- Call this meeting of the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability to Order at 6.04 p.m. And we'll go through the roll call for attendance. Tara Dunderdale. Here. Here. Justin Vassel, I'm here. Matt Austin. Present. Present. Zero, Rose. Can we get a mic check from you, Zero? It looks like you're muted.
- Perfect. I guess. Okay, now it's undone. Got it. Present. Okay. Zero is here. John Elden. Why is he? Okay. Dave Rallo. Not here. Quentin Gilley. Not here. Alex, is it York or Jork? York. York. Alex York? Here. Here. Jamie Scholl.
- here, Evan Nix. Evan, come up here. Yeah, we've got you muted, Evan. Come off mute and say a present, Evan. Take him off mute yourself. Oh, there he is. I'm not sure that anyone else is online, but I can't hear anything from the interaction
- Yeah, that's what was occurring with me too, or are we being heard? Me and Evan? We can hear you. Turn the audio off and then back on. Can you hear us now? Yeah. Perfect. There we go. OK, so Evan is here. Shenghuai Xu? I don't think so. Not present. And Quentin just walked in.
- What do we have? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Okay, perfect. Our corn threshold is seven, so we should be good to go. Okay, so then we'll move to the approval of the agenda, which was sent around to folks. The only change that I'd like to recommend is that we've got some lawyers from the city here to say a few words about conflict of interest. And so we'd like to put that at the top of the agenda, maybe just after the approval of the minutes and then
- just to be cognizant of their time. Yeah. To move public comment? Yeah. Are you saying? Okay, so maybe two changes there. Make a motion to move public comment to the end after the resolution. Okay.
- Perfect. So maybe we can bundle both of those changes into one resolution. So this is just to hear from the lawyers here after the approval of the minutes, and then to move public comment after the resolutions. Yes. Great. OK. Second. OK, perfect. There's a second. All in favor, aye? Aye. All opposed, nay? Any abstentions? OK, the motion carries. Are there any other amendments that folks want to make?
- Okay, perfect. I guess we'll then approve the overall agenda. Is there a motion for that as amended? Second. Okay, perfect. All in favor, aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Oh, I'm sorry. I never wait long enough for abstentions. Okay, that motion carries. The agenda is approved.
- We'll move on then to the approval of the minutes. I've got four of them listed there on the agenda, but I think we only have the minutes for May 13th and June 10th available to go over. So let's start with the approval of the minutes from May 13th. Is there anyone that wants to recommend any changes to those as they were circulated? Is there anyone who needs more time with them? They only went out this morning.
- If folks didn't get a chance to really review them, you know, we could always, we could always maybe post the tentative versions onto onboard so that they're available and then, you know, approved next time. But if everyone's happy with it, we can move forward with the approval. Okay. Do I hear a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Okay. Motion to second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Any abstentions?
- Okay, the motion carries. The minutes for May 13th are approved. That moves us on to the approval of the minutes from June 10th. Are there any changes that anyone wants to offer up to those? Okay, is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. And a second. Perfect. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Nay. Any abstentions?
- Okay, the minutes from June 10th are approved. We'll get those up to onboard. Okay, great. So that then in the amended agenda moves us up to our presentation about conflicts of interest. So I'll hand the floor over to you. Hi, I'm Marci Rice. I'm the Corporation Counsel for the City of Bloomington. With us also is Audrey Brittingham. She's the City Attorney. Just for those of you who may or may not know the structure of the City Legal Department,
- By state law, the head of the legal department in a second class city, we are technically a second class city, although I think we're a first class city, but by size, we're second class city. Uh, the head of the legal department is the corporation council and that sort of chief deputy is a city attorney. And then any other attorneys are assistant city attorneys. And we have six assistant city attorneys. We typically, um, talk to boards and commissions at the beginning of the year about conflicts of interest. I don't know whether this.
- board or commission has ever been talked to about conflicts of interest, we typically wouldn't focus. It's something I think we're going to, you know, we've talked in legal we're doing some training and we're going to talk about at the beginning and next year generally with all our boards and commissions, we really focus on the boards and commissions that have purchasing power.
- Sign contracts and i'm going to define i'm going to share with you what state law defines as a pecuniary interest so we really worry about those boards and commissions that are spending money like the redevelopment commission or the city council. or the board of public works, because they have the approval to give taxpayer money to people, but you guys also do a lot of work that people care about that people get pretty.
- excited about. And so we, I wanted to just talk to you a little bit tonight about conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety. So Indiana law defines a pecuniary interest as a public servant
- for all public servants as a board and commission members who knowingly or intentionally has a pecuniary interest in or derives a profit from a contract or purchase connected with an action by the governmental entity served by the public servant. If a contract or purchase will result or is intended to result in an ascertainable increase in the income or net worth of the public servant or a dependent of the public servant who is under the direct or indirect
- administrative control of the public servant or receive the contract or purchase order that is reviewed, approved, or directly or indirectly administered by the public servant. That's a lot of words. It's really, you know, if you're going to get money or somebody in your household is going to get money, you would have a pecuniary interest. But beyond pecuniary interests, we also care about and we advise board and commissions on things that
- that, you know, we strive to avoid situations where there might be the potential for impropriety or the appearance of impropriety, even when it's not expressly prohibited by state law. So we tend to be a little bit more cautious about things that just look like somebody's
- self-dealing. The City of Bloomington requests commissioners, board members, and committee members disclose any interest they have, any conflicts of interest, anything that is a peculiar nature or circumstances of impropriety, again, or the appearance of impropriety before the topic or issue is brought up in a public meeting just to let people know, hey,
- I'm really interested in this thing or I have a business in this thing, you know, this area. Just disclosing that for the public is wise. And, you know, definitely if you have a pecuniary interest, recuse yourself from voting on that. And maybe even recuse yourself from voting on an issue where there's an appearance of impropriety. I know tonight I looked at your agenda, it looks like you have three items on there. So, you know, again, I don't know everybody's background. It looks like you're talking about chickens, you're talking about
- farming and you're talking about urban forestry. So, you know, again, if there's I know that there is a lot of topic, a lot of interest around the topic about urban farming. And I've been involved in that a little bit myself from working with the planning staff on that. So if there's if and we've received, you know, a lot of
- public comment on that topic. So again, I would just make sure that you have an open, honest conversation. You disclose any particular interest you have in it. And if you have a pecuniary interest, which I don't think anybody here does have a pecuniary interest, but if you do, please disclose that. So if you have chickens, are you supposed to say, I have chickens and I'm not going to vote on this? No, I don't think that's it. I think you say, hey, I own a chicken farm.
- Or I, you know, if you have chickens say, Hey, I have, I have chickens and I'm prefacing my comments because you know, I have an interest in this thing. I think that's a very valid thing to disclose to the people know a context for your. So I spoke at the planning commission meeting last night, specifically about urban ag, the amendment that's out and my name is on this resolution about the definitions to be submitted to city council. I think that'd be a great thing to disclose. Yeah. I think that'd be great to say, Hey, I'm, you know, just what you just said.
- You know, or, and I know your sister has an interest in, you know, I've worked with that group from New York that is involved with that. And so I think that's a wonderful thing to disclose and say, hey, this is my interest. You know, we're, I'm involved with Garden Class or, you know, whatever. And say, you know, just so you know, my comments are, this is, I'm prefacing my comments just so people understand the context. Is it the same kind of the other way when we're acting as a private citizen, like,
- If I went to go give public comment, say like, I'm a commissioner, but I'm doing this as a public citizen, or should I not say that I'm a commissioner? That's a wonderful question. So I've run into that myself. So out in the public when I'm interested in a particular issue, I always say, this is Margie Rice, a resident of Monroe County, saying this. This is not Margie Rice Corporation Council saying this.
- I am just saying this because I've lived here since 1990 and I care about this issue personally. So I don't, you know, because, and we do, we often advise, I've advised a lot of board of commission members to say, you know, and even city council members, you are the commission when you're here in public meeting. When you're out having a glass of wine with your friends, you're just you. You know, you don't represent this commission when you're an individual.
- You know, it's not like I run around my whole life being the Corporation Council for the City of Bloomington when I'm doing my job. But people can get that mistaken and they can think, oh, well, that's the city talking. That's not the city talking. It's just me. And so I think it's really good for Board of Commission members to know that when you're in a public meeting doing your work, that's when you're the Board of Commission member.
- I have another question. I was advised by a friend who lives in another jurisdiction who also does public civil servant work like this to set up a separate email account that I only use for this, which I was just talking to Sean about what the process would be of changing my record with the city clerk. Do you recommend that for commissioners? I think that's wise. I actually went to the Association of Indiana Municipalities. They have a fall conference. And they had a bunch of topics on that for elected officials saying,
- separate your social media that you use for work from your personal stuff. Don't mix the two, because there's just been a lot of problems with elected officials. And you're not being paid. This isn't your job. But people can get confused about which hat you're wearing. Is it a personal hat or is it a board of commission member hat? And it's just good to keep those, be squeaky clean and keep those things separate. And disclosure is generally the
- solution for conflicts of interest disclosure and then abstaining if you need to from a vote. And so I just wanted to share that because I don't know, I haven't been here before to talk to you guys. I don't know what you guys have talked about before, but I know that several of the top people care about chickens, they care about urban farming. And so I think just being honest and open and disclosing is the right way to go. So, but once you disclose, like should I not vote
- on this resolution, even though my name's on it. Well, and it's my understanding tonight there's not going to be a vote, right? It's just a first reading and a session. It's a first reading, but on the second reading with the chickens. Yeah, well, and you know, I guess I would probably want to know a little bit more about your involvement in order to answer that question. Like, I don't know how involved you are, you know, with Garden Quest or with the issue. So, you know, that may be a judgment call for you to make about whether you think
- Um, it's better to avoid that appearance of impropriety. I mean, I, I err on the side of avoiding the appearance of impropriety and saying, Hey, you know, I'm going to, I'm not going to vote on this when I step out and, you know, let the rest of the side, because I don't want to look like I'm sort of, you know, um, trying to influence the results. Um, but I think that that's definitely worth the conversation. I would err on the side of, of recusing yourself, probably that'd be my advice. Um, and, um,
- But again, remember to, I always tell this to board of bishops, you guys make recommendations to somebody, you're not the ultimate decider. I mean, even with, you know, when planning staff is making a recommendation to the council for a UDO change, they're only making a recommendation. I mean, the council gets to vote. And so,
- It's not as if even a staff recommendation to deciding authority is going to be exactly what happens in the council house. And again, that's why we have public meetings. That's why we have public processes. And we just like to throw it out on the table, make sure everybody knows where people stand with it. And nobody's like, hey, there was some backdoor conversation or dealing that we didn't know about.
- Make sense? Good questions. Thank you for bringing those up. If you have any questions for me or Audrey, I don't know that we're going to stick around for this whole meeting. That was really just my bet. But if you guys do have questions, we're upstairs, second floor. Our emails are online. Just get a hold of us if you need us. OK. Thank you guys. Thanks for letting me take your time. Appreciate it.
- So our next agenda item then will be reports from commissioners, starting with the chair's report. I could I can dial in and share my screen if that would help. Yeah.
- See it on my screen. I'm missing Jolie tonight.
- just work down that we got. Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah, to the slide deck.
- There we go. It's always tough putting multiple size documents into one PDF. Oh no, did I send the wrong slide deck? Yeah, I think I included the wrong slide deck with the packet.
- I can just pull it up on my computer and share it, and then I can send around an updated packet that has the right thing. Sorry, everybody. Understandable mistake. Happens to the best of us. Do you have the ability to share? Let me give it a shot.
- I sent a request. Okay, all right, that looks better. Okay, chair report for August, not for July. Okay, so here's the org chart. It's looking pretty good. We've got almost every single seat filled, so that's awesome.
- This month, we're welcoming our newest commissioner, Alex York. So yeah, usually when we have new commissioners, we invite them to introduce themselves and maybe say a little bit about your background and what your interests in the realm of sustainability are. So I'll pass it over to you. Hi, my name is Alex York. I've got two masters from SPIA in more or less energy policy, environmental affairs things.
- I have worked for the city as part of the Monroe County energy challenge, which was that concluded almost a decade ago. So, uh, it doesn't seem like a lot of people remember that, but we did some good work. Um, I worked for a local solar company kind of most recently, um, primarily doing residential solar. So, um, yep, I was doing operations there and then running the company.
- for the last couple years. Currently, I am doing some lawn care on the side and looking for a better full-time job that aligns better with my great passions in life, which is fighting climate change. At the city level, what I think the great challenge that cities have is that we need to remake
- how cities look and exist in order to correctly combat climate change. At the federal level, they need to do things that seem politically impossible, like pass incentives and put a carbon tax in place and things like that. But at the city level, we need to make our cities more sustainable. And I think that that is a much more difficult task. So I met Justin for lunch to talk about the kind of work you were doing.
- Food systems are a greatly underappreciated part of the climate problem. Affordable housing I feel like is kind of the most possible central issue that it ties directly in. Sustainable housing, affordable housing, climate friendly housing are all so incredibly interconnected. So I was really excited about the work that they were doing this year and I'm just here to help out. I also have two small children which makes my concerns
- of everything greater than my desire to like leave them with a planet that works. It's a good goal. Well, welcome. Glad to have you. Yeah, absolutely. Great. So upcoming events, I haven't really added anything to this. I've only taken something off of it. So we've talked about this one before, the Climate Leadership Summit that's coming up here next month. And I know, Matt, you said you're going to that. I may or may not be going to that, depending on
- if I'll be in town or out of town. And I think, yeah. There's also a circular Indiana conference on September 8th. What is it called, sorry? Circular Indiana. Circular Indiana, okay. Cool. I'll add that to the list. And if I could mention one thing. Yeah. Jolie and I are speaking at this month's Green Drinks. Oh, yeah. It's on August 27th at 6 p.m. at the Upland Woodshop. So we'll be talking about all of our grant and rebate programs and everything that we're doing.
- Yeah, that's awesome. I'll have to see you guys there. Yeah. Yeah. Usually I put the green drinks on here and I just catch the email for it this time. Awesome. What day are those usually? Wednesday. What was the time on that? Wednesday, August 27th at 6 PM. Very good. Okay.
- Yeah, funding and awards. So we still got some money left for working group grants for this year, if anybody wants to take a swing at that. Are you still hoping to put in a proposal before the end of the year? Okay, awesome. We used to have one item here on the ideas list, which was the community garden installation project.
- that we had a sort of brief presentation on a couple of months ago, maybe. And unfortunately, the city decided not to move forward with that. So we won't be pushing that one forward. But maybe it will come back in a different iteration sometime in the future. So we'll definitely keep our ears to the ground for that. Was that the Dave Huber Urban Meadows? Yeah, that's right. Yep.
- Yeah, so we've got a couple other ideas, though. They're in the hopper. And so if anyone has any other ideas that they want to see up here, or if you've mentioned it and I just forgot to put it up here, let me know. And yeah, we should start thinking about when we're going to bring the proposals forward, since there's just a few months left before we'd actually have to pass that.
- OK. Any questions about funding before we move on? Do you have a comment? Well, does anybody have any questions about this first? I'll just add that it's fully in brainstorm. That's why there's no dollar amount. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I got a message. Whenever we have board and commission meeting members participating online, we have to do roll call votes. So we can't do yay or nay. We have to do roll call. Oh, for everything?
- So you'll need to redo the votes that you did at the beginning of the meeting. I just got messages for that. So sorry about that. That's all right. For procedural as well as for decisions. OK. Well, let me make a little note here. So OK. So we had a vote to amend the agenda.
- to move to have our presentation at the beginning here and then to move public comment until after the discussions and votes on resolutions. So we'll do a roll call vote for that amendment. Okay, Tara Dunderdale. Aye. Aye. Okay, Justin Vassell, aye. Matt Austin. Aye. Aye. Zero Rose. Aye. Aye.
- John Alden is? John's not. OK. Dave Rallo? Dave left, it looks like. Oh, did he? OK. OK. Quentin Gilley? Yes. Yes. Alex York? Aye. Aye. Jamie Scholl? Aye. Aye. Evan Nix? Aye. Aye. OK. And Shengwei hasn't joined us, right?
- Diana. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Tara. Okay. And we don't have Annalise on the line. Okay. All right. So that's, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine eyes. So that passes.
- Okay, so then there was the vote to approve the overall agenda. Tara. Aye. Aye. Justin. Aye. Matt. Aye. Aye. Zero. Yay. Yay. Quentin. Yes. Yes. Alex. Aye. Aye. Jamie. Aye. Aye. Evan. Aye. Aye. And Dan. Aye.
- Okay. The agenda is approved as amended. Okay. And then we had the minutes from May 13th, the minutes from the May meeting. Tara? Aye. Aye. Justin? Aye. Matt? Aye. Aye. Zero? Yes. Yes. Okay. Quentin? Yes. Yes. Alex? Aye. Aye. Jamie? Aye. Aye.
- Diana. Aye. Aye. Okay. That motion carries. Then we approve the minutes from June 10th. Tara. Aye. Aye. Justin. Aye. Matt. Aye. Aye. Zero. Zero. Yes. Yes. Quentin.
- Yes. Yes. Alex? Aye. Aye. Jamie? Aye. Aye. Evan? Yes. Yes. And Diana? Aye. Aye. Okay. The ayes have it. The minutes are approved. And I think that that was everything we've done so far, right? Did we do both minutes? Yep. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Thanks. Okay.
- So let's see, it's sharing the screen. Good, okay. All right, so that's funding. News and updates, not a whole lot there. Really changed from last time. I kept the Hopewell a bit on there just to kind of remind ourselves we were interested in having a more detailed discussion at an upcoming meeting to think about ways in which we might want to contribute our input as that process continues.
- And so that's mostly just there as a reminder. I'm thinking maybe the next meeting would be a good one to try to slot that discussion in. And yeah, just to be kind of thinking maybe if there's certain areas that we could have, that we might want to dedicate some of our attention. And if anybody is interested in taking this up as sort of a mini research project between now and the next meeting, feel free, let me know. And that maybe we could have some
- something to kind of build off of, you know, the next time we meet to discuss. What was that, Zero? Yeah, Alex, I'd like to talk about one of my central issues. We're only getting like every third word, Zero. Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to work with you, Alex, on affordable housing and this whole world development.
- Yeah, maybe just one person does some brainstorming or something to just give us something to kind of go off of for the next meeting. We don't want to do collaborative work, probably, on this between meetings. But once we discuss it a little further, we probably will want to do some collaborative work. Do we have a work session scheduled between now and then, September meeting? Yeah, we do. Do we have a good agenda item for that meeting? Yeah, we could do that at the work session. That's a very good point.
- Cool. And then City Council, the 2026 budget process is moving along. So nothing new from last time there. Internal Oil Commission updates, not too much to report here. Most of these things are just things that are kind of on the radar and things that are in blue are new since the last time we talked about them. So the only real new thing here is that we've been invited to present the 2020
- I guess it's a 2024 annual report, so that's a typo there, you know, to council on September 3rd. So I'm still putting together slides, but they're largely just going to resemble the structure of the report itself. So I can maybe bring those to the work session or I can just send them out to folks and so you can see them. I don't know if we necessarily need to vote on it since we already voted on the report itself, right?
- presenting that report. Yeah, so those are the internal updates. Yeah, commissioner focus areas. It's possible that you have sent me something and it didn't end up on this slide, so if that's the case, just ping me again. But yeah, we're just trying to kind of get interests, topic areas from each commissioner. You know, it doesn't lock you into only focusing on those things, but
- you know, just kind of keeps everyone aware of what everyone's kind of thinking about. So yeah, if you've got something you're kind of interested in focusing on, let me know and I'll add it to the table. Upcoming meetings. So this is sort of the tentative schedule for the next several business meetings and work sessions. So we've got a lot going on today, business-wise, and then there'll be some
- Some of that carries over to our next meeting naturally. And hopefully we can have a discussion on the topic of the Hopewell development a little bit more at that meeting as well. Just trying to kind of keep these things up here so folks can kind of visualize what's coming down the pipe and if we need to be kind of strategic about balancing certain items across the various agendas. This gives us a kind of bird's eye view way of doing that.
- But as you can see, a lot of those things are listed as tentative, so it's not necessarily in stone or anything. That's great. Love it. Awesome.
- Appreciate that. Work sessions, we just had one a couple weeks ago, and it was largely just a discussion and some brainstorming about the sustainability assessment report. And so I'll just, when we get to that part, I'll just have Tara update folks on those discussions. And yeah, I didn't have any specific topics for the next one, but we might be
- brainstorming that report a little bit more and then discussing maybe some of the Hopewell stuff to kind of set the stage for the next business meeting. And minute approvals, we're starting to work through the backlog. So we got two of those down today. That's great. And then we'll have three more for the next meeting.
- Okay, and one more slide here. It's just the resources slide. So just include this every time. If you forget where to find something, you can always go back to these slides and poke through these links. And if there's anything that you notice that you think should be on this list but isn't, let me know and I'll add it. Can I make a comment? Yeah. That resolution template was so easy to use. I really appreciate putting that together. Awesome.
- Resolution writing can be a little bit daunting just because of the strict formatting rules, and it was so easy. I really appreciate all the work you put into that. And for other commissioners that are thinking about writing resolutions, it's a very useful tool. Thank you. I appreciate that. And yeah, the goal is to try to reduce as much friction as possible when doing these sorts of things so we can focus on the real work. I second that. It was a game changer for me to be able to move forward on this.
- process. I wonder if it's a tool that would be useful to share with other commissions also. I know we've talked about ways we can partner with other commissions and if that's something that they can benefit from that kind of work production. Right, right. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know what the rules are around that, but if we can, I think that's a good idea.
- I have a question about the previous slide. Oh, sure. Will there be any further discussion or in matter of process, do I need to ask you to put that back on for the food resilience? I wasn't aware if there was going to be any discussion. I know it was a large document. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we should get that back on one of these roads. So yeah, maybe after the meeting we can chat about
- whether it should go next month or the one after, what the next step is. But OK. On the 26th work session, if it's a little more, I don't know, if the competing timelines of the two topics, it's probably more urgent, right? Yeah, I mean, some of the grants would have been done, I mean, like already. Yeah.
- Yeah, that's also why I'm putting this up here. So if you spot something that you think should be on there, but it probably just... So thank you for mentioning that. That's why I was wondering about process. If there was something I missed, with writing these and trying to get all the pieces together, having those processes are very helpful. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, make sure we get that back on track. Right, thank you. Yeah, absolutely.
- OK, so that concludes my report. I can stop sharing here. And the next item is, I believe, the waste reduction report. So I'll hand it over to you, Matt. Yeah, so we are currently looking for festivals to partner with. A couple of ideas, but just completed the Taste of Bloomington.
- partnering with Will Detmer and the Waste Reduction District. And there were over 30 volunteers, a lot of National Honor Society students, and they really liked, enjoyed it and learned some stuff. Wasn't a lot of food waste collected, 150 pounds, that's all going out to Will Detmer once it's fermented. So they have one pit dug. So that's great, that partnership is wonderful. And there was a lot of interest
- in from residents about it. There were multiple IU students that were like, wow, we want an intern. So it really enabled a lot more people to learn about that, the fermentation, and just that there's something else out there. Yeah, so I would say it was a success. And then there was also a food reclamation portion of that. So they had Shalom Center.
- Wheeler Mission and one other, and they collected probably three, 400 pounds of food that actually went to folks in the community that need it. The unserved food. Yeah, and the vendors were really, really excited about that. So it was a really, really good system that was set up. And so hopefully, if the taste happens next year, it can be more robust within that. And we definitely need to continue
- with that mentality for all of our festivals, collecting the food waste to then create soil quickly out at community gardens so that it's a resource for everybody, as well as the reclamation of the food that can actually go to those that need it most. And then another really cool thing is Garden Quest partnered with Unitarian Universalist Church. They did a interest presentation. They have 20 members that are interested and are starting.
- with the Bokashi fermentation process, and they're going to have pits sited on at UU. And so as a decentralized process, we want to have pits all over the city, at churches, in community gardens, at parks, because that will enable the community to not have to do it on their property if they can't.
- or they can if they want other property. So it's really starting to build that out. And then because of that, the Environmental Resilience Institute reached out and said they would like to do the same with theirs. But Darn, of course, is not an Earth Keepers. They're not a compost. That's not what they want to do. So what they do is they literally partner with whatever the organization is, and then that organization finds volunteers to do the process. So with ERI, it's going to be IU students. We're going to have to find pits.
- places to put those pits. And so they're taught how to do it, because the idea is to build leaders who take this on and continue to lead on their own. And then they build other leaders, right? You don't want followers, you want to build leaders who build leaders. And that's kind of what we need to do as Beacons, right? We've got all these great ideas. We want to bring these out into the community and then have other people also take them on and lead that way.
- So it sounds like this would be very supportive, like the comprehensive plan as well. Yeah, and the 15 minute city as well, having these locations in various neighborhoods and churches are a fantastic location. Wherever you're going anyways already, you just bring your bucket, dump it in there and cover it with some soil.
- Go home, clean out with some vinegar, you're good to go. So we're really starting to see some more movement on that and Quentin, we would love to, because of ERI, we wanna have the conversation about that stuff. So. I was just gonna mention too, if you guys are working with ERI, you're good to be in the loop. If there's a student learning component. 100% there is. Yeah, yeah, and then I can, I might be able to support
- physical environment standpoint, space for that to potentially happen. So I'm happy to help with that if I can. Yeah, and then the other point I was gonna make, too, and I don't know what my name is for pilot, but in the spring, I know there's gonna be a climate, environmental sort of event, film festival style sort of thing. And then they're committed to
- a more sustainable event, which is consistent with the whole event as well. But that could be something we could maybe partner on as far as that, as a way for people to communicate out about this matter. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's the idea.
- That's definitely the idea is to continue to build and teach others and then have them take it on independently. But other than that, yeah, that's about it for the waste reduction group. Thank you. Thank you. Would you be interested in working with festivals outside of Bloomington? It depends on our bandwidth. They've done something with Orange County, their summer festival.
- So yeah, we can talk. OK. The working group grants have to be in the city limits. Correct. Yeah, we want to talk about that. But other, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And we can't do that working group grant with IU. So yeah. One other thing I was going to mention, and this one doesn't need to be a grant necessarily, but like, so one of the waste diversion projects that I'm working on ramping up right now actually is
- We're gonna try to do some major waist diversion at the athletic facilities with the tailgate and all that. Awesome. Yeah, I'm very excited what we've got coming up as far as potential there. That's just an open venue that you can potentially communicate with people about this if it's something that you wanted to communicate about Makashi.
- potentially reach a lot of city residents and eventually a venue like that. And it would generally support the message that we're sending out. So if you want to talk about that, what happens? Let's talk about it all. Let's talk about it all. Figure out what those possibilities are. Because we're not collecting any food waste specifically. It's not on our list for that. Yeah, because then you have to deal with it.
- We should probably move on here. Let's go ahead to the ad hoc committee sustainability assessment report. Yeah, so we had a really productive work session two weeks ago. Thank you to everybody who was there and was able to provide input. We kind of, as a result of that, kind of like changed that whole outline of the document. But I think that the result is going to be like a better kind of report and a more useful one. So a big piece of it is kind of looking at
- um, in this energy and built environment climate action goal that we had identified as our, the one we were going to cover for this year, looking at more, um, uh, the metrics and what, what has been met and what we can see has been met and then where the information gaps, um, in terms of like finding information about, um, the progress towards the goals, the last city report on progress towards
- climate action plan goals was in 2022. And so there's just, there's some, we also noticed there's some places where the metrics that the city's reporting on don't match the metrics that are in the report. So that's good. It's going to be a little bit more like policy analysis around that, but we didn't want to throw away the budget work that we had already done of sort of budget analysis around these areas related to the built environment. And so the plan is that I am going to have a new,
- draft with this new outline that we've talked about for our working session, just to kind of brush up the recommendation section and then for a first draft at our September meeting is the goal. And that because of the immediacy of the budget process going on to pull out some of that budget stuff and write a resolution, which is the resolution that we'll talk about today with the urban forestry, which is that our budget analysis saw that the urban forestry
- Approved budget has, when you control for inflation, gone down every year since 2018, but the number of trees the city is responsible for has doubled. And so making a recommendation to bring the funding level of that department up to the 2018 levels when controlling for inflation, which we'll see in the resolution, and kind of making the case for like, this is a long-term investment because well-cared for trees
- Survive and don't fall down in storms or crush houses and take down our electrical grid. Excuse me things like that so that and that there's like Pollution benefits and and carbon sequestration and stormwater management that are all cost savings for the city when our Urban canopy is properly maintained. So that is we took out the work that we'd already done as a as a
- Subcommittee and also everybody who contributed in working sessions and kind of pulled that into the resolution and will Do the assessment and then hopefully have a better framework for doing these assessments Going forward so they can kind of just be like here's the template somebody can run with it Excellent thank you very much
- Okay, so next is the Council Ex Oficio report, but Council Member Aralo, I don't believe is on the call right now. So then that would bring us to resolutions for second reading and discussion. So this is going to be resolution 2025-01, which we introduced for first reading in our last meeting to adopt a scalable poultry flock size model. So hopefully everyone's had a chance to
- to review the language there. Yes. Oh, no, I'm just reading off of the agenda right now, but I can. Yeah. So the way that we'll do this is I'll ask for a motion in a second. And if we get that, then it'll lead us into discussion. And so folks can ask questions. We could discuss. People can propose amendments if they want.
- And once all that is finished, then we'll move on to the final vote. So is there, here, let me share my screen first before I call for the motion. Okay. Yeah, that looks right.
- Okay, is there a motion to introduce this resolution? Or am I supposed to approve this resolution? Is there a second? Okay, perfect. I think we got Jamie by just a hair. Okay, perfect. So Jamie, did you want to say anything about it before we
- open it up for discussion, questions, and things? Sure. I'm sorry. I don't remember the name of the person in charge of animal care and control. I had a very good conversation, somewhat lengthy with him, regarding a number of different questions that I thought would come up. From the last time there was a change in the ordinance, they would see an uptick for
- people who wanted to have chickens, and then people dropped off, and it just gets into a stable. There's no one neighborhood that has them more than others. He sees no problem with this whatsoever. It's not going to take any more time. The only issues that they have had were complaints for smell, but these were not any that actually went through
- the process of permitting. Some folks do have a small number who have applied for the chickens for butchering rather than eggs. No complaints on the butchering. He was very excited to see this to be put forth and is supportive of it. They would anticipate that there would be an uptick and then a leveling off just like in the previous.
- no concerns whatsoever from his perspective. Awesome. That's virtual standard. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. So we'll open up the floor. Discussion, questions, amendments? This has been long overdue. I've done some research, and there are a lot of cities that, as stated in there, that have moved to this model
- Increase in chicken flock size based on property size, lot size. I just had a question on that part. And I mean, it seems reasonable to me. But what was the logic between number of chickens per acreage? Had that been demonstrated specifically? I think it is mentioned maybe in Madison, Wisconsin. Like, around the counts, yeah.
- I don't remember that off the top of my head on which cities for which flocks sizes. But it comes from other municipalities that have adopted similar. Yeah, there's not, yeah, when people are leading, you know, you're going to be looking and trying things out. And this is,
- There's also calculations of how much space does one head need. And that is also looked at in how this was calculated. I was just trying to admit it. I mean, the numbers seem to make sense to me. I think it's a good thing. I'm just trying to understand why is it eight chickens and not 14?
- Because the other thing, I'm always thinking to the ones of what if any risk is always associated with it. Is it going to attract a coyote to come into the town? I don't know. Probably not. Maybe you could. Coyote comes into my yard anyway. I mean, chickens. I've had some in the past, and I've had skunks getting in. I've had more.
- I'm having something getting my paw paws, and it's a native tree, and they're picking up on my camera, and I have no idea what it is. They're devastating my dad's paw paws, the raccoons are. These are not raccoons. So there are a number of creatures to look at, but this is, you know, we've already had these issues worked through before. We're just looking to expand.
- the number based upon the lot size. I had the same question, like why these numbers? And I have never owned chickens. So I come to this from a place of ignorance. But to me, it feels like a more linear path would be more logical. You know, from 5,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet, why can't you have twice as many chickens?
- always err on the side of being a little more conservative and then could look at expanding, which is what this had done before. I don't remember when working with the planner at the time to when we had, well, I think this is even before my time, of what number, like five hens. I think it was at that time based upon the smallest lot size and what
- the amount of space each hen needed and thinking of how that would fit with the existing homes in the smallest lots. So this is, you know, possibly long overdue for a change. I don't know, Dave, do you remember that? Because I was more involved in the part of the permitting process when this was redone like 10, 15 years ago or something. Well, yeah. Well, initially,
- So I sponsored the chicken ordinance in 2005 or 2006 or something. And it was kind of controversial at the time because people weren't accustomed to it. It also coincided with scares about the bird flu. So I actually had infectious disease experts from the hospital come and testify and sign a letter to say, there's no more risk than having a bird feed earlier back there. But that led to some trepidation and we went back and forth in numbers and I think we ended up with
- and I think the original proposal was higher number and then there were all these stipulations you had to get the express you know permission of your neighbors that was repealed later so you know so this has been sort of a evolving process where people are I guess are getting accustomed to it so I kind of
- You know, I see the logic of the linear, but I think this could be readdressed in the future once people get accustomed to maybe having larger flock sizes, things like that, for that reason. Well, my opinion. There's also, you know, possibilities of discussions of bird flu, again, but this has already been addressed and even whenever
- I remember with the amendment to get rid of the contiguous neighbors' approval as well as the fee, because I found that a hindrance for lower income, that we even had a doctor with his son come and stay till almost midnight to speak in support of an active physician, wanting to make sure that that occurred.
- So I do see that this is kind of a beginning. I did talk to Virgil about other types of poultry. Ducks can be very messy. Guineas can be very loud, although with the tick populations and the rise of tick-borne diseases in regards to public health, that's something that I'm concerned because
- I am a health coach and I do work with individuals with alpha-gal and other issues. Chickens could potentially pick up the ticks, amongst with other types of insects.
- I did look into it. I know Dave had looked into it before. I couldn't find any studies that address that for the public health concern. So not only is this a healthy protein source with eggs and self-sufficiency with butchering, but I looked at the public health as well as some other poultry. And this seems to be kind of the low-hanging fruit that we can move forward with to get to a better state of sustainability.
- I have two quick questions. Sure. It mentions allowing flocks in agri-villages. What is that? And do we have any areas that are zoned as that in the city? I don't know if we actually. We have some that are known as agri-villages. Danny Weddle.
- I don't know, 10 years ago, we do have some community-based, agriculturally sustainable-based neighborhoods here. I'm not sure how that's going to evolve in the future. I did mention that as a possibility in the food resilience strategy, that along with mobile home parks. So mobile home parks could also be known as agri-villages.
- And talking to somebody who lives in one of those areas, she was enthusiastic about that possibility, because that provides nutrient-dense foods for their family and extended family who all live in this one mobile home park. So that's some of the reasons for that, if that answers your question. Yeah. And then my other question is,
- would you see it as a different resolution or a different set of recommendations around? Because I know the current permitting process requires construction and approval of the facility prior to acquiring the chicken. So in theory, people could build a coop on their property and a chicken hunt that accommodates 20 hens, which is thousands of dollars.
- Um, and not be allowed to use it. And so, uh, would you see like recommendations around the permitting process as a separate from this resolution as like a different set of recommendations? I don't want to complicate things that are already working. This is just to expand that. So, but there's other options in regards to that as well. So there may not be an actual coupe as an accessory dwelling structure because
- when I had chickens, I had a movable coop. So that's, you know, those are used on farms, that's used in urban areas. So it's not bolted down in place. And so your run is like in a smaller area, but you can calculate it as where it can be moved. I don't know how I didn't, that's not a question I asked. I probably should have, but I don't see that as an issue. I trust,
- what's been working, I guess. Yeah, the process to approving them is a square footage thing and making sure that it's not terrible. So if somebody's building it, they're going to get approved. Got it. OK. Especially the requirement of neighbors approving you having that is no longer on the table. And I'm still, you know, and with the next resolution, I didn't mention it, including
- in the Plaint Commission meeting last night. But a concern for me for a while has been the number of HOAs. So whenever we pass something in regards to UA, it will likely not affect those in homeowners associations, because typically their covenants and restrictions forbid any kind of food growing in the front yard, no chickens, no clotheslines.
- A lot of sustainability measures, they do not allow. And therefore, not only are concerned with density of housing and rental units, but that how many of these. And if anyone ever or students want to help me populate this spreadsheet
- So we can know how much actual acreage we have that this type of amendment affects. I would love to have that, because I think also it can be utilized for rentals and would be a benefit to hand. Rentals in neighborhoods. I'm sorry. So. OK. Any more discussion, amendments anyone wants to offer up? I just want to mention one other thing.
- And I don't know, and I haven't fully checked it out, but I think it's a good idea. I generally support it. I think that, you know, just looking here on the CDC websites, places like that, there's a lot of, like, you know, posters, like, you know, don't, if you start your own flock, don't wing it. You know, like, here's some, you know, best practices, types of guides. I didn't know if there was a, if we maybe have something placed already, but making sure
- Because there are other safety's, general issues, maintaining your chicken coops and whatnot. I think if we made that, make sure that that's accessible, that might be a good thing. And if it's not already, then otherwise they have. Thank you for bringing that up. That slipped my mind. Yes, Virgil did say that they refer folks who are applied to other things. So that is something that because,
- can provide, and we can provide guidance in a handout or PDF type format to where they are instructed the way we would like for them to keep their coop and run and things like that, and especially how to mitigate some of the smell issues. Now, the ones that have had smell issues, like I said, did not go through the permitting process. So the permitting process could also be looked at as being an education process.
- Not that necessarily it's a costly thing, but like the, if all it was was, hey, here's, you have to read these and sign your name saying that you've read it and you understand that these are the safety considerations, you know, be careful. You just don't want to, you know, make sure people know that there could be, you know, it's like anything else, you know. You want to make sure people are safe as much as you can. That and, you know, a lot of people don't know you can bathe your chickens to help with mites. And that is something that I,
- I've taught before as well. And so these are things that we can, we can put in there that maybe another municipality doesn't have. Yeah. As long as it was in a way that it was generally such like, I was just looking there and like CDC recommends having a dedicated pair of shoes that you use for going in and out of that area when you, when you were kind of like, that might be something too. Um, yeah, as long as that sounds good to me.
- Okay, any other discussion before we move on to the voting process? Anyone online? Yeah, anyone online? Not hearing any. Okay, so let me pull up my spreadsheet here. Sorry, I guess when I switch to a different tab it makes the screen share go away.
- Okay, so real quick before we go through the roll call vote, you know, we were just talking about conflicts of interest, right? So I don't know. So I guess for this case, you know, it's a personal choice, but I guess is there anything that anyone wants to sort of declare? I have chickens, and I want more chickens. I have no chickens. Can you vote impartially?
- Yes, this is what's best. The chicken love me. Okay, yeah. Are your chickens a source of financial gain for you in that? Do you sell eggs from it? Yeah, we do sell eggs when we have excess, but none of the money goes to me. But they actually build a ton of soil for us on the urban farm. We got them for eggs, but they do so much more.
- I would fall into that larger chicken flock lot size but that seems like an overwhelming number of chickens. Actually it can be easier in some ways.
- All right. Well, let's move on to the vote. So this is to adopt resolution 2025-01. Tara? Aye. Aye. Justin? Aye. Matt? Yes. Yes. Zero? Aye. Yay. Yay. We didn't pick up anyone new, did we? I don't think so. OK. Quentin? Yes. Yes. Alex? Aye. Aye. Jamie? Yes.
- Yes. Evan. Yep. Yes. And Diana. Yes. Yes. Okay. So it's nine yeas, zero nays, and zero abstentions. So the resolution, or yeah, the resolution is adopted. Oh, I'm sorry, Dave. I still had you listed as absent. I apologize.
- Yes. Yes. Okay. That is 10 ayes, zero nays, and zero abstentions. So the resolution is adopted. Okay. Great. And I guess this is something we'll probably want to transmit to council in some way, shape, or form so that they're aware that we've made this resolution. In what process do we do that? Because I'm like, well,
- sponsored this and, you know, put forth a lot of effort into it and not sure if that falls onto my shoulders to then present to council or how that works. Well, it might not be something that we present. It might just be something that we hand out to them. I don't know. It goes on our web page, I think, also, like previous resolutions adopted by the commission are listed there. There haven't been any in several years. Right.
- It would be listed along with those. Justin, do you usually, I think you've done a report every year. We've just did our annual report for 2024. And I'm on the calendar to present on the September 3rd. For the purpose of a report. Reviewed last year's report. 2024 annual report. Yeah, well, okay, well, maybe you could mention it then. Yeah, something like that.
- I mean, I'm happy to talk to colleagues and Jamie comes to meetings, but it'd be great to have the chair of the commission, you know. If I remember correctly, the 2024 report did talk about some of the stuff that was like on the docket for 2025. So that would be like, it was like our priorities that we had determined at the work session are in the report. So I think that that's like a totally appropriate place to share this and any other resolutions that the
- commission passes between now and that time. Can you present the report and then an update on where these things stand now of what we've accomplished? Probably not a detailed update, but yeah, it's worth mentioning. It's just, hey, we did these things that we said we were going to do and they'll be in the next report. I don't know if anywhere it would take as much time as you want. Okay, so yeah, so we should probably
- move along to the next resolution. So let me remind myself we're at the agenda here. But yeah, we'll figure out the right pathway for that resolution. Okay, so resolutions for first reading and discussion. So we've got two of them here. Now, you know, generally for first reading is just to kind of introduce it and maybe give a brief overview
- answer any quick questions, but usually not as detailed a discussion as we just had, for example. We'll reserve that for the second reading. Generally, we need the two readings, right? The first reading and the second reading. The only exception to that is if we wanted to adopt a resolution on the first reading, then we would have to have a two-thirds
- We'd have to have two thirds of the members here, and it would have to be an anonymous vote. So just to remind folks what the bylaws say there for resolutions. So the first one here is resolution 2025-02 regarding the urban forestry budget. So Tara, do you want to say any words about that? Yeah, I have a question about the first and second reading also. The first and second reading is without amendment, right?
- changed, the language isn't changed or tweaked between those two. Yeah, the bylaws don't really specify, but I've been sort of operating as though like the first reading is not really for amendments. Um, the second reading is for that. So, okay. So if we were going to make amendments, it would be in this, it wouldn't be between now and then it would be during the second reading conversation. Got it. Okay.
- Thank you. So I talked a little bit about this. We had done some budget analysis as part of the sustainability assessment, looking at specifically the Parks and Rec's department and some of the line items under Parks and Rec, like urban forestry, like green space, golf, and a fourth thing that I cannot remember right now. And looked at those numbers both
- the number that was approved for the city budget as well as adjusting for inflation from 2018 to 2025. We used approved numbers, which are a little bit different from the actual allocations or outlays. It is limited to the line items. There may be other ways that any department might be funded, but using it as
- the philosophy of a budget as a moral document of this is where the priorities are, was why those were the selected items. When we adjust for inflation, the budget for urban forestry has decreased almost 30% over those six years that were included in the analysis. The city's website, which was last updated in 2019, I had some communication with our urban forester about this, said that there were 12,000 catalog trees.
- within city limits that the city is responsible for maintaining. I talked with the urban forester and he sent me the tree database that they use, which is a public resource, but he sent me, he referred me to that and it's actually more like 23,000 inventory trees that the city is responsible for. So it's double the number in that same amount of time that they've had this real dollars decrease. The number has decreased.
- Sorry, the number has doubled in the number of trees that they're responsible for. Currently, as we also saw, and this also comes from some of the analysis that we did for the original draft of the sustainability, is that the city is currently behind on the emission goals as outlined in the action plan. So if they were going to sort of assess the success of the emission goals overall for all sectors.
- that without kind of dramatic investment that we're not gonna meet those goals. The city's tree data also provides like a dollar value of our urban canopy in the carbon dioxide uptake, the stormwater mitigation and the air pollution removal, which represents about $60,000 annually in savings to the city.
- through those, but there are also social, and maybe this would be an amendment for next time, there are also social benefits to those that are non-monetary. And the proper maintenance of trees, there's a lot of research on the costs associated with maintaining urban forestry, but also the costs associated with not
- Maintaining them and I intended to include that in the packet and I just didn't have time this weekend Send all my citations to Justin, but I can share those before the next reading But that there's a lot of long-term consequences of kind of like short-term budget Short-term budget cuts to benefit right now have like really long costs and they really like like go out to the next generation sort of in terms of
- improperly maintained trees. And there's also a lot of cost associated with, there is increased likelihood of having to take only reactive measures of having to do emergency services for your urban canopy and not proactive things like expanded plantings and pruning and things like that.
- Um, so that's the basis of this. And so the proposal is that the city in this budget cycle increase the urban forestry department so that it matches the real dollar value of 2018 and that they should prioritize the wellbeing of the urban canopy by, you know, not cutting their, not effectively cutting their budget every year and making them do more with less is what this is. Awesome.
- And one more thing toward that second reading or a potential amendment is the health issues of air quality, Indiana being among the worst in air quality. So that might be another component you're wrapping there. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. OK. We're getting close to the end of the meeting. So we should probably move on to the next one. Is there any very pressing question that somebody has on this that they need answered before they think about it for next month?
- I'd just like to commend Tara for doing this. This has been fantastic. I'm so excited to see this. I love trees. I also really like trees, but I don't think that that's a disclosure. I have no financial interest in trees. But the air quality for public health, and some of us do have some breathing issues that, if you want to add that in, I'd love to see that.
- I'll send around the site or I'll include the citations in the packet. If we, if we vote to move to the next meeting, I'll include them. All the data that kind of supports this for review. Perfect. So, yeah, we can move. I was just gonna say real quick. If we talk about it next time that the one area I'd be interested in learning about was like, why had the.
- budget gone down, or have they expressed interest in things like that? The budget didn't go down. It kind of stayed the same in terms of the dollars, but because when you control for inflation, it's been like an effective cut. Only because I know one of the most expensive things to do is actually to cut the trees down. Yeah, it is. So maybe, you know, I'm not saying it's just one of those. It's also more expensive to like hire contractors instead of have people in-house. Like it's cheaper in the short term to just hire people when you want to prune
- trees ad hoc, but in the long term, having in-house arborists. There's some data around that that I also found. So I'll include all those. There's a bunch of research. I'll share it for next time so we can dig into it. Perfect. Thank you. OK, so we're going to do, well, first is there, I don't think we called for a motion in a second. Motion. OK, so. Second. Second. OK, and so this is a motion to advance for the second reading at our next meeting.
- Okay, so we will get on the list. Tara. Aye. Aye. Justin. Aye. Matt. Aye. Aye. Zero. Yes. Yes. Councilmember Rall. Yes. Yes. Quentin Goat. Yes. Yes. Alex. Aye. Aye. Jamie. Aye. Aye. Evan. Aye. Aye. And Diane. Aye.
- Okay, perfect, that's 10 ayes and zero nays, so yeah, we'll revisit that for a second reading at the next meeting. Okay, so that, and we are getting quite close to the end, so we may need to extend the agenda a little bit, but we can at least get started on the next resolution here. So the next resolution is 2025-03 to recommend clear definitions for urban agriculture and associated business structures.
- from Jamie. Jamie, were you hoping to have this passed all in one go today or? I was hoping for that. I did share this at last night's plan commission meeting because some of the terminology that was being used was not complete and may not be accurate either.
- is within the report that I've created. And so I pulled it out. I did email you right before this meeting a few extra terms that were brought up during that meeting that could be added on to this. It was well received by the Planning Commission. And I gave it to also Planning. And there was interest in having this.
- The terms to be added would be aquaculture, aquaponics, produce, and value-added product. There was a lot of confusion with the planning commissioners last night regarding what product was, but it was not value-added product as well as what the produce was and the differentiation between those.
- Because of their schedule, it did get passed on with approval to recommend last night. But because of the nature of the time frame for planning and what's coming up since it's going to council, I thought this would be very useful for them. So I don't know if we could add those as an amendment and have it passed tonight or not.
- I think we could. OK, so I say yes, but there needs to be a motion to forego the second reading, right? And then we vote on that. And if that passes, then yeah, that's how we did it. I think that's right. Last year. So motion. This is just to continue the conversation. No, this is just a.
- What zero is, and I also, like, I was actually gonna move that we move this to next week, because we still have to do public comment in there, three minutes left. Yeah. So to move to the next meeting? Is there not a time constraint on getting this into the system, Jamie? Well, yeah, planning and planning commission were interested in having this language. So you're doing it through them? So the planning commission just
- forwarded their agriculture thing, right, with positive recommendations? Positive recommendation, although with some amendments. Yeah. I think that's the way it ended up. So there will be some amendments made by city council on it. OK. So does the Planning Commission need these definitions now, or is it
- more germane to send it to the city council that now needs these definitions because it's in there. Planning and all of the above would need this to be a part of the UDO to ensure that communications and discussions are inclusive of reality. And are suited correctly instead of incorrectly. It's on the agenda for council prior to our next business meeting. I'm not sure where that falls on. September 3rd is the next regular session.
- I mean, we don't know what the agenda or the packet is yet. September 17 is the one after that. And I don't know what planning, how they are working through with any changes, because there is even suggestion of changing the title of UAE Urban Agriculture Commercial.
- It's needed for the discussion because there was a lot of terminology discussed last night in trying to make decisions without really understanding what this was and without the definition as well as the notes with examples. And you shared these definitions as like a private citizen. Yeah, I told them I was a commissioner. This was coming up for a vote and on our agenda today because it was on our agenda. They were very excited about it.
- I don't know if it's included to be able to use the terms in the media. This helped with their discussion once a few of the commissioners were able to look through it, because I shared that during the public comment. Not in representation, I did not represent that the commission had adopted this, but that it was on our agenda today. So they are going to be looking at this. So for the commission to wait in time for the procedures going on before
- The next meeting, we would approve it now. Yeah. So if we wanted to do that, what I would recommend, since we're just about at 7.30, is that we would move to extend the meeting time by some amount, 10, 15 minutes, if people can do it. I'll make the motion that we extend by 10 minutes. Do you think that's sufficient? Does that sound good to you? 10 minutes. Does that work? Yeah. OK. Second. Perfect. There's a motion and a second to extend the meeting time by 10 minutes. Let me get my memo card here.
- Okay, Tara. Aye. Aye. Justin. Aye. Matt. Aye. Aye. Zero. Aye. Aye. Councilmember Varela. Yes. Yes. Quintagilly. Yes. Yes. Allen. Yes. Yes. Jane. Yes. Yes. Evan. Sorry, Evan.
- He said I bet it was too fast on the unmute. I guess. Thank you. Diana. Yes. Yes. OK. We will extend the meeting time until 740. So then the next step if we wanted to pass this today would be like Tara said to have a motion to basically consider this as a second reading instead of a first reading. And then that would lead us into discussion for the actual
- you know, adoption of the resolution. So is there a motion to consider adoption? I make the motion to forego the first reading and move straight to a second. Okay, second. Second. Excellent. Okay. Back to my sheet. Okay, Tara. Aye. Aye. Justin. Aye. Matt. Aye. Aye. Zero. Aye.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- People can offer up amendments, so you've got some other definitions that you want to add. You said you sent it to me via email? I did send it to you via email. So, aquaculture definition, the cultivation of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and aquatic plants in controlled or semi-controlled environments, including tanks, ponds, and other water-based systems for food production, habitat restoration, or other purposes.
- The example of use case in an urban agriculture setting would be raising tilapia in an indoors recirculating tank system within a converted warehouse for local seafood sales. I have had a friend up in Fort Wayne try this about 10 years ago. It's a bit cold up there, but because our temperatures are warming, we may actually be able to have folks do this here in the city. That's an added protein source. Aquaponics, second term.
- A food production system that combines aquaculture, raising aquatic animals such as fish with hydroponics,
- cultivating plants and water in a symbiotic environment where nutrient-rich water from the aquaculture system feeds the plants and the plants help filter and purify the water for aquatic animals. A use case example would be operating a rooftop greenhouse where lettuce and herbs are grown using nutrient water from an on-site koi or catfish tank, supplying both produce and fish to local markets. Third addition, produce.
- definition, vegetables and fruits produced by a grower, gardener, farmer, orator, or vintner. Examples of this would be apples, grapes, and berries, and annuals, such as lettuces, kale, melons, tomatoes, and squashes. So the first ones were perennial, and the second were annual. The fourth added term, based upon discussion last night, value added product.
- That would be fruits, vegetables, fungi, and herbs that have been grown on site and processed to add value to the sales of the produce, fruits, herbs, et cetera. Examples of this would include applesauce, fruit leather, dried oregano, dried mushrooms, and combinations of vegetables and such for a soup base. You have value-added products on there already? Yeah. Oh, do I have it on there? Okay, good.
- It's a little different, but. Yeah, as long as it's, yeah. OK, and was that all the definitions that you wanted to add? Yeah, based upon what was discussed last night and needed more definition than what was on here. OK, and so the idea is that those definitions would just maybe go at the bottom, like at the end of this list, as they were written in the email that you sent and that you just read off? Yeah. OK.
- And that's the only thing that would change, right? Yeah, except for that last one, which is already on there, as noted. So is that a motion to add those amendments? I was just about to ask. I was just about to ask for a motion for that. Yeah, I just want to make sure. Perfect. Sorry, was that a motion from zero? Yes. Motion to amend. Great. Is there a second? Motion to amend. Second. OK, excellent.
- Okay, so this is a motion to amend that list by including the definitions that Jamie just read. The three definitions not included that included value added product that Jamie had just read off. Tara? Aye. Aye. Justin? Aye. Matt? Aye. Aye. Zero? Yes. Yes. Councilmember Rowe? Yes. Yes. Quintin? Yes. Yes. Alex? Aye. Aye. Jamie? Yes. Yes.
- Yes. Yes, Dan. Yes. Okay, perfect. So the amendment passes and we are back to the discussion. If anyone has any more discussion that they want to make on this topic or questions or anything or other amendments, now's the time to do it. My question would be the definitions as they're written here. Is this following the
- like a stated like agricultural law definition or how are these developed? I developed them from knowledge and references and use cases that I would anticipate here in Bloomington. That includes for the examples. I know we'd also talked about bees and had folks with bees here so that is
- included in that one definition. So some of these may already be in existence, but not necessarily recognized by the city. Does that help? Yeah. My only concern is I'm not an expert in any of this. For me, not that we don't have the experts at the table here, but if we had some, or if it followed some sort of guidebook, I'm just like,
- the urban agriculture law, like healthy food project for, it's like these frameworks for cities to have to adopt these sort of definitions and regulations. I don't know if it might be worth referencing that, you know, something in the process. So do you want each one of these definitions referenced to
- another, because even like farmstead, that's a newer term, just like in my field of health and well-being. Emory University, part of my continuing education, just found out that Emory University was the one that was able to define health versus well-being. And that's very recent. So farmstead is very recent as well.
- as opposed to Homestead and Farm. Yeah. I'd say Jamie is the expert at the table and is on the forefront with exactly those type of developments and recent frames. We have two minutes left. Yep. I want to point out that we're at 738. So if we want to vote on this today, we should move that very soon. So I need to- Motion to vote. Oh, we're already in a motion for that.
- One other thing I just want to add is the balance between specificity and generalized language. If you list specific fish, is there any chance that that starts to put people into two specific parameters? Just something to keep in mind as you write that up. For the examples?
- Examples were meant to be somewhat specific, to give an example. But I could add in tilapia, because there are some types of fish, such as tilapia is the one that's usually grown in the tanks. All right, so that would have to be an amendment. And we wouldn't have time for that today, probably. Yeah, I don't think that's that important. OK. Yeah, the example or just the example. Yeah.
- want to move to a vote or do people think they need more time? Motion to vote. Second. OK. I'm not going to do a roll call over there because we're in discussion. And once discussion finishes, we just naturally go to a vote. So we'll just call it that. Is it just majority? OK. This one's just a simple majority. Yeah. OK. We'll go through the list here to adopt resolution 2025-03.
- I believe it was, yes. Okay, Tara. Aye. Justin, aye. Matt. I have an urban farm and this directly relates to the planning commission, urban ag commercial. So, saying that, aye. Okay. Thank you for the disclosure. Zero. Yes. Yes. Council Member Rallo. Yes. Yes. Quentin. Abstain. Abstain.
- Alex. Aye. Aye. Jamie. Aye. I'll just disclose that I live on a little farmstead, which is what I was trying to figure out the term for because it's an accessory dwelling use whenever looking at this. Okay. So that's an aye. Evan. Yes. Yes. Okay. And Diane. Yes. Yes.
- Okay, so that is nine yeses, zero nays, and one abstention. So the motion carries and the resolution is adopted. I thought that abstentions counted against the unanimous. The unanimous was just for proceeding to the second reading style vote. That is a good point though. Okay, great. So that brings us to the end of the clock. So we'll have to stop there. I'm sorry that we didn't get to the- We probably should allow for public comment. I know we have at least one.
- Okay. We'll need another resolution to extend. Extend three minutes. Three minutes. Okay. Okay. And there's a second. So we're extending by three minutes is the motion on the table. Tara. Aye. Aye. Justin. Yes. Matt. Aye. Aye. Zero. Yes. Yes. Councilmember Rall. Yes. Yes. Quintin. Yes. Yes. Alex. Yes. Yes. Jamie.
- yes yes evan yes yes diana yes okay the ayes have it we'll extend for three more minutes which would be at 7 45 so we'll move to public comment everyone i'm julius mitchell i'm the legislative affairs specialist in the office of the mayor
- I handle some of the mayoral appointments to boards and commissions. I've been saying that I'm new for a while, but I actually have some people on this commission that I've appointed, so I can no longer say that. Alex, I sent your letter, so. Thank you. I've been trying to make the rounds and attend all of these, so I kind of get a feel for what's going on. And the whole voice vote thing, that was my message. I just wanted to make sure everything was going up correctly, so I'm sorry to make this more of a headache, but I've been studying up on the open door law,
- because I've been going to so many of these. And that was just something I wanted to mention. So I'm here as a resource. I handle a lot of the legislative scheduling with council and stuff like that. I have yet to follow this process all the way through. I know you guys have some resolutions. I'm not 100% sure how that process goes, but I'm working through it and I have a part in that. So hopefully I can work with either Sean or whoever, I believe whoever sponsored it to get that through.
- So I want to be here for resources, you guys. I just want to introduce myself so you guys have a face to the name. And that was all I know. We're over by a bit. So I'll just stop it there. Thank you, Julius, for your guidance tonight. And so I think the next step would just be to provide the amended resolution that was passed. And do I send that to you then? Yeah, I've got your stuff from the email. So I'll incorporate that.
- Okay. Or if you want to incorporate it and send it back, you know, it's up to you. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. We'll get that. So thank you very much. Yeah. Okay. So we are at seven 44. Is there any other public comment? Was Gavin Everett still there or not? No.
- Look at us ending early. There's still time for staff. It is out of point. I just wanted to say that our state for all grant was terminated and allocated three million dollars. So we spent a lot of time and effort putting all of the documents together for that and so that's a real disappointment. But the municipal investment fund, that $250,000 grant is still
- On track, we're hoping to launch that October 1st. And so I'll give more information at the next meeting about that. The Solar for All grant was likely illegally terminated, so pending legislation, or pending on it. It'll be years before we have anything else. Thank you for all your work. Thank you. OK, great. And yeah, and green drinks coming up. So great, we're at 745.
- So I think since we're naturally at the end of the timeline, we don't have to actually have a motion to adjourn. I was going to say, Gavin Everett is awesome. Community culture is doing great work. Oh, great. Yeah. He's also been involved in gardening. Absolutely. Excellent. Sorry, Gavin. We didn't get to you. It's OK. It's all right. Thank you, though. All right. You could come to a working session. All right. So we stand adjourned at 745.