Champaign City Council - 9/22/26

Champaign (city), IL · 2026-09-22 · More Champaign (city), IL meetings · More Illinois meetings

Transcript

Download: Text · SRT ·

SOURCE TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is downloaded from the source you provided but we haven't reviewed it for accuracy. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record. You can also request an AI-transcription of the audio file with the button to the left.

[0:15] Hello and welcome to the Champaign City Council study session for Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026.

[0:24] Madam mayor, I move that we approve the minutes of September 1st, 2026 regular Council meeting. Second.

[0:30] We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I, I. Opposed. Same sign. Motion carries.

[0:42] AM I just turning it over? S3:

[1:19] That is fine. That's great. Okay. All right. Daniel and Krista, do you guys.

[1:32] Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thanks, Joan, for the introduction. I was going to cover that here. Uh, as Joan said, I'm Chris Kester, public works administrative services manager. And with me is Dan Spear with the Planning and Development Department. Uh, so we've collaborated a little bit on these two reports to council. Um, which is going to be presented at all, at all at the same time. So we'll get started.

[2:00] All right. Good evening. Council. Um, this is not just something staff thought up one day. We were approached by 40 North with a grant opportunity that they heard about through the Illinois Arts Council, uh, to apply for that grant to fund 6 to 8 vinyl wraps on traffic control boxes that the city owns. Uh, the funding would have allowed them to install 6 to 8. And we thought his staff, rather than just provide a letter of support, which of course we did. Why don't we talk about whether council or the public have any desire to do this more regularly or programmatically, rather than just a one off? Um, so a quick primer on what we're talking about. It's not paint on the traffic control box. They're actual vinyl prints. So, uh, visual artists that works in Photoshop or something could print these on, on vinyl and wrap a control box. They don't interfere with the control box equipment. They don't alter it structurally, they can be printed and installed by a local print shop. Dean's does Urbana, so there are local suppliers that can do this. It's not some specialty out of Chicago item. They cost around $1,500 per box and typically lasts 5 to 7 years. However, there are some in Urbana that have lasted ten years and still look pretty good.

[3:19] In the report, there's a few more examples. Urbana is not the only city doing this. They're all around the country. They're in Madison, Columbus, Minneapolis. A few are pictured here. Sometimes they can be used for wayfinding, and there's a lot of different programs and different ways to do this. But typically there is a very strong nonprofit partnership, either through a business development district or with an arts council or both, and sometimes with an advisory body to city council, like a public arts Um commission, for example, the model that we're going to talk about today, um, is very typical of what we saw around the nation in that if you take all these different programs and funding sources and structures, they typically boil down to four steps. You start by identifying the locations and funds. So which traffic control boxes are you going to wrap and how much money do you have to do that? Then the nonprofit partner, typically an arts council, will issue a call for artists and set up any criteria to select that artwork. The nonprofit can also set up a selection jury. So often these artworks are selected by a panel of people. It's not one staff person. Rubber stamping? Yes. No. It's often a qualified panel of experts in public art consisting of artists themselves and sometimes academics. Sometimes that also goes to that advisory board or to a city council for ultimate approval. But there's always a panel. And then finally, the last step. After all the artwork has been selected and approved, the Public Arts League or the coordinating body will help the artist and the city coordinate the installation and the maintenance plans and the removal if needed.

[5:11] I'll kick it over to Chris now to talk about the Champaign process.

[5:14] Yeah. So I think, as Dan mentioned, there's various ways that this happens in Urbana. The Urbana is city Council also has an arts commission that is involved heavily in the process. Um, we propose that in place of doing that here, that any, um, pieces of art that are selected to participate in this process, um, from whichever partner that we use more than likely 40 north, uh, those would go before the city manager for a final review and approval. Before we click go on the installation, the printing and the installation.

[5:52] Um. The city owns approximately 268 traffic control boxes throughout campus, Midtown, uh, and throughout the whole city. Um, but the best locations for placing this art is typically in higher visible pedestrian with pedestrian traffic and highly trafficked areas. So, uh, our proposal initially would be that we look at downtown, especially Midtown and Campus Town and then explore future locations, uh, depending on further direction.

[6:21] Um, as far as content standards, uh, in both the reports and here we have outlined a few that we thought of, especially after consulting with other peer organizations, uh, and 40 North. Um, since we've put out the council study since we put out the study session, we've had a few comments, uh, and original input, including, um, the use of intellectual property, um, or artificial intelligence to design the art. That's something that 40 North is currently working on right now and discussions with them. Um, they really highly value original artwork. Um, and original artwork can be digitally produced by an artist, but it should not be, um, enhanced or solely produced by artificial intelligence. And so, uh, they're working on that as an organization and will, um, if we choose to go forward with this, that will certainly be something that the city encourages. And our sort of call for artists is, must be original, uh, must not contain intellectual property, um, and other things like that. So, um, and also in their application to the Illinois Arts Council, uh, 40 North did say that, um, did indicate to the Illinois Arts Council that it would all have to be original art artwork. So, um, that's been accounted for. Uh, when we talk here just generally about interference with city operations, uh, obviously, we would not put this on a plate on something that would, um, alter any sort of warning signs or, um, instructions. Uh, and then also public works had a little bit of input from our traffic control or from our traffic engineers about because, because we don't know how this works on our end or how it would affect our equipment. We know that it's worked well in Urbana. Uh, really, we just ask that any sort of art is not completely black, you know? So like, we're not just going to convert an art box to a completely, very dark that may attract sunlight and may affect the operation because of the temperature inside of the control box. But again, Urbana has been doing this for quite a few years with success. And so, um, that was really the only sort of input that our technical staff had on that.

[8:36] There is a few other considerations to listed here. One is jurisdiction. Chris mentioned we have 268 approximately traffic control boxes, 59 of which are in the Downtown Plan study area. There's a lot more in town, though. The park district owns some. IdOt owns others. Any program that we adopt will only apply to city owned ones. And in fact, city owned ones that are next to state routes might also require an IdOt, an Illinois Department of Transportation permit for their approval. Another consideration, the Visual Artists Rights Act. That's a federal law that gives artists certain rights over their work after they've sold or licensed the artwork in to prevent its displacement or dis. I don't know, like alteration. Under our proposed process, 40 North would own the vinyl wraps, and in their agreement with the artist, they'd enter into um, they would they would stipulate that after two years the artist would waive their Visual artist rights Act rights, and if anything happened to the control box, or if it was hit by a car, or if the city needed to repair or replace it, that the artist would waive those rights and indemnify the city, basically. And then the third one here is some case law that went to the Supreme Court in 2022. This the city of Boston had a few flagpoles out front, the City Hall and had a allowed nonprofit groups and neighborhood groups to hoist their flags with city approval. The approval was almost automatic, and they approved basically anything that came before them. A religious group wanted to hoist their flag, and the city said, oh, actually, no. Because of the separation of church and state, we won't fly that. Um, the religious group took them to court. And because there were no content restrictions on hoisting different flags, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the religious group and found that the flagpole acted more as a forum for public speech rather than government speech. So we believe that we are on solid footing with the content restrictions that Chris has proposed. But any amendment to the 40 North Agreement for a traffic control box program will be reviewed by our legal team to make sure their interpretation is consistent with ours.

[11:08] As we get ready to transition to the topic of public art, a policy about public art. These are just a few things to keep in mind about the section that we just talked about, which we'll come back to after the next very few slides. But we would propose that. And what we'll be asking you at the end, uh, you know, we propose that we amend the current 40 North agreement to allow for this program to exist. We would somehow identify funding for the initial 6 to 8 boxes. And then obviously, we would take any sort of, um, council comments on content standards. Uh, and so we'll bring that up again at the end, but just kind of wanted to give you a quick, uh, wrap up of this section of that.

[11:50] Okay, shifting gears a bit, and this is that second study session report, um, typical planner kind of blowing up the scope of what we're talking about today some more. So we talked about how traffic control box is something that's not, it's not an art type that's really addressed in our current policies. Um, there's a lot of other different types of art that isn't addressed as well. So the city has had a relationship with the, the Public Arts League since 2010 to install sculptures downtown. And then when their functions were absorbed by 40 North in 2021, um, we've maintained that relationship with 40 North. Uh, we'll amend that agreement pending your direction to include traffic control box art, but that won't capture things like viaduct murals or sidewalk art or banners on light poles or artistic bike racks. Requests we've received anecdotally and not documented throughout the years, but also ones that are consistent with recommendations in our comprehensive plan. In our last two downtown plans, and which has received a lot of support in the Downtown Plan update, which has received over 2000 in person and survey responses over the past few years. One of the core themes of this downtown Plan update is one of identity and storytelling. What is it that makes downtown unique and specifically? Many residents have asked for murals and more public art downtown, so a broader public art policy would be something that is responding to a documented city resident request.

[13:35] Sorry about that.

[13:38] Um, as Dan mentioned, we, we do see lots of different art around downtown. Um, for the past several years, the public works forestry section has been, uh, placing large sculptures that are, um, football themed or holiday themed around downtown. Um, you see here a picture of a couple of those, the pumpkin and the snowman. Um, we have several, um, collaborations that we have with 40 North and unit four, uh, where we have different sculptures. A couple of one of those you see here, uh, and then, um, also there are several business and redevelopment plans that give, uh, points about where artists could install public art. Um, there's even, uh, it's not city property, but it is in Champaign. But the newest parking garage at the U of I built directly across from the football stadium was built with an external art in mind. And so if you drive down fourth Street and you're, you look and you're like, what is that? What's a public parking garage that includes. Included in the design and build was a large a large sculpture that sits there. So, um, throughout, uh, throughout our city, we have various, uh, arts, uh, various pieces of art. And then possibly creating a public art policy could unify these and future efforts.

[15:01] One thing we'd like your feedback on, um, we're not drafting the public art policy tonight, but if you do direct us to draft a policy for public art, we do want to know how involved council and the general public should be. There's three options here. We're open to others, but one would be that council reviews every piece of artwork or could review deployments of funding, like each round of funding for for different phases of artwork or installations. A second would be that staff could administratively approve artwork and mail nearby property owners about that new artwork. It would be similar to like a rezoning notification process we use in the planning department. The third, and the one that staff recommend, though, is that you give the city manager and city staff authority to administer and install artwork under the proposed. Generally, under the proposed process for the Traffic Control Box program. And we could summarize those. Or 40 North could summarize those activities annually to you.

[16:09] Uh, as mentioned, there are different ways to have funding opportunities. Um, for example, some of the sculptures that have been brought by Public Arts League and 40 North, um, those have been on rent, uh, with certain people or organizations providing the, the rental, uh, for that through throughout a certain period of time. Uh, we could certainly explore one time or city recurring funds that would go towards this. There could be funding opportunities like what 40 North applied for through the Illinois Arts Council, and there could potentially be the flexibility to accept, um, specific private or nonprofit sponsorship of, of a traffic control box or a mural or something. Um, in addition to what we already look at with some of the sculptures, um, and we would propose that, um, any of those would sort of be administered and flow through an amended agreement with potentially with 40 north, um, as we move forward.

[17:09] So I've summarized the feedback where the specific feedback we're looking for from both study session reports and from this presentation above. Um, also happy to receive any other feedback or input, but generally for traffic control boxes, should we amend the agreement with 40 North to install a few. Uh, the second should we find some funding to do that? There is some economic development funding that could be used to do that. However, um, Kelly North is here and she'll speak during public comment. I'd like for her to talk about the grant funding status before you make any funding decisions. Um, and then third, your thoughts on the content standards, the selection process, if there are others or things we should remove or edit on the public art policy. We're really looking for direction on whether to draft a larger public art policy that could unify existing and future efforts. Um, we want to know how involved council and the general public would be in individual artwork selection. And then three, if we should start looking for one time or recurring funding, potentially as part of the spring budget process. With that, we're happy to take any questions.

[18:19] Council member Gladney thank you.

[18:22] Um, yeah, I have a few questions.

[18:27] Um all right. So.

[18:32] We talked about maybe doing 6 to 8 initially and um, and that maybe it would last 5 to 7 years. So would we be thinking as long as everything goes well as far as the condition of the vinyl wrap, and if there's no public objections that, you know, the first 6 to 8 would be the same, would have the same art on them for like 5 to 7 years. All right.

[19:00] Is that correct? S4:

[19:52] Sure. And so am I understanding correctly that, you know, maybe like the first year we do 6 to 8 and then like the next year we would look at maybe doing another few, so on and so forth.

[20:05] Yeah, that's, that's what our envisioning of the program is, is to see how it goes. And then, uh, to determine what sort of cycle we look at for sort of an update or refresh or just new art that would be out there.

[20:18] Okay. Um, also explain to me vinyl wrap. It's a term I've heard mostly associated with cars, but I didn't really understand it then. But talk to me about vinyl wrap.

[20:31] Um, so if you don't mind, I'll go back just so that we sort of have a visual, um, uh, depiction of what we're sort of discussing here. Um, so this particular box right here, um, you can see some of the, um, original pieces of it. Uh, if you look along the, um, the corner, you can see the hinge, the metal hinge. So, you know, that came like that. Also the piece that sticks out that has the, the locks on it, the padlocks on it, you know, that that's part of the original metal box that showed up when Urbana, you know, put this traffic control traffic signal control in. Um, you can also see sort of in the middle, there's the venting area. Um, so basically what has happened is that the artists designed this piece of art, as you will probably in a digital format. It was submitted to 40 North, uh, and the Urbana Arts Council and was selected to be placed here. So then 40 North works with the artist and with Dean's Graphics, who's a local printer. Um, and they, they, they have the exact specifications of this particular box and there are standards to boxes, but it's my, I have an inkling that they go out and they digitally measure each individual box because there's potentially something that won't be exactly the same. And they have those dimensions that they have digitally there at Dean's. And then they basically sort of place this art on that digital thing. And then they have a giant, uh, vinyl graphic printer that prints this thing out, and then they end up sort of, you can see where they've kind of cut it in certain things. And so that just like you would here with a car wrap, um, they print that out in full color and then they come and they peel the backing off and they sort of, this is not a job I could have because I don't have steady hands. But they, they, they place that vinyl on there and it sticks to there. Um, and I'm sure there's some sort of sealing process or something that sort of helps it adhere, but that vinyl graphic and we do do this back in public works, it's just on a much smaller scale. So when you see City of Champaign on the side of a vehicle that's also been printed on sort of a vinyl graphic, um, that's then put on our vehicles, but this is much more sort of complex and complicated because they're trying to cover as much of the entire box as possible. Does that answer your question? Okay.

[22:56] Fascinating to me. Um, next question is about maintenance. So, um, I'm assuming part of the budget that would be allocated for this either via grant or maybe some city funds or what have you would go toward, um, having something reserved for maintaining these.

[23:13] Is that correct? S4:

[24:56] Um, will the artists be compensated for their work?

[25:01] Yeah. The $1,500 unit cost we have up there has an artist fee within it. Um, so Kelly can probably give you a better breakdown, but it does include the printing costs, some 40 North administration costs and, um, yeah, compensation for the artist, where I was also envisioning. We had an example of Columbus. Yeah. Here on the left, you can see there's an artist attribution and some logos, so we can put City of Champaign 40 north. Any sponsors could go up there QR code to their website so the artist would gain recognition in addition to their monetary compensation.

[25:40] Okay. And then what's one more question? Yeah, one more question. So it's mentioned you touched on it in the presentation and it's in our packet about, um, some of the restrictions potentially like basically of a religious and a political nature. Um, the examples for the political ones are what I that were presented in our packet are what I call capital P political, which is obviously like, no, no candidate stuff, no political party information. What about what I call lowercase p political? Because there's a lot of things these days that are considered political. So has that has that been thought about or or what we would say is okay, no, it's not okay.

[26:27] Uh, great question. And one, we definitely struggled with a lot of the peer programs I looked at, um, some of them have explicit content standards, others don't all handle it with a qualified jury selection that often weeds out and has a good understanding of what the community might protest and what they might not. So not a very clean answer, but also one where council is not making a decision. It's really being held by public art experts.

[26:59] Okay. Thank you.

[27:00] Anyone else have technical questions? Council member Williams.

[27:04] Thank you, Madam Mayor. I do have a question for Council Member Gladney. Could you help us define the small p political.

[27:12] Well, I will give you an example. Close to home. Um, someone wanted to put up some art that had, for example, like an LGBTQ pride flag, which I personally would have no problem with. But that is, I would, I would think that most people would consider that though political in nature, lowercase p. Um, so yeah, that was.

[27:33] Not in this community, maybe not in this community.

[27:36] Not in this community, maybe. But, you know.

[27:39] I'll say one other thing too. We do have human rights ordinance. Um, and part of that is to make sure everyone in our community feels welcome and doesn't feel discriminated in. That applies to the public realm too. So any public art would have to adhere to that.

[27:54] All right. Thanks.

[27:56] Any other technical.

[27:57] Yeah, I have some more. I have some more question. Um, one question I did. So we're going to just focus on downtown at first. Is that what I heard. And then we'll expand to the rest of the of the city.

[28:07] That was the thought. Just because downtown has a pretty high pedestrian activity, as does Midtown and Campustown. But actually, if you see in the the map of throughout the city, there's a high concentration of traffic control boxes, downtown Midtown Campustown as well, because of the intersection density and number of traffic lights there.

[28:25] True, true.

[28:26] The only reason why I was asking is because as we as we look to expand, um, are we going to allow neighborhoods and residents to have somewhat of an input on what these boxes look like or, and, or, um, just like, like we want to put this here or this, you know, some people may have a problem with, I know it's abstract art, but, you know, we, our residents, you know, you get what I'm saying.

[28:53] Yeah. No. Um, we, I think long term could have a process for going outside into the neighborhood. For example, like if there were a city owned traffic control box near Hedgehog Park and Garden Hills. Um, that would be great. Right. And if the community wanted something there. Sure. I think having a process in downtown will make that easier. And other communities do have different levels of civic involvement. Minneapolis, for example, is a little unique in that they have prescribed pre-approved traffic control box arts. Artworks like they select every year, ten more that they just add to this catalog. And so residents can pick and choose. And then they have a separate process for custom proposals. So if a Garden Hills resident, for example, wanted, um, a, a specific type of art or to work with a specific artist, there's more of a custom review process for that, but that's definitely something we could explore. Um, I don't think we had contemplated it for this initial rollout because we were imagining either grant or city funding on just a pilot program.

[29:58] Gotcha.

[29:59] Um, another question that I had was, um.

[30:05] The art. So it is, it is vinyl, right. And so things can be copied on there. So are these like just digital copies? I'm not just like digital artwork or is it like more or less? I have a painting and I take a picture of it and I can, um, place it on, on vinyl.

[30:19] It's typical typically digital artwork. So someone will um, draw or paint in, um, you know, in Adobe product and then, and then they'll place it onto this vinyl wrap. Um, that can then be printed, but they're not like taking out oils and then painting on a vinyl wrap.

[30:37] No. So that's not so, so yeah, I'm glad you said that. So what I'm saying is like, let's say I have a piece of artwork and I have prints of that. Is it possible for me to get my print on a traffic box? If, if something like, you know.

[30:50] Oh, I believe so. I, um, Kelly works more on the logistics, so I'll write that down for her to answer, but I believe that's possible. Yeah.

[31:00] Okay.

[31:00] The they might have to like modify it depending on what the dimensions of the box are.

[31:06] Um, I have, I can answer that a little bit more explicitly, and Kelly can tell me if it's changed since then. But one of my. I have an acquaintance who's moved out of the area by now, but he did have an actual painting that was that I believe he took a photo of to submit to the Urbana one, but then when it came time for them to digitize that, he actually took his painting to Dean's and they were able to use a high res scanner to scan that painting and then digitize the painting because I had to help them take the painting. And it was a very nerve wracking process for them, because this is the one and only piece that this is. And so I think that there's ways that because of the technology that Dean's has, um, you know, they could take a physical piece of art and get it to look as close as possible to what it looks like on the painting, but it's just put in digital form. And if you'd like to see that it's over on Griggs Street in Urbana, but that was originally submitted as a painting or a pick a photo of his of the painting and then later when it was selected, was put through the other process.

[32:10] Gotcha.

[32:11] Thank you. Um, I got two more questions. Um, this, um, as it relates to the process of choosing individuals for artwork, how do we, how are we, um, having an equitable approach as it relates to local artists and making sure that those individuals have a chance to put forth their, their artwork.

[32:33] Yeah. I believe that, um, you know, we would work with 40 North, but I believe they, they have a fairly well established process that says we're looking for local artists. And I'm sure if that message reaches past, uh, you know, the local confines of what we would say, you know, Champaign Champaign County that that could be part of the weighted system or whatever. But I think that as connected as 40 North is to the local arts community, um, on campus, outside of campus, um, you know, uh, already we see local art on busses and in the bus terminal and up on the billboards and stuff. And I, I want to say that the majority of those are, are local artists. And there have been a few instances where people have come from out of town for certain things, like murals and stuff, but I think there's a very large connection to the to local art.

[33:24] Gotcha.

[33:24] Last question as it relates, um, as we talked, we talked about in um content standards, um, why is it not well, why is it, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, why is it not appropriate to have a, uh, identifiable person on, on artwork? I just wanted what, what was your reasoning behind that?

[33:50] I can take that one. That I think was mostly me. Um, oftentimes, you know, people that we might look up to, things might be revealed about their, their past, um, that maybe were not known at the time that they were placed on our. So, for example, like a mural of Cesar Chavez. And then it's revealed his past pedophilia. These kinds of examples. So we thought it was safest not to include individuals because individuals can also represent, you know, small P political movements as well sometimes. Um, and so having seen the variety of artwork that's available without identifiable individuals, we thought it was all right to circumvent potential issues.

[34:35] Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you so much.

[34:38] Anybody else? I had one technical, which is if neighborhoods see this and they've got an HOA and they have the ability to raise funds to do this. Is there any way that we could allow allow for that in our agreement with 40 North so that, you know, the city is not necessarily paying for it, but it could go through that same vetting process. And, you know, my HOA decides this is the coolest thing ever. And we've got these ugly cable boxes we'd like to cover up that we could be a part of the program even though we're not downtown. So I just throw that out as an idea or a question like, could we do that? I guess.

[35:31] Yeah, I think we could do that. Good idea.

[35:33] Okay. Um, all right. So if there is anyone in the audience who wishes to address this, please step forward. You guys can leave, but I think Kelly may be the only one who's speaking, so I'll. It's up to you. Um, please state your name and city of residence. And please limit your comments to five minutes or less.

[35:54] Okay. Kelly White Champaign. I've been tortured back there not wanting to answer all these questions. So just as a little background, we've been coordinating this very similar program in Urbana for several years. Um, it is basically very much like Chris said, it's a giant sticker really, but deans comes out and does a 3D mapping of each box because all the boxes are a little bit different. The good news as part of what they're talking about, we got late notice of it, but we have received the grant from Illinois Arts Council. It is $12,000 and it will be for five boxes, which also will include a $300 artist stipend for each artist that's selected. Um, so that could be the kick off, which we hope it is. Um, in the past, obviously we've had to avoid IdOt, we've had to avoid ameron boxes. So it has been all city boxes that we have wrapped. Um, and yes, any painting, any photograph of any kind, if it's a high res, even digital photo of it doesn't have to have a specialized scan. That's awesome if they do, but several of the ones you saw up there were just high res photos of their painting or drawing or any kind of of multimedia piece that they've done. So it doesn't restrict anybody. And also all the calls we do outside of a couple of specialized murals are all Champaign County artists. They have to live or work in Champaign County. So any of the other programs you see is to including these would all be local art. And then what is this question? Um, final wraps and kind of paint together. Yeah. So I already said that. Yeah. We work with deans exclusively, but Dixon Graphics also does scan high res images. So sometimes artists, if they want a really high res image, they go to Dixon Graphics. They scan it beautifully. And then they have this great image that can be used for all kinds of projects. But including this because deans does love a high, really high res image to work from when they create the printing. So, um, super excited. I hope you all are super excited because it really takes some really dull infrastructure and makes it very vibrant and wonderful. Also, it gives the artists a chance to be out there and seen in the everyday landscape, which I think is a great way to take art to the people. Not everybody goes to galleries or to museums, but this way we kind of take it out there for the world, and the ones we've done in Urbana have been hugely successful, just really makes everything look much more vibrant and wonderful, and shows all the great talent that we have here in Kew. So thank you.

[38:12] Low maintenance, very low maintenance. I actually haven't heard of any maintenance thus far. I mean, bird poop, sure. But the rain kind of comes. I mean, like Chris said, a lot of them been up for 8 to 10 years. The printing the last decade in printing has been huge. I mean, we do murals on glass and Urbana as well. Some of those have been up for 12 years. They've really I mean, even the sun, the ones that are out in direct sun all the time, there's going to be some fading eventually, but these things are looking really great after a long period of time. So as far as win win for a lot of different things, these are an amazing public art possibility. Thank you.

[38:45] Thanks, Kelly. Anyone else please step forward, state your name and city of residence.

[38:52] Hi. Council. Theodore Kemna, a City of Champaign. Um, as many of you probably know, I am the U of I student government's liaison to the city of Champaign. It's one of the couple hats I wear. Um, and I just want to say I've been doing this, I've been in this role for a few years now. And strangely besides, like, you know, traffic lights and those sorts of things, one of the things that's actually been brought to me by a number of students over the years is when is the Champaign side of campus going to get that art on those ugly boxes like the Urbana side of campus has? I know I've talked to Council Member Pianfetti and Council Member Shannon about this in the past, and I just want to say that this is a really great program. Um, that a number that Urbana has that a lot of the students over there really enjoy. And I just am very happy to see that it's finally getting started here in Champaign. And I know it's starting downtown, but I look forward to seeing it spread to campus. And I'll say you'll find a very receptive audience over there. Thank you, thank you.

[39:49] Anyone else? All right. Eight Council comments. Anybody? Council Member. Gladney.

[39:58] Thank you. So. Okay. First, thank you for putting this together and for presenting it tonight and for answering all these all these questions. Um, no, I think this is exciting. I'm definitely in favor of it. Um, obviously I did have some, some questions about it, which I appreciate the answers to and that's kind of helped me think through it a bit. Uh, as far as the funding goes, I didn't quite hear exactly. Kelly said something earlier when she was speaking about a grant, but in general, um, grant funding is great, but I'm also not opposed to the city, um, making some, some funding toward it as well. I mean, in the grand, the grand scheme of city budget, I mean, this is a very small amount. Um, so I mean, if we need to fund it to get it off the ground or whatever, that's fine. Um, The content stuff. I don't know whether that will ever be an issue or not. I mean, um, but I think the restrictions that you have in place or, or have proposed putting in place are fine for now. And if there's any, uh, bridges that we need to cross, well, then we'll do that at the time. Um, and as far as the options you presented one, 2 or 3, I think I'm fine with number three. That is some that is the least micromanaged, uh, those options. And, um, so yeah. Now that said, um, however you want to, I don't even know whether this needs to be included in any kind of, you know, setup or rules of it. But if at some point we want to like involve the community and like, maybe in a special one, like, um, you know, if we do like 5 or 6 of these, but then like we'd want to do one where we get like a big community project. We get community input or we have a theme or whatever. I'm definitely maybe on those kind of less frequent occasions, maybe getting a broader input, maybe community wide. But for the most part, option three that you presented is what I'm good with. And that's it. Thank you.

[42:11] Just I will just say that Kelly said when. So since we wrote the report and you guys got it, they found out that they got a $12,000 grant that we said in our report that they did not get. But they found out late, late, late Thursday night that they had received it. And so we wanted Kelly to be able to share that news. And so it's $12,000 that will fund up to five of these initially. So they were able to get the Illinois Arts Council grant.

[42:38] Awesome. Thank you.

[42:40] Council Member. Foellmer.

[42:43] Thank you, Your Honor. Thanks so much to all of you. Um, I am so excited about this. I cannot even express to you how, um, how pleased I am. Um, I, I will say, um, so I, I think that, uh, the, the cost, you know, I'm just going to call it 15000, which is a little more than, uh, it's kind of estimated here. Um, it seems so minimal for such an incredible impact in so many different ways. Like it's, it's the artists getting themselves out there. It's improving our community. It's improving. Um, you know, how people view their, their spaces. Um, and so like, this is just, it's, it's to me, it's such a no brainer. Um, that I'm, I'm just really excited about it. I think, um, the content standards make, make great sense. And, and really, actually, I would argue that the juried process is the, the, the more important component of that, um, the jury will, uh, handle, I think handle it well. Um, in terms of, uh, the public art policy in general, um, yes, I would like to, uh, to see that move forward and also to see the, um, to see us provide administrative authority and then see an annual review so that, that third option that you had, um, in terms of funding, I, I, do, I, I do think that, uh, dedicating recurring funding to it is, is important. Um, it's something that, uh, that I would greatly value. Um, and finally, um, on a, I guess, I guess on a personal note, um, so I work in the school of art and design. It is their 150th anniversary this year. Um, so, um, so any way that they might be involved would be really cool. Um, for them. So, so thank you so much to all of you. Thanks so much to you, Kelly over at 40 North. And for everything that you all are doing.

[44:48] Council Member. Pollett.

[44:50] Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for addressing some of my questions during the prep time for this presentation. Um, I will say I'm a little hurt that so many people think necessary infrastructure is ugly. It's hard work done by a skilled trade. Um, but I get it. Yellow's a lot. Um, ultimately, I hope that this could lead to an ArcGIS layer on the city's maps where all these boxes can be shown off. So there might eventually be the opportunity for people to go take walking tours of all the public art we've got up there. Um, I'm glad to hear this is going to benefit Champaign County Artists, and I'm glad to hear they're getting paid for their time and their labor. Um, I would be happy to leave the decisions on generative AI use to the juried community of artists, but I'm also totally cool with it just being by humans for humans. Um, I would say that if we, I love the idea that we have community input going forward. as far as potential community voting on projects, I would hope we maybe stay away from online voting. We've seen other communities get burned by that. Um, I love public art. I love it when it's weird. Um, when I lived in Urbana, I am recovering from that still. I woke up one morning to find a giant ten foot high eyeball outside the bus garage that for the first six months, I absolutely hated. Then I realized it was really handy to be able to give people directions, to just tell them to turn left at the creepy eye. Um, so I love that. Um, I think we'll probably have people who are a little upset for the first couple days when they see something, but you get used to it and it becomes a beloved part of the community, just like anything else. Um, I will definitely be in favor of policy three though, because I think the less opportunity we necessarily have to cause or to give people the opportunity to have concerns, probably for the best. Thank you.

[46:38] Councilmember Shannon.

[46:41] Thank you for the presentation and all the work that you've done on this. Um, love the fact that it's local artists. I think I know this is a pilot and this is looking way down the road. I think it would be cool to have some kind of a weighted point system to prioritize somebody with connections to a neighborhood, you know? Um, I think that would be neat. Um, I'd love to have neighborhoods be able to request one in the future and to, uh, I would like the idea of having people be able to raise funds to, to get one in their neighborhood. I think that's cool. Um, in terms of the art, um, policy, I just, I love the idea of viaduct art. I think that our viaducts are, they are necessary infrastructure, but they are ugly. And I think it would be lovely to see, like you had an example in the slide show of a really beautiful mural underneath a viaduct. I would love to see that you also had some examples of bike racks. And boy, I hate to be that person, but sometimes those decorative bike racks are not very functional. So maybe we just paint the bike racks different colors rather than have them be the fanciful shapes that you can't actually lock a bike to. Um uh.

[48:01] Yeah. So recurring funding. I know we have a lot of demands on our funding and it's always challenging to find money, but this is not a huge amount of money. And, and I think everybody up here agrees that that art is really important. And it's part of it's one of the things that we should be finding funding for. So I would be in favor of that. And I think I think that's everything.

[48:26] That's in Council Member Williams.

[48:28] Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I just want to thank you all. And thank you, Kelly. Um, for for all of what you do, I want to, to comment on, you know, um, Council Member Shannon's comments, she said that, um, the art is really important, you know, like, as if being an artist, it's really important to be able to, to be able to be able to share your gift, especially with the people who, who you are around all the time. So I appreciate that. Um, um, as it relates to the, the traffic control boxes, um, one, two and three, I'm fine with that. Um, as we move on with the um, but well two that we all receive the funding. So, um, but I would, I was going to say yes anyway, but anyway, um public art policy, um, drafting the um, the program. Yes. That's cool. Two uh, that's what I want to get to as it relates to council's involvement. Um, I like to, I can only speak for myself, but I like to look at art and see what, how, what story it tells and how we can, how we place it or whatever in certain spaces. Um, for, for art. Uh, I will say, for example, there's an art piece on the corner of market and.

[49:47] Um, it's a park, that little small park there and I'm just trying to understand it. And so sometimes I'm, I may have somebody else may be able to understand, but just for me. So I'm thinking about residents, if they, if they see this piece of art, what, what story is it telling to them? Is it even telling a story? And so I just want to make sure it makes sense if that if that makes sense to you all. But, um, other than that, funding options like, like everyone, I agree with everyone else as it relates to that. Like it's a small, it's a small amount, but thank you so much. I really, truly appreciate this. Um, I look forward to seeing these, these, these boxes pop up. All right. Thank you.

[50:26] Council member Clayborn.

[50:30] Same. I'm going to echo everyone else's comments. I agree pretty much with everything up there. I would like to see a little bit more of for the policy, more public involvement versus council staff. And I think the community input is pretty important. As you gathered a lot of your information and requests from the community. So I know that's kind of the driver. Um, I as the policy is developed or as the community engagement and involvement is developed, maybe having more of the schools and some of the younger youth. I mean, we talked about the university kids, but maybe some of the middle school and elementary and just all the public. Well, public and private school, um, kids could be involved. I think that would be cool. And yeah, I agree with I'm glad that you got the grant. Maybe there's more grants. Always look for the grants and the free money before, you know, coming to us. But we're here for you. Thank you.

[51:35] Council Member. Williams.

[51:36] I'm sorry. I have one more. She reminded me of it as it relates to the high school and middle school students. Period. What? What? I just the idea that I had was to be able to have to showcase children's art, like she said, like. Like they do at the mall. Um, I'll have a winner or something like that. Or maybe a classroom or school win something where they can have put something together that's abstract and be able to print it off and to be able to hear it. This is this is from, uh, Westview. This is Westview students or, or Mrs., um, kindergarten classes from, um, a Westview class, something along those lines. That's, that's where I was. But thank you for that.

[52:11] I bet they have a box near Westview that we can put it on.

[52:15] Totally. Absolutely.

[52:16] Tom, did you have a question?

[52:18] Yeah. Mayor, um, this was raised by Bruce. Um, in the scenario where a neighborhood wanted to, uh, be participating by decorating a box in their neighborhood, we have to make sure that the box is owned by the city. If it's a cable company or such separate agreement.

[52:33] Yeah.

[52:34] Unless we could get the cable company to agree. Right. Uh. Anybody else? Council Member. Pianfetti.

[52:42] Thank you, Your Honor. And, um, thanks for the presentation. And thank you, Kelly, for all your hard work. Um, I, um, pretty much agree with everybody. Um, certainly, um, the number three option, that is what I'm doing. I think my comments really, um, you know, Kelly, I think you have known for a long time. I'm a big supporter of the arts and, um, so my comments are nothing about the art or the artists. I just wanted to put it out that I'm, I sometimes get concerned when we're really easy about, you know, it's only this amount of money, let's find some recurring dollars. Um, and I wanted to applaud you for the grant and working with the Fine Arts Council and getting that and wanting to make sure that we are always. And just to echo your comments, Council member Clayborn, um, you know, even though it's a small amount of money, um, we have a lot of expenses right now and a lot of needs that are, um, kind of unmet right now. And I really value the art and what it does and what we need for this community. But I want to make sure that we're exploring every option before we start saying that the first thing we have to look at is a reoccurring line in our budget. Um, that's not to say that I wouldn't support it if that's the only option that we have, because I see the value of it. As I've said many times, I come, you know, my grandfather was an artist. I have artists in my own family. And I love the fact that we can support our local artists. I love the idea of community artists and reflecting. Um, but I'm just keeping it real. Because as everybody's talking, I'm thinking of everything that we're trying to do. And these, these I, I just keep seeing the dollar signs. And so I want it not lose sight of the fact that that last minute funding is so critical of that grant and the fact that you are a very small operation, Kelly and you did it. And that is going to help pilot this for us. And we can see. And what makes this council so great is we've given you, what, 20 ideas right now. Oh, do Westview, do the mall like we're doing all this. But the truth of the matter is you're what, two people, right? And, and a city full of creatives and you still manage to do it. And I want to make sure that we are being very focused and very intentional of how this may roll out and how what we can do and what we can do to make sure that we are giving the beauty to this city and and doing it so that we truly understand what we can do. Each round, you know, is it six? Is it eight? Is it five? You know, because you went with five and we have 6 to 8 in this right now. So I want to applaud you and the intentionality of every step that you do. And with the two of you sitting right here, everything that you do is so very, um, strategic and, and we have to keep coming and throwing it all at you and seeing what sticks. And that's what makes all this work. But I felt like I just needed to say this, that I want to keep looking at the grants and keep looking at everything. What you, what did you call it? The free money like? So because we have a lot of things that maybe there's not that free money there. So, um, I, I just, I love this, I can't wait to see it. Um, because I think this is what our community needs. And I'm so glad that that last minute Thursday night, it was probably a lot of really good cheers coming out. Um, so thank you for that.

[56:40] Anybody else? Um, a couple things. One is, uh, Theo's comments about campus. I actually had students contact me. Um, they were doing research on graffiti on these boxes on campus. And I, I think this probably helps with that. It's not that it couldn't ever happen, but it's a slicker surface and it covers it in a way that probably makes it less of a target. So I think that's a good thing as well, even though we're not starting on campus. Um, I see this as an economic development tool. And so yeah, we may be asked to spend. I'm throwing a $10,000 on these, you know, over the course of a year. And then they last seven years or five years. But it is something that draws people, right? Like Council Member Pollett said, well, you know, we we'll have a map. And when people get done going on the African American Heritage Trail, they can walk around and see the art that are on these boxes or I mean, there are a lot of reasons that people come to and stay in communities. And, and I'm not saying somebody's going to move here because we have art on these boxes, but it it continues to build the fabric of the type of community that we want to be in and we want to grow. Um, so I, I'm okay with some amount of money going toward this, even though we do have the seed money in a grant, um, to be able to expand it more than the boxes that that we will get with the grant. Um, with respect to the um standards and selection, I think the jury is a great idea and I'm, I am fine with that. I'm fine with the option three with staff and 40 north. Um, for a public arts policy. I actually think that's really important and I think we need to get that done. Um, and I think that finding funding options, I mean, we are different from Urbana clearly. I mean, we are probably never going to and maybe we will someday, but a substantial portion of our budget is probably not going to be arts. I mean, there, there's a nonprofit created to help, you know, do that because the community should be supporting the arts as well. Government has a role to play here. Um, but we could probably find dollars within our budget, particularly because it's economic development in order to find some funding, um, and to start doing things. And I am actually interested in the idea of additional art. So I know public art league, um, is not doing the statuary anymore. At least I think they're not. And Kelly's shaking her head. Yes. I mean, 40 North is doing it. But I mean that's a, that's an expense. I know the city has donated pedestals or the public works piece of getting it installed, but maybe there's a bigger role to play there. Clearly, having art in downtown has made it a more vibrant place. Um, I would also say that we need to be we need to be looking broader at sort of the nature of. I wouldn't necessarily call it art, but sort of designing the downtown that we want, the things like the string lights or lights and trees or, you know, art on it at the, um, the sewer grates or whatever it may be. I think all of those things are things that if we had a public art policy, we might be able to do. I can remember many, many years ago being contacted by a group that wanted, they had a process where they paint the street. The paint only shows when it rains, and they do these amazing murals in the streets, and then when it rains, you get to see them and then they go away. Um, and we kind of looked at it. There were some issues with maybe making the street slick and whether there were safety hazards. And I'm sure all of that has evolved too, in a way that maybe we could do it, but we didn't have a policy. And then we had this big, long discussion about First Amendment and who we would allow and who we wouldn't, and what would we allow and what wouldn't we allow. If we have a policy, we have a jury. If we're letting 40 North really be the entity that curates for us, like they do here in the back of the council chambers, then we've sort of solved around our biggest issues. And then it's just how much are we able to or do we want to fund? And it's allowing 40 north to do what they do best. So that's my $0.02 on that. So with that, uh, we have a well, is it on one pole? Yeah. Do we want to do the boxes first.

[1:02:14] Just. general. Yeah. Do you want us to create a pilot program to for the traffic control boxes? And then do you want us to create a public art policy? And you can ask those questions together, separate, but sort of having.

[1:02:25] By the way, this is all really cool and thank you for doing it. Uh, let's do, uh, the pilot project first on the box, says Council member Shannon.

[1:02:34] Yes, yes.

[1:02:35] Yes.

[1:02:36] Yes.

[1:02:37] Yes.

[1:02:38] Yes.

[1:02:39] Okay. You have direction on that. And then a public arts policy Council member.

[1:02:43] Williams yes.

[1:02:44] Yes.

[1:02:45] Yes.

[1:02:45] Yes yes, yes, yes, yes.

[1:02:48] And yes. Do you have direction? Thank you very much. We are now at the point of our meeting for general audience participation, if anybody wants to speak.

[1:02:59] Seeing none, are there any city Council member comments? City manager.

[1:03:08] Yes. As always, for the listening audience and those who are in attendance tonight. Next Tuesday, September 29th is a fifth Tuesday, so there will be no meeting. Um, that's next Tuesday, September 29th. There will be no meeting as it's the fifth Tuesday.

[1:03:27] All righty.

[1:03:29] Madam mayor, I move, we adjourn.

[1:03:31] Second.

[1:03:32] We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed same sign. Motion carries. We are adjourned.