- All right, we'll call this meeting to order. It's 4.06 and this is meeting of the annual parking report
- task force set up by the transportation commission to fulfill our ordinance mandate to produce an annual
- report on the status of parking. Point of order, do we need to start reporting? It is reported. Oh,
- okay, great.
- And I see President, Commissioners Flaherty and Binder, along with myself, we are the three members
- to whom the Transportation Commission delegated this task. We called it a task force so that A, it doesn't
- have to be quite so formal as committees don't have to be, and B, we can invite people who are not part
- of the commission to take part in it. And for the sake of an open discussion, there's no other item
- on the agenda. I'm happy for us to use first names here as long as we're consistent with it.
- So having said that, I just want to start by setting the frame. This is the most recent report that
- the parking commission produced. This is the 2018 report. I want to talk about it to some extent. And
- Iris Bull has sent a list for consideration that basically lists all the figures in this report. But
- I can summarize the figures when it comes time to it. The goal here is to figure out what kind of report
- we need to produce.
- what it's going to take in terms of staff time, how long we should expect for it to take, and what should
- be specifically in it, what kind of resources will those take to produce. So before I continue, I just
- wanted to open up the floor to my fellow task force members. One of the things I'm hoping to do by the
- next time we meet, not necessarily by the end of the meeting today, is to identify
- specific people from each of the invited departments who have some bearing on this report to identify
- a person who would represent them on the task force. So if, for example, I specifically asked for Megan
- Blair from ITS because I know that she has expressed interest in taking data from Public Works and making
- it visual.
- But if there's somebody else from ITS who'd be more appropriate, I'm content for that department to
- determine who that is. So having said that, first of all, Eobhan or Matt, do you have anything to add
- to this so far? I've got a couple questions, but Matt, if you have anything, please go ahead. Yeah,
- a few things as well. One, just noting that the section of code does call out.
- specifics here, so there is guidance, it's not open-ended, it's about an annual analysis of parking
- asset management, and specifies some of the data and metrics we're meant to be tracking to help inform
- policy decisions. I think that also the prior reports from the parking commission are a great place
- to start. I wasn't sure where to access though, I don't believe I received it via email, or maybe if
- I did, I didn't, I missed that. And so I looked at the parking commission's old
- It's not available on the reports there on board. Matt, I'll stop you there. If you just go
- to the Transportation Commission's current page on the city website and scroll down about three quarters
- of the way, there's a list of older reports there including the 2018 report. Iris did this several months
- ago and everything now has been consolidated there. Yeah. And it goes back quite a ways too. There's
- other reports listed and that should be helpful. Yeah. So, but just go ahead. That's all.
- At the end of my email to Adam, I wrote the specific section 202-100-D7, we have to record all costs
- and revenues for city-owned structured parking, surface parking, meter parking, neighborhood parking
- zones, and other relevant city-owned parking. Is it up there? We have to document parking utilization
- rates and longitudinal trends and conduct a contract for parking data analytics if necessary.
- So those are, that's the mandate.
- Yeah, to that point, I think we should probably identify whatever data sources we've got available because
- I remember this being an issue that came up repeatedly in preparing the 2018 report and previous reports.
- I think when we had to get revenue, it came from the city controller's office. But then when we had
- to get parking utilization, that came from T2. Is that right? So, you know, just the two examples of
- it's not like
- We get someone from ITS and they can get us everything. I think we have to name and understand each
- as a platform from which we're obtaining data just so that if there's like interval windows or something
- that are involved or a certain staff member we have to be in contact with for that particular thing.
- Or if any vendors have changed since 2018, those are just things to be aware of. So to that end, that's
- why we've invited Public Works, the Controller, and the Clerk's Office. They all have.
- basis of data that need to be synthesized. We've invited planning because they manage the transportation
- plan, and we're trying to hue to that as well, that this report is meant to help us make decisions based
- on the transportation plan. And of course, engineering supports the commission's work. And we also invited
- ITS because they are one of the bodies that can help us synthesize some of that data.
- So I think there was one more. Yeah, we also invited ESD, like planning, they, because parking in particular
- is a measure of economic performance, not simply traffic safety, they too have a role in interpreting
- this data for the sake of fulfilling our city plans. And so we look forward to their participation at
- some point as well.
- Does that answer your question? Yeah, I think so. OK. So now I'd like to open up the floor to talk about
- what it would take to compile this data. There's a lot of data that Public Works has, but it's no less
- significant the data that the controller has, because the report is supposed to also identify the financial
- impact. One of the aspects of this report
- and the report that proceeded in 2017 was we found out for the first time that with the advent of meters,
- the parking system as a whole, meters, garages, lots, neighborhoods, zones, citations, was roughly break
- even. Before meters, the city was spending money on the order of a couple million dollars a year because
- the garages were not revenue neutral. Now, thanks to the meters,
- We are at least as of 2018, we were roughly the same amount of money. It was an order of $100,000
- to $200,000 difference either way. I don't know what those figures are because we haven't done a report
- since 2018. So can we talk about sources of data? Why don't we start with the controller, OK?
- Jeff McKim, City Controller. They're kind of going through the best financial sources that we have.
- First of all, that I think everybody probably knows this, but maybe you don't, that there are four parking
- garages in the city that are currently, that have debt service associated with them. And those four
- parking garages, that debt service is all paid for through the consolidated TIF.
- there's essentially 100% subsidy from the consolidated TIF. There's no operational revenue that covers
- those at all. So that's the 4th Street Garage, Trades District Garage. Those two are paid directly from
- the consolidated TIF. So that doesn't even enter any of the parking accounts. Those two, those bond
- payments are associated with the, are made directly from the consolidated TIF. There's also the Mercury
- Garage and the Walnut Street Garage leases.
- that are made as well and that money is transferred from the consolidated TIF to the parking facilities
- account and then paid from the parking facilities account. It's still dollar for dollar. It's still
- 100% subsidy. It's just the transfer actually shows up in the parking facilities account. One thing
- that I can give you all is just the, and actually I have them in a spreadsheet that I put together here,
- is just the amortization schedule for the four
- So you can tell how much is paid each year and how long the what the maturity is on the on the four
- debt services So that's one that's that's the debt service then there's also a Really great data source
- that is actually available on the city website right now through the open finance portal and it's actually a
- It's essentially, there are a couple of files, but there are two data sets that are essentially extracts
- from our financial system. They're not at an individual transaction level. They're at the fund, department,
- and revenue GL line level. But that data is actually updated automatically every night, so it's up to
- date within a day. It's fully publicly available, and it's
- It's just basically there's one that's called operating that is the expenses and the other is called
- revenue, which is the revenue. And they are, you know, they're very clean in that you could just open
- them right in Excel and then do pivot tables just without any modification at all. So I highly recommend,
- and I highly recommend that you kind of become familiar with those data sets. And I am perfectly happy
- to kind of at some point, if it's appropriate, do a tutorial on
- what accounts and what lines I think that you'd be most interested in. But that's a way that you can
- see all of the budget versus actuals for the two main parking funds. So there are two main parking funds.
- There's parking facilities and parking meters. And so you can see all of the revenue that was budgeted
- and all the revenue that's actually come in to date by GL line. And the same thing with expenditures
- on those two accounts.
- question Jeff thank you so much this is very helpful and I think probably going to result in a more
- smooth process for developing future reports than maybe what we had to undertake in in previous years
- just to clarify when you were talking about the open finance portal is that the same thing as the
- City of Bloomington open data portal budget and finance category or is it a separate portal? I don't
- know the names to all those portals. Are you looking at back end or front end too? Yeah, no I'm looking
- at the... So if you go to this page which is City of Bloomington open finance and what I'm showing you
- is actually buried. You have to scroll all the way down to the very bottom
- and there's a link at the bottom right that just says view and download. Okay, so it's not the same
- as the general city Bloomington open data portal. Right, it should be ultimately the same data set,
- but these two data sets operating in revenue, they're just nice because they're automatic, they're there
- for you, you don't have to ask, they're updated daily, and like I said, once you find the link,
- you've got it, you bookmark the link, and they're
- Like I said, they're so clean, you could just pin a table without any manipulation. Thank you, Joe.
- Would you be so kind as to send us this link, this magic link that you speak of? Yes. And I'll make
- sure that the commission has access to it, especially the task force, for whoever continues to serve
- on your behalf. But this is exactly the kind of information we need. Does anyone want to say anything
- else about financial data?
- If there is something, if you need to drill down on any of that, so once you look at it, if you decide
- you need to drill down, I can also provide more customized reports from the financial system. Then I
- think the next level of drilling down comes from... Right, we're going to talk about that data as well.
- So just to, this is a good opportunity to point out the structure of the prior reports
- What we tried to do, chapter one just reported on the commission itself. Chapter two gave an overall
- performance of the system. The first figure in each chapter was inventory and a map of the particular,
- either the entire system or one of the three sub categories of parking. So in garages, for example,
- the first chapter, the first figure was inventory. Second figure was overall financial performance of
- that program of the parking system.
- The third was breaking down the revenue by source. The fourth was, the next several were details of
- how revenue was gained, how many permits were issued, for example, or revenue from lots in the case
- of garages. The seventh item in each chapter was expenses, and then any figures after that would be
- breakdowns of expenses. So it's those middle,
- figures, the fourth, fifth, and sixth figures generally in every chapter that were, that came from two
- sources, Public Works and the clerk. So Adam, I'd like to ask now, I know that Michelle Wall is talking
- about new equipment, but I also know that they're thinking about, I mean, I think you're thinking about
- T2, aren't you? Like there's a challenge to
- how easy, relatively, it is to get data from them. Yeah, customizable reports. Anytime we're going to
- need something customizable, it's going to come at a cost. Sometimes it's a couple hundred dollars for
- something easy. Sometimes it's been more expensive. I think Michelle just got out of her interviews
- and may have jumped on. Michelle, can you briefly just explain the cost structure of when we request
- things from T2? One second, Michelle.
- Making you co-host. There we go. Michelle, are you there? Yeah. Hello. Were you able to hear what I
- said, Michelle? Yeah. Michelle, are you there? Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. There we go. Yeah,
- it's $150 per hour for a customizer or for a poutine, too. OK. Yeah. OK. And I have to give them, like, at least
- No one's currently in that position to run the reports. I have to give them at least like a two-week
- and three-week notice. Yeah. OK, that can be done with, it's not like a year's notice. It's like a month
- or two, right? Correct. OK. Ask Eric's question. Please. What's that? Oh, I just wanted to draw your
- attention to Eric's question on the chat. We just get raw data from them. We'll get to that. OK. Let's
- start with Nicole.
- Are you looking for a regular pull and report? Are you looking for specific data? Because you don't
- actually have to use a specialized data that you pay for. You can do a find a report and teach you that
- you don't pay for. You just do it yourself. Yeah, there is. I mean, yes, any customizable cost money,
- anything that's regularly. You can do your own customized report.
- you don't have to pull one of the regular reports and you don't have to ask them to do it. We can manipulate
- within T2 anything we require of their staff is where that additional cost comes in. Can you give an
- example of what would be something that would be a customizable versus I guess not customizable or something
- where we would need their staff to assist? Sure. Michelle, can you go ahead and answer that? Yeah, so
- let's say, sorry, let's say that we need
- see how many citations are avoided on a specific date or a specific area at a specific time. It's all
- those things that are customizable. While we can do it, if there's more parameters built out
- with requirements, that's not a finder report. That is something that I would have to get them to do
- for us. And go ahead. You can do it. OK. Well, OK.
- I get it that T2 is non-trivial to access and that people who, I mean there's a few people who know
- how to do it and some of them are in City Hall. It's clear that the task force at least needs to understand
- how that data can be accessed and at some point I think we're gonna want a tour of how staff like you,
- Michelle, access T2.
- I mean, we can schedule that for some time in the near future. It's no rush. But is that okay? Yes.
- I'll just state, yes, it's okay. Okay. But as big a deal as T2 is, Michelle, I also want to ask you
- about IPS. Now, I know that, I mean, I've known for a long time that you are eager to improve the equipment
- that we use. And I know that IPS is the provider
- of the data from the meters. Do you expect that getting data about meters is going to get easier once
- we upgrade to new equipment? What is your opinion? Absolutely. How much easier will it get? Did you
- watch what was in the packet sent to the Transportation Commission? Did I watch it? Yeah, there were
- two videos.
- that was uploaded to the packet of the last section from both of those vendors. And it's really... Oh,
- yeah. I remember. I mean, I'm just talking from your perspective, just being able to... Do you have
- a person who works for you, who you go to for generating any kind of report? Or do you just go straight
- to IPS? Go ahead, Michelle. IPS or Park Mobile?
- So you just, there's nobody on staff who kind of can navigate those portals. You just have to, you depend
- on them to generate reports for you, is that right? Correct. But you think that with new equipment,
- you'll be able to do some of that in-house? New parking technology, yeah. We can give access to whoever
- needs it, including the transportation commission, Jeff, who needs it, the controller.
- We just haven't. I mean, so the what technology we move to is still completely up in the air. So I just
- want to be cautious here before we commit to, you know, who gets access to water, how we get access.
- Like, there's a lot of decision points that need to be made on what we move to with parking technology,
- but we will
- Of course, our end goal is to make all data captures as easy as possible. I really do look forward,
- myself, even to getting a tour on T2 of what we can do in-house versus out-of-house. I don't know all
- of our software systems in the weeds like that. So just with the caveat that we haven't made those decisions
- and don't know, but our goal is going to be to make data capture as easy as possible. OK. Well, and
- I know that that's
- you know, pending it's farther in the future than our objective here is now. But Eric online asks the
- question that's relevant here. Can you simply request the raw complete data from T2? That is what the
- commission, the parking commission did in the past. We would simply, there's somebody from the public
- watching here. And that is what the parking commission did. They would, we would take,
- all the parking transactions and synthesize them. And I can tell you from personal experience,
- it was hard. But I think that in order for us to do this next report, until there's new equipment, we
- have to do that again somehow. We have to download data and process it. And we have to figure out how
- we're going to do that. So OK, we've talked about T2 and IPS. Can we talk about it? Before we move on,
- I want to recognize that Matt has had his hand up. Oh, Matt, sorry. Please speak up.
- Thank you. Thank you, Iris. We can keep going down this data path if we'd like. That's fine. What I
- wanted to interject, though, to ask and kind of just frame is, at least the way my mind works, like,
- it'd be helpful to kind of set out in broad strokes, like, the timeline process, what it is we're trying
- to contemplate in roles.
- You know, my intent generally, I guess, as a council member, I just drafted the section on this parking
- report. And as a past parking commission member like yourselves, I don't anticipate the transportation
- commission or a committee or task force of that commission to replicate the parking commission's process
- of data acquisition, processing, to kind of look all of those things that proved frankly just untenable
- for a volunteer group. And, you know, data tools might improve the ability to do that, but kind of what I
- vision, I guess, is aligning on a template for an annual report that looks a lot like the 2018 report.
- I think it's a really terrific starting point in terms of what's being analyzed. It's aligned
- with Bloomington Municipal Codes prescription to the Transportation Commission. And if we can align
- on that report, then it becomes the job of staff and or contractors to produce the data on an annual
- basis, you know, that that
- report template that we all align on, and maybe advise the commission on how to interpret that data.
- But ultimately, it would be the commission's job then to analyze, interpret, and produce the final report
- with any policy or recommendation. So it's more of a analysis and policy guidance role for the commission
- rather than the data analytics piece of it. But as we set that up, this is the job of the task force,
- essentially, in my mind, is over the next, say, five, six months figuring out
- Like, what are all the questions? What can our data systems manage and do and produce in a, again, clear
- template report? And then once we set that up, it's just kind of, you know, we run it on an annual cycle.
- Maybe we want to produce this first annual report by something like March of 2027 for the calendar year
- 2026, so complete data for 2026. That'd be the first year the commission's been fully in operation.
- That would also have the benefit of, you know, being able to get policy guidance
- in time to make changes for, I know the neighborhood permits kind of operate on a summer permitting
- cycle, so that's kind of the time scale that might be true for some of the other permits as well. So
- I just wanted to like zoom out and ask if it's helpful for us to have that conversation about anticipated
- timelines, roles, and process that might then inform what we need to answer on the data upfront and
- other related questions.
- So please don't forget to ignore me and proceed. No, no, no. No, I just, I was really, I wanted to react
- to something that you said, because I think I heard a contradiction in the language that's being used
- around producing a report. And I guess, can you clarify what you mean by that? Like there's the production
- of a template, and then mechanically, either the commissioners are
- writing a report with that template or staff are writing a report and then bringing it to the commission.
- I just want to understand the mechanics a little bit better. I want to say that I believe that
- the commissioners won't have enough time by themselves to generate the data, but if they have access
- to the data that's digestible, they can write summaries of it to say, here's what we see. And that is
- the commission's role to interpret
- And writing that interpretation should not be particularly difficult. It was always about getting all
- this data wrestled. I mean, the chart that is the best example of it is 4.6. This broke down revenue
- by block face. And I think it's one of the crucial tables for determining how the parking system is
- operating.
- It doesn't make sense to be charging a dollar an hour across the board when there are clearly blocks
- that aren't used at all and clearly blocks that are being used much more heavily than a dollar an hour
- would merit. And certainly other cities don't charge the same amount across the city. They charge different
- rates. But that kind of data is crunching a million and a half or two million transactions to find out
- where people parked. And that takes a lot of work.
- I can't do by myself anymore. So that was my thought. But I welcome other interpretations. If, Matt,
- you think that we should be doing it differently, or Aobahn, or anybody else? I guess, again, I'm going
- into a conversation around setting the broad contours of what the responsibility of the tax force is,
- what the responsibilities of the commission are, what we expect staff would be able to do to support
- that. Code, Tyrus's question, code says produce or oversee an annual analysis of parking asset management.
- So I think there's some flexibility there. Yeah.
- When I say template, I mostly meant the data fields that we want produced, that I don't anticipate
- commissioners analyzing the data systems to produce, but rather against staff or contractors to produce
- those data fields. I think there's an open question about the text of the report, the analysis piece.
- I think staff's opinions and guidance would be very welcome, but it's not ultimately the staff that's
- charged with
- ultimately, or you know, production or oversight of the report. So I think it would be advisory to the
- commission if staff wanted to also interpret the data, you know, by way of how we sequence that production.
- I think I'd be happy to, you know, to kind of draft a plan, I guess, or like a process, you know, one
- pager to describe this. I mean, instead we're just kind of talking through it, but I guess that's my
- vision. I think there's a little,
- wiggle room on the writing of the report and exactly how they get sequenced and finalized. So I would
- like to just propose to everyone who has an interest in this report to look at the 2018 report and to
- look specifically at the figures. I told you how they broke down. There's a pattern to them. Again,
- Chapter two is the overall performance of parking.
- Chapter three is garages, four is meters, five is neighborhood zones. And in each chapter, it's the
- same thing. We do the inventory. We do an overall performance. We do revenues. We do expenses. And in
- between revenues and expenses, we do system performance, like how much are people actually using things.
- One way to measure that has been money because we've charged a dollar an hour, at least on the meters.
- That's not been true with the garages. Michelle can speak to that if she'd like.
- we need to start tracking usage, not simply revenue. We can't use revenue as a substitute for usage
- beyond that. So, you know, like having said that, I'm going to be asking people eventually, are there
- any figures in the 2018 report that you wouldn't reproduce in a future report? Are there any figures
- that you'd add? Okay. I don't think we need to do more than what's here.
- But what's here was substantial enough that it couldn't be done by volunteer commissioners alone. And
- I wanted to ask the clerk's office, because they also sit on a body of data, before we go any further,
- if they had anything to add to the collection of data for this report. Did you have anything you wanted
- to say about citations, for example? No. Okay. Susan?
- Is it easy enough to get citation data and compile it? I mean, you have access to all the data you need.
- We compile it on a monthly basis anyway. OK. All right. So Matt's point, I think, about trying to define
- a process. I think we're starting to coalesce a process here, which is what you just outlined, Steve.
- I think using the 2018 report as a basis, determining what, if anything, in that report
- would be something that, for example, we don't have data sources for or would maybe just consume an
- inordinate amount of staff time to prepare. And then if we can sort of just delineate that and then
- decide, OK, that's not going to go in future reports because the ROI isn't really there. In my mind,
- that's kind of the core of what this process would need to be, I think.
- Although, Matt, I would be curious to hear if there's anything else in your mind when you're talking
- about defining this process. You also earlier mentioned a kind of hypothetical timeline that would be
- spring of next year trying to pull together a report for calendar 2026. I don't want to skip past that,
- I guess, because I think that's an important thing for
- probably most of the people in this room be at least roughly on the same page about. Well, before we
- get to deadline, let me first just ask any department that's here, is there anything that we've talked
- about so far that sounds like a too heavy a lift as far as data gathering goes? None of us. Okay. I
- believe that staff just need to be told what data to gather. Okay.
- I think it may come down to, Adam, what you were saying about identifying the, what's the term, like
- the specific report that we need to generate a certain table. The one I'm most concerned about is the
- report, the table you point to because everything I know about the data we try to do for block face
- usage is going with the way park mobile zones work where the block face itself
- is not as easily calculable maybe now as it was then. Why would you say that is? Because you can change
- where you park in the zone for ParkMobile. So you might park in front of Uptown for your lunch and then
- you might head within that zone to, I don't exactly know how big the zones are, but you can head somewhere
- else in the zone. So it's not going to show you a perfect block face data point on the block in front
- of Uptown necessarily. When you integrate ParkMobile's data with
- Do we have any data at all about that user tendency to move? Do we have any ways of knowing whether
- that happens a lot or not? We can look into that. That would be an interesting question that we want
- to find out. I don't think so. If you think about the way ParkMobile works, you put your time in.
- And then if you move, you're not telling them you move. And I don't think they're going to have geocaching
- of locations or things like that. That's right. The only way for them to be able to calculate that would
- be to track the GPS location of cars and be able to say, yes, we have a database of cars and where they
- were at specific points in time.
- I'll clearly state I'm not asking for that. Which is not, I think, what anyone is expecting is happening
- with the service. May I? Yes, please. No, because we've always enforced based on zone with park mobile
- instead of by space. Other communities actually do park mobile by space, which ultimately that's what
- you guys want to look at. You could do it and change it, but then you'll have to also pay the
- mark every single space in the city. So you're asking for something else. There's also another problem
- with this data set and that's that there's no way to track when construction or spaces are closed due
- to special events. Other things that will bias the data because the the assumption operating assumption
- is that all spots are open all of the time. There are lots of routine situations that affect whether
- or not any spot is actually open.
- That is actually not true. It's just exorbitant. It's an expensive task to do, but I've been able to
- do it because I've had access to raw data. You can see when a block, there's no action whatsoever. You
- can conclude that the block was closed. It's just very difficult to do. Perhaps a block, but then to
- do an individual space, which is sometimes what is required from, for example, construction right of
- way permit.
- The only way you could cross-reference that data would probably be to go to a Board of Public Works
- packet. Staff are not individually tracking a spot. Each spot doesn't have a unique ID that is being
- tracked in a system. This has been closed for construction. Again, as Nicole has said, it is possible
- that if we change the way we do it, we're not proposing any such change yet. I will also point out that
- when this report was made,
- If you look at figure 4.3 when you get a chance, you'll see the breakdown of usage of the meters. It
- was roughly one sixth app, one third coin and one half card. Those figures have flipped now. Literally
- one half of parking meter transactions are being done by the app and only one sixth by coin. So with
- as little park mobile data as there was at this time, it was reasonable enough
- to just go with the first space where somebody paid for ParkMobile and to assume they stayed there the
- whole time. We were looking for general figures, not the, I mean, even though there's great detail in
- here, we're looking for trends over time. I mean, if we were to unify ParkMobile with IPS data, no matter
- how imperfect, as long as we do it consistently from year to year, we can see trends. That doesn't mean
- that we're not missing
- a performance issue in a certain block because people pay there and they move and park somewhere else,
- but it's close enough. There's some horseshoes joke in there somewhere. So it's still, I think, worth
- our trouble to do some kind of depth into this and to combine the two even though we know it's not perfect
- and we can move. Sorry, my mistake was thinking we were talking about what was available, not what we
- want to be available.
- I'm talking about what is available. For this report, we're not gonna have the luxury any more than
- we did in 2018. I still think it's worth combining the two data sets so we can see, I mean, it's still
- gonna give us a good heat map. I completely agree that you can make that reasonable simplification that
- where somebody establishes their mobile session is where they're parking. You're right, it's not perfect.
- It's good enough. It's good enough. It's good enough, yeah. Again, we're looking for trends.
- We're looking to make it clear that this neighborhood is being over-parked. We can do something about
- it. And that's ultimately the goal. Matt. This is interesting and helpful. Also feels to me like very
- weedy about a particular data point type of issue that, yes, warrants some caveats and interpretation.
- And that's the job for the board.
- You know, can I bring back the process? Of course. And again, we're charged with producing an annual
- report. Prior reports have been on the calendar year time cycle. If we'd like to replicate that, our
- first calendar year operation as a commission is this year. We could produce the report by sometime
- early in 2027. I think doing it say by the end of Q1 makes it actionable for some of the policy decisions
- that can follow from it. Yes.
- And it seems to me, so, like, A, like, if people agree, like, can we, like, broadly have a line there
- on that coming out of this meeting, for instance? And then what would be the next steps? I would think
- maybe this task force, like the members from the commission, need to align on, like, specifically what,
- maybe even producing a template, you know, from the 2018 report of, like, these figures, these, yeah,
- these figures are what we'd like to see produced and what we in them and then stock, you know, can assess
- what's feasible or what's not.
- few instances in which there are limitations and then we can work through those issues and settle you
- know over the next couple of months not exactly what it is that will be produced by staff on the data
- front as well as you know with regard to any advisory interpretive type things and then you know again
- a timeline for the commission itself whether it's through this task force initially or the commission
- as a whole to actually write and finalize the report so
- I'm trying to define the timelines and get alignment if we can, again, and roles and next steps, just
- because I know our time is limited and I want to make sure that we're identifying the right path forward
- that can get this to meet our requirements. Okay. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I want to just say that
- my first goal was to find out if there were any red flags from departments about data that they considered to be
- too difficult to acquire or that would take an inordinate amount of time. We may not know that today,
- particularly public works. I know you have the majority of the data that we're concerned about.
- And so, you know, before we even agree to a March deadline, which we're not really in a position to
- do today, that's not the goal here, is to have everyone who is thinking about this to look at that report,
- to look at specifically those figures and to see if there's any red flags and let us know at some point
- in the next
- Month or so? Two months? That's what we've been working on. Oh, that's great. That's the approach we're
- taking is just reviewing the data points in there, what data points we currently have that aren't in
- there, and thinking about it that way. And we're going to want to work with you to figure out how to
- formulate the reports so that we can set them up once and then generate them. The setup here is going
- to be the hardest thing. We should be able to do the same thing year after year with much less effort
- than the first year.
- So again, I'm going to be asking anybody who might have data to contribute to this report to let us
- know if they, at some point in the next month, if they see any red flags. I'm encouraged to hear that
- I think the answer is probably no. I just wanted to make sure that departments knew that that was my
- first question, even though I also hear Matt's concern that
- You know, we need to pick a deadline date. I do think the end of March is reasonable, but I don't want
- to commit anybody to it yet until we fully understand the tasks. Are there any other general thoughts
- that people have about getting this done? Has anybody seen this enough to know that there's anything
- that we should be concerned about reproducing? Not yet.
- I'm still a little unclear on what the, like, I hate to bring it back to the particulars, Matt, because
- I really appreciate the bigger picture here, but just the mechanics of compiling data. If there are
- expectations about what this looks like, because it's still not clear to me if the expectation is that
- commissioners will be writing things
- or if staff will be writing things and commissioners will be responding and reacting to the things.
- Again, I would say that the hard part was the data compilation. The hard part was never the writing.
- It was, did we know that this data was accurate enough to act on? And I know that I spent the vast majority
- of my time compiling data and not writing.
- I couldn't write some things when I was contributing to the 2017 report, for example, because I didn't
- know what the answers were. I couldn't know whether the data I had was complete or whether it was fully
- accurate. Again, I was working in a silo when I was doing data in 2017. The 2018 report, there were
- more of us working on it, but it was still a big lift.
- Did that answer your question? No. Yeah, I want to try to make sure we address your question, because
- I think I understand what you're asking here, which is who is ultimately responsible for maybe, if not
- the final stage of the report, but each stage of the preparation of it. And then also, I suppose, who
- is putting their name on the report at the very end, so to speak, or literally
- Is it the commission signing off on it or is it staff? In other words, is it a staff report done with
- the help of the commission or is it a commission report done with the help of staff? I think that's
- kind of an important distinction. I think one probably commits more time on the part of the commissioners
- to shepherd the process along, make lots of individual requests of staff and other relevant parties
- Whereas maybe the other is someone on staff kind of needs to be that role, that shepherd, and keep the
- process moving along. Is that sort of the essence of your question? Yes. Yeah. And I know at this stage
- perhaps it's a little bit of an arbitrary answer to the question, whatever that might be.
- I agree, it's I think an important one for everyone to be on the same page about because I don't want
- to leave that open too long, that question of sort of who is the person shepherding the process. I mean,
- I think currently as we speak, it's the task force doing so, but that isn't to say that staff isn't
- going to, yeah, go ahead. I think the short answer would be let us take a look at any other non-statutory
- commission that reports to the council.
- Uh, who writes those reports? Okay. Well, in that case, Matt, I would address you here as member of
- the council, um, from reports you've seen from, you know, different entities like this, maybe it's another
- commission or maybe it's a city department. Um, what do you feel like is most useful for the council
- and what kind of has set the precedent for what, you know, we might follow for this commission report?
- Good question. I mean, I think, actually, Deputy Clerk Crossley probably has some good insight on that
- as well, as helping oversee for the commission. My general sense is that the commissions that are reporting
- to us, they have staff liaisons who are their support, but they are delivering those products and creating
- them themselves. And so the thing I feel is important is that the commission is ultimately the one driving
- the policy piece of it and recommendations. That's the role of the commission. It's their advisory in nature.
- They're made up of appointments from different bodies of our local government. And it's not simply meant
- to be a place for public to participate in something staff is ultimately responsible for. That's something
- different. And so I think that we're talking about where the handoff point is, essentially. I think
- we should document this in a proposed process for discussion in our next meeting. I'm happy to take
- the lead on that if one of us as the task force member would like to.
- just spitball it. I think, again, once we establish a template in terms of the data fields that need
- to be produced, that's the staff job, I think, we've established. Maybe we would also like a memorandum
- or a few memoranda from the relevant staff members about their interpretation of the data, what trends
- they see, what they think is important about it, what the implications are. And then it would be the
- commission's job to actually finalize and write the report
- bringing its own insights and analysis, but also taking as advisory staff's input and analysis. Now,
- I mean, the final writing and narrative form of the report would be a responsibility of the commission
- and maybe a particular commissioner is designated to draft. And then there's, you know, some discussion
- amendments, et cetera. So like that's a version of this. I think that could work pretty well. This is
- my feeling as well. I think that I don't want to obligate staff to feel like they have to interpret data.
- But I also don't want to, if staff wants to have input in the interpretation data, we welcome it. But
- I do feel it's the obligation of the commission to interpret the data, to think about policy. In fact,
- the last item under 202-100-D7 is recommending changes to the parking system necessary to advance the
- goals of the comprehensive plan and other applicable city plans. What we can't do
- What we've proven, we just don't have the capacity to do as commissioners is compile that data. And
- whether we get help from existing city staff or we have to ask for contractors to do it, that's beyond
- the scope of our ability. And then another question is going to be, how much will that cost? We are
- authorized to have a budget to get data, but we haven't asked for it yet. We don't want to have to ask
- for it if we don't need it.
- But there is a cost to generating that data. And it's simply one that volunteer commissioners can't
- bear. So I think that for sure it's that we need staff help to generate the data. We welcome
- staff interpretation of the data, but we don't want to obligate staff to do that interpretation if they
- don't feel like they have anything to say or they don't want to have to do that work.
- It is our job to interpret that data. I do think there are some departments, again, planning and ESD,
- that ought to be interested in interpreting the data since they're keepers of plans. But I don't begrudge
- any department interpreting the data. So I don't know if the answers from both of us are sufficient to
- answer your question. I believe my question was answered by Matt's commitment to propose a workflow
- for whatever next task force meeting, whenever that will happen. OK. I didn't even propose to set a
- second meeting for the task force. I just needed us to start the conversation. And I want to be able
- to report to the Transportation Commission.
- Does do the commission members want to meet again for any reason before the next regular hearing of
- the Transportation Commission? I would just say that I think it is important for the task force to meet
- again, but I don't think it has to be before the next commission meeting. As a point of order, I don't
- know that we could simply because as a task force staff have been advised by the first office to limit
- task force meetings to an hour a month.
- thereabouts. By the clerk's office? By Jennifer Crossley? Yes. That's news to me. That's totally fine
- with me. I just want to make sure you weren't eager to go any further than that this zoom. That's fine.
- No. Okay. I don't again feel we need to discuss that now. We can talk about it. I mean, if you two would like to
- set up a regular time, I feel like we need to consult with anybody else who might need to be at any
- future meeting to find a more congenial regular time to meet. And just as a reminder, it would be official
- business, so just make sure that we're given the opportunity to notice meetings appropriately. OK. Yeah.
- Is there anything else anybody would like to contribute just as a general comment on this effort? I
- just want to know, should I email
- you Steve or Iris or the link in the immunization schedules and that sort of thing. So you as a general
- policy always go to CC the Transportation Commission email on communications with Steve or
- other commissioners on the task force. It's just transportation.commission at bloomington.in.gov and
- that goes to me and all the other staff liaisons for commission. So yeah I mean that at least makes
- sure that it's
- received by the commission and we can go from there. So yeah, any those links will be very useful and
- any data that departments that happen to have that they want to just submit early because they know
- where it is, we'd like that. I'm going to want to meet with individual departments to ask about,
- you know, how hard any given data request might be.
- And once again, I'm going to ask everyone, please review this report, look at each figure, and tell
- me if there's anything that's a red flag, that's something that you think we can't do, don't need, or
- maybe there's something missing. We need to add some data, okay? Because I think this is as decent a
- template as there is, at least the figures in this. But I, for one, am open to any kind of
- rethinking of this template. In other words, if somebody wants to propose a different template, now
- would be a good time. Any thoughts from planning? We don't keep any data that will be helpful to this,
- so maybe my concern isn't warranted.
- Before our next meeting, would it be helpful to just have all the data in the 2018 that we could replicate?
- And if we can't, then we can have that conversation. I'm worried about this meeting was a lot of people
- in high-value positions kind of just sitting around. And I don't want to do that again. I would much
- prefer that we came with something that the body could look at and be like, yep, this looks good. And
- then that'll answer the question that you're saying, which is,
- What are we missing and providing? So I think that's a question. Sorry. But I had hoped to involve the
- people who were most closest to the data to be part of this task force that didn't mean to require department
- heads. And I'm grateful for their presence. I share your concern. Can each department identify somebody
- who could be their liaison or basically be a member of this task force so that we can ask them for data?
- I guess I'm just, it's an ask for data. That seems like a thing that can happen offline if it's a request
- to attend a meeting, just encourage like advanced planning, getting a large group like that was the
- urgency of getting this made it hard to get key people involved at the last minute. So those are maybe
- two separate requests. No future meetings require this high level. This is our first time talking about
- it at all.
- And so we are grateful for your presence. It was not unnecessary. Future meetings are going to be much
- more in the weeds. So we just need points of contact. We don't want to be disturbing department heads.
- We want to be talking. I mean, again, Rick Dietz could have been here, but Megan Blair was the person
- who would process the data. So if we can get help in identifying contacts who we can ask questions that
- the task force can ask questions of, it would be helpful.
- It might be helpful in future meetings to have those list of questions in advance of the meeting to
- make sure the right people are there. Because with this meeting, we had no idea what was even going
- to be discussed. So that would be helpful. Understood. And again, there will be no future meeting like
- that. There will be agendas for future meetings. We just needed to talk about what we're going to do.
- Just to clarify, for future task force meetings, because we don't really have a procedure for this,
- is the expectation that each individual task force member
- has equal authority over setting the agenda and preparing documents and just what the mechanics of scheduling
- are just a little challenging. Well, I'd hope that each department could name somebody who would join
- the task force if departments would prefer not to do that and just wait for the three commission members
- to ask for that. Just to clarify, staff cannot volunteer to participate on the task force. The task
- force exists for the benefit of the commission. This is your show.
- So to the extent that staff come here, it is because you have requested them to be there. It has nothing
- to do with their intense wants or desires. I appreciate your desires, thank you. And Steve, I think
- just to add on to that a little bit. So I think really the gist here is that the task force is the three
- of us. So no one else is a member of the task force. They may be attending a meeting here or there or
- responding to the press for data, but I believe
- What Irish is trying to get across is that Matt, you and I are the task force and I think the agenda,
- the scheduling, that sort of thing, that's largely up to us. All I wanted to know was who specifically
- to invite from each department that's relevant.
- So if each department wants to volunteer somebody who will be here when we need them, we don't need
- them all the time. There won't be volunteers. And I guess who is the chair of this task force to facilitate
- that? You have helped, but I guess just that's a maybe direct question is, who is in charge of this
- task force? That has not been established. We didn't name a chair. I've been the default chair.
- As the chair of the commission as a whole, I'm happy to, we need to wrap it up. I'm happy to continue
- acting unless Matt or Ayobhan would prefer to be chair. I certainly don't object. Matt, do you care?
- Can I chair it? You want to chair it? Do you want to? Matt wants to chair it. I have to step out, but
- than Mr. Chair and Mr. Chair. If you just email the clerk at bloomington.in.gov, we will try and send
- somebody or any information that's appropriate. I'll follow up with email after consulting with the
- chair about how to proceed. Thank you all for being here. That's all we have. Is there any last comments?
- None? We will let you know what our next meeting is. Thank you for attending. We appreciate your coming
- on such short notice.