PRESENTER: Presenter
Natalie Baker, Deputy City Secretary
Body
SUBJECT: Title
Approval of the resolutions for the Arts Commission’s recommendations for allocating hotel occupancy tax grant funds to community art organizations and authorizing the City Manager to execute related grant award contracts.
Header
DEPARTMENT: City Secretary’s Office
Body
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-Wide
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Form October 1, 2025, through October 31, 2025, the City Secretary’s Office made available, via the City’s website, the application, guidelines, and instructions for hotel occupancy tax (HOT) grants.
The commissioners reviewed and scored all applicants for funding. Once the commission scores the application, those scores are averaged together. That average is then applied to the requested amount. Finally, the new calculated amount is proportionately applied to the available amount of HOT funds per organization in order to create a starting budget.
The Arts Commission met on December 15, 2025, to review qualified applications and, after careful deliberations, the commission has made the following recommendation for 2026 funding awards.
ISSUE:
Allocations require City Council approval.
STRATEGIC PLAN REFERENCE:
☐Economic Mobility ☐Enhanced Connectivity ☒Community Identity
☐Organizational Excellence ☐Community Well-Being ☐N/A
FISCAL IMPACT:
City ordinance requires that 15% of Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) previous fiscal year collections be allocated to the “enhancement of arts and cultural organizations and programs”. Customarily these proceeds are divided equally between Arts and Heritage Commissions, who then make recommendations to City Council on the disbursement of their respective halves of the funding. This year, $351,537 was made available to the Arts Commission based on the 2025 HOT collections.
Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Approval of the awards as recommended by the Arts Commission.