- Thanks for being here for the February meeting. I had a. Okay. Thanks for being here. I had a quick
- addition to the agenda that I would like considered. So we'd need to have a motion and a second and
- a vote to amend the agenda, but it would be.
- or the sponsorship letter for the EcoHeroes donation request that we're making that we send out to different
- businesses and organizations in our town. But it is a letter that we would send out, and so we need
- to have all of y'all's approval before we get that out to the world. Rachel, were you able to add that
- to an updated packet or shall I? I was able, I added it to an updated packet, so I will share my screen
- shortly, and so it'll be up there.
- It is on the packet online as one of the packet addendums. I did see Adam's comment that he is having
- trouble hearing, harder trouble hearing than what he thought he would. Would there be a volunteer first
- being a secretary tonight? You can give it a shot. Yes, other Adam. Other Adam can do it. Okay. Sorry
- to interrupt your introduction, Kerry. No, that's perfect.
- Okay, so the idea is that we would vote on if this letter is suitable to send out to the world. So you
- just need to motion and basically where you want to put it. I don't know if that's new business and
- because you have to actually put it on the agenda center. Sounds good. So I would say I'd like to put
- it on the agenda under the eco heroes section of old business. So while we're doing the updates on everything
- else that we would vote for the sponsorship letter at that point. Second. Okay.
- and I heard Carrie motion at first and then Matt. All right, so we'll do the role for that. So Carrie
- Albright. Yes. Heidi Brown. Yes. Nadia Cain. Yes. Matt Caldy. Yes. Adam Fudeker. I have to stop. What
- are we voting on? We're voting to consider voting on this sponsorship letter. Yes.
- Adam to the agenda. Adam Martinez? Yes. Mitchell Owens? Yes, speaker. Perfect. Motion passes to modify
- the agenda. Staines can touch. To the agenda. All right. Okay, well then, now that we've got that out
- of the way, we can go ahead and go through our roll call and get things moving. Okay. Heidi Brown? Here.
- Nadia Cain?
- Here. Matt Caldy. Here. Adam Futiker. Here. Shannon Geich is absent. Adam Martinez. Here. Mitchell Owens.
- There. And Carrie Albright. I'm here. Okay. And I'm Rachel Johnson. Perfect. Thank you all for being
- here. I know the weather is getting a little scary out there, so thanks for making the trek in so that
- we can have a monthly meeting.
- Speaking of our monthly meetings, our January minutes have been shared. And at this time, we would approve
- the January 15th minutes. Sounds good. Sounds good. All right, Matt and Nadia have definitively take
- this off for a vote. Why would somebody not approve that? If they don't agree with how things are represented
- in them. If they weren't here, they can't stand.
- Okay. Uh, Nadia Cain? Yes. Matt Caldy? Yes. Adam Budeker? Yes. Adam Martinez? Yes. Mitchell Owens? Yes.
- Kerry Albright? I vote yes. Heidi Brown? Yes. Motion passed. Thank you so much.
- You know, while we're voting, I'd love to suggest that we consider our special EC meeting that we had
- last month where we came in to vote on the ECPC memo. We did a quick gathering here and there was a
- set of minutes that covered that conversation. It was quite brief because the meeting was quite brief
- as well. So I'd love to consider voting to approve those minutes. So moved. Thank you, Matt. Thank you,
- Mitchell. Okay.
- Adam Fudiker. Yes. Adam Martinez. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Carrie Albright. Oh, yes. Heidi Brown. Yes.
- Nadia Cain. Yes. And Matt Caldy. Yes. Motion passes. Wonderful. Thank you all so much for being active
- members of our commission.
- All right, so now we're on to public comment. We actually have a handful of members of the public here,
- so I would love to give the folks in the room a chance to introduce themselves, and you have up to five
- minutes to share if you've got something, and then we have somebody online as well. Sure, thank you.
- Hi, my name is James Ford. I just wanted to share with the group what happened at the tree commission
- on Monday. I see that there's no liaison here. I happen to be present for that meeting.
- So I just wanted to let you know that there was no quorum. They only had three people there,
- George Heckman, Stephanie, and Julie. They spoke mostly about the North Grove project and the changes
- that were being considered at the time. That took up almost the entire hour. At the end of the meeting,
- they talked about the INDOT project at Pete Ellis and John Dinko
- And Daisy Garden's house, I'm sure, he's familiar with that. They did go over time. And that was basically
- the entire meeting. Great. Thank you so much for the updates on that, Dan. Great. All right. We'll do
- that when she's done. Yeah. I'm Carl Greisner. I don't have a whole lot to comment on, other than I
- could have an interview with the committee. That's where it gets away to the process itself.
- Just here to listen and keep up to date with EC committee business. Perfect. Thank you for joining us.
- And then as folks online, we'd love to have you try and introduce yourself if you're comfortable with
- that. Nicole, if you would like to speak, you'll probably have to raise your hand and I'll ask you to
- unmute if you'd like to introduce yourself. And Taylor Brown is one of the city attorneys.
- He's not a member of the public. Very quick point of order. Nicole is actually the legal intern, so
- she's been following me around. Technically, no members of the common, though Nicole is of course a
- welcome member of a public at large, but I digress. Perfect. Well, thanks for joining us. I'm guessing
- you will have more to share as we get into our agenda, but thanks for joining us. Thanks members of
- the public for being here too.
- Well, I know that we've got some big items on our new business list. So I'm going to go ahead and kick
- it over to Rachel and the folks that we have here to talk a little bit about some of the legal updates
- at the city. Yeah, so I'll go ahead. So yeah, anybody in the room, make sure to talk loudly. So we have
- Jackie Scanlon, who is the Assistant Director of Planning and Transportation. We have Anadina Casamanian
- and Taylor Brown, who are both
- attorneys who work in the city legal department. We have Nicole, who is also an intern in the city legal
- department. And then I believe is Jennifer Crossley in the room. Jennifer is here. I believe she is
- a deputy clerk in the clerk's office. So I wanted to invite all of these city staff. I'm so sorry for
- the background noise.
- I wanted to invite the city staff because there had been some questions about just working group policies,
- the letter process with the previous ECPC letter that went to council earlier this month, the ability
- to produce memos, and also some accessibility questions. So the staff are here. If there are any pointed
- questions on any of those topics, I think that's
- What is top of mind for everybody, for staff members, but if there's anything else that might also be
- addressed by staff, you are welcome to ask it. You want me to do a little? I can totally go. Yeah, I
- just feel the heat.
- Again, as Rachel has mentioned, and some of y'all might know me, because I've seen some of you in some
- of the interview committees, my name is Jennifer Crossley, and I have been with the city for four years,
- but I have been in my current role as deputy clerk of communications and outreach for at least one year.
- And so what that entails is some of you all, I'm never gonna assume everybody knows, so I'm gonna not
- do that, so I'm just gonna explain.
- There was a report that was done in the city a long time ago called the no back report that kind of
- went through boards of commissions to kind of look at you know how processes are happening and it came
- from the idea that position such as mine will be created and the clerk's office already works in tandem with the.
- Council office for the council appointments. And so I am super nerdy. And that was me. I volunteered
- myself to the Tribune actually did more than that interview. And then I've been in it since December of
- Yes, because it's been a full year. And so what that basically entails is for the past year, I've been
- able to kind of talk to various staff members. I've spoken with legal. I've attended some of the commission
- meetings to kind of get a feel for how our boards and commissions have worked. And if I've not been
- in person, I've definitely watched cats because, as I mentioned, I'm a nerd. And I like to watch cats
- as I work throughout the day. It helps my brain go by so much faster.
- That being said, um, I have heard just in general and kind of going through all of the commissions and
- boards and whatnot. Um, there's some concerns that some of y'all might have with what's your role and
- what is the mission of the commission and how your role as a commissioner play into that. And I get
- that. I completely understand. Some of y'all probably have not.
- had a true onboard experience of, hey, now you're on this commission, now what is expected of me, you
- probably got an email from either office of the mayor or myself that says, hey, you've been appointed
- for X, Y, Z, and here's this information. The idea is after a whole year of being in here, I've been
- working with folks from legal such as Taylor and other people to come up with
- boards of commission kind of turn. And so right now we're in the process of trying to finalize that.
- But the idea is to have staff liaisons go through that training first to make sure they know what is
- expected of them in their role and how they play an integral part with you all as the liaison and the
- pipeline from the city to this commission or
- any board or commission for that matter. So once they go through that training, then you all will go
- through as commissioners will go through your training. And so all of this is still to be determined.
- We're still finalizing things. And again, as I mentioned, the idea is to have staff go through it first.
- You might've heard last night at the council meeting that there was something also called the code of conduct.
- and that is something that will also be released in our training so that you already know we have that
- onboard process and this is something that we expect to have everybody go through annually is to have
- an expectation of what it means to represent the city. This is what you should be doing and what we
- expected you and what you should expect from your experience because it's a big deal.
- And like everything that's going on, you all are stepping up to the plate and running to do something.
- Cause right now everybody wants to do something at least out. So with that being said, it's also been
- coming to our attention specifically like in kind of looking at some of the other boards and commissions,
- some of you all have, or some of the boards and commissions have working groups.
- And there's this little fine line of like what does that mean and who is supposed to be at these meetings
- and my understanding from listening to some of the meetings and listen to some of the staff liaisons
- is that there's a lot of limbo of who's supposed to do what like and.
- Can we have it staff supposed to be and if that means, you know, can it be recorded is it not all of
- those different things. And it seems like there's this yo yo of yes no maybe so when those different
- types of things and I understand that it's frustrating to hear because
- You know, being on the receiving end and hearing people. I don't like when people are frustrated with
- that because I like to say communication is the key to my heart. And so I can effectively communicate
- to the staff liaison who can effectively communicate to you all, then I feel like I'm doing my job.
- But if we aren't communicating because things are just a little very, um, then we got to do something
- that's better.
- So my idea as Rachel had invited me to this meeting is to kind of just, you know, tell you all here's
- the things that are coming down the pipe. And if there are suggestions or anything that you would like
- to give to me that I can take back and incorporate and are soon to be turning in that will be rolled
- out here soon.
- Really soon, that's that's my goal and I really want to be able to do that and do that effectively.
- Again, we're still kind of working out the process of working groups and we hope to have an answer for
- that soon. So once we know we can effectively communicate that to the staff liaisons who can effectively
- communicate that with you all. But other than that, I know you all have a packed agenda and I don't
- want to take too much of time, but
- If you have questions for me or suggestions, you can email me and I can give you my contact information
- or you can let me know now and I can take that back to the drawing board and work with the powers that
- be. Thank you for that opportunity. Thank you for sharing, Jennifer. I know that there is an open, what
- questions do we have generally for legal that is a separate piece, but before we get into any of those
- questions, as far as what Jennifer shared specifically around
- the concept of training and all that. Are there any specific questions or clarifications that folks
- want to ask while we have Jennifer in the room with us? This is the training for all the boards, just
- like LDR board. Every single last board or commission. Like Robert Phillips board or something? Yes,
- yes. So that actually is a good thing. So that will talk about what's the mission of a board or commission
- and is the work that you're currently doing, how is that, are you doing the work?
- On that, you know, the mission entails you to do and what code is telling you, uh, or telling you that
- is allowed for you all to do. Um, but you know, some people have a novice experience aboard or Robert's
- rules of order and that's okay. So we want to treat everybody as this is a brand new space. You are
- coming in and you might learn something if you think, you know,
- something about or Robert's Rules, he might find out you didn't and we'll get trained on that. As a
- third aspect of my life, I think I know all things about Robert's Rules and then sometimes I don't and
- it's fun for me to discover. So yes, so that is, of course going through the Code of Conduct, expectations,
- of course Robert's Rules and other things. And actually I'd like to do,
- kind of like a tree branch of who does what. So you can get an idea of, we don't, again, as I mentioned
- earlier, I want to assume everybody knows what everybody is supposed to do, but you might find that
- you might be able to work with other groups. Yeah. So of course, if there's anything that you all think
- that you would like to know that you didn't get to know, again,
- here now and you can definitely let me know or you can send me a link. It would be nice to see at the
- church how the city's organized, departments. I saw that online somewhere, but I can't remember. I have
- two specific logistical questions. Do you have a sense of how long the training will be, like one hour,
- 20 minutes, four hours? Any sense of that? Not as of right now. Obviously, we have over 40 boards and
- commissions.
- And that's a whole lot of people to go through and to take up a block of your time when also this is
- volunteer, and you think you pay because all the more so, you know, that would be fantastic. But it's
- gonna take a little bit, but my idea is not to have it like not like a whole day.
- hopefully maybe a couple of hours if that so and of course to give you all like a handout that you can
- have to reference because you don't have access to email or anything like that but to give you all something
- to walk away and of course your staff liaisons would have this too so if you lose it or misplace it
- and you just need it as a reference it could come back to you too. Do you have a sense of if it would
- be like rolling trainings
- every 12 months, there would be like one, everyone attend or if it's like every month we do another
- one. And so if you're new, you go and you just have to do it once a year. Do you have a sense of that?
- Honestly, I think right now the test is for everybody to do it just this one time, everybody. But, and
- this is something that we can try to work with with people, is maybe the idea too is any new person
- that comes in immediately after they come in,
- you know, to really kind of maybe do like a batch of training or, you know, anybody that came in from
- January through March and April, like we will, you know, get them in and do a board commission training.
- I was just thinking about if it does turn into it, we do it, you know, twice a year and everyone goes
- at least, you know, whatever that we could consider that being like, if we want to cancel a monthly
- meeting for whenever that training is going to be required, that might be a good way to not over stretch.
- Our time. And I think if it's not virtual, then the delivery. You know, I don't know. It's a little
- too early to tell. And I think just kind of like how you all have your meetings here and how the city
- does. You know, I think for accessibility and when things come up, I don't think you can say, and I'll
- look at the books that we built, that everything has to be in-person only. So I think
- and we would have to do a hybrid approach, but I see Taylor has to stand up. Yeah, so we've actually
- been kind of experimenting on a couple of different things here, especially with accessibility and recording
- meetings and things like that. I've been doing a training kind of ad hoc for internal city staff about
- a couple of different things that people have asked about. And we've been kind of test piloting
- While we can about having a digital access and things like that, especially because most commissions
- meet after hours and like I am from home right now because Thursdays aren't usually my commission after
- hours days. I'm sorry. I can't be there.
- But we're testing a lot of these things. We're hoping that we actually can have a digital component
- and which would make everyone's, all the commissioners lives easier, certainly. Or we do it like a,
- here's the live version and we record that live version for dissemination to all who couldn't make it.
- And then we have, you know, reach out to your liaisons for these staff members, ask Taylor for ODL questions,
- ask Anna for ethics questions, things like that. If that helped at all, Jennifer.
- It did. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Safe. So we're at 622. But what other questions do you
- all have? What are things that while we have Jennifer and the legal team here? Specific to the training
- or all legal questions? Is there any other training question? I have one that's sort of both. Everyone
- has to take it. So I'm assuming a quorum of members would be there that have to be signed and posted
- as a special meeting of every board and commission.
- We've been told that if there is a quorum training board and commission, something has to be posted
- the minimum two days and it has to be noticed, signed, et cetera, et cetera. If we were trying to train
- all the boards and commissions, not in phases, but at once, would those hoops have to be jumped through?
- It'd be a special meeting of all the boards and commissions or is the training exact from that?
- There is an exemption written into the open door law specifically for training regarding boards
- of commissions. I have a related question and it may have been clarified since this happened,
- but when we, so our, our commission.
- had to take a memo that we'd written to the council to read it aloud at a meeting last month,
- I think it was, earlier this month. Anyway, so we were going to that, but we were informed that we could
- not have, because our subcommittees have a quorum of two, because our subcommittees are so small, they
- have a quorum of two or two for the working group.
- we were not allowed to have two commissioners in the same council meeting at the same time, even if
- they were not co-presenting, like if one was just sitting there listening. So example, Matt went to
- the podium and read his memo. If I wanted to attend, because we're both on a subcommittee of the EC,
- that would
- be in violation of that. Yeah, we were informed that even if it was for different items, I mean, the
- other member who wanted to attend, Adam Martinez, who's online right now, was commenting on a different
- agenda item, but we were basically told we can't both be in council chambers because it is not noticed
- as a working group meeting. And his was unrelated to these. No, it's true. Even if it was, everyone
- is a private citizen wanting to
- Listen or talk at a city council meeting. We were explicitly told that since working group meetings
- can function with 2 individuals. We can't do that. We can only have 1% of their city council meeting
- and that. Didn't feel quite right because even if we all wanted to comment on the same thing, which
- was what we were doing, I think.
- Yeah, we weren't doing it as. So just kind of trying to clarify that we make sure that we're continuing
- to participate in our. So to clarify is that so you were speaking on behalf of the EC, but you are speaking
- in your own individual capacity one individual was there for the.
- EC's memo, and then we had other individuals that were there for other things that they hadn't, they
- mentioned nothing about. Another individual wanted to speak on the proposed closure of Kirkwood, but
- we were basically told we can't both be there. We kind of had to tag in, tag out of the room. Like,
- Adam, text me as it leads. Sorry, Matt, were you done? Just to give some additional context, Jennifer
- and legal, the bylaws of the environmental commission say working group
- has a quorum of two people. So that's where this quorum of a working group is coming from is the bylaws
- specifically. And so since those two members were on the same working group, that's where a quorum might
- like would have been triggered. So I'll open it up to I think probably Taylor Brown is who I'm guessing
- is going to answer the question, but I didn't know if anybody else had thoughts either.
- I'm sorry. No, please. Go ahead. I was just going to say, I had looked through the handbook on Indiana's
- public access laws and exemptions for open-door laws that include chance encounters. We both planned
- to be at the city council meeting, but we did so independently. This was not an attempt to circumvent
- open-door laws. It just seemed very curious to me that
- that we were advised to not both attend a city council meeting even as citizens. Just looking for insight.
- Sure. I've chatted with Anadina a little bit about this and she mentioned what she had previously talked
- about and I agree with all of that. Yes, let me start with the baseline.
- Absolutely, we want civic engagement, right? We want you to go to your representatives. We want you
- to be actively engaged. I would not be working in government if that were not a belief of mine, right?
- However, the state legislature is nervous as an understatement regarding open door law potential
- circumventing. I don't know whose small town ticked off, an Indiana senator,
- But one of the rules in open door law, I'm sure you saw in your review was not even in the same room
- as counsel. If you're in the same room as a legislative body, you have to record your meetings and are
- subject to other open door law requirements, even just being in the same room. It can be frustrating.
- especially when you're trying to keep track of as many boards and commissions as we have, which is why
- you have the chance encounter language and other kind of safe harbor provisions in there. I believe
- there is a stipulation in open door law where it says if you both think you are going to be in a similar
- meeting, you can
- post a notice that says, essentially, there is a chance a quorum could be here. And you can address
- it that way. Again, if it's like, hey, this is a big deal and everyone wants to show up to a council
- meeting, which, hooray, please show up to a council meeting and express your views, there does need
- to be, unfortunately, for state law reasons, there needs to be a notice that a quorum could be met
- even if it is just a working group of two. So, I'm sorry, follow up, that's okay. Please. Provided,
- say it's something that even a quorum of the full commission might attend, like everyone really wants
- to weigh in, it has a huge environmental impact, or if it's a different board and commission, whatever
- their purview is. Does it just have to be publicly noticed that a quorum
- could be there or is it technically considered a meeting of that body even if we don't meet? Because
- I guess I'm worried about in that instance, we all tend to give public comment to something. There's
- no expectation from the city that we have a memorandum or anything. We were just people at a city council
- meeting. I mean, I don't know. Am I making that concern sort of clear? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Nadine, I
- don't know if you wanted to chime in before or after.
- Oh, we can't hear you. I don't know if she's muted actually, but we can't hear her. Her laptop has been
- absolute horrid the last couple of days. Oh no, we can't hear you. We can't hear you yet. Okay, I'll
- go ahead and answer this question while you're troubleshooting. So to answer your question, yes, just
- a special notice.
- The concern, looking at legislative history and kind of what they were thinking when they put this together
- was they want to avoid like, everyone shows up. So in this hypothetical, right? Everyone shows up to
- a council meeting and you hear something and you go, oh, well, we got quorum here, right? We have everybody
- here. Why don't we get together, have an agenda, vote on the thing real quick and be done, right?
- has happened before, unfortunately. And that has caused some headaches when the meeting wasn't noticed
- and there was no memorandum. And they said, oh, we voted on that right after the meeting, because everyone
- was already there. And everyone went, I'm sorry, what? And we had to kind of backtrack a little bit.
- So I hate to say that some people ruined the fun for everyone. But I think it's a matter of just being
- above board and saying, hey, there is a chance a quorum will meet.
- Uh, corn will be here. We are not anticipating any business to be conducted. We, you know, there are
- various ways to kind of. Encapsulate, like, we are showing up to talk to the care to listen to the council
- and to do only that. We are not meeting. We are not voting on anything. Period, right? Some notices
- can be done that way. Um.
- Unfortunately, for when when people ask for lawyers for advice, sometimes we really like black and white,
- and we do not like gray areas. We like gray areas when they benefit us, right? But that's why everyone
- hates lawyers. So, um. Does that answer your question? Yeah, for the most part, I have additional follow
- ups, but I can, I can not so much speak. I think, I think to just sort of summarize what you just said, the.
- The rotten part of it is that at some point there was a group that said, we're all together, let's quickly
- go through the process of going through a bill to make it happen and then done. And that could happen
- when we're all together talking about something and it turns into a bigger conversation. And that the
- idea is to prevent people from making those decisions. I think that's really frustrating that that has
- happened to make it so that this is such a pain for us to go through, but I think it makes sense. I
- think that I would like to make sure it's heard that like as an advisory board with
- no control. We do have a budget, technically, but we do have to get our budget approved, but with no
- ability to create ordinances for no ability to actually enact things at a city level in any way. It's
- super frustrating that we are just providing a service of information, connection to the community,
- advocacy for our environment, and it's so hard that
- that I understand that we're being treated like other groups that may have much more power than we do.
- It's really, really hard. And it makes it hard for us to keep making all this time to be participating
- as much as we love it. And I appreciate it when they're doing it. I do want to add quickly, you guys
- are needing a situation because you have such a low core. So like most other boards of admissions don't
- have all of the stuff facing that, but they definitely don't have two people for us. The only one I
- can think of, I mean, like there are larger ones, like BZA,
- And they do like, we have, if we know that more than one museum member might go to an open house or
- something they're having, we post notice. So you guys are in a similar situation. You just have a lot
- more of those groups. Are there, are there other commissions that have working groups? Like are the
- alarms for those like five or six people? Like do they have that many people involved?
- Um, I think y'all have six and I think there might be other, I looked around at this. There's like a
- handful of other boards and commissions that have working groups and they don't have nearly as many
- as you all have. Um, some might have like one or two and then some of them are either standard working
- groups or like ad hoc work that like once something's done, you're done and there's no need to meet
- again. So I think, um,
- That's what some people do as well. The other thing to kind of give an example, like I understand where
- you all are coming from. So to kind of put it from this perspective, you are technically like an extension
- of government through the city of Bloomington as a board or commission member. So I'm thinking of a
- recent example of, say for example, in
- The city council wanted to go to a meeting of the county council to go talk about something related
- to whatever. They wanted to do some type of collaboration. If the city council all showed up and they
- have a quorum of people, even if it's not in their meeting, technically,
- And correct me if I'm wrong, Taylor and Adina. My understanding is you have to notice it because if
- you have a quorum of those members and there's some type of decision that's made by way of them being
- there, that could be a huge red light and a huge no-no. So that's how I'm understanding that. Did I
- get that right? Okay. So therefore, you all would
- You're just think of yourselves as little but mean council members, because in my brain that's kind
- of how I have to work my thought process around this too, because I understand your frustration and
- I understand it's like I'm just this little me and I just want to participate, but you're so much bigger
- than that. And therefore,
- We just want to be able to protect you all. And also, of course, the city of Bloomington from anything
- where somebody thinks in a meeting that they've gone in and they've heard a decision and they knew by
- attendance somewhere else, they heard you. So that's a little sticky situation. And then, of course,
- you can also, and I'm looking to my legal people here too, when you're speaking, and this is something
- that will be covered in boards of commission too,
- even if you are there, and like it's a quorum of people and you want to speak as an individual, you
- can just identify, you know, I am speaking as an individual and not a member of any board of commission,
- I'm sorry. So that's so something. Taylor, does that, if they do that and say, I'm here as a member
- of the public, not as a member of the EC, does that like remove them from the council in this quorum? No.
- Unfortunately, it's like, it's like Superman. He doesn't stop being Superman just because he puts on
- the glasses. Yeah. I know that Matt and I have gotten to chime in. I'm going to take a quick minute
- for Adam or the other folks in the room. If you have any specific things that you want to add before
- we kind of keep the conversation going.
- Can I say something? Yeah, of course. Or comment. So can I say something we totally off topic? We're
- still talking to the legal team, so if it's not related to this. There might be a tornado warning imminently.
- So just everyone brace yourselves. And it looks kind of like nasty. So we don't want to go downstairs.
- We don't want to escape from each other. Is there? Well, we have an alarm though, I'm sorry. Our phone
- tool and we should hear the sirens. I just don't want to like come out of nowhere and then help out.
- And I've seen you social media. Awesome. Thanks, y'all.
- Sorry. No, no, no, that was an appropriate. Yes, thank you for the safety warning. Yes, it looks pretty
- nice. Other thoughts from other commissioners. Otherwise, I think. And Mitchell Adam, you had something
- you want to say before I ask a complicated question. So, so I fully.
- I fully understand where legal is coming from on most of these points. Like I tried to review kind of
- the public access laws and read title two, but we read our handbook. I understand the mess, but I guess
- what I want to communicate to legal is that almost all of the stuff that we have come to is out of necessity
- because of different rules or advice from legal. I mean, if we were allowed, if Adam Martinez and I
- were allowed to send each other an email about light pollution,
- we wouldn't have to have a working group with a quorum of two. We're backed into the corner we're in
- because of existing guidance we've been given or existing rules. We created the working groups with
- a quorum of two so that we could work on small issues outside of the whole commission. Because we cannot
- send emails to each other.
- So the thing that becomes a conflict, since we cannot communicate outside of meetings, we have been
- advised not to call each other, not to email each other anything if it concerns and commission business.
- There we go. We can go upstairs. Okay. Are we back, Katie? By motion, we go downstairs. Okay, we'll
- stay online. Thank you. Okay, I think we are coming back. Great.
- Thank you. Thank you. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Awesome. Thank you so much. As we come back to
- this at 723, I wanted to see if there's anything that anybody would like to say additionally. Otherwise,
- like I said, we can follow up via email through Rachel or if it's necessary to invite them back for
- another meeting. Any specifics that you would like to continue the conversation on before we move forward?
- Think if it is possible for legal people's schedules, we would really appreciate having you back at
- our next meeting. That way, we don't have to command anymore of your nightmare. We lost an Adina. I
- will connect with Taylor probably next week because I know Fridays can be busy. So we'll connect next
- week, Taylor, and figure out a time. Sounds great. All right. Thanks, Joe.
- Thank you for legal for coming. All right. Glad everyone's safe. Do we have any other non-legal members
- of the public online? I'm just asking for information. Do we have anybody join us since we were out?
- It'd be weird. I'm just asking. No. No. I didn't see everybody on mute. Great. OK. Well.
- Then moving into the next stage of our agenda, there's a note about, there's a couple of different notes
- about our handbook. And one topic that I wanted to bring up specifically that Matt will talk about for
- you now is about our needs, how we handle voting on things. And so I wanted to, I'm glad that legal
- is here if you don't mind being here.
- Consider when we are writing ECPC memos, which are on, as we all know, a very, very, very, very short
- turnaround with getting information, sitting down to write a memo, getting that memo out and approved,
- and then being able to share that memo with like the DA packet or the Planning Commission packet or
- the Council packet. Being able to vote to approve submitting that memo is something that I
- that I'm mindful is a very tricky thing and it's asking a lot of our commission to have an emergency
- meeting. So I wanted to put that out there for any conversation about thoughts on that and also see
- if according to legal, if there are any ways that we can potentially approve variations of like a final
- version versus draft version. So as far as the topic that I'm talking about, does that make sense with
- folks? I need clarification.
- Say it once again. Yeah. So we have the ECPC memos that the ECPC will write if there is something that
- is being proposed as a variance through the Planning Commission or the Bureau of Zoning Appeals. We'll
- sit down with whatever that request is. We'll talk about environmental considerations. And then if we
- think it's something that's important to be heard, because we think that variance is actually bad for
- environmental purposes or has an opportunity for something else environmental. In fact, we might write
- a letter that would then
- can hopefully be considered by that board or the commission who are potentially granting those variations.
- But the question is really, if we write that memo, PCPC, at this time, we have to vote on it as a commission
- to approve it. But because of the timing of how, what, when the BZA meets or when the planning commission
- meets, sometimes there's not even
- for us to vote on, we'd have to come here like we did this last month to vote in it. So I wanted to
- put that in front of folks for consideration because I don't know how frequently we'll have these memos,
- but it is certainly another ask of our team to do something that is requiring CHEM, especially because
- we currently only have eight appointment members, so like everybody. And then we'll see if it's worth
- exploring any kind of like
- Draft or framework that could be approved in advance versus going on the final version and that might
- be a legal question. Do you all have thoughts on that? Or does that sound like it's worth entertaining
- or are you okay with how we have things right now? Just totally okay too. Do any of the other boards
- make recommendations regarding variances? I don't believe so because I
- because we're through the planning and transportation department, I think that's why we have so much
- of the information from Rachel, who's the environmental planner. I don't know if other commissions get
- access to that, or if that's something that they would do. They could, but yeah, it would be very unlikely
- for another commission to weigh in on a variance request. It's possible, like for example, if the request
- was related to like pedestrian facilities or something, the transportation commission might weigh in.
- They are also through the
- But I would say most commonly, no, we don't engage in the other words and actions. Do you have thoughts
- on the idea of final memo approval versus anything before that final version being ready? I think it's
- the nature, definitely the nature of
- document doesn't change from the draft to the final version. It seems like we could consider accepting
- approval on a draft. On a draft. Do you agree? I mean, so in a draft, so I'm trying to understand what's
- happening. So in a, there has to be an approval by the ECPC, not on the ECPC, but there has to be an
- approval by the ECPC on a draft, right?
- Yeah, the ECPC would write the draft. And the question is, does there have to be an approval on the
- final draft or could an earlier draft be enough? Or could even the bulleted outline of concerns or relevant
- topics be enough, if possible?
- I'm thinking about the timing, because sometimes we have information, sometimes we have nothing, and
- sometimes we have everything. So being opposed to that would mean that there's concern that the nature
- of the draft is going to change. That would be the only output. Yeah. And I'm not sure if legally we're
- required for it to be the final version. But yeah, would the ECB be comfortable with it being potentially
- a draft? Yeah. I sent Taylor the bylaw, so I think he's looking over that now.
- Modify the bylaws, but at the end of the day, I think title to and Taylor, you're the attorney. So feel
- free to add in title to only gives the environmental commission as a whole to provide the recommendation,
- not a working group of the environmental commission. So I Taylor can certainly weigh in on that, but
- that's my understanding. So title to would have to be changed by council.
- And we just went through Title II changes last year. So I don't know how often they changed Title II.
- Rachel, I'm so sorry. Where in Title II are you seeing the... Yes, I think it's 02-1250. Does that sound
- familiar? It's the Environmental Commission's Title II and the powers and duties. Yes, I'm there right
- now. The exact... The report...
- Submit an annual report in writing. Is that what we're discussing? No, they are talking about
- recommendations. Okay. I think that's earlier on in the powers and duties. And I might have the powers
- and duties here in this. The powers and duties will give us the ability to advise, write memos,
- write reports, et cetera. It's actually in our handbook that says it has to be from the whole.
- commission, not just from working groups. Yes, all working group recommendations, correspondence, or
- public events must be approved in advance by the entire commission. It's not Title II that's actually
- keeping us from doing that. It's our own handbook. Correct. The handbook is what explicitly says the
- working group documents must be approved by the full commission. However, reading Title II,
- The power itself is delegated to the environmental commission. So there has to be a vote of some sort.
- Basically having the commission say, whether that's the commission saying, hey, we approve this working
- group, right? Because essentially what's happened is council has said, hey, environmental commission,
- you have to write this report and let us know, right? So they've delegated that authority to
- the environmental commission. So then we're following the bouncing ball, right? And so now environmental
- commission has the bouncing ball.
- And you can hand it off to one of your working groups. And as long as there is a vote of some sort that
- says. We approve whatever this working group is right. Does that make sense? As long as the authority
- is clearly delegated. Then we're okay. However, in that last. Sentence, they're all working
- group recommendations corresponds to public events must be approved in advance by the entire commission.
- Um, I think in advance.
- could give you some wiggle room if you're looking for some flexibility. I also am giving you kind of
- on the fly legal advice. So take that with a grain of salt. But yeah, we are desperately looking for
- some wiggle room, mostly just because some of this does have to happen very fast in order to get into
- someone else's packet. So my suggestion, Taylor, tell me if this is like wildly out of line.
- could be the environmental commission in our monthly meeting says, you know, the ECPC has some things
- that are probably going to be coming down the pike in the next few weeks. Does the environmental commission
- vote to approve the ECPC to write a memo? And if they approve that, then that is fine. And the ECPC
- can send it out as well as amending our handbook language to say, to make sure that the language is
- granting a non-specific approval from the EC before a memo goes out. So it's kind of reaffirming that.
- Is that possible? I am always a fan of clarifying language in any context, really. I think that one
- extra thing I would throw in there, not to be a lawyer about it, I know you.
- If you could have some sort of like, we approve the memo, we approve the working group to write this
- memo. And I would even say like, if possible, give some broad, and I'm not quite familiar with the memo
- even says or what the memo content is. But if you could have the environmental commission essentially
- say, it says, here are the broad strokes of what will be in that memo or in that report. And we will
- leave the minutia of writing the actual report and the exact verbiage and everything.
- to that working group, but as long as the overall message and theme is approved by the committee as
- a whole, that works for me, or the commission as a whole, that works for, that would work for me. Does
- that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's what happened again. It's to prevent the appearance of going
- rogue, essentially. Yeah, that's definitely not what we're trying to do. I guess my follow-up is, is
- there specific language that you would
- like to see, because if I was gonna propose that we vote to amend our handbook, is there specific language
- in that section that you would want to see to allow basically what you just described? Would you allow
- me to think on that and get back to Rachel? Because when recommending exact language, like recommending
- words, I mean, my little nerd heart just got excited, right? But I would just need a little bit of time
- to think about the exact verbiage, if that's okay.
- Well, I think so then this is where my head is at. So let's plan on talking about this next month to
- say, do we want to have that kind of vote for the EC says ECPC? This is something that may come up and
- we approve you writing them a book. And you have to change your hand at that time. So yeah, if we were
- able to amend it such that we are able as a commission to do that, that would help.
- that would help us function. It would be very good. Well, thank you, Taylor, for your on-the-fly advice.
- We've got it recorded. We are recognized. Now, that's great. I do appreciate your thoughts. Yeah, wherever
- we can simplify is excellent. All right, well, I'm going to pass it over to Matt for this quick handbook
- update as well. Yeah, I was going to propose that we amend the handbook in just above that working group
- section, Quorum Determination.
- As it currently stands, says a quorum meets or a quorum means that 50% plus one of the appointed
- commissioners are in attendance with a minimum of six commissioners present. As we have gone quite a
- long stretch right now without receiving another commissioner, minimum six when we only have eight bodies
- is a big lift. So I was going to move that we do that, whatever that's called, the de minimis.
- Basically, we turn that back down to five so that it's less likely that we have a panic right before
- a meeting about whether we need to cancel or not if someone's traveling for work or something. This
- is something that we can vote on. Every single month we have to. Ideally, we would not change it that
- often, but because we are so limited. We're responding to our circumstances. We are not trying to circumvent
- anything to make it easier.
- Is there any discussion or question that people have about Matt's proposal to move the de minimis to
- five people, which means if five people are in the same room, it is a quorum for the EC, which means
- working groups are now limited in that way as well. So working groups that have more than four people
- are now not able to do their thing if they're all, some of them have to leave. So yeah, I'm just,
- moving that we change that number six to a number five. And technically when someone seconds that motion,
- we can still discuss it before voting. So thank you, sir. So Matt motion and Mitchell seconded. Okay.
- Any discussion? Are we ready to vote? Rachel, I think we're ready to vote on something. Okay.
- Let me get my screen ready. I think we're on Adam Martinez. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Gary Albright.
- Yes. Heidi Brown. Yeah. Nadia Cain. Yes. Matt Caldy. Yes. Adam Budeker. Yes. Motion passes.
- Great. Thank you for bringing that, Matt, and excited to see all eight of us at the next meeting. Okay,
- next thing on the list is elections. This is going to be a voting topic because we talked about elections,
- but I'd actually like to suggest, and I think we can vote on this. Rachel, remind me if we need to vote
- on changing the election dates. We do. It says February in the handbook, so that's why it's a vote.
- Is there anything else needed from Taylor?
- Oh, I'm so sorry. Taylor and I will work together in the coming weeks. We'll figure something out. If
- there are questions for Taylor, feel free to send them directly to me and I can consolidate them for
- him. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you, Taylor. Thanks, Nicole. Thanks, you guys.
- Yeah, of course. Thank you. Thanks, Jennifer. Thank you so much. All right. For the elections, basically,
- we've been trying to do elections in February, but so many appointments happen in January. And with
- the annual plans in place in January and only having a couple of weeks under our belts, switching
- the different officers can sometimes feel like both years shift. So I would like to recommend that we
- do our election in June instead so that we have a few months to pass the sort of, to get in the flow
- of what we're doing for that year. And hopefully there'll be more solidified commissioners by that time
- as well. Yeah, so that's my move that we vote to
- change our elections for officers to June each year. Okay, so in the handbook, like, for the future,
- not just for this year until they figure it out? Yeah, because with the new year and with the changing
- committee, so many commissioners in January, it just feels like we're constantly like, oh, ugh! Yeah,
- June gets us through ECO here. That was right. That was my only point of clarification, so I will second
- your motion. Is this motion to modify the handbook, or is it just for this year? Modify the handbook?
- Thank you. Is there any discussion people want to have about preferring that we do not make this modification
- or aren't spending thoughts on it? I think like so many other things, including forum, if it's something
- we feel the need to return to, we can. I think it's a good move right now and it may well stick,
- but it also, you know, depends on everything that's going to happen in the next year. So I feel generally
- supportive. I think Adam Martinez also had a comment. Yeah, just to clarify that.
- That means like current officers would keep their positions until June, right? Yeah. So we would not
- vote like this month. Sorry, what was that? We would not vote this month for like new officers. Correct.
- Yeah. Yeah. But that's a really good question. Yeah. Provided our secretary is willing, they would keep
- their role in June. Are you sweating? We're voting to modify the handbooks so that
- From this year on, unless again modified, it'll be in June instead of February. Yeah. That works for
- me. I just wanted to make sure we were clear. That'd be a great question. OK. Are there any comments
- or concerns? Ready for a roll call vote? OK. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Kerry Albright. Yes. Heidi Brown.
- Yes. Nadia Cain. Yes. Matt Caldy.
- Yes. And food occur. Yes. At the Martinez. Yes. Thank you. Motion passes. Awesome. Thank you. All right.
- Well, Rachel, we've got you for the free commission appointments, uh, when I'm the agenda. Oh, yeah.
- Okay. So, uh, we received a application, uh, for the tree commission. I included it in one of the packet
- addendums, um, but I also included it here. So.
- The applicant is James for I don't know if James is still present with us. Okay, I took out James's
- personal information and that is included in the application. So I did take that out. But here is the.
- The qualitative.
- Part of the application. So I wanted to introduce this to you that so title 2 of the tree commission
- gives the power to appoint someone a member or a non member of the appoint someone to the tree commission.
- And so that member of the tree commission, I believe they have voting powers at on the tree commission and then.
- Historically, that person has came to the Environmental Commission as well to report about what the
- Tree Commission is doing and serving as kind of a liaison between the two commissions. Carrie and Matt
- might be able to provide some more context on how David Parker served in his position being in this
- role. So I wanted to provide the information to you and should you want to appoint, you can take a vote.
- I'm actually a little confused about how this works. Yeah. Rachel, I don't know if I am known of a tree
- commission member who has only come to the EC meetings as a tree commission member, so I'm not sure
- if I remember how that works. Would the term be similar to all the other commissions where it comes
- up every two years or needs to be approved by the council or the mayor?
- I'm not sure the, the person I would know that, but just left Jennifer cross Lee probably could have
- answered that. Let me pull up the tree commissions title to quickly to see if I can quickly find an
- answer. Yeah, it's probably in the tree commission rules. Like, for example, on commission,
- we have like, who is appointed by or how it works. Um,
- So what they serve on our mission, just as someone would serve on the tree commission. Because
- my understanding was right, was that there is an open spot on the tree commission for an EC member.
- So I didn't know if someone's applying for the tree commission, I would think that would be decided
- by the tree commission. So I found the title to, let me try to share my screen here. So many different tabs.
- Okay, so what we're looking at here is this number two section. So appointments, the tree commission
- shall consist of seven members serving three year terms to shall be appointed by the mayor to by the
- common council one by the Bloomington board of park commissioners, one by the board of public works,
- and one by the environmental commission.
- For my understanding, this does not have to be a member of the environmental commission. The environmental
- commission is just appointing somebody. I believe most commissions have the clause where you have to
- be a resident in Bloomington. I think the tree commission is the same. So this is what is giving the
- power to the environmental commission to do that. Gotcha. Okay. And I know that in the application,
- there's a little description from James on sort of the relevance of this commission for him and what
- he's hoping to
- Um, do you add that liaison? So we do have James in the room so we can, um, Talk about it. We can,
- I assume, ask him questions if we have any. Um, we can consider voting on this now, or I assume it would
- be okay if we consider voting on this next month if for some reason that the folks not ready to vote.
- Yeah, I think so. Okay. Okay. Do we, I know it's a long shot. Do we know if Dave Harkerst was appointed
- to the tree commission by the EC or if he had just
- Apply to and I'm not sure that is before my time, so I'm not sure on that. Mine too proudly. Okay, well,
- from my understanding from what Haskell said, so the Haskell Smith, the urban forester, I believe Dave
- was the environmental commission appointee. Do we discuss.
- this application further before or after a moment? I mean, it can be either, but yeah. And I mean, if
- you'd like us to request James to step out while we talk, that's OK. We're obviously on CAS. We're available
- for all the worlds to see either way. But if it makes it a little less direct, that can be. Thanks,
- James. Yeah.
- I mean, we haven't done this before, so this is like a really interesting thing to consider. And I think
- there are questions that we probably haven't even thought to ask about our trade commission. I think,
- well, my initial thought was like, I think he would do a really good job because he took a lot of initiative
- and is still taking a lot of initiative and clearly is very passionate about these issues and is very
- qualified. I wish that James had not left the room because I guess I just want to say that I appreciate him
- applying to do this. I personally would be very comfortable with him being our appointment at the Tree
- Commission and I appreciate him also coming to EC meetings in spite of not being a commissioner here
- to report back on those monthly meetings. So I think that's wonderful and I'm supportive of his application.
- Before Adam jumps in, I want to point just a point of clarification to in any type of appointment for this
- position. If there was ever a reason to rescind that appointment, the EC also has the power to do that
- upon a vote. So you have the power to appoint, you have the power to rescind. Otherwise, this would
- have to be reappointed every three years. So just wanted to make that point of clarification. Sorry
- to cut in front of you, Adam. Now you're good. I don't really have any qualms with appointing him for
- the reasons that the other
- Commissioner has mentioned, I just think in the future, should we have someone on the EC who feels especially
- passionate about joining the Tree Commission or is willing to, maybe we should prioritize them, but
- we don't have anyone like that right now. So, yeah, I'm perfectly fine with the point again. Yeah, I
- think the bigger.
- I think the bigger issue was that we don't have anyone who can make like a Monday, 9 a.m. meeting. So
- it's one of those things. It's not that we don't have anyone who's passionate about trees. It's that
- we have people who are working during those hours. So again, I appreciate his application. And I agree
- with your general sentiment that we should give priority to someone within our own commission should
- they be interested and available for such meetings. But in the interim, I feel happy to support James
- on this role.
- Yeah, I agree. So I guess I will move that we appoint James Ford to the Tree Commission. I second that
- we vote on that. All right, so Matt and Nadia. OK. Let's do Heidi Brown. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Adam
- Martinez. Yes. Adam Futiker. Yes.
- Matt Caldy. Yes. Nadia Kane. Yes. Kerry Albright. Yes. Motion passes. All right. Well, I'm going to
- go grab James real quick. And I'm going to put him in there. I hope he can study canon. Let's see. Thanks
- for what? Let's light something. Maybe some black lights might be better. Don't worry. Great. Come back.
- James. OK, we'll see. We'll see what happens. OK, the button. I know. Adam, did you have something to
- say? Yeah. Yes.
- Our meeting officially ends at eight, right? So if we want to keep going, we'd have to vote to extend
- the time. Perfect timing. OK, so I would like to consider two different things. One, extending our meeting
- by a few minutes, and also amending our agenda for things that we can push to next month. Because we
- do have a lot still on here, but I think there's value in moving forward. I would suggest that we extend
- by 15 minutes.
- and see if we can buzz through this. Second. Matt and Mitchell post that second, so you can choose whoever
- you want to. Yeah, I was looking to see if there was anything I wanted to remove from the agenda, but
- I think especially things like working group updates and reports can just be done at light speed. Like,
- I don't see the need to push them back, so I think we'll be all right. I do want to add that the staff
- update has, because of just the bylaws, the Monroe County Gardener Fair we technically need to vote on.
- The Grand Elementary, we need to vote on, and Earth Day table registration, we need to vote. So there's
- three votes there. I won't take up any more time while we do that. OK, perfect. So yeah, we have a motion
- to vote to extend by 15 minutes. OK, so I'll do the vote real quick. Adam Fudiger. Yes. Adam Martinez.
- Yes. Kerry Albright. Yes. Heidi Brown. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Nadia Cain.
- Yes, Matt, call the. Yes, motion passes. Thank you. Okay, so we're going to move through this. Feel
- free to be as brief as you'd like. Sustainable energy utility project. Is that something that came from
- Rachel? I think so. So this maybe Matt can also provide clarification. This was the B coast project
- that they are working with the O'Neill school with. They had a.
- memorandum and a statement of work. It's pretty long. I think they were just looking for feedback. So
- if you have feedback, feel free to email me. Perfect. All right, we're gonna move into working group
- updates then. Biodiversity working group has not met. However, there is a Mayor's Minute on our pledge
- item on the agenda that I don't know about beyond what I saw in the packet.
- So I signed up for updates about the Married Monarch Pledge. So this is basically our opportunity to
- apply to be part of the Married Monarch Pledge. We can do it between now and March 31. So I wanted to
- share this with you all in an approved way so that we can look into if that's something we want to do.
- I would recommend that we consider, I mean, I think we have this vote now, but I would recommend we
- just plan to vote on it. Let's vote on it this month.
- I do want to say the administration is not interested in pursuing this certification at this time. So
- that might reduce discussion on that as well. OK. So I'm glad that we shared it. And moving on to the
- next thing, eco heroes. So we have a sponsorship letter that we need to vote on to approve to send.
- That was part of our conversation at the beginning of the meeting.
- in the packet. I hope you all had a chance to read it. And I would love to hear any edits you have,
- or if people are interested in voting on it. I hope you've read it. Hold on the letter. Second. Do you
- also want to include the flyers in this vote? Yes. We don't need separate votes for that, OK? Yeah.
- I included it just as eco-hero materials. Sorry, Carrie. We'll move that.
- All right, so here are flyers that we're also using to share with the public. Would you like to amend
- your motion, Mitchell, to include the flyer? Yes. I move to approve the letter and flyers and, yeah,
- the eco-virus. And I once again second. OK, Mitchell moves. Matt seconds. Thank you for noting that,
- Rachel. Yeah. OK. Owens, Maldi. OK. Matt Caldy. Yes. Nadia Cain.
- Yes. Heidi Brown. Yes. Kerry Albright. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Adam Martinez. Yes. Adam Voodeker.
- Yes. Motion passes. Excellent. Thank you. Not a voting item, but just one while we're on Eco Heroes.
- Will it be possible for Fiona to post about Eco Heroes soon so that it can be shared?
- If you send me, if you send me a post, send me a Facebook post and I will get it approved. The press
- release goes out on Tuesday. I believe so. Thank you. Perfect. Okay. There's some more conversations
- that were. The committee.
- It's kind of thought about having, including ideas for what would be the live event. We talked about
- that in the outreach meeting, which I'll talk to in a moment. Um, Rachel, there are purple follow up
- questions about the live event. So can I email those to you with the eco heroes group? And then you
- share back what the responses are just to save time right now. Uh, I believe so email me individually,
- please. And I will get answers back. Great. Sounds good.
- And then lastly, judging. So when we're getting on these submissions, they start coming in on St. Patrick's
- Day. The last day is April 7, which is a Tuesday, and we need to have them voted on so that we can tell
- the winners to come to the Eco Heroes ceremony on the 18th. Ideally, we'd be able to tell them by the
- 10th. So there is a recommendation for judging of all the submissions
- on April 9th. It's a Thursday and it would, I assume, be Rachel hours that work for you set up in the
- planning department where people can come by and just fill out a form saying, this is the one I like
- for first place for this age group and just kind of fill that out. It doesn't have to be everyone at
- once. Does that work for us to plan on April 9th being the day that people make time for that? If you're
- working out of a non-Bloomington profession, does that work for you or is there something that would
- work better for you?
- Well, what would the hours be? I think it would be while the office is open, it would be back in the
- cleaning department, which is until... Well, I'm not back until like 5.30 or 5.45. Yeah. So, I mean,
- like, yeah, as logistics go, technically not everyone has to vote. Yeah. Right. So I guess, right, is
- this okay or do you want to try to make another
- carved out. No, I mean, the only thing that would work would be an evening or a weekend and that's not
- worth pursuing for one person. It works for the most people. I was going to say, I'm sure I can make
- it work. I'll swing over on lunch or something. Okay. All right. Adam, does that work? Adam Martinez,
- is that work okay for you? Yeah, I can stop by during lunch. Okay. All right. Great. Okay. Thank you
- so much. We'll plan on the ninth.
- and be overflowing with submissions. Great. Okay. The next group is the ECPC. Rachel, what do you have
- to share? Oh yeah, that's me. Okay. So ECPC met in late January. So we've had that special meeting since
- then. I included the letter that was sent to council after the meeting.
- uh, provided a public comment during the council meeting. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to read the
- entire letter because of the three-minute addendum. Um, so I appreciate ECPC for working on that.
- I'm sorry, um, it worked out the way it did. Um, definitely a learning experience for me. Um, and I'm
- glad Legal was able to come and, um, provide some clarifications on how it can work in the future. Um,
- but did any, that's kind of my update. ECPC did not meet in February, um,
- for the petitions going to BZA and Plan Commission. So the next meetings are as scheduled in March.
- Any other updates from ECPC members? I received an email about the North Grove variance request. Oh,
- yes. I'm sorry. I included that in the packet as well. I'm sorry. I forgot. Was it from Julia Livingston
- or was it from another individual? Mine was from Molly O'Donnell.
- Okay, so this about the 2511 North Dunn. Okay, so that was the site that it's a four acre site. I think
- ECPC has seen it. I sent the plans a couple of times. A four acre site with about 2.6 acres of closed
- canopy. Now they are planning to put in 15 subdivisions and have several common areas for the riparian buffer.
- and trying to remediate some closed canopy. Environmental Commission did receive a letter, or I'll let
- you all read the letter, but a public comment. It sounded like Harry also received a public comment.
- Yes, so this is the public comment that I got was from somebody sharing about their concerns and some
- of the specific things that are concerning them. And then they have a petition that they would like
- the support of the commission or at least consideration from the commission because I just got it yesterday
- or last night. So I couldn't work it into this agenda, but I assume, Rachel, if I share it with you,
- then this is something that we could potentially discuss and vote on and the ECPC if it wants to meet
- and discuss
- our thoughts on it beforehand, we could do that. As far as timing goes, does that work for us to plan
- on this for the March meeting? Jackie can probably provide more comment on the timing on that. I think
- the BCA... Go ahead, Jackie, I'm sorry. Oh yeah, sorry. BCA is next week, so that's not great. We're
- not sure if they're going. If they go next week, then they will go to land mission on March 9th, which
- seems inevitable, second or third for that.
- So we can, you know, I know this is kind of a weird one because I think you guys have like not highlighted
- it, now it's available to me. We do want to read it. We can let you, we should know by tomorrow if it's
- going to the museum next week. We will know, it's going to the museum next week. So you'd like,
- you know, maybe it's based on that because if it doesn't, then that means you'll have a month because
- it won't sort of like push on the line. They'll both, John. Yeah.
- So my feeling is it would make sense to plan to put this petition that none of us, but you have seen
- yet on our March meeting agenda and packet and et cetera. And ACPC previously met and decided not to
- write a memo for 2511 North Down Street. So we could decide whether we want to stick with not writing
- a memo or whether we want to write one. I was moved by this letter. I thought it was great. And I know that,
- I know that a lot of the neighborhood has been speaking at those meetings and that it's a complicated
- one for others that are non-environmental as well. So I personally still don't feel driven to write
- a memo, but I appreciate the public's input and reaching out to us as well. And if we get the petition
- on next month's agenda, I'd be happy to look at it. Yeah. And that sounds good.
- Rachel, will you just keep us up to speed on if this is actually going to the next one? Definitely.
- If that's the case, we can decide. Thank you. OK, light pollution group? So we had planned to meet in
- January, but we ended up canceling it due to some of the confusion around how working groups work, I guess.
- I will probably reach out to people and try to get another one scheduled in March, which will set us
- up nicely to hit the ground running after Eco Heroes, I think. I had a quick question for Rachel. You
- mentioned there might be someone at the Parks Department who is interested in working on evolution in
- the parks. If we wanted to talk with someone from city staff,
- would we have to set up a meeting if it was just one of us and therefore we weren't meeting the quorum?
- I don't think so. I think one person's fine. Jackie, do you agree? I'm so sorry. If one person from
- the EC Andorra working group, just one person wanted to meet with city staff, does that require an inspection
- notice? No. Okay. You're good, Adam, to meet with people. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that.
- Sorry not to make confusion about the working group. We've received mixed guidance. Now you're good.
- Yeah, that's why I was here. Because I know you may not hear that from some of the others, and it's
- hard on Rachel to try to explain a thing. We have been getting completely opposite guidance from legal
- and the administration. And so then Jennifer's in a weird spot where she's trying to be like, well,
- this is what legal told us. So we're hopeful, like Jennifer said, they're going to come to some sort
- of actual conclusion soon.
- Because all the rules, as we told you, that is what they told us. And then just extremely recently,
- we heard directly from the administration, like, oh, we don't have to do X, Y, and Z. And it was like,
- that is my planet. So it has to be bad for us, too. And for Rachel, trying to disseminate that information
- to you guys in a timely manner. We're hoping to have an actual answer soon. And then if you'd like just
- to move on, and you can grab your groups around that. That's awesome. We appreciate that. Yeah. Well,
- I think I'll go ahead, Adam.
- Yeah, no, I understand. Music for all of us. Great. Well, I'm going to go ahead and move then to the
- next group, which is Outreach and Education. That's tonight. Rachel, I have some specific questions
- from our group that I will email you with. And then if you could respond to the group with their replies,
- that'd be perfect. Special Projects has not met, but we're going to schedule a meeting, which is totally
- allowed in the email. So we'll figure that out and have an update for you next month. How about water
- quality? I was going to say, as it's
- I've not scheduled a meeting yet. It's hoping to have one soon, but I heard through the grapevine, and
- by the grapevine I mean the guy two desks down from me at work who runs this kind of stuff was in a
- meeting and I could hear him talking. Apparently the county has gotten a grant of the type that we're
- going to apply for. So I don't know how, I don't know the details of it yet. I haven't had a chance
- to talk to Tim about it yet.
- but I don't know if that would negatively impact our chances of getting something. And if the county
- does have something, we should figure out, we should really start getting the right hand to talk to
- the left hand and figure out what they're doing and see if we can collaborate or anything with them
- because water goes to all of them. So yeah, gonna try and figure that out. And once I have more details,
- I'll try and get some on the schedule and see if we can talk to our stormwater people and figure out
- who we need to get from the county and to report us to talk about this stuff as well. What was it for?
- What was the grant for? It would be for EPA 319 non-point source pollution reduction programs. Awesome.
- Okay. Thank you, Mitcha. All right. Well, we're to the staff updates. So Rachel, I'm going to turn it
- back over to you.
- Okay, the 1st thing is the environmental amendments. We have a landscape update, which I'll cover and
- then there's also an update that Jackie will cover. So the landscape update is we.
- are changing the parking lot perimeter landscaping. So we're adjusting this landscaping to reflect what
- is actually feasible in parking lot areas to address what the intention was, which is to better distinguish
- purposes such as visual screening and provide landscaping within parking lot areas that are feasible.
- So we are taking this language where
- pretty much reflecting it, what the county has. There's not been a finalized language developed, but
- because things are moving quickly as far as these changes going to plan commission and to council, I
- wanted to give you just a summary or a quick synopsis of where this is headed. So what we have now is
- one, I didn't look this up, I'm sorry, I'm like going to make things up.
- How many trees is it? Rachel, right now, do you remember on the permit or it's okay if you don't?
- I don't. It's one tree. It's very similar. It's like one tree every three spaces. So every space is
- nine feet wide. Or every four spaces. But at the county, they just do it by million feet. So the thing
- we've been running into is that our regulation is based on the number of spaces you have total. So that
- really isn't related to what your perimeter is. And so then we're like,
- they're being very, cause they like literally can't, they have to move to 10 feet and they can't do
- it. So we are changing our regulations to be similar to the counties where it's one regulation for the
- outside and a separate regulation for the inside, as opposed to one that you're just kind of
- like gerrymandering that. So the actual number, the shrubs, I think they, the actual numbers are going
- to be very similar. It's just how we get there. It's gonna be different and it'll be easier, much easier
- for staff.
- developers to understand what needs to know inside, which is really kind of important as well. I mean,
- that is important for the reasons Rachel mentioned, but for the coverage and the actual asphalt inside
- is more important on some of these big plots to see. And then if there are any questions about
- the landscaping, Jackie can provide the second update.
- Okay, the second thing is, a number of years ago, we changed the requirements for easements
- on environmentally sensitive areas so that basically everyone had to do easements if they were doing
- a project on a site with environmentally sensitive areas. Previous to that, we only had to record the
- easements if it was in a subdivision. So we wanted to include large sites that have sensitive areas.
- We wanted to compel them to record easements as well.
- What has happened is that we maybe just went too far to that end because we get a lot of small projects
- now where they are not going to pay about this. They have money to have a surveyor come out and survey
- easement. And so like all of the regulations in the easement still apply. We are just trying, we are
- not requiring them to report the easement. So what the regulation will be changed to is that it will
- still be for all subdivisions and it will be for all
- major site plans. So anything that's going to go to plan and commission any major commercial or multi-gammal
- site plan will have to do that. So obviously those next commissioners do have the money to meet that
- requirement. Yeah, so that's the average. No, so they're there for major site plans. It's there are
- different thresholds. So over a certain number of units, I believe it's 30 now, it might be 50. You're
- going to definitely be a major site land. If your site is more complicated, the director can send it
- up and have it be a major site land, even if you don't have the threshold. If you're over 30,000 additional
- square feet of non-residential, you're going to be a major site land. So it's really like the bigger
- projects will learn land commission and they will still have to do the expense. And again, the smaller projects,
- they'll still have to follow those regulations. It just won't be recorded that there's an easement on
- that site. So it's recorded easement. Yes, it's specific. Correct. So recording easements are a best-case
- scenario, and that's why we wrote it that way. And some of us are hesitant to change it back. But I
- think the middle ground, that is what the county does. And I think it does address some of those things
- we've seen, which is really small projects where people weren't anticipating they were going to have
- to do a survey
- And I feel like some of those projects are nice. Thank you for sharing that update. To continue on,
- we've got a few different items to vote on because they require registration and fees. So the first
- one is the Garden Fair. We talked about doing that. We had an interest from Heidi, from Adam M,
- Matt maybe, maybe me to do the tabling. If we go to register, then we will need to make sure that there
- are people there tabling for that event on April 11.
- We have next month to plan the details, but I would like to move that we vote to approve registering
- for and teetling at the Master Garden Fair. We're OK. I think it's like a two to four shift, so awesome.
- We're busy in the morning. If we're confident collectively that we can cover it, which it seems like
- we are, then I'm a favor of voting. Two to four shifts, just an agreement.
- Okay, so I moved and Nadia seconded it. Okay. Is there an amount that or is there like a preference
- on what table spot? I know spots are filling up, so I'm sorry we didn't vote on this last month.
- but I just want to make sure I'm not, I'm respecting your all's budget whenever we're getting a table.
- Okay. And we would be choosing indoor or outdoor. Uh, yes. Or single or double space it looks like.
- And so I know it costs a little more, but the indoor just in case the other one says rain or shine.
- So indoor is fine with me. Okay. Do you want a single table for 125? Is that okay? Yeah.
- Okay. If they're out, do you want the double table? It's way more. I would say it's more than we need.
- I say if they're out, we can switch to outdoors. Outdoor. Okay. I will get that set up and let's go
- for a vote. Let me share them in the right column. Okay. Let's go. Adam Futiker. Yes. Adam Martinez.
- Yes. Matt Colby. Yes. Heidi Brown.
- Yeah. Carrie Albright. Uh, yeah. Mitchell Owens. Yeah. Nadia Cain. Yes. Motion passes. Great.
- Thank you. As we've reached 8.15 and have a couple more voting items, I move that we extend the meeting
- by hopefully not, but up to 15 minutes. I'll keep you in the staff, I promise. Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you,
- Nadia. Okay. Okay. Um, Nadia Cain.
- Yes. Carrie Albright. Yeah. Heidi Brown. Yeah. Matt Pauldy. Yes. Adam Budicker. Yes. Adam Martinez.
- Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes.
- Thank you very much. Next item on the list is the Grandview Elementary STEM night. This is where it's
- like a ton of tables that are showing different forms of STEM. And in the past, we had the Habitat for
- Nativity Plan in its previous version. So now it will be amazing. But it is the same night as our currently
- scheduled BC meeting. Because we need to make sure we're hitting quorum, which at this point would mean
- up to three people could table at Grandview for the six to 730 window. We can do that?
- It's an interesting option. I can tell you from personal experience of tabling, our booth was not even
- close to as exciting as everyone else's. It was fun being there, but we were the boring table for sure.
- I'm open to us being creative with what we do if we want to table at the Gran V STEM nights, but it's
- cool to be invited. So I think it's a really fun thing for us to think about. And if we want to do it,
- then we would need to decide. So you wanna confirm.
- I think that it would be great if it wasn't on the night of our regular meetings. So I don't currently
- have the appetite to try to also table with that. Any other thoughts about it? Sounds fun. It's cool.
- Sounds cute. This is not, I mean, we need five people in our quorum at this moment. So if it happens,
- people want to. I'm not sure. We can't move the month.
- I think at this point, it would probably be pretty hard to move it, just because. Yeah, that idea.
- It's very, very tight stuff. Yeah, I mean, with everything, but yeah. But if there are one or two people
- who want to do the tabling that would like to move, that we vote to. I think technically either way
- we move to vote, I'm just, I am, I plan to vote back. Are there people that would want to vote?
- We need two, all right? I would love to do it. We need two. If we're sure that everyone else can attend
- our meeting. In a risk forum, if anyone else is traveling, then that puts us in a really good spot.
- We might have more members. They're doing interviews, so we may have more members at that time.
- That's true. How about a potential member? Would you be interested? No. Do it. Are you going to do it?
- No. Adam, Martinez?
- I mean, it's a voting item. So, uh, I vote, I move that we, um, vote on tabling at the Grandview Elementary
- Seminary. Sorry. Oh, quick question. It's free, right? There's not a fee. I think so. Let me check this
- Google form. Uh, it didn't say that there was a cost.
- This Google form does not say that there's a constant. Can I ask Adam another question? Adam, are you
- going to do it if we don't do it? Because we need two people. Yeah, I will. I'm already scheduled to
- go to the meeting anyway, so I'm free.
- Yeah, I just, I really don't, I really don't like the risk of not meeting Coral at our meeting is why
- I plan to go now, but either way, I still, I just like that. It's an opportunity to actually like, yeah,
- like get hands on people and do something. So we can vote on it. It has moved in seconds. It's ready
- for a roll call vote. Okay. Adam Futaker. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Adam Martinez. Yes. Carrie Albright. Yes.
- Matt Colby. No. No, Heidi Brown. You have to say yes, but I can't get the tape on. That's OK.
- That's OK, yeah. Nadia Cain. We're going to register. Motion passes. This is the first. Nadia, I'm assuming
- it's over here. No, I was filling. Oh, since I've made a reference. OK, thanks. We don't like contentious stuff.
- Okay, and the last thing I have is the Earth Day registration. You all will be at Earth Day for the
- Eco Heroes event anyway, but do you want to vote to have a table there as the Environmental Commission?
- I move that we have an EC table at the Earth Day event. Second. All right. Okay. We have a lot of volunteers
- for being there already, so we're ready for a roll call. Heidi Brown.
- Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Gary Albright. Yes. Adam Martinez. Yes. Nadia Kane. Yes. Adam Fudeker. I want
- to say no just to do it. Matt Caldy. Yes. Okay. Those are all the staff updates for the evening. Thank
- you so much, Rachel. I have a question. Yeah. If I wanted to meet with Adam to talk about what we would
- want to do, is that
- Yeah, we would, we would bundle it under the probably education and outreach meetings and it would be
- something that you would schedule with Rachel and she would set up a notice and then you two could meet
- each other way. If two people who aren't on the same subcommittee, why do you have to notice about the
- same subcommittee?
- I don't think I have to notice if they're not on the same subcommittee meeting. However, a lot of people
- are on the same subcommittee meetings, even if they're in multiple. So even if it's an unrelated one,
- that's right. Right. So even if you both are on like the biodiversity meeting, but you're talking about
- water quality in a separate thing, I would say I didn't notice it. So don't do it. They won't apply.
- You know, she needs to go to work.
- Um, just lay on that one. Adam Martinez has a question. Yeah, is there going to be an issue with two
- of us being there talking about environmental issues? I don't, I think public events are separate. So
- I think that's why like Earth Day and like these other events are separate. Yeah, like the board and
- commissions deliberation and stuff like that. Thankfully makes it under the wire. All right. Um,
- Okay. Well, we're at the report section. Um, if you'd like to pass on your report, feel free to do that.
- If you'd like to get to an update, we'd love it. We have exactly eight minutes left. So, uh, tree commission.
- That was already given earlier. I presented at tree commission this month. So yes, James covered it.
- We talked about 2511 north done. And we also talked about the, um, the trees removal being removed on
- PLS. So I can provide more context on either one of those if there's questions. Okay.
- Thank you. Anything from Iraq? There is. Should I wait? You can share next month if you'd like. I'll
- do it next time. Sounds good. OK, friends of Blake Monroe, I don't believe we have anyone attending
- that. Bicos. I do want to report on the Bicos one. They had a very similarly packed agenda, but it was
- a good meeting. They had a presentation on the Grandview Hills pollinator garden from their sustainable
- neighborhood grant last year. It sounds like it went great.
- He had a capstone presentation. Now I can skip that. They passed a resolution to thank the city and
- council for stepping up when snap benefits last lapsed. And they also advanced to a second reading,
- a resolution aimed at disabling flock cameras and surveillance. That's about it. That's great. Thank
- you for the update.
- We've got MC Iris. Anything you want to share about that? I presented MC Iris as well. We were talking
- about how to incorporate remediation methods for ground cover removal. So sometimes we have residents
- that are trying to convert their turf lawns to naturalized yards, or if they want to do any type of.
- overall turf lawn killing or even yard killing. We just talking more about how to work with residents
- on how to properly remediate that without triggering enforcement, or even if it does trigger enforcement,
- how to go about that in a less nuanced way. So again, I'm happy to answer any questions about that.
- So. Cool. I think, I think as if there is anything that would be helpful for
- you to keep sharing about that. That seems really interesting and very in line with the materials and
- all that. So yeah, that's exciting. I'm glad to hear that those are conversations happening. All right.
- Our last report is for Clean Community Program. Anything for that besides aiming at that silver? Great.
- Any additional commissioner announcements that they would like to share as we're wrapping up here? Who
- could I posture for some of the
- How's that going to be? Pledge, outreach materials, kind of stuff. Because I have some people I'd like
- to like, do a little church table. You want stickers? We have stickers. Yes, absolutely. We want stickers.
- But they have to sign up. Yes. I'll make them work for the stickers. Yeah, I think Virgil's got them.
- Yeah, I think there's one piece of lit that's good, and then there's stickers. Okay. Yeah. So she would,
- yeah, that's good.
- Yeah, Adam. I just want to say, be careful getting home because I heard there, I don't know where there's
- like down the power lines in the streets somewhere. Just keeping an eye out. Well, thank you. Glad you're
- home and not on a bicycle. Any other announcements from commissioners? All right. Well, our next meeting
- is March 26th. It was moved for, I think, spring break purposes, so it is not the third. It is the fourth
- Thursday of the month. Please note that.
- If you cannot attend or you have any reason that you are planning to attend remotely, please let me
- and Rachel know that just so that we can plan. Because if we need to adjust, then we can have
- that conversation. But for now. I don't think I can. I can't. I have my family spending time for a show
- at the auditorium for my birthday. Okay. So Nadia is officially not going to attend at the next meeting.
- So we have two other people miss at this point.
- So please, please, please be mindful of what you're doing. That will be missing two in a row by tabling
- at the Grammys STEM event. Don't miss three. That's it. It was that. I motion to adjourn.