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Colleagues, I'm going to call to order the June 23rd, 2026 committee of the whole meeting. I have the pressure, pressure, serving as chair of the committee this year. I mean, I'm talking about, I'm not representing district four.

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On today's agenda, we will have a briefing on the state of the district court, and then we'll take action on three appointments to the four culture board and close with a briefing from four culture. Without introduction, clerk Wells, could I ask you to please call the roll?

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Certainly, Chair, thank you very much.

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Councilmember Valducci.

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Councilmember Dimbowski.

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Here.

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Councilmember Dunn.

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Here.

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Councilmember Faye.

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Here.

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Councilmember Lewis.

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Here.

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Councilmember Mosqueta.

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Councilmember Perry.

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Councilmember Lange Wright-Bauer.

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Here.

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Chair Baroque.

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Here.

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And I believe by Chair Valducci is with us as well.

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I was just going to say here. Thank you.

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All right. Thank you, colleagues. We do have a

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quorum with the committee. Thank you all for joining us.

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Vice-chair Baldu-Chime, I'd please have a motion for approval

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of the minutes of June 8th, 2026.

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Thank you, Chair. I'm a approval of the June 28 minutes.

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Or June 8th minutes, sorry.

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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

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Are there any questions or comments regarding the minutes?

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Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the minutes, please say aye.

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Hi. Hi. Any opposed say nay? The minutes are approved.

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Clersor, do we have anybody signed up for public comment either online or in person?

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I believe there is no in person. We do have a couple of people online, but no one is raise their hand.

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I just want to give them a moment if they do want to make a public comment to raise their hand.

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Thank you. If you are here to provide public comment online, please use the race hand function in the suit platform

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or use start 9 if you have joined by phone. Are we seeing in a request for public comment?

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No, no, not at the time.

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All right. Seeing no request for public comment, we will close public comment and

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move forward with our agenda. The first item on today's agenda is a briefing on the state

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of the district court. We're joined today online by the Honorable Rebecca Robertson,

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who is the chief presiding judge of King County District Court. Thank you for joining us today,

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and I understand that you've also extended invitation to the District Court Judges to view to this presentation at their schedules allow.

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So I want to say thank you for doing that.

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To any of the District Court Judges watching to this presentation, you're welcome.

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And thank you for making time to tune in.

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And with that, I'll invite the Judge Robertson to begin whenever you're ready.

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Well, thank you so much.

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And I go ahead and share my screen.

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There we go.

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So again, I'm Judge Rebecca Robertson.

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Can you give me a thumbs up if you can see that?

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I definitely see that.

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Ginger Beckard Robertson, I'm the Chief Presiding Judge of King County District Court.

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I wanted to give you a brief overview of the District Court today.

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I know there are a couple of new members, so I'm going to go over some of the things that other

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members may know, but I think it's important for everybody to understand about our District Court.

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We are the largest court of limited jurisdiction in the state of Washington, and we are actually

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the second largest court in the state, second only to King County Superior Court.

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As you can see here, we have a mission statement. We want to provide an accessible forum for the

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fair and efficient and understandable resolution of the civil and criminal cases and maintain

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an atmosphere of respect and dignity for all individuals. 7 out of 8 cases in the entire state are

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handled by the courts of limited jurisdiction. So you can imagine how many cases and how many

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comes through the King County District Court if we are the largest district court in the entire state.

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The district courts and the municipal courts are called the People's Courts.

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It's where people will likely encounter not only the judiciary but their entire government.

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Most people are going to have any contact with their government through the district and municipal courts.

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King County District Court has 25 separately elected judges.

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We are all, we all are elected from our district and I'm going to circle our brand new judges that you just appointed Judge Marty Martin and Judge Yvon Shin.

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We are really happy to have them.

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We are a large and complicated structure.

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So we have an executive leadership team.

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We have myself on the presiding judge.

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Judge Han is the assistant presiding judge and we have three division provided presiding judges for our three divisions.

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The presiding judge in the chief and the, I'm sorry, a assistant presiding judge are actually elected by all the judges and the divisions elect their own

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So we operate as a Democratic Republic, essentially, you have representatives from all of your divisions. The executive committee handles all the policies, procedures, rules, projects, etc. We also have 250 staff. We have the Chief Administrative Officer, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, and all of our directors. They do the bulk of the work for King County District Court.

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Can any district court has five electoral districts?

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So if you are elected out of the southwest district, you have to live there and you'll be serving

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most of the time in the southwest district, same for the west and shoreline, northeast, southeast, etc.

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Our administrative divisions are separated into west, east and south.

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Can any district court contracts with 13 cities to handle their municipal court services?

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They're covered by an interlocal agreement.

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The cities that contract with us get the same services as King County does, as the state does.

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This is operating on a full cost recovery model.

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We currently have 13 cities, but Auburn is no longer going to be contracting with us as of January 2020.

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So we also have strategic courthouse locations for the convenience of the public.

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County and City residents can easily access their local courts to obtain services such

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as small claims, protection orders, etc., and the hearings will take place where close

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to where the crime occurred.

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So if someone is charged with the crime in shoreline, they do not need to go to the MRGC

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to have their cases heard.

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A lot of people think that district communicable courts do most with traffic tickets.

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Most of our job is actually handling the criminal cases, and for that we have to make

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sure that we're honoring and abiding by the Constitution and protecting people's constitutional

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rights.

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So criminal takes priority over any of our civil cases, because there is the loss of liberty

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attached to any criminal case.

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We have to make sure that evidence has been lawfully gathered, and if it has not, we suppress

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that evidence.

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We have to guarantee everyone the right to an attorney.

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We do not allow forced confessions. We have motions all the time regarding people's

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Fifth Amendment rights. And we have jury trial in every courthouse. So, at every point in

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time, we're protecting people's constitutional rights.

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Just to give you a brief overview of the difference between superior and district courts,

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superior does the felonies, real property rights, divorce, estate, and voluntary commitment.

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Civil cases over $100,000, the juvenile cases,

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protection orders, which we share with them,

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and appeals from our level of court.

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The district court does the gross and simple misdemeanors.

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That means that you can, that has punishment up to a year in jail

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in a $5,000 fine or 90 days in jail in a $1,000 fine.

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We do civil cases under $100,000,

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small claims, protection orders, name changes,

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in fractions and other civil cases, such as toe hearings, etc.

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Most of the cases that we handle are, and take the most time, are domestic violence and

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driving under the influences cases.

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They take the most serious, they take the most time of the attorneys, as well as the court.

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They're getting more complex as the law changes, and certainly body cameras make every

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case that we handle more complex because we have all that evidence to review, and we are also

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increasingly handling domestic violence cases in other cases that could be filed as felonies

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but are instead filed in the district and municipal courts. So we're working really hard on all those

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cases. District court also handles the felony first appearances. So if anyone is arrested on a

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felony they're going to be appearing before a district court judge usually the next day or the

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after, and we also handle all of the most of the protection orders, and harassment stocking domestic

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violence. So we play a large role in enforcing the roles of law to protect the public safety

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and district court.

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We also have a very large civil civil unit at this time. Our cases in

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we're almost 25,000, that's 88% increase since 2023.

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Right now we have two dedicated civil judges and two who do about a quarter of their job as civil cases.

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So we have personal injury, breach of contract, medical and consumer debt, et cetera.

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Most people think, oh, that's a civil case is just about money, but these are cases that have a real effect on people's lives.

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We deal.

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With a significant amount of garnishment cases where folks who are on the edge of being able to survive or having their wages garnished, we, in fact, there was a very large company in Seattle that was garnishing wages due to a programming error on their end for years.

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They were garnishing wages and amounts that were way too large and it was not until one of our civil judges noticed this pattern and some of them to court that this was corrected and people got their money back.

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Some of the types of cases are of course medical debt, which is one of the most heartbreaking things that you can see in court.

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We had a case where a woman came in in huge debt to Bank of America, and she got to court and said she had done it to pay for the medical care for her fiance,

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who was dying and she extended his year for his life for a year by using that credit card, but that put her into significant medical debt.

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So, these are the kind of cases that are handled by our civil judges, but haven't because they are so important

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and because we have had such an increase in our civil cases, the positions that were in Auburn Municipal Court

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or currently are there are going to be added to our civil department and we will have five full-time civil judges as of

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of 2027 handling these cases.

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So, we're also handling other civil cases, small claims, suits for the recovery of money,

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the resolution center of King County helps us with that.

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A lot of them are tenant claims for return of deposits.

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These are cases that are under $10,000, but that's a real money to a lot of people.

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And so those are very important.

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We also have all the other civil matters, such as the vehicle impound hearings, post-judgment

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executions, petitions for seas, animals, et cetera, that we handle in King County District Court.

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In fact, there was just a movie about a toe hearing that took place in King County District

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Court, the movie toe. I don't know if any of you have seen that, but two of our district court judges

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were the ones that released the car for this woman. So these are civil cases have significant

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impact on people's lives. We also have our therapy of courts, both regional mental health court

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regional veterans court, a regional mental health court is funded by the mid-budget as is the

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veterans court. The any of the cases in our therapeutic courts are referred by the prosecutor and

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defense and our regional mental health court is celebrating 25 years. That was the second in the nation

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and it's still going strong. The data shows that participating in regional mental health court

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reduces recidivism. They're increases participation in treatment. We also have three therapeutic

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community courts.

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Sureline Kenmore, Bellevue and Redmond. They're intensive court involvement

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with folks to get them to resources. We have peer membership. They usually come to court once a week

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and check in. It's a very different model than what we normally have in court. And it works for a

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people who are struggling with issues that keep them in the criminal justice system. We have some

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statistics from Spokane Community Court about recidivism. The chose recidivism is reduced by

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a participation in community court. We are actually working on our own data now that we've had

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community courts for at least eight years where we can compare apples to apples. So a city that

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has a community court versus a city that doesn't comparing similar cases and what the recidivism

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rate is and we're working on that data right now. For those who are in community court and not

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in community court and a regular court, we have several tools and resources to try and stop

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their downward spiral prevent felonies and escalation of any criminal behavior. So if people go

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to probation for doing so normally for treatment such as alcohol and drug mental health,

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engagement, sexual, DVNC, various educational classes, consumer awareness, etc. Our mission

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is to stop people's behavior that causes them to commit crime. Of course, we are also

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very mindful of public safety, and if some people have to, we have to resort to punishment.

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We do. We have contracts with several jails, as well as the King County jail. We use a

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a clinical monitoring community service and restitution, et cetera.

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As I said, the gross and civil misdemeanors carry up to a year in jail, and so you do often

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find fairly violent offenders in custody on their gross and civil misdemeanors.

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Our probation department is very active.

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We have 10 probation officers, separate assignments to domestic violence court, five locations

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where they are located.

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They help people with their problems that lead them to the interaction with the criminal justice system almost all of our cases

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Our domestic violence in DUI. We don't have folks with theft charges or criminal trespasses on probation, what they are on or for our most serious crime. We are actually starting our own domestic violence moral recognition therapy classes, beginning in August, which is almost cost-free for folks who are participating in this alternative to the traditional domestic violence battered treatment, which is showing to be not as effective for a large population.

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of our domestic violence offenders so we are going to have a fairly low-cost alternative

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in-house with KCDC.

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Here is our 2025 case load. It's 277,000 plus cases. What you see here

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is parking. That is photo enforcement tickets. We have a huge increase in our photo enforcement

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tickets. Also have a huge infraction case load. And here is where most of the judges spend their

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on the civil protection order, criminals, et cetera.

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Our judicial workload looks a little different.

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We spend most of our time on our criminal cases.

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So here is county and state criminal,

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the felony first appearances, domestic violence court.

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This is our civil portion.

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These are our city contracts.

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So a slight portion of this will be the infractions,

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but most of it is criminal.

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So while most of our cases are in fraction, most of the time we spent with spend with people is actually in our criminal courts.

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And as you can see since 2019 plummeted during COVID, but it is rising again.

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We are over our COVID numbers.

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And so we are essentially doing more cases with the same amount of resources.

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We are seeing huge uptick and litigation in all of our criminal cases, huge increases in our civil cases,

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and they are getting more complex due to statutory changes and other changes.

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Our trials are also increasing.

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As you can, these are the purple is our state trials.

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The lighter purple, the lavender is our city trials.

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Our trials are increasing and trials take a lot of resources.

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Department of Public Defense right now for the state is staffed at levels that are recommended by the Washington State Bar Association.

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They are fully staffed for what was just adopted as the public defender standards.

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What we're anecdotally seeing is that means there's more litigation.

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With more attorneys, there's more litigation in court because there are more attorneys to do that to come through their cases to have motions to have trials.

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And we think that's why we have greater increase in trials in our state courts rather than

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our city courts, even though the numbers for each quarter pretty much the same.

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So what we're expecting as the cities start to hire more public defenders as they're going

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to be mandated to do that we're going to be getting more litigation in our cities as well.

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So I wanted to talk a little bit about our staff and our service data we've taken over 200,000

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calls last year, summons almost 73,000 jurors and scheduled almost 13,000 interpreter jobs in 95

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languages and dialects for King County District Court. So our staff is really busy making sure

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that we can provide access to all folks in King County. Our average call time has been reduced from

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almost an hour to four minutes. We're using glyph chat and we're working on AI translation

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services so that when someone calls and they speak another language we don't have to

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call in an interpreter we can use some AI translation tools so they can get better service

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when they call in. Our live chat has also been really popular for folks who don't want to wait

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and they just live chat someone in our call center. We also have some initiatives and projects this

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year including capital improvements for security at our eight locations. One of the most important

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ones that we have been working on are lean or kaisan processes for all of our operations and

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process improvements. We're going to go through every single one of these processes and we've

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to give you an example we went through our infractions and we reduced the time that we took

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to process infractions in court by 50% at least. This is just time that we're dealing with paper

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work not actually interacting with litigants. So we've reduced our paperwork time and increased

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the time we can actually spend interacting with both, such as what we're here to do. It

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increases our ability to ensure due process. We're going through every single process in this

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lean, lean process to get more efficient as efficient as we possibly can. We also introduced an

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line management.

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System for evidence that helps, especially, per se, lit against when they're submitting digital

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evidence. And we've made language translation service improvements, including simultaneous

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Zoom, simultaneous interpretation in every single court. And we have pocket talks, like AI translators

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at all our front counters and with probation, so that they can better interact with folks and not have to

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for our scarce resources of actual interpreters, so we're providing better language access.

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Our DEI committee has continued with its community outreach. They created an unssecured bond

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procedure for folks who did not have the collateral to engage with a bond agency. They can now

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have the alternative of posting cash bond in the 10% amount that they would have been given to

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the bond company and they just give that to the court and they get it back when they appear in court.

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We've included, continued with our education and awareness cities.

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We've made sure all our documents are compliant with the ADA recommendations and we

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have our web page that's a central source of DEI information for the public.

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And when I talk about community engagements, we go out into the community with our tent with

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information about the district court.

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We have a giant gavel and roves that the kids love to take pictures of and we educate the

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public about what we are doing in district court.

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One of the biggest things this happening in district court

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is our retiring judges.

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We have eight retiring judges this year.

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So Judge Hirakawa and Judge Paglisati have already retired.

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Judge Stephenson is retiring in several days

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and the rest of our eight judges are retiring

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at the end of the year.

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That's eight judges in one year.

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That's a third of our batch.

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So we are losing, and I did the math,

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a little Star Trek calculator about 320 years of legal experience with the loss of these judges.

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It's a big deal.

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We have some challenges coming up. One is the increased civil case load.

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As we talked about, we are diverting to judicial positions to that civil case load to try and get

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through our backlog. It's now more complicated than ever because of debt buyer requirements

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that were affected effective in 2020.

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Video court is an added complication and we have some concerns about how it affects due

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process.

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If people are on a tiny little screen or on their cell phone, they can't really see us.

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We have increased some access, but there are some downsides to video participation, so

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we are considering limiting some access, certainly limiting the chat ability.

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and determining what kind of hearings is appropriate to have these all Zoom hearings and some that may not be.

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Interpreters continues to be a huge issue for district court and being able to provide language access.

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Interpreter cases have three times the number of continuances, which clogs the court system because folks are trying to get

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with communicating with their clients and there's an interpreter shortage. We also have

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interpreters mostly on Zoom and it's sometimes very difficult to get them to come into court

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when we have evidence your hearings or trials where we are required to have in-person interpreters.

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At this time they're independent contractors, so they can say, I want $250 an hour and an

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eight-hour minimum for this motion hearing and if we can't find another alternative, that's what we

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access.

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Can can a district court lead an effort with the state, the Board of Judicial Administration,

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to create a task force on language access, which was just done earlier this month.

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So hopefully we can create some new methods of providing interpreters, including AI in translation

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for our hearings where we're just setting court dates again and again.

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So maybe we can use AI interpreters that's going to require actual court and statutory changes, but we're working on it.

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We continue with attorney staffing challenges.

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I'm sure you've heard from DPD as well as the state that there are fewer attorneys who want to go into the criminal justice system.

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Fewer attorneys means longer delays.

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They have less experience, less folks to supervise them.

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We're working with the prosecutor and defense on how to best deploy their attorneys going into law schools,

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into the communities encouraging folks to join to go to law school and go into criminal justice.

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The public defender staffing increase in public defenders means more litigation.

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We're handling more cases, more litigate, not more cases, but more litigation due to their being more

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attorneys. As always, the budget is a challenge for everybody I'm sure for you guys, too, most

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of our budget and salary are benefits for a 250 employees who are doing the bulk of the work

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serving the public. Budget cuts means we have to cut people and that means less services.

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As I

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have created a really comprehensive onboarding program as well as judicial college takes about a month

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for our new judges so we can really get them to hit the ground running in court.

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One of the things that we worked on is our judicial needs.

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Administrative Office of the Court had not done a judicial need study in three decades and so

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the judicial needs estimates are 30 years old and it has not accounted for the complexity of

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cases that we see. So the administrative office of the courts, as well as the National Center for State

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courts, just completed a study where we all had to record our time for about three weeks.

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On everything we did to determine what the more appropriate judicial needs were and those results

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are going to be pending, et cetera. So that is the overview and what has been happening with King County

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district court in 2025. I am more than happy to answer any questions that you have.

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Thank you so much. That's Robert's in really appreciate the update. I'm going to open

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an up for questions from my colleagues, colleagues feel free to raise your hand. And I'm going to

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call on the chair of our log Justice Committee, Councillor Lewis first. Got it, Councillor Lewis.

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Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Judge Robinson. This presentation was very informative.

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If I have a question about the debt buyers requirements, what are those and how has that

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changed the workload?

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I will have to defer to one of my civil judges to really elaborate those cases are so complicated.

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I could not do them just as here.

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What I will do is have our civil judge shot well, email you about what the debt buyer requirements

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are and what has changed to make things more complicated, but as I'm sure you know if you have

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a mortgage or a student loan debt is sold between companies all the time, and that makes

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enforcement of collection really difficult. So I will have Judge Schott will follow up with you.

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Thank you for the question. That would be great. Thank you.

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I guess we're in the mosque.

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Thanks much, shared to Dr. Robertson. Great presentation.

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Really comprehensive and informative.

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Thank you so much for putting it together.

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You mentioned the home monitoring function.

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And they brought back our memory of a few years ago.

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We had some challenges with the technology and the 20-hour monitoring.

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And I wondered if you could just give us a status update.

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Is that system now working satisfactorily?

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of issues and they largely resolved.

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Those issues are resolved.

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There's a lot of companies that do the electronic home monitoring as well as government entities

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that can handle with on their own, so we have had new technological issues recently for the

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electronic home monitoring that's working really well.

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Great.

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Thanks so much.

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Thank you.

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Councillor Orphane.

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Thank you.

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Thank you again, Judge Robertson, for your presentation.

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I have a couple questions and I'll just try and narrow it down.

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One is related to the debt buyer legislation, the effect of that.

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And I won't ask you to explain it.

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But one, or if you know, if the legislation,

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curse the human, of Katerstand, but the driver is behind the 88% increase in civil

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filing over two years.

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It's pretty extraordinary.

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it is pretty extraordinary. The driver is the difference with we in standards. We used to

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be 50,000. We took under 50,000 now it's 100,000 and we're getting a lot of the during COVID

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kind of people defaulting on their loans because they couldn't work anything if people defaulting

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their debts because they couldn't work. The COVID related things, but there has been a real

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uptick in people filing for, you know, landlord tenant issues that wouldn't necessarily

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go to superior court because of the monetary amount or it doesn't actually fit squarely within

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landlord tenant. So they're just a lot of different factors that go into that increase. And so I can

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And follow up with you and give you a list of all the factors that do that. I'm happy to do that.

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Thank you so much. Chair, may I ask one more?

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Yeah, go for it.

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Thank you. The other numbers that struck out or stuck out for me was the parking matters on this spreadsheet.

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with Kenmore having 61,600 bilings out of, you know, a fairly small number over all.

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So just curious as to how much judicial and clerk time is consumed by parking matters.

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I can get you the percentages later. It's a small amount of time for the judges because most

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people pay the tickets. However, any of those 61,000 cases come through the court. The

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clerk has to receive it. They have to file it. They have to create a case. They have to

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receive the money our whole budget department has to deal with the money portion. So the

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clerks are actually spending a significant amount of time and our budget team is spending a significant

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amount of time. The judges are spending a small amount of time because most people don't ask for a hearing.

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I'm happy to give you more detailed numbers on how much your staff spends on that.

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Okay. Thank you so much. Mm-hmm.

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Thank you. Just for our personnel. I'll ask a quick question here because I had the same one of my

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questions so I was asked by customer refane about the idea of presenting increase on the civil

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filing. So thank you for clarifying on that. Perhaps relatedly you had a slide that showed the trials

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numbers and you mentioned about the increase. Was that both civil and

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criminal cases or is that just focused on the criminal cases? I was not clear on

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that one. Oh, thank you. Having acquired by that was just the criminal cases. So far we

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have not seen civil cases, the trials going up. I can get you the statistics on that

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if you'd like, but those were just the criminal cases that we counted there. Great.

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I just want to make sure that we were focused.

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I understood that it probably was criminal cases either way.

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You spoke about it, but I wasn't sure.

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So that is helpful to understand.

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And we've obviously been dealing both here,

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and in the launches committee with the public defender issue.

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And we took up legislation here to try to clarify

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what our standards are on that.

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But I appreciate your reference.

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And I think the note of the challenge that we will have

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If those numbers continue increase, I think it's going to be a challenge for all of us to deal

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with in terms of the additional costs on multiple fronts.

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So thank you for highlighting that and keeping us abreast of those issues.

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And I see Council Member Lewis, I'll call you for probably the last question.

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Thank you.

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Judge Robertson, we tend to think about virtual hearings and virtual meetings as being productivity

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increases and that kind of thing. But you said that Zoom hearings caused more time for the

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in-court clerks to respond to attorney requests. Can you give us some examples of what that

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looks like? Sure. So before COVID, our clerks would be doing their clerk work. They're making sure

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the record is complete. They're taking the evidence. They're making sure that they're docketing everything.

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And we have added on managing Zoom.

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So we have people in court and now we have people on Zoom.

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So they have to open up the Zoom, let everyone in,

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make sure everyone's named, make sure people are not moving around.

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And the judges do this too, muting themselves, et cetera.

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What we have found is that the chat function, we have it on,

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and that people both litigants and attorneys

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are constantly peppering the clerk with questions that would never happen in open court.

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While court was happening, you would not approach the clerk and ask, you know,

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start asking questions. Can I go first? Can I submit this via Zoom, et cetera?

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That's happening a lot in our chat, and we realized how much time it was taking our

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clerks to handle that. And it also led to a lot of inappropriate expertity contact with

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folks just saying things in the chat that the judge shouldn't consider the clerks shouldn't

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consider the other party, wasn't aware of it, etc. So it's all a learning experience from COVID.

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We all just tried to survive and now we're figuring out, okay, how do we, how do we normalize

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this? How do we make sure we're following all the rules? So we are actually considering limiting the

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chat significantly so those things don't happen. Sounds very complicated. It is very complicated.

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All right, colleagues. Well, Judge Robertson, thank you so much for the presentation to the

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for keeping us abreast of the work of this record.

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We appreciate the work.

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Review your colleagues and look forward to continuing the engagement and please if there's any additional

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information to some of the questions that were posed. We'd welcome that.

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I will get you more information on the questions that you have today. Thank you.

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Thank you so much. That's Robertson. Appreciate it.

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Colleagues, we're going to move on to our next items on the agenda. We have three items that would confirm

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appointments to the King County Cultural Development Authority, better known as four culture board.

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Four culture of course, the ministers, King County Arts and Heritage Programs.

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Four culture is governed by a 15 member board of directors that have

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demonstrated commitment to a knowledge of cultural resources.

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To give you a quick review of the process, we will be briefed on the side and by Jean Paul.

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Then I will ask for an input from four culture staff. Claire Machius here with us from four culture.

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then we will hear from our appointees, it is my understanding that one of the appointees

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is unable to attend today, so we're going to ask Claire to provide a few comments about

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that particular appointee, and then we will provide time for all of you to ask questions

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of the people who are up for appointment. With that, Gene, I'm going to call on you to please

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provide a briefing. Thank you, Chair. Oh, and good morning council members. I'm Gene Paul from

430
00:36:20,720 --> 00:36:23,520
capital staff. The materials for the three appointments

431
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:34,240
the unifaced 39 of your packet. Proposed motions 2026-0106-0123 and 0127 would confirm the

432
00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:40,220
appointments of Ellen Walker, Nancy Sagaera McKay, and T.O. Fila Cruz Aurebe, as executive

433
00:36:40,220 --> 00:36:44,660
at large appointments to the four-culture board, for the remainder of their three-year terms

434
00:36:44,660 --> 00:36:47,220
expiring on December 31, 2028.

435
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:51,800
For background on the board, please refer to page 40 of your packet.

436
00:36:52,740 --> 00:36:57,920
As the chair indicated, four cultures governed by a 15 member board of directors, and directors

437
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:03,280
are to have a demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of cultural resources, the active

438
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:08,380
and experienced in community and civic issues and concerns, and have the ability to evaluate

439
00:37:08,380 --> 00:37:11,440
the needs of cultural constituencies in the region of the whole.

440
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:15,780
They are also to represent a range of talents, experiences, and viewpoints.

441
00:37:17,260 --> 00:37:21,280
The Council of Response will for appointing Board positions 1 through 9 while the Executive

442
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:23,280
of Points positions 10 through 15.

443
00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:26,840
All appointments are subject to confirmation by the Council.

444
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:32,180
Background on the appointees begins on page 42 of a staff report.

445
00:37:33,580 --> 00:37:38,560
Ellen Walker is an arts administrator who has worked for the Pacific Northwest Ballet since 2003

446
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:44,600
and has served as their executive director since 2014. According to her staff profile on the

447
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:49,320
Valley's website, she oversees an operating budget of a $30 million dollars and a staff

448
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:54,940
of more than 600 full and part-time employees. That profile also indicates that under her

449
00:37:54,940 --> 00:38:00,540
leadership, P&B has become known as an industry leader in making ballet and more inclusive, diverse,

450
00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:06,060
and welcoming our form. Ms. Walker has also served as an adjunct faculty member in Seattle

451
00:38:06,060 --> 00:38:10,320
University's MFA Arts Leadership Program, and she recently completed

452
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:14,200
Services Vice President of the Inspire Washington Board, and his board

453
00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:16,320
Secretary and Council Chair for Dance USA.

454
00:38:18,510 --> 00:38:19,950
The second appointee, Nancy

455
00:38:19,950 --> 00:38:23,470
Sagero McKay, has served as the Executive Director of the Highline Heritage

456
00:38:23,470 --> 00:38:28,570
Museum since 2019. In that role she helped design open and sustain the

457
00:38:28,570 --> 00:38:32,410
name Museum, which focuses on preserving and telling the stories of the people

458
00:38:32,410 --> 00:38:36,870
in the Highline area through heritage arts and culture. According to her

459
00:38:36,870 --> 00:38:42,350
Location of Materials, she is the first Mexican born and raised museum executive director in Washington State.

460
00:38:43,410 --> 00:38:50,350
Miss Algaro McKay previously served as an exhibit design instructor for the University of Washington's museum studies certificate program.

461
00:38:50,970 --> 00:38:53,790
She has also worked on several four culture advisory boards.

462
00:38:54,290 --> 00:38:59,850
The Washington Museum Association board and is a path board chair of the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce.

463
00:39:00,930 --> 00:39:12,410
The final appointee, Tio Fila, or Taia, Cruz, or eBay is both a clinic manager for CMAR community health centers, first adolescents, specialty clinic, and the director of the Pacific Northwest,

464
00:39:13,170 --> 00:39:16,290
first Chicano Chicano Latino Latina focus history museum.

465
00:39:17,230 --> 00:39:24,530
Prior to her current roles, Ms. Cruz or eBay served as a consulting grant writer whose duties included collecting and reporting on grant program.

466
00:39:24,530 --> 00:39:31,410
She participated as a folk culture grant review panelist in 2019 and 2021, and has been a member of

467
00:39:31,410 --> 00:39:34,470
for culture's heritage advisory committee since 2021.

468
00:39:36,490 --> 00:39:39,490
Staff has not identified it in Asian with the proposed appointments.

469
00:39:40,430 --> 00:39:43,790
Two of the appointees, Ms. Walker and Ms. Sardiro McKay are with us today.

470
00:39:44,350 --> 00:39:48,390
And Brian Carter, for culture's executive director and Claire Michio, the Senior Government

471
00:39:48,390 --> 00:39:52,470
Relations Manager with for culture are here as well, and that concludes my remarks.

472
00:39:53,810 --> 00:39:54,830
Thank you, Jean.

473
00:39:54,970 --> 00:39:55,870
I appreciate that.

474
00:39:56,230 --> 00:39:57,750
Colleagues any questions for Jean

475
00:39:57,750 --> 00:39:59,930
on the staff report before we

476
00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:12,080
All right, seeing no questions. I'm going to call on Claire, Micheal from for culture to give us some comments from the for culture staff.

477
00:40:13,460 --> 00:40:17,940
Sure, I have Brian here as well. Hi, council members. This is clear. No, that's okay.

478
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:21,840
How do you know my notes, Claire, so Brian or Claire feel clear to jump in forever?

479
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:29,200
Does it, does it, can it be all three of them or because I know Ellen's here and Nancy's here as well? So I wonder if Ellen,

480
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,480
And I'm actually going to have Ellen and Anthony speak to themselves to start because they're

481
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:36,460
just fantastic people and then Brian and I can talk about TA who's fantastic as well.

482
00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:39,720
So I'll start with Ellen, do you mind introducing yourself and sharing a little bit about your

483
00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:41,100
time working with for culture?

484
00:40:42,460 --> 00:40:42,760
Sure.

485
00:40:42,900 --> 00:40:43,580
Thank you, Claire.

486
00:40:43,780 --> 00:40:44,520
Good morning, everybody.

487
00:40:45,620 --> 00:40:47,020
I'm a frozen camera.

488
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:53,220
I'm Ellen Walker and I'm an executive director of Pacific Northwest Ballet.

489
00:40:53,820 --> 00:40:56,620
I was born in district one.

490
00:40:57,020 --> 00:40:58,780
I still live in district one.

491
00:40:58,780 --> 00:41:15,080
That's right, but I have also worked in district four for my entire career since 1988. I have always worked in the cultural sector and we also have a very important asset in Bellevue. Thank you, Claudia.

492
00:41:15,620 --> 00:41:27,520
Sorry, Council Member Belle Tucci. Our Francia Russell Center is there in Bellevue and it's a ballet school with about 600 young people over on the east side.

493
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:36,080
And we're also opening a new school that truly thanks to door-zulping King County in the south end of Seattle.

494
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:43,920
I am especially as I sort of get into my fourth decade of work for the sector.

495
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,460
I really think about the sustainability of our sector.

496
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:55,840
And in my career I have never seen anything that has guaranteed that for our future as much as door-zulping King County.

497
00:41:55,840 --> 00:42:04,400
It's just incredibly important in what my view is large diverse and interdependent cultural

498
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:06,120
ecosystem here in the county.

499
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:12,340
So really, really an honor to be included as a nominee for that four culture board.

500
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:14,260
And I'll pause there.

501
00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:16,760
Well, thank you, Ellen.

502
00:42:17,100 --> 00:42:22,180
I appreciate you being willing to serve in this role and appreciate, obviously, as a district

503
00:42:22,180 --> 00:42:35,640
We're a representative, grateful that P.A.V. is in this street, but obviously think of it as a regional entity that provides wonderful service to the entire county.

504
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:47,320
I'm going to then call on our next appointee, Nancy Sorghera McKay, to share a little bit of by yourself and the reasons you want to serve on the for culture board.

505
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:55,900
Thank you, thank you so much for this opportunity to share who I am and who we are as an institution.

506
00:42:56,580 --> 00:43:04,000
So the Helen Heritage Museum is the is representing the school district, which is covers the areas of why

507
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,000
Symmeter period, sea type, normally park and little bit of the ones.

508
00:43:07,500 --> 00:43:13,880
And so right now, after the quillout, we are number two of the most diverse and low income families in accounting.

509
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:20,280
And so the idea of representing identity heritage history, the idea of seeing each other in

510
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:23,820
honoring people's stories is extremely basic and fundamental.

511
00:43:24,700 --> 00:43:29,120
And so we are not just committed with just the statement, we are committed through actions

512
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:33,460
and making sure that we have bring the best opportunities for us to actually acknowledge and

513
00:43:33,460 --> 00:43:35,100
see each other in many different levels.

514
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:42,580
And so I started to work with for culture as the Heritage Advisory Committee in 2012 and

515
00:43:42,580 --> 00:43:46,260
that has been a few years that have been involved with for culture and many different capacities.

516
00:43:46,340 --> 00:43:53,040
It has always been a joy to be able to not only per percent the diversity of boys in many

517
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:53,520
different ways.

518
00:43:53,720 --> 00:43:58,560
What I mean diversity is not just me being Mexican, but also my gender, my sexuality, my

519
00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:02,100
orientation, my disabilities, I mean the person deaf and so on and so on and so all of us

520
00:44:02,100 --> 00:44:06,980
bringing many different elements of who we are as a human being and so to be able to bring

521
00:44:08,420 --> 00:44:12,280
and inclusion values into a table is maybe my passion.

522
00:44:13,240 --> 00:44:15,220
As a former, the Washington Museum Association,

523
00:44:15,580 --> 00:44:17,140
there was also the same idea.

524
00:44:17,420 --> 00:44:19,020
It's different like more than just how

525
00:44:19,020 --> 00:44:20,600
line is reflect all of us in the state.

526
00:44:20,820 --> 00:44:21,880
And so now it can count.

527
00:44:22,380 --> 00:44:26,800
More than happy to have the opportunity to represent those voices,

528
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:28,700
especially the ones that are struggling

529
00:44:28,700 --> 00:44:30,120
the most when it comes to representation.

530
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:32,620
And so we might work with for culture.

531
00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:36,020
It's all about making sure that we are doing this as a team.

532
00:44:36,020 --> 00:44:39,900
as a community, as it takes a village to make things happen.

533
00:44:40,180 --> 00:44:44,580
As I know that is not just one person is all of us to truly make sure that we bring

534
00:44:44,580 --> 00:44:51,960
the inter-percenting and honoring and seeing people's stories and presence in our communities.

535
00:44:52,660 --> 00:44:56,580
And so with that in mind, I just want to say thank you again for the opportunity to

536
00:44:56,580 --> 00:44:59,880
serve and represent and to vocalize those repeat.

537
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:09,660
Thank you so much for your willingness to serve and for all of the work that you're doing at the Highline

538
00:45:09,660 --> 00:45:10,620
Heritage Museum.

539
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:12,180
Thank you.

540
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:19,220
And colleagues, as I mentioned, one of our pointies, Teo-Fila Krusu-Dive is unable to join us today for this meeting.

541
00:45:19,580 --> 00:45:28,200
So I was going to call back on Claire to share a little bit about that appointee for our knowledge.

542
00:45:29,060 --> 00:45:33,340
Sure. So Brian, I'll start and then if you want to follow up that'd be great. Brian's

543
00:45:33,340 --> 00:45:37,760
don't pay a longer than me, but TAA has a really interesting job that is both clinical

544
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:45,960
administrator at a CMAR clinic and basically running a museum that is co-located with that.

545
00:45:46,100 --> 00:45:51,820
That has to do with Chicano Chicano American culture. And when I first met TAA, also TAA has

546
00:45:51,820 --> 00:45:56,740
incredible energy. You guys get to meet her when you do. You can understand how she can hold

547
00:45:56,740 --> 00:46:01,660
pretty much two full-time jobs at once, but Taya, at the first time I had talked to her about,

548
00:46:01,860 --> 00:46:05,280
I couldn't, like, it was interesting to me to think of these things as sort of being different,

549
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:10,380
and she actually, in getting to know her and getting to see the kind of work she does,

550
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:16,820
they're absolutely integrated in her mind of heritage and how we treat our bodies and what goes on

551
00:46:16,820 --> 00:46:22,020
in our social world. And so it's been interesting, getting to know her and learn just how much of

552
00:46:22,020 --> 00:46:26,240
things all work together in creating healthy communities and healthy societies.

553
00:46:27,220 --> 00:46:32,840
So I'll pass that to Brian since Brian can probably speak to more about TAS work with the heritage department.

554
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:33,320
Sure.

555
00:46:33,660 --> 00:46:36,780
Brian Carter executive director for culture for the record.

556
00:46:36,940 --> 00:46:40,180
And they share a role in the opportunity to speak to these candidates.

557
00:46:40,700 --> 00:46:42,620
Thank you to Ellen and Nancy.

558
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:47,360
They both bring deep experience within arts heritage and culture.

559
00:46:47,780 --> 00:46:50,900
And not just at their own organizations, but I think it's regional leaders.

560
00:46:50,900 --> 00:46:55,900
And I think that's really critical at this moment when door open is is growing both

561
00:46:55,900 --> 00:46:59,940
who for culture is, but the complexity and the debt of our sector over well.

562
00:47:00,140 --> 00:47:03,820
So the perspectives that they bring and the insights that they will provide, I think those

563
00:47:03,820 --> 00:47:05,180
are going to be crucial to us.

564
00:47:05,460 --> 00:47:08,720
And really excited as well about Fale Fila joining us.

565
00:47:08,720 --> 00:47:10,920
I'm up known for pay off her a number of years.

566
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:15,540
She came up through the ring to for culture in the advisory committee, which is a great opportunity

567
00:47:15,540 --> 00:47:19,380
to see the methodology of our grant process in practice.

568
00:47:19,380 --> 00:47:22,680
So she had a seat at that table and then as Claire described,

569
00:47:23,340 --> 00:47:26,480
it was so exciting to be when the CMAR Museum came online.

570
00:47:26,820 --> 00:47:28,580
That is a leading edge museum.

571
00:47:28,780 --> 00:47:32,120
We're going to see so many more Latinx, Chicano, Chicano,

572
00:47:32,420 --> 00:47:35,640
museums, and cultural centers coming online across the United States

573
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:39,080
and just really proud of our region for being one of the early ones.

574
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:43,900
And as Claire said, there's an evolution within museums specifically,

575
00:47:44,440 --> 00:47:47,060
where you're seeing these cultural institutions

576
00:47:47,060 --> 00:47:54,120
become really vital civic, but also social service hubs for the community.

577
00:47:54,580 --> 00:47:59,020
We're seeing that within our applications that are coming in, where you see right the arts

578
00:47:59,020 --> 00:48:04,820
and the culture and the heritage mixed with work around mental health, around basic family

579
00:48:04,820 --> 00:48:10,620
necessities around food security, and we're seeing an increasing number of those within our work.

580
00:48:10,860 --> 00:48:14,900
So having somebody at the table who has started an institution like that, that is serving

581
00:48:14,900 --> 00:48:20,540
particular community were really excited about. Beyond that, she's just a fantastic practitioner

582
00:48:20,540 --> 00:48:26,620
within the field, so we really look forward to welcoming her to the board. And as always,

583
00:48:26,740 --> 00:48:31,880
just appreciate the executive's consideration of what we were looking for in board members

584
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:37,660
as we move forward as an institution, and also the council's unwillingness to look at those as

585
00:48:37,660 --> 00:48:43,900
well. So with that, I'll stop. Thank you. Thank you so much, Brian. I appreciate that.

586
00:48:43,900 --> 00:48:49,020
colleagues, I'm going to open it up for questions or comments on these appointees.

587
00:48:50,420 --> 00:48:53,660
I saw Vice-Chirbal, do she go off mute? Is that a sign?

588
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:56,820
Yeah, so I was going to raise my thank you. Vice-Chirbal, go ahead.

589
00:48:57,500 --> 00:49:05,640
I, well, I'd be happy to move all three if that's in order and then speak to all of them.

590
00:49:06,100 --> 00:49:12,020
I just had the, had the opportunity to spend time at all of these institutions run by these

591
00:49:12,020 --> 00:49:20,120
amazing nominees and we are so lucky to have people with the breath of experience, the closeness

592
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:25,900
to the communities that they serve and the willingness to help us continue to grow and improve

593
00:49:25,900 --> 00:49:32,980
our cultural arts sector and I'm just delighted with all three nominees and happy to move to

594
00:49:32,980 --> 00:49:37,620
approve them if you would like me to do so, Chair. Please go ahead. Will list there any objections

595
00:49:37,620 --> 00:49:42,140
from my colleagues to take it up all three at the same time, see no objections go ahead by

596
00:49:42,140 --> 00:49:42,520
sure about it.

597
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:42,700
Thank you.

598
00:49:42,820 --> 00:49:50,940
I approve of proposed motion 2026-01060123 and 0127 with a due pass recommendation.

599
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:52,620
Thank you very much.

600
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:54,480
Those three items are before us.

601
00:49:54,780 --> 00:49:59,820
Are there any further questions or comments from colleagues for appointees?

602
00:50:00,780 --> 00:50:11,660
All right. Seeing none, I want to thank the the appointees for being with us today for your willingness to serve. And with that, I am going to ask the clerk to please call the roll on these items.

603
00:50:11,660 --> 00:50:13,940
Thank you, Chair, Councilmember Balducci.

604
00:50:14,260 --> 00:50:14,580
Aye.

605
00:50:15,540 --> 00:50:17,020
Councilmember Dimbaoski.

606
00:50:17,140 --> 00:50:17,440
Aye.

607
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:19,680
Councilmember Dunn.

608
00:50:20,220 --> 00:50:20,240
Aye.

609
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:22,400
Councilmember Faye.

610
00:50:23,220 --> 00:50:23,560
Aye.

611
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:25,740
Councilmember Lewis.

612
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:26,820
Aye.

613
00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:29,100
Councilmember Mosqueta.

614
00:50:31,020 --> 00:50:31,660
Councilmember Perry.

615
00:50:34,020 --> 00:50:35,300
Councilmember Bungrake Bauer.

616
00:50:37,850 --> 00:50:38,390
And Chair Barron.

617
00:50:40,210 --> 00:50:41,230
Chair, you have seven eyes zero.

618
00:50:41,230 --> 00:50:44,250
And I was counting members, Mosqueta, and Bungright Vower Arx.

619
00:50:45,890 --> 00:50:46,650
Thank you very much.

620
00:50:46,910 --> 00:50:53,490
By our vote, we have approved proposed motions 2026 year, 1 0 6, 2026 year, 1 2 3, and

621
00:50:53,490 --> 00:50:56,690
2026 year, 1 2 7 with a due pass recommendation.

622
00:50:57,610 --> 00:51:02,090
We will send these motions without recommendation for the consent agenda on the regular

623
00:51:02,090 --> 00:51:03,070
course.

624
00:51:04,210 --> 00:51:08,690
And Ms. Walker and Ms. Elgare McKay, thank you so much for being with us today.

625
00:51:08,690 --> 00:51:14,110
you, these will be sent to full council, but you do not need to attend the meeting, although you're

626
00:51:14,110 --> 00:51:21,530
welcome always to listen in, and we really appreciate your willingness to serve the county in this

627
00:51:21,530 --> 00:51:27,010
role and for your current service to the community in both of your roles. So thank you so much for being here.

628
00:51:28,230 --> 00:51:34,550
Thank you. All right. All right, colleagues, with that, we're going to move to our last item,

629
00:51:34,550 --> 00:51:41,190
which is a related item, which is the four culture annual report, and the briefing on that

630
00:51:41,190 --> 00:51:46,250
annual report. The county code requires a full culture provide an annual report each year

631
00:51:46,250 --> 00:51:51,210
and meet with the committee of the whole to discuss the report. The annual report contains the

632
00:51:51,210 --> 00:51:55,790
prior year significant accomplishments, estimated financial data, and a summary of the

633
00:51:55,790 --> 00:52:01,690
culture programs to be undertaken during the year. We are joined by people we just heard from

634
00:52:01,690 --> 00:52:06,530
Brian Carter, our executive director for for culture. Claire Mitchie, who's the senior government

635
00:52:06,530 --> 00:52:11,050
relations manager, and Kalandra Children's, who's the director of program strategy and

636
00:52:11,050 --> 00:52:16,490
impact. Thank you all for joining us, and Brian, I'm going to turn it over to you.

637
00:52:16,570 --> 00:52:17,570
Thank you, Chair.

638
00:52:18,230 --> 00:52:22,110
Um, if that was a great moment, I think for for culture to be able to come in front of the council,

639
00:52:22,470 --> 00:52:27,550
and share what occurred in the past year through our annual report. And I know Claire is going to be

640
00:52:27,550 --> 00:52:31,850
bringing up some slides for you here.

641
00:52:34,430 --> 00:52:35,790
So to begin with,

642
00:52:37,230 --> 00:52:40,230
working to be covering three items in this briefing,

643
00:52:40,990 --> 00:52:44,550
they include what I think is really the core of for-pulter,

644
00:52:45,190 --> 00:52:46,670
which is the trust, I believe,

645
00:52:46,890 --> 00:52:48,430
that's required of our organization

646
00:52:48,430 --> 00:52:49,930
within our community,

647
00:52:50,230 --> 00:52:51,950
within this authorizing body.

648
00:52:52,670 --> 00:52:55,090
We'll then move on to highlights and key issues

649
00:52:55,090 --> 00:53:02,490
that we saw in 2025 and then we'll conclude with a section of what we've learned and what we're

650
00:53:02,490 --> 00:53:06,690
seeing coming down the pipe. And to begin with here you have the Seattle Youth Symphony.

651
00:53:07,030 --> 00:53:12,370
I thought it was just a great start. This has been an amazing year. 2025 was an incredible full

652
00:53:12,370 --> 00:53:18,430
implementation of the Doors Open Program as well as the continuation of our Logitech funded

653
00:53:18,430 --> 00:53:24,890
programs and our 1% for public art commission program. So really exciting time and I believe

654
00:53:24,890 --> 00:53:27,450
to me, the key message is that it's working.

655
00:53:27,450 --> 00:53:29,010
Door's open is working.

656
00:53:29,350 --> 00:53:30,770
It's supporting the sector.

657
00:53:31,010 --> 00:53:33,090
It's pushing growth and strengthening

658
00:53:33,090 --> 00:53:35,410
around accessibility and inclusion

659
00:53:35,410 --> 00:53:36,990
and those public benefits.

660
00:53:37,010 --> 00:53:39,610
I think that are so key to a healthy society.

661
00:53:39,970 --> 00:53:41,750
And I've built deepening of the work

662
00:53:41,750 --> 00:53:43,470
that's happening across institutions

663
00:53:43,470 --> 00:53:45,130
that have the individual level.

664
00:53:45,690 --> 00:53:48,690
So to begin with this idea of trust,

665
00:53:48,830 --> 00:53:50,870
which is just really vital to me.

666
00:53:51,030 --> 00:53:52,650
For culture has a lot of pride.

667
00:53:52,650 --> 00:53:59,290
in our long history as an organization, from a commission to a proper department within the county

668
00:53:59,290 --> 00:54:06,670
to our current role as a public development authority. In 2021, there was return to lodging tax,

669
00:54:07,070 --> 00:54:12,930
and then as the pandemic hit, we were very fortunate for the council to distribute an administer

670
00:54:12,930 --> 00:54:18,390
cares and art befunding that really helped the sector, whether the challenges of the pandemic

671
00:54:18,390 --> 00:54:20,630
and post-pandemic world.

672
00:54:20,930 --> 00:54:23,730
And now we're set stepping into our second year

673
00:54:23,730 --> 00:54:25,490
of doors, open implementation

674
00:54:25,490 --> 00:54:27,850
and it's a really exciting time.

675
00:54:28,450 --> 00:54:30,910
And for me, the good that goes along

676
00:54:30,910 --> 00:54:33,150
with the additional funds that are able to go out

677
00:54:33,150 --> 00:54:35,090
and support the great work that's happening

678
00:54:35,090 --> 00:54:38,410
is a responsibility that we have to maintain

679
00:54:38,410 --> 00:54:41,170
what I believe is transparency, accountability,

680
00:54:41,830 --> 00:54:44,350
and also like a crucial element which is humility.

681
00:54:44,650 --> 00:54:46,210
And I think that leads to effectiveness.

682
00:54:46,810 --> 00:54:48,270
And when we talk about good governance,

683
00:54:48,270 --> 00:54:49,890
and we talk about accountability.

684
00:54:50,230 --> 00:54:55,230
I just, the slide in front of you is just to show what those, what those kind of guide

685
00:54:55,230 --> 00:54:59,270
posts and structures are so obviously, you're role for oversight.

686
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:05,740
Let's see oversight and watching us and making sure, hey, our legislative intent with four

687
00:55:05,740 --> 00:55:11,960
culture is this. Are they achieving that? And I always appreciate the fact that we get between two and three

688
00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:17,520
ex-efficio council members. So just a special thank you to council members. Fain and Lewis and also

689
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:22,700
Barone for you guys showing up is once a month that you come and you can hear the great work that's

690
00:55:22,700 --> 00:55:27,580
happening, the challenges that we're finding our way through and you get great insight into who we are as

691
00:55:27,580 --> 00:55:32,800
organization. What our mission is and how we're delivering on that. There's in the four culture,

692
00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:37,960
Board of Directors, the 15 member Board of Directors. We then have three standing subcommittees

693
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:42,320
and then each discipline of four cultures. That's our heritage historic preservation,

694
00:55:43,040 --> 00:55:47,420
public art, and now science and technology. Each have their own advisory committees composed

695
00:55:47,420 --> 00:55:56,320
of practitioners and leaders and community tradition bears who help guide the work at all levels.

696
00:55:56,320 --> 00:56:02,520
And so we always appreciate the work they do, especially their role in overseeing the review

697
00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:07,240
and approval of funding recommendations that come through. In addition to those or choosing

698
00:56:07,240 --> 00:56:14,660
those committees and groups, there's the annual report that we submit. There's the biennial budget

699
00:56:14,660 --> 00:56:20,240
review and approval process by the County Council. There's also an assessment reporting requirement

700
00:56:20,240 --> 00:56:26,080
for doors open and we'll talk more about that today. And then there's an annual audit by the Washington

701
00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:30,980
state auditor that's conducted. So that's just kind of a high level overview of how

702
00:56:30,980 --> 00:56:34,680
serious that we take the issue of accountability and good governance. These are

703
00:56:34,680 --> 00:56:39,060
public dollars and we want to make sure they go out and they achieve the maximum impact

704
00:56:39,060 --> 00:56:41,460
as intended by legislation.

705
00:56:46,230 --> 00:56:48,850
So, at a glance, and this is really high level. And again, I

706
00:56:48,850 --> 00:56:56,810
say, it's 25 and exciting year, 2026 continues to prove that. There was 94 or almost 95 million

707
00:56:56,810 --> 00:57:03,890
dollars in funding awarded in 2025. We'll talk more about the number of organizations

708
00:57:03,890 --> 00:57:09,710
that now exist within King County, but over a thousand cultural organizations were awarded.

709
00:57:09,930 --> 00:57:13,950
In addition, you have individual artists. You have individual cultural practitioners.

710
00:57:14,230 --> 00:57:19,470
So there you have writers and you have poets and you have historians and historic preservation

711
00:57:19,470 --> 00:57:26,210
folks. And 345 individuals were awarded support. And again, it was our first year of full doors

712
00:57:26,210 --> 00:57:31,670
open implementation. There were a number of new grant programs that were implementing, got off to a

713
00:57:31,670 --> 00:57:34,970
great start. And then one of the things that we talked about

714
00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:40,140
during the ordinance creation was

715
00:57:40,140 --> 00:57:46,540
what the economic impact of yours open support would be. So it is fantastic, right? The expressions

716
00:57:46,540 --> 00:57:49,980
that we get to see the interpretation that happens on the heritage side, the preservation,

717
00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:55,220
but there's also a real kind of economic benefit. So there's 12,000 jobs that are supported through

718
00:57:55,220 --> 00:58:01,040
for culture funding, creating a really, I think, thriving and vibrant moment within arts and culture

719
00:58:01,040 --> 00:58:01,840
in King County.

720
00:58:05,300 --> 00:58:09,480
And here you see just our financial snapshot. There are additional details

721
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:14,820
within the annual report, but we give you the three years, 2023, 2024 and 2025,

722
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:21,720
of our total revenues, our total expenditures, and our total fund balances. And as always, the total

723
00:58:21,720 --> 00:58:27,060
fund balances tend to gain a little bit of attention and why are those high against the expenditures

724
00:58:27,060 --> 00:58:33,440
And again, it is the fact that they're competitive grant programs for the most part that award the funds.

725
00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:40,260
Those, those award funds are then encumbered, but depending on the length of the grant terms.

726
00:58:40,540 --> 00:58:46,080
Those funds might go out over a two-year grant period or over a three-year grant period.

727
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:56,080
So the fund balances are encumbered and they will support the projects and operations and facilities and renovations over a number of years.

728
00:58:58,550 --> 00:59:07,490
And with that, I will turn it over to Claire who's going to share some of the kind of exciting projects that we have been able to support in 2025.

729
00:59:08,870 --> 00:59:14,710
Yeah, so I get the fun job here of sharing some of the highlights from art disciplines.

730
00:59:16,250 --> 00:59:20,750
So for culture covers arts, heritage, historic preservation, and now science and technology.

731
00:59:21,230 --> 00:59:31,110
And so with art, I just wanted to share a story from Auburn Theater, which was Auburn Theater was a recipient of our building for equity and Korean community award.

732
00:59:31,210 --> 00:59:33,450
So those are projects of greater than 10 million.

733
00:59:34,110 --> 00:59:36,170
And they got to do a groundbreaking for that.

734
00:59:36,350 --> 00:59:37,890
Feet are really just recently.

735
00:59:37,890 --> 00:59:39,090
And I got to attend it.

736
00:59:39,670 --> 00:59:40,150
And it's great.

737
00:59:40,270 --> 00:59:44,770
They're going to, part of this money is going to go to support 300 Seat Theater in downtown Auburn.

738
00:59:44,770 --> 00:59:53,110
there was a feeder in this spot. It's a vacant, it's been a vacant spot for nearly, actually probably five or six years now.

739
00:59:53,670 --> 00:59:57,130
It was, it had a bunch of damage and it had to be demolished.

740
00:59:57,430 --> 00:59:59,930
It's revitalizing this site and downtown.

741
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:10,340
And Auburn right next to the postmark center for the arts, which is a facility that for culture has been supporting over many years that does community programming, so the arts, and it's a historic building.

742
01:00:10,900 --> 01:00:19,540
But it's really activating this site of downtown Auburn that's really wonderful, and it's kind of a part of what arts and culture can do for economic revitalization.

743
01:00:19,660 --> 01:00:28,340
And it's a part of a strategic initiative of the city, and I just say the folks in Auburn that I've worked with in the parks, arts, and then in the city government.

744
01:00:28,340 --> 01:00:30,400
There's some of the hardest working people figuring out

745
01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:33,920
how to make this vision or reality over time.

746
01:00:34,440 --> 01:00:38,040
And I'm really excited to see how much it positively impacts

747
01:00:38,040 --> 01:00:40,680
a commercial business is all along there

748
01:00:40,680 --> 01:00:43,440
and just makes it a really active part of their town.

749
01:00:45,640 --> 01:00:49,320
On the heritage side, we had several fairs and festivals this year

750
01:00:49,320 --> 01:00:51,460
that ended up a plan, or it would have been last year,

751
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:55,080
but for 2025, that applied for Heritage Projects

752
01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:55,920
and received funding.

753
01:00:56,100 --> 01:00:59,280
And so I just wanted to highlight some of these city

754
01:00:59,280 --> 01:01:01,040
and community festivals.

755
01:01:01,380 --> 01:01:02,340
So, there was the D.A.D.

756
01:01:02,340 --> 01:01:04,740
I saw a celebration at City of Shoreline.

757
01:01:05,080 --> 01:01:07,300
City of Shoreline, it has been producing the celebration.

758
01:01:07,720 --> 01:01:11,100
I think since 2021, and it used to be a partnership with Shoreline Garts,

759
01:01:11,940 --> 01:01:14,000
and then they've kind of taken it on,

760
01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:16,140
and they've received funding for that last year,

761
01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:18,600
and we're able to have a really good celebration.

762
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:21,640
Snowquami Valley International Block Party.

763
01:01:21,880 --> 01:01:24,820
That was run by the Snow Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce.

764
01:01:24,980 --> 01:01:26,940
This brought together lots of different vendors

765
01:01:26,940 --> 01:01:31,780
and performances to serve the snow call me area and it was just I heard it was a really good

766
01:01:32,320 --> 01:01:32,740
time.

767
01:01:32,780 --> 01:01:38,160
E5 for all had an honoring Jude teen fair or it was like a kind of like a festival party.

768
01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:46,380
And then the Irish Heritage Club has Irish Week, which has several events over time, including

769
01:01:46,380 --> 01:01:51,700
like a Irish or a sort of breadbaking competition, but that was a some cool story of

770
01:01:51,700 --> 01:01:54,700
of the Heritage Projects from last year.

771
01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:57,920
On the preservation side, we were really happy to see

772
01:01:57,920 --> 01:02:00,100
that the Inamclap Plateau Historical Society

773
01:02:00,100 --> 01:02:02,740
received a landmarks capital award last year

774
01:02:02,740 --> 01:02:04,160
that was part of sort of a longer

775
01:02:04,160 --> 01:02:07,180
they've been doing long-term renovation in different parts.

776
01:02:07,700 --> 01:02:10,400
But this is a 116-year-old Masonic legend

777
01:02:10,400 --> 01:02:12,880
of you've ever been to this museum in an Inamclap,

778
01:02:13,280 --> 01:02:15,020
but it's a really incredible property.

779
01:02:15,580 --> 01:02:17,840
And they've been making changes to it over time

780
01:02:17,840 --> 01:02:19,380
to be able to do different things

781
01:02:19,380 --> 01:02:26,320
part of this sort of part two that they received funding for was to change the front of it so

782
01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:30,300
that they could add more programming space, which allows them to run more community events,

783
01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:38,980
more just more public access to the museum. So it's really exciting for them to be able to do

784
01:02:38,980 --> 01:02:45,520
this and receive that when Mark's Capital Award. And then in science I have technology I wanted to

785
01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:48,760
fair about some which is acute acute acronyms.

786
01:02:48,820 --> 01:02:51,660
He had a universal math museum and it's actually,

787
01:02:51,660 --> 01:02:52,980
it's located in Penn Station.

788
01:02:53,220 --> 01:02:55,100
They just opened up their first, like,

789
01:02:55,100 --> 01:02:58,100
kind of central location, but the majority of their programming

790
01:02:58,100 --> 01:03:01,380
actually happens around its mobile.

791
01:03:01,440 --> 01:03:03,900
It happens in South Can County Schools and Libraries,

792
01:03:04,340 --> 01:03:06,860
but they have this part of their award.

793
01:03:06,960 --> 01:03:09,040
They got multiple awards through four culture in 2025,

794
01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:11,020
one of which was public free access,

795
01:03:11,340 --> 01:03:14,300
which allows the museum to offer free admission,

796
01:03:14,300 --> 01:03:22,240
which is really exciting and allows kids and families to go there free of charge and do hands-on

797
01:03:22,240 --> 01:03:27,480
math programming, and they had a really big party. They opened on PIE day. So that was March

798
01:03:28,180 --> 01:03:33,260
14th and that if they had the great time and we had full four-poor-poor-poor staff there, just

799
01:03:33,260 --> 01:03:37,540
to welcome to this space and we're really excited to see how this organization grows and continues

800
01:03:37,540 --> 01:03:41,960
to serve most of South King County in doing hands-on math activities.

801
01:03:44,650 --> 01:03:45,370
And then finally in

802
01:03:45,370 --> 01:03:48,550
public art department, we have in King County for

803
01:03:48,550 --> 01:03:53,810
culture, gets to manage and store and install the

804
01:03:53,810 --> 01:03:56,530
King County art collection and they're about the

805
01:03:56,530 --> 01:03:59,570
little over 2000 works in this collection and they are

806
01:03:59,570 --> 01:04:02,390
up all around the county and all of our institutional

807
01:04:02,390 --> 01:04:06,950
spaces. And in 2025, there are 170 installations, things

808
01:04:06,950 --> 01:04:10,110
move around the county as offices are changing or coming

809
01:04:10,110 --> 01:04:13,550
back to work or moving to different places and we have a

810
01:04:13,550 --> 01:04:19,810
that works on that. And I just, I have to say that it's really, it's a really amazing thing

811
01:04:19,810 --> 01:04:24,010
that King County can do this because it really does impact the public's experiences with

812
01:04:24,010 --> 01:04:28,110
institutional space. So many things happen as you all know, like, so many things happen in the

813
01:04:28,110 --> 01:04:32,910
county, from the worst day of someone's life, all the way to, you know, maybe when they get married

814
01:04:32,910 --> 01:04:39,130
or they do these things that are great. And all along the way, we can shape how they remember those

815
01:04:39,130 --> 01:04:41,870
times with the sort of things that are around them.

816
01:04:41,970 --> 01:04:43,670
I think public art has that power.

817
01:04:44,450 --> 01:04:47,050
And then for those that are actually really interested in this,

818
01:04:47,530 --> 01:04:53,070
last year we were able to get the majority of the public art catalog online.

819
01:04:53,490 --> 01:04:56,210
So our temporary permanent artworks, the county owns,

820
01:04:56,430 --> 01:04:59,930
and make it so that the public can learn about what are the artists that...

821
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:19,780
Are there where is that artwork? What are the spaces that they're in? And I've heard some really good feedback from just people on the community that have reached out to say just how much getting to browse this and go and go on their own little free art expedition has been. So that's been a cool element of what we were able to do in 2025 and our public art department.

822
01:05:22,310 --> 01:05:26,450
So I'm going to pass it over to my colleague, Klanger, who's going to talk more about doors open.

823
01:05:26,450 --> 01:05:35,910
Thank you Claire. Yeah, so I'm going to jump into some of our learnings and observations after the first full year of doors open funding distribution.

824
01:05:36,950 --> 01:05:48,530
And one of our goals as we move into sort of integration of doors open funding into the historic for culture work was to really retain our ability to be responsive to the field.

825
01:05:48,530 --> 01:05:56,650
So we have rolled out these new programs, but at the same time we know that things happen and we need to be responsive to that.

826
01:05:57,510 --> 01:06:03,530
So the majority of our funding does roll through our regular grant cycles, but sometimes emergencies happen.

827
01:06:03,690 --> 01:06:13,730
Sometimes pipes break, trees fall, and those can really be make or break kind of situations for cultural organizations that don't typically carry a fundons that can address those unexpected events.

828
01:06:13,730 --> 01:06:17,650
So I wanted to talk about our emergency and unforeseen grant.

829
01:06:18,370 --> 01:06:20,650
This is a program that runs year round.

830
01:06:20,690 --> 01:06:23,970
It addresses situations that could not be predicted ahead of time.

831
01:06:24,550 --> 01:06:26,830
And as you all will remember, last year,

832
01:06:27,130 --> 01:06:29,350
we experienced two atmospheric rivers.

833
01:06:30,050 --> 01:06:33,150
And that resulted in flooding in South and East King County,

834
01:06:33,270 --> 01:06:34,870
which was really quite devastating.

835
01:06:36,290 --> 01:06:37,430
So while this was happening,

836
01:06:37,710 --> 01:06:42,210
we proactively reached out to the cultural organizations that were in those impacted areas

837
01:06:42,210 --> 01:06:48,570
to let them know about this program, make sure that they were tracking their expenses such that they could come back to us and

838
01:06:48,570 --> 01:06:50,810
and we can work through this application process.

839
01:06:51,450 --> 01:06:53,990
And I wanted to highlight one of those organizations.

840
01:06:54,410 --> 01:06:57,950
You're seeing a photo here from the Oxbow Farm and Conservation Center.

841
01:06:58,650 --> 01:07:02,630
They experienced a 16 year high of flood waters.

842
01:07:03,210 --> 01:07:07,270
The flood was a stage five emergency on their flood warning system

843
01:07:07,270 --> 01:07:11,510
and resulted in really quite significant flood site damage.

844
01:07:11,510 --> 01:07:19,130
So what you're looking at here is the native plant nursery, and you can see the water is quite high in that facility.

845
01:07:19,750 --> 01:07:25,630
That's actually a facility that was specifically built, you know, that this is an organization that's located on a floodplain.

846
01:07:25,690 --> 01:07:33,590
This is not new information that the area is prone to flooding. So a lot of their facilities have been built with this in mind.

847
01:07:33,590 --> 01:07:40,750
And yet this flood even superseded the the ability to withstand those precautionary measures that

848
01:07:40,750 --> 01:07:45,890
had been taken. So we were really pleased to be able to work with them and provide some support

849
01:07:45,890 --> 01:07:50,610
so that they could get their operations back up and running. So I know they were one of the

850
01:07:50,610 --> 01:07:55,130
organizations that were particularly hard-hit and the Northwest Railway Museum was also particularly

851
01:07:55,130 --> 01:07:59,990
hard-hit and they also received an emergency grant to support their recovery.

852
01:08:01,430 --> 01:08:15,670
And this need for responsiveness is it's not just about the physical environment, I think one of our other learnings that we have found is that about 50% of our organizations do not necessarily have a facility that they are running out of on a daily basis.

853
01:08:16,390 --> 01:08:28,670
They are maybe popping up in schools or working with other cultural organizations to provide that programming so we're also of course very focused on how to build organizational strength across the entire sector.

854
01:08:28,670 --> 01:08:36,290
So doors open really creates that opportunity to deepen and expand operational work while creating that organizational stability.

855
01:08:36,990 --> 01:08:45,050
So one of the ways that we're really focused on doing this is creating pathways to technical assistance that can build that kind of perseverance and strength.

856
01:08:45,890 --> 01:08:54,990
We have a system to connect our cultural organizations directly to a roster of coaches and consultants that support all kinds of organizational work.

857
01:08:54,990 --> 01:08:57,990
And then we underwrite those contracts directly.

858
01:08:59,190 --> 01:09:05,190
The benefit of this sort of system is that the consultants have all been reviewed and vetted by peers.

859
01:09:05,850 --> 01:09:09,870
So that saves organizations a lot of time and energy seeking out that kind of help.

860
01:09:09,930 --> 01:09:16,470
It can be very overwhelming if you're not sure where to start on finding a particular kind of support within your community.

861
01:09:17,110 --> 01:09:21,250
We also have the ability to underwrite existing relationships.

862
01:09:21,250 --> 01:09:25,430
so if an organization already has a relationship with a consultant that they're really pleased with,

863
01:09:25,510 --> 01:09:31,310
we're able to bring them into the fold as well. And one of the findings that we found is

864
01:09:32,010 --> 01:09:36,930
that some of the top services that have been requested have really been around financial and strategic

865
01:09:36,930 --> 01:09:42,470
planning in addition to grant writing and fundraising development. So kind of really building that

866
01:09:42,470 --> 01:09:48,190
internal operational strength and then also finding ways to expand the funding that's coming in

867
01:09:48,190 --> 01:09:58,490
and two examples that I wanted to share out are the Spotlight Repertory North West, which is a live music and performing arts organization in Sammish.

868
01:09:59,050 --> 01:09:59,930
They used their...

869
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:08,200
Consulting hours to work with a financial consultant on preparing their 90s and updating their quick books. So, again, those kind of internal systems.

870
01:10:08,880 --> 01:10:17,600
Similarly, the Maple Valley Historical Society used their consulting hours to work with a financial consultant to develop stronger internal controls.

871
01:10:18,420 --> 01:10:25,660
So they have built a new gift acceptance policy. They've also worked on producing documentation required by the IRS.

872
01:10:25,660 --> 01:10:35,100
So again, just really kind of strengthening those internal systems to make sure that these organizations can remain strong and stable in the long term.

873
01:10:35,940 --> 01:10:43,840
So we'll continue to track those needs over time and build out our roster and build out our consultant directory in response to those needs.

874
01:10:44,240 --> 01:10:45,460
Excuse me.

875
01:10:46,380 --> 01:10:53,080
So thinking about kind of the bigger picture here, what have we learned about the sector, where have we, where have we seen that growth?

876
01:10:53,720 --> 01:11:00,920
I'm really excited about this first bullet point here 23% of doors open awardees were first time applicants to foreculture.

877
01:11:01,340 --> 01:11:08,320
I want to point out that that is not just applicants, but applicants that were successful and ended up being awarded a grant.

878
01:11:08,960 --> 01:11:15,440
So even higher number of first time applicants that came through the system, but we're seeing a really high success, right?

879
01:11:15,440 --> 01:11:19,640
And what this tells us is that we're continuing to make

880
01:11:19,640 --> 01:11:22,220
headway in reaching new organizations, organizations

881
01:11:22,220 --> 01:11:25,100
that haven't historically worked with us,

882
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:27,780
and that we're really able to provide that assistance,

883
01:11:27,940 --> 01:11:30,940
that technical assistance, the support during our workshops

884
01:11:30,940 --> 01:11:33,480
when we're building those relationships with folks

885
01:11:33,480 --> 01:11:35,200
to be able to navigate our systems

886
01:11:35,200 --> 01:11:39,480
and make sure that they're able to build their portfolio,

887
01:11:39,780 --> 01:11:43,260
bring in the applications and all the materials required

888
01:11:43,260 --> 01:11:45,320
for the grant programs.

889
01:11:46,840 --> 01:11:52,200
The next bullet point on here is about our new science and technology disciplines.

890
01:11:52,980 --> 01:11:56,160
So $3.3 million were awarded in 2025.

891
01:11:56,660 --> 01:12:02,220
That's actually in addition to the approximately $3.5 million that were awarded the

892
01:12:02,220 --> 01:12:04,800
previous year for our general operating funds.

893
01:12:05,220 --> 01:12:09,590
So closer to $7 million was awarded to science and technology for

894
01:12:09,590 --> 01:12:15,490
that was, so awarded versus distributed is the, is the, is the new one's there.

895
01:12:15,930 --> 01:12:19,490
And then of course, we're also investing in our new organizations.

896
01:12:19,950 --> 01:12:26,590
So the launch program is our grant that is very specifically focused on organizations that are brand new.

897
01:12:26,710 --> 01:12:28,710
They might be hiring their first staff member.

898
01:12:28,830 --> 01:12:30,190
They're just getting off the ground.

899
01:12:30,410 --> 01:12:37,910
And this requires a lot of dedicated focused support to make sure they have the resources that they need to be sustainable in the long term.

900
01:12:39,350 --> 01:12:51,230
All right. Now moving on to accessibility. So we really, we know that as we build out these programs for cultural organizations,

901
01:12:51,950 --> 01:12:56,630
that we also need to be thinking about how the general public is actually accessing these cultural,

902
01:12:56,790 --> 01:12:59,970
these new cultural events that are happening across the county.

903
01:13:00,410 --> 01:13:06,230
So this is a great opportunity to give a little preview of something that's coming out in two days.

904
01:13:06,230 --> 01:13:13,070
we are just about to share the results of a survey that we did of King County residents to better

905
01:13:13,070 --> 01:13:19,470
understand cultural attendance by the general public. And this was a rigorous study of cultural

906
01:13:19,470 --> 01:13:24,710
participation that's demographically matched to the King County census. So we really believe these

907
01:13:24,710 --> 01:13:31,370
metrics are quite valid. We found some great news about King County participation. King County is actually

908
01:13:32,790 --> 01:13:39,170
significantly higher than the US national average in terms of participation, but we also identified

909
01:13:39,170 --> 01:13:44,790
some barriers to access and you will not be surprised to hear that cost is the number one barrier

910
01:13:44,790 --> 01:13:52,130
that was named. So that's where a program like public free access comes in. In 2025, we were able to

911
01:13:52,130 --> 01:13:59,890
under right 1.76 million free and reduced cost tickets to cultural activities. So that's really creating

912
01:13:59,890 --> 01:14:05,290
whole lot of access that would not have been there previously. We're also seeing a trend in

913
01:14:05,290 --> 01:14:11,110
organizations shifting their their ticketing models. So moving into pay what you can in sliding

914
01:14:11,110 --> 01:14:17,990
scale models, which is kind of interesting. So there's both free free admission. So Claire was previously

915
01:14:17,990 --> 01:14:23,710
talking about the new Seattle Universal Math Museum. The Henry Art Gallery has been around for a

916
01:14:23,710 --> 01:14:28,030
long time, but they with the public free access grant that they received have been able to move

917
01:14:28,030 --> 01:14:35,950
completely free admission, same with the summer Asian Arts Fest. I know that the feast is a

918
01:14:35,950 --> 01:14:40,870
theatrical production company that has moved to a sliding scale model, so lots of organizations

919
01:14:40,870 --> 01:14:45,890
are kind of playing with how they create that access within the sector and make sure that cost

920
01:14:45,890 --> 01:14:52,350
is not the reason why folks are not able to get in the front door. And then continuing on that theme

921
01:14:52,350 --> 01:14:57,330
of access, I'll just call your attention to that last photo that you saw it was youth and focus,

922
01:14:57,330 --> 01:14:59,930
That's a great program, that's energy.

923
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:14,740
Cating students in photography. And they have actually moved to make their summer programs completely free. So what you're seeing here is a summer camp program from 2025 that camp used to be a paid camp. They're now able to offer that completely free for youth.

924
01:15:15,560 --> 01:15:25,180
And then continuing on that cultural education theme, just thinking about how we are serving students and youth across the county. So a couple examples.

925
01:15:25,180 --> 01:15:41,180
Um, so excited to have Nancy joining our board, the Highline Heritage Museum in Burian has really dramatically expanded their school partnerships, and they're actually in the process of hiring an education staff member to oversee that new program, or I'm sorry, that expanded program.

926
01:15:41,180 --> 01:15:49,200
Art Commons in Isaquah is they're doing a really interesting program with Isaquah schools where they have artists and residents in the schools.

927
01:15:49,340 --> 01:15:59,080
So these are more than just sort of one touch programs. They're really building deep relationships between those artists and the students to build those skills within the the student population.

928
01:15:59,840 --> 01:16:02,140
So they're hiring teaching artists right now.

929
01:16:02,720 --> 01:16:08,200
I also wanted to point out that we are under contract with Auburn, Highline, Renton, Kent,

930
01:16:08,580 --> 01:16:11,780
Techwilla, and federal-way school districts for transportation subsidies.

931
01:16:12,980 --> 01:16:16,900
So we've made quite a lot of progress there to make sure that students are able to move

932
01:16:16,900 --> 01:16:20,440
back and forth between cultural spaces and their schools.

933
01:16:21,260 --> 01:16:25,980
We're also in conversation with the Muckleshoot Tribal School and working through that partnership

934
01:16:25,980 --> 01:16:27,180
conversation right now.

935
01:16:27,180 --> 01:16:30,560
And then we also have conversations going with Skycomesh

936
01:16:30,560 --> 01:16:33,320
and Seattle Public Schools, both of those districts

937
01:16:33,320 --> 01:16:36,440
needed to create some internal logistical controls

938
01:16:36,440 --> 01:16:37,680
around accepting the funding.

939
01:16:37,880 --> 01:16:39,680
So we're just kind of working through those logistics.

940
01:16:40,040 --> 01:16:43,560
But we are well on our way to expanding that access

941
01:16:43,560 --> 01:16:44,200
for students.

942
01:16:45,440 --> 01:16:48,600
And I think with that, I will hand it back over to Brian.

943
01:16:49,380 --> 01:16:54,160
So as we look ahead in 2026 and beyond just a few

944
01:16:54,160 --> 01:17:00,000
issue areas and opportunities that we see one again is the increase in the number of cultural

945
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:08,780
organizations when I got to four cultures was 2014. We estimated about 500 cultural organizations and

946
01:17:08,780 --> 01:17:14,040
again that we're looking at serving over a thousand cultural organizations. Their consequences

947
01:17:14,040 --> 01:17:18,360
to the care and capacity of any ecosystems, so that's something that we watch carefully. They're going

948
01:17:18,360 --> 01:17:24,820
more applications, seeking the dollars that we have available, but it also presents some interesting

949
01:17:24,820 --> 01:17:31,140
opportunities. I'm sure that you guys are well aware of the number of collaborative operating

950
01:17:31,140 --> 01:17:38,500
models that are being undertaken. You saw a merger of Seattle Shakespeare with the

951
01:17:39,900 --> 01:17:45,240
God Act Theater, which is now Union Center, a collaborative relationship between the Seattle

952
01:17:45,240 --> 01:17:50,880
Red and Seattle Children's Theatre, we see more recently a merger between the Washington State

953
01:17:50,880 --> 01:17:56,480
Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Federation of Seattle. So I think organizations are looking

954
01:17:56,480 --> 01:18:02,240
for efficiencies among this kind of increased competition within the cultural sector and increasing

955
01:18:02,240 --> 01:18:08,100
number of organizations. And a lot of this is happening with back-end administrative support.

956
01:18:08,280 --> 01:18:14,780
There's always been a long history of programmatic relationships and partnerships. And I think people are

957
01:18:14,780 --> 01:18:20,760
exploring more of those from an administrative side has clandres shared one of the things that we

958
01:18:20,760 --> 01:18:27,120
like everybody are watching the impacts of climate change is having on the cultural sector

959
01:18:27,120 --> 01:18:33,240
with the increase in unpredictable and volatile weather events. We're seeing more facility support

960
01:18:33,240 --> 01:18:39,980
being needed on an emergency basis and we just see that increasing every single year and we'll continue

961
01:18:39,980 --> 01:18:46,860
to do so. And then lastly is that we had shared during our last briefing with this committee

962
01:18:46,860 --> 01:18:52,440
about our evaluation framework and there's a lot of data that were gathering and that is

963
01:18:52,440 --> 01:18:57,600
only as valuable as the information you can take from it through synthesis. So we're really

964
01:18:57,600 --> 01:19:02,700
undertaking that because there's a lot of differentiation within those thousand organizations

965
01:19:02,700 --> 01:19:08,700
that we serve to that we strive to serve by geography, by the discipline that they represent,

966
01:19:08,700 --> 01:19:13,060
by the size of the organization themselves and the communities that they want to serve.

967
01:19:13,540 --> 01:19:17,860
So adaptation and evolution within not only doors open, but as an organization,

968
01:19:18,380 --> 01:19:23,620
I think is key to continuing to serve this growing number of organizations and

969
01:19:23,620 --> 01:19:27,800
make sure that they're strengthened. So as a Collanger share of all things over the

970
01:19:27,800 --> 01:19:33,220
proud of is the ability to help a lot of these new and emerging organizations, which are typically

971
01:19:33,220 --> 01:19:39,920
small and budget-sized, typically $200,000 annual operating budget are below who need support

972
01:19:39,920 --> 01:19:45,300
technical assistance capacity building to make sure that their internal operations are strong.

973
01:19:45,440 --> 01:19:51,880
So we see that as a continuing area focused for us as well, can then lastly, I'll just say outreach

974
01:19:51,880 --> 01:19:58,760
and engagement. We have got to make sure people throughout this really large county are aware of

975
01:19:58,760 --> 01:19:59,920
It's out for a couple of years.

976
01:20:00,000 --> 01:20:11,260
I'm not just doors open, but all of the support mechanisms that we offer. So we are communications department has really stepped up their efforts when it comes to outreach and engagement.

977
01:20:11,340 --> 01:20:22,140
We're doing a lot of work around language justice and accessibility making sure that we have translation services that the any kind of collateral marketing materials we have had various languages on those.

978
01:20:22,140 --> 01:20:27,740
people can, I don't know who we are and come to us. And I think what's really vital to that

979
01:20:27,740 --> 01:20:32,620
is the people power that we have here at the organization, everyone in for culture that came

980
01:20:32,620 --> 01:20:38,020
from a museum or a theater or a dance group or a choral group. So when one picks up the phone

981
01:20:38,020 --> 01:20:44,200
or they send the email, there's somebody there who can help welcome them into who for culture is

982
01:20:44,200 --> 01:20:49,440
and also guide them to the appropriate resources. And so much of that is us getting outside the

983
01:20:49,440 --> 01:20:54,640
walls of this office and being there in community at events, um, getting to know folks

984
01:20:54,640 --> 01:20:59,440
because there's so many people on a radar. There's so many organizations that we already

985
01:20:59,440 --> 01:21:03,380
know and have known for years, but being out in community allows us to make those connections

986
01:21:03,380 --> 01:21:08,440
to the folks who maybe have never came to us for funding. And as you saw from the number of new

987
01:21:08,440 --> 01:21:14,160
applicants to for culture, I think that's really successful. And a part of that is in this is just

988
01:21:14,160 --> 01:21:18,580
so much gratitude to the council when there is a new individual, whether that's an artist or a new

989
01:21:18,580 --> 01:21:21,980
organization or just the cultural group that's kind of nascent and

990
01:21:21,980 --> 01:21:26,440
forming when you write put us in contact with them or anybody makes that

991
01:21:26,440 --> 01:21:28,960
recommendation. We're going to get out there. We're going to talk them.

992
01:21:28,960 --> 01:21:31,940
We're going to figure out what their mission is. And if there's an alignment with

993
01:21:31,940 --> 01:21:36,160
the funding opportunities that we have, I think that is going to be increasingly

994
01:21:36,160 --> 01:21:41,000
important that kind of boots on the ground, engagement with the cultural

995
01:21:41,000 --> 01:21:47,020
sectors throughout the county. So with that, I will conclude and just say, thank

996
01:21:47,020 --> 01:21:52,280
on behalf of all the staff of the four culture boarded directors. We live our

997
01:21:52,280 --> 01:21:56,000
working relationship with all the council members. I'm really appreciate the

998
01:21:56,000 --> 01:22:00,740
ex officios and what they do and how they serve on our board. And with that

999
01:22:00,740 --> 01:22:03,120
I'll conclude and happy to take any questions.

1000
01:22:04,480 --> 01:22:09,320
Thank you so much, Brian. Clanger and Claire for that presentation. Thank you for

1001
01:22:09,320 --> 01:22:13,380
including their photo. I saw the background of the Pacific Science Center, which is

1002
01:22:13,380 --> 01:22:19,120
the areas now newly open to the community. I should say I finally got to see that recently.

1003
01:22:19,340 --> 01:22:26,480
Thank you all for that presentation. Colleagues, I'm going to open it up for questions off from you about the report.

1004
01:22:26,960 --> 01:22:29,600
Councillor Mert Perry. Well, Chair Perry of the Council.

1005
01:22:30,000 --> 01:22:33,340
Thank you. Thank you very much,

1006
01:22:34,900 --> 01:22:39,320
serve our own and thank you very much also to Executive Director Carter.

1007
01:22:39,320 --> 01:22:42,200
I got my relations manager, Claire, Retio, Director,

1008
01:22:42,440 --> 01:22:56,060
and Collenda, Children's for taking the time to provide us with this great update on the report and the great work you're doing and the folks who are interested in nominating them and bringing them on board and making sure everybody is successful on behalf of everyone and in King County.

1009
01:22:56,060 --> 01:23:07,100
This is really exciting and I have a few questions, so chair, I'll check in with you to see if I need to, if we need to go online for that or go to the next person for Robert's rules.

1010
01:23:07,920 --> 01:23:10,600
You can keep going until until you're done.

1011
01:23:10,760 --> 01:23:11,140
Okay.

1012
01:23:11,560 --> 01:23:11,760
Okay.

1013
01:23:12,100 --> 01:23:12,660
That's great.

1014
01:23:13,620 --> 01:23:17,760
As you mentioned, when Council originally adopted Dores Open, the implementation

1015
01:23:17,760 --> 01:23:24,360
plan required for culture to distribute at least 25% to communities outside of the Seattle

1016
01:23:24,360 --> 01:23:30,840
area, and that was something that was important to me in that final vote, and then your

1017
01:23:30,840 --> 01:23:36,880
report you mentioned for culture exceeded the 25% minimum funding for organizations outside of the

1018
01:23:36,880 --> 01:23:43,740
area and the 10% minimum for communities of opportunity for organizations serving vulnerable

1019
01:23:43,740 --> 01:23:48,720
populations. I'm interested to know if you have a dollar value for the total amount of funds

1020
01:23:48,720 --> 01:23:55,300
distributed to jurisdictions outside of Seattle. The staff report notes the number of funds

1021
01:23:55,300 --> 01:24:03,880
distributed to any district, but I'd like to understand this the full some total. That was

1022
01:24:03,880 --> 01:24:07,400
That's one question and we can get this information offline because numbers on the

1023
01:24:07,400 --> 01:24:13,680
diet are not, it's not great, so I would be happy to receive that.

1024
01:24:14,320 --> 01:24:18,680
I'm also interested to know how for culture approached meeting that requirement and the

1025
01:24:18,680 --> 01:24:23,180
steps of strategies you took together to reach communities that haven't traditionally been

1026
01:24:23,180 --> 01:24:25,320
engaged or had access to these opportunities.

1027
01:24:25,940 --> 01:24:30,660
I was especially interested in hearing about efforts to reach first-time applicants in rural

1028
01:24:30,660 --> 01:24:31,260
communities.

1029
01:24:31,260 --> 01:24:35,260
so I'll stop there and see if there's a response to that.

1030
01:24:35,640 --> 01:24:39,640
Sure, that makes sense of the questions, Kelsey, and we'll get back to you with the exact

1031
01:24:39,640 --> 01:24:43,260
details about the funds that went outside of the city of Seattle when you actually will

1032
01:24:43,260 --> 01:24:49,340
get it to you today. As far as how we're reaching folks that are either first-time applicants

1033
01:24:49,340 --> 01:24:54,460
or awardees or just have been historically underserved by funding sources including governmental

1034
01:24:54,460 --> 01:24:59,920
services. It's there are quite a few efforts that we undertake. We partner.

1035
01:25:00,000 --> 01:25:08,540
With a lot of different media organizations in a lot of different languages that are really commonly used throughout King County.

1036
01:25:09,120 --> 01:25:12,720
That is one of the ways in which we spread the good word about what we're doing.

1037
01:25:12,960 --> 01:25:17,200
We also have a really robust outreach and engagement program called Hello.

1038
01:25:17,560 --> 01:25:19,340
And I think what's been tasked about this program.

1039
01:25:19,700 --> 01:25:22,720
It isn't simply that we set up the table at the fair.

1040
01:25:22,860 --> 01:25:29,140
It's a really intentional partnership with community groups on the ground at their organizations.

1041
01:25:29,140 --> 01:25:35,660
and we ask them to help us identify artists or creatives or cultural groups that can come to these

1042
01:25:35,660 --> 01:25:40,040
gatherings and get to know us and our staff and the offerings that we have.

1043
01:25:40,560 --> 01:25:45,120
We also really rely on the folks that are affiliated with the organization, such staff members,

1044
01:25:45,580 --> 01:25:49,100
being out in the field and I mean all over rural areas, unincorporated areas,

1045
01:25:49,240 --> 01:25:54,460
suburban areas, South King County, Northeast. We try and be out as much as we can.

1046
01:25:54,460 --> 01:26:24,440
we have staff members doing that and carrying the the for culture banner and it's offerings. We also have all our five advisory committees all the members that are part of that. We give them training and orientation and that's them to also like tap into their networks and be constantly telling people that we're there and then lastly our board members who also fill that role. So those are just some of the efforts that we undertake. But there are also also a lot of partnerships that occur with individuals.

1047
01:26:24,460 --> 01:26:29,200
will awardees where they might have an event or they have a fair or they have a festival.

1048
01:26:29,580 --> 01:26:32,980
And they ask us, hey, what you've come and we share what you're doing, whether that's, you know,

1049
01:26:33,040 --> 01:26:37,900
me showing up and letting people know about the offerings that we have or it is a table.

1050
01:26:38,240 --> 01:26:43,340
So we're trying to be responsive as well. But the critical part is we need those community members

1051
01:26:43,340 --> 01:26:49,000
that are from that geographic area to tell us, hey, here's who you're missing. Here's who you're

1052
01:26:49,000 --> 01:26:52,880
not seeing. And I think we're very fortunate that our network has those great ambassadors.

1053
01:26:52,880 --> 01:26:57,280
and that's how so many new folks come to us and how we get out the word about for culture.

1054
01:26:58,140 --> 01:27:06,880
I appreciate that. And one of the things that the exact has been doing

1055
01:27:07,920 --> 01:27:12,860
is actually pretty close to my heart is the community building element, one of his four bees.

1056
01:27:13,600 --> 01:27:18,500
It was formerly boots on the ground. It's now building connecting or better. I'm going to have

1057
01:27:18,500 --> 01:27:25,680
figure that one out. Sorry, sorry, exact. But I have a pal in his office, Angela, who is our

1058
01:27:25,680 --> 01:27:30,940
east side person, right? Who is the person who is representing one of the east side between

1059
01:27:30,940 --> 01:27:39,480
Angela and Department of Local Services, Lea Richardson's team, they are everywhere. So, in my

1060
01:27:39,480 --> 01:27:44,400
district, this across to me, Mr. Edmond, wouldn't build this Nicole Me Valley, it's festival time,

1061
01:27:44,400 --> 01:27:53,440
There's everything it takes. I call this total day Saturday. There's everything is happening right now. It's very visible. Our ministry, all these different things.

1062
01:27:54,040 --> 01:28:09,040
You have a smaller team to be able to reach all of those areas. I would love to send you my connections for those nonprofits, which you have sure that you have already specifically the festivals and now reach.

1063
01:28:09,040 --> 01:28:14,660
because it would be really wonderful to have you at the non-profit festival at

1064
01:28:14,660 --> 01:28:19,220
Coronation Farms Incarnation where everybody's highlighted those kinds of things

1065
01:28:19,220 --> 01:28:24,800
where there's just terrific opportunity for visibility. We send people to you all the

1066
01:28:24,800 --> 01:28:29,460
time and I was really thrilled to see in the report all of the efforts that you're

1067
01:28:29,460 --> 01:28:34,040
making to reach out to our folks, Oxford and the emergency areas as well. But

1068
01:28:34,040 --> 01:28:39,020
there is a really, really strong interest and I want to make sure that we're all

1069
01:28:39,020 --> 01:28:51,480
and then we can cross-pollinate and so having that opportunity to really invest in these areas will create those thriving communities that you're trying to do everywhere.

1070
01:28:52,080 --> 01:29:02,300
I appreciate that and I appreciate your continued vigilance on your finances and how you are appropriating these things.

1071
01:29:02,300 --> 01:29:18,060
It is something I'm keenly aware of right now and the diligence with which you conduct your team, your business, is very much appreciated.

1072
01:29:18,380 --> 01:29:26,420
And I just want to take a moment to say that one final thing you had in your slides, some crazy amount of 156 million.

1073
01:29:26,420 --> 01:29:31,600
not yet spent, and the point that you made was that it's

1074
01:29:31,600 --> 01:29:34,540
encumbered by some of these grants, it would be great

1075
01:29:34,540 --> 01:29:40,460
to have a visual or a line that shows encumbered by year

1076
01:29:40,460 --> 01:29:45,800
out. So if I'm looking 156 million not spent, and we know

1077
01:29:45,800 --> 01:29:48,780
it's 100 million a year coming in coming right. That's going to

1078
01:29:48,780 --> 01:29:53,100
grow and dissipate but also substantially grow, and so it would be

1079
01:29:53,100 --> 01:29:57,280
very helpful to have a third column, a third row that shows

1080
01:29:57,280 --> 01:29:59,780
in comfort in 26 and comfort in 27.

1081
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:08,040
We covered in 20 and so forth as we go along so that we can get to what hasn't been awarded and what is

1082
01:30:08,040 --> 01:30:14,720
in covered, is it entirely recovered? Is there something else going on in those numbers that we should know about

1083
01:30:14,720 --> 01:30:16,280
for transparency and disability?

1084
01:30:17,120 --> 01:30:21,740
Okay. Happy to do that. I would welcome any lists of events and we'll do our best to get out there.

1085
01:30:22,020 --> 01:30:25,500
Okay. Thank you very much. Do you and the entire team for all that you do on?

1086
01:30:26,640 --> 01:30:28,260
Thank you, Kasimur Perry.

1087
01:30:28,900 --> 01:30:32,700
Colleagues, other questions from colleagues on the for the for culture team.

1088
01:30:33,000 --> 01:30:34,020
Kasimur, faint.

1089
01:30:36,180 --> 01:30:36,760
So much.

1090
01:30:37,660 --> 01:30:38,500
Thanks, Brian.

1091
01:30:38,920 --> 01:30:42,280
And I appreciate the framing of your presentation and the acknowledgement

1092
01:30:42,280 --> 01:30:45,360
of the importance of accountability and good governance.

1093
01:30:46,960 --> 01:30:48,060
Chair, Perry, your council,

1094
01:30:48,060 --> 01:31:15,800
I'm very touched on a topic that I'm sensitive to when that's the amount of funding that goes around the entire county and so I was while we were chatting here looked and so 38 million over 38 million was awarded last year in your report.

1095
01:31:15,800 --> 01:31:27,080
and a report also says that around 30% was awarded outside of Seattle, so that's over 11 million outside of Seattle.

1096
01:31:27,920 --> 01:31:40,540
And so when I was looking at the data, it looked like funding is largely concentrated in a small number of council districts.

1097
01:31:41,540 --> 01:31:47,420
And some districts aren't even competitive.

1098
01:31:48,160 --> 01:31:51,740
They're receiving few awards and some aren't even applying for awards.

1099
01:31:55,650 --> 01:32:02,510
And within those that are outside of Seattle, a large share appears concentrated in certain communities

1100
01:32:02,510 --> 01:32:09,770
that already have a well-established cultural infrastructure like Bellevue and

1101
01:32:09,770 --> 01:32:39,610
And so I wanted to kind of ask your question backing and looking at this at a high level, what do we think about, or what is for culture think about the balance between funding existing strong organizations versus or and building cultural capacity in these communities that don't have those organizations or infrastructure.

1102
01:32:39,610 --> 01:33:02,370
And is the goal to really create or expect that every part of King County will develop that capacity to compete or are we going to acknowledge that some areas just don't have that capacity and we find a way to support other ways.

1103
01:33:04,320 --> 01:33:16,440
Yeah, that's a it's a big topic. I appreciate you surfacing it. I would say that the geographic distribution of funds.

1104
01:33:17,160 --> 01:33:27,380
The floor of it right through the ordinance is $1 million to each county council district and the 25% outside the city of Seattle and those marks have been hit or exceeded.

1105
01:33:27,380 --> 01:33:30,360
But again, that was the floor for me.

1106
01:33:30,580 --> 01:33:32,260
One of the reasons that I came to for culture,

1107
01:33:32,600 --> 01:33:36,180
because I believe in a more equitable distribution of funds

1108
01:33:36,180 --> 01:33:39,520
to communities and individuals that have been historically marginalized

1109
01:33:39,520 --> 01:33:41,240
from those opportunities.

1110
01:33:41,680 --> 01:33:44,660
So that to me is the value that I hold,

1111
01:33:44,800 --> 01:33:46,520
the organization holds,

1112
01:33:46,620 --> 01:33:49,480
and something that we're constantly working towards.

1113
01:33:49,880 --> 01:33:54,580
I think it's complicated in the each particular city

1114
01:33:54,580 --> 01:33:57,520
within King County has a different level of,

1115
01:33:57,520 --> 01:33:58,860
you can call it, cultural health.

1116
01:33:59,040 --> 01:34:01,760
How many organizations in which disciplines

1117
01:34:01,760 --> 01:34:04,360
their sizes, what are their service areas

1118
01:34:04,360 --> 01:34:05,740
and what are their programmatic offerings?

1119
01:34:06,020 --> 01:34:07,700
It's really variable.

1120
01:34:08,260 --> 01:34:10,660
I will say outside the city of Seattle,

1121
01:34:10,880 --> 01:34:12,520
and then we're not talking about specific cities,

1122
01:34:13,260 --> 01:34:17,840
but there is a really high success rate of organizations

1123
01:34:18,480 --> 01:34:20,900
in some of these, in some of these

1124
01:34:20,900 --> 01:34:23,440
both council district and cities outside the city of Seattle.

1125
01:34:23,440 --> 01:34:27,840
Also, it might end up being a lower number of applications that are submitted, but tends

1126
01:34:27,840 --> 01:34:29,740
to be a higher success rate.

1127
01:34:29,920 --> 01:34:34,660
I think towards your larger question of just for culture prioritize, right, funding that

1128
01:34:34,660 --> 01:34:40,200
what that which exists that's strong and supported through other funding mechanisms or

1129
01:34:40,200 --> 01:34:46,820
growing right, the cultural ecosystem and strengthening small, burgeoning, new organizations.

1130
01:34:47,160 --> 01:34:49,920
I think it's always a balance of both for me.

1131
01:34:49,920 --> 01:34:59,920
It is a really complicated web of different size organizations that have different financial positions and strengths and we're always trying to find ways through our

1132
01:35:00,000 --> 01:35:12,760
Different programs, then address the different needs. So the sustained support program, which provides operating support, which is 50% of doors open, helps a lot of organizations across the board of different sizes throughout King County.

1133
01:35:12,780 --> 01:35:29,980
I think some of the more particular programs like launch are designed to do exactly what you say to council member fame, which is, I think, the Barrow Council member Perry's like helping folks, right, grow where they're planted. The goal there was if you were new, when you didn't see a lot of new organizations kind of popping up

1134
01:35:29,980 --> 01:35:35,160
outside the city of Seattle, let's focus on their early years, give them dedicated funding,

1135
01:35:35,480 --> 01:35:41,140
such that they actually can develop into those larger organizations and cultural centers in

1136
01:35:41,140 --> 01:35:46,000
some of those areas that might be a little a little weaker. So I think that's one. There's also the

1137
01:35:46,000 --> 01:35:50,740
open program, which is the first time applicant program at four culture where we're always kind of

1138
01:35:50,740 --> 01:35:55,720
harvesting those kind of just brand new, the really cultural groups. They're not five or one,

1139
01:35:55,720 --> 01:36:04,420
They're just getting started and we want them to get to know what's going to support some of their early efforts, which are often one program or it's a fair or it's one event.

1140
01:36:04,680 --> 01:36:14,940
But we believe that kind of early seed funding to those types of cultural groups allows them to start dreaming about what a kind of more robust organizational structure might look like.

1141
01:36:15,340 --> 01:36:18,720
And then lastly, I would just just complicate this a little bit more.

1142
01:36:18,720 --> 01:36:25,540
the eventual kind of growth or size of any particular cultural center, right?

1143
01:36:25,920 --> 01:36:34,340
A hub is influenced by four cultures funding, but also deeply influenced by the ability of

1144
01:36:34,340 --> 01:36:41,020
that community to get resources from itself, but also attract resources from foundations,

1145
01:36:41,540 --> 01:36:47,920
from corporations, from their own local municipal government. So there's that kind of complex

1146
01:36:47,920 --> 01:36:49,860
revenue pie that I think determines

1147
01:36:49,860 --> 01:36:51,980
likely that of anyone individual

1148
01:36:51,980 --> 01:36:53,100
organization growing.

1149
01:36:53,660 --> 01:36:55,440
So for us, it's something we definitely

1150
01:36:55,440 --> 01:36:57,080
believe in a value that we hold.

1151
01:36:57,380 --> 01:36:59,400
And I think so many of our efforts are

1152
01:36:59,400 --> 01:37:01,780
designed to uncover who we've just

1153
01:37:01,780 --> 01:37:02,480
started up.

1154
01:37:02,680 --> 01:37:03,660
What is it that they need?

1155
01:37:03,660 --> 01:37:05,100
And I believe that kind of programmatic

1156
01:37:05,100 --> 01:37:07,420
framework that we have allows us to do

1157
01:37:07,420 --> 01:37:09,720
that based on the needs of where

1158
01:37:09,720 --> 01:37:11,140
those organizations are.

1159
01:37:11,460 --> 01:37:13,240
And hopefully that that's

1160
01:37:13,240 --> 01:37:15,140
what spoke to your question.

1161
01:37:19,680 --> 01:37:31,420
I just, I should have started with a thank you because you really have been so receptive and helpful when we are doing our, or just to try and refer as many things.

1162
01:37:31,420 --> 01:37:54,280
existing cultural organizations and folks that are really trying to enter the arena and I know that launches, you know, a small percentage of the budgets, so wonder if that could be an opportunity to reevaluate how much we are dedicating to that.

1163
01:37:54,280 --> 01:38:24,140
But really, my questions were around what can we do to help increase the overall participation, so I would encourage, as we think about this balance areas that we can help or if it's just a fact that if we establish an organization and there's no sustainable funding around it or participation, then it might not be a good use of our

1164
01:38:24,280 --> 01:38:31,780
investment to try and help this organization get started and then let it go and have it struggles.

1165
01:38:32,200 --> 01:38:38,640
So what can we do to encourage that support and the surrounding community and that would be

1166
01:38:38,640 --> 01:38:43,900
something that I would be interested in helping with. But a longer conversation, but I'll

1167
01:38:43,900 --> 01:38:49,240
always appreciate your engagement. Thank you. Thank you very much, customer and a fan

1168
01:38:49,240 --> 01:38:51,720
Council member Lewis, and then we'll go to Vice-Share Balduchi.

1169
01:38:53,400 --> 01:38:58,980
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Brian and your team for your presentation today. It's been

1170
01:38:58,980 --> 01:39:06,200
quite informative. My questions really relate a lot to what Council Member Fain was just asking

1171
01:39:06,200 --> 01:39:13,900
about, and I just want to fine tune what I heard a little bit, which is I heard you talk about

1172
01:39:13,900 --> 01:39:19,680
getting acquainted with new organizations that, you know, maybe, they may be a club or they may

1173
01:39:19,680 --> 01:39:28,600
may be just forming. They're not quite an arts organization yet. You also said that we are

1174
01:39:28,600 --> 01:39:34,960
providing consulting support to organizations and I'm wondering if that consulting support

1175
01:39:34,960 --> 01:39:42,700
is that available to, you know, pre-application during applications, you know, as a technical assistance

1176
01:39:42,700 --> 01:39:51,800
after money is awarded, what kind of consulting or technical assistance could be available to

1177
01:39:51,800 --> 01:39:55,500
these new and up-and-coming organizations?

1178
01:39:57,080 --> 01:39:59,920
Thank you for the questions, Councillor Rollo, I'll turn into my colleague.

1179
01:40:00,000 --> 01:40:07,280
Linger Children's, and let her speak a little bit more to the, that, that technical assistance that we're able to offer organizations.

1180
01:40:08,140 --> 01:40:10,760
Yeah, thanks, Brian, and thanks for the question council member.

1181
01:40:11,160 --> 01:40:18,660
It's a great point that organizations, especially as they are getting off the ground, need a little bit more support in their grant applications.

1182
01:40:19,580 --> 01:40:23,980
And that is definitely what we found is that that is one of the highest requested supports.

1183
01:40:23,980 --> 01:40:39,940
So we do have technical assistance available both for the launch programs, so knowing that those organizations may not have that internal capacity to have grant writers on staff or to be familiar with just the processes of going through that kind of work.

1184
01:40:39,940 --> 01:40:43,720
So we've built into our structure and our budgets,

1185
01:40:44,200 --> 01:40:45,320
specifically for the launch program.

1186
01:40:45,860 --> 01:40:48,720
And then also knowing that our building for equity programs,

1187
01:40:48,920 --> 01:40:51,340
so the work that we do with facilities to buy,

1188
01:40:51,340 --> 01:40:55,180
build, renovate, and also the project development

1189
01:40:55,180 --> 01:40:59,460
within facilities, so organizations who have the idea

1190
01:40:59,460 --> 01:41:01,600
that they want to move towards a facility,

1191
01:41:01,780 --> 01:41:03,660
but maybe don't have a facility picked out.

1192
01:41:03,720 --> 01:41:06,920
They don't quite know exactly the structure, the location,

1193
01:41:07,080 --> 01:41:09,280
how they would go about moving from,

1194
01:41:09,280 --> 01:41:12,060
and I tenoran organization to a grounded organization.

1195
01:41:12,920 --> 01:41:15,740
Those are ones where we really focus that technical assistance

1196
01:41:15,740 --> 01:41:17,400
because we know that those are the organizations

1197
01:41:17,400 --> 01:41:19,400
that most need that capacity building.

1198
01:41:20,160 --> 01:41:23,560
So this is a new program for us.

1199
01:41:23,980 --> 01:41:28,160
So as we mentioned, we're really tracking the requested consultants

1200
01:41:28,160 --> 01:41:30,860
support and really trying to understand where,

1201
01:41:30,860 --> 01:41:33,260
where do we have consultants already on our roster?

1202
01:41:33,360 --> 01:41:35,180
Where do we need to continue to build that depth?

1203
01:41:35,500 --> 01:41:38,040
How do we actually really make sure that those consultants

1204
01:41:38,040 --> 01:41:42,860
are from the communities where those requests are coming from. We know that different communities

1205
01:41:42,860 --> 01:41:49,760
across King County have different needs, different familiarity, different comfort levels. And so

1206
01:41:49,760 --> 01:41:57,600
we're really, we've done a really detailed inventory of where all of our consultants are coming from,

1207
01:41:57,720 --> 01:42:02,660
where they're located, languages spoken, all of that kind of thing, and are continuing to build out

1208
01:42:02,660 --> 01:42:06,180
the roster to make sure it reflects the needs and the requests that we're getting.

1209
01:42:06,940 --> 01:42:16,440
Great. Thank you. Thank you. Vice chair Balducci. Thank you chair and I add my thanks to all the

1210
01:42:16,440 --> 01:42:35,940
books that for culture the leadership and all the staff. What a big year. I mean just reflecting back on the early discussions about what became doors open was access Washington. I believe in initially and just kind of thinking forward to the massive effort that was going to be needed to staff.

1211
01:42:35,940 --> 01:42:40,480
up, create all these new programs, create all of the processes from scratch.

1212
01:42:40,620 --> 01:42:42,980
I mean, this has been a startup, a huge startup.

1213
01:42:43,340 --> 01:42:50,160
And I just want to say, you know, sort of as you look back to the results and the,

1214
01:42:50,200 --> 01:42:53,860
the feedback that you got in that survey, you know, congratulations.

1215
01:42:54,620 --> 01:43:01,360
It has been a really amazing success story and just has helped so many people.

1216
01:43:01,360 --> 01:43:05,560
And I hope you all feel very justifiably proud of the work that you have done

1217
01:43:05,560 --> 01:43:09,640
because I mean, I don't know anywhere else in the country that has done anything quite this

1218
01:43:09,640 --> 01:43:14,600
big, quite this fast. So congratulations, and thank you.

1219
01:43:15,520 --> 01:43:20,720
On the discussion that's sort of starting up with the last two commenters, Council Member

1220
01:43:20,720 --> 01:43:26,300
Lewis and Council Member Fain, I want you, my colleagues, to know that the big picture

1221
01:43:26,300 --> 01:43:32,740
questions and topics that you are raising have been on our radar screen the entire time,

1222
01:43:32,740 --> 01:43:55,720
from the initial successful launch of the access while the first time where these were the underlying questions about how do you strike that balance between supporting the pillars really the pillars of the large organizations that have been the pillars of a very successful arts and culture and history and science community here in the northwest.

1223
01:43:55,720 --> 01:44:23,740
While also making sure that you are supporting geographic areas that want to have centers, that want to have hubs of activity, that grow the future generations of all of the, you know, sectors there, that creates vibrant spaces throughout King County where people will go and spend their money and you know, and also to make sure we're bouncing with smaller organizations, newer organizations, more diverse organizations that represent their, you know,

1224
01:44:23,740 --> 01:44:28,700
deep roots in their communities and our community-based. It is an incredible balancing act.

1225
01:44:29,320 --> 01:44:33,700
And I will say that I do have a little bit of a flashing red button when people name

1226
01:44:33,700 --> 01:44:38,200
Bellevue as a cultural hub that is very successful because I would invite you to come visit the

1227
01:44:38,200 --> 01:44:43,560
empty storefronts of the places that don't survive in Bellevue. The poster trial for that was the

1228
01:44:43,560 --> 01:44:48,420
Bellevue Arts Museum. And I have to say was past tense because it finally did go out of business

1229
01:44:48,420 --> 01:44:56,180
after many years of teetering on the edge, every community has got its arts and culture of dreams

1230
01:44:56,180 --> 01:44:59,880
and needs and our balance is to try.

1231
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:24,880
I'd like to create a floor underneath all of them. We can't make them all succeed. We can't make them all, like even with the massive funding of doors open, you could not fund the hundreds of institutions and then the new ones that happen every day to the level that would keep them all healthy. We provide a cushion, if you will. We provide an opportunity to do things that maybe organizations wouldn't have done before.

1232
01:45:24,880 --> 01:45:34,980
We provide an opportunity to grow and thrive, but we don't, we're not ongoing sustaining funding at the level that every organization means.

1233
01:45:35,480 --> 01:45:40,160
We are, we are a pedestal if you will. I've tried three different metaphors, I think they all fail anyway.

1234
01:45:41,720 --> 01:45:50,280
So what I'm interested in and I don't want to discuss it today because we've been at this a while, but I want to discuss it in the future please to the four culture folks now.

1235
01:45:50,280 --> 01:45:54,380
As we are starting to do the early evaluation of doors open,

1236
01:45:54,940 --> 01:45:56,680
all of these questions should be framed up.

1237
01:45:56,680 --> 01:45:59,100
Many of them were in the implementation plan that we passed,

1238
01:45:59,500 --> 01:46:02,220
but we should frame up these questions that the members are asking

1239
01:46:02,220 --> 01:46:06,680
and be providing data and information to help us see

1240
01:46:06,680 --> 01:46:10,900
that full and complex and beautiful map of all the ways in which

1241
01:46:10,900 --> 01:46:12,480
for culture is supporting the community.

1242
01:46:12,700 --> 01:46:16,020
Those examples we brought today were just lovely and very inspiring.

1243
01:46:16,020 --> 01:46:23,500
But now we're going to be to see the whole map and where we can do better as we inevitably

1244
01:46:23,500 --> 01:46:29,080
start to move towards reauthorization, which will come up faster than you can possibly

1245
01:46:29,080 --> 01:46:29,540
imagine.

1246
01:46:30,560 --> 01:46:31,140
So that's it.

1247
01:46:31,320 --> 01:46:37,560
I just wanted to really say congratulations and honor the incredible and historic effort that

1248
01:46:37,560 --> 01:46:39,240
went into where we are today.

1249
01:46:39,360 --> 01:46:44,940
And those numbers from your survey about how the very high percentage of people who engage

1250
01:46:44,940 --> 01:46:50,640
arts and culture is a testament to that success. And of course, always more to do, but really

1251
01:46:50,640 --> 01:46:52,460
congratulations to you all.

1252
01:46:52,580 --> 01:46:57,200
Well, thank you, Councillor interjection. Also, thank you for all your support along the way

1253
01:46:57,200 --> 01:47:01,500
and all the council members to get us here. This was a team effort. It was a group effort.

1254
01:47:01,740 --> 01:47:05,980
And I totally agree. There are things that are working. This thing is working. It's doing what

1255
01:47:05,980 --> 01:47:11,480
it was intended to do. But we are not afraid of iteration or evolution or adaptation as necessary.

1256
01:47:11,700 --> 01:47:14,360
I think the data we're gathering will help frame those conversations.

1257
01:47:14,360 --> 01:47:16,640
so totally agree. Thank you for that comment.

1258
01:47:19,070 --> 01:47:23,070
Thank you all. Well, I'll call myself just to say

1259
01:47:23,070 --> 01:47:28,830
that I want to echo the thanks from Vice Chair on all of the work that has been down over

1260
01:47:28,830 --> 01:47:33,910
last couple of years and getting this program going just in my conversations with community.

1261
01:47:35,230 --> 01:47:41,290
I hear frequently about how vital this has been in terms of supporting the cultural sector.

1262
01:47:41,290 --> 01:47:48,330
So, and I think there's been a lot of positive feedback that I've received about how things have

1263
01:47:48,330 --> 01:47:54,730
been implemented and so very grateful to the team for that work. I also want to sort of post a

1264
01:47:54,730 --> 01:47:58,570
question more for like featured enough for right now, but just echoing a little bit of

1265
01:47:58,570 --> 01:48:04,290
some of the questions that Kazmer Perry mentioned about the financial picture. I do want to

1266
01:48:04,290 --> 01:48:10,310
note for colleagues. There's some pretty detailed information in our packet around pages

1267
01:48:10,310 --> 01:48:15,630
starting at our 100 and 2 with a little bit more detailed financials that were on the slides

1268
01:48:15,630 --> 01:48:21,190
if you want to take a look at that. But I do think that that question about how we

1269
01:48:21,830 --> 01:48:26,630
planning a spending the money in the kind of future years, I think, would be helpful for us to see,

1270
01:48:27,890 --> 01:48:32,050
especially, I remember when we discussed implementation plan that we had the concerns about the

1271
01:48:32,050 --> 01:48:38,350
volatility of the sales tax revenue and just thinking ahead about how that money is being used.

1272
01:48:38,350 --> 01:48:43,910
So I think the ending balances, I realize in Brian I'm glad that you're also kind of flagged

1273
01:48:43,910 --> 01:48:48,290
at the, like, that gets attention, but I think for that reason, I think it would be

1274
01:48:48,290 --> 01:48:53,910
helpful to have that kind of detail of, like, how do we project the money to be used

1275
01:48:53,910 --> 01:48:56,530
in future years, in the future?

1276
01:48:57,850 --> 01:49:01,850
And so I look forward to kind of continuing those conversations and I appreciate all the work

1277
01:49:01,850 --> 01:49:03,930
that's been done.

1278
01:49:03,930 --> 01:49:14,890
All right, I don't see any further questions, so I'm going to say thank you again to Brian Claire and Collider for the presentation and for all of the work.

1279
01:49:15,510 --> 01:49:19,790
Colleagues, we're closing out. We have this concludes the action items in our agenda.

1280
01:49:20,910 --> 01:49:26,490
Before we adjourn, I want to make sure that technical difficulties and staff council members are voting any items.

1281
01:49:26,870 --> 01:49:31,470
Blake, do we have anybody who are excused from the vote that might be able to cast their votes now?

1282
01:49:32,090 --> 01:49:34,270
Yeah, yes, cheers. Thank you very much. Council members.

1283
01:49:34,510 --> 01:49:41,910
Mosqueta and bond right power. We're excused from 2026 to 0106, 2026 to 0123 and 2024.

1284
01:49:42,130 --> 01:49:44,790
Harden me. 2026 to 012.

1285
01:49:45,990 --> 01:49:52,470
All right. I know Councillor Musqueta is absent today, but a C Councillor Vandripe power on the line.

1286
01:49:52,950 --> 01:49:56,630
Councillor Vandripe power would you like to record a vote on that?

1287
01:49:58,510 --> 01:49:59,930
All right. There may be technical difficulties.

1288
01:50:00,000 --> 01:50:07,000
These there, so we will ask remind folks that if a member is excused, they may email the committee

1289
01:50:07,000 --> 01:50:11,000
clerk with their vote by the end of the day if they were present for earlier part of the meeting.

1290
01:50:12,140 --> 01:50:16,320
All right, with that, thank you to everybody who participated in today's meeting.

1291
01:50:16,480 --> 01:50:19,740
If there is no further presence to come before the committee, we are adjourned.