So this is the Economic Development Commission meeting of St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, 2026.
And it's 4 PM. And we're in person at City Hall in the McCloskey Conference Room. And the meeting has
been appropriately posted and noticed. Correct, Jane? Yes? OK. Lisa, how are you? Hello.
We have four of our five members here. Come on. There we go. We should do something. That's right. So
why don't we go around and do a roll call on Kurt Zorn. I'm Liz Spital. I'm Isak Asari. Tim Hankey.
Jane Cooper Smith, staff. Roll call. Great. Great. And we have minutes from I think it's the October 24th.
I'm sorry, 21st meeting. Any comments, corrections, changes? I didn't see anything. If not, can we move?
I will move approval. Second, I'd like to discuss it real fast. Sure. Yeah, go ahead. Just a question
for Jane. Why don't we get a second first and then we'll discuss it. Second. There we go. I'm just curious
about the format. It seemed different. Of the minutes? Yeah.
Quite a bit of commissioners said this, or commissioners thought that. Oh, you know what? We have a
new intern taking, right, Dee? Do you think that's related to having a new person? No. That realization
was really dense, and because we don't do this often, I wanted to make sure that the minutes were pretty
detailed, because I thought there was some good information in there.
I mean, normally, I don't usually do that much depth, but it was something that I think that we can
refer to later, looking back on this. So I thought that it was useful. I can make sure to not do that.
I'm not being critical. It's just different and different than what I'm used to. That's all.
Very informative. So we've got a motion to second. Any more comments?
If not, can I ask one other question? Yeah, please. So D, do you think that it'll return to more summary?
So with the minute, D and I have actually talked about this a bunch, but the minutes can be in the form
of a memo summarizing, or they can be at this level of detail. So I guess, yeah, Isaac. I like about this.
I like the detail with that. Particularly because we haven't met in a long time. Refreshes. Yes.
And it's, I think, really helpful when we're talking about substantive things. I think there's a time
when you want to just be like, OK, they talked and they moved on. But we have substantive that we didn't
make a whole lot of decisions. It was helpful because we had substantive briefings and discussions on
a lot of things. I think it's really helpful to have that trail to be able to see. Kurt said something wise.
Oh. Everybody was astounded. That might be a little too much detail. That's right. That's exactly right.
All right. Well, I think Dee and Jane will take that into consideration as they do minutes going forward.
Any other comments? If not, all in favor, please say aye.
Hi. Anybody opposed? Passes, isn't it? Yeah. It's easy for me to say. Passes unanimously. And then we
have new business, which is election of officers. I would like to propose that that Kurt Zorn be elected
our president. Just in case I say something.
And why? I think you're doing a great job, and we would like you to maintain doing a great job. I think
there's people in the waiting room, also. Oh, gosh. But I think that, you know, unless somebody is like,
wow, I really want to do this. No, I'm all in favor. We appreciate your leadership. Oh, there's Vanessa.
There's Vanessa. Goodness. Well, let's wait for a second until Vanessa. Everyone's AI.
versions of themselves. They're here too. So Vanessa, I notice you have joined. Yes, I have. Hello,
everyone. Hi, I'm Vanessa. We already did approval of minutes. We're on new business election of officers,
and ESAC was just starting.
So we had just made you president. Congratulations. I know, but it's not a true statement. Yeah, I think,
Kurt, you've done such an awesome job at leading this commission, and I think work so closely with EDC
already, I think it just makes a lot of sense. I'll thank it.
in the second then. Do you want to do a whole slate or just one? Do one at a time. I mean, I'm fine
with it either way. Tim, you want to be vice president? I would like to continue the slate that we have.
We've just barely got any momentum. That's right. I'll look at that. What was the slate?
It's not the guy. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G.
It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G.
It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G. It's my G.
Yeah, here we go. This detail might be nice to have recorded somewhere. Exactly. I think we do from
last year. Sorry, I'm just having trouble putting my hand up on this. Dee, can you look that up in the
February onboard minutes for EDC, the slate of officers?
I'm actually looking for it right now. It's just my computer running a little slow. So I will get that.
Well, we have a motion and a second. Right. Yeah, to keep the slate as it is, whatever that slate is.
Yeah, we second. Yeah, some motion and a second. Well, any discussion? The officers have done a wonderful
job. Yeah.
I do think something we should consider, and I know, like all jokes aside, one of the things that we've
been trying to think about is how we better use the EDC as a proactive advisory body. And so I don't
think any of us care what we're called, but none of us here. But I do think that that should be the
sort of charge here is saying, let's move beyond having lovely meetings every so often. It seems silly
to change officers when we really have
Okay. That might be a nice moment to describe what Kurt and I had talked about for this year was a little
bit of a different rhythm, but maybe that's for a different subject or a different agenda. Oh no, not
the new chairs. We have a motion on the floor. Any discussion about the slate?
And then we can move to yours, Jane, after that. Yeah. OK. So all in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed?
OK. Vanessa, we've got a thumbnail. So just so you know what you guys signed up for, it's Kurt, Esauk
as vice president and Vanessa as secretary. Great. Great. Esauk didn't have enough to do, so we just
figured it would be him.
Yeah, give me actually something to do or this would be great. All right. So old business, Jane, you
want to talk a little bit about what? Well, this agenda. This is new business. Yeah, I put this agenda
together, not realizing it doesn't have. We should have done old business first and new business second,
I think. Good job, Chris. We can put that around.
Well, I wanted to give you guys a little, it's almost like a staff report, if I could just update you
on a few different goings on. And then one of those items is that, Kurt and I, I don't know how you
still feel favorably toward this, but we talked a little bit about the meeting cadence in the last year
and how the EDC doesn't have business all the time and it's kind of random. When we do have business,
it's just not predictable. We wondered about,
meeting, retaining our monthly meeting times in case we have business come up, but having substantive
meetings quarterly where we are focused on digging into a little bit more substantive issues. We can
do it that way or we can just keep going month by month, meeting by meeting as we have been, but we
just sort of wondered about that.
So what is the chart? Is there anything officially written about when the commission is supposed to
meet? I don't believe so. No? I mean, I've been on the commission for a number of years, and there have
been years we've met only once. Because we're not a regulatory body, right? So we don't have to meet.
No, but there may be something that is posted somewhere to talk about how often you meet. I'll have
legal do a review.
Yeah. To see. I think as long as there's nothing in conflict with what we're supposed to be doing, I
think it's fine. But I would recommend that you all keep the monthly appointments on your calendar in
case we have something urgent. Because you want to be nimble if something comes up. Yeah. You have to
wait until the quarterly meeting. Yeah, exactly. I agree. OK.
That's that. So just there are a few items. It really wouldn't change an awful lot, because right now,
Jane or Dee say, they usually text me and say, we have something for the meeting, or we don't have something
for the meeting. It's all right to cancel. And I say, yes. So we'll still do the same thing. We'll still
send a notice out saying, we're not going to be meeting. Yeah. Right? Yeah. But we will meet on those
quarterly. And we establish what those quarterly months are.
certainly can do that. Yeah. I mean, my goal was to have us meet January, the first month of each quarter.
But then I can't remember what happened in January and February, but I think we had a storm and then
I had to get out of town kind of urgently. And then you were available in February. I think that's the
case. So now we're meeting in March. So we could do the third month, but we'll always really want to
do the organizing. Well, we could still do January and we could just
April because we're having this March meeting. Yeah, and then we'll have. Of course it's a lot of good
month. We'll have tax abatement reporting. In June. In June. Right. So maybe the plan is folly. I'm
lost when we're meeting. Can somebody. No, we're just, we're thinking, we're talking out loud. Okay,
okay. Kind of thinking out loud. Yeah, really quick. So for second quarter, the best
would be the end of May because tax abatement presentation to the council is June 10th. So we would
need to meet in May because it needs to be reviewed by the EDC before it goes to council. And the EDC
meets on May 19th. So keep that May meeting.
Does that mean that quarterly doesn't really work for us? I think so. Because you really want to meet
in January to organize. Yeah. Maybe we'll just have once or twice a year with staffs help almost like
a retreat meeting where we're talking bigger. Big issues. Yeah. Yeah. OK. All right. And we'll try to
figure out what works best.
July meeting is probably not a good time to have that because people have Tennessee. Right. Well, I
still appreciate this conversation and just, I don't know. So are we keeping April 21st as a possible?
Keep it on your calendar just in case. We're keeping all the dates as possible. We're definitely going
to meet in May. And maybe that's what we do. When we get to that next meeting that we know we're meeting,
we decide if there's a next
date to have a definite meeting regardless of what's on the agenda. But you'll let us know if something
comes up on the 21st, we need to meet for April. We'll let you know when it comes. Just keep it on the
calendar. But you'll let us know both ways. Yes. Okay, great. Yes. Thank you. So just running through
my list of staff things. One item I just wanted to maybe raise
is that I've been attending quarterly meetings with MCCSC, their business roundtable meetings. ESOC's
been there too. They're super informative. And I think there's a big opportunity to try to support MCCSC
in the coming months and indefinitely. One of the ways that their activities are shifting a little bit
is with the new degree requirements and the workplace
degree requirements for students. So a lot of students will be entering into internships and coming
into workplaces across the community. So I'm not exactly sure how the EDC can lift that up, but I wanted
to share that information. Is this news? It is news. Yeah. Sorry, I don't have my... So where are those
degrees? So now within Indiana, there are essentially
Essentially two, there's really three tracks that all students have to go through to get their diplomas.
One of them is sort of built more towards the idea of them going into things like apprenticeships. And
then the other is sort of the university track, if you will, and there's like an honors track within
both of those. But the... And there's the military track. And the military track, yeah. Is that in addition
to the other three you just mentioned? Yeah, so I think, yeah, so the big changes that regardless...
Where does the military fall into? Sorry, there's workforce, college, military. Yeah. Okay.
Thank you. The main framework that's changing is that they all have a, and differing, but they all have
an element of workforce within the diploma. So even people who are going to sort of, you know,
the traditional route, if you will, are still required to get some type of a job placement during their
time in school. And it's differing hours, depending on what that is. But, you know, I think it works
out to like,
I mean, they need to work like 10 hours a week or something like that. Like, it's not an insignificant
amount of time. But any job during has to be any job with you. When does it become effective? I've read
about it before. I think it is effective. Like, yeah, I think the current students have that requirement.
My son is a freshman, and they're the first class that will graduate under the new requirements. So
I think just, I don't know if that's just an FYI.
And we can follow up more on opportunities to support and I think there's, you know, and Dr. Winston
is at the last meeting is sort of said that she's putting together this subcommittee with a broad idea of.
you know, trying to reframe what that question is to begin with. I think, you know, Jane and I have
been on this committee with a lot of other people in the community for now the last, it feels like a
year and a half. It started off with a question that was something like, well, how do we place all these
students? Okay. I mean, it's an interesting question, but so everybody comes around and goes, I have
two placements and I have three. Okay, that's great.
But if you change the tact and say, how do we make this a driver of economic development and innovation,
et cetera, that we actually can match pain points and gain points within the community, that's a more
interesting question. I think that that's really now where she's trying to think is about, could we
use this opportunity to meet some type of needs in the community in some sustained way? So. And to that
end, this is
Sorry, I write my notes throughout the month for what I want to share with you guys and I didn't have
these details in. So MCCSE is putting together an advisory council that will have about 40 community
members. They want different types of backgrounds, different types of expertise, different types of
lived experience. The council's called Strong Schools, Strong Community. There's an application available
online for this and so I think I'll just say you could google strong schools strong community advisory
council or email me at jane.coopersmith at bloomington.in.gov. Is there enough jobs to fill all these
people having jobs? Well it'll be addressed in a number of ways and you know regional opportunity initiatives
with their ready schools program is doing a lot of work with apprenticeship activities and
there will be ways that some internships not in person will count toward the work requirement. So I
think they're being very creative and also practical about how they can meet the requirements. Transportation
is a huge barrier for a lot of students. So yeah. Emergent strategy, as they say. And what are the penalties
if you can't make this happen?
I don't know. Yeah. Is this only for one year? These are the degree requirements now. But your work
requirement? Freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior? It looks different each year. He doesn't,
for example, have a work requirement this year. So I think it's maybe more upperclassmen, weighted toward
upperclassmen. But I think if a student's on the
If a student is on the workforce track, they might have some kind of workplace requirement early on.
And that could be maybe getting a certification of some kind, or I don't know. We had a bunch of students
a week ago from Hoosier Hills Career Center visit the city and visit different city facilities to learn
about working here. I'm not sure if that was part of it or not.
I feel like I'm way off in the weeds, but. 75 approved work hours is the baseline. Cool. What kind of
time period? Over the time that they're in high school. Four years. The whole high school? Correct.
75. 75 hours? Yeah. Oh, jeez. It's not that all that much. Yeah, right. But then the employment honors
seal requires 150 hours, while others require 650. Which the 650 is, I assume, what do you call it,
the workforce one.
Where did the 10 hours a week come in? I was guessing. Oh, okay. So that's how I remembered it. Okay.
So that doesn't quite add up if you have 75 the whole time, right? Yeah, exactly. Okay. Anything else
on that item? Do you want to be kept apprised of that or if there are others? I mean, I think it's just
nice to bring MCCSE items to the group, I guess, when they're
information to share. So how are these things legitimized? How do you prove that you're doing this?
Who do you report this to, I guess, is the question. That they're doing this, right? The student. The
workplace experiences are all managed by the school. OK. Yeah. So they track that something is turned
into the school, and they track it, and all that. Exactly. Thank you. Yeah. One other thing I wanted
to mention. I mean, I'll just make a comment. Go ahead.
It's a nice idea, conceptionally. It's going to be a bear, especially to have every student do it. Yeah,
it's a state requirement. No, no, I understand that. But I'm just going to say it. It's an unfunded
mandate, because it's going to cause a lot of administrative work for MCCSE to track these. I know this
from my experience with students who are undergraduates.
who have to get internships towards their undergraduate degree. It's huge. And we're talking about lots
of students. Again, conception is a great idea. But as is the case with a number of things that the
state mandates, it's probably not thought through as carefully as it needs to be. So I hope MCCSE can be.
and this sounds like they are being created. But that's, I think, where the broader community comes
in, where it's like, you know, I mean, we could just approach this from the lens of, you know, most
of them will end up shadowing somebody, and that counts as their time. I think that we should be creative
in creating opportunities to receive them that are meaningful, you know? That's the other point, making
sure it's meaningful.
To the community right obviously there's the it will be meaningful to the to the students just just
by virtue of the exposure look at the experience they'll get but how do we make sure that it's meaningful
to the to the community you know I mean you know we we I think as a city could think about a lot of
ways that you know I mean.
Maybe that's how Kirkwood is really exciting. I don't know. But you can think about a lot of different
things that maybe they staff council's office. We need like thousands of people to staff council office,
for example. So thinking about ways that you actually can create lots of productivity, innovation,
et cetera. While also, I think it also for us in the long term of our view, how do we then connect
young people who have grown up here to industry here so that they think about staying here or coming
back here when it's relevant. Yeah, it's funny because I agree with both Kurt and Isak because, yeah,
this is a total beast for sure. And to try and implement it so quickly is just a bad decision. However, this is
This is what we think of it. And I do think that this is a good element for recidivism. I think that
this will really, if we can get small business owners, not to just think of the bigger companies,
but small, mainstream businesses, people going from a micro enterprise or a main street, those people
getting connected and making those apprenticeships and things like that,
that's a really strong, like, emotional connection. And I think that's one of the things we're kind
of missing with keeping young people here, a strong emotional connection, and having that communication,
intergenerational communication as well. So, you know, this is, this, you know, we've got to make lemonade
out of the lemons that we got right now and utilize this to get kids connected to the city park. Because
the wood meringue is a great
thing to have. It would be great if these kids are going to go off for like a year and come back and
bring back all their experience. So yeah, but I 100% to your point, but this is a great opportunity
for us. Next item I wanted to just give you guys a heads up on is that the Opportunity Zones last year
were made permanent. The Opportunity Zone program, which is
Certain census tracts are eligible to be named opportunity zones. Investments within qualified opportunity
funds in those opportunity zones are able to be shielded from capital gains taxes. So it's an effort
from the Trump administration to continue this program that really tries to leverage private partnership
in community goods. So they're low income census tracts.
The previous round of OZs was created in 2016 and it was a 10 year program and then it rolled off. So
there was a lot of activity early on and not a lot in the second half of it because the administrative
burden was so high. But now these programs are made permanent. The next step for Bloomington is to identify
what the new operating
opportunity zones will be and seek approval on those from the governor's office. So we're just in the
process of doing that and are working with a state lobbying organization and with our partners at regional
opportunity initiatives because we want to be thinking about the region as a whole and not just Bloomington
as an island. So I'm optimistic that we have some good eligible census tracts. There are some ineligible
tracks that were eligible and are no longer eligible, which is unfortunate. But one of the tracks, so
all of Hopewell, if we can get that approved, we'll be in the new one, or we'll lobby for that. And
so that's one incentive that the Trump administration made permanent. They also made permanent new markets
tax credits. We haven't had a lot of activity in that area in Bloomington, but I also think that could
show up in Hopewell.
So mentioning those two things and then transitioning maybe to Seminary Square for a moment and the
properties surrounding it. There was a headline maybe a month ago at this point that property owners
surrounding Seminary Square lobbied the assessor and the assessor reduced the assessed value of those
properties by a certain percentage. And I don't know, I don't have that math off the back of the
But I've been thinking a lot about seminary in that area. It comes up a lot as we're working on Hopewell
development and we're looking toward the Convention Center development. And so I'd like to be able to
at least assemble the suite of existing incentives around that area to be able to communicate about
them in anticipation of some turnover starting to happen in that area or fostering that turnover.
So Opportunity Zones would be one. We have the Enterprise Zone. That property falls in the Enterprise
Zone. But I wanted to bring it up here just to kind of see if the commissioners are tracking
that conversation. Last year, you were really helpful when I said, hey, I'm working on these things.
And you all kind of responded, well, that's nice, but focus on the stuff over here. So I think it,
I mean, it's.
bordering on blight, and seem to be in our wheelhouse and try to put together some incentives to improve
it. And it's well known by the community. Yeah. Very physical. Very physical. A lot of traffic. Just
driving for miles today. Yeah. And it affects all of downtown. I've heard people say that, especially
in the summertime,
you are students, the proportion of what you see when you drive into downtown is less favorable. And
you just don't feel like staying. I mean, some people just, it's somewhat depressing, of course, because
there are people that are in bad shape, down on their luck. Yeah. Yeah. And I think just having this
conversation, it's not even,
anti, the humans who are experiencing the challenges that they're experiencing and hanging out in that
area. It's really looking at the business loss around the area, which is contributing to a vacuum. We
just need more activity. Well, I just got appointed to the property tax assessment board of appeals.
I had to make sure I got it correct. And Judy Sharp, the assessor, talked
some about this, and it's the land value that's been reduced. And again, I don't remember the percentage,
but it was a substantial amount, substantial amount, because land prices are pretty high in Bloomington.
So of course, the assessed value becomes pretty high, which then becomes a disincentive for investment.
So I think it's a good way to get started, but the incentives along with that
is what's going to be needed. You need more than just the reduction of the assessed value. On the subject
of reduced AV, do you all feel like this is something that should be considered for maybe a short abatement
program or a percentage abatement program? Yeah, it's really targeted. I think the assessor told me
we're at 52% tax exempt.
52% of our properties are tax exempt in Bloomington, which makes abatements just really a difficult
incentive for us to consider. However, if the property values are being reduced all by themselves and
they're not being redeveloped, then I wonder if it is something. And tax abatements reduce future taxes.
They don't reduce today's taxes.
So if you're incentivizing something new, you're still getting more taxes than you would have otherwise.
So I think it's a good tool to use here. Who would be doing the tax evasion? I mean, who would approve
those? What body? It would be the city council. The EDC typically makes a recommendation to the city
council. And then the city council has the ability to approve or deny.
tax abatement. Sorry it's all because it's a city of Bloomington property it's all within the and then
we notify the assessor. So we're talking about the city of Bloomington property. Property that's in
the city of Bloomington. Okay so it's not city of Bloomington property? No. Private property within
city limits. So where do those people pay their tax bill at?
Well, they all pay to the county, and then the money is dispersed to the jurisdictions. Yeah. So some
of that goes to school. I'm familiar with that. Right, right. No, of course. So if we have an abatement
in a piece of property in Bloomington, the city proper, that basically is borne by the rest of the taxpayers.
Everybody else pays that. That's right. That's right. I get that. And all the different, I think,
All the different taxing elements will also be affected because we're not just debating city taxes,
but there's a state legislation that defines the entire process and what we can debate for. But if the
city council approves it and goes through the process and meets those requirements,
then the library gets less money, the schools get less money, and the county gets less money,
and so on. But it's pretty narrow in how it can be used because it has such a big impact. So give me
an example of a current property in the city that is abated. We have abatements at a number of affordable
housing developments.
And then we have a number of employment-related abatements at the Novo Nordisk site, because they've
put up such large job numbers. But we really don't have a ton of them. And then last year, we did a
pilot agreement, which is a version of an abatement, where it makes the amount payable predictable.
And I think this just makes sense that these questions are coming from you, because this is
why you are here, you're representing the county council because this has impact on your jurisdiction.
I would suggest that maybe we ought to have a conversation with the county assessor to see how city
tax abatements might be used to achieve the same thing she's trying to do with reducing this. I think
it'd be worthwhile to review what can be abated because
You know, it's pretty narrow. I mean, it's housing and jobs. And I don't know. I mean, it's kind of
hard to target jobs, especially. I mean, you have to talk to an employer and go in there and hire people
or somebody that's already there, increase their hiring. Yeah, there's certain metrics that are usually
outlayed, right? Yeah. And housing. Is that limited by state code? I think so. We have our.
The state code sets of the broad parameters, and then we have our local criteria. Local ordinance. And
our local criteria talk about affordable housing, job creation, and then I think there's a community
character bucket. Is that code, or is that policy of EDC? That's an EDC policy. Right. So I say that
because I do think that that's worth exploring. Yeah, I do wonder. I thought it was an ordinance. I
don't think so.
Let me check. You don't check. I'll check so you don't. You're doing too many things at once. Yeah,
I don't think it's a ordinance. Evaluating criteria are what I'm thinking of. Yeah. OK. But for us,
I would love to hear what incentives could be applied to an area that we consider blighted. And then
we could then, I think, because I'm not sure that a basement's going to
Abatement could be one. But Tim, good point. See where we have right now. And if we have the flexibility,
we may change it a little bit. Because I think a stall furniture, the example, they moved to the west
side because of the... It's a really good example. Is there something we can do to retain a business
there through a property tax abatement? Will the state law allow us? And then we might have to change
our criteria
to broaden it a little bit, to do some retention as opposed to just creation. So if we look at the tools
that we think we have available, let's see if they work or if they could be. Whether we do some things
that. Because I really don't know, other than some familiar with familiarity with the big man. Yeah.
Also, what would be, like what's, I think it's a really good opportunity to think
like the ways that people often think about like a redevelopment zone, right? Like what's the, what's
like a right anchor for that place so that we also are targeted about the strategy that it's not just,
we just want some business here, but it's what do we want? And I think that's what's really nice, nice,
wrong word. I think that's the opportunity because we're basically blank slate. I mean, there's a post office.
No, like what else is there anymore? I mean, the Thai restaurant, I guess. World food market. And there's
rallies still there. And then we're about to have Hopewell. I mean, so there's also a thought about
when you have Hopewell developing, does that negate the need for sort of focused tax abatement there?
Do people gravitate toward the development already? My perception is it's related to time. And the abatement
is like an accelerant for that area. Otherwise, you're waiting for it, which might be fine.
I don't know. And I think on the retention piece, I just want to mention that
I don't have official news, but I just think it's really important that we retain Kroger in that location.
Kroger, having a full grocery store there is what supports the neighborhood of Hopewell, it supports
the existing neighbors. It helps a big, big neighborhood. Yeah, so I don't know, just observing that.
Am I misinformed, but that there's some type of, like that Kroger is like the Kroger that has the most?
It has the most something, I forget what it was. Yeah, like the most,
In their national croaker, I think that the statistic I remember being told was something like, it has
the most lost goods or something to that extent. Is that true? I haven't heard that, but I just can't
comment. I don't know. But I know that they put a lot of effort behind loss prevention and security
guards hired. That's interesting. Yeah. OK.
I think a really good point that you bring up, to look ahead and to make sure that they stay, because
that would be a major, that would hit Hopa, would hit Prospect Hill, it would hit the New West Side.
Yes, and the way that corporation is managing site control is not, it doesn't mean that another grocery
could just come into that location. Exactly.
Okay, that's helpful. If you don't mind, I'll switch gears to another incentive that was just approved.
SB 89 was approved. Sorry, I don't have the title for it. Let me look it up. Oh, that's a bad website.
Well, it's to expand alcohol permits. So I just, we had some discussion last fall. Um, I'm sorry, I
don't have the, I'm not getting a good hit on the bill text right now, but, um, this, the state has
issued a number of additional three-way permits for different, um, communities across Indiana and they've
allocated two additional permits for Bloomington.
And so I think that's validating in a way. I think it means the state understands the utility of these
permits as a tool, as an economic development tool. There's specific economic development language in
the legislation. And so there are a few next steps before they can be activated. There has to be qualifying.
Qualifications have to be identified.
Um, and ESOC, I'm not sure if this is on a staff level or if council has to do it, but we have to determine
who qualifies for these permits. Um, and then there's a second step, which is entering into a commitment
agreement with the recipient of those permits. So I think there are a number of layers where, um, it
will ultimately be a staff recommendation of some sort. We'll get to determine what our, what are our
priorities for these permits. These are useful tools. They will, they're different than,
the ones that were discussed last fall in that these are full three-way permits. They cost $40,000 each.
I don't know that they are retained as long-term assets. That's unclear to me at this time. So the current-
They revert back to the city. They revert back to the state, I think. Is that right? Like after the
person who's given it, but then the city still retains the ability to give it to somebody else? Yeah,
exactly. And what I don't understand is,
If they say a business is granted in one of the three ways, they enter into the commitment agreement,
but they don't meet those commitments, then the city can say, hey, ATC, we need you to enforce this.
We no longer support this business having it. It reverts to the state. But I don't know if that means
that their $40,000 investment is gone.
So there's a lot more to learn about, but I just wanted to flag it. I think it's a good thing. The EDC
won't have a formal role, but I just wanted to mention it since this came up for us last year. If it's
OK that I say, I mean, if it hadn't been for the fact that I was serving as council staff at the moment,
my intention, and I think building off the conversation that we had that was just in our memo here,
My intention was, I do think it would make a lot of sense, and this is following after Valparaiso, they
had a council action that sort of just said, this is how we decide any type of permits that we're going
to be deciding. And I think it would be great for us to have one piece of legislation that basically
says, you have the SB 89 ones, you have the ones that would be riverfront district if we ever have one,
we have the ones that would be for the historic downtown. So we just set out all of that criteria.
And whether we give those or not, different story. But I just think if you set the criteria, it will
get some motion there a lot clearer. So I would love, in short, I have every intention of writing that
legislation. I think it would be really wonderful to have a discussion here to think about what that
really should look like. Like, what are the priorities? Yeah. What are our priorities? Do we want local-owned
businesses? How are we going to determine all of those type of things, I think, would be. Yeah.
So is that something that you would want to have us put on an agenda? I would love that. I would love
that. For all of the things like that? I think that's the best approach, but I might be wrong. I will
say it makes me a little nervous just because I think the response to the discussions earlier on this
year, or in 2025, the public was very
leery of even having the conversations. And so I think there's just a lot of education that needs to
happen. So on one hand, I could see it as a good opportunity to air out that topic and provide some
visibility into it. On the other hand, I think, well, if it's just for SB 89, maybe you just start with
that. I think what's nice is that because SB 89 is going to happen, it's happened, right?
it gives the opportunity to say, this is the impetus for which you do this. And so you have to build
the governance capacity to do it. And so it's like, but I just think it sets it in the right tone. So
the conversation isn't like, we're just trying to get all these alcohol permits out into the community.
It's about we're thinking responsibly about one of the tools for economic development. And we're thinking
before we even have to do it, we're already making some rules so that everybody can contribute to making
those rules.
So that was all I had on SB 89, unless there's more on that one. I had one other item I just wanted
to update you on. Is that OK to keep going? Sure. I wanted to let you know that David Hiddle, our planning
director, is working on. I mean, there are a number of, I think, UDO updates in process, and of course,
We're all concerned first and foremost about housing. But I did want to let you know that he's also
working on what he's calling the small business omnibus updates to the UDO. And we think those will
go forward maybe in the fall, early fall. He's doing business outreach now and talking to, I'm trying
to connect him with businesses that have failed to start in Bloomington because of onerous UDO requirements.
So sharing this with you in response to comments that you've made where we were talking about, you know,
something or other and you were like, well, you know, if you want to move the needle for Bloomington,
you really got to focus on that. So D and I are supporting that effort, but it's definitely being led
and managed by planning. Is the city utility involved?
I don't think so, but I can, I'll take that note. I think they're a significant part of the problem.
The utility. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I've just made a note to share that. Do you do some of the state of the
permitting audit?
Is that done, and will action be taken there? Because I think that that's the speed to getting things
approved often. Yeah. I apologize. My recall is really bad. There was an update yesterday, and I think
I was answering email, so I don't have the full update. But I know it's moving along, and I know I just
heard that the county is moving to the same permitting
and licensing system that the city uses. So we think that will just provide an efficiency and
more transparency. So positive development. But I can report back on the status of the audit. And that's
it. Those were the items I just wanted to share. No actions. Based on the hands we talked about, it
sounds like we have some things to do this year. Yeah.
Maybe we will be meeting every Monday. I do think this group could participate in David Hittle's project.
I mean, that's economic development. Yes. And so I don't know how you want us to participate. Well,
if you assemble, then it's got to be in the form of a public meeting. But we could invite him to a meeting.
Or you could. I would like that. I could invite him to our next meeting. I could also connect you.
with him so you could schedule one-on-one time? I think it's a good idea. I'd do it. It's interesting.
Maybe you can do that before the next meeting and have him come and lead the conversation. There's a
tie between this subject and your first subject about the tax
reduction and the blight. You remember in that article that you talked about? One of the property owners
down there said that all they're doing is getting grief about the size of their landscape rocks. That's
David Hiddles' department. Yes. I mean, he's tracking that. That was embarrassing. Right. Well, there's
always two or more sites to every story.
So maybe you could talk to David before the meeting. Yeah, I'll send an email. Maybe Jane, you and I
could talk with the assistant. I'd like that. Looking great. We'll let you off.
Well, I'll work on this legislation because I really think if I could get it before the next time, it
would be good to have that on the agenda to just get comments on it. So are you or somebody going to
work with Judy? Yeah, he's taking that. Jay and I are going to talk with Judy and see if there's something
the city and the county can do together. That's great. I don't know. Was that general discussion?
So I think, yeah, I think that was general discussion. I'm not really sure. Maybe I'll add a staff report
item to our next agenda. So I can kind of just. No, but deep into the process have concluded round one.
interviews for the special projects manager position. We had 103 applicants for that. Closed on Sunday
night, the assistant director for the arts position and had, I think, 53 applicants for that. But that's
a narrower, you know, it's a pretty specific skill set. Special project was a part-time job or a full-time
job? Full-time. Maybe we should think about how we could, you know,
We need an administration person and council, so maybe we can call through that and see if people are
interested. Oh, see who looks good from that. Well, there are a lot of applicants that have more general
administrative experience than this job has a lot of doing and art implementation. Yeah, I actually
think that's a good idea is to put a regular staff report. Being the finance authority I serve on, at
the end of each meeting,
the finance director of the state gives a report. Sometimes it's just two or three words, sometimes
it's more detailed to sort of give you an idea of what's brewing. And the other thing is let's put old
business before new business. Vanessa, you have anything you want to add? Okay.
It takes a minute to unmute. Sorry. No, I don't have anything to add. Thank you. Thank you. We have
a couple people in the house. Do you have anything you want to bring in front of before we talk? I think
to the point of everybody, what I just heard in my short time listening here, that this is where things
start in regards to trying to rebuild some of our economic infrastructure that needs to occur.
our tax base and our wages up. Everybody needs to work collaboratively to do it within the city, the
economic development commissions, RDC, council in order to build things up. Because when we hear the
things that have happened in the south moment, it drops our property taxes. It also drops what's able
to be done for the community. It drops our assessments. Yes. I'm not sure it drops our property taxes.
No, it just drops the assessment. The budget line is still dispersed amongst all the individuals.
What I'm trying to do. I'm sorry, this is a professor meeting. I teach this, so I want to make sure.
I appreciate that. Sorry, Randy. It's good. What my communication I'm trying to admit is everybody needs
to be building the boat. Right, because it affects everybody. It affects all of us and how our reputation,
how our view of our community statewide, internationally.
I appreciate all you guys work and the discussions in the economic development is always important.
As a professor of law, it's always important. The other gentleman, did you have anyone in? No,
not this one. Okay. Well, anything else for the good of the calls? If not, we are adjourned.