Chair staff is ready when you are good afternoon and welcome uh to this afternoon's uh meeting and uh let's see.

Today is August 11th, 2025, 112 p.m.

and we are starting this meeting.

Um this meeting is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call the roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioners, please unmute for roll call.

Commissioner Anderson, absent.

Commissioner Eisenberg?

Here, Commissioner Hershey Hershey?

Here, Commissioner O'Habu here.

Commissioner Smith?

Here.

Commissioner Tokolino is absent.

Commissioner Wallace.

Here.

Commissioner Winlock.

Absent.

And Chair Luvulo?

Here.

Thank you.

We have quorum.

I'd like to remind members of the public of the public in the chambers that if you would like to speak on an agenda item, please turn our speaker slip when the item begins.

You will have two minutes to speak once you're called on.

After the first speaker, we will no longer accept speaker slips.

We will now proceed with today's agenda.

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in order in honor of Sacramento's Indigenous people and tribal lands.

To the original people of this land, the Nissanan people, the Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains Miwok, Patwin Wintune peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's Indigenous Peoples' history, contributions, and lives.

Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God and divisible with liberty and justice for all.

Our first business today is approval of the consent calendar.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on the consent calendar?

Thank you, Chair.

We have no speakers for the consent calendar.

Thank you.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Is there a motion and a second for the consent calendar items one and two?

Motion.

Seconded.

Thank you.

And confirming that was a motion by Commissioner Eisenberg with a second by Ohebu.

Thank you.

Commissioners, please unmute for the vote.

Commissioner Anderson.

Absent.

Commissioner Eisenberg.

Yes.

Commissioner Hershey.

Yes.

Commissioner O'Habu?

Yes.

Commissioner Smith?

Yes.

Commissioner Tokolino is absent.

Commissioner Wallace?

Aye.

Commissioner Winlock.

Absent.

And Chair Luvulo.

Yes.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

We'd like to acknowledge and welcome our new Commissioner Walker Hershey to the commission.

Welcome in.

He is coming in for district.

Mayor.

Or for Mayor appointed seat.

Would you like to share anything about yourself today?

Commissioner Hershey.

Welcome in.

Hi everyone.

My name is Walker.

It's nice to meet you all.

I'm excited to be a new member of this commission and to learn more from the current, more experienced members.

But apart from a brief stint away from college, I've been a lived in Sacramento my whole life and just excited to get to work and make sure Sacramento continues to remain a hub for culture and creative economy and just excited to be here.

Thank you so much.

Welcome in.

We look forward to having a great rest of the year with you.

Is uh entertainment services division update.

Is there a staff presentation?

Thank you.

Commissioners, my name is Dustin Hollingsworth.

I'm the Assistant Director of the Department of Convention and Cultural Services.

Last October I had the pleasure of introducing you to the entertainment services division.

Today I'm here to give you an update and we'll start off with a bit of a recap.

So on the heels of the pandemic, the Office of Arts and Culture commissioned Sound Music Cities to conduct a music census and regulatory review, an in-depth analysis of the live music ecosystem and associated regulatory environment here in Sacramento.

The regulatory review provided 16 recommendations to improve the regulatory landscape for live entertainment here in Sacramento.

Everything from new creating new categories of entertainment licenses to addressing amplified sound.

Around that same time, the Office of Nighttime Economy commissioned at the Responsible Hospitality Institute to develop a sociable city plan, an assessment of Sacramento's nightlife economy, including several recommendations of its own.

Interestingly, of those 16 recommendations, nine of them were also echoed in the sociable city plan.

At the top of the regulatory review was a recommendation to create an entertainment services division.

So that's what we did.

The division is a combination of special event permitting, entertainment venue permitting, and film permitting.

Prior to the division, special event permitting was managed by youth parks and community enrichment.

Permitting events in the public right-of-way, streets, parks, sidewalks, and alleys, everything from block parties to concerts to parades to rallies.

Sacramento Film and Media was housed in the Office of Arts and Culture, where it was permitted where it permitted any commercial filming, including commercials, feature films, and everything in between, both on public and private property.

They promoted Sacramento as a film destination and created incentive programs for local filmmakers.

Finally, the entertainment venue permitting was managed by code enforcement.

They permitted any entertainment that's open to the public and held on private property.

The term entertainment encompasses everything from karaoke and bingo all the way to dance reviews and full-blown concerts.

Venue sizes from 50 to well over 2,000.

The operation of these three programs overlaps in many ways.

The processes are similar in coordination with other departments and jurisdictions is also similar.

Applicants cross between many different permit types regularly, and there's confusion about which permit may be most appropriate for a given situation.

In the instance that someone wants to have a special event that's mostly on city property, but let's say that they're using a street and they want to use their private parking lot to put one of the stages on.

Back button.

They want to put a private stage on or a stage on their private property, and just for fun, they're gonna throw in and do a little bit of commercial filming so they have something to share with the public.

Well, by bringing those three, by doing all that, it's entirely likely that they would have to apply for three different permits on three different timelines, three different review processes.

So this the whole idea of the entertainment services.

Bringing these three programs together where we could identify in uh efficiency inefficiencies, create a single point of entry, and assist applicants through the process.

It reduces confusion and allows for better results.

And so in July of 2024, the entertainment service division was created with council's approval as part of the fiscal year 25 budget process.

We're celebrating our first birthday.

Our first year has flown by, and we've gotten a lot done.

From an internal's perspective, we started by forming a team.

So when we started this endeavor, there were three of us.

It was myself, Jennifer Westark Film Commissioner, and Melissa Romero who transferred over from Yipsey or Youth Parks and Community Enrichment to manage special events.

That was it.

We had more vacancies than filled positions.

Entertainment permitting was still being run by code enforcement, and Yipsey was a sp was assisting in special event permitting.

By October, we brought in Leah Castro to oversee entertainment permits, and in uh in January, we hired Sonia Ibanez, Carmichael Real, and Diana Ruthner to sports special events and film.

In April, Melissa Romero was promoted into our event services manager position, and that left a vacancy in our special events as a special events manager.

We expect for that position to be fully filled within actually four weeks from today.

So we're really excited to have a full roster.

Our staff has done a lot more though than just filling vacancies.

We've worked hard to build the team that understands each other's business lines.

We've collaborated on solutions, finding solutions to each other's problems, and we welcome the diverse skill sets of our entire team and the contributions of each of its members as individuals.

So we had our team.

During that same time frame, we were also setting up shop.

A lot goes into starting a new division.

We had to establish a physical work site.

The creation of our division actually had resulted in significant moves, not only for our department, convention and cultural services.

We pushed some people from innovation and economic development out of some of their workspaces.

They had to relocate, but in order to do that, they had to move IT along.

This whole process actually took months just to get a home for us to place our people in.

All successful in the end, except then we had to order computers, telephones, office supplies.

We even had to get new chairs.

Really starting ground up.

It was a lot of effort on the backside just to get us up and going.

Most recently, we got our website finally set up and we're preparing to issue our first newsletter in September.

Entertainment venue permitting, as I mentioned, Leah came on to join us in October, and uh by it wasn't until February that we were finally transitioned all entertainment permitting over to our entertainment services division and began to make it our own.

We've updated all the contact information, rebranded the materials, and everything is set to reflect our current division.

Finally, over the last several months, we've been working on the early stages of what is likely to be one of the most transformative changes to the division, creating an online application portal.

To this point, all of our applications are submitted by hand for staff review.

PDFs are filled out, they're scanned, emailed back to staff, staff prints them out, reviews them.

You can see it's an extremely archaic process and an extremely manual process.

It's inefficient, it lacks tools for transparency for both applicants and staff.

Our partners in IT have been helping us take point, doing an analysis and needs assessment assessment, developing a request for proposals to find a company that could build a software solution to address our needs and the needs of our applicants.

Things are on track for us to be able to tell you by our second birthday exactly how awesome it is.

Those are just some of the things that have been happening behind the scenes.

But we've been working in front of the scenes as well.

In April, oops, excuse me.

More publicly facing last September, we launched the entertainment related sound study, which is the final component of the original sound music census.

Two out of three phases have been completed, unraveling varied perspectives about entertainment related sounds, and making recommendations to improve the landscape for venue owners, musicians, special event producers, and city staff.

In April, council approved the appropriate creation of the limited entertainment permit or LEP to open up entertainment for non-traditional venues.

Prior to the LEP, businesses that wanted to do entertainment paid the same fees and went through the same process regardless of whether it was a small coffee shop or a 2,000 capacity nightclub.

Their permit is though the LEP is for those that want to provide entertainment to supplement their primary business.

The permit which allows businesses to provide entertainment till 10 p.m.

on weekdays or 11 p.m.

on weekends is intended for cafes, wine bars, breweries, and other businesses with an occupancy of 299 or less.

It comes at a lower cost than the general entertainment permit.

The development and release of the LEP was a collaboration between the entertainment services division and the Office of Nighttime Economy.

Speaking of the Office of Nighttime Economy, we have to give many uh send many thanks their way.

Their team has worked diligently to create the new entertainment zone ordinance, and we were fortunate enough, fortunate enough to be brought along for the ride as a support role.

Entertainment zones are designated geographic areas that allow for open containers from participating private businesses to be carried out in the public spaces where qualifying special events are being held.

The program has had great success in San Francisco, and we're hoping it'll do the same here.

Entertainment zones are activated as part of a special event permit.

So one of the biggest functions of our film and media office is to attract commercial filming to Sacramento.

With the release of Sacramento, the movie earlier this year, and the new Paul Thomas Anderson film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, one battle after another being released next month, the impact of the film in Sacramento is more tangible than ever.

The Film and Media Office has recently launched a $250,000 rebate aimed at encouraging large film and TV productions to film within the city of Sacramento's limits.

The program is part of a larger goal to grow the creative economy by bringing high budget productions that generate local jobs and local spending.

Quick snapshot of the true impact of film in Sacramento.

In 2024, the city was able to realize $6.4 million in Sacramento spend.

That's direct infusion into the city's economy.

74 permits were issued by our film office that accounted for 136 film days, over 4,000 room nights, 953 local residents being hired in the industry, and on top of that, the grants program awarded 70,000 to local filmmakers.

All of this is just part of what we're doing.

That being said, it's just a fraction of what our team's been doing over the past year.

But most importantly, we've maintained day-to-day operations.

We've continued to permit special events with over 1,276 during 2024.

We've brought all entertainment permit holder entertainment venue permit holders up to date.

There was a backlog, a significant backlog when we brought it over.

We've participated in and participated in and supported industry events like the NORCAL Film Expo, and we've continued to advocate for incentives to keep film here in California.

Moving forward forward, we plan to develop that online permitting process that I mentioned earlier.

We believe that not only will the online process increase and fit in increase efficiency efficiency dramatically, it will also improve equity and transparency.

It will help us provide identify bottlenecks and to know where to use our resources.

We will create applicant resources, including improving our available knowledge base, establishing financial support tools, building training programs that include online resources as well as live trainings, incorporate lessons learned, best practices, and industry standards into toolkits designed to help applicants be successful.

We will collaborate with other departments, jurisdictions, partners, community members, and applicants to begin solving some of the significant resource issues that we have.

We're going to collect data to better inform our decisions and strategies.

The economic impact that I was able to show you earlier that film and media office has very powerful.

Not only does it tell the story of Sacramento, but it also spoke to the relevance of film in Sacramento.

We don't have that same information for entertainment venues or for special events yet.

While we have begun collecting it, there's still much more to be done, and it's critical to truly illustrate the value that the programs that we that we oversee have to Sacramento and its residents.

We'll gather feedback from community to help us identify where we need to focus our efforts, but also to understand our work is having a positive impacts.

With community feedback, we will reevaluate the existing regulatory environment while considering operational challenging challenges, existing frameworks, and the needs and the needs that have been either expressed to us or discovered through our ongoing operations.

We're going to prioritize our efforts based on the interest from parties, such as the mayor and council, this commission here, market forces, industry needs, and cultural and economic impacts of each of the programs.

While prioritizing our strategy, we'll we will implement with additional changes to ordinances, policies, procedures, and programs as necessary to try and optimize the division the efforts of our division.

And with that, I uh thank you for your time and I'm available for questions or comments.

Thank you.

Uh clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we have one speaker for this item, Lambert.

Yes, uh Lambert Davis, founder and CEO of a company that has gone viral in Southern California.

And I was I got back last night, and my family who's a huge fan of Megan, huge fan, because they had to be to get me down here today because I just got back in here last night.

What I'm saying is this hat says the Grant Drumline.

If you don't know who that is, you ought to Google them.

They're a legacy at Grant High School, and Megan, who I think because she's not even from Sacramento, she's from, I think, Ohio, where there's some real economic economy back there with uh entertainment.

She was able to help the Grant Drumline get some money to go wherever they went.

This fall, they're going to Ireland, of all places, Ireland, and I didn't know about it till I got back.

And because our cheesecakes are followed by a group of millennials.

I say that a lot.

My children are millennials, but they rescued our business during the pandemic.

They literally did.

They they said they that we were better than DoorDash, and I said, Hey, I'm a baby boomer.

We were here before DoorDash was even thought of.

So it's nothing new.

But I wanted to come down, they begged me to come down and comment on this.

This uh Jason Jong, you have some huge shoes to feel when it comes to what I'm talking about, and you should be very aggressive on helping Grant High School because they bring a lot of positive uh news from all over the world, they're globe trotters.

Thank you for your comments.

Chair, there are no other speakers for this item.

Thank you.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

This item is received and files.

Uh so no vote is required.

We'll move on to the next item.

Uh Chair, I actually had a question or a comment.

Sorry.

Took me a second.

Um, are we doing sort of um action research on the ground to look for ways to streamline and improve this like as quickly as possible?

Because some folks have indicated to me that they appreciate the effort for the limited entertainment permit, but that it is actually more work than the old process at the moment.

I don't know if that's like a staffing or if it's just sort of figuring out the kinker.

I'm I'm not aware of it being more work.

It's actually uh the the application process itself is actually about the same as far as what you have to fill out or and submit, but the review processes and the inspection processes are actually lessened.

Um there is no building inspections within it.

Um fire is the only inspection that accompanies it.

Okay.

It may be about like what is the appropriateness of the fire inspection.

That's actually like the um the sticky wicket.

Gotcha.

So yeah.

I'll I I will follow up, I'll get more information because I mentioned that I would mention it to you because I knew we were getting this presentation.

Absolutely.

Um and to be honest, one of the things that we have recognized through this process is that some of the businesses that would like to apply for this are unaware of a lot of things that are just required for their just daily business operations.

And so we've been trying to help many of them through those initial steps.

Great.

Thanks.

Absolutely.

Thank you again, Dustin.

Um any other comments?

Okay.

Um this item is received and filed, so no vote is required.

We'll move on to the next item, which I'm sorry.

Sorry, I was late.

Sorry, it's late on getting that.

I actually just wanted to quickly address uh Labert.

Um if you could just stick around afterwards, I'd like to speak with you quickly about grant uh the Trump line, okay.

Okay, cool.

Okay.

Any other comments.

We'll move on to the next item.

Um item number four, which is 2025 cultural tourism symposium.

Good afternoon.

Uh my name is Sonia Bradley.

I'm the Chief Inclusion and Community Engagement Officer for Visit Sacramento and the Cultural Tourism Symposium, which I'm I'll talk a little bit about towards the end, is uh something that um both the Office of Arts and Culture and I have been working on for the last couple of years.

But if you don't mind, I just would give you a little bit of background on how we got to this uh cultural tourism for visit Sacramento.

So essentially, this is starting about 2021.

It's the sort of the evolution integration of what's sort of in our DNA.

So it became a strategic pillar for us for us, but ultimately was not only aligned with our goals, but to ensure that cultural tourism initiatives support our objectives and support our objectives and vision and really resulting in elevating the city's uh unique cultural offer offerings to underrecognized communities, and I'll show a little bit about that later.

In turn, we wanted to be sure we were aligned strategically, but really the key to this was our key partnerships, in particular with uh Office of Arts and Culture.

We started with uh Megan, of course.

Um, and this was really an expansion of our existing relationship and our collaboration with the Office of Arts and Culture.

If you aren't aware, it the partnership for us for the last actually 16 years has been with Sacramento 365.com.

Um, started um, like I said over 16 years ago.

We've been going strong ever since then.

But it was really to help move really the creative economy forward and partner, and we did partner with and hire the expertise of some of a group called the US Cultural and Heritage Marketing Council, and to that end we wanted to put together an inclusive framework.

And what we did was we actually established a cultural tourism advisory group with diverse representation from multiple uh arts and arts and cultural organization of all sizes, and ultimately to align with the goals of the creative economy, and just and probably not tell this group they don't something already know, but what the research found back in 2022 was 82% of Americans believe arts and cultural or experiences are important, it contributes 152 billion dollars economic activity, and 78 billion of that is event-related spending.

Those are things like event ticketing, dining, parking, retail, hotels, etc.

But for us, it's around placemaking, right?

How do you elevate the profile of this destination?

We're already doing so much here, but we wanted to add to sort of sort of the cock to the will.

One of the things it does engenders media coverage for us as well, and one of our um most recent uh research tells us for our latest sentiment study tells us this is something that's very that ranks really high with visitors and people who um people who visit Sacramento.

Amongst these things, the things that we look at, we talked about our partnerships and how we incorporate perspectives and supports of our partners to strengthen our outcome.

So we looked at Office of Arts and Culture, Accommodations, Business District, of course, visit Sacramento and our cultural partners.

And where the intersection and cultural connections are everything.

When we think about cultural tourism, we took parks and outdoors, museums, live performances, culinary, arts festival, and then just the creative economy and artisans.

So that forms our cultural tourism umbrella, if you will.

So just how we began, we began with our cultural tourism advisory committee, and from then we started doing newsletters.

We actually done some webinars.

And we brought together organizations and people that make up or intersect or touch cultural tourism in some way.

And that first year we had Ethan Kent, who was an expert in placemaking.

We had business improvement district, we had arts and culture folks.

There was about a hundred and fifty people for a first-year event.

With that, we had breakout sessions that totally crossed the cross several lines that people were interested in.

Because not only did we have arts and cultural visitors, we had folks from hotels, we had museums, we had businesses there, we had artists.

We had a really nice cross-section of people that became part of this cultural tourism symposium.

And I'll go to this year's, but I just want to say that our cultural tourism program really continues to evolve, particularly in Vid of Sacramento's work.

We're doing everything from our neighborhood video series, which I'm sure many of you have already seen.

We instituted our newest video, Black Sacramento.

We did, we partnered with Stockton Boulevard Partnership to do a What the Fuck competition at the Farm to Fork Festival as well.

And that was just really as a result of really working with Office of Arts and Culture and Identified Communities that really could again help elevate the city's profile.

I think this will plug.

I'm Melissa Lugonzo, and if you're a foodie like me, that means you like rich cultural food.

And that's why we're going to Stockton Boulevard.

We are highlighting all of the rich diversity, the beautiful food, and the amazing people.

I would like to use my culinary, connect my culture together with everyone.

Nothing to share our culture better than with food.

Food, story, create people together.

How long have you been around?

Today is it 40 years and today?

40 years and today.

And today, I do enjoy what I'm doing, especially helping people.

You're definitely a legend in this city for sure.

Thank you.

If you want to know Sacramento, this is the area you want to be in because there's all varieties of food.

It's just growing, it's amazing.

The elder pick this place because it's the perfect location.

The Chinese from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao.

A lot of us end up in America, build this beautiful temple for like worshipping and gathering.

So anybody who is interested and more than welcome to come.

So that was uh the second video in our series.

We've done Northgate Boulevard, Stockton Boulevard, within the Tower District.

Um, every time I see Councilman Roger Dickison, he tells me what asked me when I'm coming to Del Paso Boulevard, and we will.

And so those are just the example of how we continue to grow our cultural tourism program.

Um in addition to that, uh, we are doing the cultural tourism symposium, which is next Wednesday at the Safe Credit Union Convention Center from one to six.

Um, essentially it's a one uh p.m.

to five, doors open at 12:30.

And again, we will be um have it's really a cross-section of people that will be attending.

And amongst our um, amongst some of the topics are um ideas to impact, how to co-create, bridging business, arts and tourism.

We have amongst some of the presenters or panelists, in addition to Office of Arts and Culture, Art Oak Park Brewing Company, SAC Region Foundation, Faith McKinney, uh Livermore Valley Arts will be speaking.

Um, and really the idea is to um see how we um not only can we collaborate but really how working together um works to really build up the reputation.

I think I got everything.

Questions?

Happy to answer questions.

Thank you, Sonia.

Any comments, public comments for this item, Clerk?

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we have one speaker for this item, Lambert.

I'm glad my family and the Millennials did get me down here because I look forward to brainstorming with you.

I've heard a lot of good things about you, and for you to reach out to me, I appreciate that.

In terms of what this lady just talked about, this is outstanding because did you realize that cheesecakes appeals to most races, most cultures, and both sexes?

I bet you if I asked you right now, even the group that you had up on the screen, which was mainly Asians, they like cheesecake too because I I used to be a member of the Asian Chamber of Commerce, and they recruited me.

I didn't realize they liked cheesecake till they recruited me.

So there's a lot of things we can do.

Although we've had uh maybe I'm the one that's very controversial for this, but uh because we didn't get as much support from my hometown.

My parents moved here in 1946.

So I'm a native, and because we didn't get as much support culturally, we took our act on the road, and it took off in Southern California, which is really where it's a melting pot of different nationalities.

We were just down there this weekend.

Um we have a manufacturer in Orange County, and we uh my granddaughter invented a song talking about cultural.

She invented a song, and Disney's taking a look at it.

So see, it's a lot of things we're doing, but you have to get past the uh controversial one at City Hall, but if you can get past that, uh we create jobs, we don't have any deficits, and a computer cannot make a cheesecake, a crew does.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

There are no other speakers for this item.

Thank you.

I have uh commissioners already lined up to speak on this item.

Maya, thank you, Chair.

Um I just wanted to say you don't have to come up to the podium or anything, uh I remember the beginning of this conversation, and I'm really excited that it has grown to the degree that it has, and um just keep up the great work and thank you so much for your leadership, Sonia.

Thank you.

Any other commissioners wish to speak on this item?

Um I also want to say thank you for this.

Um highlighting our different neighborhoods um and cultural hubs are is something that not only myself but a lot of colleagues, people I've worked with in the film and media industry have been looking for.

So I'm thankful to see that you're showing the different pockets of cultural hubs in Sacramento.

I also hope that it um encourages um different communities to develop um centers of cultural uh cultural spaces in their neighborhoods.

So I'm thankful for that.

I do have a question.

Is there an IG page that you guys have that's easily shared?

So those um some of those reels and some of those short videos can be shared.

Because I know that it takes nothing but a second just to click and then get it out to the people that you share with.

All the videos are, all the videos are on our visit Sacramento's Instagram, as well as our YouTube channel and actually the cultural tourism page.

You should also be able to link to the videos, but visit Sacramento's where all the videos will be housed.

That's also the IG page?

Yes, at Visit Sacramento, yeah.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Any other commissioners on this item?

Okay.

Uh, this item is a receive and file, so no vote is required.

We'll move on to the next item, which is item number five, selection of vice chair for uh the remainder calendar year of 2025.

Do we have any nominees?

Oh, are you nominating?

Is that what you're here?

Perfect.

Commissioner Wallace?

Uh thank you, Chair.

I'd like to nominate Commissioner Ohebu for vice chair.

I'm trying to a second.

Any other nominees?

Self-nominating.

Okay.

Is there a any comments on this?

Uh I would also like to stand behind that, but are you willing to accept that?

Being that you're the only nominee.

I am willing.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Do we have an official vote that we should do?

Yes, we will take a vote.

And for the record, we do not have any public comments on this item.

Uh commissioners, please unmute for a vote.

And we will be voting on selecting Commissioner Ohebu as vice chair for the remainder of the calendar year.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Anderson.

Absent.

Commissioner Eisenberg.

A hearty aye.

Commissioner Hershey.

Aye.

Commissioner O'Habu?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith.

Definitely yes.

Commissioner Tokelino absent.

Commissioner Wallace?

Aye.

And Commissioner Winlocks, absent.

And Chair Lavulo.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

And confirming that was a motion by Commissioner Wallace with a second by Commissioner Smith, correct?

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Do any commissioners want to comment on this?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

I'm excited for you to step into this role with the kind of wealth of social currency you have in this city.

I'm thankful that you will be a part of this leadership team.

And as we go into the rest of the calendar year.

So thank you.

Commissioner O'Hable.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Thank you, Commissioner Wallace for the nomination.

Thank you all for your trust in me.

I'm looking forward to working with you all as vice chair.

I'm very excited for the remainder of the year.

Thank you.

I'm happy that you are there because I know that you had expressed interest in it, and I'm I'm happy that you did because it's it's kind of like a scary position to be in.

So thank you for agreeing to carry on some of this load.

I'm excited to have you with us too, so that you can speak.

We can speak together.

So awesome.

Anyone else?

All right.

Um moving on.

We don't have to do a second anymore.

Perfect.

So the next item is the director's report.

Thank you, Chair Lavulo.

Um, I am extremely excited to be able to work with Dr.

Oheibu.

Um, Chair Lavulo and I have discussed meetings uh kind of around the next commission meeting, and we're just looking forward to to mapping things out and containing your vision for what this commission could be.

So that's going to be very exciting for for both of us.

You can expect future communications around what that is going to look like.

So thank you for being bold and brave stepping into the mix, and we look forward.

I did want to thank, although they have left the um the chambers.

I did want to thank our speakers, assistant director, uh Dustin Hollingsworth and Sonia Bradley with Visit Sacramento.

We are just very grateful for having these partners, our sibling entity, the entertainment services division, and their work, as well as our external partners, external partners like Visit Sacramento.

I'll start by kind of just reiterating and recapping.

We are really excited for folks to attend the Cultural Tourism Symposium.

Uh again, it will happen on uh August the 20th.

Uh doors open at 12 30.

The program is going from one to five.

There will also be a reception from 5 to 6.

This is all going to happen at the Safe Credit Union Convention Center 14th and J.

And this again is an opportunity to uh to network and hear from those organizations and individuals and community who are deeply involved in arts, culture, and tourism sectors, and anyone who is interested in how we can elevate the stature of Sacramento, not just as a place-keeping exercise making exercise, but as a place-keeping exercise as well.

Um, and you can find out more about this event and register.

You can go to uh visit sacramento.com forward slash cultural tourism.

I'm gonna share a few updates, uh program area updates from our art and public places uh program area, district three creative crosswalks is something that we are looking forward to.

This is going to involve two local elementary schools, Garden Valley Elementary and Smythe Academy in the Gardenland Northgate neighborhood of Sacramento.

Uh this is an important and historic area of council district three and South Nathomas, and so we're really uh excited to be working with District 3 council member as well.

Uh the submission deadline for those interested in uh in opportunities provided by this program.

Uh the submission deadline is August 18th, 2025.

Um, this will install two creative crosswalks, one in front or near to each partner elementary school.

Uh and the art in public places program is seeking two design artists and two teaching artists, so four artists total, and they'll each receive a well, they'll receive a total of six thousand dollars in compensation for their work over this year-long project.

For more information, folks can visit arts.city of sacramento.org, visit our public art pages, and uh find the information for creative crosswalks.

We are also really excited to launch today our 2026 Emerging Curators Fellowship.

So this is an opportunity that is now open.

Uh this is a funded opportunity for early career curators to develop and present exhibitions at the Robert T.

Matsui Gallery inside City Hall, just across from the chambers on the first floor of City Hall of New City Hall.

This is constructed as a year-long fellowship where one selected participant will receive a stipend, mentorship from a professional curator, and funding to produce two exhibitions back to back, each on view for four months.

So this is a really exciting opportunity.org, programs for arts and culture, and uh find information for the emerging curators fellowship.

I should note the deadline to apply is September 15th.

Um just to note also that the current exhibition curated by this current year's fellow NJ Mavondo titled Breaking the Silence on Gender Based Violence is uh on view currently through September 17th.

Um this is a really significant exhibition that we're really grateful to be uh a part of.

The uh exhibit pre pays tribute to communities whose experiences with gender-based violence are often marginalized, including missing and murdered indig indigenous women, black women, trans and non-binary survivors, and individuals affected by intimate partner violence.

Um again, these exhibitions are free, they happen at City Hall, they are open to the public Monday through Friday from 8 30 a.m.

to 4 30 p.m.

Uh, and the exhibition space is wheelchair accessible.

Um lastly, I wanted to share that we do have one vacancy for uh a commissioner for district six, that is uh Mayor Pro Tem Eric Gera's district, and so for any folks out there in community who are interested in helping us round out our commission body, I encourage you to visit our website again and find out more of information to apply.

Thank you.

Uh any public comments on this one, clerk.

Thank you, Chair.

There are no speakers for the director's report.

Um, any commissioners' comments?

I think the next um item anyway on the agenda is um commissioner comments, ideas, questions, and meeting.

Okay, Commissioner Wallace.

Hey Chair.

Uh I just wanted to um let folks know that Sacramento Poetry Week is coming up in October, and um Andrew Defy, he just messaged me about this, is looking for sponsors.

So if you can share information with folks that you think might want to support, um, or if you want to get in touch with Andrew directly and see how you can assist, uh, he is definitely looking for help from the community.

Thank you.

Any other commissioners have anything they'd like to share or comment on?

I would like to say that um after putting out the announcement of being the chair of the commission on my own personal um pages and social media pages.

People have reached out for just inform just general information about grants.

Um, so if you guys have not done it yet as commissioners, I do encourage you guys to do so so that they know that you're the specific uh rep for that district because everybody doesn't know and everybody's not gonna go out and search for who their district person is.

They're gonna wait for you to figure out how you fit into their day.

And so if you're not doing it, please do it because people found me because of that because my com because my council member made the the announcement first and then I just shared it.

If you guys aren't meeting with your council members, make a time to make sure that you introduce yourselves and that they know you guys uh face to face and they know that you are the um you are the resource for anything that they need to know to get out arts-wise.

Uh Commissioner Smith.

Um, thank you for saying that drawing my memory on.

Is there something that we can do per social media that's the city of Sacramento didn't know who we are, and then if they have kind of um comment or kind of request that they can I don't know if it's the Instagram page or a Facebook that can be, you know, monitored periodically, um if that's a possibility.

I don't know if that's I guess the rules either.

That's a really good question.

Does anybody know if that's against the rules for us to create a social media page, or is there already one created for the arts commission?

Um, there is not a commission social media um I guess account on any social media platform that I'm aware of, um, at least not in this current iteration.

Um I uh I am not certain I would look to um our council to to confirm if there are any restrictions on that.

I believe that that would have to be if it were possible, um that would have to be initiated by commission members as opposed to the staff kind of action.

So that sounds like a good item for the follow-up log.

We can come back at the next meeting.

Okay.

So that's something that should go on the follow-up log to be discussed on the on one of our coming meetings.

Yeah, I'll probably I'll be able to have an answer for you at the next meeting on what is appropriate and the rules.

Cause yeah, there's a lot of factors at play.

Yeah, okay.

And then can you give a little bit of clarification?

Because from what I understand about the follow-up log, it's just for ideas from the commissioners and public, or just commissioners to say what we should discuss.

The follow-up log are for is for commissioners to ask questions of city staff and then staff to come back once they have the answer, not necessarily at the very next meeting, but once there is an answer to give you that information.

Um, it's just a way to keep track.

I've seen some commissions where there's 10 plus items because some items take a few months to get a response back, so it's just a way to keep track of you know what's in the queue.

Perfect, thank you.

Commissioner Wallace.

Uh, thank you.

Uh sort of on a related note.

Um I was just looking at the website and it has our names and our bios, but it doesn't have any contact like emails.

And I'm wondering if it's possible to add our emails so that people can contact us directly.

And then just as a point of suggestion to everyone else, I have my own special email just for the arts commission, so that it doesn't get so they don't have to get out my personal email to everybody.

I just created an extra Gmail.

So thank you.

Commissioner Eisenberg.

Um, yeah, following up on uh Commissioner uh Wallace's point about Gmails, uh, if we do get into that, I think yeah, that's a good idea.

Is that for everybody to create that specifically, um and not to mix personal and commission work.

Uh and on that note, um uh I for instance started an Instagram that's just D2 that's separate from my own uh Instagram where you know I'm posting my own thoughts and whatever.

Um and I got that suggestion from uh Commissioner Wallace.

So I if you haven't yet and you're thinking of it, I I think that's a good practice.

Let me include um posting emails to the bio on the website.

Um let me get back to you on that with that other update on on creating socials.

My own because my only concern or thought it would be if you maintain a separate email for commission business, that email emails you get would be subject to the public records act, and if the city has a PRA request, we'd have our own internal email system where we search for records.

So if you're maintaining your own email, we wouldn't necessarily we wouldn't be able to pull records that might be responsive to a request.

So I don't want to inadvertently not be able to comply with PRA requests.

So let me include that in our follow-up as well.

Yeah, yeah, they're that they've created for the purposes of the planning commission.

So if we're not supposed to be doing that, it's already happening.

Yeah.

That is very good to know.

Anyone else?

We did um attend at the I don't know what you call it, the culture, business, um, the arts and culture summit that we the one that we had went to you, myself, and my uh we went to what was it called?

Everyday creative.

It was good to be out with other commissioners and with Jason to just as there as a body that we're together on this commission.

So I thought it was I thought it was really cool.

So it whenever there's anything like that, if if more of you guys have time, make it to some of those um some of those activities so that we can be more visible so that people who are in your districts, you know.

If they know you, if you know any of them, they may not know that you're part of the commission, but if you make yourself readily available, people are always willing.

I I have somebody who's reaching out to me actively, like, hey, can you help me do this?

I'm like, I can't help you do much, but I can pass on the information that I'm getting.

So I usually just forward any of the information that's on the website to them about any grants or anything like that because I tell them we don't have any say on who gets what, but we do have access to push the information so that they can definitely apply for anything that they need.

If I could just add, um, just in regards to staying connected to information, I would encourage anyone out there who is not already signed up for our monthly newsletter.

We have um just hardworking staff that puts together uh these um issues each month.

They're uh full of relevant information to the Office of Arts and Culture and sometimes also additional opportunities that pertain to arts culture and the creative economy.

So I would encourage folks to sign up for our monthly newsletters if they're not already, and absolutely it's it's lovely seeing commissioners out in community um whenever we get to intersect.

So I encourage folks to continue to look out for opportunities and to share them with each other.

Um that might be uh something that we'd wrap into commissioner updates and we tighten that piece up and what does that look like and how would you like to roll forward um in the future?

Um, so looking forward to all that.

Thank you.

Any more uh speakers or any ideas or comments from commissioners?

Okay.

Uh the last item is public comments matters not on the agenda.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on public comments?

Matters not on the agenda.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we have one speaker for this item, Lambert.

Uh I hope I say this correctly.

Was it uh Commissioner Eisenberg?

Yeah, okay.

I wanted to say I appreciate you wanting to talk to me.

And at the same time, my daughter is on our way to get me.

Uh they look out for me very well.

Um, so I I look forward to talking with you, you know, briefly.

That's that's with all this modern technology that the young people handle, we can get it done.

Uh my job.

Uh I'm I'm really uh I'm just so excited about what's getting ready to happen.

Our mother, for those of you who have never heard of us, uh I don't know how, but we're called to the Bay and Back Cheesecakes.

And if you look that up, Google it, we come up first every time because nobody has that name.

It's original.

And it's our mother's cheesecakes, and they have literally gone viral down there in Southern California.

It's pumpkin season.

Some people don't like pumpkin, but a lot of people do.

And it's my job to get demand and meet demand.

The young people, they they keep me away from social media, they handle that.

So I think they I think we're on Instagram and all of that.

I stay out of that lane.

I stay in my lane because uh that's their genius.

Um I want to end by saying that this probably is the last commission I come to until we get through these holidays, and uh, you do have a very important commission, even though it's empty back here.

You know, I think it's empty because you have it at one o'clock.

Most people can't come here.

I wouldn't have come here if I wasn't self employed.

So you ought to think about that because you have a very important commission, and uh, commend you, but look at us because we're coming.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

There are no other speakers for not on.

This concludes today's agenda.

Thank you everyone for your participation.

Meeting is adjourned.