It’s a great honor to be included here, and I really appreciate their mentioning my sense of humor!

I’ve copied an excerpt from the article below.

Most Valuable Local Official: Nick Licata

When Local Progress, a network of progressive local elected officials, was organized in 2012, its members chose veteran Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata as chair. That made sense: Licata has practiced local politics since 1998 as a bold advocate of progressive populist ideas. He was a sponsor of Seattle’s innovative paid-sick-leave law, and he’s been in the forefront of fights to prevent corporations and wealthy sports team owners from gouging taxpayers. He pursues these tough battles with a sense of humor, once co-chairing a group called Citizens for More Important Things to oppose over-the-top demands from professional sports teams for new taxpayer-funded stadiums.

As host Josephine Cheng and I as travel in a gondola, we talk about my growing up in Cleveland, working in the insurance field, the Seattle Center, rental housing inspection, paid sick leave, poetry, and being a legislator.

It was a sunny day to boot, so the view is good.

I will provide remarks at the event along with Mayor Mike McGinn, Vincent Kitch, Director of the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs,  Symphony Director Simon Woods, Music Director Ludovic Morlot and Symphony Board Chair Leslie Chihuly.

Though the Seattle Symphony performs annually at City Hall, this will be Mr. Morlot’s first appearance. Last fall he was handed the baton by Gerard Schwarz who had served 26 years as the Symphony’s music director, most notably producing several high-quality recordings, growing the endowment and transitioning the Symphony into the highly regarded Benaroya Hall.

After highly successful last-minute substitute conductings of the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphonies Mr. Morlot won positive reviews and quickly became in high demand as a guest conductor. He was considered by most to be one of the few prized conducting talents in circulation when Seattle snapped him up.

A post-performance reception will follow Wednesday’s concert in City Hall’s Bertha Knight Landes Room, where Morlot will share programming highlights from the symphony’s upcoming 2012-2013 season.

The concert is presented as part of the symphony’s Family, School & Community Programs, which are partially supported with funding from the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, 4Culture, National Endowment for the Arts, PONCHO and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.

I hope to see you there!

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Photo courtesy Theatre Puget Sound. Melissa Hines accepting her Falls Achievement Award, 2002.

Melissa Hines, director of  the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs’ funding programs and leader of the office’s arts education initiative passed away Friday, April 8^th, from leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. She was 63.

Melissa’s impact on Seattle’s arts community was significant and she will be sorely missed.

I invite you to share your remembrances of Melissa by visiting the City’s arts office website.

Previous to working for the City’s arts office, Melissa dedicated 23 years to The Empty Space Theatre where she began work in the box office. She went on to guide the company, known for its bold and provocative productions, through 16 seasons as managing director. From 2002 to 2004, she served as director of development for the Seattle International Children’s Festival, now Giant Magnet.

Melissa served two three-year terms on the King County Arts Commission from 1996 through 2001 and stayed a seventh year in 2002 to help guide the transition of the Arts Commission to 4Culture, a public development authority. She served 10 consecutive years guiding the county’s arts and culture agency—the last chair of the county’s Arts Commission and the first chair of 4Culture’s board.

She also served on the boards of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, Northwest Development Officers Association, Allied Arts and the Washington State Arts Alliance. She helped found and served on the steering committee for the Communities of Color Fund Raising Training Project (1990-1994). Her work in the arts was recognized with Theatre Puget Sound’s 2002 Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award; the Business Volunteers for the Arts’ 2000 Arts Administrator of the Year Award; the Association of Women in Communications’ 1998 Northwest Woman of Achievement Award; and the Corporate Council for the Arts’ 1994 Unsung Hero Award.

Today, three shorts by Seattle animator Webster Crowell titled “Last Call” will be featured. Each film utilizes recordings of street sounds generated near bars after closing time, as the sound track for the stop-frame animations. The committee will consider new regulations on nightlife activities today.

A special thank you to Adam Sekuler, programmer for the Northwest Film Forum located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, who will serve as the program’s inaugural curator.

The first committee meeting of each month will continue with Words’ Worth, the poetry readings that were introduced to committee meetings in 1998. To date, I have presented over 200 readings, including excerpts from Felicia Gonzalez, Madeline DeFrees, Frances McCue, JT Stewart, and John Marshall.