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City Council Services, Safety & Parks Committee Auto captions

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

6:30 PM · 2h 21m · Council Chambers, 135 E. Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topics tracked across meetings:
2026 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Funding Recommendations AB 9159 1/2
2024 Annual Human Services Strategic Plan Update (I) ID 1552 14/15
Comprehensive Plan Update Draft Arts and Culture Element Policies ID 1584 4/4
Arts Commission · Nov 13, 2023 Planning Policy Commission · Jan 24, 2024 Planning Policy Commission · Jan 25, 2024 Services, Safety & Parks Committee · Feb 27, 2024
Topic
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
3a
Minutes of January 23, 2024
packet pp.5–6
Staff report:
APPROVAL OF MINUTES a) 01-23-24 City Council Services, Safety & Parks Committee Minutes Page (0000)
4. AGENDA ITEMS
4a
Human Services Element Comprehensive and Strategic Plan Updates ID 1552
20 min · Monica Negrila, Human Services Manager Hannah Roberts, Human Services Coordinator · packet pp.7–34
Topics: Equity
Staff report:
Human Services Element Comprehensive Plan Update & Strategic Plan Update February 27, 2024| Ser vices, Safety, & Parks Committee
4b
City Arts Program Update ID 1558
30 min · Amy Dukes, Cultural Arts Manager · packet pp.71–91
Topics: Arts & Culture
Staff report:
The City of Issaquah’s Arts Program has supported arts and culture community initiatives and capital investments for over 30 years. The program began formally with the establishment of the Issaquah Arts Commission via IMC 2.63 in 1988 and its funding source, the Municipal Art Fund via IMC 3.99. In its early years, the arts program primarily focused on managing contracts for arts services with community organizations and periodically purchasing outdoor sculpture to be placed in city parks. The program was staffed by a part-time, contract employee.
4b
Comprehensive Plan Update Draft Arts and Culture Element Policies ID 1584
20 min · Christen Leeson, Senior Planner · packet pp.93–129
Topics: Land UseArts & Culture
Staff report:
The Community Planning & Development (CPD) department is partnering with multiple staff departments and their boards and commissions to integrate, or update, their functional plans and incorporate their policies into the Comprehensive Plan. The Arts & Culture Department has an Arts Strategic Plan which, at a high-level, identifies what is working, what is not, and where the Arts Commission’s and the department’s energies should be focused. The Arts Commission is planning on adopting a Public Art Master Plan that will implement many of the new goals and policies identified in the Arts & Culture Element.
4c
Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Grant Recommendations ID 1662
30 min · Farel Otieno, Economic Development Coordinator · packet pp.131–285
Topics: BudgetTourism
Staff report:
Administration recommends allocating the 2024 grants as proposed by LTAC.
0:08 welcome everybody I council member Tola
0:10 Marts call the February 27th
0:13 2024 city council services safety and
0:16 Parks committee meeting to
0:20 order uh first up on agenda
0:27 is up is public comment of course so
0:32 there are multiple public comment
0:34 opportunities at tonight's meeting
0:36 there's a general public comment
0:37 opportunity at the beginning of the
0:39 meeting or you can make comments after
0:42 the presentation and Council question
0:44 and answer period on each of tonight
0:46 agenda items members of the public May
0:49 address council at this time in person
0:51 or virtually those who signed up in
0:52 advance to make comments will be called
0:54 on first if you're joining us virtually
0:56 and would like to make comments please
0:57 raise your virtual hand you're on the
0:59 phone press star three if you joined by
1:02 computer or smartphone look for a hand
1:04 icon this varies by device one option
1:07 may be to go to the participant panel
1:09 and choose the raise hand icon in the
1:11 lower right hand corner if you're in the
1:13 room and to not sign up I will ask for
1:15 other speakers before closing this
1:16 portion of the meeting we'll wait for a
1:18 moment to see if anyone
1:23 raises clerk has anyone signed up to
1:25 speak or indicated a desire to
1:28 speak chair mark we have no one that's
1:31 signed up uh prior to the meeting to
1:33 speak and we currently have no virtual
1:36 attendees all right well as a reminder
1:39 written comments can be submitted at any
1:41 time to city council at isqua
1:46 w.gov then next up I believe minute
1:51 let's see uh yes approval of the minutes
1:55 from the January 23rd meeting Mr
1:57 chairman I had moved to adopt the
1:59 minutes from January 23rd 2024 for the
2:02 services committee thank you council
2:04 member Joe do we have a second second
2:07 Deputy council president thank you so
2:10 much uh any
2:12 discussion all in favor say I I I I
2:16 opposed
2:18 extensions that passes
2:21 unanimously uh now we can move on to our
2:24 first agenda item which is Mr chairman
2:26 should we just mention just for the
2:28 record that um Barb Michelle is joining
2:30 us virtually tonight um and that uh as
2:34 the people look out they only see two of
2:35 us here but all three of us are present
2:37 thank you so much that if somebody were
2:39 not present they might be confused by
2:41 that and thank you uh yes we are we do
2:45 have a quorum and uh see so first up is
2:49 ID 1552 Human Services element of the
2:52 comprehensive and strategic plan and uh
2:55 Monica Nilla our human services manager
2:57 is going to kick us off good evening
2:59 council members thank you so much for
3:01 having us yes this is Monica Nilla human
3:03 services
3:05 manager um so we would like to provide
3:10 you tonight with uh uh updates and seek
3:13 input on three related topics within the
3:16 broader Human Services theme on one end
3:20 beginning with the broader long-term
3:22 focused comprehensive plan uh Valerie
3:25 Porter our um associate planner in the
3:28 community uh planning and development
3:30 department will walk us through the
3:32 Human Services element of the
3:33 comprehensive plan next um we'll focus
3:37 on the more Tim limited a little bit
3:39 more focused five-year Human Services
3:41 strategic plan uh where Hannah Roberts
3:44 our human services coordinator um will
3:47 provide you with updates on the
3:49 implementation uh so far at our two-year
3:51 Mark um and then uh we'll also talk
3:54 about next steps and and last uh we
3:57 would like to also just for a few
3:58 minutes talk about a specific project
4:00 within the human services strategic plan
4:03 um in particular the emergency housing
4:07 uh program uh so as you might have
4:09 noticed we are starting with the broad
4:11 long-term comprehensive plan and then
4:13 funneling down more specifically uh to
4:15 the Strategic plan and then specific
4:17 projects within the Strategic plan
4:19 actually Valerie will have a visual
4:21 slide there in a few minutes for you um
4:24 so in terms of specific Direction um we
4:27 would like to um ask you tonight on one
4:30 end if if you have any questions or
4:33 suggestions regarding the Human Services
4:35 element of the comprehensive plan um
4:38 next we would also love your uh input on
4:41 the Strategic plan implementation to
4:43 date um and then for the emergency
4:45 housing program we have a few more
4:47 specific questions as we are um in in a
4:51 pilot stage with the project uh we would
4:53 love to to see if there's even initial
4:55 interest in exploring further options
4:58 post-pilot
4:59 as as this project uh is set to end at
5:02 the end of 2024 and then if such
5:05 interest exists we would love to further
5:07 hear from you if there are any special
5:10 operational programmatic um
5:12 considerations that we should have as we
5:14 plan to return to you during the
5:16 biannual budget process so with that as
5:19 I just started us off um I can pause if
5:23 there are any initial questions but
5:24 otherwise I'll invite Valerie to walk us
5:27 through the Human Services element
5:32 sounds good thank you Monica hello my
5:35 name is Valerie Porter so I'm going to
5:38 start off by talking about the um
5:41 comprehensive plan just give you a
5:42 little
5:44 background so in 1990 the state required
5:47 all fast growing cities and counties to
5:49 develop a comprehensive plan and this is
5:52 intended to address population growth
5:54 sprawl and just the overall quality of
5:57 life impacting Washington the comp
5:59 comprehensive plan is required to
6:00 address 14 goals and the city has
6:03 addressed these 14 goals in these 10
6:05 elements that are listed
6:12 here so
6:14 here here I have a slide addressing the
6:17 process for the comprehensive Plan
6:19 update so the long range planners have
6:22 been working with staff from various
6:23 departments to um draft proposed changes
6:26 to each element um these changes have
6:29 then been reviewed by staff and then
6:31 their respective boards and commissions
6:33 and then we've requested recommendations
6:36 the recommendations then go to the
6:38 planning policy commission today all of
6:40 the boards have provided recommendations
6:42 to the planning policy commission the
6:45 comprehensive plan is still being
6:46 finalized but once it's finalized it
6:49 will be presented to the uh planning
6:51 policy commission and then they will
6:53 then provide a recommendation to council
6:55 and then the final step will be um being
6:58 reviewed by Council for
7:01 adoption so the comprehensive plan has
7:04 three overall goals the first one is
7:07 compliance we would like to make sure
7:09 that the comprehensive comprehensive
7:11 plan is compliant with all state and
7:14 County requirements the second goal is
7:17 coordination we want to make sure that
7:20 during this update um the the work all
7:23 the elements are aligned with the land
7:26 use and growth projections and there's
7:28 also no duplicates between each um
7:31 element the third goal is accessibility
7:35 the administration would like the
7:36 comprehensive plan to be easily
7:37 accessible and be a usable tool not only
7:39 for staff but also for the
7:43 public here I have a flow chart kind of
7:46 sharing the relationship between the
7:47 comprehensive plan and other um plans
7:50 and regulations the comprehensive plan
7:52 is an essential tool that used to
7:55 articulate a series of goals objectives
7:57 and policies that are intended to guide
8:00 day-to-day Decisions by elected
8:02 officials and City staff the
8:04 comprehensive plan identifies the vision
8:06 and how the city plans to grow the
8:09 vision is basically the why why is this
8:12 um isqua's Vision the comp plan then
8:15 feeds in um then talks about the goals
8:17 and policies that discuss what the city
8:19 wants this then feeds into the
8:22 functional plans and what we're calling
8:23 functional plans are the Human Services
8:26 plan the um Park plan the economic
8:29 development plan and these talk about
8:31 the implementation they provide the
8:33 framework on how the city actually wants
8:36 to achieve these goals through
8:37 strategies actions and possible
8:40 resources the functional plans then
8:42 inform the city budget and regulations
8:44 which you can see
8:48 below so here I have a VIN diagram
8:50 basically showing the relationship
8:52 between the comprehensive plan in the
8:54 functional plans and you'll notice that
8:56 there's overlap between the goals and
8:58 policies and that's because because the
8:59 goals and policies are um addressed in
9:01 both documents but again the goals and
9:04 policies and comprehensive plan are of
9:06 higher level addressing the why and the
9:08 functional plans are addressing how
9:10 these will be
9:13 accomplished the comprehensive plan um
9:16 can be updated in um two ways annually
9:20 and periodic the periodic is required
9:23 and it occurs every 10 years and um the
9:27 city can also update
9:30 the the comprehensive plan annually
9:32 which is optional um usually during this
9:35 time they're minor updates and that
9:37 would be something like if a parcel was
9:39 rezoned we would update or if a
9:42 strategic plan was updated then we would
9:44 update it annually but usually we try to
9:47 stick to the 10 years and the 10 years
9:50 usually um right now we're currently
9:52 going through the periodic update and
9:53 this is um to guide development until
9:58 2044
10:01 so for the Human Services um element the
10:04 administration is proposing that the
10:05 element be revised to be more consistent
10:08 with the adopted strategic plan and so
10:10 this change would um consolidate the
10:13 goals and policies and also address any
10:15 necessary
10:19 topics so in your um packet we provided
10:22 a matric of changes and I just kind of
10:24 want to explain what that document is
10:27 basically the column on the left is
10:29 showing the original um policies that
10:31 are currently in place right now and
10:33 then the uh column on the right is
10:36 showing the um revised um policies that
10:39 would then replace those goals and
10:44 policies so next steps in the next uh
10:47 few months um the docket will be
10:50 presented to council and the planning
10:53 policy commission will hold a public
10:54 hearing to see to review the final
10:56 comprehensive plan from there in quarter
10:59 3 the comprehensive plan will be
11:01 presented to city council and then
11:03 hopefully by quarter 4 we will receive
11:08 certification so I'd like to present the
11:10 question which is what questions or
11:12 suggestions do you have regarding the
11:13 comprehensive plan Human Services
11:15 element and before I hand it over um are
11:18 there any
11:20 questions council member Joe thank you
11:24 um I have a general um question related
11:27 to housing and the emergency housing
11:31 needs that are out there I don't
11:32 necessarily need an answer tonight but I
11:34 want to make sure that uh Human Services
11:37 is talking to the people that are
11:39 working on housing in our city as we're
11:41 going forward with the comprensive plan
11:43 as you know the the King County Council
11:45 came down with the County Planning
11:47 policies for housing jurisdictional
11:50 housing for isqua and it was 3,500 units
11:53 is what they want us to have uh planned
11:56 for by
11:57 2044 and so
11:59 uh of those units we have nonpermanent
12:02 Supportive Housing permanent Supportive
12:04 Housing which are both in the 0 to 30%
12:07 Ami category and then there's a category
12:10 of jurisdictional net new emergency
12:12 housing needs all three of those fall
12:16 under the Human Services umbrella a
12:18 little bit and i' would hope that um
12:21 Human Services and the planning people
12:23 will work together on those because the
12:26 non-supportive um permanent the
12:29 nonpermanent Supportive Housing in the 0
12:32 to 30 category is around uh 1,000 units
12:37 and the permanent supporting housing
12:39 permanent Supportive Housing is about
12:41 575 units and then the jurisdictional
12:44 net new emergency housing needs um are a
12:47 pretty big number too in terms of um the
12:51 what we're being asked to think about of
12:53 669 units so as we're looking at the
12:56 comp plan I would just hope that again
12:59 the planners uh are talking to the Human
13:01 Services people because the Human
13:03 Services people really know what's
13:04 happening on the ground you really know
13:06 what our people need when they need it
13:08 how effective it is to give a person
13:11 that's unhoused housing right away
13:13 that's the fastest way to solve the
13:15 problem rather than let it language so
13:18 um if you have any comments about the
13:19 coordination between housing or how
13:21 Housing Works into the comprehensive
13:23 plan I'd certainly like to hear it but I
13:25 don't necessarily need answers tonight
13:27 but I would just want the two
13:29 different elements of our city to be
13:31 talking to one another great I won't get
13:33 into detail about that specific thing
13:35 but I will say that the comprehensive
13:37 plan has a housing element and that is
13:40 most likely where that's addressed but
13:42 even though um I'm not here to talk
13:44 about the housing element I do know that
13:47 though we do work with other departments
13:48 to ensure that the policies that we put
13:50 in place can actually be
13:56 achieved and I see uh Council deputy
13:58 president G Michelle has her hand
14:01 up thank you uh sorry I can't be there
14:05 tonight uh I first want to start off and
14:09 uh say that the um proposed changes to
14:13 the uh comprehensive plan element um are
14:17 really excellent and uh obviously a lot
14:19 of really good work was done I did have
14:22 a question about
14:24 um uh the recent influx on the east side
14:28 of of uh refugees and people seeking
14:31 Asylum and uh did not see that that had
14:35 been included in uh the revisions and uh
14:39 so I'm just wondering if um uh we could
14:42 get a uh feedback a little bit about how
14:46 that situation is being perceived uh by
14:49 our Human Services uh
14:54 staff good evening Deputy Council uh
14:57 president de Melle thank thank you so
14:59 much for that question this is Monica
15:00 neilla and thank you so much for
15:02 bringing that topic um um of refugees
15:06 and those who are seeking Asylum um to
15:09 to this meeting as human services staff
15:12 this is something that we started
15:14 tracking as we are working with our
15:16 nonprofit partners and we hear from them
15:18 and um with your permission we would
15:20 like to um included in our priorities uh
15:25 staff priorities for this year and for
15:27 next year to continue to track monitor
15:30 um and perhaps if this becomes a crisis
15:34 at a larger scale that that's going to
15:37 uh last for multiple years then we can
15:39 consider including it in the Human
15:41 Service element in the comprehensive
15:42 plan since this is at this point um a
15:47 new and
15:48 developing um uh situation or issue um
15:52 we thought that
15:54 probably it's best uh bad look
15:59 to continue sorry I think
16:01 somebody unlucky
16:07 um so yes um we so definitely very very
16:12 important topic um we started hearing
16:15 from our nonprofit Partners um that for
16:19 example uh those providing emergency
16:21 Financial emergency assistance they have
16:24 seen an increased number of refugees
16:26 asking for parent assistance we have
16:28 seen in our Human Services office
16:30 sometimes people walk up asking for
16:32 housing assistance uh we heard from the
16:34 school district uh that they have more
16:36 and more families um not at a um large
16:40 scale but um definitely um it's there um
16:47 so thank you and chair chair Mars can I
16:50 ask a second question of
16:52 course okay um and uh there are several
16:57 places in in the uh proposed changes
17:00 where we talk about collaboration with
17:03 our nearby cities and one of the areas
17:07 that uh might be useful uh would be uh
17:11 collaborating with Redmond Kirkland
17:14 possibly Belle On A needs assessment I
17:17 know we do one uh I believe Redmond
17:20 conducts A needs assessment belie
17:22 certainly does one um and would it be uh
17:26 coste effective if we coordinated with
17:30 some of our fellow uh cities uh and what
17:34 would be the drawbacks of doing that as
17:38 well thank you also for that question uh
17:41 Deputy council president uh de Melle um
17:44 absolutely I think the the regional
17:47 needs assessment has has been discussed
17:49 in Prior years as well at at um in the
17:53 East Side Community among um Human
17:55 Services partners and cities um at this
17:58 Point uh there are pros and cons for
18:00 sure as we continue to evaluate um if
18:03 there are cost-effective measures uh
18:05 because the region is fairly large and
18:07 because each city has still their unique
18:10 uh needs and and unique opportunities uh
18:14 so far we have not been successful in in
18:16 just getting um all together and and
18:20 trying to see all the benefits but
18:22 definitely um we continue to to have
18:25 discussions um I think um in terms of
18:29 cost
18:30 effectivness because of the multiple
18:33 cities and the large area it and tends
18:36 to be a very expensive project and
18:39 frankly time consuming U that not I'm
18:42 not sure that there's one city that
18:44 would be able to even take the lead on
18:46 that or even just the decisional who who
18:48 would take the lead on that it's a
18:49 little bit complicated um not to mention
18:52 that
18:53 um in order for it to be done well uh
18:57 you really need to Al be able to to get
18:59 to the granular level of the unique
19:02 features for sometimes even
19:03 neighborhoods and that's difficult to do
19:05 when you do a regional approach um so
19:09 long story short to say definitely pros
19:10 and cons um we can certainly um continue
19:14 to have discussions at Regional level
19:16 and our needs assessment is scheduled um
19:19 to be reviewed in two years and as other
19:23 cities are considering that then we can
19:24 try to see if we can align for a
19:26 regional approach on that
19:29 thank
19:31 you thank you so I I have a question
19:35 which is valer could you put the slide
19:37 back up and had a slide that talked
19:39 about sort of the different facets to go
19:42 into the comprehensive
19:44 plan um yeah you had one that was sort
19:47 of a funnel that had like seven areas
19:49 that come PTC and then going Council the
19:53 slide that moved from left to right
19:56 right uh one more
19:59 think uh sorry there was go back earlier
20:03 there's it's got like 7
20:05 to1 going keep going there thank you um
20:10 my question is uh where is Public Safety
20:14 in because one of the things that's
20:16 happened in the last five years is we
20:18 have really developed some things that
20:20 are at the in intersection of Public
20:23 Safety and Human Services and I'm
20:25 interested to know uh how we
20:29 address that important change that's
20:32 occurred
20:33 since thank you for the the question the
20:36 um stepen P long-range planning manager
20:38 so for the comprehensive plan um we have
20:39 an element that's the capital facilities
20:42 that is going to be combined with
20:43 utilities and public services that's
20:45 where we actually address Public Safety
20:47 under public services and that's where
20:49 we look at level of service for um
20:52 emergency services that being police and
20:54 fire and how the city can coordinate a
20:57 lot of um Meeting those level of service
20:59 across the city and addressing that
21:00 question or addressing public services
21:02 for different neighborhoods okay I mean
21:05 it seems important that we've had this
21:08 you know we we have new positions in the
21:10 city we have Human Services folks
21:12 embedded within the ipd and it really
21:15 the nature that that the idea that there
21:19 is an important intersection between
21:21 services and Public Safety is I mean
21:23 there were people in 2015 who knew that
21:25 was important but it wasn't it wasn't
21:27 something that we voted that we voted on
21:29 with our dollars right and it seems like
21:31 a Miss if there
21:33 isn't I'm just curious where where that
21:37 like I said changed since 2015 and I
21:39 don't believe it's a policy that's
21:40 actually called out in any of the
21:42 elements but more of actually I believe
21:44 a objective or Ohad we we do have it in
21:47 the Strategic plan so while it's not in
21:49 the comprehensive plan we do have it in
21:51 the Strategic plan being considered like
21:54 a more specific and newer item but
21:56 that's also a good point that you you
21:58 know perhaps in the upcoming years we
22:00 could add it to the uh to the
22:03 comprehensive plan as a as an element
22:06 right now we do have it in the Strategic
22:08 plan in terms of collaboration with the
22:10 police I think one of the most
22:12 successful and
22:13 enduring uh aspects of everything that's
22:17 happened in the last five years and and
22:19 BLM and and uh sort of a a change in how
22:23 we look at things is the importance of
22:25 that inection so um whe I don't know how
22:28 you talk about that on a 20-year time
22:30 Horizon but it would be a shame if we
22:32 didn't talk about it anywhere on a
22:34 20e um other questions before we move on
22:38 Mr chair yes if I can uh just add a
22:41 little bit more to what Miss Nilla said
22:44 uh uh mayor Paulie in her calling for a
22:47 uh task force to look at the Strategic
22:49 plan one of the major drivers of that
22:51 was exactly what you talked about which
22:53 is that Public Safety component uh the
22:55 comprehensive plan you know certainly
22:57 had has uh pieces to it where this gets
23:00 covered but I think the mayor felt that
23:02 the Strategic plan really is the vehicle
23:04 for that and that is why she's convening
23:06 uh first meeting is this Thursday
23:08 evening um of a community task force to
23:11 look at the Strategic plan and recognize
23:14 among other things that Public Safety uh
23:16 needs to be more addressed look how it
23:18 integrates into other parts of the city
23:20 uh kind of catching up as you mentioned
23:23 the reality of The Last 5 Years uh and
23:25 as we look moving forward so the comp
23:27 plan is one one tool but I think the
23:30 Strategic plan is also another Major
23:32 Tool thank you for that clarification I
23:34 appreciate all right back to
23:46 it thank you
23:49 Valerie that's on all right good evening
23:53 council members uh my name is Hannah
23:55 Roberts I'm the human services
23:56 coordinator and and in my role I focus
23:59 on planning and implementing our Human
24:01 Services strategic
24:03 plan and this plan is really a dynamic
24:07 plan that is a five-year uh fiveyear
24:10 plan that is addressed to be a road map
24:13 to help guide uh policy planning and
24:16 funding planning and this strategic plan
24:19 was designed really out of a robust
24:21 Community needs assessment back in 2021
24:25 where we really started to get a
24:26 qualitative and quantitative
24:28 understanding of what the barriers in
24:30 isqua are and what the needs are and
24:32 from there we found different themes and
24:34 with those themes that um came up were
24:37 what we call Focus areas in our
24:38 strategic plan and those areas are
24:41 physical and behavioral health where we
24:43 saw this Mental Health crisis happening
24:46 across the board we also saw a housing
24:48 Continuum this includes affordable
24:50 housing keeping a roof over people's
24:52 heads as well as services for
24:55 homelessness we also saw cultural
24:57 specific specific services and language
24:59 access and this really speaks to the
25:01 changing demographic we are seeing in
25:03 isqua and our need to have relevant
25:06 services and then we also found uh
25:08 Community Resources this is the catch Al
25:10 Beall where really we identified um the
25:14 basic needs Legal Services uh employment
25:18 services so from these Focus areas we
25:21 really found what are our goals how do
25:23 we address these barriers um we created
25:25 a strategic approach and strategic
25:28 actions to address them so where we are
25:31 at today back in March of 2022 is when
25:34 we adopted the plan and started
25:36 implementation right away and we
25:38 bookmarked a 2-year uh review out of the
25:41 5-year plan really with the intentions
25:43 of understanding while in 2021 the
25:46 pandemic was happening with rapid
25:48 changes um so we wanted to make sure
25:50 that we were still relevant um in 2024
25:53 before a funding um before the next
25:56 Human Services grant funding cycle and
25:58 so we set up a 2-year review and then in
26:01 two more years we have another update
26:03 and review
26:06 scheduled and in this implementation we
26:08 really wanted to make sure that we were
26:10 tracking our successes to make sure that
26:12 we were actually moving the needle and
26:14 we have 20 different outcomes that we
26:16 measure you can find more information in
26:19 um exhibit a uh but this is just a
26:21 sample
26:22 here so we've been busy in the last two
26:25 years we have lots of great highlights
26:26 of what human Serv has done within our
26:28 strategic plan uh the first one being
26:31 our Human Services Grants uh we
26:33 increased our funding from 500,000 to
26:35 556 plus, which is an 11% increase um we
26:40 had many wonderful um events uh
26:43 including resource fairs educational
26:45 events um about mental health
26:48 homelessness Services uh wage gaps as
26:51 well as cultural events and
26:54 celebrations we also had a lot of growth
26:57 in our Behavior health and homeless
26:58 outreach program and our emergency
27:00 housing program more information to come
27:03 this evening later from Monica Nilla and
27:06 then another need we heard was there
27:08 just weren't enough services in isqua
27:10 and so in the last two years we're
27:11 excited to see 16 additional services
27:14 and programs here in this area in which
27:16 we also have a virtual resource room
27:19 which is a free public um access to
27:23 nonprofit organizations to reduce some
27:25 of those barriers and time weights
27:28 with any plan though there's always
27:29 opportunities for uh growth uh one of
27:32 our um call outs is our multi-resource
27:35 Center um this goal is really a a vision
27:38 of having a physical space um with our
27:41 nonprofit organizations uh but we are
27:43 very keenly aware that there is space
27:45 challenges here in isqua another area
27:48 that we recognize too is our educational
27:51 community events although those have
27:53 been executed and successful we still
27:55 find opportunities for additional
27:58 Community Partners to increase and
28:00 improve those events and then the other
28:02 area is really we question what is our
28:05 city roles and our cultural events we
28:07 have in the past taken the lead however
28:09 we really have recognized that we want
28:12 to be more of a support role and make
28:14 sure that we are elevating the voices
28:16 within those
28:21 cultures so we decided in the two-year
28:24 review we wanted to have some focus
28:25 groups to really make sure that we are
28:28 um aligned with our Uh current needs and
28:31 our Focus areas we had five different
28:33 groups where we um spoke to different
28:36 internal departments we opened it up to
28:38 the public we spoke to Residents uh we
28:41 spoke to our nonprofit organizations as
28:43 well as our Human Services Commission
28:45 where I was able to um present similar
28:48 information and make sure that we are
28:50 still aligned with our areas of
28:53 needs and really from those focus groups
28:56 bottom line as we heard really our basic
28:59 there's no major changes that are needed
29:01 to our strategic plan uh the needs still
29:04 remain the same we heard a few
29:06 highlights of Senior Services youth
29:08 preventative Services child care
29:10 culturally appropriate services but all
29:12 really align within our strategic plan
29:15 uh the one thing that we did here were
29:18 uh we are our nonprofits uh recovery
29:20 funds are depleting and the increase and
29:22 needs are still up
29:26 high so I'm going to invite now Monica
29:28 to talk about what our next steps
29:32 are before you uh step off the podium I
29:36 just had a question about the the
29:37 cultural events that you referenced I I
29:40 know that um you know we we try to be
29:43 supportive of juneth Black History Month
29:46 I think the mayor did a Black History
29:48 Month event just on Sunday um Day of the
29:51 Dead for our Hispanic culture um
29:54 certainly our cultural calendar
29:56 recognizes all the different holidays
29:58 are there we're taking small steps
30:00 toward that did you get any feedback
30:02 from your focus groups on cultural
30:04 events and what the city can be doing a
30:06 little bit better to to help uh Foster
30:08 and support
30:10 those yeah I think uh the the feedback
30:12 we received were very positive um that
30:15 there is a lot of appreciation for these
30:17 events um and that we have created a
30:20 call out in space um for these
30:22 celebrations uh I think the biggest
30:24 feedback that we received though in area
30:26 of growth that we can have is just
30:28 making sure that we're having the right
30:30 Partners take leadership of those events
30:33 um and so um that was ultimately what we
30:37 heard unless Monica you want to add
30:38 anything
30:40 not uh well said Hannah I think the only
30:43 other thing to add uh to to what Hanah
30:46 just said is that um also there are many
30:49 other cultures represented in the
30:50 community that not they're not always
30:52 highlighted here so then just picking
30:54 and choosing just a few does not seem
30:56 like uh fairly represents the
31:00 community great thank you I I appreciate
31:03 that that
31:04 feedback so I have a question um follow
31:08 on you know you briefly showed a sample
31:11 imple implementation tracking Human
31:14 Services strategic plan measuring
31:15 success outcomes review
31:19 um that seems th those metrics it was uh
31:25 those were chosen for specific reasons
31:27 and they were uh there was a lot of
31:29 thought that went into those metrics and
31:31 um when I hear a statement like no
31:34 changes are needed to our strategic plan
31:36 it seems like an important step in
31:39 evaluating our strategic plan would be
31:42 to evaluate what these metrics
31:44 tell um more and it's certainly
31:47 important to go ask focus groups how
31:49 we're doing and all that but um you know
31:51 there was an attempt to have these
31:53 metrics be a measure of our success and
31:57 and so where's the step where we review
32:00 those and see what it tells us about our
32:02 success thus far yeah thank you so much
32:05 for that question and so yes we shared
32:08 um as you have in your packet the the
32:10 exhibit we shared the information it
32:12 with our focus group so they had a
32:14 chance to review them and provide us
32:15 feedback on those um seems like that's
32:19 something you'd also want to share with
32:21 and get feedback from the Council
32:23 on you would
32:25 love well that's part of the discussion
32:28 this evening um those metrics excuse me
32:32 then present those metrics and I think
32:34 they're in the packet yes they're in the
32:36 packet as an so if you'd like we can
32:38 walk through them
32:39 um piece by piece if there's a
32:41 particular one that that uh resonates
32:44 with you you'd like to talk more about
32:45 we can do that as well
32:48 um I
32:52 would
32:55 uh I I would have expected a formal
32:58 presentation on those metrics quite a
32:59 bit of effort went into picking them and
33:02 it seems like if we said that they were
33:04 going to be uh our measure of success
33:06 that it would be more
33:08 than put in the back of a packet
33:11 somewh again we did not want to
33:14 presuppose the the committee's desire to
33:16 get into this so if you'd like to uh
33:19 spend more time with this we can either
33:21 U do it right now or we can put it on a
33:23 future agenda and we can walk through
33:25 each of the I think what you're hearing
33:27 from the staff is that we feel good
33:29 about what's there we feel good about
33:31 what we're measuring we've gotten
33:32 feedback from our focus groups that we
33:34 on track this is sort of a midpoint uh
33:37 piece of this we'll look at reevaluation
33:40 of this um as we reup this in what two
33:44 years time uh again the city-wide
33:46 strategic plan also is going to be
33:48 looking at its metrics um over the
33:51 course of the next several months and so
33:53 my guess is that the Citywide uh metric
33:56 review will then feed the process for
33:59 the revision of this plan uh in two
34:01 years time which will probably
34:02 realistically begin what in the next 12
34:05 months or so as we start working with
34:08 the appropriate reports and commissions
34:09 and stakeholders so but again if the if
34:12 the committee wishes uh to go through
34:14 each of the measures uh we can do that
34:16 this evening or come back at a future
34:18 meeting well I mean if if I was going to
34:20 ask that and I and I would be curious to
34:22 know what my fellow council members feel
34:24 I would not suggest that you guys do it
34:27 on uh uh on the spot without having a
34:30 chance to prepare it it would I guess my
34:32 suggestion and what I would ask my
34:33 fellow council members um would be you
34:37 know would we like to see a presentation
34:39 on the metrics and uh get a sense to get
34:43 a chance to have those uh be brought
34:46 forward on camera and and and take a
34:48 look at them and see what we think well
34:51 I'll just jump in I I think the the
34:53 slide that's up there um tracks the
34:56 outcomes and and then how well we did on
35:00 um you know the between year 2022 and
35:04 2023 um and I'm comfortable when I when
35:07 I reviewed it seeing the Improvement
35:10 that was there and um the efforts that
35:13 were being made and the things that we
35:15 learned and the the institutional
35:17 knowledge that we gained from doing
35:19 those over the year um if I I don't
35:22 think they need to I don't think staff
35:24 needs to come back with a separate
35:26 present
35:27 necessarily but if if there are any
35:30 highlighted ones that we'd like to talk
35:32 about tonight um I'm certainly would
35:35 would welcome the conversation if you
35:36 have one or two or three that you'd like
35:39 to pull out at Council chair's uh
35:42 discretion um I think the staff is
35:44 prepared to probably discuss
35:47 those council member D
35:50 Michelle uh this gives me a great
35:53 opportunity to to highlight one of the
35:55 statistics that or one of the data
35:58 points that just jumped out at me and
36:00 that's the third one uh the number of
36:02 unduplicated individuals supported by
36:05 the isqua food and clothing bank uh more
36:08 than doubled almost tripled and uh I
36:12 understand that the the uh availability
36:15 of food and the availability of funding
36:18 uh has not uh kept pace with uh the
36:22 number of people that are using the food
36:24 and clothing banks so uh
36:27 uh I don't I guess I don't think that we
36:30 need to um bring them the staff back
36:34 necessarily to make a uh presentation
36:38 just on these uh metrics but um you know
36:42 I think it would be of interest to have
36:44 that discussion uh I'm just not sure
36:47 that um given our pack agenda sometimes
36:52 whether that's necessary or
36:54 not I mean the the the you know the
36:57 slide that we're referring to is like
37:00 20% of the metrics that are in the
37:02 packet and we could put up the pages if
37:05 you'd like it's four pages in the report
37:07 we have it ready we could walk through
37:13 quickly if the rest of if my fellow
37:15 council members don't want to spend more
37:17 time on it then I don't want to spend
37:18 more time on it either so I I've made my
37:21 point and I lost my point so let's move
37:28 I don't know why we wasted all that time
37:29 writing these metrics in the first place
37:31 we spent months coming up with these
37:33 metrics if we're not going to use them
37:34 we shouldn't have wasted our time well
37:37 and and council member Mars we are using
37:38 them and they're here in the packet
37:40 we've shared them with our stakeholders
37:42 we've shared them with the boards and
37:43 we're here to share them with you uh we
37:46 had one illustrative slide and we're
37:49 prepared to talk about all of them if
37:51 you'd like we agree they're very
37:53 important and we're very proud at what
37:55 we've been able to do uh so they're in
37:57 the report that's in the packet um I'll
38:01 say I didn't think that the council was
38:03 interested in going through every single
38:04 one and that's why it's not in the
38:06 presentation so but we're happy to do
38:08 that again tonight or a future meeting
38:11 all right you can
38:19 continue me just one
38:25 too
38:34 okay so in terms of next steps um we
38:38 identified a few priorities for
38:42 2024 um again this is not to say that
38:44 this is all that we will do in 24 um but
38:47 this is our um if you would like um
38:51 specific priorities uh one of which one
38:54 of which being the emergency house
38:56 housing program uh long-term planning uh
38:59 solidifying our Behavioral Health and
39:01 homeless outreach program into a a
39:03 correspon uh model enhancing that
39:06 program uh looking at um alternative
39:09 ways to to track the data that we've
39:12 been tracking in these programs and of
39:14 course also the 2025 2026 Human Services
39:17 Grant reviews and recommendation cycle
39:19 it's happening this year um and so we'll
39:22 continue on that end with the um
39:25 implementation of the strategic plan for
39:27 the next two years and in 2026 we plan
39:30 to begin the the needs assessment as we
39:33 talked earlier we'll consider Regional
39:35 Partnerships and um we hope in 2027 to
39:38 come back with um uh having a proposed
39:41 updated plan for adoption for your
39:44 review um and so just going back on on
39:47 why we wanted to just highlight for a
39:49 few minutes the emergency housing
39:52 program for you today and just provide
39:54 you a a a brief brief brief refresher
39:57 and
39:58 overview as you may recall uh we
40:00 launched this program last year in in
40:03 July of
40:04 2023 uh thanks for your support um we
40:07 have it as a pilot project we this was
40:10 approved through December of
40:13 2024 and so we really uh learned many
40:16 many lessons and we had quite a few
40:19 success stories on the screen you also
40:21 see uh you may recall the um the
40:27 Continuum the housing Continuum visual
40:29 that we created a few months ago um and
40:34 um the emergency shelter program is one
40:37 of the many ways in which we can respond
40:40 effectively to the community it falls
40:42 probably in that
40:44 non-permanent uh Supportive Housing uh
40:47 model and to date we had 23 participants
40:51 who um who were benefited from this
40:54 program uh perhaps the number don't
40:56 really tell the story on how meaningful
40:58 this program is um and uh definitely we
41:02 had quite a few success stories from
41:04 people moving to permanent housing to
41:06 people obtaining jobs going to college
41:08 certifications uh you name it but we
41:11 also had uh very challenging stories
41:13 that are now successful from people who
41:15 have a safe place to be that's 23 less
41:18 people who are not on the streets of
41:19 isaa in encampments right now um and
41:22 that also um a pretty significant number
41:25 of people that we serve have chronic
41:28 medical conditions that have not been
41:29 addressed for many years so now that our
41:31 indoor uh those are being addressed and
41:34 and quite frankly they are life savings
41:36 we have people with COPD with congestive
41:39 heart failure with diabetes that has not
41:41 been successfully treated for many years
41:43 so um while we track a lot of data
41:46 there's a big component on on data that
41:49 cannot really be tracked unless we tell
41:51 the story right so all that to say um we
41:56 we would like to before we come back to
41:59 you in the biannual cycle for the budget
42:02 uh and propose options to you we would
42:04 like to just preliminary get your
42:06 thoughts on
42:08 um as we start preparing for this is
42:11 there uh interest from from this uh
42:15 Committee in extending the emergency
42:17 housing program path sorry past pilot
42:22 stage um and if there is interest are
42:26 there any
42:28 um considerations that we should keep in
42:31 mind as we explore options for program
42:33 operations from we can think about from
42:37 from funding options to um management of
42:40 the shelter to location there are so
42:42 many considerations we can have in place
42:44 and we would love to hear your thoughts
42:46 um as uh preliminary as we start getting
42:49 ready for
42:51 this um and so to to recap um the
42:55 direction that we are looking from you
42:57 tonight um number one is the committee
43:00 in agreement with the Human Services
43:02 strategic plan implementation to date
43:04 and with the identified priorities for
43:07 2024 um and specifically for the
43:10 emergency housing pilot project uh again
43:13 is there interest in exploring options
43:15 for for this program post-pilot uh and
43:18 if there's such interest that are there
43:21 special operational considerations that
43:23 we should keep in mind thank you for
43:25 that
43:26 and we are available for questions
43:29 council member
43:30 Joe oh I'm sorry she didn't have her
43:33 hand up Sor
43:36 okay thank you for that um um putting
43:40 meat on the bones so to speak for Ury
43:42 emergency housing appreciate that um
43:45 wanted your take on uh just
43:48 operationally well first off I'm in
43:50 favor of of continuing developing this
43:53 this program Beyond it its post pilot
43:56 stage first off um but I wanted your
43:59 your um feedback and your experience
44:02 you've had with the model that we have
44:04 in the sense it's not a 247 model uh
44:07 it's really based on you know normal
44:09 workships for our um human services
44:12 staff has that been working are we
44:15 missing some people are there people
44:17 falling through the cracks quote unquote
44:19 still or is that model um been
44:21 sufficient for us up up to now thank you
44:25 so much uh councilman Joe for the
44:26 question um so yes and yes sure in in
44:31 short um on one end yes the program has
44:34 been successful um but the program is
44:37 also just one of the many resources and
44:40 not everybody is the best candidate for
44:43 that Resource as you may recall the the
44:45 motel still functions as a motel so of
44:48 course that the um the program is best
44:52 suited for a person who can function
44:55 with within um a place that also runs a
44:58 business and so then to answer the
45:02 question about are there people that
45:04 still fall through the cracks yes there
45:06 are not many but there are and there are
45:08 those who just can function in that
45:10 environment uh but frankly those are the
45:13 same people who also cannot function in
45:15 all the other shelters in the area so
45:18 there's a special need program that that
45:22 is very hard um to um to find to be
45:26 frank yeah okay thank you yeah the next
45:30 question I had was um concerning the the
45:33 the teaming up that we've done with our
45:36 human services staff with uh a police
45:39 officer at times when it's when it's
45:42 necessary um after George Floyd and and
45:45 some of the protests that have been
45:47 going on has that teaming up of the two
45:51 elements uh led to uh less openness to
45:55 receive reive services or is it have you
45:58 managed to um kind of tailor it to the
46:01 different situations so that that is not
46:04 always something that can act as a as a
46:07 block or a barrier to receiving Services
46:11 yes uh thank you um again for that
46:13 question as well actually we we learned
46:15 that yes it's it's not a blocker um we
46:18 we just came back last night from a
46:20 briefing with the uh police department
46:22 and uh even they were sharing that even
46:25 in case is when they respond by
46:27 themselves without us being there um it
46:30 helps their communication and
46:32 relationship with the community members
46:34 when they start talking about a program
46:36 because it gives them an additional
46:37 resource and so when um when perhaps
46:40 somebody is in a crisis and they're
46:42 trying to deescalate when police
46:44 officers often start talking about like
46:46 hey would you like to be connected with
46:48 our human services staff and it seems
46:51 like that's that's one way in which
46:52 community members are really responsive
46:54 and hearing yes so so from from that
46:56 perspective we haven't seen um uh
46:59 blockers and even times when our staff
47:02 respond together um both police and
47:05 human services staff do a wonderful job
47:07 in in De escalating and communicating
47:09 with the community members so we really
47:11 have not seen um a detriment to that
47:16 okay thank you I appreciate that I'll
47:18 turn the table back over to others if
47:20 they have
47:21 questions council member do Michelle do
47:23 you have any questions right now
47:27 I have a question not right now thank
47:30 you uh I have a question so the housing
47:33 program has been running it started at
47:36 the beginning of 2023 in July we
47:39 launched the mid July 17th actually yes
47:42 so it's been operational for how many
47:44 months about eight months now eight
47:46 months okay and uh and how much has it
47:51 cost um great question um
47:56 um we set aside uh $700,000 for 2023 and
48:02 $900,000 for
48:05 2024 uh that includes the operations and
48:08 that includes also the the lease so the
48:11 capital um we've been under budget uh
48:14 for both of those the biggest cost is um
48:18 uh of course the lease which is about um
48:21 $27,000 per month uh that includes taxes
48:25 and then of course the the Staffing um
48:28 and for that we have three
48:30 FTE um
48:33 so we are under budget on both years
48:36 first year of course we were because we
48:38 just started in July um and so we
48:41 were about at 40% of um of our budget um
48:46 and so right now for the second year in
48:48 February we continue to be under budget
48:51 but it's too early too sure yeah so
48:54 eight months of three
48:57 staffers uh and one point what I'm
49:00 trying to do is trying to get a sense of
49:02 how much we're spending per equivalent
49:06 year because the reason I was thinking
49:09 about it was the number that had drawn
49:11 my attention that draws many people's
49:13 attention is that the cost in to to
49:16 create permanent housing for uh home
49:20 housing the unhoused is is I know in
49:23 Seattle is $50,000 a year per person
49:25 right so I was trying to I was trying to
49:27 figure out in my head and I'm usually
49:29 pretty good at doing orders of magnitude
49:31 in my head but I'm I'm just not today um
49:34 trying to figure out how this Compares
49:36 right we've had 23 people uh total over
49:39 the course of eight months you said 2000
49:42 FTE or I mean 2000 nights which is 5 and
49:46 a half FTE years over eight months so
49:51 that would be the equivalent of eight or
49:53 nine people averaged over that time
49:57 right if I'm if I'm if I'm getting my
50:00 math
50:02 right I was going through another math
50:05 in my head I was trying to do that so
50:07 I'm
50:08 thinking and and you maybe don't have to
50:11 answer right this right and I can put
50:12 those numbers together for you more
50:14 specifically yeah I'm interested in
50:15 knowing how we com how this program
50:17 compares the other options that are out
50:20 there and I realize there aren't
50:21 necessarily other options in the city of
50:22 isqua um but I'm just curious right how
50:25 that compares to that $50,000 per year
50:28 per person number yes would love to
50:30 follow up with you on that and we'll get
50:32 you the number like Jeff would like to I
50:35 just wanted to add great question U
50:37 council member Marts chair Marts uh Jeff
50:39 Watling parks and Community Services
50:41 director um great comp and I think as we
50:44 look at those comps we we have to
50:46 understand this program is investing
50:48 both in bricks and mor right so rather
50:51 than building our own facility we're
50:52 we're utilizing the partnership with
50:55 Motel six so in a way the the bricks and
50:57 mortar comp is the rental fee uh we're
51:00 also a big part of this investment and
51:02 Monica said it so well in those stories
51:04 is those three staff it's not just
51:06 housing these individuals it's how do we
51:08 bridge to permanent housing and that
51:11 doesn't just happen and so those comps
51:13 are a really good question I think we'd
51:15 want to make sure we're comping both the
51:17 cost to build something but then the
51:19 programmatic investment to really help
51:22 an individual get from A to B so we can
51:25 work on that and it's very exciting to
51:27 see so many of those positive outcomes
51:28 by the way and I don't know how that
51:30 compares to programs they run in Seattle
51:32 or Bellevue or any other places but it's
51:34 very very exciting to see that there's
51:35 been some some some good outcomes from
51:38 the
51:39 program thank you for that will follow
51:41 up then with the exact
51:45 numbers other council member Joe well
51:48 I'll just close out my portion of of
51:50 comments just saying that I am um
51:53 interested in exploring options for this
51:54 program post pilot stage answer question
51:57 number one answer to question number two
52:00 I think we've heard some things that the
52:02 administration and staff are exploring
52:04 to to try to um make sure we're
52:07 delivering services to the people that
52:10 are in need where they are at that
52:12 particular moment some people um are
52:14 ready to get back into housing and and a
52:17 structure others just need you know some
52:20 counseling for a substance abuse or
52:23 other issues and that's got to be done
52:25 as step one to get to step two and step
52:27 three so I really appreciate the the
52:30 approach that our Human Services team
52:32 takes and um I I don't have any
52:34 suggestions for any additional
52:37 operational consideration or Capital
52:39 consideration but just say that um our
52:41 old model used to be isqua place where
52:44 people care and I think that this
52:46 program uh exemplifies that on a daily
52:48 basis thank
52:50 you Council Deputy president D
52:54 Michelle so are we in the comment
52:56 section now or questions do we still
53:00 need to do public input and then comment
53:03 do uh clerk do we have any members of
53:05 the public we do not have any virtual
53:08 members of the public in attendance at
53:10 the moment chair Marts okay and we just
53:13 have staff
53:15 and here all right then I think then we
53:19 are safe to go straight to uh
53:23 deliberation all right so um weighing in
53:27 on the last question about uh the
53:29 emergency housing program um yes there
53:33 for me at least there is strong interest
53:35 in exploring options for this program
53:38 going forward I think um I want there's
53:41 a several things I want to say about it
53:44 uh first of all I have appreciated the
53:46 fact that uh our residents can go on the
53:50 uh City website and follow the progress
53:52 of this uh pilot program and I've been
53:56 doing that and also the emails that
53:58 we've received from staff have been very
54:01 helpful in understanding the progress
54:03 over time um I appreciate the fact that
54:08 it took us a long time to find the right
54:11 staff for this program and I think
54:13 that's one of the challenges we need to
54:15 acknowledge that it took a while to get
54:17 this program up and running um and uh
54:21 but I think uh very carefully put
54:24 together project and and one that um as
54:29 we're going along we're learning from uh
54:32 uh not our mistakes but learning how to
54:35 do it better and better as we go
54:37 along um I know that the cost per person
54:42 is going to be an issue it's something
54:44 that we need to communicate with our
54:47 public with very carefully uh but I
54:51 think we need to put this in the bigger
54:54 context homelessness has been growing
54:57 for at least the last 30 years with very
55:00 little resources put into it and a lot
55:03 of uh quick fixes that uh different
55:07 councils and different government
55:09 agencies have tried to impose and this
55:12 is not a quick fix this is going really
55:15 deep with the people who are involved in
55:17 participating in the program and
55:19 absolutely giving them the kind of
55:22 support uh that they need I actually was
55:25 taken tonight by Monica's reference to
55:28 the Health Care needs of these uh
55:32 individuals um and many of them have
55:34 gone without medical care for a long
55:36 time and how that of course impacts
55:38 their ability to work and to uh even
55:43 access you know a full-time housing and
55:46 so forth so so this program is not a
55:49 quick fix this program is going deep and
55:52 making a big difference in the lives of
55:54 the people are participating and I think
55:57 uh it is well worth the the uh
56:00 investment we're making in it uh so yes
56:03 I would like to see if this is a program
56:06 that the full Council would be willing
56:09 support uh one and again the money is
56:12 coming out of that one1 and
56:14 1% uh sales tax that we captured a
56:17 couple of years ago and this is exactly
56:20 the kind of
56:22 program that um I was Ed in supporting
56:26 when we did that capture when we took
56:28 that vote for that onet of
56:30 1% um serving the people of isqua that
56:33 are very much in need of services right
56:37 here in our community so yes strong
56:41 support in regard to the Strategic plan
56:44 and the comprehensive plan elements um I
56:47 don't have uh any other changes that I
56:50 would like to see I think both of those
56:52 I thought the uh opat of plan elements
56:56 were really well done very very well
56:58 thought out um and I appreciated the
57:02 focus on uh clarifying A lot of the
57:04 language in the in the element for the
57:07 comprehensive plan and I don't have any
57:10 other suggestions for the Strategic plan
57:12 so um I think just a high five to staff
57:15 for the very good work that they've done
57:18 thank
57:19 you thank you and regarding the
57:23 emergency housing program
57:25 uh yes I would like to see us continue
57:28 beond the pilot stage and uh yeah
57:31 looking at special operational or
57:32 Capital models looks like a good
57:36 idea you have what you were looking for
57:38 on this item I think so thank you so
57:40 much for for your input we appreciate
57:43 all your support thank you for the
57:45 presentation tonight and from the whole
57:46 team thank you uh next up we have ID
57:50 1558 city arts program and with Amy
57:54 Dukes our Cultural Arts
58:06 manager good evening council members
58:08 thank you for having me
58:23 just
58:34 so thank you for having me I'm Amy Dukes
58:36 the cultural arts manager for the
58:39 city and the purpose of my visit tonight
58:42 is just to provide a revenue and
58:43 programming update for the overall arts
58:45 program I realized we were here last um
58:49 last month giving you an update on the
58:50 Arts granting but this will be a little
58:52 bit more comprehensive about the entire
58:55 program including our
58:57 revenue and the D we don't have a
59:00 specific question really heading into
59:02 this but um wanted to give the update
59:04 that we had promised quite a long time
59:05 ago about our Revenue um emmissions tax
59:08 um was very dramatically impacted um
59:11 during the pandemic um and the theaters
59:13 closure so we had promised that we would
59:16 come back and kind of report on that we
59:18 have a full year of um of of data to
59:21 share with you so I wanted to give that
59:23 sort of as we headed into the budgeting
59:26 process for 25 and
59:29 26 and just very quickly um high level
59:32 overview of the arts program it's been
59:35 around for um 30 plus years we have 11
59:38 commission members um one fulltime staff
59:41 member um myself as of January of
59:44 2023 um and we are funded through two
59:47 different sources one is that 5% um
59:50 emmissions tax on for-profit theaters
59:53 and the other is a half of a percent um
59:57 on Capital City capital projects that
59:59 are eligible so not all city capital
1:00:01 projects are eligible but for those that
1:00:03 are and then the total budget for 2024
1:00:24 tax um 2017 to to last year um we did
1:00:29 hit kind of a high number in um
1:00:32 2018 at over
1:00:34 $335,000 in admissions tax and that was
1:00:37 at a time when we had both uh the
1:00:39 Highlands Regal as well as cabar so
1:00:42 you'll notice that in 2019 with the
1:00:44 closure of cabar that went down um and
1:00:47 then you see that huge drop in 2020 um
1:00:50 and the theaters were closed for um for
1:00:53 almost a year um between 2020 and 2021
1:00:57 so we've slowly crept back um and last
1:01:00 year's emissions tax came in at over 20
1:01:04 227,000 um which was great um we're
1:01:07 thinking that that was um pretty good
1:01:10 data for how we might be moving forward
1:01:12 although we know that that was actually
1:01:14 a really big movie year with Barbie and
1:01:17 Oppenheimer and Taylor Swift's movie and
1:01:20 Beyonce's movie so they won't probably
1:01:22 all be quite that good
1:01:26 and then I also for comparison wanted to
1:01:28 show you the um graph of contributions
1:01:31 from the capital Improvement um projects
1:01:34 um bit of Revenue and you can just tell
1:01:37 that that is a very volatile um source
1:01:39 of Revenue so it's really dependent on
1:01:42 what capital projects the city is doing
1:01:44 that are eligible for Arts funding and
1:01:47 um and really these dollars tend to stay
1:01:51 within the projects so if they are
1:01:53 projects that really lend themselves to
1:01:55 having public art integration we try to
1:01:57 use these funds within the
1:02:01 project um so for the arts program we
1:02:04 have different components of the program
1:02:07 and you can tell that Arts granting um
1:02:10 that bad program are that I came to last
1:02:12 month to tell you about um what the Arts
1:02:14 commission was hoping to support um is
1:02:17 about half of our program funding um we
1:02:20 do about a third of it is goes to public
1:02:23 art of all shorts um and then 10% to the
1:02:27 creative District um which is a
1:02:29 relatively new program and then programs
1:02:31 and events um under 5% of our budget
1:02:35 those are very small um part of our
1:02:38 current
1:02:40 offerings so I wanted to go through
1:02:42 really quickly each of the components
1:02:44 and just kind of tell you the why of why
1:02:45 we're doing it and what the impact is um
1:02:48 so the Arts grants are really intended
1:02:50 to support um a wide variety of cultural
1:02:54 and arts opportunities for the community
1:02:56 and also to support our local Arts
1:02:58 organizations and artists and help them
1:03:01 grow and Thrive um we also want to
1:03:03 include Arts experiences in community
1:03:07 celebrations and um we know that the
1:03:09 impact of that investment is um
1:03:12 resulting in
1:03:14 119,000 plus um participate they're not
1:03:18 unique participants but participants in
1:03:20 arts and culture in isqua
1:03:23 annually
1:03:25 um public art is a program that has
1:03:27 grown a lot in the last few years um and
1:03:30 the reason that we want to continue to
1:03:33 um invest in public art is because we
1:03:35 know that it helps um build isqua's
1:03:38 unique sense of place and Community
1:03:40 Pride and that it in the case of our
1:03:43 newest uh public art installation um
1:03:46 Jacob two trees that it really can help
1:03:49 bolster uh cultural tourism so again our
1:03:52 program has grown a lot for public art
1:03:55 we have almost 30 pieces of outdoor
1:03:57 artwork we have six Community murals we
1:04:01 have a very large scale uh indoor Mosaic
1:04:04 at the pool we have sort of an immersive
1:04:07 art experience at the skat Park we have
1:04:09 our new enormous troll on the reneer
1:04:11 trail and we have um almost um 100
1:04:16 utility box wraps all throughout the
1:04:18 community at um 38 different locations
1:04:21 so that program was intended to really
1:04:23 spread our art program throughout the
1:04:26 community and have it be um something
1:04:29 that everyone could see when they're
1:04:33 visiting and then programs and events
1:04:35 again a small area for the Arts
1:04:37 commission um part or arts program
1:04:39 partially because we have been so small
1:04:41 staffed and relied really on volunteer
1:04:44 support um so annually we do provide a
1:04:47 chalk art festival to the community um
1:04:51 this has provided an interesting
1:04:52 opportunity for us to partner
1:04:54 with the um Human Services Division
1:04:57 they've been offering their resource
1:04:58 Fair during the chalk art festival
1:05:01 that's been a nice partnership um we've
1:05:03 been hosting an annual film festival for
1:05:05 many years this was on Hiatus during the
1:05:08 pandemic but came back last year um we
1:05:12 are now working with a group of college
1:05:14 students who are in various film schools
1:05:17 across the country but all um issaqua
1:05:20 residents and so we'll be having another
1:05:23 Film Festival this summer
1:05:25 and then it was interesting to hear some
1:05:27 of the things that the Human Services
1:05:28 team was talking about because they
1:05:30 actually are supported by the arts
1:05:33 program so welcoming week all of those
1:05:35 cultural performances are supported by
1:05:38 the arts program as well as um the uh
1:05:42 the exhibit that was just that just took
1:05:45 place this last weekend for Black
1:05:46 History Month excuse me and then um we
1:05:50 have a lot of opportunity for growth in
1:05:52 this area we would love to have more
1:05:55 popup art making events we'd love to
1:05:57 have artists and residents and more art
1:06:00 community
1:06:03 celebration and then another program
1:06:06 which is new for the arts program is the
1:06:09 creative District um we were designated
1:06:12 2020 um and really this has been a
1:06:14 partnership with economic development
1:06:16 and the arts program but through this
1:06:18 program we have been able to bring over
1:06:22 $135,000 of capital investment um to the
1:06:26 district which is just great and again
1:06:28 more opportunities for growth um we'd
1:06:31 love to address community art
1:06:37 making and I wanted to share with you um
1:06:40 some some data that we've uh collected
1:06:43 that we've taken part in a national
1:06:46 economic impact um survey this past
1:06:49 year so the East Side nonprofit arts and
1:06:53 culture organizations and their
1:06:56 audiences um had over aund
1:06:59 million local economic impact I'm so
1:07:03 sorry I think I'm allergic to something
1:07:05 in this room it always causes problems
1:07:07 for my yes please thank you this room
1:07:13 does not agree with
1:07:15 me thank you good um and so the um this
1:07:22 survey included data from isqua Redmond
1:07:26 um Bellevue and Renton so it's not even
1:07:29 what we consider the whole East side
1:07:31 this is really only four cities but the
1:07:33 economic impact was $100 million just in
1:07:36 2022 and another important um note to
1:07:39 make is that 2022 wasn't even a typical
1:07:43 Arts participation year so wanted to
1:07:46 point that out you can also see that the
1:07:48 average um visitor to an Arts event is
1:07:52 spending over $45 per event um per
1:07:56 person and if they're coming from
1:07:58 outside of our region they're spending
1:08:00 almost
1:08:01 $91 per person per event so investing in
1:08:04 arts and culture is great for so many
1:08:07 reasons but it also does have an
1:08:09 economic
1:08:12 impact and then I just wanted to address
1:08:15 some opportunities that we see on the
1:08:18 horizon um we really want to um retain
1:08:23 and grow our creative community and our
1:08:24 creative economy it's been a really
1:08:26 rough time for our Arts organizations
1:08:29 and our local artists and we want to do
1:08:32 as much as we can to keep them here to
1:08:34 help them grow and Thrive um we know um
1:08:38 just like human services was saying we
1:08:40 have a space problem in isqua for our
1:08:42 nonprofits and we definitely have issues
1:08:44 for community art making space that we
1:08:47 would love to address in creative ways
1:08:50 um one of those creative ways might be
1:08:52 um a collaboration with the school
1:08:53 School District to have better
1:08:55 agreements to use their performing art
1:08:58 spaces and art making
1:09:00 spaces um strategic grantmaking every
1:09:02 year the Arts commission um as it goes
1:09:05 through its Grant making process really
1:09:06 tries to evaluate um you know how
1:09:09 they're making the grants and who is
1:09:12 eligible and how we're addressing the
1:09:14 needs of the community and so there's
1:09:17 lots of opportunity to to go even more
1:09:19 granularly and look at that more
1:09:22 strategically um we would love to grow
1:09:25 community events as the Human Services
1:09:27 uh group mentioned there's a desire to
1:09:30 have cultural events in the community
1:09:32 and the arts program has a lot of
1:09:35 contacts with a lot of those Community
1:09:37 groups um that might take additional
1:09:39 Staffing Resources but that's an area
1:09:42 that is is very possible for growth um
1:09:45 cultural tourism is also a great
1:09:48 opportunity for growth um we know just
1:09:50 from the Jacob Tut Tre sculpture that
1:09:53 people were willing to drive um across
1:09:57 you know state lines or um country lines
1:10:00 to come visit a wooden sculpture on our
1:10:03 reneer Trail um so there's definitely
1:10:07 growth opportunities there and then um
1:10:10 really just the need to diversify our
1:10:12 funding sources so as you saw the the
1:10:16 graphs that I showed previously we don't
1:10:18 think that we're going to get to where
1:10:20 we previously were with our admission
1:10:22 taxs and we also know that um that those
1:10:26 Capital Improvement project dollars just
1:10:29 don't amount to a significant um portion
1:10:33 of our funding so we've been pretty
1:10:35 successful getting grants for special
1:10:37 projects um but we know if we want to
1:10:39 continue to grow we're going to have to
1:10:41 be creative about how we fund arts in
1:10:45 isqua and then because it is um really
1:10:49 relevant to this overall conversation um
1:10:52 and I know you probably have heard heard
1:10:53 about the doors open program I just
1:10:55 wanted to give you a quick overview of
1:10:57 that so um that is a new uh sales tax
1:11:01 the 1en of 1% for King County that
1:11:04 passed at the end of
1:11:06 2023 um and it's um estimated that it
1:11:10 will bring a hundred million addition
1:11:12 dollar additional dollars to arts and
1:11:14 culture in King County annually um this
1:11:18 will be administered through for culture
1:11:20 um and they are going to fold um some of
1:11:23 the funding mechanisms into existing
1:11:26 programs so um their sustained Support
1:11:29 Program which they currently have in
1:11:31 place will have a lot larger um giving
1:11:35 amount um you can see it's estimated to
1:11:37 be$ 36 million additional dollars um
1:11:41 they're going to uh create a new Public
1:11:43 School cultural Access program um for
1:11:47 culture and the county haven't really
1:11:48 funded education uh or in school
1:11:51 education Arts programs so that will be
1:11:54 a new program that will bring over $10
1:11:56 million to the county um and then the
1:11:59 free public access program will help get
1:12:03 free admission and free participation um
1:12:06 so that residents can visit um arts and
1:12:09 culture
1:12:10 organizations without spending money
1:12:12 yeah I have a question about this slide
1:12:14 yeah so um is it just coincidence that
1:12:18 the public school cultural access number
1:12:21 is 10.8 million and total
1:12:24 approximate total annual program funding
1:12:25 is also 10.8 million those just happen
1:12:28 to be the same number what what is total
1:12:31 annual program funding that total annual
1:12:34 program funding for each of the
1:12:37 categories um that's the so the new
1:12:39 funding from um doors open is estimated
1:12:43 to be 100 million and of that 100
1:12:46 million um 10.8 would go to the public
1:12:48 school access and 10.8 would go to the
1:12:51 free public access oh that's I'm sorry
1:12:54 when I saw total annual program funding
1:12:56 I thought that was a summary somehow
1:12:58 across that's just for the free public
1:13:00 access just for the free public access
1:13:03 got it do we have an estimate of what
1:13:06 the direct impact how much of this 100
1:13:08 million is is a qu specific I don't have
1:13:10 it tonight but I am working on it um
1:13:14 because I think that is a really
1:13:15 important number and so I don't know if
1:13:18 from the memo um you kind of gleaned but
1:13:22 I lot of this money is going to go to
1:13:25 arts and culture and Science and
1:13:27 Heritage too which is great um in
1:13:30 throughout the county but they have a
1:13:32 lot of restrictions on who can receive
1:13:35 it um so the city will not no
1:13:39 municipalities can receive the funding
1:13:41 so the city arts program won't receive
1:13:43 any of the doors open funding and then
1:13:46 um you have to be a nonprofit and you
1:13:49 specifically have to be a
1:13:50 501c3 so quite a few nonprofit profits
1:13:53 in our community or 501c4 or other types
1:13:57 of nonprofits so um so there's that and
1:13:59 then you have to be Arts culture science
1:14:02 or Heritage focused which for the arts
1:14:04 program anyway a lot of the things that
1:14:06 we fund are organizations doing Arts
1:14:09 programming that are not Arts focused so
1:14:12 I'm working on a number to find out like
1:14:15 how much um the program will impact the
1:14:18 um the isquat community but it certainly
1:14:21 also depends on how um these
1:14:24 organizations apply for funding too so
1:14:27 it's it's an application process so they
1:14:30 won't just automatically be funded sure
1:14:33 um one of the reasons why I ask is the
1:14:35 previous effort before this successful
1:14:38 one that was not successful right The
1:14:40 Village Theater would have been a big
1:14:42 big winner that that was one where they
1:14:44 identified uh where the money would have
1:14:46 gone ahead of time and uh Village
1:14:49 Theater was was uh a major East Side
1:14:51 recipient um well they likely be in the
1:14:54 mix on this one as well yes so they're
1:14:57 an example of um an isquad based
1:14:59 organization that should stand to gain
1:15:02 um pretty significantly you're a C3 not
1:15:05 C4 and um there are other or I mean I
1:15:08 think this is a really good thing for
1:15:09 isqua in general and and the county I
1:15:12 know you know everyone has their
1:15:13 thoughts on sales tax increases um but
1:15:17 uh this will also be um available to the
1:15:21 zoo um because there's considered a
1:15:23 science organization um it will be
1:15:25 available to um The Fish Hatchery for
1:15:28 the same reason and it will be available
1:15:31 to um the history museums so there we do
1:15:35 have local organizations that stand to
1:15:38 to gain quite a decent amount in funding
1:15:40 which is great when you say available to
1:15:43 The Fish Hatchery do you mean fish
1:15:45 because the Hatchery is state fish yes
1:15:48 yeah not the fishery um fish correct
1:15:51 thank you for that clarification exactly
1:15:54 um so I am hoping that I can share that
1:15:58 with you all um pretty soon in terms of
1:16:01 kind of available dollars based on
1:16:02 budget sizes um and then there's a few
1:16:05 more categories um so building for
1:16:08 equity which is a capital um investment
1:16:11 in in facilities and Equipment um again
1:16:15 those groups would be eligible for that
1:16:17 um and then a new initiative to kind of
1:16:19 address countywide issues in the arts
1:16:22 and culture and science and Heritage um
1:16:24 and then a new program called launch
1:16:27 which will really um focus on emerging
1:16:30 organizations so I also think that the
1:16:33 launch category could be a really good
1:16:35 um support for local Grassroots efforts
1:16:40 isqua um so I just wanted to share that
1:16:42 with you because I know that it's kind
1:16:44 of you know out there and everyone's
1:16:46 kind of wondering how it's going to
1:16:48 impact the local community so I think
1:16:50 you know it will impact the eligible
1:16:53 organizations we will certainly do
1:16:55 everything we can to provide technical
1:16:57 assistance to help them get the maximum
1:17:00 they can out of the program but we know
1:17:02 there's lots of groups that um are just
1:17:05 simply not going to be eligible so we'll
1:17:07 have to work to figure out how to
1:17:12 partner so just to reiterate my purpose
1:17:14 here tonight is just to give you an
1:17:16 update I'm so sorry that I'm having um
1:17:20 you're doing fine you're powering
1:17:21 through it very successfully no I'm good
1:17:24 I do think I'm allergic to something in
1:17:26 this room um and then uh Direction
1:17:29 needed um again there's not a specific
1:17:32 question we're hoping to answer it's
1:17:34 just really wanting to give you kind of
1:17:35 a state of a of state of the program
1:17:38 given um that we are um I guess post
1:17:43 pandemic or whatever we want to call it
1:17:45 um and that our revenue is sort of back
1:17:47 to its or at its new normal and um just
1:17:51 to kind of inform as we head into to a
1:17:53 budgeting process so please feel free to
1:17:57 give me your questions
1:17:59 and and Jeff is here too who might want
1:18:01 to say
1:18:04 something you want to add something
1:18:06 before we we go to
1:18:09 questions power through that um wow uh
1:18:12 no just thank you for the the
1:18:14 conversation uh tonight um I I Amy won't
1:18:18 toot her own horn and she can't
1:18:20 necessarily breathe right now but um um
1:18:23 boy as we've come out of the pandemic
1:18:25 Arts is The Little Engine That Could and
1:18:28 I want to thank you Council for
1:18:30 supporting um Amy in her position to
1:18:32 become a full-time staff a 1.0 full-time
1:18:35 2023 um she does a lot the Arts
1:18:38 commission does a lot Arts is in a
1:18:40 really exciting place right now in isqua
1:18:43 um I think our intent for the
1:18:45 conversation tonight and highlighting
1:18:46 sort of what we're seeing looking ahead
1:18:48 as we're working with um Administration
1:18:51 and preparing the 2526 budget
1:18:53 um we just want to get some some
1:18:55 feedback from from you in terms of hey
1:18:57 is this the right direction is this the
1:18:58 right scale we want to be heading and if
1:19:00 so how do we sort of head into the 25 26
1:19:03 budget looking for a sort of an
1:19:06 operational Target um so would would
1:19:09 love your feedback um great job Amy um
1:19:12 great job Arts
1:19:13 commission thank
1:19:15 you and I'm actually going to start with
1:19:17 council member D Michelle this time
1:19:19 because I kept starting with you uh uh
1:19:23 Council M
1:19:25 jelle thanks um my question is I believe
1:19:29 if I'm reading my packet correctly and I
1:19:31 can't find it right now but there was a
1:19:34 recommendation from the administration
1:19:36 that uh that we go ahead with a review
1:19:40 of uh funding for the Arts commission
1:19:43 and so I think my question is for a city
1:19:45 administrator Bob quits uh when and how
1:19:48 would that happen and yes I support it
1:19:51 thoroughly but uh can we have a few more
1:19:53 details about how we get ready for the
1:19:57 budget decisions around the funding of
1:20:00 this uh
1:20:02 program uh thank you council member D
1:20:04 Michelle uh well tonight's the beginning
1:20:06 of that um we're looking for Council
1:20:08 feedback uh Amy did an excellent job of
1:20:11 reviewing the component parts uh to this
1:20:13 what we're trying to do is identify uh
1:20:16 what areas need additional attention um
1:20:19 we've begun our own internal review of
1:20:21 this um and so we certainly have our our
1:20:24 own ideas at a staff level but we want
1:20:26 the council's uh feedback uh we will I
1:20:30 think uh begin talking with the Arts
1:20:32 commission uh later in the spring early
1:20:35 summer uh with that uh plus we also just
1:20:38 have to balance all the other uh options
1:20:41 for Revenue um Citywide uh there's
1:20:44 competing factors of course uh not just
1:20:47 starts uh the 110 sales tax is also a a
1:20:51 wild card in this is Amy indicated we
1:20:54 really don't have specific numbers it's
1:20:56 not designed it's not per capita uh so
1:20:59 there's not a piece that's just going to
1:21:00 come to isqua so we have to uh work
1:21:03 closely uh with our County Partners uh
1:21:07 as they roll out the the granting
1:21:09 programs because I think that will have
1:21:10 a an impact on how we look at Future
1:21:13 budget as well what we can can leverage
1:21:16 what our organizations and the community
1:21:18 can leverage from that addition so
1:21:20 tonight's the beginning of that and uh
1:21:23 look forward to the council's input this
1:21:25 evening and we'll continue to to talk
1:21:28 about this through the later spring and
1:21:30 into the
1:21:31 summer does does that answer your
1:21:34 question counc Council Deputy
1:21:37 president all right council member Joe
1:21:40 thank you um first Amy Dukes thanks for
1:21:44 all of your hard work when I talk to
1:21:46 people whether it's in the creative
1:21:48 District or other nonprofits about art
1:21:50 your name comes up and is favorably uh
1:21:53 mentioned over and over again so um
1:21:56 thank you for all the hard work you're
1:21:57 doing um in your presentation on page
1:22:00 133 I think you had the the the the
1:22:03 picture of the the Blue Heron as it's uh
1:22:08 just off of Front Street on the subway
1:22:10 wall the words of the prophets are
1:22:13 written on the subway wall um sorry
1:22:15 about that um but the the the Heron's
1:22:18 there and that's part of the festival
1:22:19 street right and it's bisected by Front
1:22:22 Street
1:22:23 um we don't do the art necessarily
1:22:26 because we're not artists we don't build
1:22:27 the housing because we're not in the
1:22:29 construction industry but the funding is
1:22:31 is as I said is designed to to set the
1:22:35 platform so that people can come in and
1:22:37 do creative things in there has there
1:22:40 been a discussion as to how we can
1:22:42 better use or utilize that Festival
1:22:44 Street we've done lighting there we've
1:22:46 done the the great art uh on the on the
1:22:48 ground and on the side of the wall there
1:22:50 um could you give a little more color to
1:22:52 the conversations that have been having
1:22:54 you've been having about how to better
1:22:56 utilize that space yeah thank you
1:22:58 council member Joe that's a great
1:22:59 question um we have been talking about
1:23:02 it especially the creative district and
1:23:04 the creative District Advisory Board um
1:23:06 as you pointed out this is right kind of
1:23:08 in the heart of the creative district
1:23:10 and um we would love to see better
1:23:13 activation and more use of the festival
1:23:16 Street um I you know I think initially
1:23:18 it was intended that that street could
1:23:20 be closed off for street fair and other
1:23:23 things and we haven't really seen that
1:23:24 happen so we've been talking um with the
1:23:27 creative District Advisory board on ways
1:23:30 that we might incentivize um use of that
1:23:33 um I was actually just talking with
1:23:35 economic development today about a
1:23:38 possible um kind of uh special permit
1:23:42 that we might provide for the um
1:23:45 Festival Street much like a um block
1:23:47 party kind of thing to encourage um and
1:23:50 then in terms of that strategic Grant
1:23:52 making piece um that's another area that
1:23:54 if that's something we really wanted to
1:23:55 focus on we could um pull that out as a
1:23:59 special interest area to take proposals
1:24:02 to activate um so all lots of
1:24:05 possibilities and especially um as the
1:24:08 community has gotten back into um the
1:24:11 rhythm of gathering as a community I
1:24:14 think now is a good time to really look
1:24:18 that that's great that you're you're
1:24:20 talking about that um the the side that
1:24:24 is more to the east um could be closed
1:24:27 off a little more easily than the other
1:24:30 side um you know in in conjunction with
1:24:33 something that's going on with the
1:24:36 depot uh you could have perhaps some
1:24:38 type of art event in the area around the
1:24:41 Heron spilling into the depot and make
1:24:44 it a a joint event of some sort um I
1:24:47 used to work for a company that had an
1:24:49 artist and residence program um and this
1:24:52 might just be a a artist weekend program
1:24:55 where we shut off the that side of the
1:24:58 street there in conjunction with
1:25:00 something the Historical Society might
1:25:01 be doing and put out spaces just like we
1:25:04 do for salmon days and let the artists
1:25:06 come and show off their art or do art
1:25:10 there we talked about lack of space for
1:25:12 our artists so I could see a sunny July
1:25:15 weekend where we have artists there that
1:25:17 are doing art uh the historical site is
1:25:20 able to bring in people to talk about
1:25:22 their items and so it's it I don't know
1:25:25 how we encourage a nonprofit or another
1:25:28 organization to to ask for grant funding
1:25:31 that would make that happen but I see
1:25:34 that we've set the table so to speak to
1:25:36 allow that as a
1:25:38 possibility yes def definitely I like
1:25:41 your vision um we have um been thinking
1:25:44 about the possibilities for Popup art
1:25:47 maker space and community art making
1:25:48 space in spaces like the train depot um
1:25:52 and and it's also really heartening to
1:25:55 see that um there are Community
1:25:57 organizations that are starting to use
1:25:59 the train depot as an art um space so
1:26:02 there's a literary arts program that's
1:26:04 going to start on a monthly basis there
1:26:06 and there's a play that's actually um
1:26:08 performing um The Importance of Being
1:26:11 Earnest in the train depot for a c a
1:26:13 limited run so yes I I think we have to
1:26:16 get creative about our spaces since we
1:26:18 don't have a lot of dedicated space but
1:26:21 we can make art happen anywhere and
1:26:23 that's a great great opportunity yeah
1:26:26 and just looking forward a little bit
1:26:27 further as we think about the changes or
1:26:31 revamping that we're doing to Veterans
1:26:33 Memorial Park and making that a
1:26:37 additional space that could uh work with
1:26:40 the arts program and the Historical
1:26:42 Society together and create some
1:26:44 synergies there um you know has there
1:26:47 been some discussions for the two or
1:26:49 three years out where we're trying to
1:26:50 integrate that Park as well
1:26:53 great thank you for mentioning that in
1:26:55 there definitely has so we um I think on
1:26:57 one of the slides I showed you um we
1:26:59 were recently awarded um which we need
1:27:03 to come to council to accept um
1:27:05 $112,000 for placemaking and public art
1:27:09 in the plazas projects and the artist
1:27:12 that is working on the design for those
1:27:14 is also considering um future designs
1:27:17 for the area in between the plazas which
1:27:20 would be right there in front of the par
1:27:23 thank you I I like how the Arts
1:27:25 commission and you are thinking in terms
1:27:28 of uh bigger ideas and ways that we can
1:27:31 U provide a platform for our artists in
1:27:33 the community thank you thank you Spirit
1:27:36 of Radio or
1:27:38 Limelight this your song
1:27:40 reference words of the provin WR on the
1:27:43 stadium wall Sound of Silence oh I was
1:27:45 thinking I was thinking of rush you want
1:27:47 me to sing I think rush rush uses the
1:27:49 same lyric uh probably a call back to
1:27:51 sign fun okay all right cultural
1:27:54 references uh they're important couple
1:27:56 of questions creative
1:27:58 District um couple things around that we
1:28:02 we've got 135k which uh which includes
1:28:06 112k grant for Creative District
1:28:09 placemaking so what's that going to be
1:28:11 like yeah so right now um we have an
1:28:14 artist that's designing concepts for um
1:28:17 the plazas um pedestrian Park and the
1:28:21 Senior Center Plaza
1:28:22 um for art integration and she um has
1:28:25 been meeting she met with the history
1:28:27 museums to get more context on isqua
1:28:30 History she is actually a former
1:28:32 resident of isqua was quite familiar um
1:28:34 but also um met with the snow kwami
1:28:36 tribe um to talk about other influences
1:28:39 in our region and is um planning to
1:28:42 bring concepts for that project to the
1:28:44 Arts commission um next month so um
1:28:49 placemaking meeting signage right um
1:28:51 placem meaning um in this case it's
1:28:54 Artful placemaking so art that speaks to
1:28:57 where you are and gives you context to
1:29:00 um where you are what was here what the
1:29:04 history um and what the um Community is
1:29:08 about okay um around a creative district
1:29:13 is there any thought to how do you
1:29:17 create some in not on
1:29:20 yet uh how do you create some more uh
1:29:25 enduring uh like businesses like I I
1:29:27 think of a creative district and I think
1:29:29 a nucleus of businesses and a growing
1:29:31 nucleus of businesses and how do you
1:29:33 nurture that it's it's great to do some
1:29:35 of these one-offs and and those are
1:29:37 important as well but some persistence
1:29:40 in in some of these things yeah so I
1:29:43 think you know we were designated in
1:29:45 2020 kind of right at a um really
1:29:48 challenging time to be designated of as
1:29:50 a creative district and so um the first
1:29:53 things that we did were really in that
1:29:55 sort of placemaking um and and public
1:29:58 art and murals um because those were
1:30:00 easy things for us to do given the fact
1:30:02 that we actually lost a lot of creative
1:30:04 businesses during the pandemic um so
1:30:07 we've also been working um with uh
1:30:10 Economic Development doing focus groups
1:30:12 of our Arts community and actually um
1:30:15 Artisans and individual artists to try
1:30:18 to figure out what can we do to
1:30:19 encourage more creative businesses in
1:30:22 create a district and it's it's kind of
1:30:23 slow work it's hard because not all of
1:30:26 the um retail spaces and and um and
1:30:30 Commercial spaces want to rent to
1:30:32 creatives they're you know concerned
1:30:34 that they're messy or that they'll you
1:30:38 they much rather have an accountant in
1:30:39 their space if somebody has a Kil that
1:30:41 can be a hard sell so they have unique
1:30:43 needs that um you know don't always make
1:30:45 them the ideal tenant but um we've been
1:30:48 working to try to ease some of those um
1:30:50 restrictions and talk talking to
1:30:52 business owners and building owners um
1:30:54 so I am happy to report we have um a
1:30:57 quite a few new creative businesses
1:30:59 entering the creative District in 202
1:31:02 end of 23 beginning of 24 um you'll see
1:31:05 three new creative businesses opening on
1:31:08 Front Street um in the next few days
1:31:10 actually um so it's kind of slow work
1:31:14 and and um a little bit labor intensive
1:31:16 but um we're very aware that there's a
1:31:18 need for space and we're trying to
1:31:21 partner people up and get conversations
1:31:23 going um to help groups and people find
1:31:26 spaces okay and then the the last
1:31:29 comment that I had on it was you know
1:31:32 I'm I'm hoping there might be some
1:31:35 way uh I know that there's monies you
1:31:38 know in the in the four in the for
1:31:40 culture you mentioned monies going to
1:31:42 the school district and partnering on
1:31:44 youth education but um thinking slightly
1:31:47 outside the school district model you
1:31:49 know some of the impetus for the G
1:31:51 garage was finding things for young
1:31:53 people to do um who aren't served by the
1:31:57 traditional so you want to get into
1:31:59 Stanford how do you what do you put on
1:32:01 your resume sort of methodology and I
1:32:04 wonder if there might be similar
1:32:05 opportunities in the Arts not
1:32:07 necessarily not necessarily partnering
1:32:09 with the garage but partnering elsewhere
1:32:12 um because a lot of Creative Kids um you
1:32:15 know it can be tough being a creative
1:32:16 kid right and uh seeing if there are
1:32:19 opportunities for the city um to provide
1:32:22 some opportunities partnering either
1:32:24 with businesses or some of the things
1:32:25 that we can do as a municipality again
1:32:28 to provide more opportunities uh uh
1:32:32 comparable to but again not necessarily
1:32:34 in collaboration with the garage but
1:32:35 that same idea of more things for our
1:32:38 young people to do and the Arts is is an
1:32:40 amazing opportunity U for these artistic
1:32:43 kids that may not have other otherwise
1:32:44 good opportunities um you know I want to
1:32:47 say generally I just I love all of this
1:32:50 I think that in the the entire time that
1:32:52 I've been on Council we've seen some ups
1:32:54 and downs in the local Arts Community
1:32:56 we've seen some times where it looked
1:32:58 like we were building that uh that uh
1:33:02 critical mass and where that critical
1:33:04 mass has has decreased a little bit um
1:33:07 but it's really one of the ways that
1:33:09 we're a real City when people tell me oh
1:33:12 you guys are a suburb no we're a city
1:33:14 we're you know at 40 some odd thousand
1:33:17 people but we're a real City and having
1:33:19 an art scene is part of that and I also
1:33:21 think that having an the Arts um when
1:33:25 done right celebrate a sort of
1:33:27 timelessness that um is often lost uh
1:33:31 today and so many people so dwell on
1:33:35 microaggressions and uh you know social
1:33:37 media and all that kind of stuff and art
1:33:39 when it's Transcendent can really um
1:33:42 move people beyond all that and and uh
1:33:45 Inspire so I'm just entirely positive on
1:33:48 all of these efforts and eager to see uh
1:33:51 us continue to make progress having you
1:33:53 be engaged full-time um since 2023 is a
1:33:56 big part of that having a full-time
1:33:58 person you you've served the city so
1:34:00 well over so many years in part-time now
1:34:02 to see you be here fulltime is is is a
1:34:04 big part of that equation so do we have
1:34:07 any other thoughts before
1:34:10 we on chair Mars did you want to we have
1:34:13 no virtual attendees but there may be
1:34:16 members of the public in the room that
1:34:17 would wish to address the committee okay
1:34:20 but before you do that let me just uh
1:34:23 read my little Spiel one second um so we
1:34:27 are going to take public comment um but
1:34:30 before we do that apologize let me just
1:34:33 get little for here um public comment
1:34:37 are an important part of the public
1:34:39 process we take them seriously and
1:34:40 Factor them into the decisions we make
1:34:42 during audience comments members of the
1:34:44 public are invited to address the
1:34:45 council regarding matters that are
1:34:46 directly related to City programs
1:34:48 projects services or events anyone from
1:34:51 the public wishes to comment will have
1:34:52 the opportunity to do so please direct
1:34:54 comments to the whole Council and not
1:34:55 individuals while this is not a question
1:34:57 and answer session we will contact you
1:34:59 to follow up if needed recognized on you
1:35:02 your microphone for virtual attendees or
1:35:04 step up to the lect turn as someone has
1:35:06 already done uh in person state your
1:35:09 name address and relationship to the
1:35:10 city uh I.E resident property owner or
1:35:13 business owner speak clearly and pause
1:35:15 frequently and limit comments to 5
1:35:17 minutes if and we'd have no virtual
1:35:19 attendees said but that is correct
1:35:22 chairman I don't have to do that part
1:35:23 personal attacks subscene language
1:35:25 derogatory remarks and disruptive
1:35:26 behavior such as shouting booing
1:35:28 clapping and stomping feet will not be
1:35:29 permitted the speaker is out of order
1:35:31 the presiding officer will direct the
1:35:33 speaker to return to his or her seat or
1:35:34 for virtual well we don't have virtual
1:35:36 attendees if a speaker does not comply
1:35:38 the presiding officer may take a recess
1:35:40 to restore order the disruption to the
1:35:42 meeting occurs an order cannot be
1:35:43 restored the presiding officer May
1:35:45 proceed to use one of the options
1:35:46 provided for in RCW
1:35:48 42305 to ensure orderly continuation of
1:35:51 the meeting again public comments
1:35:53 written in verbal are an important
1:35:54 aspect of the public process the city
1:35:56 takes comments seriously and we thank
1:35:58 members of the public for taking the
1:36:00 time to address US during our
1:36:03 meetings hi it's nice to see you and
1:36:05 thank you for all the support of the
1:36:07 Arts I'm Rachel Wright I'm the co-chair
1:36:09 of the Arts commission and I'm also one
1:36:12 of the members of the creative District
1:36:13 Advisory Board which is a great place to
1:36:15 be and so first just on behalf of the
1:36:17 Arts commission I want to thank Amy for
1:36:18 all the work she does she's an
1:36:20 incredible advocate and I love seeing
1:36:22 how she uses data to tell the story and
1:36:25 to make the point that Arts are a really
1:36:27 big part of the economy and our creative
1:36:29 economy so just a few points I wanted to
1:36:31 to help reinforce um one especially in
1:36:34 the work we do in the creative District
1:36:36 we're becoming more and more aware of
1:36:38 how important it is to make art part of
1:36:41 policy um I think examples um of how we
1:36:45 can make art a part of policy in terms
1:36:47 of getting an actual permit for art you
1:36:49 know the troll is not permitted under
1:36:51 under an art permit I think the art per
1:36:53 this the troll is actually a sign you
1:36:56 know so we don't have the appropriate
1:36:58 mechanisms to help encourage more public
1:37:00 art another example um is how we want to
1:37:03 work in the creative District
1:37:04 specifically into getting more
1:37:07 businesses to actually put art on their
1:37:10 property so um you don't have to be a
1:37:13 creative business to be a participant in
1:37:15 the creative District so an example
1:37:17 we're working on right now is the new
1:37:19 brown bear which is coming in and that's
1:37:21 really at the Gateway of our creative
1:37:23 District well there's a long blank wall
1:37:26 that needs mitigation why can't we have
1:37:28 a mural be a part of that and let brown
1:37:30 bear help support and be a part of our
1:37:32 creative community so as topics come up
1:37:35 um I just want people keeping an eye out
1:37:37 for how can we integrate the Arts into
1:37:39 policy to make it easier for people to
1:37:42 participate easier for people to
1:37:43 contribute easier to you know for people
1:37:45 to to overall get engaged because I
1:37:48 think there's lots of opportunity there
1:37:50 and then the last piece is you know I
1:37:52 think um we are starting to see how
1:37:55 valuable it is just in society to have
1:37:57 art being that means of bringing people
1:38:00 together we are seeing there studies
1:38:02 showing that it's what makes people come
1:38:05 together and gather they have
1:38:06 conversations they get out of isolation
1:38:08 and all of those things combined lead to
1:38:10 a healthier population healthier mental
1:38:13 health spiritual health well-being and
1:38:15 so the more we can do around the Arts in
1:38:17 isqua the stronger we'll be as a thank
1:38:23 thank you does anybody else wish to
1:38:26 speak thank you again further uh any
1:38:30 further comments far as council member
1:38:32 Joe great work uh keep it up go forth
1:38:35 and Conquer please thank
1:38:37 you thanks very much uh Council Deputy
1:38:41 president I'm saying that wrong AR it's
1:38:42 Deputy council president D Michelle
1:38:45 yeah that's okay uh so uh I just want to
1:38:51 uh e uh Echo what Rachel said about uh
1:38:55 and and yourself uh how pleased we are
1:38:59 to have Amy as our Arts uh liaison and
1:39:02 she's doing great great work uh I hope
1:39:07 that one of the things that I would
1:39:09 maybe like to see in the future is if we
1:39:13 could do a a look back is uh how has the
1:39:17 city grown and over time how is that re
1:39:21 you from the tax uh admission tax track
1:39:25 with the growth in our community I have
1:39:27 a feeling that it's probably lagging
1:39:29 quite a bit behind um I think the Arts
1:39:32 commission started in around 1988 if I
1:39:36 remember correctly from my packet I was
1:39:38 on that first Arts
1:39:40 commission so uh and I'm sure that our
1:39:43 Revenue at that point was very very
1:39:45 small but the city council had the
1:39:48 foresight to create the admissions tax
1:39:51 and that has
1:39:52 supported uh the Arts commission for uh
1:39:56 a great many years now without too much
1:39:58 of a change and so and I think there is
1:40:01 an upper limit to how much we can uh
1:40:04 increase that admissions tax as well you
1:40:06 know we don't want to make that a
1:40:08 terrible burden to our um to our venues
1:40:12 so so uh reviewing how that has tracked
1:40:16 in relationship to our growth I think
1:40:18 would be if we can get the data that
1:40:20 goes back that far uh would be a good
1:40:23 exercise for the council to see uh how
1:40:26 uh spending uh has tracked with our
1:40:29 population growth and so I'm very
1:40:31 interested in how we can creatively
1:40:33 think about additional Revenue I think I
1:40:36 asked the question a long time ago do we
1:40:38 have the the arts program that we want
1:40:41 or do we have the arts program that we
1:40:43 can afford uh and I hope that we'll come
1:40:47 up with a vision I see a lot of vision
1:40:50 already I think we have a great uh a
1:40:52 great uh uh field of information to
1:40:56 start with and I'm looking forward to
1:40:59 having a report back uh to the council
1:41:02 about future growth of the arts program
1:41:06 uh I concur with everything that chair
1:41:08 Mar said about issaqua really loves the
1:41:11 Arts and uh and I agree with Rachel's
1:41:16 comments it is a great way to bring our
1:41:19 community together
1:41:21 uh across the vast area that is isqua of
1:41:26 the Arts are one way that we all come
1:41:28 together into spaces to be creative
1:41:31 together so uh I think it has great
1:41:33 value Beyond just the uh our return on
1:41:38 investments so so thanks to Amy for the
1:41:41 great presentation and I'm looking
1:41:43 forward to Future discussions thank
1:41:46 you thank you so much thank you Deputy
1:41:48 council president and in terms of 1558
1:41:53 does the administration have the
1:41:54 feedback it was looking for this evening
1:41:56 I'm seeing a head nod but we're not done
1:41:58 with the Arts yet next up we have 1584
1:42:01 comprehensive Plan update draft arts and
1:42:03 culture element policies with Kristen
1:42:06 Leon live and
1:42:15 remote
1:42:18 oops one second
1:42:22 there we go all right good evening I
1:42:27 apologize that I am not there in person
1:42:29 that was my intention but life happened
1:42:32 so here I am so uh good evening so I
1:42:35 pretty I feel like I could just say you
1:42:37 know what Amy did a fantastic job so my
1:42:39 job here is done um but I will continue
1:42:43 so we are here to talk about the Arts
1:42:45 what used to be the cultural element the
1:42:47 Arts and Cultural element it is part of
1:42:50 our 2015 comprehensive plan periodic
1:42:54 update or I'm sorry our 2024
1:42:57 comprehensive plan periodic
1:42:59 update um so tonight we just want to
1:43:01 review it with you uh review some of the
1:43:03 new things that we're adding to it and
1:43:04 then have you all provide any feedback
1:43:06 on the draft that we've given you so
1:43:09 some things to consider are there any
1:43:11 considerations additional considerations
1:43:13 that the Arts commission needs to study
1:43:17 or consider prior to their
1:43:18 recommendation to city council are there
1:43:20 any additional topics for staff to
1:43:22 consider when making final edits and are
1:43:24 the goals and policies deemed
1:43:27 implementable um in the
1:43:29 past I think the Arts and Cultural
1:43:31 element has been a little higher level
1:43:33 and we're trying to bring bring it back
1:43:35 down to give it some some teeth so we
1:43:38 want to make sure that you all believe
1:43:39 that it's
1:43:41 implementable so you may know that this
1:43:43 is not a required element by the state
1:43:46 we added it 1999 because as we've talked
1:43:49 about here it's important to acknowledge
1:43:51 it it's important to acknowledge our
1:43:54 arts and it's grown and it's important
1:43:56 our city has grown it's important to
1:43:58 recognize our diversity in different
1:44:00 cultures and those celebrations as
1:44:03 well um so the existing element focus is
1:44:06 really on supporting art and Artisans
1:44:08 funding programs encouraging art and
1:44:10 culture and events and promoting
1:44:12 Community diversity and participation
1:44:15 pretty high
1:44:16 level we are making trying to make some
1:44:18 significant changes so some of these
1:44:20 include one is aligning goals and
1:44:22 policies with the arts and culture arts
1:44:25 and culture strategic direction or the
1:44:27 Arts strategic
1:44:29 plan so some of the B directions not
1:44:32 some of them the directions in that plan
1:44:34 are to integrate arts and policies into
1:44:36 systems Foster the Arts as a primary
1:44:38 part of our community um increase
1:44:40 capacity to meet growing Community needs
1:44:42 and Amy talked a lot about that and that
1:44:45 it's not
1:44:46 just you know it's it's where to show
1:44:49 where to have exhibits where to hold
1:44:51 events um but it's also where to create
1:44:54 the art and create the music and so
1:44:56 forth um celebrate the the cultures um
1:45:01 expand art access throughout the
1:45:02 community and include celebrating our
1:45:04 diverse and Multicultural
1:45:07 communities another one is to bring our
1:45:10 certified creative District into Focus
1:45:12 so the last time this was updated was in
1:45:14 2015 and we did not have a creative
1:45:15 District so that adds a whole new
1:45:18 element to the plan
1:45:21 and then lastly um to acknowledge the
1:45:23 community need for space art making a
1:45:25 community Gathering like I just talked
1:45:28 about so I W to I want to note that Amy
1:45:33 and the uh Arts commission actually they
1:45:36 have done the whole rewrite of this um
1:45:38 with a little bit of tweaking afterwards
1:45:40 but they they put the work in uh they
1:45:43 did this back in October and November
1:45:44 the planning policy site plan planning
1:45:47 policy commission site back in uh
1:45:49 January on January 25th F and they liked
1:45:52 it so I think they kind of had the same
1:45:54 questions you did but they really liked
1:45:55 it um so the First new one is to promote
1:45:58 our creative District I don't think I
1:46:00 need to talk anymore about that one made
1:46:02 me really shorten my
1:46:04 presentation um the next would be to
1:46:08 examine and adopt a process to encourage
1:46:10 the integration of public art murals and
1:46:13 elements into the built environment and
1:46:16 by adopt a process right now it happens
1:46:19 but there's not necessarily a line that
1:46:21 we follow to get make sure that that
1:46:22 happens the same way every time and that
1:46:25 so we need to establish a process create
1:46:27 an engaging public arts master plan
1:46:29 that's integrated with Parks uh trails
1:46:32 and public spaces and then incentivize
1:46:34 incentivize work our artwork through
1:46:37 development regulations as a component
1:46:40 of new development you can't require it
1:46:41 for private but we would like to find a
1:46:43 way to incentivize it for private
1:46:45 developments through our land use
1:46:48 code uh continue providing providing
1:46:50 Landmark designation and protection
1:46:52 services with King County we actually
1:46:54 didn't have that in there so we're
1:46:56 proposing to um put that in there
1:46:59 establish Partnerships with different
1:47:00 cultural
1:47:02 organizations um and potentially match
1:47:04 uh available facilities with needs
1:47:07 encourage the development and adaptive
1:47:09 reuse of community accessible art
1:47:11 studios for exhibitions co-working and
1:47:14 potentially libraries so somebody can
1:47:16 say I need I have easels and paints and
1:47:19 you know you know librar work so
1:47:21 libraries for that sort of
1:47:24 thing um here's your blue heron again
1:47:27 it's a favorite uh conduct an evaluation
1:47:30 every five years that measures the
1:47:31 effectiveness of funding regulations in
1:47:33 programs and I believe that's sort of
1:47:34 what Deputy council president D Michelle
1:47:36 was talking about is to monitor this see
1:47:38 where our money is going and how much
1:47:39 progress we're making we're trying to do
1:47:41 this with all of our
1:47:43 elements um so really that was fast uh
1:47:47 that's all I had and these are our
1:47:48 questions again about consider ation for
1:47:50 the Arts commission considerations for
1:47:52 staff and is this what you read what's
1:47:54 in your packet isn't
1:47:56 implementable so that's all I have thank
1:47:59 you do we have any questions before we
1:48:02 move to deliberation I see council
1:48:04 member Joe has his hand up thank you
1:48:07 thanks for that presentation I had a
1:48:08 question about uh proposed new policy E2
1:48:12 on page 12 of your presentation
1:48:15 establish Partnerships among cultural
1:48:17 organizations to better match available
1:48:18 facilities with needs um I was wondering
1:48:21 if there was any conversation about how
1:48:24 we can better make connections with uh
1:48:27 our local tribes as well um the Hatchery
1:48:31 has some art that recognizes and honors
1:48:34 um our our neighbors and uh was that any
1:48:38 part of the conversation and can it be
1:48:40 put as part of the new the new policies
1:48:43 um if we decide important and how would
1:48:45 we go about doing that thank
1:48:47 you sure so I'm I'm very happy that Amy
1:48:51 said despite her allergies that she
1:48:53 would still stay and answer some
1:48:54 questions but we did add uh coordination
1:48:58 with uh indigenous tribes and cultures
1:49:02 in the plan this time and it wasn't new
1:49:05 it was sort of an addition to so yes and
1:49:08 Amy I don't know if she wants to speak
1:49:09 more to that or
1:49:12 not yeah it was clar clarified and
1:49:15 strengthened I guess in the wording but
1:49:17 not a new um a new uh policy um but we
1:49:22 feel really good um the arts program
1:49:24 does about the um connections that we
1:49:27 made through the creation of Jacob two
1:49:30 trees and our our collaboration with the
1:49:32 tribe and the um tribe's cultural team
1:49:34 so I'm really hoping to continue that
1:49:37 work thank you very much that's that's
1:49:40 great news please uh continue that
1:49:46 work um I I have a question which is do
1:49:49 we we someplace in here talk
1:49:53 about um in our Arts policy um engaging
1:49:59 our minority communities and making sure
1:50:02 that uh
1:50:05 we're tapping artists and and artistic
1:50:09 Traditions from um underrepresented
1:50:12 communities in our within our larger
1:50:17 Community
1:50:19 the El does not speak specifically to
1:50:22 underrepresented communities it speaks
1:50:25 to different cultures and diversity but
1:50:28 that could certainly be clarified here
1:50:31 yeah I'm thinking something spec I mean
1:50:33 of of course uh you know all sorts of
1:50:37 different cultures it's great to look in
1:50:39 all sorts of different directions and
1:50:40 all sorts of different cultural
1:50:41 traditions for art but I'm thinking
1:50:43 specifically something that says you
1:50:46 know we have such a huge South Asian and
1:50:49 East Asian community
1:50:50 here and you know we've seen things like
1:50:53 you know the art around uh P you know
1:50:56 Persian art uh there was a Persian art
1:50:59 thing a couple years ago um but having a
1:51:02 policy you know on a 20-year Horizon
1:51:05 just to make sure that we engage those
1:51:07 communities um to build art um to make
1:51:11 sure that our that our substantial and
1:51:14 really vibrant um communities here get
1:51:17 reflected in the in the art that we that
1:51:19 we put together
1:51:22 thanks for that question oh sorry Christ
1:51:25 I stepped right on top of I would just
1:51:27 add to that that um it we do have the
1:51:31 essence of that in one of our strategic
1:51:33 directions for the arts program and that
1:51:36 those strategic directions um really
1:51:38 inform the work especially when we're
1:51:39 doing grant making um to try to make
1:51:43 sure that we're covering that direction
1:51:45 as we're investing in arts and culture
1:51:47 for the community and I think that um
1:51:50 the the current roster of artarts Grants
1:51:52 is very representative of lots of
1:51:54 different cultures in our community but
1:51:56 it's something that the Arts commission
1:51:57 is always thinking about when they're
1:51:58 investing in our granting program um
1:52:01 another thing that we've done is to um
1:52:03 start to gather more data about who um
1:52:06 has created our public art collection so
1:52:09 that we at least understand who who is
1:52:12 represented in the collection and how we
1:52:14 might um evolve that to be more
1:52:17 representative and the utility box
1:52:19 program was one of the reasons we that
1:52:21 was another reason we wanted to do that
1:52:22 program because it allowed us to get a
1:52:24 lot more Community artists out into the
1:52:27 community sure so that one is more
1:52:30 representative I just think if you think
1:52:31 about a 10year time Horizon what's
1:52:34 changed in 10 years I think you're
1:52:37 seeing that critical mass of South Asian
1:52:40 and East Asian arts on the east side the
1:52:43 kinds of things that Seattle has done so
1:52:45 effectively like with the Seattle Asian
1:52:46 Art Museum which is a just a just a gem
1:52:49 of a museum Museum um you seeing more
1:52:51 and more of that on the east side and in
1:52:53 this last 10 years um seeing more and
1:52:55 more uh those communities as being just
1:52:58 an amazing resource and wanting to see
1:53:00 our Arts programs reflect that as well
1:53:04 as our Hispanic communities and really
1:53:05 all of our communities but those two
1:53:08 South Asian East Asian and Hispanic
1:53:10 because there're they're such a large
1:53:12 communities that honestly from the day
1:53:15 here I often don't hear from enough and
1:53:17 and see examples of enough in our
1:53:19 Community um not because our city isn't
1:53:22 open to it but because we you
1:53:25 know could do more to proactively reach
1:53:28 out yeah and art is a great way to reach
1:53:30 out for sure so thank you for that
1:53:35 comment
1:53:38 other do we want to we I offer public
1:53:41 any other further public comment nope
1:53:45 okay do we have any other deliberation
1:53:47 on this subject we all talked out on
1:53:51 our Russell's got his thumb up Deputy
1:53:55 council president has her thumb up I
1:53:57 will ask City administrator if he has
1:53:58 the feedback he was looking for this
1:54:00 evening I've got a head nod so thank you
1:54:03 uh Kristen and Amy and uh the teams and
1:54:07 we with that we will move on to oh no
1:54:11 our last item of the
1:54:12 evening ID 1662 lodging tax advisory
1:54:16 committee Grant
1:54:18 recommendations
1:54:20 and Fel is participating remotely and I
1:54:23 think is going to provide support and
1:54:25 our city administrator is going to he
1:54:27 he's he's he's he's uh rebounded from
1:54:30 his excellent from his sickness a little
1:54:33 bit so for ask just go ahead and make
1:54:36 the presentation for glad you're feeling
1:54:38 better take take us this thank you thank
1:54:42 you uh thank you counciling members let
1:54:45 me share my screen really quick
1:54:59 I hope you can see my screen we can
1:55:01 thank
1:55:03 you although it's not full screen it's
1:55:06 like we're also seeing the preview off
1:55:07 on the side and one more I think if you
1:55:10 switch the primary and
1:55:14 secondary
1:55:16 there's way to switch over
1:55:20 well there we go we we'll we can we can
1:55:22 make do with that one from the
1:55:28 beginning
1:55:33 no there you
1:55:35 go that was
1:55:40 there looks
1:55:45 great okay I'm sorry today
1:55:48 uh I was supposed to come in person but
1:55:51 again in the morning I woke up feeling
1:55:53 uh different sort of my body was not
1:55:56 mine so I had to uh take some medication
1:55:59 in the morning and have some rest and
1:56:01 unfortunately around afternoon I began
1:56:03 feeling better hopefully by tomorrow
1:56:05 following day I'll be
1:56:07 okay excellent glad you're
1:56:10 here so the purpose of tonight's
1:56:15 presentation is to uh present uh the
1:56:18 2024 Ela Grand
1:56:20 recommendation as proposed by the ELA
1:56:26 committee so the direction needed is
1:56:29 Administration seek direction from uh
1:56:30 the services safety and Parks Council
1:56:34 committee for the award and allocation
1:56:36 of the 2024 Ela
1:56:41 grants uh a little background uh a
1:56:43 little background of el is uh the city
1:56:47 council adopted uh the ordin number
1:56:50 2192 in uh
1:56:53 1998 uh to establish uh
1:56:57 elac and again in 2022 the city council
1:57:01 approved 50 ,000 for each year from
1:57:05 loging tax fund uh to fund tourism
1:57:08 related initiative in 2023 and
1:57:11 2024 again specifically uh elac allows
1:57:14 funding request for up to $10,000 to
1:57:18 support uh three initiative that I'll
1:57:20 speak later in the slides and again it's
1:57:23 important to mention that in last year
1:57:26 November 8th meeting El adopted new
1:57:30 sorry it's not metric supposed to be
1:57:32 Matrix called loging tax application
1:57:34 review of which I I'll also speak I'll
1:57:37 also expound more on the Matrix uh in in
1:57:39 in the next few
1:57:43 slides so here at the the the the new
1:57:46 matrics uh that uh we came up with and
1:57:50 they were adopted uh during our November
1:57:52 8th meeting last year so uh other the
1:57:56 first mrix we had project impact so we
1:57:59 kind of try to look what are the
1:58:01 tangible and intangible benefits uh for
1:58:04 the initiative to the local
1:58:06 community uh then again the next matric
1:58:10 we have overnight guest so how a tourism
1:58:14 Grant will result in increases to people
1:58:17 staying overnight
1:58:20 traveling 50 m away or more or coming
1:58:24 from another state for the initiative so
1:58:28 and again another thing that we are
1:58:29 looking at is organization
1:58:31 capability so under organization
1:58:35 capability it
1:58:37 encompasses uh
1:58:38 competence uh
1:58:41 capacity and expertise of individual or
1:58:44 team the reason why I came up with this
1:58:47 Matrix is in the recent past we get that
1:58:50 we recommend funding to different
1:58:51 organization they end up not using the
1:58:53 fund coming back to us and claiming that
1:58:56 they don't have a capacity so we had to
1:58:59 flesh out this specifically to the
1:59:01 application so that they can uh try to
1:59:04 uh uh uh let us know about their
1:59:07 capability to uh Drive the event that
1:59:09 they are asking fans for and of course
1:59:12 most importantly is our marketing of
1:59:14 which was also awarded 20 points and
1:59:17 again in marketing we trying to look at
1:59:19 how are you going to Market your
1:59:20 initiative because again the the aim of
1:59:23 this is we want to draw people from 50
1:59:25 mil away from
1:59:27 is there again is so important to
1:59:30 mention uh the diversity equity and
1:59:32 inclusion and uh the city is a big
1:59:35 champion of diversity equity and
1:59:37 inclusion so we also wanted to have a
1:59:38 sense what your organization is doing to
1:59:40 advance the principles of diversity uh
1:59:43 equity and inclusion of course also we
1:59:45 had uh the other matrics we had degree
1:59:48 of March and at degree of mar we looking
1:59:51 at do you have Mar FS to commit to this
1:59:53 project or rather what other sources of
1:59:56 revenue will be used to support this
1:59:58 project then also we had uh the last uh
2:00:02 uh uh matric here we had partnership and
2:00:05 collaboration so we wanted to kind of
2:00:07 have a feeling of how or rather what
2:00:09 plans the organization has to
2:00:11 collaborate with uh other organizations
2:00:14 in the community and again what are some
2:00:16 of these
2:00:17 organization uh that you want to
2:00:19 collaborate with and how are you going
2:00:21 to collaborate with this organization do
2:00:24 you also have volunteer involvement into
2:00:26 this initiative or project and a little
2:00:30 bit bonus point in the middle we tend we
2:00:32 tend also to to look at it into
2:00:34 different
2:00:36 angle uh we are looking at application
2:00:38 that are are they going to uh be held of
2:00:43 season
2:00:44 and are they also having a multiple day
2:00:48 M multi-day EV events that is 2 three 4
2:00:51 days events and again also it's
2:00:53 important also to mention the innovation
2:00:56 has a project like this been done before
2:00:59 then again if so has the project taken a
2:01:02 unique direction from other similar
2:01:04 events so this is the new metrics that
2:01:06 uh we we came up with to kind of guide
2:01:09 uh the eler committee in uh scrutinizing
2:01:12 and accessing these uh
2:01:18 applications interesting so in this uh
2:01:22 slide here we have our hotels and and
2:01:28 mels and again uh currently they uh
2:01:32 collect at the city 1% share of the tax
2:01:36 to pay any part of the cost of Tourism
2:01:40 promotion acquisition of Tourism related
2:01:43 facilities or operation of Tourism
2:01:46 related facilities and again Fairfield
2:01:49 in open uh this year in January so we
2:01:52 anticipate uh the revenue to increase uh
2:01:55 due to uh their opening uh this year of
2:01:57 which they anticipate uh doing a ribbon
2:02:00 cutting just a big launch uh either in
2:02:03 March or April I will update once we
2:02:06 have those
2:02:10 information so what are the initiative
2:02:13 supported by El
2:02:15 Grant we have three initiatives
2:02:18 supported by this
2:02:19 brand and number one is marketing to
2:02:22 visitors from outside the area by an
2:02:26 isaa business or not for-profit
2:02:28 organization kind to encourage travelers
2:02:31 to isaka from visitors greater than 50
2:02:33 miles
2:02:35 away the second initiative supported is
2:02:38 operation of nonprofit own tourism
2:02:40 related facilities like the Village
2:02:42 Theater and name
2:02:44 them and the last uh we are looking at
2:02:47 marketing and operation of special
2:02:50 events and Festival designed to attract
2:02:53 uh T So this are the guiding initiative
2:02:57 that uh they flesh out uh with the state
2:03:01 regulation too so we kind of build on
2:03:03 this uh in developing our our
2:03:08 Matrix in 2024 El applicant we had 14
2:03:15 applicants and it is important to
2:03:17 mention that among the 14 applicants
2:03:20 four of them were new
2:03:23 applicants uh so the 14 applicants they
2:03:26 they requested a total of 171
2:03:31 300,000 request and again if we compare
2:03:35 this with the last year figures this is
2:03:40 increase but again as as I'm still in
2:03:43 this slide it's also important to to
2:03:45 mention that one of the applicant was
2:03:47 found in a
2:03:49 for the El Grant so we flesh that
2:03:54 applicant
2:04:00 out this slides shows uh the 2024 El
2:04:04 recommended
2:04:06 applicants so the ELA committee
2:04:09 recommended 10
2:04:11 applicants are to be awarded a total
2:04:17 $50,000 and this graph shows how the El
2:04:21 Grant was awarded to these uh applicants
2:04:25 and of course it's also important to it
2:04:28 is prudent enough to mention that uh the
2:04:31 committee decided to award greater
2:04:33 Chambers of Commerce and Village Theater
2:04:35 the full ask uh based on their
2:04:38 applications that they submitted and
2:04:41 again they narrow down to uh this other
2:04:43 organization trying to allocate them uh
2:04:47 based on how well the they uh read The
2:04:51 Matrix fill in the application and how
2:04:54 did they come up with um different
2:04:57 components for these El
2:05:03 grants so options here we have three
2:05:06 options and the first option is uh kind
2:05:08 of accept the El recommendation as
2:05:13 is then the second option is uh select
2:05:16 uh different uh
2:05:17 organizations from the list or change uh
2:05:20 the recommended funding amounts for the
2:05:22 recommended
2:05:24 organizations then the last option here
2:05:26 is take no action the recommended
2:05:28 funding will not be
2:05:34 allocated so recommendation is
2:05:36 Administration recommends allocating the
2:05:38 2024 El grants as proposed by the elac
2:05:46 commit so timing and next step uh we
2:05:49 realize that this is a yearly cycle
2:05:52 Grant so we we tend to uh kind of open
2:05:56 this application open in January 2nd
2:05:59 2024 and we had a one month uh
2:06:02 application because the application was
2:06:04 closed in January 31st uh 2024 So within
2:06:09 that one month we used uh different
2:06:11 channels of communication to disseminate
2:06:13 uh the information that the El gr is
2:06:16 opened we use our E news we use the coms
2:06:19 and we use uh
2:06:22 visual V visual Partners to kind of
2:06:25 disate this information to a different
2:06:28 organization then in Fe 14th 2024 I was
2:06:31 the committee the El committee sit down
2:06:33 to kind of review uh go through uh this
2:06:37 application and come up with a
2:06:39 recommendation list and today F 2724 the
2:06:44 the presentation the recommend the
2:06:46 recommended applicants uh by the
2:06:49 I to be presented to the SSP Council
2:06:52 committee then we anticipate in March
2:06:55 4th the grant will go to uh to the
2:06:58 council meeting for
2:07:01 approval then uh December 30th 2024 is
2:07:04 project completed so it's important to
2:07:06 mention
2:07:08 that within the one year span for this
2:07:12 grant there are some initiative that
2:07:14 happen in the middle of the year January
2:07:17 so we not waiting until December once
2:07:19 the initiative are completed this applic
2:07:22 applicant sent invoices to us for
2:07:27 reimbursement so the direction needed
2:07:30 here is uh we seeking direction from the
2:07:32 services safety and park Council
2:07:34 committee for the award and allocation
2:07:36 of the 2024 El
2:07:41 Brands and that's the end of uh the
2:07:45 application unless there's any questions
2:07:47 I'm happy to
2:07:50 questions council member Joe first uh
2:07:54 for all thank you for all your hard work
2:07:56 um uh as many of you know I'm the chair
2:07:59 of the elac committee and we did move
2:08:02 the uh
2:08:03 application uh up a month to January and
2:08:06 that was certainly a a chunk of
2:08:09 additional work that Fel and his team
2:08:11 were able to take ride in stride and get
2:08:14 those um applications out we wanted to
2:08:16 give a ample opportunity for the
2:08:18 organizations to have uh events earlier
2:08:22 in the year that could receive funding
2:08:24 um forell one of the questions that I
2:08:26 had is uh we've been talking about
2:08:30 Equity inclusion uh in your presentation
2:08:34 and one of the organizations that's in
2:08:36 there I'd like you to highlight a little
2:08:37 bit is um the esqua highlands
2:08:40 Association and their um grub and groove
2:08:44 event and how that uh reach that event
2:08:48 reaches out to some of the uh
2:08:50 communities that uh chair Mars touched
2:08:53 upon uh during the festivals throughout
2:08:55 the year and the plan that they
2:08:59 have okay that's that's a good question
2:09:01 so we we realize that so can I hear me
2:09:05 on yes we can hear you
2:09:09 fine yeah that that's uh that's a good
2:09:12 question and again uh when we are
2:09:14 looking at these uh applications I think
2:09:18 it's is it's it's important to mention
2:09:20 uh different organization uh didn't uh
2:09:25 look at the piece of diversity equity
2:09:27 and inclusion but one of the applicant
2:09:29 Stand Out was Highland and of course uh
2:09:32 uh the chamber and and and Village
2:09:35 Theater to kind of uh flesh out more how
2:09:38 they're going to uh incorporate uh the
2:09:41 diversity equity and uh and inclusion so
2:09:44 again if you look at the Highlands the
2:09:46 islands uh since
2:09:49 it's it's a one day event but again uh
2:09:51 they were funded because of the
2:09:53 components of uh uh equity and inclusion
2:09:55 that they had and they kind of tee their
2:09:59 event as uh
2:10:01 group Expo for all Leg grab for all and
2:10:06 again to mention uh to to to goow back
2:10:10 to uh Village Theater again also I think
2:10:14 the principles of equity inclusion is
2:10:17 was was so much out standing uh when
2:10:20 these applications were being uh
2:10:21 reviewed I think the ELA committee
2:10:24 uploaded uh these two
2:10:27 organizations yeah thank you and and
2:10:30 just to highlight the events that
2:10:32 they're they want to hold they want to
2:10:35 coordinate with the city for a juneth
2:10:37 event uh they want to reach out to the
2:10:39 Mexican Community for an event and also
2:10:41 to our Muslim Community for one of their
2:10:43 events so these are um kind of things
2:10:48 things that chair March touched upon in
2:10:50 terms of reaching out to our communities
2:10:52 and meeting those communities where they
2:10:55 are by providing opportunities for them
2:10:57 to experience cultural events that that
2:10:59 are meaningful to them so I think that's
2:11:01 really important the other question I
2:11:03 had I wanted to highlight was the um the
2:11:08 the race that's going on the trail race
2:11:10 that's going on and was it the trail
2:11:13 race that had the uh adaptive cycling or
2:11:16 was it the uh the other event the the
2:11:20 point I want to make is the we have an
2:11:22 Adaptive cycling event which is going to
2:11:25 reach out to people that may not be able
2:11:27 to ride the traditional bike but the
2:11:29 Adaptive cycling from Outdoors for all
2:11:33 um that'll be working with this group
2:11:34 will provide that opportunity to provide
2:11:37 to have cycling that people that might
2:11:40 be missing an arm or a leg or other
2:11:43 appendage can still ride and enjoy the
2:11:46 outdoors can you touch upon that
2:11:47 application just just a little
2:11:49 bit it's it's application that was
2:11:51 submitted by uh the Evergreen mountain
2:11:53 bike and kind of they were trying to to
2:11:56 look at this uh as adaptive cycling
2:11:59 event and they they focus their whole
2:12:01 mind into uh people with disability how
2:12:03 can we now attract more people to isaka
2:12:06 with disability to kind of enjoy this uh
2:12:09 this event so they looked at a based on
2:12:12 your disability they have trainers uh to
2:12:15 kind of help you navigate through this
2:12:17 kind of event and and again they had
2:12:19 support system good support system to
2:12:21 kind of help uh these uh folks to kind
2:12:23 of also participate in this event so it
2:12:25 was so outstanding when they mention
2:12:27 that uh to the to to the they flesh it
2:12:30 out really clearly to the
2:12:31 applications yeah that's that's great I
2:12:35 really hope that people will uh find out
2:12:38 about that event and take part in it it
2:12:40 really makes a difference when they're
2:12:42 able to enjoy the great outdoors the
2:12:44 last question I had for you forel was um
2:12:48 during our conversation in the meeting
2:12:49 we talked about the communication and
2:12:52 followup that we were going to initiate
2:12:55 between the hotels and the applicant
2:12:58 that that received funding uh could you
2:13:00 touch on that a little bit and how we
2:13:02 hope that communication will lead to
2:13:05 more Economic Development uh for our
2:13:08 hotels and economic development in our
2:13:12 city thank you so so we we we we came up
2:13:16 with h some
2:13:18 post analysis from this grant whereby
2:13:22 for the organizations that they they
2:13:25 they are wanted the El funding uh we
2:13:28 communicate with the hoteliers to kind
2:13:30 of follow up with this organization
2:13:32 because at the end of the day we want to
2:13:34 increase the overnight stay within isqua
2:13:36 and how are we going to to Market this
2:13:38 kind of event so we want to engage the
2:13:40 hoteliers into this this process uh
2:13:43 whereby I will share this list of
2:13:47 applicant this organization that to the
2:13:49 otel so the OTAs will be are very much
2:13:51 obliged to kind of follow up to this
2:13:53 organization and kind of also Market
2:13:55 themselves because again if there's an
2:13:56 event that is isaka history museum is
2:13:59 doing and an Hotel will reach out to
2:14:01 isaka History Museum and kind of Market
2:14:03 the hotel to this event kind of talk to
2:14:06 the Saka hisory Museum that for
2:14:09 overnight States we have uh the this AB
2:14:13 C hotels around here so it's a kind of
2:14:15 followup that we are implementing to
2:14:18 kind of involve also the hoteliers into
2:14:19 these activities by kind of allowing
2:14:22 them also to have a one-on-one
2:14:23 conversation with these
2:14:25 organizations yeah that's a that's a
2:14:27 great summary it's going to allow the
2:14:29 hotel to know that the event is coming
2:14:31 and the event organizers to know that
2:14:33 the hotel can provide opportunities for
2:14:36 them for lodging and um you know an
2:14:39 after hours reception or other things
2:14:41 that can make a event uh more special uh
2:14:46 and more memorable along the way um so
2:14:50 I'll conclude my questions there and
2:14:52 pass on to other committee
2:14:55 members I have a question um how much
2:14:58 does eltac bring in each year and how
2:15:01 does that compare to this number this
2:15:03 recommended
2:15:07 number last year I I'll give an example
2:15:10 I I'll give a a case study of last year
2:15:12 so last year the revenue collected was
2:15:18 ,000 and again we had a deficit from
2:15:22 what we had uh estimated earlier cuz
2:15:26 last year in 2023 the elac estimated a
2:15:29 revenue of
2:15:32 $245,000 but again in last year we
2:15:34 anticipated that uh Fairfield in will
2:15:38 open last year but it didn't open so
2:15:41 that's why we had a deficit of uh around
2:15:43 $6,000 for collections so and again from
2:15:46 $239,000
2:15:48 uh normally also it's important also to
2:15:51 let you know that also the El visit
2:15:54 isaka is funded from from the elac
2:15:57 dollars so uh elac dollars last year we
2:16:00 funded them uh
2:16:03 210,000 and from the remaining dollars
2:16:07 uh was allocated to the uh to the uh
2:16:11 organizations that applied for these uh
2:16:15 grants thank you um
2:16:19 is there a
2:16:20 conversation eltech chair at some point
2:16:24 to discuss that mix between visit isqua
2:16:27 and um this funding system yeah let me
2:16:32 try to answer that question the $50,000
2:16:35 that is in this allocation was approved
2:16:38 by the council through the budget
2:16:39 process so if the council wanted in
2:16:42 their discretion to increase or decrease
2:16:44 it that certainly is something that we
2:16:46 could do the the amount for uh visit
2:16:49 isqua was uh determined through our
2:16:52 normal process as well in a conversation
2:16:56 um one thing I would add is that there
2:16:57 is still a surplus after those
2:17:00 expenditures that we are saving and
2:17:02 holding back for either you know a
2:17:05 larger project or if a bigger
2:17:07 opportunity comes to us uh say with a
2:17:10 wayf finding way finding project um that
2:17:13 could be something that ltac could
2:17:15 explore uh using dollars for so I don't
2:17:18 know if that exactly answers your
2:17:20 question but that's how the division of
2:17:21 the the funds is kind of envisioned and
2:17:24 set out right now thank
2:17:27 you uh Deputy council president do you
2:17:29 have any
2:17:32 questions
2:17:35 no yeah no it's just fine thanks barl
2:17:39 can you bring up again the your your ask
2:17:41 or what you're looking for from
2:17:45 this so it's really just our uh support
2:17:49 for the Altech grants
2:17:54 then it would be support for the grants
2:17:56 and then um probably Direction in terms
2:17:59 of whether or not we want it to be on
2:18:01 the consent agenda or we feel that it
2:18:03 needs to be somewhere else currently it
2:18:04 is scheduled for the consent agenda if I
2:18:07 could just close with just a couple of
2:18:09 comments on on my side I would like to
2:18:11 thank all the members of the committee
2:18:13 that give their time uh we have a member
2:18:15 from the Hilton Hotel a member from
2:18:17 Spring Hill Suites person from the isqua
2:18:20 chamber and a person from Village
2:18:22 Theater that give their time to sort
2:18:24 through all these applications and uh
2:18:27 try to have the best mix of of
2:18:31 recipients that meet the ltac goals and
2:18:34 try to bring some additional visits to
2:18:37 isqua and exposure to isqua uh in the
2:18:40 tourist industry and I just want to uh
2:18:43 commend them for their great work they
2:18:45 come to the meetings prepared and they
2:18:47 have have um great comments in their
2:18:49 conversations and we really couldn't do
2:18:51 that work this work without those
2:18:53 volunteers thank
2:18:56 you thank you uh I'm assuming there's no
2:19:00 public
2:19:01 comment okay uh council
2:19:04 member Deputy council president D
2:19:08 Michelle thank you uh I remember when
2:19:11 Zach was Deputy council president and I
2:19:13 could never get his title right either
2:19:15 so so it's a it's a bful uh yeah I
2:19:20 support uh this I I know having been on
2:19:24 the Arts commission how much work goes
2:19:25 into reviewing applications and and
2:19:29 discussion to allocate just the right
2:19:31 amounts of money and um it looks like
2:19:34 there was a very careful job done here
2:19:36 so I would support uh the recommendation
2:19:40 as presented and i would support putting
2:19:42 it on the consent agenda uh for the
2:19:45 March 4th meeting thank you
2:19:48 you thank you yeah I support that
2:19:50 recommendation as well I I do I would
2:19:53 love the next time it makes sense though
2:19:55 to have a a conversation again about um
2:19:58 you know you tickled my ear there with
2:20:01 you know major projects and wayfinding
2:20:02 and stuff like that I would would love
2:20:04 to have a conversation at some point
2:20:05 maybe perhaps U once we have a little
2:20:07 bit better idea on stability of funding
2:20:10 and uh and that set of things whether
2:20:12 there's some money to work with no
2:20:14 that's great and and we have that
2:20:16 conversation about every um every other
2:20:19 meeting as we're talking about the
2:20:21 funding so we have our and Jen Davis
2:20:24 Hayes does a great job uh availing of us
2:20:27 availing us of opportunities that might
2:20:29 be coming up for our consideration so um
2:20:33 it's on our radar definitely thank you
2:20:36 well thank you for the presentation this
2:20:37 evening and I'll ask the city
2:20:38 administrator if he has what he was
2:20:40 looking for and he's nodding his head
2:20:42 and so uh I think we can just go ahead
2:20:45 and uh adjourn the meeting
2:20:48 so with that we are adjourned this
2:20:49 evening I want to thank the uh staff who
2:20:51 supported the meeting tonight and uh the
2:20:55 uh members of the Committees and
2:20:57 commissions and those of you at home who
2:20:59 are watching this meeting thank