Well, we have a quorum. Do you want me to start the meeting? Sure. OK. I think we are recording, so
you're good. Yeah. I did hear that, yeah. Sorry. We have a quorum this Thursday, March 26. I have 6.02.
Call this meeting to order. Start. Let's see.
Do we do attendance right away or do we go right into the? I have no policy can be attendance right
away. Gotcha. OK. Gary Albright is absent. Looks like Heidi Brown is absent. Matt Colby here. At the
fair here. And Martinez here. Mitchell Owens here. Carl Geiser here. Justin Mester here.
I'm Rachel Johnson. All right. First item of business is the approval of the agenda. Is there anything
that anyone wants to add, move, or strike from the agenda tonight? Seeing nothing, that's indicated
as an item to be voted on. So will you all call the roll again to approve the agenda?
Matt. All right, I'm sorry. Adam Boutiker. Yes. Adam Martinez. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Kyle Geiser.
Yes. Despy Nester. Yes. Matt Colby. Yes. And Heidi Braun just entered. Heidi, do you want the vote on
the meeting minutes? Yes. That was actually just approval of intent. I'm so sorry. I heard something. Yes.
I'm so sorry. Did we have a first and second for that one? We do. We did not. We can restart. We'll
draft that vote. So I need a motion and a second. Motion to approve the agenda. Start again. I'm so
sorry about that. OK, we'll start with Adam Martinez this time. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Carl Dyser.
Yes. Beth Semester. Yes. Heidi Brown. Yes. Matt Falby. Yes. Adam Hudecker. Yes. Math motion passes.
Excellent. Thank you, Rachel. And I guess while we continue the run of procedural items here, I hope
everyone got a chance to look through the February minutes. If you weren't here or weren't a member
yet, it's totally acceptable to abstain from such a thing because you might not know exactly
how representative it is, but I will entertain a motion for approval of- I move to approve the meeting
minutes. We need a second.
Thank you, Adam. Rachel, when you're ready, we'll do again things called a roll. Mitchell Owens. Yes.
Carl Beiser. Yes. Dustin Mester. Yes. Heidi Brown. Yes. Matt Colby. Yes. Adam Budicker. Yes. Adam Martinez.
Yes. Motion passes. Excellent. Thank you, everyone. At this time, we have public comment, limited to
five minutes per person. Is there anyone here who would like to speak during public comment?
saving it for the related agenda, I'm assuming. Good deal. Anyone online offering to give public comment?
If anybody wants to public comment, please raise your hands. And we'll hear her later. Fair enough.
Just wanted to give it a moment anyway, because I know things online sometimes lag a touch behind. But
seeing none, I suppose we will move on to new business.
The first order of business is to welcome the new members. Thank you both so much for applying and going
through the interview process and joining us here for your first official meeting. Carol might have
been with us for a few already. I was hoping we can all go around the room and kind of briefly introduce
ourselves, but I'm especially excited to hear from the new members. But I suppose I'll start. My name's
Matt Caldy. I'm the vice chair and treasurer
I've been on now for nine years, and I'm not actually any subject area expert whatsoever. I'm just a
try-hard guy who has not yet missed a meeting. That's what I hang my hat on here. Next to my left. I'm
Adam Martinez. I'm the secretary. It means I take notes. I'm in a similar boat, but not really subject
matter expert, but I like birds and
It's an area of interest. Yeah. I'm Justin Master, one of the new members. I don't know the background
you would like, but a little bit. My background is mostly in the sciences, environmental science. Previously
it was kind of coastal sciences and wetland ecology.
Which, you know, a lot of coastline led me to Bloomington in the end. And now, previously, apparently,
I'm the water quality coordinator for the city of Bloomington and Dillis. So most of my work has not
been any sciences, water quality, any climate change. But these are true facts. Excellent. Glad to have
you. Okay. I'm Farrell Dyson. Met some of you. I'm a fresh lighter.
microbial ecologist. I work at Indiana University, which is also where I got my bachelor's from. Since
my bachelor's, which was way back in 2016, I've worked in the same freshwater ecology area in Loyola
and then in Seattle and worked a bit more in applications to human health and disease. Now I'm back here.
And my interest in terms of the commission is basically everything, but, you know, specifically I was
in attendance for our subcommittee meeting earlier for the black pollution and I'm very interested in
outreach as well, so. Excellent, outreach is always a big one, so good to hear. All right, Heidi. Hi,
everyone, I'm Heidi Brown and I'm a former GIS coordinator for Transparency in Texas
I went to UT SIN Planning School. That was my first career. I stepped away from planning for my second
career, which is homeschool mom, to be a teacher. I went to the other, but I joined the board, so I
could get back into planning a little bit. But again. Thanks. My name is Adam Feudeker. I trained as
a biologist. My background is in
related to conservation. I'm going to talk here later today. I'm currently primarily focused on education,
and I've been on the mission for about a year, a little over a year. Hi, I'm Mitchell. I am also a water
quality person. And you two both just accidentally volunteered yourselves for the water quality working
group by telling me about friends. And you can help me get some things done.
because I had not been able to for a while. So this will be good. But yeah, I am a PhD candidate at
IU doing water policy stuff. And I also work for the state with IDEM doing water quality monitoring
with bugs. So I have lots to talk about. And I've been on board the commission for three years, two
or three years now, something like that.
Sneaks up on you. Yeah. And now it doesn't say, well, here I was appointed originally on the thing.
I have not. That keeps going around. Thank you, everyone, for being here. I'm not sure uniform process
is now with the status of onboarding for new members. But if there's ever any questions about whether
it's procedures or if we start using a bunch of acronyms, you don't know what they mean. Just holler.
And I guess this serves as a reminder to other members to try to
Trying to be clear about that here initially while people get up to speed. Next in new business is department
update and accessibility discussion. Yes. So I have Jackie Scanlon, Assistant Director of Planning and
Transportation here tonight. So we wanted to talk about accessibility updates because that's affecting
everybody as well as some department updates.
So I'll get the department updates out of the way because they are pretty easy and quick. So I'll be
on leave this summer from about June to September. So if somebody complaining, we'll be staffing these
meetings. So I will let you know who that person is, depends closer. And then I just wanted to remind
everybody for those who did not fill out the conflict of interest forms yet, please do so. I sent a
reminder out to those yesterday who haven't completed those yet.
I don't see it, so the clerk's office in legal sees it. So, not just, please fill those out.
And then we can, did you have any other non-accessibility updates for now? No, I think, well, I was
trying to think business accessibility. Sorry, I have to scale on it. In a sense, we are trying to make
a consultation. The minutes, we're going to be doing differently. It's not an accessibility issue, but
it's more of a process across the organization issue. We met legal with some money.
And I know that historically your secretary has done once. There are actually only two boards
of commissioners in the city that do it that way, us and me, he costs. So what we're going to start
doing, there's like a very limited skeleton that's required legally. So Rachel, first of all, needs
to be reported. Also Rachel will be taking notes. So we have, most of her still is our office manager.
So she will do the skeleton and then she will send it to your secretary, right? Yeah. She'll send it to you.
probably like a Google Doc to share with you. And so then you can decide if there are like, what color
or things that you think are important to add, like for, you know, austerity in the official minutes,
then you can add those things into the skeleton that she's created. And then that's what we go ahead
and pack it. And for now, like Adam, I'll still send you the meeting agenda, like I did today. And so
you can actively take notes and then, yeah, you'll just work with Melissa on incorporating those for
the formal. Yeah, so you'll get the meeting agenda to be ready to take whatever notes you want to in
the meeting.
And then probably within the week after the meeting, then Melissa will send you the skeleton and you'll
populate with whatever additional information you want to get there. Does that make sense to everybody?
Okay. Okay. So do you want to talk about Sicily? Yeah, so there was a federal rule. It was finalized
April 24th of 2024.
Basically gave municipalities of limited size two years to comply with this new standard of digital
accessibility. So I wrote down what the city's complying with. I don't know if this means anybody to
anybody, but it's the web content accessibility guidelines that we have with 2.2. So those are, I can
send those over email because there's more guidance online on how to comply with that.
But that's the standard that the city has chosen to pursue to comply with this federal rule. So that
means everything that the city provides to the public has to be digitally accessible. So that's why
we're transitioning to this Google Doc form. So even, and all of these deadlines have to be met at the
latest of April 24th.
So the city started to do this early, really just to train staff as well as, you know, who we work with
our collaborators to start doing this. So while this packet is not 100% accessible tonight, next month,
that's the goal, even though we're before that April 24th deadline. What this means for the commission,
all of our packet materials, such as Adam's presentation, those would have to meet accessibility guidelines
because the commission is a branch of the city.
So anything that the department receives from the commission, if you want it in the packet, if you want
it distributed, it has to meet those accessibility guidelines. So first off, I'll open it to questions.
I have more to say, but are there any questions about what I just said? Do you all have someone that
we can share documents or things with that can see if we're meeting the guidelines? Great question.
If everything goes to me, so I will be the one responsible to make sure everything's accessible. Is
there an app? Yeah, so there's going to be a training, legal student that I'm training to describe some
of this, and then they will also present resources. So, or like, yes, how we could go about determining
that on our own. Yeah. That's what we're, it's all kind of still in fussing and curve. It's ITS. Okay.
So we met legal this morning I think they're gonna like working conjunction so they so that the boards
of commissions can work. Yes, so that so that you can access the documents, because otherwise we can't
accept that thing. So as Adam alluded to it at IU.
They've been talking a lot about PDFs in particular, near impossible to reach accessibility standards.
One of the ways that they seem to be circumventing that is that it's okay if they provide a link to
one instead of providing a PDF itself. That is why we have things on our agenda. So whenever we have
something, now anything submitted by commission members, you are considered as part of the city.
Say we have, for example, the representative from DNR that we had 15 months ago.
Um, that gave their, who's your Overwatch presentation. We can accept that and we would put that link
on here with the tag that's third party content. So, um, that's how we start to navigate that. However,
you guys would all have to comply with city accessibility. Okay. So generally speaking, this won't probably
have a large impact on commissioners unless say.
outreach is trying to determine what they want on like website changes or anything like that. Yes, like
they could flyers and writing letters for council or those many things. It's all going to have to be
accessible. Some of that stuff, like we'll have a template, we can give people a letter like that. That
would be good. But putting a flyer together is a bigger lift probably, you know, unless you can find
a template. So yeah, it's all brand new to us as well. We've literally known about it for a while. Not long.
You know, Rachel's done a great job of kind of starting you guys out. There's only one other, the VCA,
which is being right now. So they have their packet, mostly accessible, but none of our other students
do yet. Um, so you guys are a little bit ahead of the pack, but yeah, we just wanted to make, make you
aware that that is going to start changing after this one. Yes. Or next month. So, um, kind of moving
on to some of the other points I had, which I think will cause other discussions. Um, so.
Part of what this means is that anything that is on the website currently that does not meet
these accessibility guidelines, it's either removed or it goes into an archive. So I've removed some
of the more outdated items. Like for example, we had a report I think from 2001 on our ECU website.
So things like that have been removed. I still have copies of them, but there's not available on our
website. I am remediating some documents such as the bylaws, Wilmington Habitat Connectivity Plan,
met the most recent air quality report. And I think there's another document I'm working on remediating.
I don't know about have them all remediated by April 24th. So that means it might, there might be a
gap. I'm working on remediating them for now. But things like the brochure, one of those things were
updated. That's a heavier lift to update a brochure. So those have been removed for now. Like I said,
there's still copies of them internally. Is there, right. So would there then, are we likely headed
towards a place where we'd have
say an archive of brochures or is that something you would prefer leaving down? I think I don't have
an answer to that right now. We could have maybe have an archive of brochures. I have to talk with ITS
and we know about that. However, since I know some of what we're trying to remediate to is physical
accessibility too. Yes, Taylor. Can I ask for verification on when you can buy archive brochures?
Well, I guess when Rachel mentioned they neither have to be archived or brought down. I guess I don't
exactly know for sure. We pulled off a website. We were told to clean our website. We just send ITS
brand and show us all our BS that don't match. So then we were told if they're outdated or not helpful,
then take them off. And then we could either update them so that they're accessible and then they'll
be left on or
on the weekend of birthday, they will pull all of the ones that do not meet accessibility guidelines
and they will go in something called the archive. And there's a webpage where we will be able to direct
people. So like, if you're like, oh, I used to get this on the website, but it was something that didn't
update because it was a 10-year-old plant, they can go to the archive and still read it. And the archive
is clear that like, this stuff is not accessible. Is that accurate? Yes. Okay.
So if I wanted to make sure I had this right, the RFI is kind of like the, we may make the rule, every
municipality in the world when I have to make all of my jobs even successful, and I've existed since,
you know, like some of the ones in Boston, which are like, hey, back to 1776 in old England, you'd want
me to make those accessible, right? So they said, okay, you can put them all into a database essentially,
the RFI, so you don't have to do that. Now, I mean, oh, sorry,
No, you're good. I was just going to say, so the archive exists, but it's not something that would be
linked to on the page. So what we can do is like come up with like a template, you know, like for instance,
legalized, maybe working on templates for clients for the city. So it's like, we gave you like an accessible,
real sure template, right? That you can then, you know, move it, you know, plug in whatever you need
and that kind of thing. But the archive will be on the city website sometimes. Yes. Yes. I mean, through
the archive. It'll become clear to people.
Really website that is. Yes, and hopefully. So while we're remediating some of the older documents,
some have been removed. Some are going to be remediated. New documents will have to be received by the
department. So the documents I've already mentioned, we're kind of tag teaming. Yeah.
And like you guys said, there are, if you want to update research from NAICS, like you all can do that
and we will put that on if they're accessible. We just have to kind of make a decision based on what
prioritized signs there are some types of update and the things that will go in our archives or in your
log. Yeah. I personally very much appreciate the remediation efforts on the more recent ones. I'm sure
that my report did not remotely meet accessibility standards.
But yeah, especially the things we've had in the last decade seem important to be up there. And if they
obviously, if they need to be pulled before the 24th to not break federal law, that makes perfect sense.
But then hopefully they are returned once they're completed. So thank you, Rachel, for your efforts.
Yeah. Any other questions about that? I have one more question. And you probably already, but I'm still,
if we create an argument, how do we know if it's accessible?
Uh, good question for binders. I've asked about this. Um, I've asked that, uh, They, if there are any
guidance documents being created specifically for boards of commissions, the answer right now is no,
that we're really relying on the training to do this. Uh, the training should roll out sometime in the
next couple of months. From my understanding, other department has made a document, uh, for their collaborators.
And aligning what we're looking for. So we'll get a document. Yeah. So that I'll send out to you all.
Okay. And you submit ratio will be able to run it. Yes. And there's something wrong. She can tell you.
Is there is there software that we can run just to check about us. It's called grapple.
Okay. It's like citywide. I have no idea if that's, if it will be for city. Yeah. There are websites
that do that, but I cannot attest to how reliable they are. Okay. Um, I think those were the main items.
I wanted to cover about accessibility. Jackie, do you have anything else to cover about accessibility?
No, that's all I have. Okay. Anyone else have any final questions or comments on the accessibility
discussion? Seeing none, I suppose we'll move on to new business. Business item C, question and response,
the Civil Meets and Legal Department. Okay, so we have
attorney Taylor around with us. He joined us last time. So because the discussion was really interrupted
by the weather emergency last month, we wanted to continue. And I think there were some outstanding
questions for legal. So Taylor, I'm just going to let them open the floor unless you have anything you want to.
ODL pulled up, I've got the BioLos pulled up, I've got Blooms and Toad pulled up, Rapid Fire, once again.
Okay. I have several lines of questioning, but I'd like to open the floor to other members of the commission
before I get gone. But are you screaming for the data so you're not like talking at them and I'm looming
behind you? No, I mean, it doesn't really bother me, but you're more than welcome.
The only thing it's here for is the camera. I'm just going to wonder why I'm always looking different
ways instead of at it. Well, you know, some people get itchy when it's like looming behind, you know
what I mean? But OK. Commissioners, any questions for legal? I know one of the places we left off was
trying to figure out how to make ECPC memos work, given that it's time sensitive often to get it before
BZA or plane commissioner, whoever it is, given very short amount of time between Gondati's meeting
and the others. Yes. So one of the things we've started talking about last time, but you won't have
more time to look at it, which is completely understandable, is look at a framework. Since in the handbook,
we have to approve anything done by a working group. If there was a way we could vote in the meeting
before to approve of
a memo that the ECPC is about to write. You seemed to indicate that there were possibilities. Yes. I
guess that's my first question is, do you have any update on that process? Yes, I haven't found so.
I was a two-year-old that asked why 10,000 plans and I never grew out of it. I try to give a little
bit of why whenever I give context for these kinds of things, especially if this legal stuff is just so like,
I could not find anything that says otherwise, which means yes. But when trying to prove a negative,
when I don't have an immediate answer, it means one or two things either doesn't exist and you're good
to go, or it means something is hidden somewhere and that makes me nervous. So it was me verifying that.
I went and looked in all the nooks and crannies that I could think of. There was nothing there.
So you should be good to give kind of like a, you know, we give this commission, you write that up,
the subcommittee, is that right? Yep. Write that up, we vote and, you know, yes, you know what you're
doing, go for it, and we'll get you going. Very much appreciated. Yeah, it's one of those things that
was so tight on time that it's like, it's already not all that many days for the subcommittee to write
the memo. So then after call a special meeting just to vote for it and then send everyone home feels,
feels like a little much, so I am very grateful that it seems like we have a method here. Yeah.
Before I ask. Thank you for your patience. And I made sure, you know. I know you like to cover your
bases. Yeah. I can't help what I am. You chose this life. I chose this life. Sure. Before I continue,
I again want to check in with other commissioners and make sure I'm not hogging the floor.
One of the questions I previously sent in, let me find it in my notes. Well, say we had nine people
on the commission and three of them were interested in researching and discussing light pollution. Working
groups didn't exist. Could those three members email each other about light pollution? In this situation,
it would not
be a quorum of the commission falling well short of the majority of members. And according to the definition
of a meeting in open door laws, it's a gathering of the majority of the governing body. So
it's my understanding that emails would not constitute a meeting in this scenario. Does this sound right?
And the response that I got back was that it sounds right. So I guess I just wanted to confirm that
the main reason we're
So handcuffed and be able to communicate with one another is our working groups or subcommittees as
they be legally known. Um, I just wanted to air that publicly because previously I didn't even know
that's understood. So let me give you a little bit of a why there, right? And why maybe asking different
attorneys will maybe give you slightly different theory responses. The whole purpose of what we're trying
to do is avoid what's called a serial meeting.
Right. Which is essentially for those who aren't as familiar with Google, by the way, I don't know who
wrote the bios, but I looked and saw like the leader. One of it was, it was like verbatim, the OVL.
And so I was like, whoever it was, did such a good job, whoever did it. But a serial meeting for terms
of open global assets is essentially an attempt by commissions because somebody did something
to try to avoid a public meeting. So for instance, if I went around to each and every one of you and
asked you the same question, hey, would you be good with this? Yes. Would you be good with this? Yes.
And then I go to each and every one of you. And then we kind of all know that that's already happening.
That would technically be a decision that is being made between parties of the commission while not
being voted on. That's still a, like, information being kind of, it has the,
color of, is what they use it. It's, it's, it's icky, right? It hides, you're hiding the ball essentially
of how you're coming to decisions, which is why the ODM exists, right? So in your specific example about
like three of the nine for light pollution, if those three, you know, oh, we're going to get it for
light pollution, but we're also here, right? We are also subcommittee members of this thing and
While we're here, by the way, did you get my email right now? Now we're in trouble. And so that's why
we have this like, some attorneys are like, nobody talked to anybody else until we show up.
Some are like, yeah, you're fine. Just don't talk about anything substantive, right? It all depends
on the attorney. It all depends on whether or not
There have been issues in the past with some commissions about trying to get things done outside of
an open reading, which then leads to liability for the city. So hopefully I give a little bit of context
and I think you should be fine if you wanted to talk about that. And there's no, you know, no corn is
being met with those three, if that makes sense. No, I appreciate the clarification. That was pretty
much what I've gathered from when I tried to research it myself. It's been good again to have that out
in the open here.
A question I didn't prepare to just hit me is, once upon a time, many, many years ago, certain commissioners
that they found a really interesting environmental article would just forward it to the whole group.
Is that a thing that isn't allowed because it's considered commission business or it's really more just
they're sharing something from somewhere that they found about
how highways contribute to air pollution or whatever it would be. So now here's where it gets into that
legal independence area, right? What's the content of the article? Why are you sharing it, right? Is
it to discuss in a meeting or is it just because, hey, this was a nifty thing that I think is cool?
And other people that are in the committee, the commission with me also think these things are cool,
right? Thinking things are cool, awesome. Senator, right? No problems there.
If it ends up being something you want to discuss at a commissioning like, Hey, can we do something
like implement something like that here? That's where I, my flag will go off. And I'd say, let's send
that to the staff liaison and say, let's put these in the material. So that way we can discuss it.
That was, that was going to be my follow-up hypothetical. If someone did say, Oh man, this is actually
really cool. They could then get it to Rachel to get in the, in the packet, essentially. Precisely.
So that way it's more, so that way it's exciting, you know, because again, in taking information, right?
So the public will know.
Here's where we got the idea from. It's that kind of transparency that is, uh, what we're hunting after.
Got it. Yeah. I just, I know that in open door laws, an email can constitute a meeting and that it was
definitely a form of the body, but as long as it wasn't commissioned business. And as you indicated,
it wouldn't have been yet. Right. Commissioned business. Yeah. Seems. And again, I had, so I, so maybe
let's follow that example that if you down the article, just a smidge, right? So.
Say you send something out, I think this is cool. Another commissioner goes, oh, I'd love to talk about
this. Don't reply to the email and say, let's talk about that, because that would constitute a quorum,
which then constitutes business, which then, you know, right, all of them are down this fall. So that
commissioner who says, oh, this is really cool. I think you should talk about this. That commissioner
sends it to the staff and staff and liaison and says, let's talk about this at the commission meeting.
Can I get, just as a point of clarification on that, obviously they shouldn't reply all and say we should
talk about this, but if they reply to that one individual to say- That is fine. They just accept it,
right? Yes. That would be- That would be- Especially if it's- Either of them can send it to the liaison.
Precisely. Yes. Absolutely. Got it. Sometimes when you know the why behind some of this stuff, it becomes
a little bit more or less like, oh my gosh, I can't send an email. I'm more like, oh, okay, it's just
because I can't.
Accidentally critical right so just making sure we don't have you aren't mixing the wrong ingredients
and ending up with something we don't That Really was the bulk of what I wanted to know so I'm gonna
again Call out to other commissioners if they have any questions for they know if we're not gonna have
legal every day So I have a question. It's a very basic question. I'm gonna finish you need all this
open door stuff is new to me and
But for an advisory board like the Environmental Commission, what would be the liability to the city
if you were to violate that law? I'm just kind of curious to see what the, how heavy the ramifications
are, so to speak. So that question makes me very, okay. What do you want to do? No, it's more of like a,
By liability to the city. I mean, like, we just, we just finished a federal lawsuit based on business
that may or may not have been conducted at a Board of Federal Works meeting from 2022. Three years.
Outside council deposition witnesses went all the way to trial at a bench trial and federal court. Right. So
liability could be huge. I don't know what the business is getting conducted, right? If, you know, come
up with an example, you know, there could be huge, I mean, like attorney's fees alone, right? If something
comes back, like you go through all that time and all that energy, and then they come back and win,
the attorney's fee is associated with the imposing part, right? So then all of a sudden, they're sitting
on the hook for all of the attorney's fees of the opposing side.
That's just one of the consequences of potentially doing something. Do I think it's going to be that
bad all the time? That's kind of what we're all a little bit, all the lawyers are a little bit doomsday-ish
and emergency management-ish, right? Very risk averse. And so we don't want to have an opening where
something could sneak in and drive through, right? Which is why like the accessibility staff, we want
to make sure that everything is accessible and comply with federal rules, right?
A, because we're good people, right? We want to make sure everybody can see stuff. And two, it's a federal
rule. But three, there are penalties associated with not having proper documents. And then some people
would not hesitate to file actions based on a perceived slight indignity.
saying the city is discriminating because this particular action item wasn't accessible, I couldn't
read it on a screen reader, and now all of a sudden I couldn't say my piece in public, right? Which
then would set back a whole thing. I could, I mean, I'm sorry, I dig into a little bit of professor
mode, because I have my Tweed jacket, there's not a whole lot of patches, right? But there's whole,
I mean, the web of multiverse realities that we could go down is endless. Very long story long.
It could be anything. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Sorry for the profession. No, yeah, I think we know
that, you know, Carl wasn't up to anything with that question. I just probably wanted to know what it
is. Is it funny? Is it a fine answer?
Why are you taking this opportunity to learn from our expert in the room? Any other commissioners with
questions for Taylor? So going back to some of Matt's questions, the gist I got from what you said was
basically if we're not meeting quorum, a lot more is permissible. Well, I mean, obviously, I guess if
we're not meeting quorum, what exactly can we talk about?
things related to the environmental commission? Like if I run into Matt on the street, can we say something
about? See, that was like, pants encounters are always okay. But if, yeah, if we planned to have lunch,
would we be allowed to talk about anything? So, okay. I'm going to say that and give us the two stages.
Technically, no. Technically, no, you're not violating. Technically, no, you're totally fine.
If you had say three people that you happened to meet and you were like, okay, let's chat. Right. And
then all of a sudden you were like, Hey, this was cool. Let's do this again sometime. Right. Or like,
Hey, we're meeting with the same, the same three people are meeting consistently at this place.
At this time, you have not created a customer breakfast. Right. Which then indicates there might be
some sort of information or some sort of deliberation happening there.
Would that constitute a subcommittee from the purposes of the commission, right? Is it just an unauthorized
subcommittee, right? Or something like that. That's where I start getting purpose. Does that make sense?
So three, you know, three people really interested in this topic. I totally get, and let me share some
articles if you want to get it together every now and again to talk about something that's important.
Absolutely. When you're like, Hey, let's meet every week.
Let's talk about this stuff. And then you'd be consistently bringing that to the commission. Right.
It's again, it's creating the intake of information is kind of the overarching thing. Yeah. I mean,
three people that's assuming you're not meeting the quorum for a subcommittee. Does that make sense?
You think so? I don't know what follow up question I would ask.
Yes. Because I can try to explain it in another way. No, I think I'm following. I'm talking
larger subcommittees. Well, you see they just can't get so large that they would meet quorum of the
body. Yeah. Got you. That's the idea of the thread. Also say working groups and subcommittees are going
to be going away next year. Subject to mayoral and council approval. That's another solution.
Well, then that goes along with something that I was eventually going to bring up later on this agenda.
But that's an interesting glimpse by the curtain of the future of boards and commissions. So any subcommittee
at that point would need to be approved by which body or bodies? Mayor's office and council.
So there's going to be like, of course, like standing committees, blanket or full, yes, of course, we
have rules, right? Staffs for committees, that kind of thing. But then otherwise, it's going to be like
a, hey, so you move this up committee, I want to make sure that we're not just creating three serial
leadings. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, take them in front of you. What we're protecting ourselves
from, yes. I'm sorry, legal, I beated that at work. So that's kind of my job is kind of, shh.
You're forgiven. Thank you. Appreciate that.
Rachel, did you happen to know? I don't think our working groups or subcommittees are actually listed
in the handbook or bylaws or anything. Are they? They were removed because I made that subsequent document,
which is not accessible. That's fine. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something in there that
says, we have a water working group. We have an eco heroes working group. Thank you.
I will say Taylor is not staying for this handbook discussion. So if there's any pressing questions
about the handbook, this would also be the time to ask Taylor. I assumed you weren't staying for that
discussion. I mean, depending how long it is, if you need me to stick around for the handbook discussion.
We could always reorganize the agenda. That would be up to the commission. Would you be able just to
pull up the proposed amendments and have
Taylor say whether he believes those are problematic. Is it the one with the Anna Holmes's edits? Yeah,
there's some edits for Matt. Oh, from Matt as well. Yeah, a specific proposal. I didn't post that because
they were official. Yeah, I think if you're willing to just take a look at those for us, that would
be the best way for us to not abuse your time and to not
Maneuver the agenda into an order that doesn't make sense. And if it would be easier for the Commission
on how could you just wait until that comes up on the agenda. I had until eight on my calendar anyway.
So. Well, I will leave that completely up to you, because if you. I would of course like to go. That's
why I wanted to.
Right, because coming up soon, we have a presentation from Adam that I'm sure you'd enjoy. But again,
we don't need to hold to your honor to be here. I wonder if the handbook discussion makes the most sense
here in our agenda. I guess we could still move to modify the agenda if we felt like it. But yeah, if
you're just willing to glance at those and see if there's anything that we should not be able to propose
that is proposed,
Uh, that that's pretty much easy to answer that for me. So I put, um, what type of edits they were.
So, um, some of these legal edits, um, council moves some stuff in the morning from the municipal code
of how, or where they talk about work missions. So simply 2026-04 is the ordinance. They haven't updated
the code yet, but these are basically just a consolidation. Yes. So that's what some of these numbers are. Um,
Let's see. Just making the sea on city lowercase. Yeah. It wasn't throughout the document. Okay. I want
to try to get to the meat of some of these. So here are a couple of the legal edits. Oh, this is the
code of conduct. I haven't shared all our commission members yet. Okay. I can't remember Jennifer Crossley
mentioned this last month.
They are going to start rolling out some sort of form for you all to sign, saying there's like, you
will comply with the rules that we propose, acceptability requirements. I don't know if you had to sign
something as main members. Okay. So I haven't rolled that out yet, apparently. That's what we'll be
rolling out. In the works. Yes.
I'm assuming legal is gonna be okay with legal edits, right? I'm more worried about mine. Oh, your edits?
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, legal edits. Okay, I will go to Matt. Sorry, I don't need to push you to skip anything.
No. So, Matt, you offer, or you suggested removing some of the language about the nominating committee
and how we do elections. So, did you wanna explain anything on that? Sure.
Is that where my first one starts? I believe so. Yeah. OK. Basically, very simple, we moved the time
of year. I don't want to make that consistent, but there were a couple other things where we'd have
a nominating committee that didn't feel necessary at all. I didn't really see as a thing that was happening
in other boards or commissions. So I just struck it all together. There was an item there in three.
that talked about what happens in a hybrid meeting versus what happens in an all-in-person meeting,
and it included secret ballot, which we've never done, but I know is opposed by every level of open-door
laws. So I thought I'd better, to be honest, I was surprised that that wasn't struck before me looking
at it. I would have thought that the word secret ballot would have jumped out to legal. Well, it's now,
so thank you. Just really kind of simplified it to say that,
I mean, I think in the years that I've been here, I don't think we've even had any position to be contested.
So there's been no need for any form of balloting whatsoever in the last nine years. But it's making
it very transparent and open, regardless of whether it's a hybrid or not. Well, yeah, I was there for
two minutes and already it was a fight over the secretary. It's going to be contentious in June,
just wait. No kidding. I think those were the only two simple ones in that part. And then I had some
in Quorum just a little farther down.
What was this? Or was it rather Buffett? I can't remember. So it was 5F. 5F. I know Legal had contradictory
language to you. Oh, there we go. I see. So Anna Holmes, one of our attorneys, she wanted
She suggested have replacing it with a majority of the numbers serving on the commission are in removing
the 50% removing the de minimis. And I think you added proposal was to remove the de minimis and if
she wants to change the language on the 50% plus one, that's fine. I'd only rolled with that language
because it was the existing language. Majority sounds absolutely fine to me.
And the majority of the total numbers would be a majority of the 12. And whenever we spoke with her
this morning, she was pretty firm on the anonymous, like really shouldn't have, we shouldn't be doing
that. This is the language we should be doing is the majority of the totals. I can get a little bit
of why, because if there are nine members and there's an anonymous of five, all of a sudden you are
now dealing with a, you have to meet, we had this issue with
one of our wards where they set a minimum of four people to conduct business and it's a six person form.
And so we only had three members of the commission, so we couldn't do anything and everything sat there
for a few months. So what we were trying to do is make sure that we were learning our lesson and eliminating
the requirements for a minimum number and just using the word majority in the event a few years down
the road and membership changes because she's getting bigger or smaller or whatever it is.
My contention then with legal change is we still, if at all possible, would very much prefer a majority
of the appointed members rather than of the possible 12 members. There are times we've gone years without
a seat being filled and there was a time we dipped as low as six members, I think. And if then Cora
met 100% attendance, it felt that's not just a majority of members, that's all the members required
to even talk.
Um, so I, I noticed from, is this happening across all the boards and commissions? Because I, I believe
some had it as a majority of the possible seats and some had it as a majority of the appointed seats.
And when I learned that the first thing I said to Rachel is we want to clarify that it's appointed.
We, we have- This is something we are trying to standardize. Okay. Unfortunately, it's, it's a,
Because so, for instance, if every seat is vacant, except for one, then that person becomes the call,
right? And if that person is doing everything that, I don't know, say it's a mayoral appointee, you
have some mayoral appointees, you have some council appointees, if it's a mayoral appointee, or if it's
a council appointee, then they can just kind of, like, for instance, if it's a council appointee, they
can just start doing things on behalf of the environmental commission. The mayor can't remove them because
it's a council appointee.
You see what I'm saying? And so there are ways to game the system if that were the lead. All the other
body would have to do is appoint a member. So there are always readily available volunteers,
I would say. Understood. So the legal rationale to make it
a majority of the possible seats rather than a majority of the appointed seats is essentially to keep
a de minimis type situation from happening anyway. I mean, because in that a majority would be one example.
Because I was already proposing we remove any de minimis thing. Yes. Okay. I guess I'm not a lawyer.
It just feels harsh to say that a majority of the appointed seats need
are not appointed as the possible seats need to be present when we have no control over the flow of
seats being appointed. I agree. And even if we know that there are applications in front of both bodies,
we can just be held hostage by either or both groups then if just, you know, to take a total hypothetical
one, the mayor or the council decides we're not gonna seat anybody. Now it's six and we'd have to all,
no one's allowed to
It'll work with something. I'm realizing as I speak that if the city decides this is the way it has
to be, that's the way it's going to be at some point. My proposal was for majority of appointed seats
to preserve as long as we're allowed to an ability to function.
I guess then now we are accidentally on this item. But regarding forum determination, what of mine or
legal suggestions do you think could stick? So I would go with some legal edits, basically, because
those are the ones that I was looking at. These were fine to me.
It's actually their wording. The majority of the members serving on the council are in. Serving on the
council to me wouldn't suggest that they're filled seats, that it wouldn't be the empty seats. So I
think the language change that legal put forward is totally okay with me because it preserves my intention.
It just uses better language. His vacant seats can't be members serving on the commission.
I actually feel fine with it at this time, and I'm just nervous about that train coming down the tracks.
Just to use an example, if these two had not gotten appointed, when they did, we would not have been
able to have four of today's, I guess, because we would only have five people today because two of you
are professionally out with them elsewhere.
We've talked about this a lot. Let me just make sure that I'm not leading you astray. Are there any,
is there anything else? Are there any other amendments that we're looking at? Those were mine regarding
elections and quorum. I mean, is there one in working groups? There was, but the kind of subcommittee
kind of is a quorum discussion. Oh yeah, so it was also quorum. It was just within working groups, right? Yes.
Yeah, I was getting rid of the deletion list of two. Right, which sounds like that's what legal wants
anyway, so I was... Do you have it, Matthew, or anybody, because do you have any questions about the
legal edit regarding some of these, this content here? Sorry, I know this is a lot for a new member
to take in right away. It's written into the legalese of the handbook.
So it's something different. So the subcommittee has to be defined, and we have to find the subcommittees,
right? This is going away, right? Eventually. We'll still have them. Yeah, we'll still have them for
the rest of the year, and then they could be approved by the mayor's office and by council next year.
They want to approve. So legal, let's say, out of the set subcommittees, Peyton, Taylor, Frederick,
other sets of committees, a quorum of a majority of its members. So, it has to be present at the minimum
of two. Yes, or that was there previously to an end.
Yeah, because I was actually looking to get rid of the de minimis again, and to treat working groups
exactly the same as the commission. So instead of a majority of the appointed members of the commission,
it's the majority of the members of the subcommittee. I would say that or for two minimum members is
due to the electronic reading rules. Okay. So if it's, for instance, like a board of directors,
three people, you can form two.
They can't just have one online and get in person. They both have to be in person. Does that make sense?
Yes. So minimum of two of its members. But if that's, you know, statutorily a three-person body, that
makes more sense than it would make for us in this instance. So, well, for subcommittees, right? If
you have a subcommittee of three. So if you're having a committee of two, that's us.
Basically what the large quality work is down to the majority would be perfect attendance, but that's
reasonable. Yeah. One person can meet on their own. Yeah. Making sure that one person subcommittees
can't exist. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it taking information in your brain? Still have to be approved.
I mean, no commission. If the ODL could include a mysterious wasp that goes into your brain, I'm sure
they would, but I mean, unfortunately we're limited by the technology of our time. Okay, yeah, I have
struck the minimus there because I thought it was restrictive, but it sounds like the goal. I will say
that present is the key word there, I think.
So this just has to do with like electronic readings, if you have the in-person requirements. It's just
everywhere that's kind of. Okay. I also did check quorum. It is based on the full number of seats, not
just the abundance. So if you want to go back, if you would mind. I'm so sorry. Oh, that was our commission
size determined stash for it.
So the council sets the number of seats by legislation. So if you wanted to, if the EC wanted to like
lower or raise their total seats appointment, you could contact council member and see if they believe
about it. Is that kind of the right method to go about it? That's a survey on the commission is what
she was trying. So number of members able to
The importance of serving on the commission. So there are 12 members serving on the commission. Okay.
They can see it's countless members. Yes. There's something today. Okay. That would be online. Okay.
Um, I wanted to make sure there was one thing that I thought there might be a session on later. And so
I'm going to put you on the spot for this one. Okay, it was something about if the working group wanted
to make a yes, commission positions may be recommended. Any position from the commission as a whole,
regardless of the audience must be voted on and approved by majority commission and opposite the mayor.
Am I reading that if they wanted to make a
letter to write to BZA or Planning Commission about development and make a statement about that. A position
as in a policy position, not actual position? Yes, a policy position. Okay. Would they need to receive
approval from office of the mayor to submit that letter? Yes. Okay. Questions on that? I felt like that
one might get reactions. I wanted to bring it up now. Is that a number? Have you done that in the past?
Nope, that's new. Would you mind scrolling up just one, but I just want to see the context so that one
I can't remember what it falls under. Okay.
So that we help, we'll find data like 75% so you can see it all. So when that, this is new, this is
a new thing from the city? Just the green, yeah. So where did that come from? The office of the mayor.
So this just became the thing, that now the office of the mayor has to approve our positions? Correct.
And where did that come from? From the mayor? That came from, technically the commissions are,
under the executive branch. And we want to make sure that there's harmony within the executive branch,
recommending policies, procedures, that sort of thing, speaking with one voice. So before a commission,
a position can be recommended, it has to be approved through manpower. Gotcha. So we're restricted by
the mayor? Essentially. I will say, unless other,
I'm going to hold my tongue here. Because I know this commission creates reports at council direction.
Sometimes, in the past, not nearly report, but you have made the air quality report, which I think has
been sent to council. What was that process? I presented it to council. There was no ask. It was just
a report. I think that's what you're getting at.
I feel like for instance, if council gives a resolution that says, hey, environmental commission, I
want you to tell me these three things, tell them the three things. It sounds like they don't really
want the environmental commission's opinions anymore, and I too. My impression is this is something
we don't necessarily have a say on, and my biggest immediate concern though goes back to the time sensitive
nature of say ECPC members to planning or
BCA or whoever. I mean, it's already hard to meet and write a memo, even though now we do know and very
grateful for our ability to kind of preemptively approve it and to trust our working group there. But
if we then theoretically, if the office of the mayor was not expedient in their reply, we could be weighted out of
presenting a memo to someone at the time that we have been told that it would be ideal to present the
memo. It's best to not wait until it's before council. It's best to get it in this setting. So my biggest
concern right off the bat is that the thing we do outside of outreach that has the most potential impact
could just be outright thwarted with those few words.
smell a potential conflict of like we are recommending things to a different executive branch with the
planning department through the ECPC especially. I'm sorry, different executive branch? Not different
executive, like the planning department basically, because that's still under these. Which I will say
that yes, the planning department reports to the mayor. Yes. We are making recommendations to the planning
department, but then that has to get approved through the mayor to then become a recommendation to the
planning department.
Yeah, that's, that's essentially part of my concern. Well, cause again, they can, they can take it into
consideration or not. I just want to make sure there are memos get into the packet. Yes. So it's like,
again, they don't have to listen to a word that we say, but my, my fear is that this will hold up.
So if, if we go here, the commission may also be recommended to other legislative bodies or organizations
of interest, such as the legislature.
Must be voted on and approved by the majority of the profession and the office of the mayor. So this
is basically if the Christian wants to write a letter to the legislature. If there's something that
I would say external to the city. Okay, it's gotta get So if we had a position related to a council
by the city council. Yeah, that's my follow up. Yes.
Apply to that. Yeah, because actually, in the context of recommending it to planning, it's fine. Technically,
the city council, that's what I just said, it's so like, so it's not fair. There's legislation, just
commission, but in the first place, the opinion that's listed for
the personal position of the period. That's what he says. So long as it's internal, the approval process
will be nice to you. Well done. It's good promise rules. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
My little minor part was happy. I didn't even get scared. So I was like, hey, nice. But yeah, if it's
internal, we don't need approval. But if it's external, so I will confirm this. So it'll be good. However,
I believe this, because I know where this came from, because that was part of those discussions. This
is basically making sure that we're not surprised by something. And it's like, hey, there's this thing
going down the pipeline. All of a sudden letters are going to the governor's office. We're negotiating
with other things.
And so they're like, Hey, what the hell is your commission doing? And they go, what are you talking
about? Right. That's basically all that they just want to avoid surprises here. Um, so they know kind
of what the temperature is. I don't think it's a matter of preventing things. I think it's just making
sure that they know what's going on in the city. I think this just for external. I, again, if.
I think it's just, again, I think it would just be a matter of, I don't see him. But the first one is
to say that the mayor doesn't say provide it to the mayor's office.
Right. Right. Cool. So I'm making sure that that, as written? Yes. I want to make sure that that wasn't
a typo or oversight. Because also down here it says, any position on the equation as a whole, regardless
of the audience, must be voted on. Right. And they're separate sentences. They're separate sentences.
However, it says any position, regardless of the point. So I want to make sure that I'm reading this
correctly. I appreciate you looking into it. I mean, we look forward to it. I'm sorry I didn't have
that immediate answer for you.
But let me confirm. As written, it could be interpreted either way, you know, and I can nerd out on
it. As you explained it, I'm much more comfortable with it than I was before. Yes. We had other boards
of commission tonight. Again, there are other boards of commission of the city that are very much at the base.
And are very aware of what the current state of legislation is going on or being impacted. They wanted
to write letters and started just sending them because they're like, which Senator do I get this to,
and we have lobbyists and things and they were like, Hey, your commissions are I'm screwing with me
and my efforts to go talk to people. Right. And so we want to make sure that we're all just seeing from
the same end.
I also want to say thank you, Rachel, for pointing that one out while we still had legal in the room.
Are there any others that you? Not off the top of my head. That was really the one I thought the EC
might want to have a legal bottom of this. With that being the last one, that was real exciting, unless
opposed by
commissioners here, I think we should let Taylor off the hook and move into our next order of new business,
Adam's presentation. I have one more quick question. Go ahead. We were discussing in the life pollution
meeting earlier, if the subcommittee or working group, whatever the term is, if we wanted to talk with
someone in the city, the member city staff, could more than one of us talk with someone from planning,
say, about, I guess,
what we're doing in the working group. So outside of public meeting, or would that have to be like a
public meeting or eight hours notice and everything? Technically, no, it would not have to be a meeting.
If no, the form requirements are being met. I start getting nervous though, because if you're meeting
with them, it's because you're trying to seek information about something.
Right. One person, no problem. You're getting your questions answered. Two people, sure. You have the
same questions. Three, I start getting worried. Right. It's kind of like how this looks, if that makes
sense. If three of you want to go meet and talk to somebody about something, I would recommend ask that
person to come to the next commission meeting. Or ask the commission, Hey, I would like to ask this
person these questions. Could I, could this commission ask for a report on something? Does that.
It makes sense. You know, these commission meetings, like if you're having a meeting with a city staff
member, say it's two o'clock in the afternoon, we can set up a room and, you know, publicly notice it.
And it's, you know, technically a publicly noticed meeting. It's meeting those requirements that would
be the same difference as if you set up a meeting otherwise. Is that fair? I just know that, you know,
jobs and things, it's, you're like, oh yeah, let me just take off at two in the afternoon. I'm here,
it's great.
Yeah, okay. And if there are any other questions, please feel free to send them to Rachel and then I
will, I was slow this last time, but I won't be anymore. I was out of, I was out of, yeah, I'm sorry.
Um, but I will readily answer them as we go. So feel free to just keep questions. And I was being flippant
earlier, but I will come back as often as you need. I feel totally satisfied pending.
clarification on the- I've already added it to my to-do list on the top. Thank you, sir. Awesome.
Thanks guys. Thank you for joining us and we will move on to our invasive animals implications
for biodiversity presentation. Last fall, Kerry asked her people to present
short presentations that might be of interest to the meeting or to the group. So I'm going to make this
really, I won't be long here because we don't have a long time. So this is going to be over here. Yeah.
About me, so I'm going to talk about
biology, so I'll pitch about my background, my research background is really in what eco-physiology,
understanding how organisms, how their bodies respond to their environment and like flexibility and
how we can respond to changes in the environment. I've been at IU since 2013 and currently I teach
I teach conservation, animal conservation and animal physiology. So those are my credentials to talk
about what I'm going to talk about. Again, my background is mainly in understanding how organisms respond
to changes in their environment physiology. So we can apply that to climate change and a lot of different
things. But I'm talking about invasive animals. That's because
I thought it would be a good topic to bring up to this group because we think a lot about invasive plants.
We don't think a lot about invasive animals. In fact, so I'm on the Parks Council, Environmental Resources
Advisory Council, and my first meeting, there was a member of the DNR at our meeting proposing to stock
Griffey Lake with an invasive fish.
for fishing. So that was my introduction to brown trout. They're native to Europe, Asia, and Africa.
They're not native to North America. And an argument that they make is that, well, they're going to
die in the summer. They won't survive the entire annual cycle. But is that a good thing?
So invasive, we're going to make some, I'll have some definitions here first. So native, well know what
a native is, is a species found in its native range that are introduced species that, like we have lots
of introduced ornamental plants that have been moved to an area outside of their native range, but they
have to, they're maintained by humans. They're not, they don't, they're not invasive.
invasive organisms are introduced, but then they are a species that can establish populations and grow
rapidly. Often when the most concerning invasive undergo explosive population growth, and they can dominate
a community. Ultimately, that when you have an invasive organisms, they compromise the ecosystem and
all the animals with plants and animals in it because
Let's see. They can cause different harms. So invasive plants, the elder peat gator plants, they reduce
plant biodiversity. That's a major concern of conservation, it's biodiversity. And they also reduce animal
biodiversity. The primary objective of conservation is to maintain biodiversity. We try to remove invasive
plants because often they out-compete native plants and then that reduces overall biodiversity and the
ecosystem resiliency. Invasive animals also, they out-compete native animals, which
results in a reduction in animal biodiversity, results in a reduction in plant biodiversity, and our
primary objective in conservation is to maintain biodiversity. We're concerned about invasive plants
and invasive animals, and we all know about invasive animal plants. I think we talked less about invasive
animals, which I think is important. What are they introduced by accident?
for controlled pests, live bait release, for game, like the DNR. We'll introduce invasive fish for aesthetic
reasons. Many colonizers introduced non-native animals to North America because they were interested
in seeing house sparrows in Central Park, and suddenly they're the most common bird in North America.
So why are they a problem? Why aren't they a problem? They modify ecosystems. They out-compete native
species for limited resources. So usually, bases are really resilient. And there's something in animals.
Often, they're more aggressive, or they're a generalist, and they're able to make use of resources.
The natives aren't able to, aggressive. They can be a novel predator. They can be herbivorous and wipe out.
plant populations, and they also often introduce new pathogens and parasites. I've got two case studies.
I'm using animals that don't occur in Indiana because we have some, there's some really good data here
so we can understand actually what's happening. So you all have probably heard of cane toads. They were
introduced to Australia. They're also introduced to Fiji and seven filler.
locations where they're not native to for pest control. King toads, where they occur in Fiji, they co-occur
with Fijian frogs, a native frog. When King toads, after King toads were established in Fiji, the Fijian
frog populations declined very rapidly.
So we can count animals and we can see a reduction in biodiversity. That's important, but also understanding,
I think it's important to understand why that happens. There's a nice study, and we can think about
native or invasive animals in this as well. They have nice data showing what happens. Basically, what
we have here is body condition, that's like the health,
essentially of the feeding frogs, corticosteroids, which is a stressful hormone, testosterone, which
should increase in males during reproduction. These are males up here, these are females down here.
The data that we're looking at on the x-axis is
So he's had an entire annual cycle looking at these three measures of the physiological condition of
the native animals when they're co-occurring with the invasive toad. So red, those are the experimental
frog measures. So these are the frogs that are flirting with the toads. And body condition of, compared
to the, what's here?
that males, sorry, I'm trying to go too fast here. This is the body condition. So it males and females
on this. In white, the white circles are male Fijian frogs with toes. You can see without toes, their
body conditions higher and most of the year than the males occurring with toes, with the invasive animal.
The same for females, which are the triangles.
Um, the corticosterone, which is a measure of stress in animals, it does some multiple things, but it
increases during stress. I can see that the, the frogs occurring with the invasive toads, they have
elevated, uh, stress. And then over, this is a urinary testosterone. This is, these are just nails.
And if this wasn't there, can we move that? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you can see that.
The male frogs that are occurring with the invasives, they barely have a signal that they're really
reproductive within the anicycle. So most of these male frogs are probably not. So these are the frogs
controlled without toes. These are the frogs with toes. The gonads are not growing. They're not reproductive.
We've got similar reproductive measures for females. You can see the control females, they have a clear
reproductive cycle.
progesterone, another signal in females, and then proportion of females laying eggs or laying clutch
insects and see it. So we can see what's happening with this aggressive non-native animal is stressing
the heck out of these frogs. It's native animal, which is resulting in them not being reproductive.
The reproductive and
stress axes, the physiological mechanisms interact, and if an animal's stressed, their whole reproductive
system shuts down. What's happening is primarily competition for food and aggressive interactions with
the toes. Another example, this one's pretty amazing. American beavers don't occur in South America.
Oh, sorry, I have a quarter down here. Oh, okay.
In 1946, though, the Argentinian government introduced 50 North American beavers to Tierra del Fuego.
for fur trade to encourage a fur trade. So they introduced 50 American bee-whipped beavers. Now the
estimate is the population is 100 to 200,000. And you know the disruption American beavers can, they
fit within ecosystems here, they don't fit within ecosystems there. So they've spread into continental
South America, there's a huge problem. And they're threatening over 16 million hectares of indigenous
forest. So they're just destroying the,
where they've been introduced and that the populations have exploded. So those are a few,
I think, well-documented examples. This is a list of the DNR's website of what they recognize as an
invasive species. There are many more invasive species in the state that they don't recognize. In fact,
I'm a fan of the DNR, but the fact that they want to introduce non-native
fish to our lakes is concerning to me. And they are. Cats. Cats are actually, we think of them,
conservationologists think of them as free ranging cats, as invasive animals because they establish
colonies. And this study came out of Nature 15 years ago, and it's been followed up on several times.
cats are the greatest cause of mammal and bird mortality in the United States. Free-ranging cats kill
more birds and small mammals than any other species. A non-native predator that our species have not
evolved to respond to. Other common invasive animals in Indiana not recognized by the DNR
European house sparrows, European starlings. I've done bird estimates across Indianapolis. So about
four years, I had 16 sites across Indianapolis. The two most common birds in Indianapolis are starlings.
So European starlings, European house sparrows, you see them all over the place. These are not native
to North America. They were introduced, eight pairs of house sparrows were introduced in Brooklyn in 1851.
and there were several small decade, several smaller duchies after that, and now they're the most common
bird in North America. The problem is that both of these birds compete very heavily with our native
birds, so they decrease. Can you know where our sparrows are heavy? They have low bowel accuracy. Where
do you know? Starlings are cavity nesters, and they're very aggressive and they'll outcompete our native
birds for cavities, a very limited resource.
to them. That's all I have. That's my presentation on invasive species. Yes. I have one small point
on your invasive species listed. Have rusty grayfish listed there? Yeah. I want to clarify. Yes. They
are native to Indiana is their own. The whole, like pretty much the entire state except for the Lake
Michigan Mason. It was on the DNR list.
So that is a yes that's a yeah I agree that's a very strange range map some places you will see where
they will say that they are well they're not native here. I think they're there is that maybe it's the
Basically the whole Wabash Basin and the Lake Mary Basin in Indiana is their native range. Like most
of Indiana and Ohio, but like the far north west, like you get into the region, if you find a rusty,
that's invasive. And everything like further north is where they're actually kind of being invasive
species. So like Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, that's where they are. They're pretty aggressive. And
I think where they occur like with Clearwater crayfish, Nailed.
hybridized with them and they'll outcompete them. They do. It makes them very annoying to identify.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. You look for the red and the... Yeah, the red helps, but yeah, most of the time you
have to have like very mature males to identify those. Well, if there's ranges to be taken away, is
the cloud just going to show the ranges are expanding? Yes. Yes. And, you know, there's a question of like,
When is an animal invasive and not? I typically think of animals that were brought to a new location.
Most birds, their ranges are expanding north. Every year we're seeing populations occurring farther
and farther north. I would not consider that as an invasive species. They're expanding their range because
new habitats open that they can use.
Okay. Thank you so much for your presentation. Well, now we've kind of got to race through an agenda
here. I'm going to move on to new business E tree commission. I understand that our recent appointment
must have resigned. Yes, Davis board resigns the day after he was appointed.
Not really. We do have it in the whole office on zoom. The full I have to give you commissions. I'll
work on that task while I talk. So I think Carl Fizer has also applied. So I don't have to explain my
application if I can do that. Yeah, sure.
So there was a lot of consternation and discussion and concern last month about the EC appointments,
the tree commission, not being EC, from the EC essentially. Logistically, I was talking to Rachel,
you know, the tree commission appointment, TE will have to still attend two meetings, much like,
you know, EC appointments.
In that interest, I put my name on the hat. I'm happy to go into detail about my qualifications and
so forth. But I'm also actually curious to hear what Nicole has to say. And one thing that I, if I can
critique the Environmental Commission boldly as a new member, I really wish that we interviewed James,
our previous applicant. And I would like to interview Nicole on this. And I'm glad that she showed up
today. Because reviewing her application, I see that she has
the wealth of educational experience, forestry, horticulture, and us. And that would be somebody that
would be, I think, very prime for that position and in her position. But I would also like to see the
tree commission appointment come from the Environmental Commission. And seeing how we have three vacant
slots, I would be interested to hear from Nicole if she would be interested in also serving
on the Environmental Commission.
Does she have the permissions to unmute at this time? I believe so, Nicole. You should be able to unmute
and meet your co-host. There you go. We have read the information where you explained your interest
in your qualifications, but still feel free to say a few words. Hi, I'm Nikki. So,
When I filled out the form, I was like, oh, this is like a silly little form. I didn't realize everyone
was going to see it. So I'm mildly embarrassed by how sparse it is. But yeah, I'm Nikki. And as you
can see, I did do my undergrad in forestry at Texas A&M. And then I eventually got an MS in horticulture
from UGA. Right now, I'm fairly new to Bloomington. I moved here in August of 2024.
Currently, I am an academic advisor for the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department at the university.
And I think I may have actually met Adam at the last college preview, and I think you gave me a cookie.
OK, I'll see you then. I was thinking, I was like, huh. But yeah, my interest is that right now I'm
not working in the field that my education's in for a lot of reasons. But I do love trees.
That's what I studied. Actually, in my grad work, I studied rare and threatened trees of the southeast.
So I spent a lot of time working with trees, oak trees, specifically. And when I'm up here, I spent
a lot of time thinking about the quality of our street trees, especially. And like, I have a lot of
thoughts on them. And when I saw the
opportunity to apply the encouragement to do it. I was like, you know, this would be something lovely
to get kind of more involved in my fields that I had my education in and, you know, contribute to my
community. So that's kind of a lot of what I am and what I'm doing and who I am. Questions
Thank you so much for applying and don't worry about it looking sparse on the application. It's not
like we needed a resume and cover letter or anything like that. We appreciate your interest. I have
a question that is basically directly inspired by some of Carl's previous words. Would you be interested
in applying for the Environmental Commission?
I wouldn't be opposed to it. Um, I just, I hadn't thought about it I was like trees trees are good trees
are where I kind of fit, but also forestry, while tree. Also, the way it's taught it and it is more
of an ecology kind of realm.
like natural resources. Um, so I do have an interest in that and I care about those aspects of everything.
So I wouldn't be opposed to it. I just kind of want to know a little bit more about kind of it. I haven't
looked into it like intensely. Um, can I jump into a question? Uh, Nicole, just for like, um, clarification,
like the tree commission is going to build this probably only on publicly owned trees for the environmental
commission talks, or kind of focuses on the entire environment of Wilmington. So I don't know if that
kind of helps to learn what the focuses are on each commission, but I did want to point that out. Yeah,
trees are definitely in the umbrella of things that we talk about. We've got, you know, a habitat
connectivity plan and interactive map basically that we're trying to promote at some point here. We've
had an active biodiversity working group at times that
trees and canopy would definitely be a part of that. But I do understand that it would be, at the end
of the day, it is preferable to have someone who is on the EC be our representative on the Tree Commission,
but it isn't required. I appreciate you stepping up to serve. Depending on how seriously Carl feels
about also potentially filling that seat,
I want to have strong feelings and be happy to have him. Again, inspired by his comments, if you would
consider looking into the EC a little bit and deciding whether you'd like to apply, we have three mayoral
vacancies. When several of us introduced ourselves, I don't know if you were listening at the time,
Some of us have less expertise than you. It's just about caring and trying and being able to attend
a meeting every month and chip in where you can on outreach. So I generally support your application
here, but would also nudge you to consider the EC. Would I apply for it the same way I did for the Tree
Commission, or would it be a difference? Yes. OK. Cool. Yeah.
Mitchell has a question. I was going to ask, if she is R represented on a true commission, she kind
of has to kind of argue the executive. Or at least send a report. Yeah. So you would still have to deal
with those monthly in addition to. To clarify, that's why I think it would be a really good idea because
she would attend this meeting, but she would also have a voice in what we are doing. So it would be
very helpful if
she wanted to be on the free commission for her to also be on the environmental commission. Sorry if
I didn't make that clear. I mean, I think it's a great point. I obviously support all the engagement
we can get. And yeah, we'd be happy to have you on the full commission. The trees definitely fall under
a lot of environmental quality type stuff that we work towards. I guess the one thing I'm trying to,
So I would like, I personally believe that our government is best served by meritocracy. So I'm going
to start from like a high, high level. Um, I am absolutely willing to do it. I can meet, meet the appointment time.
I don't have the educational background, but I do have the, you know, my dad was a landscape architect.
I know about residential and commercial considerations. Growing up rural, I've had to take trees down.
I understand how to care for trees. I've been working for the Canopy Bloomington. I think I could do
a good job on this role. But at the same time, you know, somebody with a background in forestry and
horticulture, I also think is very qualified.
And also at the same time, I want the environmental permission to be as strong as possible.
So if we can, essentially, if you just want to take on the role and join the environmental permission,
I would be happy to withdraw my application. Well, I don't want to put her on the spot exactly, but
I appreciate the explanation because I do see making the time slot is the biggest thing. You're already
here, so you'd already get the meetings. It'd be easy for you to report to us.
But yet again, that's something that Nikki can do as well, regardless of whether she joins the EC. We'd
just really like you to consider that at least. I've spoken plenty. Does anyone else have feelings about
it? Because this is a voting item, but there's no motion yet. We're still just discussing how we feel
about our options here. Can you delay the vote?
Uh, we can, we have gone a couple of months without a tree commission. Nicole to have the opportunity
to think about whether or not she wants to apply for this commission. Nicole, do you understand why
that we're interested in that having one of our, uh, so is it correct that they, that the tree commission
member would, needs to attend our meetings as well? Is it?
There are representatives, so they would need to communicate with us, but I don't think it would actually,
they don't count towards our quorum. I don't think they have to physically be present. But I think if
we have a report and we have questions about it, it would be important to be able to ask those questions
at the meeting. I guess if someone was going to make themselves available during this time slot virtually,
They could make themselves available during this time slot in person. Again, the addition of peer pressure.
If you consider being a member of the EC, but is there a desire to vote on our appointment to the tree
commission today or to postpone and consider how each Nikki and Carl feel about it, maybe have more
of a discussion next meeting when we're hopefully not as far behind?
How do people feel? I like the latter option. I don't think it'd be fair on her to say, right now, choosing
the easy way, go away. We're definitely not presenting you with an ultimatum by any means. We're just
trying to properly consider all of our options. Again, we very much appreciate your application and
we're not saying no, which is it sounds like we're going to vote to postpone disappointments. I hope
you remain interested in it.
In the tree commission seat on our behalf and they kind of take a look into into joining our board all
together here. So, and if you have questions about the environmental commission, you have my contact
information. So feel free to reach out. Okay. I can see the application. So I can.
I don't know if the appointment will be made. The appointments available right now are all from, they're
all day-long appointments. So it's up to the office of the mayor to make those appointments, but I would
be able to see whether she applied or not. To clarify, if she applied, could we send a letter to the
mayor in support of her appointment? I think so, as long as the EC voted on it. Yeah.
Yeah. Full disclosure, it's been a lot of years, but I'm a mayoral appointment and I treated it slightly
like a job application. I put my application in and then I followed up some number of weeks later and
it was a previous mayor, but then he just appointed me. It would just be like, don't let it sit.
If you apply, if you consider any apply, follow up and if for some reason, the city isn't moving on
it, we would definitely entertain pushing.
the administration to consider your application. Again, I very much appreciate you applying and being
with us through this whole meeting. Thank you for being here to speak with us tonight. Do we formally
need to vote on this item or can we just- Can we vote to do that? Yeah.
I move to table this until next month. Until the April meeting. I think you need to lay out when it
is. I move to table this until the April meeting. We'll meet a sec. Yeah. When Rachel is ready, we'll
take a roll call vote. Let's do a message here. Yes. Brown. Yes. Caldy. Yes. Whitaker. Yes. Martinez.
Yes. Owens. Yes. Geyser. Yes. Motion passes.
So we're going to delay this to our April meeting, which hopefully you're able to attend either virtually
or in person. And again, yeah, we're not saying no. We're very happy to have you here. We hope to see
you again in a month. Exactly what is the date for the next one? April 16th. 16th, yeah. 16th.
Thank you. Yeah, you too. Thank you so much, Nikki.
Moving on to old business, handbook discussion continued. The good news is we have had most of this
discussion when legal was still here, but I don't know if Rachel, if you'd be willing to pull that up
again, just so we can see particularly anything substantive, anything that isn't changing a capital
letter or a choice word. Yeah, let me figure out what screen I want. Okay.
Is it changed often? We have changed it most months, the past six or seven months. From my understanding,
it has not changed. I think that's basically because of former environments. For my understanding, it
hasn't changed that often in the years of 3Ds. It would be correct. What's the impetus for the third
wave changing? Yeah, there were a lot of things.
and mostly forum related recently that have just been trying to make things function in spite of low
numbers, mostly. Yeah, previously it would just happen periodically the same way that any kind of,
you know, city, you go at it or anything, just look at it when we look at it. And it seems like now
we'll be changing directed by legal regardless. And it sounds like within a year, we will again see
changes of some kind or another put forth by legal.
Yeah, I suppose it has to change with the times and the fine. It can technically be changed at any meeting,
but you're right. It's been active lately. Yeah. Okay, so going into these changes, I recommend the
changes. A lot of them, like I said, whenever Taylor was here. So these are just where the new boards
and commissions rules are going to live within the fluency municipal code or the BMC. I think
That was just a correction on what our title 2 says. There's some capitalization edits. This was a change.
This is being added to our title 2 apparently. Such funds received by the commission pursuant to this
subdivision shall be deposited in accordance with the administrative regulations of the commission.
Just more clarification that all appointments shall be made from residents of the city. That was kind
of a rule anyway. So just making sure it's in our fire laws. Okay, and we talked about this earlier,
how there was a form coming out where everybody on the commission will have to comply with this form.
The clerk's office hasn't released this. I think I've seen an edit, not in my inbox, but like in my
presentation.
And it's basically just saying, you'll comply with the Title II ordinance, and that you'll do your duties
in the best possible way, no conflicts of interest, comply with accessibility, things of that nature.
Let's see. There's some clarification about the term limits. So striking definition shall serve approximately
two-year terms, and that
terms for the commission shall be a period of two years. I think this is just like an open door legalese.
This clause for removal, this was, some of the language was already in the code. There was some legal,
or I guess it's just me moving it down to make its own subsection.
and making sure it complies with the BMC with the new reference. So it's still the three consecutive
meetings, the missed three consecutive meetings, it's cause for removal. You miss fourth in a year,
it's cause for removal. And that either the council or the office of the mayor can make that removal
depending on your point to body. This was a small change.
Later on in the packet, it says, or later on in the bylaws, it says that things must be submitted to
the staff leads on the packet within 10 days of the meeting. The secretary said one week of the meeting.
I thought just to make it standard and to help with accessibility stuff, 10 days, making sure that we're
all on the same page. We talked about some of Matt's edits already. Any additional comments on Matt's edits?
which is about shifting elections from January to June. And we talked about that last month,
that it just, the parts that were changed weren't necessarily voted on. Okay. Legal edits,
types of meetings. So special meetings can be called by the chair, the mayor, or a majority of the members
serving on the EC, request data, meetings, section writing. Upon receiving a request, the chair shall
call a special meeting to be held within 20 days.
And this meeting should apply with open door laws. This is all just the Indiana photos of remote meetings.
So this is the forum discussion that we already had. So from what I understood from Taylor's, when Taylor
was here, we're going with the legal edit.
Uh, with both the forum and the subcommittee. So we're all comfortable with that. As comfortable as
they can be. Yeah. Okay. Um, that is the settings. Yeah. With the groups. Okay. Commissioners made up
of fault number six by the city council, six by the mayor, uh, legal, citizen striking. It shall be
a priority to have fault.
members of the commission. I don't know. It's kind of assumed. And paper applications, this is part
of the accessibility that PDFs are super accessible. So you can contact the clerk's office if you can't
do the website application and they can help you with that. Let's see. See if that's our mayor evaluates
applicants and that's an interview before determining whether the applicants are qualified.
I think that was just a typo change. This is my edit. So because of all the accessibility stuff, just
Office of the Mayor has a standard design and colors, templates, whatnot. So I'm suggesting striking out the
I don't know how you say that font, Tribute 20K, and the template colors. ITS in the comms office has
said Roboto is our city's font. So I'm just kind of saying you should just follow digital accessibility
guidelines by city of Bloomington, ITS, and office of the mayor.
We talked about this one already. Taylor is going to get back to us on, and those are the edits. Any
questions on any of those? This is a voting item. Should we have a procedural question? Yeah. I was
going to ask if we're still waiting on Taylor to get back to us about that line of receiving approval
from the office of mayor. Yeah. Do we want to wait to
I was going to take it the same way. I was, I can't do the motion, but I would entertain a motion to
approve the, uh,
handbook as amended, and then I'm obviously looking forward to Taylor's explanation on that one. Okay.
Yeah, if you feel like that one's- if the change is going to happen because it came through the equivalent
of- Yeah, I think it'd be an investment to pass it because then we don't have to do the same thing next
time. Yeah. Or not. I'm going to ask you to approve the benefits. Thank you both.
I forget which order I've gone, so I'm going to go a little sporadic. Let's both call me. Yes. Owens.
Yes. Martinez. Yes. Geyser. Yes. Meister. Yes. Brown. Yes. Buecher. Yes. Buecher. Thank you all. Continuing
an old business, Bloomington Commission on Sustainability and Resilience cast on update. There's going
to be a presentation held in council chambers on April 28th, which is a Tuesday.
At 5.30, this is what Bicos specifically, I think Alex York helped spearhead at the O'Neill School and
the students will be reporting. That was the time that worked best for them and Bicos, but we and others
are also invited to attend. I think those who are able would probably find it very interesting. I think
Rachel would have to,
notice it as us potentially having quorum, but then I think that's all there is to it because then any
of us could attend. We're not doing any voting as a commission or anything. Correct. If you could let
me know if you would like to attend, maybe the week before, that would be helpful because we won't notice
it as an EC meeting if only one person is going to go because multiple people will go ahead and notice
it. How many people
would need to be present. It depends on who it is, if he's on the working groups. Yeah. Yeah,
and even then, it's not necessarily, I don't know, it's noticing that a forum may appear. Yeah, I'm
just kidding. Still no agenda, still no idea, right? I hope to attend, but can make no guarantees as
far out. We'll check again in April. Yeah, that's just the update. Put it on your calendar, think about
it. It's about the feasibility of doing it.
Electric utility, independent of Duke. I am interested in what they have to say. Item C is working group
updates. I'm not sure exactly what we're looking to cover in this one. Yeah, so I wanted, we have eight
minutes left unless we add additional time to the meeting.
I want to ask the new members if they would like to hear more about each worker group or if we want
to fast track this and you guys want to move on next. Next up, we'll probably also do a heavy agenda.
We've just been having heavy agendas over the summer. Yes, new members, I promise this isn't normal
that meetings are going two hours or longer each time, but it's a tough time of year and we had a tornado
last month. Could be a brief overview. Well, okay.
And we only need five right from you now. I guess we just wrote it on the bylaws, but. Yeah. Trying
to think of how many people you should, anyway. Carl and Justin, what do you prefer? Would you have
to care about the working groups? A quick sense or two on each one would be pretty helpful.
Okay. Biodiversity, Matt, do you want to take that?
Biodiversity is a working group that I only very recently joined, so I can't tell you about all the
things they've done in the past. They're working on habitat connectivity. Last year, we worked with
the city to help become a bee city. Biodiversity has been up too recently. Eco-heroes. Eco-heroes crops
up this time each year to make our art contest happen, which is currently active.
closes on April 7th, and the awards and presentation and pickup of items will be at the Earth Day event,
the 18th of April at Suchard. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts to try to make it happen, and that
group is active for a good less than half the year, but then very active when they are active. I'll
cover the environmental efficiency committee ECPC.
This is a working group to work with the planning and transportation department to review different
plan developments that are going to BZA commission that has pretty severe environmental implications.
Light pollution, Adam, do you want to take that on? Yeah, that one's pretty self-explanatory. Just looking
at the light pollution as it exists in Bloomington and trying to figure out ways to mitigate it when we can.
We're probably going to be maybe working with the parks department. I'm going to call on you for outreach
and education. And I'm so sorry, Mitchell. I forgot the water quality. We have two meetings, one or
two meetings. And so far what we're doing is trying to clean up our everything we have online on the
environmental commissions informational
resources online and clean it up and update it. At the end of the day, outreach is probably going to
be the most effective thing through this commission in general. Looking ahead, tabling where possible,
maybe letters to the editor, all that. We're just going to try to keep it in front of eyes and ears.
Special projects work. That's right now mostly me and Kerry, but if grant opportunities come up or any
other big things,
special projects there to tackle that kind of stuff. And then water quality. Water quality is water
quality. And I already told you two, you're both going to be on it. So I'll catch you up when we have
our next meeting. Okay. So as far as, that's the gist of it. But does biodiversity have any updates?
No, no updates.
Eco-heroes. Sorry, I don't mean to take over. You can go ahead. No, that's okay. My notes are a mess.
So actually, without looking up, I don't know where we are. Eco-heroes. Oh, yeah. Goodness,
there's updates. I can start out with some updates if you need a chance to pause. Okay. So I sent this
sponsorship spreadsheet to Matt today, this morning, or yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, I think.
was a new process that we had to confirm with legal. So I think that's part of the reason why I'm not
legal this morning to kind of smooth out stuff for next year. So we'll talk more about how next year
can go at another time. If he hasn't already, he will reach out to those businesses soon. I did meet
with the Earth Day trainers on Tuesday. And so they were asking if the event has to be moved indoors.
They were acknowledging that last year there were some audio issues during the presentation. So they
wanted to see, they kind of outlined a few options on how we can do this this year. The options are,
we can do the same as last year. It's gonna have audio issues again. They seem to want to avoid that.
The other,
options were the owner had having a presentation with images during that time. So without a speaker,
without a formal decoration, I guess, of the winners. And then one of the planners also suggested doing
a video live stream. I'm not sure how that's any different than being on the podium and doing the audio
issues and whatnot. But those were kind of the three of status quo presentation for live stream.
Is there a preference on any of those? Not for me. I like avoiding the audio issues. If we did not do
a formal presentation where there is a photo opportunity and whatnot, and they just stop by the eco
heroes table to pick up a prize and get a certificate and a sticker, is that okay with you all? And
we have a presentation in the background
You know, that set time? I mean, at the end of the day, it's whatever they're willing to accommodate,
right? I mean. Right. They're willing to accommodate how it went last year. It's just the audio issue.
Yeah. Yeah. No one wants a repeat of audio issues. So whatever the smoothest way we can do it is without
totally downplaying the event. Yeah. It's fine with me. OK.
We have, at this time, I'm going to ask if someone would move to extend the meeting. I will extend the
meeting by 10 minutes. Sorry, sorry. You know, quick roll call. Okay, Brown. Yes. Whitaker. Yes. Martinez.
Yes. Falby. Yes. Owens. Yes. Geyser. Yes. Master. Yes. Anything everybody?
Motion passes. Okay, printed materials, that's a voting item? Yes. Also, I've requested Office of the
Mayor to be there. I haven't heard back yet, so there's a chance that staff will be there. I'm not able
to make it again, but I will, you know, that's to set you all up. Okay, for the printed materials, Harry
sent this over. This is a sticker to give to every eco-heroes
submission or artists, I should say, because in the past only the winners got something. So it's going
to be a sticker. Let's see if I can rotate this easily. I guess I'm not. This is a certificate for the
Eco-Heroes, just so they have a formalized certificate for the winner. Again. Oh, I was going to say
that was the participant. Oh, thank you, Matt. And then this next one is the fancier one on card stock
for winners. Yeah.
So everybody would, non-winners would still get this. And winners would get the fancier one. So because
it's a document by a working group, we need to do a formalizing vote. Is there a- Technically means
someone needs to motion, somebody needs to second. We approved the written materials, yeah. Thank you,
Mitchell. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, that's fine. OK. Mester. Yes.
Geyser. Yeah. Owens. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Boutiqueur. Yes. Falby. Yes. Brown. Motion passes. Any other
updates from the Eco Heroes? Rachel, do you know at what time during the Earth Day event the ceremony
will be? 1.15 is the formal ceremony. I encourage whenever we reach out to participants to tell them
to line up at 1 o'clock if it is outdoors. If it's outdoors, it's
presentation as scheduled. And we'll know about two days prior, either way. It would be in our best
interest. I think that we are allowed to email each other about matters of scheduling, but do we know?
I'd like to kind of get a feel for who was able to attend the event. 1130 is probably a set up time.
for tables, organizing prizes, laying things out. And on each of these slots, I'm hoping that maybe
two people can be there. What's the date on this one? This is the 18th of April at Switchyard Park.
I know why I cannot be there. Yeah, you have a good excuse. It's not a terribly long event, so I may
try to be there the whole time.
But knowing that I wouldn't be setting up or tearing down or handling people picking up their submissions
by myself would be awesome. So if anyone wants to commit in the moment to any particular chunk of time,
awesome. If not, we can email about it since scheduling is allowed. We'll be there for insert chunk
of time later. OK. I guess given our time constraints today, I don't want to take the time to actually
try to write out every slot. So anticipate an email.
I can attend. I do need to iron out the time. Yeah. Excellent. Well, we appreciate anyone who can show
up because it's just a good time to be the face of the group a little bit. We could do that. I don't
know if we have something like a big sheet or big pad of paper available so we can take suggestions
from people who walk up or if we're going to not do that. If somebody sends in a request for order,
we can approve that over e-mail. Got it.
So it's one of those, so we'll figure out what kind of tabling activities we'll do. Yeah, we'll notice
this is a leave-in at the time. No, public events like this don't need to be noticed. Yeah, we just
can't like vote or do anything, but I appreciate that. Talk about business. Yep. What about their submissions
again? City Hall. So there's a table up front at the atrium, so they can sit. So they can sit out there?
Yep. Early, taking submissions. Yep, until 5 p.m. and April 7th. And if it's digital, they can email
environment at
Bloomington, Diana. We have that one digital on three physical submissions. That's a good start. If
it's really windy, you're going to need links and stuff to like for paper art. And I think we have some
geodes or something in the tub. We have some. We have had this problem before at the same event a couple
of years ago. That was awesome. It was awesome. It was just difficult. ECPC.
Do you have any updates on ECPC? We don't have anything new for the ECPC member. I was going to cancel
the April 2nd meeting. Do you guys want to have the April 7th meeting in the evening? I think with nothing
new, I'm okay with both being canceled, but I don't want to speak for everyone. Yeah, if there's something
good. I'll go ahead and cancel this. Another quick article of information.
For the subcommittees that are interested, do we need a formal vote to join or do we just show up? Email
me that you'd like to be on that committee. I'll put you on a committee email list. Each committee basically
has a chair and they kind of organize stuff. So yeah, for what it's worth, I would like kind of working
group reorganization on next month's agenda. Just say that in advance.
I think you already told basically what light pollution's at. Yeah, we met right before this meeting.
Like I said, we're probably going to be reaching out to the parks department. Rachel, you mentioned,
and at the January meeting, I think, there were some. Joanna Sparks, I think. Okay. Because you have,
they send you her information. I don't remember. Okay, I'll send it to you. That's pretty much it.
We might, or actually, we might be trying to get some information down in this case. Okay.
Do you need a contact for that? I don't know who that would be, but do you need a contact? Okay. And
what month were you on? Whatever month we can get it. Trying to learn the process. Yeah. I'll figure
that out for you. Bye. Outreach and education did not meet. Special projects working group did not meet.
And I forgot water volume, so sorry again. You're good.
Well, equality does not exist. I would certainly entertain a motion to push any reports in the next
month's meeting. So I passed that. But again, I need somebody to make a motion. I motion to remove reports
the next month's meeting.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
A few people took flyers for Eco Heroes 2, so I think hopefully we'll get some submissions. Yay. Yeah.
No brainer, commissioner announcement. Tell people about Eco Heroes. Yes. Tell people with kids, tell
people without kids, doesn't really matter. Get your friends to share with their friends. You don't
even really have to be a Bloomington resident, just be local, be in the county, I guess. I mean, we're
not trying to shut down nearby submissions. We just don't want any pro from a ways away submitting something.
We already talked about, yeah, see, I went before the City Council last night and I hope that people
were watching that just to announce it. Dave Asmonds was kind enough to put it in his B-square email
this morning. So we're circulating. We just gotta keep pressuring people to not forget and to get their
submissions in on time. That's my announcement. I can cover upcoming events. I did forget the STEM event,
so I apologize. Thank you for bringing that to the mesh.
Does somebody want to take the tote? I will need help carrying it down and back downstairs if somebody
doesn't want to take it. Ego here is judging Thursday, April 9th. I will be here from eight to five
on suite 130. Contact me with questions. So to anyone who's new or just doesn't know that it's voluntary,
you can decide whether you'd like to help
judge and rank the submissions. If you can find any time during that day, it's kind of like, Rachel,
no, when you're gonna drop by, we'll have a simple, you know, like first, second, third in each age
group. And then we'll kind of aggregate that, whoever does vote on it to determine winners. So that's
the kind of drop by and judge day. If you can't, that's okay, plenty of us will. But if you'd like to,
it is kind of fun to come check it out ahead of time, so. The Master Gardener Fair is occurring on Saturday,
April 11th from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Switchard Park.
Heidi has been finding out to be the lead on that. So I did not look up Heidi's contact information
in our public packet, but we, is email okay to share with the rest of the mission if there are options.
And then Earth Day, Saturday, April 18th from 12th to 3.30. Matt, I did check set up is at 11 or so.
All right, so then they're set up against the 10.30. I'm going to go there. Carrie is the lead on that.
So I think everybody has Kerry's email information. I did forget about the STEM event. I think it's
April 16th because there was the conflict. Yes, at the same time. So it'll be that night. Yes, I did.
So I think Kerry will reach out about making sure we have people at the Earth Day event at time slots.
And Heidi, thank you so much for taking point on the Master Gardener one. Could you be the same? Could
you email people just about
when they can be there with you, just so we know that the scheduling is being overdone. What is the
schedule for that? It is just slightly higher on the screen. Saturday, April 11th, nine to
four at Switchyard. Yeah, so we'll need to coordinate volunteers. I guess that's the last part of it.
Right. I'm approaching that earlier. Yeah, I wouldn't expect anyone to be there that long, but would
you basically email all the commission members and see when they might be willing to do that, just so we can
know whether we have things covered inside. With that, we are out of time. And so unless there are any
motions to extend for anything else, I motion we adjourn. Thank you, everyone, for being here. I know
that one was a little bit of a slog. It's going to get better, but probably not till May.
They're in the, they're in the centers. They're, yeah. We have like a hundred. Recording stopped.