Performing Arts Committee Special Meeting – August 29, 2025
Performing Arts Committee Special Meeting – August 29, 2025
The Performing Arts Committee of Mountain View, California, held a special meeting on August 29, 2025 (note: official minutes list the date as August 28, 2025). Vice Chair Carol Donahue called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. with Committee Members Antara Bhardwaj and Valerie Fenwick present; Chair David Garcia was absent. The sole agenda item was the review and approval of the annual presentation questions for the city’s resident companies. The meeting adjourned at 7:36 p.m.
Discussion Items
- Resident Company Annual Presentation Questions: The committee discussed a set of proposed questions covering financial, programming, collaboration, strategic planning, marketing, and organizational topics. During the discussion, committee members raised concerns about the phrasing of the financial question regarding overhead spending – specifically the word “justified” – suggesting it implied extraneous or wasteful spending. The committee agreed to revise the question to: “What strategies do you use to ensure your overhead spending is effectively supporting your mission?” They also debated the ordering of the question sections, deciding on: (1) Programming, (2) Marketing, (3) Organization, (4) Collaboration, (5) Financial, (6) Strategic Planning. Additionally, the committee unanimously agreed to request that resident companies submit their answers in a written format (e.g., PDF, Word document, or PowerPoint) rather than solely through live presentations, to ensure consistency and facilitate record-keeping.
Key Outcomes
- Motion by Member Fenwick, seconded by Member Bhardwaj: Approve the resident company annual presentation questions with minor clerical corrections and the reordered sections as discussed, and direct staff to inform the resident companies to provide their answers in a written format of their choice. The motion passed 3–0 (Bhardwaj, Fenwick, Donahue).
- The approved questions and format will be communicated to the resident companies ahead of their annual presentations.
Meeting Transcript
Meeting of the performing arts committee to order at 716 p.m. This meeting is being conducted in a virtual component with a virtual component. Anyone wishing to address the committee virtually may join the meeting online at HTTPS column slash backslash backslash mountain view that zoom dot us slash J slash E five 206 706 172 or by dialing 669 900 912 8 and entering webinar ID 85270 6172? When the chair announces the item on which you wish to speak, click the raise hand feature in Zoom or dial nine. Oh sorry, dial star nine on your phone. When the chair calls your name to provide public comment, if you are participating via phone, please press star six to unmute yourself. The first item on the agenda was the call of order. Okay, the second is roll call. Roll call, Vice Chair Carol Donahue here. Committee member Valley Friendwick here. And committee member Anthra Bardwatch. Here and uh Chair David Garcia is absent of the question. Uh item number three minutes approval. There are no minutes at this time to approve. Uh item four, oral communications from the public. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the committee on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are limited to three minutes. State law prohibits the committee from acting on non-agenda items. Uh are there any members of the public? That happens, members of the public right now. Okay, there being no members of the public, we'll move on to item five, unfinished business. None. So that brings us to item six, new business 6.1 resident company annual presentation questions. Recommendation approve the resident company annual presentation questions. And the attachments were circulated with the agenda. And so are there any comments or discussions on questions? Is there involved? Just my my thank you for sharing these. I just one question, and it's kind of applied here. That's not what it says to the best of your ability. Um can these questions be considered optional for some companies if they determine that they either don't apply or they don't have the data or we really want them to yes? I want to speak for the whole committee, but I think the intention is obviously we have a wide remote professional regional company and we have a lot of board. So some of some of these questions are not so do we want to just go through all the questions or okay. The thing the financial questions maybe. Um about break even point and methods strategies. Do you use to ensure your overhead spending is justified and effectively supports your mission? Were there any unanticipated expenses this year? How do you manage unexpected expenses? Such as emergency fund endowment, etc. Um I have it another question. Um sorry, I wasn't here at the last meeting. Uh minutes aren't available, so if this was already discussed, I'm sorry for being redundant. Um this question in the financial questions in particular feel um judgmental is not quite the right word, but like um like why would we as PAC care specifically if their overhead spending is not justified? We're not financial auditors, we're not subsidized. Subsidizing. Okay. That way the resident companies get a far deeper discounting use of the facility. So we want to make sure that so it's a little it's you're right. We we don't have a right to do a deep dive. Well, we can ask some questions.
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