Survey would provide answers on total economic impact, Council told

The aesthetic importance of Benicia’s prominent arts community is easily seen when visitors from other areas attend gallery events and Open Studios weekends.

But the dollars and cents impact has been harder to determine. That could change if Benicia agrees to participate in the national Arts and Economic Prosperity Survey, Library Director Diane Smikahl wrote in a July 8 report to City Manager Brad Kilger.

The fifth survey of its kind, AEP5 looks at the nonprofit arts and culture industry and measures how spending in that industry affects the economy, wrote Smikahl, staff liaison for the Benicia Arts and Culture Commission. She will provide the Council today with a contract for the survey.

During the commission’s May 5 delivery of funding recommendations for local arts and culture organizations, Council members said learning about the economic impact of arts programs would be beneficial, Smikahl noted.

She wrote that the library and the city Economic Development Division took steps that resulted in Benicia’s invitation to participate in the AEP5, which would glean data that pertains specifically to this city.

“The Arts and Culture Commission, in collaboration with the Economic Development Board, (would) collect the data, which will then be analyzed by Americans for the Arts, and the city will be provided with specific information on the economic impact of the arts and culture activities in our community,” she wrote.

Information also would be gathered from arts and culture organizations, as well as individual arts events attendees. “This will enable the measurement in a reliable and affordable manner,” Smikahl wrote.

Four areas would be examined in particular: full-time-equivalent jobs in Benicia that are supported by the arts, personal income paid to residents, revenue generated for Benicia’s government and revenue generated for the state government.

The survey would look at the economic impact of spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and the economic impact of event-related spending by their audiences, Smikahl wrote.

The Economic Development Division would pay the $5,500 fee required of local study regions with populations fewer than 100,000, she wrote. Those funds already are budgeted for such projects.

“The project will not require additional staffing,” she wrote, adding, “An estimated cost for staff time is $3,000.”

In return, the city would get a customized survey instrument for collecting data from both organizations and audiences, detailed instructions and technical assistance for effectively collecting information, Smikahl wrote.

The city also would get a customized economic input-output model. “In addition to the survey results, this economic model will include wage, labor and commerce data from local, state and federal government sources,” she wrote. “The end product will be a detailed, easy-to-understand report and resources customized specially for the community.”

The products will give both the Council and city employees “concrete data and solid information on the benefits arts and culture organizations provide to the city,” Smikahl wrote.

A member of the Arts and Culture Commission would be the city’s primary project contact, and an ad hoc committee or task force made up of Economic Development Board and Arts and Culture Commission members and volunteers representing local organizations would be formed to help with oversight and administration.

Smikahl wrote that about 100 organizations inside Benicia are likely to be eligible to participate.

A Sept. 30 commission workshop will provide organizations and the public information about the survey and recruit help from the arts organizations, she wrote.

Local nonprofit organizations would receive a Web-based survey in May 2016 and would have until the end of the month to return the completed documents to the national nonprofit Americans for the Arts. Information also would be gathered through at least 800 audience-intercept surveys, Smikahl wrote.

Also, a calender of events and a timeline for distribution and collection of surveys would be established. First-quarter results would be submitted by April 15, 2016, and surveys would be collected throughout that year.

In other matters before the Council, the panel will consider approving on final reading the Arts and Culture Commission’s request to change its meeting time from 7-6:30 p.m. monthly on the second Thursday of the month, and to move its meetings to the Edna Clyne Room in Benicia Public Library.

That change is on the Council’s Consent Calendar, all of which could be decided without comment by a single vote, unless someone requests a topic be considered by separate vote.

Also on the Consent Calendar is whether to accept the replacement of the programmable logic controller at the Water Treatment Plant; to approve temporary access to the second floor of the Clock Tower and permanent replacement of the building’s elevator; and denial of claims by Gail Ramsey, who said her garage was flooded Dec. 11, 2014, and by Sunset Villas Home Owners Association for reimbursement of a plumber’s charge for a May 7 repair of a water main leak.

The Council will meet in a closed session at 6:30 tonight. The regular meeting will start at 7 tonight in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.