Report from California Arts Council's 2/1/24 Public Meeting

California Arts Council 2-1-24 Meeting

Notes prepared by Teri Ball, Program Manager, CFTA

Summary notes – The final decisions on most of the 2024 grant program guidelines were made, the State-Regional Network Guidelines will be finalized at the next meeting.  After some discussion, all of the Program Guidelines were passed as presented. Additional details are included below, under Item 9.

CFTA is tracking these program changes and voting items on our webpage, #FundCAArts and we will provide updates as the new guidelines are being proposed and approved. We encourage everyone to stay involved and informed. Please contact Tracy Hudak, Director of Field Engagement, should you have any comments or concerns that you’d like us to be aware of, at  Tracy@californiansforthearts.org

Full agenda and 02/1/24 meeting packet are available on the CAC website.

It was noted in the meeting that applications are currently being accepted for Grant Review Panelists, applications can be submitted on the CAC website. The deadline is March 8.

The meeting began with a call to order land acknowledgement, introduction of the parliamentarian and establishing a quorum. The meeting took place at The Ebell of Los Angeles, and the Executive Director Stacy Brightman opened the meeting with a welcome. New CAC Chair Roxanne Messina Captor and Executive Director Brazell each offered reports.  The text of their remarks is available in the meeting packet on the CAC website.

Item 7: Presentation on CAC Decision Support Tool Race Equity Manager, Megan Morgan, reviewed the CAC Decision Support Tool. Her presentation deck, and a copy of the Decision Support Tool itself, are included in the meeting packet. The tool grew out of the CAC Strategic Framework and is an equity-focused tool to assist both Council Members and Staff in making decisions by doing research and asking important questions to help facilitate and guide equitable decision-making. It was noted that a new version of the Decision Support Tool is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. 

Item 8: Presentation on CAC Strategic Framework Programs Manager Elisa Gollub reviewed the CAC Strategic Framework. The presentation deck is included in the meeting packet and The Strategic Framework can be found on the CAC website.

Voting Item 9: 2024 Grant Program Guidelines presented by the Programs Policy Committee, Ellen Gavin and Leah Goodwin. The complete text of their recommendations is included in the meeting packet. Proposed guidelines were presented for 7 of the 8 approved programs, the Guidelines for the Statewide and Regional Networks program will be presented and voted on at the March Council Meeting. Each guideline was presented, reviewed and voted on individually. The guidelines were presented, then there was a period of public comment, followed by Council discussion and vote. Each Vote is listed below, with notes and the final vote. The recommended Program Guidelines all passed as presented, without any changes. The details of the votes are included below.

There was a motion passed at the beginning to take items 2-4 as a single vote, and items 5-6 as a single vote.  The committee recommends that the following guidelines be approved, with the noted policy changes:

• Voting Item #1: Impact Project guidelines including the following policy changes:
  Restrict applicants with TRs of less than $3M in the most recently completed fiscal year from applying for Impact Project grants.
  Discussion: There was an amendment made to remove the $3 million cap, that motion failed. Then a second motion was made to accept the recommendation as is.
  VOTE RESULT: Passes 9-0
• Voting Item #2: Creative Youth Development guidelines including the following policy changes:
  • Restrict organizations from applying to more than one Arts & Youth Grant Program (either Creative Youth Development, Arts Education Exposure, or Arts Integration Training).
• Voting Item #3: Arts Education Exposure guidelines including the following policy changes:
  • Restrict organizations from applying to more than one Arts & Youth Grant Program (either Creative Youth Development, Arts Education Exposure, or Arts Integration Training).
• Voting Item #4: Arts Integration Training guidelines including the following policy changes:
  • Restrict organizations from applying to more than one Arts & Youth Grant Program (either Creative Youth Development, Arts Education Exposure, or Arts Integration Training).
  VOTE RESULT FOR ITEMS 2-4: Passed with a vote of 8-1
• Voting Item #5: State-Local Partner guidelines including the following policy changes:
  • Allow CAC to waive the county Board of Supervisors partner designation on a case-by-case basis.
• Voting Item #6: State-Local Partner Mentorship guidelines including the following policy changes:
  • Make optional the previously required Letter of Commitment from the mentee county.
  VOTE RESULT FOR ITEMS 5-6: the motion passed 9-0.
• Voting Item #7: Arts & Cultural Organization General Operating Support guidelines. 
  The Council voted in December to allow applications only from Tier 2 (budgets from $250,000 to 1 million) and Tier 3 organizations (budgets from 1 million to 1.5 million). 
  • There are no additional substantive guideline changes proposed.
• VOTE RESULT FOR ITEMS 7: Motion passes 9-0.
  
  Item 10 – 2024 Committee Assignments Chair Messina Captor presented the Council committee assignments for 2024, the complete list is included in the meeting packet. The new committee assignments take effect March 1. There was some discussion with the following notes:
  The function of the Nominating committee should be reviewed.
  The Committee Structure overall needs to be reviewed in terms of continuity and transition when new members are appointed.
  The Council needs to be a joint public meeting where Appropriations and Program Policy committees can talk to each other.

Item 11: General Public Comment There was a period of General Public Comment. that included numerous statements from members of the field from across the state. Without enumerating the contents of all of the comments, it is worth noting that multiple Council members noted during the meeting the impact that the Public Comment has. 

Item 12: 2024-25 Governor’s Budget Proposal
The presentation was made by CAC Deputy Director Ayanna Kiburi.  The contents of this presentation were not included in the meeting packet, but hopefully they will be updated and included eventually. It was noted that this is the first of a series of Budget Updates that will be made as the state budget processes continues.  The next update is expected following the May Revise. The information reported can all be found on the state Department of Finances website, where it will be updated throughout the process. On the website you will see 3 columns, with the following information.
FY 2022-23 (PY prior fiscal year) $222.956 - actual expenditures (Included a lot of one-time funding)
FY 2023-24 (CY current fiscal year) $82,711 - projected expenditures (still included some carry over of the one-time funding.)
FY 2024-25 (BY budget year) $38,862 - proposed expenditures

Fund Accounts available to CAC:

1. General Fund
   -Operations
   -Local Assistance
2. Federal Trust Fund - from the National Endowment for the Arts
3. Graphic License Plate - revenues
4. Keep Arts in Schools - revenues
5. Proposed Appropriations to Support CAC-Operations (these are all approximate figures)
   General Fund: $4,474,000
   Federal Trust Fund: $1,174,000 (not finalized yet by NEA)
   Graphic License Plate Account: $870,000 (spending authority - not final)”
   
   Proposed Appropriations to Support CAC-Local Assistance (grants) (these are all approximate figures)
   General Fund: $31,500,000
   Federal Trust Fund: $100,000 (not finalized yet by NEA)
   Graphic License Plate Account: $298,000 (spending authority* - not final)”
   Keep Arts In Schools: $250,000 (spending authority*)
   *If revenues in these two programs exceeds the spending authority amount then the funds rollover to the following year.
   It was noted that the $8 million for the Arts in Corrections is included in the General Fund appropriation of $31,500,000.

Executive Director Brazell noted that though the budget is going back to pre-pandemic levels, it is at least not being cut.  She noted that to her knowledge every other department has received cuts. She also noted that the minutes for the last 3 meetings will be presented at the March meeting.  That in an effort to increase transparency the CAC Staff is working to streamline the note taking and recording of the meetings and that all of that will be made available.

Item 13 Committee Reports:
There were no Committee reports