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County staff outline draft Cultural Access Program ("Rising Tides") rules, timelines; council favors phone-interpretation option for language access plan
Summary
County staff on July 15 presented draft rules and timelines for a Cultural Access Program to award lodging-tax money to arts, cultural and school-access programs, and council asked staff to include a vendor phone-interpretation service in the program plan.
San Juan County staff presented a set of draft administrative documents July 15 to implement a new county Cultural Access Program (a working title included "Rising Tides") to allocate lodging-tax revenues for arts, cultural and school-based programming.
Why it matters: The program will distribute lodging-tax dollars to support arts, cultural, heritage and science organizations; the county adopted an ordinance in December that creates dedicated revenue streams. Staff described two grant types: multi-year "comprehensive funding" for established year-round providers and shorter "impact grants" for one-off events or small organizations. The county expects about $800,000 in a full year of lodging-tax revenues; staff recommended launching impact grants in year 1 and starting multi-year comprehensive awards in year 2 once a full year of collections is available.
What staff recommended: Brandon Andrews, Parks and Fair Director, walked council through staffing, timelines, proposed application and reporting forms, and a draft volunteer review panel process. Staff proposed a July–June fiscal schedule so payments align with school-year programming, asked for guidance on program naming, and proposed a two-year award cycle for comprehensive funding to provide stability to organizations.
Council direction and language-access decision: Council members repeatedly asked about board composition, conflict-of-interest rules, transparency of decisions and tracking who applies and receives awards. Members emphasized establishing an advisory or review panel with fair island representation; staff will return with options for formal vs. ad-hoc panels. Separately, county communications and health staff presented draft options for a county language-access plan; council instructed staff to include a phone-interpretation service (third-party vendor) as an initial funded item and to complete a no-cost "plan" version if budget constraints preclude immediate funding. Council asked staff to return with a dollar figure for a biennial phone-interpretation subscription for formal inclusion in the budget process.
Next steps: Staff will conduct volunteer stakeholder reviews of the draft materials, consult the county PA on definitions and eligibility (especially how school/pre-K programming qualifies), refine advisory-panel language and conflict-of-interest forms, and bring back a final proposal and budget ask later this year for council direction. A pilot rollout of impact grants in 2026 was proposed after additional committee review.
Quotes: "We think the nonprofits in that level of certainty and for us to be able to, not have such big cycles of grants every single year…would be advantageous," Parks Director Brandon Andrews said.
