Good evening, everybody. We'll go ahead and get started. I'll call to order this meeting of the Bloomington
Commission on Sustainability and Resilience at 6.03 p.m. And we will do the roll call. Tara Dunderdale?
Here. Here. Justin Vassel? I'm here. Matt Austin? Present. Present. Christopher Miles? Here. Here. Zach
Emmerman? Here. Here. Dave Rallo? Here. Here. Quinta Gilley? Here. Here. Alex York? Here. Here.
Maria Arstad? Here. Did I pronounce that right? You did.
here. Shenghuai Xu, since his regrets. Diana Ogrodowsky. Here. Here. And Ross Carlson. Here. Here.
All right. We've only got one absence here. This is good. Full table. Love it. OK. Perfect. So that
brings us to the approval of the agenda. Is there any modifications of the agenda? We got a note online
that we were not recording. I think that's what Eric is raising his hand about. OK.
Yeah, they're recording. Cat's recording. Cat's recording, yeah. I just wanted to make sure that that
was acknowledged. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Point of order, would you please admit my note taker, please?
Is there somebody waiting in my lobby? No, I think it's a, are you asking to admit a digital, like an
AI note taker? It's my note taker, yes. Under a city policy, you are indicated to admit that.
It was admitted, and then it was booted out, so if you
Please admit that again. Thank you. Yeah, we'll take a moment to try to sort that out. Thank you. Is
there a way you can push it forward again? We're not seeing any option where we can admit any. If you
have intentionally removed it from the meeting, this might pose a conundrum.
Indiana code that is an allowed thing. It's not automated, folks. Can you try to come back? I am at
this moment, yeah. Okay. So I can follow up with you later, but this is a very vexing problem. I'm not
sure what the issue is, but thank you. I don't want to take any more of your time. Please continue.
Okay. Yeah, I don't know if it would help to have
him leave the Zoom room and then come back in and try it again? You're welcome to give that a shot.
The reason is you removed it from the meeting, I believe intentionally, and that action then bars it
from coming back in. So it is in the waiting room right now or it's attempted to. But again, I don't
want to take any more of your time.
Apologies for now. We've had some meetings where it's automatically joining, so we've removed it. We
didn't know that you had intentionally invited the AI. I'm sorry to interject. Point of order, it doesn't
matter whether it's automatic or not. It's an attendee. But in this case, what? Yeah, I don't know.
There's no waiting room that is visible to us. You'll probably have to follow up with IP, but I can
follow up later. But please continue. Thank you. Well, as you said, Eric, could you leave and then re-enter
and perhaps we can then have that option show again? It is not. So I am joined using my Zoom account.
That's what I'm attending and communicating with you now.
There is a separate attendee. And that attendee is now not being visible because it has been intentionally
removed. That's a feature of Zoom. So if you remove someone from an attendee from a meeting, if they
attempt to rejoin, you do not see that. But you are not supposed to, under Indiana code and limits and
policy, not supposed to remove no attendee.
Anyway, I don't think there's anything to be done at this point, but we can follow up later, thank you.
All right, yeah, apologies for that. Okay, so we'll go through the approval of the agenda. Are there
any modifications to the agenda as circulated? Okay. I'm thinking, do we wanna move the elections up
earlier in the schedule in case we run short on time by the end?
Most of the meeting format is set in the bylaws, and new business is the only place that makes sense
for the elections to go, so that's where I just put it. But we could put that after commissioner reports
and before discussions. That be all right? I would make a motion. Yeah. All right. To move that. I'll
second it. All right. That's a motion. I'll second. Just so that we get the elections done. Perfect.
And make it that. OK, so that's to move item number 12A after number
the elections after number six commissioner reports and before number seven discussions of topics not
the subject of resolution. I need to debate and we don't have any meeting online so we can just do this
by consent so all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Any abstentions? Okay the agenda is amended are
there any further amendments to the agenda?
Okay, perfect. That'll bring us on to approval of the minutes from February 10th, 2026. Are there any
corrections to those minutes as circulated? Okay. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Okay.
And a second? Second. And a second. All right. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor say aye.
Aye. All opposed nay. Any abstentions? The minutes are approved.
Okay, so that brings us to public comment. So we've got 10 minutes set aside for this, um, up to three
minutes per person. Um, I don't see anybody in the public gallery in the room, I don't think, uh, but
is there anyone on Zoom who would like to address the commission? Okay, I'm not seeing any activity
there. Um, so we'll move on to conditional reports. Um, so,
Again, I don't have slides for you this time, apologies. I've just been typing it out as notes recently.
But yeah, so we'll go through the organizational updates. As you can see, things are looking pretty
good. We only have, I think, two vacancies at the moment.
And we have a new member with us. So Maria Arstad is a mayoral appointment to the commission starting
this meeting. So you do want to introduce yourself to the commission, say a little bit about your background
and maybe what your interest in sustainability and resilience is. Hi, I'm Maria. I'm a project coordinator
at IU and most of my work right now is over in the trades district. I work on that CCC grant.
which was from the Lilly endowment to IU with the city of Bloomington as a partner and a sub awardee.
So our goals are just to accelerate development in the trades district and contribute to placemaking
efforts, put in public art and sort of activate the area. So yeah, my main interests are sustainability
in the realm of economic development, but I'm just
Really looking forward to being involved and contributing. Perfect. Welcome. Yes. Um, and, uh, uh,
let's see. Yeah. So, um, so we've got 12 out of 14 seats filled right now. So our core threshold is
seven. Um, and, uh, Shanghai, uh, will be wrapping up his doctoral program recent, uh, soon, which is
really exciting. Um, and he's going to be moving away from Bloomington probably around the end of April.
Um, so congratulations to him.
and he wasn't able to make it tonight. He had another engagement, but hopefully he'll join us for the
meeting in April and we can bid him a proper farewell at that point. And he did mention that he is still
hoping to sneak in another sustainability forum. We had one of those so far and he wants to do another
one before he wraps things up. So we'll look out for that.
Just a quick follow-up on resolution 2026-01, which we adopted after a second reading last time. That
was applauding the city's response to the lapse in federal funding for SNAP benefits. So just wanted
to let everyone know that that resolution has been forwarded on to the relevant offices, office of the
mayor, community and family resources department, and council. So thank you, Sean and Jolie, for getting
those to where they need to go. The strategic planning retreat.
So we're going to find a time and format that works for both commissioners and for staff. So keep an
eye out for announcements between this meeting and next, probably. Thinking a little more about the
timing for this, I think late March or early April is actually a pretty solid time to do this, if it's
going to be something that we do every year. Naturally, it kind of makes sense to start thinking about
it after the start of the year. But of course, then in February, we have terms switch over.
And then in March, we have our elections.
It might not make that much sense to do a lot of strategic planning and then have a bunch of turnover
or something, right? So this might actually work out pretty well. So yeah, stay tuned for that. 2025
annual report, still getting the final details on that. And then the O'Neill School capstone project
on sustainability energy utilities. So Alex had worked to set kind of a final,
an in stone date for the final presentation on those results. And so it's scheduled for Tuesday, April
28th from 530 to 630. So it's the same day of the week, but a different week in the month than we usually
meet. And it's a little bit earlier than we normally meet. And that'll be in council chambers. And so
it's a different venue as well. So this will be an official meeting for BCOS. So it will be noticed and
But we want to make sure everyone can attend that, or at least we can get a quorum there. It would be
pretty awful if we showed up and weren't able to do a quorum for something like that. So I did put together
a very simple form for you to just indicate whether you can make it or not. And I've linked it here
in this report, but I'll send out an email with that as well, and maybe a couple reminders as we get
closer to that date. So we can make sure we'll be good for a quorum on that.
A couple external updates. Congratulations to Sean and the rest of the sustainability team here at the
city for the CDPA list rating that they got for the second year in a row now. That's awesome. The only
other one I have on here is that council passed ordinance 2026-04, which renames our commission, among
other things. There is also some movement around from different sections
of the municipal code to other sections, some kind of consolidation that's happening. So the section
of the code that governs BCOS specifically will get moved to section 2.02.120. And if you've looked
on the online version of the city code for this, you might not see it there yet, at least as of yesterday,
I didn't see it. That gets updated periodically, but those provisions are in effect now.
There's a couple miscellaneous reminders and notes just about the waste reduction district, the Monroe
County compost bin and rain barrel sale that's going on right now. And the order deadlines for that
are April 15th. And then the pickup dates are April 24th or 25th. And then, of course, the city's still
championing their Bloomington Energy Works program.
continue to spread the word about that. And then one that I didn't add to my report, but I'll just say
verbally here, is Earth Day. So we talked about this last time. We had some volunteers that were willing
to staff the table. And we were going to talk about some materials that we might start getting together
once we have the name change go through. So I just want to remind folks that that's happening. And maybe
I'll ask now, Tara, if there's anything else besides
you know, new logos or names or whatever for the materials. Is there anything else that you need from
the commission to start prepping for that? I don't think so. I need to follow up with Julie about what
we can do and what we can order. But I have completed the form to reserve our spot so we can confirm
that we have a space at the pavilion. So I think we have another business meeting before that event.
So in the interim, I'll talk to Julie and then Ken report back on what we'll have then. OK. Yeah. I
think maybe if we want to have copies of the resolutions that we've passed maybe in the last year, people
to look at or things like that might be something. OK. Yeah. We could do a form the way we've done other.
information collecting from the Commission if people have specific suggestions of materials too. Like
if I can compile all of it or you can compile all of it. Okay, awesome. Excellent. Definitely looking
forward to that and thanks to everyone who's helping. Okay, as usual I've got a list of resources there
if you want to
linked to anything in the report. But otherwise, I think that's it for me. So any questions before we
move on to the next item? Also, thanks. It looks like we've looked on making things accessible since
our new accessibility guidelines are coming into play very soon. I might connect with you more on that.
There's a few templates that were provided today that could help going forward. Yeah, thanks for that.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely feel free to forward those things along to me.
Yeah, just took my swing at the requirements and ran it through a couple checkers and stuff, but there's
still some pack materials and stuff that need to be sort of propped to alignment there. Awesome. Okay,
great. Any other questions? We're getting the screen blinks. I don't know what causes that. It's okay,
we can just level this.
If you just cross your eyes, it probably looks normal. Okay, perfect. All righty, so that's my report.
Matt, do you have anything for us on waste management? I'm going to skip my report this week so we can
get on to all the work we've got. Okay, wonderful. All right, that brings us to a report from Councilor
Exaficio. Council Member Rallo, do you have anything for us? Just a few things. So, Hopewell Development, which is
You know, a big deal that city-owned land that we're developing, including priorities for affordable
housing has been, uh, we have a second discussion on it, uh, on March 25th, uh, regular session. And,
um, it may conclude that, that evening. We may have some reasonable conditions. We can't amend it as
it comes from the planning commission, but we can agree with the petitioner on some reasonable conditions. Um, so.
might want to pay attention to that. Another item is that our deliberative session is tomorrow evening
at 630. That's to discuss council budget priorities for the year and include things that are related
to sustainability, climate action plan, transportation, safe streets for all, affordable housing, food
security, renewable energy, and those sorts of things. So that's tomorrow at 630 and that's to indicate to the
administration or top priorities from the council. So then when we see the budget later in the year,
we hope to see that there's some money devoted for those things. And they follow on things like the
climate action plan, et cetera. So I think that's all I've got. Thanks so much. Any questions? Yeah.
Yeah. I asked Isaac.
and he mentioned I was asking about the resolution we had for the increasing chicken flock sizes and
he said you mentioned that in the committee so I wasn't sure what we needed to do to get that up to
city council to start debating. You know it's been sort of discussed among members here and there and
we're sort of in a tight spot right now because we don't have any administrative staff. Our council
attorney and
uh, assistant attorney positions have to be filled. So we're sort of in a, in a state of limbo for a
little while, but it's certainly on the docket and, uh, I support, I support it. So I think Isabelle
is another, uh, person who might sponsor and so forth. So it's there. It's just going to take a while
because we're doing what's absolutely necessary just to keep the city. Thank you.
Like the name change code, is it something where if we did draft legislation as an amendment to a resolution,
it's helpful to counsel? I think that would be a good help, yeah. I mean, it would have to pass the
muster of whatever attorney to make sure, you know, I'm not an attorney, you know, but. But as a. Yeah,
as a template. That would be great. Love to see that.
Thank you very much. Any other questions? All right. Well, then that brings us on the amended agenda
to the officer elections. So let me pull up the slides. Let's mention a couple reminders here. I did
lower the resolution of my slides a little bit. So at least it's not so giant compared to the rest of
the packet materials here. It's still kind of giant. Okay. So you've seen
This slide, a couple times before, you don't have to read through all this now. This is kind of just
a reference thing, but these are just the rules and requirements that relate to elections in some way,
shape, or form for this commission. The real stuff that pertains to us for the most part today is just
the description of the different positions here. So we've had a couple discussions about this at previous
meetings and about what the format should be and all that, and we sort of just landed on having a more
casual process like we've done in the past, where we kind of just go position by position and ask if
anyone wants to do it. And then we just work out the votes from there. And so yeah, should be pretty
straightforward. And I'm sorry, the last bullet point there on vice chairperson seems to have been cut
off there. But it's basically just saying that in the absence of the secretary, the vice chairperson
is responsible for taking the minutes. And Tara knows this well. That's right.
And again, there's sort of two paradigms. We could have a chairperson slash vice chairperson, which
we've done for the last few years, or two co-chairs, where the co-chairs decide how they want to split
up responsibilities, and then the commission, at the next meeting, votes on signing off on that, basically.
So we'll start at the chairperson and work our way down. So is there anyone who wants to make a nomination
for chairperson? I nominate Justin. Second.
Thank you. I'll accept the nomination. I guess let me ask if there's other nominations for a chair.
Only once. Only twice. All right. Let me ask this. Is there anyone who'd be interested in being a co-chair?
Theoretically, I would. To help share the load with you, for you to help share the load theoretically,
coming forward are really wanting it, to be completely honest with you. In practice, the vice chair,
it says that the chairperson can delegate pretty much whatever they want. So it's functionally the same.
It's really a title difference. It's delegated rather than a cooperative discussion making, but it functions
effectively the same thing.
At least under this administration. All right. Any other nominees for Chipper? All right. In that case,
we'll move to a vote. I don't know. Should I call the vote? That seems weird. We need to do a roll call
vote. We do need a roll call vote for this, yeah. You have a copy of the agenda in front of you. It's
got the list of...
people there. And Shing-Wai is the only one who's absent, and I don't think we had anyone else join
on that. All right, so. Sorry, I'm doing two jobs. Yep, exactly. Yep, whenever you're ready. I will
delegate the floor to the vice chair. So this is for the nomination of Justin Vassel as chair of the
commission. Tarun Underdale, yes? Justin Vassel? Yes. Matt Austin? Yes. Christopher Miles? Aye.
Zach Emmerman? Yes. Dave Rallo? Yes. Quentin Gilley? Yes. Alex York? Yes. Maria Arstad? Yes.
Diana Ogrodowsky? Yes. Ross Carlson? Yes. Congratulations, Justin. Well, thank you very much and thank
you for the vote of confidence.
I've had a lot of fun being chair. This will probably be the last time that I do it. So start thinking
ahead for next year. I think it is good to have new leadership from time to time. But I'm definitely
looking forward to the year ahead. So OK, then. And thank you, Tara, for taking the roll call on that.
We'll then move on to the vice chairperson position. Are there any nominees for vice chairperson?
I'm just going to say, are you interested that I would nominate Zach Ammerman? OK. We have a nomination
for Zach. Can we have a second? Excellent. Are there any other nominations for vice chairperson?
All right. Hearing none, we'll move on to a vote to elect Zach Ammerman as vice chairperson. Tara Dunderdale?
Yes. Yes. Justin Vassel, yes. Matt Austin? Yes.
Yes. Christopher Miles? Yes. Yes. Zach Goverman? Yes. Yes. Dave Roller? Yes. Yes. Quentin Gilley? Yes.
Yes. Alex Yorke? Yes. Yes. Marina Arstapp? Yes. Yes. Shenglai Xu is absent. Diana Ogrodowsky? Yes. Yes.
And Ross Carlson? Yes. Yes. You got a mess of vote. Congratulations. Thank you. OK. That brings us to
the secretary position. There are nominations for secretary.
If that's what you're looking at, we can do that. All right. We have a nomination for Tara Dunderdale.
Second. Second. Perfect. Any other nominations for secretary? I accept. That's good. We should probably
confirm that before we hold a vote, shouldn't we? That's right. All right. Contentious elections this
year. All right. We'll move on to the vote then to elect Tara Dunderdale as secretary. Tara Dunderdale. Yes.
Yes, Justin Vassel, yes. Matt Austin. Yes. Yes. Christopher Miles. Yes. Yes. Zach Armorman. Yes. Yes.
Dave Rollin. Yes. Yes. Quinta Gilley. Yes. Yes. Alex York. Yes. Yes. Maria Arstod. Yes. Yes. Changlias
Absin. Diana Ogrodowski. Yes. Yes. And Ross Carlson. Yes. Yes. All right. See you now. Nice. Congratulations.
Congratulations.
And thank you for your service. Continued service. Discovery, I don't know how to spell it. We're unanimous,
though. Oh, yeah. Just several times all wrong. All right. And that brings us to our last position,
which is the treasurer. This is always the most exciting position to vote for. So just for some context
here, the official role of the treasurer is to facilitate the preparation of the annual budget as required
by municipal code.
We've generally had a zero dollar budget, at least since I've been on the commission, so we don't really
prepare a budget. But also to facilitate efforts of the commission members to identify funding sources
in order to execute the strategic goals of the commission. We could definitely use a hand in that regard,
I would say. But yeah, so currently, Matt Austin is the treasurer. Yeah, questions? I just have a question.
If this is an appropriate time to ask one about that. Yeah. So as you've just been elected as the
for the next year, do you have any plans that would involve seeking funding that would necessitate something
like a formal budget? I think it would be great if we could identify some outside sources of funding,
even if we had $1,000 in the bank. That would be awesome, I think. So I think it would be good to at
least kind of build up a little bit of that muscle memory and institutional momentum on that front,
because it's not that much.
Is the treasurer a position that involves grant writing? Potentially. But certainly, you wouldn't be
alone in that, right? Other commissioners could help with that as well. Yeah, officially, it would just
be identifying grants and then say, somebody apply to this. My personal preference would be to prepare
the grant and give it to the treasurer. That's just me.
Are you saying you're interested in being a treasurer? Not necessarily. I was just trying to clarify
some possibilities. Fair enough. All right. Well, are there any further questions about the treasurer
position? Are there any nominations for treasurer? Well, I will put in a nomination for Chris.
the only hesitation to have this thing a little up in the air for me to come later in the year, so I'm
not the safest bet for an annual position in that regard. I know it wouldn't want to disrupt anything.
Fair enough. We have been operating without a secretary for a while. We don't recommend you doing that.
Are there monthly duties involved?
It's mostly, at this point, a nice resume, sir. Outside of us actually pursuing stuff? Yeah. I'm getting
a strong feeling that a full board would be preferred here. We would prefer to have no vacancies in
the ranks, but others could also nominate others or themselves.
I can't second my own. I second. Okay. Do I have to accept formally? We very much prefer you accept
before we vote on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Except the nomination and then you can have it, but you can't
accept the nomination then. Okay. That would be great. That's right. So it's a volatile situation. With
great power. That's right. Okay. Are there any...
Are there any additional nominations? Great. This was the position that was really contentional. I know,
right? Yeah. How dare you take that position? All right. If there are no further nominations, then we'll
move on to a vote to elect Christopher Miles as the treasurer. Tar Donerville? Yes. Yes. Justin Vassel,
yes. Matt Austin? Yes. Yes. Christopher Miles? Yes. Yes.
Zach Ammerman? Yes. Yes. Dave Rolla? Yes. Yes. Quentin Gilley? Yes. Yes. Alex York? Yes. Yes.
Maria Arstod? Yes. Yes. Shane Wye is absent, I believe. Just a little check. Diana Obradosky? Yes. Yes.
And Ross Carlson? Yes. Yes. All right. Congratulations, and thank you for your service. OK.
That wraps up the elections for 2026. So congratulations to everybody. Well done, and thank you everybody
for stepping up. All right, that brings us back to our regularly scheduled programming. Item number
seven, discussions of topic, not the subject of resolutions. So that is the commission logo update.
And I'm kind of using the word logo loosely here. So.
Yeah, exactly. So it's just kind of word art, really. I've put together a couple of options. We can
choose to go with one of these options today. We don't have to. We can choose to come up with additional
options. Sorry to interrupt you. I just don't want you to get ahead of yourself. I've been informed
that commissions are not supposed to actually move forward using the city logo, like the city symbol,
and to have a formal logo.
I've asked the Office of the Mayor Legal, Julius, to reach out to you with more of a formal explanation
about why. I'm sure you're curious about just the policy around that. But yeah, so just to inform you.
But isn't it on our city website? Yeah, it's there now. Like on the Bloomington.ian.gov? Yeah. That's
our current logo right now, isn't it? That's what's on it.
Our page, our commission page. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't know if it's on the website, but it's on all
of our documents, like our resolutions and things, which is, I mean, if we need to change it, you need
to change it. But that is the preset thing, I think. I mean, we could just remove the seal from it and
just have a masthead, just the words, at least for now until, and maybe we get other guidance and decide
if there's a process or something, or we could always
Make our own logo or something, have any fun. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Sorry, I got really excited.
We could also, I've noticed some of the other commissions have done youth essay contests. We could do
an art contest. Oh, yeah, that would be cool. I just have one point. Yeah. If the concern be is that
it scrunches the bottom line,
Is there policy reasons you couldn't use an ampersand and increase the font visibility? I wouldn't have
an issue with that. I think it serves the same. That would help a little bit, yeah. I imagine we could
do that. I like the third one, especially if the city is going to say, you can't use any of our stuff.
That one's the one that's the easiest and is our
I think if you can't, this is single. Our mission central, yeah. If I had to pick between those three,
I'd go with up and C, yeah, as well. Agreed. Agreed. OK. That's pretty easy. Anyone who's like A or
B, that's the one. Any dissenting opinions? Correct. I'd like to be better for the waiting, but I'd
rather be here. How does that one look in the back of the room? You're seeing it from a distance.
I mean, when it was stable, when I was looking at my phone earlier, I mean, I'd like that it is focused
on our less on the commission and more on the mission of the work. And that's like the thing that is.
For option C, you're talking about? Yeah. OK, yeah, same. Yeah. And I think if the city doesn't want
us to be using
City Branding, that was also the farthest from City Branding. Yeah, just because it doesn't say City
of Bloomington, that sort of thing. Do you know, smidge off topic, but are we going to go by BCOSR or
BCSR? That's a good question. I've seen some instances of BCOSR in emails. I've seen one with the R
in parentheses. I think I still refer to it as BCOS at some point.
We can also talk about that now, because I think it's all part of the kind of branding discussion. What
do folks think about that? I thought that was settled. I thought we were just Bcos, but we have the
R. I know we've talked about it a little bit before. But I mean, I'm not partial to that necessarily.
I think saying it out loud, rolling off the tongue, like Bcos rolls off tongue, Bcos, it kind of works.
I think part of the reason why, when we were thinking of the different variations of the name that we
went with, you know, just and resilience, was that it still had the same core. And those things didn't
get flipped around anywhere. Well, I think we were afraid it would be confusing, too, for anyone who's
switching over, if they are familiar with PCOS at all. Right, yeah. And this would just be stuff that
we would use on our own internal documents, because we can't. Yeah. We don't abbreviate. Yeah. And we
don't make public. We can't independently make.
like press releases, it has to go through the city's legal department, and branding is part of that
probably. So yeah, because, because, I guess just to use it however you want. OK, great. So part of
the reason this is on the agenda for today is just because we have this event coming up where we want
to print some stuff. So we want to have something that we can print on there.
It sounds like people are mostly in consensus about option C. Do we want to take a quick vote on that?
It can even just be a voice vote for option C minus the city seal. And then at a later meeting, if we
hear back from Julius or the team at the city and there's a way to appropriate that again, we can always
revisit it at another time. Awesome. All right. So yeah, let's move to a vote on that then to adopt.
option C without the city seal as sort of the official masthead going forward. All those in favor say
aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Any abstentions. All right perfect. It is approved. Thank you very much.
Okay that brings us to agenda item eight resolutions for second reading. So resolution 2026-02 and there's a
couple items in the packet here related to this. The first one that we have here is this community joint
letter supporting the resolution. And this was mentioned at our last meeting. We had some folks speak
during public comment, and they read the text of this letter out loud and mentioned that they had, I
want to say roughly 150.
155 signatures at the time. And I think since that meeting, they got an additional 20 some. And so this
version in the packet is the version that has the full list of signatures in it. So I wanted to include
that there for the record. And then there's this memo that was written by the sponsors of the resolution
just laying out. This is the TLDR.
purpose of the resolution because it's a bit longer. So we won't go through and read this right now,
but you should have a copy of it in front of you or near you if you want to take a look. And then here
we have the core of the resolution language. So there's a lot of whereas clauses. That's a lot of research
type stuff. And then there's four sections to the, you know, therefore, sorry, five sections to the,
Therefore, be it resolved sections. So section one there is just findings. Section two are recommendations
to the common council. I do have an amendment queued up to make some changes to that. Section three
is recommendations to city administration. Section four is a statement of values for the commission.
And then section five is just who this should go to.
I guess I'll open it up for discussion. And maybe real quick before we open the floor, I'll just mention
that the amendment that I have queued up is just a couple of things. A lot of it's just bookkeeping.
We did have a name change since then. So it's just going through and replacing all of those. And then
in the first instance of that name change, I've just put in parentheses the commission, because I reference
the commission referring to us several times throughout the resolution. Same thing.
a sustainable development goal mentioned somewhere, and then there's SDG listed later, and so I just
wanted to put a parenthesis there. Again, there were some code changes, so our section of the code for
BCOS, BCOSR, isn't 2.12.100 anymore, it's 2.02.120, so there's some changes there. And then the only
real substantive thing is a new whereas clause that would go right at the end, and that is just,
Um, referencing what city council has done since the last time we met, um, which was they passed their
own resolution, um, about, um, flock and automated license plate readers. Um, and, uh, that resolution,
um, you know, had some, uh, requirements for a briefing to be held, you know, public briefing to council
and some other things there. So, so that final whereas clause would just acknowledge that that is something
that happened. Um, and then section two.
uh, would be rewritten. I've got the language there in the amendment form. Um, that would just be, that
would change the recommendations to council to not say, we think you should have a briefing because
now they've agreed to do that. Um, so basically, um, just to say, hey, here's, here's some model legislation
that we think, uh, you know, would be good for future considerations. Um, so, uh, maybe before I go
through the process of actually introducing that amendment, like making a motion for it, let me just
Open up the floor to get some initial discussions. Can I just ask if we could just really quickly review
what the process is for this? Because I think we're in the nested motions. Yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah, so basically what we'll do, and that's actually a good point, because really the next step should
be to somebody makes a motion to adopt this, and then there's a second. And then we enter debate.
and so that's when we have all of our discussions, that's when amendments get offered, that sort of
thing. So then if an amendment is being offered, somebody makes a motion during that debate for an amendment,
somebody seconds it, then we move into debate about that amendment. So now we're kind of in this nested
thing, like we're just in amendment mode. And then once we're done with discussion, we then have a vote
on that amendment, it either passes or it fails, and then we're back into the broader resolution discussion
where more amendments can be made,
or we can wrap up discussion and move to a final vote to adopt. So does that process make sense? No,
we can make the amendments right here. It's just the initial reading of the unamended version has to
be done twice. So given that, let me make a motion to adopt this resolution so we can actually go to
the debate phase.
And there's a second, okay. So now we're in the debate phase. Any other questions or anything about
this before we tackle the amendment? Okay, not hearing any. So I'll make a motion then to amend the
resolution as provided for in the resolution amendment form that I attached to the packet. Let me bring
that up on the screen just so everyone can see it.
Is this one motion for all of the amendments? So the changes in code? Yeah, I'm just doing all this
as a batch. I figured that would be a much easier thing to do. Again, the only real substantive thing
is this new language about what city council has done since the last time we met, and the rest is just
kind of like housekeeping stuff. I think that we could nest one level further if we wanted to amend
the amendment. We can amend on an amendment. Yeah, but then beyond that, you've got to edit stuff, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so we can inception that if we want for that level. Yeah, like, I mean, if somebody saw like a
typo in my amendment here, that would be a time to amend the amendment, right? Yeah, so yeah, so this
is what the amendment is, and it did include in the pack materials, hopefully people got a chance to
take a look, just the change log here of what it would actually look like where these changes are happening.
So you can see the bulk of the stuff is kind of at the end here.
But let me bring it back up to that summary form, because it's a little easier to see everything at
once. So any discussion about the amendment? Sorry. You moved to adopt the amendment. Was there a second?
Oh, yeah. No, sorry. I did move to adopt the amendment, and I don't think there was a second, right?
So was there a second? Second. OK. Thank you. Great. So now we're in discussion. Any thoughts on the
amendment?
I think these are good changes. I mean, some of them are necessary changes for it to be correct, given
the changes that have happened to city code and our commission. And I think it's useful to reference
the work that council has already done. Perfect. Any other comments? All right. Then we can move to a vote.
on the amendment to the resolution. Just jot down a note for myself here. Okay, and we'll do a roll
call vote for all this stuff. Yeah, okay, so on the amendment to the resolution, Tara? Yes. Yes, Justin,
yes. Matt? Yes. Yes, Christopher? Yes. Yes, Zach? Yes. Yes, Dave? Yes. Quentin? Yes.
Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Maria? Yes. Yes. Shang Lai is the last one. Diana? Yes. Yes. And Ross? Yes. Yes.
Okay. The amendment passes 11 to 0. Okay. So that brings us back into the main resolution. So this is
a time to discuss the resolution, ask questions, share your thoughts about it, or propose additional
amendments.
I will note that I had sent out some emails about if there were amendments that people wanted to bring
forward, they could send in a spreadsheet with those details. I didn't get anything back. But if you
still had something you wanted to amend, we can still do that here live. I had a thought that I'm sorry
that I'm this late in bringing up. I would leave it to you all to decide whether or not it warrants
amendment. So I'd like the resolution as is of no issue with
adopting it as is. The only thought I had was, so I appreciate invoking the code that establishes the
commission and even you would presumably invoke the code that establishes the department that the commission
is under. In terms of linking the thesis of the amendment to the rationale for the board's existence
and its mandate, one thing I thought that I didn't necessarily notice here might
add something to that is Flock is a company that operates using enormous amounts of computing power
for machine learning, is an advocate for data center construction, employs quote unquote AI, which is
a major tapper of all kinds of different water resources, and so on and so on. There is a direct
sustainability quotient, not even getting into like mining
and conflict minerals, et cetera, that I think the question of enlisting more and more, quote unquote,
AI concerns, doing the business of city government, et cetera, I think would add something to the rationale
that is already laid out here and already linked to the SDG mandate in your proposal. So that's why
I say, I don't know how significant this is, but I didn't know of explicit language to that.
would align this even more obviously for someone taking a look at it, wondering why a sustainability
commission would be the sort of one out front on this or not. But that was just a thought. I don't know
if it's worth amending. I don't know how much work that would take. And I don't want people to have
to stay late today if they don't want to. Sure. Any other thoughts on that? That's a good point. I think
it's a really good point. Can I address that question? In terms of what the additional work is,
writing down the additional whereas clause that we want to add in here. I would have had that done.
Yeah. I was looking at this before the meeting, and I was like, I have not had the time to write a paragraph
to someone to you. I apologize for not having it. That said, that angle of it could also be grounds
for a subsequent resolution from the commission as well, on FLOC.
or automated license plate reader specifically, or on the city's use of technology that relies on data
centers and that kind of machine learning in general. I think either of those would be. And I do have
plans to potentially work on something having to do with data centers as well. So we can work that into
that if you want to do it in a second. And other commissioners have started some of that work as well.
I said this last time, I'll say it again, I'm super in support of this, I think it's fantastic, and
I think it's exactly the sort of work we should be doing. I'll throw a prompt out there. What about
section five here? So I picked out a couple of organizations to send this to. So the mayor, con council,
City Clerk, Corporation Council, Chief of Police, Board of Public Safety, and Bloomington-Monroe County
Human Rights Commission. Those are kind of the organizations that, in my mind, had some clear alignment
with this, some of them for different reasons. Does this seem like a good list to folks? Is anything
missing? Does one of these things not seem like it belongs?
Does it fall in? Maybe this would be a question of a subsequent one, but if the environmental commission
would be relevant. But I think that would require that. It would be more in their wheelhouse if we were
talking more explicitly about the data center impact. Yeah. I mean, I do think that this resolution
stands on its legs on its own, like the sociable sustainability side. That being said, including a whereas
wouldn't have been
terrible, but I don't have any problem sending it to the Environmental Commission to see if they want
to do some of that work on their side, if they're interested in that. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing
stopping you informally from sending it to the Chair. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. I can just agree to do
that, but even if it's not enough. Yeah. Four other organizations since Monroe County and IU are both
users of Flock, would it maybe be a good idea to send something to those organizations to be like, hey,
you know, very closely related community, is this something that you're recommending and thinking of?
Yeah, that's a good point. I think that could be valid, but since we're not technically part of the
Monroe County or IU, could we add that to the, I don't know, I think it would be something you'd have
to do informally, right, on the site?
I think, I mean, we can always send them something if we just need to identify who the right POC is.
Yes. You know what I mean? Just put it in the resolution. Yeah? OK. I think putting it in the resolution
would just carry the weight of saying, like, hey, this is... We're formally addressing this. Yes. We
wanted you to get this, not just, like, we've set this to all the community partners. I think that the, like,
really integrated jurisdictional nature of our community between like, are you counting? I mean, I know
that this is really impactful for like pedestrian safety, right? Is that like some of these roads are
I use and some of these are ours and some of these are the counties and then we'll get the state in
there. Um, so like this is, yeah, we are an integrated community of jurisdictions. And I think it's parking.
is who's currently using ALPRs on IU's campus. Oh, is it? It's not IUPD? Well, I don't know who owns
it, but it is being piloted currently in their parking facilities. So if we did this, what would the
amendment be to add it to board of trustees? And county council? County council, county council. Yeah,
and commissioners. Who else with IU? I mean, you could-
You could say the faculty council. You could say the parking. You could say parking facilities. It could
be the Office of Sustainability, even at IU. I mean, that's just sending it to Quinton. Well, you could
send it to... Formally sending it to Quinton. Yeah. Well, I would say you could send it to Transportation
Demand Management over there as well. Okay. Okay. Would there be a value in sending it to IUBD? Yeah,
that would be so.
No. No, maybe they're thinking about it. I don't know. It would be viable. Yeah. Should we have the
sheriff on there? We could. The county sheriff? Yeah. If we're doing this, it might as well. I don't
know if it would hurt. Sorry, I'm like, the pain about procedure. So are we proposing a single amendment to add
and then create a list of additional bodies that we want to transmit it to? OK. Yeah, it might be helpful
to get that core list and then make the motion. Yeah. I just want to write down what you were saying.
Because who really has, let's take IU for example, who has control over that? Is that something that
comes up to the board of trustees level? Is that something that they can, you know,
Obviously, they have a lot of policy-making power on campus, but is that something you want to say?
That's implementation stuff. Yeah. I was just going to say parking falls under auxiliaries, I believe,
which is Luke Cliff, which is office. I believe the person that's Amanda Turnip seen. I'm going
to double-check that. Somebody knows that they're using it for
I know that they're using it for parking because I'm an employee and it's in their parking documentation
that you still have to use your hang tag. Supposedly they'll let us get rid of the tags eventually if
it works. Yeah, but it's not in a few facilities, but I don't think they tell us which ones. Have they
been deflocked?
I don't know. I don't, I don't, I have like a commuter pass. So I go to park on campus like once a month.
So if we're making a list, do we have a, uh, I don't think it hurts to do the board of trustees and
the president of our units that we're not, not even going to do anything, but it's still just formally,
they're technically the people in charge of. Sure. They work in our city. Yeah. Yeah. So board of trustees,
president, Monroe County commission, Monroe County council, sheriff, and who else?
you parking operations yeah they have a whole thing about it on their website yeah well and I'll have
an official email address yeah so it doesn't necessarily need to be like I need the you know person
can you say that list again are you parking operations board of trustees president Monroe County Commission
Monroe County Council say all members of the Monroe County Commission all members of the Monroe County
Council and the sheriff okay there's no disadvantage in
created a very large list. I don't think you want a very like a super exhaustive list. I think there
is some intention to try and make it targeted to like these were the people that we wanted to call out.
It should be intentional. Yeah. Did we want to say IUPD or no? I don't really care, but I sound like
people are saying no. So I don't. Yeah. As far as I'm aware, it's just under parking right now.
Monroe County Council and Monroe County Commissioners, does it make sense to send to both, or is there
one venue that's more appropriate for this? I have to admit, I don't totally understand the difference
between the two, and they have the same acronyms. The council is the one that passes the budget. Legislated,
legislative, executive. Yeah. So you're sending it to the city council and the mayor, which I think
both make sense.
Okay, so Board of Trustees, IU President, the County Sheriff, IU Parking Operation, and all members
of the Monroe County Council and all members of the Monroe County Commission. Did I miss any on that?
That sounds good. We can add the lawyer, the county lawyer too, but I don't think that's really necessary.
I think the county lawyer will get it. Yeah, we've got a good list.
I think they'd get anything that goes to the council. That sounds good to me. OK. So yeah, I'll make
a motion to add those in that sequence, just kind of the way I stated it. So let's see, where is it?
Yeah, right at the end of section five there, I'll get rid of the word and. So it says the Bloomington-Monroe
County Human Rights Commission, comma, and then the rest of the list,
Indiana University Board of Trustees, Indiana University President, Monroe County Sheriff, Indiana University
Parking Operation, all members of the Monroe County Commission, and all members of the Monroe County
Council. That's good. So that's my motion. Second. There's a second. All right. Any discussion on that?
We'll discuss that. All right. Then we'll move on a vote for that amendment. We'll go down the list.
Okay. Tara? Yes. Yes. Justin? Yes. Matt? Yes. Yes. Christopher? Yes. Yes. Zach? Yes. Yes. Councilmember
Rauw? Yes. Yes. Quentin Gilley? Yes. Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Maria? Yes. Yes. Dan? Yes.
Yes, and Ross? Yes. Yes, okay, and then it passes 11 to zero. Okay, so we're back on the original resolution
as amended with our two amendments. Any further discussion? All right. Oh yeah. There's a part of me
that wants, I was not familiar with,
Garrett Blainley, the CEO of Fox, fluttered to the community previously. I kind of want a whereas clause,
spelling out just as an extra detail how poor of a response that was. But I also don't know that that
really adds much. I'm happy to not.
I'm not familiar with the, was this in the packet? It was in the, so I said another addendum packet.
The addendum packet? I only got through part of the addendum packet. That's okay, let me pull it up
right now. Where's my stop share?
Yeah, here it is. So this was sent on Monday, December 8th, 2025. My understanding is that this is actually
like a mass email that went out to a bunch of their law enforcement customers. It wasn't just the Bloomington
Police Department, but yeah, it's from Flock Safety CEO, Garrett Langley. And the subject is fact check,
no hack, we will never stop fighting for you. And I'm guessing you're sort of referring to some of the
stuff that's starting like,
down here about activists and that law enforcement agencies are under coordinated attack by people who
are weaponizing the public records process. Yeah, this email also left a bad taste in my mouth. This
was in the packet addendum.
I feel like sales will be in touch. It's a weird email to send. The email went out with the meeting
notice and packet.
typing up some language? I maybe have been working on something during the meeting. Oh, that's totally
fine. No, I was just going to ask if you have something you wanted to put forward, if you wanted to.
Hi. Does acknowledging this add anything, or is it just that it's kind of under my skin because of the
extent of tone deafness of it? Because if people are like,
It's good as is. I'm satisfied with that answer. I mean, there's maybe an argument to be made that our
linking of this to our mission is in the need for a transparent society, for a sustainable society.
And this is saying that transparent society is bad. But I think it would be difficult to
It had to be worded really well. Whereas that, yeah. And I think almost, if we worded it and didn't
spend a lot of time wording it correctly, it almost is like dignifying this with a response. Almost
as better as saying, I don't know, ignore it, kind of, because it's so ridiculous. It lacks substance
that I think makes it not worth responding to, I think. It's the slime that you would get from a mini-teal,
but I don't know if it is articulatable with the core rationale that you could link to the,
mandate of the commission without meaningful work. I think you could do it, but. Yeah. Okay. I think
I was just looking through to see if I did mention it, or just like the fact that that email exists,
but I don't think that I did. All right.
I do appreciate you calling some attention to it, though, because I also had to have that far as the
additional materials, and it's a rough one to read. Yeah, yeah. No, sorry, this didn't go out sooner.
I think that the addendum packet is part of our meeting materials. I put it in a separate packet so
that you wouldn't have to, so that if people wanted to dig into some of this stuff for background
information, they could, but it was going to be separate from all the stuff that you really need to
read and review.
But yeah, I think it should. It's part of official materials. I think it should go up as like a second
packet sort of thing. Yeah. But yeah, could you just attach that letter as an exhibit without having
to do like? Well, I was just wondering if it's part of our meeting materials. Because I think that I
read some of the earlier stuff, and I think it's just useful context for anybody from the public who
wants to learn more about why we pursued this as a commission. Yeah.
But yeah, but I don't know that it needs to be called out in the resolution itself. But it's great research,
and I think valuable for folks to be part of the public. I think it's valuable research to be part of
the public record. All right. Any further discussion? Amendments? Et cetera.
Okay, hearing none, we'll move on to a vote to adopt Resolution 2026-02 as amended. Tara? Yes. Yes.
Justin? Yes. Matt? Yes. Yes. Christopher? Yes. Yes. Zach? Yes. Yes. Councilmember Barallo? Yes. Yes.
Quintin? Yes. Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Maria? Yes. Yes. Shanglai is absent.
Diana? Yes. Yes. And Ross? Yes. Yes. The resolution is adopted, 11 to 0. Very good. So I will make that
final amendment that we just talked about in the transmittal section. And I'll incorporate the one,
the first round that we got there. And I'll send that around so everybody has the final copy of that.
And then we'll get it transmitted out where it needs to go. And then we'll get added to our, is it added
as a separate packet?
I don't know. Is it on board already? It might be. We can just add it as a second packet. You can have
multiple packets. It just gets put up as a packet. Packet practices too. There's five boxes. Let me
go back to my agenda here. It'll go on onboard if it's not already.
Oh, that's the same one. While I'm pulling this up, we'll move on to agenda item 9A, which is resolutions
for first reading, resolution 2026-03, concerning the pedestrianization of Kirkwood Avenue and sustainable
transportation. So normally for the first readings, we don't do a whole lot of debate and amendment
type stuff. We usually just give a quick intro, and if there's any
pertinent questions, like I don't understand this sort of thing, then we can chat about that. Let me
pull it up and real quick before we make a motion on that, I also want to, okay, I should not try to
talk while I'm actively doing stuff. There we go. Yeah, and before we properly introduce it, I had an email.
with a statement today from Jane Coopersmith who's the director of ESD regarding the plans for Kirkwood
Kirkwood 2026. I figured I'd just read that statement here and then we'll put that in the official like
the packet materials for the next meeting when we go through the adoption portion of it. So that statement
reads as follows. City staff is extremely interested in a shared space and more pedestrianization space
long-term for Kirkwood. Planning and economic
and sustainable development will work together this year on an RFP process for a consultant for a corridor
study of Kirkwood to ensure that we consider safety, best design practices, and economic impact. There
will be significant public outreach related to the corridor study, which we plan to start in early 2027.
There is great appetite for a shared space or more pedestrian-focused space on the part of staff. It
is the implementation of this closure that was untenable for the reasons outlaid in our various memos
to council and public works.
In the meantime, the applications for parklets have launched, and there is a robust slate of space activation
and event-related street closures planned that will bring that uniquely Bloomington summer feeling to
Kirkwood. So I'll make sure this gets into the packet materials as well. And with that, I will entertain
a motion to consider resolution 2026-03 for first reading. So moved. And there is a second. Second.
Oh, sorry. Oh, you said some moves. Yeah, yeah. Gotcha. OK. And a second. Perfect. OK. So are there
any clarifying questions? Or does Zach, do you want to say a few words just about it? Yeah. I mean,
briefly, it just goes into the whereas clauses are all basically the context of what brought us to this
point. And then the operative clauses are where. So I encourage you to please read the whereas clauses.
It kind of goes through the detail of how we got here. There were a couple of footnotes that got cut off.
I can maybe add this as an amendment. If there were just additional context, not a big deal. Maybe I
can add this as an amendment next time, not a big deal. The operative causes are where the meat of it
is. Essentially, I'm recommending that we at a minimum keep the summer closure of Kirkwood to cars.
A, B, long term, strongly consider permanently closing Kirkwood to cars and not just doing it in the
summer, doing it year round. C, study.
Multiple other cities that are college towns that are very similar to Bloomington have successfully
done permanent year-round closures that are like the focal point of their entire cities. Study those
cities, see what they've done, and implement that here. De-prioritize permanent investment in streetscape
improvements. Instead of just closing the street and calling it done, we need to like put benches and
planters and things like that to make it a better, more agreeable, more pleasant place to be.
I'm suggesting we remove the administration of the program from the Department of Economic and Sustainable
Development to planning and transportation, because I fundamentally don't see this as an economic or
sustainable development thing. It's more of a planning and public space issue, and I think the planning
and transportation department is better equipped. It has more resources to handle that. And I'm also
saying that they should recommend it to the council that they repeal Section 7 of Ordinance 2502, which
is the ordinance which authorized the summer program, and that is part of the
ordinance that allows the city to shut down the program on their own. I'm saying we should just get
rid of that. And I think earlier on, I say something about replacing that with requiring council approval
to shut it down. So that's essentially what it is. The statement of values then basically says that
sustainable cities prioritize people over cars, especially in their most central public places, and
that Bloomington's identity as a walkable, bikeable community should be reflected in the design of its
most prominent and iconic pedestrian corridor.
And then I suggest a whole bunch of people send it in. Yeah, that's the resolution. In a nutshell, I'm
happy to take any questions or any concerns you guys have, or if not, we can talk next time. Yeah,
so for now, if there's any clarifying questions about what exactly it is, we can go through those. Otherwise,
if there's discussion about the merits of the resolution or things that should change, we can probably
save that for next time. But Tara, go ahead. Yeah, I have a question. Is there any information about
the accessibility
buildings, especially public buildings like the library during closures, or if there is any documentation
from accessibility or disability justice groups about the impact for people using mobility devices of
the street closures. I have anecdotally heard stuff about that, but I'm curious if there, I mean, I
know that it's like,
It's accessible, but lots of places that say they're accessible are not actually accessible. So I'm
curious if there's any kind of documentation of is this actually wide enough? Are there sufficient
handicapped parking spaces on the remaining sides? Are there whatever information about that for people
that can't access some of those buildings when it's close to car traffic?
OK. I can't speak to specific details. I'm not involved in this project, but I know that that was one
of the really heavy considerations. So my focus within ESD probably could speak to that if you would
like to reach out to them. And part of the reason why I said we should study other cities that have
successfully done this, they've successfully done it, and it's the focal point of their cities. And
they don't really have the same, they don't have, they've managed to handle the accessibility concerns.
And there's ways you can do it that allow
people with disabilities to be able to still access the block. So that's part of the reason why I said
study other cities and see what they've done. Because it definitely can be done. It's been done before
in many other cities. So I think it can be done here. I don't think there's any reason why we couldn't
do it here. But that's a fair point. I think one area we could study as well is looking at what they
do at the State Fair. Indiana State Fair has this transportation system that seems to move a lot of
people around.
It seems like something like that could work down here to help get people where they need to go in a
space that has a lot of people walking. You know what I mean? All right. Any last minute clarifying
questions on the resolution? Otherwise, we could. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I did maybe not so much a question,
but just to say that I was opposed to the reopening. It was our understanding, but with the openness
here, I think the expectation of a lot of restaurateurs
was that it would be closed. And so I think it was important for certainty in the report. But then comes
the matter of whether the city engineers the power to make this decision. And this has been a dispute
at the council between council and administration. And at this point, because we're lacking a council
attorney, it's sort of in limbo at this point.
So that that part will have to be revisited whether the council has authority to make Permanent or temporary
change certainly this is the engineer has the ability to make temporary changes But whether it falls
the administration or the council formally always went to the council Yeah in terms of decisions like
this So we're gonna have to get clarification about that from our new attorney on state statute and
how to interpret it so
But I see you've got a lot of experience with this, so I'm very impressed by the information and looking
forward to more debate on it, for sure. I mean, FYI, I mean, it is, I'm sort of, I'm leaning toward
permanent closure, but I don't, I need to really hear from constituents and businesses. I understand
that when polled, it was about, I think it was 10 businesses were,
wanting to be reopened, and about 20 wanted it closed. Obviously restaurants, it's in their interest.
Other places that don't benefit from it necessarily being closed. They have accessibility problems.
So I'm interested in debating it further, and I really appreciate all the work you put in.
All right. Well, why don't we move on to a vote? So this is just to advance it past the first reading,
and it'll be on our agenda again next meeting for a second reading and adoption. OK. Tara? Yes. Yes.
Justin, yes. Matt? Yes. Yes. Christopher? Yes. Yes. Zach? Yes. Yes. Councilmember Arroyo? Yes. Yes.
Quentin? Yes. Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Maria? Yes. Yes. Shang Lai is absent. Diana? Yes.
Yes, and Ross? Yes. Yes, wonderful. That advances to a second reading at the next meeting. That brings
us to resolution 26-04, which is sponsored by Matt. And you have the floor to just describe what this
one's about. So with all the recent news that President Trump was pushing glyphosate to be something
related to national security,
and all the conversations that have been happening about it, it's kind of made sense. And I've opposed
glyphosate for a long time with the urban farm and soil health being very, very important. And that's
part of the reason why Garden Q, myself, my sister are working so hard with Bokashi, because Bokashi
is a solution to soil health, can contribute greatly to the health of soil. So this is very simple.
I've seen the city.
I haven't seen them actually spray glyphosate, but I saw what I really like is actually put a sign up
that glyphosate was sprayed here. So I like that aspect. Fortunately, it was right on the edge of the
road next to the community orchard in the area where they have wood chips and other things dropped off.
And then I had a neighbor who had contracted work out and they were putting glyphosate on their gravel
drive and all the water
We were downstream from them. And so I got into a heated argument with the gentleman, to put it lightly.
So basically, this is just saying that we don't want glyphosate used in public areas. We want to look
at other options like integrated pest management. Yeah, it's very, very simple. And as for there have
been other cities that have already done this, college towns like Lawrence has implemented an integrated
pest management program aimed at reducing chemical herbicides.
And then Evanston, Illinois and Urbana, Illinois as well, when we're talking places similar to Bloomington.
So it's very simple. Just let's stop using glyphosate. There's other ways that you can do it, vinegar,
salts, things like that. Very good. Is there a motion to consider resolution 2026-04 for first reading?
Second. Perfect. All right. So again, any urgent questions that need to be answered about this before
we go to the next month?
Yeah, I appreciate the resolution. It came up in the last administration, actually, and I was interested
in this. So I queried the then director of Parks and Rec, and they utilize it. And I think that's how
the notification became part of, I don't know, operations. I don't know if it was codified or not, but
it became, you know, essentially a warning because, you know,
chemical sensitivity or people want to avoid it and so forth. My only caution is, when I query before,
to find out, and I can share this list, it's probably changed, but I asked for insecticides, herbicides,
fungicides that were used, growth inhibitors that were used in the past at this time, and that was 10
years ago. I got a list, itemizing list with
volumes or poundage. And some seem to me to be, you know, really discretionary or unnecessary that would
be addressed by probably other means. So things like, you know, Twin Lakes, Twin Lakes ball fields,
you know, they were using it glyphosate to spray along fence rows. Seems like we could find other means
to do it. However, I would like to say that
I make an exception with natural resources because I was convinced about that time that it's an important
part of treating non-native invasive species. That is that if it's used in a very discreet way where
you, you know, calorie pairs or bush honeysuckles or multiflora rose, which have large root masses,
difficult to take out, would require a lot of weight,
work and everything, to cut it off and paint the stump, which is a very minimal amount. So they were
using just a few gallons to do that, and they were using it at Griffey to essentially eliminate these
non-native invasives that would ordinarily not be able to be treated. I mean, I used to work in,
you know, I used to be a farmer. The people across the street from me sprayed it on their 40 acres,
I mean, in huge quantities. That's what the trumpet meant.
I think it has, and I see in the resolution, and I appreciate this, that in section one, it says that
it encourages the city council and other relevant entities to adopt policies that prohibit or restrict
the use of the glyphosate. So I see that operationally, I would like to prohibit it in cases, especially
where people are recreating ball fields and things like that, and only have it utilized in places where
might be absolutely necessary. So I wondered about if that sounds acceptable. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Because I know we took down, the electric company took down a calorie pair, and they asked about putting
glyphosate onto the root. And I said, no, we're going to do some vinegar. Yeah. So really targeted
applications on a basis makes complete sense. Yeah. So I think maybe before we hear this again, I could
inquire at Parks and Rec to see if I can get a list, a current list.
So the commission can see exactly where it was being utilized and where specifically. And then we can
kind of go from there. But overall, I think I like it how you framed it. Because I would like to restrict
it if at all possible. I'd love it if there was an alternative. And maybe I'll inquire to see if there
is something that could be utilized right now. Ellen Jacquard, who was the ecologist with, well, she
works with MCI or whatever it's called.
Indiana, is it MCI? Okay, she's with INPS, which used to be INPOS, which is the Indiana Native Land
Society or something. Anyway, she does it actively and she's done it for years. She would be his resource,
so we'll be in touch and we'll learn to acquire that thing.
All right, sorry to take so much time. Yeah, my focus comment is to say that the City of Bloomington's
integrated pest management plan that they do have. They do, at the forefront of it, say the goal is
to reduce pesticide herbicide use as much as possible. So yeah, take a look at that too. And I can connect
with Joanna Sparks as well. I used to do cut stuff treatment. I actually used glyphosate myself. So
I have some experience with that, being very limited.
entities, as you explained, so. Anyway, I just wanted to- Is that the one that's blue when they paint
it, so that you can see what's been treated? All right, we should probably move on, because we're two
minutes away from the end of the meeting, and we still have a staff report to get through, so. OK, so
this is to advance to a second reading. Resolution 2026-04. Tara? Yes. Yes. Justin, yes. Matt? Yes.
Yes. Christopher? Yes. Zach? Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
We are applying for a grant through Climate Smart Communities Initiative. We are requesting $72,000
for a green infrastructure planning grant for the three cities. So I'll keep you posted on that if we
are awarded. We have finished our LED lighting upgrades at fire stations four and five, the animal shelter,
sanitation building, and Banneker Center. So that's all for today. Nice. Thank you very much. Any questions for?
Well, thank you. That brings us to member announcements. Boy, we have 40 seconds left. Who's got something
they want to share? Garden Cue is restarting their Bokashi workshops starting in May. And you'll see
that on the Community Orchards website. And then also is partnered with Wonder Lab to introduce Bokashi
to their end of summer, beginning of summer, end of school year festival. And is partnering again with
the Taste of Bloomington. And it looks like we're going to have some
waste stations that are sponsored by Coke Consolidated. They're not cheap, but are going to make it
a much better experience in dealing with your recyclables, your landfill, and your food waste. So we're
excited about that. And I'm also talking about Coke's goal at taking every single bottle and turning
that back into a new bottle. They haven't been doing that until 2023 is when they started this program.
We felt like that recycling was great, but that's much better.
Yeah, go. Bloomington Energy Works, the residential outreach side of things. We're doing a large canvassing
outreach effort the last weekend in March, so March 28th, 29th. If anybody wants to go walk around and
knock on doors, the club is probably going to be great for it. We would love to have additional people.
And it's a lot of fun. Yes, thank you. Nice.
The Ashkenazi Museum has a fiber art installation on the main floor that is about ecology and recycled
materials that is astonishing. There's some stuff that's crocheted out of all food delivery bags.
All right, we've got eight seconds. If you want to plant a tree, there are several tree planning events
happening through Canopy Bloomington over the next few weeks to a couple of months. How do we find them?
It's called Canopy Blue and it's online. I don't know the website. I'm sorry. All right. That brings
us to the end of the meeting. That was great. Lots of member announcements. We'd like to see that. Our
next meeting is at April 14th. I will stand adjourned at 7 31 p.m. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.