It is a grass enjoyer.

I call the Arts Culture and Library Commission meeting of May 19, 2026 to order.

Please take roll call.

Alright.

Chair Miller.

Present.

Vice Chair Elvarez.

Not here yet.

Commissioner Acevedo.

Commissioner Alex.

All right.

Good to meet you, by the way.

I'm Brian Simons.

I'm nice to meet you too.

Commissioner Bryant, I think we said uh wasn't gonna make it tonight, correct?

Uh Commissioner Gillary.

Here Commissioner Ridgedale.

Present.

Good to meet you as well.

I see you.

Commissioner Scotland is here.

And Commissioner Velasquez, I believe, is also not here.

Okay.

Hi.

All right.

So it looks like we have six in uh attendance, and uh we have met quorum.

Wonderful.

Uh item number two, there are no announcements.

So moving on to item three consent calendar.

Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of April 21st, 2026?

I move.

Is there a second?

So any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor?

Okay.

Any opposed?

All right.

Seeing no more discussion, or there was no discussion.

Motion carried.

Uh moving on to item for library services staff report and announcements.

Okay.

Thank you for having me this evening in Bill's place.

Bill's on a much deserved vacation.

Uh so however he's you know up visiting his mom in a nursing home.

So, how much of a vacation, you know, who knows.

Um, I'm glad he's getting the time though to spend with her.

So thank you.

Um, so uh just want to uh kind of give you an update on where we are uh with the budget and kind of what some of those things mean.

Some of you probably already know this, which is great.

So I'm gonna go back a little bit to go forward.

So uh in at the April 21st uh commission meeting, uh Bill had reported uh on the developments of the April 13th City Council work session, uh where we uh the proposed mid-2027 mid-cycle budget updates.

And what he had explained was after some discussion regarding the proposed library department's budget uh amendments that the the city council provided guidance to the library um that to somehow fund the fiscal year 27 arts and culture grants, um and we were gonna do a number of things to to do that.

We were gonna uh which we did canceled the planned uh 2026 uh comedy show uh because that was the direction of the council to do so.

Um we were going to carry over some other uh uh minor amounts left over this year uh if we were allowed to, and then also we were going to allocate additional funds from the library's budget line items to get to that 30,000.

Um however, so now we're going forward.

Um what happened wonderfully and a little unexpectedly uh was that the uh the council um wound up approving an additional $30,000 at the budget meeting on May 4th to add $30,000 back into the actual budget, so we didn't have to pull all these extra strings.

Um so the fiscal year 27 arts and culture grants program uh will be whole for $30,000.

Uh the result of the city council's generous addition of $30,000 uh to the library department's budget for the grants program uh is that the carryover uh for the arts line item funds is no longer necessary, um, and also not only not is it necessary, is that the guidance from the finance department is it just can't be carried over.

Um, so it's a spend it or lose it type situation, um, and those unfortunately have to be uh encumbered or spent by June 30th, which how those the time it takes to get those things done.

There's it's already mid-May.

There's not a lot of time.

Um, so since the time is not on our side, uh, and all acquisitions need insurance approval and um and um uh POs and that kind of thing, the process needs to go forward.

Um, libraries library administration is using those remaining 2026 arts funds um to secure uh enhanced art and cultural opportunities at the library.

So what we're doing is we're we're able to still use that money for arts things here uh for the community.

Um, so we're doing that in a couple ways.

Um, one of which is we're getting some equipment.

Um, so some of the equipment is um, probably seen them down the hallway, and we had we had one in the main library.

The um they're old at this point, the old glass display cases.

Um we had one, a gentleman threw a rock through one about a month ago, um, and another one just like I think it was another vandalism issue, like about six months ago.

So, and and they're not even if that didn't happen, they're not secured to the floor to the walls, so they're with earthquake uh land that we live in, there it's also not tempered glass.

So we looked at that and said, Well, okay, time to maybe re-up those since there's some money.

Um, it'll allow more opportunities for us to use that as gallery space and on the main floor of the library to use it for other arts related things so we can display three-dimensional objects uh better.

Um, and then the other kind of secondary reason uh to get those has to do with the other thing that we're we're going to uh put that money toward.

Is um we've done as you've probably seen the last about year, year and a half.

We've been doing exhibits in the atrium of the library, and they've been very popular.

A lot of people come in to take a look at them.

Um, so we've secured uh three more uh with those funds.

Uh one is Take Me to the Water, which is uh um uh all three are cultural and arts in some capacity too, I would say.

Um take me to the water is about um uh life on the water as uh people of color.

So I think when you know it's it's kind of a way to break down stereotypes because when you think pirates, you don't always think people of color necessarily, even though there were a lot of, and when you think of just maritime shipping and life on the water, textbooks have given one image, and that's not the reality, it's not the only image.

Um, so there's that one, there's Chinese pioneers is the other one, and Buffalo Soldiers is another one, and all of those exhibits have three-dimensional objects, so these display cases will also help um us display those for the exhibits.

So, in an effort to make sure that money doesn't go unspent.

Um, this is the avenue we're going down to make sure it gets spent and still stays within the spirit of the arts culture and library, which is the commission that you belong to, um, it's very uh uh something, it's something that the community will very much appreciate, and it stays within that theme.

Um, we don't we're not trying to, you know, we have other needs, but we're not trying to use the money for those.

Um, we've got the it's just as an example.

We need a PA that in the building that has been out for years, we need to replace.

We're not using for that kind of thing.

We want to keep it within uh something that is in the spirit of what the the funds are for.

Um but the ultimate plus news is the council has granted 30,000 the next cycle.

Um and uh that's just really positive news to keep that moving in the right direction.

So we don't have to pull a bunch of strings and make it happen and sacrifice other things.

So that is my report.

Thank you.

Uh at this time, do any members of the public wish to comment on agenda item four?

Seeing as we have no public, do commissioners have any questions or comments?

Commissioner Scottland, yes.

Could you give us an update on what Susan Hughes is up to?

Um, the reminding me of the, I don't know, cabinet vitrine things that you were talking about.

Um, for for those of you who don't know, there's a wonderful woman here at the library who is going around all of the city-owned properties in the San Landro, trying to figure out good places for art to be.

Yes.

And I met with her, and I haven't heard anything.

Yeah, so and she came to this body a while back, and I haven't heard anything.

I will give you another update.

So yes, um, so she's she's been working on it.

Um she's worked with um the uh city hall folks as well as um which is to some degree public works, um, and then also the wreck and park uh folks, um, to not just identify so to kind of give a big broader, more detailed brush of what what Brody was was mentioning.

So we're trying to find city-owned spaces where we can put art, whether that's um temporary things or whether that's more permanent type uh installations, and the first thing we'd like to do is more temporary, like almost treat it like a oh, we could have a gallery at I don't know, Marina Park, because we want to do a big outdoor thing, maybe um, or we know of our gallery here.

Um, and we're trying to identify if there's other indoor spaces.

So she's working on that.

She's um by the end of next, or the end of July, I believe is when it's due.

She's compiling a list of these spaces and then kind of their capacities, and she's the plan.

I don't know if she'll get to this part, but the plan is that she takes photos of these spaces.

So we also it's one thing to have a narrative of what the space is, it's another to be like, oh, I can see the space, especially for artists.

It's good to be able to visualize what that would look like to be able to say, Oh, I could see my whatever being there, um, or for this body to say, Oh, we let's just say the one percent for art comes through in the next year.

Wow, maybe we have a really big pile of money and we want to find a space for a permanent uh piece that's get that that this body in the and the council commission, it it can then we can work with that list already as this body and say, Well, we've got four spaces that we know we could put it at, now let's start talking, you know, a little more detail, and maybe this body goes out to those spaces and evaluates them in person.

Um, so she's working on it, we should have that done by end of July.

So, yeah, it's exciting.

And then our plan with it, so to go a little further, is once we have those, then she's gonna work on and she has been working on um already uh trying to find either local or regional artists that we can um host for um uh exhibits, so be it you know temporary like two-month, three-month, four-month, you know, show your stuff at this whatever location.

Um, and she's been working with oh my gosh, blanking on the name.

There's an Oakland art collective.

Is that right?

There's there's like a very active Oakland group that one of our employees is actually a part of as an artist.

Um, so she's been connected to them.

Um, in addition, I know she talked to you about who else should we talk to locally?

Um, so we're trying to find not just City of San Leandro artists, which would be great if we can find them, but as we know, those aren't always in in uh we don't always have enough of them, and if we do, they don't always have the body of work to display in like a like a gallery show, like you need more than a handful of objects.

We need somebody that has a you know 30, 40 things that we can really put a show on.

Um so she's working to try to figure something out.

Great, yeah.

Thanks.

Yeah, thank you.

And once that report is done.

Will she do we need to invite her to come to speak, or will that be something that you and Bill facilitate?

We can facilitate it, yeah.

Cool, yeah.

Um any other questions or comments?

You mentioned the one percent for arts.

Is there an update?

Is there momentum around that idea?

I don't really have an update.

Um, I think it, I don't want to say there's momentum around it necessarily because I don't know.

I know it started and then the whole budget process started to reduce the budget, and I think everything got including a lot of library things got sidetracked during that time to just say oh wow, all hands on deck, we've got to find a way to save almost 12 million dollars for the whole city.

Now that we've done that, we're gonna start having conversations again with the um because it's community development is the department leading that.

Um, and in part because it's it comes down to it being a uh developer fee.

So while I know I have my views on on what that might look like, um, I don't control the developer fees, and that's not my my you know uh expertise.

So we're we'll leave that to those experts, but we will keep um from as a representative of this body at the staff level, I'll keep pushing to see where we are with that and keep advocating for it.

What is that?

Um so uh the about I want to say two years ago, they just started to look into it and we're two years on.

Um they've got a little more detail, and what they're what the city is doing is they've looked at other cities that have um developer fees that so like if it's a a project over a certain size for certain type of uh like a like a large housing development as maybe an example.

Um the developer has to kick in whatever the price of it is, they have to also add one percent of that uh and put into a separate fund for art.

So specifically for art, specifically for art, kind of like a general thing, like correct, housing or other yeah, it's like a specific okay, yep.

So they they do a lot of I don't know if this city does a lot of that, but I've other cities I've been a part of do a lot of that for like parks and green spaces, and so they're it's the same concept but specific to art.

So we're hopeful.

And I have a question going back to the the budget, and so is it I was under the impression it was 30,000 for both this upcoming cycle and the year after since it's a two-year budget planning.

Is that not the case?

No, so uh it's a good question.

So we were at um the mid-cycle when we had to do this, so it's really for one year.

I see, and then the next time around about six months from now, we're gonna start this process all over again to talk about the next two years, which would be 28-29.

Okay, yeah, um, it's funny you say that because even me who's been in this process for years and years and years, you kind of get so used to the process that I actually was like, oh yeah, it's the next two years.

Um, and I was wrong.

Because I was hoping it's like, oh, it's like in perpetuity, but no, every two years it has to be reassessed.

Every two years, yeah.

But the upside is they found it for when it's been this tight.

You know, hopefully it doesn't get worse.

Um, if it stays as is or you know, better, hopefully, this bodes well.

Yeah.

We think it's like the visibility and sets kind of a precedent of this being a line item.

Um, thanks for clarifying.

You're welcome.

Um, and thanks to folks who came out to speak to the city council or wrote it in the comments or contacted your council people or whatever, I think it had a big impact, obviously, a $30,000 impact.

So exciting that we got to hold on to that and continue the program.

I know they kept calling it mini grants, and I'm like, no, they're like grants.

They're not many.

Um, maybe to them they're many, but they feel big to us.

I think so.

Um I can't I can clarify that if you want.

Yeah, please.

So the city manager's office has a little pool of or had a little pool of money as well.

I don't know if they have any of it left now, but they gave out mini grants and they were similar like size.

So I think it's just uh nomenclature that they're used to.

Yeah.

Arts and culture grant programs, all in capital letters.

Um, before we move into the topic, question.

Go ahead.

And maybe this might not be uh good for here.

We could add it as a gender item for later, but just wanting to learn more about are there limitations to what we can do with the grants?

Are those grants specifically restricted for direct um grants to artists?

Can we use it as seed money to grow, maybe potentially explore matching grants to kind of, you know, it's like an investment to kind of help grow that so that nobody has to worry about maybe being touched.

I don't know.

So the the as they exist now, um, the grants that this body helps give out um are to artists to do actual artwork.

Yeah.

Um it could be explored to do others, but it that's the intent, and that's what I think the counts the mayor and the council were intending when they gave the money.

I think to pull it back to do anything but art as an outcome would be something that we'd have to go back to council to explain.

And maybe I'm not understanding your.

I guess what I'm wanting to do is like take that money that we feel grateful that they kept, and then how do we grow that so that we can have more grants to impact more artists and still keep it restricted, but with the purpose of trying to use it as kind of like a seed investment or something like that.

Um is that possible?

So, I think are you saying take part of the 30,000 and save it?

No.

If we took the 30,000 and we saw a grant opportunity, so as a city, we can go and be like, hey, we got 30,000.

If you match it, we it's actually like six, yeah.

We could do that anytime we want.

Oh, good, okay.

Yeah.

Has that done?

Has that been done before?

We have not done it for that.

In part we've had a hard time finding those kind of opportunities for specifically that track.

Okay.

Um, there's definitely money for art.

Well, there used to be more money for art before the Fed got a little wonky.

Um it's kind of come back, thankfully.

Um, uh, but um it's a little bit of a challenge to find grants to give to amplify other grants that you're giving out.

A lot of times they want to give you money and you match it to do something to do a particular project.

Yeah, but you know, if if we have that opportunity, I think it's a good way to it's you're on the right track.

And private donors, is there a restriction?

We no, we have and we haven't done to my knowledge, really, much of anything in that regard.

And that that would be something, you know, personally I would be interested in doing.

I've done a lot of that in previous communities.

Um each community's different, so you know the opportunities are different.

Um, but it would be good to kind of assess what we might be able to do in this community that way.

Cool.

Yeah, just explain.

Okay.

Any other questions or comments?

Seeing none, uh, this concludes item four.

Moving on to item five, public comments.

Uh, we have no public here, and I don't think there are any e-comments, so we're gonna conclude public comments and move to item six, presentations.

Uh 6A, arts, culture, and library commission social media strategy.

So this isn't a presentation so much as an opportunity for conversation.

Uh at the city council meeting, a few of the uh commissioners spoke about the social media presence of the commission.

Uh member of the public was like, hey, I just looked at your social your Instagram account and saw that one, it's the old name and it hasn't been updated in however many years, um, and so I think that just kind of brought to our attention one that that's there, and the question of do we want to have a an independent social media presence as a commission?

I remember this came up maybe a couple of years ago when maybe the commission was reformed, and I think the stance was well the library already has like a very active Instagram account and does a lot of promotion for the things that the commission puts on, but you know, it's been three years or so, so.

So I thought it was worth bringing to the rest of you to just discuss do we want to either like reclaim the existing Instagram account, which I think is it's a San Leandro Arts Commission, so it's not even our name.

Um, do we want to reclaim it?

Do we want to scrub it?

Do we want to start something new?

Nothing at all.

Um I think.

Oh, uh I think that's it.

When you're done, I do have something that I should probably add.

Okay.

Um but it came up, there was some interest about it, so I wanted to give an opportunity for folks to talk about it.

Um one thing I always think about with these is like, yeah, like a it Instagram, but then who's gonna care and feed it from within the commission?

Um, would we have enough stuff to post regularly?

But I think that's all open for debate.

So go ahead.

So the thing I would like to add is I would maybe before we have this uh discussion, I should probably check with the city manager's office to make sure that that's something they would want to see, because the um I know as a city we've been going down a path of you know, like it's a city communication, and the commission is a part of the greater city body.

Um so, as a as an example, even as staff, there's things even though we have you know department level that have been blessed by the city manager um social media channels, we don't want to get ahead of something that the council is not yet decided on.

Um, so I would want to make sure that other commissions have been blessed to have social media channels before we go out and do it.

Um because I at minimum it would just be a bad look.

Um, and I think the council has done a very gracious thing, which is found $30,000 for us and hopefully more in the future.

Um we want to stay in the good graces and don't want to step on toes.

So Bill and I can check if that's something that um is amenable to the city manager's office.

And if it is, then I think this conversation would be really good and really robust to have.

Um if they're if they come back and say no and they give us good reasons why, you know, we'll report that to you, and then you know, we'll go from there.

So um as the only commission with a budget, um, I would be more curious as the only commission commission that has a budget.

Oh, yes.

Um, others other a couple others do actually.

Oh interesting, okay.

Yeah, that didn't used to be the case.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, I would be more curious if they've told anyone no, like have has anyone else asked and then been told no?

Yeah.

Because at the point where we need to have every post approved, that's just more work for the folks here at the library.

And you know, it's not then getting us enough visibility to make it worth it.

But you know, if we could run a robust Instagram account where we're, you know, posting updates from our grantees and posting past work and posting upcoming things, that would be great, you know, at a higher volume than could be just on the library's account.

You know, you guys are great at you know, game of shroom stuff or or the art grants, but we could theoretically have a larger volume if everything didn't need to be approved by someone at the city.

And like at that point, I don't think it would be worth it personally, it does seem like whatever the outcome is after having those conversations, we should do something with it, either I don't want to say close it down, but it does seem to create a little bit of confusion.

So we might want to strategize as a group once we know more what needs to happen, and then as long as I guess we're following the policy.

I don't know what the city has about phasing out Instagram accounts or yeah, sunsetting things, sunsetting things.

But yeah, I think that'd be really helpful if there's guidance from the city manager of like if we can even dream or of doing this, and then um, yeah, we can make a move after we have that information.

Great.

So thank you.

Quick question.

What's the name that the existing one is in there?

I don't know it off the top of my head.

It's it's at S L Arts com C-O-M-M, I believe.

See, it's the old art commission.

And the last thing on there, I think was our was our pandemic era virtual arts and craft shows.

So yeah, that was uh five or six years now.

Yeah, so I think if any yeah, anything sunsetting it so we don't look more abundant and if stuff does just go through the library's account, that's more official and vibrant.

But great, we will learn more.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments on this item?

I do want to share one thing, having worked at the city of Berkeley, and they're the city of Berkeley, so um, I used to manage a program where we were dealing with similar situation.

I love having to go to city council and and all of that, and they were pretty much like no to social media, which is ironic because it was a youth program, but with the work around, I'm not suggesting this for us, I'm just saying um it happens, is having somebody start like a friends of and then that seems to be compliant with the city again.

I'm not suggesting that here, but if we feel really passionate about having some type of presence, then you know I'm sure we can get a little bit creative without like totally um annoying or disturbing city council, so it's not unheard of, I guess.

Yeah, great.

Um, thanks for sharing that.

And I think this concludes item sixa.

So thanks for your comments, making sure I'm on the right page, and uh moving on to item seven action items.

We don't have any action items, so moving on to item eight, commission reports and announcements.

So uh item eight A is the grants committee.

Can we have a report from the grants committee?

Other than we haven't really done anything.

Isn't there supposed to be some report that Bill was going to ask us to do?

Yes.

Do you have any information on that?

I don't have any information because that's so I guess other than the budget update, which is awesome.

Um yeah, there's supposed to be a report of the work from the past cycle.

Yeah, the prior cycle, and I don't think he's shared any of it now.

I feel like I'm throwing them under the bus because he's not here, but I don't know if he's actually shared with us the the reports.

He wanted to go through the reports and kind of collate them for us.

So I guess when he's back, we can reach out and say, where are the reports, and you know, somebody can put together uh a summary presentation about them for the commission.

That is correct, just so we can see all the good work that came out of it.

Um, and then other than that, everything is in flight in terms of this cycle.

I feel like there's not a ton of preparation that needs to happen for the next cycle.

I mean, knock on wood, but I feel like that conversation doesn't have to start in earnest till like September, right?

So that is our very brief update.

Um any questions or comments about the grant program, hearing none moving on to item eight game of shrooms committee, 2026 game of shrooms committee.

Excuse me.

You want to start?

Uh I have a little update of the case.

So in the last meeting, um, I mentioned doing a uh art making uh session, which I know we're gonna do one on the 30th here at the library.

I would be happy to report we had over 50 pieces made.

I don't know how many are supposed to, I mean, or it's expected, or what did we have last year, or what happened last year?

10 or 12.

I don't know, like people just like smuggled them out.

Oh yeah.

I mean I know I made like six or seven, but oh wow, okay, so yeah, so we have about I would say 40 hideable pieces because you know people were they were so into it and going for it, but they were also like, oh my god, if somebody finds this and they're gonna want to find it, but it's it's really lovely pieces.

Um so I have them all um at my place and cool.

Um we're just gonna package them up a little bit just to make a mess and presentable and also protect it from messing up the books if we're having it in the library.

Um, and then yeah, and we actually got some donations for painting supplies and brushes and things from that that we could use for the 30th event just to kind of save money there if that helps.

Um, so yeah, pretty excited about that.

Great.

And um, I met with Bill and Norma, and it sounds like they have found someone to do a really cool talk at the library.

I didn't write down what it is, but it's on the website, it's on all the games of shroom, game of shrooms information that's gone out.

Um this woman has written this really cool book on foraging and mushrooms, and she runs a really interesting company, and she's bringing her truffle hunting dogs live.

Like a live thing.

Maybe you can teach your dog.

He loves so that's gonna be cool.

Um and we're going to have two very special guests at the Game of Shrooms in the morning.

So what's gonna happen is the library's gonna be open in the morning on Saturday, June 13th for people to hide their art, like an hour before the library opens.

And then there's gonna be like this half hour of hanging out outside, and then the mayor's gonna come, and then the person who started Game of Shrooms is going to come.

So we have two special guests, and then everyone will be like standing out going like I'm gonna run into the library and hopefully not wreck everything.

Yeah.

So it's going well.

Um, thank you for hosting the art making gathering, um, and then the one at the library, because I'm out of town, so it is going to be bigger and better and cooler and ardier this year than it was last year.

I guess come out on the 30th.

So what day what date is it?

The 16th, I'm sorry, the third.

The 13th at 9 45 a.m., is the game of shrooms at the library.

And then if I want to make some art, it's two to four on May 30th.

Okay, well, you won't ask me to do that.

Okay, it'll be fun.

Those are update.

Wonderful.

Um, I really want to attend that foraging presentation.

That would be really cool.

Yeah.

Any questions or comments?

Okay.

Uh moving on to item 8 C.

Okay.

Uh okay.

I mean, Latinx Youth Writing Workshop Committee.

Do we have a report from the Latinx Youth Writing Workshop Committee?

I think don't have any representatives from or oh, well, we didn't officially meet, but um Rosa said she was who's kind of the originator of the idea.

She's kind of recalibrating if she has capacity to put this together.

So TBD, I think she's gonna make that decision and then let us know.

So that is kind of the unofficial update about the writing workshop.

So any questions or comments on that item.

Uh, see moving on to item 8D library bike tour committee.

Can we have a report from Library Bar Tour Committee?

That is my uh baby.

Um, so we we did meet and uh kind of put together some priorities.

So we're envisioning this happening in like May or June of next year, so it's a little ways off with the year off.

Um, and so right now we're focused on picking a date that works with the library's schedule.

Um, I know it's like seems like it's always a busy time at the library, but you know, don't want to we don't want to overlap with game of shrooms because that happens in June, right?

So um I I wrote to Bill to ask his advice on that.

So we're waiting to hear back if you have any ideas or kind of about the the grand scheme of things that would be welcome.

Um, what what does it entail?

Oh so great, we haven't been here.

So the idea was to um kind of like Tour de France, but tour de bibliothèque where we ride between all of the Bill did mention this library branches, and it would be um kind of uh like active library promoting bicycle safety and pedestrian, like you know, just activating the bike lanes that exist between the branches, and we thought it would be hopefully, you know, the uh Mariner Mulford renovation will be done by then.

It would be a nice way to people for people to connect and be like, Oh yes, this is here, um, and just fun.

Just a fun outdoor thing um to connect the whole library system together, so it would be a single-day kind of group ride event, is how we're envisioning it.

Um, and so yeah, right now picking a day, uh reaching out to potential collaborators.

Uh I've already spoken with a member of the bicycle and pedestrian commission with the city, and he had some interest and some ideas about other like bicycle advocacy groups we could work with who have experience organizing group rides and things like that.

Um, but so yeah, thinking of different collaborators and sponsors.

I remember we're gonna put a list of sponsors together.

I need to put that get those documents together, but I think most importantly, just having a short pithy write-up of like what this is so that we can take that to collaborators and say this is our vision, this is what we want to do.

Um, how could you help us donate swag?

I don't know, that sort of thing.

So yeah, and I think there are also opportunities for cross-programming, maybe not in terms of like other events at the library, but I know you guys do like themed book display things, and I don't know how much there is about like bikes or bike history, um, doing something like that would be of interest.

Um so that is my report from the library bike tour.

Any questions or comments about that?

We one comment.

We have at that time we will have this library and then two others.

Yes, yeah, so that'll be cool because it takes you to different areas of the city.

Yeah, and I was like even mapping it out in Google Maps because I was like, well, and I think it's about eight miles to do the whole, like, you know, if you started here, it's doable.

You know, it's pretty flat.

Um, I was looking at like more bike paths, so that's why I also want to work with the people who have done group rides before because I'm sure they have good ways.

But yeah, I think just mentally as a San Leandrin being like, oh, I can bike across the freeway and like go to the like the marina neighborhood or Mulford, you know, or um excuse me, Manor.

I I think that provides some like social cohesiveness as well.

Um, so yeah, it's yeah.

Luckily, I was like, I hope this isn't 20 miles, but and the idea is for it to be accessible to bicyclists of all ages and abilities and um nothing, we're not going in the hills.

It's like if there's no branch in the hills, yeah.

No narrow streets.

No, um, no Chabot Road.

Uh any other questions or comments, all right.

Here we go.

Uh moving on to commissioner comments.

Now is the time.

Oh wait, what happened to the contest?

Oh, excuse me.

I'm sorry.

Uh item rewind.

Oh, I think I'm missing that page.

I don't have that either, so it's on the agenda.

It's on the agenda, just go off the agenda.

All right, eight eight.

There we go.

We didn't okay.

That's cool.

All right, moving on to item 8E, the poetry.

Contest.

Contest.

Um, Andrew and I met and um updated uh like filled out the plan a little bit more.

But what we were thinking is, um, I'm calling it San Landra of Voices and Verses for now.

Um, but that it would be rather than like a contest, it'd be more like a juried art exhibition where we would get local poets to review submissions from the community.

We were thinking we could target schools and like also um elder care facilities, try and get a wide range of folks, and then um ideally we'd be able to find local poets who spoke more than one language, and we could also make it multilingual, which would be kind of cool to be able to do that.

Um, and then what we were thinking is that we would sort of curate, let's say 2025 poems, however many we felt was right, and we would have we could have a poetry reading here at the library.

Um we could see if we can put the winners or the finalists on the checkout receipts, like we had discussed if that's possible.

We were even thinking possibly we could work with like a local high school and do like a zine or like a sort of literary magazine layout of some kind, uh limited run, and put some put them all online either on the library website or whatever makes sense on the city website, so we would be able to you know highlight those.

Let me see what else I forgot.

Um yeah, and we thought that we could, you know, include you know, if we put these all online, we could feature them in the library e newsletter, we can you know just find different ways to amplify so that more people could see the poetry.

We were thinking that for this first one, maybe not necessarily having a theme, but maybe we do that in future years if we want to do it.

Poetry month is April, which one thing I'd want to figure out is if it's like too much doing that, it'd be kind of like the same time as grants and everything, so maybe we don't tie because we're not doing anything really in the fall, and we have bikes and um grants in the spring.

So maybe we don't like anchor to that, but I think we'd have to think through like not doing something necessarily during the summer if we can't tap into schools for example, so like what would be the right time.

So we're still thinking through some of that stuff, but we just sort of and I can share this back with I don't know who I'm supposed to share this back with, but I can send it, I guess to you.

I don't know.

Are we collecting these somewhere?

Like the updated plans.

Um, I don't know.

Okay, yeah, I'm not sure, but you probably could send it to Bill and Yolanda and then they could always forward it to us, okay.

Yeah, so we can um share this back with you guys to see if you have any other thoughts or um input, but that's sort of what we built out for now.

Okay, any questions or comments?

I really like the zine idea about zines.

I second that.

I was like thinking about scenes when I was parking.

It's like I wonder if there's zine making workshops at the library, so that would be a really cool tie-in.

Um I was curious.

Like, would this be like would the call the call would go out for submissions and so it'd be like a one time thing, or like once a year at least, where you collect entries and then have them judged or yeah.

Yeah, I was sort of thinking like we could you know have like four weeks or whatever, almost like when you have the grant submissions, like where people could enter.

And I mean, we could do this one as focus on like life in San Landor or something very broad, but then in future years it could be like you know do a poem about the seasons or whatever the thing is that we want to highlight at the time to sort of have a more curated view, but I thought maybe for this first one keeping it the net wide so that people uh weren't deterred by the theme.

Um yeah, and then having letting like having a juried group of folks that are poets, like take a couple weeks to sort of do some sort of we'd have to figure out what the ranking is because you can't really like win in poetry, but um, how we pick the the top candidates.

But yeah, it's I for us it was more about like showcasing than winning, and then it's also nice just to have something other than a visual medium.

Um, and then if we were able to have multilingual, that would I feel like reflect a lot of the diverse voices, and it's like low cost to entry.

It's like all ages can participate.

So it felt like it was a great equalizer in some ways, and I don't think it would have a whole lot of costs associated with it when I was sort of thinking through if you know we were able to get you know again if the zines were able to be, you know, high school students or a project or something else where we could have people voluntarily do it, get somebody local to print it, maybe um donate the printing.

So I think it would be hopefully not too huge of a lift.

Wonderful.

All right.

Any other questions or comments, or we can move on to commissioner comments for real this time.

Okay, all right, moving on to commissioner comments, we looked it up.

And the mushroom presentation with the the truffle dog is Tuesday, May 26th from 6 30 to 7 30 pm at the Manor Branch.

Alright.

So go see a dog, go learn about mushrooms, go meet a nice lady.

She has a book out about foraging.

Nice.

I guess this is like, I don't know, comment or complaint.

So I was I was walking in, I was in uh Oakland Chinatown on Friday, and I saw these posters up for like Taste of Asia Week for both Oakland and San Leandro promoting uh like Asian culinary heritage and you know it's kind of like restaurant week, but for you know, AAPI restaurants, and it's like I haven't seen any of these posters in San Leandro.

I didn't know that this is happening, and unfortunately, it ended last Friday, so I couldn't participate, but the website is still up and they still have the list of restaurants.

They're not gonna give you a discount, but it might just be a nice way to know that these restaurants exist.

And I was like, Oh, this would have been a perfect thing for the commission to collaborate on, or I don't know, help promote or something in terms of like culinary culture and things like that.

So anyways, it's more of a gripe.

Sorry, but also I'm like, maybe I need to like reach out to that.

It's really unique.

I I mean I don't want to speak out of turn here, Secretary.

But I I appreciate your thinking that like culinary arts, like that is a it's it's it's one we forget about sometimes on a body like this.

So that's that's cool that you saw that.

Yeah, and I mean we're we're library arts and culture, so like to me that's squarely in the culture thing, but um, I just thought it was really odd that I didn't see it promoted anywhere.

It's in the I'm not at all the bulletin boards, so um I have a comment about it.

Go ahead.

I think that's something that we kind of miss about America in general and our community.

I mean, just go to Europe.

If you're if you go to Italy, if you love Italian food, you're okay.

But if you want anything else, it's just not there, and like I was talking to my sister about it, and I I see her um in Ferrofield in Vaccaville, and I'm standing there waiting for her, and I was just standing in this in this parking lot, and I counted eight different cuisines right there, and I was thinking that's something that we really don't talk about, and it is a huge cultural thing.

And maybe that's something that we can look at.

Yeah, and I think I think there is so much that's tucked away in you know the shopping centers and strip balls are it's uh we don't have we have a downtown, but it's not like oh like Oakland fine dining on in bonapet, but there's a lot of great food here.

So I would love to think of ways that we could highlight that or tap into that.

Um, so I might reach out to the folks who organize.

I think it was like Oakland Chinatown Association, so I don't know who like the San Leandro component was, but I was just happy to see San Leandro was on there, so hopefully they got some traction.

Oh we don't have a Chinatown.

That's maybe that's part of it.

We don't have any like a like a promote, but I feel like even like SLIA or um, our economic development department or division and that would have been a good one.

Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I'm just curious if you're like, hey, they're from the arts and library culture subcommission.

How can we help promote this if you do it next year?

I don't know if this is like the first time doing it or recurring, but also I was just like, oh, these are the great restaurants.

I want to go.

If you reach out to them, please keep us posted.

Okay.

Because if nothing else that keeps me in the loop, to then, you know, from the city's perspective to if it's not the library's right department, then who is and I can push it toward that department.

Um there's some reason the city isn't participating, I can learn why, and um, but but I think I would hate for us just not to act.

I think minimum, let's find out.

That's great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So oh go ahead.

Well, a couple related comments.

One circling back if we develop out the idea of social media, um, something a potential purpose of the social media could be to just be posting about publicizing these kinds of cultural items.

Like, for example, this month is API heritage, also Jewish heritage.

Um, so we as a commission haven't done anything specifically, but at the least we can be promoting whatever related activities there are in the city on that, and then um also just by the way, I noticed there's gonna be free mandarin classes at the library, which is amazing.

Yeah, at Matter Branch.

Yeah, so I just saw that randomly, and that's a cultural, you know, that's a cultural program and free language classes that's amazing.

So that's the kind of thing that you know excuse me, is that Sky W's class?

Yeah, I know I know Sky, and they he and his wife are passionate about Chinese language and all that.

I haven't taken the class because I haven't mastered English yet.

Well, language classes are expensive, so the fact that it's a race.

Yeah, yeah, and it's mostly conversational and this kind of stuff, even just so you know, a donde banyo or something, you know, and you just learn things like that, and how again I haven't been to the class, but I have friends who have been, and they just it's astonishing the complexity of Chinese language.

I should say Chinese languages, but yeah, I I highly encourage you if you're interested to check it out.

Thanks for the plug.

That's great to know.

Um, Alex, are you going?

Oh, yeah, I was gonna say, um, on the food part, I love it because I totally have a saved collection on Instagram of all the great places in San Diego.

It's a good idea.

Um, but the community uh business, wait, what is it called?

I always guess it's uh the agreement.

No, the folks, but most of you like the second Fridays, that's flea.

Oh, okay.

That's correct.

Yeah, so uh I think at one point they had done maybe, I don't know, we'd have to ask Morgan or someone there, like the um like a food crawl or something like that.

So I guess I'm bringing that up to say there might be some opportunities to collaborate with folks that are already kind of doing it together, join resources there, um piling a different cuisine every month.

There's just so many great places here.

Ever since I moved here, I'm like what you think we have to do, like taste testing to verify if it's a restaurant worthy of the food crawl, if we can help.

Send me some links.

Share my collection.

There's so many nice little hidden gems that really get you to these neighborhoods.

You're like, wow, I did not know that that place is there.

And it's just nice to just invite the entire Bay Area to you know to join in on that.

It's so good.

I have a follow-up tool, the follow-ups.

Um, yeah, I this reminds me that the culture part of our arts, culture, and library is probably our weakest.

Um I wonder if we could put something on the agenda to brainstorm how we can be more culture forward rather than just art and library forward.

Because I bet we'd all have some interesting ideas.

I mean, we gotta keep busy somehow.

Yeah, put the C and A A L C or We can definitely talk about that.

I'll have to ask if that's a presentation.

I guess it's a presentation because if it's a discussion, yeah, yeah.

They should just call it discussion.

Um, but no, I think that's a great suggestion.

And I mean, going back to the display cases, all of the exhibits that you talked about are about culture as well.

So to me that that's like a two birds, one bagel or whatever.

Um I was told that it's like or two birds one scone is nicer than one stone.

Um, so to me that's just another way that we're supporting culture, but I think there are ways we could be more active in uh fulfilling that part of our mission.

So, yeah, awesome.

Any other comments?

They don't have to be about food, but they can do that.

Um I had a question about uh for the events, the writing workshop if it happens, the bike tour, and the poetry contest, is there a list of like sponsorship needs?

Like something that we can all kind of help y'all?

That's a good like, what would that list of sponsorship needs look like?

Thank you.

I think you I thought it would heard it when you were talking about the bite, or maybe if there were like folks that would you know, coalitions that would come or have swag or do things like that.

Like if there's like needs even for the poetry contest as well, like you were talking about maybe printing or other so kind of like our wish list.

Yeah, they're like a wish list for the that'd be kind of nice to just dollar months.

Ideally, yeah.

I'd love to just yeah, I think we could you know individually put them together as a subcommittees and have uh aggregated ones, so if we see cross-pollination potential, um, yeah, I think that's a good idea because for the the bike tour, we were thinking having like a raffle at the end to like incentivize people.

So if you know one of the bike shops in town wanted to donate a messenger bag or whatever, like those kind of things, but also bottled water for people to you know recharge um as they're going on, so things like that.

Um, yeah, we can definitely put lists together.

All right, um, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting of May 19th, 2026?

Motion to adjourn.

Can I get a second?

I second.

Any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor?

Hey, we're done.

The meeting of May 19th, 2022 is adjourned at 67, 727.

So thank you.