Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Lacey City Council deliberated on funding recommendations for the city's initial Community and Cultural Events Grant program at a work session on Tuesday, April 14.
The program received 16 applications in its first cycle. Of those requests, 12 met eligibility criteria. One withdrew, one was disqualified for charging an admission fee, and two were cut for restricting public access or limiting participation based on gender. Demand in the opening cycle outpaced the $25,000 set aside for awards.
The Lacey Commission on Equity recommended the council direct the full $25,000 to eight applicants whose events qualify as both community and cultural in nature. Under that approach, each applicant would receive approximately 74.6 percent of their requested amount.
Two alternatives were also on the table: full funding for five or six council-selected applicants, or spreading the budget across all 12 eligible applicants at about 49.7 percent of requested amounts.
Council members broadly backed the commission's recommendation, with Mayor Andy Ryder saying he was inclined to follow the advisory body's guidance.
The eight applicants recommended for funding are:
The four remaining applicants — FEED NEEDS, The JOLT News Organization, Olympia Youth Chorus and Thurston County Food Bank — were classified as community events only and would receive no funding under the recommended approach.
Timing emerged as a key issue, with several events already held before the council could act on awards. Lacey Equity and Inclusion Program Manager Veronica Hand said funding for those applicants, if approved, would carry over to their next program year.
The disparity in projected attendance also drew questions. Council member Lenny Greenstein noted the wide gap in projected turnout, pointing to one event estimating 750 attendees receiving the same amount of money as another projecting just 80 people.
Greenstein said emerging events still deserve seed funding and room to grow. Application data showed an even wider range across the full pool, with LaceyPolyFest projecting more than 5,000 attendees over two days.
The stakes were also apparent in how applicants structured their budgets. Assistant City Manager Shannon Kelley-Fong noted many applicants requested amounts close to or matching their total event budgets, suggesting city support would significantly shape the scale of programming.
Hand added that some organizations had relocated their events to Lacey specifically because of the grant opportunity.
City Manager Rick Walk said the program gave organizers something the city's existing funding streams never could.
"This is an opportunity to basically provide that seed money to create these community events," Walk said. "Kind of the challenge of some of our more formal funding was that it was really based on metrics."
Ryder said future application cycles should open in the fall to better align awards with the following calendar year. Walk said staff would evaluate both calendar year and funding cycle approaches going forward.
Formal action on the grant awards is anticipated at a future council meeting, pending direction from the council.
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notdeskandchairs
Seems like a lot of city staff time being sucked up by this silliness. More and more, Lacey is being turned into Olympia
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