Brisbane, California Public Art Advisory Committee, 27 Sep 2022

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Public Art Advisory Committee

A

Foreign, this is the public art advisory committee, Monday September 26 2022 at 4 30 PM. This meeting is compliant with the Ralph m brown act as amended by California Assembly bill number 361, effective, September, 16 2021, providing for a public health emergency exception to the standard teleconference rules required by the brown act. The purpose of this is to provide a safe environment for the public staff and the committee, while allowing for public participation. The public May address the committee using exclusively remote public comment options.

A

The committee may take action on any items listed on the agenda to address the committee. The meeting the meeting will be an exclusively virtual meeting and the public May either join this meeting or they may uh do remote public comments at by emailing a ibera, brisbaneca.org or texting 415-407-2675.

A

Hey, uh let's do roll call council, member Cunningham, I.

B

A

Councilmember Davis is gone chair Davis here Vice chair salmon, here Park and Recreation. Commissioner Greenlee is absent. Park and Recreation commissioner Tom Sewell here, Committee Member Grossman is absent. Okay and we'll have approval of the agenda.

C

I move that we approve the agenda.

C

A

Okay, great foreign.

A

Council member Cunningham hi chair, Davis, aye, Vice, chair salmon, aye Park recreation, commissioner Sewell hi and then um this week I don't have any immediate minutes.

A

So please, oh I'm, sorry! This is all Jeannette go ahead. Jeanette.

D

All right so on presentations, discussion items we're going to meet with Bridget Shearer city of Belmont to discuss the process of their public master plan. I believe the meeting is scheduled from 4 45 to 5 15.. Is that correct angel that.

A

D

That's 30 minutes. We have um 15 questions um with three categories, um so I guess what I'll do is when we start the meeting. Ask if that's a hard cut off for her, uh because that leaves two minutes a question. So um if she has them, we could I'll. You know remind her that that's the amount of time, so she just needs to be brief and concise. So we can get that information unless she's, um you know, has a generous time schedule. We can continue up until what do we want to say 5 45?

D

What's the hard cut off.

A

D

Would say: 5 45.

A

So we can close it.

D

I mean unless we need to like fight at least five minutes, to have a discussion of what else we I mean. I, don't know. What's the pleasure of the committee.

C

D

C

We have a meeting that starts at six right.

D

So, what's the hard cut off with her, so we each have five minutes. Oh, we have five minutes, at least as a group to quickly discuss how that went or if there's more questions we wanted to talk about for tomorrow.

D

Do you think we need that time or no, so the hard cut off should be 5 45.

C

D

Thank you because you have another meeting: okay,.

E

D

What's the pleasure of the committee, would you like me to just go ahead and ask the questions that we have before us? Is that fine? Yes, okay, yes, um I, don't know that we have much time because of the two minutes per answer. uh So if you really must say something, please use a thumbs up and got to make it real quick, because we got to move on to the next question. Okay, all right! Thank you.

D

Anything else, yes, no.

D

A

That was good, okay,.

D

We got three minutes. Anybody else have uh additional comments.

C

This is exciting, I have a comment. I know that we have 15 questions, but I'm wondering how the committee feels if we get into a question that becomes kind of needing more information or something that kind of makes us want to ask an additional question. If the committee is um okay with letting it go a little longer than two minutes.

D

Well, I think we have that Flex available until 5 or 5. Then we definitely have it. I mean I, I, guess I'm. Fine with that I think somebody needs to ask that question and then we have to I I, don't know what what do you want to do? Yeah.

F

I'll start off with that, but I'll start off when I introduce you know. I'll thank Bridget for coming. I'll say that you know the committee has a number has 15 questions and maybe you know I know: we've scheduled you for 30 minutes, but if you have more time than that, you know we would be very appreciative if you don't have more time than that. Can we reschedule for you know, for maybe some follow-up questions that we might have.

D

Okay and then we can make note of that and then revisit that in more more in depth. Does that make sense? Yes,.

B

Okay, yeah! Well, she she might even say you know: I've got a lot more information on that. Can I get it to you in writing. Oh.

D

C

D

A commissioner, you know, gives me a thumbs up or something and says I just. Can we get more information on that or be really quick with your question and we got to see if she can try to be quick with that answer? Can we can we try and do.

B

It through chat, so you can see the chat uh Danette you might be able to. There might be you know. Tom and I might have the same kind of questions, so we don't want to be taking up time if we.

D

Can well, where is the chat? Where am I sitting on.

A

The bottom of your screen and it says, check.

F

Right but Karen, just let you know when I type, when I type, when I click on chat, the only person I see coming up is Angel.

E

It's Angel yeah Angel's, the only one. Oh she's.

B

E

To unlock that feature, I think.

F

And I think it's because of the way we do it. Okay,.

D

uh Chat's not even showing up on my screen when I hit it so I'm an iPad. So don't know if my iPad can do that: okay, never mind yep, okay, so I guess we'll keep on talking until she shows up right.

D

Is she hanging out in the waiting room?

D

A

She just joined okay, all right, perfect here.

C

A

A

Welcome Bridget.

G

Funny, how are you.

F

Hi Bridget, this is Stuart, we talked or I emailed you about, and I talked with you briefly about what we're trying to do tonight. Yes, we really appreciate your time sure.

C

F

um This I think I sent you an email earlier today, there's a lot of questions that we have for you to try and figure out how we're going to go about doing our master plan. We recognize that you know you're very much at the very beginning of using your master plan and you just got it adopted. We fully understand that, but we really appreciate the time you're taking to help us figure out how we're going to do ours.

F

What we're going to try and do to save sometime tonight is to have Danette ask most of the questions just so that way, as we go through, it'll be a little bit more it'll be smoother, but we were wondering if the five 15 is a hard stop for you. If we possibly have more time that we can use, that's.

G

F

Just to let you know our heart: stop is 5 45. So if you need to get off before 5 45, let us know okay.

D

F

That will probably give us a little bit more time to maybe go in depth on some of the questions and we really appreciate that. Yeah.

G

Sure no problem, okay,.

F

And then the only other thing is like you know: if we can't get through everything or if there's a follow-up, you know obviously we'll contact you again and try and figure out. How do we best do that, because I think all of our goals is to try and get the best public art and the best policies that we can for all of our communities yep um and it might be nice just to have everybody on the committee introduce themselves because they are all we have.

F

Our committee is made up of council members Parks and Recreation Commissioners and people from the public.

F

um So maybe, if we just go having dinner who's, the chair introduce herself and then have her introduce other people, and I can be quiet for most of this meeting.

D

Well, thank you Bridget for coming. We really appreciate your time and the information you can share with us. So it's it's going to be highly valuable to us, as we are a new Committee just trying to get started with our master plan and um I'm Danette Davis volunteer from the community and um am I introducing everyone's story. Is that what you said?

D

Everybody just oh I'll, just let everybody go ahead. Camille.

F

Yeah I was gonna, say if you're just like calling people to introduce themselves, because that seems you know the best way to.

C

Do it uh I'm, Camille and I'm also from the community as a representative from the community right.

D

E

I'm Tom Sewell I'm park and rec and my wife is first grade teacher in Beaumont, so yay.

B

Karen hi I'm Karen Cunningham I'm on the Brisbane City Council. Thank you so much for being here sure.

G

G

What is the name of the committee? What is your title.

D

Public art advisory committee.

G

D

Okay, great all.

A

D

Right and you have a list of questions in front of you, yeah, okay, so we there's three categories. There's roughly 15 questions originally was going to be two minutes, so if we have till 5 45, we.

C

D

uh Well, it's a little bit later that, but we have maximum four minutes. So if we could try to be quick, some committee members May rigs ahead if they want clarification, but they know that everything must be brief and we may just have to revisit this another time if it's more in depth, so we'll go ahead with the budget questions on how you determine the initial budget to do your project. Okay,.

G

So, um just to give a little bit of context, um we um we were planning to come up with a percent for art and uh development fee, because we have, as Edward City getting a lot of Development coming into the city. So we kind of looked in. What do we need to do to put that in place?

G

We wanted to have a public art master plan, so we could sort of uh justify this fee a little bit more and and show the developers and the community what our vision was so um and even before that our Council wanted to place.

G

Art Belmont is very proud of its Arts um uh Legacy, and we've been talking about Place, making and all sorts of things so because of that I joined an organization called the NorCal public art administrators Network, something like that NorCal pan and if you're, not part of that, somebody should join that um just kind of get on their mailing list and maybe participate in some of their meetings that, through that organization, I had some conversations with um some other public art administrators from Palo, Alto and San Jose, and they were very helpful in guiding us on an idea of sizing the budget for the city of Belmont.

G

So that's my answer. There.

D

Okay, thank you. Okay, on to the next lunch, did you feel that the initial budget was accurate and where uh were there different different expenses that were unanticipated? No.

G

Our budget was accurate for what we we got. We got a very high level master plan, I, don't know. If you've looked at it online, um it's it's very high level. We would have hoped to have done more Community engagement, but I think that was in the time of covid or or I can't remember, it's all a blur right. The last two and a half years are just a blur. So um so uh there's a lot of passion around art, but it's hard to get people to fill out.

G

Surveys and you know, come to meetings and that sort of thing so but I we did a um I I think we did a good job and I I think our consultant um uh helped us a lot. We got what we needed for um 25 000.

D

Wow, okay, that was gonna, be my next question.

D

You're on down the line, I'm just gonna go off. How long did that process take.

G

I think maybe um nine or ten months I can't remember exactly I'll check that um okay.

D

And then were there any issues or snags in the con, a contract that you wish you knew about beforehand, no.

G

Now we worked with somebody that um so we did a call for proposals, um but we ended up working with somebody who um had been in this NorCal pan Network. um A lot of cities knew her and um and her associate, and so we um and we weren't, asking for anything vastly different from what other cities ask for in this type of master plan. So um I don't want to say it felt prescriptive. I think it was nicely.

G

You know right sized for Belmont, um uh but no we we got, we got as I said, we got exactly what we needed. um You know a plan with um you know. Here's the situation here are some ideas to kind of stretch the community and thinking outside the box. You know we could you know there could be more than just utility boxes in Belmont right. That kind of that alone blew some people's mind. It made some people very excited, and so it kind of showed you know what are different.

G

You know what are other cities our size doing out there across the country um that inspired people and that led to some? You know large medium and small projects and short-term and longer term projects that we could do and that's exactly what we needed.

D

Okay, thank you and was there anything that you would add or delete from the initial contract to make a better end product.

G

That is a good question, um no I, don't think so. I think um no.

D

Okay, um this is not on the list and um since we're doing great in timing, I'm gonna um after I ask my question: if there's any other committee members that want to ask any questions regarding budget I think this would be a great time since we're doing good. So my next question not on the list, is um How many um public hearings and Community engagement meetings. Do you have any idea how many um it took and and what format were they just meetings?

D

Were they all set festivals and it like open air concerts in the park that you were? What what ways did you get community engagement on how to come up with this plan?.

G

You know we did. uh We did one um in-person presentation to. uh We did it at the local library and kind of put it out to all of our artists. We have some uh little artist Studios that we rent here in Belmont, and so we kind of have a a good network of artists to reach out to and reach out to the Greater Community, and we actually had a pretty good uh participation there um uh at the library. So we gave a presentation there to the general Community.

G

Then, as I said, we did the survey and other than that we did presentations I think we did a kickoff and then a final presentation at our Parks and Rec commission and similarly at city council.

D

Thank you all right, any other questions regarding the budget from the committee members nope, okay, moving right along, we will move on to the next um topic, which is master plan under master plan. How did you and the consultant get the community involved? Well, we just asked that question. So there we go so.

G

Let me just let me just I'm just kind of looking back here at my files and um gosh darn it. If we didn't. We started this in um early 2020, so you know I would have loved to have done more Outreach at concerts and- and you know, festivals and that sort of thing, but there wasn't anything so so there. That is so it's possible that um now we didn't have a um a committee uh quite like, like you're, putting together here, to do that kind of Outreach. So that would have been on me.

G

So it may be that a budget you might want to um uh increase your budget a little bit if you would want the consultant to participate in that Outreach. Okay,.

D

All right and then what worked and didn't work.

G

Now that I'm thinking about it we're kind of getting some of the rust off here on this, um we.

G

um We did a survey and the consultant put together the survey questions and then what one component of the survey was. We wanted the community to give us ideas for where they would like to see public art right just to kind of get them engaged right, it's kind of a fun exercise, um and so we, the survey, included a map where they could drop pins to look at things. That was honestly I think a little too complicated, and um you know not everybody's tech savvy. You know not.

G

Everybody knows what it means, drop a pin that kind of thing. So, if you do a survey, an online survey I would highly recommend keeping it much simpler than that, and then we were also. We also asked people, you know, submit an idea or a picture of some public art that you, like I, don't think we really got anything sensitive that way, I think um showing people examples of things. You know crazy to you know not so crazy, maybe on a spectrum, might work better and just kind of ask people. You know where do you?

G

You know which resonates to you or put these in order of which you like them, or something like that. You know, keeping that survey under two minutes and simple would be the thing to do.

D

Okay, great, thank you. Oh I already asked you how long it took you said nine to ten months.

G

Right, yeah I'm, just looking back here, our focus group announcement was it's almost comical now to look back at this January of 2020., okay yeah. So we had our. We had our meeting on in February 3rd at the library yeah. So right.

E

Before right before, right.

G

Before right, right before life, changed remember when we thought it was only two weeks, long will be back in the summer right so um so anyway, so that I think um uh impacted our process. But, to be honest, I, don't think it impacted our outcome. Okay, the goal was to come up with a plan.

G

um You know a lot of times when you're doing these Master plans, it's really kind of confirming what you all sort of already expect or presume and and I'm not saying I could have written this Pro. This master plan without Barbara goldstein's help, um but the locations and the type of work and the timeline, and all that were you know, like I, said: there's there's there wasn't anything crazy out there that was gonna. um There wasn't anything controversial about it. Everybody in this community wants more, you know.

G

Yes, we want more art and we want it yesterday. So and and again we wanted to be able to show developers here. We've got a plan, so you've got an eye. You've got you know, here's some ideas to maybe inspire you on your development site or, if you don't want to bother with it, and you give us the uh in lieu percent art fee here are the kinds of things that we would apply it towards and we are starting to get some money in. So it's you know, that's the exciting part of this right.

G

The whole point was to get that percent for art, and it it you know, was unanimously approved by Council and um you know not a not a blip of opposition from developers. So it goes.

D

Okay and so how- and where did you advertise to try to find the consultant? We, you talked about that a little earlier about that Nor Cal pan organization yeah, so you did you put an RFP out initially um and then how did that work out? We.

G

Put on an RFP, so we put it out or an RFQ excuse me um and uh we posted it on our website. I sent it out to all of our artists.

G

You know our artist Network here in Belmont and um and then I uh put it out, uh sent it to the NorCal pan administrator, who sent it out their whole network and on that Network there are um art, consultants and- and you know folks, that do this kind of work and then I had had a couple of um one-on-one conversations with uh administrators from I, think Walnut, Creek, uh Palo, Alto and San Jose, and um so they also I also asked them to forward it out.

D

Okay, and so based on that, you were able to get applicants or how many applicants was just one person. Or did you get like a pool that you were able to interview and choose from question.

G

That is a good question. No, we got a couple.

A

G

I see two here we got one from the Barbara Goldstein who we, um who we selected and the other one was from the Fung collaborative um I. Don't know if you're familiar with them, they've actually done some work with uh Burlingame and uh and possibly Woodside as well. So.

D

G

D

How do you spell that Fung.

G

Okay on collaborative they are very interesting, but we kind of needed a little more nuts and see and um and uh if you will a little more prescriptive and that's where I think um Barbara Goldstein was was the right. um um The right person for for our work.

D

Okay, thank you and then my next question is: how did you, how do you find a consultant that has experienced without getting that cookie cutter master plan, one that will really delve into the community?

D

So I guess maybe it's what about her? That's the one! You chose that you. How did you come to the decision to choose that uh Barbara Goldstein? Is that I'm? Sorry, that's.

G

Robert Goldstein and Associates right, um yes, and um you know she had the experience of of also helping cities get to that um percent for art fee and has a lot of experience with it.

G

um Was reassuring to us so it was. She is very familiar with the process um for how to get there. I would say: fun collaborative was is more about um doing great art and we needed a little more of the process and the um I guess. You know the comfort in knowing that she knew you know: hey some cities do a percent.

G

Some people do one and a half percent and here's the difference, and here are the pros and cons and- and um she had more of those sort of procedural um Alternatives and experience and and understood how that had changed over time. As development was was you know, Happening Here on the peninsula, so.

D

G

Why he was selected.

D

All right, so that ends our session for master plan.

C

And I see that Camille.

D

Has questions so if any other committee members after Camille have questions regarding these topics, uh raise your hand so Camille and then Karen go ahead. Camille.

C

I have a question. It seems in your master plan. Part of what you were putting in there was to get a developer fee into the master plan. For us. We already have that there- oh nice, okay, okay, so uh I guess! My question is: how would you look at if you already had the the percentage of what developers were paying into your funding, Art Source.

A

C

You look at uh in terms of who you went out to get to help deal with the master plan.

G

That's a good question, um so um I'll I'll answer your question with a question: what are you doing now when you get developer art dollars? What are you doing now with those dollars they're in a bank? Okay, okay, all right, oh cool, um gosh! Okay, then, um if you've already got that I guess um I guess then I would I. I would consider giving given where I am now right.

G

um I could say: okay, yeah I could see maybe going a little going. A little crazy kind of and and um trying to um you know, stretch the community a little bit about what they might be able to expect.

G

You know there's so many interesting and creative ways to incorporate art and I think the community doesn't always know what those are right. It's not just a statue or a mural right. There are so many other ways to to do that, and, um and so uh if I were now looking for, consultant, um I might and and kind of knowing what I know now and knowing we're just going through a city-wide, Parks master plan, and so I've got all kinds of other ideas that I I wasn't necessarily thinking about.

G

At that time, um that, where I that could create that could incorporate art a little more, a little more I, don't know differently than than what we would think is traditional and I'm not saying that Barbara Goldstein was traditional or anything like that again, we were.

G

We were comforted by her uh by her um depth of expertise, um and um but now that we're you know two and a half years later, um yeah I could I would consider other kinds of artists that had a that that maybe, in their response to your proposal, demonstrated uh broader range of ideas about what art is. Do you know? Do you know what I'm saying right? Okay,.

D

Okay, thank you, Karen good question.

B

I'm I'm loving this conversation by the way thanks it's like oh yeah, yeah great, so um one of one of the things that speaks to me I'm a very I'm, very much a visual learner. So for me it's like when I see it I understand it. How how many? Oh did you use lots of visuals in your Outreach to the community?

B

um One of the things that we've discussed is having like a a library that we can then put out to the community and say look. These are all the things that we've all collected that that we've seen around that we love. Did you do that? And and how did you do that.

G

um Again again, um you know because it was covid there. You know libraries were closed.

D

G

Mean, and so we we relied heavily on PowerPoint presentations and I worked really hard with um with Barbara and her team to um show as many examples as possible. So we have some presentations and I'm happy to share them with you of you know different cities, you know here's what this city did and here's what that city did. The problem is, you know we're not Manhattan right.

G

We can't create The, High Line, you know in Brisbane and Belmont right as much as I mean that's amazing, right and I think it's important for the community to see those kinds of things, but then we need to sort of bring people back to reality and say cities of our size.

G

um You know, or with our you know, potential Revenue dollars. You know. Well, we can't create The, High Line. We could use that idea somehow in some smaller things. So we we made sure that that some of the examples were also of cities of similar size. Right I mean you go to San, Francisco or any City and be blown away by what they do.

G

It's just not realistic to to do that here, but could we create an art, walk along our little creek yeah, and could it have different pockets of seating that feel that each have a different feel like the Highline in Manhattan yeah?

G

Could we envision um and and we've got that example actually are starting to talk about that with the developer here in Belmont to actually activate a piece of Belmont that has never been activated before right.

C

G

Of that That's The High Line um you're familiar with the Highline right. um You know that's a Highline concept right, some, you know Dead, uh you know above ground tracks are now this incredible public space and um some that's kind of something that we never would have thought of here in Belmont. So um so I think that's good. But yes, we had a lot of pictures and- and you know, Karen I- think um in the ideal World, rather than asking the community to send us those ideas in that survey.

G

I think it would be great to have a binder or a visual slideshow of just one. After another of you know, public art, you know- and you know- and you know all different kinds of things and and how they have transformed cities. I just heard today, I guess: um Gavin Newsom signed a bill that parking requirements are no longer required in developments near a Transit corridor, heard that on the way to work today, just think about how that's going to change things and how that's going to change space, and you know how space is used.

G

You know those are more opportunities for seating or or what I don't know whatever the way. The way we move in our communities and I think we need to start to think about that, so so yeah I think the a catalog it. Maybe let the community add to the catalog but I think if you start it um and maybe have a flip book or something like that on your project website or your Outreach website, I think that would be awesome.

B

But thanks because it's it's, we we've got so much open space. We've got so many possibilities and it's like okay. What any and one of our conversations is, how do we engage the public in the process? Yeah.

E

B

Our community is small enough. There's only 4 500 people, 4 600 people, it's easy to engage, but you know if, if that you know, obviously, if that that works, we we're going to be all over everything.

G

Right right, right, right.

B

G

You know I think it'd be good to kind of categorize things right. You know some art, you look at some aren't you. You know you interact with some of it. You you sit on you, don't even realize it's art and you're sitting on it. That kind of thing so and some of it can change all those things are I, don't know it's fascinating. It's fascinating, so great.

D

All right, thank you. One more question. I had on this topic, um Bridget, we were talking about. Well, it was back to what Camille was saying.

D

um So since we already um have um the funding in place, I mean it seems like you, the consultant you hired was to help you secure the funding. If you had already a means or a method to secure developer fees, would you have looked for a different type of consultant that brought something whether other Consultants that maybe would have been a better fit that you didn't need that component done or um that's what I was wondering or a different time, I'm just like without needing that part of it.

G

Yeah right, I'm kind of rationalizing backwards um with you know why we chose Barbara um again. I think she was a good fit for, for the city of Belmont um uh would I now looking would I if I were to do it now? Would I choose a different consultant?

G

um I, don't know, I can't answer that I think the the other one that we, uh the other RFQ that we received was um uh very interesting, but um I did I'll just say: I, don't think it was the best fit for Belmont at the time and I don't know if they would be the best fit now.

G

Okay, so that's that's again: I don't want to you, know, diminish their work at all. They've done great work in Belmont and in Burlingame and I think in Redwood City as well and they're they're doing great things, but um wasn't quite what what we were looking for.

D

Okay, thank you before we move on we're doing pretty good we're at 5 12. uh before we move on to the next topic, any other questions from committee members or staff Stuart Angel. Okay.

D

So we will move on to reflection. Well, we've been kind of talking about that. So uh what did you learn? What were the mistakes and what made you excited that came out of the master plan.

G

um It was exciting to have a road map for what we were going to do, because I think you also need to set expectations for your community that you're not going to transform into an outdoor Museum overnight right that you know it's going to take a while to accumulate the dollars. It takes time to do this right um and you have a lot of different voices in I mean Belmont's 26, 000 people, you're, 4, 500, but I'm sure there are 40.

G

You know maybe 4 100 different opinions about what is art and what do I like and you know, should it be contemporary? Should it be historical all those sorts of things? um So, uh oh, my gosh I just completely lost my train of thought.

E

G

Was it was? It was a good road map for kind of setting those expectations and um and um yeah telling us what our next steps need to be, and our next steps are um still, unfortunately, to sort of finalize our guidelines for our developers um to uh kind of Define the process for how? How do we Implement something if we get dollars right in Lou dollars? What are we going to do our draft plan?

G

Is that we're going to establish an ad hoc committee, not a permanent standing committee, but an ad hoc committee um uh that will decide the location and the type of art that we're going to have, and then we would do a call for artists and that um and evaluate it that way or if the developer is doing their art on site right, they technically have free reign for what they do. Obviously they want it to be successful and in keeping with you know, with um the look and feel of the community right, nobody wants to.

G

You know intentionally put up something that's going to offend their neighbors or the community, um but you know: what's the process for doing that, and when do they need to apply and what are the rules for how much money they can spend on a consultant to to advise them all those things, we're kind of still dotting the eyes and crossing the t's on that process.

D

Okay, thank you. uh Chameleon has a question regarding.

C

That yeah I do uh I was interested. Did you give the master plan to your developers? Wait. Let me just backstep in the master plan. I'm assuming and I may be wrong. That Not only was it a road map, but it gave a sort of road map in Aesthetics.

C

I mean I heard you talk earlier, was it contemporary? Was it historical, those kind of things so I'm wondering in the master plan? If, if the master plan included those ideas, those Concepts or was it more open-ended conceptual, and if it did was that given to developers so.

G

The developers are doing a really good job on our website, so whether if our community development is giving it to them or directing them to it, I don't know, but me if they're sort of early in the process of sort of trying to you know, submit a proposal to the city, um they have contacted me and said: hey, you know you were you spearhead of the master plan, talk to us for a little bit and we've had these kinds of conversations um we are not putting.

G

We have not prescribed any kind of Aesthetics to say in this part of town. It has to be historical in this part of town. It can be a contemporary, nothing like that, because um uh you know it really.

G

It depends on the kind of dollars we're we're planning to spend somewhere and exactly where it is, and- and you know what kind of art it is. So no we have not. um We have not done that. Okay. That was my thank.

D

You yeah all right, I do have a question regarding the developer. Also, um does a developer have free reign and are they required to have any? um Are they just do what they want, and then they just say this is. What we're doing is there any Community engagement? Is there uh some kind of oversight committee to say whoa? We can't have ABC here, that's not gonna work. So what are the guidelines for developers besides, maybe a certain percentage of the dollars for their project?

D

How do you kind of what? What do you do with that? That's.

G

A that's a very good question um and we have not fully finalized that but bottom line. If it's on their property, they technically have the right to do what they want.

D

Well, my question is: is that not something that was written in the master plan that the person you hire? Is there anything in your document that helps you.

G

No, not in the master plan we're still refining exactly the the document that we are ultimately going to give developers. But in the absence of that, and even with that, I've had some discussions with the you know with our City attorney about that. um You know they can propose something and they need to.

G

They need to propose um something as part of their design and if the Planning Commission doesn't like it I'm sure there would be feedback about that, um but we do not have uh and if they want to consult with us and get our input, that's fine, but we don't have um the right to to tell them that the art that they're putting there is something we do or don't like.

D

Okay, one other question: before we move on, you said: you're still finalizing the master.

G

Plan, no, no, not the master plan. We're defined, we're refining, we're finalizing the developer guidelines.

D

G

About exactly this kind of thing, so.

D

Are you still working with Goldstein yeah? Are you still working that so, but that's not something you finalize with her. That's nothing.

G

D

G

No, no okay to be I, guess you know what looking back to be honest, I wish we would have, and that might have been something that you know. Maybe you want to pay a few dollars and get that kind of tied it tied up in a in a tighter bow then um than we did um we and and because you already have your percent for art you're good to go. We wanted to get that percent for R done so that it could be on our January 1.

G

You know fee schedule, um January 1 of 21., so um so we have kind of draft guidelines that we included in the plan um I think in their final plan report, um but we have not finalized that yet.

D

G

You all right I'm behind schedule on that. So.

D

Okay um next question: under the reflection, would you change anything I guess either on the document? Well, maybe you said maybe you would have worked more with her on.

G

That part yeah yeah, really um to really uh clearly Define that you know who is who is making the selection of your you know of art, that's coming on onto city property, right who's, deciding that our plan, because we don't expect it to happen often right. It's not like we're we're, not San Francisco right with you know, gazillions of dollars coming in every year. You know we're going to have little blips of money, and- um and we want to be able to- you- know, amass enough so that we can have a robust thing.

G

One of our Visions is for a pretty large um art piece at sort of one of the um main gateways into the city. So that's going to be pretty significant. It's going to cost quite a bit of quite a bit of money, so we're sort of waiting for that to amass who's. Going to you know the the um the committee of people that are going to decide what that looks like can be very different than the committee of people that decide.

G

You know what kind of Arts artwork are we going to have in the you know in the play near a playground in the back of our park right. Those are kind of two different um scale projects. So um so that's the kind of thing we're we're working out. Who, who is who do we just select to be on the committee once we've figured out? Where is it going to go?

G

What kind of medium is it you know we want us, you know if we're talking about a sculpture, we want some kind of a sculptor to be part of that right because I, don't know how you know how these kind of artworks have to be maintained, and um almost you know, do we have enough in our budget to maintain it for the 20 years or something like that, all that you know we need somebody with expertise to come in and advise on those things.

G

I can tell you what I like and don't like, but um but I think we we need some actual functional expertise when we make those kind of decisions.

D

Okay, I'm gonna, ask one quick question and then Camille.

D

So you don't have a have our committee right.

G

Now is everything running through park and rec everything's run through park and rec right, and then we would sort of we would sort of establish a um an ad hoc committee for that art project. Okay,.

D

Camille was that your question that.

C

Was basically my question we're a little different and having said that, um because we have an established public, Arts committee.

E

C

We have discussed, and it would be interesting to know if this is something that would go in the master plan, that for and your feedback on, that that for each particular project we could either. We would do possibly look at an all art consultant to run that, as well as having community members come on to the committee for those particular projects.

G

Yeah you have to right. If you know, depending on how you establish your committee right, then it's a public meeting and you've got brown act issues. So you got to think about that. um But yeah I think an Arts consultant is a helpful thing. I've worked with one um who was coordinating and oh here's, the other thing I'm.

G

Sorry, um you were asking me about the developer and what they were um you know do we have any say and what kind of art they have and as I mentioned so far, the developers um that are doing any kind of art have all reached out to me to ask about you know: what do you think and do you want to be on a do? You want to be on our selection committee as we select an artist and here's what we're thinking and all that, so you know we've kind of informally.

G

You know been able to weigh in on things, nothing's been too controversial and again it's in the developer's interest to not propose something outrageous that might offend right, they're, um they're, not in the business of doing that either right, whether it's a residential um development or any kind of commercial development. They're not they're, not trying to be provocative right. They want to they want to. um They just want people to like their building and and come and rent in it and live in it. So um I think we're all. On the same page, there.

D

um I do have a question about um you were talking about amassing of fun because you want to have a like a you know. A centerpiece at your gateway is, did that information come as a result of community engagement saying? What are your top topics? Is that like was that, like the top thing that the community said, we want to save the money, so we can have a big bang for the buck in you know, coming from you know, off of blah blah blah as we entered a town or who came up with that idea.

D

G

Question um the answer is no. That did not come from the community that came from before we had the public art master plan process.

G

We had a place making committee, and that was city, council members and some um City staff department, heads that were trying to um you know we're trying to try and trying to Brand the city of Belmont right and um so for a couple of years, there's been a place making committee and that committee, one of their Visions, was to have a Gateway piece um as you're coming on Ralston off of 101., some kind of a signature piece, and that then led to a signage and wayfinding committee that is looking at branding our other gateways and other directional signage in in Belmont.

G

Our neighboring cities all have these things. Lots of cities do now we don't yet, um and um so that's what that's what it came out of.

G

Okay, that's where the Gateway piece came out.

D

Okay, one quick question on that, um since we don't I, don't believe Karen, maybe your staff, you can correct me I, don't know that we've had a place making in a way making or whatever.

C

D

To ride it, my ink ran out so I didn't get to write that word, but anyways I, don't think. We've had that so we're gonna consultant and we don't have all that information to get to what are our top 10. Where are they? What are they? And so we don't have that. As far as staff correct me, if I'm incorrect I mean we might have it for the city in general, but I don't think we have it for specifically for art So. Based on that, we need a consultant. Well, we don't.

D

Why have the developer fees down? We don't have all that information and input from the public, so.

G

And, to be honest, you know um the public, the members of the public that participated in our focus group and in our place, making presentations to council and all sorts of stuff and our survey they might enter and people who've read. Our master plan might know that our Gateway component is sort of one of our priorities, but you know we to be honest. We didn't ask the community and I think if you've got a community of 4 500.

G

If I were sitting in your in your community now and knowing what I know now and that we're out of covet I would put up a big old map with dots about all the places you think art could go. Then you have this whole. You know catalog of possible art and you ask the community what they want.

G

Okay, I think you've got a great opportunity to do that now and now that we can gather publicly, you can imagine people putting dots all over things and voting that way and I think that would be great right. That would provide a great visual that we did not yeah.

D

Well- and that would be something the consultant would do right is that yes, I mean they need to Spirit yeah, okay, just checking okay,.

C

So I'm, like can I sort of say, unlike Belmont they're only they're, only a few places in Brisbane. It's all relative that public art can go I, think right.

G

You know- and maybe you say you know, these are the top five right and then you know, let's get these done.

C

First, we could say this is the top ten and probably exactly.

G

Yeah yeah yeah and you just you know, maybe you want a signature piece in front of your city hall or or at the entrance to the city, or something like that. um You know, uh but yeah I think I think you know now that we're out of the pandemic I think you've got a great opportunity to do that kind of Outreach.

D

Okay, thank you. Okay, we have 527, we have roughly a little bit more than 15 minutes and we've got three more questions so.

G

You are a good time: keeper I'm gonna.

D

Have you all right just trying to keep on task here? Does the document still feel suited for today? Oh that was we're going to interview San Diego, so there's as much older, oh okay! So yours isn't that old! So um you know I, don't know it's brand new! It's for you! So yeah.

G

Yes, it's it's fine. It's.

D

C

G

I said it's given us enough of a near-term road map as we start to collect these dollars. So, yes,.

D

um Okay, quick question kind of similar to that is, since you've gotten your doc. Since you have this document, what projects have you done? Have you done any with this new document since 2021 and with that, have you um just used that document or have you? Let's say you had a project? Did you hire a consultant for that project like let's say at a park or on Ralston, or you know something like that.

G

The only thing we've done is unfortunately, still kind of to the scale of uh of utility boxes. In that we have a new um uh Synthetic Turf Athletic Field.

G

It had been a natural grass athletic field, but we re-turfed it and and Synthetic Turf and kind of spit the whole place up, and um so we had some local artists do some murals on some of the light poles out there um and it's a you know it's a fairly simple thing, but um in fact I was just out there today and thinking about the number of kids that see that art they'll walk. Past I mean we have 100 kids out there.

G

You know every night of the week people are seeing that art it's more visible than a whole lot of other things that might happen in town. So while it was extremely low budget, it was one of our low-hanging fruit, near-term things and I view it as a success, um and we have a couple more light poles to do so, and that was very well received by the community and we got it done with local artists where we just paid them. You know for 250 or something or maybe 500 for their materials. So it was.

G

It was an easy easy one.

D

So could you have done this project without having a master plan document? Do you think, and was it managed through just you or did you get another committee like? How did you manage that particular project.

G

um How did we manage that? We got the submissions and, oh, you know what we had a um our Parks and Rec commission so because it was fairly simple and straightforward. um Yes, we could have done this without the public art master plan. In fact, we had done utility boxes, we had eight utility boxes along Ralston and we did that on our own, with within the parks of our commission before we had the master plan. So, yes, we would have been capable of doing these light.

G

Poles um we had a um and because we had the utility box expertise we felt we could handle that with our um Parks and Rec commission subcommittee um and what was interesting there. We also had some. We have some youth Commissioners on our park and rec, commission and, um and so because they you know, they use that field more than uh adults do. It was actually really nice to have some of their input and there were actually some um I, don't say, potentially controversial comments, so um I'll give you an example.

G

This is during 2020 think about what else going on in the world in 2020 um and on the light pole, the the image is um people in the stands like the backs of their heads, and you see in sort of these um word bubbles, what the team was cheer, what the fans were cheering what they were saying and one of the one of the bubbles had the phrase back: the blue, which in the whole George George, Floyd controversy. It could be, you know, supporting the police, not that I'm opposed to that or anything like that.

G

What it actually meant was supporting the umpires that I guess it's a phrase and baseball I didn't know that, um but it could have been, it could have been interpreted differently, and so um so the commission actually went back to the artist and said hey. This could be interpreted one way or the other. We really. This is one we have say over. We don't want any controversy to you, know, support or not support the police or anything like that. We don't want anybody to. You know deface this.

G

Because of that comment, would you consider rephrasing that bubble and they did so so that was successful, but no so we did that one ourselves and um and did not have a consultant for that.

D

Okay, thank you and moving on to the second to the last question, what piece of advice would you give.

G

G

What piece of advice would I give uh I would say if you're going for uh if you're looking Beyond local artists I do think there's an advantage to getting um an art consultant. You know they've got huge networks of people, and so these developers should um engage someone so that they get broader reach. They know I mean you know, there's so many consultants, so many art Consultants here in the Bay Area and when I was privileged to be part on the committee for this local um uh development that we did.

G

uh It was really interesting to see some of the proposals from these different artists, and um that was a that was a nice broad reach and the other thing is you know: if you want good art, you got to pay for it, and you know we've we've done well with our kind of local artists. You know gosh darn it.

G

You know I, don't want to say we've nickel and dimed them, but you know those those artists spent a lot of time on the utility boxes or on these murals, and um and don't be shy about paying these artists for what they do so.

D

Thank you, um I have one more question, but before that, how do you come up with what you pay your artists? How do you determine when you put a project out? Is it going to be 250 for a live post, or is it 500 or.

G

D

A thousand: how do you come up with this number I.

G

Checked with the neighboring cities: um again we did our utility boxes in 2018 and um and some communities um do sort of a vinyl covering over their utility boxes and other ones actually have them actually paint and um ours actually painted and we paid them for the materials. But frankly, knowing what I know now, I would pay them more.

D

Thank you and our final question is: would you hire the same consultant if you could do it again.

G

Would I hire the same consultant? uh Yes, I would would I yes for the for. Oh, let me say this for the scope of work that we needed. Yes, I would, um if you're asking me for a reference for Barbara, Goldstein um I, think uh I did more editing of the wording of things then I expected to be doing um so. That was the only that would be my only um con. I guess and I.

G

Think Barbara had an assistant um doing a lot of the work and sort of drafting of the presentations and and uh I'm kind of a stickler for the wording and consistency, and that sort of thing, and so I ended up having to do a little more of that for for my own OCD standards, but other than that, it was other than that.

G

It was fine as again again, I think Barbara brought um again the depth of experience throughout the Bay, Area and I think in other parts of the country as well, and that's what we needed to make this um I mean it was. It was kind of a slam dunk um because of her presentation and approach.

D

Okay, thank you Tom. You have questions and any other committee members we have about 10 minutes, so um gather your thoughts, any uh mail or staff or Karen, but Tom go ahead and then Karen.

E

uh Thank you um great great stuff. Thank you so much um you mentioned low-hanging fruit and you were able to do this kind of while the master plan has been. You know in development. You know we've been talking about. Do we even do anything before the master plans developed? Do you you think we can go ahead and do a small, low hanging fruit project and learn from that, while this is being built? Oh.

G

Yeah, um you know uh I, don't know if any of you have been into to.

G

If, if any of you were in downtown San Mateo on B Street during the pandemic, they set up a community art um project and it was actually a couple of chalkboards um and each of the three different sort of three sides of chalkboard and at the top it had some kind of a statement you know I wish I could whatever and they let people just fill it in with art foreign get around to doing that and I thought, and when I saw that I thought that was so beautiful I mean people were just it was moving.

G

It was a movie, it was just a simple chalkboard with with chalk and it let people Express themselves, I think there's a great opportunity to do that, and what a perfect way to talk about low-hanging, fruit right, do that and sometimes staff it and engage with the community right there, while they're doing art you talk to them about the art plan. So, yes, absolutely I would do I. If, if I could do it over again and we didn't have covid I would love to have.

A

Done something like that and.

G

That was actually part of our plan. I think was. We were going to do some kind of little art activities we just couldn't. We couldn't gather during 2020.

E

Boy, I love. Your idea of you know get the public involved involved with the small project. Yeah yeah, that's fantastic! Thank.

G

B

Karen um very similar comment to to Tom. It's like. um What's what's the saying you know if you you wait for Perfection, it's never coming. So let's do some things in the interim and Tom. I know that Bridget was talking right up your alley when she talked about the the Tariff on the soccer fields.

B

um It's been a conversation here. We've got God first. That kind of we.

E

Can decide on that problem.

B

But you know maybe that's a conversation we could bring together but um love that idea of the um the chalkboard thing yeah.

A

B

You know I mean it was just just.

G

Talk about it, um one of the things I think in our in our master plan that we came up with was Art in unexpected places. Right, you don't necessarily think to see art at a sports field, but you know not everybody's an athlete right, and you know all the little siblings that get dragged along to the you know: Brothers baseball game or whatever, maybe there's maybe there's an artist there and what what a great thing to see the art there. That's um that was kind of the nice uh reaction we got to it. So you.

B

Know maybe we put a chalkboard in the middle of the soccer field, Tom.

G

A

G

You don't know.

A

E

Sounds dangerous yeah.

G

So, um oh the only other thing to caution you about, and this is what I learned um uh something about I'm far from an expert but um from participating in this Northern California public art, administrators, Network, right, larger cities have a dedicated person who know you know who is an artist or understands art Administration. There is a lot to know about acquiring the art installing the art who owns the art, who maintains the art?

G

um How do you um uh at what point? Do you no longer maintain it? And what at what point do you remove the art? And how do you do that with the artists, knowing it or or participating in it, and all that and that um we have not had that issue, um but for one small utility box uh drama I'll stay away from, but no actually I'll I'll give you the details in just a moment. I know we're running out of time.

G

um uh You need to have that stuff nailed down before you work with a serious artist, so that is probably where especially the first time around, you have an art consultant that really works with you on that, because that you know, if you don't do that right, that can end up in litigation.

G

So you need to be very careful about that with our consultant and our YouTube with our utility boxes, we had a contract that the artist signed that clearly stated that the art was ours, but there was some liability language in that um in that contract that an artist agreed to in year, one and then in year, two when he was being asked to do a different type of work, he objected to the wording on the contract and therefore went back and painted over his original utility box.

G

Without our permission, so we decided to let it go, but you know he basically defaced what had technically been city property and all that so check your contracts before you do them again, I'm happy to send you our samples or whatever, but you know, art and law are, are um you know, dicey things so make sure you have your eyes dotted and T's crossed with that before you move forward.

D

Great, thank you Camille, and we have about five minutes just.

C

Quickly, um we were talking contracts and and the bewares, the bewares, and all of that was not included in the master plan. It was not no okay, but.

G

It could be, it could be. Yeah I mean that would be that if you want to look at a broader scope and and say Hey give us, the you know, give us a good sample contract where you're just kind of filling in a couple things um I think that would actually be very smart to do now again. This network is um this NorCal pan network is, um uh is very uh caring and sharing, just as we all are in City. You know cities agencies, especially Parks and Rec.

G

We always share uh everything, um so I'm happy to share what I know. There are lots of examples out there of contracts, call for artists all those things um they're they're out there, but but yeah I would yeah.

C

I wasn't when you're working necessarily the contract.

G

C

Was thinking more about in the master plan and it's a discussion with the committee and the consultant in the master plan about who owns the art? How is it you know those kind of broader issues as opposed to contract or how long the Art stays there? Is that part of something that would be considered? I I have no answer to this.

G

You know I, think that is um that's actually unique to each project. um Okay, and so so you probably you probably need to customize that for each okay. Thank you, yeah.

D

Okay, thank you. I think we've got three minutes. Anybody have something they want to say quickly on the committee.

B

I just want to say thanks to everybody this this is. This is a wonderful idea and Bridget good off. Thank you so much. Thank you taught.

G

Us a lot right. Thank you. Thank.

C

G

We were farther along with our efforts, but um you know we're small But Mighty, but so is uh Brisbane by the way you have a Belmont resident as your Parks and Rec director. My colleague, Noreen leak um is awesome.

B

We love her yeah.

A

B

If she's involved.

G

You guys are, you guys, have already won the won the race so.

D

All right well, thank you so much Bridget and staff. Do you have something you want to wrap it up? Stuart.

F

uh I just have one question: Bridget: did you have anybody from the business Community as part of your uh stakeholders, Media or stakeholders group we're working with the the person with Barbara working.

G

With the consultant um good question, uh we gosh I'm trying to think we did reach out to folks I, can't remember what kind of we probably had some one-on-one stakeholder things and I think we talked with the um I know. We had some conversation with the head of the Chamber of Commerce and the Belmont chamber and I know that she part she is an artist herself and um she participated in our um one. In-Person uh focus group discussion um at the library and.

F

Then the other question is: how much money are you hoping to get into your fund or how much money do you have in your fund? At this point, I.

G

Think we have a hundred and fifty thousand dollars now that we just got sometime in the last um I think earlier in this year. Okay, it's a fairly new deposit, but you know we also know that right, there's you know Belmont, like Brisbane, you know, there's a finite uh area of opportunity for development right. This is not going to be a continually renewing fund right. We expect we're going to get a we're going to get a bucket of money and then the city's gonna be built out right. Yeah.

F

No, actually, our bucket is going to be very large. We've got 550 Acres of undeveloped land. That's going to get developed.

G

Is that all down in that flat area, yep.

F

Where the old landfill was and the old Rail Yard was right up right, bordering San Francisco, and we already have over a million in our fund and we're going to get more. Oh.

G

F

So I think I mean I think for the committee's perspective that we may want to really think about how a broader scope of the master plan and really focus on you know. More of what Bridget was saying is like some of the extras that maybe we want to look at when we do our master plan. Yeah.

G

If you've got that money, if you've already got that money and more money is coming in yeah, you want to you want to dot some eyes and cross some T's, so um I may suggest well you're talking to San Diego, so you've you've got something you know. um Palo Alto has a lot of good documents on their website as well, and their public art administrator Elite.

G

If she's still there, her name was Elise demarzo I believe she was very helpful to us. She actually came to one of our place, making meetings and talked to us about public art master plan and that sort of thing so.

F

I appreciate that and Bridget again just thank you for your time. I know: yeah I know we all like to help each other, and so, but we always appreciate when we do no.

G

Worries happy to happy to take the time. Thank you very much. Thank.

F

G

Luck to you thank.

F

You thank you. Thank you. Bridget bye,.

G

A

All right and then just to close ours out um I, haven't received any public comments or anything like that. um So I don't know if you guys want to uh chat for just a couple moments. Otherwise you have to jump off and.

E

Do we transcribe these.

A

E

What's that, no, you can do we transcribe these meetings, I, don't I I, just.

F

We do not, but if it's on YouTube I think you you can click on something on YouTube, where.

D

E

F

So we can work, I mean the truck the problem with transcribing a meeting is the amount of time it would take us to put together every what everybody said. Yeah.

E

F

Even if we go through a software where you do that, it still will take us probably five to ten hours to try and get the rewarding exactly right, clean.

E

It it's more for personal use, so.

D

My question is: uh was uh Angel, were you taking any notes, yeah.

C

Of course, yeah.

D

I have some notes. It looks like Camille I can't see you you're behind the plant. You have notes: okay, okay,.

C

Good everybody I've.

D

Got notes so I think for tomorrow. Those who are here if we can all take notes, because somebody might catch something somebody might miss something. If we could just take notes- and we can talk about this when we wrap it up, I know Camille has another meeting to attend. So at this point, are there any more uh any comments from the public.

A

No comments from the public.

D

B

Karen um Stuart would it be illegal for us to record it ourselves to take notes later I mean I'm I'm.

F

Worried well, the meeting is recorded, So I mean we have recorded the meeting. Oh.

A

Okay, okay, we can re-watch it over and over again on YouTube and on our website when I post it tomorrow got.

B

It got it got it got it. Thank.

F

You yeah, so no, it's not illegal for you to record it. We announced that we record it.

D

Thank you. Okay, at this time oh Camille yeah I was gonna join the meeting till tomorrow at 4, 30.. Okay, all right! Thank you. Goodbye, bye.