Wednesday, February 21, 2018
9:30—11:30 am
King County Courthouse, Council Chambers, Room 1001 (10th floor)
516 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98104

King County Ordinance #2018-0086, which proposes changes to how 4Culture is managed, will be discussed at a meeting of the King County Council’s Committee of the Whole. One hour will be made available for public comment. You can view the meeting agenda and other materials on the Council’s website.

Our Board of Directors has made a statement about this proposed ordinance, and we’ve compiled information about how the ordinance would affect 4Culture.

Proposed Ordinance #2018-0086 took us by surprise.

As the citizen volunteer Board of 4Culture, we are dedicated to reflecting King County’s values of public service, participation, transparency and government accountability to our residents.

Proposed Ordinance #2018-0086 states “the 4Culture board, executive director, staff and advisory committees have demonstrated a commitment to addressing racial, geographic and income related funding inequities and creating an environment in which all King County residents participate actively in cultural opportunities.” We believe all of this is accurate.

4Culture is defined by its commitment to the public process. The County Code that governs our funding programs requires distribution of public funding through annual competitive processes that invite applicants from all disciplines, and from all sectors of the county. Those proposals are evaluated by dozens of independent citizen review panelists who generate funding recommendations, which are then reviewed by volunteer expert Advisory Committees before we as the Board review and approve them.

Each of us who serve as board members has been recommended by the King County Executive and confirmed by the County Council after nomination by a Board Nominating Committee that includes board members, three county councilmembers, and the liaison to the King County Executive’s office, all of whom are voting members of the committee.

We are proud that both our financial accountability and compliance with state law have been audited 23 times, and that the State Auditor has lauded 4Culture and its board of directors for its commitment to sound financial management.

We take immense pride in navigating complex financial challenges throughout the past 15 years, in our stewardship of public funds, in retaining superb staff, and in the trust we believe we have earned from the arts, heritage and preservation communities throughout King County for our commitment to accessibility, fairness and equity.

The significant changes required by Proposed Ordinance #2018-0086 would result in an agency with very different governance and budget processes, and could very well reduce, instead of improve, community transparency. It is clear that the County Council desires to have closer oversight and involvement in this agency, and a path to grow arts, heritage and preservation capacity in districts throughout King County so that 4Culture funds can be distributed in a way that promotes equity and social justice, including geographic equity.

We have no doubt that the Executive and Council desire to see 4Culture succeed in its service to county residents.

We ask that the King County Executive and Councilmembers take a pause in acting on this ordinance and join together to work with us in a public process that will address the Council’s primary concerns about including geographic distribution of cultural funds and any other matters of concern.

Sincerely,
The 4Culture Board of Directors

The King County Council introduced Ordinance #2018-0086 on Wednesday, January 24, 2018. It states the Council has “determined that public funding for the cultural programs necessitates greater oversight and accountability to the public.” 4Culture is a respected public agency (Public Development Authority, PDA) with an excellent record of accomplishment and proven fiscal responsibility and accountability. The ordinance proposes changes to 4Culture’s charter and its by-laws that will have a significant impact by shifting responsibilities for budgeting, staffing, and board appointments from the 4Culture Board of Directors to the King County Council.

03/16/2018: View the updated staff report to see the current impact on 4Culture.

Current Oversight Measures:

The proposed ordinance will:

Give the King County Council the right to accept or reject 4Culture’s annual budget. If 4Culture’s budget is rejected, King County lodging tax, public art, and other funds to 4Culture will not be released until the 4Culture board submits a new budget for council approval. Withholding revenues would disrupt annual grant programs and Public Art projects.

Give the Council the authority to remove the Executive Director with or without 4Culture Board approval. The King County Council does confirm King County Department heads, but does not have the authority to remove them. Under this ordinance, the Executive Director would serve at the discretion of the King County Council and not the 4Culture Board.

Give the King County Council the ability to appoint the majority of the 4Culture board—nine of fifteen members—by council district, eliminating the 4Culture Nominating Committee’s recruitment process. It reduces the nominations of the King County Executive to six members.

There are 14 public agencies similar to 4Culture located in King and Pierce Counties. If this ordinance is passed, 4Culture will be the only one with a governing authority—in this case, the King County Council—that has direct political veto power over the Executive Director, can remove professional staff, can veto program or capital budgets, and can appoint Board Directors by elective district.

As our 2018 grant calendar gets underway with Project grants, our Historic Preservation team is offering up some resources especially for those interested in learning about the benefits of preservation.

This video is the the first in a short series of overview videos on basic preservation practices. One of the first challenges faced by owners of historic buildings and properties is landmarking: getting your property locally designated as a landmark allows you to take advantage of more opportunities and grants, but where do you start? With help from a property owner who successfully navigated the process, we walk you through the basic steps in the video above. You can also take a look at our Saving Places Through Landmarking reference sheet for guidance—it includes links to other agencies, tools, and resources that can help you landmark your historic property.

Stay tuned to our blog in the coming weeks for more historic preservation how-to videos, and let us know if they’re helpful! Applications for Preservation Special Projects grants are due Wednesday, February 28.

Charlotte Stokes put a 2017 Preservation Special Projects grant to work assessing the seismic integrity of a historic building in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, owned by her family since 1942. Here, she shares more about that process:

Do we preserve the historic character of the city’s historic buildings or progress to new construction with safer building standards? This 4Culture grant has set me on course to do both. My family’s historic brick building, built in 1897, is at 5129 Ballard Avenue NW in Seattle—it is not only a part of Seattle history, but a significant part of my own history. My parents bought the building in 1942, when I was a baby. Their business, The American Flag and Decorating Co., was on the first floor with an extra work area and storage in the adjoining lot. We moved into the second floor, where I lived until I started college at the University of Washington.

When we first moved in, most of the businesses located on Ballard Avenue served local industry, especially fishing. There were also lots of taverns, and nobody much worried about the historic character of the area. Indeed, after some damage to the two brick buildings across the street, their second floors were removed, while other buildings were refaced.

The Ballard building remains an important part of mine and my children’s lives. Although scattered across the country, time and time again we return to this building which has a been home to each of us. I have sought to be a good steward of the building and its historic character, seeing to basic maintenance, repointing bricks, making repairs to the foundation, and replacing plumbing, among other repairs.

I am also conserving it through obtaining a seismic upgrade of the structure. The first step was taken with a 4Culture grant: I hired BOLA Architecture and Planning to assess the building’s needs. The team, organized by BOLA, included an engineer to calculate the conditions and requirements needed for such construction and a contractor to estimate the costs. The process included making recommendations on how to preserve, as much as possible, the historic character of the building. One of the tasks of the engineer in calculating the stresses inherent in the building was taking into consideration its age and idiosyncracies—for example, the plan of the building is trapezoidal rather than rectangular. Would the supporting beams block entrances to the business on the first floor? What would be the seismic effect of dividing up the space differently?

The firm is completing their process now. These recommendations will help me in taking the next steps in hiring firms to do the work of upgrading the brick structure. But whatever the outcomes of their recommendations, my hope is that the building will continue to be a vital part of Seattle history and the history of my family.

Do you own a historic building or property? Check out our Preservation Special Projects grant, open now.