On Wednesday afternoon the King County Council's Committee of the Whole held a meeting on arts funding that was shot through with weird vibes. The members treated each other with the barely bridled animosity of a family who'd only recently decided on a communications strategy for dealing with the news of their son's "alternative lifestyle." And indeed, Council Member Jeanne Kohl-Welles told me over the phone that as late as Wednesday morning she didn't know how this whole thing was going to shake out.

But it seems as if negotiations on drafts of the relevant ordinances worked out okay. The committee voted unanimously to advance two proposals, including one that would redistribute $1.5 million in funds from the Building for Culture projects that were unable to "expend all of their funds within 36 months of bond issuance," and another that confirmed the appointment of 4Culture's second-ever Executive Director, Brian Carter. But, uh, why did they have that much money to redistribute in the first place?

Part of the original Building for Culture plan—a joint bond agreement between the county and 4Culture to fund arts infrastructure projects with the $28 million they received from the interest on the Kingdome (read more here if you really wanna jump down that rabbit hole)—stipulated that arts orgs who couldn't use the money the council appropriated to them within a 36-month period had to return their chunk for the county to redistribute. The county put 4Culture in charge of overseeing the review, and any projects deemed not "shovel-ready" after 24 months had to give up their awards.

4Culture concluded that the Tateuchi Center, a performing arts center that would be located in Bellevue, wouldn't be able to secure the necessary funding to begin construction, and so they had to send their $1.2 million award back to the county. County staff also said the council could spend about $300,000 they'd earned in interest from the Kingdome deal.

At the meeting, Council Member Claudia Balducci, who represents the Bellevue area, stressed that the reallocation of funds to other orgs was "not a statement of lack of support" for the Tateuchi Center and the other projects (which included Pottery Northwest and SIFF), but rather a result of timing. "This money has a hard and fast deadline on it, and it's coming up quickly," she said.

So where'd all that Tateuchi money go?

The KidsQuest Children's Museum, which is also in Bellevue, took the bulk of it, adding $733,059 to their original million-dollar ask. The Shoreline Historical Museum (hi CM Rod Dembowski) added $300,000. The Seattle Symphony Soundbridge program was given $131,300 in additional funding for renovations. Here's how the rest was redistributed:

Highline Historical Society (hi Dave Upthegrove): +$100,000
City of Federal Way: +$100,000
Northwest African American Museum: +$52,000
Kirkland Arts Center: +$43,380
Renton Civic Theatre: +$23,116
Sammamish Heritage Society: +$15,600
Filipino Community Center: $15,000
City of Newcastle Community Activities Commission: +$10,00

A tense little tiff between Council Members Kathy Lambert and Joe McDermott embodied the arguments the council members must have been having overdrafts. After the vote, Lambert held up a pie chart to complain about the percentage of funds distributed by district.

"This is what we're dealing with," Lambert said as she held up the colorful piece of paper. "As we go forward, these need to be much more equal because every one of our districts is the same 234,000 people, and they all have the right to have the same amount of lovely culture and arts and beauty in their districts."

McDermott stepped in with the rebuttal, arguing that the chart "cites the location where an institution exists, and there are a couple of districts that have concentrations of regional institutions" that serve people across King County's 39 cities. "To expect such allocations to be broken out evenly by council district I don’t feel is the equity we’ve been seeking," he said.

McDermott is correct. Larger organizations located in population centers often receive a larger share of the pie, but only because there's a greater number of larger organizations in those areas. Those orgs develop lots of programs to reach as many corners of the county as they can, and not just out of the goodness of their heart. They'll die if they don't try to get as many people in the door as they can, and father flung folks won't know where the door is if the regional orgs don't send their teaching artists and their science vans out to Skykomish and show them the way.

Anyway, the council also passed along the confirmation of Brian Carter as 4Culture second-ever Executive Director. Carter will replace longtime ED Jim Kelly.

During the hearing, Carter, who was 4Culture's Heritage Director since 2016, said he's been working in museums for 15 years. He served as deputy director and head curator at the Northwest African American Museum, directed the Oregon Historical Society in 2012, and then worked as the director of interpretation at the Burke Museum. The council spoke highly of his extensive qualifications and familiarity with 4Culture, and he had me cracking up at the hearing.

Carter said he looks forward to keeping open the lines of communication between 4Culture and the county. “I think it’s exciting times, and I look forward to being the mix of those exciting times," he said.