HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025 01.23 CPAM1
BROOKLYN CENTER
CULTURAL AND PUBLIC ART COMMISSION
MEETING MINUTES
6:30 p.m., Thursday, January 23, 2025
BROOKLYN CENTER CITY HALL
Members: Nahid Khan, Chair; Gail Ebert, Kari Kelly, Sabra Love, Marie Martin, Michelle
Thayer.
Members at Large / Affiliates: Cyd Haynes, CieJay Hanson and Denise Butler.
City Staff: Liaison Raquel Diaz Goutierez and Director LaToya Turk.
Council Liaison: Mayor April Graves.
1. CALL TO ORDER at 6:30 p.m. by Chair Khan, followed by Land Acknowledgement.
2. ROLL CALL and Quorum, conducted by Liaison Goutierez.
Members: All present except Commissioner Ebert (excused absence). Jaclyn Frost has
resigned from the Commission. Quorum of four Commissioners was met.
Members at Large: Cyd Haynes was present, CieJay Hanson was not present (unexcused
absence), Denise Butler arrived late (marked present upon arrival).
3. COUNCIL LIAISON INTRODUCTION: Mayor Graves made remarks about importance
of the Commission and the work of the Commissioners.
4. BREATHING EXERCISE was led by Liaison Goutierez.
5. MEMBER INTRODUCTIONS: conducted by Chair Khan. Each Member and Member at
Large introduced themselves along with Liaison Goutierez, Director Turk and Council
Liaison / Mayor Graves.
6. ELECTION OF OFFICERS for 2025, conducted by Liaison Goutierez who explained
procedures. Member Love and Member Martin motioned to nominate Member Khan to
continue as Chair and Member Thayer seconded the motion. Members unanimously re-
elected Member Khan as Chair. After discussion by Commissioners, Chair Khan selected
Commissioner Thayer as Vice Chair.
7. ADOPTION OF AGENDA conducted by Chair Khan. Member Love moved to adopt
Agenda and Member Kelly seconded it. Motion unanimously adopted by Members.
8. APPROVAL OF MINUTES of the November 21, 2024, meeting, conducted by Chair
Khan. Member Love moved to adopt the minutes and Member Kelly seconded it. Motion
unanimously adopted by Members.
9. GUIDELINES AND MEETING PROCEDURES, reviewed by Liaison Goutierez.
City Calendar and overall City web site was introduced.
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Continued onboarding work, including review of relevant documents: Establishing
Resolution for the Commission, Respectful Workplace Policy, City Business Ethics Policy,
and Council Meeting Decorum Guidelines.
Commissioners reminded to keep all Commission documents organized and handy for
review, and to bring them to meetings.
10. 2025 MEETING CALENDAR: led by Chair Khan.
Proposal to shift to 3rd Thursdays of the month and to meet every two months (March, May,
July, September, November, and then in January 2026) was discussed. Chair or Liaison may
call special meetings. Vice Chair Thayer motioned to approve the schedule and Member
Kelly seconded the motion. Members unanimously adopted the motion.
11. OLD BUSINESS: Conducted by Chair Khan.
a. Commission Term Lengths and Commissioner Term Expiration Dates. After
discussion with City Clerk Barb Suciu, Director Turk and Liaison Goutierez, the
action item was that there will be a follow up meeting(s) among staff to address:
(i) discrepancies regarding Commission term lengths (2 years in
Resolution and Member information page; 3 years on Commission
page), as well as discussion about extending this Commission term
of office to 3 years from current 2 years,
(ii) readjustment of dates of Commissioner terms of office, because of 3
original Member resignations and 2 new appointees, plus 2
vacancies still to be filled, while addressing need to stagger dates,
and
(iii) procedures for reappointment of Commissioners at end of their terms
vs. opening positions again to consider new applicants.
b. Update on Filling Vacant Positions and Application Form.
Liaison Goutierez explained City publicity and outreach to recruit new applicants
to this Commission and Director Turk reminded Commissioners to help with
sharing information about all City Commissions to contacts, and encourage them
to apply.
City Clerk Suciu gave an update about the Application Form and upcoming work
to improve all City Commission procedures and processes to standardize them.
c. Development of a Commission Work Plan and work on Commission Bylaws.
Liaison Goutierez has created documents for use by Chair, Vice Chair and
Liaison to manage tasks and work flow, including roles and responsibilities,
timeline of tasks and deadlines.
Liaison Goutierez will be working on Commission Bylaws. City Clerk Suciu will
provide template for Commission Bylaws. When a draft is ready, there will be
opportunity for Commissioner review to add specific items concerning this
Commission. Once a draft is ready, it will be reviewed by other City Staff, the
City Attorney, and then will go to the City Council for approval.
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d. Update on Beautification and Public Art Definition.
After receiving suggestions from some of the Commissioners, Liaison Goutierez
is developing short summary versions of keywords and will share at next
Commission meeting. Vice Chair Thayer asked about extra time for
Commissioners to send further suggestions, and the deadline for this was set for
Mon. Feb. 3.
e. Update on Funding Opportunities and Funding Agencies.
Liaison Goutierez is working on a system to track grant applications, application
deadlines and requirements. Several grant opportunities have been identified, and
Member-at-Large Cyd Haynes has provided us information for three more grant
opportunities through Old National Bank, the Joyce Foundation and the State
Parks Board.
12. NEW BUSINESS: Conducted by Chair Khan.
a. Commissioner Report was postponed because of extensive meeting time spent on
Commissioner, Staff and Council Liaison introductions.
b. Staff Liaison and Director Updates.
Liaison Goutierez shared work as City Artist-in-Residence on mural with students
at Early College Academy in BC.
Director Turk updated Commissioners on City’s Cultural Awareness Months
programming, particularly upcoming Black History Month. She also shared work
with the Prevention Academy at the Strong Cities organization, and working out
how to apply it in BC, and this Commission can play a role. There will be Shingle
Creek Cleanups as well as health-related Awareness Months programming, and
this Commission will be invited to take part in the Parks and Recreation
Department Halloween Party.
All Commissioners are welcome to join the planning teams for these events, and
to let Director Turk (and Liaison Goutierez) know.
Liaison Goutierez said she would make sure to give Armando Oster, Community
Engagement staff member, all the Commissioner emails for direct updates from
the City.
c. Staff and other City Commission Presentations:
In March, there will be presentation on the Opportunity site by one of the
Economic Development Division staff members; the planning for it will include
provisions for public art.
Another upcoming presentation is from the Parks and Recreation Department and
Commission. They’re dealing with cross contamination of recycling with trash in
our city parks and need to redesign containers in some way to reduce cross
contamination. They would like to partner with us to get feedback on designs of
containers and also decals.
The plan for the year is to have City departments talk to us about what they're
doing that could have a cultural and public art dimension for us to provide
feedback.
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Council Liaison / Mayor Graves shared insights from a conference by the Mayors
Institute of Design that emphasized placemaking, which could be applied to the
Opportunity Site and elsewhere in the City. We “need to do a better job
highlighting the natural assets that we have as a city, which of course are the
people, the cultures, the art, but also our parks, our trails, our natural environment,
our Shingle Creek. Even just the high water-table, which can sometimes be a
difficulty with development, can also be an asset if you find ways to daylight it.
Hearing that they're coming to talk to you about it is really exciting.” She was
pleased to hear about our possible partnership with the Parks and Recreation
Commission and Department.
d. Additional items. None were suggested from the floor.
13. OPEN FORUM: Conducted by Chair Khan.
The chair of the BC Planning Commission, Alexander Koening, was in attendance, and
shared some reflections about the mission, vision, purpose and goals of the Cultural and
Public Arts Commission. Chair Khan reminded everyone of the Master Plan for
Beautification and Public Art for the City of Brooklyn Center.
14. ADJOURNMENT. Vice Chair Thayer motion to adjourn meeting and Member Martin
seconded the motion at 8:40 p.m. Members unanimously adopted the motion.