speaking specific to the source of funds, so focusing only on the use of funds. We bake in kind of an annual CPI, so… We say, in 2026, we're going to do programs A, B, and C, and next year, those same programs are going to cost the same amount plus inflation. In 28, same amount, plus inflation of 27. So you can kind of see how those numbers increase over time.

[77:16] And it's… it's literally just a programming of dollars from CPI, not programming in change of programs or projects. So that's kind of how that dictates a little bit. Lauren, was there anything I missed there? No, I think that sounds good. We… just to be super clear, we have maintenance dollars built into it. And that being said, we don't assume to do, like, ex… like, expanded maintenance every year also, so I do think there's a little bit of, like, making an assumption, but we do… we are safe with maintenance dollars from this budget. Do we see a world in the future where this cost elevation

[78:03] Doesn't… it's sort of capped at a certain… Amount, and doesn't keep increasing as the budget increases? The short answer is, probably not. The cost of all services, across every program, across every sector. continues to increase just naturally from inflation. Some years we have, really high inflation, where everything costs a lot more, and some years we have low inflation, where things don't cost as much. So, it will vary from year to year, but I would not anticipate it to jump substantially, as it did from 25 to 26, because we've really programmed, and again, small caveat here, as you're looking at the ending fund balance after reserves. We've kind of programmed the full budget of, the sources. So, the $3.5-ish million dollars that we are projecting to receive in 2026, we're programming 3.2 of that.

[79:14] So we're getting pretty close to spending the almost exact amount of money that we're bringing in, but still allowing for that rainy day fund, if you will. So I wouldn't anticipate, a large jump like we saw from 25 to 26, but it will continue to grow. And just due to natural inflation. Great. So, Elliot, I know that my arts liaisons have this question. Is there any way in which we can look at these expenses Is there any place where we can eat out another $100,000, another $200,000, like, where can it come from? Is it possible at all? Like, you would probably comment about it, so what… what do you think it's gonna look like?

[80:11] That's great. So the ending fund balance is really, really where the focus could be on programming additional dollars to additional programs. That's gonna be the, least… the, the, the easiest, opportunity to program additional dollars. So, you'll see that in 2031, we're getting to a relatively healthy fund balance of around $2 million. So, what that means is that's $2 million in 2031 that we could add to the 2031 budget, or another way to look at that is there's an additional $291,000 we could add in 26, and then if we added that, then we'd only have $300,000 in 27, etc, and so on.

[81:01] So… With all of this, and proper fund management, this is all on projections, so… The last thing we want to do is over-promise and under-deliver. So that's why we kind of keep a little bit of that ending fund balance, in there, to make sure that we don't have to tap into reserves, and we don't cause an alarm for an emergency or where we have to use fund stabilization. But that being said, you do see a projected balance growing. So, I would say that in 2026, being as it's the fund's second year, and really only the first year, because 2025 is a first year, and by the time we hit 26, we will know what 2025 did. So we're always kind of in the rears, if you will, for the sources of funds. But being as it's so young of a fund, and the projections are still relatively new.

[82:06] I would say that, you know, by 2027, that's when you can really start to understand what is our ending fund balance, and how can we appropriate additional dollars for additional programming. Can I respond as well? Hi, I'm Matt Jasanski. And I agree with everything that Elliot said. I want to add that The numbers are based on… the best… we could do to design a budget without the benefit of the blueprint being complete. So, I wouldn't trust that the money in the out years is real, that, the way that the blueprint tells us, the community best needs us to allocate resources, we're going to get as close to that as the funding will allow, so I feel like that's going to get tighter.

[83:01] It'll never go away, and especially right now, the other thing that, in addition to all the reason Elliot said, is that we're in a financial situation right now where, the city's having to take a look at cuts and tax revenues. You know, there's a definite idea of being very conservative with that. ability to be flexible in the future, because we really don't know what the taxes are going to be like, and the income and the revenue is going to be like. So, for a couple of reasons, that is, you know, as you get further out, it's less and less trustworthy about how much money that's gonna be. But I also, to go back to where you started with your question, too, is, Right now, as the blueprint wraps up and we start to understand what the 2027 budget will look like with a fully funded set of programs under this new system. Boom. best… the best budget we can build will not have room to say, like, is there 100,000 food? It's like, the way that we would do that is to cut things in order to afford other things. And so,

[84:08] If you could help us make the blueprint successful, that'll give us the roadmap. So that everyone fully understands the reason why we're deploying the resources in the way that we are, and, that that makes sense for the community. Yeah, so that process is going to lead us to a 2027 budget cycle where this will be much more reasonable than the fund balance. Did I speak okay to that, Elliot? Yep, yeah, that's great. Yeah, it's a… it's a game of, let's make sure we can use as much money as possible without not having enough money to do things we absolutely want to do. Okay, we've got about 5 minutes. We're back. We still have some time that we can absorb, but we need to get through this, so go ahead. Yeah, well, now I'm questioning if this is redundant, but so just so that I have clarity on this, the reserves is in an emergency, but that fund balance is, like, we don't know how and what ways the community might need things beyond an emergency, and we have that ability to make those choices, just like we did in the gap year.

[85:16] Correct, yeah, and that's where ATB comes in. Sorry, may I add on to that, Elliot? The… also, the… that bottom line, it's an estimate, because it's still sales tax, so we don't really know, ultimately, at the end of the year, how much we'll be getting in. I do want to remind you all, too, that this year, we did an adjustment to base, as he mentioned. We requested and awarded an additional $150,000, which is why I think that growing bottom line is also a little, like, not to be trusted, because we saw that this year, we went back, we needed more funding for grants, right? And I think we can continue to tweak as we know the reality of what sales tax is, too. Yeah. I do not. Okay, great.

[86:02] Thank you, Elliot. Do we have a motion? Oh, go ahead. I think it'd be worth… you put it on the city's website about the ballot language, for arts and culture, and I think it'd be worth, having a discussion, and we've heard from the community about a different… or, the, intended interpretation of that, so I think it'd be worth, Matt or Elliot, you know, talking about, with all of us, you know, what the ballot language is, and how you're using those funds, and And I… this kind of ties into something I was going to bring up, because I think we have a motion. and I think it's worth having a conversation. Last year, when we adapted… when we adopted the budget, we had a follow-up resolution saying that we were not specifically endorsing the utilization of… or the… the move of funds. The elimination of general funds. The elimination of general funds. So we could do something like that also, and I think that's going to play into

[87:04] How we hear our comments. I don't have the ballot language in front of me, so forgive me as I humble words, but… if you've got it up, yeah. Well, I have your… the website notes. Oh, sweet. You got it? Yeah, got it. Does it have bell language? Okay. So… The… the interpretation of the ballot language that happened right after the vote and before the attacks got implemented. And I think the… excuse me, the nature of the confusion about it. is that, It requires that the funds be used for a list of things that may include the words may include is the important part. And then it gives examples of the different things. Arts, culture, heritage. It talks about, Nancy… I'm not trying to be on the fly. It talks about grants, public art.

[88:09] artists' venues, it gives a little list, but what happened is that during the budget process and the process to put that language on the ballot, council people gave their interpretation. that… the entirety of the Office of Arts and Culture budget would be captured in this. Then there's the legal interpretation, that the… because the language says, to be used for arts, culture, and heritage purposes, which may include in that the list. That those two things were what drove the decision. to interpret that as this… the entire arts and Culture… Office of Arts and Culture budget. Would be captured in by that fund. And that there was that in complement to the other ways that the city spends money on arts, through Percent for Art and through Parks and Recreation and several other things, right? So that was what captured it.

[89:08] What, we have been hearing on the staff side, from the community is that The decision to, stress the words may include… Versus a strict reading of the list is the difference of opinion. And that's a policy decision that City Council is the people who make policy, and staff interprets and executes that based on their guidance, right? And so, we're operating under the reading of that ballot language around the list of things, And I think there's some members of the community that would like it to be defined more narrowly, and that's just not something staff can do, is to say to Council, this is how we're defining that. Does that make sense? Did I catch that okay? I think so, and I think this does tie into, since we're… we're going to be asked to vote, we can…

[90:06] And it's going to City Council, right? Our vote is going to City Council. Yeah, the motion on… yeah. So, we can encourage them to interpret it the way that the community's interpreting it. in our vote, is that… True? Well, I… you certainly could. You could do whatever you want with your motion. I think that there's several gates, right, is that councils can set that policy, and so you can advocate for that. We also have the legal interpretation of that, which we can take a look at. Or not me, City Attorney's office can take a look at that. So, I think that, It's a step. I think there would be other things that would need to happen in order to assign other funds. But, you know, when we talk about that, you know, we think about all the ways that the city is spending money on the arts, and you need to take that into account, too, in the decision that you make, as well as the fact that the budget's constrained. And is it $7 million, I think, Elliot, that's cut overall from the city's entire budget?

[91:16] And so, you're not the only ones who are… commissions who are saying, like, there's important things that are, need to be funded that are not being funded. So, it's a calculation that you should make about, what you're endorsing and what you're promoting. in the context of all of that, right? That's somehow got to be part of the framing it. But I assume the $7.4 million shortfall, hopefully, isn't a long-term issue, and so us voting is setting a precedent for the future. Yeah, 100%, like, you know, you… What, what you put into a motion to endorse the budget. the current council will take seriously over the next month or so in how they make their decisions, along with all the other inputs that they're getting, but it also kind of sets a tone. You know, it's a similar thing that we go through with the council letter every year, right? It's like.

[92:13] Well, I've been saying affordability is a thing this whole time. That has built up into a trend in your, you know, from your organization. So, yeah, I think it's worth thinking about. How to burn the ship over there. Couple of budget cycles, right? Thanks. So I think one thing we could consider, if I'm… projecting, if I might, but what I think I hear you saying is We could have language that says, that… Just specifically that the… recommendation of the budget is not to be interpreted as an endorsement of this year's City Council policy to

[93:00] Take our budget entirely. Out of the general fund. Or we could also include language that requests that that be a continuing or a revisited discussion at later years, something to that event. Yeah, I think we can finesse it where we endorse And approve the budget that is presented to us. For 2026, with the caveat that we will Continue to remind… Council of… The desire to house… to again house some of the administrative parts of… the arts and culture budget into the general fund as it was intended.

[94:02] Any discussion? I feel like we should add a, preamble that says, and I printed it out, you know, culture is, But, $115 million, is that right, Lauren? Arts and venues? Yeah, $115 million of economic impact to this community. I feel like that should be the leading point, so that every dollar that is allocated by the city to arts and culture, it's, you know, whatever the math is, we're getting Or on return. This is gonna be a long… hopefully it's read to Council, but I feel like we should make that statement about the economic… Good question. Do we need to have a vote on this motion at this meeting?

[95:03] What do you think… oh, Ellie? Where do you go. I guess not, then. Yes. That's what I thought. This is your last chance to have something on the record before the process. And just, with just an expression, what happens if we don't approve it? Then… do you… I mean… Make no motion, or a motion fails, that gets captured in the record. Is our motion read to City Council? I don't believe so, I believe it's included in the materials. So, my… my suggestion to all of you is to make… let's make it robust and talk about the… Impact, economic impact of the arts. the number one ROI for in-government funding within Within the city. I don't… is that true? I don't know if that's true. Is it? I've heard this over and over again.

[96:03] But if they don't read it, and they won't pick it up. I'm very sincere, because if we come in second, I'm still then, like… And Lauren said this is just the nonprofits. Soda. I want to keep us moving, because I… I want to make sure we still have energy for Sarah, and give her her full time. I'll share, and we can grab something. Okay, yeah, I took some notes. Is it okay, Elliot? Sorry. Since your internet is spotty. Great, yeah, I apologize, I completely lost you guys for a minute there, but I think I've followed along enough. I did have some suggested motion language, specific to this budget and the 2026 arts, Culture, and Heritage, but just kind of hearing the room, I think, yeah, drafting some motion language that we can, include in the packet that will go to Council, would be, very useful to, I think, update at this point. So, as I'm saying this, Lauren is already doing that.

[97:17] magnitude from cognitive. And I think preample to this next. No sample. Yep. I move that, and then… Yeah, okay. So, yeah, a quick sample, here we go. In, in making this recommendation. the commission… A… Understands the current budget restrictions facing the city. In 2026. Ama? B.

[98:01] Remind City Council that arts and culture, generates… $115 million. How did we place that? Of economic… Generated… Not a profit. It's funny. Huh? Of, economic activity. in the City of Boulder. Annually. and C… includes the caveat that we will continue to remind City Council To revisit the issue, of…

[99:04] Covering administrative, Costs. Sorry, paying administrative costs out of the general fund in future years. I say advocate instead of… Advocate, yeah, that's a good one. The issue of paying administrative costs out of the general fund. In future years, And instead, that we will continue to remind, it's continue to advocate. Oh, got it, got it. That city council does it. And then get rid of two. Any changes to that language, guys? I literally could not have said it better myself.

[100:00] Change nonprofits, nonprofits. Over $115 million. It's over $15 million. Do we want to get a little bit more specific and say salaries and benefits instead of just administrative costs? Does that have to live within a cost, I don't know? Within a fund? it is a separate thing. Elliot knows more than I do, but I don't think that matters to what you're talking about. Okay. We can make a motion just referencing the language on the screen. We don't have to read it, as Matt continually reminds me. Well, no, actually, only if it's in the published packet. We have to read it. Would anybody like to make a motion? What about at the very, very end, as a consideration of funding future years? To allow for greater impact to grants and… Are there other things that we don't want? Grants and projects.

[101:02] Greater impact, too. ransom organization, too. Friends and organizations. Looked like you were going to say something. It's like, to provide the funding towards the things that the community… We said we were… the things they voted for! 52 words, my thing, thanks. I think there's a little bit, the word remind and caveat. I just feel like we're, doing a little preachy. Yeah. Just, I would just say. I would just start with arts and Culture. I get a letter from mine City Council. I just say arts and Culture Nonprofits. Yup, yeah. And then I would say, As we will. Yeah. To succeed, and we will proceed. Greater impact to grants and organizations.

[102:00] For the expectations of two-day funding. So, so after organization, comma. Yeah. I have one question. Are you still in discussion? Yeah. Do we all think this is the right strategy to approve this budget. Is there another strategy you have in mind? not approve it. I don't think not approving it is going to do anything. I don't think that's going to amplify… anything going on. This at least tells them why Sweet. We are… we are… Approving it despite this. I will mention that it's a recommendation that City Council approves it. Yeah. So there's… there's less of the approval, but more of the whether or not you recommend that City Council adopt the City Manager's budget.

[103:05] Is there another pathway that gives us more teeth to get additional funding for the arts? I personally am not comfortable with advocating for that. Because there's so many other things in the budget that are taking a hit. Yeah, over $7 million worth. I'm not comfortable either. I think it is sort of what it is. I think we have… We are just dealing with it. Situation, You know, a lot of areas have been affected, and we just sort of have to take this hit this year, and it's uncomfortable. But then, also, it's a… if you want to remind the arts the arts organizations that there is $300,000 more on plans this year than there was last year, so they're still getting access to more funding. Is it what the expectation was? No.

[104:01] But are we still providing money and more opportunities? We are. I think if we see an increase to… income in the way of sales tax in 26 and 27, specifically to arts-related… organizations and arts-related events, then we have an even bigger case. I will mention, too, that the fund balance. As it grows, regardless of You know, it's… all things considered, the projections of revenue come in exactly like we anticipate, not lower, not higher. That ending fund balance still does allow for capacity to increase funding to programs, without additional revenue. So there is still some room within the fund itself, that could allow us to program additional dollars for programs as well.

[105:01] And Elliot, there's no way that that line item can be moved to a different budget in the city, correct? It always has to stay under the… cultural heritage text. I'm kidding. Could you specify, I'm sorry, which line item? Sorry, the one you were just talking about for fund balance, thank you. Well, the fund balance lives… yeah, it will always stay with Arts, Culture, and Heritage. It's… this fund is dedicated to that, so no other city services, if you will, could be paid for out of that fund. You know, we actually want it within our budget, plus it's also probably gathering some interest. It will earn some interest, yep. could be moved with a Tabor election of the entire city. I believe the ballot language I was just looking at, I believe it did remove TABOR restrictions on this. Oh, okay. So, cannot be… But yeah, it's got to be dedicated to the language about… That's the word, it's the future.

[106:05] Sure, I'll have anything. Set you up. She's got a thumbs up, okay. Thank you, Cheryl. Any additional… Discussion on this? We did. So we need to… it is important, we just… Need to move forward. Would anybody like to make a motion? Bye, Jim. I move that we recommend City Council adopt the City Manager's 2026 recommended budget, appropriating money to different expenses and liabilities pertaining to the Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund. In making this recommendation, the Commission A understands the current budget restrictions facing the City in 2026, We arts and culture nonprofits generate over $115 million of economic activity. And C, we will continue to advocate that City Council revisit the issue of paying administrative costs out of the general fund in future years to allow for greater impact to grants and organizations per the expectations of 2A funding.

[107:16] Secondly, okay. I second. Anything else to discuss? I would change generate to generated. Okay, all in favor? I see Yalid and Cheryl in favor online. That's unanimous. Oh, no, sorry, a post? Wanna post. And the motion carries. Yeah, thank you very much, Elliot. Absolutely, thank you guys for taking the time to, Thoroughly into this.

[108:04] Have a great year in DC. I am in DC, yes, it is, quarter to 10. Have a great trip. No, it feels like that here. Thank you, Commissioner Savier. All right. It's now 10 minutes to 8. We promised Sarah an hour. We're gonna give it to her. And, gone to the grants program. Okay, well, first of all, thank you for adding… amending the agenda so we can get through this grant report, So, you only have one affiliated with Salva, so many of others want to be One Spirit, it's a community project for individuals grant. You can approve the report, approve the report while submitting specific questions, postpon approval of the report, pending answers to specific questions, or non-approved cancel. I like that.

[109:03] Okay, I have faith that someone can do it without the language. Anybody like to make a motion to approve the report? birth? I motion that we approve the report for Julia Michelle, Harmony of Rhythms, One Beat, One Spirit. Second. I'll second that. Discussion? All in favor? two people online in favor, Cheryl. Cheryl, and I didn't see all the hands down. I saw all the hands down there. Okay, so unanimous. Thank you. And it's good one. Alright, and thank you also, so much for reading through the numerous draft documents. I know it was a lot, and for doing due diligence by reaching out to community members to solicit their feedback. I think in the past, my PowerPoints have previously focused on people's

[110:02] concerns or questions about things, so, I think what was missing was some positive people, so for the sake of balance, I just wanted to put up that, what I have not previously included is, feedback around the concept of BEGBROC operating support, that was positive. Some organizations are tiny but essential, keystone species. Someone had said that they've been wanting to do this for years, so yeah, it wasn't… I'm sure that we have some things to discuss, but it wasn't home. In line with support for the concept of bedrock operating support over the past month, I've generated specifics on how the concept would work on paper. Bedrock organizations would have to answer 5 questions in addition to the normal general operating support application related to community impact. Caroline astutely pointed out that by wording the last question. had a great community outreach and impact. That could be misleading in flying that this question is related to impact, but the others are not, so,

[111:07] This is just a clarification. It's not in the packet materials, but we will note that all of the bedrock additional questions relate to impact. This one specifically about community outreach and connection. Is there any thoughts on this? I think it's a great idea, good change. Yeah. Good catch. Thanks for pointing that out. All right, so this would then be the 5 additional questions that Bedrock organizations would have to answer. Please describe up to three collaborations your organization has participated in within the past three years. Please describe past measures to increase disability access, one you're currently working on, and one that you have made plans to implement in the future. Same thing with sustainability. Please describe a time where your organization responded to an existential crisis. The continued existence of the organization was at stake.

[112:01] That's talking about resilience, and then the final one reworded to discuss outreach. Were there any thoughts on… how the additional questions are listed. They only have to do two of these. So, what do they have to do all of this? They have to do all of them for the application, Two of them would be for the report, at least two. It's a lot of… And it's got… well, it's transformational funding, so it should be a lot of… a lot of work. And… And I think if… this is in addition to the… the applications that are already starting, so this is kind of like this aspirational, program that, not everyone's going to sign up for, so I think it's important that we get some robust responses.

[113:00] for these. Thrip? In education language, outreach means providing the program outside of your facility. Is that what you mean by outreach here, or do you mean going out beyond your community to connect with different demographics? Yes, I… that's a good question, thank you. I defined it as reaching a community or audience that you had not previously interacted with. But I can change that if that's… No, I'm just aware of that, but in, like, you know, in traditional, like, or not traditional, informal education, language outreach is often what it would be like. Going to a school and delivering programs at a school. Yeah, weak. Anyway, it could be community connections. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Sarah, I liked when you talked about number 4, you said this, speaks to resiliency. I think you should just write that in the… in the statement. Perfect. Yeah.

[114:29] And then, because it's related, The report would be asking them to speak to at least two Of the topics that they talked about in their application. And this would, again, only be for bedrock, organizations. I would always tell them that confidently. Will the answers to these questions, are they measured in the same way, that scale of 1-2?

[115:00] to aid. Yeah, through the rubric? Yes. Yes. Okay. I had, in my questions to Sarah, I had put a suggestion, like. I was trying to get my head around, well, what would these questions look like to different organizations? And… do they feel like they're the right questions to get up over trying to accomplish? Has anybody else kind of gone through that thought experiment of, like, how might the dairy answer something like this from what we know about it versus what might, like. Yeah, I was thinking, you know, if I were an organization that had brick and mortar, how would I answer? If I were an organization that didn't have brick and mortar, how would I answer? And I came up with scenarios in each one, where I could answer, I could provide information or context.

[116:00] I think the one… I did think about it, and I think the one question that might come up against Rob is the question around accessibility. Like, I don't know… obviously, you know, I don't have the same needs. Like, I've been through the training with the dairy, and I think there might be Like, some investments required by some brick-and-mortar nonprofits to lose all the accessibility. once. Yeah, I just think that's something we need to be… mindful of is, you know, in the funding year, the one that Mel and we are anticipating that they could have next week. I'll be putting a little bit more of funding, undue pressure on them to move this. accessibility requirements with self-programming and things like that, how we haven't changed. So it's just something for us to… To be mindful. Can I respond to that? I do think that that's an important consideration. I think given the self-assessment checklist, not everything is, going to be, like.

[117:04] the level of ADA improvements. However, we… I did change the language around eligibility for uses of general operating support funds. It previously didn't necessarily offer capital improvements, but this would, allow them to then use this funding to… which is why I asked about a future thing that they want to do. Thank you, yeah. And this also kind of makes it an aspirational thing, where they can use, you know, one years of general operating support if they see themselves being, you know, potentially eligible for this. They could make the investment one year. They would… this isn't taking away from general operating support, this isn't taking away from the other grants program. This is something that's in addition to. And… and so they… if they've made… improvements. Previously, or they decide to make improvements, then this is something they can see themselves as potentially qualifying for the following year. Sarah and I talked about this, and I like that accessibility can also be…

[118:00] seen in web font sizes and graphics, whether or not people have access to microphones when they need them and things like that. Thank you. Maybe this is opening a ton of words, but, Caroline also did question whether, This should read instead of pick at least 2. Take at least two, and one of them has to be… collaboration. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, can you go back to the slide that had the vibe? when I read it, when I think about bedrocks, this is just my own frame frame is that, I'm thinking about organizations that have heavy Impacting, number one, the collaborations.

[119:01] or, number five, that outreached to the new communities and audience, and so I wondered if those were required… if one of the two Had to be the 1 or 5, if that would bolster what we're trying to accomplish? Does it muddy the waters? Does it make things too difficult? It was just an idea. I mean, I don't… I think they should take the two. Back. They want to. report on, because also we don't… I mean, I think we just don't want to start putting these restrictions around their creativity, too. So, like, sort of prompting them in a certain direction, being like, okay, well, this year you have to think… I just think they're… they're all doing the best they can, so, like, let them pick the two that works for them, that they want to report on. And you know, I say collaboration ad nauseum, but also, what if they're not successful in that specific one the very first year, and then they've got their funding, you know, potentially.

[120:06] in danger. So, you know, let them focus on the… on the ones where they know they can be… they can see the most impact, and they can report back on in the best possible way. And there wasn't a budget requirement, like a max… Revenue in order to apply? 50% of the operating budget, up to $80,000. We'll have some time to, circle back, hopefully, depending on how long people want to sit here. So one thing that we would implement this year is, awarding the number of years you receive funding based off of score. The reasoning behind this is We've heard from organizations that it's a real bummer if you don't receive operating support next year to have to wait 3 additional years to try again to apply.

[121:09] So, because we're kind of starting from scratch, the idea is the ones that receive the highest score in each budget category or tier, with the exception of Bedrocks, would receive, or including Bedrocks, would receive 3 years of funding, and then the middle third would receive 2 years, and then the bottom third would receive 1 year, It's… they all still did a great job on the application to receive funding. This is just a way that we could offer operating support every year. It's… I think we still need a, Some type of baseline of, excellence. You know, so if someone, you know, someone just throws something in, they say, well, I'm going to get a year for Just throwing in a… Not thought-through application, so we still need some type of benchmark.

[122:00] For that third, because you're saying everybody. Everybody wins, right? Everyone gets their ribbon? This would be those that are recommended by the panel. Okay. So it's… it says bottom, but they're all ones that scored high enough, and the panel has recommended to commission. Okay. Was that in… I'm sorry if I missed that, but I think that should be the caveat. You know, everyone that has scored high enough were recommended for funding. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't hurt to spell that out, so… Yeah, and one thing that could be helpful for the panel to also understand or realize, because I remember, like, the extra large organization last year, they had a score that was… that would not have gotten them funding in the large category, or even the medium category. So, you know, empowering them to say, okay, if someone doesn't meet this threshold, then… then that amount could be spread across the other the other categories instead. Because that could have… that could have funded another 6 or 7 organizations. Who all scored higher within their own categories, though.

[123:02] Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, instead of necessarily third, third, third, that's the word threshold. Yeah, do we have to give? Okay, just because someone, you know, qualifies within that that category, does that mean that they are automatically going to fund that? Yeah, no more than a third would get 3 years, and no more than… Okay. Sorry. You're fine. Okay. I also think this is a good opportunity, to bring up the questions that Motis answered. Maria alluded to this. So they asked why in the budget there is… a range, like it says, for general operating support, large organizations get between $22,000 and $40,000. That's just because it's 4% of their budget, so because there'd be a range of budgets, just wanted to clarify that's why. There's a range of rewards. They also asked if a bedrock operating… if an organization applies for Bedrock operating support.

[124:05] But let's say they score the 6th highest, so they are able to be awarded it, even though they ostensibly deserve it. She, Rita asked if they would not get funding, and they would. They would just get the general operating support. They'd get moved into that category. And then she asked about your budget brackets, just what the budget sizes are that correspond to each bracket, so I can circle back around to this, but I just added those this time so that people online can see what the budget brackets actually work out to. It's a wildly helpful slide, and the fact that at the bottom, you'll notice There are a number of awards in 25, cumulatively, as well as the proposed ones for 26, and then the category budget, but also the total budget underneath there, $1.6 million that was awarded in 25, showing that, you know, there's a

[125:00] percentage increase up to even 2 million proposed in 26. Yes, that Jeffrey helped with us. Just a way to kind of show There's a potential that there would be less, Rents given in 26. The reason that there's that range there is, Depend… most of it depends on the professional development grants, whether people are mostly applying for in-state funding or out-of-state funding. Because the one where there's an estimated range of grants is the professional development, depending on what the award amount is. And then the rental assistance one is basically the, you know, half. That… That was kind of a one-year thing that's kind of a programmatic thing that was offered through a specific venue. And we decreased the cultural field trip fund, because there's not demand, as much demand for it.

[126:05] But likely, it'll be the same. It'll likely be the same, though. in the artist hiring, like, down as welker. Yes. Yeah. Is there, thinking behind that, because that was partially due to COVID, or is… what's your thinking? Yes, because, I mean, it's still valuable, but the… reason that it was instituted was, because of COVID, as I've said. And also just because the word amounts are higher. And I'm just noticing, just to point it out, I… Is that the rental assistant went down, even though we have more venues in that program.

[127:02] Yes, the view waivers would be included in those numbers, so… okay. I just don't know how the use of the field trip fund would differ if each of the Title V schools was given a portion of it. Where, like, they knew that that was theirs that they could use and spend a year, versus having to Life. I don't have the answer to that. Yeah. Title IV Sports. Thank you. Hi. Do you mind if I jump in? I don't have an answer to that. One of the considerations when we first structured that grant, is we were trying to be very careful to not… do a subsidy for PBSD to provide less funding for the arts in schools. And so that's why we were trying to tie it to the teacher and, you know, making a request, and that it flow that way, so that there wasn't an argument, well, we're getting this funding so we can reduce your…

[128:13] I don't… no one ever said that was a thing. We don't have any indication that it might happen, but we don't want to create that temptation, so that is… I will have updates. Also, I also need to say there's… We don't want one, tax revenue generated fund then supporting another tax revenue supported fund. Alright, there's just, one other specific thing I wanted to call out for discussion. Okay, so as a reminder, the intent for encouragement points in the rubric is to provide equity for those traditionally unfairly disadvantaged by grant processes. Examples of this include those for whom English is not their first language, youth applicants, non-Western art forms, that's…

[129:12] what it was last year. The concept of encouragement points is not in question, they will be retained, but the public and the panel has just requested clearer scoring directives for encouragement points, for the sake of clarity and fairness. I did receive a question from Caroline about encouragement points that I think is worth putting to all as a commission, and that is, this is the current proposal. Are you a first-time applicant? Is your primary language, or the one you feel most comfortable writing in, something other than English? And is the organization's principal art by and for BIPOC artists. That's what it stands now. However, because this was instituted as something that the Commission wanted to do to promote equity. I mean, I… these are kind of up… up for discussion, what they are. You can add something that you think is missing, or edit one of these.

[130:05] And specifically, my two questions were around, do we want to alter any of this, or add something about the type of art that's being provided, like culturally diverse art forms, rather than applicants. And then secondly, I questioned focusing only on BIPOC artists, and that… whether we wanted that to be broad. Being given where we live. I think it has to be broader. Sport of freshmen. The point of encouragement points, though, is, like. Extra. Yes. Give them some equity. Above and beyond. Yeah, but will this extra points mean that?

[131:00] all the extra points is the difference between scoring 3 and 6 and 8, like, or… I'm straight not… I've never… I've not been to this yet, so… I've not sat on a panel that's done this, so I'm just wondering, like, what is the extra points figure? Where does it figure in the scoring system? Depending on the grant, it's a total of between, like, 25 and 40 points, so it's a 1 point out of that. Yeah, it's basically, it's the last question within the rubric and the questions within the grant, so it's… it's, and it's the least amount of points of any of the other categories. Potentially. I like the idea of changing it to minority artists, but I also, I mean, you could also change it to, you know, my, -Oh. what's the word? A diverse… Programming, I don't like to tell people what to program not. I think we need to make it broader, yeah. A minority artist could be a… it could be… it could be a woman who would be typically left out of grants programs, or… or elderly folks, or young folks.

[132:10] I will add this. cultural offerings is already part of the rubric, and having been through the panel process, I can say for sure that panelists gave higher points to those that were doing something that they didn't see a lot of. So, like, an art form… Beautiful, thank you for reminding that. Yeah. Great. Thank you for clarifying that. I do like the idea of it being more concrete. For the applicants. I know that the original idea was that it was this very subjective, ethereal approach to just… who did you want to help a little bit more? And I can see that that's not always helpful for the applicants to understand. Yeah.

[133:02] I think this first-time applicant question… It's interesting, but, you know, the… With the outreach that you all do, do you get a lot of this study? We do… Applicants? Yeah, we did, or a lot of folks that have just never been awarded one. Okay. So yeah, there was a combination for both. Also, it's competitive grants, so what I commonly see is those that get the first-come, first-served grants, but they have, not been, like, their grant writing was maybe not sophisticated enough at that point to receive a competitive grant, but then this would be their first competitive grant. Nice. Feedback on the BIPOC, when Carol and I worked on this, intolerance statement. We kind of wanted to make sure we were inclusive, so we did this long LGBTQ plus, immigrant, BIPOC, Indigenous, Latine, disability, unhoused, faith-based, or other, you know.

[134:05] I think that there could be broader. Still be diverse, but broader. One thing that I like to do is lean on, like, the federal definition of underserved population, so if that is an option. That's great. I think that's… I think we… Yes. Which version? The previous administration. It's kind of on a moving target. But it does include, essentially, that. I think that's… Good, yeah. Okay. You mentioned faith-based? Yes. Every weekend, how can we be inclusive, but… I mean, would you put Shambhala as faith-based? That has been a question that has come up. Oh, interesting.

[135:00] Yeah. I think that'll make the case for it, and people will give them a point or not. Yeah. That has been in placement. Oh, that's interesting. Because they're not allowed to be found in churches. Do they pay taxes? That's my question. We're gonna be held accountable that. So I will broaden, Number 3. Were there any other, I just think it's great that there's a divine. And broadly, yes. Simplifying and broadening. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it's important just so long as we keep the original intent. Yes. Okay, wonky-dokey. I just wanted to also provide, like. you know, I pointed out Bedrock operating support, encouragement points, but there are a lot of documents, so I wanted to provide some time and space to… if anyone had any concerns or questions about any of those, or compliments, who knows?

[136:12] I have a compliment. I was gonna save it for the end, but since you asked for it… Here's some instant gratification. It is such complex work, and trying to also, like, line it up with what's happening citywide. It is… a big accomplishment. You put that on paper, and I really appreciate it. And just a quick reminder, Heather started with the city a year ago last week, just so… Sarah, yes, sorry. Oh, no, Heather. No, sorry, Heather. Three meetings with different Heathers this week. Yeah, that's true. It was based on a lot of really amazing community impact and impact from the Commission, yadda yadda yadda, but it was a lot of work. Like, synthesize and eliminate that all is…

[137:06] It'll be alive, yeah. Yeah, I sent this to you. It said that I like that there's more of a balance of quantitative measures and qualitative measures, including being able to tell stories about partnerships, and I would just say we need to make sure that there's a good character count to be able to articulate the qualitative stuff. Do you have the vision? I don't have a specific slide, but, there's… I can't read, but… That's one of them. So I had a… I guess about vision grants, do I understand that that A particular grant, like, for-profits can apply. Am I making this up? Not as it currently stands. It's essentially the community project grants.

[138:05] However… The eligibility for the Lifelong Learning Grant, would include. I think one of the comments I gave you is just that, the… Changes that are made in one area, either the application versus the guidelines. Fair. they reflect each other, so I think there were some times that we'd make a change in one and the second. This streamlines things greatly. And again, going back to earlier conversations, and I think there are aspects through a lot of these that qualify folks early to whether or not they should continue to move on with an application, and that application is… is then

[139:03] Allowing folks to, you know, qualify for funds without having to spend more time than the funds are worth. In some… in those instances. These are all still up for grabs in terms of conversation, but I can put it back to the budget slide, in case anyone had any questions about that. I was requested to put a lot of information… I had to be really small. Of course there's, like, a magnifying glass, app on the computer, so you could hover over it. You should create. Give me an example of what a vision organization is. For the Boulder Vision Grants? Yeah.

[140:00] Any nonprofit that's doing any kind of community-focused projects? And then, yeah, I'm remembering that Bedrock organizations would not be able to apply for the mission grants, so essentially. Like, not only has the amount increased. And the number of awards, but potentially less competitive. Yes. Yeah, exactly. And the bolder vision that can be, like, shorter-term projects and, like, overarching programs. I think that because it's a project grant, the panelists did emphasize that they'd like to see a project that has a start and end date, but the Lifelong Learning Grant is specifically for longer-term programming, and the idea is that if this is successful, that will be a multi-year grant.

[141:05] I really like that we've increased the number of individual vision grants, like, I said on my first, discussion for the Gregory. Gregory Creek public art piece. I was chatting with a few friends about, RFQs versus RFPs, and these big grants. Oftentimes, the whole RFQ process, dissuades artists from even applying, because if they don't have a big enough portfolio, they don't think that they're going to be able to get it. But then having, yeah, more opportunities for local artists to be able to apply is huge. And the demand was so high, and the quality of the applications were also so amazing, and I mean, the panelists and as staff, we were all kind of devastated that we could fund for this. And these will be different from the experiments in Probably go. This way, starting up. Okay. So they can apply for both.

[142:02] Or can they apply for four? Yeah, you can apply. Oh, it's great. Anyone notice the increase to the grant writing fund, which is next to last? Yeah, yeah, it's only a container. What is the secret? 12,000 versus 4,000. It's… Sarah, can I ask a question on your philosophy? Yes. Over, you know, over the past few years on, grants, there's always a discussion about Boulder-based, and I know you've defined it here, but then sometimes they have the program outside of Boulder, and, I just wonder if, just on this Boulder-based… in your… Glossary, if you can… further do a dive into what's acceptable, because that seems like where we always got twisted up as a commission when we were reading the grants, at least. True, what did they learn to love right now?

[143:00] But they operate a lot out of Boulder, like, the audience folder? They have, you have to be a Boulder-based organization, but I think there was one where They went on a field trip to a farm outside of Boulder, and I think… do you remember that? Yeah, and so we changed it a couple years in a row, and where we are now is Boulder-based, being you're located within the area code, or you have program that's available to Boulder. city residents. Yeah. And for the field trip specifically, it's benefiting Boulder City residents. Okay. Do you all feel like that's clear now? Do you feel like… did you have questions on that on the last prints? We didn't read them in the weeds this last year. Yeah, I mean, this one is difficult because, like, definitely the address needs to be a Boulder area code for general operating support, But the focus in the past for project grants has been that the program is in Boulder.

[144:05] So, yeah, you could say… we could define Boulder-based, organization in terms of the different grants, but… Yeah, too, that this is still… we still have the Boulder focus question, like, points or two, so the amount of your project or program that's happening, or the amount of work that you're doing in the City of Boulder is still being… like, you're still getting points for the amount of work that you're doing in the City of Boulder, within the different grant categories. And the difficulty that we were addressing in broadening that definition again is that we were running into a lot of organizations that were doing a lot of programming here, but could not afford an HQ. Or they were doing programming here, but they were also… they also had Chosen here, in Lafayette. Oh my god, they broadened the reach. Yeah. But yeah. So, maybe it's… They must demonstrate they're headquartered in the city limits of Boulder, or the majority of…

[145:03] I don't even know which… I'm okay with how it is, of course, I'm not… Because there's so many… there's three, like, three questions that are down there that kind of talk about the impact specifically for boulder. This one's still a 0 through 5 score. 6, but yeah. Yeah. So, okay, if you feel like, like you were more in the weeds on the grants this year, so if you feel like that came up, seemed like it came up. Every time in the past, so… I definitely did it for, general operating support. Where those that were not, like, their address was not in Boulder, but they did what they felt was a significant amount of programming, but we did maintain that the address had to be native to your code, too. Just do that.

[146:06] Any questions? You can talk about next steps, or… Okay, great. So for next steps, the Commission would vote on approving these documents, at the October retreat. then I'll hire a copy editor to fix all of my typos, especially since there's a lot of new material, this year. And then hire a translator to create the Spanish versions of all these documents, and then info sessions. And the community can still reach out to you with more feedback, right, or… Any one of us. Before October? Before October, right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, we're getting narrower and narrower, hopefully. Right, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's at the retriever.

[147:02] And then… You're in a panic over here, but I think. It's like, it's almost October, oh my god. That's next week, though. Yeah. The next two summits, we have Expanding Your Reach about how organizations can adapt to trends and audiences, and also reach out to new audiences. And we're doing that with Visit Boulder, which kind of provides some tourism information, and then we also have someone from NOVA, the Dairy, and, Roots Music Project are going to talk about what they're doing right. And then we have our big 2026 Funding Opportunities Cultural Summit. That will be a town hall on December 5th, so… Hope to see you guys at either of those. The commission. Sorry, that was too casual. You bought us a bunch of extra time, that's interesting. Thank you. Thank you.

[148:05] All right, that leaves us with matters from staff, and questions about the manager's menu. Oh, the franchise. During our meeting, and our… more time than expected, so… I expected that. Yeah, but we can… maybe we can differ until next time. I'd like to know more about the… you wrote about the CU City collaboration. Maybe we could talk about storms and do that. Can we put it on the mic? Yes. Okay. Bye! Bye, thank you!