All right. Well, we'll get started. I'll call this meeting of the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability
to order at 6 PM. And we'll go through the roll call. Tara Dunderdale. Here. Here. Justin Vassel.
I'm here. Matt Austin. Present. Present. Zero Rose. Not present. Zach, is it Ammerman or Ammerman? Ammerman.
Ammerman. I'm here. Perfect. Here. Katsima Varela. I'm here. Here. Quentin Gilley.
here. Ross Carlson? Here. Here. Alex York? Not here. Jamie Scholl? Here. Here. Annalise Jenke? Not here.
Diana Agrodowsky? Not here. And Shenghuai Xu? Here. Here. All right. We have eight people, and they're
all in person, so we have a quorum.
Okay, we will move on to the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Motion
to approve. All right, and a second? A correction to the agenda? Not the agenda, sorry. The meeting
minutes. Okay, and we've got Alex and Quinton, Cheyenne and us.
All right, so we have a motion to approve the agenda. Is there a second? Second. There's a second. Okay,
is there any changes to be made to the agenda? All right. Since we have everybody in person, we could
do this by a voice vote. So all those in favor of approving the agenda, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay.
Any abstentions? All right, the agenda is approved. That brings us to the approval of the minutes from
November 18th, 2025.
I could share my screen here to pull those up since we'll have a suggested change.
have it so are there any suggested corrections to the minutes okay yeah so we could we can go through
and correct all those instances any other corrections
There was a misspelling somewhere. There was a couple of words put together. I don't remember exactly
where. The gist of everything still flows fine. Okay. I think any purely grammatical things can probably
get touched up. I guess the only one I have is here in number three with these placeholders here. So
I think that just needs to be replaced with approve the agenda.
The date of the meeting? It was November 18th. Alright, any other corrections to the minutes? Okay,
do I have a motion to approve the minutes as they would be corrected given the changes we just made?
Okay, perfect. All right, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Any abstentions? I will
abstain since I wasn't part of the commission. Okay, fair enough, one abstention. All right, the minutes
are approved as amended, I guess, as corrected, I'll say. Okay, so that brings us to
Public comment. So we've got about 10 minutes set aside for this, up to three minutes per person. Is
there any member of the public either here in the room or on Zoom that would like to comment? We'll
maybe start here in the room. I'm not seeing any motion here. Is there anyone else online? I don't think
so. Nope. All right. Moving right along. That brings us to reports from commissioners. So we'll start
with the chair report.
legible okay try to keep this a little more condensed this time into fewer slides so this is the organization
chart looks a little different than the last time you've seen it first I want to point out the the yellow
items on the list there so those are folks who have their terms ending as of January 31st 2026 so if
If your name is in yellow there and you're still interested in serving on the commission for another
term, then if you haven't done so already, you should go to the onboard site or commission's webpage
and click the apply button and fill out the form there. I've got a link in the slides here that'll send
you there. Does anyone have any questions about that process for the appointment? Okay. And yeah, we've
had a couple of...
of other changes on the on the org chart here. So for farewells we have Nix who is with us since August
2024 until last month and so just want to express my thanks to him for for his time serving
on the commission. He did a lot of work getting the the Cobb bench proposal you know put together and
and getting the ball rolling on that project and that took a lot of vision and a lot of work to get
done and so
I definitely appreciate his contributions to the commission while he was here. And then we have two
new commissioners with us today, Zach Ammerman and Ross Carlson. And usually when we have new folks,
we just ask them to kind of introduce themselves, maybe say something about their interest in sustainability
and any other relevant information you want to provide. So maybe we'll start with you, Zach. Yes, sure.
So I'm Zach Ammerman.
I actually just recently moved back to Bloomington after 10 years away in DC. I am very interested in
sustainable transportation in particular, but not only a lot of other issues as well, wildlife protection,
biodiversity protection, things like that. I'm a graphic designer. I don't know if that's what people
normally say during this. But I'm a graphic designer. I specialize in maps, cartography, and
data visualization. Yeah, I don't know what else to say really. I think that pretty much settles it,
I guess. Perfect. Welcome.
Ross Carlson, I'm the appointee from Monroe County. I work with Monroe County Stormwater. I have a background
with the state, local, and county now levels of government doing water management, water characterization.
So that's my main kind of focus as it relates to sustainability, but also have a lot of background in
organic gardening and food security. So I'd like to bring some of that knowledge.
as well. Excellent. Well, welcome to the commission. We're very glad to have you. And yeah, if you have
questions as you start to learn the ropes and stuff, don't hesitate to send me an email or Sean and
Jolie as well. And the nice thing is we'll be going through our sort of annual priority setting process
here soon, so that'll be a good, it's a good time to get plugged in. Okay, any questions about the org
chart stuff before we move on to general updates?
Okay, first thing is just the meeting schedule for 2026. So I've put all the regular meetings, second
Tuesday of the month on here in bold. I did a quick check to make sure there were no holidays or things
like that that might interfere with them. But if anyone knows of something, let me know. And I've also
put tentative work sessions on here. So we don't do every single work session every month.
It kind of depends, but if we were to do that, this is probably what the schedule would look like with
maybe some minor changes. So just to kind of give everyone a heads up and put it on your calendars.
Yeah. I don't know if everybody knows this, but the city's BCOS website has a calendar that you can
subscribe to so that when the meeting gets noticed, it'll show up on your calendar or it'll show up
on a calendar.
Yeah, it's like a Google Calendar kind of thing, right? Yeah, that's a good point. And then similarly,
if we have a work session, those have to also be noticed. So basically, as soon as Justin puts the notice
in for anything where there's a risk of a quorum, that'll then automatically show up on your calendar.
It's very handy. I should probably do that, too, because I do it by hand. It hasn't failed yet,
but someday. Yeah, no, thank you. That's helpful.
And at the end of this report slide deck, I have some useful hyperlinks and stuff like that. And one
of them will send you to the commission website where you can find that. Okay, so I tried to take all
the news and updates from within the commission and beyond and
slammed it all into one single slide, instead of doing it over several. So we'll see how this goes.
If you hate the format, let me know. But I've sort of split it up into a couple of different buckets
here. So just ongoing recent stuff within the commission here. So BCOS resolution 2025-04 is the one
that we adopted at our last meeting. This is proposing the name change. So we transmitted this to Council
President Stosberg, I think on November 25th.
And I think I meant to put that in the, did I put that in the packet? Well it says C packet there and
if it's not in there I will put it in. But it is on onboard. So we're kind of following the thread on
that. The suggestion so far has been that the formal ordinance will need to be prepared by staff or
somebody from council. We provided sort of the draft or template version or something like that but
The suggestion so far was that that could go to the Committee on Council Processes, who I think is going
to be overseeing a Title II overhaul later this year anyway. So this might be a good opportunity to
bundle this in with other changes that are being made to that part of the municipal code. So we'll continue
to track that as it goes when there's updates. I'll bring it back to everybody.
The other resolution that we might want to follow along with that we passed earlier this year is 2025-01,
which is the poultry flock sizing resolution. If this is something that we do want to actually see going
to ordinance at some point, we'll probably want to just follow up on that and figure out what we need
to do to transform that idea into ordinance on the back end.
Try to push it forward. Yeah. A comment on that. That may need to be like the name change also because
it has to do with lot sizes. I believe if I'm recalling correctly when I talked to Council President
Stossberg, she mentioned that at that time. So that will be something we'll need to think about in that
way. Writing some draft ordinance language for them. I believe so. Yeah. Yeah.
We could certainly do that, because I know there's some language in the UDO that I think would need
to be changed. And then there's another title, Title VII, or something that has also some information
there. So I think it's two places. OK, good. Bloomington Energy Works is something that Sean had just
announced via email recently. So this is something that we had agreed to support if we got selected.
This is that project, right?
You know, so, I mean, Sean had a lot of details in the email, and there's the website there. These are
hyperlinks. You can click that and go to the website and read more. But really, it's a program that,
you know, for owners of large commercial nonprofits or academic buildings, they can get free energy
audits. And, you know, if there's enough interest, then access to low capital, but low cost capital
for any upgrades. So there's a,
Yeah. Another portion of that project is an education program for residents. Right. So they'll be doing
a door-to-door campaign and giving group presentations. So it's for the whole community. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, so please share with your networks far and wide. Try to get the word out. Do we have to meet a
certain threshold by a certain date to move forward in the program, or is it?
I'll talk more about this through my camp implementation. I'll go through the website a little bit.
Oh, perfect. OK, awesome. Cool. Anyway, there is a kickoff webinar tomorrow. So if you're interested
in learning more, there's an RSVP link. And I'm planning to check it out. OK, the local food resilience
strategy that Jamie's been championing this year just
No new updates on that since the last time we met, but just to say that this is something we'll probably
keep working through and refining as we move into 2026. Sustainable neighborhood grant project reports.
So we don't have new sustainable neighborhood grants coming our way anymore, but we still approved a
couple right at the end of 2020.
2024, yeah, to be implemented throughout this year. And so the Grandview Hills Pollinator Gardens, they've
completed their work and they've got a report ready. And I think it would be good to have somebody,
if they're willing, come in and give a presentation to us maybe next month. And then TerraCycle 2.0
should be wrapping up sometime soon, because I think we approved that last December. So if they're all
finished with that and have the report ready to go, then maybe the following month of February we can
have them.
Do you want, do I reach out to the, I mean, like I can reach out to the Grandview Hills folks, or is
that gonna come from ESD to get them on the, on the agenda? Does it matter? I think either of us could
reach out to them, yeah. If you've already got, you already know them. I mean, yes. I can walk to her
house. Feel free to reach out, yeah. Good.
Okay sustainability assessment reports this is something we haven't talked about in a little bit. I
just wanted to mention it here So so the original idea that we had for the report that the scope of
that has kind of shifted as You know the ad hoc committee that we set up started working through it
that ad hoc committee I think consisted of you and That's right. Yeah, and Andrew and Evan right and
so it's a one-person ad hoc committee now so
It might make sense to just dissolve that committee since the scope has changed so much and the membership
has changed and then just, you know, the report that we're sort of eyeing now is maybe a little bit
more of a meta report about, you know, what sort of data is out there and how do we actually go about
assessing some of these things. Yeah, maybe like in an early work session or priority session we can
redefine the scope or what we want to do with it.
Yeah, exactly. But yeah, since we, I think we had a vote to form that, probably if we decided to go
that route next month, we'll have a vote to formally dissolve it and see what comes next. Sustainability
forums, we've had one so far and it was a good success, I think. And so I understand more are on the
way. So stay tuned for more on that in 2026.
And then I also wanted to note that the public library has had some hours changes. So they're only open
until 7, I think, on Tuesday. Is that right? Yeah. Any day they were normally open until 9, they're
now only open until 7. Yeah. OK. Gotcha. So when we do work sessions, they're usually there at the library
from the same time we meet now, Tuesday, 6 to 7.30. So we may need to find a new location for that or
potentially shift the times.
to better accommodate that. Yeah, and you can't reserve a room more than past 15 minutes prior to closing
time. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. So it would be, yeah. I don't think that they're going to, we don't
have cleanup that they're not necessarily going to throw us out of a room. But technically, we would
only be able to have the room until 645. Right. Yeah. OK.
Okay, so some upcoming things that are sort of on our list here. The priority planning process, we'll
talk about this a little bit more, but it'd be good to do that next month in January sometime. We'll
talk a little bit more about scheduling. We will have officer elections coming up, so that's every year
in March. So nothing more on that right now, but I think maybe at the next meeting we'll talk a little
bit about the format of that and get people really acquainted with the process as we get closer to that.
B cost commissioner handbook. I've mentioned this before, but it's been a little while. But every time
we get a new member on the commission, I'm like, dang, I wish I would have finished that by now. So
I'm really going to push myself to get a draft out in front of everybody in February so we can try to
get that locked down. And environmental commission has something similar, and they've done a really
good job with that. So that's kind of a nice template to follow.
Another thing that's kind of been on the back burner for a little bit is bylaws reform. Probably another
good thing to pull onto a front burner. So I'm thinking maybe first half of 2026. Again, we'll go through
the planning process for next year, and maybe that'll kind of shift. This is just how I'm kind of thinking
about it in my head now. Don't want to be too ambitious, but it's also good to be a little ambitious.
Okay so resolution 2026-01 which is not an official thing that's been drafted or sent out yet but we
had talked about a little bit the last working session when we were talking about some of the efforts
that the mayor's office and city council was doing to try to support local food banks in the face of
the lapse in funding for SNAP benefits during the government shutdown and so I know in some of the packet
materials city council had had some
I think they presented some of that at one of their meetings. And then, you know, the city also, I think,
donated $46,000, I think, to support that. And so I thought this would be a good opportunity, speaking
about resilience and general community sustainability, to applaud some of those efforts, you know, for
thinking fast and helping people out when it mattered.
I'll put something together on that and then bring it for next meeting, hopefully for a first reading
and then we can go through it more in February for a second reading. Sustainable energy utility feasibility
study. So this is the capstone project that we sort of commissioned from students at the O'Neill School.
So I think we're still targeting spring
this coming semester, spring 2026. I mean, we're locked in there. Oh, we're locked in, yeah. Because,
of course, professors are teaching it and have a time slot. Perfect. If we back out now, it would look
really bad. Oh, yeah. Definitely not suggesting that, no. Yeah, just to keep it on folks' radar and
let you know that that's moving forward. Yeah, so I guess this will be the last meeting before that
class actually starts. So if anybody has additional feedback about
what good research questions would be, and new people have no idea what I'm talking about, but that's
fine. Oh, okay, great. Oh, excellent. But yeah, feedback on what, like, good research questions or research
angles, what things would be useful for the city to know. Any feedback is appreciated. Very good.
Okay so moving looking outside of the commission around the city here a couple things caught my eye
the first is a report that came out of the mayor's office called homelessness response and housing investment
so I've got a hyperlink there encourage folks to take a look at it one of our priorities from for 2025
was looking at you know housing issues affordability and accessibility and that sort of thing so I think
this is a good
Good opportunity to see where the mayor's thinking is on that and maybe look for, as we move forward
in 2026, opportunities to work collaboratively on some of those issues. And then I was just mentioning
a minute ago, council had considered a letter that encouraged a sustained Bloomington food resilience
effort. It was back on their November 5th meeting.
I don't know if that wasn't like a, was that an individual council member kind of signs off on that?
Or I just saw it in the packet, so I don't know if it was like an official thing. But it was there in
the packet and it was expressing a desire for kind of a sustained effort at food resilience. So we've
talked a lot about that. I think another good opportunity to look for opportunities to collaborate with
council on some of these issues that we care about.
And I've got a space here for things that we're tracking, things that I'm not tracking that well right
now, but aspire to. And maybe there's some other things we want to add to this list, so let me know.
But a couple things come to mind right away. Number one is the budget process. So I think for 2026,
it would be good to track this right from the beginning, kind of what the timelines are for this. And
if we have inputs that we want to provide, being able to get ahead of that,
get those in early will be important. So we'll keep an eye on that as the year progresses. I know tomorrow
council has a deliberative session to discuss some of their outcome-based budgeting stuff and some basic
priorities. But I think a lot of the process starts in maybe August or something like that, late summer,
the real fast moving stuff.
Um, 2026 UDO revision process. I don't really know what that process looks like, but we probably should,
especially if we've got a resolution that would advocate making some amendments to the UDO. Um, I think
that's something we, we could have some better visibility on and understanding of. Um, so something
to keep track of. Um, and then there's two major development projects sort of in the works right now.
There's the Hopewell development, um, and then the summit district. Um, so those are things we'll want
to follow as they progress.
So that was a lot. And going forward, and unless this is really not helpful, I'll plan to kind of keep
this up and updated just so everybody gets kind of a bird's eye view of the things that we kind of have
going on, even if they're kind of waiting for them to progress. So any questions on that? Or comments?
I can make a few comments. Yeah, please. On Hopewell, I don't think we've made any suggestions
comments to the administration or to council regarding any kind of talking about food resilience that
there may possibly be an opening for some kind of design discussion in regards to that. When jumping
down to the summit district, the summit district based upon food policy council's report from some years
ago on that organization, it was
placed in what at that time was considered a food desert that wasn't addressed during the time when
all of this was assessed by council and therefore it was one of those things in regards to resilience
that was not included in in approval for the developer
So that was approved, and then I came onto this commission the following week. So there was nothing
that I could do except for public comment at the time. So just kind of giving some background information
on folks here and the new folks that may be interested in those items. Very good. Thank you. Any other
questions, comments?
Okay, great. I'll move on to my last substantive slide from this deck. It is December, this is our last
meeting of the year, so I wanted to do a quick sort of recap on some of the things that we've accomplished
this year. And it's a pretty long list, that's great.
So just want to thank everybody for a great year. I've listed out some of the successes that we've had
here. And if I've missed anything, please let me know and I will update these slides. But we passed
four resolutions, which is more than we did last year, which was one resolution. But that was more than
we did the year before, which is zero. So we are on a good trajectory here. So we did the scalable poultry
size model, advocating for increasing allocation for urban
forestry in the 2026 city budget, recommending clear definitions for urban agriculture and associated
business structures, and changing the name of our commission to Bloomington Commission on Sustainability
and Resilience. So some of those we're still tracking through into 2026, but this has been a great success.
So keep them coming and I'm looking forward to seeing what we do in 2026 on that front.
Thank you for your leadership and being able to get these things organized so that those items could
be on there. I don't think myself or Tara, who were leading some of these, would have been able to do
that without your leadership. So formal thank you for that. Well, I very much appreciate that. But I
don't think I wrote any of those resolutions.
It's on all y'all. Oh, yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. We had a public event. We had a table at Earth
Day this year. So that's great. We'll look forward to doing that again next year and probably with some
fancier signage. So that's another thing that I consider a success this year was figuring out a pathway
to getting better signage. We hosted the first sustainability forum.
drafted a local food resilience strategy that we continue to enhance. And we've already, some of these
resolutions came out of that. So we've already checked off some of those boxes. We made progress on
the first sustainability assessment report since 2017. So that's been a little while. It's shifted a
little bit like we talked about, but still it's been really good progress.
of course the capstone project is really exciting we're getting that ball rolling and of course the
commission turned 20 years old this year either in may actually maybe it was march or october depending
on how you count so the earlier the earlier month is when the ordinance went into effect and then october
was when the first meeting occurred
I also wanted to throw in a couple honorable mentions here, things that didn't quite get to the finish
line, but were still a really good effort from everybody and that I think were solid ideas that we could
see revived in the future at some point, hopefully. So the Cobbench project is one that was a really
exciting installation-based project. There's a lot of work that went into sort of planning that out.
And then, of course, we didn't quite get there before the construction actually began. But I think we
still learned a lot from going through that process, getting that grant proposal approved, and figuring
out how to dig out some dirt and install a bench. So those are all lessons that we can take with us
into the next year. The Pekashi Festival pilot idea was a really solid one.
Obviously we don't have earth keepers anymore. The ability for people to compost without having a yard
and the expertise for them to do it in, you know, still remains a problem. So the Bokashi concept is
still a really exciting idea. Matching it up with festivals is a really great idea. So hopefully there's
ways we can still continue to promote some of these things going forward. And then the downtown pollinator
garden, if you recall a little bit earlier in the
In the year we had a presentation from somebody who was looking at working with a sort of a local landscaper
to turn a little corner of downtown into a nice pollinator garden with a bench. So we hope to see more
ideas like this in the future.
So I just want to thank everybody here on the commission. And also a big thank you to the staff who
provides a lot of essential support for us. So Sean, Jolie, Jane, Audrey, Margie, Julius, these are
all folks who have come to speak to the commission this year. So a big thanks to everybody here.
All right. And then that brings me to my
my perennial resources slide here. So you can find this in the packet. There's links to stuff like the
home page I mentioned before. And that'll do it for the end of my report. So one final call for questions
before we move on to the next agenda item. All right. And that brings us to our next item, which let's
see, we've got
Okay, continuing with reports from commissioners, Waste Management Working Group. Matt? Real quick,
this week, not much of a report, just the CAC and Citizens Advisory Committee with the Waste Reduction
District is losing their chair, Joe Winia, he also chaired BCAUSE, he's moving back to Michigan,
great guy, real loss for the city, unfortunately. But the CAC needs membership, so if you're interested
in waste diversion issues, we would love to have you apply and join. That's it.
Can people reach out to you if they're interested? Yes, please reach out to me or you can go to the
waste reduction website and they have an application on there. Awesome. Thank you. Okay, Council Ex
officio. Well, a couple things. Justin, you mentioned that tomorrow night is a work session. Well, actually
a deliberation session after work session. Work session starts at five to six thirty.
And it will be with the RDC, which is the Redevelopment Commission. Among the activities of the Redevelopment
Commission is to essentially overseeing properties that the city owns to redevelop. And the property
in question that we'll be discussing tomorrow is the Bunga Robertson site, which is just north of the
existing convention center. And whether the RDC will donate it to the hotelier that the
capital improvement board, which has been doing the work on developing the expansion of the convention
center, whether that donation will proceed. It's a $7 million property. The council opposes it. At least
eight of nine of us oppose it. We had a letter to the effects in May of 2024 because we believe that
the funding should be exclusively the food and beverage tax. That was the intention of it.
of accumulating funds in that. And, you know, I have sympathy to the CIB. They have apparently $22 million
that are so differential in terms of their negotiation with the hotelier, Dora. But this is, the property
was bought with TIF funds. We should sell it to the hotelier or a hotelier of some kind or other. TIF
funds should be used in other ways
for infrastructure to redevelop the city. And frankly, I'm concerned about the equitable distribution
of TIF funds around the city and whether or not it's being concentrated to localized in certain areas
as opposed to in sacrificing other areas. So we wrote a letter on May 8th, I think of 2024, eight of
nine assigned it to oppose this. And so we're going to talk to the RDC about whether they're going to
go ahead with it.
And then we go into deliberation session, which Justin mentioned, which is the topic is outcome-based
budgeting, which is essentially looking to specific measurable results, specifically in the various
plans that you put up, policy documents, like the climate action plan, the comprehensive plan. And so
we'll be discussing that, the outcomes and city plans, and prioritizing outcomes.
And that's at 630 tomorrow. You're welcome to attend, either or both. When is the redevelopment commission
set to make a decision? Sorry. Well, is it their final decision, or is it subject to council approval?
Interestingly enough, they can make decisions of $5 million or less. And this is brought to them in
two parts.
of less than $5 million, so it will not come to the council. OK. Just a coincidence. Yes, it just happens
to be that way. But yes, if it's $5 million more, it goes to the council for our sake. So it's been
parceled into two less than $5 million parcels totaling $7 million? That's my understanding. Effectively?
Yeah, yeah. And it will be decided at their next meeting, presumably.
set to decide their last meeting, and they postponed it to their next one. So. What information might
they need to help make a decision? Well, I think that the convention center expansion has been pretty
controversial. Does it serve the community at large? Do we have priorities as a city? We have a lot
of issues regarding housing, homeless,
people. We have obviously transportation issues. We have other infrastructure to worry about. And the
fear has been all along that the convention center expansion could take on a life of its own and become
a sink instead of something that would be, you know. So from my point of view, I've wanted a more modest
sized convention center and one that is appropriate for the community. We definitely lose during off season
times, events and things like that that would help downtown businesses. So I supported it, but I think
that it's the prioritization of whether the RDC should surrender a property for Otellier to seal this
deal, as opposed to that property getting some share of market value for the city. I think that's the
crux of the matter. So if you have an opinion of that,
It really goes to the prioritization of what the city should be funding. Ultimately, yeah. Is there
any precedent for like doing something in this vein that could become like a income stream to support
one of these similar goals or that the funding would typically be for? Well, the income stream was meant
to be the food and beverage tanks, so there is.
There's another tax that supports, remember, it's a hotel tax. It actually applies to the Airbnbs, too.
I can't remember the name of it now. Innkeepers tax that basically supports the maintenance of the existing
convention center and then the expansion. But this requires a lot of capital investment to build this
new structure. And we have many multiple hearings on this.
A lot of downtown merchants and bars and restaurants came forward and said, we're willing to assume
a 1% tax to build up funds for this purpose. Because the seasonable fluctuations in activity and income
is very severe for them. Summer months are pretty, and especially for their employees too. So I feel
for service employees, a lot of them get laid off during summer months because there just isn't enough
income coming in. And so this would sort of bridge the gap. So it kind of made sense to do that. But
the food and beverage tax was explicitly the fund for that. So that's the money that's coming in on
a continual basis to do this and building up an account for that. Yep. Has the city ever given away
an amount of approximately $7 million as an incentive previously?
question to a private business to a private business and then what would be the since it's not locally
owned we're not going to have that local circular economy here and the jobs will not be high paying
jobs so I kind of have a problem with that Sean do you know if any history I'm sure there have been
I mean one a long time ago was that the city was left responsible for the
destruction, the rehabilitation of the Thompson site, which should have been basically internalized
to the company. And we assume that. And so yeah, those externalizations of costs are problematic to
me. Because we're actually facing a time now, because of the state government, of pretty lean years
coming forward.
facing austerity. I think that we need to be very judicious about where we spend money. And I don't
favor this. That's a really good question. I should look into the history of that. It's probably occurring.
If we're setting a precedent as a city to do this, then that may be an expectation of other businesses
and not just giving different types of
write-offs like green roofs or something like that. Yeah. And this is to a hotel, too. It's not like
it's too, which has been a set of sums to the community, but it's not like it's to like a food bank
or to a... Or even a locally owned business. Yeah, the for-profit large company. It's not housed in
Bloomington. So during 2008, we had this economic crisis, I think, where I've been anticipating something
like this from what I've been seeing. And I think during that time period, Bloomington was
quite resilient in comparison to other local, you know, other communities nearby. And I also traveled
to Europe and saw how in rural England, anything outside of London was really kind of hollowed out except
for Totness, which had the Totness Pound as a local currency they created. And that was the only vibrant
location that I saw outside of London. Paris was fine, but you saw the other areas that were rural were
being hollowed out, and my friend I was staying with said, well, France is up for sale, and it was being
sold to other people from other countries. So having that as background information, I wonder how
what kind of precedent this is setting, how are we going to reinforce our own local economy, especially
if we're going to lose SNAP benefits that we get federal dollars in different ways that support the
local economy. So I'm thinking about it in possibly in a slightly different way than others have conceived.
Is it beneficial to council for there to be people present, like members of the public present at the
Because the deliberation session doesn't have a public comment period or anything, right? Well, the
deliberation session will. This working group. Sorry, the working session. I'm not sure about that.
That's a good question. Well, just people in attendance would be all good.
There's a communication impact of just seeing that people are paying attention to what the city is doing.
Yeah, exactly. But making eye contact. Give them the stink eye to whatever. Thumbs up. But if it's a
good outcome. And the other thing I've mentioned is that I think this puts
It elevates one hotel versus others, so it gives an unfair competitive advantage, I think, to one hotel
here, as opposed to the ones that are already operating downtown. I don't know what their finances look
like, but I'm sure it's seasonal, and I'm sure they struggle at times. And why would we elevate this
one that's just coming in, as opposed to the ones that are already established here? So that's at least
my opinion, giving my opinion here.
Thank you very much all right okay so that brings us to discussions and topics not the subject of resolutions
so the climate action plan implementation update from Sean and let's see oh you've got it all sure great
yeah thank you
This update is everything that we've done since our previous city council presentation in July of 2024.
Thank you, Jolie. So I'll just go through all the slides, and if you have questions, I'll answer them
at the end. Okay, so here's our climate action plan. It's on our website. You can take a look at it.
We don't have a whole lot of time, so I'll just kind of breeze through these. The first section is renewable
energy. We have specific goals for renewable energy.
Our total production from our sites is 22.7 gigawatts. There is a website here that you can see. This
was from our vendor who installed all of our sites back in 2017 and 2018 ESG. This kiosk doesn't have
all of our sites, but the majority of them, because we've installed additional sites since then. Is
it total energy production since they were installed? Yes.
On, sorry, on city property? Yes, all of our municipal sites. And so we've been working with VeriG for
the past three years. They're our solar O&M vendor. They monitor production on an online dashboard called
Power Track. They submit quotes to me to replace any broken panels, inverters, optimizers, and fix any
wiring issues that may come up. So they're monitoring those, making sure that they're producing every day.
One of our largest grant programs is our solar energy efficiency and lighting program or SEAL program.
We provide grants to small businesses and nonprofits. We provide up to $25,000 for solar systems and
we provide $20,000 for battery energy storage systems and that is only for nonprofits that provide essential
services. We issued an RFP this year and we contracted with Solar Energy Solutions for our installations.
Since August of 2024, we have completed 11 solar installations at these locations. You have these slides
so you can read through these. We approved an additional six installations that will be completed in
early 2026. This includes Mother Hubbard's Cupboard. They're going to be receiving our first battery
energy storage systems. We feel like this is a really important project for our community because they
do provide essential services.
If they have a power outage, the food in their freezers and refrigerators will still be able to be viable.
Low-income housing solar grants, we've been supporting solar installations at Bloomington Housing Authority
for several years. In 2024, they were able to install solar in six buildings at Crestmont. In 2025,
we have a draft grant agreement where they will be installing additional solar on their new Early Learning
Center and additional buildings at Crestmont.
So these will be completed in early 2026. So the next section is energy efficiency. And so we have goals
to increase energy efficiency in the built environment. We've been working with Donovan Energy for the
past year and a half. In 2025, they completed an energy assessment report where they looked at 32 municipal
buildings. They determined the energy utilization index, energy use index for each of those buildings
across our municipal portfolio.
And that allowed us to see which buildings are the most energy inefficient and to target for energy
conservation measures. And so because of that initial report, we worked with Parks and Rec and Public
Works to identify nine buildings to move forward with level two ASHRAE energy audits. And those were
completed at those nine buildings. And so because of those reports, we have completed all the ones with
the green check marks. Those are the projects that we've completed so far.
the additional projects, we will be continuing to work with departments to get those projects implemented.
And so this year, we've completed LED upgrades at Allison Jukebox and Switchyard Park Maintenance Building,
and we hired Cassidy Electric to complete upgrades at these five additional buildings, and those will
be completed soon. The US Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant
called EECBG. We submitted a project with Donovan Energy's help to identify the City Hall LED lighting
project for that voucher, and we were selected for a $141,000 rebate. I've worked with our controller's
office, and we have submitted for that reimbursement, so we're waiting to hear back on that.
And then Donovan Energy also has submitted a rebate application to Duke Energy. We'll be getting back
$33,000 for that project as well. And so it's estimated that the city is going to be saving 67% on annual
lighting costs because of that project. To give an update on our Indiana Office of Energy Development,
Empowering Energy Partnerships in Indiana Communities, EPIC grant, we have been selected for a $508,000 grant.
I required a minimum 20% match. We've added a little bit more to that project in order to make it feasible.
We'll be upgrading the HVAC system, installing a solar system and a battery energy storage system. We
have completed our DNR Historic Preservation Department approval process and we completed structural
engineering verification of the roof as required by the Bloomington Fire Department. So we're in our
schematic design phase right now.
We also, because this is federal funding that's coming down from the department of, I know this is from
EPA, we have to make sure that we're in compliance with Buy America, Build America, so BABA compliance.
And so it's very difficult to find manufacturers that are compliant. And so we will most likely have
to submit a waiver to EPA for approval and that will take some time. So we are hoping that the project
will be completed by the end of October.
So another part of our solar energy efficiency and lighting program is the energy efficiency and lighting.
We provide $10,000 grants to nonprofits and small businesses. They can receive a free energy audit and
a grant for these types of energy projects. In 2025, we added cool roofs, which has to be certified
cool roof materials by the Cool Roof Rating Council.
Whenever you install a cool roof, it lowers your air conditioning costs because it reflects more sunlight,
and so it doesn't absorb as much energy. And so this year, our first project was at Wonder Lab. So IFF
is our project partner. And since August of 2024, we've completed eight energy audits and eight upgrades
at these locations. We have approved three additional projects to be completed at these three locations
in early 2026.
So to date, we have provided over a million dollars in seal grants. ITS helped us create a seal grants
map. There's a link there. You can see it. It's on our City of Bloomington Geo Hub website. You can
see where all of the projects have been implemented. Our Bloomington Green Home Improvement Program,
this program's been around for a while. We completely revised it this year because previously you were
required to take out a loan with a specific bank.
for a solar installation only, and you would only get $1,000 rebate. And so that program really wasn't
as effective. And so we revised this program. We no longer require a loan with a specific bank. And
our rebates cover 25% of the installation for the general population and up to 40% for low-income residents,
up to maximum amounts depending on the project type. And so you can combine
our rebate with utility rebates and federal tax credits while they're available. The equipment is required
to be ENERGY STAR certified or equivalent to energy efficiency standard. And in 2025, we approved 35
rebates and these are the projects. I really want to thank Jolie for all of her hard work in this program.
She administers not only the SEAL program, but also the BGHIP program. And so very thankful for her
hard work this year.
And so like Justin said, we have launched our Bloomington Energy Works program. We were selected by
the Coalition for Green Capital in Ickley, USA for a $250,000 grant. This is a market building grant.
It's to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy across the city. Our goal is to bring low-cost
capital to Bloomington for project implementation. And our program partner is the Indiana Energy Independence Fund.
This is potential funding. We are competing with 48 other cities across the US. This is our chance to
raise our hand and say that Bloomington is ready for investments. And so we are required to submit,
actually this has been updated, we're required to submit a clean energy public-private partnership plan
to the CTC and ICLEI actually by April 15th. They gave us another month because of the delay in getting
our grant agreement signed. And so
We're going to offer free energy audits for any commercial manufacturing, nonprofit, building owner,
academic institution, any type of large building owner. We're going to provide free energy audits to
develop a list of energy efficiency and solar projects in need of funding worth a minimum of $50 million.
And so instead of just one Z, two Z projects here and there, if we can combine all of our projects across
our city, we're more likely to bring low cost capital to Bloomington.
And so, like I said, part of this is also, we've hired Electrify Indiana to develop a volunteer community
engagement program. It's going to have a door-to-door campaign and group presentation, and their program
is very ambitious. They're hoping to knock on 7,000 doors between now and May 1st.
And also, I can't remember the exact number of group presentations, but a high number of group presentations.
So they're really needing a lot of help and looking for volunteers. If you go to bloomingtonenergyworks.com,
you'll see all of the information, how to sign up to volunteer, how to apply for a free energy audit.
And we're having our first webinar actually tomorrow at noon. So if you can help spread the word, help
to get people there, we would really appreciate it.
Okay, and the next section is climate resilience. And so really trying to make our city as resilient
as possible to climate change and all the way that it impacts our city, it impacts our health, our safety,
our infrastructure. And so there's goals in our climate action plan for that. And so what we're doing
to increase resilience is we're planting trees. This year we've already planted trees in VHA Cresmont.
Next year, we'll be planting trees in VHA Walnut Woods neighborhood with the assistance of
Canopy Bloomington. I've been working with Haskell Smith, who is the urban forester in Parks and Rec.
We have developed a tree assistance program. ESD has provided $50,000 for this grant program. And it's
to fund the removal of hazardous trees and limbs from low to moderate income homeowners.
And after looking at the pictures that were submitted for these grants, there are so many people in
our community who have trees that are just hanging right over their houses. So this program is really
beneficial to those homeowners. And then bus stop shelter installations, ESD will be installing six
bus stop shelters hopefully by the end of January, depending on the weather. Those bus stops shelters
have solar lights in them to increase safety.
as well as some art to make them beautiful. Yeah. Just a quick question about the tree assistance program.
Have you guys designated who the company is that's gonna take those down, or is that up to the homeowner?
No, Haskell issued an RFP, and I think the bids were due, they're due December 19th. Okay, thank you.
Yeah. Those need to be admitted? Oh, thank you. And then Stay Cool Bloomington ESD provided funding
for this program again this year. And in 2025, we paid for over 15,000 free admissions to our city pools
during extreme heat days. We also have our AC distribution program. We received 28 applications. We
only approved eight installations. And the reason for that is a lot of the applications were from people
who live in apartment complexes. And so we worked with our housing and neighborhood development
department to reach out to those apartment owners and have them fix the AC units themselves. And so
that's been a successful program. Also, I want to say that I felt really bad for people who lived in
unannexed areas in Bloomington. I was not able to provide funding for them because they're not paying
city taxes and belong to the city. So I felt really bad turning them away, as well as people living
in the county.
I had a phone call from a gentleman who was a veteran who said his AC unit went out and he didn't have
funding to fix it. So my heart really just went out to him and there wasn't much that I could do. So
Seco Bloomington Cool Kits, we distributed over 400 this year. We created cool kits that have, it's
a water bottle with sunscreen, electrolyte packet, and also a resource guide.
In the resource guide, it's really informative about where our city pools are located, where our public
drinking water fountains are located, hours of operation, cooling centers that they can go to, which
so far has been designated as the public libraries, and also what are signs and symptoms of a heat-related
illness, and how to treat it, and how to get help in all the programs that we have. But isn't there
only one virtual library in city limits? Well, if someone lives by the library,
But that's the only cooling center in the city is the library, the downtown branch. So far, that's what's
been designated. I should say that the Busker-Chomey Theater, that is also being developed as a climate
resilience hub. Whenever there's a power outage, because we have the battery energy storage system,
the theater will be opened and we'll have free movie screenings.
And that's especially important during extreme heat days. People can go there for free and watch movies
in extreme cold days. So it's turning into a climate resilience hub. We'll also have four climate talks
once everything is completed. And I'll let you know about that. But that is serving as a resilience hub.
And I wanted to give everybody an update on Project 46, our Southern Indiana Regional Climate Alliance.
We have a new website. I highly encourage everyone to go to that. It's the climate alliance between
the cities of Bloomington, Nashville, and Columbus. In July of 2025, the steering committee, which is
made up of the two mayors and the town manager, they approved the bylaws and organizational structure.
In September, they officially approved advisory committee memberships for Cummins Electron Chargers,
Sierra Club Wind and Waters Group, and IU Environmental Resilience Institute. And at the last meeting
last week, they also approved Gnarly Trees Sustainability Institute as an advisory committee member.
They also elected myself as the chair. I'll be serving as chair for the next two years. And Sandy Jones,
the town manager of Nashville, is the vice chair.
We're also really excited about a grant that we're applying for. We have partnered with Purdue and IU.
We're applying for a Capital One Foundation grant. It's Scaling Pathways to Home Ownership. And our
idea is to work towards building factory-built, energy-efficient homes and also looking at a permitting
process for those factory-built homes and try to reduce the time for those and reduce costs.
It not only helps to reduce costs for homes, but also they're energy efficient and reduce our carbon
footprint. So I'll keep you updated on that. So some food security grants. So we've been providing funding
to Hoosier Hills Food Bank and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard to support the garden programs and to distribute
locally grown food. Waste management grant. We've been working with Waste Reduction District of Monroe
County for the last
since 2023 to support One Sustainable Joe who is unfortunately leaving Bloomington. They created, One
Sustainable Joe created and managed really beautiful multi-family housing compost projects and so we're
really hoping that someone will pick up that project and continue. And then community engagement is
our last section.
We have our Zero in Bloomington online platform. It's where you can go and learn about all the different
types of sustainability actions that you can take and that you can track your own actions. Since August
of 2024, we've got 266 new users and they have tracked 543 sustainable actions. Spring into sustainability.
10 groups competed to complete the most climate-friendly lifestyle choices and actions, and we announced
the winners at our Earth Day celebration. And then our sustainability spooktacular mobilized 69 residents
to volunteer for environmental causes or join an educational workshop. And so again, I want to thank
Jolie for all of her work on this room Bloomington platform and everything, all of the sustainability
challenges.
And if you haven't already, check out our climate action plan dashboard. We try to update this at the
beginning of every year, so we'll be updating this soon. It has our annual greenhouse gas inventory
on it. It has climate actions and incentives. So thank you. You mentioned you wanted to say to Joe,
and you were hoping somebody would pick that up.
How would that be? I mean, I guess how does that work? I sent an email to Tom Lassen to find out if
they were going to pick it up. I think Joe said there was some staff internally that was going to try
to work on that. I haven't heard back yet. OK, thank you. I just had a quick question. Is it maybe Donovan
Energy? I'm not quite sure how it would be split up, but them and the Energy Independence Fund.
Is Donovan an energy services company? Do they do the financing as well? They do have someone in-house
who that is his background. He came from a finance background. And so he is very tuned into
how climate-related projects can be funded through green banks and different efforts and the projects
that qualify. Gotcha. Some of these companies will
They'll look at whatever energy you can save, and they'll actually cost that out. And basically, you
pay the same amount, even though you saved a lot of energy. And that's how you pay back the project
over time. It's like a long-term financing thing. I'm looking forward to the webinar tomorrow. I also
wanted to think about, and I don't know what the liability potential would be for this, but on that
stay cool Bloomington thing, one of the things is people don't always know how to best take care of their
air conditioning units. If we got people going around talking about this energy thing, there's a way
to help them check on their air conditioning units and maybe keep them working longer. That might be
something we could volunteer for. Yeah, that's a really good point. Yes. Maintenance. Maintenance.
We'll see. Having to learn how to get the pollen off of my age back was like a big learning curve. Growing
up in a window unit part of the country.
I have a quick question on that. 46 corridor. You were talking about factory built homes. Is that just
like a manufactured home? I think they want to get away from selling it as a mobile home. They want
it to be more aesthetically and have energy efficient appliances and really energy efficient homes as
much as possible.
The typical mobile home is not energy efficient at all. It's most of them. But it's still the modular
factor, the one where it's like a half a house on a semi, and then there's another half behind. Exactly,
yeah. So there are going to be some smaller units, because I was researching some of this this afternoon,
which is very interesting. I have this up there, so I'm very excited about it. And looking at some of
these smaller type housing
You know, for maybe even studio apartment size, it's more open concept that can be for one or two people
or one bedroom that utilizes less lot space as well, which can either fit onto a smaller lot or could
then allow for more room for food.
So just wondering a little bit more about that. So I'm really excited about that. Yeah, I'm happy to
share more information. The application is actually due next month, so we are working fast and furious
on it. So Purdue was saying that they would like to develop a website where you can pick and choose
what you want in your home, and it'll tell you exactly how much it will cost.
Because I know this type of thing can reduce production costs and then can get those homes. But I've
seen some of these other things like what Elon Musk has done that's very small. These octagonal, some
things can be raised up. Each one has different types of benefits as well. Some, if it's more round,
I don't know if that's going to be a part of this, that can
are more resilient in earthquake situations, having been through earthquakes, as well as, say, tornadoes,
because the airflow can go around them. So I'm curious about that. So thank you both for all of this
work. I'm like, are you getting any sleep? I'll usually take a lunch break.
I wanted to know with the dashboard that you showed at the end, if there's anything that myself or anyone
else here can go into our own, you know, our special knowledge to help with maybe pinpointing some things.
I know I've done that in the past that might help you as well with some of your time management. So,
okay, volunteering myself. But if anyone else might want to.
I think that would help you both out at the end of the year. A few things. One, your 22.7 gigawatts,
that should be gigawatt hours. If we were producing 22.7 gigawatts, that would be an incredibly impressive
amount. Yes, thank you for that. The SEAL program?
For future iterations of that program, is there a reason that we don't do matching funds? Saying that
we do, up to 50% of the project cost up to $25,000 because my understanding is that a lot of projects
install $25,000 solar systems because you get $25,000 from the city for free and then once you hit the
point where you have to put money in, you go, okay.
don't want to do that, but if you matched 50% up to $25,000, then they'd have an incentive to do a $50,000
solicit. Get that more private capital to participate. Thank you for that. So there are some installations
that the owner did decide to expand the system that we're really excited to see that. Not everyone has
that funding, especially nonprofits.
additional funding to add to a project. Also, whenever we hire a vendor, we have to have in their contract
what their maximum amount is. It's just easier. It's a turnkey program so that people can understand
exactly what they're getting. And I do understand your point that it's nice when they have capital to
add to the project, but that's not always available.
I mean, maybe like a private company, non-profit, distinguishing your for-profit entity. You
have dollar-for-dollar matching. I don't know, just things to think about for future implementation.
I have bid to be the contractor for the SEAL program. Thank you. Then on the green home, the BG hip.
You mentioned you don't require a loan with a specific bank anymore. And I actually know somebody who
got kind of tripped up over that and couldn't access these funds because they didn't know about it until
like right after it got done. They're like, oh, can I get this rebate? And they couldn't because they
went with that credit union because that's who they bank with. But do you still require a loan with
a bank or is there just no loan requirement at all? All we want to see is the paid invoice. OK.
Does it have to be contracted work then? If you did a DIY heat pump install, that wouldn't qualify?
It has to be a contractor. The energy audits as part of the capital that are available, are they also
available to institutions that are, so I'm thinking of like,
MCCSE or the Monroe County Public Library that have buildings within city limits but extend beyond the
city, their full kind of service area extends beyond city limits, would they be eligible to participate
in those energy audits for their buildings that are... I think MCC has participated in the past with
an energy audit, I'm pretty sure.
For the one for next year with this Green Capital competition where they can... Bloomington Energy Works.
Yes, thank you for that question. Any large building owner located within the city limits is eligible.
If there is a manufacturing firm outside of the city limits, we can't offer them free technical assistance,
but what we can do is if they have a project, they can add it to our plan.
On the BG HEAD program, I'm wondering why, is there a reason why you went with a rebate rather than
a grant? Because while you're also means testing it for low-income people, that plus having a rebate
means that how many low-income people can actually put up front the cost? I'm just curious by that.
Yeah, I mean, you're exactly right. It does make it tough. There's trade-offs with the way we've designed
the program. And I think at the end of the year, we're kind of evaluating things and seeing
Can we improve that? I mean, you're getting at something that we've noticed. We are letting everyone
know about the Indiana Energy Saver program that has funding available now to help them. OK, cool. Awesome.
I'm glad you guys are thinking about that. That program is one of the most difficult paperwork processes
that I've ever navigated. And we lost out on it because it was so arcane.
the process. It was worse than enrolling my kid in MCCSE. It was like I tried it was it was really really
like one like just I mean there's nothing I there's nothing you can do about it it's the state but just
like as a knowledge that it's really hard it's really hard I have I am I am somebody with a lot of resource
like into like resources of going through that and it was prohibitive electrify Indiana to potentially
We're going to introduce them to Indiana Energy Saver Program. Aegis is the company that's managing
that program, and Julie and I have met with them to come down to Bloomington. They have iPads, and we
can set up a time for people to come in and apply.
and walk them through the process. It was more all the follow-up things that they were asking for. And
the timeline of it was just like, and it was very, the form itself was very confusing. It was also not
mobile accessible. You can open, it'll open on a phone, but it's almost unreadable. So for folks that
are, so doing it on an iPad may not get over that hump if it's showing up as a mobile set on the iPads.
It might be better if they can bring laptops or Chromebooks.
something because it was really hard like you know we have to like zoom in and like scroll over to find
the checkbox kind of thing yeah it's rough I forgot something earlier I can't find it on here but you
mentioned that the city will be getting back to rebates what is where when the city gets a rebate on
something like this where do the funds go and then how is it utilized after that point
All rebates and refunds, even our direct pay reimbursement, it goes back into the general fund. So that's
bringing back quite a lot of money. Congratulations. Thank you. Is there concern that that DOE payout
from the federal government will not come through, or just that it will be delayed? We were able to
submit everything. The website's still up. Everything's there. We're getting emails occasionally from
DOE about it.
I don't know exactly when we'll get our rebate, or I just know that we've submitted it, and we're waiting
to hear back. Yeah, one quick thing to share. So because I research green finance, so do you consider
any assumption like idea of regarding issuing a green bond things? Because I know the city hall issued
green bond in the past few years to support the building of the green building here in Bloomington.
So there are so many other ways to raise funds to support your project. For example, the first US green
stock exchange center will be open next year in New Jersey. So there are so many municipal bonds were
issued in the past 10 years or 20 years over the states. So maybe you can also consider that channel
to raise funds. Instead of applying for some grant,
and weight some of that. I think there are many other ways to raise green finance to support your project.
Thank you. I think the ability to issue bonds has been limited by SB1. At least for a few years. At
least for a few years. Yeah, but it's a good idea to consider that.
Well, I just want to say it's amazing work. We really appreciate it. Can't believe everything you both
do. Thank you. It's pretty remarkable. Appreciate that. Appreciate it. It's very good. Yeah, thank you
for the presentation. So we're getting close to the end. We have a hard stop at 730. The next thing
that we have on the agenda is a presentation from Zach.
on counting miles, so methods for estimating transportation related greenhouse gas emissions. If you
haven't seen the slides yet, I recommend you go and look at them all because they are gorgeous. And
there's a lot of really good data in there too. These are just really fun slides to look at. But there's
a lot of good information in there as well. This is an area that you clearly have some expertise in.
We don't have a lot more time today, I think, to really go through it all. And I know there is also
interest in having the city's vendor that does the accounting for this sort of stuff. Is it climate
now? Is that what it's called? Yeah. To come in and also be available to answer questions that the commission
may have. So what I would suggest is maybe
Commissioners are encouraged to review these slides between now and January. And then we can try to
have Wes, if he's available, come into our January meeting. We can go through these slides then and
have a broader discussion about that. Do we need a motion to move it to a future agenda or because it's
not a subjective resolution? I think we would maybe just need a motion to skip to the next item today
if that's what we decide to do.
but I'll ask for people's thoughts on that. I would like to have time. I mean, it's really cool. I want
time to learn. I completely understand. I just, when is the 2024 emissions inventory coming out,
the report? That's a very good question. We keep asking Duke Energy for the data. OK. Asking and asking
as soon as possible. OK. Well, once you have the data, then it's kind of plug and play and ready to
go. Really, we're just waiting.
additional clarification on our municipal emissions, and it's ready to go. Okay. Okay. I mean, I'm fine
with postponing if we need to go to the next month. That's completely fine. Also, I was not intending
to do a presentation at my first meeting. I just stumbled on this by accident. But so I'm fine doing
if we need to postpone for a month, that's fine.
I think it's worth not cutting it off. Do it justice and also be able to get additional input. So yeah,
but this is fantastic. Thank you for putting these slides together. OK, so I guess in that case, I'll
call for a motion to advance to the next agenda item, 7C. So moved. OK, is there a second? Second. OK,
any debate? All right, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Any abstentions?
All right, the motion carries. We'll move on to 7C. I will go through this fairly quickly. I just want
to have a couple slides here just to get the ball rolling on the 2026 priority planning process. So
last year we did this in a work group session where we just brainstormed some ideas in the
library auditorium. And we had like a piece of paper that we scribbled a bunch of stuff on. So we want
to go through a similar process.
First, just a quick look at what we came up with then as priorities for 2025. So we kind of. Oh,
my bad. Thank you. Okay, so, you know, we came up with sort of two broad priority areas. One was housing
and urban agriculture and the other was education outreach and coalition building. And I just went back
and looked at some of our slides from
during this time, and there were a couple bullet points under each of those, which I've listed under
the areas of focus there. And so I've just listed some of the outcomes that we did that were related
to those areas of focus in 2025. So you can see we made some progress on some of those. In others, we
could use some more progress. But I think it would be good to go through the process again.
you know, maybe we decide we want to stick with these same priorities or maybe we want to add something
or adjust a little bit, but we should still at least go through that process. And so for 2026, I've
just got some ideas here to get the wheels turning in terms of things that we might think about doing.
And, you know, these are just things that popped into my head. So I just listed out some potential areas
you know, on the left-hand side there that we could focus on. I'm sure I've left plenty of stuff off.
And then the indented bullets are sort of like brainstorming how we could get at that, right? So like,
you know, housing affordability. Maybe we wanna engage more directly with the office of the mayor since,
you know, they just put out the report recently, right? That sort of thing. I'm not gonna go through
all of these right now. It's just for you to take a look at and
help get the wheels turning. And on the right, I have tools at our disposal. I put kind of a version
of this on a previous slide that I presented earlier this year, just to give people thinking about,
okay, what can we do as a commission, as an advisory commission, right? So we have resolutions. We can
use those to declare a position or an opinion. We can also use those to make formal recommendations
to parts of the city.
We can ask for information if we think we need additional information to make decisions. We can author
reports. We can search for funds and grants. And I had a couple more on there. Communication platforms,
right? So if we wanted to get, you know, become active on social media, we've talked about that a little
bit earlier in the year. We can move forward with that. You know, if we wanted to like,
write an op-ed or something, or do a podcast interview. We could look into that. There's a really good
local podcast called 812. Steve Volin runs that. And then, of course, we've also got creativity, ingenuity,
and passion. So that's a tool that's not to be underestimated.
So this is just to get you thinking a little bit. So what will this process actually look like? Well,
I think that is yet to be determined. Definitely interested in some feedback here. I came up with a
couple of ways that we could approach this. One is like we did last year, work session. Just do a normal
work session, and it's at the usual time. The challenge is there that the work sessions aren't always
as well attended as the regular meetings, so we don't get as
diverse a conversation as we might want for something like that. And an hour and a half is a pretty
short amount of time to distill a lot of brainstorming and then converge on a concrete plan for the
next year. So we could split that up into two work sessions.
And that would give us a little more time and a break in between to sort of digest and consolidate ideas.
But of course, that takes some time to actually go through that planning, some additional time, which
means we have less time to actually implement that plan once we have it. A new idea here that I had
was we could do some sort of retreat where we find half a day
you know, most of a day or something like that would probably have to be on a weekend when people aren't
working and all that to really do, you know, multiple sessions, get into the weeds on stuff, maybe break
out into some, you know, breakout groups or something and then come back. That's, of course, something
that's a little harder to commit to because it's a lot of time dedicated all at once. People have families
and all that sort of thing. But, you know, that option might allow us to really
come up with a really kind of strong, well-formed plan that we can really hit the ground running with.
Another option is just something completely else entirely that I haven't listed it here. So initial
thoughts about how we should go about approaching that this year. Yeah. You had the same thought I did
as I think doing something different as far as the work sessions so we can really push something through.
I think I like your idea better. My thought was maybe we only do work sessions during these certain
crunch times, and we try to hammer it out in a couple weeks. But I think something like a retreat would
be good. I would vote for that, for sure. We would still need to be noticed and publicly accessible.
challenge in finding space where we can do that? Because you can't book time at the library for that
long. We can't do it in the city. We can't ask city staff to be here. I would volunteer the e-house
at IU if you wanted to use that. Is that publicly accessible? Is it open to the public? Well, I mean,
the door is open during business hours. OK. So yeah, that could be an option. We'd have to put the agenda
notice on the door and all that.
notice it properly, but yeah. Okay, good, that's an option. I agree, it's a better, like, yeah, I mean,
as one of the people with kids and a lot of commitments, with appropriate time, I can usually make it
work. Yeah, same. I need more than 48 hours notice. I know that's the legal minimum. Oh, yeah, we would
notice this week's advance. Plan, yeah. The other thought I was gonna mention too, which is,
sort of thinking through the priorities that you've lined it out. There's a lot of those I would kind
of jump to, but I'm also thinking, like, what could we do maybe to, you know, put wind in your sails,
right, in the sustainability? Is there anything that we could tackle and really support in that vein as well?
I like the retreat because I find that whenever I've worked with groups and retreats before in different
ways, we make a lot of progress in a very short amount of time. But I'd also like to ask for ESD in
regards to the food area, since the food and garden is kind of my thing, do you have any plans for next
year in the food system?
I don't know. So basically grants to those two organizations. And we have the Sustainable Neighborhoods
Grants. So it would be great if BCoS could help if you want to promote food security. There's $1,000
grants for a neighborhood to install garden beds. I have questions about that because it's something
I've worked on. So I can't remember if I have things with you. So I know since the commission is no longer
approving those grants, is there a mechanism? Because I know that there were people that looked into
it and then opted not to do it. And I know from my own neighborhood doing it that part of it is just
the sort of daunting task of writing a grant with no experience. Is it possible for interested people
to be referred to the commission for grant support in some kind of formal? I don't know what that is.
relationship would look like or what that like sharing communication but I mean we can help people fill
out the forms because it's hard and I know that there was it was like there was a lot of challenges
for our neighborhood. Looking through and going through right now and I know whenever I was on Jack
Hopkins there were a few
few things that were done for the public, so two different meetings. Of course, that's a very short
grant process and it's all very regimented. Is there a way that, I know this, do not want to add one
more thing to your list, but a way to create like a video so that if somebody's interested
in the application, you can just do kind of the asynchronous learning sort of thing of here's the video,
here's the application, and then email if you have any questions.
So I wanna do a quick pause because we're 20 seconds away from the end. It is a good question. You should
come back to it. You have a hard stop. Was there anything ESD, like for the staff liaison report that
you were hoping for today? Okay, okay, excellent. Okay, so what I'm gonna do is I'm going to send out
just a little survey. It'll have these options, pick which one you prefer, and then maybe some dates
that might be potential options.
We can go from there. Okay, and we are at 730, so. Can I make a quick correction? Yes. The work session
tomorrow is the RDCs. The council has been invited to it. It's their discretion whether they take public
comment, I think. So it's up to them. And it's in the Allison conference room at 5 p.m. Perfect. Thanks.
Thank you. All right. So since we're at the end of the time,
We stand adjourned at 730. Thank you.