Gainesville City Commission discusses changes to Art in Public Places ordinance, updates fire assessment fee language

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the April 9 General Policy Committee meeting, the Gainesville City Commission discussed changes to its Art in Public Places ordinance and updated its fire assessment fee language.

Art in Public Places

Assistant Director for Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Leslie Ladendorf explained that the City’s Art in Public Places ordinance has the goals of increasing public access to art, contributing to civic pride and economic development, enhancing the climate for artistic creativity in the community, enriching the public environment, and enabling Gainesville to attain recognition as a cultural center. The ordinance dedicates at least 1% of the cost of new, renovated, and/or expanded public buildings to art, with a cap of $100,000 per project, and the Art in Public Places Trust reviews and makes decisions on public art projects and acquisitions.

Ladendorf said that Art in Public Places is in the City’s current Comprehensive Plan, and it’s also in the draft language for ImagineGNV, the proposed Comprehensive Plan update. She said the new language in ImagineGNV adds transparency and allows the community to understand how art is chosen and reduces barriers so more artists can participate. She added, “We also wanted to make sure that through this Comprehensive Plan, we are addressing underserved audiences, historically excluded neighborhoods, and historically excluded communities in that process, as well.”

Ladendorf said the challenges are that funding is project-based, there are no funds dedicated to maintaining the artwork, and there is no dedicated visual arts coordinator right now.

Staff requests and recommendations

Staff asked the Commissioners to discuss implementing a development incentive for providing public art, increasing the project percentage above 1% and/or dedicating a portion to maintenance, and expanding the types of projects that require contributions from the Art in Public Places Trust fund.

Staff recommendation was to review and update the Art in Public Places ordinance, review and update the Art in Public Places Master Plan, and review the Collection Management Policy. 

Commissioner Bryan Eastman pointed out that $100,000 doesn’t go as far now as it did when the ordinance was passed in 1989, and he also said that public art should be where the City gets “the most bang for our buck,” which may not be at the locations of new or renovated buildings.

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she supported keeping the funding tied to projects and keeping the 1% cap. She said the building that hosts the artwork should maintain it as part of their budget, and she didn’t support creating a position for a visual arts coordinator because there is no funding for that. Ladendorf said the maintenance funding could come from the department that uses the building, but they would need “art-trained individuals” to manage the art.

Commissioner James Ingle: “If you want artists, they have to be able to eat. So making sure that not only are we getting art in public places, but we’re putting money into the art community and fostering that type of ability to have a career doing that, I think, is very important too.”

Commissioner James Ingle said that $100,000 in 1989 would be $265,000 today, so he supported adjusting the cap and setting some of that money aside for a maintenance fund. He said he thought there should be some way to opt out of the art requirement if the area isn’t public, and he wanted to set aside money for “taking care of the artists, as well as the art… If you want artists, they have to be able to eat. So making sure that not only are we getting art in public places, but we’re putting money into the art community and fostering that type of ability to have a career doing that, I think, is very important too.”

Commissioner Ed Book supported staff’s recommendations and said the policy decisions should come from research and “robust engagement” with City advisory boards and the Art in Public Places Trust. He said, “I lean towards project-based, also, but I don’t have enough expertise to really weigh in without knowing more from City staff… I probably would stay away from any figures or caps or percentages until we hear back from people with expertise.”

Mayor Harvey Ward said, “I have a lot of thoughts on this… I believe public art ought to be available for the entire community. It ought to be specific, also, to the people who work in the building… When you come to work, I want you to walk past something or experience something that takes a little bit of the daily drudgery away, because the best job in the world still has some drudgery attached to it, right?… It also ought to be something that speaks to somebody who visits our city and is memorable to them.”

Mayor Harvey Ward: “A lot of people in their working life aren’t exposed to art. A lot of people, as they age in place, are not exposed to art, and art is something we ought to have a right to, no matter who we are, no matter what part of town you live in, no matter what you drive past every day, there ought to be something in that, that we all participate in, that lifts your soul.”

Ward continued, “A lot of people in their working life aren’t exposed to art. A lot of people, as they age in place, are not exposed to art, and art is something we ought to have a right to, no matter who we are, no matter what part of town you live in, no matter what you drive past every day, there ought to be something in that, that we all participate in, that lifts your soul… When we talk about art, I want us to be real clear what we’re talking about. I’m not talking about decoration. I’m talking about something that changes your soul for the better, and we have the opportunity to do that. I believe we have a responsibility to do that.”

Ward continued, “What I’m looking for today is for us to kick off a process, not to make hard and fast decisions, but to kick off a process that leads us to a place… where we get good information from the experts who are in our community, and Lord knows, we’ve got arts experts in our community, and not only from experts, but from folks who are going to read the story of this meeting and come in and want to tell us about it.”

Ward concluded, “I want us to make a good quality thought process on this, about not only what we’re trying to achieve, but also how we will fiscally achieve it. But I do not want us to build things that only work for people who already are exposed to art. I want it to be in places where everybody in our community, from their first perception until their last perception, is fed by what we do.”

Assistant Director for Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Leslie Ladendorf: “We’re repurposing art, so we took the rainbow bricks that went across the road; they were pulled up because they weren’t able to be just removed. Those bricks are being reconfigured into a space inside City Hall Plaza for kind of a remembrance space for people to reflect on, a space to show our community where our priorities are.”

Chestnut asked what type of art is planned for the renovated City Hall Plaza, and Ladendorf responded, “We’re repurposing art, so we took the rainbow bricks that went across the road; they were pulled up because they weren’t able to be just removed. Those bricks are being reconfigured into a space inside City Hall Plaza for kind of a remembrance space for people to reflect on, a space to show our community where our priorities are.”

Interim City Manager Andrew Persons thanked Commissioners for “giving us the ability to come back, make some recommendations, and work through some of these complicated issues.”

Motion

Eastman made a motion to approve the staff recommendation to authorize staff to work with the Art in Public Places Trust to update the ordinance and the Art in Public Places Master Plan and authorize staff to update the collection management policy. Chestnut seconded the motion. 

Ward said he was “really intrigued by the development incentive for providing public art. I think that could really go somewhere.”

Eastman added a request to ask staff to research options for a voluntary development incentive program; Chestnut agreed and added that she didn’t want staff to “rush” the Master Plan. 

Mayor Harvey Ward: “I want us to be a leader in this. This is our opportunity to take a real leadership role, not only in Florida, but in other cities, for how we approach public art.”

Ward said, “I would like, when we are finished with this ordinance and this Master Plan, for this to be the sort of thing that other communities can take a look at and copy. I want us to be a leader in this. This is our opportunity to take a real leadership role, not only in Florida, but in other cities, for how we approach public art.”

The motion passed unanimously, with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker absent.

Fire assessment fee

The second agenda item was a discussion about the charitable/religious/literary/scientific (CRLS) assistance programs for the City’s fire assessment fee.

Gainesville Fire Rescue Chief Shawn Hillhouse said the fire assessment fee comes from a state statute, and “special assessments are valid if they specially benefit the property and are fairly apportioned, so they’re not ad valorem taxes; they don’t depend on taxable status… A fire assessment is lawful if the services provide a special benefit to the property and costs are fairly apportioned… The assessable costs for a fire assessment have to be for fire-related [expenses] only.”

Hillhouse said every property is assessed, but the City pays the fees for specific entities. He said assistance programs like the City’s are “not required in any way,… [but] there’s no capability for us to compel government entities.” The City currently pays 100% of the fees for every entity that falls into the specified categories, but Hillhouse said the City could decide to pay a different amount. 

Hillhouse said the entities that cannot be compelled to pay (typically governmental entities) cost the City about $2 million a year, the CRLS entities cost a little over $500,000 a year, and hardship assistance costs about $2,000 a year. He said Alachua County only offers hardship assistance.

Hillhouse said the staff recommendation was to update the ordinance to include the scientific and literary categories, to align with new language in the Property Appraiser’s exemption codes and simplify the process of categorizing properties.

In response to a question from Chestnut, Hillhouse said the charitable entities are typically nonprofits and religious institutions; scientific entities are hospitals, nonprofit healthcare facilities, and research labs; literary entities are nonprofit schools (but not charter schools), libraries, and dormitories.

Commissioner Casey Willits: “We don’t get credit for having subsidized the religious and nonprofit institutions in our community to the tune of $500,000 a year… That is not being acknowledged.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said he would be interested in exempting a fixed amount, but larger entities would have to pay the difference between their assessment and the exemption; he also favored “writing these organizations a physical check every year so they know that they’re getting a subsidy from the City… We don’t get credit for having subsidized the religious and nonprofit institutions in our community to the tune of $500,000 a year… That is not being acknowledged.” He said he didn’t want to change anything immediately, but if property taxes are reduced, “half a million dollars is real money.”

Hillhouse said the updated language would have “minimal” impacts on the assessments because those entities are mostly included under the previous language; the update would just align with the Property Appraiser’s new categories. 

Ward also said he didn’t want to make any changes this year besides the new language, but “I do want us to start making sure that the parts of the community who are getting a break on this… are fully aware that they’re getting assistance… Whatever that entity is, here’s your letter every year that says, ‘This is what we would be charging you if we were not providing you this extra support… It is not a constitutionally driven support for what you do; it is something we have chosen to do.'”

Willits said, “It’s funny that when Florida does have their opinion about our budget, they didn’t identify this as potential waste, fraud, or abuse. They didn’t say, ‘You’ve been unnecessarily favoring your religious institutions… You’ve been giving a deal to all these nonprofits that are flocking to your city.'”

Ingle made a motion to approve the staff recommendation, and Eastman seconded the motion. Book suggested adding direction to staff to notify organizations annually of the assistance they are receiving from the City, and Ingle agreed to add that. The motion passed unanimously, with Duncan-Walker absent.