Sedro-Woolley Arts Commission eliminated by City Council

SEDRO-WOOLLEY - The Sedro-Woolley City Council eliminated Wednesday the city's Arts Commission.

The vote was 4-2. Councilmembers Nora Pederson and Paul Cocke voting against.

The City Council first discussed eliminating the all-volunteer commission, which does not have a budget, on May 13.

At that meeting, Mayor JoEllen Kesti said she believed throughout her time on the council that art is valuable and brings people together.

The Arts Commission, however, was not as accomplishing what was necessary in "matters of aesthetic and artistic importance," Kesti said.

"The majority of the council has also believed the city should not serve as the driving force behind an appointed commission responsible for directing and funding projects, especially when elected officials are already able to pursue similar goals," she said. "... Every mayor has different priorities and goals for the city."

Kesti said the reasoning behind eliminating the commission was to streamline projects and better utilize city staff time.

"In the five years the commission has existed, no major projects have been completed despite significant staff involvement through meetings and administrative support," she said. "I believe time can be better spent updating city codes, such as mural regulation so artists and community groups can more easily bring projects forward with clear guidelines."

City Administrator Charlie Bush said staff time, code cleanup and mayoral priorities were reasons the mayor asked the council to eliminate the commission.

"The focus here is really on staff time and code cleanup and prioritizing where the mayor would like to prioritize things going forward if the council is so inclined to support that," he said. "Her preference is that staff spend more time directly on City Council goals and some other things."

Councilmember Nick Lavacca said he was asked to be a member of the Arts Commission when it was first formed.

He said he was interested and had formed formed ideas for the commission.

"But I never heard back on getting on to it," he said.

In the end, he said he'd never seen members of the commission at council meetings or heard any of their ideas.

"I'm in favor of letting the Arts Commission stand for a while, however, in this case, we do have a new mayor and I want to respect the mayor and the role she wants to take," he said.

Councilmember Allan Henderson said he believes the arts would benefit greatly by a community-led organization.

"I don't really see at this point why we need more government," he said. "I believe we should have less and people are able to streamline their projects better and a little easier without a commission being either in the way of bringing ideas to us (council) or being able to do art."

Cocke and Pederson said eliminating the Arts Commission simply does not make sense, particularly when it comes to taking action and to costs.

"We have read a number of letters and heard from a number of highly enthusiastic members of the Arts Commission," Cocke said. "They told us the Arts Commission just recently, within the last couple of years, became more active, planning projects that we heard about tonight and reaching out to the arts community.

"On costs, that also falls flat, seeing how Councilmember Pederson has volunteered to replace the paid city staff member for taking notes at Arts Commission meetings."

The project Cocke mentioned the commission was working on was the beautification of roundabouts.

Pederson said civic engagement is a focus of the council.

"Budget and staffing doesn't seem to be the primary issue here," she said. "Everyone on the council here, I believe, really values civic engagement when we've talked about it in our strategic planning and elsewhere. I'd like to see the Arts Commission continue."

Taking the work done by such commissions out of the hands of volunteers and putting it in the hands of the City Council was seen by Cocke as the exact opposite of citizen involvement.

"Cutting off this current energy and enthusiasm by Arts Commission members is a mistake," he said. "Why not give the Arts Commission six months or a year to show what they can do, including some of their current projects."

Art advocates, including current members of the commission, spoke out against eliminating the commission, saying it was an attempt to "consolidate the power" and that the commission was an easy target.

The city will maintain its arts fund, and art policy will be at the discretion of the council.

"While we are repealing (the Arts Commission) from the code, we are keeping the arts fund which allows the city to accept say money for arts projects and that kind of stuff," Bush said.

Written into city code much like the Arts Commission are a Parking Commission, a Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and a Historic Preservation Commission, none of which have members.

Bush said Kesti is looking at proposing code changes for the Parking Commission and Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, which might change how those two groups operate.

"We also have a Historic Preservation Commission that she is recommending we keep in place, and we will need to start that up," Bush said.

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