So I'll call to order this meeting of the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability at 6.02 PM. And we'll
go through the roll call. So folks on Zoom, be ready to turn on your cameras. OK, Tara Dunderdale. Here.
Here. Justin Vassel, I'm here. Matt Austin. Present. Present. Zero rows. Don't see online. OK,
John Elden. Here.
Dave Rallo? Here. Here. Quentin Gilley? Not here. Alex York? Here, virtual. Here, virtual. Jamie Scholl?
She let me know she'd probably be rolling in around 630. Evan Nix? Not here. OK, Annalise Jenke?
Here. Present. Diana Ogrodowsky. Here? Here. And Zhengwei Xu. Here. Perfect. All right. So we can go
ahead and get started. We'll move to the agenda. So we've got a couple things on the agenda tonight,
a couple of discussions. And I think Jamie will probably be here by the time we get to the one that
she's leading.
And then we've got a resolution for second reading, 2025-02, about the urban forestry budget. I think
Evan just joined online. I think that's Evan's email address. Yeah. Do I need to specify in the minutes
when people came late, like what time people joined, or just? I think you might as well. Yeah, you can
note it down. All right.
Okay, so we've got Evan on the line now. Evan, are you here? I am here and unmuted now. Perfect. Thank
you very much. All right, so that's what we have on the agenda. Is there a motion to approve? Motion
to approve. Okay, is there a second? Second. Okay, perfect.
Any discussion, any changes anyone wants to suggest? All right, then we'll move to a vote.
And as a reminder, we have to do everything as a roll call vote, as long as there are people attending
virtually. So we'll go down the list. This is the motion to approve the agenda. Tara? TARA CHEUNG. Aye.
Aye. Justin? Aye. Matt? Aye. Aye. Zero? Zero's not here yet. John? Aye. Aye. Councilmember Rallo? Yes.
Yes. Quintin Gilley is not here yet. Alex? Aye. Aye. Jamie is not here yet. Evan? Aye. Aye. Annalise?
Aye. Aye. Diana? Aye. Aye. And Cheng-Hui? Aye. Aye. All right. The agenda is approved.
That brings us to the approval of the minutes from August 12, 2025, which was sent around the other
day. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? Motion to approve. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Perfect.
All right. Are there any corrections that anybody wants to offer up to those minutes? All right. Nothing
that I saw. Nothing that you saw. Perfect. All right. Motion to approve the minutes from August 12,
2025. Tara. Aye.
Aye. Justin, aye. Matt? Aye. Aye. Zero is not here yet. John? Aye. Aye. Council Member Arallo? Aye.
Aye. Quintin is not here yet. Alex? Yes. Yes. Jamie is not here yet. Evan? Aye. Was that aye? Yes, that
was aye. Perfect. Yes. Thanks.
Hi. Diana? Hi. Hi. Shengwei? Hi. Hi. All right. The minutes from August 12, 2025 are approved. So that
brings us to public comment, which we have 10 minutes set aside for up to three minutes per person.
Is there anybody from the public who would like to comment? I don't see anyone in the room. Just a quick
update. Quentin texted or emailed at 612 that he'd be here in five minutes. Who was that? Sorry. Quentin.
Quentin? OK, perfect. We'll expect him shortly.
OK, I don't see anyone from the public online or in the room. So we'll move on to reports from commissioners
with the chair's report up first. All right. So I tried to make this a little shorter. I didn't include
all the slides that I normally do just to try to keep things moving a little bit quicker. But where
there's updates, I have that information.
Okay. So this one I always show is just the org chart. Um, we currently have the one vacancy there for
the, from the Monroe County commissioners. Um, but nothing's changed since the last time that we met.
Um, next. Okay. Um, so some internal, um, updates, um, so resolutions 2025-01 and-03 were the ones that
we approved, uh, at last, at our last meetings. Um, so that was related to the definitions for urban
agriculture type stuff.
and then also the the chicken poultry flock size resolution. So this was a fun opportunity to learn
once we pass a resolution that we want to make a recommendation to council what happens next. And some
of it is you know depends on the particular resolution it might need to go to to different different
groups depending on what it is. But we sort of
tried it out for the first time on this one. And so ultimately, both those resolutions just got forwarded
on to the plan commission, the office of the mayor, and city council. And so ultimately, that was Sean
who wrote a letter just forwarding those along. And yeah, so thanks to Sean and Julie and Julius, who
we met at the public comment last time as well for helping us navigate that. Julie, is this from the
mayor's office? Yes, I believe that's right.
um great and then the 2025 uh sorry i keep putting this typo in here the 2024 annual report uh 2025
has not been completed yet i do not have that sort of vision um we approved that back in may um and
we got on the calendar to present to council on september 3rd which was last week and so i went in to
do that um i ultimately i put together slides for it but i ultimately ended up giving them a verbal
update um i i was not aware that there was a
requirement to get slides into them by a certain time, and I didn't get it in time. But there were not
too many graphics in that report, so it was pretty easy to just do it verbally. And they have the actual
physical report included in their packet materials that they were able to reference.
So I think the report was well received. We just got some clarifying questions about the Sustainable
Neighborhood Grant for the TerraCycle project and some follow-ups regarding some of the fund matching
that we're expecting from the Waste Reduction District of Monroe County. And we also got some follow-up
questions regarding the document management challenges that we had last year. Matt was there.
for that at the city council meeting. And so he was able to help field some of those questions as well
where I had blind spots. So that was very, very helpful. How did you think it went? Did you think it
was? I thought it was great. It was the first time I'd seen that since before 2020. Yeah, right. And
then there was an email sent to clarify some more of those questions from Garden Quest. Yeah, right.
OK, perfect. Awesome. Yeah, so that went well. Well done.
So thanks to you for preparing that and taking your time to do that. Appreciate that. Yeah, so they
know what we're up to now, and they're expecting updates for next year. So that's exciting. Nothing
else really on these kind of internal things that are new. Just the things in blue and bold are kind
of the new updates. Focus areas, we've been starting to fill out this list. I know some people have
sent me some things, and I think I've added it to here. It's possible I missed something.
If you see something that doesn't look right by your name, shoot me another email. I'll get updated.
Hello. Oh, no problem. All right, so we've got Quinton now. Better late than never. That's what I figured.
I don't try to show up no matter what. OK, so I wanted to say a few words about attendance and voting
policy, because it's been a while since we've talked about this with the full commission. We've got
a lot of new members since the last time we have.
and I needed a bit of a refresher myself. So there's a couple things that we have to kind of keep in
mind when it comes to meeting attendance. There's a couple things in our bylaws about it, but then there's,
especially when it comes to virtual attendance for meetings, there's a decent amount of requirements
in the open door law in Indiana code that we need to be aware of.
So just for general attendance type stuff in our bylaws, we've got a requirement to not miss more than
three consecutive meetings in a 12-month period and to not miss four regularly scheduled meetings within
a 12-month period as well. So just for everyone to be aware of, if you think you're going to have to miss
lots of meetings in a year or something like that. Best thing, especially if you know it's coming, is
to let me know. Things like illness and emergencies and stuff, of course, we're not gonna hold you to
that in a strict way. So if you've got something like that, just let us know. As far as the open door
law goes, you can see the last, the bottom five there. There's sort of a couple categories this fits
into. First is the percentage of
of physically present members when it comes to electronic meetings. And so at least 50% have to be physically
present at the meeting. So we can't all be virtual, for example. There's a rule about percentage of
meetings attended virtually in a given year by a member. So you can't attend more than 50% of the meetings
in a year virtually. And there are some exceptions to that. So again, illness.
I've actually got the exceptions listed in small print there. Military service, illness, or other medical
condition, death of a relative, or emergency involving actual or threatened injury to persons or property.
So again, if you think this is something that might affect you, just let me know. Frequency of virtually
attended meetings. So this one says that a member shall physically attend at least one meeting between
And I paraphrase this next part, two consecutive meetings that the member attends by electronic
communication. So you can attend virtually two meetings in a row, but then you have to be here for that
next third meeting. You can't attend three virtually in a row. And then there's a couple rules about
putting together memoranda or minutes and taking votes. And so this isn't so much about attendance,
but just more about when there's a virtual
you know, an aspect of virtual attendance at these meetings. Um, there's certain things that we have
to note down in our minutes, like whether somebody was in person or virtual when they were, you know,
uh, when they were here. Um, and, and what means did they, they joined by? Um, and then for votes, um,
as you've seen, we'd be doing roll call votes for just, for basic business and, um, and that's required
by this, this aspect of the law. Um, so that's,
My understanding of attendance and voting policy per our bylaws in Indiana code. Any questions about
that or anything that somebody knows about that I missed? Yeah. So how is that enforced? Yeah. I know
it's not enforced by us. It's enforced by council. So the bylaws, of course, are enforced by us because
we make those rules. And these particular provisions are in the removal section of the bylaws, so basically
laying out
If the commission were to vote to remove somebody, on what grounds could they do it? Disattendance is
one of those grounds. Are we required to do that if they, is that? I don't believe so. I would double
check the exact wording again, but I'm pretty sure it's like the commission may remove somebody for
cause, and this is the cause. And then kind of to Matt's question, but council or the mayor or whoever
the appointing body is could
could also revoke an appointment through whatever processes they have. Yeah, the city might have its
own internal policies about if somebody, say, just stops showing up to meetings entirely or something
that they can really just remove them entirely. I don't know if they have any strict thresholds about
when that kicks in or if it's just a thing where a commission has to come to them and say, hey, this
person's been MIA for a while.
Can we bump them off? And they do it. So yeah, that would be a good question to ask Sean maybe at the
next meeting to. What, if anything, does the code say about if we don't, if we opt to not?
So if we have, I mean, I think certainly for the virtual one, we probably have that. If we opted to
not pursue the removal, are there implications for us as a commission in the code?
Dave's got his hand up, so he might know the answer to that question, maybe. OK, perfect. Yeah, go ahead,
Councilmember Morrell. Yeah, just to say, I mean, generally speaking, it's been pretty rare that we've
removed somebody from a board of commission. But of course, boards of commissions require a quorum to
carry on their business. And if the chair of the commission reports to the council that somebody hasn't
been in attendance,
that becomes grounds for removal and it usually then requires some notification I think by the clerk's
office to try to contact the person and then we have essentially a discussion at one of our meetings
and a vote to remove the person and then we can reappoint someone else.
So that's our process. I think probably the mayor is in a similar role. The mayor has her own. She can
decide herself without having, I think, a formal meeting. Yeah. And I know there's been at least one
instance since I've been on this commission that we did actually go through that process where somebody
just kind of stopped attending. And yeah.
That sounds familiar to me. I think we sent out, or the city, the clerk or something, sent out a letter
saying, are you still planning to attend the next meeting if you still want to be on this commission?
Otherwise, we're going to take you off. Yeah, so good question. As far as enforcement of the Indiana
code goes, I mean, you know, there's
I don't think there's anyone who's doing a lot of tallying on that to check everything. But anyone could
submit a complaint if we're not in compliance with these. And those complaints would go, I think, then
to the public access counselor. And they could issue a finding. And there could be other legal consequences.
Does the code specify? So if I came to two virtual and then the third one,
Would the code consider me not there because I'm not allowed to attend? So is the issue there that my
votes are quorum or whatever or not? If somebody fought, obviously in practice, it's not. I'm just trying
to understand. So if somebody comes to three virtual meetings in a row,
is that third meeting considered effectively, according to the code, they're absent. And so they're
like, if they were the, if we had six people and that seventh person, that means we didn't have quorum
and we had a meeting without quorum. There's sort of like those cascading issues in terms of somebody
going in and being like, great. Yeah, they count that we can't vote. So you're not there. Yeah. OK.
And so if we did allow them that,
Sorry, I'm talking like, I'm speaking like retroactively or like if we didn't know or something like
that. If we had the issue there is that the follow-up, somebody filing a complaint would be somebody
who wasn't present was recorded at the meeting effectively. I'm just trying to, it's, legal stuff is
hard to. These might be questions that we put up to the city. Yeah, right.
answer questions directly. As you kind of keep in mind some of these questions, you might want to see
if that can happen. Yeah, that's a good point. If we do have questions that we'd like a lawyer to answer.
I'm going to be a little less cagey here. I ask in part because we have members currently at this meeting
who I'm marking down their votes in a minute who I can't legally do that for. And I'm asking what I
should do. It's part of I'm going to be a little less cagey.
OK, yes, that is a good point. Maybe I'll make some notes as we go to some of the other reports, and
we'll figure out who we maybe need to be cautious about. Yeah, good point. Thank you. OK, any other
questions on this?
have here. Oh, this is just a summary of that. A couple bullet points there. And then we've got the
resources slide as per usual. OK, any other questions for the chair's report before we move on? Awesome.
OK, then we'll move on to the report from Waste Management Working Group. Matt. I don't know. To start,
I'm going to talk about something that I did two weeks ago with Sustainable IU.
They're currently doing a pilot project around recycling at tailgates. And they're definitely looking
for volunteers to help. They have put a lot of work in with them. And do you want to jump in? I mean,
we're essentially trying to revamp and scale up our recycling waste diversion from the football games
with all the hype around our new winning football team that we have.
Yes, so we've deployed a lot more, essentially, resources for people in attendance to have options to
recycle people that are off the ground, that sort of thing. We're handing out bags teaching people about
the rules and things like that as we go around. And we have sort of waste ambassadors, I guess we would
call it. But yeah, appreciate you and you guys helping. And they're looking for more volunteers.
passion about that and would like to volunteer Dr. Quinn because it's very important that we get those
habits set for all the tailgaters. Thank you for doing that. Otherwise, Garden Quest took the 150 pounds
of food waste from the Taste of Bloomington, took that out to Will Detmer Community Gardens and put
it in the pit. Will Detmer Community Gardens has also agreed to
Master Rental, thank you Master Rental, is donating some equipment to dig four more pits so that there
will be more than enough space to handle conference food waste, festival food waste, so on and so forth
because we'd really like to pursue that as the default method for food waste management at public events
around Bloomington and Monroe County. And then I attended the
Climate Leadership Summit on Friday and the Circular Indiana Conference on Monday. And the Circular
Indiana Conference was focused on extended producer responsibility. If you're not familiar with EPR,
essentially the idea is that you make a widget and you have your planned obsolescence, but that's not
the end of your responsibility. Your responsibility is when that widget is no longer being used, that
you're responsible as a business for it. So my analogy is a cigarette, right?
You smoke it, you have health issues, and you've got the cigarette butt. So the company that produced
it should be responsible for those health issues and the cigarette butt, because all those costs are
lopped onto society as a whole and a lot of municipalities. And with municipalities losing funding,
especially here in Indiana, where can we find that we could use the EPR model to hold these companies
accountable so that the profits that they're gaining are also being used to clean up their messes?
so that municipalities aren't having to take that on. And so since I do food waste and waste reduction,
I'm trying to think of how could we do that? And so could we partner with a Kroger? Now, they don't
make the food, but they make a lot of money to where we could have some maybe a grant fund funded through
them towards food waste or towards waste reduction. So just kind of trying to think outside of the box
when it comes to extended producer responsibility and whatnot.
And there are some really cool conferences coming up as well. So I encourage everybody to look. A lot
of these conferences are free. And you can really network really well and get some new ideas. And I
was not familiar with EPR until this conference. So that's it. I thought I'd just mention one thing.
Sort of in a similar vein to that, I was just
Looking up to see the current status in Indiana. I'm interested in the idea of right to repair walls.
Some states have them on the books. Some don't. It doesn't look like Indiana does. But according to
my search here, it says House Bill 1060 in 2025, previous bills, Senate 53 in 2024, sought to require
manufacturers to provide owners independent repair shops with access to service documentation, parts,
tools, consumer electronics, and agriculture equipment.
Now, I don't know exactly how our work here could get anything changed at that level. But I feel like
this is an area that has a lot of bipartisan buy-in and just general approach, especially for farm equipment
and consumer electronics and everything. And I think it aligns with sustainability generally.
I think the path to influencing state law is that we would write a resolution to the council or to the
city government that they should write a resolution to the state in support of a particular law, I think
is sort of the mechanical way that that would happen. I appreciate that.
Yeah, and we could actually write a resolution for the council. Instead of saying, we want you to write
a resolution, we could write one that they then adopt. I think the Environmental Commission just did
this for the Bee City designation that they voted on. So just give us that. That reminded me of a couple
of other things. The keynote speaker at the Circle of Indiana was a gentleman, Chad Pendraki, from Living
Land and Waters. Absolutely incredible what he's done. His nonprofit that he started when he was in
his early 20s.
and he's probably in his 50s now, has pulled out 14 million pounds of trash from rivers all over the
country. He lived on the Mississippi. And just two years ago, they started a new business because a
lot of the plastic they were pulling out was not recyclable. So they're now making plastic pallets.
And if you're familiar with wood pallets, I wasn't aware of this. Wood pallets typically have a life
cycle of three uses. And there's issues with splinters, nails,
destroying product, these plastic pallets will get used over 200 times. So it was really profound to
see the impact that one man has had. And the lesson of consistent effort over a long period of time
creates great results. And so with the things that we're trying to do here, sometimes it seems hard,
but you just got to keep plugging away. So that's why I wanted to commend you
once again, on what you're doing. And that's what we need. We need these small efforts to continue on
throughout the year. So. I was just to, and the last thing I was going to mention too on that point,
sort of, I think you mentioned earlier, towards the spring, we hosted our first fix-it clinic,
we call it. So it's like you're trying to, you know, people can bring in items to try to repair, keep
things in service.
It went really well, and we sort of geared up to start doing these more often over at our office on
10th Street. And I'd be interested in any potential volunteers. I think it'd be a great thing if we
could participate. Like, maybe do something like this for our Earth Day Bloomington or something, do
like a fix-it-clinic type of repair thing. Something simple that we can teach learning experience plus
you know, support socioeconomic and all forms of sustainability, really. So, yeah, I might be asking
around for volunteers for that, too. Or if you want to come to the tailgate, need help for that, too.
Oh, and the last thing is with the Living Land and Water, we have multiple companies here that are making
pharmaceuticals and they use a lot of plastic. So, you know, maybe there's something out there where
we could build a resolution that we say, we would like you to use your plastic instead of trying to
recycle it for another product, and here is
a company that's doing exactly that, that you can turn into a usable product that's going to get used
for years to come, right? Because where is that plastic that they're using with these pharmaceutical
companies? Where is it ending up going? So not really our purview, but it is sustainability. I thought
I'd at least put it out there. Awesome. I had a question about the Bokashi, the working group grant
thing. So is that, do you know when you're
planning to have that? We're still looking for another festival. So don't reserve the money. I know
it's not reserved, but. Is there anything? Yeah, well, OK, because we're going to spend it. Sorry. Is
there any way it could go forward in some form without a festival component?
I mean, right now, with the Waste Reduction District, there is a TRY program, where it's available to
community members, where they can try the system. They have to come to a training at the community orchard
or at Will Detmer, and they can try the process for four months. And they just have to buy the Bokashi
brand, which is $4 for all that time. So yeah, so that would be the option to do it. But it's really
about education and to get it out there. We already have the TRY program.
the waste reduction district, which is for all Monroe County, which includes Bloomington residents.
So yes, we could do that. What about the tailgates? Could you pilot it with the tailgates as the festival,
or a tailgate as a festival, like hometown or something? Because it's related to IU, probably not. It
has to be city related, and IU has its own money. But it's in city limits. Yeah. It impacts the city.
So Quentin and I talked about that. There's one area specifically that is open.
tailgate area that's open to fans. And I already talked to the food service company, the caterer, and
they'd be open to it. But it wouldn't be that much food, and it would just be them dumping it into a
bucket. So it's not the educational component. Because that's the point of it, is to get the community
aware that this is the solution to residential food waste. It's not the large scale, but on a residential
neighborhood scale, this is the solution, the best hands down.
So yeah, so if there's any other ideas, like we were really waiting for, what's the music festival at
the end of the month? Lotus. We want to talk to them, but they've got their hands full right now, so
we were kind of waiting for that to end to talk to them so that we could set it up for next year or
maybe the Strawberry Shortcake thing with Boys and Girls Club. So we just have our hands full of a lot
of stuff right now, so we really haven't been reaching out to festivals. So if anybody wants to,
has connections with festivals in Bloomington and Monroe County. Please, we would love to help. So pride
would be great if we had just done the taste of Bloomington. We had our hands full with all that. Because
you can write the grant this year to encumber the funds for the festival that happens in 2026.
That's great. All festivals can happen in Ellitsville also, which is in the county. It's not in the
city. It has to be in the city. It has to be in the city. Have you talked to the grand saloon team at all?
No. That is an IU event, but it happens. It's early summer. Yeah, downtown. Yeah. And I'm close with
that team, so I'd be happy to connect you with them. Sure, let's do it. Yeah, any help. We have so many
pilots going on. We've got an urban farm and so much stuff. We can only take on. So I know you're at
Taste of Wellington this last time. Is there more you can do there?
Yeah, I mean, 150 pounds was not very much. We probably had somewhere between 750 and 1,000 people scrape
their food in. And we had just under 30 National Heart Society students volunteering. We also had a
food reclamation aspect that was separate from it. So yeah, we could definitely do more there. Write
it as a year two pilot for Taste of Bloomington, right?
You know, it worked this year. We want to increase the number. Because I also think that Taste
of Bloomington, as like a festival I went, could have been organized better. Because I saw the book,
it was like, it was chaos. It was, I don't think they worked. I don't think they thought so many people
would come. So it may also be like a case that this wasn't an optimal test case for it because
It was the festival returning after six years. The format was different. They weren't necessarily set
up for the volume. I guess I'm saying you could probably apply that grant proposal. It's a year two.
It worked a little. We think it could work better with more planning and more time to get the volunteers,
get the equipment set up, get the word out about what that's going to be.
What about the Farmer's Market? I'm already there with the Citizens Advisory Committee with the Waste
Reduction District. Well, I'm trying to be there two weekends a month, two Saturdays a month, easier
said than done, and I am promoting Bokashi there while trying to increase membership for the CAC.
So yeah, that is an option. We've also talked about Food Truck Fridays. Yeah, I'm just thinking like
higher traffic things that people come out. Right. Yeah. But that would need to be multiple.
You need a lot. You need a big team. You need sustained volunteering as opposed to... Yeah. And we wouldn't
be going to everyone to be like one a month or something like that.
for a couple of months. So, yeah. I think if I were to get their first one of them every month is the
Fair of the Arts. That would probably be the one I would go to. Saturday morning. Because it's the biggest.
Yeah. Because they have art vendors and other things like that there. Yeah. I would at least think about
rewriting it as a year two pilot for Taste of Bloomington because you have evidence that it was like...
I mean, we did... It worked. Like people used it and people learned about Bookashi and I know at least
one person who signed up afterwards because it was my parents.
But yeah. And that drove people to the trainings that happened a few weeks ago when there's another
training happening on Sunday at the community orchard at 2 o'clock. So everybody's interested in learning.
And that's how you access the free Try It program as well. So OK, yeah, I'll propose that to the director
of Garden Quest and say, let's propose this as a year two.
And then I guess on that note the Waste Reduction District did approve a grant fund of $20,000 for projects
like this and it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for what we're doing and the money asking from
them. So there's going to be more money out there for projects like this. And they're still interested
in doing the match? So the match, right, they already used those funds. Yeah, they funded it.
So the match would have only been if BCAUSE also was able to do that on a larger scale. OK, I see. Yeah.
That makes sense. OK. Sorry, that took more than five minutes. No, it's OK. My report will be short.
Speaking of which, we're on to a report from Ad Hoc Committee, Sustainability Assessment Report. And
I will just note, because I meant to say this in my report, that you're not crazy we were indeed
meant to have a working group meeting between last meeting and this one, I got my weeks confused. And
I thought it was the following week, but it was that current week. And I never sent out a notice. And
at least one person showed up to the library for that meeting. So I apologize for that. And yes, I hope
we will have one in this next month.
Anyway, on that point, I'll pass it over to you, Tara. There was not a working group meeting. And also,
I've been sick. So I will have something next month for us. Whatever I promised last month will be in
October. Perfect. End of report. Well done. Thank you, Tara. OK, I want to report an update on the Cobb
Bench working group grant.
Project from Evan Nix. Yeah. So we were not able to line up at times so far to get the excavator out
to Redbud. The goal would be to level part of the yard, use that dirt for the cot bench. The contractor
Redbud has a friend who has an excavator, so that's going to make it affordable. Otherwise, the quota
I got was $1,000 for the excavation alone.
So that's one of the sticking points. And then also just needing around three weekends in a row to make
sure that this gets completely finished. There's time for the coffee to dry between each layer and then
the plaster. So we haven't been able to line that up yet. And it's been kind of challenging to get consistent
contact from our partner. But I'm still reaching out and, you know,
setting meetings and trying to keep it moving. And then have been continuing learning about construction.
Just went to a workshop and built a roof. So I'm trying to get more of that on my hands. So you need
less input from Danny Weddle and others who will be helping on the project. Additionally, they added
some concrete planters out to the front.
Zero and Sean and I have been in conversation about that. It's not gonna affect where the ventron dip
going and it still fits. But there was like a little bit of a question there. We mapped it all out and
it's fine. So yeah, I'm just gonna keep on reaching out and trying to get it moving and getting space
coordinated. But that's where we're at right now. What is the volume of dirt that needs to be moved?
that it needs an excavator. Or I guess my question is, could 10 people in shovels accomplish what an
excavator could accomplish if we got some volunteers? Yeah, 10 people in shovels probably could. We
need to go kind of deep to get below the frost line to the foundation. So that's part of it. And then
there's also a hill. So it would be about maybe four feet of digging.
8 by 6 square of that. So I mean, it's definitely doable if we had the volunteers who are willing to
dig that much. Do you know what type of soil it is? Is it a clay, which since we've had so much dry,
no precipitation, make it very difficult?
without an excavator to do that, as well as if there's any kind of blocks or stones that might be in
there? Yeah, I'm not sure about blocks and stones. I haven't dug up a ton to see because we don't want
to just leave a hole there. I guess we could fill it in. But yeah, I'm not really sure about the composition
all the way down. To me, it seems like it's kind of backfill material.
Yeah, I mean, we could find something to put down that is completely different. I was just thinking
that it would be very difficult. Having dug out a pond by hand that was bigger than this myself, I know
that there are some surprises that you may not anticipate. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and since it's
in a public space, we'd want to keep that in mind, of course.
But also having dug and gardened and laying patios and such in times of drought in compacted soil that
may have gravel in it. That year, 2000, whatever, I even had a contractor that could not get some things
dug out for some drainage pipe. So that was an extreme.
year for drought. So just kind of throwing that out there. It may sound great that we could do it, but
it may not be possible, depending upon the soil. This is maybe a question for Justin, or maybe that
we need to direct to the city. So if I remember, it was within 12 months of encumbering the funds the
project had to take place.
a case where we would need to vote on a no-cost extension? Would they need to apply for a no-cost extension?
Because we're going to get run into the ground as frozen. Yeah, that was going to be my question is,
how much longer do we have to get this done? And then I think that would be a question for Sean is,
OK, is there a way that we can extend the execution of those funds? Well, let me just throw out here,
if it's 12 months from the end
like the distribution of the funds that happened in June. So I thought it was 12 months from when it
was approved. Yeah, we did. We'd have to ask. The soil can be kept where it's not frozen if you're putting
on some straw bales. So about $7 per bale.
now, depending upon where you're purchasing them. So that's a way to keep the soil from freezing. Cool.
Well, we need to try anyways for the count, so we can just try it a little bit. Cool. So are you going
to follow up on that question, Justin, of whether the clock starts at the approval by the commission
or the distribution of funds from the city or the approval of funds from the city? Yeah. Cool. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. All right, any other questions for Evan before we move on? OK, great. Thanks, Evan.
That brings us to a report from Council, Councilmember Rallo. Yes, thanks. Just a couple of things to
say. First of all, Justin, thank you for coming to our meeting and giving the because report. It was
very informative and appreciated. We just finished budget hearings.
two-week process, essentially, where the administration and the department heads present to the council.
And you can watch that on CATS. It took place over four evenings, over two weeks, four evenings. There
were a lot of follow-up questions. I can't go into those in detail. But essentially, the context of
the budget was, in response to SB 1,
which was a bill that was passed by the state legislature to cut residential and business property taxes.
And so it creates some challenges for local government. And the controller hasn't fully addressed those
yet for the future, but the administration's exploring ways in which
other revenue streams will be tapped. And I think there was a general consensus to try to minimize those
streams, minimize a regressive manner of raising funds. And so maybe that's a discussion for because
the take on because it's concerned about social equity. And we need to make sure that those who are
least able to pay don't pay
and exorbitant amount to fill the gap. So in the meantime, we've had to dip into reserves in order for
this budget to go forward. One proposed cut in the budget was to only raise wages by 2% across the board,
even though the Social Security Administration estimates COLA of 2.7%.
So there was, I think, a near unanimity, or at least everyone who spoke on the council were in support
of it. And the controller recognized that and said that could be accommodated. And then lastly, I just
wanted to bring up a subject that I brought up repeatedly during the budget, and that is a term called
concurrency, which is whether
government, whether we provide levels of service in the various functions of government with this pace
of growth. That could be both infrastructure, so things like roads and stormwater and fire stations
and so forth. Or it could be services, public safety, sanitation, city department staff, and so forth.
So generally, cities often don't keep up.
And what happens is they ironically propose more growth in order to pay for future needs. And I used
to detect that this is what's happening with our municipal government, our municipal budgets. And it
often takes the form of debt, which is generally selling bonds, which requires paying interest on those.
So a case in point.
It is the 21% increase in the water fees that was just approved by the utility service board, partly
for maintenance, but part of it to finance a $43 million public work service center down at Winston
Thomas. So I just wanted to bring this to your attention because cities are expensive to run, but costs
are usually not paid upfront.
there are hidden costs of growth. And they are charged to the public later on. So the public, in effect,
subsidizes growth. And the question should be, well, what kind of growth do you want? And is it appropriate?
Or are the benefits being shared by everyone? So those are questions I'd like to discuss maybe sometime
in the future with because you're in a unique situation position to, I think,
advice on that for the council and the administration. So that's all I have today. Thanks. Thank you
so much. Any questions for Councilmember Rau? I do have one. I'd love to discuss that in the future.
But also in regards to the COLA and the 2% increase or the 2.7% increase, I remember Councilmember Stossberg
had in one of the meetings explained how when cost of living increases are by percentage, that it extends
those at the top getting more compared to those at the bottom. And seeing that it increases, say, a
wealth gap from top to bottom. And I'm sorry, I can't remember the professor's name.
to TED Talk and talked about how whenever there is a certain percentage of this growth, from the haves
to the have-nots, that we see an increase in crime, violent crime, maternal, babies are dying, and things
like this. I mean, it affects everybody. I wasn't sure if that was something since Senator Stossberg had
mentioned that before, if that was brought up in the meeting since I wasn't able to attend. That's an
excellent point. It wasn't brought up, and it should be discussed because I agree with it. So the idea
is that people with greater incomes, a certain percent increase, they already are in a position of having
greater discretionary income
for spending on things that are essentials. And so, and also I think a discussion has to be made about
whether the Social Security Administration really gives the full costs of things like the effects of
inflation and so forth on working families. So no, that wasn't brought up at this meeting, but I think
it's another great discussion for the Council
because to engage in and explore and advise us. What's the timeline from here for if BCOS was going
to present a resolution suggesting a graduated percentage scale or a flat fee, flat amount or something?
Would the October business meeting be too late for that to be in effect? Well, I think the final budget
is October 8. So there isn't much time.
I think that's the date of our meeting. Oh, it's our next business meeting is after that date. Yeah.
So it's a little late for this body to advise maybe on that topic. I see that you've got a resolution
regarding the urban forestry budget.
that is still very timely for the budget. But it could be sent to us for consideration later on, even
though this budget is probably going to be moving forward as it is. I think the council still wants
to discuss this topic and explore it. Would it be too late for council to do anything
to modify that. I know for nonprofits, we would have kind of an emergency session if we found something
that was really important. I don't know if that is something the commission could do since our meeting
happens before. I think this is a very, very important topic right now for us to take on, to ensure
that our community, especially for the government sets
a lot of pace, and we look at that, not just IU, but the city government, if that's something other
commissioners would be willing to meet to kind of draft a resolution or something like that. Because
I'd be willing to do that. Do our bylaws specify? We can call special meetings. I think that this topic,
there's a lot of information we have to go through.
Because I think about sustainability most of the time. I think about the idea of resource efficiency,
because it kind of gets at everything. And I've seen numerous occasions where you can reduce costs,
improve sustainability, improve safety, and improve the socioeconomic situation and save money at the
same time. It doesn't have to be one or the other. But the key, generally, is to challenge assumptions
So look at where our costs are coming from and figure out what we can do. But yeah, these are the topics
I like the most. I think it may be something that would be worthwhile for the commission to take on
to still make a resolution to recommend. I mean, they're going to have a budget cycle every year. Like,
we might not be able to change. But I think to Quinton's point is that it's something we don't want
to rush and do wrong.
But I would still, I mean, as an individual commissioner, I would still be open to meeting special if
we need to. Yeah, I would too. Especially, you know, I work in my day job as someone who works with
low income families. And I don't know if everyone in this room is familiar or not with the MIT living
wage calculator, but they calculate by county for every state in the country as to what a livable wage
is based on household members. So one adult working, two adults working, how many children are in the
household,
And so if you're thinking your typical family in Bloomington is a two adults working, two children households
of four, living wages 27, 24 an hour, I don't know a single family who has a working parent who's making
that much money per hour, if they even have two working adults, which for many low income families is
not the reality. So there's a lot to be said about the economic sustainability of Bloomington for families.
Does Bloomington calculate the self-sufficiency
Is that the same as the self-sustainability, self-sufficiency index? I think they're separate, but I
think it uses similar data. OK. Yeah. The self-sufficiency index is basically the index that is the
amount of money that a household with a particular configuration of adults and children would need in
order to meet basic needs without relying on government assessments or public services, the self-sufficiency
index, which is I think it's, yeah.
And it's often much higher than the poverty level. It breaks it down by cost. There's food, child care,
medical, housing, transportation. You can see all the different categories for all of the different
household sizes. So you can see how the costs really change if you have one adult working, two adults
working, things like that. It might be a good use of word. It's a good reference point, yeah. I was
saying the working session that we were going to have, if we wanted to call it as a meeting, we think
we would have quorum.
Yeah. Dave, I'm curious, how realistic do you think it is that if we were able to call a special session
that we would be able to influence the budget so close to voting time? To tell you the truth, I think
it's fairly unlikely. I think there was point made that budgets, well, wage structures in the city tend
to be kind of complicated process.
And it would have to be vetted and analyzed. And I should say that there was a substantial wage increase
last year. This administration is made up for the past administration not raising wages at the cost
of inflation.
So that was a pretty extensive analysis that was done by a consultant and then was implemented last
year. So right now, I mean, so, but ironically, the administration when they presented the budget said,
everyone got a pretty hefty increase last year. So we think we can just do with only 2%. And I think
that was seen as the wrong way to go because
We don't want to have to be in a position of trying to catch up again. But I'm very much sympathical
with the view that large organizations like government, they set the wage floor for a community. And
it's important that employees can pay a living wage. And we do have a living wage ordinance, but that
people are able to afford housing and all of the needs that they have in order to live in the city.
And that's becoming more and more difficult for people. So I think it's a really great topic. And I
would really appreciate this commission investigating it. I don't think it's going to be realistically
implemented this time. OK. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah.
I was hopeful that maybe we would be able to influence, but if not, maybe we can really put some energy
into a well thought out and really detailed argument for next year. Could we simply write something
that's not a resolution, but a concern from BCOS that about COLA and extending this like council member
Stossberg has mentioned
Because I really didn't understand this until she, once a math teacher, explained how this worked. And
then it clicked in with other knowledge that I had that I, the spirit level is the book with extensive
research on how this affects societies. I think anything, any official statement that we would put out,
it would have to go through a vote, just like a resolution would.
Dave, can I ask really quickly, the cost of living ordinance, is that still at $15 an hour, or has it
gone up since it was originally passed? It's gone up. It has. But I'm sorry, I don't know the wage per
hour. I know for a single adult with no children, living wage is currently around $20 an hour. Is that
about accurate, or do you think it's probably lower than that? I think it's lower in the city. It does
include part-time workers, though.
insist on that a couple of years ago so that everybody was being paid what was evaluated as a living
wage at the time. And there was a metric for it. And I'm sorry, I just don't know that offhand. But
we didn't just pull the number out of the air. There was research involved in that. But it should be
revisited, definitely. OK.
Great. Well, I guess I'll just say, so I'm hearing a sort of general consensus that it might be better
to focus on next year's budgets for some of this stuff. But just when it comes to time-sensitive things
like this, either now or in the future, if you've got something that you think we should all convene
on, let me know. Shoot me an email. Wait till you have something concrete, and then I can send out
a poll to everybody, and if enough people are happy to meet off cycle to do that, then I'll call a special
meeting for that. I think, yeah, it sounds like for this particular topic, it's maybe a long shot to
be able to really influence anything. But. I'd love to make us do another voice vote for basic business,
but can I move that we swap seven and eight in the agenda just
so that we can get through voting. Yes, of course. Because then we can get it before the budget. Yes,
yes. I was thinking the same thing. Sorry, Dave, did you have something else on that topic before I
move on? I saw you come off mute. I saw you come off mute. I saw you come off mute, so I didn't know
if I had cut you off. Oh, I was just going to say that there are a lot of progressive cities, and I'm
sure they've visited this topic of wages. And there's probably some good, you know,
case histories and best practices and things like that that could be used as a reference for what to
do. So that's all. Thanks. Good. Well, thank you very much. There is a motion to proceed to the resolution
2025-02. Next? Is that the proposal? Yeah. OK. Is there a second? Is that second?
OK, there's a second. All right, we'll do the roll call vote. And real quick, before we proceed to that,
I just want to double check. Yeah, so we were talking before about the rules for virtual meetings. And
I think we've only got one person on the line who, well, no, actually we don't.
Oh, yeah, we do. So we've got one person on the line who this would be a third virtual meeting. So that's
Evan. So we'll just, I guess, in the interest of. Yeah, right. OK. OK, so I'll skip over your name for
this, Evan. But apologies for that. OK, great. So this is for the motion to amend the agenda. Tara. Yes. Yes.
Justin, yes. Matt? Yes. Yes. Zero is not here. John? Yes. Yes. Councilmember Borrello? Yes. Yes. Alex?
Yes. Yes. Jamie? Yes. Yes. Annaliese? Yes. Yes. Diana? Yes. Yes. And Shengwei? Yes.
Yes, OK. The yeses have it. So we will now proceed to agenda item 8a, resolution 2025-02 regarding urban
forestry budget. So I'll pass it to you, Tara. Do you want me to put up the supporting materials that
you had sent around? Yeah, just so you could. Most of them are just links so that other commissioners
could access them. But there were a couple of questions that came up last week around the supporting
documentation and supporting research for this.
as well as some suggestions for amendments. So I have a proposed amendment that I'll share at this also.
I pulled up the Bloomington Urban Forestry Plan, which the amendment that I'm going to propose, we had
a few different amendments that it turns out are all covered in what Bloomington's Urban Forestry Plan
says the goal of their Urban Forestry Department is. So my recommendation for an amendment to this is
to say, whereas the city of Bloomington
says this already and just use the text of their documentation, because they address all the things
that we talked about, like human health, equity, healthier neighborhoods, things like that. So it's
already part of city policy that they maintain the urban canopy to those benefits. So to minimize the
number of amendments, but also to point out that this is already
language that the city has adopted, and this is already an area of intended investment from the city.
We've pulled together a couple of additional resources. One is a really interesting case study on municipal
care practices for trees and the impact of basically
insufficiently funding or staffing your urban forestry departments results in more reactive tree care
policies and more incidents of like a limb crushed a car. We have to cut this tree down because it's
so sick. Whereas more funding and staffing and more full-time staffing, less reliance on contract work.
meant more proactive tree care management could take place, including planting beyond replacement planting,
planting full stock and making sure that you can, when a tree dies, replace it, but also put a second
one somewhere else in a vacant spot, and also make sure that the trees are all thriving.
There's also a literature review included in there about the cost of tree maintenance, but also on the
cost of not maintaining the financial costs. Kind of the big takeaway from that literature review is
a lot of the research focuses on this is how much it costs to maintain trees in a municipality. And
there is some research on the sort of opportunity cost or
future cost of lack of tree care, but it's insufficient. And so a lot of municipalities are making their
decisions based on the absolute dollars of what it costs today to what Dave was saying earlier, failing
to consider what are the long-term costs and what are we offsetting that we're going to have to pay
for in a year, in five years, in 20 years. So those are those resources. And then I've also just put
in the figure that we've looked at before.
which is the inflation adjusted budget for urban forestry, which is that red line, which has when we
adjust using the CPI calculator for the approved budget dollars for the urban forestry department, that
that has decreased over the last six years, while the number of trees that the urban forestry department
is responsible for has increased dramatically. So that's just sort of to answer some of those questions
that came up during the first reading.
and also the basis for the amendment that I'm going to make a motion that we add to the resolution as
currently written. And so just a reminder, the resolution is talking about the benefits of the urban
canopy, the decrease in the real dollars funding for this department, the increase in the responsibilities
of the department, the financial and environmental impact or benefit
our canopy, and the importance of tree health in mitigating long-term issues. I have a question. Now
that it seems that tornado alley has moved and we're now in it, with these massive storms, were you
able to find any information of how much cost the city had laid out for some of these
massive storms? For those instances? Yes, because the cost of hiring contractors, like you said, is
going to be a lot more than that. So I wondered if there was a cost comparison of how that has increased,
which would then offset, make it a convincing argument for this amount to be approved. Yeah, I mean,
that's a good question. We're not actually proposing a specific dollar amount so much as we're proposing that they
Effectively, the dollar amount has not changed. And so the city has continued to approve roughly the
same amount, but the sort of value of that. And so we're not proposing a specific dollar amount so much
as higher than now. And also that it should continue to think about, I think we're sort of side long
saying what Dave was saying earlier, which is that you can't
If you cut today, because it's going to save you some money today, you may be paying more later. And
the cost could be much greater. Yeah. The implications could be much worse. So real quick before we
continue the conversation, can I get a motion in a second to adopt this? And then that will bring us
to discussion. Oh, yeah. Amendments can be brought forward, and more discussion can be had.
OK, so there's a motion to adopt. The motion is to adopt the resolution. To adopt a resolution as submitted
here. OK, perfect. So now we're in discussion. Carry on. Just one question I had was, I understand a
lot of times it's the hardest thing to try to keep in place is the older trees, but they provide the
most sort of benefits.
Is there anything that kind of, in the existing sort of practices, are they prioritizing the older trees,
or is that something that should be mentioned in this? Do we know? I think that in this case, in this
resolution, what we're really saying is that this department, in order to make those kinds of decisions,
needs to be adequately resourced. And that whether for that department, that means having more
arborists and foresters on staff, or whether it means full-time crews, or whatever. What that means
in practice, I think, is more the purview of that department. But to your point that, yeah, if you don't
have enough resources, you're going to have to focus on, you're going to have to make decisions that
focus on imminent issues rather than investing in the long-term health of.
Yeah. And I think the other piece of this is that there are other ways that the city may ad hoc support
the canopy. But those are, and this is in that case study, is that those one-time investment don't promote
those long-term practices.
If you get a big grant or something to help you deal with a bunch of problems, that's great. But it
doesn't contribute to your ability to plan and be proactive in the long term, which is true of pretty
much everything. So did you have specific amendment text that you wanted to?
Text is amended. I didn't write it on here. I don't know the best way to present it, but is to say,
is to add, whereas the city's urban forestry plan says, and then use that piece of text that I put in
the earlier part of the packet. Because that addresses kind of all of the areas that we felt that the
commission felt was missing when we talked last week about the why of this. And so that's the.
The city of Bloomington has a legal and moral obligation to maintain healthy and safe trees on municipal
land and public streets. The urban forestry plan is a reasonable and, boy, I should put my glasses on,
responsible plan to make the city and its neighborhoods healthier for humans, aesthetically pleasing,
and reduce tree-related problems, which were the things that the commission talked about last week,
is that it's a health benefit. It's a societal benefit. It's also a safety issue.
Yeah, so that's my, I guess, motion to amend, yeah, is that we add whereas. The Bloomington Urban Forestry
Plan states and then quote that, yeah. States quote that text, okay. God. Okay, that would be the final
whereas? Yes. Okay. Is there a second? Seconded. Okay, perfect. Is there any questions or discussion
about the amendment?
OK, then we'll move on to a vote. So this is just for the amendment to the broader resolution, and we'll
come back to the full resolution as amended. OK, Tara. Yes. Yes. Justin, yes. Matt. Yes. Yes. John.
Yes. Yes. Councilmember Rallo. Yes. Yes. Alex. No, I'm sorry. Quintin. Yes. I'll miss you on the line.
If maybe. I apologize. That was my bad. OK, Alex was a yes, I believe. I heard. Jamie? Yes. Yes. Annalise?
Yes. Yes. Diana? Yes. Yes. Jane? Yes. Yes. OK, perfect. The resolution is amended. And so now we're
back to the discussion on the resolution as amended.
further discussion, and also noting that we're about 15 minutes away from the end of the meeting. Thanks.
Go ahead, Alex. So kind of two-part related question things. First is, in 2018, was there potentially
a large capital purchase that made them more efficient at taking care of the same number of trees with
less funding for anything like that?
It does need to increase over time, but maybe they can do more with less than they could at that time.
And then the other question would be like, is 2018 the sensible year to look back at kind of earmarking
this towards raising it back up to that level from that? Yeah, I don't know the answer to your first
question. I used 2018 because the most recent data, the data that was available
They said there were 12,000 trees, which also is what was used for the forestry plan and stuff,
was from 2019. So it was from sort of that same era. And that was the data that we were looking at for
the, that's when the climate action plan uses. The climate action plan for the city uses 2018 as their
emissions baseline. So I use 2018 as the budgetary baseline as well.
And they have, yeah, so there were 12,000 inventory trees in 2019. As of over the summer, there are
about 24,000 now. So it's doubled in size in terms of the number of trees they're responsible for. Just
one thought. And I don't know. I'm not a tree expert, but I know people
a little bit, but it's my understanding that the most expensive thing you can do with a tree is cut
it down. So I mean, theoretically speaking, could they be working on a lesser budget because they're
not cutting as many down? I'm just trying to think. I wouldn't want to necessarily enable more tree
cutting or that sort of thing. But yeah, it'd be interesting to talk to the people on the tree.
I don't know how that would work. I think I remember you mentioning at some point, Tara, that there
was like one or two people who kind of were. I did communicate a little bit with the urban forester,
not about budget stuff, just about the data. It's one person. It's one guy. It's a guy. It's one person.
And there are crews and stuff that are, some are maybe city employees and some may be contractors. But
it's a person.
And I didn't want to reach out to a city employee and be like, do you want more money for your department?
I didn't want to put them in that kind of position. But I don't know the answer to how they've used
the money. I'm more running off of the math of that it's twice as much physical number of places to get to.
with the same. Just the in-between alone is going to take a lot more time. Yeah. The tracking of the
tree health and all that. I mean, I generally agree. I'm just a devil's advocate trying to think of
it. I appreciate it. And Mark mentioned all of the calorie pairs that the city wants to take care of.
That's a good point. Yeah, there is actually a lot of remove and replace projects going on in the city.
Dave has his hand up, too.
I just wanted to echo what was just said but say that there were some climate related bonds that were
passed in 2022 trails and plantings and so forth and one of them one of the purchases was 300 trees
a year for planting for sequestration of carbon
And yeah, there's this ongoing program. And I spoke to Tim Street during the budget process, who's director
of Parks and Rec, who does the tree replacement. And there are whole neighborhoods filled with calorie
payers. And they're going through sequentially taking them out and replacing them. So this is really,
I think, well needed. It hasn't impacted that particular project yet. But I can see in the future if
cuts continue on that trajectory.
It might affect that program, and it's really important. They're going through neighborhoods to deal
with the municipal calorie press. Because I know there are also private homes, but those are not funded
through that urban forestry department. Those are the ones that are in the right of way. Yeah, OK. Might
that be, not that I know what the other priorities might be, but might that be something we can mention
there is that
We'd also ask that they prioritize expediting the removal of the invasive species or something. Yeah,
maybe a whereas amendment mentioning the cost associated with the removal and replacement of invasive
species. Yeah. Worthwhile to add is another whereas cost. We'll need to go through and vote for that.
I would be much more supportive, I think, of the resolution, thinking about it in that vein, I guess.
But not that I don't support it now, but I think it's a great idea to add that on. Motion to amend?
We got to come up with a text. Oh. No, no, I mean, that's fine. He's right. I'm ready. I would actually
just like it more general. I know they've, for several years now, been going around doing a calorie
repair removal.
I just, it feels a bit like micromanaging. They may have moved on from that and have other projects
coming. They might be looking at more like, you know, climate migration, playing black gum and the like.
It doesn't, to me, feel necessary. It feels like a bit of just telling them not to do their job. I don't
know that it does either. It's just, I was just thinking about it as a way to sort of signify the meaning
behind it. We're aware that they have,
David. Well, just to say, I actually think it's a really good idea. I think that the whereas clause
that says something like removing and replacing invasives such as caliber pairs should continue. Because
we're a point of propagation for these things.
If you go into the county, I mean, they're just spreading them on farms everywhere because they're all
coming from neighborhoods dispersed by birds from Bloomington. So anyway, I just want to put it in my
two cents that I think it's kind of a good idea to continue this program until they're removed. Unless
there's some reason to think they're going to stop the program they've been doing for several years,
it seems to me like just
Wouldn't that be covered under well-being of the community? Yeah. They're aware of the problem with
calorie pairs. They haven't been working to remove them. So us saying, hey, you should remove calorie
pairs. And they're like, yeah, we are. Yeah, we know. Well, I don't think we're saying you should remove
calorie pair. I think the whereas statement is, if you want to continue removing calorie pair, you're
going to need to spend money to do it. Because the therefore is give this department more money. And
so we're saying that the whereas is this ongoing priority of the city
is another reason to do it. It is. It's significant. But I think it's potentially covered under that
that's yet. But it's not specifically mentioned. I wouldn't just say calorie pair, but removal of invasive
plant species. There's a number of invasive plant species in the city besides calorie pair.
But in this case, I mean, maybe it should be prioritized. I'm almost thinking, to your point,
leave it up. They know what they need to do. We can mention it as an example, just to say, this could
be something, but you guys know what you need to do. There's something else that, you know. Can I move?
Can I make a motion for an amendment? Yeah, of course. OK.
Steve has his hand raised again. Go ahead, while I write. Oh, just to say that, I mean, this is not
a slate on people's, you know, the city and their intentions. But when push comes to shove, sometimes
good programs just get starved. And so regarding invasive species, this is a different department than
the planning department.
is supposed to be the one that enforces, you know, the planting codes. These are conditions of approval
for various developments that they were to put in native species, and oftentimes it's not followed up
on. And so what you end up with are developments that then have not only non-natives, but non-native
invasives. And this is an interest of mine, and I talked to MC Rotmeier about this,
This needs attention because it's part of our code and it was condition of approval for those developments
and they need to follow the planning scheme plan. But the problem is that we need people to enforce
it. And so when push comes to shove, you end up with budget cuts and you end up removing somebody whose
job it was to do that. So anyway, this is how it comes about that well-intentioned things might taper
off and get cut.
I wonder if that's making a recommendation about the enforcement of invasive planting as a separate
resolution, if it's a separate department that's invested in it. Especially if it's planting in general,
not tree-specific. So in the interest of time, I'm not going to make a motion, because then we also
have to have a voice vote to lengthen the meeting. Which we'll have to do anyway. But I think to the
point, if somebody else wants to move,
To change the text, that's fine, but I'll pause. Well, maybe I'll give people a moment to think about
that. I'll make a motion to extend the meeting time. I have a hard out at 7.45. OK. So that means we'll
have to end it. OK. We're looking at it here. Oh, OK. All right, so to 7.45 or sooner if we get through
the other two agenda items. Is there a second? Second. OK, perfect. We'll go call the roll. Dara? Yes.
Yes. Justin, yes. Matt? Yes. Yes. John? Fine. If you all want to stay, I need to leave at 730. So I
can vote yes, but then. Sure. I don't want to vote so yes. OK. Coram was impacted, right? Coram should
be fine. Yeah. Councilmember Rallo? Yes. Yes. Quintin? Yes. Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Jamie? Yes. Yes. Annaliese?
Yes. Yes. Diana? Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. OK. We're extended until 7.45 at the latest. All right. So if anyone wants to make a motion
to offer up an amendment, please feel free. Or we could just go to the vote. Hey, Justin, can I just
ask you to clarify? So the idea was that,
a later resolution regarding invasive species would be considered. Is that what you're proposing? Yeah.
I can work on, since I've already started this, some of this research. But if anybody else wants to
do it also, go ahead. I'll jump in and help you with that, because I have experience with that, too.
Wonderful. Excellent. Alex has a question.
Okay, so are you making that motion?
Motion to adopt that language. Second. There's a second. Perfect. OK, any discussion on that?
I like it. Great job, Alex. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to a vote then for the amendment.
So let's, real quick before we do that, let me just ask, where would that whereas clause go? Are we
tacking that one on as the last one or inserting it somewhere else in the middle? I'll just put it,
I think, at the end, yeah.
OK. OK. So this would appear at the end, after the other whereas clause that we added. OK. Perfect.
Let's do the vote. Tara? Yes. Yes. Justin, yes. Matt? Yes. Yes. John? Oh, John just stepped
out. Councilmember Rollins? Yes. Yes. Quentin? Yes. Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Jamie? Yes. Yes. Annaliese?
Yes. Yes. Diana? Yes. Yes. Cheng-Wai? Yes.
Yes, OK, the amendment is adopted. So now we're back on to the resolution itself with the two amendments.
Motion? Do I need to make a motion to move this? I know we already moved. Are you asking to proceed
to the vote? Or is that? Yeah. Oh, right, because we moved to adopt. And then in discussion, we did
the amendment.
So we're back to discussion. Alex has his hand up. Is that still? Do you have something additional?
No. OK. Perfect. All right. I think we can move on to the vote then. I'm not hearing anything further.
Do you need to second? I second. Oh, no. We already did. All right. So this is to adopt the resolution
with the two amendments that we've passed so far. Tara? Yes. Yes. Justin, yes. Matt? Yes.
Yes. John is gone. Council Member Rallo? Yes. Yes. Quintin? Yes. Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Jamie? Yes. Yes.
Annaliese? Yes. Yes. Diana? Yes. Yes. And Shenglai? Yes. Yes. OK. Perfect. Alex, it looks like you put
in the chat the exact words. Oh, the text? OK. The language. Yeah. Good. Perfect. OK.
And I realize I haven't been announcing these votes, but it's 10 yeses, zero nos, and zero abstentions.
So the motion passes, and the resolution is adopted. Who should we send this to? City Council, obviously,
but is there anybody else? Oh, good question. Well, send it to the department. Urban Forestry Department.
Yeah. But probably the mayor's office as well, because they're involved in the budget process. I mean,
council votes, but there can be some.
Reconciliation, I think, after that vote, too. I will make the adjustments, and then I send the final
to you. Yeah, you can send the word doc or whatever to me. Perfect. OK, great. Well, thank you very
much. That brings us back to agenda item seven. So we've got a couple of things here, and it is
currently 733. So first is this idea of sustainability forms. So I'll just pass it to you, Shengwei,
to maybe just explain what you're thinking to the group. Thanks, everyone. I will be quick. Yeah, so
regarding the forms,
Because I said there are still some people from the local people because I talked to some local people.
They still don't know what was the meaning of sustainable things. So I discussed this with Justin before.
I think maybe we can invite some of the people who practice in the subject of sustainability to come
here to share their works. Also, we can do some forum to invite different types of people, like professors,
non-profit people and also the government or the lawyers because I come from a more school floor so
maybe I already talked to some of my friends they agree with me they can come here to share their work
for example the conservation law center the director in Bloomington they are doing some like they provide
some legal aid for some non-profit
Yeah, so I think I can invite them to come here to share that kind of thing. Also, I noticed that whenever
you guys are saying something in your project, there's a need for the volunteers. So I think we need
a platform, especially some public platform, to let the people follow us. Because so far, we don't have
any public platform, like social media or LinkedIn. Because I watched some of the, I attended some conference
before. There's some other,
office of sustainability, they are involved in that conference. They have their social media, like LinkedIn,
so they will post their project. And then, so some people, they are interested in that kind of thing,
they will follow the account. Also, if we post them, or we have needs for the volunteer, people will
fill in the form if they post on their social media. So I think I can start to invite some of my personal
contacts come here to share.
their opinion, maybe the topic will be very interesting to the local people. So there will be more and
more people engaging in our bigger events. And then we create some platform to let the people follow
us. Also post our work, for example, your waste management project, or I use sustainable things. So
I think that's my proposal. So I welcome you guys' comments.
I think there's two things there like you're proposing like a like a speaker series or like some talks
that we would host And then the like our kind of outreach we just for context because I think not everybody
Well, I know not everybody was here about a year ago We had a conversation about social media and like
a social media presence for because specifically And kind of the answer we got from the city was no
We can submit things to be
put on the city's social media if we want. But we would submit them to Sean, and it's sort of at her
discretion if she has capacity to go through the approval process and stuff for them. So I don't think
it's a bad idea, but it's an uphill idea. Because the city also has some very specific guidelines about
posting and stuff like that as the city. But yeah. So you can make a fake because.
This is the not official. It's from me. It's from me. But in terms of a speaker series, I think some
of the things we'd have to work out is like, where are we going to have it? And how do we get the word
out? And what else do we need to know in terms of logistics for hosting an event? And this is a working group.
grant, like we would use working group funds, right? Yeah. I was going to say to you, outside of having
a social media presence, I do think there's a lot of value in coalition building and having community
partners that are invested in the same goals as BCOS, both in informing the members of the group, but
also just generally supporting the work and ensuring that things are being
done at all various levels of city government, both within the city and outside of the city. So I think
that there's a lot of value in having those people on our team and knowing who they are and those things.
So there's some amount of benefit to the commission for that, too, in being connected. That was one
of the priorities that the commission also, in our January meeting that we talked about, was trying
to focus less on doing the work of fixing everything ourselves and more in
partnering and connecting the organizations that are already engaged in this. Ideally, some people are
already doing some of that work. Right. We don't have to reinvent the wheel for everything. There are
people. So I think to that point, there's a lot of organizations that we could partner with and say,
hey, can we host this at your place, at the community orchard, or whatever. I was just going to mention
a couple of thoughts on that. So another avenue, potentially, is
My office, from time to time, will host sort of a career panel. So people at different levels in their
career or different areas within sustainability, if we can get a group that makes sense, that could
be something that we could host at IU. It wouldn't have to be only IU people. It could be open to the
public and everything like that. And I also want to mention sort of alongside of similar vein is sort
of thinking about
I feel like it would be helpful if we could just get a glimpse of all the different departments and
then get a 10-minute presentation. Here's what we're doing in public works and the tree management and
all the different areas. I think that might help us get it. Well, you're asking for an open house. Yes.
If there was a way to do that efficiently, and we could get a little bit better understanding of what
they're doing, where they're pushing, then where they're at.
We might be able to. That would be for our benefit, right? Yeah, for our benefit. It'd be something
different. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I thought about it when you mentioned it. Yeah. So the details
that we would need to work out if this was something that we were going to pursue would be sort of like
how many, where, and then what are the associated costs and the associated labor of getting it done.
Yeah. So if anyone wants to work with them,
on it and reach out. And I think we just need a couple people to kind of like hash out the details and
try to get it going. Awesome. OK. I'm also happy to help with the actual construction of the grant.
I write a lot of grants. Perfect. Well, thank you very much. Food Resilience Strategy. Jamie, we only
have like less than five minutes, I think. So I wonder, I mean, we sent out the document to everybody.
Um, is there anything we could dedicate more time to this for the next meeting to have more of a discussion,
but is there anything you want commissioners to be looking at specifically between now and then that
you want to draw their attention to or grants? Um, we already from pulled from this, uh, that's going
to city council is the chicken ordinance. I know it's not exactly in here, but this was modified. Um,
you know, after speaking, um,
to animal care and control. It'd be great to have some feedback on this, see if there's any, what the
thoughts are. Just kind of wanted to note that, like on NPR this morning, there was also brought up
Trump kind of panning the UN's sustainability goals, and that's some of what's been brought into this.
I think that's something to keep in mind that maybe we
You never know what's going to go on at the federal level and international level. So I've used the
word resilience. So I'm going to put out the word resilience out there just to keep in mind. I also
had just kind of in general wrote a letter to the editor on eight that was published on 829 that I did
research on the beginnings of the Bloomington community farmers market.
I had to go microfish and all of this. I've been looking for this for over a year. This is going to
be somewhat related to this because there is an assumption that residents could sell what was grown
on their own properties. And that was verified by what I found, which was that the mayor at the time,
I believe it was Frank McCloskey, had
And it was during the 1970s. There's oil embargo. Things were in a deep recession. And so it was both
named community market and farmers market at that time. And so for those who didn't read that or have
the paywall for the HT, that's something good to know because I know that's come up with planning. And
those are things that had come through before that we voted on.
Uh, just kind of laying that as a background to kind of keep in mind for the next time we discuss this.
So would it be helpful to send out a, um, kind of like we did for, I forget what it was, but I sent
around sort of like a spreadsheet that people could put comments into. Would that be helpful? And then
people can kind of read it in between now and the next meeting. Cause it is a little bit longer, so
you have to sit down with it for a bit. And, uh,
And then we can bring all those comments to the next meeting and then have a broader discussion. I love
that idea. We do have, if you go to the page 22, grant funds and opportunities to create local resilient
food system. I have a select list. We've already missed one deadline of August 15th, if that was something
we were wanting to do. The next one is October 10th. It's the National Institute of Food.
It's administered by the USDA Community Food Project, and that's for food hubs, education, infrastructure,
and our local. I talked to Bobby Booze at the Farm Stop in Kirkwood. They have tried to apply for that
in the past, and they made again this year. But then the following month in November is a Resilient
Food System Infrastructure Grant.
That's for aggregation, storage, and local processing. So you'll see the ones that I put on here. If
we're looking at the entire document of creating a local resilient food system, each one of those could
be used in some way, whether that's helping to purchase refrigerators or whatnot. There's various things
in the infrastructure that we would need.
So I'll just kind of pull that out there. I know we're one minute to go. Yeah, 30 seconds. So yeah,
I'll send out a comment spreadsheet matrix that people can just fill out and then send to me. And then
I'll collate all of them and bring it to the next meeting. And I will also include that strategy document
into the packet. And I'll send out a revised packet, because I included it in the email, but I didn't
actually put it into this document. So perfect. And that brings us to five seconds left until the end
of the meeting. So thank you, everybody. We stand adjourned at 7.45 PM.