WEBVTT 00:00:15.970 --> 00:00:17.374 - recording in progress. 00:12:57.154 --> 00:13:10.772 - Are those online? Nope, nevermind. Well, we can mute this one. If that's what we're trying to do, like 00:13:10.772 --> 00:13:24.126 - pull it off. We can mute the owl one. We'll all just project. It's a little wild, but we can try it. 00:13:29.058 --> 00:13:38.381 - that I don't, if somebody else talks, my computer volume's not very high. You can try that, though. 00:13:38.381 --> 00:13:47.518 - Well, it sounds like there's sound coming through here, so we can always, if the public wants to. 00:14:11.234 --> 00:14:21.099 - downside is the voice quality will probably not be that good. For those online, can you hear us? Oh, 00:14:21.099 --> 00:14:31.550 - if we, the ITS person just messaged back, he's about 10 minutes away. Do we want to recess for 10 minutes? 00:14:31.550 --> 00:14:40.926 - Yeah. I said it's the very public record anyway, but 10 minutes or helping on the text reading. 00:14:41.154 --> 00:14:50.901 - IT professional to help us out, recess. Is there a motion that can we just recess or is it a vote? I 00:14:50.901 --> 00:15:00.744 - move that we just recess until 6.30. That's nice. 6.30. Guys remember. Martinez. Okay. Shannon Geich. 00:15:00.744 --> 00:15:10.974 - Yes. Adam Martinez. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Carl Geiser. Yes. Justin Meister. Carrie Albright. Hi. Yes. 00:15:11.362 --> 00:15:21.274 - Yes. Okay. Heidi Brown. Matt Halby. Yes. Adam Sudecker. Yes. Okay. We will recess until 630. For the 00:15:21.274 --> 00:15:24.414 - sake of pets and everyone else. 00:22:52.354 --> 00:23:00.880 - I wasn't relaying it to cats or Zoom or anybody. Is anybody else online? Yes. Can you hear us okay? 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:09.662 - Once you talk, can we hear you? Or is she muted? You all sound great. Can you hear me okay? I can hear 00:23:09.662 --> 00:23:18.273 - you now. So turning it off from that home. You did? That's the trick. That's what I was going to do. 00:23:18.273 --> 00:23:21.854 - We just muted and unmuted a couple times. 00:23:22.882 --> 00:23:32.218 - So you're good. But now, yeah. It needed you to look at it. Thank you, Philip. I'm so sorry, Kelly. 00:23:32.218 --> 00:23:42.207 - Thank you. I'm sorry. It's fine. Do we need to stay with this until 6.30? That was technically the motion. 00:23:42.207 --> 00:23:50.142 - Harry's still alive. He's the only participant. CG is a member of the Do We Have to? 00:23:50.722 --> 00:23:59.688 - And CD message up there, also that. So everybody can't really, because we're in recess. My apologies, 00:23:59.688 --> 00:24:08.566 - I have a motion up there. A smaller chunk of time. It's reasonable. Do you want to wait until? Yeah, 00:24:08.566 --> 00:24:15.422 - I'll hold out a few more minutes, and I'll just try to call it back to order. 00:24:18.882 --> 00:24:31.804 - at motion during recess, right? Correct. Because officially, we can't do any commission business during 00:24:31.804 --> 00:24:42.366 - recess. Motion would be just that. It's misdefined, though, that it suddenly started 00:28:05.538 --> 00:28:12.700 - students presented their feasibility analysis of implementing a sustainable energy utility. They found 00:28:12.700 --> 00:28:19.723 - that it's likely not a great fit for here, mostly because Duke would have to agree to it. And that's 00:28:19.723 --> 00:28:26.816 - not really something that they expect to have happen. But they also presented a lot of other data and 00:28:26.816 --> 00:28:33.839 - research. It's a good presentation. I also watched the regular BCOS meeting on May 12. They welcomed 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:35.230 - a new commissioner. 00:28:36.098 --> 00:28:43.709 - They reflected on the capstone presentation. They passed a resolution on the pedestrianization of Kirkwood. 00:28:43.709 --> 00:28:51.108 - And they postponed indefinitely the resolution that was regarding the use of glyphosate that was brought 00:28:51.108 --> 00:28:58.366 - up in a previous meeting. So we will see whether that one comes back or not. I also had a conversation 00:28:58.366 --> 00:29:04.990 - with a couple members of BCOS about the possibility of a joint resolution on light pollution. 00:29:05.346 --> 00:29:12.011 - We're going to still figure out the logistics of that, if that's possible, and the details of the resolution 00:29:12.011 --> 00:29:18.492 - is a later date. That is all I have to report today. Any other commissioner reports from this past month? 00:29:18.492 --> 00:29:24.912 - Yes, Carl? Yes. So as a newly appointed member of the Street Commission, we've had two Street Commission 00:29:24.912 --> 00:29:31.454 - meetings since our last meeting. So I'll just try to give a brief overview of what we discussed with them. 00:29:32.130 --> 00:29:39.952 - There's an engineering, a research project for kind of west side of Kirkwood. This is like a $1 million 00:29:39.952 --> 00:29:47.022 - state funding project. Overall, like seven trees are impacted. A couple of them are invasive, 00:29:47.022 --> 00:29:54.543 - so no big deal. And to compensate, we're gonna plant 17 new trees. So more engineering projects are 00:29:54.543 --> 00:30:01.086 - to come, keeping a loop for those. Tree commission is also dealing with accessibility, 00:30:01.282 --> 00:30:10.267 - Guideline updates, same as we've been dealing with. Haskell reports that he had 11,000 seedlings that 00:30:10.267 --> 00:30:19.164 - he was giving away in the Garden Fair, Earth Day, Harbor Day events held by the city. So that's very 00:30:19.164 --> 00:30:27.973 - exciting. Hopefully a lot of people plant these things and we can improve our canopy. A lot of this 00:30:27.973 --> 00:30:29.118 - isn't super, 00:30:32.834 --> 00:30:41.194 - Mia Williams is the IU landscape architect, and she retired on April 30th. She's still going to stay 00:30:41.194 --> 00:30:49.636 - on the tree commission, and she's still going to act as our liaison with the IU landscaping team. But 00:30:49.636 --> 00:30:58.079 - she's currently retired, so that's good. Haskell Urban Forester is still looking to plant another 170 00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:01.886 - trees this spring and 325 trees for the fall. 00:31:03.106 --> 00:31:10.515 - And yeah, not a whole lot of updates other than that. So the Bryant Park shelter, maple tree, there's 00:31:10.515 --> 00:31:17.851 - a maple tree there that had a really cool lightning strike. I can try to share that picture with you 00:31:17.851 --> 00:31:25.478 - guys later. But other than that, it's essentially a tree commission business. Thank you for your report. 00:31:25.478 --> 00:31:29.182 - Any other commissioners that reports for us today? 00:31:33.378 --> 00:31:41.528 - We'll carry on the staff reports. OK, questions for the city legal department. So Anadina Kasimian, 00:31:41.528 --> 00:31:49.678 - I think a lot of you have seen her in previous meetings. Anadina, I will let you give an update. So 00:31:49.678 --> 00:31:58.236 - thanks for having me here today, guys. We've been going back and forth about forum. Was there a question 00:31:58.236 --> 00:32:01.822 - you guys had about forum? Another question. 00:32:02.626 --> 00:32:11.545 - There is at least one question. We have had some conversations in the past regarding whether it is the 00:32:11.545 --> 00:32:20.376 - majority of the appointed members or the number of total seats. So I'm going to give you just a quick 00:32:20.376 --> 00:32:29.382 - rundown on that. We went over, I went over, the legal department went over some PAC decisions and some, 00:32:29.382 --> 00:32:31.806 - which is the public access. 00:32:32.098 --> 00:32:43.193 - and some case law. And we're just kind of reviewing historically what we have found. So quorum, determining 00:32:43.193 --> 00:32:53.979 - if you have quorum and how to meet the state's hybrid meeting guidelines requires two separate analysis. 00:32:53.979 --> 00:32:58.910 - So quorum is a majority of members of the body. 00:32:59.202 --> 00:33:07.561 - more than 50% of the number of seats filled and vacant number of seats on the board of commission. A 00:33:07.561 --> 00:33:16.169 - remote member can count toward one. The hybrid meeting, you need at least 50% of the sitting membership 00:33:16.169 --> 00:33:24.529 - of the board of commission at the time of the meeting must be present in person. The sitting members 00:33:24.529 --> 00:33:26.846 - does not include vacancies. 00:33:27.106 --> 00:33:40.056 - only the number of members at the time of the meeting. Present in person. So you have just regular quorum, 00:33:40.056 --> 00:33:52.160 - which is a majority of the members of the body. So that means more than 50% of the number of seats. 00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:53.854 - 50% plus one. 00:33:54.562 --> 00:34:02.630 - So that was seven. For purposes of this commission, that would be seven. Because your number is 12, 00:34:02.630 --> 00:34:10.860 - right? The number six is 12. But keep in mind that a remote number can count towards quorum. But when 00:34:10.860 --> 00:34:19.171 - you're having a hybrid meeting and you're trying to figure out an in-person requirement, then you need 00:34:19.171 --> 00:34:24.254 - at least 50% of the city membership of the board or commission 00:34:24.418 --> 00:34:33.943 - at the time of the meeting be present in person. And sitting members does not include vacancies. Only 00:34:33.943 --> 00:34:43.655 - the number of members at the time of the meeting. So six? No, because we have five. We have nine people 00:34:43.655 --> 00:34:53.086 - on the board right now, so we would need five. Which is why in their bylaws, there's a memo of five. 00:34:54.786 --> 00:35:01.773 - I missed the wording on the first type of meeting you described. The second one you said in the hybrid 00:35:01.773 --> 00:35:08.150 - meeting. What was the first one again? The first one was just general quorum. General quorum. 00:35:08.150 --> 00:35:14.933 - Defining quorum. OK. So general quorum includes the hybrid members. So if we had five people in the 00:35:14.933 --> 00:35:21.310 - room, two people online, we'd be quorum with our current number of nine people. Right. Right. 00:35:21.954 --> 00:35:30.436 - So the definition, members of the body, is the number of seats, regardless of how many are filled. I 00:35:30.436 --> 00:35:38.833 - guess that's what I'm struggling with. My understanding in the past, full disclosure, not a lawyer. 00:35:38.833 --> 00:35:47.315 - Well, it's hard stuff. It's complicated. Oh, I'm sure. I work at a law school, and I'm in awe of all 00:35:47.315 --> 00:35:51.934 - of them. But I thought from our code, meetings are run 00:35:52.034 --> 00:36:02.004 - using Robert's Rules of Order, and Robert's Rules of Order seemed to indicate a majority of the members, 00:36:02.004 --> 00:36:11.594 - not the body that would include the empty seats. So I wondered what supersedes what, I guess. So the 00:36:11.594 --> 00:36:21.374 - legal department has come up with this based on a patent decision, which is a public access counselor. 00:36:21.666 --> 00:36:32.184 - based on, based on case law. Can you send us a reference to those decisions in case law, please? 00:36:32.184 --> 00:36:43.028 - Let me see. Yeah. It doesn't have to be during. Yeah. No, no. It would be very nice to see when you 00:36:43.028 --> 00:36:47.582 - were able. Can you email me that request? 00:36:47.714 --> 00:36:52.923 - All questions, and correct me if I'm wrong, all questions. Yeah, go ahead and email your liaison and 00:36:52.923 --> 00:36:55.038 - then she'll send it through us and then. 00:37:09.570 --> 00:37:16.175 - Any other updates from you and Nadina? No other updates. OK. I think Nadina's going to be joining our 00:37:16.175 --> 00:37:22.781 - meetings in the future. If there are questions for legal that you anticipate, please send them to me, 00:37:22.781 --> 00:37:29.256 - and we'll get a response back to writing as well. Yeah, then at the next following meeting, I'll be 00:37:29.256 --> 00:37:35.732 - able to expand on that written. Any other questions for legal, including from online? Anything from 00:37:35.732 --> 00:37:36.574 - you, Carrie? 00:37:38.914 --> 00:37:47.692 - Yeah, thanks. Just to clarify that I'm understanding the first general quorum concept. Can you hear 00:37:47.692 --> 00:37:56.645 - me okay, by the way? You can hear me okay? Yeah. Okay. The general quorum versus the hybrid quorum is 00:37:56.645 --> 00:38:05.949 - the former for when the meeting is taking place and there is no commissioner that is dialing in remotely. 00:38:05.949 --> 00:38:08.670 - Is that the distinction there? 00:38:12.578 --> 00:38:19.940 - That's a good question. I am not prepared to answer that question. I'm not sure. I don't want to assume 00:38:19.940 --> 00:38:27.232 - a distinction that that's the distinction. If you want, you can send it in writing through our liaison 00:38:27.232 --> 00:38:34.452 - if you want more on that. But I can't say that we can assume that that's the distinction. What is the 00:38:34.452 --> 00:38:40.894 - distinction then? The state's hybrid reading guidelines require two separate calculations. 00:38:42.402 --> 00:38:49.281 - I was gonna say we'll let Carrie continue the questioning and then we can jump in with someone else 00:38:49.281 --> 00:38:56.161 - next. Do you have anything to clarify? I think that just to clarify where my question is rooted, it 00:38:56.161 --> 00:39:03.178 - sounds like if we are all in the same room, it is 50% of the available seats. But if there's a hybrid 00:39:03.178 --> 00:39:10.814 - element, it is 50% of the seated commissioners in the room, which when we have a lot of vacancies, it makes it 00:39:11.170 --> 00:39:16.618 - my deduction would be that we should always have someone remotely, so that way we're only having to 00:39:16.618 --> 00:39:22.446 - meet that seated 50%. That seems like a silly way for it to be set up, but that's what I was just thinking 00:39:22.446 --> 00:39:28.166 - about, knowing that we have a lot of vacancies right now. So I could email that question, but if there's 00:39:28.166 --> 00:39:31.326 - any clarification we can have tonight, that'd be awesome. 00:39:33.826 --> 00:39:41.325 - I think that'll likely be covered in the question that Carl emails, but feel free to also email Rachel 00:39:41.325 --> 00:39:48.823 - on that just so that we have the question passed along. Did we have in the room any follow-ups on that 00:39:48.823 --> 00:39:56.613 - or questions independent? My reaction when I first heard it was the same. I thought, does that incentivize 00:39:56.613 --> 00:40:01.054 - someone being hybrid? I'm not sure, and I would love to know 00:40:02.210 --> 00:40:07.694 - the case law, but I'm sure in due time, we will get more information. So thank you for sharing with 00:40:07.694 --> 00:40:13.398 - us today. Yeah, no problem. Was there, I think you had a second item on members training? Yeah, I have. 00:40:13.398 --> 00:40:18.443 - Yes, board of commission member training. I don't have a date, but Deputy Clerk of Outreach 00:40:18.443 --> 00:40:23.982 - and Communications, Jennifer Crossley, has been putting together a really good piece of training for 00:40:23.982 --> 00:40:29.631 - everybody. I think whenever she came at a previous meeting, I think it was the tornado night, whenever 00:40:29.631 --> 00:40:31.550 - that was. It was February. It was. 00:40:31.874 --> 00:40:38.936 - She kind of mentioned this. So liaisons have gone through training at this point. Most of us have gone 00:40:38.936 --> 00:40:46.066 - through training at least. So the commission member training will be rolling out in June. I think she's 00:40:46.066 --> 00:40:53.127 - going to be reaching out to everyone very soon, maybe by the end of next week. And so I think, I don't 00:40:53.127 --> 00:40:54.910 - know the timeline on when 00:40:55.042 --> 00:41:01.865 - that what we do, if it's going to be live, if it's going to be recorded, she should be able to get more 00:41:01.865 --> 00:41:08.753 - information on that. But just know that that's coming. Any questions on that? Questions on the training? 00:41:08.753 --> 00:41:15.445 - And then I have kind of just a lock-in item. This is probably my last meeting in person, so I will be 00:41:15.445 --> 00:41:22.203 - seeing Jackie Scanlon in all future correspondence so she can pick up whenever I take off. So if there 00:41:22.203 --> 00:41:24.958 - are questions, please move both of us in. 00:41:26.722 --> 00:41:35.194 - I do have something I'd like to pop in here if possible. So in the last few meetings, we've discussed 00:41:35.194 --> 00:41:43.501 - the policy that our, when we communicate to the city council, anything coming out of our commission 00:41:43.501 --> 00:41:52.139 - has to be passed through the mayor's office. There's been an exchange in the IDS since our last meeting 00:41:52.139 --> 00:41:56.126 - that included, it was referring to our meeting. 00:41:56.834 --> 00:42:05.330 - to the environmental commission. And there was a response from the mayor's office. Are you familiar 00:42:05.330 --> 00:42:14.080 - with? Were you on the email from Deputy Mayor Gretchen Knapp? No. She sent a response. Who did? Deputy 00:42:14.080 --> 00:42:22.661 - Mayor Gretchen Knapp. Not to us, or not to me. OK. I mean, what was the title of the email? It looks 00:42:22.661 --> 00:42:26.654 - like it's supposed to go to your ID. Yeah. OK. 00:42:27.074 --> 00:42:36.210 - Conflict and response from the mayor's office so that the guest column or that. I'm sorry, I did not 00:42:36.210 --> 00:42:45.255 - end up on to you for some reason. I will forward you that email. She did respond and send it to all 00:42:45.255 --> 00:42:54.210 - of the. Oh, no, it did send. It sent to athbuddhika.iu.edu. It must have gotten on a general mail. 00:42:54.210 --> 00:42:55.838 - May 1st. May 1st. 00:42:57.314 --> 00:43:06.716 - I'm sorry. I'm sorry for outing your email, Adam. Oh, no, it's OK. I won't do that. I guess it went 00:43:06.716 --> 00:43:16.494 - to my junkie. I'll read it, thank you. It says to your Gmail, Shane. OK, they probably don't. May 21st? 00:43:16.494 --> 00:43:18.750 - May 1st. OK, thank you. 00:43:25.442 --> 00:43:33.819 - I mean, I read the mayor's, the response from the mayor's office and the IDS. I'm glad to hear we got 00:43:33.819 --> 00:43:42.114 - a direct email, too. Yes. That's it. Oh, I didn't get that email, actually. Any other reports before 00:43:42.114 --> 00:43:50.327 - we wrap up the reports section of our agenda tonight? Thank you, everyone who shared, and thank you 00:43:50.327 --> 00:43:53.694 - again, Anandina, for being here with us. 00:43:53.890 --> 00:44:03.349 - Time, we'd like to move a quick section of public comment before we get into old business, just in case 00:44:03.349 --> 00:44:12.809 - from earlier when people couldn't communicate, a member of the public has anything to share. So I would 00:44:12.809 --> 00:44:22.814 - need a second. A second. Thank you, Shane. OK. Mitchell Evans. Yes. Prologizer. Yes. Yes. Justin Nester. Yes. 00:44:24.130 --> 00:44:34.436 - Kerry Albright. Yes. Heidi Brown. Yes. Matt Colby. Yes. Adam Bucher. Yes. Shannon Dye. Yes. Adam Martinez. 00:44:34.436 --> 00:44:44.357 - Yes. Motion passes. Apologies for our earlier technical difficulties. If CG or any other member online 00:44:44.357 --> 00:44:51.870 - on Zoom would like to offer any public comment, you may unmute and do so now. 00:44:59.714 --> 00:45:10.567 - Just a minute. Nothing from them. Anyone else in the chat? Nope. OK. I suppose we will then move on 00:45:10.567 --> 00:45:21.745 - to old business. Old business item A, environmental commission handle commandments. We have a proposed 00:45:21.745 --> 00:45:26.846 - amendment. Yes. So I'm so sorry that comments. 00:45:26.946 --> 00:45:34.690 - for some reason didn't relay in like the suggestion mode online on a shared document. So I will share 00:45:34.690 --> 00:45:42.586 - my screen so you can see the comments. Or the proposed changes, I should say. Now I get this correctly. 00:45:42.586 --> 00:45:50.634 - Because I did try and I didn't see them. So good that I'll get to see them. And I didn't link the correct 00:45:50.634 --> 00:45:55.038 - document. It seems to be a sharing issue for some reason. 00:45:56.098 --> 00:46:17.886 - Okay. There we go. Okay. So there were technically three suggestions. I'm going to scroll quickly here. 00:46:18.018 --> 00:46:24.431 - go down. Were these all commissioner-led, or were some from legal? This first one is stuff from the 00:46:24.431 --> 00:46:31.228 - Department of Legal, just a removal of and the office of the mayor for the public positions and statement 00:46:31.228 --> 00:46:37.834 - policy. So when speaking in the media or submitting a public comment, commissioners should practically 00:46:37.834 --> 00:46:44.375 - clarify their comments to be those of an individual member of the community and are not on the behalf 00:46:44.375 --> 00:46:47.966 - of a representative of the positions of the commission. 00:46:48.130 --> 00:47:00.714 - That's pretty easily approved by majority vote of the commission period. The second slash third proposed 00:47:00.714 --> 00:47:10.782 - amendment is, similarly, just at the bottom for the lobbying section. There you go. 00:47:13.218 --> 00:47:18.265 - Commission positions may also be recommended to other legislative bodies or organizations of interest, 00:47:18.265 --> 00:47:23.262 - such as the Indiana State Legislature. Again, any position from the Commission as a whole, regardless 00:47:23.262 --> 00:47:28.260 - of audience, must be voted on and approved by a majority of the Commission, period. So removal and to 00:47:28.260 --> 00:47:33.159 - the Office of the Mayor. The addition, proposed addition, is materials directed to parties external 00:47:33.159 --> 00:47:38.402 - to the City of Bloomington must also comply with the current external communication guidelines established 00:47:38.402 --> 00:47:39.774 - by the City of Bloomington. 00:47:41.186 --> 00:47:49.241 - And this was Commissioner Ludd. Commissioner Ludd. Yeah, so this one actually came from me. My goal 00:47:49.241 --> 00:47:57.377 - with this is to just match, essentially, what Deputy Mayor Gretchen kind of laid out in her email. I 00:47:57.377 --> 00:48:05.673 - appreciate you taking the time to submit that. I kind of planned to, but then didn't really get around 00:48:05.673 --> 00:48:11.070 - to it. My immediate question would be, is this OK with legal? Yes. 00:48:11.202 --> 00:48:19.216 - Yes. Was this in the draft that we received? Yeah. For some reason, it was a sharing issue where the 00:48:19.216 --> 00:48:27.150 - comments aren't visible when sharing. So I know that for the future. I'm sorry that wasn't conveyed 00:48:27.150 --> 00:48:35.163 - in the packet. I see. So I also tried to read it ahead of time. But does anyone have any comments or 00:48:35.163 --> 00:48:40.638 - proposed amendments to what we're seeing right now here in the room? 00:48:42.818 --> 00:48:51.644 - I suppose. Say what? Can we just not include it? You just want just the strike in the office of the 00:48:51.644 --> 00:49:00.559 - mayor and leave it at that? No, the striking all with the green. The green is the proposed addition. 00:49:00.559 --> 00:49:08.414 - I know. But I'm proposing not including it. Why? Well, I mean, I think we're going to be 00:49:08.706 --> 00:49:15.344 - the commission will be sort of forced to comply with the external communication strategies as it is. 00:49:15.344 --> 00:49:22.048 - So I just don't know if it's necessary to include. I suppose that's a fair perspective. Yeah, it does 00:49:22.048 --> 00:49:29.015 - seem like that is going to be the scenario, regardless of whether it's... So I think the previous concern 00:49:29.015 --> 00:49:32.958 - was that we require approval of the Office of the Mayor and 00:49:33.986 --> 00:49:40.661 - Your emails seem to make it clear that that wasn't going to be the case. But still, especially when 00:49:40.661 --> 00:49:47.604 - things go external, it's going to have to get reviewed by communications. I don't know. I guess I don't 00:49:47.604 --> 00:49:54.746 - see the harm of codifying this personally. But I also see where you're coming from. And we'll vote however 00:49:54.746 --> 00:50:01.822 - we see fit when we address this item shortly. Do we have other comments in the room or from Kerry online? 00:50:06.882 --> 00:50:12.977 - I can weigh in quickly. I think that you're right that because the process of having to have our documents, 00:50:12.977 --> 00:50:18.903 - our externally facing documents approved through the communications person on behalf of the city, that's 00:50:18.903 --> 00:50:24.603 - already part of what we have to do. I don't know that, to be honest, that it makes a huge difference 00:50:24.603 --> 00:50:30.246 - if it's in our handbook or not. In our handbook, it'd be more of guidance for new commissioners who 00:50:30.246 --> 00:50:34.366 - may not know that yet, but the process is required at this point anyway. 00:50:34.466 --> 00:50:42.010 - If for some reason that process is no longer required, we have written it into a requirement. I'm not 00:50:42.010 --> 00:50:49.555 - sure if there will be a time of that, especially with ADA compliance as well. But I think you can add 00:50:49.555 --> 00:50:57.025 - it, but I think that it's already part of the topic. I think it's far less with the room. And I also 00:50:57.025 --> 00:51:02.942 - think that it is true that if this changes, then we have to come back and spend 00:51:03.234 --> 00:51:11.010 - commission meeting time changing it. I just want to point out a couple of things. One, this is the handbook, 00:51:11.010 --> 00:51:18.287 - so new members will be reading this and it'd be helpful for them to understand how our communications 00:51:18.287 --> 00:51:25.635 - and processes are handled, which the training is going to help with. I will say that I did include the 00:51:25.635 --> 00:51:33.054 - word current external communication guidelines with the intention that if the city drops this entirely, 00:51:33.218 --> 00:51:41.486 - The current communication guidelines are nothing and we don't actually have to submit anything for approval. 00:51:41.486 --> 00:51:49.071 - With that being said, if the consensus is to just remove this entirely, I'm fine with that as well. 00:51:49.071 --> 00:51:56.733 - I appreciate the thoughtful wording. At this time, do we have any other questions or comments on the 00:51:56.733 --> 00:52:00.222 - proposed amendments from commissioners? Also, 00:52:01.218 --> 00:52:07.831 - very much looking forward to a time where the handbook is a smaller part. At this time, someone would 00:52:07.831 --> 00:52:14.768 - either need to propose that we adopt the handbook as amended, or they would have to rescind their proposed 00:52:14.768 --> 00:52:21.575 - amendment. Those are the things that can happen at this step. Is this the last change, then? Or is there 00:52:21.575 --> 00:52:28.382 - another change? Yes. This is the last change. It is the Carl Added section and the legal struck section. 00:52:29.378 --> 00:52:56.926 - I will move to amend my inclusion here to remove the additional section 00:52:57.058 --> 00:53:04.139 - and still keep the in the office of the mayor. If that gets voted in, I'll accept it. If not, then we 00:53:04.139 --> 00:53:11.290 - can vote on the original amendment. How does that sound? Well, to keep the office of the mayor. Right, 00:53:11.290 --> 00:53:18.511 - because this is a lobbying part of the document. So since it would be external documentation being sent 00:53:18.511 --> 00:53:26.078 - out, and I don't know if he's correct me if I'm wrong or if I'm misrepresenting, since this would be sending 00:53:26.434 --> 00:53:33.643 - External communications, such as Indiana State Legislature. I think that's what Carl was getting at, 00:53:33.643 --> 00:53:40.782 - was trying to follow the current guidelines. Yes, this is specifically within the lobbying section. 00:53:40.782 --> 00:53:48.491 - So this would be only to external. And Indiana, please correct me if I'm wrong, but thanks to DZA, planning 00:53:48.491 --> 00:53:56.414 - commission, city council, you would still be able to write letters as long as it was approved as a commission. 00:53:56.994 --> 00:54:04.179 - So the correction here is just the BVA is a quasi-judicial board. So it's a little different than all 00:54:04.179 --> 00:54:11.293 - other commissions. There's something called ex parte communication. We're trying to communicate with 00:54:11.293 --> 00:54:18.337 - the quasi-judicial board. So I would just take out maybe a little bit. Yes, I'm sorry. The BVA is a 00:54:18.337 --> 00:54:25.662 - little bit different. We view that a little bit differently. But all other commissions, everything else 00:54:25.762 --> 00:54:32.133 - Sorry, I shouldn't have spoken up. No, that's not what I'm trying to do. What are you saying? The BCA 00:54:32.133 --> 00:54:38.566 - is weird. It's applied by judicial board. OK, but this is still the language that's proposed, amended, 00:54:38.566 --> 00:54:44.999 - is still? Yes. OK. I mean, you can certainly still advance that language, and I can just go, no. Yeah, 00:54:44.999 --> 00:54:51.370 - I was going to say, I think the easiest course of action would be someone proposed that we adopt, and 00:54:51.370 --> 00:54:54.430 - it either succeeds or fails, and then any other. 00:54:55.042 --> 00:55:05.487 - amending could be proposed. Yeah, I move that we adopt these edits. Second. And with the second. Can 00:55:05.487 --> 00:55:15.828 - I abstain from the vote? You may abstain at any time. Keep going. As long as you don't call us your 00:55:15.828 --> 00:55:23.998 - name, you would just say, I'm staying. OK. Just semester. Yes. Jerry Albright. 00:55:26.402 --> 00:55:35.178 - I vote yes. Heidi Brown. I'm saying. Matt Paulding. Yes. Adam Hudecker. Yes. Shannon Dike. No. 00:55:35.178 --> 00:55:44.970 - Adam Martinez. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. Carl Geiser. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you, everyone, especially 00:55:44.970 --> 00:55:54.207 - Carl for the proposed amendment, but everyone else for the lively discussion in vote. We move on to 00:55:54.207 --> 00:55:55.870 - old business item 00:55:55.970 --> 00:56:04.527 - I know the photo link was shared. Is there anything else to share with that agenda item? Those were 00:56:04.527 --> 00:56:09.662 - great pictures. Yeah. Yeah, they were some pretty fun ones. 00:56:13.026 --> 00:56:18.766 - I can just say thanks to everybody who helped make the day possible it was definitely a busy one and 00:56:18.766 --> 00:56:24.563 - when the award ceremony piece came together it was lots and lots of folks lots of excitement and yeah 00:56:24.563 --> 00:56:30.303 - it was really helpful having so many people participate and Matt thank you for taking the microphone 00:56:30.303 --> 00:56:36.157 - to read everything off especially and Carl for helping with the prizes and everything it was great the 00:56:36.157 --> 00:56:42.238 - community responded really really well and I feel like having this breadth of young people in the room and 00:56:42.434 --> 00:56:48.177 - interacting with all the different booths and tables and everything was a really nice addition that 00:56:48.177 --> 00:56:54.092 - I think the Eco Heroes specifically contributed to. So it was great. And yeah, it was a lot of fun and 00:56:54.092 --> 00:56:59.949 - I appreciate everybody who helped make it happen. There are a couple little follow-up things to check 00:56:59.949 --> 00:57:05.749 - in on as far as thanking our sponsors, making sure everything that needed to be picked up was picked 00:57:05.749 --> 00:57:11.262 - up and things like that. But I would say overall, it all wrapped up nicely. So thank you again. 00:57:14.242 --> 00:57:21.622 - Thank you, Carrie. And yeah, I agree. It was nice to see everything come together and do it into a really 00:57:21.622 --> 00:57:28.723 - successful event after a lot of work to make it happen. So thank you to everyone involved. With that, 00:57:28.723 --> 00:57:35.685 - we will move on to item six, new business. A is annual report discussion. Is that, Carrie, you want 00:57:35.685 --> 00:57:43.134 - to take this one? That's me. So as you all may remember, every year we write up a report to deliver to the 00:57:44.418 --> 00:57:50.023 - Council about what we've been up to this past year. It typically happens around mid-year, which means 00:57:50.023 --> 00:57:55.683 - we're talking about 2025, usually June or so, but what I have is a document that I've written up. It's 00:57:55.683 --> 00:58:01.288 - kind of the same format every year, but it highlights the things that we accomplished this past year. 00:58:01.288 --> 00:58:06.838 - It talks a little bit about, you know, membership and goals for the future and things like that, but 00:58:06.838 --> 00:58:12.333 - mainly it focuses on what we accomplished over 2025. I wanted to just walk through specifically the 00:58:12.333 --> 00:58:14.366 - highlights that I'm going to include 00:58:14.466 --> 00:58:22.292 - and I would love to have you all share if there's something specific that I should include, that I should 00:58:22.292 --> 00:58:29.527 - add a spotlight to, because we can make this as long as we want, but I wanna make sure everyone's 00:58:29.527 --> 00:58:36.984 - represented. The main things I am covering in this are speaking to the 2025 Eco Heroes, our contest, 00:58:36.984 --> 00:58:43.998 - speaking to some of the outreach that we've done, which at this point I have bug-fest, I have, 00:58:44.162 --> 00:58:51.761 - beginning to have more guest speakers come in. And in 2025, Dylan will be doing the Riverwalk presentation, 00:58:51.761 --> 00:58:59.148 - and then also the producer of this process. So those are all highlighted. I mentioned a little bit about 00:58:59.148 --> 00:59:06.255 - the ECPC coming back. That was a big conversation point for 2024's report. I'm excited to talk about 00:59:06.255 --> 00:59:12.798 - it for 2025. And then speaking to the habitat connectivity plan and how that was relaunched, 00:59:12.994 --> 00:59:20.091 - last year in 2025 and then I have a note to just check in on any of the other working groups that would 00:59:20.091 --> 00:59:27.188 - like or or previously working groups any other focal points from the EC that in 2025 had something that 00:59:27.188 --> 00:59:34.354 - you would like me to to raise as something that we're proud of some more excited about that we can recap 00:59:34.354 --> 00:59:41.315 - on anything I would like to highlight from 2025 that I did not mention yet I think the city yeah have 00:59:41.315 --> 00:59:42.270 - you mentioned 00:59:42.466 --> 00:59:48.408 - That is, it's looped into the, the sort of community outreach piece of it, but I have like a little 00:59:48.408 --> 00:59:54.349 - paragraph written out that will be specifically about coming together with parks department all the 00:59:54.349 --> 01:00:00.529 - organization. So yeah, definitely. That's a good one to highlight. Do you have, do you have anyone that 01:00:00.529 --> 01:00:03.262 - you need to hassle for a photo who joined in? 01:00:03.618 --> 01:00:11.675 - your late 25 or anything? What a great question. You know, I do. I've got because I turn all this into 01:00:11.675 --> 01:00:18.949 - a PowerPoint presentation. And so I let me pull that up. So for the PowerPoint presentation, 01:00:18.949 --> 01:00:26.224 - I think Heidi, Carl, and Justin are all folks that I need photos at this point. So if Heidi, 01:00:26.224 --> 01:00:31.934 - Carl and Justin, if you all can email me just a photo of yourself that I 01:00:32.322 --> 01:00:38.930 - can put into the slide deck. Yeah, you can see in, it was probably May of last year that we reviewed 01:00:38.930 --> 01:00:45.211 - the deck, so you can kind of see the layout from last year's if you'd like to, but yeah, pretty 01:00:45.211 --> 01:00:51.949 - straightforward. Any questions about that or any other topic people want to speak to? What time period 01:00:51.949 --> 01:00:58.884 - does the annual report go to? Is it on January or January? Sure, it's for all of 2025, so January through 01:00:58.884 --> 01:01:00.062 - December of 2025. 01:01:01.922 --> 01:01:07.910 - Yes, it reflects the calendar year. It just takes us a little while to compile and to get on the council 01:01:07.910 --> 01:01:13.441 - schedule. So that's why events are happening at any time between, like, April and June, usually. 01:01:13.441 --> 01:01:19.200 - But yeah, it's just to reflect what we accomplished and set out to accomplish. Yeah, what went well, 01:01:19.200 --> 01:01:24.960 - how the council could support us, all that. But it's on calendar year 2025. And you can look back. I 01:01:24.960 --> 01:01:30.206 - can't remember what the date was for when we presented last. I think it was maybe like June 01:01:30.338 --> 01:01:36.322 - fourth or something like that of 2025, you can go back and see the County Council meeting where, sorry, 01:01:36.322 --> 01:01:42.306 - the County Council meeting where I presented it. You can see the slides and you can hear what we talked 01:01:42.306 --> 01:01:48.405 - about if that's helpful for context. Anything else? I didn't mention light pollution groups specifically. 01:01:48.405 --> 01:01:53.929 - I didn't mention water quality specifically just because I didn't want to put too much pressure 01:01:53.929 --> 01:01:58.014 - on highlighting anything as I know that we're kind of in a longer run. 01:01:59.330 --> 01:02:08.258 - initiative for those. I think that's fair. Working groups existed in 2025, but had a tough time accomplishing 01:02:08.258 --> 01:02:16.943 - much. So I don't know if it's worth drawing attention to it being formed or not, if we don't have anything 01:02:16.943 --> 01:02:25.547 - to report from it at that time. So I think you have a good handle on it, covering the events we attended, 01:02:25.547 --> 01:02:29.118 - the tabling we did. So in care do we trust? 01:02:29.570 --> 01:02:37.032 - boards and commissions were, but is that something a chair does at every board commission? They write 01:02:37.032 --> 01:02:44.567 - an annual report? It is a chair duty. It's presenting a report to council each year. It kind of varies 01:02:44.567 --> 01:02:52.541 - about when, but it's one of the handful of duties that a chair has. Those duties are listed in the handbook. 01:02:52.541 --> 01:02:56.126 - There's like nine of them. So if you're curious. 01:02:57.026 --> 01:03:03.845 - In a way, as a spoiler for a future item on this agenda, if you're ever thinking about any positions 01:03:03.845 --> 01:03:10.732 - that you might want to be on in this commission, take a look at the handbook sometime and see what it 01:03:10.732 --> 01:03:17.484 - is they do. And also, feel free to reach out one-on-one to an individual who is in that position or 01:03:17.484 --> 01:03:23.358 - who has been in that position, because that would not be a violation of open door law. 01:03:23.458 --> 01:03:30.897 - With that, I want to move on to item B of new business, which is the 2026 priority discussion, which 01:03:30.897 --> 01:03:38.336 - I will once again kick on over to Carrie. My recollection is that this is just kind of touching base 01:03:38.336 --> 01:03:46.364 - on what all we're covering for the rest of the year. And looking through the initiatives that we highlighted 01:03:46.364 --> 01:03:49.310 - last, it would have been last November, 01:03:49.410 --> 01:03:55.516 - in planning for 2026. A lot of what we talked about was education and outreach, so that means folks 01:03:55.516 --> 01:04:01.745 - contributing to the materials that are on the website. I know that we've started to get some traction 01:04:01.745 --> 01:04:07.912 - on recreating some of those documents. We would love to have more people if folks are interested. It 01:04:07.912 --> 01:04:14.201 - would be worth doing a little just kind of email crowdsourcing on people who are interested in helping 01:04:14.201 --> 01:04:16.766 - with that process, but also talking about 01:04:16.930 --> 01:04:23.251 - hosting maybe two meetings per year on UDO changes. That was something that we had talked about, knowing 01:04:23.251 --> 01:04:29.272 - that it's something we want to get ahead of if there are any changes coming down the pipe that we'd 01:04:29.272 --> 01:04:35.533 - like to discuss before they're being recommended. And then also how we want to proceed with the habitat 01:04:35.533 --> 01:04:41.674 - connectivity plan and especially any materials we want for outreach. I know we had ideally planned on 01:04:41.674 --> 01:04:46.430 - this spring trying to get cards or little scannable info sheets or whatever to 01:04:46.530 --> 01:04:53.834 - things like some of the local greenhouses and some of the native plant society and things like that. 01:04:53.834 --> 01:05:01.284 - So some of those materials and initiatives that we talked about are making little bit subtraction, but 01:05:01.284 --> 01:05:08.660 - I know that those were on the list. And then, of course, talking through what we are proposing as far 01:05:08.660 --> 01:05:16.254 - as potential light pollution solutions and water quality reporting. So those are all things that we were 01:05:17.474 --> 01:05:25.133 - that we have expressed interest in going into 2026. We are now in the summer months, which means I know 01:05:25.133 --> 01:05:32.497 - people are traveling, there's a lot going on, but we are kind of moving into the fall season, which 01:05:32.497 --> 01:05:39.935 - will be a perfect time to really make a difference. And reminding folks that your enthusiasm towards 01:05:39.935 --> 01:05:44.574 - these goals is always appreciated. And as we're planning 2027, 01:05:44.706 --> 01:05:50.633 - Thinking realistically about your time commitments, where your interests are, where you are ready to 01:05:50.633 --> 01:05:56.619 - dedicate a little extra time or energy is super, super helpful because we want to set realistic plans 01:05:56.619 --> 01:06:02.487 - for what we want to do in the future. So that's kind of where we're at now. Any additional comments 01:06:02.487 --> 01:06:08.414 - on this particular talking point? Yes, Mitchell? I was just going to say, kind of akin to the, like, 01:06:08.546 --> 01:06:14.021 - regular meetings on UDO updates and stuff like that. I know something I had been doing in the water 01:06:14.021 --> 01:06:19.605 - quality working group was bringing in Liz Carter from Stormwater annually and checking up with her on 01:06:19.605 --> 01:06:25.190 - how things have been going. What are they up to? We need big changes on that permitting front or what 01:06:25.190 --> 01:06:30.774 - I was going in the city that affects water. I think that's something that would be very, I would like 01:06:30.774 --> 01:06:36.249 - to keep going in the future because it's very important. But now that we don't have working groups, 01:06:36.249 --> 01:06:38.494 - it's something we need to incorporate in 01:06:38.754 --> 01:06:44.427 - these meetings, so might be worth thinking about for planning for the rest of the year, like trying 01:06:44.427 --> 01:06:50.214 - to link up with her and figure out if there's a meeting that works well for like checking in on that. 01:06:50.214 --> 01:06:55.944 - I would love that. I think we've almost exhausted our list of potential presentations for this year. 01:06:55.944 --> 01:07:01.617 - So if that's something that folks feel like we want to try and get on the books, that's a fantastic 01:07:01.617 --> 01:07:05.758 - idea. I really love the updates that we were able to get from that team. 01:07:11.906 --> 01:07:19.415 - That's great. If there's a month that works for her to present, awesome. Additionally, if she doesn't 01:07:19.415 --> 01:07:26.850 - want to present or can't find the time, you can still have that dialogue. And you can send something 01:07:26.850 --> 01:07:34.432 - into Rachel. We can get an agenda item on here. We can have those discussions in the commission as the 01:07:34.432 --> 01:07:40.542 - whole here as well. So I do think that sounds like a good thing to stay on top of. 01:07:40.674 --> 01:07:51.280 - Is there somewhere where we can readily access that document where we just arrived at 2026 priorities 01:07:51.280 --> 01:08:01.783 - from last fall? That's a great question. The minutes from November. Rachel, I don't know if you have 01:08:01.783 --> 01:08:06.462 - a cleaner place where those live. Otherwise, 01:08:07.106 --> 01:08:13.805 - That's something I can, I mean, I have my own version of it that I can certainly share with the group 01:08:13.805 --> 01:08:21.030 - as well. Yes, I think for lots of reasons that we don't necessarily need to rehash. We've had some challenges 01:08:21.030 --> 01:08:27.992 - between that November meeting and now that have kept us from really diving into a number of those issues, 01:08:27.992 --> 01:08:34.625 - but there's still plenty of 2026 left. So I think as a homework assignment, it would be really great 01:08:34.625 --> 01:08:35.742 - if people peaked 01:08:36.322 --> 01:08:42.792 - either at those minutes or if Rachel is able to produce something a little more accessible and share 01:08:42.792 --> 01:08:49.199 - it with us, that'd be awesome too. But if that's too much, I get it. Just so that when the call for 01:08:49.199 --> 01:08:55.605 - agenda items comes out for next month or the following, any time coming up here, people can have an 01:08:55.605 --> 01:09:02.011 - idea of what they would like to focus on or just have a discussion about what the next steps are on 01:09:02.011 --> 01:09:05.150 - it. So we can kind of get back into figuring out 01:09:05.954 --> 01:09:12.319 - What do we want to do? How can we do it before we arrive at our next planning meeting in November? And 01:09:12.319 --> 01:09:18.499 - it's OK if some of those items just roll over. If we didn't get around to them and we would like to 01:09:18.499 --> 01:09:24.678 - consider them a 2027 priority idea as well, that's fine. But now I think it'd be nice for people to 01:09:24.678 --> 01:09:30.302 - take a look and see where we might want to direct our energy in the remaining months here. 01:09:33.282 --> 01:09:42.852 - further questions or comments on the priority discussion conversation. Can we do field trips? We probably 01:09:42.852 --> 01:09:52.242 - can't do field trips, because I'm guessing if we had a quorum, it would probably require staff. Staffer 01:09:52.242 --> 01:10:01.812 - legal can address that if they'd like to, but I think field trips are a tough sell outside of our regular 01:10:01.812 --> 01:10:03.166 - meeting times. 01:10:04.994 --> 01:10:13.317 - That being said, any non-coram of individuals can go check something out, tour something, go somewhere, 01:10:13.317 --> 01:10:21.321 - see a presentation, and then tell us during reports the following month what they learned. So small 01:10:21.321 --> 01:10:29.564 - field trips. Who's six of us? Small unofficial field trips. I think it would be captive five, I think, 01:10:29.564 --> 01:10:34.846 - if I understand that correctly. Because it's technically way out. 01:10:37.282 --> 01:10:44.898 - Anyway, you may go on small field trips. You're not likely to be able to go on commission field trips. 01:10:44.898 --> 01:10:52.291 - With that, I want to move to new business item C, social media post discussion. I'm assuming that's 01:10:52.291 --> 01:10:59.685 - Rachel. This is not me. I think I was asked, I think by Carrie lost time. I'll take this one. Well, 01:10:59.685 --> 01:11:03.678 - Carrie, once again, new business. The floor is yours. 01:11:04.802 --> 01:11:10.716 - And I'm going to take D also, so get ready. For the social media piece, this is partially because we 01:11:10.716 --> 01:11:17.157 - have some new commissioners, but also just kind of to clarify how the process works for how the Environmental 01:11:17.157 --> 01:11:23.013 - Commission shares through social media. So the process of something that somebody on our commission 01:11:23.013 --> 01:11:28.927 - sees that would be of interest to share, how it gets to the proper recipient, if it's something that 01:11:28.927 --> 01:11:32.382 - needs a vote, and just kind of understanding that process. 01:11:32.610 --> 01:11:39.947 - Um, and, and Rachel, yeah, this is mostly a question for you, but one that I was, I was eager to have 01:11:39.947 --> 01:11:47.499 - the group here as well. Just the overall process of social media? Yeah, there's something to get posted, 01:11:47.499 --> 01:11:55.052 - yeah. So, uh, the process as far as I'm aware would be, um, the department isn't going to be formulating 01:11:55.052 --> 01:12:01.310 - social media posts. So if there's something that you all would like to have posted on, 01:12:01.570 --> 01:12:08.378 - the Facebook page, you're welcome to drop that and send that to me, and I can review it and or send 01:12:08.378 --> 01:12:15.255 - it to comms, and then it'll get posted by whoever is the administrator of the Facebook page. I'm not 01:12:15.255 --> 01:12:22.063 - the administrator for the Facebook page, so I have to send that to them. Do you have a sense of the 01:12:22.063 --> 01:12:28.939 - timeline of, if it's an event that it's happening that feels like a really relevant one, do you have 01:12:28.939 --> 01:12:31.390 - a sense of what the timeline is for 01:12:31.810 --> 01:12:38.051 - sending something first to you and then eventually getting it posted. Probably not same day. I would 01:12:38.051 --> 01:12:44.416 - say it would probably have been a couple of days, but I'm not, I mean, it would depend, one, how busy, 01:12:44.416 --> 01:12:50.781 - what my other competing priorities are, to be honest, as well as what the, I'm not, for the comms team 01:12:50.781 --> 01:12:57.023 - who's reviewing it, I'm not sure what their timeline would be. Okay, and when you send it through to 01:12:57.023 --> 01:13:01.534 - comms, that includes the ADA assessment too, right? The ADA assessments, 01:13:01.666 --> 01:13:10.418 - So that takes a little bit longer on my ADA to be more so about if there were links and or like images 01:13:10.418 --> 01:13:18.235 - associated with the post. If it's just a text post, ADA, the digital accessibility is a bit 01:13:18.235 --> 01:13:27.327 - more straightforward. And my last question. Sorry, am I interrupting somebody? No, sorry. My last question 01:13:27.327 --> 01:13:30.046 - was just is this a voting item? 01:13:31.330 --> 01:13:39.426 - And that's, I think, a question for Rachel, but maybe a question for legal slash the whole group. Is 01:13:39.426 --> 01:13:47.603 - this something that we vote on, or is this something that is a pass through with sort of a good faith 01:13:47.603 --> 01:13:55.699 - behind it? I personally am not sure. I would, if I still have the bylaws, I don't know. Short answer 01:13:55.699 --> 01:14:01.310 - is I don't know. I can get back to you. Because I don't know if it's, 01:14:01.474 --> 01:14:09.994 - technically making a public statement. It's being defined as a public statement or shared information 01:14:09.994 --> 01:14:18.430 - or how that works. So I will get back to you on that. I'm sorry, I don't have the answer. I was just 01:14:18.430 --> 01:14:27.033 - going to sort of sum up my piece and then happy to give the mic over to other folks on this topic. But 01:14:27.033 --> 01:14:28.286 - I would say if 01:14:29.026 --> 01:14:34.345 - maybe we tentatively just put social media as a voting item on our ongoing agenda so that way if it 01:14:34.345 --> 01:14:39.931 - is something that we need to vote on it's baked into that and if it's not a voting item then great we'll 01:14:39.931 --> 01:14:45.303 - just pass along what we talked about but one of the things that that was included in the priority of 01:14:45.303 --> 01:14:51.048 - education outreach was having was including more of that social media engagement which it's just a Facebook 01:14:51.048 --> 01:14:56.368 - account so it's not you know reaching tens of thousands of people but it is a way to amplify what's 01:14:56.368 --> 01:14:58.974 - happening elsewhere in the city that are similar 01:14:59.170 --> 01:15:07.946 - initiatives or some organizations that we've that we've worked side by side with before. So that's thinking 01:15:07.946 --> 01:15:16.072 - through how to incorporate that into just an easier pathway to. I will say jumping in if we do make 01:15:16.072 --> 01:15:23.629 - it is I'm happy to make it a social media or make happy and make a social media voting item. 01:15:23.629 --> 01:15:28.830 - On the agenda. If that's the if that's the shirt determination, 01:15:29.058 --> 01:15:35.475 - I will need those posts 10 days in advance of a meeting. So it makes some of those, if this is the route 01:15:35.475 --> 01:15:41.647 - that I'm told that we need to do, that would be the time sensitive nature would come into effect. So 01:15:41.647 --> 01:15:48.003 - it probably wouldn't be like, hey, there's an event tomorrow, let's share it. So I just wanted to throw 01:15:48.003 --> 01:15:54.298 - that out there to everyone as well. And that's a good note that if it becomes that we have to vote for 01:15:54.298 --> 01:15:57.598 - any social media posts, that means it's once a month. 01:15:58.274 --> 01:16:05.184 - with 10 days before the meeting that something would be shared. So it does really impede our ability 01:16:05.184 --> 01:16:12.232 - to kind of have a fluid process. So I think the voting, if it is required, that'll be helpful to know. 01:16:12.232 --> 01:16:19.142 - And if it is not a requirement, then that is a goal. Anything from anybody else on that topic? Yeah, 01:16:19.142 --> 01:16:26.942 - I just want to clarify. So the Facebook account, is this the city of Bloomington's or is this a separate account? 01:16:27.170 --> 01:16:32.803 - It's okay. So the city of Bloomington has several Facebook accounts, so it's managed by the city of 01:16:32.803 --> 01:16:38.492 - Bloomington. Commission members cannot be added as administrators to the Facebook account. But it is 01:16:38.492 --> 01:16:44.519 - essentially we're approving posts for the Facebook group? Yes. Okay. Is there any possibility of extending 01:16:44.519 --> 01:16:50.208 - that to the city of Bloomington that has other social media accounts on other platforms? They have a 01:16:50.208 --> 01:16:55.390 - Reddit account, they have, I don't know if they have a Twitter account, I'm not on Twitter, 01:16:55.618 --> 01:17:01.176 - I don't know. Is it possible to like expand, like if we were interested and post on other platforms 01:17:01.176 --> 01:17:06.845 - as well, or we just restrict to Facebook? So the environmental commission only has a Facebook and the 01:17:06.845 --> 01:17:12.680 - department is not going to be managing other social media accounts. Gotcha. However, if there are social 01:17:12.680 --> 01:17:18.405 - media accounts, like if you wanted it posted on like the city of Bloomington Reddit, I'm happy, if you 01:17:18.405 --> 01:17:24.574 - let me know, I'm happy to send along that request and it'll be up to you. And I have to make sure. Yeah. Okay. 01:17:25.698 --> 01:17:31.310 - Yeah, we've had a little bit of collaboration where we could say, hey, could parks share this if it 01:17:31.310 --> 01:17:37.090 - was a real thing? And they've been able to do that. But basically, we just have the Facebook available 01:17:37.090 --> 01:17:42.870 - to us. And traditionally, the intern approving it. But someone within the city, none of us are allowed 01:17:42.870 --> 01:17:48.538 - to be administrators. Right. That makes sense. But it would be kind of cool to be able to expand our 01:17:48.538 --> 01:17:53.982 - reach. Because a lot of people, like I'm not on Facebook either. So it would be kind of cool to. 01:17:54.690 --> 01:18:03.088 - Yeah. Broaden our horizon if we can. It has been a challenge to do so outside of periodic Facebook posts 01:18:03.088 --> 01:18:09.246 - and periodic guest columns in one, usually the HD, but one place or another. 01:18:10.306 --> 01:18:16.308 - That has been our footprint in the media today. And I know historical precedent probably doesn't mean 01:18:16.308 --> 01:18:22.369 - much in this. We've been voting on items that are brought to us by outside groups. So if someone says, 01:18:22.369 --> 01:18:28.371 - hey, we're showing this environmental movie. Can you guys share it for us? We would vote to prove it. 01:18:28.371 --> 01:18:34.255 - But previously, and there weren't many things. Again, it's not a very active page. But I would say, 01:18:34.255 --> 01:18:37.374 - hey, can we put something out advertising eco heroes 01:18:37.794 --> 01:18:45.223 - I just had to get Rachel the information in advance. I get approved when it gets approved. But I suspect 01:18:45.223 --> 01:18:52.440 - that what Rachel and Kerry were both driving at is that it might be required to be a voting item from 01:18:52.440 --> 01:18:59.515 - here on out by the letter of the handbook. So I'm looking forward to clarification down the road. I 01:18:59.515 --> 01:19:05.246 - would also be interested if it was possible, and maybe the answer is no, to vote 01:19:05.538 --> 01:19:13.111 - to delegate a small amount of power to have somebody approve posts, kind of like a scanning authority, 01:19:13.111 --> 01:19:20.758 - so to speak, for non-controversial event notifications or something. Again, I don't know if that's even 01:19:20.758 --> 01:19:28.258 - acceptable, but it would be very convenient if we could do something like that. Any other comments or 01:19:28.258 --> 01:19:32.670 - questions on the social media posts discussion agenda item? 01:19:37.250 --> 01:19:45.172 - we are going to move to new business item D, the officer election discussion, and is again going to 01:19:45.172 --> 01:19:53.648 - be introduced by Carrie. Hi there. Next month, we are officially conducting our elections for the mid-2026 01:19:53.648 --> 01:20:02.046 - to mid-2027 officers of the Environmental Commission, which means that we'll be taking nominations during 01:20:02.046 --> 01:20:06.878 - that next meeting. I'm just opening the floor to anybody who 01:20:07.010 --> 01:20:12.747 - has questions, wants to voice any nominations that they're thinking about. Self-nominations are encouraged, 01:20:12.747 --> 01:20:18.060 - but as Matt said, there's some descriptive language in the handbook. Folks who have served in these 01:20:18.060 --> 01:20:23.425 - roles are, I'm sure, happy to talk about their experience. Folks who have served in these roles, you 01:20:23.425 --> 01:20:24.222 - are welcome to 01:20:24.610 --> 01:20:29.918 - self-nominate to stay in your role, but the people in the role right now do not have to be the ones 01:20:29.918 --> 01:20:35.226 - that stay in these roles. It's really a flexible, fluid time. And so I wanted to just take a minute 01:20:35.226 --> 01:20:40.587 - to remind folks that we are doing that next month. So if there's any reason that you are not able to 01:20:40.587 --> 01:20:46.266 - be at next month's meeting and there's anything that you would like to share, that's when we'll be voting. 01:20:46.266 --> 01:20:51.680 - So I'd love to reiterate the importance of attending if you're able to, and then also really thinking 01:20:51.680 --> 01:20:54.334 - about the nomination process because we will need 01:20:54.722 --> 01:21:02.521 - Any questions or input from the group on this one? I was basically going to open the floor up the same 01:21:02.521 --> 01:21:10.169 - way actually. In the past, and even during this meeting, I've tried to encourage people to say, hey, 01:21:10.169 --> 01:21:18.044 - you can reach out to these officers and ask how it went. But we also have a moment right now in meeting 01:21:18.044 --> 01:21:22.814 - with Cora that anyone can ask any questions of these officers. 01:21:23.298 --> 01:21:31.186 - just to learn whether they're thinking about throwing their hat in the ring next month or a year from 01:21:31.186 --> 01:21:39.307 - next month. This is our golden opportunity to talk about it, so I would invite any comments or questions 01:21:39.307 --> 01:21:47.195 - from the room. It's totally okay. No one's going to say, man, you didn't read the handbook. You could 01:21:47.195 --> 01:21:48.510 - have known that. 01:21:49.090 --> 01:21:56.866 - to talk about our positions. We're looking to share the wealth of experience here. I know I've winked 01:21:56.866 --> 01:22:04.642 - and nodded in the past to I'm looking to remain on the commission, but I'm looking to drop my officer 01:22:04.642 --> 01:22:12.342 - role. So ask questions now, but also expect peer pressure in a month. So I'm going to give everybody 01:22:12.342 --> 01:22:17.374 - another shot to ask any questions you're thinking about, anybody? 01:22:22.018 --> 01:22:29.150 - I'm sorry, how do you go? I'm going to go Heidi first and then to Carrie. To the secretary now. How 01:22:29.150 --> 01:22:36.282 - much time does it take to type up all the messages? Well, most of the time it's just in the meeting 01:22:36.282 --> 01:22:43.556 - itself and then if there's bits I missed, I just make a note to myself to go back and watch the cat's 01:22:43.556 --> 01:22:47.550 - recording later. Type fast? Is that required? It helps. 01:22:48.354 --> 01:22:54.501 - Another thing worth noting is it's not like you have to have the word for, and so and so said this, 01:22:54.501 --> 01:23:01.078 - so and so said that. It requires that you have the results of votes. You're just providing as much context 01:23:01.078 --> 01:23:07.594 - as you see fit. And we've had, over the years, we've had secretaries that have kept it really bare bones. 01:23:07.594 --> 01:23:14.110 - And we've had others that have pages and pages of minutes. And we've had commissioners respond positively 01:23:14.690 --> 01:23:21.948 - to either of those forms. So it really is a little bit of the secretary's choice. But I think generally 01:23:21.948 --> 01:23:28.927 - hitting the most important details and adding a little bit of key conversation points on any sticky 01:23:28.927 --> 01:23:35.976 - item is the gist of it. And I'll jump into it. This has been a really recent change. And so Adam and 01:23:35.976 --> 01:23:39.326 - Carl, maybe you can jump in on your experience. 01:23:39.426 --> 01:23:46.624 - I have been tasked with doing just the memorandum for the meeting, which is the legal requirement for 01:23:46.624 --> 01:23:53.681 - the meeting. So it's basically skeleton minutes. So it has everything that's required, and then our 01:23:53.681 --> 01:24:01.726 - office manager will contact the secretary for that meeting. And that secretary can add in the supplemental notes. 01:24:01.922 --> 01:24:08.893 - So I think Adam probably went through this process only one time. It's still a really new process, but 01:24:08.893 --> 01:24:15.865 - how has that worked for you so far? About the same? It's pretty much the same. It's just I did my copy 01:24:15.865 --> 01:24:22.633 - of the agenda. I take my notes there. And then whenever I got the email, they just copy pasted what 01:24:22.633 --> 01:24:29.604 - I had. The bare bones outline is actually really nice. It hits all the legal parts of it. And then you 01:24:29.604 --> 01:24:31.838 - just have to fill in the detail. 01:24:32.194 --> 01:24:38.809 - Yeah, that way you can focus on substantive stuff, knowing that the motion and the second and the vote 01:24:38.809 --> 01:24:45.232 - tallies are already kept, so you don't have to quickly gather that that's being gathered. So you're 01:24:45.232 --> 01:24:52.169 - just adding that flavor. You're gathering all of them. All liaisons are supposed to do this moving forward, 01:24:52.169 --> 01:24:58.142 - doing kind of the skeleton minutes or the memorandums. I noticed you might consider updating 01:24:58.274 --> 01:25:04.105 - the secretary's duties in the handbook. I know we're more handbook stuff, but it says, secretary takes 01:25:04.105 --> 01:25:09.312 - the minutes, and then later says minutes include record emotions and votes, attendance. But 01:25:09.312 --> 01:25:15.086 - if the secretary's not doing that, should we have to? I don't know if it matters. I do think we could 01:25:15.086 --> 01:25:20.804 - modernize that section of the handbook. And unlike some previous ones, it would not be controversial 01:25:20.804 --> 01:25:26.238 - and would not take long portions of the meeting. But I think that's a good idea now that you're 01:25:27.330 --> 01:25:32.941 - I gotta recommend that there, thanks. Do you want that as a voting item for the next meeting? Let me 01:25:32.941 --> 01:25:38.553 - think about it. Okay. Knock it to this. Sometime at your leisure, you can look at that. In fact, you 01:25:38.553 --> 01:25:44.275 - can always email Rachel with a suggested language. And thank you for the question, Heidi Carey. Do you 01:25:44.275 --> 01:25:49.887 - still have a question? I was gonna ask Matt, as vice chair and treasurer, about how much time do you 01:25:49.887 --> 01:25:55.554 - spend in those roles each month, just in case there's anyone listening who's interested in nominating 01:25:55.554 --> 01:25:57.054 - themselves for their role? 01:25:57.218 --> 01:26:04.397 - Yeah, so vice chair might sound a little bit intimidating, but since at this point our wonderful chair 01:26:04.397 --> 01:26:11.506 - has been running the meetings with great regularity, and I only have to jump in once or twice a year, 01:26:11.506 --> 01:26:18.546 - clearly less good at it. I just stay right on the agenda items. I do not have the same, as Kerry has 01:26:18.546 --> 01:26:24.958 - described, gift of gap. But each month, some months it is no different than any other seat. 01:26:25.058 --> 01:26:31.186 - like zero additional minutes of your time. Sometimes there's a little bit of planning. I feel like anybody 01:26:31.186 --> 01:26:37.029 - can be extra attentive to the call to agenda items, but as one of the, you know, in the chair or vice 01:26:37.029 --> 01:26:43.042 - chair seat, I try to pay extra attention to that, to crafting it. But in any given month, the vice chair 01:26:43.042 --> 01:26:48.827 - slash treasurer might have zero extra minutes, or they might receive an email saying, we're going to 01:26:48.827 --> 01:26:53.982 - order a thousand prints of Bug Bingo before Bug Fest. Do you approve? And you just reply, 01:26:54.114 --> 01:27:02.165 - Yes, I approve. And you just sort of keep track of that budget line that's very infrequently touched. 01:27:02.165 --> 01:27:10.452 - So it might sound like a really big job, but a lot of the time, it's really not. We work a little closer 01:27:10.452 --> 01:27:18.424 - with Carrie or whoever becomes chair. And it's just a good way to get a feel for everything and be a 01:27:18.424 --> 01:27:21.502 - little more involved. Thank you, Matt. 01:27:24.418 --> 01:27:32.719 - I don't want to linger on this too long if people don't have questions or comments, but any other questions 01:27:32.719 --> 01:27:40.635 - or comments on the officer election discussion here in the room. Well, think about it. And again, feel 01:27:40.635 --> 01:27:48.552 - free to shoot an email to the individual you have a question to, or for, rather. I suppose after this, 01:27:48.552 --> 01:27:52.702 - we will move to upcoming meeting to item seven, which 01:27:53.186 --> 01:28:00.306 - Yeah, June 11th, this year, same time, same place, 16th Wilbur Conference Room here at City Hall. I 01:28:00.306 --> 01:28:07.426 - will be sending out the coverage of the items. I'll probably send that out on Tuesday morning since 01:28:07.426 --> 01:28:14.903 - it's a week earlier than usual because of the June 2nd holiday. That's right. I liked the way the agenda 01:28:14.903 --> 01:28:20.670 - fell together today, but my attention to detail on this that I would still like. 01:28:21.026 --> 01:28:28.645 - Commissioner announcements here before adjournment. So I moved to add just before adjournment Commissioner 01:28:28.645 --> 01:28:35.908 - announcements to the agenda. I like the way reports played out, but I still want people to be able to 01:28:35.908 --> 01:28:43.313 - have an opportunity to plug something. Would that be, so I added walk-in items earlier. Yes. So instead 01:28:43.313 --> 01:28:47.870 - of walk-in items, do the Commissioner announcements at the end? 01:28:48.962 --> 01:28:54.387 - I think walk-in items are still a good description for the fact that, because we don't know, like, it 01:28:54.387 --> 01:28:59.440 - might be a month where we had Iraq, it might not. So Adam might have something to say on that, 01:28:59.440 --> 01:29:04.865 - he might not. Who knows what individual work Mitchell might want to report on, on working towards his 01:29:04.865 --> 01:29:10.237 - water quality report, or whatever it is. So I don't think people need to email you to say what their 01:29:10.237 --> 01:29:15.555 - commission report's going to be. So I think walk-in items are still nice. But this way, it would be 01:29:15.555 --> 01:29:17.470 - our commission or other commissions 01:29:17.666 --> 01:29:25.128 - related, and then announcements at the end could be anything. It could be personal. It could be reminders. 01:29:25.128 --> 01:29:32.171 - It could be an event from your department that's outside of anything here. So I like the way reports 01:29:32.171 --> 01:29:39.144 - worked. I just still want to sneak announcements at the end. Yeah, definitely. He kind of makes the 01:29:39.144 --> 01:29:46.327 - meeting end on a wider note as well. So probably Martinez for that motion in second? Yes. OK. Messger. 01:29:46.327 --> 01:29:47.582 - Yes. Geyser. Yes. 01:29:48.066 --> 01:29:56.073 - Owens. Yes. Martinez. Yes. Guy. Yes. Sputaker. Yes. Halby. Yes. Brown. Yes. Albright. Yes. Motion passes. 01:29:56.073 --> 01:30:04.156 - At this time, do we have any commissioner announcements to start with Mitchell? Oh, yes. This is something 01:30:04.156 --> 01:30:11.861 - that I forgot about earlier and was reminded by Carrie bringing up Bugfest a few times. Date for this 01:30:11.861 --> 01:30:16.318 - year's Bugfest came out. It's going to be on September 26. 01:30:16.866 --> 01:30:23.963 - So that's something we can think about in future weeks. I won't be there in my identity capacity, 01:30:23.963 --> 01:30:31.567 - as usual, or in the EC capacity, because I'm going to be out of town that weekend. But I figured I would 01:30:31.567 --> 01:30:38.882 - pass the news on to you guys, because that's something we have participated in for a number of years 01:30:38.882 --> 01:30:45.182 - now. And it's on a Sunday, September 26th. It's outcast, yes. What about environments? 01:30:45.602 --> 01:30:52.451 - Oh, that Bioblitz is, oh, I forgot, June 20th, that's when it's going to be. So that will be coming 01:30:52.451 --> 01:30:59.505 - up soon. Did you want me to send you the sign-up info for that? I don't think I would do it. OK. Well, 01:30:59.505 --> 01:31:06.422 - it's May 9th, I'm sorry. June 20th on the Bioblitz. And yeah, if you want the sign-up information, I 01:31:06.422 --> 01:31:13.339 - think registration is officially closing soon. But they're not super strict about it. You just might 01:31:13.339 --> 01:31:14.366 - not get lunch. 01:31:15.106 --> 01:31:23.007 - No, she might not get it. Yep. Do we have other commissioner announcements? Well, the member of the 01:31:23.007 --> 01:31:30.987 - public said it was June 21st. Let's see. Does that sound right? Let's see. June 21st is a Sunday, so 01:31:30.987 --> 01:31:39.361 - June 20th would be Saturday. Yeah, so it would be June 20th. June 20th. OK, thank you. Other commissioner 01:31:39.361 --> 01:31:44.734 - announcements, either Carrie or any commissioners here in the room? 01:31:45.058 --> 01:31:52.982 - Yeah, Carrie. Actually, speaking of bio blitzes, the Bee City committee met last week. One of the things 01:31:52.982 --> 01:32:00.530 - that they are announcing this week is pollinator week through the city of Bloomington Parks and Rec 01:32:00.530 --> 01:32:08.228 - Department. They are doing a week long bio blitz thing during that same week, the week of the 21st to 01:32:08.228 --> 01:32:14.718 - the 28th. They're putting out an announcement and we can have Rachel email the group, 01:32:15.298 --> 01:32:22.922 - But it's basically a series of events to talk about native plants and providing nesting sites for pollinators 01:32:22.922 --> 01:32:30.130 - and reducing pesticides and all those different things that we've been getting lots of information from 01:32:30.130 --> 01:32:37.130 - the Xerxes Society through the Bee City Committee. But there is a pop-up at the Lilly Library. There 01:32:37.130 --> 01:32:40.734 - is a documentary screening at the Downtown Library. 01:32:40.834 --> 01:32:47.617 - and there is a special green drinks event with Sycamore Land Trust at Upland as well. So there's a bunch 01:32:47.617 --> 01:32:54.271 - of things coming up, but that's the week of June 21 through 28. Should be a lot of fun. They're trying 01:32:54.271 --> 01:33:00.601 - to really get a lot of excitement around it. So after you finish doing the bioblitz that is down, 01:33:00.601 --> 01:33:08.030 - I think, was it Mitchell, the southern part of the state? Yeah, Harmony State Park outside of Evansville. Perfect. 01:33:08.290 --> 01:33:13.885 - So after you do that, come on back to Bloomington and there's a lot of stuff going on. But I think the 01:33:13.885 --> 01:33:19.481 - announcement hasn't, I don't think it's been released just yet, but either way, we'll send through the 01:33:19.481 --> 01:33:24.913 - document that outlines all the activity. Okay, I have an announcement. I found an interesting piece 01:33:24.913 --> 01:33:30.454 - of history the other day, a document from 1978 that was talking about city and county government. And 01:33:30.454 --> 01:33:33.822 - I found the Environmental Quality and Conservation Commission 01:33:34.274 --> 01:33:41.708 - membership 14, including one council member, one planning commissioner, and five with scientific training. 01:33:41.708 --> 01:33:49.072 - So that was 12 mayor appointed seats and two ex officios, technically. Three-year terms, no compensation, 01:33:49.072 --> 01:33:56.020 - meets the second Monday of each month at 7.30 p.m. So I just thought that was an interesting little 01:33:56.020 --> 01:34:03.454 - bit of history from when the commission was something like five years young. But on a barely related note, 01:34:03.682 --> 01:34:11.401 - Our numbers are getting a little bit low. If you know anybody, particularly with scientific training, 01:34:11.401 --> 01:34:19.119 - but even without, who would like to join, please nudge them. We have a number of mayoral vacancies in 01:34:19.119 --> 01:34:26.762 - particular, and I'm sure they would be happy to appoint people if we have applications in. So that's 01:34:26.762 --> 01:34:32.286 - my announcement. Anyone else? All right, with that, I motion we adjourn. 01:34:33.410 --> 01:34:35.294 - Adam Seconds, thank you everyone.