Ad Hoc Committee on Police and Community Relations - Regular Meeting

Alright. Hello, everybody. This is the community livability and public safety committee of the city council, and this is a, our second night of doing interviews for our advisory bodies. And so this evening, we'll be interviewing candidates for the arts commission, cultural access, design review, and parks and rec advisory committees. So the first fifteen minutes that we have here is some check-in time with the chair of the arts commission, Kathy.

Kathy Dorgan. Hi. Thank you so much for joining us. And we can use this time here to do a quick run of show and talk about how we wanna move through. We have one, two, three, four interviews with the cancellation of one person.

Towards the end, we can talk about if we want to try to set aside some time to do a follow-up with that that one individual there. And yeah. So sorry. I'm quickly transitioning between day job and city council role, so got all my stuff here. So, Kelly and Young, I think that what we, did in terms of alternating, asking questions worked well, last night. And then, Kathy, you have a question specific to the arts commission. Correct? I do. Yes. Excellent.

So we will, you know, ask our questions first, myself, Ian, Kelly, and then you'll, close us out with each interview. We do only have ten minutes for each interview. And so I'll just go ahead and introduce everybody. Kathy, am I saying your last name correctly, Dorgan? Dorgan. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just making sure. Okay. Excellent. Do you have any questions for us at all?

I don't think so. If it if they're going along, Danny, I'm assuming you're gonna moderate and sort of keep it moving. So Yeah. Yeah.

If they're going long and I'm noticing after the first couple of questions that they're, you know, very passionate and have lots to say, then at a certain point, I'll jump in and be like, okay. We got two questions left and x amount of minutes left. Well, I think what we found yesterday was that, by and large, ten ten minutes is actually a good amount of time Yeah. To to get through them. And we did have one person who was so passionate about, you know, being interviewed. And after just letting her know that, that we, you know, we're coming up against time, she was very good at, you know, shortening her, responses to the next questions. And everybody's seen the questions in advance too. So yeah. Question. Perfect.

Yeah. So so, you know, so, yeah, if they've seen them in advance, they've had the opportunity to prepare for a for a brief ten minute window to check-in with us. So Great. Okay. Excellent. Kelly or Eyoung, do you have any, questions or feedback from yesterday?

Thought you did a great job of keeping us on track.

Oh, good. Excellent.

Sorry, Eyoung. Did I cut you off?

No. It's okay. No. I was waiting for you because I could tell you you were meant to say something. No. I thought that yesterday was went really well. Yeah. Yes. There was a point yesterday where this is not really a year thing as a chair, but there was a point yesterday where there was kinda, like, one of the chairs was feeling really passionate. And I was worried they were they you know, I didn't wanna offend the candidates. So so I I did think about that. I thought, okay. Oh, that's a little strong for for, the candidates. And so I think there was the I I think it all just came from a place of care.

And making sure that they were very clear on what the committee did. Is that what you're thinking?

Yes. I just think about, like, you know, I I think unless they have like, there's a there's a time well, I mean, I guess there's not really any time for them to ask questions. But if they do have any questions, they can follow-up. I just wanna trust, you know, that all of our candidates are adults, and they have read and know what they're getting themselves into. Yeah. I also there is a little discussion about scheduling. So I'm not trying to, like, you know, point fingers at anyone here, but it's but I also same thing with that too. If I'm honest, I'm like, everyone that's applying is an adult. They're in charge of their own schedules. You know, we all do other things. Most of the city council have other jobs. So I just wanna trust that they're here as a candidate, and and they're gonna be able to make the time commitment. And if they don't, we'll figure it out.

Okay. Yeah. I think we, overall and I can share this with the chairs as they come in. So, Kathy, we're gonna limit any kind of, like, follow-up, to questions, just because largely because of limited time, but it's also a fairness aspect where, everybody gets asked the same questions, and then nobody has the chance to offer more information than they've already decided to offer. And so

That's what I'm accustomed to on in other interview situations. So that's I think that is fair.

Yeah. So, Ian, I'll share I'll just share that at the top of each one with each chair so that we know that the questions are in front of us or the ones that are asked, and that's that's what we're gonna stick with.

Cool. Thanks. Great.

But really smooth. Yeah. We'll hope we'll hope today is smooth. There's less less wiggle room in the schedules. Yeah. Well and I'm gonna go ahead and also keep an eye open for you know, especially when we're, you know, in these coordinating periods and sometimes just fill in some space, just check for if people sign on early so that we can get the first person started early. So but in the meantime, Kathy, how are things going on the arts commission? How are you doing? Sorry. I threw you off there.

I couldn't unmute. I was pushing it and pushing pushing it. Well, for me, this has been a bitty busy week because I had council and then yesterday the arts innovation awards and then this. So I I would I will say something really quickly about we chatted a lot at our meeting about what we hope to find in a new commission member and what when we have selected ones that perhaps did not turn out as well. And often it was a misapprehension on their part of what the arts commission actually does.

So that is why we structured our question the way it was. I'm sure it's like that with council and other commissions. Some people have just one thing, you know, that they're just on fire for. And often, it's something that isn't within our purview. So I we're we're watching looking for hoping someone who just meshes well with the rest of us and gets how to be part of a team.

Okay. Very cool. Yeah. But, also, just generally out there in the arts world, how are things?

Things are going great in the arts world. We're the innovation awards thing was fabulous. We had 42 applicants of people with cool stuff planned. Shape note singing, everything from from sculpture to to singing. We had three dance ones that seem really cool. I don't know what feral Butoh dancing is, but I'm excited to see. Yeah. I think we're seeing a lot of, yeah. Yeah. Just a lot of really cool stuff coming down the pike. All of our theater companies are doing well. We got a couple new choirs, including one named Future Elders. Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

Again, some just some really cool stuff. I think things are going well. I hope you enjoyed the plinths.

Yeah.

I think we've got some really interesting stuff. I have picked a couple of favorites, so I know that they will be different than the mayor pro tems, but not

Hey. Amber. Okay. I didn't even say what my favorites were.

I know.

Unlike others, I didn't wanna sway the public.

Yeah. Which was kind of you, and I did not either. So I didn't even try with my voice to indicate.

Oh, okay. I see you. Yeah.

You told me

here so I know you're wrong.

Right. Yeah.

Yes.

I laughed when you mentioned feral butthole because I actually have heard of that. What? From from, you know, back in the day when, you know, college house roommates that were greener were super into butthole. I don't I couldn't tell you what it is, but I've heard of it. Well, because

buteau just seems so formal, so contained. So and then to think of, you know, feral, I we we were at a loss.

So Yes. Sounds very it sounds very evergreeny. Right? Okay. Oh, well, it sounds like you guys are having fun.

We we are, and we've got a really good blend on the commission right now. We have music people. We have theater people. We have one of the arts commission members is a former student so of mine, which is kind of hilarious. And I'm actually starting a show that I'm gonna be directing, and he's gonna compose original music for it. So Oh, really? Yeah. I'm really just kind of excited about about who we are and who we have on there and yeah, it's good. Nice.

Well, Kathy, in this safe recorded space, can you tell us what your favorite plants were?

You know, liberty liberty weeping just gets me in all the feels. And I again, until you see him in person, you can't really tell. I loved that one. I loved, the peace peace, love, and justice one because it called back to that love, you know, kind of motif, and I feel like that I I looked at things like that that that really kind of resonate with the city. I didn't love the fish one, but that's because I don't love fish.

So, I mean, I love to eat fish, but I don't love fish. So, you know, we're all really particular, aren't we, in our in our our days? Like, those those who I really liked. I I was really shocked that none of you asked about the last one, silence, because that thing is, like, 12 feet tall. All

Tree trunk one?

Is that the

one that said it was carved from a tree trunk or something? Yes. It looks big.

Yeah.

It's 12 feet tall. And now I'm just thinking about it on a plinth.

Right. Right. A low plinth.

Yeah. We're gonna have to shorten up a plinth for that, and we real we realize that. But it's also I was fascinated by the mix of materials. That's made of wood, which is what we thought was so cool.

Oh. That's wild. That actually reminds me of a a plinth that's already out there. You know, the pregnant lady? The toepress lady?

Yeah. She's permanent. Yeah. She's a perm she's a permanent plinth. So yeah. There were a number of one. What's that?

Doesn't matter.

Now do you wanna give away, one of your favorites, Ian?

Absolutely not. Okay. Liberty is weeping also hits me right in the heart.

Yeah.

Yeah. It does. It's like yeah. I yeah. Mhmm.

I it's also just beautifully rendered.

Well, yeah, I was gonna say, like, it's very, very abstract, but you know exactly what it is.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. It gets you in the feel rather than in the, oh, I see what's happening there. You just instinctively sort of you know, the the angles and the curves. I I thought it was lovely.

So Yeah. Mhmm.

Kelly, gotta weigh in.

Yeah. Yeah. The was it Raven's Moon with the the big blade from I'm really excited to see that in person. Like

Yeah. That is another one. And spoiler alert, I lived in Elma and was on the school board, and we had just passed a levy to build to a bond to build a new school when the nuclear plant was was, like, tanked, and people's Yeah. Per thousand went up from a dollar to $2.63, and I still remember having to talk about that. So

Interesting. All the things

came back.

Sorry. Chair, the first candidate is Yep. Is waiting.

I was just gonna I was just about to say that. So, are we ready? Alright. Let's get this show on the road, and let's go ahead and promote Maria over to the panelist side of things. Hello? Is that you, Maria? It says Mara for your name, but I I think we're presuming you are Maria.

My name is actually Mara, m a r Mara.

Oh, okay. Is it Oransine?

Yes.

Mhmm. Oh, okay. We must have a typo on our end. So thank you so much for correct you said Mara then?

It's Mara.

Mara. Thank you. Excellent. That's why I double checked right there. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you so much for your interest in the arts commission. We so my name is Danny, and I chair the council's community livability and public safety committee. And we make the recommendations to the city council on who to appoint to our advisory bodies. I'm joined by committee mates, Yung Hwan and Kelly Green, and also the chair of the arts commission, Kathy Dorgan. And we got a quick ten minutes for an interview, so I'm gonna go ahead and just jump right in. Fire. Yeah. So what interests and excites you about joining the Arts Commission?

Oh, well, I am a working artist, and I've done ArtsWalk once. I'm signed up for spring, and, I just really appreciate all of the public art in Olympia. It's something that really drew me to moving here, and the support that I've heard from other friends of what the city, provides for artists and opportunities. And I have been making use of those myself through the email newsletters and just finding out about things, through the arts commission. And so, yeah, I think that's one of the big reasons why I'm excited about it.

It's because it's like, wow, this is a really awesome resource that exists and, I want to help support other artists in the way that I have felt supported and, network with people who are making that happen and interested in public art. I also happen to I made friends with someone who was on the arts commission and when I told them I was applying, were like, oh, yeah, I'm on there too, like, and so that kinda just made me feel like I was like, oh, like, I I'm in this community. Like, I'm here too. And, even though I wasn't on the commission or anything yet, I was just like, it's nice it's nice to know that there's a there's someone familiar, and that's all I'll say about that.

Thank you. I'll pass it over to Ian.

Yeah. Your next question is, how do you describe the perspectives, knowledge, or experience you would bring to this advisory body?

Well, I feel that I have a lot of, a lot of good things to say. I feel like I, really prioritize, like, inclusivity and fairness, and really looking at, situations, like, from a lot of different angles and trying to get perspective about, what action is going to be taken. And so I feel like, yeah, I have some organizing experience. I have, I've had my own business for six years. So I'm really used to working with people, and I enjoy it as well.

And, yeah, I think I'm a big thing that I'm interested in is learning more about how arts commissions and public art and these things, like, are put into practice. So I might be coming in without a ton of experience, but, like, a willingness to learn and, gain new skills and learn from people who have been in this work for some time. I really respect that. And so, yeah, I think coming in with a, you know, without as much prior knowledge, but that could be a benefit too. So that's my answer for that question.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Thanks, Marz. So you you kind of helped segue into this next question, which is how would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

Yes. I definitely think that's a good segue. I feel like my first six months, I would really do a lot of active listening, deep listening, trying to kind of under gain understanding and see how things are, like, see how things are in motion and, working and not just jump in with, like, a bunch of new ideas necessarily, but, like, using into that and, wanting to gain new knowledge and learn from others.

And

I think another thing that would helps, that I would do is, do research on my own. So, you know, take whatever information comes out of these meetings and then kind of, like, use that as a baseline for my own research into whatever those, whatever those topics might be. And also just gaining, yeah, like, time to network a bit, learn about each of you and, why you came to the arts commission and why you're interested in this work as well. So just, again, more background knowledge, and coming into a space where I know I'm in a position of learning, but, wanting to be really, like, proactive and respectful with that. Yeah.

I think it's me. Yep. So my my question is more specific, even. By ordinance, the arts commission's main role is to make recommendations to city council regarding public art.

Right.

What can public art bring to our community?

This is the question I have thought about the most, but I think there are so many ways to answer this question. I think that public art can bring to light or make visible, worlds or abstract or other subjects that are not as easily seen or, maybe not as often brought into the public sphere, and that can be such a broad range of topics. But I think that's a really valuable thing to bring to our community is to bring to light things that are not, always at the forefront of our attention. And that attention can really bring, like, bring people into the present moment, which I am always, advocating, like, how we can all just exist in the present moment that much more. And the experience of art can be so visceral and, like, move through you in a physical way.

And I just really truly believe that should be available to everyone, that art is for the public. And that just strengthens our community that much more. And especially, I've thought about, to visitors, like public art is kind of a cultural statement of a place to people who are visiting Olympia. And I think that is a really, important and meaningful kind of relationship to have. And so or, like, it's important work to do, and we wanna make sure that our statement as a community, like, to the public is one of connection and kinship and, community that is, inclusive and, like, wants to show art that celebrates that and, is putting that out there as a cultural statement.

And so, yeah, you know, public art becomes part of a place's history And I think that, has a lot of impact because our history that is presented through public art is a narrative, and representation of our community and we want, you know, potentially for generations, like some installations can be there for, many decades. And so, we want to make sure that is a representation of, like, who our community really is and like how we show up for each other. Again, public art can inspire people to reflect and wonder and be curious and those are things I think all communities should, you know, it's a, should foster. And then the last thing I'll say is just that, public art really, I believe, brings so much inspiration to new artists whether they're old or young, but especially the young people because there are public artists of tomorrow. And, I believe that if we are showing that we are, like, contributing public art to a place that is inspiring youth, that gives them the confidence that art is a viable pathway for them, and that they are going to be, like, that is something that we still value as a culture and society.

So

Thank you.

I have a long answer.

Good one, though. Well, thank you so much for spending some time with us, this afternoon. We really appreciate, you applying for this, and I just wanna share, the next steps, so you know what to expect. Sometime in the next week, you'll get an email from Don who you've been coordinating with on scheduling this interview. And she'll let you know one way or the one way or another whether or not the committee will recommend your appointment to, the city council. Yeah. So you'll hear that in the next week. And if you are recommended, the council makes the final decision on March 31. Not anything you would have to have on your calendar, but just so you're aware of the timeline.

Okay. Well Excellent. Thank you all so much, and good luck with the rest of your interviews.

Great. Thank you, Mara.

Thank you. Have a good afternoon.

Thank you.

K. So the next person we have on our list is Davin Haula, and, unfortunately, he was unable to make it. And we can chat towards the end of this to see if we want to reach out to him and see if something else would, another time would work for him. In the meantime, the next person on the list is Elizabeth Lord, and she is here. So we can see if she's ready to jump in early, and we can, you know, get a head start there. So, Don, can we go ahead and see if Elizabeth is ready to be promoted to this side of the, the Zoom aisle?

She's coming in.

Oh, excellent. Cool. Hi, Elizabeth. Hi. How are you doing?

It's been a minute that I've been on Zoom.

Ah, nice. We do this all the time.

I noticed.

I read up on that.

Yeah. Well, thanks so much for joining us this evening and for your interest in the arts commission. So I'm Danny Madrone, and I chair the community livability and public safety committee of the city council. And I am joined by my committee mates, Ian Hwen and Kelly Green, and also Kathy Dorgan Dorgan. So sorry. With the arts commission. We've got a quick ten minutes for an interview here, and each of us has a question for you. So we're just gonna jump right in.

Sounds good.

So first question, what interests and excites you about joining the arts commission?

Community. I've been living in this town for a long time, and I've done a a number of things, mostly performance based storytelling things and theater things. And, and I do an annual vaudeville show. And my favorite thing about doing that is bringing artists together so that they can then go forward and collaborate in the future. And I thought, you know, there are a lot more artists in this town, and I wanna help, artists fight each other and be part of that process. I love this town so much, and I I wanna give back and see if I can help more with, building art in our town. That is why I'm excited.

Great. Excellent. I believe I've seen that vaudeville show a few times. Oh, cool. Alright. I'll go ahead and pass it on to Ian for the next question.

Yeah. Next question is, how do you describe the perspective, knowledge, or experience you would bring to this advisory body?

Well, I'm a good collaborator. I'm able to hear other ideas and build on them. I am a good learner and I listen. I also have ideas of my own and am not afraid to jump in and share a new perspective or idea. Working, as I said in the previous answer, with local community groups.

Oh, also the Heart Sparkle Players. Right. I've met a wide range of people in our area, and I I feel I have a grasp on what would serve our community. I don't know, man. This interviews are hard.

Yeah. They are hard. Alright. Is that your second answer?

Yeah. It was terrible. I know.

I you know, I disagree. I disagree.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I get so nervous during these things.

Yeah. I know. I I feel flattered that you're nervous. I've seen you on stage doing things that would make me nervous.

Well, that's where it's easy for me.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll pass it to, committee member Green. Great. Thank you.

I'm gonna ask the next heavy hitting question. Okay. How would you approach your first six months as an advisory as a new advisory body member to set yourself up to be a successful member?

Oh, yeah. When I

read that question in the email I was given, I was like, what does this mean? I guess I'd have to learn what the job is. I really would have to figure out what are the expectations. And from all I've read, it seems the job is to advise the city council. But I still don't know where the source material comes from that we then discuss and advise on.

So I'd wanna figure that out. I'd wanna figure out I know there are a number of ongoing budgeted items that are in process right now that are established. But so I guess I'd need to do a bunch of learning and and listen and learn from the established arts commissioners. And, ideally, they would help me know how best to set myself up for success. Show up, listen, learn. That's that's my plan.

Perfect. Thank you.

Hi, Elizabeth. Hi, Kathy. Nice nice to see you.

Nice to see you.

So my question may answer a little bit of your question. By ordinance, this arts commission's main role is to make recommendations to the city council regarding public art. What in what what can public art bring to our community?

I think public art elevates our community. I think it takes the ordinary and turns it into the extraordinary. I think a person can be walking down the street, and they're going from point a to point b b. But if halfway there, here's the sculpture that wasn't there two weeks ago, now it's there. It gives them pause, gives them something different, something to switch it up and enlivens them.

Maybe the object is, maybe there's a placard saying the dedication, or maybe it's something they've never seen before, and it's it's something they've never even considered before. So it gives them a private moment of contemplation. I like that that part of what public, like, sculptures and things could bring to our community as well as murals and visual arts. Also, I like that they can become a meeting place. They can be a a landmark.

You know? Meet me down at the the pregnant lady by the pier or, you know, they become iconic in the town. As well as, let's say, if there's a performance element, it's a gathering place. Are are you gonna go see the so and so band on on Arts Walk, you know, at the at 5th Avenue and and Washington Street? Okay.

I'm gonna be there if I okay. I'll see you then in some meeting place, you know, a way to bring people together and gather. I think, art can do that for a community. I think it let's see. I've made one, oh, I think also, installations of public art in city spaces shows a display of care for the community.

Mhmm. It shows that we are concerned and care about our space, our shared space, and this proves it. Because look, we did this. We could have done nothing, but we did this instead. We put this mural here or we put this statue here or we've laid these tiles in the street to honor this musician. You know? It shows that we care. And I think that feeling can, be contagious for an average citizen to feel that sense of caring with where they live.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. Yep. Thanks for your time this afternoon. Great. I'll share a couple of next steps with you.

Sounds good.

You'll hear from Dawn, sometime next week, Don, who you've been coordinating with to schedule this interview, and she'll let you know our decision one way or the other. And so so the the council committee here will be the ones to make a recommendation to the full city council on who Okay. Who to appoint to our advisory bodies, and the city council will make that final decision March 31. But you'll hear, from Dawn, by next week, whether or not, we we decide that you're one of those folks. So Okay. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Thank you again.

Alright. Yeah. Thank you, everyone.

Alright. Excellent. And we have we already have our next person here as well. So, Kathy, is this typical that the arts community is early?

I you know, no. Might imagine that we we are all putting me running in at the last possible second or maybe thirty seconds after the last possible second. I'm a

little stunned. Excellent. Well, let's see if, Kelly Marie is, ready to come over and interview with us.

Joining now. Excellent.

Hi. Is it Kelly Marie? You got you go by your two two first names? Please. Appreciate it. Hi. Thank you so much for applying to be on the arts commission and spending some time with us this afternoon. My name is Danny, and I chair the council's community livability and public safety committee along with my committee mates, Young Hwen and Kelly Green. And our committee will make a recommendation to council on who to appoint to our advisory bodies. And we're also joined by Cathy Dorgan with our who chairs our arts commission. And we've got a quick ten minute interview, so I'm gonna go ahead and just jump right in. Can you tell me what interests and excites you about joining the arts commission?

You know, I am a student at Evergreen, and I'm I'm studying digital filmmaking, actually, experimental film. And I'm originally from Spokane, and so I've lived here now for two years in Olympia, and I live downtown. And what I really applaud the city of doing is having so many great public art, especially at Evergreen. Like, there's just so much beautiful art representation in different things. And so for me, I'm excited to participate in any way that I can to represent artist, emerging artist, Native American art, things that are true and and deep to this this region and to Olympia in general.

Great. Thank you.

Alright. Your next question is, how would you describe, your perspective, knowledge, or experience you would bring to this advisory body?

Well, I have a lot of ex lived experience. I'm a retired hairdresser of thirty nine years, and I'm I'm definitely a people person. I listen. I'm organized, and I'm definitely a visionary. So I have a lot of ideas about different perspectives, I guess, on art.

I'm a photographer as well, and so I love I love sharing my art, but also just it's just so satisfying to help emerging artists as well. And so anything that I can do to to help the commission to move forward and find find those gems that that would like to be shown.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Alright. And I get the next question. How would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member, to set yourself up for success?

Hi, Kelly. You know, I would probably just observe and listen. I'm doing a work study with school, and it's with Thursing Housing Land Trust. And so I'm doing their outreach as part of my work study. And so it's been really fun for me to be on their board and to watch the growth that has transpired within this organization.

So for me, it's been really impactful to kinda just learn and research and understand the foundation of what makes the committee impactful and how I can contribute to that. The I think it's about building relationships is another key point that I wanna do because it's it's because I'm such a people person, I love to engage and and rise people up to the occasion. And so I'm pretty positive, and I really enjoy, you know, helping people and advising any way that I can to to help the committee in any way, whatever that looks like. So I'm I'm kind of like a a liaison right now. You know?

Perhaps maybe just that opportunity to understand the what the organization is and how it operates so that I can, you know, contribute what I can.

You.

Thank you.

Thank you. That's me. So by ordinance, the arts commission's main role is to make recommendations to city council regarding public art. That's what, in in your mind, can public art bring to our community?

You know, I would have

to say, Kathy, that it's about reflection, You know, how we can bring art and allow people to have a sense of meaning, connection, and opportunity to be seen. And so I I believe that public art in specifically is so inclusive, and it can bring joy to everyday everyday life. I've I feel just lucky to live downtown because I get to walk by the pier, and I get to see all this great art. And so I I it's it's amazing, the art that's been showing up and and surprising me when I see it. So yeah.

Thank you. You're welcome. Great. And thank you so much, Kelly Marie, both for your interest in the arts commission and spending some time with us. Just gonna share a few next steps with you. So as I mentioned before, this this committee here will make a recommendation to the city council, and we'll make that decision soon. You'll hear from Don within the next week, Don, who you've been coordinating with to schedule this interview. And then our recommendations will go to the city council for their final approval on March 31. So, not a date you need to have on your calendar for anything. It's just a form, formal part of the process, but just wanted to have you be aware of the timeline. But you'll know by next week whether or not we'll be recommending your appointment. So

And Yeah. So can I ask you a few questions? Is that okay, or should I

Oh, yeah. We don't really have time for any of that. I mean, I I I bet any of one of us would be willing to connect with you offline if you're interested. I see Kathy nodding there, and you can feel free to reach out to me as well. Great. And Don will would would be able to help connect you to us.

Alright. Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Have a nice day.

Thank you so much, Kelly

Marie. Kelly Marie. Bye bye.

Alrighty. Just looking at our time here. We do so we we are a little bit ahead of schedule, and waiting on the next person. I and I wanted to you know, we probably could have accommodated a couple of questions time wise, but I just wanna be fair to all the other candidates that not everybody gets that chance. So so we do have, ten minutes before the next interviewee, is scheduled, but maybe she jumps on early. Go ahead, Ian.

Oh, sorry. It's not urgent. I was thinking just thinking about that last interaction. And, you know, one of the perks of not being cherished, you can kinda space out sometime. But so I'm not sure

if it's in

your spear spiel. But at the end, when you kinda give them the next steps, if you don't already, maybe you could add, you know, like, they they could reach out any follow-up questions, they can continue to reach out to Don. It's you know? Because then it's like, they don't have to find us and necessarily have a meeting. They could just be like, what does blah blah blah do or something? Or how long was I supposed to wait again? And then Don can just answer those questions.

Yeah. Sure. Sure. Sure. That yeah. Totally. Yeah. And, typically, I think sometimes I've I've asked people if they have questions about the next steps, but I don't know that I consistently do that. So be offering that they could reach out to Dawn if they, you know, have any questions. Cool. Thanks. Okay. So I'll watch for our last, interviewee, Lauren, to come on, and there she is. Wow. That was magic. Yeah.

I mean,

also have proven a point of the earlyness.

Right. Yeah.

Well, why don't we go ahead, Don, and let's go ahead and, promote Lauren over here and see if she's ready, to, start her interview a little bit early.

Joining now.

Hi, Lauren. Are you there?

Yeah. There we go.

Yes.

And I

heard you made a magical entrance.

Beautiful. It was great. Very artistic. Thank you so much for joining us, and I hope you don't mind starting a little bit early. We had somebody who had to cancel, so we're running a little bit ahead of schedule. No. That's fine. Okay. Perfect. Well, thanks so much for being here. My name is Danny, and I chair the council's community livability and public safety committee. Our committee makes recommendations to the council on appointments for our advisory bodies, and I am joined by my committee mates, Ian Hwen and Kelly Green, and also Kathy Dorgan, our chair for the Arts Commission. And we have a quick ten minutes for this interview, so I'm just gonna jump right in. Okay. What interests and excites you about joining the Arts Commission?

Well, I have a a long background in the arts and, in sort of public service, and I just I'm always excited to combine those two together. Specifically, I'm really excited about the projects that are going on at Keiser Woods and at the Armory, with the creative campus. And then on a personal note, my most of my experience as an artist is in dance. A lot of what I do here at Olympia is with dance. So I'm excited to just bring more of that community into, what we do as a city.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Great.

Next question is, how do you describe the perspectives, knowledge, or experiences you would bring to this advisory body?

So like I was saying, I'm I'm an artist. I've been dancing most of my life on a professional level as a dancer, as a choreographer, as a producer. And then I've also I just kinda dabbled in the world of art installations, and I was successful with that. And I, most of my artwork in that realm was for cities. So I have I have a perspective of what it's like to be on the artist side, for city commissions.

I've been on a number of boards myself, mostly with arts organizations or institutions, but also, like, with my neighborhood association. And with my neighborhood association, one of the first things I did was try to bring the arts into what we were doing. So we have a little pocket park in our neighborhood, and I wanted to bring art into that to help kind of bring life to it, make people feel like it was a space that they were invited to and could use, and it worked really well. We used the art on some planter boxes, and we immediately saw people using those planter boxes again. And I have I still, to this day, have no idea who those people were, but we had plantings come in.

And then instead of using plant identification labels, they wrote poetry on the labels, and it was really wonderful. I I have no idea who did it. It was totally just inspired by what we did there, which I think is really cool. So, I like to see art. Art really has that effect of, like, just ex exponentially increasing people's involvement and their creativity. So I'm I'm excited to bring that on a larger scale to this commission.

Thank you. Mhmm.

Did Lauren get the next question? How would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

Well, my experience on boards is that first six months for newbies is really a time for learning and getting familiar with, how things are operating, what's been done, and especially with this commission, who the collaborating partners are. So as far as, like, who the collaborating partners are within the city and other or nonprofit organizations, and just getting really familiar with that and what relationships exist and how like, what what the functionality of the board really is within those relationships. And I saw that there's a spring retreat for newbies to kinda help them get onboarded, so I know that'll be part of that first six months. And then just really serve making sure that the networks that I have are being fully utilized for the commission as far as outreach. So making sure that I'm communicating what's going on to my networks to just help amplify, that communication and get people involved.

Thank you.

Okay. I'm batting cleanup here. Okay. So by ordinance, the arts commission's main role is to make recommendations to city council regarding public art. What can public art bring to our community?

I think

many things. One of them being a sense of place. So I I feel like now we're seeing a lot of sort of cookie cutter environments. We're seeing buildings that kinda look the same no matter what city you go to in this world. We're seeing coffee shops that all kind of look the same no matter where you go in this world.

And I think art has the potential to really make you feel where you're at, what the people are like there, and, help give voice to that. I also think art, especially in this dynamic coming from a government entity, it's, I'm a firm believer that everybody deserves to live in a nice place, in a nice environment. And, things like art are being pushed behind a paywall for so many people. And so bringing art into a public access, I think, is is important. Giving people a beautiful space to be in for free, that inspires them, I think, is important.

Thank you. Mhmm. Yes. Thank you so much, Lauren. So those are the questions that we have for you. Okay. A few, next steps, on what you can expect. So as I said before, our committee will, make a will be making a recommendation to the city council, and we'll make that decision soon. You'll hear from Don by next week. Don, who you've been coordinating with on your interview, she'll and let you know one way or another whether we decide to recommend you for an appointment. And and if you are recommended, the council makes that final decision on March 31. Not a date you need to have on your calendar unless you want to. It's a public meeting. I see you jotting down a note there. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. They're all public meetings. Anybody can show up. But, yeah, if if you're recommended, it's not that you have to be there for any any reason. But and, also, if you have any follow-up questions, you can reach out to Dawn. She's, she's there to support you. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Alright. Well, thank you so much. Have a great evening.

Thank you all.

Bye. Thank you, Lauren.

Awesome. Okay. Well, Kathy, what we have been doing with the chairs at the end of each, round of interviews, that was our last one. Right? Yeah. Is that we, well, for one, we do have we do have one candidate who is also interviewing for cultural access. So I don't, you know, we had, yesterday, the BPAC chair joined at different points where there was somebody who was interviewing for both. So I wanted to make sure that was available to you. Yeah.

That was a question I had was if any of our candidates were interviewing for other or and expressed a preference for another board over arts commission.

Yeah. Let me see actually what this person read up right here. I think it was just interested in both. Yeah. Applying for both. Interest first in cultural access. Second interest is arts commission. Okay. So and that person is interviewing at 05:30. So if you did wanna, you know, take a break and come back at that time and also participate in that, you are very welcome to, or you can just leave it to us to, you know, kinda sort it out and decide.

So but we also wanted to make sure that we capture your thoughts and, you know, debrief with you just a little bit right now so that we can as we deliberate later on in the evening, we can have your your thoughts fresh on our mind. So do you wanna share any thoughts?

Yeah. Well, first first, I wanna ask about the person who couldn't come.

Yes. Oh, yes.

I wanted to ask ask about that just because I feel bad.

I know. It's it's a bummer.

Yeah. I just I I just you know, I I just feel like perhaps it was possible to give them an opportunity, but I also understand there's a timeline, and you only have so many hours. So Yeah.

Yeah. So that person, his name is Donovan. And and, you know, one of the things that I wonder you know, when somebody says family emergency, my inclination is to, like, something happened. You know? I also wonder if it's possible for him to jump on at 08:30, but that is, you know, I don't I don't know if it's in position to ask that or to say, hey.

We could talk to you at 08:30 if, you know, if that space is there in your schedule this evening. Or if we could offer another time where maybe he'd sits down with just you and me, Kathy. But then we'll still have to, as the committee, make a recommendation, and you two wouldn't have that info. It seems kinda silly to throw together a whole public meeting for, like, a quick ten minute interview. Though I'm, open to my committee mates in terms of how you'd like to approach this. Stacy came on like she

was gonna give us some professional guidance. I'm sorry, Young. Okay.

Oh, yeah. I'd love to hear what Stacy has to say, but I have some thoughts about this.

I think I was I was gonna ask I mean, one is we can we can try to reach out unless Don has more information about why he needed to back out. If you know? So I looked to Don and Margo to see if they recommend reaching out tonight or not. And then the second piece was, I think we're really we do have to turn around a decision pretty quickly, Don, I'm imagining. So so I think that might limit our ability to get Donovan into an interview in a public meeting.

Yes. There's there's some challenges there. And as chair Madrone stated, it becomes a if just one of the committee members is able to touch base with Donovan and in conjunction with Kathy or not, then how does that that happen throughout that process? Certainly, we can make anything happen because that's what we do, but it does add some complexities. I know that he specifically texted Margo. Margo is the was the last minute contact on the emails, and I'm not sure what that that text message stated. Margo can pipe in and provide a little bit more information on that. But I Yeah. Most likely just text. This is, like, a younger individual, so I think there'd be a pretty good chance that there'd be a response.

And just say, would you be able to jump back in at 08:30 tonight or or what have you? I I'm not sure what that parameter is in, Donovan's world.

Young, did you wanna say something before okay. I see we've got, Margo's info right there. So, Yang, you get your hand up there?

Yeah. Sorry. I'm really trying to also put it down. But, anyways, yeah. I think I my perspective is I appreciate both being compassionate and and caring. And, also, this is I

think

that we should go ahead and offer the $8.30 as a total no pressure type of thing, you know, but but a willingness to to meet then and only then. And and then, also, this is somebody that is that is already involved on one of our committees, like, anyways or one of our community groups. And so and there's an opportunity every year. And I don't know about the next, you know, the next couple of interviewees, but we only have three vacancies, and I think it's it might be competitive. I already.

To say a 100% reading his text that Margo just showed it, he did not say family emergency. He just said an emergency in the text if I if I'm if I read that correctly, which which feels like like, I don't know. It I think is that correct correct? So he said an emergency has come up, and I can't make it. And I which I'm taking in him at his word.

I I wouldn't assume anything else. I think the tell would be if in fact Donovan said, yes. I'm interested in another chance. If it was an emergency, possibly he didn't have the wherewithal to say, can I can I get a different slot? Can I can I do something like that?

Or was it simply that he just was like, ah, I don't think I really wanna do this. I'm gonna say an emergency came up and and not. And I no fault either way. I'm not trying to throw shade on him because I don't know him. So perhaps offering the opportunity and just seeing where that goes, or if an opportunity perhaps to say something like, if an opportunity were available for later this evening, is that something you'd be interested in doing? Maybe phrasing it like that?

Yeah. I I think we could say I mean, an an emergency can come up, and it can be a short lived emergency that happened to be at the time he was scheduled. So how about this? How about we offer the 08:30 time? And if he's unable to do it, say that, you know, oh, you know, what no pressure at all. And if not, like, you know, bummer, you know, we've but, you know, there'll be another opportunity next year. And just just to give give another an option and then and then know that we do have to kind of, you know, wrap up our process. How does that sound?

I'm seeing It sounds fine.

Okay. I actually am around tonight. So if you wanted to do it at 08:30 and somebody can shoot me an email, and I could jump on for that as well. Or or either either way is okay. And I I also think we have three positions, and I think we have four darn pretty good candidates.

Yeah. Tell us more about what you let's go ahead and debrief that real quick. Hi, Anne. We're just in in transition here, so, we'll we'll get to you very soon. Yeah. Do you wanna share some of your reflections?

Sure. I think Elizabeth Lourdes is great. I I look for things that people say that that really sort of resonate with me. When she said she was a good collaborator, I I I love that. I think she understands that that you're one of, you know, eight or nine people. I liked that. I also really loved her answer for for the public art question that it, it it demonstrates care for the community and elevates the community. So so I she's she's definitely on my top. I also liked Lauren, the the last person. And, again, there were a couple of things that she said and did.

One, she was the only one who mentioned current art commission projects. She was the only one who mentioned the Creative District and the Armory, and I forget the other one that she mentioned. I love that she is a person, who who is a dance, like, a dancer, we that is a that is an area that is not present in the current art commission. But mostly, I was really, really hoping that someone would talk about public art as being available for everyone. I always think about I when we put together artists in residency, I worked with somebody at the at the NEA, to ask them about artists in residency programs.

And one of the things that they said is that those kinds of programs that that art brings joy to to all people and that all people should have the opportunity to experience the joy of art. And that's why, you know, we have an artist in residency program now, and that's why why we have public art. I felt like she really got that. I I'd loved that she said people shouldn't have to go through a paywall to to see art, recognizing that we have a really we have a a diverse, not only a, you know, diverse in in cultures community, but also diverse in in economic circumstances in our community. And and so that I liked that.

I liked that Kelly Marie talked about building relationships. I like that she mentioned joy in public art and connection as well. I have to look at another page to see what I liked about Mara. I I also thought that Mara had some, had some good things to say. I I did feel probably Mara was perhaps the the weakest, just in her understanding of what the commission does as well as she talked a lot about being a working artist and supporting artists, and that felt like her her niche is is visual.

I I felt like every time she talked about art, she was talking about visual art. That's not a huge deal breaker for me. I think any of them would be good. So I'd love to hear what you all thought.

Well, we'll we'll debrief, later on Okay. Just because we gotta we'll have to transition here, but it sounds like 08:30 is gonna work for Donovan, which is really great. I'm so happy. Yeah. So, we can plan. So, Kathy, did you want to hang on for our 05:30 interview? And you could leave and come back if you wanted to. That's a person who

I think I'll leave and come back. Okay. Great. Because you can fill me and since we're gonna see each other at 08:30, you can fill me in on the 05:31. And

Okay. Other you can. So yeah. So you'll you'll we'll we'll handle that. We'll make sure the arts question gets addressed, with that candidate as well.

So

Thank you. I appreciate that. So

we'll see you at 08:30 then.

I can use the same link then to just come back at 08:30. Yeah.

And maybe a couple minutes early just to be safe.

Well, I'll do my best, but I'm an arts person. No.

I'm kidding. Well, I I mean, my impression of arts people is that they are early. I know.

Fuck. Ugh. The heat is

Curtain won't go up until you're in costume, Kathy.

Thank you. I just

wanna be sure that I'm, you know, ready. So okay. Thanks so much. Good luck with you. Long evening. See you soon.

Hi, Anne. How are you doing?

Good. Good. How's everybody?

Doing good. Doing good. We're on day two of doing interviews for our advisory bodies, and it's just fun to kinda, like, meet all sorts of folks that are interested in city government. So Yes. Yeah.

Yep. Yep. Love it. Love it. Love it. So, right, I've only been on the other side of this, but, you know, kind of picking up what you're putting down for Kathy. So I'll make some notes as we go then. Is that what I'm understanding? And then share them with you before you give me the boots.

Yeah. Well, give you the boots or until you, you know, sign off for

the evening.

How about way.

Yeah. Yes.

And you have a a question specific to the Yes. Yep. To the cultural access? Okay. Great. So Yep. Yep. Yeah. So we have just ten minutes for each interview. So, at the start of each one, I'm just gonna introduce everybody, on the screen. And then, each of us will have a question, and you'll close us out. You'll be the final question. The one exception is for, one candidate. The second candidate, I think it's pronounced Ravi, is also interested in the arts commission. So you'll ask your cultural access question, and then I'm gonna follow-up with the final question, which is the arts question so that we can make sure that we get that information as well.

So, and we do have we have three interviewees. If we see somebody, sign on early and they're ready early and and we're ready early and they're ready early, we can get started early. But, otherwise Yes. Yeah. That's that's the flow.

Yeah. So you said you'd introduce all of us, and then question, question, question. And then are will you do the closing?

Yeah. Yeah. I'll speak

to these steps.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'll let them know when they can expect to hear back and and let them know how the process works from here. Awesome. And we we have three we do have three applicants for or interviewees for two vacancies. We did have another person, but they moved to Seattle.

Yeah. That's a bummer.

Yeah. Yeah. So that happens. Yeah. But so yeah. And let's see. Fantastic. About oh, we're running we we have twelve minutes till the next person. So Oh, got it. Okay. I know I could use a quick break here. So

Do it.

Yeah. Do it.

Do Do

you mind putting up the thing that says that we're on a quick break? And then I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna leave and come right back. It'd be I'll be back you know, we'll we'll be back a couple minutes before the interview is scheduled at 05:20. Okay. Sounds good.

Thanks. Welcome back, everybody. We're just gonna give Young a little bit more time to to rejoin us.

You need to practice your question a couple of times, or have you got it dialed in?

Me?

Ah. Dialed. Dialed in. Dialed in. Yes.

Yeah. We've got these questions at least a dozen times now. So Right?

Yeah. You guys absolutely dialed in. Absolutely. Yeah. We got, what, two two more, three more after this? Two more after this.

Two after this, two more, advisory bodies, with Mhmm. Five interviews each. So yeah. We'll get through it. It it's fun, though.

You will.

Long stay of

your life. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's true. That's true. Community, interested in serving, and that that's that's pretty rewarding.

That's that's a good thing. That is a good absolutely. Absolutely.

We

are all here now. And our, our next interviewee is over on the in our waiting room, I guess. So let's go ahead and promote Morgan over to the panelist side. Can you guys hear background noise No. From me? Okay. My daughter is, like, baking in the kitchen, and there's just some noise going on. So glad I'm the only one who can get it.

Not even the microwave, though. Right?

It's not the microwave.

We had some Internet interference from microwave side, Morgan.

Yeah. Hi, Morgan. How are you doing?

Hello. I'm doing well.

My name is Dani, and I chair the the council's community livability and public safety committee. And we, as a committee, will make recommendations to the council on who we'd like to appoint to our advisory bodies. And I am joined by my committee mates, Ian Gwen and Kelly Green. And we also have Anne Larson, who is the vice chair of our cultural access advisory board. So, and then we have a quick ten minutes for an interview, so I'm just gonna jump right in. And I'm gonna ask what interests and excites you about joining the Cultural Access Advisory Board.

Well, I think that's the thing that I'm most excited about is the opportunity to help inform and give perspective on really carrying out the goals of Inspire Olympia and helping shape the cultural access program. And I really enjoy a lot of the program offerings, including the capital city chorus, and really looking forward to continuing opportunities for education. Growing up, I've had the opportunity to take dance lessons and, musical lessons, and I think that's really you know, even when people don't go on to do that as professions, it can be a great way to express yourself or experiment with hobbies. And so the more that people are aware and can participate or enjoy those as an audience member, the better. And so really interested in representing the community and making sure that these things continue on and also have a diverse offering.

Great. Thank you. I'm gonna pass it over to Young for the next one.

Yeah. Hi, Morgan. Your next question is, how do you describe the perspectives, knowledge, and experiences that you would bring to this advisory body?

That's a great question. I think that I still have a lot to learn, but some of the perspectives that I bring as a community member in Olympia, I grew up in Okanagan County on the Colville Confederated Tribe reservation and come from a Mexican American household. And so I have definitely grown up around a lot of cultures, and I'm always looking for knowledge around an appreciation for different cultures, ways of expressing arts. And we'd love to see even more of that in Olympia, especially because there's such a rich culture here with indigenous roots, and we'd love to see that represented more. We'd love to see more diversity in the age range that we see performers as well.

And so the experience and perspective that I would bring is really balancing out some of those interests in in the advisory group, and and some of that knowledge, I think.

Thank you.

Morgan. Great. How would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

Well, it's my understanding that, serving on this advisory group, it's, a three year term, I think. And so we'd love to learn from some of the more tenured advisory committee members and their experience. We'd love to learn how things work and would love to learn what the current priorities are, but would also love to share what some of my strengths are in terms of organization and perspective. So really getting to know what the group is and what my place in it is. So I think that's kind of the first six months is what's being done and where my knowledge, skills, and strengths could really be leveraged in the group.

Great.

Hi, Morgan. This question's a little long, so I'm just gonna read it for you. Describe a recent event or activity in which you felt moved by an arts, cultural heritage, or science experience or perhaps witnessed others enjoying such an experience and share your thoughts on how greater access to these experiences can benefit our community.

Sure. I felt really lucky to attend the I'm probably saying this wrong, but it was the women's it was, like, a subgroup of the Olympia quarrel group. So just women, and they were going to Washington DC, I no. No. No.

No. They were going to New York to perform Mary Oliver poems, I believe, three poems that were set to music. And the composer came up from Portland to see them perform and in Downtown Olympia. And that was particularly moving because the composer had gotten to spend time with Mary Oliver, and Mary Oliver is such a an awesome poet because her poems are often about nature and are full of everyday things like flowers blooming or walking through fields or dogs. They're just you know, they're ton of poetry.

I think poetry for people that don't really like poetry, I would say. I'd probably put myself in that camp. And it was just really neat to see a composer watching a fairly new group of singers be moved by that performance. And it seemed almost like this is kind of my perspective, a grassroots movement, and these women that were coming together to, you know, fundraise to go to New York, sing this piece, and really just, like, making it happen. And to be a young woman in the audience group or youngish woman in the audience group, being there supporting them was a really powerful thing.

What I would say could make that even greater, though, is I was looking around, and, you know, I was probably on the younger side. Many of the people sitting in that audience were in a demographic being fairly white, like, in their seventies, would love to have seen a younger group. I'm not sure, you know, kind of how to to reach a wider demographic, but wanting to let people know that, you know, these kinds of activities are within reach and making this more approachable. This was a free event. You know, it was a fundraiser, but a free event.

It was a mix of spoken word and singing and just, like, a really cool way to create some space for thought and to just witness something kind of kind of neat and to take a pause during kind of a a chaotic time in life to just, kind of think about nature and beauty, and then get on with your day.

Man, I would have loved to see that. Sounds amazing. Yeah. Thank you so much, Morgan. I'm gonna share a bit about the next steps, with this, with this process. And so within the next week, you'll hear from Dawn who you've been coordinating with to schedule this interview, and she'll let you know, one way or the other. Like I said before, this committee makes a recommendation to the city council, in terms of appointments to our advisory bodies. So we'll come up with our, recommendations, and you'll hear from Don within the next week. The city council will make that decision on March 31, but you'll you'll know soon whether or not we're recommending you for an appointment. And if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to Don. She can support you.

Alright. That sounds great. Thank you so much for your consideration.

Great. Thank you so much, Morgan. Have a great night. You too. Bye.

And we have our next interviewee here. I believe it's Ravi. And but I'm sure that they would correct my pronunciation if I got that wrong. But let's go ahead and promote Ravi to, the panelist side, and we can start the interview.

Hello. Hey.

Hi. Is it Ravi? Am I saying it right? Yep. Oh, excellent. Great. Thank you so much for joining us this evening and for your interest in both the Cultural Access Advisory Board, or the Arts Commission. We're gonna be interviewing you for both to see, you know, if there's a good fit on either of those boards. My name is Danny, and I chair the Community Livability and Public Safety Committee of the city council. And our committee makes recommendations to the council on appointments for our advisory bodies.

And I am joined by my committee mates, Ian Hwan and Kelly Green, and also Ian Larson, is the vice chair of the Cultural Access Advisory Board. And we've only got ten minutes for this, so I'm gonna jump right in. Could you tell me what interests and excites you about joining the advisory bodies that you have applied for? So both both arts and cultural access.

Thanks so much, Danny. First of all, thanks for have having me here. You know? It's great opportunity to talk to you guys. I used to enjoy the all acts activities local promoting by the city of Olympia or neighbor neighborhood places.

I used to go all the festivals and everything. What excited me about this initially was, you know, the the cultural experiences, what they bring the people together, the sharing of what, you know, cultural stuff with each each community. That I liked it actually, though. It's bringing more people to our x axis and, you know, exchange others, collection, everything. Because I used to volunteer from our Indian community, small community, and, again, we used to as a volunteer by activities and all the culture celebration we do annually, you know, either Diwali or Hauri, you know, in our small community.

And I used to see the people coming from all across the people and ex and getting to the culture. And, again, some other things some some people may be familiar, and they used to say greeting each other. And, again, we used to attend other functions like, you know, and and and, you know, the activities I used to see in center. That excited me about, you know, oh, there is something, you know, which give you access for others to share and exchange the culture and heritage. That's the one I think I I was more excited about, you know, by contributing what I can do from.

Great. Thank you so much. Ian, I'll take the next question.

Ravi, your next question is, how do you describe the perspectives, knowledge, and experiences you would bring to this advisory body?

Thank you. Yeah. As I mentioned, I know I was from the different culture, like but, I think, at the same time, the city was embraced me. The one thing I always bring here, you know, multicultural perspective or my experiences and the hosting you know, I know from by by hosting cultural celebrations, which I was very much accessed, you know, by seeing from each other and what kind of expectations from different community people are you know? It create a connection between understanding and seeing each other challenges, you know, what we exchange, what we've what we used to see, and, you know, how how perspective will be from different different good different group people and all.

That's the, you know, the collaborative mindset. You know? The we can listen to the others and, again, exchanging the ideas and their opportunities, which is inclusive. You know? Everybody, you know, accessible for everybody. That's kind of thing I was going to bring from my side, you know, the perspective experience, which I had from my side. And, again, I would like to learn and, again, contribute an exchange.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Shavi, so I have your next question. How would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

Okay. Since we used to work from the IT side, know, we used to screen size four weeks pain and all. But that same thing, can take it here, you know, by six months, but listening from the other piece from the existing members and understanding the what was the process here. And that takes some time, you know, because it's a different experience because it's it's a broader appeal, and, again, there has impact. So by listening from piece and, again, understanding and, again, mostly about the building the relationships with, you know, with each other.

That way, at least, you know, I I'll get ramped up. And, again, what my experience is, what my skill set, those things. You know, I'll bring my experience with them the by multicultural even who I which I used to host from, you know, small community. Let's see. And discussion, you know, how how we can exchange, how we can improve, you know, how the impact was in the community to be basically, to more more, you know, contribute throughout and as a inclusive experience as a that's my perspective to learn in the first six months and, again, how we can the next sprint, you know, where the six months are whether it's a one year.

It's it takes some time because it's impacted to the entire we had to go through the certain materials. You know? The decision is very important, so I had to learn, and that's all I I'll see that six months for my growth.

Thank you.

Thank you for that. Next question. Describe a recent event or activity in which you felt moved, so an arts, cultural heritage, or science experience, or perhaps witnessed others enjoying such an experience, and share your thoughts on how greater access to these experiences can benefit our community.

Thank you. I think this is the one other question which prompted me to buy what we are doing, and, again, it excited me about this role as well. Our community is a smaller one, but when I go to the bigger events, I have very, very much porn experience. You know? I have attended the Lesi Culture Festival, which annually it happened.

Such impact, you know, I can see so much vibrant people to gather there and exchanging their cultures and arts, food. And, again, I saw same thing, like, you know, in the Olympia setting with the ANHP, you know, that that programs. I never seen such a vibrant people joining at same place that too without without cost anything. So you can spend and you can pick up something and grab. That prompted me and also which my experience with my own thing because I never experienced, you know, when we had for forty five days, even one time we had it for two weeks back, the first time, the very event we had put.

I extended to the City Of Columbia mayor. Everybody joined. I was I was so supportive for the entire community and all. That that makes me you know, I think there is broader experience, you know, if you can exchange and, you know, groups to the multiple ethnic people and everything. There are a lot of positive things. When when I see those such kind of things, I thought, you know, why don't we join? Why don't we help something? You know? The the digest problem where I got to know about this information. I I never been earlier, but, you know, I used to see a room around when they see the whether it's a traffic ones.

The that more you know, there are a lot of things learning here, but maybe perhaps I can pick up some some of the stuff, and I can contribute from my what I can do from my side. And, hopefully, I can learn from there. That's where I can I just excited about this whole experience about, you know, the culture? That's where my interest you know? I know about my culture where my kids who should dance and everything. That I like it. You know? Even though I have take IT kind of thing, but one thing when I take back and see it, the art make me at least, you know, the happiness of the low moment.

Thank you so much. I've got one final question that's specific to the arts commission. So by ordinance, the arts commission's main role is to make recommendations to the city council regarding public art. So what what is it that you think public art brings to our community?

The public I'm not a great expert on the arts side. You know, the but the sculpture, everything, I I I I it's shows some kind of history behind it. When you see that even the recent the the black community with the latest part when we recognized in these arts are we need to preserve the heritage that shows some kind of significance in the history to to take it to the next level of the generations by seeing through the through art because it's a one way of communication of the heritage. That's all I can see about Arduino. It takes some some months to take it to the next level to understand the the significance of any of the art.

It's a gift. It's not a anybody can acquire it just like that, but so we have to appreciate the the entire the work they put in, and, again, we had to celebrate. That's where I can see the art. We had to ex I had a lot of respect for the folks who do with the with the thought process.

Good. Thank you so much. I'm gonna share a little bit about next steps. So as I said before, our committee makes a recommendation to the city council in terms of appointments. And so you'll hear from Dawn who you've been coordinating with on this interview one way or the other next week.

And so and if we do decide to recommend you as an appointee to one of our committees, that final decision is made by the city council on March 31. So just share that you it's not anything you need to put on your calendar. Just sharing that so you know how the the process plays out from here. But you'll you'll hear from Dawn within a week, and you'll and you'll hear from her one way or the other what our decision is. So thank you so much for joining us and for your interest in the city and cultural access program and our and our arts commission. It's really great to hear from you.

Thank you so much. Thanks so much, you know, for taking taking the time too. Appreciate that. Yeah. Have a great evening. You too. Thanks, y'all. Bye. Bye.

Yeah. I'm still here. Every time you go to next steps, I turn off my screen and try to take a couple bites.

Oh, no. That's that I I assume if you guys are going off screen, it's a self care kinda, like, you know, getting through a long evening kind of thing. So, no, you you you do your thing. Excellent. And our final interviewee is here, Jennifer. So, let's go ahead and bring her over, and and get this, get her interviewed.

I love that. Like, we're doctors. Let's get her interviewed.

I know. I it wasn't the most eloquent way of saying it, but I I was at a loss for words all of a sudden.

Sending the invite again.

Oh, okay.

She's coming over.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Hi, Jennifer.

Hello. How are

you? Doing good. Doing good. Thank you so much for your interest in the Cultural Access Advisory Board for the city. My name is Dani. You. I serve as the chair of the council's community livability and public safety committee, and we make recommendations to the city council in terms of who we think should be appointed to our advisory bodies. And I'm joined by my committee mates, Ian Hwan and Kelly Green. And we also have Ian Larson, who's our vice chair for the Cultural Access Advisory Board. And we've got a quick ten minutes for an interview, so I'm gonna jump right in. And the first question is, what interests and excites you about joining the Cultural Access Advisory Board?

Well, I'm new to Olympia. I moved here with my family in August, and I've I've always tried to stay involved in wherever I live, just volunteering where I can and always getting connected with different groups in the community. So when I saw the option to spend some time just serving the community in any way I could, I I went ahead and applied and was hoping I could be of some service to to my new community.

Great. Thank you. Next question will come from Ian.

The next question is, can you please describe how your perspectives, knowledge, and experiences well, I guess I worded that strange. Would you please would you please describe what perspectives, knowledge, and experiences you would bring to this advisory body?

Yeah. I've I've worked in a couple of different capacities just through the years. Originally, I started volunteering in my hometown or where I was born in Corpus Christi at a local at our local aquarium because it was coastal. Coming to an community like Olympia, it really speaks to my roots of where my heart was, which was taking time to teach others about the natural resources and the culture there within the Corpus Christi area and making them aware of of how rich it was, how diverse it was. And then I eventually went off to college, and my time in San Marcos, Texas, I spent working at the community garden, building that up, and then making sure that we donate all our food to the local food bank and just connecting the students at the college with the local community, making sure that it wasn't just a college town that served only the college, but it served its community that also worked at the college.

So I made sure there was those connections locally. So my perspective is always making those connections between the city and the re the natural resources that it has with connect connecting that with the community of people and making sure that they are aware of the value of where they where they live and giving them a sense of place and a sense of community.

Thank you. Mhmm.

Jennifer, so I get the next question. How would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

I would definitely look at the past reports, and the past history of what has happened in the past with with the board, trying to get oriented, asking lots of questions. Very curious about the journey that a committee has taken, especially with different members because it does have its own themes, and it evolves over time. So getting to understand where they've started, what they've accomplished over time, where they still wish to journey to, that's really important because I see that this is this is just something that I can continue with and help cultivate that sense of the long journey of the of the committee so that it actually like, projects don't just get forgotten, or we have a that passed on knowledge from committee member to committee member and trying to make those bridges and not leave gaps behind. So that's very important to me. That would be my first six months is really getting oriented, understanding the past and where the future where everything in the future hopes to go.

Yeah. Mhmm.

Great. Thank you. And last question for you. Describe a recent event or activity in which you felt moved by an arts, cultural heritage, or science experience or perhaps witnessed others enjoying such an experience and share your thoughts on how greater access to these experiences can benefit our community.

Yeah. I I actually recently went over to Olympia High School. It was a cultural event night. My daughter got to see performances that students I I mean, they organized the whole thing, and I love seeing that. They organized the event.

They asked they went out and got food from the community, and there was a neat spread of food there. We we got to see dances from different cultures. And where I grew up, it was mostly 90 I'd say 90% Mexican American. So the culture I grew up was completely engulfed in Tejano and a lot of folklorico and all kinds of dances that you would expect in South Texas. And that was my culture.

And growing up there, I it it was so so rich and so vibrant. And then moving north, I saw less and less of those kinds of cultural experiences where I could where I can get to know all of that. And but I didn't I mean, what I saw at the high school was amazing mostly because it was it was student led, and it was very inspiring to see them. You know, they're not spokespersons yet. They're still they're still finding their voices, figuring out how to how to present themselves and and their culture.

And I I thought how brave. And my daughter my daughters are half Mexican American, and so you wouldn't think that to look at them. And it was very inspiring, you to see, like, come up to me. It's like, oh, what do we do in our culture? You know, what dances do we have?

And so that was always fun because I every chance I got, I would go to Mexico and and take part in travel there and get to know different regions, and and it's it's just so inspiring to see that next generation, their eyes light up and and think back like, wow. What can I do? I'd say that was the my latest experience, and it really revived those memories that I had growing up in a in what I would say is my own culture and and how we presented ourselves in our region.

Hey. Thank you so much, Jennifer. Mhmm. I'm gonna share a bit about next steps. So as I mentioned before, our committee makes a recommendation to the city council, and we'll decide on our recommendations soon. You'll hear from Don within the next week or so, Don, who you coordinated with to schedule the interview. And she'll let you know one way or another what we decide. The council will make the final decision on March 31, but you'll hear from us soon on whether or not we're we'll be recommending you. And if you have any follow-up questions, you can feel free to reach out to Don.

Alright. Excellent. Well, I appreciate y'all's time, and it was a I'm I'm loving it here. So even if I don't get chosen, I'm looking forward to many, many years here with my family.

Excellent. Glad to hear that. Well, you have a great night.

Thanks, as well. Y'all as well. Thank you. Alright. Bye bye.

Great. And so, while we have Anne here with us, Anne, we're gonna, as a committee, deliberate later this evening. But before we cut you loose for the evening, or boot you out, as you said earlier, would you like to share any thoughts or reflections? Or, you know, what what is it that you'd like us to be thinking about as we, as we deliberate?

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was reflecting back as each candidate came in to talk with us and just reflecting back on their applications and their resumes and and remembering what it was that kinda spoke to us about each one.

A little

bit of theme there, you might have noticed. We are a relative for being a arts and culture group, we're a committee. And so we were really wanting to make sure that our committee represented, the the diverse offerings from our community and bringing in that perspective. So thrilled to see that our three candidates all spoke to that. I know that was something that was really important to us.

The other thing that I really liked was seeing each of them light up when they talked about. That's why I love that question, and thank you so much for allowing me to ask it because, right, that's what it's about. There's all the logistics and the paperwork and the reading and the scoring and just the boring stuff that we as committee members do. But, right, to see to see faces light up and to see people talk about those shared experiences is really why we do what we do. So I that's what I was looking for, and it was nice to see that in our in our applicants.

I took lots of notes, but mostly just for my own memory. Really appreciated hearing from all three of them. And you guys are gonna have a gonna have hard choices to make all around all around. Many times over.

Been like that for a few committees too. So we just got a lot of lot of rock stars out here who wanna get involved.

Yeah. Yeah. I I remember, as I was saying, you know, I remember reading resumes and applications. What we really liked about is it Robbie? What did we decide? Robbie? Robbie? Robbie?

Yeah.

Our middle candidate. Just was that sort of logistical skills that that he brought. So that that was exciting to to see those in real life. I don't know how specific you want me to be on my feedback. You can share whatever you like.

That's fine. Yeah. Yeah. I liked what both Morgan and Jennifer had to say about kind of the next generation. That's something, right, having worked at the institutions in downtown that I have worked at, that exposure to education at an early age and the exposure to the arts was literally my job.

So that that, right, is a as both Kelly and and Jan know. Worked with both of them at those two places. Right? That's that's where it's at. And so to hear, not just we need to increase the diversity of our audiences, but but to talk about it in specific ways, I appreciated that. Our audiences do tend to be real old and real white. And we don't want those people to not be in the audience, but we want, we want our younger people. We want we want that diversity. And so I've liked hearing for both of them specifically about that.

Yeah. Awesome.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead, Ian. Yeah. I wonder, Anne, if you had to rate the three candidate, how would you rate them?

Yeah. That tough work up to us. That's what I'm hearing. Yes.

I was I

was hearing that too.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just hoping to skirt right on around that. I I yeah. Yes. I would put Morgan, number one, Jennifer, number two, Ravi, number three, if you absolutely made me do that. But you didn't, so it didn't really ring.

Yeah. No. That didn't happen.

What now? What? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's that yes. Solid solid on that. Yeah. Anything else I could share?

No. I think we're good. Okay. But thank you so much for your time and supporting the interview process. It is super helpful to get the perspective of somebody on the committee. So it's yeah. Really appreciate you being here.

Yep. No. We we appreciate it. It's it's great to be a part of this group because, you know, that this year three or four for master, I don't remember. And it it continues to be just the highlight, for me. It for for all the reasons, but, you know, particularly getting to be involved, with people kind kind of behind the scenes and helping to make things happen. It's really gratifying, and I hope to do it for a while. So thank you all. Good luck with everything and the longest the longest day of your life.

I hope you I hope you

get done at some point.

We're we're great. Thank you. You will get done.

Yes. You will you will make it. Alright. Thank you. Good night.

You. Don, am I seeing correctly that we somebody from design review is not available, so it's just the three of us?

That is correct. They did provide a question, which I I believe provided you in the final update email. So

Yeah. I've got that question, but that just tells me we can take a longer break right now. That's what I'm going for. So because we don't, yeah, we don't have a committee chair to check-in with. Our next interview is at 06:25, and then it is just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, the way until, pretty much until we see Donovan. So, so let's go ahead and take a good break now, and come back just a few minutes before 06:20 06:25 is the next interview. So just jump on couple minutes before then, and I will see you guys in a bit. Thank you.

Thank you.

Look at us. Ready and raring to go. Right? One thing to talk through is that there is a question from the design review board. I have it here in front of me, so I'm happy to be the one to ask it. But do either of you want to do that?

I think that makes sense because then you can pick it up with the the next desk. So if you want, like, a little talking break, I'm happy to do it.

I'm fine. Get through it. So okay. Great. I'll just ask the last one. And we have our first interviewee ready. So let's go ahead and bring Travis over. Hi, Travis.

Hi, everybody.

How are doing?

I'm good. How are y'all?

We're we're doing good. We've been here for a couple hours, and we got a couple more to go. But it's really great to meet all these people in the community, who are interested in serving the city. And, you know, to that, thank you for your interest, and thanks for spending some time with us this evening. I'm Danny, and I serve as the chair of the community livability and public safety committee of the Olympia City Council. And I'm joined by my committee mates, Ian Quinn and Kelly Green. And we'll be making a recommendation to the city council in terms of who we would think should be appointed to our advisory bodies. And we've got a quick ten minutes for this interview, so I'm gonna jump jump right in. Sure. Can you tell me what interests and excites you about joining the design review board?

Yeah. Definitely. Well, thank you all too for taking the time tonight. Evening work is never that much fun. But yeah.

So I I have a long background in in space design and retail design, and I've been doing I've been in this space for a long time. But what I find myself more and more these days out when I'm out and about in the city and when we're doing things is is I'm staring at buildings, and I'm looking at architecture, and I'm marveling at space and design and and the places that we inhabit when we're out in in public spaces. And so when I started thinking about how I wanted to maybe give back a bit to the city and and to our community, this was one of the places that I that I thought might be a good fit for myself. When I think about our city in particular, we've got such an incredible spectrum of things out there that that people can explore. Everything from, you know, the turn of the century architecture in the Capital Building to incredible mid century architecture throughout downtown.

You kind of have every an incredible modern architecture too. We've got all of it, and everybody can kind of see how those things can work together harmoniously and sometimes not harmoniously, but it's what makes a city a city. And I think being a part of the process to to help those new projects and rehab projects come to life, I think, could be a lot of fun.

Thank you, Travis. I have your next question, which is how do you describe the perspectives, knowledge, or experience you would bring to this advisory body?

Sure.

Yeah. So I I went to school for a sculpture. I started there, and I was building things in in my in my free time outside of school. I was doing construction, and I just wanted to build stuff. And so I I started there, and my career started with, like, swinging a hammer, and and I always leaned towards more artistic things.

And and eventually, that moved to computer design and then to design management, and and retail was something that I always kind of skirted around. I did a lot of, like, art related things and and and the sort, but retail had jobs. And and so I I worked for a bunch of companies throughout my career. I spent a very long time working for Patagonia, and and their philosophy around retail design, they go into historic buildings, and they do their absolute minimum they can to inhabit the space and kind of respect what was there before. We did a bunch of projects where we brought buildings back to their original footprint that have been cut up over the years to try and bring that back to the communities that we were we were coming to.

In the last couple of years, I've been working for Arcterix. Same sort of thing. I I help on their retail design team and and retail design strategy now. We do things completely differently. We build very modern, very clean, very design focused aesthetic that's completely different. But it fits into the spaces and the communities and and the environments that we go and inhabit as well. And I think the kind of all through my career, all those different steps I took really gave me that love for architecture and space and and how humans interact with space. And and, yeah, I think all of those all of that background and then, you know, my like I said, my love for for design and architecture, I think, would be a great fit.

Thank you.

Travis, so how would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

That's a great that's a great question. I I approach every new kind of job and and thing I've done in my life with the same sort of philosophy. I have a lot of experience, but everyone else does too. So I usually try and spend as much time as I came in the beginning listening. There are experts. Y'all are probably experts. You've been doing this. You already know how this works. I wanna hear from you. I wanna meet everybody. I wanna learn the process and learn how things work and see what projects are in flight and then what's coming up and and then figure out the best place that I can fit into the to the system as it's working now.

Yeah. Great.

Thank you so much.

No problem.

I've got one final question. So what elements of Olympia's urban design, you know, talking buildings, street, streets, etcetera, do you find appealing or calling, and why?

It's a great question. We were having lunch the other day, and we were I I had just read about how we have those two streets, and I'm gonna I'm gonna forget which ones that leave downtown going east, and one goes one way and one goes the other way, right, as we go into downtown. And I had read the story about how they weren't always that way. They were designed to to be both directions. And after it was an earthquake in the early nineteen hundreds, they had decided to make them one way due to the damage and then ended up keeping them that way.

There was, like automobiles were becoming more prevalent. But the article I was reading was talking about how it actually kind of broke up the city in a in a way that that was unexpected. So there were communities that were connected because of the double way traffic that kind of got disconnected. And so now we have, like, the East Side of town, and then we have the downtown or the West Side of town.

And I

find that really interesting just learning about how that all came about. In terms of of buildings, I love the the Capital Savings And Loan Building on on Franklin, and I love the Olympia Federal Savings Building, the Capital And 5th Building. So I know it's not it's not the capital savings and loan. It's that new office now, but that original kind of swoopy roof building is is We're smart. Yes. Yes. Thank you. I couldn't remember the name of they don't have a sign up yet. So it's like they they need

On the back. It's, like, in the by the what? On the parking lot side.

Oh, okay. Okay. I haven't been over on that side in a in a minute, but good to know if they have one. I love that the shape of that building. The the Olympic Olufeld savings and loan building with those big wooden carved kind of door door and more sections are are are some of my favorite. I'm a very mid century kind of guy just in general. I I love the West Side Bowling Alley. It's such a beautiful like, it's just it's held on to that. Like, it's most of those things disappear. So it's really incredible to see those.

I we went into the into the Capital Building for the first time over the summer. I'd never gone inside and just in awe, in awe of, like, what was created at the time, how it still stands, and how it's just available there for anybody to go walk around in. Yeah. I love the old city Hall, the circle. I've never been inside, but that one's beautiful too.

I love the new bus station too. I love the way that they turned it 45 on the on the block and how the buses come in and come back out in a very seamless sort of way. I'm sure it was driven probably by bus flow more than taking up the space, but, it's a pretty building too. It's just that we're we are a fairly recent transplants to Olympia. We've been here a year and a half or so, and so we're still exploring, still seeing all the things that are that are here for us to to enjoy.

Great. Well, those those are the questions that we have for you. I'll share a little bit about next steps. Okay. So as I mentioned earlier, our committee will make an a recommendation to the whole city council, and we're we're gonna make that decision soon. You'll hear from Don in the next week or so, Don, who you've been coordinating with to schedule this interview. And the city council will make a final decision March 31. It's not a date you need to put on your calendar if you're recommended. It's just you know, that that's the the step in the process that finalizes and everything. But you'll know by next week what our decision is. And I just really wanna thank you for your your interest and a very clear passion that you have for beautiful places, and it was really great to meet you.

Great. Likewise. Great to meet you all too. Thanks for, again, for taking the time.

Alright. Thanks so much. Have a great night.

K. You too. Bye.

Alright. And we are have our next person there waiting in queue with, who is Derek. So let's go ahead and bring Derek over. We able to bring him over then?

Send him the invite again. Okay.

There we go. Hi, Derek. Hey, Derek. You there? Oh, there you are.

Hello.

No audio? There it is.

There you are. Excellent. We gotta be fully here. Thank you so much for joining us. We're doing good. We're doing good. We're going through a series of interviews this evening, and right now, working through applicants for the design review board. And thank you so much for your interest and and for your time this evening. My name is Danny, and I chair the community livability and public safety committee of the city council. And our committee is going to make a recommendation to the full council in terms of who we think should be appointed to our advisory bodies.

And we've got oh oh, and I'm joined by my committee mates, Ian Hwen and Kelly Green. I pointed in the wrong directions because of the mirroring with my camera, but you know who you are. We have a quick ten minutes for this, so I'm gonna go ahead and jump in with the first question. What interests and excites you about joining the design review board?

So I do spend a lot of time, in Olympia, obviously. I live here. I work here. I spend most of my time here. So when I'm traveling around the city, I really experience the city as a whole. My wife and I, we walk downtown most weekends around Capitol Lake, around our neighborhoods in West Oley. And because I spent all that time experiencing the city, I noticed things. I noticed walkability. I love sidewalks. The buildings fit the character of the downtown, how the the public spaces feel.

I'm not necessarily from here originally. I'm from a suburb in Texas where everything was brand new, and so there's not a lot of, like, character in the city. So, you know, moving here, like, I choose to live here in Olympia. Our house is actually in a different city. We rented it out, and we actually rent here in in just so we can be here because of the walkability.

And so, I mean, there's lots of things about the city that that I like. And, you know, when the opportunity rose, I'd, you know, I'd just chuck on the the the chance to to apply just to see where it would go. Also, this the, Olympia is the state capital, and it's, like, exciting to me about that. It should reflect the character, you know, the city and little plays in the region. Serving on the design review board would be a way for me to contribute to thoughtful development while helping preserve what makes Olympia, unique.

Thank you, Derek. The next question is, how do you describe the perspectives, knowledge, or experience you would bring to this advisory body?

So I would bring both a public service perspective and the perspective of someone who regularly experiences the city as a resident. I spent about twenty five years of my life working in government. Kinda dating myself by saying I've been working for twenty five years, but I have. Roles involve reviewing complex programs, interpreting policies, and making decisions within structured regulatory frameworks. Most recently, I managed a statewide grant program with the Department of Veteran Affairs, the Washington State Department of Veteran Affairs, where I evaluated applications, ensured compliance with regulations, and worked with the right range range of stakeholders to implement the program that I designed effectively.

Currently, I work at ESD one thirteen. I'm the public records officer there, and I am revitalizing the program because I'm the the first person doing this job. And that work really is important to me because it reinforces the importance of clear processes, accountability, and making sure that decisions are understandable to the public and provides transparency of our government functions to the public, because ultimately, as public servants, you know, we serve, the people that they they're in our communities. Also, as a military, career military officer, I was responsible for planning, executing executing complex operations, evolving multiple organizations and complex priorities. Ultimately, though, I'm not a design professional, but I do have experience evaluating proposals, working within established guidelines, and focusing on whether something works in practice.

Combined with my perspective of someone who spends a lot of time here in Olympia, I think that practical perspective can be useful when reviewing projects and thinking about how they will affect the city.

Thank you.

Sure. So the next question is how would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

So as a military officer, you go into things, new situations where it's kinda similar jobs, but not exactly. So, really, my main goal is to spend time learning how the board operates, understanding the framework it uses to review projects, getting a clear sense of guidelines, past decisions, and how the board balances different perspectives. Take time to listen and observe, learning from board members, staff, and community so understand the reasoning behind different viewpoints and the priorities that guide decisions. I mean, the why in in in people's lives is way more important than we tend to give credit to, and it's very important to me in my life. And once I have the foundation, I start contributing practical grounded perspectives based on my experience managing complex programs, interpreting regulations, working across multiple stakeholders.

I focus on whether proposals make sense in practice, how they affect the community, and whether they support thoughtful develop development to prefer oh my gosh. That preserves the character of Olympia. So, like I said a million times, I spent a lot of time here in the city. I love it here. I choose to live here even though I have our house, elsewhere, and that gives me, like, a really, that that for me, that gives me a perspective that I think is important in things like this, contributing to a a community, which, you know, I care a lot about.

Oh, I lost part of my answer. Also, my my one of my children just moved back to Olympia. Sorry. Most of these are written down, so I wouldn't take up too much time because I'm a little bit talky. Anyway, so, my my one of my children just moved back, to Olympia to be closer to us.

And, you know, so now I have that perspective as well, and and they go downtown regularly, for the local businesses because they moved from a place that also it was in the South, and it didn't have a lot of character either. And there wasn't a lot of community, walkability, a lot of driving, a lot of perspective. So now I have that perspective as well. And, you know, I wanna make it a better place. Well, I wanna help keep it a good place for her to live so that that she has that going forward as well.

And one final question for you. What elements of Olympia's urban design, and we're talking buildings, streetscapes, etcetera, whatever you wanna talk about, do you find appealing or appalling and why?

I would never say anything is appalling.

I would, but you go ahead.

These are just choices. Right? So things are just, you know I mean, I I don't particularly like everything, but the one thing that I really love about the city is, all the art deco public buildings, the mid mod residential buildings. My partner is a real estate agent, and she and I walk around the city looking at residences, like, pretty much in everywhere, whether it's West Oley, downtown, the East Side. It doesn't matter.

We we're walking around neighborhoods just checking things out, and it's just yeah. There's so much character. Right? She's from also not from here. She's from Southern California, but she's from a, like, a charming old world, part of Southern California. And it's just like the the different perspectives that, you know, we can we see in the city. It's really, you know, it's it's really the character that brings it, the walkability. Let's get back to my let's get back to my prepared answer here. I also enjoy streetscapes that bounce pedestrians and cars. Like I said, we walk a lot.

We like I said, we live in West Oley. We walk down to the farmer's market pretty much every day on the weekend in the summertime when the sun is out until 11:00 or whatever it is. And we have our favorite places to go. We love that it's so local, all the the local businesses. And like I said, my, you know, my partner's a real estate agent. So, you know, she's she's continually, networking downtown. So we have friends that run businesses downtown. We have, you know, we're basically in I would say there's a 30 downtown businesses that we're in at least in the summertime every weekend, but in, like, in the wintertime, probably once a month. And it's really accessible. The people are nice.

The city flows. The Capital Park or Marathon Park or whatever that the the Capital Lake area is called. I'm sorry. It's just like it's inviting and welcoming. So, really, it's the character, the the the walkability, the community spaces, the way that the old kind of is incorporated with the new as well. So new businesses move in. They don't remake everything to make it look like it's in Plano, Texas where I'm from. Well, I'm sorry. Where I grew up. I will say I haven't lived there in a long time. So, and and it's great. It's it's functional, and it's aesthetically thoughtful, and it's pleasing to the eye, and it's just welcoming.

Great. Thanks so much. And you did great on time, so good job. I'll share a few bits about the the next steps here. And so, like I said earlier, our committee is gonna make a recommendation to the full city council in terms of who we think should be appointed to our advisory bodies, and we'll make that decision soon.

You'll hear from Don in the next week, and Don, who you've been coordinating with to schedule the interview. And the city council will make a a final decision on March 31, and that's not a date you need to put in your calendar. It's just the part the the last part of the process. But you'll hear from us sometime next week in terms of whether or not we are recommending you for an appointment. And if you have any questions that you wanna follow-up on, please reach out to Dawn. She can be there to support you.

Will do. Thank you.

Awesome. Thanks so much. Have a great night.

Bye. Thank you.

Good to meet you.

Bye bye.

Okay. And we are ready with our, next interviewee, Regine. So let's go ahead and promote Regine.

Coming

over. Hi, Regine. How are you doing?

Can you guys hear me and see me okay?

Yeah. Yeah. We can hear you and see you. Thanks so much for, joining us this evening and for your interest in the design review board. My name is Dani, and I am the chair of the community livability and public safety committee of the city council. And I am joined by my committee mates, Ian Gwen and Kelly Green. And our committee makes the recommendation to the city council in terms of who we would like to see appointed to our all of our advisory bodies. And we have just ten minutes for this interview, so I'm gonna jump right in. Can you tell me what interests and excites you about joining the design review board?

Well, I have three different roles that I play in the city of Olympia. I am a resident here. I am an architect here, and I'm definitely a person that doesn't have a car here. And I've been able to do that because Olympia has set itself up to be a walkable pedestrian city where the city wants people to live, work, shop, and, you know, be able to enjoy the full spectrum of the city without ever even being dependent on a car. There's a huge section of the city that is just that way.

And so as a pedestrian, I get so inspired by the various offerings that the city gives me in terms of its art culture, the nature that's just at my fingertips. Like, any corner that I turn, it is so accessible to me. I, myself, am a person that does murals all around town. So all of these things are part of the whole experience of Olympia for me. And I, as an architect, get so many wonderful opportunities to frame the skyline of Olympia.

And I feel like there is definitely a gap between, you know, what the city wants with versus what the developer is willing to do. And I can come in and sort of plug or bridge that gap that happens between, you know, what is by the book and what is realistically doable. So I come in and make those recommendations that are not overly ambitious, but at the same time achievable because I have been an architect here for the last, you know, six years, and I have about 17 projects in downtown that I've done so far. So I kind of know the the assembly line of how things get to fruition at the end of the day. So I feel like I bring a very valuable insight into not just talking about it from a very you know, from a removed perspective.

I can get into the granular aspects of what it feels like to be in Olympian. Just being in the know of, okay. There's a new project coming. How can I, like, inspire it? What is the context for it? And how does how do I set it up for it being relevant to its context around? So I feel like all of those aspects are where what excite me about this position.

Hey. Well, you might have already answered the second question, but I'll ask it anyway. And, you don't need to repeat yourself. If there's anything else you'd like to share with us, please do. So the question is, how do you describe the perspectives, knowledge, or experiences you would bring to this advisory, Bobby?

Yeah. And, you know, to add to the, like, roles that I play in the city of Olympia, I'm also trying to buy a house in Olympia. So that shows of kind of the deep bond in connection that I share with the city. And when I'm investing myself on that level into the city, I feel like I have a vested interest to see spaces. I, for example, when I'm a homeowner, I'm looking at, okay.

What is a neighborhood that I want to buy in? What is a good architecture? Because I see so often just cookie cutter, you know, manufactured homes that are just copy paste along there, and that throws me off from wanting to buy in certain areas. So if I have the ability to kind of mold and shape some of these neighborhoods to be a lot more appealing. And especially with I know that the city of Bolivia is getting gearing up to add more density to the downtown core and the areas surrounding it.

So suddenly not losing sight of good design versus high density. High density begets the need for better design. That is no longer a wish list. That is a definite requirement so that people actually do not feel like, oh, I'm just living in this concrete jungle around me. What is interesting about these places? You know? Is there landscape? Is there pedestrian amenities that are balancing out all of these aspects that make Olympia what it is. Right? So I think those are kind of the factors and, I guess, experience that I bring into this role.

You.

So, Regine, how might you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

Yeah. I am really good friends that with the three people that are already on the board, and they are kind of the people that they will encourage me into joining the community. They had great things to say about their own experience, how they were able to shape and mold new designs that are coming up into the landscape of Olympia. And, you know, being in conversations with them has taught me a little bit already about the processes that they did go through. So I feel like I already have a good groundwork going into it as well.

And I, myself, like I mentioned, I've been part of about 12 to 17 projects in downtown. So I have done the design review process a couple of times. So I know what it means to be on the other end of it and what the panelists are are looking for it. So that I feel like I already have the training wheels on, and, that kind of sets me up to, you know, take off when I if and when I get started. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. Great. And final question here. What elements of Olympia's urban design, so buildings, streetscapes, etcetera, do you find appealing or appalling, and why?

Yeah. In terms of appealing, I like the whole ethos of the downtown core to retain the fabric of the city, not tear every building down. Let's buildings like, build something new. So some of the buildings that I can think of is, like, the building. You are trying to create a space, reimagine some of these existing warehouses or, you know, burnt down buildings.

How can we improve them? There are so many beautiful state buildings and trying to think of various ways that these could all be still functional, well designed, active spaces. So that is a huge factor of the city of Olympia that I really like, especially the community itself is such an advocate for, you know, being mindful of the environment around us and, you know, our water bodies, our plant, like, you know, plant life and all of that. And so I feel like all of those are, you know, really great aspects that I love about the city of Olympia. It sort of has become the sanctuary city, especially for someone like me who came from, like, a different country to feel so welcome.

Nobody was like, oh, you do not belong here. Go back to where you came from. So this that's sort of like a community aspect of Olympia has been so heartwarming for me. And I think that is the part that I find the most, you know, appealing. And appalling, you know, we have a lot to work towards, of course, you know, all the things that we hear about. Sea well sea level rise, housing, you know, all the things. So there are definitely things that I feel like we can keep working towards, but there is more good to hold on to than the bad side. So I'm really, you know, happy to be here.

Great. Well, thank you so much, Regina. We really appreciate you being here, and it's really great to meet you. So in terms of next steps, like I said earlier, our committee will make the recommendation to the full city council, and we'll decide on our recommendation soon. And you'll hear from Don in

the next

week. She Don, he coordinated with to get your interview scheduled, and we'll make those recommendations to the city council. They'll make their final final decision on March 31, and that's not a date you need to remember. You know? It's just the final step of the the process. But but you'll hear back from Dawn in the next week to know what our decision is.

Awesome. Lovely. And thank you everybody for your wonderful questions and, you know, doing this for the city. You're doing a great job.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. And if you have any questions, you can follow-up with Dawn.

Alright. Thank you so much.

Have a good night. Have a great night.

Chair. What's Chair. Sorry. Maybe I should have been a little bit more trying to interrupt before she got off, but it looks like she's also interested in arts connection.

In arts? Yes. We can talk about that later.

Okay.

So, sorry. I I don't have that specific information in front of me. We didn't

And two other ones too. So, anyways

Yeah. Something to keep in

mind. Yes.

Oh, and I see that, Vi Hoi is on now, our next, interviewee. So we can move on and have her promoted over to the panelist side. Hi, Vee. Are you there?

Hi. Yeah.

Hi. Thanks so much for joining us this evening.

For having me. Took me back my settings here.

Yeah. You you you good? You squared away?

No. Can you all hear me okay?

Yeah. Absolutely. Great. Okay. Great. Well, welcome. My name is Danny, and I chair the the city council's community livability and public safety committee. And our committee makes recommendations to the full council for our advisory bodies, and I am joined by my committee mates, Young Nguyen and Kelly Green. And we're excited to have you here and grateful for your interest in the design review board. And we have a ten minutes here, so we're just gonna jump right in. Okay. The first question is, what interests and excites you about joining the design review board?

Yeah. I think I'm sort of seeing participating on the design review board as a way to contribute to Olympia feeling like a distinct and a human human and humane place to live. Something I experienced is one of the more unfortunate developments in American urban planning is how indistinct so many places feel. There's a lot of cities that feel like you can be walking down the street, and it's could be interchangeable with any other street. And I think there's lots of factors that contribute to that, and design is just one of those factors and maybe not even the most relevant or significant factor.

But because design is such a tangible and visible fact of everyday life, it has a kind of outsized impact in the way a place feels. So so, yeah, my my thought is that being involved on a design review board is one way to kind of play a role in in making Olympia feel like a distinct place and retaining what what is already so distinct about it. And and, yeah, and then working with others to do that and people who I imagine are also committed to making the urban environment feel equitable and livable.

Yeah.

Thank you. Your next question is how do you describe the perspectives, knowledge, and experiences you would bring to this advisory body?

Yeah. So I think there's a few. I I mentioned in my application that I graduated from a master's program in 2024, and that program was it's called urban placemaking and management. So one of the lenses that I'd be bringing is kind of grounded in strategies to help urban planning strategies that help increase the livability of of of places. And it's sort as a field, it's kind of at the cross section of urban planning and design, and kind of, like, community development.

And and so I feel like it's it's a very interdisciplinary perspective that I would be bringing. And I think I'd also be bringing a kind of critical perspective on representation. I was noticing in in the design review statement of policy, there it talks about the review process being I'm gonna look at the quote here. A timely exercise of judgment in the public interest by people qualified to evaluate design. And I I think about the idea of the public interest a lot, and I think part of what I would be contributing is is kind of an appreciation for the ways that some communities have not been considered as a part of the public or having having much of a role.

And and then I guess I'll also share that my background in working with houseless residents in Olympia is part of the framework that I would be bringing because I've spent a lot of time considering what the built environment feels like to people who are basically largely excluded from participating in in the indoors of the built environment and who are basically experiencing the environment from sidewalks and alleys and parks and that kind of thing. So bringing that perspective too.

Thank you.

Shelby, how would you approach your first six months as a new advisory body member to set yourself up for success?

Yeah. I think I think one of the things I would do is spend some time I imagine that I'd I've had some, like, technical experience in Muscle to to build up. I do have some experience interpreting zoning code. I I was involved in a project called the Zoning Atlas project, which is the the whole mission of that project is kind of demystifying residential zoning code and specifically looking at the places in zoning code that often leads to exclusionary housing practices. And that was, like, just a really intense crash course in in interpreting zoning code.

And I feel like I that gave that set me up well, and I think I also have a lot to learn. So so, yeah, some technical pieces and getting more familiar with Olympia's, design guidelines and just so I have the kind of literacy to really engage with proposals and applications, and and contribute in that way. And then also just learning from other folks on the board that have been doing this work for, a long time. And and and, I mean, I have a lot of curiosities around just what kinds of what what are the places where board members tend to disagree and then how to work through that disagreement and then and also the kind of historical trajectory of the board, like how what kind of values have has the board traditionally represented, and how has that changed over time? What is the what is the makeup of the board today?

All of these things, I'm I'm curious about, and would want to. I mean, I I guess my feeling is when I'm getting involved in a project, I'd I'd like to just kind of learn initially and understand what is happening and contribute, you know, as it as as is appropriate, but also being mindful that I, you know, wanna respect whatever process is already unfolding and and then, yeah, taking the time to just understand what I'm stepping into. I'll I'll maybe I'll mention one more thing. I know we're we're tight on time, but I've been developing, like, a personal curriculum around architectural theory and history. And I I'm

still in

that process, but I'm gonna be just doing some self study, which I'd already just been planning to do. So I think that would be would fit nicely with this role and kind of complement it.

Thanks. Yep. That's Zoning Atlas that you were involved in. Was that Waza?

Say that one more time?

Was it the Zoning Atlas? Was that Waza, the Washington Zoning Atlas?

No. This was in New York. Oh, okay. Yeah. But it is a national project. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Just curious. I I love the zoning atlas we have here. I got one final question. What elements of Olympia's urban design, so buildings and street scapes, etcetera, do you find appealing or appalling and why?

Yeah. I love this.

Just have a couple more minutes.

Okay. Yeah. I okay. Some maybe one major structural thing. I like that there are not any major streets in downtown.

At most, we have, you know, two lanes. I think that helps keep it feel like a keeps Olympia feeling like a small town. And then I I I live downtown, and, my neighbors are often really disgruntled by the limit limited parking, but I I don't mind having to walk a handful of blocks to to get my permitted spot. I feel like it's a luxury to park downtown, and, it's a it feels like a small price to pay, to have a walkable downtown. And maybe just a few other specific details.

I love the kind of deco architecture on 4th between Capitol and Washington, and I love the wooden boardwalk by the sound. I love that there's public access for that long stretch there, and I love that it's made of wood. Lots of little things like that I really appreciate about Olympia. And there's plenty of distasteful things too, but I feel like we're running out of time, and maybe it's good to end on a positive note.

Fair enough.

Well, I'll share some next steps with you. And so so as I mentioned earlier, our committee is gonna a a recommendation to the full city council on on who we recommend to be appointed to our advisory bodies. And so you'll and we'll we'll make that decision soon, and Don will follow-up with you in the next week to let you know. Either way, the final step of the whole process is that it goes to the full city council on March 31 for their approval, and that's not a date you need to keep in your mind or anything. It's just it's just the final step of the process. But you'll know next week whether or not we're recommending you for an appointment. And if you do have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to Dawn.