WEBVTT

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- All right seeing that we have a quorum I'll call to order this Special session of the Bloomington Common

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- Council our third evening of budget hearings Tonight let us start with the clerk calling the roll. Thank

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- you Here Stasburg Zulek here Piedmont Smith here Rallo here

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- And I see council member sorry on the screen and he's saying that there's no audio. While that's going.

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- Council member rough and council member Rosenberger. All right. Thank you. Council member sorry can't

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- hear us. Oh he can now.

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- Yeah we can hear you now. OK thank you. Present if I was asked. Yes I think you were. All right. So

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- today we have parks and recreation then we will go to economic and sustainable development and then

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- we have a whole lot of public works department divisions. We have administration animal care and control

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- facilities maintenance fleet maintenance and sanitation.

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- So let us start off with parks and recreation and mr. Tim Street director Good evening. I know we're

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- waiting for the presentation to get up My name is Tim Street. I'm the director of parks and recreation

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- for the city of Bloomington. Let's test the clicker here We're working. All right, great to be with

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- you tonight and

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- Tonight we have several of our leadership staff in the room with us. I'm gonna introduce them. They

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- play a huge role in directing the department and setting the budgets that you're seeing tonight. So

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- we have Rebecca Swift. Sorry, my timer decided to go off after 20 seconds instead of 20 minutes, I think.

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- Let me fix that real quick. 20 minutes is a more appropriate amount of time than 20 seconds. Okay. Rebecca

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- Swift, our operations director,

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- Julie Ramey our community relations manager Molly Cochran who's in about one month as our office manager

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- now Leslie Brinson our recreation director and Satoshi Kido our sports director So a huge thanks to

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- them and to all of our park staff who just make all of this so possible You know, we recently went through

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- master planning and had a community prestige rating and about 90% of the community said

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- High prestige or good prestige for the parks and rec department and a big reason of that is our staff

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- And we hear constantly how great our staff are. I want to particularly recognize the staff that are

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- out there Dealing with all kinds of stuff all the time and very thankless jobs We just shared an article

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- recently that was from beyond the civic commons. That was about how well-maintained public spaces are

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- vital for both actual public safety and the perception of public safety which are often two different

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- things and

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- And I just really think our staff are the front lines of that So our department is in the midst of Updating

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- our mission and it is not finalized yet But we are working towards something very much like this Parks

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- and Rec makes Bloomington a resilient healthier and more connected place to live and play Resilience

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- health and connection are the things that we're after with all of our programs and parks and offerings

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- across multiple different meanings so physical health mental health environmental health

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- Resilience same thing connection to the environment to each other to our community. All of those things

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- are what we're setting out to provide Council will be aware I came recently and gave you an update as

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- we were nearing the end of our master plan process we went through that largely in 2025 and even in

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- early 2026 to set priorities for our next five years and

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- We did this with a big focus on financial sustainability And in the end the strategic actions that we

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- arrived at fall into these four categories Which will look familiar as I go through my presentation

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- tonight Meaningful community impact. That's what we're here to do through the lens of what I just talked

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- about Investing in what we have is very critical for us right now after a period of growth and a period

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- of uncertain revenues Being financially sustainable and how do we do all this? We do it with a strong

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- connected staff

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- So that is the lens by which we have organized our strategic actions for the next five years Speaking

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- of our staff. We currently have 64 full-time staff in the salary ordinance as of creating this presentation

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- We had 87 permanent part-time employees that tends to vary throughout the year And those numbers don't

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- include the hundreds of other seasonal and temporary staff that we hire to help run our programs in

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- our parks throughout the year

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- While we set out to create as flat of a budget as possible this year Some inevitable price increases

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- do have us at a 4% increase and I will talk more about that as I go on And critical needs and issues

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- for 2027 will be maintaining our level of service Again throughout some uncertainties throughout uncertain

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- revenues dealing with some older facilities which leads to planning and investing in capital needs and

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- then implementing priorities and actions from our master plan and

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- I will mention our master plan is getting ready to go on our website now, and we will certainly share

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- a link with you all as soon as we have that ready. Gonna just use some 2026 highlights as a lens for

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- things going on across the department and the ways we're achieving some of those outcomes that we're

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- after. This year we've had a really great partnership with IU Arts and Humanities. You're gonna hear

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- me say that partnership word several more times during the 20 minutes. This has been a great success.

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- We need partners like this to put on successful programs.

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- We've had a lot of natural world highlights. We achieved Bee City USA certification for the first time,

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- renewed our bird town Indiana, worked on our downtown planners, had another prescribed fire at Griffey

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- to promote hardwood native species. And one of my favorite highlights of the year was when we had a

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- very visitor heavy great horned owl nest on the Jackson Creek Trail that attracted a crowd nearly every

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- day for about a month.

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- And Jeff McCord sent in this great photo of one of the outlets In our sports division, you know, we're

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- maintaining active sports and recreation programming across the city a photo of Winslow here one thing

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- I'm proud of our staff is they cut down rainouts the spring at our baseball fields by 50% Which is incredible

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- from 42 to 21 or 100% depending on how you're looking at it While the weather certainly has something

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- to do with that

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- Management practices on this old facility have really helped they've renewed management practices to

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- reduce rain outs Which has really helped serve our residents better Twin lakes thanks to some funding

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- from ESD just had an entire LED retrofit It's better in there. It's much better And when I stopped by

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- I was really struck by our senior fitness class that meets on Wednesday mornings. So again promoting

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- health and connection and

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- Community events, by the time we reach the end of the year, across community events and our various

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- programs, we expect to have around a million participations in the various things that we offer. I love

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- the photo on the left, that's the beeline after the Fourth of July parade, big crowd using the beeline.

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- The photo on the right is from a Tuesday market in our youth market. We are through three or four of

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- our youth days at the market, which are really fun if you haven't experienced it. Getting to see all

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- the different things that the youth in our community create

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- and sell and just being a little entrepreneurs, it's really fun. Some other 2026 highlights, Banneker

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- Center received about $80,000 in grants to redo the front steps in appropriate historic fashion through

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- the state DNR, and also received another 20K from the Black Historic Preservation Program to help with

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- some water penetration and roof issues.

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- Across Banneker and Alison jukebox. There were about 250 different summer campers who had really great

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- experiences this summer Learning to grow and again connect with one another And a few final highlights

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- I want to mention that just hit on a few different areas The urban forestry area gave out forty thousand

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- dollars in partnership with the economic and sustainable development Department via the tree assistance

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- program That forty thousand dollars went to seventeen households at or below area immediate

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- Area median income to help deal with hazard trees homeowners also had to make a contribution on their

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- end But this was a program to help people deal with hazard trees because we know that that is a problem

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- for many people Our legal department engineering department and urban forestry work together I think

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- this is worth mentioning again to save half of the trees slated for removal as part of an in dot 10th

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- Street projects That is a significant win. We should not forget that and

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- Our power line trail construction is ongoing. We expect that to wrap up and be celebrating that by the

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- end of the year, a project eight years in the making. The Bloomington Parks Foundation funded new switchyard

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- pavilion lights, and we are again working with ESD, lots of connections there, on an energy efficiency

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- grant at the Buskirk Chumley Theater. So I share these just to give a broad sense of the work being

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- done across the department. So the four goals I'm gonna talk about

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- For 2027, again, this one you've heard before, maintain and enhance community impact. Number two, invest

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- in critical capital needs. Number three, updating our website registration and communication systems.

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- And number four, update reporting on core performance metrics. You'll see the council priorities at

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- the left as we go through these where appropriate and where it sort of fits into the actions that we're

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- taking. This first one is almost verbatim our first master plan priority.

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- And not to be a broken record, but again, funding is uncertain. Times are tough. We've already seen

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- one area nonprofit, Shutter Girls Inc., right, in the last two weeks. It's an interesting time, and

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- we really want to focus on maintaining those prestige ratings and the impact that we have on the community.

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- The significant increase that we have in our budget this year is something we had to reabsorb from ARPA,

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- which is 250K in security funding.

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- While I wish we were at a place and I hope we will be in the future where we do not need to have parks

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- contracted security It is still an important need right now for our staff and for our residents That

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- said we felt like we could cut as we reabsorb this from ARPA So we cut the amount by about 30 to 35

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- percent and feel like we can can make reasonable security patrols with that this year and continue to

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- talk with BPD and the office of the mayor about further interventions in the future and

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- You're going to hear me say this a lot too, focus on quality and partners and collaborators. I'll give

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- an example later in some of our successes, but really focusing on the quality of programs and over the

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- quantity of programs. We do a lot of concerts. We do a lot of events. How do we really focus on making

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- those really quality, high quality, not all big, but valuable community events? And one way I think

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- we can really pursue that is through increased partnership and collaboration.

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- The second goal is invest in critical capital needs a lot of this obviously isn't in the general fund

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- budget tonight But I think is very significant to what we're doing and where we're heading and I wanted

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- to bring that to the council's attention You've heard me stand up here before and talk about how we

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- were looking into aging facilities it was part of our master plan to do a conditions assessment all

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- of these different things and We're getting to a point. We're ready to make some decisions

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- Exclamation point on the issue is a couple critical leaks this year one at the ice arena right before

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- it closed One at Mills pool right before it opened and so we actually have a September 28th meeting

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- set To review what the department's draft priorities are for investment recommendations for a 2027 bond

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- a geo bond We've been working with the controller on That will go to the board of park commissioners

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- on the 28th as well as public it will be open for public feedback and then in early 2027 we are hoping

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- to work that through the process of

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- including council review to issue that bond for capital facilities Again that goes back to invest in

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- what we have In the general fund this year, you'll see about two hundred forty five thousand dollars

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- Which is just some critical infrastructure items similar to last year's amount that's covering backflow

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- Equipment replacement replacement dump truck some roofing related items things that are critical to

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- our operations Third goal

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- Updating our website registration and communication systems. We recognize website is sort of above us.

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- That's a bigger city thing that's going on, but it relates really well to this goal, which is sort of

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- an amalgamation of several different master plan actions that we identified. Modernizing and improving

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- our reach and user experience across platforms, particularly our registration system. We've been using

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- the same registration system for a while.

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- We've convened a software action team of staff to look at that To say how are we using this? Are we

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- using this effectively? Is this modern enough for our users our residents? And are really starting to

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- look at that now for potential reinvestment in 2027 30k annually is earmarked for software. I should

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- say that's actually not just our registration software I was looking at the line that also includes

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- some of our city works software And then a point that came up in council questions was this the program

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- guide question

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- We do spend about one hundred and ten thousand dollars annually for printing and distributing our program

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- guide three times annually. When we did our community survey in the master plan it showed that the highest

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- number of people twenty nine percent preferred to get their information about parks programs and offerings

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- through the program guide. That was still the number one preferred source and that 50 percent of all

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- respondents said they get information from it. So it is still very important that we have a mailing

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- presence for our residents.

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- And out in the community where you can pick it up at the library or other places But we are looking

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- at strategically. How do we do that and printing is very expensive You'll already notice the one that

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- just came out has less pages than before So we're experimenting with that and then the last goal update

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- core performance metrics our staff have talked recently about Parks is a very diverse department. We

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- have many different departments that do different things within us are

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- Goals for urban forestry are going to look very different than goals for golf, than goals for cemeteries,

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- right? Those all have very different goals. And while each area is keeping metrics on their performance,

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- we want to work on consolidating what we consider to be some of what we used to put in budget goals,

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- which is a system we're not really using anymore. But we want to compile that into a performance metrics

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- dashboard and have some consistent metrics that we can use across areas as much as possible.

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- The goal is not to create a live dashboard. I don't want to promise my staff we're going to promise

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- we're going to make a live dashboard, because that's a lot of work, but at least a consistently updated

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- dashboard. So key programs and initiatives for 27, largely the same. When we set out to prepare a flat

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- budget, when we're looking at we just got our master plan done, this is really the beginning of implementing

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- some of the master plan items, focusing on that quality over quantity in programs.

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- Overhauled our financial sustainability policy did a financial review looked at our cost recovery goals

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- Those are all things as our honor radar as we look at evaluating Programs and initiatives, but in this

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- budget they are largely the same We plan to continue to invest further in climate items resiliency with

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- electrification funding from ESD That has been really impactful to us these past few years we're working

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- to really reevaluate our health and wellness area and

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- Along with the potential large-scale partnership with IU School of Public Health Which is also under

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- new leadership and seems to have a new renewed focus on health and wellness And I know director Sager

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- mentioned it But we are excited to partner with them on the design and eventual implementation of stormwater

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- improvements at Winslow Sports Park When people put a three acre parking lot in in 1979, they weren't

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- thinking about stormwater detention, but we are now so we'll partner with them to figure out ways to

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- make that better and

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- Overall our budgets category one is up three percent. That's just the the standard step increases cost

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- of living living wage increases that impact us their Supplies are up a little bit just due to necessary

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- supply increases Services are up. The majority of that is the park security being reabsorbed from ARPA

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- We had to cut a few other things as well because other things are up as well utilities are up across the board

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- Workers comp is up liability insurance is up. Everything is more expensive And our capital is largely

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- the same as last year This is a breakdown of just where that money goes within our divisions admin includes

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- community relations in this graphic So, you know 53 of percent of our costs go to areas where we don't

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- really expect much cost recovery These are general public service in operations

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- with a couple small exceptions. Admin is supporting all of our divisions. Recreation has some cost recovery

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- in different areas, depending on which area you're looking at. And sports tends to be our most

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- entrepreneurial of areas, because you have things like the golf course in there. And the golf course,

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- as indicated in some of the questions you received, does actually cost recover more than 100% of its

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- investment right now. Wrapping up, challenges and opportunities, extreme weather,

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- continues to be a challenge. We had a tornado in February. That's crazy. Thankfully, it didn't do a

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- whole lot of damage within the city. Not to take anything away from the damage, it did do.

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- And then summer, it's either all the way dry or all the way wet. We're trying to figure that

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- out. Homelessness, vandalism, and bad behavior continue to be issues. That is not a perfect, that Venn

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- diagram is not a circle. Those are three distinct issues. I want to be clear on that. But there is some

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- overlap, of course.

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- We partnered with CFBMC to deal with the Browns Woods encampment this year And are really focused on

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- not letting those establish because the damage from those multiplies exponentially as they go on Of

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- course leaks and challenges with facilities ice arena in the pool and rising costs affecting everyone

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- That said there are of course great opportunities as well I said I was going to mention some successful

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- partnerships and

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- I think Juneteenth this year with CFRD and various other partners was a really great partnership And

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- a really great example of that quality over quantity mentality that we can do It actually ended up being

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- one of our most attended days at switch yard park ever probably second to the eclipse And then the next

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- day we had Grand Faloon, which is another great partnership. So putting on these really great big robust

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- Community events where we're bringing multiple stakeholders together to make these events really high

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- quality. I think is important We're working with big partners like MCC SC talking about how

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- can we strategically partner? How can we share resources? How can we be smart in these tough times you

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- I mentioned school public health Internally strengthening our focus on the data that came out of the

00:19:50.065 --> 00:19:52.542
- master plan that we just received recently

00:19:53.026 --> 00:19:59.358
- community needs assessments, engagement, community survey results from the master plan and our new financial

00:19:59.358 --> 00:20:05.226
- sustainability policy, which the board approved this spring, all in order to strengthen our data-led

00:20:05.226 --> 00:20:11.036
- decision-making. So trying to keep things high level, there was a certain amount of detail provided

00:20:11.036 --> 00:20:17.077
- in the answers I responded to some council questions too. That gets a little bit more granular in terms

00:20:17.077 --> 00:20:21.086
- of individual budget program areas within the park's budget overall.

00:20:21.186 --> 00:20:29.493
- But I'd be happy to address anything else you would like to get into you. Thank you Thank You director

00:20:29.493 --> 00:20:37.880
- Street, are there any questions on the parks and recreation budget councilmember Rallo Thank you. Thank

00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:46.106
- you director Street Parks and rec always scores high and community surveys and for good reason I have

00:20:46.106 --> 00:20:48.606
- just a few questions regarding

00:20:49.346 --> 00:20:56.386
- Bond you're seeking what's the amount that you're we would be looking for a bond that is under the statutory

00:20:56.386 --> 00:21:02.844
- Remonstrance amount next year, which is around seven million dollars and it would actually be Start

00:21:02.844 --> 00:21:09.432
- payments would start in 28 which would replace the payments on the 2022 parks geo bond which would be

00:21:09.432 --> 00:21:15.955
- expiring and those are for that this amount is for capital improvements of various kinds Okay Are we

00:21:15.955 --> 00:21:17.182
- these are kind of?

00:21:17.538 --> 00:21:24.797
- Not related questions, but they're under your purview. So are we still removing invasive calorie pairs?

00:21:24.797 --> 00:21:32.056
- We are for the last few years. We've removed about 80 a year. I forget the exact number There were like

00:21:32.056 --> 00:21:39.454
- I want to say 1500 inventoried calorie pairs when we started this plan so it was a 15 year plan to remove

00:21:40.226 --> 00:21:46.653
- if not every calorie pair, at least every inventory purposefully planted calorie pair. And so we've

00:21:46.653 --> 00:21:53.080
- been purposefully removing and replacing about 80 a year. Great. And we've replaced them as they're

00:21:53.080 --> 00:21:59.957
- being removed. Of course. And I recall seeing from Haskell, there's only, I think, three inventory calorie

00:21:59.957 --> 00:22:06.384
- pairs left of significant size and stature, like 30-inch DBH. Yeah. Wow. OK. So my last question is

00:22:06.384 --> 00:22:09.662
- about managing Griffey. You had a prescribed burn.

00:22:09.890 --> 00:22:19.103
- that's necessary at times to remove various noxious stuff. But deer were once overabundant. We addressed

00:22:19.103 --> 00:22:28.317
- that. They were severely damaging the understory, so it was important to periodically reduce them, which

00:22:28.317 --> 00:22:37.530
- we've been doing through yearly hunting. Have we been continuing to do that, and is Ecologic still doing

00:22:37.530 --> 00:22:38.846
- plant surveys?

00:22:38.946 --> 00:22:45.932
- What's the general Outlook is it is it recovering? There was a legacy effect. Are we doing? some ecological

00:22:45.932 --> 00:22:52.465
- Remediation Could you describe that a little bit in the 46 seconds? You know We are so lucky to have

00:22:52.465 --> 00:22:59.257
- Griffey Lake nature preserve as a city parks department is an incredible treasure state park level asset

00:22:59.257 --> 00:23:05.790
- right on our doorstep And so managing our natural resources there for the long-term health is really

00:23:05.790 --> 00:23:08.766
- important. So the deer hunt is continuing and

00:23:08.962 --> 00:23:14.892
- We were actually going to have a new deer hunt provider this year. White Buffalo was unavailable, and

00:23:14.892 --> 00:23:21.171
- so we found a new state USDA certified provider to come in and help us run the deer hunt. We are continuing

00:23:21.171 --> 00:23:27.275
- the ecologic study. We think gathering that data on the effect is really important. Generally what we've

00:23:27.275 --> 00:23:33.438
- seen with the deer hunt as the years have gone on is less deer taken than what we saw in the early years,

00:23:33.858 --> 00:23:39.175
- Again, deer hunts are very tricky, or deer counts, rather, are very tricky to get an accurate count

00:23:39.175 --> 00:23:44.598
- of how many deer are in an area. So we think it's really important right now to continue the momentum

00:23:44.598 --> 00:23:50.181
- we have from the deer hunt, continue the study. The study has shown positive effects. We're still trying

00:23:50.181 --> 00:23:55.657
- to control for outside factors, like there's been some really dry years and some really wet years, and

00:23:55.657 --> 00:24:01.081
- we think longevity of data is gonna really help us make the case for management in an urban park like

00:24:01.081 --> 00:24:02.782
- this. So yes, plan to continue.

00:24:03.490 --> 00:24:10.565
- Thank you very much. I really appreciate it Other questions for mr. Street councilmember Stossberg.

00:24:10.565 --> 00:24:17.852
- Thank you Director Street, I was just wondering in your memo under the budget overview by category you

00:24:17.852 --> 00:24:25.918
- reference some increases to the general fund program revenues and I was wondering which program revenues were you

00:24:26.306 --> 00:24:32.033
- expecting to increase and does that mean program charges are Expected to increase and I know that like

00:24:32.033 --> 00:24:37.760
- there was some talk of that at one of the master planning sessions I went to and I guess I'm just kind

00:24:37.760 --> 00:24:43.487
- of wondering How that is shaking out? Yeah, I don't have that at hand right now But I could easily get

00:24:43.487 --> 00:24:49.380
- that for you which areas increased their budget revenues. It was most areas increased I know we increased

00:24:49.380 --> 00:24:54.718
- our general fund program revenues non-tax revenues by about two hundred twenty thousand dollars

00:24:54.946 --> 00:25:04.010
- Year over year from 26 to 27 But I'd have I could get you that detail if you like then with the written

00:25:04.010 --> 00:25:13.423
- questions then. Thanks so much Any other questions from council members councilmember Ruff And I understand

00:25:13.423 --> 00:25:22.488
- there's different levels of subsidy or not subsidy for certain programs is there an overall policy sort

00:25:22.488 --> 00:25:24.318
- of general policy of

00:25:25.058 --> 00:25:34.604
- Trying to keep Programs that do have participation fees or our costs for participation In line at least

00:25:34.604 --> 00:25:44.518
- in line with just cost of living Estimates is that kind of the general? The general idea for those programs

00:25:44.518 --> 00:25:51.678
- I would say that's that's one factor when we consider price schedules and and

00:25:51.938 --> 00:25:57.371
- Typically every fall we take a price schedule to the board of park commissioners. So we do publicly

00:25:57.371 --> 00:26:02.914
- discuss it. You know the board gives feedback. I'll give an example. Two years ago we were looking to

00:26:02.914 --> 00:26:08.456
- raise our pool fees and the board was worried about exactly that affordability and push back a little

00:26:08.456 --> 00:26:13.943
- bit. We ended up kind of meeting in the middle on a price increase. So there is some negotiation and

00:26:13.943 --> 00:26:19.431
- board feedback is really important on that to set those prices. That said generally what I would say

00:26:19.431 --> 00:26:21.822
- we try to take as an approach to subsidy is

00:26:22.338 --> 00:26:28.795
- Targeting subsidy where it's needed is the best approach, as opposed to just broad, let's subsidize

00:26:28.795 --> 00:26:35.639
- everyone who's coming. Getting people who can pay to pay is great. And then, for example, with the pools,

00:26:35.639 --> 00:26:42.095
- having the pool fee waiver program, which grants free admission for people who line up with federal

00:26:42.095 --> 00:26:49.004
- benefit eligibility, certain programs like SNAPWIC, Section 8, things like that, is the preferred approach

00:26:49.004 --> 00:26:51.070
- for subsidy that we would take.

00:26:51.426 --> 00:26:58.113
- And then just broadly, the greater the public value, the true public good in something that we're providing,

00:26:58.113 --> 00:27:04.677
- because we have everything. We have the whole range, right? We have 0% cost recovery. We're just providing

00:27:04.677 --> 00:27:11.057
- parks and trails and public spaces and keeping those up that are for everybody. We don't expect to cost

00:27:11.057 --> 00:27:17.253
- recover on those at all. When we get more into individualized benefits, memberships, lessons, camps,

00:27:17.253 --> 00:27:20.382
- things like that, depending on the specific nature

00:27:20.482 --> 00:27:27.507
- That's where we see that that cost recovery go up. So the example at the high end of our cost recovery

00:27:27.507 --> 00:27:34.532
- Matrix is the golf course which does cost recover a hundred percent Okay, I see I have 45 seconds left

00:27:34.532 --> 00:27:41.352
- so I'll just real quick also ask One of your slides mentioned, let's see homelessness Vandalism and

00:27:41.352 --> 00:27:48.241
- bad behavior. So from a budgetary perspective, can you elaborate on on that slide from we're talking

00:27:48.241 --> 00:27:50.014
- about the budget here and

00:27:50.210 --> 00:27:57.457
- Yeah, I wish it was easier to provide clear numbers on the impacts that we see but it's very difficult

00:27:57.457 --> 00:28:04.985
- because For example, I know our staff go, you know, typically to Seminary Park every morning Most mornings

00:28:04.985 --> 00:28:12.302
- there is quite a big mess for those staff members along with some of the members of our Brighton B town

00:28:12.302 --> 00:28:16.734
- crew to clean up we try to quantify some of those hours, but I

00:28:17.026 --> 00:28:22.816
- everything just kind of bleeds together because, well, how many hours would you spend normally? How

00:28:22.816 --> 00:28:28.605
- many hours do you spend today? But I know with the time that our staff spends responding to messes,

00:28:28.605 --> 00:28:34.453
- cleaning things up, what's the actual baseline we would expect for that? Because there's always some

00:28:34.453 --> 00:28:40.301
- of that, right? It's very hard to quantify into a real number, but I know we spend significant staff

00:28:40.301 --> 00:28:46.206
- time dealing with a lot of that stuff on a day-to-day basis. That staff time that could go into other

00:28:46.562 --> 00:28:54.155
- beautification or taking care of things in different ways. Thank you. Council Member Osari. Thank you

00:28:54.155 --> 00:29:01.077
- so much. And speaking of things that we're lucky to have, very grateful for your leadership,

00:29:01.077 --> 00:29:08.893
- Director Street. And thank you also for thorough answers to my questions. I had just a handful of follow

00:29:08.893 --> 00:29:15.518
- ups and I don't know if I'll get to all of them within a lot of time. But the first one,

00:29:15.682 --> 00:29:21.645
- Just somewhat thinking about approach in your in your written response to my questions you noted as

00:29:21.645 --> 00:29:27.131
- I think we've we've talked about in other years that Park spends about 88% of its allocated

00:29:27.131 --> 00:29:33.571
- budget traditionally over the last five years while also overshooting revenue estimates. So just interested

00:29:33.571 --> 00:29:34.942
- in your thoughts here.

00:29:35.170 --> 00:29:41.738
- sort of in the context of a deficit budget overall, why it makes sense to continue to budget with what

00:29:41.738 --> 00:29:48.242
- you expect to be sort of like an over budget rather than making allocations later in the year, should

00:29:48.242 --> 00:29:54.619
- we come to that need? Yeah, to your end point there, I think that's a bigger philosophical question

00:29:54.619 --> 00:30:00.996
- about reallocating or reappropriating under the system that we've been using. We've been successful

00:30:00.996 --> 00:30:02.654
- at finishing in the black

00:30:02.754 --> 00:30:08.544
- Most years which is kind of a funny thing to think about for a government entity But is important for

00:30:08.544 --> 00:30:14.277
- us to maintain that cash balance exactly So we have it for for days like right now and we don't have

00:30:14.277 --> 00:30:20.010
- to be reactionary to some of the things going on You know, we know we're never gonna spend a hundred

00:30:20.010 --> 00:30:25.800
- percent of what we put in category one every year You know their staff positions that go unfilled for

00:30:25.800 --> 00:30:32.158
- various reasons. There's people that take FMLA that end up with unpaid time off there's seasonal positions that

00:30:32.354 --> 00:30:38.213
- You know go unfilled that's probably the majority but I say that without calculating that the majority

00:30:38.213 --> 00:30:44.130
- of that savings comes from that In other areas, there's some projects we budget we anticipate, you know

00:30:44.130 --> 00:30:49.875
- Finding something and it just comes in cheaper or I tell staff It's always a good practice to try to

00:30:49.875 --> 00:30:55.735
- save five to ten percent for the end of the year, too Because as in the general fund and not reverting

00:30:55.735 --> 00:30:58.750
- we cannot finish the year negative in anything. So I

00:30:59.938 --> 00:31:06.391
- And then speaking of like areas of spending, like programmatic spending, I know you mentioned and thank

00:31:06.391 --> 00:31:12.597
- you again for answering the question I had about marketing budget. If I'm not mistaken, the overall

00:31:12.597 --> 00:31:18.864
- marketing budget is like 600,000, somewhere around there, I think 633 or something like that. And so

00:31:18.864 --> 00:31:25.255
- I sort of honed in on the sort of three times of printing for the, but can you talk a little bit about

00:31:25.255 --> 00:31:28.606
- where the rest of that goes? And then thinking about,

00:31:29.026 --> 00:31:36.044
- what possibilities there might be for I don't know like centralizing services sharing with other city

00:31:36.044 --> 00:31:43.131
- entities etc like why does parks need to spend so much on marketing. Yeah, I that's more time than I'm

00:31:43.131 --> 00:31:50.148
- going to have right now for sure but I'd be happy to have that conversation or even provide that more

00:31:50.148 --> 00:31:50.974
- in writing.

00:31:52.674 --> 00:31:58.336
- part of community relations that we do. I mean, marketing, I think, doesn't do it justice. We're not

00:31:58.336 --> 00:32:04.446
- just doing marketing. We're doing community engagement. We're doing community outreach. It's press releases.

00:32:04.446 --> 00:32:10.108
- It's assistance with all of the various different printing and aspects of things that we need to run

00:32:10.108 --> 00:32:15.938
- programs. It's graphic design. When we're going to have a million program participations across a year,

00:32:15.938 --> 00:32:19.806
- there's a certain level of support that's needed with those as well.

00:32:20.034 --> 00:32:26.028
- investment in social media. We added a digital content coordinator a few years ago, which has had a

00:32:26.028 --> 00:32:32.262
- huge return on investment. The work they do is fantastic in our community relations area. I recall they

00:32:32.262 --> 00:32:38.496
- told me recently we had something like 4.4 million views on our social media through June of this year.

00:32:38.496 --> 00:32:44.491
- So getting the word out, making sure people are informed of programs, but especially of closures or

00:32:44.491 --> 00:32:49.406
- other things that could impact them is important as well. Thank you so much, sir.

00:32:51.362 --> 00:32:59.747
- Any other council member questions for Mr. Street. I have one. I think in the past we had something

00:32:59.747 --> 00:33:08.300
- called the parks non-reverting fund and I don't see that listed this year unless I'm missing it. It's

00:33:08.300 --> 00:33:16.936
- a lot of pages to go through. Does that still exist and if so what is that used for and where does the

00:33:16.936 --> 00:33:18.110
- revenue from.

00:33:18.882 --> 00:33:25.942
- So we do solve a parks non-reverting fund and so legally by state code the City Council is of course

00:33:25.942 --> 00:33:33.072
- the fiscal body for our general fund and per state code in title 220 where the non-reverting fund was

00:33:33.072 --> 00:33:40.272
- established back in the 80s the park board is the authority for the non-reverting fund so I'd be happy

00:33:40.272 --> 00:33:47.262
- to share our non-reverting budget for 2027 if you'd like to see it it works in tandem with this and

00:33:47.458 --> 00:33:55.292
- It's about, it's a little under $2 million for next year. Basically, it's the entrepreneurial fund that

00:33:55.292 --> 00:34:02.900
- does not revert and it is funded through municipal code by things, programs that are entrepreneurial

00:34:02.900 --> 00:34:10.734
- in nature. So not just public access, not general admission, but concessions, rentals, lessons, private

00:34:10.734 --> 00:34:16.158
- rentals, private events, things like that that fund that and that money

00:34:16.482 --> 00:34:24.765
- Is used in tandem with our general fund to go back and reinvest in our parks our programs in our offerings

00:34:24.765 --> 00:34:32.816
- So the revenue comes from those entrepreneurial activities Okay. Yeah, there's no tax revenue that goes

00:34:32.816 --> 00:34:40.635
- to the non-reverting fund. Okay, I see All right, if there are no other questions, I think we can go

00:34:40.635 --> 00:34:43.422
- to the public Thank You. Mr. Street

00:34:43.874 --> 00:34:50.360
- Are there any members of the public who would like to make a comment this time? I think I see somebody.

00:34:50.360 --> 00:34:56.658
- Yes. In chambers. Do we have anybody online? Okay. All right. Go ahead here in chambers. Then you'll

00:34:56.658 --> 00:35:03.206
- have up to three minutes. Hey, good evening. Council's Chris room G from the greater Bloomington chamber

00:35:03.206 --> 00:35:09.691
- of commerce. I always want to preface it by the award winning Bloomington parks department. And my hats

00:35:09.691 --> 00:35:13.246
- off to 10 street who does a wonderful job with outreach.

00:35:13.826 --> 00:35:19.729
- The community survey always gives them amazing numbers that I think any department or anything within

00:35:19.729 --> 00:35:25.517
- the city would Would be the real envy of And strongly support the investment we have I think that's

00:35:25.517 --> 00:35:31.478
- kind of the mayor's budget and her approach and it's definitely what the parks is to continue that The

00:35:31.478 --> 00:35:37.382
- one thing that aging facilities is and the maintenance it needs is it's sort of an ongoing issue that

00:35:37.382 --> 00:35:43.806
- I've sort of brought up before but here when we're looking at the ice arena if we're looking at Mills pool and

00:35:44.354 --> 00:35:51.620
- But yet I see the overall budget grows by 4%, but the capital declines by 6%, which I think is noteworthy.

00:35:51.620 --> 00:35:58.818
- We just need to look at our entire assets, parks included, and what we wanna maintain as well as consider

00:35:58.818 --> 00:36:06.288
- selling, transfer, or even closing that aren't worth the ongoing expense. I mean, survey aside, Bloomington's

00:36:06.288 --> 00:36:10.974
- strength is as our parks, but I've seen where when money gets tight,

00:36:11.682 --> 00:36:19.072
- Those capital budgets thin out we've seen it in the town of Anderson where the parks ended up just getting

00:36:19.072 --> 00:36:25.978
- decimated I don't see that happening here, but we just need to be on the right side of that and you

00:36:25.978 --> 00:36:32.885
- know the emphasis on I'm glad that mr. Street brought up That parking lot that the Y built I didn't

00:36:32.885 --> 00:36:36.062
- know was 1979 but that flooding on at Winslow

00:36:36.226 --> 00:36:42.089
- Sports Park has been an issue and I much better attention to the flooding for fields three and four

00:36:42.089 --> 00:36:48.129
- by the by the staff there But that's where the investments gonna work out in the end because right now

00:36:48.129 --> 00:36:54.286
- we travel there one out of eleven tournaments we go to Linton and North Vernon more often that shouldn't

00:36:54.286 --> 00:37:00.149
- be the case Bloomington's a destination city. So we need to get some of those facilities attracting

00:37:00.149 --> 00:37:03.198
- out-of-towners for income and economic purposes and

00:37:06.018 --> 00:37:14.504
- Thank you. Anybody else. Would anybody else like to give public comment. Seeing nobody in chambers there

00:37:14.504 --> 00:37:22.909
- anybody online Mr. Allen. All right. We'll come back to council members for final comments on the parks

00:37:22.909 --> 00:37:31.071
- and recreation budget proposal. Anybody. Council member Rollo. Thank you for the presentation. Parks

00:37:31.071 --> 00:37:35.678
- and Rec Department does so much and so much appreciated.

00:37:36.034 --> 00:37:44.909
- I just wanted to give kudos for the concentrating on the ecological restoration of Griffey. I think

00:37:44.909 --> 00:37:53.961
- it's very important for posterity to continue that work, so I'm happy to see it happening, as well as

00:37:53.961 --> 00:38:02.835
- removing invasives, calorie pairs in particular. I'm a bit concerned about bonding, about acquiring

00:38:02.835 --> 00:38:05.054
- more debt, even as we're

00:38:05.154 --> 00:38:15.399
- dip into reserves, and we have a very uncertain economic future. But then again, I don't want to defer

00:38:15.399 --> 00:38:25.445
- maintenance costs either that eventually end up having to be attended to and paying more for it. But

00:38:25.445 --> 00:38:33.502
- going forward in the coming year, I'm going to be scrutinizing the various bonds

00:38:34.434 --> 00:38:45.883
- in particular for those that may be discretionary or those that you know we could defer for future spending.

00:38:45.883 --> 00:38:47.038
- Thank you.

00:38:48.674 --> 00:38:55.001
- Thank you. Thank you for the presentation and I just want to take an opportunity because I have it to

00:38:55.001 --> 00:39:01.204
- just say I love our parks department and I think that they do a fantastic job. And speaking of some

00:39:01.204 --> 00:39:04.926
- of those folks that sometimes do underappreciated jobs it's

00:39:04.994 --> 00:39:11.625
- been really interesting. It's happened not once but twice this year when I've walked on my normal trail

00:39:11.625 --> 00:39:18.064
- and I've started thinking to myself, boy, it's about time that this trail got trimmed. And literally

00:39:18.064 --> 00:39:24.504
- the next day, it was done. So it takes some really serious systems management to maintain all of our

00:39:24.504 --> 00:39:31.390
- parks and trails and all of those assets. And the system that we have going on there is generally, I think,

00:39:31.522 --> 00:39:39.427
- Very very good. And it's something to be very proud of. So thank you. All right. Any other comments

00:39:39.427 --> 00:39:47.727
- from council members. Council member Ruff. This isn't really about the presentation. It was an excellent

00:39:47.727 --> 00:39:55.473
- presentation. I appreciate it. But I just want to say having grown up and been sort of an outdoor

00:39:55.473 --> 00:39:59.742
- recreational Lee oriented person in southern Indiana.

00:40:01.890 --> 00:40:10.539
- Linton and and North Vernon are there there are communities around us and I'm sure they probably need

00:40:10.539 --> 00:40:19.273
- The activities as as much as we do at least as much as we do I know it's up to every community to Mark

00:40:19.273 --> 00:40:27.753
- themselves and do the best they can I understand that but you know with this convention center, I'm

00:40:27.753 --> 00:40:29.534
- thinking you know, I

00:40:30.594 --> 00:40:38.304
- We were told, well, there's conventions that would go to Bloomington that wouldn't go to Indianapolis.

00:40:38.304 --> 00:40:45.939
- It's just bigger. It's a different market. If some of these events are going to places like Linton in

00:40:45.939 --> 00:40:53.574
- North Vernon, maybe that's their sized market event. And just the idea of spreading the wealth around

00:40:53.574 --> 00:40:59.038
- to our neighboring communities. They lost a lot of their medical service

00:40:59.234 --> 00:41:06.319
- options haven't come to Bloomington for for for all kinds of things anyway that just struck me there

00:41:06.319 --> 00:41:13.333
- at the end. So that's all I want to say. Thank you. All right. I think we are then ready to move on

00:41:13.333 --> 00:41:20.348
- to economic and sustainable development department and director Cooper Smith. Welcome. Hi everyone.

00:41:20.348 --> 00:41:25.118
- Jane Cooper Smith director of economic and sustainable development.

00:41:25.346 --> 00:41:32.794
- Tonight I'll share some general information about ESD. I'll highlight 25 and 26 accomplishments, look

00:41:32.794 --> 00:41:40.388
- forward to 2027 priorities and goals, and then share some key initiatives for 2027. My slide deck jumps

00:41:40.388 --> 00:41:47.909
- back and forth between our different pillars, and so I'll try to signpost accordingly so you don't get

00:41:47.909 --> 00:41:49.662
- whiplash. ESD currently

00:41:49.922 --> 00:41:55.742
- is approved for 10 staff positions. One of these positions is fully grant funded for the Lilly Endowments

00:41:55.742 --> 00:42:01.288
- College and Community Collaboration Grant. And then our transportation demand management position is

00:42:01.288 --> 00:42:07.053
- currently vacant. So we have nine active staff members right now. And we have some of them here tonight.

00:42:07.053 --> 00:42:12.105
- We have Dee De La Rosa, our assistant director for small business development, Jolie Perry,

00:42:12.105 --> 00:42:17.815
- our sustainability program coordinator, and Sean Mia, our assistant director for sustainability. Really

00:42:17.815 --> 00:42:19.902
- appreciate all the work that they do.

00:42:21.026 --> 00:42:27.192
- Our department comprises four key areas of activity, economic development, including both major projects

00:42:27.192 --> 00:42:33.417
- and small business development and capital projects, sustainability and climate, arts, and transportation

00:42:33.417 --> 00:42:39.524
- demand management. These disciplines are placed in deliberate dialogue so that they can mutually inform

00:42:39.524 --> 00:42:45.749
- one another and provide greater benefit to the community. A good example of this includes our Bloomington

00:42:45.749 --> 00:42:49.918
- Energy Works project, which helped deliver I think 11 energy audits to

00:42:50.818 --> 00:42:57.927
- employers across the community and helped identify 59 million dollars in private sector climate projects,

00:42:57.927 --> 00:43:04.701
- which will then turn that List of 59 million and potential projects around for 2 million in low-cost

00:43:04.701 --> 00:43:11.676
- capital for the community. So Leveraging those outside resources and being in the context to make those

00:43:11.676 --> 00:43:15.230
- asks of our corporate partners is really helpful and

00:43:17.378 --> 00:43:23.487
- Given our limitations I mentioning just a few 25 26 accomplishments for economic development We began

00:43:23.487 --> 00:43:29.715
- implementation of our five-year downtown strategic action plan in partnership with downtown Bloomington

00:43:29.715 --> 00:43:36.064
- Inc With our report that evaluated our specific community needs and included robust input business input.

00:43:36.064 --> 00:43:37.022
- We were able to

00:43:37.122 --> 00:43:42.203
- confidently move forward with hiring a downtown activation coordinator who has been promoting

00:43:42.203 --> 00:43:47.771
- and implementing a series of micro events throughout the season, including family nights out, downtown

00:43:47.771 --> 00:43:52.798
- shop nights, and Busket Dusk, as well as Bloomington Bites Bingo, which was a one-off event.

00:43:53.634 --> 00:43:59.387
- This photo illustrates one particularly exciting small business event in April 2026 in partnership with

00:43:59.387 --> 00:44:05.141
- the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. The city was able to bring zing train back to Bloomington.

00:44:05.141 --> 00:44:10.839
- They led their business culture workshop which not only helps improve business culture and operational

00:44:10.839 --> 00:44:16.592
- best practices for our local businesses but it gives them a low cost extremely high quality opportunity

00:44:16.592 --> 00:44:22.622
- for professional development for their team members and it fosters connection across our business community.

00:44:23.906 --> 00:44:30.624
- And this was a particular when pre pandemic DBI and blooming foods would bring zing train and occasionally

00:44:30.624 --> 00:44:36.903
- and sort of foster this business community activity. So it was really great for us to be able to do

00:44:36.903 --> 00:44:43.307
- that this year. What is this again just mentioning a couple of climate winds we were able to put four

00:44:43.307 --> 00:44:49.900
- hundred and eighty thousand dollars into the community grants and activities that support climate action

00:44:49.900 --> 00:44:52.286
- and climate resilience. This includes

00:44:52.962 --> 00:44:59.992
- our SEAL and BGHIP programs, so solar energy efficiency and lighting, and the Bloomington Green Home

00:44:59.992 --> 00:45:07.440
- Improvement Programs, as well as income qualified solar, which to date has primarily supported Bloomington

00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:14.470
- Housing Authority housing. In 2025, we purchased two EV Ford F-15 Lightnings for Public Works, which

00:45:14.470 --> 00:45:17.950
- of course reduces both fuel and maintenance cost.

00:45:18.050 --> 00:45:24.994
- And then also in 2025, we used the heat map that was created with NOAA funding in 2024 to determine

00:45:24.994 --> 00:45:32.078
- areas that were in need of bus stop shelters. So we had now the super functional heat map and we were

00:45:32.078 --> 00:45:39.161
- able to look at it and see where anyone using transit would be kind of exposed to extreme heat and in

00:45:39.161 --> 00:45:42.494
- need of a shelter. So that was a collaboration.

00:45:42.946 --> 00:45:49.889
- with ESD sustainability and capital projects, and then with our arts team who commissioned local artists

00:45:49.889 --> 00:45:56.700
- to create sort of freezes that go around the tops of the shelters. So there are six of them around the

00:45:56.700 --> 00:46:03.511
- community, and I would encourage you to keep your eye peeled to see when you can find them. This photo

00:46:03.511 --> 00:46:10.189
- features a new solar array on the roof of New Hope for Families, which was supported by SEAL. That's

00:46:10.189 --> 00:46:11.710
- the program that funds

00:46:12.162 --> 00:46:18.670
- Nonprofit and business investments and the photo credit for this one is to solar energy solutions. We

00:46:18.670 --> 00:46:25.115
- like this array We thought it was really pretty Looking now at the arts It was another busy year for

00:46:25.115 --> 00:46:31.751
- arts with funding issued for three major grant rounds that placed dollars in the hands of practitioners

00:46:31.751 --> 00:46:34.686
- arts projects grants artistic advancement and

00:46:35.106 --> 00:46:40.437
- grants and operational support grants. Beyond that, it was a major year for public art with the city

00:46:40.437 --> 00:46:45.873
- diving into participation on the College and Community Collaboration Grant and helping lead the charge

00:46:45.873 --> 00:46:51.309
- for the Capital Improvement Board's international call for the largest investment in public art in the

00:46:51.309 --> 00:46:56.587
- city, which ultimately led to the selection of a form of connection by the Ball Nogue Studio. Staff

00:46:56.587 --> 00:47:02.128
- also supported smaller public art installations like traffic box painting across the downtown and hosted

00:47:02.128 --> 00:47:03.870
- artist professional development.

00:47:04.226 --> 00:47:11.835
- events. Almost all of our arts efforts happen with significant input from the Bloomington Arts Commission,

00:47:11.835 --> 00:47:19.657
- so I also want to thank them really specifically. They put in a lot of additional time reviewing applications

00:47:19.657 --> 00:47:27.195
- and just supporting artists generally. This photo shows the fabrication studio for John Rasek's sculpture

00:47:27.195 --> 00:47:32.030
- Undulate, which will be installed in the Trades District this fall.

00:47:32.290 --> 00:47:38.756
- These tubular forms will emerge from the ground in different locations. And again, this is an example

00:47:38.756 --> 00:47:45.096
- of a project while technically funded by the RDC. They are paying for the art and the installation.

00:47:45.096 --> 00:47:51.499
- It requires staff input from both arts and capital projects in ESD to reach full execution, and then

00:47:51.499 --> 00:47:56.254
- also collaboration with hand and engineering. So definitely a team effort.

00:47:57.506 --> 00:48:04.058
- Looking ahead to 2027, I'll talk through goals in each of ESD's areas. Our major projects support housing.

00:48:04.058 --> 00:48:10.182
- So when I say major projects, I mean the major economic development incentives that we're trying to

00:48:10.182 --> 00:48:16.306
- attract usually or often from the federal level down to our local economy. So on the major projects

00:48:16.306 --> 00:48:22.490
- front, we're always trying to support housing production, redevelopment, and job creation in service

00:48:22.490 --> 00:48:25.246
- of really population growth and wage growth.

00:48:25.570 --> 00:48:30.673
- We will know in October whether we will receive our opportunity zone designation for the three highly

00:48:30.673 --> 00:48:35.726
- distressed census tracks for which we submitted applications to the governor. If awarded much of our

00:48:35.726 --> 00:48:40.379
- major projects capacity in twenty twenty seven will be devoted to marketing and implementing

00:48:40.379 --> 00:48:41.630
- these opportunity zones.

00:48:42.050 --> 00:48:47.837
- Also on major projects our strategic sites initiative builds on the utility service boards update to

00:48:47.837 --> 00:48:54.024
- its rules and regulations allowing extension of sewer service outside of city limits for strategic economic

00:48:54.024 --> 00:48:59.983
- development sites. And together with EDC and other local partners we are working to promote the handful

00:48:59.983 --> 00:49:05.998
- of employment sites that remain within city limits. So that's the big picture stuff economic development

00:49:05.998 --> 00:49:06.686
- activities.

00:49:06.786 --> 00:49:12.649
- that require significant budget include our efforts at addressing impacts of homelessness on businesses.

00:49:12.649 --> 00:49:18.233
- Businesses in our downtown corridor experience, I mean it's sort of the expanded downtown corridor,

00:49:18.233 --> 00:49:24.096
- experience a disproportionate burden of property damage, whether it be broken windows, camping detritus,

00:49:24.096 --> 00:49:29.736
- biohazard materials, or waste, or damage from campfires. The city has issued grants to help property

00:49:29.736 --> 00:49:33.310
- owners with prevention and remediation related to these issues.

00:49:33.474 --> 00:49:39.900
- This administration understands that this particular program is a bandaid and it's not addressing root

00:49:39.900 --> 00:49:46.389
- causes of homelessness. However it is a critical business retention effort while we are working on root

00:49:46.389 --> 00:49:53.128
- causes in other areas. The city also provides major support for amplify Bloomington and the trades district

00:49:53.128 --> 00:49:54.750
- since amplify represents.

00:49:55.170 --> 00:50:00.886
- Oh, the name amplify represents new branding. Since I last spoke to you all, I wanted to make sure we

00:50:00.886 --> 00:50:06.210
- know what it means. Amplify is the umbrella organization sort of over the trades district. Um,

00:50:06.210 --> 00:50:12.094
- it's a, we call it a civic platform that advances our shared goals of wage growth and population growth,

00:50:12.094 --> 00:50:17.698
- as well as trades district, real estate development efforts. And then amplify the big umbrella work

00:50:17.698 --> 00:50:23.582
- happens across a number of sites. It happens in the trade stress trades district writ large at the mill.

00:50:23.778 --> 00:50:30.506
- and at the forge. So those are kind of the locations where amplify does stuff. And then now also we

00:50:30.506 --> 00:50:37.301
- have these sites that represent public investment. We now have private sites that are up and running

00:50:37.301 --> 00:50:44.299
- and the kiln and the admin building. So hopefully you all have have been up to visit the new businesses

00:50:44.299 --> 00:50:51.094
- in the trades district. And also I just wanted to offer that the trades district had a grand opening

00:50:51.094 --> 00:50:52.574
- for its expansion. So

00:50:52.770 --> 00:50:58.348
- Sorry the mill did so the mill hit max capacity and they converted their event space into more co-working

00:50:58.348 --> 00:51:03.820
- space and I don't believe any council members were able to attend that event but I know the staff would

00:51:03.820 --> 00:51:09.188
- be really excited to share the space with you and kind of what's going on there. So I'm sure you have

00:51:09.188 --> 00:51:14.555
- their contact information but if I can help with that let me know. And finally amplify has been a key

00:51:14.555 --> 00:51:17.502
- partner in leveraging. I'm sorry I didn't get all that.

00:51:19.554 --> 00:51:25.109
- Yeah, so ED-LIT funding that council approved supports entrepreneurship programming at the mill. It

00:51:25.109 --> 00:51:30.664
- funds scholarships so that membership may be extended to entrepreneurs who may not otherwise afford

00:51:30.664 --> 00:51:36.442
- it. It supports Startup Summer, which is a cohort-based program where college students fast track their

00:51:36.442 --> 00:51:42.330
- projects on summer break. And then it supports AMP Bloomington events, which bring together entrepreneurs

00:51:42.330 --> 00:51:47.774
- and community for a range of events at the mill and culminating in AMP Week, which is in October.

00:51:48.258 --> 00:51:54.187
- The mill is currently home to seventy seven small businesses. Our assistant director Dela Rosa assistant

00:51:54.187 --> 00:51:59.889
- director of small business development Dela Rosa spends one day a week at the mill on their resource

00:51:59.889 --> 00:52:04.350
- desk making sure that entrepreneurs are connected to our resources and receive

00:52:05.122 --> 00:52:11.071
- support navigating any questions. Sorry, this is way more words than exciting slides. Additionally,

00:52:11.071 --> 00:52:17.021
- Amplify has been a key partner in leveraging outside funding. In 2024, they helped attract that $16

00:52:17.021 --> 00:52:23.268
- million college and community collaboration grant to Bloomington. And this year, they were a key partner

00:52:23.268 --> 00:52:29.396
- in helping craft the programming proposal for the recently announced $3 million ready arts and culture

00:52:29.396 --> 00:52:34.750
- grant for the Uplands Regional Creative Economy Commons. This rolls right off the tongue.

00:52:36.194 --> 00:52:43.993
- Okay. Turning next to sustainability. Our main goal remains the same. The city works to reduce greenhouse

00:52:43.993 --> 00:52:50.910
- gas emissions to 25 percent below 2018 emissions by 2030. So 25 percent below 2018 emissions.

00:52:51.330 --> 00:52:57.483
- by 2030. Our primary approach to doing this is by tackling the built environment, which is the key driver

00:52:57.483 --> 00:53:03.752
- of greenhouse gas emissions locally. This means we are leveraging our program dollars to continue improving

00:53:03.752 --> 00:53:09.615
- efficiency of our own assets. We dedicate funds to converting gas equipment to electric. We leverage

00:53:09.615 --> 00:53:15.536
- funding through BG HIP and SEAL programs to promote energy efficiency across the community. And maybe

00:53:15.536 --> 00:53:20.702
- even more importantly, we work to attract outside resources, outside dollars to do this.

00:53:20.802 --> 00:53:26.926
- work for us. Sean Mia and Julie Perry represent our very capable sustainability team. Thank you so much

00:53:26.926 --> 00:53:32.814
- for your stewardship and all that you do. So building efficiency is the big swing. Secondary swings

00:53:32.814 --> 00:53:38.702
- are vehicles and equipment. And since the adoption of the climate action plan in 2021 it has become

00:53:38.702 --> 00:53:45.062
- increasingly critical that the city make efforts toward climate resilience as well. One area of convergence

00:53:45.062 --> 00:53:47.358
- for these priorities is the epic grant

00:53:47.714 --> 00:53:53.586
- from the Indiana Office of Energy Development that is facilitating HVAC upgrades and installation of

00:53:53.586 --> 00:53:59.922
- a battery energy storage system at the Buskirk Chumley Theater. So this will reduce greenhouse gas emissions

00:53:59.922 --> 00:54:05.968
- and operating costs for the theater, and it will allow them to ultimately serve as a climate resilience

00:54:05.968 --> 00:54:11.898
- hub during periods of extreme heat. I think we say extreme weather, but realistically that's gonna be

00:54:11.898 --> 00:54:17.246
- heat where we really need that. So thanks to Parks for their work in facilities management.

00:54:17.410 --> 00:54:23.999
- and their collaboration on that grant and to the RDC for its recent approval of an LED stage lighting

00:54:23.999 --> 00:54:30.717
- system. These investments will help this 100 plus year old theater embark on its next century in a cost

00:54:30.717 --> 00:54:37.305
- effective and sustainable way. In 2027, our arts priorities mirror council and citywide priorities of

00:54:37.305 --> 00:54:43.830
- asset management. Thanks to our 1% for the arts program, which I believe was approved in 2016, which

00:54:43.830 --> 00:54:44.734
- requires that

00:54:44.834 --> 00:54:50.525
- 1% of capital project budgets be dedicated to public art. The city has now amassed a collection of pretty

00:54:50.525 --> 00:54:56.163
- amazing public art. Staff is turning its attention in 2027 to maintenance of these assets and developing

00:54:56.163 --> 00:55:01.855
- policies and procedures for future development and management of public art. Asset management also refers

00:55:01.855 --> 00:55:07.224
- to our support of two key city-owned arts facilities, the Waldron, which houses Constellation Stage

00:55:07.224 --> 00:55:09.694
- and Screen, and the Buzzkirk Chumlee Theater.

00:55:10.050 --> 00:55:16.258
- BCT management and constellation are doing amazing work shepherding these facilities But managing historic

00:55:16.258 --> 00:55:22.060
- buildings is not without costs and we want to make sure that these community Organizations are able

00:55:22.060 --> 00:55:27.921
- to continue their important work We will also continue advancing our three primary arts grant making

00:55:27.921 --> 00:55:31.518
- programs arts project artistic advancement and operations and

00:55:31.746 --> 00:55:38.053
- grants in 2027 both arts project and artistic advancement have seen upticks in the number of applicants

00:55:38.053 --> 00:55:44.361
- for 2026 over 2025 and the arts operations support grant is open right now for applications that window

00:55:44.361 --> 00:55:50.668
- will close in a month from today on September 4th. So just to repeat for the record the arts operations

00:55:50.668 --> 00:55:56.126
- support grant is currently open and will remain open for applications for the next month.

00:55:56.418 --> 00:56:03.833
- Our arts team is always working to leverage and deploy outside arts grant funding 2027 will we'll see

00:56:03.833 --> 00:56:11.175
- a lot of activity in the ccc placemaking grant as well as the ready arts and culture grant These are

00:56:11.175 --> 00:56:18.517
- enormous opportunities that leverage outside dollars to drive our arts Ecosystem, sorry forward So I

00:56:18.517 --> 00:56:23.678
- described key priorities in the previous slides and here we'll look at

00:56:23.778 --> 00:56:30.087
- key programs and their costs. Under sustainability, one of our key programs is related to city building

00:56:30.087 --> 00:56:36.396
- efficiency and fleet electrification at $415,000. Municipal emissions are tracked on our climate action

00:56:36.396 --> 00:56:42.644
- dashboard at bloomington.climatenavhub.com. The dashboard actually shows an increase in city emissions

00:56:42.644 --> 00:56:48.711
- since 2018. However, since it relies on aggregated data from Duke Energy for the municipal data, it

00:56:48.711 --> 00:56:51.198
- isn't possible to pinpoint exactly where

00:56:51.458 --> 00:56:57.753
- where these emissions are increasing, we believe it's due to a variety of factors, including extreme

00:56:57.753 --> 00:57:04.359
- temperatures that require more heating and cooling, increased precipitation, which increases flow through

00:57:04.359 --> 00:57:10.654
- our wastewater treatment facilities, and the acquisition of buildings like Showers West, which would

00:57:10.654 --> 00:57:17.074
- be, of course, inherently energy inefficient, and it was acquired after the initial data was captured.

00:57:17.074 --> 00:57:19.006
- So things like that. And then,

00:57:22.050 --> 00:57:30.604
- In 2027, OK, so turning to arts again, this is like a merry-go-round. We request another $102,500 for

00:57:30.604 --> 00:57:39.074
- BAC grants. That's the same amount year over year. We request $163,000 in organizational support for

00:57:39.074 --> 00:57:48.382
- the BuzzChum constellation and arts programming for the admin building. So that's flat year over year as well.

00:57:48.738 --> 00:57:56.116
- This photo is by Lisa Wilson who's a local photographer and shows activities at the May 20 26 family

00:57:56.116 --> 00:58:03.932
- night out on Kirkwood which is funded through our downtown action plan implementation coordinator downtown

00:58:03.932 --> 00:58:06.270
- action plan coordinator anyway.

00:58:06.402 --> 00:58:12.778
- Key programs in 2027 for economic development look nearly identical to 2026. We are continuing to support

00:58:12.778 --> 00:58:18.312
- the trades district with staff time for our placemaking grants as well as dedicated funding

00:58:18.312 --> 00:58:24.327
- for entrepreneurship development at the mill. This photo shows the trade 2025 trades district block

00:58:24.327 --> 00:58:30.342
- party. Sorry. Yeah 2025. And it's an example of amplify bringing not just current entrepreneurs but

00:58:30.342 --> 00:58:34.974
- future entrepreneurs and community members into the district the quadrangles

00:58:35.106 --> 00:58:40.837
- Bloomington's hometown competitive high school robotics team are amazing. And these robots were programmed

00:58:40.837 --> 00:58:46.675
- to pick up balls and shoot baskets during the night. Our main challenge is reflected in our budget requests.

00:58:46.675 --> 00:58:52.191
- There are simply more projects than there is available funding. We are doing our best to become leaner

00:58:52.191 --> 00:58:57.762
- and more surgical in all of our efforts. I'm incredibly proud of our department and the work that we've

00:58:57.762 --> 00:59:03.225
- been doing the last two and a half years on process efficiency, quality of work product, and building

00:59:03.225 --> 00:59:04.510
- a true team environment

00:59:05.218 --> 00:59:11.511
- Other ongoing challenges are predictable at a staff of now nine. We are a small team and turnover that

00:59:11.511 --> 00:59:17.621
- we've experienced in the past year has created drag. But I'm grateful that we are mostly staffed up

00:59:17.621 --> 00:59:19.454
- and operating at full charge.

00:59:19.746 --> 00:59:25.163
- Of course, we couldn't do that without our many incredible partners across the community. Our

00:59:25.163 --> 00:59:30.696
- 36 commissioners supporting the four boards and commissions that are supported by ESD, Amplify,

00:59:30.696 --> 00:59:36.459
- The Chamber, Downtown Bloomington, BEDC, Visit Bloomington, Project 46, Indiana Energy Independence

00:59:36.459 --> 00:59:42.396
- Fund, and all the many incredible arts organizations. So I'll just share my deep gratitude for all the

00:59:42.396 --> 00:59:46.718
- contributors who help support our work and make Bloomington a great place.

00:59:47.714 --> 00:59:55.693
- And with that, I'll be happy to take questions. Thank you, Director Cooper-Smith. Are there questions

00:59:55.693 --> 01:00:03.515
- from council members? Council member Zulek. Director Cooper-Smith, thank you so much for being here

01:00:03.515 --> 01:00:11.415
- and for such a thorough presentation. Could you speak a little bit to how much of the arts budget is

01:00:11.415 --> 01:00:17.438
- going to be put towards the matching REDI 2.0 grant for Amplify Bloomington?

01:00:19.714 --> 01:00:28.481
- Okay. Off the cuff. I don't recall what we put in that application, but in the 2027 budget, the project

01:00:28.481 --> 01:00:37.080
- funding that will go to that is $20,000. Great. Thank you. Um, could you also talk to me a little bit

01:00:37.080 --> 01:00:45.510
- about the grants line for $180,050, um, under arts and how much of that is going to be allocated to

01:00:45.510 --> 01:00:48.798
- the BAC for their three annual cycles?

01:00:54.402 --> 01:01:02.848
- I apologize without having my budget directly in front of me but the 180 includes the BAC at 1 0 2 5

01:01:02.848 --> 01:01:11.629
- and it includes additional there's a 41,000 that is sort of discretionary grant funding and then there's

01:01:11.629 --> 01:01:20.075
- other sorry there's other supports in there I just can't recall off the cuff but I can put it in the

01:01:20.075 --> 01:01:23.838
- spreadsheet with a written question and then

01:01:23.938 --> 01:01:31.517
- I thought that there was an annual 2% increase to the grants line. So it is not an increase. So could

01:01:31.517 --> 01:01:39.096
- you just elaborate on that, please? Yes. In the past, we did include an annual 2% escalator on all of

01:01:39.096 --> 01:01:46.527
- our arts grant making. And I don't think it was universal across all the arts programming. But just

01:01:46.527 --> 01:01:51.134
- given the funding environment, I didn't believe that that was

01:01:51.746 --> 01:02:00.016
- Position that we're in this year. It's just a completely different climate Understood. Thank you. I'll

01:02:00.016 --> 01:02:08.046
- follow up with some written questions. Thank you for being here Thank You director Cooper Smith for

01:02:08.046 --> 01:02:16.076
- your presentation and I want to commend you for in you and your team for important invaluable work,

01:02:16.076 --> 01:02:21.054
- but one thing that struck me I was contacted by a Constituent

01:02:21.602 --> 01:02:31.477
- um, recently and she, she, um, isn't concerned about food security for the community. And, um, and it,

01:02:31.477 --> 01:02:41.161
- it urged me to, um, take a look at our comprehensive plan where it mentions local food security, uh,

01:02:41.161 --> 01:02:49.598
- numerous times. Uh, in, in fact, it mentions urban agriculture and, and, and local food

01:02:50.018 --> 01:02:58.854
- almost 60 times and in comparison Parks has mentioned 90 times so it's important part of the plan and

01:02:58.854 --> 01:03:07.864
- we used to have a Food policy coordinator Which then became I think a general coordinator of some kind.

01:03:07.864 --> 01:03:16.614
- Could you talk about do you? has your team been working on local food and to what extent and if not,

01:03:16.614 --> 01:03:19.646
- what could we do to Make it happen

01:03:19.906 --> 01:03:27.022
- As per the comprehensive plan. Great. Thanks for the question. First of all the local food programs

01:03:27.022 --> 01:03:34.637
- coordinator I think that position ended in 2022 and that was a grant funded position that was specifically

01:03:34.637 --> 01:03:41.824
- tasked with encouraging institutional purchases of food. So it was a great problem to tackle. It was

01:03:41.824 --> 01:03:48.158
- tackled by way of the creation of the farm stop. So once that program was concluded that

01:03:48.578 --> 01:03:55.878
- that position or that grant funding was concluded that position was not renewed. So it's unfortunate

01:03:55.878 --> 01:04:03.322
- because it was great to have a food systems person on the on the team. But we do support local growers

01:04:03.322 --> 01:04:10.695
- through some grant funding that is awarded to the hub that allows them to purchase produce from local

01:04:10.695 --> 01:04:16.766
- growers. But then I think otherwise we should just probably have a discussion about

01:04:17.634 --> 01:04:24.271
- what food supply chain support could look like. And then also just understanding again that we are in

01:04:24.271 --> 01:04:31.038
- a position this year where we're making choices. So if we wanted to advance something surrounding local

01:04:31.038 --> 01:04:37.805
- food supply chain it would come at the cost of something else that we're doing in the 30 seconds I have

01:04:37.805 --> 01:04:44.702
- left. Your team seems very busy doing really valuable work. So I don't want it to be an opportunity cost.

01:04:45.346 --> 01:04:52.646
- for you to apply to do you know but maybe we need to either find grant funding or maybe an FTE or half

01:04:52.646 --> 01:05:00.087
- an FTE or something in order to jumpstart that to get into compliance with the comprehensive plan. Yeah.

01:05:00.087 --> 01:05:07.316
- So something to talk about. Yeah. I appreciate that. OK. Thank you. Additional questions from council

01:05:07.316 --> 01:05:09.726
- members council member Stossberg.

01:05:10.818 --> 01:05:17.547
- I have some questions to ask about the transportation demand manager So and I know I asked some questions

01:05:17.547 --> 01:05:24.023
- about this last year and and to my understanding that position Was responsible for the go Bloomington

01:05:24.023 --> 01:05:30.372
- software which was cancelled in 2025 and last year I remember bringing up the question of like like

01:05:30.372 --> 01:05:35.006
- the position was still there but it seemed like you cut a whole bunch of

01:05:35.138 --> 01:05:42.030
- their budget which I think if I'm reading it right you know in the sustainability and transportation

01:05:42.030 --> 01:05:49.059
- there at the end where we're the organizational support is going to be T and then there's like fifteen

01:05:49.059 --> 01:05:56.088
- hundred more dollars and I think that that if I remember right Okay, I'm just looking at at the actual

01:05:56.088 --> 01:06:03.390
- budget printout in the sustainability the transportation sustainability part and so it has the line that's

01:06:03.586 --> 01:06:09.108
- organizational support that goes to BT and then there's seven hundred and fifty dollars for instruction

01:06:09.108 --> 01:06:14.417
- and seven hundred and fifty dollars for travel and if I remember from last year that is essentially

01:06:14.417 --> 01:06:20.045
- transportation demand manager position and I guess the the question is because that position is currently

01:06:20.045 --> 01:06:25.567
- vacant and I don't think that I have seen it advertised so I guess part of it is has that position been

01:06:25.567 --> 01:06:30.558
- advertised are you going to fill it and then what are you expecting that position to actually

01:06:30.690 --> 01:06:38.167
- like do in terms of accomplish because they have no budget. So maybe I'll share some context and then

01:06:38.167 --> 01:06:45.497
- I'll try to tackle the question. So context would just be that the so the TDM plan. OK. I'll do the

01:06:45.497 --> 01:06:52.900
- old part really fast. The TDM plan was created or adopted in 2018. So it predates the climate action

01:06:52.900 --> 01:07:00.670
- plan and the climate action plan adopts certain parts of the TDM plan. But the TDM plans primary task was

01:07:01.506 --> 01:07:08.398
- freeing up parking capacity in downtown Bloomington. It didn't have a sustainability position. So that's

01:07:08.398 --> 01:07:15.092
- kind of interesting when we think about the dynamic and what is it that our actual goals. And so then

01:07:15.092 --> 01:07:21.853
- the goals of that TDM position were really fostering turnover of cars in downtown Bloomington in order

01:07:21.853 --> 01:07:27.038
- to drive economic opportunity for our downtown businesses. So since that time,

01:07:27.330 --> 01:07:34.623
- The TDM plan called for the creation of basically an entire TDM department. So it was a manager and

01:07:34.623 --> 01:07:41.916
- then to like project coordinators or program managers. I don't know exactly what our TDM person was

01:07:41.916 --> 01:07:49.647
- hired and looked at this and said you know I think I can get a lot more done by using outside consultants

01:07:49.647 --> 01:07:57.086
- and developing the software using this platform. So the city adopted the platform and it was live for

01:07:58.754 --> 01:08:06.235
- two, three years, three years. And it looked great. And it had great response at our on-campus events.

01:08:06.235 --> 01:08:13.498
- But what lacked was data showing conversion of those single-occupancy vehicle trips. So ultimately,

01:08:13.498 --> 01:08:21.197
- last year, when we realized the reality of SEA 1 and we started thinking about what is our responsibility

01:08:21.197 --> 01:08:27.806
- with our stewardship of taxpayer dollars, we didn't feel confidently that we could justify

01:08:27.906 --> 01:08:35.029
- Expending that large sum of money on a program that we we just couldn't share what what it was doing

01:08:35.029 --> 01:08:42.223
- so We didn't request new funding in 2027. We did retain some marketing funding that was already under

01:08:42.223 --> 01:08:49.416
- contract and so that's being Leveraged right now for creating some content related to education which

01:08:49.416 --> 01:08:54.494
- is one of the recommendations of the TDM plan to do education about TDM

01:08:54.786 --> 01:09:01.701
- So that's going forward. And then in the interim I think it's a great time for us to be evaluating on

01:09:01.701 --> 01:09:08.480
- our side what to do with the position. We're halfway through the climate action plan. As I said the

01:09:08.480 --> 01:09:15.666
- climate action plan scoops some of the goals of the TDM plan and we are going to be engaging in an update

01:09:15.666 --> 01:09:22.580
- or maybe even a distillation of our climate action plan goals which will have council involvement via

01:09:22.580 --> 01:09:23.326
- the staff.

01:09:23.682 --> 01:09:30.754
- climate action team. So I think this is just to say we're we're not posting it right now. We are taking

01:09:30.754 --> 01:09:37.826
- a hard look at that role and what it's meant to achieve. And we're having a lot of conversations behind

01:09:37.826 --> 01:09:44.626
- the scenes and with other departments and the Transportation Commission frankly about what needs to

01:09:44.626 --> 01:09:50.814
- be happening for TDM. And is it a priority right now to fill that position. OK. Thank you.

01:09:51.042 --> 01:10:00.274
- Sorry that was more than you probably ever wanted to know probably wasn't as much as I wanted to know

01:10:00.274 --> 01:10:09.325
- so but I don't have any time so sorry Are there other questions I no longer see councilmember Asare

01:10:09.325 --> 01:10:18.014
- is did he drop off the zoom Okay Any other questions here in the room Okay, I have a question I

01:10:19.394 --> 01:10:27.834
- The explanation in your memo in the budget packet for the $97,000 increase in category three includes

01:10:27.834 --> 01:10:36.356
- downtown activation support. Is this activation of the Kirkwood corridor for possible seasonal closure

01:10:36.356 --> 01:10:44.795
- to cars? If not, what is your strategy concerning Kirkwood closure or not for next year? Can you tell

01:10:44.795 --> 01:10:47.774
- me what page of the memo you're on?

01:10:49.090 --> 01:11:06.058
- Let me see if I can tell you that what page in your memo is one fifty seven page one fifty seven of

01:11:06.058 --> 01:11:15.390
- the budget book. Sorry I'm just looking for that in my

01:11:15.554 --> 01:11:21.912
- memo where you have the budget overview by category and you show this rounded up it's ninety seven thousand

01:11:21.912 --> 01:11:27.977
- dollar increase in category three and you say this will support the portal led seminary square. I have

01:11:27.977 --> 01:11:34.335
- a separate question about that which was previously funded by parks and an increase in funding for downtown

01:11:34.335 --> 01:11:40.635
- activation support. So that's interesting. My section of that says slightly increased funding will support

01:11:40.635 --> 01:11:44.638
- the portal at seminary square which was previously funded by parks.

01:11:45.762 --> 01:11:53.628
- Yeah and it does say increase in funding for downtown activation support. So basically we we are flat

01:11:53.628 --> 01:12:01.341
- and our increase is really reflected in our category one wages. We don't expect that we'll actually

01:12:01.341 --> 01:12:09.053
- see growth in that. So that is a holdover from different versions of the budget that were evaluated

01:12:09.053 --> 01:12:12.446
- and I apologize for that error being in the

01:12:12.994 --> 01:12:22.895
- So you do not have any increase in category three. No my final budget reflects the exact same amount

01:12:22.895 --> 01:12:33.679
- in category three. OK. So what are your plans for possible Kirkwood activation. I'm sorry I'm just verifying.

01:12:33.679 --> 01:12:42.110
- So 20 sorry there is a 2 percent increase. I apologize. I can answer this in writing.

01:12:42.722 --> 01:12:50.117
- I can't answer it right now. I'm sorry. Okay. Well regardless of the ninety seven thousand can you just

01:12:50.117 --> 01:12:57.228
- speak to your department's strategy before we finish the downtown corridor study so that they might

01:12:57.228 --> 01:13:04.411
- possibly have a Kirkwood closure next year. Our department's funding strategy is requesting the same

01:13:04.411 --> 01:13:09.246
- contribution as previous. So I think we had twenty thousand dollars

01:13:10.434 --> 01:13:16.783
- in last year's budget for the downtown activation coordinator and that's what we requested this year.

01:13:16.783 --> 01:13:23.131
- And I think you're asking a little bit whether there will be a closure and we're not there yet but we

01:13:23.131 --> 01:13:29.480
- will be coming to you soon. Staff will to talk about this. OK. Thank you. Any final questions. We can

01:13:29.480 --> 01:13:35.829
- go to the public. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment on economic sustainable

01:13:35.829 --> 01:13:37.758
- development department budget.

01:13:39.938 --> 01:13:46.600
- Don't see anybody here in chambers. Okay. Person online. You should be able to unmute and you'll state

01:13:46.600 --> 01:13:53.197
- your name please. And you'll have up to three minutes. Good evening council members. My name is Jamie

01:13:53.197 --> 01:13:59.729
- Scholl. I'm a certified health and wellbeing coach and a former member of the Bloomington commission

01:13:59.729 --> 01:14:06.261
- on sustainability and resilience. I'm here to ask you to fund a food systems manager for the city of

01:14:06.261 --> 01:14:07.102
- Bloomington.

01:14:07.554 --> 01:14:14.602
- This isn't a new idea. In 2019, the city's own sustainability action plan created the same exact position

01:14:14.602 --> 01:14:21.451
- funded by the USDA grant to build our local food economy. That grant ended with the intent at the time

01:14:21.451 --> 01:14:28.299
- to bring the position permanently on staff, even as the risks of our food supply have only grown since

01:14:28.299 --> 01:14:32.222
- that time. Right now, the US cattle herd is at its lowest.

01:14:32.290 --> 01:14:39.243
- since 1951, and Tyson is closing three plants. Bird flu is active in poultry and dairy herds across

01:14:39.243 --> 01:14:46.543
- dozens of states. Farm labor shortages are threatening produce, harvest, and U.S. farm debt is projected

01:14:46.543 --> 01:14:53.913
- to hit a record $624 billion this year, with bankruptcies up 46%. Data centers are now buying up farmland

01:14:53.913 --> 01:15:00.865
- at prices no farmer can compete with, straining local water supplies, and their noise has even been

01:15:00.865 --> 01:15:02.256
- linked to fertility

01:15:02.256 --> 01:15:10.249
- problems in livestock. Add to that, fertilizer costs are up 45% from the Iran war and SNAP funding expires

01:15:10.249 --> 01:15:18.242
- September 30th. That's next month. Bloomington's own food resilience strategy has mentioned this position.

01:15:18.242 --> 01:15:26.086
- This isn't an abstract ask in a disruption. A food system manager builds direct farmer to consumer links

01:15:26.086 --> 01:15:32.062
- when supply chains break down, coordinates emergency food logistics, so surplus

01:15:32.418 --> 01:15:39.264
- produce reaches food banks instead of rotting, and fast tracks zoning for community gardens. Day-to-day,

01:15:39.264 --> 01:15:46.109
- they write the ordinances that protect farmland and run our food system. We are not alone in recognizing

01:15:46.109 --> 01:15:52.694
- this need. Austin, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Cleveland all employ food system coordinators. So do

01:15:52.694 --> 01:15:59.345
- a dozen more counties and states as well. Montgomery County, Maryland is one such. They actually have

01:15:59.345 --> 01:16:01.822
- an Office of Food Systems Resilience.

01:16:03.554 --> 01:16:12.882
- All right. Thank you. Thank you Are there any other comments online? No, okay. All right. We'll come

01:16:12.882 --> 01:16:22.117
- back to council members Would anyone like to comment on the budget proposal from ESD? Councilmember

01:16:22.117 --> 01:16:31.445
- all Just to say again, I really appreciate the work of your department and all that it does which is

01:16:31.445 --> 01:16:32.830
- considerable I

01:16:33.186 --> 01:16:41.233
- I'm glad that Jamie Scholl could speak to this point tonight. She brought it to my attention and the

01:16:41.233 --> 01:16:49.758
- fact that it is and it's throughout the comprehensive plan and it it seems that most of the responsibility

01:16:49.758 --> 01:16:57.726
- for good or bad falls on EST. It does tend to occupy other departments to some extent parks and rec

01:16:57.726 --> 01:17:01.630
- in terms of community orchards and so forth. But

01:17:02.050 --> 01:17:10.268
- I've been a member of the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability and Resilience for quite a while.

01:17:10.268 --> 01:17:18.731
- Last year they adopted a food strategy and it was in anticipation of potentially stressful times, which

01:17:18.731 --> 01:17:26.949
- we seem to be seeing, especially for low income people. So I think it's a good idea to focus on this

01:17:26.949 --> 01:17:31.262
- and try to see what we can do to meet the, you know,

01:17:32.034 --> 01:17:41.461
- Meet the comprehensive plan goals And some things are low-hanging fruit so to speak other ones are going

01:17:41.461 --> 01:17:50.707
- to be more challenging, but I look forward to speaking with you about this and Hopefully we can we can

01:17:50.707 --> 01:17:59.326
- move ahead and the next year. Thanks Any other council members All right, I'll make a comment I

01:18:00.450 --> 01:18:06.780
- And this is not a comment about any staff at ESD or the director or anything like that but just listening

01:18:06.780 --> 01:18:12.931
- to the presentation and Miss Cooper Smith even mentioned director Cooper Smith even mentioned you know

01:18:12.931 --> 01:18:18.962
- we're kind of going on a merry-go-round we're looking at this never look at this again. You know the

01:18:18.962 --> 01:18:24.874
- department just to me it seems to lack cohesion in its mission. I mean the arts yes their economic

01:18:24.874 --> 01:18:28.158
- development but they're also about building community.

01:18:28.258 --> 01:18:36.236
- and embracing the different cultures that we have here. Climate action is not just about how we develop

01:18:36.236 --> 01:18:44.367
- our economy locally. It's also about resource use, greenhouse gas reduction as we have the reports coming

01:18:44.367 --> 01:18:52.191
- to us, local resilience in the era of climate change, like has been mentioned with the food security.

01:18:52.191 --> 01:18:58.174
- And then the economic development in the more traditional sense is even more,

01:18:58.434 --> 01:19:06.540
- more than just jobs and wages. We didn't even talk about wage growth. It's also about housing, which

01:19:06.540 --> 01:19:14.886
- is taking up a big chunk of time of ESD. So it just seems like we need some kind of a visioning retreat

01:19:14.886 --> 01:19:23.393
- or something to kind of try to either add cohesion to the mission of this department or somehow rearrange

01:19:23.393 --> 01:19:27.326
- some of the programs and duties to match them up

01:19:27.458 --> 01:19:34.840
- with programs that are more relevant because it really seems like three separate departments to me.

01:19:34.840 --> 01:19:42.296
- So anyway I say that is as food for thought as we move along. And thank you very much. We now go to.

01:19:42.296 --> 01:19:49.679
- Council member Stossberg. Council member Piedmont Smith's final comment also made me want to take a

01:19:49.679 --> 01:19:55.806
- final comment about the TD manager thing because you know speaking of things being

01:19:56.130 --> 01:20:04.662
- kind of all over the place. And I think I asked this last year or the year before, like, why is this

01:20:04.662 --> 01:20:13.785
- position even in ESD? I don't think that it really belongs in ESD. And I think that there's some additional

01:20:13.785 --> 01:20:22.233
- history there around the 4th Street Garage and some kind of wheeling and dealing to say, hey, we'll

01:20:22.233 --> 01:20:25.950
- put this TDM position in, and so then we'll

01:20:26.274 --> 01:20:33.342
- Keep this 4th Street garage and I'm gonna have to go back and refresh my own history on that But I think

01:20:33.342 --> 01:20:40.343
- that it is an awkward place to have TDM. I think that it should be over and planning I think that those

01:20:40.343 --> 01:20:47.142
- ultimate goals are good. And yes, it is related to climate action perhaps but it's also I think more

01:20:47.142 --> 01:20:50.238
- related to how we set up our city in terms of

01:20:50.498 --> 01:20:57.502
- you know what we build and how we build it and where we put things and and how we How we think about

01:20:57.502 --> 01:21:04.507
- transportation in the city because that is literally what they're doing is transportation management

01:21:04.507 --> 01:21:11.650
- So I hope that that is part of the conversation. They all are having behind the scenes of what exactly

01:21:11.650 --> 01:21:17.822
- Should this person be doing? What exactly do we want them to be doing? because I I think

01:21:19.682 --> 01:21:25.598
- Have been wondering what kind of impact that position has been having for the last

01:21:25.890 --> 01:21:32.028
- Three to five years. I'll say not feeling like I was particularly seeing much impact from that position

01:21:32.028 --> 01:21:38.108
- at all And so if we're gonna be funding something I want to you know be seeing some sort of impact and

01:21:38.108 --> 01:21:44.246
- having some sort of purpose I do think that it's valuable but I also wonder if some of the other things

01:21:44.246 --> 01:21:50.562
- that the planning department has been doing in terms of design of our city in conjunction with engineering

01:21:50.562 --> 01:21:54.398
- has perhaps done more than that TDM manager position has done to

01:21:54.754 --> 01:22:02.052
- change people's transportation habits. So thank you very much. And that's also not like a reflection

01:22:02.052 --> 01:22:09.495
- on this administration. That was a you know a choice that was made well before this administration and

01:22:09.495 --> 01:22:17.154
- this and this group of folks. So I just am glad that you're thinking about it. Thanks. Yes. Councilmember

01:22:17.154 --> 01:22:22.718
- Flaherty thank you briefly. Well yeah I also directly engaged in that a lot.

01:22:22.818 --> 01:22:29.583
- so it can be quite specific the Concept of transportation demand management was raised in the context

01:22:29.583 --> 01:22:36.547
- of the 4th Street garage being torn down in a much bigger one being built but the idea was always turned

01:22:36.547 --> 01:22:43.644
- on its head it was basically given as a concession for a controversial decision to Overbuild a new parking

01:22:43.644 --> 01:22:50.409
- and to tear down a structure that could have had decades more life through repair the idea was it was

01:22:50.409 --> 01:22:51.934
- at capacity ostensibly

01:22:52.034 --> 01:22:57.271
- And if we had invested in transportation management, we could have maintained that asset instead of

01:22:57.271 --> 01:23:02.507
- spending $30 million on a new one. But again, we got it in the wrong order. We tore the thing down,

01:23:02.507 --> 01:23:07.796
- overbuilt the new parking garage, and then hired a TDM manager, which was always going to fail if it

01:23:07.796 --> 01:23:13.085
- had no impact or no control over pricing, and if we just oversupplied parking in the downtown, which

01:23:13.085 --> 01:23:18.636
- is what we did. And that's still borne out in the data today. That is a massively underutilized resource,

01:23:18.636 --> 01:23:21.726
- as is the trades garage, which was built at the same time.

01:23:22.370 --> 01:23:28.919
- So it was kind of doomed to struggle, I think, in its role. The other aspects of transportation mode

01:23:28.919 --> 01:23:35.793
- shift that we have for climate reasons, for safety reasons, and more, and for equity reasons, are largely

01:23:35.793 --> 01:23:42.407
- housed in planning and transportation and engineering. And we actually do often hear from engineering

01:23:42.407 --> 01:23:49.021
- staff and sometimes planning staff that they are at capacity from a staff perspective with respect to

01:23:49.021 --> 01:23:51.550
- how quickly they can advance projects.

01:23:51.682 --> 01:23:58.815
- On on the safety and sustainability front and so just going to echo that I this is maybe a the right

01:23:58.815 --> 01:24:06.159
- time and the right moment to take a very hard look at at The line I didn't put that that staff position

01:24:06.159 --> 01:24:13.292
- and where it could be most effective in advancing our transportation goals were at large and kind of

01:24:13.292 --> 01:24:20.990
- repurposing for that, so Those are my two cents. Thanks All right councilmember Rallo you already spoke with

01:24:22.146 --> 01:24:28.929
- Did you have time remaining. Okay. Go for it. I'll make this brief just to say I just for the record

01:24:28.929 --> 01:24:35.712
- I was part of the decision for the building of the forestry garage and I just wanted to say it costs

01:24:35.712 --> 01:24:42.428
- over a million dollars a year to patch the thing and there was no guarantee it might not just start

01:24:42.428 --> 01:24:49.950
- dropping pieces of concrete on the cars. And so it was my decision at the time to bring it back to rebuild one.

01:24:50.210 --> 01:24:57.934
- Mostly because a lot of merchants downtown said if we don't have parking then we're going to leave.

01:24:57.934 --> 01:25:06.121
- And it seemed pretty obvious that we needed that investment. Anyway another view. I don't I don't dispute

01:25:06.121 --> 01:25:14.231
- it was controversial. Thank you. All right. Are we done with council comments for this. All right. Thank

01:25:14.231 --> 01:25:15.390
- you very much.

01:25:16.194 --> 01:25:26.341
- We will move on to the Adam Wayson show. Welcome. We start with. So we have lots of public works divisions

01:25:26.341 --> 01:25:34.686
- tonight. The administration portion of public works is first. Take it away. All righty.

01:25:36.514 --> 01:25:41.585
- All right. Good evening Adam Wason public works director for the city of Bloomington. Always an honor

01:25:41.585 --> 01:25:46.656
- to be here presenting our annual budgets as the famous saying goes there ain't no party like a public

01:25:46.656 --> 01:25:51.678
- works party and we're going to start that one right now. There we go. Thank you. All right. And this

01:25:51.678 --> 01:25:54.462
- is where the party starts. It's with the admin team. So

01:25:54.946 --> 01:26:01.084
- The administrative division of the public works department is a small but a small team that did grow

01:26:01.084 --> 01:26:07.222
- over the last year We added Joe van Deventer to the division as our deputy director and then through

01:26:07.222 --> 01:26:13.543
- some Approvals that the council hopefully will make as part of this budget cycle We will also be moving

01:26:13.543 --> 01:26:19.742
- some staff from the facilities division that focus on the downtown into the administrative division I

01:26:20.130 --> 01:26:26.361
- our Overall budget request this year again nine full-time staff members with the moving the two positions

01:26:26.361 --> 01:26:32.297
- There is a slight reduction in our budget overall, but I'll get to that later Some of the big things

01:26:32.297 --> 01:26:38.234
- we're focusing on in the next slides Will be all of our efforts that we began to talk about with the

01:26:38.234 --> 01:26:43.230
- Street Division budget last week in terms of investing in our transportation network

01:26:43.906 --> 01:26:49.401
- For all users I'm going to spend a good amount of time talking tonight about the need for an operation

01:26:49.401 --> 01:26:55.003
- center for public works And then what we're working on with strategic planning and workforce development

01:26:55.003 --> 01:27:00.551
- again 3.6 million dollar budget request is just about $100,000 less than last year and we'll talk about

01:27:00.551 --> 01:27:06.366
- where some of those savings are coming from and then where we've got some additional costs this year as well

01:27:06.562 --> 01:27:12.754
- Some things in twenty twenty six that we've been really proud of and working on one term you'll hear

01:27:12.754 --> 01:27:18.946
- me talk about tonight is public works plus this means I kind of refer to public works plus as all of

01:27:18.946 --> 01:27:22.686
- the extra things we're doing in and throughout the downtown.

01:27:23.170 --> 01:27:29.426
- Such as you know, no one expected to clean up after a national championship game and three bowl winning

01:27:29.426 --> 01:27:35.622
- games of our football team But all the other things were doing supporting special events festivals the

01:27:35.622 --> 01:27:41.817
- downtown outdoor dining program, etc Also talk a little bit of our climate action plan program results

01:27:41.817 --> 01:27:45.246
- with trying to move some of our vehicles to electric and

01:27:45.762 --> 01:27:51.364
- As well as our efforts with the high priority pedestrian network and the snow removal that we've talked

01:27:51.364 --> 01:27:56.804
- about in the past and the infrastructure condition assessment reports that we've been doing all part

01:27:56.804 --> 01:28:02.622
- all administered mainly through the administrative division with support from other public works divisions.

01:28:02.914 --> 01:28:09.183
- Last week I when I when I began my presentations last week I said it was kind of awkward not to start

01:28:09.183 --> 01:28:15.821
- with the admin division because admin is where we do a lot of our centralized work for the whole department

01:28:15.821 --> 01:28:20.062
- and be remiss just not to Talk about the accreditation process again

01:28:20.610 --> 01:28:26.278
- That was something that we'd been working on for several years. You'd heard that in several of my budget

01:28:26.278 --> 01:28:32.055
- presentations about the resources needed to get to the point where we actually did our full accreditation.

01:28:32.055 --> 01:28:37.507
- And that'll happen again. We'll do a two year update in twenty twenty eight and then we'll do a full

01:28:37.507 --> 01:28:40.638
- reaccreditation in twenty thirty for twenty twenty seven.

01:28:40.994 --> 01:28:46.829
- One of the big things that I've been championing since my first year as public works director was the

01:28:46.829 --> 01:28:52.721
- need to look at the facilities in which public works operates out of. I think several of you have gone

01:28:52.721 --> 01:28:58.498
- on tours of public works facilities with me at some point in time or another. And the key point here

01:28:58.498 --> 01:29:04.390
- is we need a modern facility for in particular our street and fleet divisions. Those are old buildings

01:29:04.390 --> 01:29:07.422
- that were hand me downs from other city departments.

01:29:08.226 --> 01:29:15.719
- And they just don't meet a modern work environment that that provides the resource the the types of

01:29:15.719 --> 01:29:23.361
- resources necessary in a building to serve not only the staff that are in there but what we do out in

01:29:23.361 --> 01:29:28.606
- the community as well for Street in particular. We'll go to a couple.

01:29:28.706 --> 01:29:34.145
- Snapshot pictures, but on the right here. That's the break room for the street division So in the middle

01:29:34.145 --> 01:29:39.377
- of a snowstorm at midnight when you need to catch a little break and eat some food You're in a small

01:29:39.377 --> 01:29:45.023
- break room. The roofs probably leaking And I won't even really get started about the locker room facilities,

01:29:45.023 --> 01:29:50.514
- but I compare them I think about the worst YMCA bathroom or locker room you might have been in and Street

01:29:50.514 --> 01:29:52.638
- department is going to compete with that

01:29:53.250 --> 01:29:59.481
- On the left the break room for the fleet maintenance garage if you've ever been in our fleet maintenance

01:29:59.481 --> 01:30:05.534
- garage There's a little metal set of stairs that go up to the second level and this is I'm not a tall

01:30:05.534 --> 01:30:11.706
- person I I almost hit my head when I'm in their break room. It just doesn't meet the standards at which

01:30:11.706 --> 01:30:14.910
- we want to have our employees occupy buildings and so

01:30:15.138 --> 01:30:20.092
- The big thing that we're focused on and have been for the last couple years is the conceptual design.

01:30:20.092 --> 01:30:25.046
- What would a facility look like. What does it need to have. So we've done that with your prior budget

01:30:25.046 --> 01:30:29.903
- approvals for those services and we continue working on that today. One big point to make here. You

01:30:29.903 --> 01:30:31.166
- know I would love to say.

01:30:31.746 --> 01:30:37.413
- That we haven't been slightly jealous when we go visit other peer communities and see the facilities

01:30:37.413 --> 01:30:43.023
- they've operated out of I'd love to take some of you up to fishers. Oh boy. Do they have it nice up

01:30:43.023 --> 01:30:48.915
- there? But you know our goal here is really to provide a facility that meets the needs of the department

01:30:48.915 --> 01:30:50.654
- street and fleet in particular

01:30:51.170 --> 01:30:57.921
- And we'll serve the department into the future. So lots of discussion forthcoming on that lots of work

01:30:57.921 --> 01:31:04.541
- with the council and Others that would need to take place as we would look at an operation center. I

01:31:04.541 --> 01:31:11.620
- mentioned we've done some preliminary design You know looking at something that would be a 50-year building

01:31:11.620 --> 01:31:18.174
- We've been really trying to find some out outside funding sources public work centers aren't a real

01:31:18.370 --> 01:31:23.861
- They're not something that we found outside funding for but on top of all the other regulations and

01:31:23.861 --> 01:31:29.353
- limitations of SEA one this is going to be a continue to be a priority of mine and the department's

01:31:29.353 --> 01:31:32.318
- and look forward to working with the council on that.

01:31:33.058 --> 01:31:38.400
- We talked about street maintenance and sidewalk repairs a lot in the street division budget I won't

01:31:38.400 --> 01:31:44.170
- go over a ton of that but really trying to continue to work with the transportation plan and Transportation

01:31:44.170 --> 01:31:49.566
- Commission and others on how we're making those investments Again, we've done both in-house. So this

01:31:49.566 --> 01:31:54.962
- is our in-house crew doing sidewalk work But a lot of the work we do here is also contracted work as

01:31:54.962 --> 01:32:00.411
- well Strategic planning efforts one of the things with accreditation that we've really needed that we

01:32:00.411 --> 01:32:02.174
- recognize we need to focus on is

01:32:02.754 --> 01:32:07.776
- is how we plan for the future. So succession planning, making sure we're doing the right levels

01:32:07.776 --> 01:32:13.427
- of professional development with our current workforce so that they can move up into higher level positions

01:32:13.427 --> 01:32:18.658
- throughout their career, things like that. I'd be remiss not to note that there's a person in a red

01:32:18.658 --> 01:32:23.890
- shirt in this picture that may be retiring on October 6th of this year. And I do want to say thanks

01:32:23.890 --> 01:32:29.226
- to Christina Smith for her 35 plus years of service and wishing her many, many years of happiness and

01:32:29.226 --> 01:32:29.854
- retirement.

01:32:30.946 --> 01:32:36.602
- But that's the critical need we have so Chris has 35 years of institutional knowledge. How do we continue

01:32:36.602 --> 01:32:42.257
- to develop our staff to not only do a bit of a knowledge download but also continue moving the department

01:32:42.257 --> 01:32:47.166
- forward and that's something we've been focused on with with all of our staff and that APWA

01:32:47.522 --> 01:32:53.248
- Portion downtown maintenance and stewardship. So when we talked with the salary ordinance a couple weeks

01:32:53.248 --> 01:32:58.810
- ago and doing some modifications there This is really about how public works has made a big focus and

01:32:58.810 --> 01:33:04.318
- priority in the downtown we've always had a major role in making sure the downtown is successful but

01:33:04.930 --> 01:33:10.457
- Really, with Cassie Warney's position as special projects and operations manager, moving the downtown

01:33:10.457 --> 01:33:16.418
- specialists into the public works admin team, and then also the work in coordinating the Brighton Bloomington

01:33:16.418 --> 01:33:22.053
- partnership with Centerstone. So with our budget request from last year and in our 2027 budget request,

01:33:22.053 --> 01:33:27.743
- this will allow for seven days of coverage throughout the downtown in the work that Brighton Bloomington

01:33:27.743 --> 01:33:33.162
- does. If you're questioning what does Brighton Bloomington do, they are part of our team that helps

01:33:33.162 --> 01:33:34.896
- maintain and clean the downtown

01:33:34.896 --> 01:33:40.914
- So I had a really busy weekend again celebrating pride Down on Kirkwood Saturday Sunday morning those

01:33:40.914 --> 01:33:46.872
- crews ran bright and early making sure Kirkwood was getting back to Being that iconic Street that we

01:33:46.872 --> 01:33:47.934
- all love to visit

01:33:48.834 --> 01:33:54.223
- I will also note the 20 downtown special events and The big community gatherings. We just had taste

01:33:54.223 --> 01:33:59.774
- of Bloomington at the beginning of August huge another great successful taste of Bloomington But we're

01:33:59.774 --> 01:34:05.379
- doing more and more on a regular basis with special event management and coordination And we're getting

01:34:05.379 --> 01:34:11.254
- a lot more applications of folks wanting to use the downtown through right away and special event permitting

01:34:11.254 --> 01:34:13.086
- So a lot of work being done there

01:34:13.858 --> 01:34:20.189
- Again some of the big things we're looking at operation center is going to be my biggest focus for the

01:34:20.189 --> 01:34:26.581
- next several years Continuing to work on investing in our important infrastructure Continuing that kind

01:34:26.581 --> 01:34:32.911
- of public works plus model of working on the downtown and just this new kind of landscape with budgets

01:34:32.911 --> 01:34:39.242
- and such always trying to be as efficient and Sustainable with what we do as possible and at that time

01:34:39.242 --> 01:34:41.086
- I will take your questions. I

01:34:42.690 --> 01:34:51.683
- Who has questions councilmember all of Could you venture a guess on a price tag for a new facility?

01:34:51.683 --> 01:35:01.215
- I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? I didn't hear at all. How much will it cost? A million plus dollar that's

01:35:01.215 --> 01:35:11.646
- a 20 some million dollar plus question. We you know, it all depends. So we have different the environment with what

01:35:11.842 --> 01:35:17.054
- Was put into place with legislation at the Statehouse and the spending thresholds and things are going

01:35:17.054 --> 01:35:22.266
- to impact the different opportunities we may have there for If we were to build the best facility that

01:35:22.266 --> 01:35:27.377
- would you know be a 50 year and meet all of our needs on day one We're looking at a 30 or 40 million

01:35:27.377 --> 01:35:32.437
- dollar project That's not what we're going to be able to do in this environment What we really need

01:35:32.437 --> 01:35:37.598
- to do is focus on street and fleet and that's probably in a 15 to 20 million dollar range is my guess

01:35:39.074 --> 01:35:47.096
- That includes site, you know, so There's all kinds of things that go into numbers like that whether

01:35:47.096 --> 01:35:55.439
- it's this the site improvements any roads any Fueling stations, you know, there's a lot to be discussed

01:35:55.439 --> 01:36:03.542
- here and a lot that we would look for the input of the council on Minimum needs and so thank you for

01:36:03.542 --> 01:36:06.590
- addressing Thank you director Wason I

01:36:08.834 --> 01:36:16.837
- that the street and fleet new facility would be consolidated into one. Do you anticipate any savings

01:36:16.837 --> 01:36:20.958
- in not having to maintain two different facilities?

01:36:21.794 --> 01:36:27.490
- In my mileage alone or yes you know so one of the big goals with an operation center is that we would

01:36:27.490 --> 01:36:33.130
- look at efficiencies across the different in a perfect world we'd be co locating our admin staff our

01:36:33.130 --> 01:36:38.882
- street staff our facility staff look for a small boardroom for Board of Public Works meetings. I don't

01:36:38.882 --> 01:36:43.294
- think that's the project we're going to be able to do in this current climate.

01:36:43.810 --> 01:36:50.528
- But we could certainly find efficiencies if we had two customer service people in two different divisions

01:36:50.528 --> 01:36:57.246
- that were answering phones things like that We would look to just at the overall operations with a better

01:36:57.246 --> 01:37:03.647
- facility and how we could maximize it. Thank you I was just wondering in your line item budget under

01:37:03.647 --> 01:37:09.985
- other services and charges in the other services and charges You have a one million dollar increase

01:37:09.985 --> 01:37:13.534
- and I am just wondering what that's for. I kind of hate

01:37:13.794 --> 01:37:21.814
- anything that says other by the way, and that's Especially when it's like 1.2 million dollars This is

01:37:21.814 --> 01:37:29.677
- the municipal election cost the 650 plus. Sorry Yeah, so we've got 650,000 earmarked in this year's

01:37:29.677 --> 01:37:37.775
- budget for the municipal election cost both for the primary and the General election in November those

01:37:37.775 --> 01:37:40.606
- come out of the public works budget

01:37:41.346 --> 01:37:48.356
- And what about the other 450 when I just did a quick look it was 350. It's not quite a million. It's

01:37:48.356 --> 01:37:55.574
- one point eight or two point four. So wait you said category three correct. Yeah I mean it's it's under

01:37:55.574 --> 01:38:02.653
- supplies other services and charges all the way down to fifty three nine nine zero other services and

01:38:02.653 --> 01:38:08.414
- charges that went from two hundred and eighteen thousand to one point two million.

01:38:10.658 --> 01:38:16.720
- All right. I will get a full breakdown on everything in that line item and what it includes beyond the

01:38:16.720 --> 01:38:20.958
- municipal or the municipal election cycles. We'll get a full breakdown.

01:38:21.090 --> 01:38:26.740
- Okay I'll follow that up in writing then. And then the second question that I had about line item budgets

01:38:26.740 --> 01:38:32.178
- was in the in the lit budget you have one hundred and thirty five thousand for other capital outlays.

01:38:32.178 --> 01:38:37.508
- And so that was in the twenty twenty six budget and the twenty twenty seven budget. And so first of

01:38:37.508 --> 01:38:42.945
- all that doesn't seem like very much for anything related to capital expenses. And secondly as of the

01:38:42.945 --> 01:38:49.022
- quarter two reports for twenty twenty six none of those funds have been spend it spent. And so I'm just wondering

01:38:49.666 --> 01:38:57.097
- Whether they're going to be spent this year, like what are the plans for those? Yeah, so We we are currently

01:38:57.097 --> 01:39:04.392
- processing purchases that will be using those lines for the 2026 budget And this could range from anything

01:39:04.392 --> 01:39:11.414
- from replacing a pool vehicle for all of the city's use What else were we using on that one this year?

01:39:11.414 --> 01:39:17.822
- Oh Yeah, so also investing in some different types of equipment for our downtown team whether

01:39:17.954 --> 01:39:24.258
- Power washers cleaning equipment possible UTV type vehicle so But happy to provide some more information

01:39:24.258 --> 01:39:30.743
- on that as well Okay, so it's so it so it will be used yet this year and it's generally for small equipment

01:39:30.743 --> 01:39:36.747
- for downtown that generally what I'll also tell you about big capital or capital purchases and such

01:39:36.747 --> 01:39:42.812
- sometimes we're monitoring throughout the year on all of our expenditures and it's whether or not we

01:39:42.812 --> 01:39:46.174
- can fit it in but yes this year we're looking for we're

01:39:46.338 --> 01:39:53.312
- I think we're moving those POs through the system right now. Okay, thank you About the operation center

01:39:53.312 --> 01:40:00.219
- at one point the mayor came to the utility service board It's probably a year ago and mentioned in the

01:40:00.219 --> 01:40:06.925
- content. Maybe it's even longer ago in the context of Cable routine utilities potentially getting a

01:40:06.925 --> 01:40:13.832
- new home that their facility was one of the avenues for exploration Is that still on the table at all?

01:40:13.832 --> 01:40:15.710
- Can you tell us about that?

01:40:15.842 --> 01:40:21.682
- Everything is still on the table right now as far as location. You know there's if I could say what

01:40:21.682 --> 01:40:27.639
- I have as a general preference right now it would be co-locating with CBU down at Winston Thomas into

01:40:27.639 --> 01:40:33.538
- the future. But there's so many moving parts there and figuring all that out. You know it's possible

01:40:33.538 --> 01:40:39.436
- that if utilities were to move we could take advantage of the increased space at Miller Drive. Those

01:40:39.436 --> 01:40:44.926
- are all parts of the decision that we need to figure out over the coming months and year. OK.

01:40:48.226 --> 01:40:56.338
- Additional questions from council members. I have one. As you know I'm a fan of the Brighton V town

01:40:56.338 --> 01:41:04.775
- program is that through category three other services and charges or where do we see that in the budget

01:41:04.775 --> 01:41:13.374
- sheets. It's in. Oh that's probably also part. There we go. All right. That's also part of the answer to.

01:41:16.866 --> 01:41:23.076
- Sorry that's probably also part of the question answer to councilmember Stossberg's question We are

01:41:23.076 --> 01:41:29.658
- moving those from the facilities budget into the public works admin budget. So I'm guessing that contract

01:41:29.658 --> 01:41:36.117
- is the remaining amount that I Couldn't identify earlier. So yes, that's in the category three How much

01:41:36.117 --> 01:41:43.134
- is that 385 350 350 and is that amount staying the same? Actually, it's a slight reduction. We've taken on we've

01:41:43.266 --> 01:41:50.453
- Modified that contract a little bit to do some more of the administrative work on our end instead of

01:41:50.453 --> 01:41:57.924
- their end And so it's down a little bit But we are hoping to get the same number of hours from the staff

01:41:57.924 --> 01:42:05.467
- that participate in that Okay, so you you expect the program numbers to be the same as far as individuals

01:42:05.467 --> 01:42:09.950
- number served and things like that hours work. Yes Sounds good

01:42:10.402 --> 01:42:18.405
- Um, if there are no other council members who want to ask, we can go to the public. Is there any member

01:42:18.405 --> 01:42:26.640
- of the public who would like to ask questions about the public works administration budget? Not questions,

01:42:26.640 --> 01:42:34.412
- comments. I see one person coming to the microphone. Do we have anybody online raising a hand? Nope.

01:42:34.412 --> 01:42:40.030
- Okay. Hey, good evening again, council. Krista imagery from the greater.

01:42:40.194 --> 01:42:45.944
- Livingston Chamber of Commerce. I want to give Adam Wason and the fine folks at Public Works team a

01:42:45.944 --> 01:42:51.924
- well-earned credit I think they do a great job. I know they recently earned some national accreditation

01:42:51.924 --> 01:42:57.846
- from the American Public Works Associated Association only the second agency in Indiana, which I think

01:42:57.846 --> 01:43:04.056
- is pretty impressive and I think from the chamber perspective Adam this team are been extremely responsible

01:43:04.056 --> 01:43:07.966
- from business issues we we brought to them the community survey and

01:43:08.226 --> 01:43:14.234
- Provides some additional validation of that as well when the department is performing well in response

01:43:14.234 --> 01:43:20.067
- of To people it serves we think it's worth recognizing for sure And I think I want to highlight one

01:43:20.067 --> 01:43:25.900
- other thing on the budget public works administration is down a hundred and two thousand dollars or

01:43:25.900 --> 01:43:32.025
- three percent while street maintenance goes up a hundred and thirty eight thousand and sidewalks another

01:43:32.025 --> 01:43:33.950
- fifty three thousand dollars and

01:43:34.210 --> 01:43:40.623
- That's good prioritization in a difficult budget year administrative spending down while investment

01:43:40.623 --> 01:43:47.164
- is up is Worth noting and I think this with the national accreditation Responsiveness to business and

01:43:47.164 --> 01:43:53.706
- increased investment in core infrastructure while reducing administration budget. That's a good story

01:43:53.706 --> 01:44:00.247
- and one worth recognizing here tonight Thank you Thank you, yes, if you have comments, please step up

01:44:00.247 --> 01:44:03.774
- you'll have up to three minutes awesome Matthew Joseph

01:44:04.226 --> 01:44:10.175
- I'm actually a therapist at Centerstone, and I think the Brighton Bloomington program is incredible.

01:44:10.175 --> 01:44:16.182
- I've heard amazing stories from clients that are a part of it. Well, I guess one thing in particular,

01:44:16.182 --> 01:44:22.249
- I've also heard that there's a very long wait list of people that are wanting to get into the program.

01:44:22.249 --> 01:44:28.433
- So I guess, obviously, if the need is there on the public work side, it would be nice to see an increase

01:44:28.433 --> 01:44:31.614
- of funding for more clients to be able to access that

01:44:32.034 --> 01:44:39.742
- as a form of either transitional employment or something even longer term. That's just something I would

01:44:39.742 --> 01:44:47.082
- love to see as a representative for some of the clients that I have in the organization. Thank you.

01:44:47.082 --> 01:44:54.423
- Thank you. Is there anybody who has raised a hand online. No. All right. We'll come back to council

01:44:54.423 --> 01:45:00.222
- members. Any council members want to comment on the public works admin budget.

01:45:05.346 --> 01:45:14.417
- I actually want to use this time for another question because the comment from mr. MG got me thinking

01:45:14.417 --> 01:45:23.488
- that one of the Changes to this budget is removing the liability premiums from the administration and

01:45:23.488 --> 01:45:27.134
- putting that into the actual departments

01:45:27.266 --> 01:45:32.721
- That are using that insurance. Is that correct? Yeah, we're budgeting that differently across the city.

01:45:32.721 --> 01:45:38.019
- Now you're seeing the liability premiums For each department reflected in their departmental budgets

01:45:38.019 --> 01:45:43.316
- instead of just the public works admin budget So as much as I'd love to take credit for Chris's full

01:45:43.316 --> 01:45:48.823
- comment There is it is it is due to some of those liability insurance premiums going not being reflected

01:45:48.823 --> 01:45:50.974
- in our budget for other city departments

01:45:51.170 --> 01:45:57.929
- Okay, I just wanted to make sure that I understood that correctly not we are being not to take anything

01:45:57.929 --> 01:46:04.688
- away Yeah, not to take anything away from that But I think generally when I've when I've looked at some

01:46:04.688 --> 01:46:11.513
- of our administrative overhead It doesn't necessarily seem like we have a lot of administrative overhead

01:46:11.513 --> 01:46:18.142
- anyway so Yeah, I think that That is the only like comment piece that I want to have so thank you and

01:46:18.818 --> 01:46:25.206
- Oh actually no I am going to say one more thing. I do think that it's really important to get a more

01:46:25.206 --> 01:46:32.099
- appropriate public works building for our staff. And I think that that is something that should be generally

01:46:32.099 --> 01:46:38.550
- prioritized across the city. I think that I have heard about that all of the budget years I have been

01:46:38.550 --> 01:46:43.230
- here and I've heard about it as a thing that keeps on getting pushed off.

01:46:43.714 --> 01:46:50.553
- and it would be great to not push it off anymore, even though we are and in this like tight budget kind

01:46:50.553 --> 01:46:57.524
- of space and One of the things I think that we've tried to do as a city and that and that I will continue

01:46:57.524 --> 01:47:04.494
- to support doing is prioritizing the people that make the city work and some part of that is prioritizing

01:47:04.494 --> 01:47:11.202
- the space that they have to work in and the space that they get breaks in and How they collaborate so

01:47:11.202 --> 01:47:13.438
- thanks Any other council comments

01:47:13.954 --> 01:47:22.286
- Councilmember Rosenberger. Thank you. Hi, this is a quick question. Don't you think I think in the beginning

01:47:22.286 --> 01:47:30.160
- you said who could predict but don't you think we kind of could have predicted a national championship

01:47:30.160 --> 01:47:38.263
- win? Councilmember all I had a quick question. Well, first of all Director ways and I I really appreciate

01:47:38.263 --> 01:47:40.862
- all the work that you do and it's

01:47:41.090 --> 01:47:48.545
- Amazing. I don't know how you sleep at night. Frankly, there's so many moving parts to think about but

01:47:48.545 --> 01:47:56.000
- like Bloomington Transit do we Anticipating potential diesel shock that might happen in the future Are

01:47:56.000 --> 01:48:03.456
- we well prepared for in terms of storage or locked in fuel prices that sort of thing right now? We are

01:48:03.456 --> 01:48:09.246
- The market is as volatile for us as most users You know, we do have our storage

01:48:09.442 --> 01:48:15.464
- our tank you know our storage tanks and everything and we top those regularly but whether it's the cost

01:48:15.464 --> 01:48:21.254
- or the available we haven't had any availability issues but obviously have seen the increased costs

01:48:21.254 --> 01:48:27.102
- we appreciate Corey and Lisa and the whole team at Fleet they're monitoring at all times they try to

01:48:27.202 --> 01:48:34.064
- Purchase when it makes the most sense hold off when we need to to see if prices go down a little bit.

01:48:34.064 --> 01:48:41.465
- But we're tracking every month right now and projecting out through the rest of the year trying to understand

01:48:41.465 --> 01:48:48.394
- where we stand with fuel costs. But part of what keeps me up at night. OK. Well I'm glad you're on top

01:48:48.394 --> 01:48:51.422
- of that. Thank you. Council member Zoellick.

01:48:52.610 --> 01:48:58.964
- Yes, I just want to thank Chris Smith for all of the hard work that she's done over the past 35 years.

01:48:58.964 --> 01:49:05.257
- I haven't gotten to work with her a lot, but we did walk Indiana Ave and get some new streetlights in

01:49:05.257 --> 01:49:11.550
- through 10th to 14th Street, which was a pretty big deal. So thank you, Chris. You will be cherished.

01:49:15.554 --> 01:49:22.480
- And thank you to all of the staff who made the accreditation possible. I think that's a great achievement

01:49:22.480 --> 01:49:29.145
- and it speaks to the quality of our public works department despite the lagging improvements to their

01:49:29.145 --> 01:49:35.940
- facilities which I agree with council member Stossberg do need to be improved and needed to be improved

01:49:35.940 --> 01:49:42.605
- probably 10 years ago. So if there's anything we can do to support outside funding or anything please

01:49:42.605 --> 01:49:43.454
- let us know.

01:49:44.290 --> 01:49:55.157
- I will certainly hold you to that. All right. Well thank you very much. We can go on to animal care

01:49:55.157 --> 01:50:06.459
- and control all right animal care and control 20 27 budget request on behalf of Virgil Souter and Robin

01:50:06.459 --> 01:50:08.958
- Feffinger want to just

01:50:09.282 --> 01:50:15.961
- First thank all the staff the leadership team down there for all that they do day in and day out I will

01:50:15.961 --> 01:50:22.640
- not lie I'm going to make this presentation as much of a sales pitch as I am a full budget presentation

01:50:22.640 --> 01:50:26.622
- The animal shelter needs our help We are at capacity in every

01:50:27.138 --> 01:50:33.669
- Way, shape, and form right now, we have animals living in offices, our kennels are full, our staff is

01:50:33.669 --> 01:50:40.264
- tired, our staff is stressed, and anything that we can do to encourage adoptions, encourage more folks

01:50:40.264 --> 01:50:46.795
- to foster animals while they're waiting for adoption, anything we can do to keep an animal in a home,

01:50:46.795 --> 01:50:53.326
- we are trying to do all of that, and the team down there does a tremendous job in everything they do.

01:50:53.326 --> 01:50:57.104
- Onto the actual budget, we have 20 full-time staff members

01:50:57.104 --> 01:51:03.551
- that do this work day in and day out 24 7 365 the animals need to be fed on every city holiday federal

01:51:03.551 --> 01:51:09.810
- holiday. We respond 24 7 for animal emergencies throughout the community. And so just big shout out

01:51:09.810 --> 01:51:16.194
- to all the work that they do. We have a small increase in our personnel cost for 20 27 and then we're

01:51:16.194 --> 01:51:20.638
- continuing with some capital investments down at the facility as well.

01:51:21.346 --> 01:51:30.247
- You'll see that small percentage increase reflected in about $130,000 with a total budget request of

01:51:30.247 --> 01:51:38.972
- 2.673 million. Some highlights. So we've cared for 1,736 animals so far through June of this year.

01:51:38.972 --> 01:51:47.961
- That is 1,736 unique individual animals. We have responded to 964 calls for animal control assistance

01:51:47.961 --> 01:51:51.134
- through the first half of the year.

01:51:51.202 --> 01:51:58.982
- And we have nearly 5,000 volunteer hours. When you see things like 964 calls for animal control assistance,

01:51:58.982 --> 01:52:06.473
- that is everything from an animal welfare check from a concerned neighbor to responding to the dog park

01:52:06.473 --> 01:52:13.677
- after a big dog fight to responding in every hour of the evening to a bat in a home in Bloomington.

01:52:13.677 --> 01:52:21.168
- These folks do tremendous work. And I do want to call out we have an animal control position open right

01:52:21.168 --> 01:52:27.628
- Right now it is we had one of our long time staff members find a new opportunity want to wish Mike the

01:52:27.628 --> 01:52:34.150
- best. But if you're looking for that new career and you want to help with an animal control and welfare

01:52:34.150 --> 01:52:40.548
- we've got a spot for you. So the most important number that we see every year is in bold here. That's

01:52:40.548 --> 01:52:46.945
- our live release rate. That's 93 percent which is just a tremendous number to achieve in these trying

01:52:46.945 --> 01:52:50.206
- times of animal welfare 90 93 percent live release.

01:52:50.306 --> 01:52:57.286
- Means any animal that came into our care that left through either an adoption a rescue or a return to

01:52:57.286 --> 01:53:04.609
- their owner Another thing we are really proud about Nationally for the return to owner rates. It's usually

01:53:04.609 --> 01:53:11.589
- about roughly 20% for dogs and about 3% for cats and so we're more than double on both of those which

01:53:11.589 --> 01:53:18.638
- again is a lot of credit to the staff that work on all that to make sure we reunite animals with their

01:53:18.638 --> 01:53:19.870
- proper owners and

01:53:20.706 --> 01:53:27.197
- We're going to again for next year we're always going to try to be at that 93 percent or higher. And

01:53:27.197 --> 01:53:33.624
- if you find me a shelter anywhere nearby that's at that high of a rate we would truly do tremendous

01:53:33.624 --> 01:53:40.051
- work to make that happen. You know we're always responding to the animal welfare calls that come in

01:53:40.051 --> 01:53:42.622
- for injured sick or aggressive animals.

01:53:43.298 --> 01:53:50.075
- And those calls come in quite regularly and frequently. We're always trying to increase our volunteer

01:53:50.075 --> 01:53:57.052
- hours. We're coming more on the upturn since the COVID years. And we do have a really great relationship

01:53:57.052 --> 01:54:04.095
- with all of our social service providers out in the community for those individuals that are experiencing

01:54:04.095 --> 01:54:10.142
- homelessness and have animals. And so we're in direct outreach on that on a regular basis.

01:54:10.210 --> 01:54:20.964
- We're always going to try to do this with care in mind and with a human approach. And between Kat, Mike,

01:54:20.964 --> 01:54:25.982
- and Nick, they do just a tremendous job of that.

01:54:26.210 --> 01:54:33.252
- going to be working to manage the shelter in a healthy way for all animals. Some of you may have seen

01:54:33.252 --> 01:54:40.432
- that we had to do some quarantine and closure of the shelter. Last week, we had one dog that had Parvo.

01:54:40.432 --> 01:54:47.543
- Those are things you have to control very quickly. And again, a big shout out to the staff for getting

01:54:47.543 --> 01:54:52.030
- that contained and making sure that didn't have a bigger spread.

01:54:52.162 --> 01:54:58.125
- We are, the fostering program is definitely something that we've been growing and with Jenny and her

01:54:58.125 --> 01:55:04.088
- work and the volunteers, the number of dogs that we can get into foster care instead of simply being

01:55:04.088 --> 01:55:10.169
- at the shelter, that environment at the shelter is stressful for those animals. So if you can get them

01:55:10.169 --> 01:55:16.191
- into a home while they're waiting in adoption and their cute pictures are still on the posters in the

01:55:16.191 --> 01:55:21.150
- website, they're getting that care in a home and getting socialized to be a better,

01:55:21.282 --> 01:55:27.674
- for a better opportunity for adoption. So really increasing that some challenges and opportunities.

01:55:27.674 --> 01:55:34.065
- We continue to work with our friends in Monroe County government with our inner local agreement for

01:55:34.065 --> 01:55:40.585
- sheltering services. We work hand in hand with them a lot on cases that may go you know in and out of

01:55:40.585 --> 01:55:47.040
- city limits and just appreciate that partnership with all that we do with our our the animal control

01:55:47.040 --> 01:55:48.702
- officers with the county.

01:55:49.026 --> 01:55:55.790
- We you know the increased amount of animals in our care on a regular basis is having more maintenance

01:55:55.790 --> 01:56:02.686
- impacts on the facility on the grounds you know receding making sure those grounds are kept useful and.

01:56:03.010 --> 01:56:08.740
- trying to reduce the amount of wear or respond to the amount of wear is something the staff's doing

01:56:08.740 --> 01:56:14.584
- on a regular basis. And then, you know, one big thing we talk a lot about is the partnerships that we

01:56:14.584 --> 01:56:20.715
- have with our other animal welfare organizations. So I'd be remiss not to talk about our good relationship

01:56:20.715 --> 01:56:26.502
- with the Monroe County Humane Association. We always had a great relationship with Pets Alive in the

01:56:26.502 --> 01:56:32.346
- past, but all the work that all of the agencies do together is just helping animal welfare across the

01:56:32.346 --> 01:56:32.976
- community.

01:56:32.976 --> 01:56:39.397
- So with that I'd be happy to take any questions you have and we'll probably kick most of them back to

01:56:39.397 --> 01:56:45.692
- Virgil as our subject matter expert All right. Thank you director Wason. Are there any questions on

01:56:45.692 --> 01:56:52.050
- the animal care and control budget? Councilmember Stossberg I'll just quickly ask you just mentioned

01:56:52.050 --> 01:56:58.723
- you'd always had a good relationship with pets alive in the past and I was wondering if that relationship

01:56:58.723 --> 01:57:02.878
- was still ongoing or if there's something that's changed about it

01:57:04.226 --> 01:57:10.467
- Yes, and I actually while Virgil is getting up I forgot to mention some of the other agencies that were

01:57:10.467 --> 01:57:16.528
- in my notes Pers and paws feral cat friends wild care Bloomington paws a veterinary hospital and our

01:57:16.528 --> 01:57:22.528
- BPD officers too. So But first So yeah first outer director of animal care control our Relationship

01:57:22.528 --> 01:57:28.829
- with pets life is ongoing. They've had some changes And what they've been able to take from the shelter.

01:57:28.829 --> 01:57:33.630
- So we've we've expanded elsewhere for a lot of our spade newer services as well

01:57:33.826 --> 01:57:44.165
- So we've added some others as well continue that relationship Okay, thank you This is the perennial

01:57:44.165 --> 01:57:54.710
- question director Saturday you probably anticipate that I always ask but and I realize you have a lot

01:57:54.710 --> 01:58:01.534
- on your plate and your team does outstanding work I can't imagine

01:58:01.986 --> 01:58:09.564
- how difficult it must be sometimes. But this perennial topic, of course, is deer. And because it's an

01:58:09.564 --> 01:58:17.142
- animal, it happens to land in maybe in your domain. And I've gotten a lot of contact lately. In fact,

01:58:17.142 --> 01:58:24.794
- just today I was talking to a constituent who not only has an alpha-gal infection, therefore can't eat

01:58:24.794 --> 01:58:30.366
- meat because of a tick bite, but also his sister has Lyme disease that she

01:58:31.138 --> 01:58:40.682
- apparently derived, he said, in his yard. So there's a very strong correlation between deer number and

01:58:40.682 --> 01:58:49.948
- ticks. And I spoke to DNR recently. I spoke to Tim Carter at Ball State. And I think one question I

01:58:49.948 --> 01:58:59.678
- have is there was a recent DNR count in Bloomington of deer, albeit very limited, in a green space area.

01:59:00.450 --> 01:59:08.552
- And so I just wanted to ask about that. I've asked the DNR for a report. And then the second thing is

01:59:08.552 --> 01:59:16.019
- Professor Carter at Ball State recommended that just at bare minimum we expand that analysis.

01:59:16.019 --> 01:59:24.041
- In other words, do a larger scale count just to see in terms of its impact, understanding impact and

01:59:24.041 --> 01:59:30.078
- context and that sort of thing. And Joe Caudel at DNR said the time is ripe

01:59:30.242 --> 01:59:38.922
- to do that turns out the season potentially. So my question is, what do you think about doing a count

01:59:38.922 --> 01:59:47.518
- just for a baseline to understand the extent of the deer population in Bloomington, perhaps where it

01:59:47.518 --> 01:59:55.262
- is most prevalent? Yeah, so as far as doing a count, I think it's worthwhile as far as our

01:59:55.650 --> 02:00:02.632
- Organization the our division having the time to organize that that's where it gets little tricky with

02:00:02.632 --> 02:00:09.479
- all that we do We did partner with and and work with DNR this this spring to do kind of some of that

02:00:09.479 --> 02:00:16.461
- general counts and I'm Getting some of the final stuff Still from them, but I believe the rough figure

02:00:16.461 --> 02:00:23.646
- that they had was about 90 deer per square mile somewhere around there So that's kind of a beginning idea

02:00:24.354 --> 02:00:32.284
- And if I get more I will definitely pass it on. I think this could happen without really much of a cost

02:00:32.284 --> 02:00:40.062
- at all. In fact maybe just our corporation if we were to do this kind of scale scaling effort. So I'd

02:00:40.062 --> 02:00:47.687
- like to talk to you more about that in your administration because I think it's an opportunity that

02:00:47.687 --> 02:00:52.414
- is present for us. Thanks for questions. Council member Ruff.

02:00:55.906 --> 02:01:02.384
- There's a local news and information publication they have online it's called the B square bulletin

02:01:02.384 --> 02:01:08.926
- or something and they often Mention pets up for adoption and is that been a productive relationship?

02:01:09.826 --> 02:01:18.005
- We appreciate everything mr. That that media outlet puts out there and supportive adoptions and appreciate

02:01:18.005 --> 02:01:25.650
- it I think it's a competition between the officers at the fire department police department and The

02:01:25.650 --> 02:01:33.982
- work of mr. Askins on who has had the most impact though You're welcome Other questions from council members

02:01:36.642 --> 02:01:45.003
- All right seeing none we'll go to the public. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment

02:01:45.003 --> 02:01:52.891
- on the animal care and control budget proposal. I do not see anybody in council chambers Mr. Allen.

02:01:52.891 --> 02:02:01.173
- Nobody online. OK. We'll come back to council members for any final comments. Council member Rallo again

02:02:01.173 --> 02:02:06.142
- say how much I appreciate this department and their good work.

02:02:06.274 --> 02:02:16.093
- Unfortunately, you know it is an ever-present problem what I refer to It's got an impact on human health.

02:02:16.093 --> 02:02:25.357
- It's got an impact on food gardens. It's you know, we have deer card deer collisions that occur and

02:02:25.357 --> 02:02:31.934
- Now but it's not an easy it's there's no easy remedy for it and so I'm

02:02:32.866 --> 02:02:41.608
- I think that this could be useful information if we were to pursue this relationship with the DNR to

02:02:41.608 --> 02:02:50.784
- deploy their drones with thermal imaging to get an accurate count that would at least give us the context

02:02:50.784 --> 02:03:00.478
- of what we have on the ground. In terms of addressing the problem, that's much more difficult. Apparently, I've

02:03:00.674 --> 02:03:08.544
- I found there haven't been any major advances in sterilization or birth control and so forth. The most

02:03:08.544 --> 02:03:16.262
- effective means of sterilization that is probably cost prohibitive in the current fiscal climate. So

02:03:16.262 --> 02:03:23.903
- it's left to us I think to think about mitigation strategies and it was brought up by somebody else

02:03:23.903 --> 02:03:30.398
- who has trouble growing a food garden that perhaps we need to revisit fence heights.

02:03:30.850 --> 02:03:37.843
- in the community and and that has pluses and minuses. But it's something that maybe we should consider

02:03:37.843 --> 02:03:45.040
- at least so that people can grow food. And then the question comes in terms of equity. You know if you're

02:03:45.040 --> 02:03:52.033
- a low income person you can hardly afford to build a fence. And so maybe we ought to try to find funds

02:03:52.033 --> 02:03:59.230
- for people who want to grow food in their backyards but are unable to because of the high deer abundance.

02:04:00.226 --> 02:04:07.589
- Lots to talk about. Anyway I just wanted to put that in the context why I'm concerned. Certainly human

02:04:07.589 --> 02:04:15.095
- health is one but there are others. Thank you. Any other council members want to make a comment. Council

02:04:15.095 --> 02:04:16.382
- member Stossberg.

02:04:17.890 --> 02:04:24.776
- Thank you. I just also I guess want to spend three minutes giving a plug to animal shelter our Bloomington

02:04:24.776 --> 02:04:31.790
- animal shelter but also all of the animal shelters in our general area because it's not just the Bloomington

02:04:31.790 --> 02:04:38.290
- shelter that is overcrowded and having some challenges you can say finding space for all of the pets

02:04:38.290 --> 02:04:40.478
- that they need to find space for.

02:04:40.610 --> 02:04:48.242
- They're all overcrowded in this whole area. And I am quite an animal lover. I've got four cats and one

02:04:48.242 --> 02:04:56.022
- dog. Two of my cats came from the Bloomington shelter. One of the cats and the dog came from a different

02:04:56.022 --> 02:05:03.653
- neighboring shelter. And one of our cats I kept out of the shelter by keeping a stray. And I have been

02:05:03.653 --> 02:05:07.358
- very tempted by more pets because there have been

02:05:07.586 --> 02:05:13.907
- It is a real challenge in this whole region because there are so many to that end. I actually signed

02:05:13.907 --> 02:05:20.417
- up to be a pet foster last week, and I'm very much looking forward to having my first foster. The Parvo

02:05:20.417 --> 02:05:26.801
- outbreak has kind of delayed that a little bit because before I can bring another dog home, we've got

02:05:26.801 --> 02:05:29.054
- to make sure the dog is cat tested.

02:05:29.122 --> 02:05:36.506
- And so there's been some, yeah, so I am looking forward to that. And all that to say that if I already

02:05:36.506 --> 02:05:43.818
- have four cats and a dog, then you can also be a foster, even if you already have pets, because it is

02:05:43.818 --> 02:05:51.131
- thoroughly possible. And they will work with everybody. And I chatted with somebody this week, and it

02:05:51.131 --> 02:05:59.088
- was a very wonderful, positive encounter around trying to make sure that a temporary dog coming into our house

02:05:59.088 --> 02:06:01.246
- not upset the apple cart of.

02:06:01.314 --> 02:06:08.397
- the pets that we have currently. So that is on everybody's mind. And I wish that I could babble on here

02:06:08.397 --> 02:06:15.820
- for another minute. But adopt. Don't shop. Spay and neuter your pets. Take good care of them. And similarly,

02:06:15.820 --> 02:06:22.767
- there are other resources that the animal shelter has. They recently installed a chip scanner outside

02:06:22.767 --> 02:06:29.850
- of their facility so that if you find a lost pet, you can go to the facility and scan it yourself, even

02:06:29.850 --> 02:06:31.280
- if it's after hours.

02:06:31.280 --> 02:06:38.199
- and there are instructions and all of the things, and that will help reunify pets sooner. Speaking of

02:06:38.199 --> 02:06:45.051
- chips, if you have a pet that is not chipped, maybe you should chip it, because it's actually pretty

02:06:45.051 --> 02:06:51.970
- inexpensive to chip your pet, and lots of places do it. And I don't think I can babble for another 30

02:06:51.970 --> 02:06:58.686
- seconds, but thank you very much. Thank you. Any other comments? Just a reminder to everybody that

02:06:58.850 --> 02:07:09.454
- Just because we have three minutes doesn't mean we have to take three minutes. But those were all good

02:07:09.454 --> 02:07:20.778
- points. Not to not to take anything away from those wise councils. We now go on to what are we on. Facilities

02:07:20.778 --> 02:07:28.190
- maintenance. Mr. Wason presentations flipped around. Sorry. All righty.

02:07:28.578 --> 02:07:36.395
- Facilities maintenance division. So on behalf of JD borough our facilities director Nick Spagnola our

02:07:36.395 --> 02:07:44.211
- asset and operations manager and Russell flake and Barry Wallach we Have a small but mighty crew that

02:07:44.211 --> 02:07:47.966
- is responsible for maintaining 28 city buildings

02:07:48.194 --> 02:07:55.681
- So small staff, but lots of responsibility across all the city There is a big reduction in their budget

02:07:55.681 --> 02:08:03.240
- budget this year from transferring over funds to the admin division as well as a couple other reductions

02:08:03.240 --> 02:08:10.510
- making up a budget total budget request of 1.5 million, which is 526,000 less than last year some of

02:08:10.510 --> 02:08:13.534
- the big things that we've been working on

02:08:13.762 --> 02:08:19.317
- We've JD and his team are partners to all city departments that are not parks and rec. So we work with

02:08:19.317 --> 02:08:24.818
- the police department we work with the fire department on all of their facilities. JD's been spending

02:08:24.818 --> 02:08:29.726
- a lot of time working with the fire department on their new training and logistics center.

02:08:30.370 --> 02:08:38.663
- And that started last year and so in addition to working with all those other city departments on their

02:08:38.663 --> 02:08:46.637
- facilities needs JD and his team are also helping manage our DC on properties like West showers the

02:08:46.637 --> 02:08:51.262
- college square property on second or third in college and

02:08:51.490 --> 02:08:58.455
- And such so a growing inventory of facilities. They're responsible for Most importantly possibly tonight

02:08:58.455 --> 02:09:05.221
- the repairs to the City Hall Plaza Fountain are being Are underway we are waiting for a part that has

02:09:05.221 --> 02:09:11.854
- been lost in transit to get the City Hall Plaza Fountain running again There is nothing more than I

02:09:11.854 --> 02:09:18.686
- want to do than make happy those young children on Saturday mornings that want to play in the fountain

02:09:18.946 --> 02:09:24.741
- This is a big deal guys. I don't know how you know how much you know but we get a lot of calls about

02:09:24.741 --> 02:09:30.766
- that fountain so we're really working to get that old fountain repaired. We're also working with several

02:09:30.766 --> 02:09:35.070
- city departments on all things West showers looking at that space in that.

02:09:35.170 --> 02:09:43.041
- in that part of the building for future possibilities what needs to happen to it from a systems perspective

02:09:43.041 --> 02:09:50.401
- what investments need to be made and how what could that possibly look like in the future. There are

02:09:50.401 --> 02:09:57.689
- no set concrete plans. It's all just trying to understand needs and investments that need to happen

02:09:57.689 --> 02:09:58.782
- there as well.

02:09:59.362 --> 02:10:06.899
- Our number one goal is always to have safe functioning facilities for all of our staff to operate out

02:10:06.899 --> 02:10:14.363
- of as we talked about with the operation center having a modern work environment for staff is a high

02:10:14.363 --> 02:10:19.166
- priority for us across the board at all of our city departments.

02:10:19.266 --> 02:10:25.909
- We are also, you know, working on all things to improve our buildings, whether it's structural and mechanical

02:10:25.909 --> 02:10:32.009
- integrity, but also working on energy efficiency and sustainability projects. So all of the lighting

02:10:32.009 --> 02:10:38.410
- upgrades that we partnered with ESD on in city hall last year to do the dimming lights and the new energy

02:10:38.410 --> 02:10:44.510
- efficiency lighting. We're always making that a goal in anything we do with the facilities division.

02:10:44.930 --> 02:10:51.529
- This year and in 2026 we've been you've seen a lot of changes to City Hall. The old wallpaper is down

02:10:51.529 --> 02:10:58.063
- We've got new fresh paint. We've been doing carpet replacements furniture replacements you know, you

02:10:58.063 --> 02:11:04.598
- got to freshen up every 20 years or so and big kudos to JD and his team for managing those contracts

02:11:04.598 --> 02:11:08.350
- to really improve the appearance here of City Hall and to

02:11:09.090 --> 02:11:16.525
- For for you know the next 20 40 50 years of use of this as a city building one of the big things that

02:11:16.525 --> 02:11:23.887
- JD and his team do help with to though is We they help manage some of our contracts for snow removal

02:11:23.887 --> 02:11:31.468
- primarily around city facilities or city-owned properties and that is something that You know last year

02:11:31.468 --> 02:11:38.174
- showed to be much needed and we're going to continue with that again this year we had 60 we

02:11:38.978 --> 02:11:46.151
- Roughly sixty nine thousand dollars spent last year on snow control out of this budget alone. And so

02:11:46.151 --> 02:11:53.182
- that will also continue into twenty twenty seven with the facilities teams effort on that as well.

02:11:53.346 --> 02:12:00.541
- So you know what is our big focus for next year. You know we're really in the mode of maintenance trying

02:12:00.541 --> 02:12:06.913
- to focus on maintaining what we have making improvement at the improvements at the locations

02:12:06.913 --> 02:12:14.039
- we're responsible for and not having major capital investments at this time. Additionally you know some

02:12:14.039 --> 02:12:17.054
- of the things that we're really working to.

02:12:17.314 --> 02:12:24.947
- Is to replace the aging systems for many years several of you've probably heard me talk about the heat

02:12:24.947 --> 02:12:32.357
- pumps in City Hall and the Software systems that we use to manage all of our different HVAC Control

02:12:32.357 --> 02:12:38.878
- throughout the building so continuing to invest in that modernization and then you know

02:12:39.042 --> 02:12:44.991
- One of the big reasons that we've done the reorganization in the way we have where we're moving the

02:12:44.991 --> 02:12:51.179
- downtown specialists and the Brighton Bloomington program out of facilities and into the admin division

02:12:51.179 --> 02:12:57.247
- is just because of trying to be as efficient as we can with our resources knowing that the facilities

02:12:57.247 --> 02:13:03.732
- division has gotten busier and busier. So from Russell Barry JD and Nick we thank you for your consideration

02:13:03.732 --> 02:13:08.254
- and happy to answer any questions. Five minutes goes by fast. It sure does.

02:13:09.058 --> 02:13:19.493
- Any questions for mr. Wason or his colleagues about the facilities budget councilmember Rallo No, I

02:13:19.493 --> 02:13:30.136
- don't Council member Stossburg Thank you. I was just wondering I noticed that the electrical services

02:13:30.136 --> 02:13:39.006
- line for the general fund was reduced and the electrical services line in the ED lit

02:13:39.138 --> 02:13:47.157
- Fund was completely eliminated. So I guess I'm wondering whether Electrical charges are really down

02:13:47.157 --> 02:13:55.496
- that much or like what? I'm kind of hoping you're gonna say yeah, they're really down that much because

02:13:55.496 --> 02:14:03.836
- of all this I'm gonna rely on my friend controller McKim and then I'm gonna check with JD and Nate Jeff

02:14:03.836 --> 02:14:04.798
- McKim and I

02:14:04.898 --> 02:14:11.336
- Don't have the details in front of me and and JD may have some other ideas also But I know that we did

02:14:11.336 --> 02:14:18.212
- discover that there was some double budgeting in for electrical services between the Redevelopment Commission

02:14:18.212 --> 02:14:23.900
- who owns the building right now and the and facilities and so we'd rather have it paid out

02:14:23.900 --> 02:14:30.213
- of the Redevelopment Commission's revenue rather than the the general fund So I don't know if that's

02:14:30.213 --> 02:14:31.838
- is that the correct? Okay

02:14:34.178 --> 02:14:44.380
- Great. Thank you. Any other questions. Council members look. Thank you. Director race and I remember

02:14:44.380 --> 02:14:54.481
- we've had a couple of conversations about potential options for clearing snow from sidewalks in the

02:14:54.481 --> 02:15:00.542
- future. Do you have any updates on that. Specifically what.

02:15:01.410 --> 02:15:08.766
- Well, I know that that was a big pain point in previous snow storms. And I know that Public Works was

02:15:08.766 --> 02:15:14.174
- just evaluating alternatives to getting especially major arteries cleared.

02:15:14.402 --> 02:15:20.733
- Yeah, so in our Street Division budget that we presented last week, it does include funding for Private

02:15:20.733 --> 02:15:27.003
- contracting of public rights of way that are not adjacent to city facilities, but that's in the Street

02:15:27.003 --> 02:15:33.334
- Division budget The main thing in the facilities budget for snow control is adjacent to city properties

02:15:33.334 --> 02:15:40.030
- that we own or maintain so we're going to continue doing that and then with the Street Division's budgets for

02:15:40.258 --> 02:15:47.890
- Focusing on what we call the high priority pedestrian network I think we're going to continue to focus

02:15:47.890 --> 02:15:55.744
- on the South walnut corridor as well as We focus on the overpasses over I 69 at 2nd Street and 3rd Street

02:15:55.744 --> 02:16:01.598
- that are in dot rights of way But they don't do any pedestrian snow removal on

02:16:01.666 --> 02:16:07.790
- Trying to keep those east-west corridors open as best as possible It's a challenge just like South Walnut's

02:16:07.790 --> 02:16:13.460
- a challenge. Those are monolithic So if the snow continues over multiple days, this plows are going

02:16:13.460 --> 02:16:19.131
- to continue to push it up I think last year during our snow our big snow event We went out to those

02:16:19.131 --> 02:16:24.858
- locations on three different occasions trying to do snow removal so we're gonna keep after it but as

02:16:24.858 --> 02:16:25.822
- you all know the

02:16:25.890 --> 02:16:33.392
- bulk of that responsibility is on private property owners to clear their pedestrian rights of way adjacent

02:16:33.392 --> 02:16:40.684
- to their properties. So that that that's got to be our focus is to help or to continue encouraging that

02:16:40.684 --> 02:16:47.835
- and then we'll do what we can with the high priority network. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you for

02:16:47.835 --> 02:16:54.846
- the explanation. That was very easy to follow. Any additional questions. Well of course I have one.

02:16:55.842 --> 02:17:04.538
- So, Mr. Wason, you and I had spoken on the phone about the resolution passed by the Bloomington Commission

02:17:04.538 --> 02:17:12.828
- on Sustainability and Resilience against the use of rodenticides that are, you know, the rats eat the

02:17:12.828 --> 02:17:21.281
- poison and they struggle around for a few days and can infect the environment and any raptors who might

02:17:21.281 --> 02:17:25.182
- eat them or any other interactions with nature.

02:17:25.378 --> 02:17:32.771
- that have ripple effects negative effects on the community and on our environment. Have you had a chance

02:17:32.771 --> 02:17:39.882
- to investigate any alternatives to using rodenticides. You have reached out to economy pest control.

02:17:39.882 --> 02:17:46.782
- They are researching some opportunities that we might be able to consider. Just to clarify we've.

02:17:47.010 --> 02:17:54.230
- used the rodent aside for rodent control and only two facilities. That's the sanitation garage and the

02:17:54.230 --> 02:18:01.311
- fleet maintenance garage where sanitation trucks are often being worked on. So it's not a widespread

02:18:01.311 --> 02:18:09.022
- use of it across the city or anything like that. It's really too specific to two locations. We do understand.

02:18:09.154 --> 02:18:15.385
- You know we've been able to read or understand the information that the Commission on Sustainability

02:18:15.385 --> 02:18:21.554
- and Resilience has provided and the effects that it can have the secondary or other effects that it

02:18:21.554 --> 02:18:27.846
- can have. And so we're still researching what opportunities we may have to control the populations in

02:18:27.846 --> 02:18:34.077
- those locations and not and meeting that resolution. But we don't have final answers yet. OK. Well I

02:18:34.077 --> 02:18:38.334
- appreciate the effort in looking at the you know and I don't want to

02:18:38.786 --> 02:18:46.514
- be too graphic or, you know, the option is, you know, so what the Commission on Sustainability and Resilience

02:18:46.514 --> 02:18:53.751
- does not want used are sticky traps, those are very inhumane or, you know, those are really not great,

02:18:53.751 --> 02:19:01.128
- or the rodenticides. The manual traps and things aren't exactly practical for a location like sanitation

02:19:01.128 --> 02:19:06.046
- or fleet where the amount of service those might need would be great.

02:19:08.706 --> 02:19:17.241
- Understood. Any other questions. All right. Seeing none we will go to the public. Is there any member

02:19:17.241 --> 02:19:25.610
- of the public who would like to comment on the budget proposal from facilities maintenance. I don't

02:19:25.610 --> 02:19:34.396
- see anybody in chambers. What about online. OK. All right. We'll come back to council members. Are there

02:19:34.396 --> 02:19:38.078
- any final comments on this budget proposal.

02:19:42.722 --> 02:19:50.388
- Seeing none we shall move on to fleet maintenance maintenance already continuing the Public Works Party

02:19:50.388 --> 02:19:58.055
- Corey Snyder fleet director and the team at fleet maintenance is doing tremendous work keeping the city

02:19:58.055 --> 02:20:05.500
- operating 24 7 and all the things we do across all service delivery departments fleet maintenance is

02:20:05.500 --> 02:20:08.670
- as challenging as it's probably ever been.

02:20:09.346 --> 02:20:16.802
- from the perspective of costs and parts availability. But one thing that has been great is we are fully

02:20:16.802 --> 02:20:24.044
- staffed down there right now with what is for all of the budgeted positions and do want to say thank

02:20:24.044 --> 02:20:31.285
- you to the mayor's office and to the council. The new contract for AFSCME has made it much easier to

02:20:31.285 --> 02:20:38.526
- try to retain and bring in new fleet technicians. So thank you to all the folks that worked on that.

02:20:38.914 --> 02:20:46.630
- The fleet division has eight dedicated bays and two large equipment drive-through bays This is the picture

02:20:46.630 --> 02:20:53.842
- looking from east to west of our main entrance to the fleet garage In a perfect world we would have

02:20:53.842 --> 02:21:01.126
- probably double that number of bays We would have better equipment to service in those bays and that

02:21:01.126 --> 02:21:06.174
- is also a big reason why an operation center is so desperately needed

02:21:06.850 --> 02:21:14.110
- So at Fleet we have 12 full time employees that's for you or for non union a union.

02:21:14.306 --> 02:21:20.949
- We do have an increase in their budget that we'll talk about in more detail as we go on but some of

02:21:20.949 --> 02:21:27.659
- the biggest challenges we're having fuel prices volatile fuel markets, so it's one thing to have the

02:21:27.659 --> 02:21:34.834
- increased fuel prices for the petroleum for the gas that we're gas and diesel we're putting in our vehicles

02:21:34.834 --> 02:21:42.142
- But the increased petroleum prices gas prices have that ripple effect of every delivery everything that every

02:21:42.306 --> 02:21:49.350
- All costs are up because fuel costs are up. So that's both for parts and supplies on top of you know,

02:21:49.350 --> 02:21:51.422
- just the increased fuel costs

02:21:51.650 --> 02:21:57.464
- And I've already talked a lot about the operation center. So I won't harp on that anymore overall total

02:21:57.464 --> 02:22:03.167
- requests four point eight eight five million And that's about an eight percent increase mostly on the

02:22:03.167 --> 02:22:08.869
- category one side of things So our 2026 highlights thanks to the City Council this year. We added the

02:22:08.869 --> 02:22:14.516
- service and capital coordinator position You might say what does that position do that is a position

02:22:14.516 --> 02:22:20.107
- that's been really key to? Coordinate with all the departments on not only their capital purchasing

02:22:20.107 --> 02:22:21.616
- but their capital disposal

02:22:21.616 --> 02:22:27.117
- one of the best things we can do for our insurance rates is get rid of outdated unused equipment and

02:22:27.117 --> 02:22:32.618
- And do that through auction and bring some revenues back into the city. So thank you to Keith sharp.

02:22:32.618 --> 02:22:38.338
- He's been doing a tremendous job in that position and Keith was one of our longtime technicians so knows

02:22:38.338 --> 02:22:44.111
- the operation knows what it takes and has done a really great job I think we're over a hundred and thirty

02:22:44.111 --> 02:22:48.414
- thousand that we've brought in so far this year just on our auctions alone and

02:22:48.482 --> 02:22:54.881
- We've been upgrading our systems both for fuel tracking and for asset management. Asset management at

02:22:54.881 --> 02:23:01.657
- Fleet's a little different. Not only do we want to manage the asset as in the vehicle number and understand

02:23:01.657 --> 02:23:08.056
- its age, how much service it's had, but also tracking how much time we're spending on it from a labor

02:23:08.056 --> 02:23:14.769
- perspective and really tracking those dollars. So big kudos to the team down there for trying to modernize

02:23:14.769 --> 02:23:15.710
- those efforts.

02:23:16.322 --> 02:23:22.758
- I mentioned we're full staffed which is fantastic. And then we've also gone to a 24 7 on call for fleet

02:23:22.758 --> 02:23:28.946
- technicians which has been super helpful. Previously we didn't have anyone on call. We'd have to do

02:23:28.946 --> 02:23:35.135
- a call out which is much different than having somebody on call and ready to respond as needed. And

02:23:35.135 --> 02:23:40.766
- then we are continuing to invest in those fully electric vehicles across the city's fleet.

02:23:41.442 --> 02:23:48.297
- I mentioned we've done one hundred and thirty thousand in sales on old pieces of equipment. Sometimes

02:23:48.297 --> 02:23:55.220
- they even tow them away after buying them. So there is value in an outdated trash truck. But when they

02:23:55.220 --> 02:23:59.454
- don't meet our needs there is a secondary market for all that.

02:24:00.002 --> 02:24:06.903
- With the on-call technicians, this is reducing downtime for our vehicles. So the picture on the right

02:24:06.903 --> 02:24:13.668
- shows you our staff out in the field responding to a snowplow that needed service during one of our

02:24:13.668 --> 02:24:18.878
- snow events. Having someone on call ready is improving those response times.

02:24:19.394 --> 02:24:25.297
- Not only for during snow events, but this could be the fire truck that's broken down in the middle of

02:24:25.297 --> 02:24:31.085
- night This could be any number of different a lot of responses out to the utilities. Those are 24 7

02:24:31.085 --> 02:24:33.342
- operations. So big improvement on that

02:24:33.858 --> 02:24:39.458
- Some of our goals so we're continuing to focus on our preventative maintenance program. We've always

02:24:39.458 --> 02:24:45.058
- tried to focus on that the more you put into preventative maintenance the lower the cost to maintain

02:24:45.058 --> 02:24:50.492
- the vehicle over time is and less likelihood for larger scale repairs that can get caught through

02:24:50.492 --> 02:24:51.934
- preventative maintenance.

02:24:52.610 --> 02:24:59.194
- Really sending out a lot of messaging, working with city departments on reducing idling time. Any minute

02:24:59.194 --> 02:25:05.591
- that's not spent idling is a minute that's not using fuel or creating unnecessary emissions. So we've

02:25:05.591 --> 02:25:12.050
- been doing some piloting of some different programs to track that. And hopefully someday in the future

02:25:12.050 --> 02:25:18.383
- when resources allow, we'd be able to do a more city-wide effort with that. So we've implemented the

02:25:18.383 --> 02:25:20.766
- new cloud-based fuel tracking system.

02:25:21.474 --> 02:25:28.118
- And that allows for all kinds of real time monitoring not only on fuel levels but any malfunctions.

02:25:28.118 --> 02:25:34.828
- You know we have folks using our fueling sites 24 7 and so having this ability to do things remotely

02:25:34.828 --> 02:25:41.406
- has been tremendously helpful. Some big things that we're trying to continue and improve in 20 27.

02:25:41.506 --> 02:25:47.584
- Really again focused on preventative maintenance but in slightly different ways we're trying to make

02:25:47.584 --> 02:25:53.663
- sure that no vehicle is more than 30 days past due at any time with the size of a fleet that we have

02:25:53.663 --> 02:25:59.801
- that's that's tremendously challenging but something we're striving for and then really the big focus

02:25:59.801 --> 02:26:02.750
- is replacement of aging or obsolete city assets.

02:26:02.818 --> 02:26:10.080
- Point of reference here to try to put that into perspective We still have some vehicles in our city's

02:26:10.080 --> 02:26:17.200
- inventory that can't use ethanol any fuel with any ethanol Additives so e 85 is out the window e 90

02:26:17.200 --> 02:26:24.605
- because we still have some of those so really looking to get those out and give us better opportunities

02:26:24.605 --> 02:26:30.942
- we could say 40 or 50 cents a gallon on fuel purchases just by moving to a E 85 or 90 so

02:26:31.106 --> 02:26:37.833
- Things that we're looking at for the future as well This is the what I'm talking about with the preventive

02:26:37.833 --> 02:26:44.120
- maintenance program So we want to make sure every asset that is in the inventory across the city is

02:26:44.120 --> 02:26:50.533
- seen at least once every six months It may not need a full service at that time, but at least getting

02:26:50.533 --> 02:26:56.820
- an eyeball on it and making sure we're able to pull appropriate data and so I was talking with Cory

02:26:56.820 --> 02:26:59.838
- about this earlier from 25 so far in 2026 where

02:27:00.130 --> 02:27:07.457
- Projecting out for the full year that will have a 46 percent reduction in the past due services. So

02:27:07.457 --> 02:27:15.004
- From 25 to 26 We're nearly reducing in half the number of vehicles that haven't been seen in more than

02:27:15.004 --> 02:27:23.064
- 30 days past when they should have so that's huge We're also again with the Trying to reduce fuel consumption

02:27:23.064 --> 02:27:28.926
- talking about reducing any unnecessary trips and and really limiting the idling

02:27:29.026 --> 02:27:35.572
- We talked earlier about the fuel market instability. It's been a challenge and big kudos to Corey and

02:27:35.572 --> 02:27:41.989
- Lisa for really tracking those and projecting out. It's still possible we'll have to do some end of

02:27:41.989 --> 02:27:48.919
- year moving of funds between categories or possible small additional appropriation, but we've been tracking

02:27:48.919 --> 02:27:51.422
- that really closely. Otherwise, I just

02:27:51.554 --> 02:27:57.758
- Would be remiss not to talk about how important the staff at fleet maintenance is for keeping all city

02:27:57.758 --> 02:28:01.854
- services running for those that don't know or the public listening.

02:28:01.922 --> 02:28:08.088
- Fleet maintenance services, every city department. So that's police, that's fire, that's utilities,

02:28:08.088 --> 02:28:14.315
- that's parks, all the different departments. Public Works has a huge inventory of vehicles. The team

02:28:14.315 --> 02:28:20.727
- down there can work on everything from an aerial truck to an ATV to a Zamboni, and they do a tremendous

02:28:20.727 --> 02:28:27.325
- job. So big kudos to all the technicians down there, to Corey and his team. Happy to answer any questions.

02:28:27.325 --> 02:28:30.654
- Thank you very much, Mr. Wason. Council Member Rollo.

02:28:32.738 --> 02:28:42.030
- Thank you, Director Wason. Um, so looking at your, um, the expenses and supplies that's, as you mentioned,

02:28:42.030 --> 02:28:50.715
- fuel is the, is the major component, right? Um, in fact, you, you've budgeted for a 30% increase in

02:28:50.715 --> 02:28:59.486
- next year, about $400,000 for that. So looking back at the 2025 actual compared to the, um, current,

02:28:59.618 --> 02:29:07.787
- The budgeted this year was about six hundred thousand dollar increase and I wondered so you you just

02:29:07.787 --> 02:29:16.036
- sort of mentioned this I mean, this is a large component of that is Diesel diesel prices have gone up

02:29:16.036 --> 02:29:24.204
- significantly Sorry, is there a actually fuels not included in that line that is fuel that is not in

02:29:24.204 --> 02:29:25.822
- the supply line and

02:29:25.954 --> 02:29:34.002
- This is all parts and supply increases. That's not actual fuel. That's interesting because when I look

02:29:34.002 --> 02:29:41.894
- at the supply line I see below it thirteen point eight four increase and fuel and oil accounts for a

02:29:41.894 --> 02:29:48.926
- four hundred thousand dollar increase. Thirty percent back up coming. Hang on one second.

02:29:55.490 --> 02:30:02.867
- So I'm referring to page 189. Yes. No, you are correct that that that line does include the fuel. It

02:30:02.867 --> 02:30:10.172
- also includes all parts and supplies as well. Okay. So parts and supplies is under the fuel and oil

02:30:10.172 --> 02:30:17.695
- category. Is that correct parts? The entire 200 category includes all parts and supplies and fuel. Did

02:30:17.695 --> 02:30:25.438
- I say that correct? Yes. Okay. So I guess what I'm my question was are we on track to spend everything we

02:30:25.602 --> 02:30:32.345
- budgeted for in terms of fuel for this year, are we going to have another? Yes, that's what I was referred

02:30:32.345 --> 02:30:38.899
- to. It's we're tracking right now that we're hoping to continue on some fuel savings, but it's possible

02:30:38.899 --> 02:30:45.452
- we'll have to do some funds shifting of funds within the lines at the end of the year or possible small

02:30:45.452 --> 02:30:52.006
- additional appropriation, but We're just finishing out our kind of third quarter projections right now.

02:30:52.006 --> 02:30:54.590
- Okay Well, the giver take other supplies

02:30:54.754 --> 02:31:03.037
- It looks like you're budgeting for less cost and fuel next year 2027 than you did in 2026. Is that correct.

02:31:03.037 --> 02:31:10.706
- No that wouldn't be correct. We would be right about where we are this year and projecting out fuel

02:31:10.706 --> 02:31:18.452
- about the same about the same. Okay. All right. That's that's good clarity. Well my time's almost up

02:31:18.452 --> 02:31:20.446
- so that gives me an idea.

02:31:20.642 --> 02:31:27.784
- We'll get you some more detail on those budget lines as well on the specific numbers on the line items.

02:31:27.784 --> 02:31:34.925
- Yeah it's very unpredictable as you said because inventories are tight. Thank you. Other council member

02:31:34.925 --> 02:31:41.861
- questions seeing none. We will go to the public. Is there any member of the public who would like to

02:31:41.861 --> 02:31:49.758
- comment on the proposed budget for fleet maintenance. Don't see anybody here in chambers. Is there anybody online.

02:31:51.618 --> 02:31:58.239
- OK. All right. We'll come back to council members. Does anybody want to give some final comments on

02:31:58.239 --> 02:32:05.456
- fleet maintenance. Council member Stossberg I guess I'll just give a quick comment and say that I appreciate

02:32:05.456 --> 02:32:12.342
- the the no idling that you're trying to implement because not only is the fuel saver but it also idling

02:32:12.342 --> 02:32:19.294
- really adds up in terms of air pollutants. So just for everybody out there who generally idols idling as

02:32:19.426 --> 02:32:25.659
- really not great for our air quality. And similarly, that's something that I first started noticing

02:32:25.659 --> 02:32:31.955
- when I was in school pickup lines. So if you're hanging out in the school pickup line waiting to get

02:32:31.955 --> 02:32:38.313
- your kid idling, maybe consider rolling down your windows and turning off your car. Thanks. Any other

02:32:38.313 --> 02:32:44.671
- comments. Council member Rollo. Well, just by the nature of my questions, clearly I'm concerned about

02:32:44.671 --> 02:32:47.102
- a supply shock if if we encounter one.

02:32:47.234 --> 02:32:56.346
- And it sounds like your crew is very much aware of that in preparing to buffer costs where they could

02:32:56.346 --> 02:33:05.636
- and budget a budget this a very unpredictable market and into your needs. Thank you. All right. I think

02:33:05.636 --> 02:33:13.854
- we can move on then to sanitation which will be our last public works presentation tonight.

02:33:14.402 --> 02:33:21.749
- We won't turn down the lights yet, but it is last call for public works budgets this evening We are

02:33:21.749 --> 02:33:25.790
- on our 2027 budget request for the sanitation division

02:33:26.210 --> 02:33:32.979
- Just again want to start with a big. Thank you to Lazarus Sears director of sanitation Bria Carter our

02:33:32.979 --> 02:33:39.550
- office manager the entire team of operators and laborers that Do the daily work that is the city of

02:33:39.550 --> 02:33:46.187
- Bloomington sanitation division. So this is also a seven day a week operation We're running our main

02:33:46.187 --> 02:33:52.825
- routes Monday through Thursday and then doing our Wednesday through Sunday weekend routes as well So

02:33:52.825 --> 02:33:56.176
- not only are we servicing single-family households

02:33:56.176 --> 02:34:03.173
- of four units or less we're servicing all city properties so your police station your fire stations

02:34:03.173 --> 02:34:10.311
- your parks facilities all of those are being serviced by sanitation staff and are included as part of

02:34:10.311 --> 02:34:11.710
- this budget as well

02:34:11.906 --> 02:34:19.169
- So 22 full time staff and one permanent part time staff member make up the staffing for the sanitation

02:34:19.169 --> 02:34:26.361
- division. You're seeing about a sixty thousand dollar increase in their overall budget request mainly

02:34:26.361 --> 02:34:33.694
- for category one. Some of the things that we've been really focused on in 26 and going into 27 is we've

02:34:33.858 --> 02:34:40.384
- For some of you that have been on council for many years We have not had much luck finding a successful

02:34:40.384 --> 02:34:46.722
- vendor in helping us with our route management and overall tracking of household participation rates

02:34:46.722 --> 02:34:53.123
- for sanitation Something we're continuing to look at into the future You know, it's not I don't think

02:34:53.123 --> 02:34:58.206
- a surprise to anyone in this room or anyone that's on the financial subcommittee

02:34:58.402 --> 02:35:05.415
- Of the council we need to look at sanitation rates our amount of general fund support to sanitation

02:35:05.415 --> 02:35:12.708
- is continuing to increase and so looking at Coming back to the council yet in 2026 here with discussion

02:35:12.708 --> 02:35:19.861
- about sanitation rates and then always continuing to talk about how we want to increase our diversion

02:35:19.861 --> 02:35:22.526
- rates from landfill to recycling, etc

02:35:23.298 --> 02:35:30.660
- again, four point almost stable budget here one of our more stable budgets overall, but four point oh

02:35:30.660 --> 02:35:38.095
- six six million in total requests, which is a one point five percent increase from 2026 So some of the

02:35:38.095 --> 02:35:45.457
- highlights for 2026 we're in the process of completing a much-needed improvement for a break room for

02:35:45.457 --> 02:35:47.262
- the staff down there and

02:35:47.874 --> 02:35:54.789
- We did put one new truck into service so far this year. Our yard waste program has been super successful.

02:35:54.789 --> 02:36:01.900
- We're at five hundred and seventeen tons of yard waste we've picked up so far this year and we're continuing

02:36:01.900 --> 02:36:07.902
- to focus on the safe work environment with our our modernized collection system since 2017.

02:36:09.250 --> 02:36:15.687
- We are doing community outreach. We do a couple different school visits every year We participate in

02:36:15.687 --> 02:36:22.252
- the neighborhood cleanups that housing neighborhood development puts on each year and then a big focus

02:36:22.252 --> 02:36:29.135
- and if you've been around town at all in the last few days is our coordinated effort with rental properties

02:36:29.135 --> 02:36:33.150
- rental property owners and the residents that lease those that

02:36:33.250 --> 02:36:41.115
- Need to be educated on our sanitation program and collection services So in terms of for next year and

02:36:41.115 --> 02:36:48.752
- the priorities we have You know, we're at about a 28 percent diversion rate currently this year. We

02:36:48.752 --> 02:36:56.617
- want to get that up back closer to 30 or 35 percent and continue working with all staff on the climate

02:36:56.617 --> 02:37:01.886
- action plan in terms of how that impacts our sanitation division and

02:37:02.882 --> 02:37:09.773
- So I talked about our software solutions We're currently our yard waste program is currently using an

02:37:09.773 --> 02:37:16.798
- in-house software solution that we worked with our ITS department on so big shout out to them for their

02:37:16.798 --> 02:37:23.959
- assistance and In getting that up and running. We're really focused on our account management and routing

02:37:23.959 --> 02:37:26.526
- some doing regular audits of not only

02:37:26.658 --> 02:37:36.207
- our billing and cart sizes per address, but also looking at how we can make efficiencies through improved

02:37:36.207 --> 02:37:45.395
- routing and such. Every time we can shave off a mile or two from a route is less wear and tear on the

02:37:45.395 --> 02:37:51.070
- vehicles, the tires, or the amount of fuel that they're using.

02:37:51.330 --> 02:37:58.567
- You know, we talked about the sanitation rates. So, you know working with the council to determine an

02:37:58.567 --> 02:38:05.803
- appropriate way to lower that amount of general fund support over time and Big effort that'll have to

02:38:05.803 --> 02:38:12.969
- a big conversation. I'll have to involve the council the community and all of our stakeholders Right

02:38:12.969 --> 02:38:20.702
- now we're servicing about 14,000 units on a daily basis throughout the week and Have we're doing four routes

02:38:20.834 --> 02:38:28.824
- We do the four daily routes for both sanitation for both solid waste pickup and recycling. I talked

02:38:28.824 --> 02:38:36.973
- about our city facilities. So we currently pick up from 33 city parks. So every parks facility across

02:38:36.973 --> 02:38:45.043
- the community receives sanitation services and then we have 26 city facilities and we collect all of

02:38:45.043 --> 02:38:48.798
- the downtown pedestrian size pedestrian scale.

02:38:48.994 --> 02:38:54.899
- Trash and recycling so those that you see on Kirkwood throughout the trades district throughout the

02:38:54.899 --> 02:39:01.217
- downtown Those are all being collected by sanitation So when you think about the overall amount of general

02:39:01.217 --> 02:39:07.357
- fund support being about the 1.5 million number we're estimating three to four hundred thousand of that

02:39:07.357 --> 02:39:10.782
- is servicing city facilities city parks and collection of

02:39:11.010 --> 02:39:18.843
- from all of those that are outside of our folks that actually pay the rates at single family homes and

02:39:18.843 --> 02:39:24.926
- units of four or less always focused on safety and reducing workplace injuries.

02:39:25.026 --> 02:39:31.302
- 2025 we did have a bit of an uptick on our overall number of injuries doing much better this year and

02:39:31.302 --> 02:39:37.700
- hopefully our workers compensation rates will reflect that as well even with the new modernized tipping

02:39:37.700 --> 02:39:44.037
- system there is you know sanitation work is still a dangerous work you're out in traffic you're moving

02:39:44.037 --> 02:39:50.313
- big heavy carts so the strain some of the muscle strains things like that are still going to occur at

02:39:50.313 --> 02:39:53.758
- some level but trying to reduce those in any way we can

02:39:54.210 --> 02:40:01.815
- And so thank you to Lazarus and his team. They've as part of our new AFSCME contract We did a workplace

02:40:01.815 --> 02:40:09.565
- safety training that was specific to sanitation and so that's not only your defensive driving and traffic

02:40:09.565 --> 02:40:17.097
- management, but all of blood-borne pathogen training hazmat training And all that for trying to create

02:40:17.097 --> 02:40:22.142
- the most the safest work environment possible down at sanitation and

02:40:22.562 --> 02:40:32.209
- So you know we'll talk obviously into the fall about how we would want to structure rates and then that'll

02:40:32.209 --> 02:40:36.446
- be a big conversation going forward of course.

02:40:37.122 --> 02:40:44.311
- So just wanted to show you some collection totals year to date. We are right on track to be at about

02:40:44.311 --> 02:40:51.713
- a Comparable track tonnage for trash collection and it looks like we'll be right around the same amount

02:40:51.713 --> 02:40:52.638
- on recycling

02:40:53.282 --> 02:40:59.600
- tonnages as well so busy busy times at sanitation right now for anyone that has been driving around

02:40:59.600 --> 02:41:06.107
- the community you're seeing those large piles of cardboard boxes and all of the move-in volume and big

02:41:06.107 --> 02:41:12.552
- shout out to Lazarus and his team you know as we think about what we would want to do with sanitation

02:41:12.552 --> 02:41:19.059
- in the future in terms of rates and things it's not about just the rate of collection of the trash and

02:41:19.059 --> 02:41:20.702
- recycling it's looking at

02:41:20.802 --> 02:41:28.327
- You know, how do we actually capture all costs with the move in move out volumes and increases? How

02:41:28.327 --> 02:41:36.002
- do we want to look at yard waste and the programs generally so it won't just be a great structure for

02:41:36.002 --> 02:41:43.678
- the cars but thinking about the whole program entirely from large item and extra collections as well.

02:41:44.450 --> 02:41:53.651
- With that happy to answer any questions and appreciate your consideration for not only the sanitation

02:41:53.651 --> 02:42:03.032
- budget But all five of the budgets presented tonight on behalf of public works Thank You director Wason

02:42:03.032 --> 02:42:13.406
- Sorry, you said no questions, I know you're eager to to go home, but we might just have a few councilmember Ralu I

02:42:13.794 --> 02:42:22.337
- I don't think these are tough questions. I'm really amazed at the color the Consistency of the collection

02:42:22.337 --> 02:42:30.718
- totals year-by-year. That's amazing Are we still around about 30%? compostibles within the waste stream

02:42:30.718 --> 02:42:39.422
- The solid waste district hasn't done an audit overall community-wide in some time, but we've never actually

02:42:39.618 --> 02:42:46.634
- Um, commissioned an audit of our own. Uh, we relied on some of that data. So, um, maybe something to

02:42:46.634 --> 02:42:53.581
- consider in the future, but I'm, I'm guessing that percentage hasn't changed much. Okay. Thank you.

02:42:53.581 --> 02:43:01.013
- Other questions. Council member Stasberg. Thank you. Um, uh, when do you think you're going to be bringing

02:43:01.013 --> 02:43:05.598
- forth that proposal to the fiscal committee about rate increases?

02:43:05.698 --> 02:43:15.053
- We will work with the council scheduling committee, but in the next 30 to 60 days, hopefully. Okay.

02:43:15.053 --> 02:43:24.595
- Okay. So very soon. Great. And do you happen to have any data you mentioned the goal of 30 30 percent

02:43:24.595 --> 02:43:35.166
- recycling diversion? Do you know how we've been doing with that in terms of percentage? So if this year was like

02:43:35.778 --> 02:43:43.721
- 28% We've been as high as I think 42 percent in years past and as low as 25 What we'll do is we'll put

02:43:43.721 --> 02:43:51.664
- a full link a full response in the written comments With our historical data from the be clear portal,

02:43:51.664 --> 02:43:59.838
- but it's ranged. It's gone up and down a bit over the years So there's not consistency around like it's I

02:44:00.130 --> 02:44:06.723
- I would say pretty consistent between the high 20 percentage to the mid to high 30 percentages But I

02:44:06.723 --> 02:44:13.446
- recall one year. I think we were up to almost 40 or 42, but we'll get those specific data points Yeah,

02:44:13.446 --> 02:44:19.973
- I'll make us follow up with that and writing to you and then I guess the other thing that I noticed

02:44:19.973 --> 02:44:26.501
- Was the sanitation fund transfer is actually out of the 80 lit this year and not out of the general

02:44:26.501 --> 02:44:29.438
- fund and perhaps the controller can speak to

02:44:29.730 --> 02:44:39.825
- that switch? Yeah, I mean, that is true. Overall, one of the things I mentioned last Monday was that

02:44:39.825 --> 02:44:47.422
- we were trying to kind of balance out the large deficit in the general fund

02:44:47.490 --> 02:44:53.385
- Versus the surplus in the ed lit fund and just kind of balance out the usage and so one of the things

02:44:53.385 --> 02:44:59.337
- we did is we moved a lot of the transfer so the transferred alternative transportation to Jack Hopkins

02:44:59.337 --> 02:45:05.116
- and to Sanitation we took them out of the ed lit fund rather than the general fund. They're they're

02:45:05.116 --> 02:45:10.953
- essentially equivalent from the perspective of Statutory uses but yeah, the idea was just to kind of

02:45:10.953 --> 02:45:13.438
- balance out the deficit versus surplus and

02:45:17.474 --> 02:45:26.735
- I Have a question Who in sanitation does the community outreach to try to increase recycling rates?

02:45:26.735 --> 02:45:35.996
- Do they have a specific staff person who does that or they partner with people mr. Lazarus here, so

02:45:35.996 --> 02:45:42.942
- Lazarus and Ria will coordinate those events with the specific schools and

02:45:43.042 --> 02:45:49.178
- Lazarus himself and a couple of staff members will go out just our regular staff but we don't have a

02:45:49.178 --> 02:45:55.860
- position similar to what the solid waste district does that is specific to it. It's bare bones at sanitation.

02:45:55.860 --> 02:46:01.996
- Is there any partnerships with the waste reduction district on community outreach to try to increase

02:46:01.996 --> 02:46:02.846
- recycling or.

02:46:03.298 --> 02:46:10.123
- We do our small part but they really do the bulk of the community wide and I know Lazarus is regularly

02:46:10.123 --> 02:46:17.213
- in touch with Tom and the team at the district on different things but something we could probably improve

02:46:17.213 --> 02:46:24.303
- our coordination on. OK. Yeah. It'd be great to make sure that you're not duplicating efforts or anything.

02:46:24.303 --> 02:46:30.929
- And then I was trying to think of what this program was called but maybe it was pre pandemic. There

02:46:30.929 --> 02:46:33.182
- used to be a program where in May

02:46:33.282 --> 02:46:38.982
- like the students who were leaving, and they were, you know, they just. Hoosier to Hoosier. Hoosier

02:46:38.982 --> 02:46:44.853
- to Hoosier. They didn't want to take their couches and their coffee makers, and so they left them. And

02:46:44.853 --> 02:46:50.724
- then there was a sale in August for new students who needed stuff. Is that, whatever happened to that,

02:46:50.724 --> 02:46:56.595
- is there any hope of resurrecting such a program? I can't recall. So that was all run through ESD. Oh,

02:46:56.595 --> 02:47:02.238
- right. That started with Jackie Bauer, when Jackie Bauer was here, where we partnered with campus.

02:47:05.474 --> 02:47:11.859
- I honestly don't know if that still exists and it's the same format or not but we can look into it.

02:47:11.859 --> 02:47:18.498
- But yeah that was a partnership between the university and the city and I believe there was a nonprofit

02:47:18.498 --> 02:47:25.011
- involved as well. I seem to remember Sherwood Oaks Christian Church was like at least they gave space

02:47:25.011 --> 02:47:31.842
- for it or something. The last one I remember was at the warehouse with the warehouse. OK. Oh it's habitat.

02:47:31.842 --> 02:47:33.566
- Yes habitat would partner.

02:47:34.370 --> 02:47:43.131
- Well I will ask around about that because that's a lot of stuff that ends up in the landfill that doesn't

02:47:43.131 --> 02:47:51.645
- need to. Any other questions. All right. Let's go to the public. Is there any member of the public who

02:47:51.645 --> 02:48:00.158
- would like to comment on the sanitation budget proposal. Anybody online. All right. So we'll come back

02:48:00.158 --> 02:48:02.142
- to council members any.

02:48:03.074 --> 02:48:13.093
- Final comments on sanitation. Councilmember Zoellick. Just thank you to Lazarus and the team. I think

02:48:13.093 --> 02:48:22.915
- we all probably take for granted that we roll our waste out to the curb and it gets dealt with from

02:48:22.915 --> 02:48:31.166
- there. So thank you very much. I think I just have to say my normal with the rates.

02:48:31.842 --> 02:48:43.862
- Maybe changing that pay as you throw is a really effective program for reducing waste Thanks Composables

02:48:43.862 --> 02:48:55.653
- It's 30% right there I just wanted to say this has been a really fun public works party enjoyed it and

02:48:55.653 --> 02:48:59.774
- I want to thank your whole team for

02:49:00.322 --> 02:49:08.011
- Providing the services core core services for the community and maintaining the infrastructure that

02:49:08.011 --> 02:49:15.855
- everybody relies on It's incredibly important really appreciate it. Thank you To wrap up that this is

02:49:15.855 --> 02:49:23.698
- really when we talk about Making sure the basics of city government get done. This is public works is

02:49:23.698 --> 02:49:28.542
- where it's at and we take for granted, you know, we can have a

02:49:29.410 --> 02:49:38.919
- A road to drive on and our trash will be picked up and our bike lane will be available to us and that's

02:49:38.919 --> 02:49:48.428
- all public work stuff. So thank you all for your day in and day out. Labor's on behalf of the residents

02:49:48.428 --> 02:49:57.022
- of Bloomington. And I think that is it. Oh it's not it. Council member Stasberg up up to you.

02:49:57.762 --> 02:50:05.392
- I just feel like I would be remiss if I didn't say something about the the subsidy that one point six

02:50:05.392 --> 02:50:13.096
- million dollar subsidy that used to be eight hundred thousand or less and I'm a little concerned about

02:50:13.096 --> 02:50:20.651
- that coming out of a deal it that well it is supposed that it can be used to maintain essential city

02:50:20.651 --> 02:50:25.214
- services it also was originally kind of created as a fund to

02:50:25.826 --> 02:50:33.519
- do different sorts of things with, not just take such a big chunk and subsidize sanitation. And it's

02:50:33.519 --> 02:50:41.288
- totally probably not popular to say right now, but we really do need to increase sanitation rates. So

02:50:41.288 --> 02:50:42.430
- it's closer to

02:50:42.690 --> 02:50:50.994
- You know, so as somebody who pays for that service it is closer to what it actually costs for that service

02:50:50.994 --> 02:50:58.911
- And I'm looking forward to hearing more about that in the fiscal committee meeting in the next couple

02:50:58.911 --> 02:51:06.206
- of months and I also really appreciate that director Wason split out that rate of how much of

02:51:06.722 --> 02:51:12.192
- How much of the sanitation budget goes toward? Picking up from those public spaces the parks and things

02:51:12.192 --> 02:51:17.452
- like that that three to four hundred thousand dollars because that's a super useful number to think

02:51:17.452 --> 02:51:22.711
- about in terms of you know What are what are we as a city gonna subsidize? around trash pick up for

02:51:22.711 --> 02:51:27.971
- so That's my closing comment and thank I'll also thank everybody for all the things that they do in

02:51:27.971 --> 02:51:33.441
- this whole public works department because Councilmember Piedmont Smith is absolutely right and council

02:51:33.441 --> 02:51:36.702
- members who look as well that a lot of that stuff is You know

02:51:36.802 --> 02:51:42.834
- The things that you do are things that we often take for granted, partly maybe because we don't see

02:51:42.834 --> 02:51:48.504
- you doing them so much because you're out there so early in the morning. Thank you very much.

02:51:48.504 --> 02:51:50.494
- And with that, we are adjourned.