Art Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

The board is meeting and I call it to order. Can I have a roll call, please? Eva Rathgeber.

Margaret Wieschusen.

Jennifer Wilson.

Don McCauley. Michael Nagy, staff liaison.

Okay, thank you. At this time, can we rise for the pleasure of allegiance? of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay thank you all right at this time is there any public comment No, there is not. Okay, thank you. All right, so moving on to approval of minutes. 26-0690, approve the April 14, 2026 Art Advisory Board minutes. All in favor to approve the minutes? Okay. All right. And make a motion, please.

Motion.

Second.

Make a motion to approve the minutes. A motion to approve the minutes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. All right. Motion carried. All right. Moving on to 26-0757. We need to approve the May 12, 2026 Art Advisory Board Minutes. So can I get a motion to approve? I make a motion to approve the minutes. I second. I second. All right. The eyes have it. All right. Very good. All right. Unfinished business. 26-0674, discussion of possible action regarding the Garden of Five Senses sculpture project. So this has been my baby for a while, a long, long time now. And wasn't really sure. where we were going and what we were going to do. So I'm glad to see this.

Yes. And this was one of the reasons why I wanted to be able to make myself available to be on the board and join the board.

I'm glad you did.

I'm glad I did too. I do have some suggestions. I think one of the reasons why I can say this, why I initially pulled out of the project, was some of the incredibly strict guidelines. I'm not sure if all of you know me. I'm a local artist. I've been in the area for 28 years now. Went to Ringling. I've been an actual professional artist for almost 20 years now. Working with things in the Florida climate, it's almost impossible to guarantee anything for life. Having things with a lifetime guarantee just absolutely does not work. And that's hopefully one of the things that I can help to, you know, put forth is maybe setting timelines or, you know, definite definitive possibilities on the length of time that something can last because unfortunately, I've had projects that literally collapse because the sun just eats it up. Colors get sucked out. I've got our work in my own home that I can't even put near the sun. It just sucks it all sucks all the color out all the medium on things become brittle. I even work with a company that produces materials for the Florida sun. and the best we can. And that was when I started to go through all the things and then beyond that, requiring the artist to pay for it. Art is not a money-making venture, as most people know. With that being said, materials are incredibly expensive. So if you are going and repairing something just due to natural causes and natural climate, it's going to be a losing process no matter what. So that was my initial reason. hey, let's set it, you know, here's this artwork. It's viable for three to five years. You know, we can put $10,000 into it with, you know, $5,000 in repairs, whatnot, something like that. That would be great. And then, you know, with that project, it's a little bit different. But then even, you know, stylistically, things change in three to five years. They might not want the same things out there. And when Venice did the dolphins, those things were outside. And they lasted only about, I would say, three to five years. And then stylistically, they just kind of swapped it out.

Can I interject?

What's that? I'm from Virginia Beach. And we did the mermaids. And I got a hold of the lady because that's hot. We're just as hot up there as they are down here. I mean, we're both about the same. And she actually gave me everything that we need to know to make those mermaids. And they are lifetime. Like, you don't have to do anything to them. They're made of like a cement or something.

Yeah, the company that I do work with, they produce cement mixtures and stone-type mixtures, so maybe it's something worth looking into more or further, but this was a rep that he just said, listen, this is what we got.

Yeah, that's brutal. So I guess my question is to you, are you still interested in doing the sculpture? Sure.

I would love to if there were certain guidelines that were, again, not the lifetime and then making the artist responsible for it. That's a really hard thing to say.

Well, the reason I ask is because we opened up the budget to make it bigger. So here's what I was thinking. If we have the initial agreement, then we have that buffer, nest egg, what's left? to refurbish it as time progresses.

That opens it up.

OK. Because I had an alternative to it, because I thought you were not going to be part of the project at this time. So I had looked into a secondary artist who came to us through the call to artists. But this was going to be an idea that I was going to propose to the board tonight as well.

No, please, please.

And I think we probably could do even both.

If I may, I have just one question.

I'm sorry.

Are you getting paid? If you were the artist for this project, would you be getting paid?

Correct.

Because if you are, then you cannot vote on this item.

Right, that's what I was going to say. That was going to be my next thing.

Yeah, correct. This is a pleasant surprise that he's sitting next to me this evening.

OK. Can I ask a question? Have you considered people donating For these sculptures, like, groups like to donate and get their name around town. You know what I mean? Instead of us all coughing up cash.

Right, yeah. No, that's, you know, personally, my wife, she runs Habitat for Humanity in Venice. Oh, cool. philanthropic endeavors and, you know, like to support the arts and obviously communities, build communities. So, you know, that's always a possibility.

Sponsorship.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, that would be, I mean, that would help a lot.

And we would stick to the same design. Exactly. Right there. Here was my second, it's okay that I introduced my second thought, okay, at this time? Right, okay. Because, like I said, I had called on another artist because it came to our attention that someone had put interest in the called artist. And it was a woman who is up in St. Petersburg. And so I spoke with her on the phone. I asked her to send me You know, a couple of samples of what she's done. I looked her up on Instagram, et cetera. I did a little bit of homework on her on my own. And she was already the style of art that I'm looking for that is all about the process. nail on the head, literally. So she doesn't do sculptures. She paints. So I thought, well, okay, if we can't get the sculpture off the ground, because we don't seem to have any list of other sculptors in our database at the time, going back two months ago, could she show me something that she could paint on a mural? And she's done many of these, many, many. So I thought, well, We're actually going to paint it out there at the park. So I went out to the park. I started looking around, walking the trail out there and just coming up with some ideas. And of course, we would have to involve another board, correct?

We'd need to go to the Parks and Recreation. We'd have to come out.

They were supposed to contact you, if I'm not mistaken.

I spoke with Sam, who's the director of parks.

Because I contacted her, too, myself.

So you guys would have to come up.

But I want to know, is it allowed, the idea that I had before we even go that far? I want to know, can this be done?

There is currently... What is the ordinance? There is currently no public, there's no ordinance for public art. The ordinance has to do with the developer comes in, then...

They're required to put something up, right. So let me just elaborate what the project was going to be, possibly transferring over to something else. It was going to basically, my idea was, do we have a space out there at the Garden of Five Senses Part 4, a billboard art, if you will, or some kind of mural, a hard foundation? Well, there wasn't anything visually I saw except for the restrooms.

Okay.

So I thought if we could wrap art around the restrooms. showed me her work. She put it out to me in about three days, the whole thing. And it was the things that I was looking for that are what this park is about, what the initial idea of of this project is really all about. And she was able to incorporate all that, because that's where I was going to try to lean toward. But again, we have to go through another board, and then we have to do other things. And again, I wasn't sure if that was even going to be allowed to wrap that facility. Do you know?

Well, what I would say is I think they're going to want the policy first.

OK.

And once you have the policy, once you guys develop it... Who approves the policy? The board? Our board? You guys would draft it. In other words, write it. You guys would vote on it. And you would send it in to the Parks and Rec, and then the advisory board, and then to the commission.

And then if it passes all that, then now it would come back, and then you'd have your framework for being able to make... And how long a process is that? Is that months? You see where my mind is going.

This is already four years. If you came back next month and you had a policy, Now, if your policy is five pages, that's one thing. If they get it, it's 100.

I think we should probably write one up anyway, regardless.

Well, yeah, I mean, that's what I would recommend. So honestly, if I was running this, and you were saying this is what we want to do, I would say I would want to come back with a draft at the next meeting. That would be, is there a meeting in August?

There should be a meeting every month. Yes.

So you're looking really at around, if you got it done by December, that would be ambitious. But you certainly could have it in place probably by January or February. I'm just saying that's how long these things take. But, I mean, once you've done that, then this process becomes more straightforward.

Right now, we just are not clear if we can even do that.

Right now, you cannot.

trying to get at. I don't know how to fish that.

Right now, you would be hard pressed to get approval for that. Without that in place.

That's all I needed. Thank you. Okay, so back to where we were talking. Okay, so if you are still willing to proceed, then we can continue on and I don't know if you have new ideas to add.

I do, actually.

Or change in the materials.

Correct.

Okay.

Yes. All of that.

Very good. So you should fire away and tell me.

So over the last couple of years, I've also been developing some other ways of producing things. So there are other... materials, and just processes that can possibly make it work. Okay.

To spread out the time frame of the wear and tear? Correct. Okay. Correct. To make it, what, five years out, ten years maybe, or is it untested?

doing have been working and have been working really well.

I trust that. I've seen it.

I've got a piece that I'm going to be producing next month that I can probably get a pretty solid answer.

Okay. Please, you have my email still, right?

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I'm just waiting on a couple things from Michael.

Okay. Are you taking, okay, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. We'll get to that part. Okay. I can't talk about that yet. All right, so then I'm going to focus and we're going to get this done, right?

Yes, ma'am.

All right.

Okay, so when did this project start?

It started in, I'll see my kids. So it was 20, it began in like around January, February of 2023. Yeah, okay.

And so it's already gone through the approval process and everything. It's just a matter of getting the work done and installed.

Well, correct me if I'm wrong. There was an understanding that it had been seen by commission at one time going back a couple years. And then I believe something happened where, did they see it or not? I don't even know at this point.

They did see significant portions of it. I did a mock-up with materials. I know it was done in here. Yes, yeah, correct. After that, it started to fall apart because then they're like, hey, let's, you know.

It sounds like I can do a search and look

and look, I have everything logged, so I can probably give you some.

All right, so we can find that. So it sounds like for the minutes, what you are saying is you're now going to focus on completing.

I'm pleasantly surprised that Don is sitting here. Yes, thank you. I'm so happy. I am. I am. So yes, so I'm going to focus everything with all I've got on this project, and hopefully it will come to fruition.

soon and of course the budget has has increased i'm not sure if you realize what it is at this time i do we discussed briefly okay do you think it would need to be higher i don't believe so um but again let me do some more higher than original right yeah i remember that um much three times higher right and that was and at that time materials were fluctuating because of covid and this and that and now price Yeah, yeah, correct.

Would you still be planning on using any, like, recyclable material in there?

Yes.

Or plastics or whatever might work for you?

Yes, yeah. So there would still be, like, the cements, the epoxy, and any of the items needed to seal that tree log, so any urethanes. And I can get you a complete material.

We don't need to still, do we need to get with the other board parks and recreations on the specific location

That's perfectly OK.

So what I would suggest is getting the drafting the proposal. What is it going to look like from here on out? And then we'll move forward trying to get it on commission soon.

How soon could you have that proposal ready?

Give me a week.

A week? So by the next meeting, we'll We'll know that it's been presented to the board. His proposal will be in.

So what I would say maybe in the minutes you could put that Mr. McCauley will bring an updated proposal for the board's consideration.

Is there any way we can see any of this? We're walking in the dark right now.

So here's some pieces of it. So basically it's hands with a stem in the hands. On top of the stem is a lotus flower. I love that. On top of the flower is a butterfly. Within the wings are shapes that were pieces of art that my daughters have done. This is a memorial project to my children who passed away in a car accident and they were artists in the high school and this is based off of their physical art that they've done that actually were hanging on the walls here in City Hall at one time. That is awesome. So this is kind of like a Gabby Petito type project. This is awesome. This is awesome. But this is going to change a little bit, as Don was saying. The cost is different. The materials may be slightly different from what we were discussing originally at one time.

I like the mural idea, too. But have you thought about maybe having the high school students paint it?

No, but I actually have a banner at home that's about 12 feet long that the high school art department made for... We used to paint the building, the front of our building, the seniors would paint it every year.

Every senior would paint it.

Yeah, we'd have to talk about that on another... Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, that's good. But so just so you kind of get a gist of it, but it'll be subject to a couple... Yeah. Okay. All right. So we'll be hearing more. Yes, ma'am. Between you'll send me something, too. Correct. Okay. Can we make sure that everybody in the board is on page with this? Do they need to be copied to, like, what the art looks like? Are we just going to have them wait until next month?

We need to talk to each other about business outside the meeting. So what I would suggest is he present the new proposal. Okay, sounds good to me.

All right. Is there any other discussion on that subject? Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, so moving on to 26-0675, Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Arts in the Hall Project Landing.

So just a reminder, remember Catherine came.

Yes. The lady, first couple of meetings, she's not able to be here this evening.

So is presenting on her behalf for the, on this topic.

Hi, I'm Bonnie. I'm part of Art in Public Places, but Kathy kind of runs it and she wanted to know if we have a date yet because she noticed 4th of July is still up, but I noticed lots of holes so we could be mixing in and leave 4th of July up because we use all three floors and only the first is decorated. So she wanted to know if we could get in because we're supposed to have July, August, and September and And then once I have a date for Kathy, her second request, and that's why she really has me here, is she would like to have a reception in September towards the ending of our cycle of this particular. And last time she wanted, she said it was entered a little too late and there wasn't enough time to have it approved. So that's why she made me be here. Plus, I'm trying to get on the board. So that's the second thing. So that's basically it. Just in the future, I thought you were presenting something, not questioning. Oh, my God. Sorry. She should have actually said that there's one. She's the only one that comes through. Well, we're waiting to hang, basically.

So are you saying they're not allowed to discuss that?

No, they can discuss this item. OK. She cannot have somebody attend in her absence.

OK, all right. I just got to that. I want to do that. OK. So this is one of those things where she, Katherine, came to her in January.

I do, yes.

So I don't recall you guys ever deciding, we are going to schedule this. It's OK. This is what we're going to do. So that should never happen. So in regards to that particular request, you can discuss it.

You can discuss it, mix it. You can prove it. You can table it. Do you remember back in January, or a couple days before January, then in January,

Yeah, and we had a board member who was doing that, and I don't believe that board member is here any longer.

No, it was a different person.

It wasn't Lynn, but it was the other one. Like, we gave each board member, like, an assignment.

Right.

Well, I know like Lynn she's not here tonight, so I can't really speak with without her being here But she kind of was keeping track of what was going on. You know and she had always had it all the information she wanted to create like some kind of like a spreadsheet or something is showing you know What we were doing and stuff so without her being here. I can't tell you what she's done and what she hasn't done and So I guess we'll have to wait until she is here in the next meeting or possibly is she not here anymore. So we'll see. Well, that's complicated. Yeah. Well, I read it on the back here.

Well, she is absent.

I know she travels.

Yes. So I'm not speaking for her at all.

Right. I can't speak. But she was kind of the one kind of keeping track of that stuff. Plus, then the other two, like we had a Michael. He was supposed to be in charge of a couple of things. The other one was going to talk to the schools about getting their artwork. Then that person's gone. So all of those things just fell apart, and it can't be on one person, myself.

Exactly.

When I'm the only one who ever comes to the meetings, religiously.

I'm trying to support you. The only other thing I'd say is with this Arts in the Hall project, given that we're already into, are we into the third quarter?

No, I just paid my class fees.

I'm retired okay so I can help you okay so I can be used okay that sounds good all right so I need to vote on that Jill Wish.

Jill is going to assume it sounds like a responsibility for the spreadsheet that I will make available. No, that I won't.

No. No? I can help with a spreadsheet. I'm an Excel person. I help with the arts and the whole. No, it's not.

You're in the project.

projects as well. It's on here. I can't expect Don to do it all.

That's why if you keep that in the agenda item, because these are rotating agenda items. So if you keep the spreadsheet for the projects in the project agenda item, and then after each meeting it gets updated, it puts on the next agenda, the most up-to-date one that's always going to be there. No matter what board member comes in, it's always going to be there.

Same with we have a list.

because, I mean, it's a very small list, but I'd like to see it grow. So it's going to be amended.

I think it has the artists, the recommended artists for each one. Like, we have a slot for all of that.

Right, right.

I think that was Michael.

Pardon?

I think it was Michael.

Michael White?

No, Michael. Oh, yeah, Michael. It was on the board. Yeah. And then then.

Well, that's the thing. The consistency needs to stay, you know, we need to stay consistent. I mean the only one that's like number one on the priority list right now is the Garden of Five Senses and there were a couple of others that followed but I'm not sure the status of that. Okay.

If I can step up and help with the arts in the hall project, if I can get the information, then I can work on that for you guys.

Okay, so.

That information I think would come from Catherine.

Yeah, it's the children from the schools, their artwork. Yeah.

But you can't do it.

It's the whole program.

Right, we've passed it for the children.

Yeah, but there is no Arts Center right now, so how do we see that?

Yeah, I used to work at the Arts Center.

Is there a way to get every project beyond just that spreadsheet and have kind of like an overview of everything so that everybody's available, all the information is available to everyone and not necessarily that we all need to have our hand in the pot to work on it, just to be able to view it somewhere. Correct.

OK, so back to what this topic is, it sounds like they're ready to put stuff up. What is that process? Do we still need to?

Margaret, you go ahead, Jill. Jill would work with them to coordinate that.

When are they coming? How much are you bringing? How is it going to be handled?

Who's hanging it? When are you taking it down? The reception and that sort of thing.

Do they need volunteers from us, or we just need to approve it? I don't know.

Okay.

You guys do it.

Yeah, because I don't want to be responsible for that. It's approved. It's usually right now. And then we strip it down on the final date. So all you need from us is the A-OK. Good. And the date.

Yeah.

We'll discuss that later.

No, I know, because I used to work there.

How are dates decided?

So it says...

I agree. Yeah, that's good. I agree. Because we need to factor in with, because the problem with the children was they were like eight weeks out from being out of school. This should have been something planned from the August when they start.

Yeah.

And there was never, like we went almost six months without consistency in the board. So we couldn't get that assignment. I forget how much, what was it, like $3,000? Wow. Okay. That's a nice reception. It's a good size.

Okay. Oh, okay.

Yeah, it doesn't cost that much, really. I mean, you just get some cookies from Publix or

Well, the North Portland Art Center used to donate a lot.

I would like to see it look a little more professional, like a gallery should. Modular frames are a good way to do that. Yeah, rather than just tacking up a piece of paper on the wall. I want to see. We should be proud of our young people.

Speaking of that, we need to talk about something like this now, too. We do our Christmas cards for North Park. I think that it would be a great idea if we could get the kids to do pictures and pick a picture that wins for our Christmas cards to be put out.

How's that sound? We'll have to vote on that.

We could introduce it at the same time.

We need to add that to an agenda.

Then they could have the voting in their school.

Future agenda items. Oh, sorry. that is going on a Christmas card and have the kiddos come up with some ideas for... Like an art competition? Yeah.

Are you talking about a project that you are going to recommend to the school district for the kids to do so that you can display it? Yes. In City Hall?

Yes.

What do you want to call that? A Christmas card project? Yeah.

Holiday card.

Okay, I would put that as new business on the next one.

Thank you. Does anyone want to vote on that? Okay, we have a motion. Does anyone oppose to that going on as a future agenda item? No, thank you. Thank you so much. That's a nice idea. Okay. All right. So I'm sorry. Where was I? All right. Are we all have any more to discuss on the arts in the hall? Are we good? Okay. All right, so moving on, 26-0676, discussion of possible action regarding the Three Graces Project. Well, all I can say is Lynn Falter had all of the information on this project. This was something that she was actively working on. So I do not have an update. Maybe you do. I don't know.

No, you can just table it, and then we can move it to the next.

Okay, so I can't discuss this really because I don't know. This was her project, what she was working with. I don't know any details that she was going to present last month, but we didn't meet the quorum, so we couldn't talk about it. So I have no idea what information she was going to share. All right, so moving on. 26-0673. discussion of possible action regarding Halligan Sculpture Project.

before we were not discussing it, the city manager's office contacted me and was asking about it. Because essentially funds went out, but there has been no sculpture received. I received emails that were given to me from the previous staff liaison, the most recent one was December of 2025, so last Christmas, where that email was indicated the background that i've given you i've acquired as a result of being this being brought to my attention by city manager and i was like i didn't do nothing about it i had to dig basically find out everything so uh i uh contacted reached out to try and contact mr halligan and i received no reply um at that juncture i had another conversation

I've reached out to him as well.

OK. So let me finish. It's very sensitive. It's not my role. I don't have any authority or anything.

So did you get him on the phone?

No, I was not able to get a hold of him.

Where does he live? Would you like me to drag him in here? You want me to drag him? Because I can.

Do you need me to help? I'm not impugning the man's character or professional attention. Where does he live? I'm going on record to say that. I'm simply saying it got above my level. And we need the board to be aware of that.

Well, I can vouch that I have reached out to him. unrelated to this, I was basically looking for him to try to help. Because when Don was not part of the project, I thought, well, OK, maybe he would be interested in doing the Garden of Five Senses project, or at least referring me to someone maybe he knew. Something, anything. I found him extremely difficult to get on the telephone. Is he local? Huh? Is he local? He is, right here in Northport. I emailed him. Is he a local person? He kind of gave me the runaround. About a month went by. He finally answered my phone call around Christmas time and told me that he was out of town, or basically he was not in this state. He was up in New York, and he was doing a job, and he would only give me two minutes of his time. And I knew then, at that moment, that I'm talking to the wrong person about what my needs were. So I learned a little bit about the character of what we're possibly dealing with at this time.

Well, bottom line, he stole from the government. And it's a federal offense. He certainly hasn't completed the job. That's what I'll say. He's got money. We got no product. And it's federal government money. So we need to go after him. We've tried.

I know this is a sensitive topic. Can I ask if the attorney is involved, the city attorney?

No, he's not involved yet because in December,

Based on when the project started, the finances went out, and the last communication, and it's seven months since then, and your reception that you received from him, I would say it needs to go to the attorney.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know that that's our role, per se.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think they need our recommendation.

We can make a recommendation for it to be sent to the attorney.

I would say... for this particular project?

No.

I think you guys should vote on that and go on the record.

Yeah, I would say.

Then the second thing, what would you like to do after that? And that can be as simple as telling the staff liaison the board has made a decision and has recommended that the city pursue whatever steps it sees fit in situations like this. That would be the best way.

Can we make that decision tonight?

because I do know him so okay okay all right I didn't want to get any kind of

Do we want to continue with the project with a vote to end the project?

There must be something more to this than we know. And I know that I'm not privy to know that, if it's personal.

But I would hope that we have communicated to someone.

He has not fulfilled the contract, and it's now July of 2026. And the city manager of the office asked me in my capacity as the staff liaison

If you want to give him a last chance to come in and speak for himself, because I would not want to speak for him, I could probably convince him to come in. But that's totally up to you guys, and that's kind of why I didn't want to.

Yeah, I mean, I'll let you guys decide, because...

Based on what I've heard, just from... Has anything been done?

I mean, any art at all created?

Or has he just taken a payment?

In December. Did he email you any photographs of it?

But that's all it was.

I only have what it looks like here.

This is what I have that it's supposed to look like. Oh, no. This piece of wood is supposed to be a different material because originally it was a piece of wood that he found after Hurricane Ian destroyed our city. So he found this beautiful log and he was going to do something with it and make a sculpture. After a little bit of time, the moisture got into the log because it was so porous and destroyed that log and could not be used any longer. So he decided to come up with a different kind of material, some kind of composite material that would withstand termites or whatever. But basically this was going to be the gist of what it looked like. And then it was going to be featured out on one of our, I forget where the location was. I think it was 41, wasn't it? 41 or... North Sumter, I don't know, somewhere, but he's got an actual aerial view map that it was supposed to be located at. But I don't know if this has even been created or even a small replica of it, a model.

I don't know. Well, just like any other business person, if you've given a deposit to somebody and they don't finish the work by seven months and you can't contact them, it's time to go further with this.

Well, here's the next question that I have. If that would be the case, do we at the city have a policy about, you know, is there a timeline that the artist needs to complete the project once they've been paid something?

Yes, when you enter into a contract with him, there would have been a timeline.

which I have no idea what it would be. I'd have to see the contract. I think at least some communication. I don't think that ever came up as something, a talking point that we've tried to have. Maybe we might need to add that.

According to this document, which is it?

So this poses a problem that future artists, I don't want the city to be skeptical about putting out a payment to somebody the next time because we've been burned.

On November 17, 2025, staff liaison emailed Mr. Halligan asking to update the project.

There's plenty of time and then I spoke to him in December, but it was not on that topic.

I mean I vote we end the project.

So who would need to make a motion?

I mean, I know personally I have reached out to him, but he did not call me back.

It leads to bad taste. I'm just speaking in child. It gives bad taste, especially if, I mean, it goes back to 2023. He hasn't presented to the board. I haven't seen anything. He's received funds, but the board has not seen anything. And I mean, he said he had something that would be presentable seven months ago.

So let me ask you this. What is the next step? I mean, the city will do. They're going to turn this into a collections case?

Yeah, they will.

I would think that the item, if you make the recommendation to not continue to go off of it and make another recommendation, that the city take action because commission approved the agenda item and approved the funding for it.

Sue? Yeah, yeah.

Okay. I hate for it to come to this.

Yeah, but he did it to himself. I really do, because I'm an artist, and he's an artist, and in the way you do business. You can't stop communication. Right, yeah.

I mean, this is business. Yeah, it is. This is not personal. Okay. Okay, so I had to convince myself. I'm reluctant. I want to give people another chance.

I don't want to do that, but he had it.

But I have to talk it through. Okay, so someone will have to make a motion.

I move to cease the Halligan sculpture project.

Do I have a second motion? Okay. All right. I guess I will Motion to cease project. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All right, ayes. We have four ayes. Motion is carried. All right, so then we want to talk about the future of presenting it to the city, to commission. Another motion? For the city to take action. Okay, so we need to make a motion for the city to take action.

I motion for the city to take what the appropriate action they require for the Halligan sculpture project that was not completed.

I second it.

OK.

I also agree. Aye. Motion carried. If you're able to get back the monies, does that go back into our budget?

I don't know. I don't know that. Yeah, it should. From doing math and accounting, it would have to go back into the account it came out of.

You can tell me, like, hey, we want to put this on the next agenda. We would like to hear back from you.

OK, I would like an update if we can. I don't know that I can motion that, though.

Well, because of line items, it has to go back to where it came from.

I appreciate that. Thank you. I would like to stay in the loop almost. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. Let's see. Which, where am I at now? Okay. 26-0797, discussion and possible action regarding peaceful project planning.

I received an email today. Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Well this was something that you know was a couple years back. It sounded like a nice project.

Oh, peace project.

Peace polls versus Northcourt paint posse. Not paint posse.

Oh, sorry. I withdraw my comment. Sorry, I apologize.

couple years, three years or so back. Thank you. Thank you. Basically they were going to be these polls that were going to go around to like various say businesses or different locations within Northport. Almost like when you come to a new city and you go to the visitors' information, it would bring you to strategic places like the library or the new bike. Like Mosaic? Yeah. So the art center was going to actually have artists there that paint the poles. Or not paint the poles, but they were going to buy the poles. And then people would buy the poles for, I think, $50 and then have them put in the ground. But the individual who bought the pole was going to paint it. But of course, there were guidelines as to what it had to be. It had to be about peace and love.

What if we had the students paint them?

Again, we could do that, absolutely. I don't know that the students are going to contribute the $50, but maybe the board can just pay for it, period. So that was a discussion.

Because I've seen it in other cities where they're painting the poles.

It's actually where you can GPS it when you come into a new town. It was basically to get Northport on the map. Sarasota has so many art things. And we're in the shadow of Sarasota. So how can we elevate?

We have great artists here.

Of course, we do. Absolutely. And how do we bring ourselves up?

I mean, this was just one of many ways, many ideas we all had. But this one I thought was really going to go. It was going to be a very inexpensive project. And it doesn't cost that much to go to Home Depot. purchase the poles. Or even if you didn't have cinder blocks.

Yeah, I was going to even, I thought about even buying one for my own property. Because I love the idea. So this was something that was, like I say, a couple years ago, and we thought maybe we might want to resurrect it again.

Is that the?

There was a lot of concern with the sign code, the sign being on public property versus private property. There was a lot of discussion, so I would recommend that the board listen to that, because there was a lot of concerns, and the final motion So basically

So I'll leave that up to you guys if you want to revisit that for a future agenda item for next month.

Do you want to discuss this topic further next month? Or do you want to just scrap it? Well, being what she said,

It sounds like we're going to be going nowhere with it.

I would say let's move it. Let's review it next month. And everybody should listen to this meeting. And are these additional copies?

And then that stapled one. This is the piece pulls, OK. Yeah.

Is that just one?

It's only one.

But this is what it looks like. That's what they look like. I already know what these look like. Oh, yeah, I've seen them. Oh, I like them. So we'll put that to talk about it again.

And it was on May?

I think it would be fun. May 14th. What was the year? 2024. 2024. I'm sorry, agenda? May 14th, 2024. 24-0515. 0545? 15. 15. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. So moving on. 26-0798. Discussion of possible action regarding Northport paint posse exhibition proposal. Okay. What is that?

Okay.

I don't know what it is. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay, moving on. 26-0957, discussion and possible action regarding artist database. I put that on there, but I think we've addressed it.

It was just more like we've got to revisit this and make sure someone knows.

Yeah, like anything, I think things always need updating.

Yeah, and we've gotten a couple of requests.

and just have it populate into a spreadsheet? I mean, I know there's a way to do it, but...

In other words, they apply for a... An art... You know, as a... Non-profit?

No, not a non-profit, but... Correct. Yeah, so that way it can just auto-populate, so if you've already got an artist that's, you know, legally doing business in the city, you already have a spreadsheet.

Go ahead.

Maybe they need to say it's a waiver, it's a license, it's public record. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Right, that they're subject to, you know, it's public information. I would think if they're doing work in the city, it's public information. Correct, yeah.

Business license is public.

So are you recommending that to?

If you don't have enough on your plate to do, I don't know.

Business tax receipt. So anybody, so like I pay, you know, $45 every year, you know, to be legal in Northport as an artist, you know, and that's what my business license. Correct. Correct.

Okay. Okay. I'll look into that.

Any way to make things easier, I will try and do that.

Would the Chamber of Commerce have a list of

I think the thing is you would maintain the list. I will get you that. If you want to go to the chamber, you can go to the chamber. I can go to the chamber.

Okay. All right. All right. So we've got that. All right. So just moving on to 26-0959, discussion and possible action regarding election of vice chair.

You guys need to elect a vice chair. Yes.

Okay, so we no longer have our vice chair. Okay, all right, so I'll do it. You want to do it? Yeah. I'll do anything. I'll nominate Jill for. Okay, so I second? Second. All right, second. All right. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All right, there seems to be four ayes in agreement here. So congratulations, Madam Vice Chair. All right. All right. Okay, so we have our future agenda items all listed. Is there any public comment?

I thought there were people behind me.

No public anymore. Okay. Okay, maybe. Okay, that's faster. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I was going to go do it when I get some time, but thank you. I appreciate that. Anything to make life easier. All right, we all are so busy. Okay, so it is officially 7.10 p.m., and the Art Advisory Board is adjourned. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody.