Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

26. Let us call to order and roll call, please.

Sure. Chair West.

Present.

Vice Chair Steiner.

Here.

Commissioner Wright. Here. Commissioner Tabach-Bank. Here. Commissioner Wagner.

Here. All right. Let's do it.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much.

We have an agenda here.

Someday.

Motion to approve the agenda as is.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Let's move on to our public comments. I'm going to call Gail Childress to the podium. Hi, Gail. Thank you. Tell us what's happening. I know you gave us a – oh, hang on, let me pass out your thing.

Yeah, I had some things printed out for each of you, so to give you a little hint of what I'm doing.

Oh, great.

I'm not a public speaker so I'm going did you make my time already don't worry you got plenty of time I'm gonna read what I want to share with you my name is Gail Childress and I'm a member of the Ojai studio artists a nonprofit organization first off as a member of the Ojai studio artists I want to thank the Commission for the grants that we have received this year as well as the years in the past. But I'm here tonight as a past art commissioner to remind this commission of the percent for the arts ordinance. This is important to me personally because this ordinance took three years while being on the commission to get it passed through city council. It's a law now. In the handouts are important articles within the ordinance, little reminders of public and private development, that the 2% for art over a million dollars of development goes towards public art.

One percent.

Two.

Two percent under a million, one percent over a million.

Thank you. Hopefully it's over a million, so it'll be the two percent.

That would be the one percent. Under a million is two percent.

That's what I'm saying.

We'll just let her comment, okay?

Sorry.

You just took my time.

No, no, not at all. You can have as much time as you want.

Thank you. Okay, now get back. I had the article where it said 2% when it had a million dollars of expenditure. 1% over the million dollars. I would like the Arts Commission to please remind City Council, woohoo, that's sweet, thank you. to the percent of the arts ordinance when developing the park and back of the city hall and the homes, the tiny homes for the homeless. Also, I'd like to make a recommendation to the Arts Commission when the first call for any art for public places, the first call should go to all the artists in Ojai. Thank you. I'm almost done. So I mean, that's the first important thing, too, is the Ojai artists should be the first ones to be alerted that there might be a place for their art. As a member of OSA, I would like to invite each and every one of you to the opening of the Ojai Studio exhibit at the museum tomorrow night. five to seven and in my opinion which is who knows what that is i think it's the best show ever that the artists have put up so i'd love to see you all there thank you thank you gail we're looking forward to that i'm going to be there

Thank you, Gail. I appreciate those comments. I agree with you that public art is very important and I congratulate you for the public art ordinance which exists. I've studied it in great detail and I've worked on public art matters for many years and I think there are certain aspects that would benefit public art in this town that this commission should consider bringing forward to the council. And thank you for that reminder. It reminds me to push that with my colleagues here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Newsome all has public comment.

Pardon? Thank you. I am here just to touch base with you guys we haven't spoken we just had the opportunity to meet and I'm looking forward to coming to take the strategic lens with you in preparation for that I'm going to suggest meeting with each of you there's been a lot of change a lot of new ideas new freshness and sometimes when you meet in a group well there's some depth that I'd like to mine and draw from your experience make the most of the time together by having individual interviews with you and possibly you might suggest maybe an after action interview with with Pamela and whomever you think might be helpful to present just a nice deep understanding of today I mean the strategic review is an opportunity to step up on a mountain nice meeting you to step up on the mountain and take a larger lens And that doesn't mean did we do everything we set out to do last time that we looked out at five years ahead. It's really a strategic lens on the future of arts in Ojai, Ojai Valley. So that's us. That's who was here now. That's the next generation. So it's taking a look at what's going on. And so this is the kind of horizon lens. And I'd like to have a deeper understanding by meeting with each of you in person beforehand.

That's it so I hope that's okay with you guys and I look forward to working with you Thank you Noosa so we all have your call to look forward to you'll call us right

Yes.

Okay.

I'm taking my daughter to London and I'll be back at the end of September.

All right.

Yeah, and she's going to go study.

All right.

Joy.

London, yeah. Performing arts. Thank you for coming.

Thank you, Nisa. All right. Our consent calendar is two of the minutes. I think it's April and March. No, wait. May and March. May and March. There was a whole last time.

April and July.

April and July, yeah. And if you haven't reviewed it. This is the consent calendar as the minutes, yeah.

Yeah, we either approve the minutes as they're written or we make changes.

So I'm going to give you a minute just so you're not embarrassed if you didn't read it without pointing anyone out, like myself.

I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes for April 16th and July 16th.

Can we do them together?

I second.

We can do them together? Thank you, second, thank you. Discussion? That's not really consent, is it, if we just have a discussion? All right, all in favor? Aye.

I'm sorry, who seconded it? Okay, thank you.

All right, discussion item number four, arts grant submission and timeline. And we saved paper by doing it on, so it's on the two backs of the two pages. We're going to turn this over to Commissioner Wright to lead us through.

Thank you, Chair West. First up is the arts grant submissions and timeline. This is a very basic report. The timeline is on the back. This is a proposed timeline, especially when it gets into the last few dates. Those are at the city council's discretion, obviously. I wrote now for the press release announcing grant applications will be available that has actually gone out so as of the yesterday two days ago it was Tuesday and I gave a copy of it to Smitty there if you want to sorry Chair West if you want to look it over So we can disregard that first one I would propose that we send it out again if anybody thought that was worthwhile We will also be putting it on all of our social media and you are more than welcome to share that press release with any outlet you'd like to Do the commissioners have a copy of the updated one? No, but I will send it out to you guys on Monday.

Do you want to discuss as we go through these or would you rather go through them and then come back?

Discuss as we go through.

Okay.

So September 1st, obviously, is application is available on the city website. That is outlined in the press release. Our September meeting is traditionally when we present the ad hoc committee to the public. that meeting September 17th and then September 30th the completed applications are due Before you move on do you have enough time to do that in September to garner your ad hoc committee and get all the applications in does that give you enough time I am optimistic it does seem a little tight right now but

I guess if I can't announce on the 17th then I don't announce but that's a whole other discussion And what we know is that the application itself has been adjusted fixed is now user-friendly and thank goodness what a lot of work for you and Bridget to have done to get that together Bridget and I are working on it last week a bit more

doing some further corrections and we're gonna work on it a bit more at the beginning of next week to make sure that it's going to run smoothly Currently it's not available online it just says will be available September 1st so until we What I mean is it's user-friendly and all those bugs are fixed i do a note here i think on our application instructions i think we say do at city hall by 4 or 4 30. i don't know where this proposed grant cycle timeline is going to go but those times should match october 9th arts grants applications distributed to ad hoc committee and arts commissioners This is an estimated date. The grants application closed on the 30th and then Bridget has to download everything and organize it on the OneDrive. Bridget was able to do that within this type of timeframe last year. We're going on the same schedule. and then our October meeting is when we invite grantee applicants to come and describe their projects last year we did this I suggested at our last meeting what about this idea of inviting people to come either to our September 17th meeting or our October 15th meeting to present giving them a larger window and more flexibility in terms of their own schedules and allow for maybe a shorter night in October.

I like that idea. I like it for two reasons. The first is there's more breathing room among applicants, as you point out, and also some people can't make certain dates. I think that's a really good plan.

Is that something we would put on the website? I brought this up last year. How do we communicate this to people that they can- To the applicants? In case they're not watching this meeting, you are welcome to come to September 17th- Who's not watching this meeting? October 15th meeting for public comments.

Who? Everybody? Yeah. Or the applicants? The applicants. The applicants are going to be in an email database. They're all together.

Yeah, and since they know to go to that website to get their grant application, I will make sure I announce it on that page. That they can come to either of those dates. And then we will, like he said, as soon as I get, well, I don't know how many emails I'll get before September 17th. Not a lot. Right.

I think reminder reminder reminder I mean we could do we could do an email to previous applicants or add it to the press release and send the press release

Wait till the applicants are in, I think.

No, excuse me, I'm sorry to say that, but I'm sorry to disagree, but the problem with sending it to the applicants is that it then privileges prior applicants over other applicants, and that is not fair. We should be doing it to everyone. So I think it should be a part of the communication and a general email blast, social media blast.

This is before the deadline so it kind of does make things slightly more complicated but I think if we have it where the application button is or we could even add it to our instructions page which has the deadlines and we can include that right right there okay well I think we should do that

How many applications have we received in the past on average?

Well on average, that was due to the increased budget from $30,000 to $100,000 the prior year it was $15,000 or $16,000 so I expect we'll get at least $30,000 again if not more And also what I like about if we could get people to come to the September meeting is it would be nice for me because I won't have already read all their applications. So they come up here and they tell me what their grant is about, I already know. So it would make the meeting a little bit more interesting. So anyway that was But as always the grant that them appearing here is not considered part of the application It is not it's like coming for public comments and I brought this up before and something we should keep encouraging there's no reason why they aren't coming throughout the year to give a public comment about a grant idea or a about a grant that they've already done.

And we'll make a point of making it a public invite as well, because that's our most exciting meetings, you know, our only exciting meetings.

But I do think that's a matter of communications, and who is in charge of communications in this group? I'm right now, I've been handling it. Okay, so get to work. We should be seeing articles every week.

should okay I have been writing them it's just you don't do who's been watching my articles I am very impressed with Smitty's two most recent Facebook posts which I think should be become articles in the Ojai Valley News yeah Facebook schmace book I mean yeah this should be a different kind of communication okay boomer

Oh, whoa, those are fighting words. I just had a thought.

You know, maybe we should say you're invited to the

September, I mean, I'm just wondering how we can divide it up into two different evenings of presentation while also trying to keep that energy and excitement that is garnered at that one meeting where all the people are together in that room. So it's kind of...

Bridget can figure that out it seems like you just have two pages if it was on paper two pages and and then you invite and then the first ones you encouraged to come to the first one if they can Or they can sign up there could be a sign up sheet you can pick this date or that I like the sign up idea because then we can kind of get them in an order and you can run in here really quick sign up put my name in you know So that's again that's communication

yes I will make it for a sign up to present at and that way it's it's gonna be a kind of first come first serve that way as they email me I'll put them on that list and then we'll spread them out and I'll put it on prodigy

I kind of skipped over the ad hoc because that is the next agenda item so we will discuss that more on the next right it's on it's the discussion item on the back I'm getting confused I've got my minutes there okay so moving on we got that and then so then the way it works oh no here's trouble Carolyn knows but Brad in case you don't know all the applications go to the ad hoc committee for review and then they go to the Arts Commission so this November 19th Arts Commission receives and reviews ad hoc committee recommendations that is our November meeting when we all vote on it presumably you would have a chance to look at the grants prior to that meeting so you could educate yourself So the ad hoc committee will reduce it let's say from 35 to Thirty-three.

Close. Really wonderful. How to make a person feel bad.

Yeah, it does kind of feel that way because the disqualifications are based on incomplete applications, basically incomplete applications that encompass all kinds of things, no fiscal sponsor, no financial data. Not a not-for-profit etc. So Luckily, not very many people are disqualified right off the top and then that's when we'll vote right before Thanksgiving and then December 8th, I believe is that first City Council and and last year they were very quick to get it on the agenda and get it passed through. This year is an election season and in the prior election season, this December, hope was bumped up to January, even into February. So we keep pushing for that and hopefully we'll know by the end of the year who are getting the grants and everybody will be notified in early January.

and then thrown in there as a december 31st just as a reminder that that grant summer report for the 2026 grant recipients is due so if i may say i i think the speed with which city council approved it last year had less to do with the fact that it was an election year the prior year and more to do with how organized you were in putting it together last year i mean you made it very simple for us and you made it very simple for the council and that was not the case in earlier years so I would fully expect that with your continued leadership that it ought to smooth it'll be smooth sailing here and likely also with council well that would be great but let's just you know keep that in mind thank you for that

So that is the timeline take no action provide alternative Is there any reason that this can we can approve this as a template for the future too or It is this is based on last year's I meant so we don't have to do it every year 10 minutes a year we'll carve out for this You know technically do we need to vote on approving this calendar yes we don't have to take a vote you can all just agree anyone anyone anyone have a problem with this this looks nice uh there doesn't need to be a motion i'm confident that council will be yeah there needs to be a motion i'm confident that the council will get it on the december meeting you know if everything goes smoothly Because it's election year they'll do it I do need a motion though just a motion And then a second All in favor Aye Bridget's after my hammer OK, we'll move on.

Keep the floor, Commissioner Wright. OK. Moving on, discussion number five, established 2027 Arts Grants Art Ad Hoc Committee. Again, this is almost verbatim from 2026, where the city did ask us to include a discussion item for full transparency of our ad hoc committee formation in public. So here it is. Part of our five-year plan is engaging the community. And one of the ways to engage the community is to form this ad hoc committee. I think that's great. Conversely, I don't think it's great. We all review them. We are five people. We override the ad hoc committee's recommendations. So for me, I can go either way on whether or not to form an ad hoc committee, FYI.

Carolyn you were on the ad hoc committee last year what do you think I like the maintenance of the ad hoc committee it provides another level of review and engages other members of the community with different kinds of expertise I thought last year the process went very well so I see no reason not to continue

Who else was here in the room? Go ahead.

I like it also. I mean, I agree with you that it engages a broader swath of community. For example, Carolyn was on the IHOP committee last year and now she is here with us. And you have many other members as well. um i was thinking about your point that there are in certain instances i wouldn't call it overruling but a difference of opinion between the ad hoc committee and this body similarly there could be a difference of opinion which we saw one other year. Typically that wouldn't happen if we do our homework well, but that's an important point. But that's what happens with opinions. So a trial court can be overruled by an appellate court, et cetera. So I don't think that insulted or dissuaded the Ad Hoc Committee from doing its good work. Carolyn you could weigh in on that yeah okay so I think everyone does their earnest best and I know having served in both situations with and without an ad hoc committee that I can say we make certainly far more reasoned and thorough decisions with an ad hoc committee review than without it

how are the members of the ad hoc committee chosen and who chooses them they're chosen by the the tradition has been that they're chosen by the chair of the the committee you choose them no not the chair the chair the head of the committee got it no no by me no no we voted no

And do we have any qualifications that we use or what's the criteria for choosing them I try to have a diverse group that has some expertise knowledge of

arts, arts administration, arts and culture I guess we're saying, creative. And try to keep it balanced with administrators versus real artists. That tends to be the combination. Like myself, I was an arts administrator for 25 years. and so then bring on an OSA studio artist who has their pulse on the local art scene, pull in an art professor would be great, pull in a writer who writes about the arts here in Ojai, things like that.

That sounds like a more difficult task than actually reviewing the art itself.

If I may, because I was on the commission before we did it this way, and then it was actually Nigel's year that we started doing this. So if I'm speaking for myself personally, I'm not the detailed person. I think I'm a good commissioner, but I wouldn't want to be on this because I get bored when I get down into the nitty gritty of things. And so I appreciate that, especially because we have a rubric, and if we have a diverse selection committee, I don't want the council to think that their commission needs to be like grant reviewers. They need a more diverse spectrum of the community for the kind of political decisions. They're looking for expertise across the art world from us. so I like the idea and I've always pushed and I think we've always had someone from the community that's actually headed up a grants review process in one of the service clubs or something in town as well so I can say that I just personally like that and when I think about the scheme over looking at they're the ones you notice when we got them last year they came Christine they came you know the A's the B's you know the 90 plus on the rubric the 80 plus on the rubric and we actually kind of made that helped frame our decisions and we knew it was based on real objective or well as objective as it can be that you had done so I think familiarity breeds contempt a little and it's because you've done such a good job that you You can think it's easy, but I know it's tough for me. So I like that idea, but I like that we review it every year as well.

and also Brad I have used some repeat ad hoc commissioners which has been very useful because they have done it before so this year you know obviously Carolyn can't do it but I might go back to a couple of the members that were on the ad hoc committee last year and see if they might want to do it again second year it'll be even easier for them and then kind of fill in the gaps so I'm always open to recommendations people are also welcome to contact us that they want to be on it and I can consider that so that's ad hoc committee of these two separate motions because we have to talk about the I thought we voted out of ad hoc didn't we last meeting we did to have the ad hoc vote to have the ad hoc committee maybe not be in the minutes yeah okay i don't we have the minutes because dovetailed into this i thought you were bringing us one tonight i forgot i got no um so yeah this is this is the um approval of me forming an ad hoc committee tonight so i'll need the commission's approval to do that I want to point out, obviously we've been using this 100 point rubric the last couple of years. Based on our discussions last time, I added to the rubric which is on the next page, the last page of your packet.

Do you want to do a motion, make the motion separate, do a motion on the, let's do a motion on to use an ad hoc committee and then come approve the rubric after that. Okay. How's that sound? I so move. Second? One other point that I thought of is because the year we got a triple raise from Council we went back and did what we had done the year before even better maybe we'll get another triple raise and we'll do it even better, you know what I mean? I'd like the idea of not changing our our process that we use as we head into the, or hopefully we just started this curve of grants for the creative economy. I agree, I agree. All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Rubric, Commissioner Wright?

the rubric these are based on the grant goals and we've used this the last two years I did tweak the actual essay questions a little bit you might recall to even better address the grant goals for this grant cycle so I'm looking forward to that one of the suggestions we talked about was adding this bonus point which is the last segment there this is usually in a box but so the bonus point I just threw this out there for discussion if we wanted to add a five points four points three points two points one point four new applicants versus repeat applicants since we voted last time that you can apply and receive funds unlimited so this is a way to distinguish new applicants or newer applicants against applicants who have received money four to five times in a row so i'd love to hear your thoughts on how we can I have thoughts, Mr.

Chair.

Yes, open.

I think it's a great idea and it does actualize our last discussion about how we account for the fact that some people have been repeats and that means that they're getting more money from the city than some others. of course that brings in the question of worthiness so for example the Ojai music festival of course they are worthy and they have been worthy my worry about bonus points is that if it's a first-time applicant you don't you they're relatively untested right But say they would ordinarily get fair, so say they hit 69, they're in the fair category, meaning they're already very, very weak. But then you bring them into the good category when, in fact, they don't deserve it. Now, what I've seen in oh you know litigation over discrimination cases there there's something called a quote plus factor and you wouldn't necessarily accord at certain points okay so instead of bonus points i would call it quote plus factor and then i would leave it to the ad hoc committee to rationalize whether to apply a plus factor, and if so, how much. And you might account for it in a different kind of place, organizational capacity, for example, or whatever. But at least you have that ability to do a little bit of an add-on without it being so formulaic and also so inflexible. And arbitrary.

and arbitrary and I think we could with that quote plus factor for sake of information going out to the applicants would we have to include a description and if so what would that description look like because let's hear if anyone else have opinion on this I like the plus factor, but could you? Right, so it could be additional points for x y and z or like we could just give some examples or also i was thinking regarding the bonus points um... the bonus points would have only been available to people who uh... scored above the seventy or above mark uh... because obviously we don't want to break nobody seventy and below no one below seventy is considered for a grant so obviously we wouldn't want to bump somebody who was in the failing column up just because it was their first time applying that makes perfect sense Christine so I just if anybody Christine maybe you want to you know I would I would change this room I have a little something say before we frame it too did you have something badly

Yeah, I think this is kind of the opposite of what I think we'd want to achieve. It seems to me that what you want to do is give plus points to people who have never gotten grant as opposed to I mean it could be somebody's third year they've never gotten a grant before and yet yeah you know they're they're not getting that many points as somebody new it seems to me that this should be based upon whether or not you've received a grant and how much you've gotten rather rather than how many times you've applied

Well it would be the first time applicant which obviously is not received and then the second year would be second year getting a grant third year getting a grant it would only apply to people who had gotten grants in the past So you've had okay So you know that's just an abbreviated version but that's that's what it would be

well if I'm in for the first year the first year I get five points just for being in the first year yeah for being a first first but I wasn't chosen but let's say no this is your first first time applicant right I'm a first time applicant you're gonna get five points off the bat okay I don't get chosen the next year I come in do I get the additional four points right good question right yeah it seems to me we're just awarding points to people

Just for applying rather than the quality of what they've done That was the idea was to encourage new applicants that's kind of where the conversation came from But only new applicants not second third fourth

I can think of an argument why you get a lot of grant tours I've seen I've heard them say oh nobody gets it the first year you know come the second you make sure you apply again next year make sure you apply again next year you know I don't know if it shows deliberation or whatever And then someone who's been a stalwart in the community, I don't want to penalize them either. So here's an idea that we want the ad hoc committee to kind of evaluate the applications and And make that as objective as you can. And I think when it comes back to us is the time when we start looking at more of the spectrum. Like if you're admissions in a college and you look at all these great scores coming in, but now you look it's like 60% men or women or something like that. broaden the spectrum. So in our case, it might come in that there's, oh my goodness, it was five dance organizations that got the highest scores and the music ones way down here. We want to balance their spectrum of hitting all the arts, or we want to balance the spectrum of old versus new type things. And I think that's the little more mature and nuanced kind of review that I think the Commission should provide after they review them so I would I would you can do it I'm not going to oppose it but I'm more in favor of keeping this as as objective as we can and and and those those subtleties that you have a little more experience on the Commission as to the history and the objectives for the future as well so that's it

I think that last year the ad hoc committee really did try to be as inclusive as possible because there are some organizations that we all know and love that are more mature and their finances are more stable and then there are newcomers and so we tried to be as

Right I heard that and I was pleased to hear that but it's hard to write that into law I like your thinking Smitty I don't think I'm quite there but I do agree with you but then we are met with okay so we objectively presented you with these scores and we're basing the funds on scores so we have the 90 to 100 We're not basing the funds on scores but we're using the scores as a primary or at least a qualification one Basically it's based on the score more or less right So let's say we have you know ten ninety to a hundred people they've all had grants for the last five years in a row we're not solving the problem that we discussed at our last meeting which was trying to bridge this idea that we only allow a certain amount of years consecutively for people to earn grants or we don't we voted that we're going to have it unlimited but we still needed to provide direction on how to enable make more attractive first-time grantees so that's still some we need to figure out some way that those first-time applicants and it's very rare that people don't get grants by the way brad um that they they get some some something or we can bring it all back and you know we're not incentivizing we don't care whatever it is you guys want but that was the idea

We can go on and take a shot at it. I just wanted to say my bit.

So I think that, again, this goes back to if the ad hoc committee is going to do all of this work and then those numbers are going to come in here and you're going to say, oh, they're always so good and they do great things. Let's give them another $5,000. Well, this happened last year. I had grant applications written by ChatGPT, incomplete. Yeah, amazing organizations, but they couldn't even identify the project that they want to do. So why are we giving them more money than they deserve? So I want to make this year's process even more specific more detail so that we don't run into that again and one your proposal is is making it so that we run into that ten times right off the bat yeah because if we're if if the ad hoc committee is not taking into consideration the same set of evaluations that this commission is taking into consideration, it's going to be at odds.

Sure, sure. And I hear you there, too, but I don't think you're... I don't know that this is... This doesn't do what you said. This is just rewarding someone for being a first-time applicant. That's okay.

Which was the idea? I have one slight correction to what you said and a suggestion. And the correction is, I mean, you said yes, most people get grants, but I think what you meant is above a certain score.

Yes.

Yeah, that's the only clarification I wanted to make because I thought you and the Ad Hoc Committee did such a good job of winnowing out those potential problems that didn't come to us.

Yes.

My suggestion under what we're now calling if there is agreement plus factor rather than bonus points is just something like flexible credit for new applicant. And then when it comes to points, you know I don't think we have to make it much but maybe one to two points or or maybe something like up to three points something like that gives the ad hoc committee a certain bit of flexibility to sort of begin to bump people up a bit however it's limiting beyond what Smitty said it's limiting to new applicants thus addressing directly what we talked about last meeting

You could leave the bonus points thing open to any category, too. I was just thinking, there may be a year where there's this very clear need the community had, and for some reason that we don't see.

But keep in mind, this matrix is so good, so that may come under diversity and inclusion. It may come under sustainability. It may come under alignment with grant goals. I mean, what we want to do is hold on to this because it's so very strong. We just want to allow a slight bit of flexibility.

Especially- And this is for five points, up to five points?

Well, I mean, again, that was just what I came up with between the last meeting and this agenda. Let's do something, but let's- Let me just point out one more thing. The organizational capacity, if we have a new not-for-profit, and we're talking about that, we can't evaluate based on past performances and resources. So they would be lacking in that category. So they might be incredible and it all sounds good, but they're not going to get that full 10 points. So this quote plus factor could be an area where we could make up for that. So it becomes it would add a more holistic scoring What happens do these all add up to 100 the way it happened?

No? Okay so we'd have 105 points if we did five or something Correct and that's okay yeah I'm just trying to finish And again I'm not married to any of it Could you leave it a bonus for just bonus points?

We're calling it a plus factor instead of bonus points.

Not make it about year or anything.

Right. Or you could just put an asterisk next to the ones that first time and give that just special consideration if there are two people that are at 80 points. and one's never gotten anything that's a special consideration to add I don't see where the use of points or the number of points is really going to make much difference I don't either the only reason it came up was to provide direction Was anything else tweaked this year on these other numbers

No I don't think so The objective was to come up with a compromise for allowing unlimited applicants and people to receive grants maybe we don't need a compromise

Well why don't we put it in I like Brad's idea of the asterisk leaving then to the ad hoc committee the determination of how many points so in the first column under the criteria it could be called plus factor under the description it could be flexible extra credit for a new applicant and under the points it can be asterisk meaning that's to the committee to determine

Or you could just put your flexible under your first thing as the description.

Well, the flexible is in the description. Flexible extra credit, yeah.

I like that. Anyone not like that?

I think we all like that.

Rather than bonus points,

Let's like it but put it in words for Bridget Someone move something I so move What is the motion actually Karina will read the motion

to change the rubric to include another category called plus factor with a description extra credit flexible extra credit for a new applicant with the points asterisks I so move oh I mean I second we could put in maximum we'll leave it to the ad hoc committee and then we leave it to us how about this in the description max five points

I want a max on this because I don't want it abused you know That's a lot five points That's the same as diversity and inclusion it's I think it should be less than that It's not going to make any difference I kind of like the asterisks I don't think any ad hoc committee that we work with would ever do 50 points and we would catch that on review

I could make a suggestion that this rubric get broken down I could separate I could add another criteria You're taking it as written in the attachment but changing the bonus point line

The bonus point line is a new line presented tonight it's never been there before What we're doing is tweaking this new line Oh in addition to bonus No You know that right No we're calling it something else you gave it a name Plus factor Plus factor and you gave it a description I think we just need to put a point level on it I think it was up to ten points or something

It really doesn't matter whether you have one or ten.

I think we agreed that it would be an asterisk. I think Brad's solution is elegant there. I do too.

So I again would make a motion to add an extra criteria.

Let's make the motion to accept your attachment as the rubric with the addition.

I make a motion to accept the attachment A of the rubric with the correction under criteria changing bonus points to plus factor. under description it shall read flexible extra credit for a new applicant and under points is an asterisk and the asterisk will be left to the discretion of the ad hoc committee Should I go ahead and take a vote on that All in favor aye

I'm going to go on to commissioner reports. Looks like I'm first. What can I tell you guys? I saw David, I wrote a little today on social media about my meeting with David Yoshitomi this week. And he's very proud of us and we're very proud of him. At the county level, they're going to roll out their results from their economic evaluation of the creative economy county wide. It's pretty. I saw some of the drafts and it'll be very interesting and I do think we will We'd like to drill down and do one for our community as well But it'll be a great resource for the county as they go after grants. They just completed their Grant cycle where they got I think it was $200,000 for that was $800,000 for our that from the health department from the mental health department and they And it was for showing how the creative economy can impact mental health. It was interesting in that it should be a note to us that as the arts become the creative economy and that we can look to other places than the traditional art. funding organizations. You've heard me say this ad nauseum, but this is a straight up example of that as well. There's also a, they just got some funding from the NEA through the county to start a database. not a database, a calendar, an arts calendar at the county level. And this is what we've been asking for. And we've always been under the dilemma that we all had to be on the same system and have the same fields or something like that. And that's how I kept kicking it down the road. Carolyn's going to talk to us a little bit about the work that she's done here. But this one sounds like it's going to be very creative. It's going to become a model for technology. that will have a hub at the county level, but then it can reach out using technology and it doesn't have to be the same technology. It can reach out and read what's going on in all the cities in the county and collect calendars without having to approve the format or that sort of thing too. So it would actually find calendars. search for calendars find calendars you know it's obvious john is a first name or something like that and december 12th is a date you know and and so that'll be it would be very interesting uh both for uh for the part of our strategic plan that has a central calendar but all sudden also for our registries that we talked about our like artist registry as well so I was excited about that and what else did David tell me oh he's something on the grants he said that they found in their latest cycle of funding that they he wanted to advise us he's very proud of us our city for being the largest in the county anyway so the per capita with the arts he says what he finds what he's finding is that supervisors and up the chain Sacramento responding well they like an easy application and that but then an in-depth survey and so they're using the word survey where we've been using audit kind of like what have the how have these people spent the money the grants that we've given them but in this health one for example mental health one too they had surveys it could be simple questions somebody saw a play and wrote and filled out a thing afterwards how did you feel versus before you went in you know that type of thing and he said that stuff was very powerful to have objective numbers when they went in to the supervisors to ask for more so let's um just sort of consider that uh everywhere when we work on our own little grants thing too is that maybe we call it a survey anyways you know because audit sounds a little threatening But he said, but do it and do it carefully. It's more, you know, make the application simple, but the follow-up is even more important because that's how you get the momentum for the future.

Museums have been doing that for decades and it has paid off.

Like surveys at the end or thank you for visiting okay let's do I have an order here on the thing I have one question your survey would the grant summary report fall into that category and maybe that could be updated

Sure or that a survey is part of that or you know a page on that or something like that how did you feel about this or did this change your organization you know get some real data real data yeah okay and that will help our that's how you answer these rubric questions that we just spent a half hour on you know by looking at that I think so so thank you county for that Vice Chair Steiner you have some public art for us

No, no public art to mention. I take under advisement what we heard from Gail Childress today, the importance of paying attention to our public art fund, to our public art program rather, which brings me to the question of what's happening with the review of our public art fund. I think we're gonna hear some of that in the staff liaison report Staff liaison report okay great because that's that's very important we don't seem to be having any movement on the restoration of the Matilaha Fountain it's been hard to get a hold of the restorers and it's been so very hot and they seem to be busy excuse me other things but it is on my mind and on my on my list i do want to note about your comment one thing I would like to bring to David Yoshitomi's attention is that I worry that the city is footing the bill for what's essentially the county's responsibility. So what we know is that so many of the artists in our community are in fact county residents, not city residents. We see that in our grants. We see that in the studio artists. We see that in the decision of the city council not to require that we be city residents. And I think that the county is shirking its financial responsibility and putting that on the city. And I'd really like us to begin emphasizing that. I mean, it's great that David is doing these studies. It's great that he's saying that our city is doing more. But it means that the more this city does, the less the county does. I think we need a real push there and then the only other comment I want to make is just a slight tweak to what you said earlier when you said that the arts become the creative economy now Arts are not just about the economics, and I recognize that it's a buzzword. I recognize that it's also a very popular word, and it's a very seductive word, and it encourages that kind of support. But the arts have their own inherent purity. They exist for beauty, for education, for elevation, for knowledge, for all kinds of other reasons that are not economically based. And if we as this commission take as our essence that it's only the economics, then we lose the very reason for our existence.

and now I'm off my soapbox thank you that was your comments too this is report section but I so it's not discussion either so but thank you Commissioner Wright I don't know if you have more you've had your hands full with what you already told us but do you have any more reporting We'll come back to comments if you wanted. Commissioner Tabak-Bank, do you want to tell us what you've been up to?

Not all that much. I had some coffee with our fearless leader and the person who's in charge of the World Dance. I discussed with her the possibility of getting people from LA up here. I still have not gotten a phone call back from the person at USC who handles that, but I will call her again. I am anxious to try to bring live performances here but i am going to need some help because i'm going to need to speak to the people who have the venues um i it's easy to get the talent you just if they have an open date and you agree upon a price it works but you got to have a venue and there's limited venues in this town so hopefully I'll have something more to report better next time Commissioner Wagner

At the last meeting, I mentioned that I was beginning to, I think Brad brought up the importance of having a database or list or spreadsheet of stakeholders in the arts and culture in Ojai. And so I've been working in that area. And just a little bit of history. I learned through conversations with some people in town that about a decade ago, the Arts Commission had on its website a visual artist registry. And unfortunately, due to various factors, it was not maintained. And so with the permission of the city, the museum, the Ojai Valley Museum took on the responsibility of developing and maintaining an artist registry, which is still in existence and it's very, it's good, it's very helpful. So, what i'd like to propose at the appropriate time is that uh... we build upon that registry and also there's a central coast uh... registry of artists and expand upon that to beyond the visual arts to include people involved in film and dance etc etc and that that database would form the basis of a website that would be vibrant, engaging, and current. I just think it would be wonderful to promote the arts, the artists, the people in ancillary professions related to arts and culture. But the challenge is we would need money to do that. to create the website and to maintain the website. And I don't know that the city has the capacity to do that. And so I've been exploring in my conversations with others some potential solutions. And also, building upon the creative economy idea, I think this website would have two major benefits. First of all, promoting the vibrancy of Ojai in terms of arts and culture. And then when there is a creative economy study, all of the information on the website would be useful to whoever is working on that study. So that's what I'm doing, and I've been really enjoying my conversations with people in town, and I'd like to include others in the conversation so I can keep adding to the tabs in my spreadsheet.

Thank you. Thank you everybody let's move on to our staff liaison report future agenda items we and we have we've been keeping a good list and that keeps yes adding the September 17th ad hoc review rates there that people that you're gonna vote for or bring on right okay

So I got that one for September 17, so if there's anything else.

I am going to return again to the copyright policy that has been on our agenda for some time. It's a relatively new policy done by our former attorneys. It's got some errors in it, and I think we are the only committee that sort of understands copyright enough to get this fixed. And we're the only commission with the

um what am i trying to say with the people who who are directly affected by it by the stakeholders directly affected by it it'll be if i may it'll be a a full year um that we have not been able to use audio visuals precisely here in the arts commission so our grant applicants come in they are not allowed to present present their creativity exactly because of this copyright

And I was hoping it would be clarified before the upcoming. And with all due respect, Mr. Chair, I have asked for this at least four times. So I would like that discussion.

Do you have where the errors are and everything? Because we have a new attorney, so it's definitely something to bring to her. And I think a great opportunity to bring it to city council while she's there. And you can bring it up at that point so that they can all.

Right, I promise in two weeks when I meet with Bridget we'll put that at the top of our future agenda item thing and get some movement on that. Should this be something? We pushed a couple months ago and we got pushed back. So we tried, but we'll push again with the new attorney. We won't discuss it now, but yeah.

Okay, so that is on our agenda.

With all due respect to our new attorneys, unless they have studied copyright law they don't know copyright law and and um if we're going to get involved in something that involves copyright we need a real honest to goodness copyright lawyer to do it well i i think we have that on this commission so i think so too we can that's why i think we want to start here and make a recommendation good well we'll get it on that we'll get we'll get it on there great can't discuss it no no

Okay great and then so will that be our next meeting we're pretty packed our next meeting We'll have a response to your push for that until we have something to put on the agenda to look at we don't have an agenda It's just that our grantees are hampered okay and then the other thing I have for future agenda items which we've had before is where do we stand on the Ojai Day poster

Yeah well I'm trying to think will you have anything to say in your report I'm trying to remember what the response was from Parks and Rec I can't even remember when they're supposed to be due I think they got October 3rd or something they're due The posters are due early September Okay it's on there or do you have the list? I don't have it I don't know why This month I was busy It is on there we've gone over it and it is on there We didn't have our meeting this month so but we'll we get a lot done on purchase of my meeting and pushing agenda items forward so but thank you thank you this is the time to push me

And then the only other is what I mentioned earlier, which is the public art fund. But I think you're going to be reporting on that, and if not, then we'll pick it up again.

I'll have an excuse anyways. Okay, thank you. We may be asked by council to chime in on the Matilaha but that might be a future agenda item but we'll let it happen at its own speed Chief Matilaha Matilaha Auditorium renovations That's it. Thank you, future general. All right, staff liaison report. Can I ask a question? Oh, I'm sorry, yes.

At our last meeting, city manager Ben Harvey really urged us to present at city council meetings. Yes. Is that happening on a regular basis?

It will start very shortly And I volunteer if you can't do it Smitty I think it's important I think we've done that in the past where anyone here can can report you don't have to come up with something creative it's the materials already done it's what we're doing And it doesn't have to be on the agenda you can just report out At the beginning of every meeting So you don't even have to sit through the meeting

I'm curious would this question mark regarding the copyright and how it's been at a stalemate for a year be something that we could include in a commission report to City Council at one of their next meetings and would that effective or is this something that you do behind closed doors?

Maybe but I'll sort of handle communication here as long as you guys talk to me beforehand and we schedule and look at the topic and kind of figure out exactly what we want to say that's helpful. We have something in front of us to talk about. Yes. Absolutely. because i wonder if they even know that absolutely absolutely it could be presented as just something that's you know watch for this you know watch for this space we're you know commissioners are are getting antsy about this topic yeah good

May I suggest that you assign well may I suggest that at every meeting someone is there and you Mr. Chair will assign us so that we don't have some empty dates and then everybody at another can you put that together Like tomorrow agenda item

The assumption is that as the chair you're going to give these reports once a month at the City Council meetings if you can't do it tap one of us there's four other of us and one of us will be bound to do it I mean at this point I would think you know starting once a month might be a great achievable goal And then they can also meet Carolyn and Brad Absolutely right thank you

We do the staff liaison report now Okay so the public art fund I'm not sure if you guys all saw your email that I sent we did get a second public records request for it for the working report so I wanted to make sure you guys all saw what I was sending out and unfortunately our finance director is off on some extended leave but I jumped right on top of the interim she is the accounting manager and told her I cannot this has to come to September I can't it's not gonna be put off any longer so she we she and I have a meeting on Monday to go over some things that she's seeing that's not on my report and to make sure that everything is final before it's final so I'm sorry I'm gonna put it off another to another meeting but the circumstances were not under my control so I'm sorry but other than that I will have it I promise it's and you've seen it you've seen where I'm at with it so it's just making it final is all And then once it is final, like I said, I want to put it on our websites for transparency, and that way I'm not, you know, I don't need to get public records requests for it. It's right there. You can see it. And when there's a change, we will bring it to commission.

Let's not grill her.

No, no, we're not grilling. No, in fact, I'm trying to compliment her. Oh, thank you. thank you i'm not grilling anybody um thank you for doing this i think one of the reasons this happened is is that it has fallen so far behind because of staff inattention over the years and you've been really attentive to this and you've stayed on top of it what we know from the fiscal training we all took all due tomorrow everyone that that that this is important for all of us and so we are carefully watching our fine and it's supposed to be presented at least quarterly

I know. Yeah, city manager is very, he understands how important it is. I've made sure that he understands how important it is. And I promise September is the deadline. I'm not going to let it go any longer than that. I also am aware that you guys are supposed to have a joint meeting with the city council soon. So I'm not sure what date that is, but it's coming. So just know all these things we're talking about right now, Put in your notes and bring to the city council.

Oh, great.

I'm not sure of the date, though.

Quick reminder, while we are looking at sort of cleaning stuff up, that we would like for every agenda to include where we are with certain works in progress for public art. Remember that matrix that we had?

Right. It's the same matrix. I've just opened it up, spread it out, so stuff isn't all in one little box. I didn't change the way it was written. I just opened it up so it made more sense, and now we can add columns for... totals and stuff like that great great I mean I half of it I didn't understand what I had to go research it so I just opened it up it's the same matrix I just made it a little more easier to read great yes thank you yes and that's all I have okay Commissioner comments if you haven't made them Council liaison Welcome Leslie, you're excited to have you Excited to be here.

Thank you commissioners Well a couple of things I want to just give you kudos. I made my notes here so I did want to say that the deliberation on the rubric I thought was an example of a best practice and and I was really impressed with how you all worked together to move it forward, to take a little half step backward, the clarification. It was very impressive, and so I think you did really well, and congratulations to having such a strong group to begin with. I thought that was really awesome. I wanted to let you know that we just did a State of the City video, and one of the things I was tasked to speak to, among others, was the value of public art. And murals specifically. So I spoke as articulately as I possibly could on that, just from my own perspective. But I do appreciate murals. So that was a conversation. A note about the survey. I think that that's a great idea. How did this affect you? What was the benefit of it to you personally? And rather than just even asking the grantors or the grantees, you might want to give them a stipend to actually ask their audience so that they're incentivized. to actually do that themselves without it looking like it's another add-on to the grant. Like, okay, $250 extra for you to do this, which we understand is a new requirement, but it would really help us in the future, something like that. I would give them a little token to incentivize them to do that. Let's see. Oh, yeah. And the county's, and at any point that I'm talking too much, you just can tell me to stop. The county's contribution to the granting, I'd be interested in knowing what that process would be or how David, David, right? David responds to you as there are many avenues where we believe the county is failing in giving us funding. their contributions because we are the ohio valley funded by ohio which i understand why that is but we keep knocking on the county's door the more we knock the better it's going to be for everybody commissioner steiner yes art has intrinsic value outside of economic interest and i just have to say this Animals have intrinsic value outside of what they can produce for humans, as does the landscapes. And when we talk about intrinsic value, I think that that's just something I have to say. So, Smitty's left. Smitty. Smitty's left.

No, you'll get no argument from us. No, no, no.

I know. I'm just throwing it out there every opportunity I get. When you put a microphone in front of me, I'm going to say it. And so we are also working on a regenerative economy around fire resilience so that the money that we bring in goes back out into the community to build capacity and to fire harden and fire resilience with our local organizations that are already doing this but funding them in a way and meanwhile fire hardening and protecting. So I would like to have a discussion with you about how a creative economy could interact with a regenerative community so that we can bring all of our nonprofits together and see how that might work as a whole. So errors from the previous law firm. No, that's not possible. And I'm willing to see what I can do about the copyright issues and how I can help you. I don't particularly understand them. But I do understand that you probably do need a copyright attorney. And so you would be asking for an additional legal unless you wanted to pro bono that. That would be wonderful.

I can take it on. I did take it on earlier with our prior counsel who didn't particularly want to hear it, but I'm up to speed on the issue, and we can certainly address it and bring it to you.

Yeah, and I have no doubt that our current attorneys would love to be part of that. Even though they were not experts in it, they would work together with you on that. Let's see. Oh, yeah. If you show up at every meeting, council members will zone out. So you should, I'm just saying, you know, if the Arts Commission shows up every meeting, it's like, okay, what do I need to do for the next three minutes before the next speaker comes up? So once a month would be plenty. Doesn't mean you can't show up, you know, I mean, everybody loves, you know, the information, but we're so jam-packed. I would say once a month and pack a punch would be my recommendation unless there's something really, you know, important that needs to be discussed now, in which case, of course show up and finally Bridget you're doing a fabulous job I can tell and my one request would be can I get on the list of the materials that you share with the commissioners so that I'm a little bit more up-to-date because we are now in six months schedules so I will be showing up for the next six months not for the next quarter So we have a little bit of time to work together and move things forward and collaborate on things. So that is my – that's all I got.

Beautiful.

Oh, yes, and if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Yes.

Where can we see the State of the City video?

We just did it, so as soon as we get a copy, I'm sure they're editing it now, and don't judge me. Okay. All right. I tried my best. I got it last minute.

This is the Art Commission.

I was last minute, okay? I mean, it was like, can you come tomorrow and talk? Sure, I'd be happy to. I did do research, but there you go. Okay, as soon as it's up, we'll certainly let you know. Okay, thank you very much.

You're the one we're allowed to judge here because of the Brown Act.

I love this idea of intertwining the regenerative with the creative economy. I think that's something we should definitely keep on our...

Yeah, it strengthens both of them, which is really, really important. And we are doing an economic diversification plan as we speak for the general plan for the city. So this is a BFD, really. So the more we can get you guys into that and integrate it, the stronger it will be for all of us.

I want to sort of plant a thought with you, and we've talked about this for some time, and that is we, the Arts Commission, are a bit hampered because we don't have a department. I agree with you that Bridget's doing a remarkable job, especially in relation to her But we need a real department even if it's a part time department. We need an arts and culture department which most other cities, even smaller cities than ours do have. Curiously, we seem at times to fall under the recreation department and at other times not but it's it's so very different and while we are talking about and around creative economy and arts in general if if there were a push for an arts and culture department i think it would really put the arts in what we call our art city okay um noted definitely um okay

all right thank you very much thank you for your meeting it was it was great thank you uh let's move on to commissioner comments i'll just sort of mention because leslie stirred some things with me thank you leslie uh just to comment that the county did uh well not the county but that What's that meeting place in Oxnard where the county meetings have been? What's the name of it? Anyone? I don't know. But they did a museum. presentation on artifacts from the Camarillo fires. I remember it was very poignant and it was really a healthy kind of healing place, you know, melted silverware, I mean, and pictures, you know, photography and all from the fire. And it was really an inspiring piece that I saw. and then the Malibu fires and came and sort of eclipsed everything yeah so I wanted to just mention in my comments that our mentor program is something I don't want to lose this year so commissioners if any of you are interested in getting involved in that Colleen yes she's not with the art center anymore but she is definitely interested in being like a a community leader and pushing the work that pam has kind of set up to move forward so and i told her that i would tell that to my commission because it's an important part of the arts commission has been doing that I used to be part of it for years and it was after COVID that it hasn't been picked up again but it's so important that we connect our art professionals with the young people in the community and that was such a beneficial way it was really kind of simple the way it worked applicants and then there was a stipend paid the project they had been working on was a panel discussion where some art artists professionals from the community would be on this panel Maybe for an hour they give a presentation to the public and then the youth that are present are invited then to come up maybe with someone that they liked and each of the professionals probably had already volunteered to be a mentor for a summer or something like that. And a lot of work has been done and we have political will in the community, I should say helpful will in the community to do it. And we have budget for it as well as part of our education budget. So that's something I'm looking for some help on too. And then I look forward to Noose's private discussion with each of you. It's going to be kind of tailored to how long you've been on the commission and make sure that we capture the new ideas and new items. to add to our strategic plan we already got about five at our last meeting as well uh so that's what um that's what i have is my comment anybody else want to comment before we close

I have a comment. I know that a couple of you have mentioned wanting to have more say in Libby Bowl or some kind of interaction with Libby Bowl. I've been looking at a lot of their events, and it's all Ticketmaster now. I haven't lived here that long, but it didn't seem to always be Ticketmaster. And I'm just wondering if anybody, if we could look into this or, you know, if anybody else cares about this. It's extra fees. Ticketmaster has algorithms where people can just buy up all the tickets and then we're all paying secondary market prices for these. I would love to see the box office open and, you know, Ojai can just walk down there and buy our tickets.

Can you still? Not discussion, just commissioner comments.

I don't know. I think you can buy them at the box office.

We're commissioner comments here.

so anyway but i would i would love to keep us on that trajectory of um you know having a little bit more oversight on what's going on at libby bowl thank you anybody else have comments before we close

I do.

Yes, please.

Speaking of Libby Bowles, so tonight is one of the film society's free movies, which we are missing because we are here doing our city business. But that's a shout out to the film society for that. And also, David Berger has been doing quite a number of free movies for our community, which is also great. And then I would underscore again what Gail Childress said earlier, tomorrow evening opens the the osa exhibition at the museum which should be great which means our our new season is kicking in so happy to join us in the new arts season thank you if nobody else has anything i'm going to adjourn this meeting thank you all very much see you next month

Okay.

We have a few minutes. And you too.

This is usually your seat.

Nice to see you, Leslie. Thank you, dear.

Always a pleasure. Always a pleasure. Yes, you're welcome. Good to see you. Thank you for your insights. And I guess, Bridget, I'll say goodbye to Bridget. She's got to run, turn off every time. Okay.

Yeah, she's done an incredible job.

She really has stepped up in so many places for the city. It's really, yeah.