ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - The Elk Grove City Council approved a resolution at its Dec. 11 meeting to dissolve the Elk Grove Arts Commission and replace it with a new commission intended to help expand the relationship between arts and economic ventures throughout the city.  

The new seven-member commission will be named the City of Elk Grove Arts and Creative Economy Commission and is tasked with fostering a stronger “creative economy,” across the city by developing funding strategies, programs and opportunities to help leverage economic benefits from the arts. 

“Arts attract business; arts attract talent to our community, arts attract visitation and tourism to our community,” Economic Development Director Darrell Doan said during a presentation on the resolution. “Arts improve our branding position as a community, it improves our quality of life, and it makes our city beautiful.” 

The advisory commission will meet monthly and will help develop an “arts and creative economy strategy” to accomplish the reshaped commission’s goals. Doan said the hope is the plan will take a year to develop and will include a consultant at a cost of $100,000 to $200,000.

Doan said the new commission could also recommend Economic Development Measure E funds for potential programming. 

The structure change comes almost a month after the city council requested more information at its Nov. 13 meeting on expanding the role and purpose of the Arts Commission. 

The previous five-person commission, which was formed in 2002 as the Arts Committee, was tasked primarily with recommending art installations at city-owned facilities and recommending different arts and entertainment ventures within the city, among other arts related objectives. 

Members of the previous Arts Commission voiced uneasy concerns about the change. 

Nan Mahon, a local writer and chairperson for the Arts Commission, asked the council to reconsider dissolving the commission and argued the tasks were already in line with its current responsibilities without spending city funds on a consultant. 

“We are well versed in what we are doing,” she said. 

Liz Irons, also an Arts Commission member, questioned what would happen to the current efforts the city commissioners were already working on, including recommendations made for Elk Grove’s new zoo and other projects. 

“Is that going to go to ground zero and start reinventing the wheel?” Irons said. 
 

Other speakers voiced concerns over an “economic angle” taking precedence over the arts. 

Gary Mendoza, a local musician who said he has participated in several local events designed by the Arts Commission, questioned if the council was considering scrapping something that already worked well for the city. 

“If it’s not broke, why fix it?” he said. 

Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said she did hear from other community members who could not attend the meeting about the proposal and the positive benefits the committee could provide for the city. 

She praised the work of the Arts Commission before noting similar concerns were voiced before the city opted to change its Multicultural Committee to the Diversity and Inclusion Commission in 2019. 

Vice-Mayor Sergio Robles said he does not want to see the city take on a more “corporate” approach to arts, and hopes the commission drives more people to Elk Grove for family events and local family-owned businesses.

District 3 Councilor Kevin Spease said he saw the new committee as the realization of prominent Elk Grove arts patron Judy Tafoya’s dream. Tafoya died in 2018. He reiterated that current commissioners would have the opportunity to apply. 

District 2 Councilor Rod Brewer said he supports the change but felt that the originally proposed five members was too small leading to the change.  

District 1 Councilor Darren Suen said he agreed with expanding the scope of the body but apologized to the previous commissioners after being told by Doan that they were not engaged on the potential dissolution plan.

“That is my one regret that none of you got a heads-up,” Suen said. “I understand your frustration.”  

City spokesperson Kristyn Laurence said the plan is to devise a recruitment strategy for the new commission when council returns to session in January.