Council Preview: Public Art Ordinance
After holding a Nov. 14, 2011 work session on public art, the Ann Arbor city council will take up a proposed revision to the city’s ordinance on public art at its Nov. 21 meeting. The city’s Percent for Art program, supported by the local law, currently stipulates that 1% of the budget for any capital improvement project in the city (up to a $250,000 limit) be set aside for public art.
Revenue to public art by fund, broken down by expended amounts and remaining balance. The black portion of the bars represents expenditures to date. The gray portion of the bar represents remaining balance. The overall height of the bar corresponds to total revenues to the public art fund from a particular origin fund. (Chart by the Chronicle. Image links to a higher resolution file.)
The proposed amendments to the public art ordinance were first considered by the council at its Sept. 19, 2011 meeting, with action postponed until Nov. 21. Key features of the amendment include: (1) exclusion of projects funded by street repair millage funds from the ordinance requirements; (2) addition of requirements that would return public art money to its fund of origin, if not expended within a specific time frame; (3) explicit exclusion of general fund dollars from ordinance requirements.
At the Nov. 14 work session, Sue McCormick – the city’s public services area administrator – provided city staff recommendations to the council that implicitly responded to the main elements of the currently proposed ordinance amendments. While specific mechanisms and alternatives for implementing (2) and (3) were provided, a general recommendation was made against narrowing the base of funding streams for public art, as (1) would do.
Staff recommendations also included a suggestion to increase the value of the contract for the public art administrator (not currently a city employee) by up to $35,000 a year.
Any changes the council makes to the ordinance on Nov. 21 will receive only initial approval. It’s possible that on Nov. 21, the council could consider approaches to amending the public art ordinance that are different from those currently proposed. For example, in the past, the council has contemplated, but rejected, a simple reduction in the amount of funding – from 1% to 0.5%. [Full Story]