Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

But I don't see the red. No, here we go.

I'm going to call to order the Wednesday, June 3rd PBIA Advisory Board meeting. It is 1138 a.m. Do roll call. I'll start and we'll just go around. I'm Jacob David, chair and from the Nineveh Syrian Restaurant and Food Truck.

Monique Osa, Osa Skinworks. Sophie Landis, Sophie Scoops.

Anne Gapser, Lark.

Alden Davis, Under Hill Plains. Cheryl Huddick, Altitude 15, and Brittany Catering.

Jenica Machado, City of Olympiac.

And I'm Michael Cade. I'm the Executive Director of the Thurston Economic Development Council.

Let's have an approval of the agenda. If everyone's taking a look. Can I get a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Second, all in favor of the amendment, say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed? Agenda is approved. Approval of the minutes from May 6th meeting. Anyone have any changes they noticed? Seeing none, I'll ask for a motion to approve the minutes. Second. And second. All in favor of approving the minutes of May 6th, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Public comment? Nothing online? All right, nothing in person. Any announcements?

I will announce something really quickly. I think I've spoken to almost everyone except for you, but we, OSA, is organizing a now, I guess, all downtown Pride block party. We have block captains that are going to take leads on the activities in their block or their area. We're supplying posters, QR codes, talk, everything they need except communicating with their neighbors. It's a fundraiser for Pizza Clatch and Stonewall Youth. It has two main intents. The first one, obviously, is fundraising for these organizations. And the second one is visual placemaking. So the chalk plays an important role. And last year we did, did that on our block and we just wrote Alden in because we love you Alden. But Alden now is like taking the lead on his block. Though we have 13 blocks downtown. It is a lot. bigger than I thought it would go, but I think we might be able to swing it, and it's going to be the 27th and 28th. So downtown is going to throw down as a community, and I'm really excited. I'm really excited about it. I didn't think it would work, but I think it might actually work. That's awesome. Yeah. Any other announcements?

All right, we can move on to our business items. Item 6A, the update regarding the ODA's role in Phase 2.

Yeah, so I wanted to follow up on our discussion last meeting. There was a request from the advisory board to see if the ODA were open to providing in-kind match to the $10,000 contract. And so I spoke with Desiree. That is not something that they're in the position to do. And so they are excited and open and ready to take on the scope of work and at a $10,000 level, but aren't able to contribute any type of additional funds or capacity outside of that. And so in front of you, I wanted to make sure that you had a good idea of where we were headed with the EDC's work and the ODA. And so I don't want to get ahead of anything Michael's going to discuss today, but I wanted to give you an opportunity to kind of take a look, especially being able to see the difference between the ODA work and the EDC work. And so in this, we have a project scope and role comparison, and then a kind of grid handout. And so the project scope and role comparison kind of has an executive summary. The Thurston EDC serves as the project lead, and they're accountable for the roadmap implementation, establishing the new rate structure, the strategic planning, database creation, drafting all of the deliverables. And the ODA is really serving as the operational expert and the community liaison. And so the ODA is identifying key stakeholders, leveraging their network, and they're really needing to collaborate with the EDC through every step of this process with budget service options and an operations plan. And so that's kind of like the high level summary, but then in this document, you'll see each task outlined. And what is the role of the EDC versus what is the role of OEA? So that you can see for each thing we're asking them to do, how that is delineated between the two. And so this is really what we'd be working into the contract scope of work, but wanted you to have a good understanding of how we're seeing those two organizations working collaboratively to do this. as the ODA would be the proposed operational entity, we really need their work and collaboration throughout all of this.

But yeah, have you taken any questions? I have a kind of a more general question, which has to do with the ODA and maybe some people. I just noticed this year, that things that they normally would participate and contribute to is not happening. We don't have Summerfest happening. Things like making copies for things aren't happening. Do we know what happened this year?

Summerfest isn't happening because of the FIFA.

Because of what? FIFA.

So what happens with ODA gets a lot of money for a commitment through the tax revenue basis. Businesses can, it's called Main Street. So businesses can contribute. They pledge, let's say $5,000. Last year there was a hiccup and either they didn't promote it enough for businesses to sign up or they missed some sort of deadline.

They did miss a deadline.

So the missed deadline costs tens of thousands of dollars. So you've noticed this year where there's a much stronger push to capture that Main Street money. So they are in the red like 50 grand. Yeah, they're substantially in the red because of that lost revenue.

Yeah, I heard that there was a deadline miss.

I didn't know what it was. But that is going to be a huge hit

not to our business, but certainly to a lot of businesses that benefit.

So moving forward, make sure you sign up for that Main Street contribution.

But that wasn't the contributors. That was an ODA error.

Not contributors and everything. No, they signed up for it.

Publicizing that you could do it, but it is a thing that you could do for any. So what was the deadline that was missed?

So basically within the first quarter, um, all of the money that's set aside for each individual Main Street organization is like siloed for each one and you can get up to all of that money. And then after that point, if people don't sign up for those contributions, it gets released into a pool and anyone from any Main Street organization can like snap it up. So they didn't, enough donors didn't sign up by the end of the first quarter last year to get that. And then as people were trying to do it later in the year, the funds were already gone. So it's not something the ODA can like do for people. People have to do it on their own. if the ODA like missed a deadline, it would just be on the promoting it or like getting people to do it by a certain. Okay.

So it wasn't like a grant or no, no, no.

Businesses participation. They didn't promote enough. They didn't get it out there enough because you literally have to go to the site, sign up for it, select.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And then, so for example, altitude 15, we've just started and we're broke. We just started restaurant. We pledged $3,000. This year, I have to pay $3,000. Next year, I get a 75% credit on my sales tax. So it doesn't all contribute, but the majority of it contributes. But I don't get the return until next year. It's a whole pay it forward thing.

The other really big thing, though, is the LTAC funding. So specifically, LTAC is like the lodging tax. And that has to do with specific events. So when you submit for an event like Summerfest, you say, we're going to do this event with this money and we need this much. And because they fell short on what they actually gave us, it became, okay, now we're going to have to make it one day. What can we do with this tiny bit of money? And the promotions committee, which you're welcome to be on, is really the group that made the call to say, we're not going to do Summerfest because it actually is impossible with what the money was. So like things were cut for multiple reasons. That was specific to that. Okay.

No one hates. Yeah. And I'm not, it's not a, I know everybody, I know we all have a shared interest and a shared goal. So me trying to understand this is not thinking that we don't, because I know we do. Yeah.

Yeah. The best way though, is to join one of those committees. And promotions is specifically the one that sounds like you. Yeah.

um yeah i got the i'm on another board so um committee and i'm running a what's that committees are different no i'm just saying i'm on this board and i'm on the washington center board and business i don't know that i have it in me for a committee right now but um but when i am i will yeah but how do we kind of backing up to that original conversation where you kind of like

wondering about ODNI's involvement in picking this up and being able to run with it?

Yeah. Well, it is, because I'm hearing things that are normally not a problem at all are, I can tell that things are.

We've met with Desiree, both of us. I've met with Desiree individually. We've looked at this together. Yeah. and have talked about the $10,000 contract that would be attached to it. And she has assured us that this looks like a doable piece of work for them. Yeah, I guess that's it.

Because I also know they're basically functionally people.

Yeah, right. And so that's why, I mean, and we can walk through this kind of like task by task. You'll see the EDC is the project lead. They are really doing the bulk of the work. But there is a needed role for ODA, but we're not having an expectation that they're doing the heavy lifting. They're just a strong contributing partners.

I'm trying to remember how we came to the 10,000 a year.

It was really looking through what is the scope of work that each organization is doing.

Is that a number that we came up with?

No, that's a number that I spoke with before. That is something that we're given the financial constraints that we have of what was approved. So, yeah, because we don't, I guess, if you would like to designate additional money, you can do that from your PBIA funds. That is an option, but We can kind of go through and look at this task and you can see the items that are set to be delivered at the funding we have now. And then if you think that there's a gap, we can chat about that. And so I also included as a handout, the roadmap. And so this is, you've already seen this. This is the roadmap that Uncommon Bridges provided in phase one. which was now that we finished phase one, how do you take this project from this point to full implementation? And he provided all the different kind of key components of a phase two scope of work that we needed to work with somebody to deliver on. And so this is really the basis of how we developed the kind of task role breakdown. And so with this, we have, One of them is like accountability. We have the EDC ODA. So this is the EDC being responsible for roadmap implementation, drafting, delivering recommendations, creating timelines and map out components where the ODA is responsible for providing input, their expertise and support for the project. A big part of this project is the stakeholder engagement. And so the EDC would be planning and leading the outreach strategy, facilitating the meeting and really working to build consensus and feel free to interject. as I go through this. The ODA is helping to identify stakeholders, participating in the meetings, and promoting engagement opportunities. And this is really where I think we need to lean on the ODA for helping us identify who needs to be in some of these sessions, who we need to reach out to, and so forth. The leadership group, so an item that was identified in the roadmap was to, let's see, form a leadership group to build consensus. And so this is the creation, renewal, expansion, or reinvention of place management districts is usually led by a small group of influential stakeholders who have the respect of those who will be expected to pay into the resulting assessment district. They recommend that a group of about six to 10 people is ideal and include some of the largest rate payers, as well as others who hold the respect of various types of future rate payers. And the group should plan to meet about half a dozen times and be prepared to do a fair amount of individual outreach years. And so for this, the EDC is working to recruit, convene, facilitate, and manage the leadership group, and the ODA would be participating as a stakeholder and an advisor to the leadership group. The assessment framework, the EDC is developing and evaluating assessment scenarios and budgets, and so this is The creation of the database that we need inclusive of existing rate payer or the future rate payers and rates. The database is inclusive of the different rate scenarios. And ensuring that any feedback loop to the outreach component is developed for the leadership group where the ODA is reviewing and providing feedback on scenarios and budgets. Next is service plan development. And so the EDC is leading development of service recommendations, whereas the ODA is providing operational expertise and practical feedback. Because the ODA will be the organization that is managing the contracts for service delivery or they're doing the service delivery themselves. Like this is a piece that, uh, the ODA really will need to be a hundred percent on board and, uh, letting the EDC know like this is feasible. We could do this or something's just not, doesn't make sense to the downtown context. Um, next operations plan, the EDC would be managing and drafting the operations plan. Whereas the ODA is providing operational information and collaborates on the development. Then we have the community open houses, the EDCs organizing and facilitating, the ODAs assisting with promotion and participation. And then with recommendations, the EDCs developing final recommendations and the ODAs reviewing and commenting recommendations to help. shape them. So we have board coordination, EDC is leading, council preparation, EDC is leading, and ODA is going to be supporting both of those because ODA is such a large part of this. I think they need to be at the board meetings and at the committee meetings to show that this was not created in a vacuum. The council members, I imagine, will want to see that this was done kind of hand in hand. And then EDC is in charge of the deliverables, including the work plan, meeting facilitation, assessment scenarios, including a finalized rate structure, stakeholder reports, operations plan, and the final implementation package. Whereas ODA is doing kind of formal memoranda of feedback on everything. So we have that documented, communication support, participating in meetings, and board review support. Are there any initial questions kind of seeing

the each step of that and the different roles between the two organizations i have a question um it seems like the edc is doing a lot of the heavy lifting that's awesome i think they're they're the main ones we have a contract with yeah they're yeah why don't i introduce a little bit of what we bring to the table um there's a lot there's a lot to lift

And we're excited to do the work. So it's just not just me and it's going to be doing that work. My role at the Economic Development Council is executive director, but consider, you know, we're, I'm not just sitting in the corner, the sleepy guy during the day. We're workhorses. We'll bring five staff members to the task at hand. Our director of the Center for Business Innovation, the research and finance evaluation manager, our director of strategic alliances, our marketing component, as well as kind of the assistant to the database management. So we'll work as a team, and we've been meeting to develop this response back to the city, and so we're prepared to talk with you all this morning.

Could you share the names of the people that will be a part, aside from their job title?

Yeah, yeah, great question. Sorry, I sometimes get stuck at those titles, right? No, I know people, so I'm just trying to connect people. Have you all met the economic group? Do you all know who we are? Okay, I'm always nervous.

I don't know.

We're a private nonprofit organization, and our mission, we've been around since 1981.

And who is funding you?

We're a private nonprofit, so I'm funding through private sector, private investors, members, just like a chamber of commerce. But we also bring in public sector contracts and grants that we receive. Plus, we also do fee-for-services. So it's really four funding components of the organization. So our budget, we're actually two nonprofits, the Economic Development Council and the Center for Business Innovation. The CB&I, Center for Business Innovation, is a 501c3. The EDC is a 501c4. I'm the executive director of both. Bylaws are structured in a way that I'm the executive director of both. So we use our resources in kind of a different model than most economic development councils throughout the state. Each county has one of us. We want to make sure that we're providing the resource for the businesses and the individuals that create the economy of Thurston County and the City of Olympia, et cetera. We do have a relationship with the City of Olympia to do some other things. We have a relationship with the City of Lacey and Elmwater. We're very involved in South County, the County of City of Taino. We have some signature products out there that you may have heard of. The Lacey Makerspace is ours and benefit to the community. So that's a little bit about us. The individuals that we would bring to the table, let me just start at the top. We've had a little bit of leadership change at the center, the director of the Center for Business Innovation, Sean Moore is the director. Sean provides all of the oversight of our entrepreneurial programs and business assistance. Sean's leaving us. I'm just really excited for him. He grew up in Hawaii, his wife grew up in Hawaii, and they're moving back to their family home. They'll raise their children there. So pretty excited about that. Kind of bummed for us. We're going to transition, Sean. So back to your question. Ashley Whitley is the current manager of the Washington Center for Women in Business. It's one of our operational platforms. She's going to transition into the director position. We're not going to backfire. We call them your traffic controller. So if you come in, we're going to get you the right source. So it's Ashley Whitley, Aslan Mead is their director of strategic alliances. He was spent on the ODA board for a number of years. He does some other board work and it was important. I thought we'd bring him in because he has got some better relationships than I do. I'm kind of the quiet sleepy guy in the corner. Connor Tipke is our research manager and Connor, manages all of our database work. He creates databases for our products, but he also manages the MoonPlan, some other databases that we subscribe to to ensure that we have an understanding when we work with a client. You come in and ask, what's the size of this market? That's Connor. But he also has the background in printing databases and developing those funding models that we rely upon. He does it not only for our contracts, but also for our private sector clients. So if you want to come in and you want to create a database that who's buying gelato, Connor can do that. So put her to work for it. Natalie Rice, she is our grants and program specialist. She essentially is kind of the real, real fun girl, the bunch. She is, she manages and promotes and researches all of the pieces that go into any program that we do. So if there's an external funding that you as a leadership group say, hey, We're going to do this thing. But we don't know. Now we'd say, could you do that work for us? And she'll come up with it. Right now she's doing some incredible work for the Tomahawk Brewery project and redeveloping that. She developed a whole matrix of new funding sources for that that the city can take advantage of. It's pretty cool. The other individual is Janelle. She's just coming up returning. lot of the support work for all of us. Hey, Janelle, help us create outreach materials that look like this, that talk like this, and then she does that work well for us. And then the other pieces that we probably will bring into it is I've reached out to, I can never remember Louisa's last name, at the Evergreen State College. Yeah, at Evergreen State College, she approached me about a month ago and said, hey, I got some students that like some I said, I don't have anything for you, but then going through the scope of work, we realized that Connor could definitely utilize those individuals to do that. We've done that in the past. Actually, four of our current former staff members and leaders were Evergreen interns. They show up and then they end up doing really cool stuff when we hire them. So we were asking for two internships that will work on the database. and financial analysis side of this equation. And I kind of know the students that I'd like to see if they'd like to do this. So that's kind of the names behind it. You'll probably hear the name Maria Hammett. Maria is our executive assistant. She coordinates all of our schedules and calendars. She's great. She was angry with me today because I put this on my calendar at 1130. I did. I was heading out the door. She said, you better be back by two. But we're a good group. I really got a lot of appreciation. I just kind of promote to the folks a little bit. It's probably okay their way. I really think you have an economic development team that's the best in the state. throw me out of the things that those folks are incredible. You know, I could talk about the work that we do. And some of you have taken advantage of our resources. Thank you. And hopefully you've been well served. We do have a service ethic. We want to serve you. This is not about ensuring that our budget, well, we have to make sure our budget is whole, but we want to make sure we're serving you. And that's why when Jenica approached me this project, I said, like the idea that the first item on the call sheet here is accountability. We have to be accountable to you. We have to be accountable to the ODA. We have to be accountable to the businesses and we have to be accountable to the city. But we have to be accountable to the project to make sure that you're getting, this community's getting something that is useful and sets a course for really as we move forward into some choppy waters of that local economy. So that's a little bit about us.

Yeah.

kind of pulled the string on my back. I started talking. Cool. The other things I kind of just throw out for conversation here is one of my hope for us as I leave today is that you give me an idea of what that leadership group needs to look like. Because it's important that that group stay engaged throughout the project. And I've kind of put in this document, I view this as a living document. Like once, you know, once we finish this, I don't, sorry, I don't view it as cast in stone. I view it as a living document. And so we have built into your feedback loops to ensure that we're hearing, especially after the outreach, because you don't know until you ask the question, right? You just don't know. But the data will be there and then we'll be able to analyze the data as it relates to the feedback. One of the things I'm hoping to link here by is the notion of what would you like and do you have recommendations for that leadership group? I don't envision that group to be, hey, this is a nice resume filler. I'm kind of hearing your chatter before the meeting started. You're kind of busy. You're running your businesses. You're putting out product and you're serving customers. But I do need, we do need, and you all need a work group that we envision meets monthly and provides a strong feedback loop. And if there's nothing to give back, then there's nothing to give back. But we will put stuff in front of you. This is what we're hearing, and this is where we're in the database, and this is where we're stuck. Because I've never been through a project that you've never reached a point at the end where it's like, I never get stuck. It's all good. We'll get stuck. I know it. But this is a group that we need to have great aplomb with and great respect. And the veracity of the project will be based upon that, the strong leadership group. Questions for me, you know, kind of comments. I'm excited for the project.

In your assessment and all of these motions we're going to go through, if at the end of it all, you know, you get all this feedback and you go through all of it and everyone that you talk to is like, we don't want this. Is that a potential outcome? Sure. We're not going to do it. It's been all this time, but really. Yeah.

can't do it yeah this is not a i say that was that was a great intuitive question because i believe you develop projects with a strong intention intentionality of we will do this work and we will ask these questions and we'll provide the answers to questions at the end of the day it's like now we're going to go do something else if that's what the data and the feedback provides you we will make sure that we're hearing that they may not agree with it i may push back But at the end of the day, you have that product that works for this community. So it's the end of the day. And it's happened. It's happened in several instances. You know, the Ags, the culture. Have you all been down to the Ag Park? You all been down there? It's cool, right? If you have not, let me know and I'll drive you down there and show you around. We're just about ready to start the meat processing facility. However, that was going to be supposed to be down the road across the street at the old alpaca farm. We were pretty far into the analysis, the feasibility of it. And then we got through the analysis, the feasibility, and somebody said, no, it's not going to work. Why isn't it going to work? Well, because this, this, and this. You're right. So we had to redial. And so we were about a year and a half behind where we want to be. So we reanalyzed and said, okay, well, let's adjust to the no, and let's see if we can get to the yes. Because we thought the early analysis shows that we're So it has happened. It really has happened. Even the facility I'm in right now, the Center for Global Innovation, was supposed to be the South Sound Entrepreneurial Center with some other partners in there. We have the college, we have SBDC, SCORE, and other things. There were supposed to be some other partners, and they were ready to go. And nine months into this planning document, no, I don't want to do that.

think so so we do we do want to be conscious of that i'm sorry what i would notice um how i would envision this going is the edc is going to work to say what does a practical and functional and sustainable model look like and do all the engagement and then bring that to council with a recommendation um of what this looks like but that might include if all of the stakeholder feedback is that they don't support this, that'll be reflected in the presentation to council. And so we would still have a product of this is what we thought would work best given all the feedback we have. However, there is no support for this in the community. And then council would have an opportunity to make a decision based off of that type of information.

Yeah, I'm not clear about what this is, like the product.

Is it about...

PIA with the rate payers. So we're talking about the rate payers and seeing whether that... And a rate structure.

So all the work that we have done phase one essentially said you need to have a new operating entity that should live at the organization like the ODA. You should be collecting X amount of money. You should change it to square footage based fees instead of fte and so at this point in phase two we need to take those recommendations but then right size it for downtown olympia and so um is 500 000 going to be the um the rate the final amount that we assess annually maybe maybe not though like using square footage if we talk to different rate payers who are like i have an old historic building i'm a small business if you do it on every single square foot in this building and include storage and all these other things, I'm not going to be able to afford it. Then the EDC can be considering what are caveats we need to have in this rate structure. Are we only using usable square footage? Are we things like that? And that needs to be all dialed in to a policy and a rate structure that the city would be able to then implement. But along that process, we need to be gathering kind of support through the different rate payers for what we're proposing.

Is the EDC comfortable with like helping or creating that? That is what that's actually, I mean, that's very, if you look on there, like that is, that is the short answer is yes. Okay. And you've seen our old rate structure. Okay, cool.

I have a, so I remember when I first opened, my business, I actually did not understand the difference between the ODA and the PBIA. And I confronted Todd at the time because they didn't follow me. I was paying my bill. I was doing all this stuff. I mean, it was a respectful confrontation, but it was direct. Like, you guys don't support me. I didn't even understand the difference. And I remember in developing that relationship with Todd, It took a while for me to understand that difference. Then I joined the board. Then I understood the difference. But I remember talking to him about Port Townsend and it was around the time of COVID. And I go, you know, I go to Port Townsend and there is a cohesive response to COVID at every business. There is similar messaging and this is not like that. And Todd, you know, shared with me, his perception of Olympia. And I think there is, you know, we all have our frame that we come from, but basically like we have a lot of individuals and people that are cautious about being a part of a government system, which is kind of funny because we live in a government town or a structured system or a system that requires you to pay. So I see a big part of the EDC's job is not just doing a systems analysis and gathering information, but also when working with both the ODA and our rate payers down here is creating a value added, is actually telling that story. Do you feel like that is, I guess because we're here because we see the value in rate payers and what having a business improvement area is, and we see that story again and again nationally and the value it adds to community. If we go with a fairly neutral approach to businesses, we very much might get, I don't see it and I don't want to do it. So I guess I'm hoping and asking that this is also, that part of the scope is demonstrating the value added, not just kind of a neutral gathering of information and coming to City Hall. Because I think if we do that, we'll not get

where hopefully we want to go uh in a mid and long term for our downtown no i agree and i think um i i 100 agree because i think if we look at phase one results that they are saying is people have a poor perception they don't think it's been effective and so i don't think this is um the message is we're gonna raise it what can you pay um So in this, we have the services and operational budget or services and operational plan being created too because that message needs to be identified and fine-tuned and delivered of what does it mean to pay more? What's going to happen? Well, as we've heard, clean and safe is one of the major priorities and having that conversation with ODA, what type of services does that mean that could be provided At what level of funding. And so if we create like a rate structure that pulls in 300,000 a year. This is what you get return for that. And so that's part of the planning and plan development that would be happening for the communication.

I think that was a really good point of bringing up Port Townsend. I personally have been in Port Townsend. I've worked with their local economic development group a lot. I'm up there quite a bit. And we've been working with them and learning their best practices. and some of the outreach that we do is based on that. They have a new executive director there at their EDC. They do some good work. But they are, you're right, there's a consistent message about the impact of, not necessarily just economic development, but a strong local economy. So, yeah, good point. Thank you.

My comment was just going to be that the ODA in their role is going to need to be Not just like on board with this, but also on the same page about what those value ads are and how they're communicating that to readers and how they're presenting this Because there has been like A historical kind of like Almost like perception of rivalry or like negativity between the two organizations and almost like kind of joking about the PBIA or like looking down looking down on it or like it being kind of jokey how you know out of date some of these things are or how badly it's been supported in the past so I just I do trust Desiree with that, but I just think that's gonna be something that we need to like stress and really be on the same page about like how it's being talked about and not just with Desiree and Morgan, but with like the ODA board and like larger membership community.

Yeah, I agree. I think our best chance for telling an inclusive, broad story is to have those, for us to have consistent, a consistent message that has integrity. And that we can't be winging it in our different perceptions of what that is, that that has to be consistent.

One of the interesting things that's happening in my world is that there really is a growing sense of collaboration for community and economic development. Used to be economic development councils were very competitive with each other. But it doesn't happen anymore. We just we just can't be. And then we're starting to see a sense of community building that you have to work together. That's when we sat down with Desiree. Then we both kind of brought that up about we have to make sure. And that's really when you start thinking about the leadership, that kind of has to keep, as we kind of go through this project, we have to keep that in mind. What do we owe to each other? How do we serve each other? That's a good point.

Actually, the point that I was going to make is that I think that if we had a strong leader some of those old sentiments that of the PBIA as well as like you know what our intentions are going forward and I guess my my question would be um what does that leadership group look like to you because obviously it'd have to be a little tighter than maybe what we currently have and people who actually show up on time to the meeting and not 30 minutes late um but you know I mean especially if we're going to be managing something like three to five hundred thousand dollars which You know, that's never been a budget of ours before. That's like seriously like it's just for the project.

And so the advisory board would still exist like being managed by the ODA. But the leadership group is really to kind of be the steering committee for phase two.

Then the end goal of the project, if we change the PBI to, you know, what we think it should be going forward, working with the ODA, would we continue to also work with EDC, EDC, ODA, PBI? Yeah. Would all three of those just be working in perpetuity going forward towards a larger goal?

I think, well, oh, I don't know what you answered.

That's like the big, big elephant question. What begets of the process. So you don't want to create a process that's just going to get put on the shelf. Otherwise, it's just, why do the project? We will never go away. My organization will never go away. We have an integral part of making sure this happens. But what I hope to have out of this, it's not written. What I hope internally, what our team hopes, is that we have a stronger connection to the PBI and the ODA. What's our new role? We've always struggled. Candidly, we've always struggled. are we over there you know we used to have an office over at the railroad building over on capital lake i was going to say it'd be great if you guys had a campus downtown and you know we've kind of jenica and i kind of fantasized about what do we got going we had just a little bit office downtown somewhere and you know maybe it should be one of your jobs but what begins us at the end of the project i think one of the questions that we'll have to unleash is a concept I hadn't really verbalized yet, but I think that probably should be part of the outcome is what begets the input mechanisms.

Well, I've shared that we won an award from the EDC for buying a commercial building. And when I was at the ceremony for that award, it was not downtown businesses there. In fact, I invited The people, it was out in Lacey, I think maybe near your campus, but I did a like, are you guys coming downtown? All these business owners and they're not. And there is this perception. And so I think for me, I haven't, I appreciate what the EDC does, but I don't, I haven't seen them as a driver for economic development in our historic district. I've thought of them more broadly and I think it's, I haven't had a problem with that, but so I actually am interested and excited to see that relationship be more structured and for that, because I think we, I feel very strongly that we are the historic downtown center for Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater. And in some ways, even for our, I call them our cousins. Those are our siblings and our cousins would be like Tanino, Shelton, Elma. We offer something that they don't have. And to strengthen that relationship, I think is important.

Okay, so within all of the scope, is there any way to get any sort of feedback Or maybe understanding on what the city's role could be as far as helping fund or give vouchers or some sort of financial help. Because I do believe that being a downtown business, for all those reasons, is a liability. It makes it more difficult to be a business, I think, in a lot of ways. And I will say, at least a decade ago, the EDC was more supportive in a lot of ways to downtown businesses than actually the city of Olympia's city council or anything here specifically in giving like free classes to people that were downtown businesses. So like, is there some sort of structure in that that we could, do you still do that?

Oh yeah.

Yeah. So like new papers, like this deep,

provides money um to scholarship olympia businesses so does that is that why those programs are free is because the city of olympia is paying the ecs and it allows us to hire the coaches and trainers and the other things and then offer the tuition for free yeah so that's another interesting miscommunication in a weird way because as a you know like felt like the EDC was doing it, but the City of Olympia was doing it.

Yeah, he did the thing over at Enterprise for Equity the other day, and I was kind of sitting there listening to some of the concerns of the businesses on the Hill, and I'm saying, well, shit, we do all, we provide those resources. I was quiet. I didn't, because I didn't want to sound self-serving. Yeah. We have to do a better job.

But the city, yeah, like, yeah, it's interesting, because I was like, well, yeah, it's interesting.

Yeah, just, I think my relationship with the city has never been stronger.

Yeah.

So how do we make sure that that is passed on to the businesses? That's a Danica and Michael issue.

Yeah, because I think that the city council gets like, you know, a lot of heat for not.

Yeah, we do try to go to the council and write thank you notes to them for all the scholarships that we give out. We have the business write a thank you note.

Well, maybe that would make your presence, maybe that would help though if you did have offices down here because then it would feel like it's an Olympia thing, not like, oh, we're going out to Lacey to Janet Callahan- To receive these classes or two. I know. I mean, you're not going to have We never know.

We actually were pursuing the relationship with Evergreen State College with our co work based space downtown. Yeah. We're really excited about that.

Janet Callahan- We want to bring evergreen back downtown. I feel very strongly that was a big legacy and that has shifted.

But back to your question. I didn't get your name. Tim's question was, what begets us at the end of the project? I was a little bit nervous coming into this room today. I'm aware that sometimes the relationship or the reputation of the Economic Development Council is, oh, you guys just do the big stuff over there. Don't worry about us. 95% of our budget goes to our small businesses. So we have to do a better job of it. I didn't get it. Thank you.

Yeah. Maybe just also a better job of us of like the understanding where the money's coming and going to, because that's what I think really you're going to find with a lot of these repairs is that you're going to, they're just, even if they don't truly run, I mean, the problem I think is people take information and I don't remember it also. So they read, It's learning acronyms. Guess what, guys? Everybody is working together.

I have a question about the budget structure. So I'm remembering correctly that it's $50,000 total, right? Yeah. So how is the budget? allocated throughout these steps. How does it split up and build out, I guess? Because I'm wondering if we do get to a point of there's just very clear community feedback, whatever, that we should not be moving forward. Are we still going to be spending that entire budget Or are we going to be able to recoup any amount of that to, you know, as we're closing out, put towards keeping some of the projects in effect going?

They bill on a task base. And so as they work through this, their billing, it's not like a, we don't, here's 40,000 and then you do the project. I guess I would say I haven't thought about that. I guess I would be hesitant to think we know what's going to happen and stop if we haven't moved through sufficiently in the project, I guess. Because I do think it's going to be an iterative process of working on what the rate structure is and then working on what's the service and operations plan, then working with the rate structure and the rate payers again. And so I don't know that if at first we hear we're not supportive of that, that means we should stop. I think that that, I think we still have space to.

I was more looking at like the recommendations timeline step. Like if we get to the, like, you know, December recommendations and the final recommendation is like to end the PBI, not move forward. There's, you know, three more months here.

of stuff that feels like it would be it would only really be relevant if you know the process was continuing to move forward i mean we would still need to go to council like even if the recommendation is to end like council will need it why you know like they're going to have a lot of questions and want to understand what the process was Um, to come to that recommendation because they're also invested in the success of this happening. And so I think even at that point, if we're like seeing that as, as a potential, I would still be asking them to go to. Um, because otherwise, you know, not going to be in the loop with, with the information.

That's good. I'm excited. I think it's a great fit. I really am. And I think bringing three organizations together that make a lot of sense, I guess, for with the city, I guess we're kind of a city, but.

Yeah, I kind of think that 100%, but I do think a lot of things I've heard, even from the ODA, from the city, the funding, the EDC, I think we should really put a communication element. Yes. Public communication element. Yes. To this, to announce what's going on. Yes. Because people don't know. You said that, you know, historically that ODA kind of looked down maybe on the PBIA. I have to say everybody did. The only thing they were like, why am I getting taxed for baskets? So that's not an unusual situation, but that's on us because we're not telling anybody. people what we're doing or trying to accomplish. And like the PBIA, as far as I'm concerned, is the only small business downtown dedicated board that is tied to the city. We are the only voice that the city hears or should hear. But people in the city, business owners, don't know what we do. They think we monitor parking meters. We should define what, like, as we go through this, we should really define and make public if we can. I don't even know if we can. Like, what are our goals? Our goals are to create a sense of downtown community where we support each other and we support each other financially to make our city a better place.

We can be public. This is the only public board that people can listen in and see what's happening.

Yeah. So, like, but we're not... Just because like, that's pretty important. But it's like, okay, but they're doing a crappy job. So we're going to point the fingers. Then we're going to take responsibility and the plan to say through this process, we want certain things communicated. I like that. Yeah. Introduction of an idea. Let's gather together as a community to contribute to the well-being of the city.

Can we do, I'm not even kidding. Can we do a photo op with somebody, the EDC, the city, the ODA? That's a good question.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, that's, that's, well, just like voting and using the PBIA.

It doesn't, it doesn't even, it doesn't have to be even the PBIA. It can be Jennica. It can be the EDC and it can be Desiree saying we are coming together, uh, as a community. to support and invest in the economic vitality of downtown, whatever the parameters are, but something that is a visual and manifest declaration of a relationship. I love it.

What platform do you think that, like who, would this be Olympia be the first entity to be putting that out? Hopefully all of them do.

hopefully each one of them share whatever that image is and says, you know, I would love each one of those platforms.

Facebook, Instagram. No, I know. I'm just saying that because there was the origin post probably has to come from the EDC because there is something with the city of Olympia where they have constantly had an issue with the PMA. You remember this.

That was about us having our own social media. We've always been allowed to have things posted for the city's page. Because we're technically part of the city board, we can't have a separate presence. But the city will always, they've always done it. They've always promoted us. I love it.

A great education schedule like this because there's steps of each one. And

I just remember taking posts for what we're doing.

Give people the idea.

It would be cool if we could have, like, a nice... Well, I mean, I love a parade. Anybody who was at my wedding would know that. I mean, I like the idea of maybe being able to, like, I don't know... announce a big project as well too.

That's what I'm talking about. Announce the project with the key players at the table saying we're excited. We're coming together and we are doing something and you are going to be a part of it. You are going to be a part of this.

Tongue in cheek. We're not just flower baskets anymore.

Yes. But, but that it is not just, uh, things that, that my, my cod thing was like, I didn't get it. I was just like this Franken monster. What was like, what, huh? Who am I? I thought I was paying you. I thought I was paying him. I wasn't paying him.

I was paying the city. It's still confusing to explain to people. Yeah.

So seeing that, I think will also send a message that this is cohesive and thoughtful. and is a multi-pronged approach that we're looking at the economic development, sustainability, and integration into both our nonprofit, whose job it is to tell the stories and promote down businesses, our city, who funds a lot of what keeps our historic districts thriving and the role that it plays in the broader community. And I think the EDC is kind of, if you will, a macro of that that can coalesce and tell that story more broadly and how it fits into a broader picture of economic wellness of our county, counties.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah. Great idea, Cher.

Wow. Michael, do you have anything that you're hoping for an additional discussion as like a takeaway today?

you probably want to know who's going to be part of that group. I'm sorry? You probably want to know who's going to be part of that leadership group. Is he going to help build a group? I thought he was helping them build a group.

I think that was the last time on my agenda. I really wanted to get some feedback as to kind of your thoughts about the project and process. We've had some really good communications discussions about the communications plan. We kind of put that in there, but I can see that it needs to be re-directed.

The other thing is...

I really want to know who you feel should be part of that leadership.

From this.

Because you left my own devices. It's going to be me, my wife Sonia, and my three kids. How large of a group are you looking for? Not large. 10 to 15. Max, you may have thought of that.

No, I was just in the... Roadmap, they say six to ten, but I think six on the small side. Yeah, six and seven.

Ten is after ten because you need to create space for people to talk and give opinions. So after ten, it becomes a three-hour meeting. I don't think that's...

It seems to me that you'd want to pull it out of personal choice and look at the numbers generated from sales tax in downtown Olympia to make sure key businesses are at least approached and invited Who are the top 10 sales tax contributors in the downtown? We pulled that.

Contributors aren't necessarily going to be the top 10 most useful.

Yeah, I think a piece that would be helpful is like, is there anything really influential in downtown that you're like, we want to find out.

Oh yeah, about everybody.

We need change makers. We need people that are open to change and can communicate it to, their business community. Like if we want buy-in, we need people that you can have somebody that's paying a bunch of taxes, but if they're siloed and they don't engage with the community, they may actually be seen by the rest of the business community as not a player, not part of their team, even if they are contributing. Is there a bank representative that you would think of?

Olyfed Olyfed does a really good job already with outreach they're on ODA as well they threw a coupon in there to all of their customers for my bar at one point and then I got to trade that in and they do this with a lot of other businesses as well I can't name people but I think that they are have a history of being extraordinarily engaged and supportive of

Yeah, that's Casey. Casey is who's now part of the ODA. So Casey will be already involved in some of these conversations. Yeah.

Tim, you had your hand up a minute ago. Oh, that's just my, I like to hold my pen up.

Did you specifically want people from the DBIA also to be part of this group?

You mean rate payers or from this board?

No, I mean like this board.

need us to be part of that group let's talk about that for a second i do think so yeah but i don't want to overextend correct not only that but i don't want to over influence that that group so if there's this side of the room is and we have eight people then it's half the group is yeah no report so

Well, none of us are jumping at the opportunity. I just wonder if that's something you feel as a representative. Maybe a representative.

I do feel it.

You do think it's important? Maybe a representative. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good idea.

I'd like to be on the leadership, in the leadership group.

There you go.

I would support you.

Yeah.

I would also say I think Jacob should do it.

Those are the first few people that I thought of when...

As far as representatives, I can probably listen to the president and vice chair.

Chair and vice chair. And just your engagement with the community, because I think that is key. Like, I see this as.

Absolutely. And the historical aspect, too.

So are you guys looking for nominations for leadership people?

Or just suggestions. I mean, yeah. people that we could consider, reach out to, start conversations.

Jill Barnes from the Washington Center.

Yeah.

She's also on the media. I am. I feel like she's a little over the top. I'm happy to have kind of an issue.

She would be so excited.

They're not a rapier. They are.

They could be.

They could be, depending, yeah.

They haven't chosen an opt-in.

Thank you for that offer. I would wait until we... Yeah, no, I will.

I won't do anything before you guys coalesce your idea. I'm just offering that I have a professional, personal relationship.

Do you want a landlord?

Mike Reed is somebody I would want to be part of that discussion. I think that, yeah, I mean, he also historically was in Jennica's position and now is working for the port. So that's like two big bodies of expertise and information and worked with the PBAA. And I personally also think that the port should be part of the going forward PBAA, especially with their development that they're doing and trying to loop themselves into the larger. What do you think about that? And he's a big champion of downtown businesses. do think that Mike is somebody I would ask about this.

You've worked with Mike Green forever, right? Do you think that's a good recommendation?

I think we have to be kind of asked, kind of look at the nomination of Mike. Is it Mike or is it the port? Mike says, I don't really have time, but I'd like to have so-and-so from the port staff on this. It's a different conversation, so we have to be really clear about what you're asking for.

I would want both.

because i do think he's a has historical relationship but also i do think that we should have somebody from the port as part of this conversation they're not i guess so my initial concern is just we only have a limited amount of seats and that if we if the rate payers don't feel like they were properly represented my my concern would be if they're like looking at the list of who's on it they're like they're not even They're not in the PBI. So my concern would just be like, are we leveraging the maximum amount of voices in this space that we can? Because, I mean, Mike is someone we can definitely be using as a resource without him necessarily being on the leadership group. We'd be able to chat with him.

Well, Mike is absolutely locked in. champion for downtown. But also, you know, the port is a different creature. It's a special purpose district that they have their own funding mechanisms and their own, their own mission. So it's a little bit different than I'm different than the port.

Joel Hansen is, you know, an acquaintance. And, I mean, at any time, I think we could always just sit down and talk with Mike. We have a great rapport with him, having worked with him, you know.

Didn't Michelle over at Uptown kind of show some interest in the PBIA? Yeah.

I would say, like, we could kind of wrap up and move any other agenda items in the next few minutes.

But that is one. A landlord? Are they a rate payer? Because we talked about how we should include landlords as rate payers. This would still be business.

Someone that is both a business owner and landlord. Old school pizzeria. Connie Pagley, my favorite one. And she's historically been pretty active and used to be on the PBIA.

I would say we probably want to think of someone to represent the residential side because we want to be with the increasing and changing the way that we're looking at residential. Yeah.

If you want to be the biggest right now, I think.

Well, were you talking about residential in terms of like a residential landowner or like a resident?

No, like apartment.

I'm more thinking of who is going to be passing this on. A repair person. So not somebody living in the apartment that

Yeah, like a landlord.

You and Uncommon Bridges folks ever able to get in contact with Walker? He never responded.

Well, maybe now that it's not just some consultant asking him, maybe he would be a little more...

I've never met him.

You've never met him? I've met him a lot.

He is a downtown supporter. Yeah, you know him. One of our other PBI board members is the business owner who works with him.

Oh, yeah. He now is also a business owner because he co-owns that business.

Yeah, I would say you can always reach out. What about non-profits?

They're not rent-free.

Non-profits don't pay?

They have the option. They have the option.

I will say, I hope that we also, and I kind of don't want to use this word because of its connotation, and I don't mean it in the way of its connotation, but the optics of this when we're talking and who we have at the table, people notice who we have at the table. And I do think that that is a consideration if we want buy-in, that we're telling a more broad story from who is doing stuff in our community, that we're not, if we have a bunch of like, and I'm not saying we are, but you know, the ports, property owners, developers, landlords, high income taxpayers, and we're missing the smaller businesses and the startups, we're I think going to create this perception and divide of like who is actually at the table and supporting that. So I think we're going to have to look at those like smaller businesses and we're not doing nonprofits, like businesses that aren't kind of taking our like bigger business boxes or big money boxes.

We're going to have to tell include that the role of leadership specific this leadership group that we're talking about is specifically to be at the table when you guys when you come back with what your group is doing your this leadership group is function is to then take that information synthesize it and to go out and tell the rest of the community like what is a little bit of an emissary role it's also sheriff's advisor role

So I think about the ag panel that we put together for Ag Park. We had 30 people in the room, way too many, but it was really effective because what we found is that they broke up into groups, producers, growers, distributors, processors, and they all kind of came to the same spot. It's a little bit of an art form, but... community and I view that this is the same way.

Maybe we should look at that approach because there are a lot of different sectors.

So I'm kind of envisioning in my mind as I'm hearing that conversation because you brought up the notion of non-profits and it goes back to the intentionality of how do we serve each other and what do we get? So we have to really be careful about

um having a committee or leadership group that is something for everybody if we go back through great players that are non-profits that opted in maybe we reach out to one of those non-profits that decided to opt into the pbia because there's value there that would be ofs So that would be my suggestion for it.

Do we see value in including people who have historically been anti this entity to include them in some sort of leadership?

I think we have those on the board.

I think if you haven't opted for, I actually love OFS because they take a lot of boxes. I think that is a great idea. Um, I just, I don't know what the structure I have done work like this in my previous life, um, doing big change making and buy-in with multiple stakeholders. And I do think that there is a balance between the number, but if we lean heavy, we give the perception that this is really about a certain kind of demographic. And if we want buy-in, at all levels we have to have a variety of people sitting at the table that see the value in that and then go and talk about the value in that and feel like they have a voice um so like retailers restaurants service service industry nightlife development landlords it's going to be a a

And oddly enough, there's a lot of, I mean, radiators, I'm reading it, but there's a lot of car repair.

Yeah, there's a lot.

There's a lot. I don't know how many there are.

I think we can do something where we have a person that can represent multiple, like we have an event space and we have a nonprofit and OFS. We have a business owner, but also a landlord. We can do that. But I do hope that we have a good mix because I think when we get closer to implementation, that that is gonna be a very important pillar in buy-in from the larger community. That if we don't do it upfront, that's been my experience doing larger change-making within organizations, that you will do it at some point. So it's easier in the foundation of it than trying to make that all of a sudden an implementation issue. So that's just my two cents. I will, of course, support what the group comes up with.

I would also say that in looking at the makeup of the leadership group, with the ODA being on board as this other group that's involved, I would try to lean towards getting people that aren't also on that board or on committees. Not all of them excluded. Just so there's not too much over-representation from that.

Yeah, it's interesting.

You mentioned a couple of people that are actually on my board. I've got to be careful about that. Yeah, same concept. Cross-pollination is good, but it's also Right.

So when do you want to decide on that. What's the scope for that.

Now, right. I mean, I'll be working with Annika and Desiree. I'm going to refine the scope of work. Again, this is a living document. That's why it was written. Some of the dates are going to change based upon what I heard, but I'll be working with Jen and kind of come up with, this is our recommendation of the size and the role of the leadership group. And then here are the players. And then I'll let you kind of manage that with me and how we kind of communicate that back to you. I don't want to leave you in the process. I don't want to leave like, okay, well, you see it, see it and see in December.

Yeah.

No.

We bring your family.

Sophie knows.

So I'll take the revised document and work it into a scope for both and have contracts executed in the next couple of weeks. Great. I said yes. Yeah.

So that covers 6B as well as 6A, right? Yeah. We sort of just slid into that one. Thank you for your, yeah, thank you. All right, let's move on to 6C, which is the schedule discussion.

So this came up kind of at the end, post-meeting. There was some interest in discussion around changing the meeting schedule. Do we want to keep it on a monthly basis? Did you like this every other month? That kind of happened on accident with us canceling our one meeting. It's fully up to you, and so I wanted to provide you with an opportunity to think about that and discuss and if you'd like to vote, you can change it.

I like the idea of going to every other month, but with the caveat that we should also consider that maybe we should expect a slightly longer meeting every other month. Maybe schedule more for a two-hour block, because currently we just get an hour and a half, right? If we do that, we should maybe think along that line to go, you know, 1130 to 130 or whatever it is. But I do like the idea of every other month. I think it can be productive and also a good use of our time away from here. If it were up to me, I would say implement it after next month. So do July, September, November. So that way we can skip. Basically, I'm saying that so we can skip December and Because we're all super busy in December.

And August tends to be a vacation month for a lot of people. Yeah, it tends to be a vacation month.

That would be my proposal, if people are into the idea. I'm into that idea, but I will also not be then available next July. Me neither.

I won't be here.

We'll be here in July.

Is that your vacation month? It is our vacation.

It would be July 1st. It would be July 1st.

July 1st.

If it's a month from now, then the first day in July would be July 1st. Oh, I can do that.

Yeah, I would be here for July 1st.

It would work well, especially because of where we are.

And we can get more updates.

At that point, all the contracts are executed and we'll be able to have a larger update as well.

What do people think about the idea of doing that?

We need a vote.

Right. But if there's any discussion,

I think like the idea of keeping a monthly schedule and then like assessing and seeing if we have enough for the following month or whatever and if not then cancel like we did with April I think and if it you know if it ends up being kind of in every other month then great but I don't want to, I don't want to feel like kind of backed into a tighter time frame or like less, less like useful, less usefulness while we're in this process.

What about by next month in July, we decide if we want to go every other? Because at the end of that meeting, we could also be like, okay, we need to have another meeting next month. Or we'll be like, okay, I can see it being it too.

I would say the opposite side of that is that if we did change it to every other month, you can always call a special meeting in the off month too. If we had urgent things come up that needed to be. Rather than having a meeting scheduled and canceling it, you can do the opposite.

I feel like it's easier.

what is our scope that we need to be meeting monthly i guess i see right now that we're doing advising and chunk of work that needs to happen isn't so much this it's you guys are that it's that so i'm just i'm just like what are what's the thing that's up that we're needing to like gavel down on or vote on that we couldn't use our time, maybe do it a little bit more differently. I think there may come a time where this board will engage more as we're looking at more implementation and maybe we can switch then, but I actually, I'm not sure like, what's going to be on our docket during this summer with this board that we're needing to meet every month.

I want to support Alden's suggestion. I think that having them scheduled and then at the previous meeting, like today, we could decide not to have next month's meeting, but not like sort of on the fly deciding. Because it is harder to call a meeting than it is to cancel a meeting. And we don't know what will come up. And maybe we will find at our next meeting that we have new information that needs to be reviewed at some point or some, you know, as this process starts going, I'd like to be kept apprised of what's happening with it.

Well, I think we can be kept apprised, but we don't have to meet to keep apprised. I guess that's what I'm saying. I think of us meeting usually as a decision body. or, and right now we've been a part of this decision and now the scope of work is not really us right now, it's them. So I'm happy to do that, although it's not my preference, but would we then do it two hours? Like just in case we want to? So do we have a hybrid of two hours?

Originally, I definitely was on with every other, but I see what Alden's saying in that it's hard to go back. So I think it might come down to us voting.

I was thinking about voting if there was anything, you know, that they were wanting, like, that this leadership group or the EVC was wanting to, like, bring to us or get feedback on because I know I know there's going to be community open houses and stuff, but we can rely on us to be here once a month for whatever questions or feedback. That is the point of the PBIA is to be an advising board.

Can we just decide next month? Can we table this and just not make the choice today?

We have some other stuff to go. We're also hoping so. I would say. We can be in this room to hear it.

Yeah, we do that too.

Because there's often times when you're in a meeting, you're like, that could have been an email. Especially when there's not voting items.

Yeah, I guess that's a thing. Especially during the summer, where people are leaving.

We often times have a harder time getting more.

Yeah. So what is the final decision?

on schedule and then we're going to think about this idea yeah see where we're at see what kind of advisory role we're going to be in moving forward and if it's a monthly need okay yeah okay we'll do last item all right um update public art maintenance request we have a bit the 6d is vacancy update the board right you can

Yeah, we can appoint?

You can appoint because the seat was a removal.

A removal, OK. Yeah.

And so we can put that on the July item if you have some people you would like to nominate.

We need to nominate to appoint, or we can just bring that to the table at the time, right?

Yeah, we can bring it at the time. But this is an opportunity if you'd like to settle on someone the group would like to talk to before then. and then the person could come next meeting and then we could do the motion at the top of the meeting.

I think an obvious candidate would be the person, I don't know her name, but was on the ballot last election. She might want to.

We can reach out to her. Also, we'll tell her what we're doing now.

Yeah, I think there would be a little bit more on the table now that she might get into it and be up for it. I think after the election they were not super stoked about joining when I talked to them.

What election?

They lost? No, not because they lost, but because they kind of got a little bit more insight into

board and from you you mean there it is

I talked with my friend Michelle about some of my frustrations that I have with the board and what we were going through and stuff like that. They had put their name to be in the election. And then after they didn't win the election, it was almost kind of like, I don't really have a lot of time anyways. And then so when I explained that basically we were in a rebuilding phase and that like there is literally nothing but planning on, you know, the, sorry, the meetings from the advisors that we were getting, I mean, we hadn't even talked about working with the EDC and the ODA at that point. Like, it was very much in a holding pattern of us waiting for knowledge. It was very much like, do you want to come to a one a month in your busy schedule and um i mean that is what being part of a board is it's long term and and she is a very busy person yeah so it is one of those things where now that we have like kind of more meat uh like you know on on the in the project uh that they might be into it but i mean i mean the thing about being on a board is if you're only in it for the meat and not in for like the

the boring parts, then that might not be, like, their best.

Can we put an email out asking for, like, applications? Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

Sure. To all ratepayers? Yeah, yeah.

And then... It's an appointment we, like, would be able to pick anyway. Right.

Oh, good idea.

Gladly go re-talk to her, but... Maybe the language could be, like, you know, be part of The rebuilding or Sure.

Yes. If we want. I'm just going to be bold and say this. If we want the city and the ODA and the EDC to be out. Sharing the value and coalescing information on what this can be then board members. I feel should also see the value in that and be communicating that value, particularly with businesses that are interested in being a part of that. I feel that pretty strongly, that if we are not as a board consistent and cohesive and see the value in this, then it's going to be a harder pull for all of those organizations.

So real quick, somebody will show up like, twice get bored and then leave.

Yeah, say that again. We also don't want somebody to know 100 100 100%. But if we can't, as board members share the value of why somebody may want to have their voice at the table, if we're the messaging is it's not really probably worth your time if you're busy. And I'm not saying that's exactly what you were saying. But if that is the tone, It's going to be a harder pull. We're the board. We see value. We've been working on this project. So if we can't communicate that to our fellow business people, I think it is going to be a harder pull to ask our partner organizations to do that for us. Like we have to be cohesive and seeing the value and wanting to bring people in. um so that's my job he's going to define what our value yeah um but it's our job by being here i mean we we right now are the representation the business representation then we also just really basically tear this board down to its roots and rebuild it we've been citing that for a couple of years i know but right now we're doing it so like where we're going that the definition like

We're looking at our mission statement from scratch. 100%. So once we get that done, then we'll know and we'll be able to be like, yeah, we are 100%.

But right now, we should be able to go to our community and say, this is what we're doing. We're defining that. You can have a voice in helping defining that. If we go out and don't share the value in that. Like right now it's just.

I would actually say as of maybe the last like three to six months, I could do that. I would say for the first year and a half I was on this board. i mean i did and so i will be very frank like i've and from day one i've i've been the only board member who was technically in collections with the city of olympia for not paying as a rate but like i mean like to my point like when the first year and a half it was a different city uh member you know

like i don't know babysitting us and we're voting on flower baskets no there was no point i do see with what we're doing now a reason to actually show up and you know and that's even a better testimonial actually to be like i saw it when it sucked and i felt like it sucked and now i think it's great because change is happening so that mentality is actually probably really beneficial to the community because that was a few years ago that board recruitment wasn't two years ago Well, that's why I'm saying he could go and talk to him now.

Without a call for some nomination, we'll try to get a few names and we can appoint someone in July. I just want to move forward because I want to leave. 6E is the public art manager class.

So our parks department reached out. There are two different public art pieces that I guess were originally funded through PBIA funds that have now needed repair. And parks has asked if PBIA is open to considering PBIA funds to help cover the cost. One of them is for the core ring dance sculpture. I think it was across from- Old school. Old school.

Yeah.

This one has a $1,200 fix on it. I believe something about the, it needs to be powdering. And I think it's in my staff report. I had a few issues with it. So they had to take it out and they're fixing it. That was $1,200. And then the mosaic, the mosaic wall has a $2,400 repair. Mosaic wall?

This one.

Well, I'm assuming it's by the end. Oh, is it behind. Is it behind.

The value on the fixes to his question about the Invoices from there's the downtown neighbors association, you know, Garcia had Offered it looks like some mosaic labor and there's an invoice to this and so Parks has covered these, but are looking to see if there's openness to provide some beginning.

After spending. We still have so we have 23,409.

Alright, so question about the sculpture one.

That one was removed. A long time ago, wasn't it. no it's right outside our door it's like oh that was three months oh i'm thinking of the one it's like red rings they're kind of all yeah it's okay it's right by that diamond parking lot yeah okay i was thinking about the plinth one is that a different sculpture that i'm thinking of that was on the corner what which one at franklin outside of dumpster values they're all on the corner like tall um rings and like that's the one that's on the corner though right And that was replaced there after the construction project. Because didn't we give money for that? Because we were fighting with the city about it because they removed it for their construction project and then asked us to pay to have put back.

Right?

Yeah, no, this is this isn't in front of them. It's across Franklin. It's on altitude side of the street. Okay. This is I don't think let's see. So altitude is here. Here's the alley. And then this was Oh. Like across from the parking lot. Yeah, there's an empty place right there, and they took that down.

And so you could consider partial, the piece, you could consider full, or. Ah, okay.

And it was red. Okay.

Yeah, it's red.

So this was a different, this wasn't the one that was involved in that project. Different. Okay.

This one's more, yeah. Yeah.

No, I'm curious what was related to that. I vaguely remember it, but I don't remember the other one now. Okay. And then what's up with the Artesian one?

I'm kind of interested more globally about that space. Like, are we just updating a wall that people don't actually have access to go and engage with?

The city's currently working on plans for the Artesian Commons. Okay. We're just not at a phase yet.

Oh, they put up a new fence. So is that something, like, I guess my thought would be to maybe not fund that. This is just me.

So I'll simply, it has already funded these to happen. So both of the repairs are happening. The request is just as they were PBIA commissioned pieces, if they were providing some help in covering the cost and so um you know you you can vote to not fund it and or to fund it partial amounts or so is the question do you are is your what are you trying to say is maybe we should do the mosaic one because if i guess we're working on a plan maybe like wait to fix it yeah i guess i'm just like if uh

I don't really even know what the intention is for that space. So for us to put $2,400 into a space that the community can't even access probably wouldn't be my top choice. That's just me as an individual. Well, the well access is on the other side of the chain link fence. So isn't the mural on the wall isn't where the water is? on the inside.

Isn't it all the tiles that's on like where the pipe comes out? Like that little bench and all that stuff, right?

I'm thinking about the wall.

I think it's the wall and I think it's the like ground around the the little bench leaning looking thing next to the pipe, right?

And that's different for me.

I just also kind of feel like while it is very much used as a utilitarian space currently, people go in and fill up water and then leave. If there is no actual community that gathers there except for basically the equivalent of filling up some jugs, it's not necessarily a space It's an underutilized space.

I was just harking back to when it was just a pipe out of the ground with giant cement blocks next to it painted bright yellow. We should be proud. I think this has definitely been an upgrade over street beautification.

It's already a thing. This is maintenance.

This is maintenance. It's already been paid for and this would be contributing to the repair.

I say pay for it. I pay half.

You know, it's something that we installed, right? PBA, it's a PBA, it's installed. So, like, if we install it, should we take care of it? We usually do.

Yeah, I like that.

Or maybe we table it. I don't know that they typically pay for it as much as they did last year. Or just now.

So I understand the necessity of the run dance. Like a reimbursement. I'd like to know who decided or commissioned or asked for the work on the artesian mosaic.

Looks like the downtown neighbor's association.

Yeah, I would say that if you decided that I don't The PBI does not support providing funds towards that. It's already been unfair. I mean, I think it's, I don't know that there's not an additional request like for us to dig into anything apart from parks looking for some assistance.

So parks looking for assistance.

I have a question with the mosaic. Maybe we earmark the $2,400 to contribute to the city redeveloping that world. if they're doing that. Because if they're redeveloping it, we don't know what the plan is. Is the mosaic going to be there moving forward? So if we pay for something that's going to be being repaired today and they tear it out tomorrow, maybe we keep that $2,400 and contribute it to whatever the next phase is on that. That might be kind of a... Can we do that?

I can't imagine the city tearing out the Cartesian well.

Well, but the mosaic... The mosaic... It might be something like, what is... We can table this and find out, like, what does a city... Are they going to present the well in a different way?

So is this one paying the Downtown Neighbors Association? Is that what... That's who the invoice...

No, it's the artist, the mosaic artist. Right. So the artist.

No, the artist built the DNA, and the DNA is asking us to pay it back.

The parks department already paid.

Okay, so that adds another layer. The artist built DNA, DNA passed out onto parks, and parks is asking us.

Yes. If we're open to contribute.

Okay.

I just want to figure out the full chain.

Parks has already paid for this stuff. It's already happening. Yeah. it's just asking if we want to correct yeah the decision is in should this go forward is already going forward oh good yeah okay so can we just not we can there's not a lot of motivation in it but other than us just contributing as neighbors i think we need all our money right now because we don't really know what we want like i i would be fine with uh the

sculpture, the ring dancer. But honestly, while we are just basically chaining off a perfectly usable space in downtown that should be utilized by our community, I don't think it's really behooving us to spend money to there's, there's no money, but I know, but I mean, like, why, why the perks even spent the money is beyond me, because it's important to fix it.

And it's maintaining.

But nobody is maintaining that area.

Well, the park is.

The park's hard. The ring sculpture was just re-grouting. It's not like damaged, damaged.

It wasn't vandalized.

Because we put it in.

I second that.

I mean, that whole area basically gets vandalized.

We have a motion and a second.

So the motion is to fund the ring sculpture repair and not The mosaic, right? Not at this time.

Okay.

And we already had a second, Monique's second. So all in favor of paying for just that repair and not the other, say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

What was your opposing? You want to pay for both? Wait, what happened?

I don't think you can pay for either.

Anyone abstaining?

I did not use that.

I was going to say something, but we made a motion. That's how you talked about them, officially. No, that's how you get a vote on it.

No, the motion calls for a vote. Oh, okay. So we did. And we had three nays. Anyone abstaining?

I would change it to not paying for any of it, if that was something that people also liked.

Can we retake the vote? The motion passed.

Chicken wants to get out of here.

No, no, I'm just saying that's how it works.

Did that change anybody else's mind? That these guys actually thought it was a good idea to not pay for either?

Yeah.

No?

Yeah.

Did it change your mind?

Yeah.

So would you rather pay for none?

Yeah.

Oh, great. Okay. Anybody else feel that way? Maybe. Okay, sweet. So should we now make a motion to not cancel a vote that we already passed?

I've actually never been in this scenario.

You're going to need a motion to rescind the prior action. Yeah. I was going to need to make a motion second and vote on it and then take the new action.

For that piece of art, has it already been fixed? The rings thing? I think the ring is being fixed.

By part. That one hasn't been fully built yet.

Yeah, I don't think. The parks, all parks, both of these are from parks.

They have opted to pay for that. I think their position is as they were PBIA funded public art sculptures, they're looking for PBIA assistance in the maintenance.

If we don't repair it, we're not taking care of our own stuff.

And is that something we have to think about every time we fund an art project?

We generally do, and we've done that with murals over the years. Anytime a mural gets damaged, we'll put up the funds to repair it. But it's never come in this form of them already being decided.

Did you come in income source? I think it makes sense to upkeep art if we are a self-funding source that is going to continue funding ourselves and continue upkeeping art. We have a very finite amount of money right now. I hope that the money that is already going into this project is enough to finish it. If it's not, and we spend it all on upkeep and art pieces, then we don't have anything.

Is that a problem?

I don't see us doing anything else, really.

Yeah, I guess I'm just like, I didn't realize that I thought the model was that we had invested in this process and this process, the end of it is either, you know, dissolving it or having a rate structure that we will continue. But I didn't think that the money that we have is like still potentially needed. It's potentially needed to continue for this, for that, for this project.

Is that real? If it isn't needed for that, I would rather fund some of our more ongoing projects, like the lighting and, like, other things. These are not things that I personally think are, like, high priority with an extremely limited fund that may be, like, done.

Yeah, it's not as impactful. That definitely changed my mind. I did not hear that, so I...

It's another meeting that's going to be coming in here soon, so... So that we can read.

And now you need to make a new motion. Oh, okay. I'll second it. So if he seconds all in favor of rescinding the boat that we passed to fund the one sculpture, they I

Anyone opposed? Okay. Anyone abstaining?

Okay.

Motion passes.

Okay.

All right.

Now, Alden.

I move to not.

We don't have to move. If nobody makes a motion in any other fashion, then that actually is done, right?

We can move to not approve. So, like, we're not approving this request.

Yeah. Right. Do we need to? I would not approve this request. I second. I have a question. not doing something like that? Or we did not do it?

It's been a formal request to see if you would pay that. And so I see you're approving it with a modification or not approving it.

Alden made the motion to not approve the request. Do we have a second? I will second. Second. All in favor of not approving the request, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed to not approving the request? Aye. Anyone abstaining?

You originally voted the other way first. Oh, for one, but not the other. Gotcha. Oh, I don't, I just don't know.

Okay, so there are only three. Are we not at a...

There was, wait, it was Alden, Kate, Tim, and Sophie. There were four yeses. Share, myself, and Monique were no, and Anne was abstain.

Okay.

Four, three, one. Okay.

All right.

We have any reports? Seeing none, any other topic?

Very good question, Derek. Is there anything on us getting to hear from the parking lot?

It was definitely not in the agenda cards this month. And, you know, I'm still happy to reach out to them. I guess my concern still kind of remains the same that it is not within the scope. And so if we're using a digital media site, I don't see the fit at the moment, especially with such a big project on our hands right now. And so

I guess what is the whole, I guess, apart from... To get the kind of answers about why and why it wasn't communicated to the ratepayers at all.

What are we talking about?

The switch, the parking meter and collection switch and how that, I absolutely think it's been enough working in business in this improvement area to be notified and communicate big changes like this that will absolutely impact our rate payers moving forward. Already impacted my staff and I hear it from customers all the time.

Yeah.

About the computer versus coin, which I'm not.

With the charge of this group is to advise on the use of PBI funds though. And so I think my concern is if we're bringing in another department, understanding what the hope is, are we, because there's not a There's no process in which they need to be checking with us. We aren't advising on this. So I think that's where I'm kind of at a loss of what are we asking for if there's no... We ask them for a simple statement of explanation.

I mean, they don't have to be here necessarily to do it, but they can at least answer some of Alden's concerns without having to make a communication.

They can email it too, I guess, like technically. I mean, I guess they don't have to physically come. And who are they?

parking services.

But yeah, I mean, I think that it is reasonable, even though it's not typically what they do for us to request a why.

I think they would probably benefit from knowing that there's discontent within the community.

Like representative board of the community. And like, I don't even know what the options would be for advising on use of funds around parking. in this situation when they just they don't even do basic communication.

I guess Michael to part of your scope is going to be to to see if the P needs to be removed. Right now, as ambassadors to the community, if we have that acronym, and people are asking what to do when we say parking, that puts us even more in a miscommunication. If it's not their job at all, take it off. Then we won't be able to have a conversation at the end of it. Right. Yeah.

They at least have paid at the website.

We need to ask them and let them know that their choice is what better does because we are the communicators in a lot of ways. I do think a portion of this has to do with the change, like meaningful court, where they can go to the committee. And so I think that that's part of it. But I don't want to misspeak. I'm not educated on this.

You probably just don't realize the amplifications that maybe just happened with the change and how it affects this board and the downtown communities. Even if we can just mistrust of it.

It allows them to communicate to the downtown community. Oh, sure. Just send us a flyer.

Seeing no other topics, I will adjourn the meeting. PBI Advisory Board, Wednesday, June 3rd at 1.30 p.m. Thank you all.