AN ORDINANCE relating to the Building for Culture Program, amending the list of approved projects authorized by Ordinance 18181.
We will turn now to item 38 Ordinance 2018 0257 Building for Culture Reallocations. Mary will have a staff report on this and then we'll move to take action. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, for the record, Mary Bergen on and the materials for this item begin on page 153 of your packet. I'll provide just a quick background back in 2015 and I'm now on page 154. Back in 2015, King County was able. Well to pay off the bonds for the long since demolished Kingdom Stadium about nine months earlier than anticipated. That meant that under state law, lodging taxes that had been set aside for the repayment of the kingdom bonds could be used for arts and culture purposes. With those proceeds, the county worked with for culture and led a community based process to develop the Building for Culture program that awarded just over $28 million in grant funds through a bond supported by these lodging taxes to capital facilities, improvements at arts and culture programs. That program was implemented through a number of ordinances, and you'll see those described at the bottom of page 155. And then moving on to page 156, an ordinance that made a supplemental appropriation of $28.5 million to allow funding for the program to go forward. An ordinance that authorized the issuance of bonds for the program. And then finally and you'll see this at the top of page 156, Ordinance 18181 that authorized the executive to enter into an agreement with for culture to implement the Building for Culture Program. Under this agreement for culture was to contract with the agencies that had been awarded funding and then also was required to report back to the council at several points, one of which two years after the bonds were issued, to indicate whether there were any organizations that would not be able, in four cultures estimation, to expend or fully expend their bond funds. You'll see on table one in the middle of page 156 that four culture did indeed report back in March of this year, two years after the bonds were issued and reported, that in their estimation, four projects would be unable to fully expend their funds. Those were the Seattle International Film Festival, which had been awarded 200,000 and would likely not expend $120,000 due to some zoning issues near their site. Pottery Northwest, which would not be able to expand its $11,300 award due to the renovation of key arena that is underway or as planned, good ground, also known as rumbling or farm that would not be able to expend $25,000 because the organization did not wish to pursue some landmarking issues. And then finally, the proposed studies center in Bellevue that had been awarded $1.2 million and in four cultures estimation would not be able to secure the needed funding to begin their construction on time. Now, if you'll see at the bottom of page 156, there is a quotation pulled out from the agreement that describes the options for any funds identified as potentially unexpended. And it notes that the projects in the agreement may be amended by the County Council to reallocate those funds to any other projects or tourism promotion activities, including arts and culture capital projects, as the County Council may determine. And it notes that if the Council chooses not to reallocate funds, any unexpended funds would be used to devise the bonds. That brings us to this ordinance that has before you today the proposed ordinance would reallocate a portion of the unexpended funds toward a number of projects. And I won't go on further in the staff report and describe the ordinance, because instead I'm going to turn to striking amendment as to which you should have at your place at the dais. And I'll pause here. We've got extra copies if anyone doesn't have one handy. S2 Striking Amendment S2 would reallocate the full $1.356 million identified by For Culture this March. It would also allocate an additional $300,000 based on information from the budget director that there is additional funding available due to interest earnings and potential additional under expenditures of bond proceeds. The striking amendment would add a statement in the statement of facts to note that and then would also add a new section in the implementing portion of the ordinance to require that for any additional funds that are allocated that the Executive would provide appropriate appropriation authority legislation to the Council to sort of close the loop. I had mentioned earlier that one of the ordinances implementing for culture was the appropriations ordinance, and so this would be an additional appropriation for those additional funds. You will then see attached to the striking amendment to exhibits, Exhibit A is the updated project list of approved projects. And then Exhibit B, which is at the very end of this little packet here, shows a red line version comparing what was in the original ordinance back in 2015 of the projects awarded funding and what the changes would be in this Stryker. And you can see that in kind of red line format of the organizations that I had mentioned previously that would not be expanding either all or part of their funding. And then the organizations recommended for additional funding. And if you turn to attachment B, I'll just go through it's organized in alphabetical order. First, you'll see the city a federal way would increase. And Mary. I don't want to rush it, but I think given our time, folks, can we. Let you read Exhibit B? And so then the ordinance is there and then Striking Amendment S-2. That was extremely helpful and very understandable. Councilmember about duty. We're going to put this on first, do it and move approval of ordinance number 2018. That's 0257. 2018 0257 is before us and we like to move the strike. Move striking amendment as to. As to is before us and Mary as described that other comments or questions on it. Okay Councilmember quickly where is but page number is the red line when it's in the extra packet that I distributed that's labeled as two and it has been exhibit thanks or attachment B, which is with the back of the packet. No. Okay. Councilman Belushi. If I mean, just briefly, I know where I was. I made the motion. Let's let you speak to it. Yeah. Thank you. And take a brief moment, Mary, accurately describe the reasons why this money has come back out of this earlier and much larger allocation and is before us for reallocation. I do want to say for the record that the fact that we're reallocating money from at least one of these projects that is going on and will be one looking for building and construction support in the future is not a statement of of lack of support for those projects. It's just timing. This this money has a hard and fast deadline on it, and it's coming up quickly. So so that's why we're here today talking about reallocating this money. It does provide us with an opportunity to support several very worthy projects. We heard about many of them today. Thank you all for coming down and telling us about your your visions and your and your projects that that will serve the public. These projects need to be like more than shovel ready. The building for culture projects had to be shovel ready. These have to be either underway or like getting underway in a minute because there's all you've got to go through there. After assuming this passes, we still have county bureaucracy that has to happen before the money can be, you know, issued, and then you have to be able to spend it. So I thank you all for your bravery in stepping up to this challenge. There is some urgency, and I do appreciate this getting on the agenda today, even though it's a very tight agenda because and I'll just say one example, the Renton Civic Theater has got to go. I mean, they've got a time window. And so. I feel. Sending. The right note. And it's not just the sale, it's the season starting. And if they're going to replace if they're going to replace the seats, they got to replace them. So I appreciate that. And I just want to list out real briefly without going through the whole list. This proposal before it today will support performing arts. We heard from the Renton Civic Theater, but there's also the Federal Way Performing Center Heritage, Renton, Shoreline, Sammamish and Highline are all in this package culture. We heard from the Filipino Community Center, Northwest African-American Museum and educational and arts programs like Kids Quest and Kirkland Performing Arts Center and the Seattle Symphony. It's a great package. I really encourage your support and I thank everybody for working so hard because this is not easy to do you all. It is not easy. No matter how big the pie is, it is not easy to figure out who gets what. And we've all worked very hard at this, and I think we've come to a place where we're doing a lot of good and I hope that we can all support it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Balducci. Other questions or comments? Council member Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some I mean, our county executive is always talking about we are one county. And I get mixed feelings about that because we have the executive and the judicial in the legislative branches. But this is a great example of how the executive and the County Council work together to figure out how to put together a satisfactory proposal. Because I did not think that we were going to get it were it appears to me that we are. And I just have one question here on the North African American Museum. What does it mean when it's 75,000 crossed out and then 127,000? Does it simply mean they're going to get 52? That is exactly what it means. They received $75,000 grant award in 2015. That award would be increased to 127,000. And that was from. This from this from this striking amendment. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Goss, other questions or comments? No, just briefly, I'll. Oh, Casper one, Rick Bauer, thank you. Sorry. I want to pick up on what Ferguson said, but I want to be specific about the appreciation to Councilman Baldacci, because I appreciate Councilmember or former Councilmember David Constantine's working with his former colleagues, but it took somebody to help the bridge. Yeah, and I'm. Sure. That every card with our chair, the committee was very Dombrowski who had raised some good issues through this process. And so I think that we've all worked together and I want to commend Mike Cameron, my colleague, Councilmember Banducci, and the chair of this committee. There's been a lot of collaboration and a lot of coordination and a lot of communication. And I think we've all seen like. You're so subtle right now, are you not? Very good. Thank you. For that. I appreciate those references. And this was not 1/1 presented, speaking for myself, a proposal that I could support because I didn't think it reflected our one King County values beginning. And that was just the beginning. And Councilman Baldacci, Doug, made clear that it was just the start. And indeed in the last several weeks, there's been a lot of work to make sure that we heard from the needs around King County. And this package, as amended today with strong amendment to is much more broadly I think reflective than the starter proposal, which was our starter proposal. We put on our best creative thinking house late, late yesterday and early today. I want to extend my personal appreciation to the executive staff, to Rachel Smith, his chief of staff, to Dwight Dybul, his chief, our chief financial officer, for their creativity in helping to be quite candid, secure some funding for the shoreline historical society which was , I thought in a jam and and needed some help. My district in the first round got 284,000 out of 28 million. Less than 1% for one ninth of the county. And I was having trouble doubling down on on that. And I think we've at least headed in the better direction. And we have a four culture panel here today and our executive director nominee is before us. And these issues around equity throughout the county are one of the reasons we're going to have, I think, this task force to take a look at that stuff. So I think the council has really stepped up here and my colleagues working together through some tough issues to make sure that we lived our our values. I'm very, very excited about Councilmember Gossett, successful advocacy for the Filipino Community Association and the African-American Heritage Museum, additions to reflect our cultural diversity and needs there. So I think we're we're in a very good place, and I'm very, very excited to be able to support it. We couldn't get your 500 shoreline when we got you three, so that that should help get it done. Thank you for being here. Any other questions or comments all in favor of us to say i. I your opposed turning to the underlying motion, motion or ordinance where we had an ordinance. Thank you. Yeah. Ordinance as amended. Councilman Belushi, to close. I echo the sentiments that have been shared. I don't want to repeat myself, but I feel very, very good about this list of projects I am. I'm going to be excited to come out and see all these places when these things are all done. So I appreciate the invitation by the Filipino Community Center and I might just show up at all your places to. Do the dancing and the bingo. Are not done for me to. Dance, I think. As I do. Okay. Thank you for your support, Marcus. Save us from ourselves by calling the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member DG Hi. Council Member Dunn. Councilmember Gossett Councilmember Kowalski I Council Member Member I Council Member McDermott All right. Council member of the Grove. City. Councilmember Von Richter. All right. Even Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. The vote is eight eyes, no nos. Oh, look at that. I will advance that on an excited basis. The full council on Monday for adoption. Congratulations to everybody and thank you for the work you do in the community to make this county an interesting and fun place to live. Yes. Councilmember Lambert, really quickly, thank you. I just got a chart right here and I'd like to show you this is what we're dealing with. And I think it's really important that everybody knows this. So District one got 1% this year to 18%. District three 7%, District 427, District five for District 611, District 79 and District 823, a District 9.3%. So as we go forward, these need to be much more equal because every one of our districts is the same 234,000 people, and they all have the right to have the same relatively same amount of lovely culture and arts and beauty in their districts. So as we're going forward, this is where I think we're all going to be needing to work on some equity in social justice. I Councilmember Lambert Councilmember McDermott has. That's prompted a comment. I think. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I would like to respond to that. While I don't have the graphic that the previous speaker just displayed, I would also point out that allocate the sites, the location where an institution exists, and there are a couple of districts that have concentrations of regional institutions that serve people across the city , across the county, in all 39 cities across King County and in many cases around the region and around the world. And so to expect such allocations to be broken out evenly by council district, I don't feel is the equity that we should be seeking. You know, Councilmember Gossett, I know you want in on that, but I'm going to. Have 25 minutes to go. I think you're going to see some of these issues play out in the next two matters. So. All right. It's a. Healthy debate. Thank you, Councilmember McDermott, for the counter view. And there's probably views all in between those two. So, Mary, do you recommend we proceed with our task force or our nominee to for culture? What's makes more sense? Well, what would you like to do, sir? I think given the and I know there's interest in both, but we have a number of tests for how many task force members are here. Raise your hand. Why don't. Just to respect their time. I think we can move pretty quickly through that item. We're not going to hear from all of them in an interview format because just too many. But let's see if we can take that one up. That is motion number 2018 zero three for four items ten through 36.