WEBVTT

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- Go ahead and get started then. I'll call to order this meeting of the Bloomington Commission

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- on Sustainability and Resilience on Tuesday, September 8th at 6 p.m. And we'll call the roll. Commissioner

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- Dutterdale. Here. Commissioner Vassell, I'm here. Commissioner Payne. Here. Here. Commissioner Miles.

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- Open up my Zoom window. absent. Vice Chair Emmerman. Here. Councilmember Rallo.

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- Quiet, but he's here. He's got to come on. Yeah. Whether that's a sound issue in the room or the hearing?

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- Oh, yeah. You've got you. Very quiet. A little bit quiet, but we might be able to adjust that. But I've

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- got you marked down. OK. Commissioner York? Nope. Commissioner Arstad? Here. Here. Commissioner Ogrodowsky?

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- Here. Here. And Commissioner Carlson?

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- I am here. You're here. Excellent. Perfect. Well, we have a quorum. Happy Tuesday, everybody. We had

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- a nice break with the temperatures for like a couple of days, and now we're right back to it. But hopefully

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- everyone had a nice Labor Day weekend and got some time to enjoy the outdoors without immediately bursting

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- into flames. So OK, so let's do the approval of the agenda first. I do have one change that I want to make.

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- guest speaker here today to talk about retro cycle, that's item 6A. So I'll be asking to move that up

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- to after approval of the minutes and before public comment, just to be respectful of their time. Are

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- there any other changes to the agenda that anyone wants to offer? Okay. Then I'll make that motion to

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- make that change. And there's a second. And we'll go through a voice vote for that, or sorry, roll call

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- vote for that. Commissioner Dugdale. Yes.

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- Yes. Commissioner Vassel, yes. Commissioner Payne? Yes. Yes. Commissioner Miles is still absent at the

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- moment. Commissioner Amelman? Yes. Yes. Councilmember Rallo? Yes. Yes. Commissioner York is absent.

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- Commissioner Arstad? Yes. Commissioner Ogrodowsky? Yes. And Commissioner Carlson? Yes. Yes. Perfect.

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- I guess that was just a motion to, well,

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- I guess that was just a motion to amend, but did everyone understand that to be a motion to amend and

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- approve? Approve as amended. Okay. Wonderful. Okay. Can you tell me the amendment? Yes, it was to move

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- item 6A, retrocycle introduction after item three, approval of the minutes and before item four, public

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- comment. Thank you.

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- Okay, that brings us to approval of the minutes for July 14, 2026, our regular. Oh yeah. Thanks. Uh,

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- commission member, uh, commissioner York, are you present? We do not see you. Excellent. I see, I see

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- your background.

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- I don't know why you don't see me. Are you behind the chair? Do you have a little sliding thing on your

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- camera? You know what? That is exactly why you don't see me. I think he's behind the zipper. Yeah, there

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- we go. Easier. OK. Excellent. Welcome.

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- Okay, great. Uh, so approval of the minutes for July 14th, 2026. Um, are there any corrections that

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- anybody wants to make to those minutes? Okay. Is there a motion to approve? And a second. Second. Perfect.

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- All right. This is to approve the minutes from July 14th, 2026. Uh, commissioner Dunderdale.

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- Yes. Commissioner Vassel. Yes. Commissioner Payne. Yes. Yes. Uh, commissioner Ammerman. Yes. Yes. Council

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- member Rallo.

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- Yes. Yes. Commissioner York. Yes. Yes. Commissioner Arstad. Yes. Yes. Commissioner Ogrodowsky. Yes.

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- Yes. And Commissioner Carlson. Yes. Yes. OK. The minutes are approved. Great. And so that brings us

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- to 6A, Retrocycle Introduction. So let's see. Maybe feel free to grab this spot up here. And just before

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- we get started, I'll just

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- say a couple things here. So we're going to hear from Meredith Katz, who's the CEO and co-founder of

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- Retro Cycle, which is a Colorado-based company. She'll tell you more about it, so I'm not going to go

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- into that really, but it's ultimately sort of a reuse program for coffee cups, both hot and cold, that

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- they've been rolling out in different parts of Colorado, and it's been very successful.

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- Retro Cycle is interested in making Bloomington sort of the entryway into their Indiana rollout.

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- And so, you know, we had chatted a little bit about the company and the model and how it works. And

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- this seems like something that could be a really good like working group grants project for us. This

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- is a good kind of example of like a pilot program that could go on to get established and sort of sustained

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- in other ways and get started here. I think it's also a good opportunity for us to collaborate with other

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- groups that might have an interest in this, like the Environmental Commission, the Arts Commission,

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- Waste Management District, Monroe County, IU potentially. So those kind of things, we don't have to

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- make any decisions today about that sort of stuff. We don't have to really make a plan or anything like

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- that. We can discuss further at a future meeting. Today is mostly just to hear a little bit more about

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- the product, about the company.

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- and what it might look like here in Bloomington. And then we'll open it up to questions so people can

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- just get a more familiarity with it. With that, I'll pass it off to you, Meredith. Awesome. Thanks,

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- Justin. That was a great introduction. So I'm Meredith Katz. I actually graduated from IU well over

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- a decade ago. And I'm a proud user. And I'm the CEO of Rector Cycle, which is a 501c3 nonprofit.

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- based in Colorado and our mission is to create circular systems to replace disposable ones. Our goal

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- is that reuse becomes an everyday behavior of borrow and return and so simple and so easy that it feels

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- quite intuitive and what you see in front of you the Colorado Cup is our first

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- program that we have rolled out across now three municipalities across Colorado and expanding. We also

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- partner with local artists to design these cups to really localize the program, which is why you mentioned

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- the Arts Commission, Justin. So like I mentioned, the Colorado Cup is a statewide borrow and return

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- system for reusable to go cups. It's been launched in Breckenridge was our first town where there are

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- 15,000 residents and 2 million visitors.

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- So we were tasked with making a reuse system so easy and effortless that people who were there for maybe

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- even 24 hours could engage with the system. The best way to explain it is, I think, with a story. I

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- was sitting in a cafe one Friday, and I saw this gentleman return a cup at the counter and walk out

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- with an ice cream cone. And I ran after him quite ungracefully to ask him about his experience with

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- the Colorado Cup.

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- and he introduced himself as Jake from Texas, and he landed in Breckenridge that Monday, and when his

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- first stop was at a cafe to get caffeinated, and the barista offered him, asked him a question of, would

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- you like that in a Colorado cup? Something he had never heard before. And the barista explained to him,

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- you would pay a $2.50 deposit, you can then take this cup with you, and you can either, you can bring

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- it back to any cafe, there's a QR on the cup that you can see,

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- and scan. And then you can trade it and swap out that cup as many times as you'd like for a clean cup

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- and a new drink. And when you're finally done with it, you can return it and you'll get a 250 discount

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- on anything at any cafe across the state of Colorado in the system. And so Jake thought that was pretty

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- cool. Brisa also mentioned that all the cafes wash the cups and then restock them. And so it's decentralized

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- washing. So

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- Jake opted in, he paid a 250 deposit, and on that Tuesday, when he got his coffee, he brought his cup

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- with him, and he swapped out his cup for a new cup. And on Wednesday, he did the same thing.

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- And on Thursday, he swapped out his cup again. And finally, that Friday, when I met him with his ice

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- cream cone melting, he returned his cup and he got a discount on an ice cream cone on his way to the

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- airport. And Jake from Texas saved six single-use cups that week.

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- And single use cups, coffee cups, make up over 40% of waste, about 40% of waste, 37% to be exact, of

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- Brigham Ridge's main street trash. And so RetroCycle, we partner with the municipality to roll out this

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- program in efforts that hopefully that will reduce the cost on all those pickups if we can

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- really significantly reduce the waste of downtown. So that's how it works for the customer. Something

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- so intuitive and easy that Jake

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- from Texas picked up on the system coming to Breckenridge in a matter of a few days. Now, how it works

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- for the cafes is it's not just a sustainability initiative, it's an economic one. Cafes purchase these

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- cups for $2.50, which is a higher sticker price than a single-use cup. However, they receive that $2.50

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- every time a customer borrows a cup, so it creates a break-even. And single-use coffee cups, they range

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- in price, but we're seeing the average around $0.30 today.

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- So every time that a customer opts in for a Colorado Cup, that cafe saves 30 cents, which is that adds

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- up to be quite a bit when you're doing 300 to 500 transactions a day on average. So that's how it works

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- for the cafes. How it works for the municipality and why I'm here do not talk about the Colorado Cup

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- but the Indiana Cup is that we ask the municipality and this is how it has worked in Colorado where

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- we've launched

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- to buy a starting case of cups for every cafe, because really the more expensive thing than dollars

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- for these cafes is the energy and attention. They are busy working early morning, baking typically tonight.

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- And so by just buying the starting cases of cups, it's not only an economic booster for that cafe, but

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- it allows them to focus on what's most important, which is setting up the system, training their staff,

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- And it's quite easy. It's just three buttons that are added to their POS. A Colorado cut borrow, or

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- I should say an Indiana cut borrow of 250, a discount for a return of 250, and a swap, which is $0.

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- We still track that. So the last thing I'll mention is how the program's going. Like I mentioned, we

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- launched about three months ago. Our participation rate is about 2%.

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- We had just started rolling out paid marketing efforts of ads and collaboration, collaborated municipal

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- efforts. So Instagram, Facebook posts, newsletters coming from the municipality to their various audiences

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- about the program and that's something that we provide as their partner. So we've eliminated over 750

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- single use cups. The return rate is something that I was really concerned about with launching this program.

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- I estimated about 10%. The return rate has been 40%. So the reordering time has actually been quite

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- elongated for these cafes. And for resorts and closed-loop systems, and I say this because it's in relation

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- to campus here at IU too, we're seeing over 75% return rates for resorts in Breckenridge.

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- The cup system really is a template for any city or town to use. And like I said, I'm a proud Hoosier.

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- And this system was actually built by IU students. When you scan this cup and you pull up the map, that

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- was all built by Luddy students. And so I didn't just go to IU. I'm not just from Indianapolis. The

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- first cafe that we tested was Bloomington Bagel on the map, not a cafe in Colorado.

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- which makes me really proud, makes people really proud to be here today to see about adopting a system

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- here. Justin, I shared the numbers with you. We can go over those if you want, but I'll pause here because

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- I want to leave space for commentary questions. Thank you. Yeah, wonderful. Thank you for being here.

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- Yeah, so as Meredith mentioned, she had sent some numbers about what it might look like in Bloomington

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- estimates and stuff in terms of how many

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- cafes and things like that and what the cost would be, you know, to get that kind of stood up. So that's

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- something I'll circulate to the group and we'll probably have a more detailed discussion about it at

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- a future meeting. But for now, let me open it up to the floor to commissioners who have questions. I

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- love it just off of that. Yeah, I think Bloomington would be such a good fit for it. And the IU system

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- in general.

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- especially because it's got that IU DNA built in. You said 2% participation. Does that mean 2% of the

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- state of Colorado? Or what is that 2%? Yeah, so out of all the to-go orders, drink orders at that goes

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- cafe, we collect the data. 2% of those to-go drink orders are ordered and are reusable. Gotcha. Our

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- goal is to get to 20%. So we've been iterating on the signage. Our goal is to get to 5% by the end of

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- the year. But ultimately, the goal is one in five cups.

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- is starting to be reusable. So we're really working on stair-stepping our way and iterating. Yeah. Great.

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- Thank you. Yes, of course. So out in Colorado, have you had any cafes that are chains? I'm trying to

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- think of an anonymous example of the university system would have multiple cafes, although they would

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- be one recipient or buyer.

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- So I'm not sure if you guys dealt with that or like? Yes, we have. Actually, we are about to onboard

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- our first cafe chain. It has five different locations. So we're going to be launching in Boulder, in

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- Boulder County, and working similarly at CU Boulder to hopefully work with students to implement that

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- system. And so we have a cafe chain of five locations there.

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- And so the next step, we have met with Starbucks. They are aware of the system. They are aware of the

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- program. We're a little small for them right now. But yes, Einstein, Kiribu Coffee, other chains. So

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- working on small chains right now. But yeah, and that actually makes it quite easier, I would say, if

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- there's one buyer and chains. It makes it quite simpler.

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- are you just visiting? I'm just visiting. You're just visiting. How long are you going to be here? I'm

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- here until the end of the day. Oh, the end of the day. I was going to suggest that you meet with the

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- Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association. They have funding. They work with small businesses, so they

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- may be interested in helping the commission. I'm not sure how much the cases cost or how many people

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- would be interested, but you might need additional funding. That's a great.

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- Enterprise Association. Okay, thank you. I can always get a contact and reach out. That's what I've

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- been doing with the sustainability department of IU and also the Kelly School of Business, the social

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- impact part of that school too. I look for student involvement to start that train early. Yeah, if possible.

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- Okay. Yeah, great. And I have met with a few cafes as well. I did go around.

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- I counted about 13 eligible cafes. We don't count diners, like Village Deli, for instance, is not a

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- cafe we would consider. Like where we focus primarily on cafes where they primarily are to go. Yeah.

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- And so what I sent to Justin includes about 10, a budget for around 10 cafes. Our goal is always to

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- get at least 50% saturation because then that creates the network effect. Yeah. What's the cost for

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- like a case?

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- An initial case, so the sizes vary. So the cups are $2 and the lids are $0.50. For the cold cups, we

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- have a cold cup that's clear. The case size is $180. So one case is $360. For the hot cups, the case

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- sizes are a little smaller. They're about $70. And so that's about $140. And so we recommend buying

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- two cases of hot, one case of cold, so the numbers are pretty similar. And then for the lids,

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- The hotlids come in a case of 144 to $72. And then for the cold cups, it's 180 for the lids. And so

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- that's $90. And that's all in the project plan that Justin sent. Yeah. And then the other thing is there

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- is a subscription fee of $45 a month for every cafe. I should mention that. It does cover shipping.

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- marketing materials in general. It goes into a general marketing fund where we promote those cafes.

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- So for instance, like the town of Breckenridge, you'll see they're promoting the cafes that are in it.

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- So they're getting free, they're getting marketing out of it. And they make that back fairly quickly

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- with the savings. Okay. And what other, so are you just in Breckenridge right now so far? Frisco and

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- Dillon, neighboring towns. And by the end of the year, we will be in Silverthorn, Vale, and Stinglet Springs.

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- that grant goes through that we've applied to with the state in full transparency, and also Boulder.

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- OK, that's cool. Commissioner York has a question. Go ahead. Mr. York. Yeah, I love this. I'd love to

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- talk about using some of our available grant funding to support this. I was wondering if it could potentially be

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- I haven't heard that name yet. The Indiana Cup and the B-Town Cup, I've heard. But I like Hoosier Cup,

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- too. Well, the particularly high school spirit, I think, right now is the success of all teams. I think

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- Hoosier Cup would go over really well. And then, I'm sorry if you said this and I missed it, but Ramo

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- can't see the Cubs crazy ball things. Is it obviously?

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- Yes, this is polypropylene number five. Mm-hmm. Durable for a thousand uses, yeah. Okay. Is the double

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- wall insulated? Do people still use a paper foam? No sleeve required. It is ridged. I don't know if

00:19:51.431 --> 00:20:00.318
- you can see that there's a texture. Yeah. When you rotate that, actually, I'm not going to use that.

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- The ridges show up.

00:20:02.242 --> 00:20:08.629
- No sleeve required. It is a little bit thicker, so if the beverage is, I mean, it's great for lattes.

00:20:08.629 --> 00:20:14.891
- If I get an Americano in this, I hold it a little bit more at the bottom, where it is a little more

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- insulated. And we chose to go with plastic for a few reasons. One is for the price. We do,

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- with our research, we show that people are more economically sensitive and material sensitive. And we

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- know that single-use cups do have a PET lining.

00:20:30.114 --> 00:20:37.805
- in there too, so there is plastic in those cups, and that makes it quite hard to recycle them. So that's

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- a big reason that the cost is the number one reason why we went with plastic. Yeah, I figured that all

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- makes sense.

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- It's not ideal in that sense. I understand that replacing a cup that is already lined with plastic.

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- So it's not worse in that sense. But if there were a non-plastic alternative, it could get away from

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- that. But then you've got other problems with cost or durability or something. So probably no perfect

00:21:24.749 --> 00:21:31.670
- solution. I'm really glad you brought that up, actually, because I'm also plastic sensitive. And so

00:21:31.670 --> 00:21:33.470
- I empathize with plastic.

00:21:33.570 --> 00:21:40.547
- with that too, and I have a stainless steel thermos that I bring around with me. Part of our 501C3 is

00:21:40.547 --> 00:21:47.593
- to continue research of what are the best materials for reusables. So we actually commissioned a study

00:21:47.593 --> 00:21:55.117
- with CU Boulder to compare a single-use cup with coffee to our cup. Unfortunately, it came back inconclusive.

00:21:55.117 --> 00:22:01.958
- So we're now in search of another lab to do that study because we want to fully understand what the

00:22:01.958 --> 00:22:03.326
- reusable impact is.

00:22:03.714 --> 00:22:10.870
- And so that is research that we are actively doing and can keep you in the loop on. But yes, it's, the

00:22:10.870 --> 00:22:17.819
- reason we went with Bully Proply number five is because that is the material that the German system

00:22:17.819 --> 00:22:25.114
- uses, ReCup, which has 20,000 cafes on that system. They have not done any testing like this. So I think

00:22:25.114 --> 00:22:32.062
- we're taking it kind of a step further that we know of, or that's been shared with us. And so, but,

00:22:32.418 --> 00:22:38.825
- Excellent question. We have looked into a stainless steel system. But first, we want to see how the

00:22:38.825 --> 00:22:45.552
- plastic system does and iron out the kinks of a reasonable system with a more economical material before

00:22:45.552 --> 00:22:52.216
- we add in a more expensive material and make that larger environmental impact that stainless steel does

00:22:52.216 --> 00:22:58.174
- with the manufacturing. Why don't you elaborate on that? I assume with stainless steel, just

00:23:01.762 --> 00:23:08.453
- Certainly. Yes, it has to be. And this is a little more thicker of a cup. And you can't see it, but

00:23:08.453 --> 00:23:15.411
- we can leave one behind so you can see it in the future. All right, any last questions? Yeah, go ahead.

00:23:15.411 --> 00:23:22.102
- Just clarifying, you said it's good for 1,000 uses? Yes. OK. That's impressive. It's good for 1,000

00:23:22.102 --> 00:23:28.926
- uses. Have you considered approaching IU for a partnership on the research aspect of this? I haven't,

00:23:28.926 --> 00:23:31.134
- actually. If you have a contact,

00:23:31.426 --> 00:23:37.301
- I would, for that research and lab research, I would love that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm in. That'd be

00:23:37.301 --> 00:23:43.175
- great. The sustainability office, if you're working with them, may also be able to connect you with

00:23:43.175 --> 00:23:49.109
- somebody who's working in material sciences or something like that. Excellent. Yes. Our next product

00:23:49.109 --> 00:23:55.042
- launch is a pizza box, a reusable pizza box. Oh, that's cool. So next time I'm in Bloomington, happy

00:23:55.042 --> 00:23:59.742
- to bring that by so you can check it out. Cool. Nice. All right. Anything else?

00:24:02.018 --> 00:24:08.856
- OK, perfect. Well, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll keep you posted.

00:24:08.856 --> 00:24:14.984
- Awesome. Thank you. I can leave one if you'd like to have it for discussion. Perfect. Awesome.

00:24:14.984 --> 00:24:21.950
- Thank you all. Thank you so much. Is that going to our official PCOS inventory? No, in the minute. Probably

00:24:21.950 --> 00:24:28.530
- should, yeah. Yeah, enter it into the record. No, like our boxes. No, I know. Yeah, yeah. We probably

00:24:28.530 --> 00:24:30.078
- should put it in there.

00:24:30.434 --> 00:24:36.579
- OK, wonderful. OK, so that brings us to public comment. And I am pleased to say that we've got a full

00:24:36.579 --> 00:24:42.723
- house here in the gallery. And I know we've got somebody online, so maybe we'll start out here in the

00:24:42.723 --> 00:24:49.290
- room. We usually set aside about 10 minutes for this, and we try to ask that everybody keeps their comments,

00:24:49.290 --> 00:24:55.374
- each person under three minutes. Is there anyone in the room who would like to make a public comment

00:24:55.374 --> 00:25:00.254
- today? Yeah, here on the end, you can come up so that you're closer to the mics.

00:25:00.418 --> 00:25:05.774
- Just introduce yourself quickly and then you'll have three minutes Hello, my name is Jordan Connor I

00:25:05.774 --> 00:25:11.183
- came to speak here this evening regarding the letter to the mayor's office concerning flock I came to

00:25:11.183 --> 00:25:16.645
- make public public comment because I believe flock and ALPRs pose a significant threat to the security

00:25:16.645 --> 00:25:22.107
- and safety of our community I Want to applaud the Commission on their work so far in advising the city

00:25:22.107 --> 00:25:25.342
- on the dangers of ALPRs and recommending their abandonment I

00:25:25.858 --> 00:25:31.063
- I'm frankly concerned at the lack of transparency from the mayor's office regarding the status of these

00:25:31.063 --> 00:25:36.217
- cameras and misleading phrasing from the mayor in the past about the status of the contracts. I'm glad

00:25:36.217 --> 00:25:41.472
- that the contracts reportedly won't be renewed. Even so, I regularly see the Flock Condor cameras around

00:25:41.472 --> 00:25:46.876
- Kirkwood and think to myself that I have no way of knowing if my gate data or other identifying information

00:25:46.876 --> 00:25:51.230
- about me is being transmitted to Flock or AWS servers and accessed without my consent.

00:25:52.002 --> 00:25:56.564
- In Dayton, Ohio, where my great uncle lives, and Evanston, Illinois, where I lived just a few years

00:25:56.564 --> 00:26:01.264
- ago, city officials covered their flock cameras with garbage bags to ensure the protection and privacy

00:26:01.264 --> 00:26:05.918
- of their citizens. To me, this is an option that solves a big problem, which is the fact that whether

00:26:05.918 --> 00:26:10.480
- the rest of the contracts actually get renewed or not, the cameras are up and have no indicators of

00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:15.362
- if and when they're recording. And they will likely stay that way for months unless the city takes action.

00:26:15.362 --> 00:26:19.742
- I would like to respectfully request that the commission consider adding language to the letter

00:26:19.842 --> 00:26:25.302
- that will be read later this evening, proposing an immediate solution to the specter of surveillance

00:26:25.302 --> 00:26:30.708
- still present on our streets. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Did I spell

00:26:30.708 --> 00:26:36.276
- your name correctly? C-O-N-N-E-R? O-R. O-R, OK. And is it Jordan, J-O-R-D-A-N? Yep. OK, thank you very

00:26:36.276 --> 00:26:41.682
- much. Oh, yeah, that might be it here. Anybody got a piece of paper? Maybe we can then sign it? Oh,

00:26:41.682 --> 00:26:47.358
- yes, that would be great. That's a good idea. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Yeah, just so that I can correctly

00:26:47.554 --> 00:26:54.796
- I think we'll just switch to online in case there's anyone online and then we'll come back to the room.

00:26:54.796 --> 00:27:01.829
- Is there anyone on Zoom who would like to make a public comment? Yes, good evening everyone. My name

00:27:01.829 --> 00:27:08.862
- is Jamie Schultz. Many of you know me from my time on this commission, my work in urban ag and local

00:27:08.862 --> 00:27:10.046
- food resilience.

00:27:10.242 --> 00:27:16.241
- I trust that the follow-up document I sent to city council and the administration has also made its

00:27:16.241 --> 00:27:22.300
- way to you and that you reviewed the more than 20 current threats to our local food system. I'm here

00:27:22.300 --> 00:27:28.299
- to ask this commission to draft a resolution formally recommending that the city funded food system

00:27:28.299 --> 00:27:34.418
- manager or a similar position. And separately, I'd like to ask you to encourage council to prioritize

00:27:34.418 --> 00:27:37.598
- considering the chicken flock ordinance modification

00:27:37.890 --> 00:27:44.888
- that came from this body to increase allowed block sizes. Both are concrete doable steps for local food

00:27:44.888 --> 00:27:51.954
- resilience. The world is changing quickly. Bloomington needs adaptation strategies as much as mitigation

00:27:51.954 --> 00:27:58.750
- strategies. Reducing emissions is essential, but it does not prepare us for a disrupted food supply.

00:27:59.010 --> 00:28:05.364
- We've already proven this role works. Bloomington funded a food systems coordinator once, and five years

00:28:05.364 --> 00:28:11.475
- later, the NonStop Selectives had helped launch on Kirkwood continues to thrive. On a personal note,

00:28:11.475 --> 00:28:17.950
- I stepped off this commission earlier this year, intending to continue supporting local food systems work.

00:28:18.146 --> 00:28:24.431
- I am doing so through the United Way Supported Blooming Zone Initiative. This month we will be getting

00:28:24.431 --> 00:28:30.595
- multi-port community education series to instruct community members on how to build a pantry and how

00:28:30.595 --> 00:28:37.063
- to prepare healthful meals from those staple foods. I'm looking at assisting in helping set up a template

00:28:37.063 --> 00:28:43.165
- for an ESD grant application for supporting decentralized neighborhood gardening and community seed

00:28:43.165 --> 00:28:47.742
- storage. Thank you, and I miss coming to these meetings if you don't know.

00:28:47.906 --> 00:28:53.978
- Thank you, Jamie. It's great to hear from you. I just wanted to provide one clarification. The city

00:28:53.978 --> 00:29:00.292
- didn't provide the funding for that food coordinator position. We received a grant. And when that grant

00:29:00.292 --> 00:29:06.485
- was expended, there was no longer any funding for the position. So just making that clarification, it

00:29:06.485 --> 00:29:11.646
- was funded through a grant. OK. All right. In the room, I see a hand up in the back.

00:29:13.986 --> 00:29:21.668
- We're talking about the same flock that's there in that case. Different flocks. More chickens. So hi,

00:29:21.668 --> 00:29:29.200
- I'm Ryan. I'm a proud member of the Bloomington Democratic Socialists of America and also the chair

00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:36.958
- of the Community Defense Committee, which many of us are here. The CDC, as we claim or are named, aims

00:29:36.958 --> 00:29:43.134
- to create real material protections for members of the community targeted by ICE.

00:29:43.682 --> 00:29:50.131
- One of the ways that we do that is by advocating for the removal of fascist infrastructure in the form

00:29:50.131 --> 00:29:56.518
- of mass surveillance. FLOC is one of the many tools that ICE uses to track immigrants and abduct them

00:29:56.518 --> 00:30:02.967
- when they are most vulnerable. Needless to say, mass surveillance, by definition, affects every living

00:30:02.967 --> 00:30:09.417
- person in the United States. I have flired a lot for FLOC protests that we've held, and 99% of people,

00:30:09.417 --> 00:30:12.798
- when asked about FLOC, say something to the extent of

00:30:13.026 --> 00:30:19.548
- Oh yeah, and then a swear word, and then the word flock, and it happens to alliterate quite nicely.

00:30:19.548 --> 00:30:26.462
- I won't say it here for obvious reasons. Flock is an extremely unpopular company among the working class,

00:30:26.462 --> 00:30:33.245
- which it was built to surveil. People care about their rights to privacy, and it's absurd that a system

00:30:33.245 --> 00:30:38.398
- that was essentially implemented overnight was done so without public comment.

00:30:39.362 --> 00:30:45.683
- It's also obvious why this was done, because anybody in their right mind who has done any degree of

00:30:45.683 --> 00:30:52.258
- research about FLOC would understand the risk that it poses and say, hell no. We have worked tirelessly

00:30:52.258 --> 00:30:58.958
- to understand the city's commitment to FLOC and demand more transparency from the mayor and police chief.

00:30:58.958 --> 00:31:05.406
- It's been a frustrating journey, to say the least, dare I say, maybe intentionally vague at times. We

00:31:05.406 --> 00:31:07.998
- thank you guys for drafting this letter.

00:31:08.258 --> 00:31:15.412
- and to the mayor's office as it demands answers to the questions that we've been asking for several

00:31:15.412 --> 00:31:22.709
- years now. And I also definitely second and back Jordan's comments about adopting some of the wording

00:31:22.709 --> 00:31:30.006
- that he listed. We look forward to a future where FLOC is bankrupt and out of our community, not just

00:31:30.006 --> 00:31:36.158
- the license plate readers, but also the video surveillance variants known as Condors.

00:31:36.770 --> 00:31:44.346
- and the trailer units as well. Needless to say, we don't want a replacement for them either.

00:31:44.346 --> 00:31:52.981
- Match Surveillance hides behind many brand names and none of them have a right or a place in Bloomington.

00:31:52.981 --> 00:32:01.534
- So thank you very much. Thank you. People are doing a great job staying in time. I'll give people like a

00:32:01.890 --> 00:32:08.467
- a little signal when you're getting like 30 seconds from your time. No, you're good. Very helpful. No,

00:32:08.467 --> 00:32:14.916
- you're great. I just realized I should be doing that next throughout. All right. Go right over here.

00:32:14.916 --> 00:32:21.684
- Welcome. Good evening. My name is Tom Westgard. I'm a resident of Monroe County just outside city limits.

00:32:21.684 --> 00:32:28.070
- First and above all, I'd like to thank you for your attention to this topic. In reading the letter,

00:32:28.070 --> 00:32:31.454
- I can see that we're fundamentally on the same side.

00:32:31.714 --> 00:32:41.708
- and it's gratifying to see. I'd like to say that FLOC fundamentally is an attack on the community by

00:32:41.708 --> 00:32:51.802
- forces that are attempting to exert force on the mass of us, a hostile party finding loopholes in the

00:32:51.802 --> 00:33:01.598
- legal system to take from us the privacy that we've come to take for granted, perhaps a little too

00:33:02.274 --> 00:33:09.465
- too easily. It makes us more vulnerable to these hostile forces. Many police have already been found

00:33:09.465 --> 00:33:16.656
- misusing them. As was mentioned earlier, ICE is using these things to come into our community. It is

00:33:16.656 --> 00:33:23.847
- extremely unsettling to me to imagine that my daily movements are being tracked and transmitted to a

00:33:23.847 --> 00:33:31.038
- corporate headquarters in California where they do God knows what with it. There are statements that

00:33:31.394 --> 00:33:39.447
- The data is deleted are clearly untrue because their salespeople are attempting to sell information

00:33:39.447 --> 00:33:47.581
- about long-term traffic movements to municipalities. So they're lying and defrauding the people, the

00:33:47.581 --> 00:33:55.634
- customers, such as the city of Bloomington. Since we are largely on the same page, what I'd ask you

00:33:55.634 --> 00:33:57.406
- to do is look forward

00:33:57.986 --> 00:34:04.905
- Flock is not the only company that's trying to do this. Cameras are not the only technology by which

00:34:04.905 --> 00:34:11.960
- this is being done. What this technology has exposed is a series of flaws in our governmental systems.

00:34:11.960 --> 00:34:19.016
- There's been a lack of accountability. We can't get Mayor Kerry to describe what's been done. She told

00:34:19.016 --> 00:34:19.838
- us that the

00:34:20.034 --> 00:34:27.061
- cameras were gone, well they're not gone. It's been deceitful and it shows that we don't have a government

00:34:27.061 --> 00:34:33.693
- that's accountable to us. There's been a lack of disclosure. The APRA and FOIA system is weak and we

00:34:33.693 --> 00:34:40.523
- shouldn't have to hunt this down. We shouldn't have to do this work. It simply shouldn't have been done

00:34:40.523 --> 00:34:47.550
- to us to begin with and the fact that we have to fight so hard to find out what's being done is offensive.

00:34:48.386 --> 00:34:54.610
- There was a lack of notice. Just all of a sudden, these cameras went up. Nobody told us. There was no

00:34:54.610 --> 00:35:00.833
- warning. If you're somebody who's fleeing a domestic violence situation, you suddenly see a camera on

00:35:00.833 --> 00:35:07.179
- a pole, what does that mean? You then have the work of figuring out what this means to you. And there's

00:35:07.179 --> 00:35:13.342
- been a lack of right to contest it. I actually do have a law degree. I was a litigator for 15 years.

00:35:13.570 --> 00:35:19.878
- It's incredibly expensive and difficult for a person who's been wronged by these systems to find their

00:35:19.878 --> 00:35:26.003
- way into the court system, figure out how that works, and contest the problems that are being done,

00:35:26.003 --> 00:35:32.189
- many of which, frankly, don't have a foothold in the law, even if you manage to get in. So I'm on my

00:35:32.189 --> 00:35:38.436
- way out. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for your attention, and you're working on the topic.

00:35:38.436 --> 00:35:40.702
- Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

00:35:42.210 --> 00:35:49.288
- Is there anyone else who would like to make public comment? Thank you so much. Anyone else in the room?

00:35:49.288 --> 00:35:56.297
- I'm not seeing anyone else online. So I think that wraps up that portion of the agenda. Thank you very

00:35:56.297 --> 00:36:03.171
- much, everybody, for coming in. Really appreciate you being here and for your time. Thank you. I got

00:36:03.171 --> 00:36:10.181
- that next. OK. Great. Thank you, Tara, for helping with that. OK, great. So that brings us to item 5A,

00:36:10.181 --> 00:36:11.678
- Commissioner Reports.

00:36:11.906 --> 00:36:19.038
- So just a couple things, just an update on the joint dark sky resolution with the EC. So we weren't

00:36:19.038 --> 00:36:26.454
- able to make that last meeting due to quorum issues. But that's been rescheduled for a week from today,

00:36:26.454 --> 00:36:33.729
- September 15th, at our usual time, 6 to 730 in council chambers next door here. From last time, there

00:36:33.729 --> 00:36:41.502
- was just a quorum issue on the EC side, kind of at the last minute. They have since had a meeting where they

00:36:41.602 --> 00:36:47.797
- change their quorum counting in their bylaws. So that hopefully shouldn't be an issue. We put out a

00:36:47.797 --> 00:36:54.302
- poll, and thanks to everyone who filled that out. So we think we've got good quorum for both commissions

00:36:54.302 --> 00:37:00.559
- expecting to be there. But because it is an important thing, if you know that you're not going to be

00:37:00.559 --> 00:37:06.940
- able to be there either at all or in person, please let me know. Just in case there is an issue there,

00:37:06.940 --> 00:37:08.798
- we can try to catch it early.

00:37:09.282 --> 00:37:16.807
- The agenda for that should go out tomorrow. I think it'll be identical to the one from before. And probably

00:37:16.807 --> 00:37:23.774
- the same with the packet, but if anyone has anything new for the packet that wasn't included in the

00:37:23.774 --> 00:37:29.278
- original one, let me know. But otherwise, it should all be the same materials.

00:37:29.922 --> 00:37:35.849
- And then the 2025 annual report, I know we're almost done with 2026, or at least we're getting into

00:37:35.849 --> 00:37:41.836
- the final stretch. But the 2025 annual report is pretty much done. So I'm going to circulate that to

00:37:41.836 --> 00:37:47.764
- everyone within the next week. And we'll do the spreadsheet comment matrix thing where you can make

00:37:47.764 --> 00:37:53.810
- comments and things like that and send it back to me. And then we can discuss at our next meeting any

00:37:53.810 --> 00:37:56.062
- changes that we want to make to that.

00:37:57.698 --> 00:38:05.527
- And I think that's all I have for the chair's report. Are there any questions? Awesome. Great, that

00:38:05.527 --> 00:38:13.355
- moves on to council report. Is there a report, Council Member Rallo? Yeah, I've got a few things to

00:38:13.355 --> 00:38:21.184
- add. One thing I'd like to say is that I totally support people who will make vlog cameras. Can you

00:38:21.184 --> 00:38:27.134
- hear me okay? Yeah, we just can't see you. There we go. No, we can't. Yeah.

00:38:27.650 --> 00:38:37.585
- Anyway, removal of flock cameras, very high priority for me if they still remain. And I think there's

00:38:37.585 --> 00:38:47.325
- a lot of probably unanimity on the council for that. And it just so happens that tomorrow there's a

00:38:47.325 --> 00:38:56.286
- deliberative session, community conversation on public safety tomorrow, which is Wednesday.

00:38:56.738 --> 00:39:04.168
- the 9th of September. And so it will be on topics like that. It will be on public safety generally,

00:39:04.168 --> 00:39:11.746
- but we will certainly be talking about surveillance cameras, I'm sure. I wanted to add that the topic

00:39:11.746 --> 00:39:19.399
- of the food policy or food systems coordinator came up during the budget. And although that was funded

00:39:19.399 --> 00:39:25.566
- on a grant, a number of us would like that to be a permanent position at the city.

00:39:26.210 --> 00:39:34.822
- So there may be a memo coming from several of us to the mayor to that effect. I wanted to mention that

00:39:34.822 --> 00:39:43.267
- another thing that might be of interest to the commissioners here is that during our budget hearings

00:39:43.267 --> 00:39:51.795
- it became known that when animal care and control budget came for review we talked about deer density

00:39:51.795 --> 00:39:55.390
- in the city and it turns out that there is

00:39:55.650 --> 00:40:04.991
- an extremely high gear density. There was a flyover that was conducted and a count done. Now it was

00:40:04.991 --> 00:40:14.332
- an extrapolation. They would fly in a vector and calculate how many deer on that basis. So it's not

00:40:14.332 --> 00:40:23.486
- an exact number, but they calculated it's between, it's on average about 90 deer per square mile.

00:40:24.290 --> 00:40:33.366
- So this is a real concern for a number of reasons. Public health is one here. Essentially a resource

00:40:33.366 --> 00:40:42.351
- for ticks. And there's a lot of different diseases. And furthermore, this has an effect on people's

00:40:42.351 --> 00:40:51.966
- gardening as well. So people have a hard time gardening and need fences if there's such high deer density.

00:40:52.770 --> 00:41:00.771
- So I wanted you all to know about that. And then lastly, I just wanted to mention that it's been a couple

00:41:00.771 --> 00:41:08.471
- months, but we have adopted the, council adopted the resolution for a moratorium on AGI ASI, which is

00:41:08.471 --> 00:41:16.321
- artificial general intelligence and artificial super intelligence. They're closely related because once

00:41:16.321 --> 00:41:21.982
- you reach AGI, artificial general intelligence, which is the capability of

00:41:22.338 --> 00:41:30.428
- AI to do any human cognitive task. That would reverse the self-development. That is the ability for

00:41:30.428 --> 00:41:38.598
- them to design their own code that they would soon become super intelligent. So that passed in June.

00:41:38.598 --> 00:41:47.174
- And it comes, I think, at a good time, because I'm sure a lot of you know, it's been a very active summer

00:41:47.174 --> 00:41:50.814
- for this topic. There were multiple escapes.

00:41:51.458 --> 00:42:01.344
- from Anthropaic and OpenAI, supposedly secure servers where these agents escaped, collaborated, formed

00:42:01.344 --> 00:42:11.711
- hierarchies, actually, as a swarm, and then strategically compromised vulnerabilities in several companies'

00:42:11.711 --> 00:42:17.374
- cybersecurity were able to gain access to these companies.

00:42:17.538 --> 00:42:26.760
- All of this happened just as OpenAI released the most powerful model, which is probably an early version

00:42:26.760 --> 00:42:35.543
- of AGI just last week called Astra. In any case, there is a bill now that was introduced by Senator

00:42:35.543 --> 00:42:44.414
- Sanders to put a moratorium on artificial super intelligence. And this is a really good development.

00:42:45.090 --> 00:42:53.511
- The problem is that there's about $400 million a year of lobbying effort from the frontier laboratories

00:42:53.511 --> 00:43:01.607
- to prevent any regulation. So just to conclude, I'm working with a group called the Safe AI Forever

00:43:01.607 --> 00:43:10.352
- Institute, which we're building on our success here in Bloomington and trying to convince other communities

00:43:10.352 --> 00:43:14.238
- to pass resolutions and potentially laws to ban

00:43:14.626 --> 00:43:22.625
- artificial superintelligence or artificial general intelligence in the communities. It put pressure

00:43:22.625 --> 00:43:30.624
- on the congressional record. So that's all I've got. Happy to take any questions or, as a matter of

00:43:30.624 --> 00:43:38.702
- fact, you adjusted. Thank you so much. Any questions for Councilmember Orell? Okay, excellent. Well,

00:43:38.702 --> 00:43:40.222
- thank you so much.

00:43:41.474 --> 00:43:51.110
- that brings us to item 6b, letter to the office of the mayor, update on the plot. So we have the letter

00:43:51.110 --> 00:44:00.839
- in the packet. So this is really a follow-on to the resolution 2026-02 that we passed earlier this year,

00:44:00.839 --> 00:44:10.846
- whenever that was, in March. And in that resolution we did a few things. We first found some findings about

00:44:11.010 --> 00:44:18.944
- you know, mass surveillance technologies and the impact those have, you know, in a democracy, especially

00:44:18.944 --> 00:44:26.803
- through the lens of sustainability. We made recommendations to the council that they, you know, develop

00:44:26.803 --> 00:44:35.116
- an ordinance to build rules around these sorts of technologies. They did pass a resolution shortly thereafter

00:44:35.116 --> 00:44:40.254
- or right around the same time on that. And so that was good to see.

00:44:40.386 --> 00:44:46.994
- And we also made some recommendations to the city administration, including disabling all the currently

00:44:46.994 --> 00:44:53.539
- deployed cameras, disclosing the locations, disclosing the data sharing agreements that are in effect,

00:44:53.539 --> 00:45:00.020
- and providing a full accounting of how that data has been used since deployment, and then making sure

00:45:00.020 --> 00:45:06.501
- that any future consideration of surveillance technology procurement, so whether that's Flock or some

00:45:06.501 --> 00:45:07.454
- other company,

00:45:07.554 --> 00:45:14.214
- that does something similar, includes notification to the relevant city boards and commissions and creates

00:45:14.214 --> 00:45:20.437
- an opportunity for the public to comment before contracts are actually signed and executed. So this

00:45:20.437 --> 00:45:26.537
- letter is an attempt to sort of get some more awareness of what the state of things are. I think,

00:45:26.537 --> 00:45:32.574
- you know, there were various questions that were raised by some of the public comment today that

00:45:32.866 --> 00:45:37.986
- match a lot of the questions that I have and I think a lot of commissioners have. What is the status

00:45:37.986 --> 00:45:43.056
- of the equipment? We think that some of the cameras have come down. Does that mean all of them have

00:45:43.056 --> 00:45:48.125
- come down? What about the mobile trailers and some of the other equipment? And so that's one of the

00:45:48.125 --> 00:45:53.600
- questions there. There's really a series of six questions here. Status of one of the particular agreements.

00:45:53.600 --> 00:45:58.720
- So at a previous meeting, we had kind of pulled, had a list of all the different contracts and stuff

00:45:58.720 --> 00:45:59.582
- that were there.

00:45:59.746 --> 00:46:06.165
- You know, one of them did seem like it was expiring around the time that the mayor's office announced

00:46:06.165 --> 00:46:12.647
- that they were going to not renew the contract, but there were some other contracts that we found that

00:46:12.647 --> 00:46:18.941
- seemed like they would still be enforced today. And so, you know, are there any agreements still in

00:46:18.941 --> 00:46:25.360
- effect is one of the questions that we have there. The relationship between the agreements, so if you

00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:28.318
- really dig into some of the language on there,

00:46:28.450 --> 00:46:35.472
- Recent contracts will say the language in this contract supersedes any other previously executed contract

00:46:35.472 --> 00:46:42.759
- between these parties. And so how does that relate to what's actually enforced now and what's not? Agreements

00:46:42.759 --> 00:46:49.450
- that are currently in effect. So if there are still cameras and equipment operating, then there must

00:46:49.450 --> 00:46:56.538
- still be some sort of relationship. What is still actually in effect right now, and in particular focusing

00:46:56.538 --> 00:46:57.598
- on these Condor

00:46:58.210 --> 00:47:07.315
- pan-tilt zoom cameras, which are a little bit different from the larger amount of, what are they, falcon?

00:47:07.315 --> 00:47:16.163
- I think they're called the falcon cameras. There's the falcon and the condor, I think. And then access

00:47:16.163 --> 00:47:25.182
- to the flock safety platform. So yeah, just because we don't have any cameras doesn't mean that we don't

00:47:25.182 --> 00:47:26.814
- have access to the

00:47:26.946 --> 00:47:35.181
- other cameras around us. So, you know, is there still, you know, access there to the FLOC safety platform?

00:47:35.181 --> 00:47:43.262
- And data disposition and replacement technology. So, yeah, so what's happened to the data that's already

00:47:43.262 --> 00:47:51.035
- been collected? Even if the cameras have come down, does FLOC still have that data? How can they use

00:47:51.035 --> 00:47:55.422
- it? You know, do we know or do we need to find that out?

00:47:56.354 --> 00:48:02.854
- you know, and has the city begun negotiating or looking to make agreements with, you know, other vendors

00:48:02.854 --> 00:48:09.107
- for similar sort of technology. So those are the questions in the letter. We'll go ahead and open it

00:48:09.107 --> 00:48:15.298
- up to the floor for commissioners to ask questions, make comments, make those changes. Oh, yeah. My

00:48:15.298 --> 00:48:21.488
- question is sort of procedural. Sure. We don't follow the same procedure for amending it, do we? Or

00:48:21.488 --> 00:48:25.822
- is it that we would for a resolution? I think we can follow the same.

00:48:26.050 --> 00:48:31.916
- because that's kind of the procedure for kind of amending anything on the agenda or whatever. But yeah,

00:48:31.916 --> 00:48:37.668
- but we don't have to do the two readings thing because it's really not a resolution. So yeah, for the

00:48:37.668 --> 00:48:43.365
- procedure side, I can make a motion to approve this letter to be the content of the letter and to be

00:48:43.365 --> 00:48:49.061
- transmitted. Is there a second? A second. Okay, great. So now we can enter discussion. If anyone has

00:48:49.061 --> 00:48:54.814
- amendments that they want to make or questions, comments, I'll open it up to the commissioners. Okay.

00:48:55.074 --> 00:49:01.416
- Someone else go, I'll write this down, and then I'll say my thing. I'll just say that I have no amendments.

00:49:01.416 --> 00:49:07.464
- I fully support it. I particularly like the second part of the last question of the one. Any equipment

00:49:07.464 --> 00:49:13.454
- remains installed or is in the city's possession. What is the anticipated timeline for its removal or

00:49:13.454 --> 00:49:19.326
- return, if I think I really like the answer to? And then I also like the last part of question six.

00:49:19.778 --> 00:49:24.849
- Has the city entered into or began negotiating an agreement with any vendor for other basically have

00:49:24.849 --> 00:49:30.021
- we started looking at other alternatives, and I would like to have an answer to that question too. And

00:49:30.021 --> 00:49:34.942
- I think the administration has been really intentionally vague on a lot of this, so I support it.

00:49:35.234 --> 00:49:41.290
- So I think we are going to need to make amendments just to the date. I don't know if the one in the

00:49:41.290 --> 00:49:47.527
- current packet has the updated dates, but it still has the dates related to our last business meeting.

00:49:47.527 --> 00:49:53.886
- Yeah, so the one in the packet for today should have an updated date on it. Yeah, September 8th. There's

00:49:53.886 --> 00:49:59.518
- also this highlighted bit. But it says that we considered it in our August meeting, I think.

00:50:00.226 --> 00:50:09.938
- Oh, no, it says we considered it at our September meeting, but then later we ask for the report by September

00:50:09.938 --> 00:50:18.403
- 4th, which is past. That's a good catch. Yeah. So that's a piddly thing for me, but the... No,

00:50:18.403 --> 00:50:28.382
- that's a... I also really like the content of this letter. One thing that I would like to think about adding or

00:50:28.930 --> 00:50:35.705
- to have sent a follow-up that we get answers is, I would love to see a third party audit of how that

00:50:35.705 --> 00:50:41.808
- data was accessed when those cameras were operational and if they still have access to it,

00:50:41.808 --> 00:50:48.583
- how it's been used. I mean, there was this story about the Jackson County Sheriff or Deputy Sheriff,

00:50:48.583 --> 00:50:55.357
- what, accessed it 4,000 times or something like that, like was shocking someone using it. And I know

00:50:55.357 --> 00:50:56.766
- there's been public,

00:50:57.090 --> 00:51:04.017
- reports from the office of the mayor and the police department that they've accessed it something like

00:51:04.017 --> 00:51:10.876
- 9,000 times, but not with it's just sort of vague. And that was the same issue in that Jackson County

00:51:10.876 --> 00:51:17.669
- was that he was just saying like related to an investigation. And I think that that needs to be done

00:51:17.669 --> 00:51:24.394
- by a third party, like that the city should contract with someone who does not work for the city or

00:51:24.394 --> 00:51:26.142
- the department or another

00:51:27.106 --> 00:51:34.777
- an external body to audit and publicly report on how that data was used. Because given how the lack

00:51:34.777 --> 00:51:42.984
- of transparency, I don't think that we use that for investigations. There's enough information, especially

00:51:42.984 --> 00:51:50.809
- when there's demonstrable evidence that that is not how it's being used, that it is being used across

00:51:50.809 --> 00:51:57.022
- the country for stalking individual residents. I'd like to propose an amendment.

00:51:57.346 --> 00:52:06.949
- but in section one, pursuant to Mr. Connor's comment about how other municipalities have placed garbage

00:52:06.949 --> 00:52:16.182
- bags or some kind of covering, I'd like to request that equipment that remains installed be covered

00:52:16.182 --> 00:52:25.877
- for the peace of mind of the community. Something about being made ineffective. Yeah. Especially because

00:52:25.877 --> 00:52:27.262
- it can be done

00:52:28.802 --> 00:52:38.753
- basically at a null cost. Yeah. It's literally a barbecue. Yeah. It's not like it's an expensive one.

00:52:38.753 --> 00:52:48.508
- Can I add another thing related to that also? I think related to the public comment is maybe we get

00:52:48.508 --> 00:52:58.654
- at this in the ask about the order forms and things, but the intent to contract with any other vendors.

00:52:59.746 --> 00:53:05.722
- and report on do they have intent to, like, you know, what is the intent, the long-term intent for this

00:53:05.722 --> 00:53:11.699
- type of technology, not just this brand. Right. And that would be, let's see. Six. Six, yeah. It's kind

00:53:11.699 --> 00:53:17.675
- of there, but maybe more explicit, you know. I think they have said they were going to, and that's what

00:53:17.675 --> 00:53:23.479
- the police chief said during his hearing, they were going to look at another alternative, explicitly

00:53:23.479 --> 00:53:28.766
- ask again. I don't think it would help. Well, I would say ask, and what is going to be the,

00:53:29.346 --> 00:53:37.838
- the RFP policy for that? Or, you know, how will, like, what will, yeah, what will the public be allowed

00:53:37.838 --> 00:53:45.513
- to weigh in on those vendors and. I see Council Member Rolando has his hand up, I guess. Yes,

00:53:45.513 --> 00:53:54.086
- thank you. Council Member Rolando. Oh, yeah. Just referring to Tara's question. The Jackson County Chair

00:53:54.086 --> 00:53:59.230
- of the WD that misused it for stalking. Well, I think any, any

00:54:00.034 --> 00:54:18.782
- he he he he he he he he he he he

00:54:18.914 --> 00:54:24.840
- recall the news article that I read, but I said, I think that that case was so egregious that it was

00:54:24.840 --> 00:54:30.707
- even internal, that they weren't even, that even the people doing the surveilling was like, this is

00:54:30.707 --> 00:54:36.808
- a bit much. I'm not sure from what I've read, too, if there wasn't other factors with that officer that

00:54:36.808 --> 00:54:42.851
- led to them looking into his behavior. Yeah. But no, it was not, I don't think that that one came from

00:54:42.851 --> 00:54:48.190
- a third party audit, but I think third party audits would probably expose that that is not

00:54:48.546 --> 00:54:54.714
- an outlier case. Yeah, and I think Monroe County, they said they were doing, it was like, Bloomington

00:54:54.714 --> 00:55:01.063
- Police said it was like, it was basically 25 a day that they were doing searches, which is insane. Like,

00:55:01.063 --> 00:55:07.170
- there's no way there's active investigations every single time. It's just not possible, so. There is

00:55:07.170 --> 00:55:13.399
- some subset of that data available online just because other municipalities have made their data, like

00:55:13.399 --> 00:55:14.366
- their searches,

00:55:14.690 --> 00:55:20.496
- There are metadata available through a public portal, which is an option that you can do. And they've

00:55:20.496 --> 00:55:26.358
- captured a bunch of searches from Bloomington there. So it's not a complete sample. We don't know what

00:55:26.358 --> 00:55:32.221
- proportion. It could be not representative at all. But there's several thousand rows or something like

00:55:32.221 --> 00:55:38.083
- that that you can download from one of the websites that has some of that. I know some of these things

00:55:38.083 --> 00:55:41.726
- have come out through those sort of public audits where they've

00:55:41.890 --> 00:55:49.429
- gone through information that's just been put out there and seen some patterns. But yeah, I know a lot

00:55:49.429 --> 00:55:56.821
- of them recently have been coming from these internal audits. OK, so we're putting together a little

00:55:56.821 --> 00:56:04.286
- list here of potential changes. We can make anything else that anyone wants to talk through before we

00:56:04.286 --> 00:56:11.166
- start to try to make some changes. Do we want to? I mean, I guess we have the minutes and the

00:56:12.354 --> 00:56:22.482
- from this meeting, but do we want to refer to the public support for the contents of this letter that

00:56:22.482 --> 00:56:32.808
- was expressed during public comment in our meeting? That's a good idea. Yeah. OK, so I've got the draft

00:56:32.808 --> 00:56:42.142
- pulled up on my computer. We can kind of talk through each. Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry, Alex. Sorry.

00:56:46.210 --> 00:56:55.495
- changed a lot of the tone of the emails. I don't disagree with the idea of any of them, but right now

00:56:55.495 --> 00:57:04.597
- this letter is very much so. And it doesn't take, it doesn't really dictate future direction in the

00:57:04.597 --> 00:57:13.791
- name. We've already done that. City Council has already done that. What is the status? So I do think

00:57:13.791 --> 00:57:14.974
- that that is

00:57:19.714 --> 00:57:45.432
- At least for what I suggested, I would want to phrase it as information. It's like, do you have intents

00:57:45.432 --> 00:57:48.894
- for an offer?

00:57:49.026 --> 00:57:57.755
- making this data public or doing some kind of audit, do you have intention to replace these with the

00:57:57.755 --> 00:58:06.398
- different vendors' same product? Have them go on the record and say, yes, we are going with Block's

00:58:06.398 --> 00:58:15.040
- competitor or whatever. I'm not necessarily saying go do this, because we have done that. Like Alex

00:58:15.040 --> 00:58:18.238
- said, we've said we don't want that.

00:58:18.754 --> 00:58:26.296
- But I would like them to answer to the public whether or not they plan to do that. Yeah, I think that

00:58:26.296 --> 00:58:33.987
- one I brought up about making this specific request then to take the action and cover would be one that

00:58:33.987 --> 00:58:41.603
- we would want to think about whether that fits into the tone of the request for information or whether

00:58:41.603 --> 00:58:48.702
- that should be a separate thing. Sure. I mean, could this be like a two-part thing where we can

00:58:48.834 --> 00:58:55.769
- plan to react if we get a response, then maybe we turn around and prepare something more of a direct,

00:58:55.769 --> 00:59:02.704
- a direction type thing. Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's part of the issue. It's hard to know where we would

00:59:02.704 --> 00:59:09.503
- make recommendations, because we just don't have enough information to really know what the current

00:59:09.503 --> 00:59:17.118
- state is. Yeah, so that's a good point, that this might be kind of like the first step in a multi-step process.

00:59:18.338 --> 00:59:26.129
- So what about the date that we were asking for a response? I mean, I think by our next meeting would

00:59:26.129 --> 00:59:33.997
- be logical. Yeah. I think that's why we requested it so that it be included in the packet of the next

00:59:33.997 --> 00:59:41.711
- meeting. Right. So the Friday before next meeting. Yeah, exactly. So our next meeting is on October

00:59:41.711 --> 00:59:46.494
- 13th. So the 9th. So October 9th. Yeah. OK. That makes sense.

00:59:50.274 --> 00:59:58.910
- For Tara's suggestion, I think it would be really easy to incorporate that into question six with just

00:59:58.910 --> 01:00:07.630
- like a comma and a couple of words. At the end of. Okay, if you want to go ahead, go ahead. Wait, where

01:00:07.630 --> 01:00:13.918
- is this? Sorry, I'll write it down as I go. The end of question six. Okay.

01:00:29.858 --> 01:00:41.733
- Yeah. Essentially what I was going to say. Yeah. Does the city plan to has already entered into? That's

01:00:41.733 --> 01:00:52.922
- all I got. That's all. It's just adding between separately and has does the city plan to. Oh. Oh,

01:00:52.922 --> 01:00:58.974
- I see. Yeah. We're asking about intent. Yeah. I see.

01:00:59.074 --> 01:01:09.093
- I see. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Perfect. I think we could do something similar with Maria's on question

01:01:09.093 --> 01:01:19.014
- one. Let me think about this. Ask about their intention. Yeah. If it remains installed in the city's

01:01:19.014 --> 01:01:25.694
- possession, what is the anticipated timeline for removal or return?

01:01:27.234 --> 01:01:35.636
- We could just add another little question about, do you intend, has the possibility of physically covering

01:01:35.636 --> 01:01:43.880
- them been considered? Until removal. Prior to removal. Yeah. Ask whether they're considering that before

01:01:43.880 --> 01:01:51.889
- making their request to do so. That remains in place. Has the possibility of physically covering them

01:01:51.889 --> 01:01:57.150
- been envisaged? Considered. I would like to use the word envision.

01:02:02.882 --> 01:02:09.308
- is what everybody was saying. I think the issue of a third party audit and stuff is kind of a separate

01:02:09.308 --> 01:02:15.671
- resolution. But I think it's a bigger thing. Because I think I would also like to spend a little time

01:02:15.671 --> 01:02:21.910
- looking at what has already been said about the data and what's publicly available. Because I think

01:02:21.910 --> 01:02:28.461
- there's more there, there. Oh, preferable. And knowing how they respond to this could actually, I think,

01:02:28.461 --> 01:02:31.518
- be a better research. So has the city considered

01:02:31.618 --> 01:02:37.626
- physically covering any remaining cameras? Yeah, just at the end of that. That works, yes. Okay. Can

01:02:37.626 --> 01:02:43.634
- I ask if the bank has led to broader suggestions of not saying, have they considered covering it up,

01:02:43.634 --> 01:02:49.641
- of asking what are the city's plans? So for the equipment that remains, what are the city's plans to

01:02:49.641 --> 01:02:55.887
- block the functionality of that equipment until it is removed by covering it for us through other means?

01:02:55.887 --> 01:02:57.374
- That works. I like that.

01:03:03.938 --> 01:03:12.154
- Justin, can you send me the text of the changes when we... Yeah, I'm doing it like a track changes so

01:03:12.154 --> 01:03:20.289
- like we can, I can put it, I can share my screen for a second so people can see the changes and then

01:03:20.289 --> 01:03:28.666
- I'll send it over to you. Okay, for equipment that remains, what is the city's plan to cover or disable

01:03:28.666 --> 01:03:31.646
- them pending removal? Networks, yes.

01:03:32.866 --> 01:03:40.657
- Does that sound good, Alex? I was saying, what are the plans to block the functionality? Block

01:03:40.657 --> 01:03:48.858
- the functionality. Oh, OK. What? I think that that gets slightly broader. Yeah. You're very good at

01:03:48.858 --> 01:03:56.485
- putting it on the fly. I love just saying stuff, and then Alex makes it. The word whisperer.

01:03:56.485 --> 01:04:02.718
- It's a skill. Just so it doesn't happen during just email it to me now. OK.

01:04:02.850 --> 01:04:10.535
- Perfect, yes, that would be good. Okay, so we got that one. We sort of got the happy with like

01:04:10.535 --> 01:04:19.192
- not specifically calling out the bags or like the covers or something. Yeah, I think it's better actually.

01:04:19.192 --> 01:04:27.444
- Third party audit, we said maybe it would be a better separate resolution. And then mentioning public

01:04:27.444 --> 01:04:32.702
- comment support, is that something that? Probably go up near the

01:04:32.834 --> 01:04:39.704
- one of the first two paragraphs, I think. The commission respectfully requests responses to the following

01:04:39.704 --> 01:04:46.249
- comma, noting significant public support for these questions at our whatever meeting. Something like

01:04:46.249 --> 01:04:53.248
- that, maybe? We could also, in the second paragraph, the questions below are informed by contract documents

01:04:53.248 --> 01:05:00.766
- and by public comment. That's really good. That could work, yes. Received during the September 8th regular meeting.

01:05:13.474 --> 01:05:20.830
- The questions below are informed by public comment and contract documents the city released in response

01:05:20.830 --> 01:05:28.187
- to it. That's supportive to public comment. It's supportive. I just want to make it clear that we don't

01:05:28.187 --> 01:05:35.260
- have stuff. Right? OK. So I think that checks off everything on the list that I was kind of keeping

01:05:35.260 --> 01:05:40.990
- ad hoc here. Is there anything else that anyone wants to change or add here? OK.

01:05:42.818 --> 01:05:57.855
- this over to you, Sean. Thanks for doing this, Sean. Are we considering a single amendment for these

01:05:57.855 --> 01:06:05.150
- changes as written? If that's fine by everybody.

01:06:14.498 --> 01:06:41.790
- as he sent.

01:06:43.746 --> 01:06:50.313
- I just want to let everybody know that Jennifer Crossley, who works in Clark's office, she gave an event

01:06:50.313 --> 01:06:56.756
- to me today saying that there's another date for commissioner training. So if you haven't attended the

01:06:56.756 --> 01:07:03.135
- commissioner training yet, it's going to be Wednesday, September 30th in council chambers from 530 to

01:07:03.135 --> 01:07:09.578
- 7. So if you have not attended that training, make sure that you do. And I'll send the information out

01:07:09.578 --> 01:07:11.454
- via email. Okay, I've got it.

01:07:22.338 --> 01:07:41.835
- Okay, so changes in green. And obviously, once we approve this, I would just fill in that little highlighted

01:07:41.835 --> 01:07:48.990
- bit. But yeah, so that's the first one.

01:07:53.698 --> 01:08:09.317
- I'm going to turn that into a question mark. Pretend there's a question mark there. I think it's does

01:08:09.317 --> 01:08:18.046
- the city plan to comma? Yeah. Other than that, I'm good.

01:08:26.850 --> 01:08:44.117
- Okay, any other comments about this before we vote on the amendment? We need a motion. I can see it

01:08:44.117 --> 01:08:49.470
- on zoom. Yeah, can you see the

01:08:54.786 --> 01:09:13.849
- The font is kind of hard to distinguish. Yeah, it's in light green are the changes. Oh, yeah.

01:09:13.849 --> 01:09:21.758
- Thank you. Regular meeting on October.

01:09:22.722 --> 01:09:33.525
- 13th. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. So that will be October, I think I said 13th. 13th. Yes.

01:09:33.525 --> 01:09:44.436
- Wonderful. Listen, I hired an editor for my dissertation. Smart. OK. So everyone happy with that? We

01:09:44.436 --> 01:09:51.134
- can do a vote on this amendment. And then? Is there a motion?

01:09:51.714 --> 01:10:00.905
- I'll move to accept these amendments. Is there a second? Second. Wonderful. OK. This is to amend the

01:10:00.905 --> 01:10:10.097
- letter as was projected up on the screen. I'll just go first name this time. Tara. Yes. Justin. Yes.

01:10:10.097 --> 01:10:19.379
- Rebecca. Yes. Yes. Christopher. Oh, he's absent. Zach. Yes. Yes. Councilmember Rallo. Yes. Yes. Alex.

01:10:19.379 --> 01:10:20.926
- Yes. Yes, Maria.

01:10:21.058 --> 01:10:35.441
- Yes. Yes, Diana. Diana. Yes. Thank you. And Ross. Yes. OK, perfect. Any further amendments on the letter?

01:10:35.441 --> 01:10:50.910
- Nope. All right. We will move to a vote on the letter as amended. Tara? Yes. Yes. Justin? Yes. Rebecca? Yes. Yes.

01:10:51.010 --> 01:11:00.098
- Zach? Yes. Yes. Councilmember Varela? Yes. Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Maria? Yes. Yes. Diana? Yes. Yes.

01:11:00.098 --> 01:11:09.556
- And Ross? Yes. Yes. Okay. Perfect. That passes. I'll get that sent out right away. And that brings us

01:11:09.556 --> 01:11:18.366
- to another letter, this one to council. I'm going to hand it over to Zach to explain this one.

01:11:18.466 --> 01:11:25.013
- Yeah, so this is a letter to the City Council. The City Council is considering a slew of changes to

01:11:25.013 --> 01:11:31.561
- the UDO, most of which I'm broadly supportive of. But one of them in there that I don't really like

01:11:31.561 --> 01:11:38.305
- that much is one on, which would essentially allow... So the city has fairly limited tree protections,

01:11:38.305 --> 01:11:44.852
- which is the subject of the next resolution we're going to be talking about. And this change to the

01:11:44.852 --> 01:11:48.126
- UDO, which the city administration proposed would

01:11:48.482 --> 01:11:53.965
- place the smallest lots in the city, which is a new category of lots that are being created by this,

01:11:53.965 --> 01:11:59.666
- proposed by this UDU changes for 5,000 square feet or less on lots in R3 or R4, and it would essentially

01:11:59.666 --> 01:12:05.313
- eliminate all tree protections for those lots. Now, the rationale for this is that it's harder to build

01:12:05.313 --> 01:12:10.959
- on small lots, and so we need to make it easier to build on small lots, and I understand that. However,

01:12:10.959 --> 01:12:13.022
- there's already something in the code

01:12:13.218 --> 01:12:19.132
- that exists, which allows for a broad exemption to the most onerous part of the tree protections, which

01:12:19.132 --> 01:12:24.876
- is the requirement to retain a certain percentage of the canopy. That is already in the code, and it

01:12:24.876 --> 01:12:30.619
- already includes these lots. So basically what I'm saying is it's not needed, and that this is going

01:12:30.619 --> 01:12:36.306
- to contribute to sort of a death by 1,000 cuts reduction in the city's tree canopy over time, which

01:12:36.306 --> 01:12:41.993
- is already going down over time. And this is only going to accelerate it. So I'm suggesting in this

01:12:41.993 --> 01:12:42.846
- letter that A,

01:12:43.010 --> 01:12:48.628
- I'm asking that we oppose them adding this exemption that would again make the smallest lots in the

01:12:48.628 --> 01:12:54.414
- city entirely exempt from all of the city street protections. B, noting that there's already exemption

01:12:54.414 --> 01:13:00.144
- in the code for this and C, suggesting if they insist on putting this into the code that instead that

01:13:00.144 --> 01:13:05.931
- they make it more clear in than exemption that already exists that the smallest lots are exempt purely

01:13:05.931 --> 01:13:09.470
- from the canopy retention requirements and not the rest of the

01:13:09.570 --> 01:13:14.509
- tree protection requirements, which would include, for example, on a construction site you're required

01:13:14.509 --> 01:13:19.353
- to protect existing trees to not allow construction equipment to go over them and accidentally knock

01:13:19.353 --> 01:13:24.196
- them over. This would, if this were put as a proposed in the code today, if that went in there, that

01:13:24.196 --> 01:13:29.376
- would be out the window. They wouldn't have to do this on the smaller slots, for example. So I'm suggesting

01:13:29.376 --> 01:13:31.006
- that instead of, either that they

01:13:32.098 --> 01:13:38.103
- completely take this out of the slew of UDO changes, or if they want to keep it in there, just make

01:13:38.103 --> 01:13:44.169
- it clear that it's only about the canopy retention requirements and not about the other parts of the

01:13:44.169 --> 01:13:50.174
- cook. All right. Well, let's see. Let's do this formally. Is there a motion to approve this letter?

01:13:50.174 --> 01:13:55.999
- I move to approve the letter as I wrote it. Perfect. Is there a second? Yeah. Second. Excellent.

01:13:55.999 --> 01:13:59.422
- All right. Discussion, debate, questions, and then next.

01:14:05.250 --> 01:14:14.953
- The other thing that I paused for when reading in your proposal, like I think this is really good,

01:14:14.953 --> 01:14:24.165
- but I got, I could feel my zoning anxiety raise where it says, let's see, may reduce or waive

01:14:24.165 --> 01:14:34.750
- the requirements of table 04-8 where those standards would preclude the reasonable development of the lots.

01:14:35.650 --> 01:14:43.776
- I mean, I think... Where is that? Oh, sorry. That's in the smaller parcel. Yeah, it's in the smaller

01:14:43.776 --> 01:14:52.143
- parcel. Oh, in the proposed suggestion? Yeah, she proposed. I mean, I think rationally and intuitively,

01:14:52.143 --> 01:15:00.510
- we would know what might preclude development of all lots, but I feel like that might be Pandora's box.

01:15:00.706 --> 01:15:06.405
- So the way it's proposed now, it completely eliminates it entirely. What the intention there was to

01:15:06.405 --> 01:15:12.389
- do was to allow the Planning and Transportation Department to do it on a case-by-case basis to eliminate

01:15:12.389 --> 01:15:18.088
- the, to waive or loosen the canopy retention requirements. The way that section is written today is

01:15:18.088 --> 01:15:23.787
- that it allows them to instead replace the canopy retention requirements with you can keep one tree

01:15:23.787 --> 01:15:29.486
- or this line of trees, for example. But there's still a requirement that you have to keep a certain

01:15:29.486 --> 01:15:30.398
- amount of trees

01:15:30.754 --> 01:15:37.003
- on the lot, this would instead allow them to raise, to use their common sense on a case-by-case basis

01:15:37.003 --> 01:15:43.191
- and not make it automatic, if that makes sense. Yeah. How would that play out though? Sorry, I'm not

01:15:43.191 --> 01:15:49.378
- being difficult. I'm just trying to understand the mechanics of it. So would that have to go through

01:15:49.378 --> 01:15:50.910
- like a variance product?

01:15:52.834 --> 01:15:57.012
- My understanding is no, because the Planning and Transportation Department could just issue, say, for

01:15:57.012 --> 01:16:01.230
- this lot, which is less than this lot. So like their discretion? It's at their discretion, yeah. Okay.

01:16:01.230 --> 01:16:05.572
- It would be a case by case. What are other examples in the UDO where they might use their own discretion?

01:16:05.572 --> 01:16:09.995
- I mean, this already exists. It's just making it more clear that it's for the canopy retention requirements

01:16:09.995 --> 01:16:14.255
- entirely. Okay. Because right now it says they're allowed to replace the canopy retention requirements,

01:16:14.255 --> 01:16:16.958
- which say, for example, if you have a small lot, you have to keep

01:16:17.314 --> 01:16:22.657
- I can't remember exactly, 20%, 40% or whatever of the existing canopy. I think it's 90% actually for

01:16:22.657 --> 01:16:28.476
- the smallest lots. Well, on a teeny tiny lot, keeping 90% of the canopy, in some cases, is almost impossible.

01:16:28.476 --> 01:16:33.819
- So they're saying, instead of that, you have to keep an individual tree. And they're already allowed

01:16:33.819 --> 01:16:39.320
- to do this on a case-by-case basis with the Planning and Transportation Department. I'm saying, instead

01:16:39.320 --> 01:16:45.086
- of doing that, as currently written, yes. OK, that's encouraging. Because I just was worried that they would

01:16:46.050 --> 01:16:51.352
- you know, it would just open another Pandora's box related to discretion. I mean, that's already there.

01:16:51.352 --> 01:16:56.553
- I'm saying just make it more explicit that it takes out the canopy retention requirements entirely on

01:16:56.553 --> 01:17:01.651
- a case-by-case basis if the Planning and Transportation Department deems it necessary for that law,

01:17:01.651 --> 01:17:06.903
- rather than putting in a blanket just taking out, yeah, for all requirements, mainly because I'm about

01:17:06.903 --> 01:17:12.307
- to propose a whole bunch of other requirements of the code and a resolution I don't want them to, anyway.

01:17:12.307 --> 01:17:15.774
- Yeah, so. Yeah, okay, that clears it up. I appreciate hearing that.

01:17:17.762 --> 01:17:25.196
- Any other questions or discussion? What is the timeline for the UDO? The changes? The changes that they're

01:17:25.196 --> 01:17:32.421
- trying to make? I'm going to ask Councilman Barolo, but I think they're going to be, I'm imagining they

01:17:32.421 --> 01:17:39.161
- might be voting on it next council session. I think so. I think next Wednesday. Next week? Yeah.

01:17:39.161 --> 01:17:46.942
- I don't know. It's pretty broad. It's pretty sweeping. Yeah, it is. I have some problems with it, but are there

01:17:47.586 --> 01:17:59.105
- One of them was this, electric production. But I'm very wary of increasing land value relative to the

01:17:59.105 --> 01:18:10.737
- value of the home. In other words, if subdividing lots means that a developer would come in, tear down

01:18:10.737 --> 01:18:16.158
- an affordable house, and build two barge homes,

01:18:16.994 --> 01:18:24.548
- that would be unaffordable. I think that that presents a problem for me, but that's apart from this.

01:18:24.548 --> 01:18:32.027
- So it just suffice to say it could be two more meetings. Okay. All right, thank you. Dave, I have a

01:18:32.027 --> 01:18:39.731
- quick question. Do proposals to change the UDO, does it need to come from the Planning Commission? And

01:18:39.731 --> 01:18:46.462
- this did come from the Planning Commission. I don't know if it needs to or not, but yeah.

01:18:47.010 --> 01:18:55.521
- Mm-hm. Steve, I heard you. But is the council allowed to make amendments to? The question is, can council

01:18:55.521 --> 01:19:03.631
- change? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes, we can. Yes. Because it may be reconciled with the planning commission.

01:19:03.631 --> 01:19:11.902
- They have to go back to them. OK. Depending on the major changes. But we're certainly, we have liberty

01:19:11.902 --> 01:19:16.318
- to amend the deal. So we could consider this directly.

01:19:17.570 --> 01:19:23.138
- But our chicken flock ordinance was a recommendation to amend the EVO. Yeah. And maybe that would have

01:19:23.138 --> 01:19:28.814
- to ultimately go through the planning commission before it gets to council, right? Since this is already

01:19:28.814 --> 01:19:34.382
- there with them. The way I understand it is council initiated a slew of changes, suggested them to the

01:19:34.382 --> 01:19:39.788
- planning commission. The planning commission considered it, amended, had a really long meeting that

01:19:39.788 --> 01:19:43.518
- kind of was a cluster. Anyway, and then it came back to the council.

01:19:43.682 --> 01:19:50.891
- This thing got added by the city staff without the council making the recommendation originally. So

01:19:50.891 --> 01:19:58.100
- this was kind of stuck in there at the planning commission stage. And I'm suggesting they take that

01:19:58.100 --> 01:20:05.309
- back out. Got it. Yeah. Got you. Thank you. Any further discussion? All right. Are we ready to move

01:20:05.309 --> 01:20:12.734
- on to a vote? OK. This is to approve the letter as written. Tara? Yes. Yes. Justin, yes. Rebecca? Yes.

01:20:12.866 --> 01:20:21.530
- Yes. Zach? Yes. Yes. Council Member Rallo? Yes. Alex? Yes. Yes. Maria? Yes. Yes. Diana? Yes. Yes.

01:20:21.530 --> 01:20:30.459
- And Ross? Yes. Yes. Okay. Perfect. I will work to get that sent out before like the day really kicks

01:20:30.459 --> 01:20:39.741
- off tomorrow. Okay. Since it's potentially time sensitive. Yeah. And hopefully it's something that could

01:20:39.741 --> 01:20:41.598
- be included in their

01:20:41.698 --> 01:20:47.504
- packet materials or something. I know there's usually a 10-day period to get those submitted, but we'll

01:20:47.504 --> 01:20:53.143
- see. OK, perfect. Thank you very much. That brings us to discussion D. Being cognizant of time here,

01:20:53.143 --> 01:20:58.950
- we're getting pretty close to the end. You've got a capstone project proposal in mind. We're not voting

01:20:58.950 --> 01:21:04.756
- on anything yet, so this was just meant to be kind of a quick introduction. You have a two-minute stump

01:21:04.756 --> 01:21:09.502
- speech you want to give on. Read the proposal, and we'll talk about it next meeting.

01:21:09.602 --> 01:21:13.940
- It sounds exciting. Yeah. I think it could be cool. It was really interesting. Yes. Yeah. I'm excited

01:21:13.940 --> 01:21:18.235
- to talk about it more. Oh, perfect. And the professor will be here at our next meeting, too, so make

01:21:18.235 --> 01:21:20.446
- sure you come prepared to discuss. Yeah. Excellent.

01:21:20.674 --> 01:21:25.760
- Thank you. It brings us to resolutions for first reading, resolution 2026-07, which is also about trees.

01:21:25.760 --> 01:21:30.847
- Zach, I'll hand it over to you for a quick introduction. We don't have to go in depth here because we're

01:21:30.847 --> 01:21:35.885
- not really debating, amending, or approving anything right now. We're just going to advance to a second

01:21:35.885 --> 01:21:41.068
- reading, and we'll have a bigger discussion at the end. Yes. Just briefly, this is a large slew of changes

01:21:41.068 --> 01:21:46.058
- that I'm suggesting to the city council. It would mainly be the UDO, but also the municipal code aimed

01:21:46.058 --> 01:21:48.286
- at protecting heritage and significant trees.

01:21:48.418 --> 01:21:53.993
- which are currently completely unprotected under the current city code. Heritage trees are mentioned

01:21:53.993 --> 01:21:59.679
- in the code, but they do not define what they are or provide any significant protection for them. This

01:21:59.679 --> 01:22:05.199
- would put us in line with the strongest cities in the country nationwide on protection for heritage

01:22:05.199 --> 01:22:10.884
- trees. That's the main thing. There's a whole bunch of other stuff in there. Please read it if you get

01:22:10.884 --> 01:22:16.570
- a chance before our next meeting. There's also a detailed memorandum that I went through complete with

01:22:16.570 --> 01:22:17.950
- custom maps that I made.

01:22:18.082 --> 01:22:24.533
- I also included in there all of the sections of the code that I'm suggesting that we suggest be changed

01:22:24.533 --> 01:22:31.045
- with the changes in context in there. Please just read that before our next meeting. Yeah, that's pretty

01:22:31.045 --> 01:22:37.310
- much the gist of it. Just briefly also, this was the very bottom of the packet. It might have gotten

01:22:37.310 --> 01:22:43.699
- lost. The very last page is a, I just want to let you know, I went through, I reached out to the Urban

01:22:43.699 --> 01:22:47.358
- Forester, went through multiple rounds of review with him.

01:22:47.650 --> 01:22:54.042
- supportive of this. He improved the resolution by working with them. He, on his own, took it to the

01:22:54.042 --> 01:23:00.754
- Tree Commission, which, what's the word, 100% support, unanimously voted to support this during meeting.

01:23:00.754 --> 01:23:07.530
- I went to their meeting, talked it through with them in detail. They had a lot of questions and comments,

01:23:07.530 --> 01:23:14.305
- and they were unanimous in their support. So there's a letter there from them as well. And I also reached

01:23:14.305 --> 01:23:17.118
- out to planning, the environmental planner,

01:23:17.282 --> 01:23:22.419
- who took it to the then director of the planning department, and they opted to not provide any comments.

01:23:22.419 --> 01:23:27.507
- So they were provided a chance. They're welcome to provide comments now if they would like to, but they

01:23:27.507 --> 01:23:32.399
- did not provide any comments, so. That's it. All right. Would you like to move that we advance this

01:23:32.399 --> 01:23:37.683
- to a second reading? I move that we advance this to a second reading. Is there a second? Second. Excellent.

01:23:37.683 --> 01:23:42.673
- OK. We'll go through any other quick questions. I know we'll talk about it more, but. There have been

01:23:42.673 --> 01:23:43.358
- four stories.

01:23:43.682 --> 01:23:50.195
- in the parks department. Yes, he's the one responsible. He's great. He's been a lot of social media

01:23:50.195 --> 01:23:56.709
- lately on there. They're great videos. Anyway, yeah. What was I going to say? Oh, he is responsible

01:23:56.709 --> 01:24:03.613
- for all the cities like trees in the public right of way. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. Just to add, I really

01:24:03.613 --> 01:24:11.038
- appreciate this. I've been aware of some developments when in particular where there were gigantic caliper trees.

01:24:11.362 --> 01:24:19.210
- And it was actually a condition of approval to preserve them. But then the developer came back to the

01:24:19.210 --> 01:24:27.135
- VCA and was able to get approval to cut them down. Yeah. And so all we can do is try to preserve these

01:24:27.135 --> 01:24:35.137
- magnificent trees. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, let's move on to a vote then to advance

01:24:35.137 --> 01:24:40.446
- to a second reading. Tara? Yes. Yes. Justin? Yes. Rebecca? Yes. Yes.

01:24:40.674 --> 01:24:51.836
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

01:24:51.836 --> 01:25:02.997
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

01:25:02.997 --> 01:25:09.694
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

01:25:10.114 --> 01:25:16.274
- I just wanted to report about Project 46, the Southern Indiana Regional Climate Alliance. We had our

01:25:16.274 --> 01:25:22.373
- first retreat last week, and it was really fantastic. It was really well attended. There's a lot of

01:25:22.373 --> 01:25:29.082
- momentum, and we came out of that retreat with four focus areas, and we're going to be creating subcommittees

01:25:29.082 --> 01:25:35.364
- for each of these focus areas. So energy efficiency and renewable energy, flood and hazard mitigation,

01:25:35.364 --> 01:25:37.438
- waste reduction, and EV adoption.

01:25:38.114 --> 01:25:44.380
- And I also wanted to let everyone know that we have been awarded a $35,000 grant from the Indianapolis

01:25:44.380 --> 01:25:50.584
- Foundation for capacity building. So that's really exciting. For Project 46. For Project 46, yep. And

01:25:50.584 --> 01:25:56.789
- also the Indiana Energy Independence Fund joined as an official advisory committee member. So Project

01:25:56.789 --> 01:26:02.872
- 46, we're out there. We're growing. That retreat was expertly organized by our consulting firm that

01:26:02.872 --> 01:26:07.678
- we hired out of Colorado. They're called Lotus Engineering and Sustainability.

01:26:07.842 --> 01:26:14.697
- And they are just excellent. So just a lot of momentum on Project 46. So we're still trying to get the

01:26:14.697 --> 01:26:21.685
- counties to join, Ross. So. I just talked on our council as well about it. Disgusted. You said renewable

01:26:21.685 --> 01:26:28.406
- energy, flood reduction, EV adoption. Waste reduction. Waste reduction. Thank you. So for the hazard

01:26:28.406 --> 01:26:35.061
- mitigation part of that, we're going to create a subcommittee for climate resilience hubs. And Bill

01:26:35.061 --> 01:26:37.790
- Brown will be leading that subcommittee.

01:26:38.306 --> 01:26:45.524
- So we're trying to find our partners and stakeholders and continue to grow. $35,000 grant? Yes. Have

01:26:45.524 --> 01:26:52.671
- you been in touch with the new Hoosier EVA group that Paul is starting with? Like I'm his last name

01:26:52.671 --> 01:26:59.961
- right now. Yeah, I haven't been in touch with him directly. Julie did meet with him and he has met or

01:26:59.961 --> 01:27:05.822
- will be meeting with our EV subcommittee, which is chaired by Stephanie Richards.

01:27:05.954 --> 01:27:11.845
- with the Narly Tree Sustainability Institute, she's an advisory committee member, and Patrick Foley

01:27:11.845 --> 01:27:18.031
- with Electron Charger. So hopefully there'll be some synergies there and can collaborate. Awesome. Yeah.

01:27:18.031 --> 01:27:24.041
- That's all I have. Now I have one more thing, I'm sorry. We have our launch date for our solar grants

01:27:24.041 --> 01:27:27.870
- for income qualified homeowners. We're launching September 28th.

01:27:28.578 --> 01:27:34.008
- Any resident who their household income is less than 80% AMI, they would qualify for a five kilowatt

01:27:34.008 --> 01:27:39.653
- installation. And that's the one that's like no grant. They don't have to put anything out by it? That's

01:27:39.653 --> 01:27:45.244
- awesome. They don't have to put anything out by it. Yeah. You said September 28th? Yeah. So we're going

01:27:45.244 --> 01:27:50.728
- to have a press release issue that day. I'm really trying to get the word out about that. That has to

01:27:50.728 --> 01:27:56.158
- be in the city. Within the city limits, yes. And that has to be a single family owner occupied home.

01:28:00.066 --> 01:28:06.249
- Remember announcements. Anyone have anything they want to announce to the group? Oh, sorry. Monroe County

01:28:06.249 --> 01:28:12.198
- Public Library is partnering with the city as Bee City USA to do a pollinator scavenger hunt. It's on

01:28:12.198 --> 01:28:18.206
- Monroe County from now until the beginning of November. And there's some activities and a little field

01:28:18.206 --> 01:28:24.097
- guide for identifying different kinds of native bees and pollinators that live in our community. And

01:28:24.097 --> 01:28:27.422
- it looks really fun. I'm going to do a pan girl's guess.

01:28:28.578 --> 01:28:36.020
- Anything else? There's a community event planned. The Trades District Block Party will be this month,

01:28:36.020 --> 01:28:43.315
- Saturday, September 26th, 4 to 7. That will feature kind of the first community showcase of planned

01:28:43.315 --> 01:28:50.830
- interventions in the Trades District, including gateway and public art projects. So it's a free event.

01:28:50.830 --> 01:28:56.958
- The community is invited to come out and see what is new in the Trades District and

01:28:57.314 --> 01:29:05.002
- to give their feedback on what's planned. Cool. Awesome. All right. Anyone else? We got 30 seconds left.

01:29:05.002 --> 01:29:12.690
- What other announcement? I've been participating in the 2026 cohort of the Bloomington Residence Academy

01:29:12.690 --> 01:29:20.231
- and have learned so much and enjoyed it a lot. Commissioner Obradosky is also a member of this cohort,

01:29:20.231 --> 01:29:24.990
- so I just want to put a shout out for that. Really recommend it.

01:29:25.954 --> 01:29:33.233
- Yeah, we've had some commissioners in the past do that and it's always, they're always like thrilled

01:29:33.233 --> 01:29:40.513
- with it. So that's awesome. What is it called? We'll be to Residence Academy. It's 11 weeks. We meet

01:29:40.513 --> 01:29:47.720
- on Thursdays and just kind of learn about different departments. That's cool. Awesome. Great. Well,

01:29:47.720 --> 01:29:53.918
- we're at 730. So that brings us to the end of the agenda. So we are adjourned at 730.