A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Natasha Rivers, who resides in council district five, to the King County cultural development authority (4Culture) board, as an executive at-large representative.
Council Councilmember Caldwell's has moved approval of the March 18th minute scene. No discussion. All those in favor. Please say I oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes are approved. That takes us to items five and six on today's agenda. We'll take those up in order and ask Ms.. Crocus Zoghbi to join us. The first motion is confirming the appointment of Natasha Rivers to the King County Cultural Development Authority, or for Culture Board today. This is the first of two appointments to the For Culture Board that provides cultural development activities within King County. Natasha Rivers, who was appointed by the executive Constantine is the first of the two and I'd ask Lia to make any additional comments I have already stolen, and then we'll ask Ms. Rivers to join us. Thank you. Councilmembers Lia crackles Oppie Council Staff Yes. So just a little background about the board. Culture board for Culture is King County's cultural development authority. It was developed or created in 2002 to administer King County's arts and heritage programs, and it is governed by a 15 member board of directors. And directors are to have a demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of cultural resources, be active and experienced in community and civic issues and concerns, and have the ability to evaluate the needs of cultural constituencies in the region. As a whole, directors are to represent a range of talents, experience, background and viewpoints related to cultural development. And directors must be residents of King County in order to be chosen to reflect the geographic and cultural diversity of the county. Last year, the Council made changes to the For Culture Board appointment process, which state that nine of the 15 positions are now directly appointed by county council members. All appointments must be confirmed by the Council. By Motion Board members serve four terms of three years and may serve up to two consecutive full terms. And today the first appointment in front of you is the For Culture Board board appointee Natasha Rivers, who lives in Renton in Council District five and was appointed by executive Constantine. Miss Rivers is a demographer for the Seattle Public Schools and is an adjunct professor, instructing it on human geography, immigrant America, population, geography and race and ethnicity in the American city. She is also a board member of. For Seattle Children's Theater and other civic organizations. Ms.. Rivers appointment appears to be consistent with the requirements of County Code and the for Culture Charter and bylaws. And she is here with us today. Thank you, Mr. Words, if you join us at the table. Yeah. Good afternoon and welcome. Thank you. I I'd give you an opportunity to just offer a few introductory comments before I ask colleagues if we have any questions for you. Yeah, I think she covered a lot of it. So I work for this yellow school district for about five years and serve on several community boards in the arts and also, you know, Urban League for Metropolitan Seattle Team Child. And I write fiction. I have a lot of interests. But essentially, I think I was invited to be on this board because of my interest with the arts, the demographic changes in the city. My efforts in terms of equity and inclusion in the workplace and also on community boards. So it sounds like a very apropos background for for culture in the work the agency is doing. Thank you. Councilmember Garcia, do you have a question? Yeah. Yes. I'd like to just mention a little something about demography. We we have been cited really well here at the county by demographers. And we have, I think, about four or five on staff. And something that's of interest to me is trying to find out why the county does not dis aggregate Africans from East or West Africa from African Americans. We have a demographic I don't know if it's a policy or not to put them all together. So my only question to you is, is it relatively easy to aggregate something like that out of people of African descent, but distinctly culturally, historically different? So that's a good question. And my dissertation was actually a little bit on. That. African identity, African-American African identity, and looking at migration trends of recent African immigrants and how many integrate. But for the school district, the way we distinguish that is usually home language because we have a lot of programs that are targeted towards African born versus African-American students, but they're still grouped into an African American category. And I think that to do with race and funding and things like that, yeah, I thought that there was something going on at the city level where they were trying to desegregate that data. But as far as school district, we just sort of point out languages and resources that need to go to those communities. And how do you see those skills? Because I, I, I mean, I'm excited about the fact someone with your background has that. When you say you're you are interested in art, is it from the writing perspective or the research perspective or both? It's all really. So for the college business theater, it's in terms of performance art and who has access to those shows. But I'm also interested in local artists getting the opportunity to have their art shown or just understanding, like for the access for all. When that comes maybe back up in terms of, you know, funding and outreach and who's involved and which arts organizations receive funding. I just want to be a part of that discussion. So that sort of drove my interest. Thank you. Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.. That's fantastic. I was actually in an event last night that shakes with a bilingual Shakespeare presentation, and it was maybe more engaging than Shakespeare. An English Council member of the Guild, Councilmember Dejean. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Oh, jokers. Thank you, Dr. Rivers, for being with us. Can you just speak a little bit about you do have such an eclectic background in terms of social you know, social sciences and then arts together. Talk a little bit about, from your perspective, how you see the importance of the arts in terms of achieving maybe some of the greater outcomes that we'd like to see with things that we may normally think about as human services or education or outcomes. How do arts and culture play into helping to achieve success, if you will, broadly defined in your view? Okay, that's a good question. So I grew up in Seattle before it became kind of a popular city. So inner city Seattle went to Seattle public schools and low income. And I think exposure to the arts specifically, specifically at the Seattle Children's Theater was really eye opening for me. I think it created a space of inclusion, just that all the kids of that. Room. We're experiencing the same show. Because I do think there's sort of like a set of standard things you see on TV and you read about there's like a standard set of beauty and what's politically correct, what's incorrect. But I think something about just raw being on stage, having that shared experience and the light goes down sort of exposed me to a different area of interest that I think once everyone has sort of equal access to that sort of lived experience and exposure to the arts, it does sort of open up your imagination and what you think you can do and how you relate to someone else if you're all laughing at the same thing or seeing the same show. So I think for me, definitely, I mean, obviously now I serve on the College of the Theater board. So it had an impact on me when I was going through K through 12. Thank you for sharing your personal experience. I think that a number of us have had that connection in different ways. For me, I was in theater as well, but for me it was with my son who has a series of developmental disabilities and challenges and watching him engage in theater with other kids and just be part of the experience the same as every other kid there, despite the fact that in some situations that's not possible or doesn't happen anyway. So I appreciate that. Thank you for sharing that experience. You're welcome. Councilmember up the grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just waiting for the right time to make a motion. Motion is in order. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd move the proposed motion to 19 0057 be approved. Thank you, Councilmember. Approve has moved adoption of that. We give it do pass recommendation of motion 2000 1957 for the remarks Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Rivers. I have to say right away that I am totally taken with you for many reasons, but one of which is that your ideas from UCLA were miners too. And so we're both Bruins. But seriously, so you have. Just like Councilmember Bell did, she said a really strong and eclectic background. I really appreciate that you are serving on a board right now at the Seattle Children's Theater. And I see you also received board leadership training with Arts Fund. Yeah. Have you had any direct involvement with Fort culture in other ways? And not until so. I guess over the last couple of years I've been getting more involved with them. I think over this last year for the board members that I, I mean, board meetings that I could attend and I have attended had a one on one with Brian, who's the new executive director. He and I both went through the Leadership Tomorrow program, different years, but basically the same training. So I feel like it's what the delay in the appointment. I still been able to have an active role and learn what they've done over the last two years. So it's been in that way. But yeah. Well, thank you for applying. And I think it's a really strong appointment by the executive council member. Got it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had one quick question of our staff. When you were mentioning about the terms of the board, you said that board members can have two consecutive three year terms for a total of six. My question to you is, does that hold the same for the three ex-officio members from the county council who are on the board? No. So the ex-officio board members serve one year terms and you can serve one one year terms and you can serve three consecutive one year terms. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know Dr. Rivers mentioned her professional work has been in Seattle. She is a resident of South King County in District five. And I had the chance to sit down and we had had coffee together. And I'm interested in people's backgrounds, but I'm also always interested in boards like this and people's personal attributes. And I found Dr. Rivers and Natasha, if I can use first names to be someone who's just very accessible is the word I thought of later, someone who's thoughtful. He's obviously a very positive and kind person. And I think with agencies like that that interact with a lot of organizations and a lot of individuals, people in those leadership roles, I think need to have those kinds of attributes to connect with the community. And I think that's going to be a huge, huge asset also. We talked a lot about issues related to equity around the changing demographics in the county, around how do you ensure that everyone is served by the agency? And it's obviously a topic that's near and dear her heart and and she's given a lot of thought to professionally and personally. And so I'm excited about her appointment. Thank you. Say no further remarks. I might ask the clerk to call the role. Just about there. To Councilmember DEMBOSKY. Councilmember Dunn. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Cowell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember article. Councilmember phone. Right where? Hi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Jerry Rogers. Nine eyes and no nose. Thank you. By your vote, Musburger's appointment will be taken up at the April 24th full council meeting with the due pass recommendation. And I would suggest we put this on consent. Yeah, it will be on the consent agenda. You're welcome to come if you wish. But you're not expected or required to in any, any way, shape or form. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks for your time. Mm hmm. And that takes us to our second motion with a for culture appointment today. Motion 2019 103. This is King Chasm, who I'm nominating for appointment to the board. And I'll turn it over to Ms.. Krakow's up for introductory remarks.