- And could we start with the roll call vote, please Mills here Ellen Rodkey here Israel Herrera Very
- nice roll call Yeah
- Okay, so We don't have Jim Whitlatch, but we do have a quorum with Israel there on zoom so we will go
- ahead and Get started with our consent calendar. It's all of our items agenda items in section a And
- do we have a movement to approve the consent calendar? I'll move to approve the consent calendar Okay
- and I guess we need to roll call vote all those in favor I Ellen Rodke I Israel Herrera Okay consent
- calendar passes and then we move on to section be the public hearings and appearances and we have a
- Bravo award going to Doug Bruce tonight Hello, which Julie will tell us about
- Good afternoon, I am Julie Ramey, the Community Relations Manager for the Parks and Recreation Department,
- and it is my pleasure to be here this evening to present the April Bravo Award to Doug Bruce. Now, Doug
- exemplifies the very best of community service through his extraordinary volunteer contribution to the
- recently completed repairs of the limestone steps at the Banneker Community Center.
- This critical repair was funded in part by a grant from the Indiana DNR Division of Historic Preservation
- and Archeology and the grant funds were available only for work for properties listed on the National
- Register of Historic Places. So it was really important for the grant in order to be in compliance to
- have a project manager with an expertise in historic architecture and Doug Bruce
- fit the bill perfectly. I learned that not only is he a past member of the Bloomington Historic Preservation
- Commission, but has a passion for historic architecture. And in his informal and completely voluntary
- role as a project manager for the Banneker Front Steps project, he did a detailed assessment of the
- steps, prepared architectural drawings that outlined everything that needed to be done, provided an
- expert review of the contractor's work,
- with native limestone, and his knowledge ensured that the repairs were historically appropriate, structurally
- sound, and helped the project remain compliant with all of the grantee's expectations. And so for that
- and many other reasons, but we are so appreciative of his volunteer work and would like to present the
- April Bravo Award to Doug Bruce.
- Would you like to say a few words? Well, I'm really humbled for this I hold our park system up as high
- as you can and being a park rat growing up near Bryan Park and Our mom taking us there when we were
- little kids and learning to swim at Bryan Park pool It's it's just been
- Parks Department calls, how can I say no? But I will say this working with the park staff made my job
- easy I mean really they just rolled up their sleeves and did the hard work that the drawings are what
- I do anyway So they they jumped in on something they may not have the most experience with and handled
- it perfectly So I'll accept this award only if they get the credit as well Thank you. Thank you. Yeah
- Thank you Thanks, Doug. Yeah, it's not often you get someone to act as a project manager manager on
- a on a volunteer basis So we really appreciate it. Yeah Okay, and then into our main section this evening
- section C First up Sean Marler will tell us about the contract with master rental for some items for
- the Grand Faloon series Good evening
- Sean Marler recreation facilities general manager and Yes, that's exactly what this is master rental
- staff recommends approval of a contract with them to provide fencing and portable restrooms for the
- Grand Faloon concert series at Switchard Park The do not exceed amount is thirty one thousand six hundred
- and twenty Parks is going to be reimbursed from this amount by IU at the conclusion of it. I'm happy
- to answer any questions and
- and portable restrooms for the concert series that we talked about last month, so Yeah, make a motion
- to prove the contract with master rental for fencing and restrooms for gram flume Okay, and our roll
- call vote of those in favor Kathleen Mills. I Ellen Rodke. I Israel Herrera Okay motion carried
- And then in C2 Sean also has the contract with HFI for the switch yard preventative maintenance switch
- yard park also is asking for approval for contract with Harold fish incorporated for the preventative
- planned maintenance plan for 2026 the not to exceed amount of 13,920 This was a little different this
- year because we had a couple of different places
- Vendors apply for the bids. Usually it's either them or Commercial services we had a couple more but
- that was about it though and they had the lowest price So I'm happy to answer any questions about Sounds
- good. Yeah, it does All right. I make a motion to approve the contract with Harold fish for suchard
- Park preventive maintenance Bacon all right and a roll call vote of those in favor of
- Kathleen Mills, I Ellen Rodkey. I'm Israel Herrera Okay motion is carried and see to thank you Sean.
- Thank you and in c3 Leslie Wearing many hats this evening will take it agreement with Catalan, Indiana
- for parking lot usage. I
- Thank you, Leslie Brinson recreation division director staff recommends the approval of this indemnity
- agreement with cattle in Indiana LLC For the use of their contractor parking lot off of South Roger
- Street during the three grand balloon concerts June 20th July 18th and August 29th the Parks and Rec
- department as you know is partnering with Indiana University to host the
- Grand Faloon concert series at Switchyard Park this summer due to the expected crowd of these concerts
- The department wanted to ensure that we had adequate parking for the attendees Catalan Agreed to allow
- us use of their contractor lot Located right across the street from the park during the three shows
- We'll be providing staff support security signage for the lots during those dates From a time frame
- around 4 p.m. To 11 p.m. I'd be happy to answer any questions
- Sounds like a great idea to plan ahead for that parking Yeah, and if I recall didn't we at one point
- they used our parking lot at Twin Lakes. Yes, correct Yeah, that's a nice little exchange Okay, all
- right Well, I'll make a motion to approve the indemnity agreement of cattle in Indiana LLC for use of
- contractor parking lot I think Okay, and a roll call vote of those in favor
- Kathleen Mills. Aye. Ellen Rodke. Aye. Israel Herrera. Aye. Okay. Motion is carried. Thank you, Leslie.
- And then C4, Bill Rehm will tell us about the partnership with Studio Cipher for gaming event.
- Good evening, Bill Rehm, community events coordinator, and I'm here to recommend the approval of the
- 2026 partnership agreement between Bloomington Parks and Recreation and Studio Cipher.
- for the new event called the Free Range Arcade. No money will be paid out in this partnership. We will
- be partnering with the Studio Server to offer a new event. It's called the Free Range Arcade. The event
- is designed to bring together local and regional game developers, game stores, gaming groups, and suppliers
- of game-related items in an interactive environment. The event will allow attendees to try out and experience
- a variety of new games, including mobile,
- PC arcade card and board games and we will also have a make your own board game area No money will be
- exchanged again during this Partnership and the event will be held Saturday mace May 2nd from 1 to 7
- in the pavilion at Switchyard Park and we are looking forward to this new partnership and this new event
- and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have Sounds great. I think it seems like there's a little
- something for everyone there. I
- Yeah, that's what they came to us Interested in in trying to partner with us and we thought it was a
- good fit and we're trying to bring our our own spin into it. So Yeah, okay Make a motion to approve
- the partnership agreement with studio cipher Okay, and a roll call vote of those in favor Kathleen Mills.
- I Ellen Rodke. I Israel Herrera I
- Motions carry. Thank you, Bill. Thank you and then in c5 we have We have keto to tell us about the agreement
- with sphere for the 2026 aquatic services. Thank you Kido sports division director pinchy heating for
- Chris Hamrick today Staff recommend approval of the service agreement for sphere aquatics. This agreement
- is for startup and
- shutdown and ongoing service that in a poor season Improvement or fixing equipment there in a season
- will still be quoted and processed as a normal park board procedure Both Brian Park and Mills Pools
- are scheduled to open on Saturday, May 23rd Okay, all right any questions or keto about this I
- Questions here. No, okay. I'll make a motion to prove the service agreement with spear aquatics I Say
- come okay and a roll call vote of those in favor Kathleen Mills. I Ellen Rodke. I Israel Herrera I Okay
- motion is carried. All right. Thank you And then in c6
- Joanna Sparks will tell us about the agreement with Nature's Way for downtown planters Yes, good afternoon
- Joanna Sparks urban green space manager here today to recommend approval of a contract with Nature's
- Way incorporated for landscaping services related to the downtown planter improvement project for planters
- located on the
- courthouse square this would be for maintenance of the the planter improvements that occurred last year
- as well as the addition of two more planters which are on the corner of Kirkwood and walnut by the book
- corner and Trojan horse I'm happy to answer any questions. Oh and one other bonus. This is funded by
- Public Works Department. Okay and Joanna if you can just remind me did we in
- Did parks ever maintain those planters or was we did? Yes. Yes. This was a new conversion to contractual
- maintenance in May of 2025. Okay. Yep. All right. Okay. Thank you. See I don't see any questions from
- Israel Okay, I make a motion to prove the contract with Nature's Way Inc for a downtown planner improvement
- project I say
- Alright and all overall call vote of all those in favor Kathleen Mills. I Ellen Rodkey. I Israel Herrera
- Okay, that motion is carried and then Joanna will stay with us for c7 for the agreement with drink green
- dragon for beeline south mowing and
- Yes, good afternoon doing a spark serving green space manager once again here to recommend approval
- of a service agreement with green dragon lawn care for mowing and trimming services on an as needed
- basis for areas that include the southern end of the beeline Trail as well as the rail trail and various
- other parks and parks manage properties throughout the city I'm happy to answer any questions Okay Is
- the season for mowing? Yes
- This is like an addition to the one we already approved correct. Yes. Yes. This would be in addition
- to the 30 yes. Yeah, there's 36 sites that are already currently being mowed contractually between two
- contractors. This would be a third for additional properties Okay, I make a motion to approve the contract
- for mowing and trimming with green dragon They don't
- And a roll call vote of all those in favor Kathleen Mills. I Ellen Rodkey. I Israel Herrera All right
- motion is carried. Thank you Joanna Thank you and then in C8 Haskell will tell us about an agreement
- with Mother Nature for ash tree Treatment. Good afternoon board of park commissioners Haskell Smith
- urban forester
- Staff recommends the approval of this contract with Mother Nature landscaping to inject 82 ash trees
- totaling one thousand six hundred and fifty Diameter at breast height inches around the city of Bloomington
- to protect them from the emerald ash borer Amount not to exceed $20,000 bit is sourced From our general
- fund revenue and a grant Okay and
- Feel like Haskell for as long as I've been on the parks board. We've been doing Ash tree treatments.
- Is it pretty successful on the hole for the trees that we treat? Yes. Yeah The trees we have and it's
- not Yeah, but yeah, it has there's several in Brian Park that respond well to it And those are the ones
- on this list specifically that will probably look to treat kind of in perpetuity Okay I liked the fact that I
- The replacement value of these trees is almost $400,000. So it seems like a pretty good deal that we're
- spending 20 or less at this point for preserving them. I make a motion to approve the 2026 ash tree
- treatment for emerald ash borer. I second. OK. And a roll call vote of those in favor. Kathleen Mills.
- Aye. Ellen Rodke. Aye. Israel Herrera. Aye.
- Motions carry. Thanks has to thank you and Then we get into c9 Rebecca Swift the acceptance of Rose
- parcel auditors number. I'll let you read the numbers Thank you, Rebecca Swift operations and development
- division director and I'm here to recommend the quick deed Approval of the 1.1 acres known as the Rose
- parcel otherwise known as the SOMO parcel So if you're wondering why I'm here again to re-recommend this
- We actually only were able to accept a portion of this partial and Monroe County Planning Department
- necessitated the acceptance of the full parcel Luckily between now and then we have also had those two
- dilapidated buildings removed I came forth with an MOU with us in the SOMA development about responsibilities
- of management of that section of the bridge and beyond but this is truly now forever moving forward and
- Recommending the acceptance of this parcel. So this is located again Just along the rail trail corridor
- blue into rail trail by South Roger Street where we just did that wonderful new realignment So happy
- to answer any questions, but this is to officially accept the deed okay, and so then the Permanent or
- maintenance responsibilities will lie with parts, correct? Okay, any Any questions from Israel?
- Okay, make a motion to approve the quick claim deed to acquire 1.1 acres known as the Rose parcel Okay
- in a roll call vote of those in favor Kathleen Mills. I Ellen Rodke. I Israel Herrera Okay, all right
- motion carried and then c10 is also Rebecca's that's the agreement with convergent for op center entry gate and
- Yeah, so something that's kind of been on our invest in what we have to do list for a while is Improvements
- to our ops security gate at our main parks and rec ops center located off of Adam Street So this is
- in order to make improvements We actually already have the new gate but in order to get it to move and
- use with our badges we have to
- Start with convergent, which is actually a vendor that supplies the card reader kind of like the goose
- neck and the electronics that hook up to them the engine of the gate But now we need to hook it up to
- the building and so I'll get to that staff report next probably should start with the other one first
- but so convergence specifically we recommend the service agreement and they will provide and install
- the control of the
- For the one vehicle access including the enclosure power supply and card reader the gate pedestal gate
- Conducts cabling all that stuff as well as one additional security camera mounted facing this way we
- can start capturing Vehicles and people coming in and out of our back gated area So this will improve
- security for us and also just down the line access Our gate and padlock sometimes get cut by different
- service providers. So this is going to really help things Happy to answer any questions
- You said it's been on the to-do list for a while is the is the was the old gate just there was no sort
- of badge in Correct. It was just an old-school gate that we had to just a padlock open and close that
- stayed open pretty much throughout the business day But sometimes we have no staff on site and people
- can kind of just walk in and out As well as we have more and more weekend events and weekend needs and
- so that would be locked Nobody could get access to the dumpster. So this will really improve weekend
- access as well. I
- Okay. All right. Sounds good. Any other questions for Rebecca on this one? No. Okay. All right. Make
- a motion to approve the contract with convergent for Adam Street Ops Center gate security system install.
- Okay. And a roll call vote of those in favor. Kathleen Mills. Aye. Ellen Rodkey. Aye. Israel Herrera. Okay.
- That motion is carried and then Rebecca has one more item in C 11 the agreement with PQC for the entry
- gate Correct. So as I mentioned Convergent is who actually installs
- The gate reader the card reader but in order to connect that to the power supply of our existing building
- op center PQC otherwise known as precision quality Contracting is going to be hired to actually do that
- electrical work and cabling So I should have mentioned this in the first one. This is being funded through
- our non reverting funds with a cell tower revenue So if you remember last meeting I was here to recommend
- the lease agreement We do have a cell tower in the back of op center. So we do get revenue generated
- from that that's been growing and so we're we just
- Inputting it back into our ops gate. So again, this is a service agreement with precision quality contracting
- Not to exceed seven thousand six hundred thirty and this is for the electrical work to connect it to
- our new card reader Happy to answer any questions. Okay All right, I make a motion to approve the contract
- with precision quality contracting for electrical system upgrades They come here
- Okay, and a roll call vote of those in favor Kathleen Mills. I Ellen Rodkey. I Israel Herrera All right
- motion is carried. Thank you for those three items. Thank you, Becca And then in our section D, we have
- a couple of reports this evening So first is the draft 2025 annual report which Julie Ramey will
- Explain to us. Good evening Julie Ramey community relations manager with parks and recreation in front
- of you is a printed copy of a draft of the 2025 annual report the annual report is for Review of the
- entire last year. It includes unaudited financial data. So reports from our New World financial system
- and includes our participation numbers. So there's a few bits and pieces that we still need to collect
- in order to have the complete annual report. So I'll come back to you at the meeting in May to ask for
- your formal approval of the 2025 report. Okay. Yeah, looks good. I always enjoy looking at the numbers
- for the different facilities and engagement. I saw 10,000, was this on the Facebook videos?
- this number. 14 Facebook videos exceeded 10,000 views. Our digital content coordinator saw his first
- full year of employment in 2025 and he's rocking our social media channels. He's creating great content
- and doing a great job of promoting our programs, our facilities, and getting the message out about parks
- and recreation. Thank you. Yeah, great. Thank you, Julie. Thanks for the draft.
- Okay, and then in our D to section Is the draft master plan for the next four years which Tim Street
- will tell us about? Good evening commissioners Tim Street director of Bloomington Parks and Recreation
- Thank you for being here tonight with us tonight. I'm going to turn it over in just a moment to Jamie Sabak and
- Who is our master plan consultant who's been working? Alongside us to help generate these results and
- coordinate things like the community survey and all of the public engagement that we've done Before
- I turn it over to her. I'll just mention a couple things One this has been a very thorough process.
- This is the first time At all actually not even as director that I've been able to go through one of
- these with the department I've been here for about five years
- When I started in 2021, we are at the very tail end of wrapping up the previous master plan, which was
- also occurring during COVID, and it was all a bit strange. So this has been a really rewarding process,
- a very thorough process. I think we've done a really fantastic job of really making sure there were
- lots of opportunities for engagement with the public, with staff, through focus groups, through all
- of the different voices you're gonna see represented in the master plan itself.
- Secondly, I think we are an organization and we strive to be an organization that acts upon our plans.
- So this isn't something that we're gonna get this done and say, great, this is checked off for five
- years, now we can check out and be eligible for DNR grants and have it on file with the state and then
- we'll do it all again. No, this very much, we're presenting it to you tonight
- Informationally, this is the draft. We're open to feedback from board members over the next month before
- we bring it back for adoption in May. And as I mentioned from there, then it's time for us to start
- moving and acting on some of these things. So we're excited for that. We're lining some things up for
- after potential adoption, of course, pending any feedback.
- I'll just mention as well, between now and May, we will come across our digital accessibility deadline
- for local governments. And so an aside, bigger than the master plan, this is sort of the last time the
- park board process and the documentation will come to you looking like it does right now. In May, things
- are gonna look a little bit different. We're gonna be working through Google Docs a lot more, doing
- accessibility checks on documents, things like that.
- So between now and May, we'll also be working to mitigate the final documents to meet digital accessibility
- standards. And what will happen is in May and beyond, looking at your agenda, the way these are linked
- in there, you're gonna see that with every agenda item. So instead of it being a giant PDF, we're gonna
- have live links in the agenda to each component of each agenda item. So that's a little off topic for
- where we're going, but I wanted to mention that no, this is not there yet. You know, we just received
- the draft.
- It's awkward timing as we navigate this deadline, but when we when we have it when we come back in May
- We will have mitigated it to have it all good to go for those standards That said I am going to turn
- it over to Jamie who has a presentation that she's going to share and then we can take any questions
- at the end
- Quick check. Can you all hear me and can you see the presentation? And yes. Alright, thank you.
- Thanks Tim. Good evening. It's a pleasure to visit with you again. I think last we had the opportunity
- to meet it was to review the comprehensive engagement portion of this process. So tonight I have the
- pleasure of providing you an overview
- of the master plan effort along with some principal takeaways and to give you a sense of the depth of
- the deliverables that have been presented to the City of Bloomington Park and Recreation Department.
- I have to say I've had the pleasure of presenting these completed documents over the years.
- This one has been, as I think some of you know,
- more special to me as I have a history with this organization. So I was incredibly privileged to have
- the opportunity to not only serve the city of Bloomington as an employee, but now I have the opportunity
- to work alongside the staff, all of you, and of course the community to present this updated master
- plan. I do want to, if you will, provide a shout out to an incredible
- professional staff of this organization, Tim, the entire executive team, the project team, all of the
- employees that participated in this effort along with all of you and of course the community, a very
- engaged community and a community I think that truly understands the value of public parks and recreation
- and what it provides you know for quality of life in the community. So I wanted to say that we're out
- of the gate. Alternatively very brief presentation of a year-long process does not do it justice but hopefully
- This brings back top of mind some of the things that we have discussed over the last 14 months and gives
- you a sense of the complexion of the deliverables and what has been provided to the organization. So
- with that, I'm going to spend probably about 15 minutes or so just giving you an overview and depth
- regarding certain elements of the master plan and then certainly open the floor for any comments and
- questions that you might have.
- What I'm going to share very briefly is overview of the process. We're going to dive a bit into the
- priorities and intended outcomes that resulted from the effort. I'm going to share with you high level
- the strategic plan and really the actionable part of
- this effort. Any master plan obviously requires some strategy relative to how things are going to be
- implemented. So I'll share with you high level what that strategic plan looks like in its composition,
- touch on policy briefly, and then pass it on to Tim to close and share any next steps. So that said,
- quick refresh if we were to summarize this entire process, I think this image represents that
- summation. We really wanted to have an incredibly robust and rich foundation of engagement that included
- of course staff engagement, elected and appointed official engagement, as well as obviously community
- engagement and I think we did our due diligence relative to a tentacled approach to engagement. I have
- to say it was really incredible the feedback that was received as well as the amount of feedback received.
- I give Julie and her team a lot of credit for thinking about creative ways to
- Get the word out, if you will. So people felt that they were being asked their opinions and
- their perspectives and their
- their thoughts regarding need and desire and so on. So really robust engagement sets the stage for how
- we think about analyzing conditions. We analyze systems, a bit of discovery, if you will, and then assessing
- the system. And then, of course, all of these things roll up into the development of the plan itself
- and the draft plan that you have in front of you today. We're focusing on what we hear, of course, what
- we observe and what we learn over time to feed the development of the document.
- There were three principal phases to this work. First of all, we did a conditions assessment of Bryan
- Park and Mills Pools and we started the financial sustainability strategy during phase one and these
- really kind of set the stage for the overall master planning effort. Phase two was when we started to
- engage staff and board
- in conversations regarding the condition of the organization and the community issues that community
- members were facing, you know, lived experiences in the Bloomington community. We wanted to make an
- effort to ensure that we had equitable community engagement, translate, ensure that we were hearing
- from representative community members, and I think through the engagement process we found that we had
- a solid representation of the people who live in Bloomington and experience Bloomington on a daily basis.
- We, of course, dove into some organizational
- Everything from looking at ADA transition plans and, you know, environmental commitments that
- the organization has made, as well as obviously just how administrative functions were working in the
- organization and how productive and effective they were.
- All of this led to identifying what organizational priorities the system would choose to prioritize,
- if you will, and focus its energy and efforts on in order to have the greatest impact on the community.
- And then phase three, taking all of the things that resulted were to design a strategic plan and work
- with the entire staff as well as concentrated efforts with the administrative team, the project team
- to create actionable steps towards implementation.
- Of course, again, all of this resulting in the final master plan draft and the deliverables and this
- presentation this evening. I think it's important to take a step back for a moment because we tend to
- use a lot of words, terminology, if you will, in the planning world that sometimes can be conflated
- with other things. We wanted to ensure that not only words mattered, but meaning was consistent.
- And so I felt it important to call out some of the terms that you hear often in plans and how this linked
- to the ultimate master plan document that you have in front of you tonight. So first of all, when we
- talk about community issues, all those things that we heard by way of staff engagement, community engagement,
- of course, meeting with you, we're attempting to identify what the key call that business issues were,
- essentially the highest priority problems affecting the department and or the community,
- or anything that may be perceived as negatively affecting the system. So these issues become,
- if you will, a bit of an umbrella, which is counterintuitive to how this is built out, but an umbrella
- under which we start thinking about construction of the plan. This then, these issues feed how an organization
- begins to identify its priorities, like these broad-based statements of intention. What is it we're
- working towards affecting and resolving? The issues essentially become a feed to identifying priorities.
- Those priorities, of course, will be impacted, influenced, improved by way of actionable steps that
- a system takes. Actions, very simply, are intended to be these outcome-oriented moves.
- the organization, in this case the department, is going to take to advance a strategic priority. Again,
- influence or impact it. And actions require a number of tasks. So we have a strategic plan as part of
- this work that includes a number of actions. You're not going to see a granular list of tasks, rather
- these outcome-oriented moves, these actions in the action plan that resulted from this work.
- And the capstone here, which I think must be addressed, is the fact that every organization wants to
- think about what is it they're trying to do in a system. You know, what are those results and objectives
- they're trying to realize as a result of their work? And so, these building blocks essentially fed the
- development of the plan and fed the development of the strategic plan, the actionable steps that Bloomington
- Parks and Recreation will take to affect priorities and obviously resolve, best it can, issues in the
- community.
- So where did this lead? It led to the development of a very comprehensive plan, as mentioned. It was
- a robust process. It was quite comprehensive. We dove into everything from infrastructure to financial
- sustainability to community needs to community desires, looked internally, discovery efforts around
- the organization's function.
- And so we have a draft plan you see an image of that plan on the left of the screen and a number of
- supplements you can think about them as attachments, if you will. We had supplement a being the engagement
- report, this is what we reviewed reviewed with you a few months back it's the comprehensive view of
- what we heard from staff elected appointed.
- officials as well as community members. Supplement B was the Comprehensive Community Engagement Summary,
- so the survey essentially was in a separate document, a quite robust
- review of everything we heard by way of that survey. There's another supplement, supplement C, which
- is the Pool Conditions Assessment Report. This was the concentrated effort to assess the condition of
- both Bryan Park and Mills Pools. Supplement D was the Financial Sustainability Strategy Report, which
- includes a high-level overview of all of the data analysis, the cost of service analysis, as well as
- obviously the resulting strategy from that work.
- And then we had supplement E. You can see Leslie's smiling face on that report there. This was the providers
- network and inventory report. We had an opportunity to visit with a number of representatives from different
- providers, nonprofit, private and public sector, leisure service providers,
- and allied providers to identify who is providing what in the community, to best reduce duplication,
- to fill gaps, to understand how we can work together in a very productive, efficient way, and strengthen
- existing relationships. So all of these were the documentation that resulted from all of the work that
- was completed. The priorities of this process were the four you see on the screen.
- We had community impact, the priority of how do we impact the community, how do we continue to impact
- the community in the most productive, positive way, how can we prioritize investing in what we have,
- taking care of our existing infrastructure, becoming a financially sustainable organization, continuing
- to stay on the path of responsible fiscal stewardship, and then having a strong, connected BPR team,
- essentially ensuring that those who do the work on a daily basis are strong, they're connected, and
- they're thriving.
- to feed a strong culture and system. I wanted to break down each of these priorities for you in terms
- of what those intended outcomes were that I just referenced a bit ago. The intended outcome by way of
- prioritizing community impact is that you have seamless and accessible user experiences on behalf of
- the community, that you have inclusive spaces that serve all residents, that you have stronger community
- connections and a sense of belonging in the community,
- that you've created protected and resilient natural systems, and that there's clear demonstration of
- community value and impact. Again, these are the intended outcomes by way of actionable steps that align
- with those priorities that have been identified. That second priority area, invest in what we have,
- the intended outcomes, putting energy resource actionable steps towards this priority will result in
- proactive and coordinated asset management, reduced deferred maintenance,
- and improved system resilience and reliability, higher utilization and performance of existing assets,
- consistent, efficient operations across the entire system, and an environmentally sustainable and resilient
- infrastructure. That third priority, financial sustainability, the intended outcomes,
- of this priority are a clear understanding of the cost and value of services internally as
- well as externally, more diverse and reliable revenue streams, consistent and transparent financial
- decision-making, capital investments that align with long-term capacity, and improved financial performance
- and operational efficiency. And that last priority, relative to a strong and connected team, aligned
- effective communication across the organization. And many of these things are happening, it's continuation of.
- clear expectations and streamlined systems, a skilled and continuously developing workforce, a culture
- supportive of employee well-being and engagement, and a strong sense of identity, purpose, and pride
- in the organization. And of course, we know we can identify priorities and we can identify outcomes,
- but we really need to be thinking about how are we going to make these things happen. And that's where
- that last supplement comes in.
- completely understand that it looks like an eye chart up there for all of you, but it was to give you
- a sense of what this attached, this supplement to the master plan actually looks like. It's
- a very comprehensive list of actionable steps for this organization to take to move the needle towards
- influencing and affecting the priorities that I just identified, ultimately leading to those intended
- outcomes. One of the things I did want to share with
- with you is as we zoom in on this, you can see this worksheet that's intended to be a tool for the staff
- includes each priority along with all of the recommended actions. You'll see additional columns here
- that list prioritization, meaning what level of priority is this in our organization? Is it high, medium, and low?
- And there's some qualifying and quantifiable statements that have directed the staff to make very informed
- decisions about whether something is actually a high, medium, or low priority. Alternatively, each action
- has an attached resource requirement. Essentially, is this going to take a lot of time and money to
- complete high, medium, and low?
- You also notice every action has an assigned staff lead and team, as well as an anticipated timeline
- for completion. So this again is intended to be a tool that's useful for the organization moving forward
- over this five-year window. I do want to mention that
- Each priority has a different number of actionable steps. Priority one, there are actually 27 actions
- identified for priority two, 18, for priority three, 19, and that fourth priority, a strong and connected
- BPR team, has 11 actionable steps for a complete total of 75 actions. The last thing I'll share about
- the strategic action plan is this is the part of the master plan that becomes less static. Essentially,
- the intention is this is reviewed annually for updates to ensure
- ensure its relevance. Things changed incredibly dynamically today, as you all know, economically,
- environmentally, socially, so it's incumbent upon the organization to keep tabs on productivity certainly
- and completion, but also ensure that there's relevance for all of the actions as time moves on.
- That said, as I conclude this overview,
- We have provided the team a policy draft relative to financial sustainability, and this is in process.
- The draft has been presented to Tim for review, and this is expected to be something that he will bring
- to you and bring forward at a later date as it's modified and adjusted and prepared for a work session
- and ultimately adoption.
- So with that, I'm going to go ahead and take any questions that you might have for me and then turn
- it over to Tim. I don't have any questions at this time. Thank you, Jamie, for that information and
- for the previous meeting we had in person with you with all the details. Any questions from Israel or
- Ellen? No, thank you for sharing the information, Jamie.
- I would say for Now we can go to Tim and then we might have questions after that Okay, thank you so
- much Jamie. It's nice to see you again. Thank you I don't have a whole lot to add on that. I think we
- want to get to probably public comment here in a second, but Just want to mention that if you want to
- get to sort of where the rubber meets the road with the report Go to the strategic action plan
- because that is how we are deciding to respond to everything that we've Discovered and heard some of
- this is you know stuff we've kind of known all along obviously we we entered into the master plan process
- Specifically looking for a focus on financial sustainability. So there's some things there that we've
- talked about themes Etc and there's other things that have emerged from our feedback survey, etc I think
- we've we've done a really good job clarifying and
- Priority goals and actions underneath them to have that be a living document, but without getting into
- the minutia I think we've done that in the past a little bit of Sort of day-to-day divisional operations
- and reporting some of that stuff out. So I think we've honed in that really well if that part is living
- but I think that's the clearest place to go look and see well, what are we doing in response to this?
- That's where we're going to begin Not every decision is made
- There of course some of them referenced needing to make decisions in collaboration with the park board
- that will be coming up very soon. So Thank you for listening. We will revisit this next month for potential
- adoption And if there are questions that come up in the meantime Please route them my way and I can
- work with with Jamie and staff to ensure those are addressed before we bring it back I guess I'll just
- say I do have one edit
- on page 16, it references the University of Indiana. Oh. Uh-oh. Yeah. Uh-oh. Good catch. We'll fix that.
- OK. All right. Thanks again, Jamie, and thank you, Tim. And then in our section E, we can take any public
- comment here in person or also online. You can raise your hand online if you're watching that way.
- We do have one online. Yes, Brandon. I you should be able to unmute yourself Hello, can I turn on my
- camera? Camera just your audio Time did you want a lot for this Brandon for two minutes and
- All right, sounds good. I prepared a script for three minutes, but I'll try to read as fast as I can.
- Okay. All right. Good afternoon, Director Street, President Mills, and members of the board. My name
- is Brandon Bothell. I'm an employee of the city security contractor, Marshall Security Investigations,
- MSI, or rather I was until today. This afternoon, after I formally reported wage theft and submitted
- my two weeks notice of resignation due to unethical practices, MSI leadership terminated me immediately.
- I'm here to report both systematic wage theft and clear whistleblower retaliation. For months, I've
- documented MSI leadership manually adjusting my time sheets to reflect fewer hours than I worked,
- specifically omitting time spent handling critical park emergencies or training to avoid paying overtime.
- I have evidence of this manipulation, including original logs compared to shortened payroll records
- and recorded admissions from MSI leadership that they were manually cutting my hours despite my accurate
- time clock entries.
- Yesterday, I sent a formal email to director Tim Street in the city's attorney's office detailing these
- concerns. Shortly after making this report and submitting a two-week notice, I was let go. In Indiana
- and under City of Bloomington's contract standards, retail power is a serious violation. This is a clear
- attempt to silence me and prevent this evidence from reaching you. I'm requesting that the board take
- the following immediate steps
- Call any upcoming contract renewals or payments to MSI until a full independent audit of their payroll
- and labor practices is completed. Review the legality of my termination today as a breach of the city's
- contract compliance and anti-retaliation policies. And lastly, initiate a formal investigation by the
- city legal department into these manual adjustments that defraud both workers and taxpayers who fund
- this contract. I have all the documentation ready for the legal department. I ask the board to stand
- behind its own ethics ordinances
- And ensure that contractors who manage our public spaces are held to the law. Thank you for your time
- today All right, thank you for that Brandon and you've been in touch with Tim you've received something
- from Yes, and it was passed on to the city's legal department. Okay. All right. Thank you for that any
- other public comment here this evening and
- Okay, and no one else online. Okay. All right, then we will go back to Tim for any more announcements
- upcoming and Great as usual I like to Share a few things going on in this time and just mention the
- happenings. There's always good things, especially this time of year First of all, thank you Leslie
- for being our co-pilot this evening like you said great roll call and
- Kim has managed to go on vacation and miss the last park board meeting before she retires. So she and
- Becky both snuck that in on me without me realizing, but just want to recognize Kim before she retires.
- I'll send you some information about her retirement as well. As mentioned, we're working a lot on digital
- accessibility. It's a big lift. The deadline's upcoming. We're still learning, figuring out a lot of
- things with this.
- Like I said expect the next meeting to look a little different I'm sure there'll be some growing pains
- as we navigate a new system But I think it's going to be really great in the end and really functional
- You'll notice the ice arena didn't come up on the agenda tonight We're still moving forward getting
- quotes assessing planning on opening in the fall with some repairs we anticipate Chris and keto bringing
- you those items in May and
- And talking a little bit more about next steps in terms of the stakeholder group that we mentioned and
- getting that together this summer So we're still very much working on that and I want to you know If
- anyone's watching worried, are we gonna open the ice arena in the fall? Yes, that is the plan Going
- through all the appropriate channels for that But still very much need to make bigger future decisions
- I want to shout out urban forestry. We got some great feedback on the tree assistance program Helping
- people remove high-risk trees with some provided funding from the ESD department And and yeah, just
- emphasizing that agenda item from earlier tonight It's pretty remarkable to be able to go to Brian Park
- and see big mature ash trees We hear it all the time from people who maybe come in from out of town
- or know what they're looking for that like oh my gosh, like look at these
- amazing ash trees that we still have at Brian Park. And that is part of its wonderful status as the
- Arboretum as well. Lots of things going on. We're a couple of farmers markets in now. A Food Truck Friday
- in. The Performing Arts Series info is pretty much all on the website now. All the free concerts, the
- movies in the park. You've heard partnerships with Cicada. Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for the
- Performing Arts Series.
- The new program guide just arrived. I left you one up there on the dais. And Grand Faloon concerts have
- been announced during the process of being announced. I'm really excited about those as well. The Sports
- Division just finished some new improvements up at the Upper Cascades skate park. It was just a repair,
- but local company Hunger Skateparks always seems to go above and beyond for us, and they actually installed
- some new features as well.
- at no cost to the city, which is pretty incredible. Other things coming up, I'll just mention Arbor
- Day. We have a tree planting at Rogers Family Park to celebrate Arbor Day on the 24th. Children's Expo
- on the 26th. Bill mentioned the Studio Cipher event in May. The Senior Expo's, excuse me, the 50-plus
- Expo is in early May. Pool's open May 23rd, so busy season.
- And and Griffey boathouse also opens daily in May. So lots of things going on. We will reconvene For
- our May meeting on the 21st at 5 p.m Earth Day is this Saturday as well. I missed one Thank you, and
- even though Kim clap is off on her well-deserved vacation just yeah for the record I mean we all hope
- she has a wonderful retirement the reason we're able to do what we can do up here is because she
- completely organized with packets and answers all of our questions and make sure we have a quorum and
- Signatures are all taken care of and everything. So well deserved. Congratulations Kim wherever you
- are out there vacationing All right, and with that I will adjourn the April meeting of the Bloomington
- Board of Park commissioners and