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Board debates RCW language and mission-statement scoring as it vets cultural access applications
Summary
Reviewers raised recurring concerns about how the state RCW and the application’s mission-statement question affect eligibility and scoring. Staff acknowledged gray areas and suggested clarifying guidance next year; the board will return to allocation after final scores are tabulated.
During its review of the 2026 Impact grant round, the San Juan County Cultural Access Review Board repeatedly returned to two process questions: how to interpret state RCW eligibility language and whether the application’s mission-statement question is unfairly affecting scores.
Board members noted that the statute-language used in staff guidance requires organizations’ primary purpose to be advancing arts, culture, heritage or sciences and that funded activities must be “directly available to the general public.” Staff signaled the language can be ambiguous. "It's a bit gray and a bit squishy," Brandon said when the board asked how to handle scholarship and school-based programming.
Members suggested concrete fixes: clearer application prompts about mission statements, stronger guidance for applicants about partnerships and deliverables, and better instructions about when to disclose existing tourism lodging-tax (LTAC) or other overlapping funding so the board can judge cumulative support. One board member asked whether recipients of other county funds (LTAC) should be treated differently; staff replied that, under current guidelines, prior LTAC recipients remain eligible but that the council could later consider policy changes.
The board also debated whether formatting issues (for example, an application submitted with tracked changes) should affect acceptability; staff said the office would follow up with applicants as needed and provide written feedback. Members instructed staff to prepare clearer guidance for the next funding cycle and to include notes in award communications where deliverables or partnership letters are missing.
Next steps: staff will finalize score averages and prepare a sorted list for allocation decisions; the board plans to refine applicant guidance and consider whether application questions should be revised to reduce ambiguity in future rounds.
