The Community Livability and Public Safety Committee of the Olympia City Council met on May 28, 2026, from 5:30 PM to 8:52 PM. The committee discussed recommendations for council-appointed advisory bodies, approved Inspire Olympia funding recommendations (with a split vote), and approved CDBG allocations. Public comment was received on the Inspire Fund and arts organizations. Note: The meeting minutes and transcript indicate the meeting occurred on May 27, 2026; this summary uses the date provided in the instructions.
All right, everyone. This is the community livability and public safety committee of the Olympia City Council. It's May 27th at 5 30 p.m. My name is Danny Madrone. I serve as the chair, and I'm calling the meeting to order. For roll call, we have all committee members at present. Hello, committee member Kelly Green, committee member Ian Huen. We need an agenda to proceed with our meeting. So can I get a motion? We have to approve the agenda. I guess I can. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Hi. Unanimous. That's amazing. All right. Public comment. We don't often have public comment with this committee, but we do have two people today. We've got one person signed up in person. And one person online who is, I see that they are there. So I'll first go ahead and uh uh call up the in-person public commenter. So Anna, please make your way to the podium. And um, I don't have a timer, but we don't have a whole lot of people, so you know, two minutes-ish, but you know, I won't be, you know, kicking you out if you go a little over. Hi there. Do I take it away now? Yeah, go right ahead. Can you hear me now? Great. Well, good evening. Um, my name is Anna Schleck, an Olympia resident for nearly 50 years. I'm here tonight because of an item on your agenda, but I'm also here um speaking because I read a Jolt article in which people made nasty comments about the Inspire fund. And rather than right back to the jolt, I would like to share with you. Um, that the Inspire Fund was created by a ballot measure that was supported by a very strong majority. A majority of the people in our community support the arts. And it's something that I really believe in. Um, some of you know that I spent a little bit of time here at City of Olympia, um, nearly 40 years working on housing and homelessness. And the way that I portray it is that um I believe in bread and roses. I spent 40 years of my career focusing on bread, the survival issues of um housing and homeless shelter and services, but I also believe deeply in roses, what we live for. Um I'm just really proud of a city that both funds housing, homeless services, but also the arts. I'll just end by saying taxes are what we pay to live in a civilized society. And I'm so grateful to live in the city of Olympia, um, where I've been for nearly 50 years, and so appreciative of the work that your committee does, your staff do, um, and that all of all of our community supports. So thank you very much. Thank you, Anna. Our next speaker um is virtual. Uh, and this is Skylar. Skylar, I believe your last name is Rad, but I hope you will correct me if I am incorrect. Uh, you have the ability to unmute yourself now, and you can go right ahead.