- Thank you, everyone. Happy to have you all here on this beautiful June day. I think we'll need to take a roll call for attendance. Phil, you want to start? Phil Emerson, BUEA. Felisa Spinelli, BUEA. Mary Morgan, BUEA. Heather Robinson, BUEA. Brad Whistler, BUEA. Cheryl Gilliland, Deputy Controller, Controller's Office.
- D Delivero said, UEA City of Bloomington. Virginia Gethiri, BUBA. Awesome. Hello. Hi. I'm not an official member, but I just wanted to say hi. My name is Julius. I am the new Wednesday of Affairs Specialist in the Office of the Mayor upstairs. Oh, fantastic. So my job is sort of new, but I'm just sitting in on a lot of the boards and commissions. I'll handle some of the, like,
- onboarding for new members, like the vacancies and the applications from the mayoral appointments. I also just sit in and share some of the big news with the mayor. Her schedule is too busy to attend all of these board of commission meetings, so I kind of disseminate the big points. So you won't see me sitting in every so often. OK. I'm glad. Julius, what's your last name? Mitchell. Julius Mitchell. You're welcome. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you. It's nice to meet you all.
- OK. We have then our meeting minutes from last month. We'll need a motion to approve those. First of all, I guess, are there any comments, corrections, other thing? If not, then we could have a motion to approve the minutes. Do we have any hard copies? Oh, yeah.
- Do you want a minute to review them before we go? Yeah, do you need it? Yeah, I was in here and didn't have time, sorry. Oh, that's okay. Pretty sure. Thank you. We can come back to the approval on those then while Felisa has a minute to look them over. Dee, did you want to give your general updates? Yeah, give me just a second while I figure out which computer I'm using. Okay. No worries.
- So just a few updates and something that I'd like to address a little later if we can. So as you know, we've been giving out a safety and security grant for the past two, almost three years. It's been incredibly successful. The city decided that that's something they should do as well. So I was given a chunk of money.
- To do that for all of the for any business within the city of Bloomington It's a 85,000. I was given a total of $100,000 85,000 is going to safety and cleanliness and the other 15 is going to an accessibility grant for Accessibility Like assessments for businesses so
- Uh, we're still in the works on that part. Uh, nothing, nothing official yet on that, but that's, that's in the works. Uh, but it's basically sort of like the grant that we give out for the BUEA. It's, it's, uh, mitigating vandalism or repairing, rehabbing, um, preventative measures and things like that. So I'm really excited about that. I already have, I think, 12 applicants.
- It's a little bit more of a rigorous process to get through it because there is no matching on it. It's $5,000 with no matching.
- But yeah, there's a scoring kind of guide to it and all of that. So if you have any more interest in that or want to see what's going on with that, please let me know. And please let any business owners or nonprofits that you know about it. I'm really excited to be able to do that. So that's not a BUEA? That's not a BUEA grant. But because of the work the BUEA has done with that, it influenced the city to put some money into that. So that's really great. And is that just within the sources? It's within city limits at this point.
- Oh, I meant the source of funding is just like general fund. Okay. Yep. And what's the approval process like for that? Who decides? So it's gonna be me and an intern going through a very long scoring guide on the application. The application is similar to the one that we have for the VUEA with some more
- Um, hard requirements as far as like permissions, um, they're, they still have to go through, um, historic, uh, uh, the historic, uh, preservation manager, if there's anything, uh, as far as like an historic district and things like that. So, um, there, there are a few things that make it a little bit tougher. I guess there's no body that has to vote on it. No, no, no, no. They, they handed me some money and said, do good things. So that's what I'm trying to do.
- Um, the real reallocation of the DEI grant budget line, um, as you know, with, uh, the state policy change, um, we've had to, um, uh, remove that as it is labeled. Um, so we have a couple of options of either, uh, rebranding or because we have exhausted other funds, um, this year, as far as like the building improvement, safety and security, reallocating that into those lines so we can give out more money.
- in there. So that's something to think about. We obviously don't have to vote on it today. But I just wanted to make sure that we put that out. Do you have any suggestions on how rebranding would work, or what names? It would probably be something more like an equal opportunity employment sort of title. And it would just go towards those practices instead of the very hard
- labeling that DEI has. There have been some workarounds that kind of get us to the same place. So it would take a little bit of work, but it's definitely doable. I'm on a couple of groups that have used underrepresented population as a way. Do you anticipate you'll come back with a recommendation? I can.
- Here are the options. Either we can discuss it a little bit more today later in the meeting, or I can just come back with a proposal for a rebranding. And if you guys like it, we'll do that. And if not, we'll reallocate. Catalyst easing payments, some good news.
- So I contacted Catalyst accountants and had a pretty frank discussion with them about what was going on. Catalyst, operating as Novo Nordisk or something to that effect, I can't remember how all the words go together in that title. They contacted us and I believe the controller's office and
- Corporation Council, I believe, and they sent us the process in which we can receive payments from Catalan. So we have to accept the vendor and da-da-da and all that stuff. So Cheryl and I will be working on that, and we'll get that payment going. Heather just signed the letter that we need to send to the bank, so things are in the works.
- Thought that I had written down the total amount that we would be receiving but apparently I did not but it's somewhere upwards of Seven hundred thousand dollars because it's over three years so that will be really great when we start budgeting for next year, yeah, because
- Because of the changes with SB1 and some of the personal property tax policy, that's where we get some of our revenue and some of that may no longer exist. So it'll be really great to get that injection of funding to make up for that. So that is what I have for my director's report.
- Do we want to go back to minutes? Police, are you ready to vote on that? Yes. OK. All right. So back to minutes. If there are no comments, questions, changes to the minutes, do we have a motion to approve? Move to approve the May 14, 2025 VBA board minutes. Do we have a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Abstain, because I wasn't here. So I don't know if they're. OK. All right. One abstention, then.
- Does that bump out our quorum? Or does that, with the abstention, is it still okay? It's still okay. Okay, all right. Thank you. Sharon, you're up. I know we have a lot of financial reports in here. Thank you so much for getting all of these to us. There's not a lot happening in Q1, from what I can see. So, I mean, we do need to approve those, so if there's any
- overview of that, highlights, or anything you'd like to mention. Of course, we'll take questions on those. But it seems like recent activity, of course, is April, May. And that's where we'll probably focus our attention. Then we'll need to approve all financials presented today. For Q1, I mean, it's just the report that I gave. There's no really.
- Nothing that stands out because the beginning of the usually the first quarter is just very light anyway. For April and May, I can give you a very quick overview between those two months. Quarter two will include June, so the next time you meet, I can give you a quarter two update.
- The combination of the profit and loss, if you were to put those together, those two reports, $95,964.73 was brought in as income during April and May. And that amount is broken down to $14,930.91 in bank interest, $8.45 in RRF loan length fees.
- $165.30 in RRF loan interest, and $80,860.07 in zone membership fees, which is the EZ. So we started seeing the EZ payments coming in. And there should be a lot in June for that. On the expense side for the profit and loss combined,
- We had $140,557.77 spent during that month. I think you need to be on the May, the January. Oh, I'm sorry. I was so confused. Yeah, keep going. There we go. So sorry. Sorry about that. So that $140,000 was spent between four different grant categories.
- In the arts and culture grants, we give out a $10,000 arts or historic facade grant. Under the education and entrepreneurship category, we give $45,000 for the Ivy Tech grant. Education category, we give $50,000 to MCCSC. Zone arts category.
- We gave out two different grants in the amount of $35,557.77. And that was broken out between business building improvements of $25,557.77. And $10,000 was distributed to the Small Business Safety and Security grant.
- So between April and May, your net income, which is income minus expense, was a negative $44,593.04. For the budget. So wait a minute. Say that again. Negative $44,000. I'm trying to see where that ties. It should be, let's see, this is
- If you, it should be down at the bottom. Bottom of this, of the profit and loss statement? Yeah. Unless I didn't take that one. That's the profit, I'm sorry, this is profit and loss budget versus actual. Okay, so that is the grants. So it's when you combine May, so the profit and loss statement for May, April and May, they're separate.
- when you combine it together. So the negative $32,000 for May. And then if you go to the April profit and loss, wherever that one's at, there you go. Then it comes to $44,593 as combined together. Because you get them as two individual months.
- take the P&L summary as accurate. Any questions on the financials? All right. Hearing none, do we have a motion to approve Q1 and then the April and May financials? Motion to approve.
- Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. Mary, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Just to give you a little extra information, I think it's in the packet. And when I looked at it, it came out as two pages. So I'm just going to give you this single page.
- a detail of the grants that were distributed, if you want to know the details. And then I added a column for the budget of your grants, just so you have a comparison to see what was actually spent on each of the grant categories and against their budget. And then, of course, it only reflects what
- has been handed out through May 31. And then Dee has all of the details about the ones that are in the process of being distributed. But just I wasn't trying to. Dee made the comment that she thought this group would like to see where you're at with the grants just because this is a heavy period.
- going into a heavy period of distributing the grant funds. And I thought this might just help you give. So this is basically pulled out of the P&L within the packet? Yes, the details. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that being up to me. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. I mean, Dee's been processing a lot of it, seeing them come through.
- But of course, they're not reflected in the financials yet. So I've never given this kind of report to you in the past. So it's just something extra. So I'm just, you know. It's a bonus. Yes. I appreciate it. I know it's a lot of work. So thank you, guys. Yeah, and Dee, maybe just shoot this out electronically, too. Yeah, I just made a note. I'm going to open the packet, and then I'll shoot you guys a digital copy. That's great.
- around and put it in the packet, sorry. No, that was me. That's okay. Additional information here. Cheryl, much appreciated. Okay, so let's see, where are we, what's next? Grant update, I put in, I just updated our sheet to make sure that everybody could see, I mean essentially what Cheryl did as well, but this has up to,
- today, like this is year two date. All of the grants that we awarded for last month, I just got the contracts back. They're going to be out for signature today. So all of this will be leaving our account soon. So that's WFHB. I'm sorry, not the Showers Administration Building for the
- historical facade grant. We're gonna wait until we get, it's been approved, but under the conditions that they would complete the project and then we would distribute the funds. So that is still staying, but we're holding that 20K for them. Andrew Day was closing for 10 and June for Art Gallery for 72, 76, 50. So that's where we're at right now. So that leaves us with,
- $4,442.24 in the business building improvement, $22,375 for safety and security, and $17,723.50 for the business accessibility modification. Where does the DEI show up?
- So DEI is actually under a different category in our budget. Hold on a second. Let me. It's under the education and entrepreneurship as a DEI scholarship line. It says scholarship, but it's actually a grant. So whenever you do make that decision, I can update the budget category to move it wherever you want.
- So it's not accounted for in our total budget right now? It's not accounted for in these two categories. It is within our entire budget. We allocated that from last year, so it's just $10,000 that's kind of sitting there right now. And the sheet that I just gave you, it is listed there.
- the education entrepreneurship, you can see it. It's a specific line, and it's $10,000. Yeah, January through May has the full budget here. OK. All right. Thank you. OK. So moving on. So and then I broke out what we have.
- Grants at the bottom in bold are the ones that we will be reviewing today as far as money going out the door or potentially going out the door. And then the top portion is just kind of a repeat of what I showed you last month when we were trying to get through all of those. So right now, we should probably just jump into the grants and start talking about them
- because we've got some discussion about this. Yeah, let's do that. Dee, I'm wondering, should we start with PALS just because that's kind of not connected to this piece here? But I would be curious where that would end up. So if we want to talk about that special request, we have to start there. For sure. So.
- I sent a memo out just kind of getting the overview of a pulse situation there and animal animal learning services, people in animal learning services, mostly primarily equine therapy. They have done quite a bit.
- for the community and the residents of this community. The BEA holds their RRF loan and they owe a total of, the remaining is what, $7,160.01 as of a few days ago. Their facility was completely destroyed. Here's some photos.
- Um, from the attorneys that we had last month. So, uh, I, uh, I, I spoke to, uh, one of their board members. I've also spoken to their accountant and, uh, I know I reached out to them to see what, what we could do. And this was the first thing that I thought of. Um, it's.
- I mean, this is tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I know that $7,000 isn't a whole lot. I mean, when you're talking about that kind of damage, it's a drop in the bucket, but it's one less thing that they have to think about. And since we are on the path of this loan conversion into grants, I think that this is an excellent case to just go ahead and do this one. And I will just say that they have been one that has consistently paid.
- They have always paid, and it's been pretty much always on time. So where would we put, so we would know, what would this hit in our budget? What are you recommending? What line in our grants? Unbudgeted grants, would we push everything into there so we'd have one place where we could, as we're reviewing these and going through this process,
- Yeah, what I would like to do is probably combine all of the unbudgeted grants and start from there. At this point, it doesn't look like in the categories that the unbudgeted grants are in, it doesn't look like they will be unused or they will be used. So it's a bit of splitting the difference between the unbudgeted grants and then also taking a loss or not technically a loss, but
- moving it into a grant. So we will overspend because of the conversion of all of the loans or of all of the conversion in the list of the grants. However, this $7,000 can be covered by unbudgeted grants at this point in time. Yeah. So I'm thinking, right now, though, am I missing something? Unbudgeted grants, we only have an education in total of $13,000.
- There's one under arts and culture and one under education entrepreneurship, right So this I mean this doesn't really fit into either of those I'm just wondering for the sake of this do It'd be great to be able to kind of put them in one place But I don't know that they fit in either of those unbudgeted line items. They don't really right well within the
- Conversion proposal, it would be a new line within our budget. And we would just allocate that as a different line and put that conversion in there. So it would be an additional line. Currently, there's nothing in our budget that houses it. I might suggest that if the board is open to approving this today that we go ahead and amend the budget.
- Yes, or put that line in there. I don't know that we need to amend it in the sense of putting a dollar amount on it. I don't think we know what that is now, but at least adding a line item so that we can see all of the RRF loans that then are converted. So we just as a board have a clear sight on what that number is.
- you know, just as a suggestion. I have a question, and maybe another suggestion. Would it be appropriate since the other RRF loans might be going, you know, it's a little different, right? Especially if they've not really been current. And this is more of an emergency. Would it be possible to create a line item that speaks to, like maybe split those in some type of emergency? I don't think you can use charity, but you know,
- something that would maybe speak to this being different, or is that something that's not? So in the former budget, there was an emergency line in there because of the COVID loans that were sent out. So that is, I'm assuming that that's easily put back in if that's something that the board would want me to designate specifically. Just because this is different, you know, including some thinking.
- Yeah, it is. I mean, I think just so long as we have, like, a site, whether it's one account or two, that we can kind of view and see that these come from, these grants are converted from the RRF. So having just a clear, you know, to me, it doesn't, you know, it's accounting, Cheryl. Yeah, but to make it clean. To make it clean. I think it should be super clean. Okay. Not a problem. Easily done.
- That's a good suggestion because it is an emergency that happens with businesses, and we don't have a line for that. We used to. I don't know why we took that line away or where we allocated that. Sometimes if it's a line that hasn't been used for over two years, and that one was specifically designated for the RF. So I pulled it because we weren't issuing any more loans.
- other discussion about this one. I think we can see clearly the devastation that this community organization has had. So if the board is ready to vote on approving or vote on the approval for converting that RRF loan to a grant,
- Motion to approve. Motion. Do we have a second? Virginia. All of those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you all so much. OK. Next, it is the annual BAC recommendations for the zone art grants.
- Unfortunately, Holly couldn't be here because she is at a conference. So pretty short memo. So funded projects must do one or more of the following things for residents or businesses within the UEA. Facilitate involvement in arts and culture activities.
- provide an opportunity to participate in the creative process, advance the quality and availability of arts in the zone, and celebrate or enhance identity in the zone. As part of the annual cycle, the readers are to evaluate applications according to the following criteria. Capacity, does the project have a clear plan and outcomes and a plan to achieve them? Does the artist or arts group have financial resources committed to the project outside of this grant?
- and community impact is the project addressing a community need, doesn't engage in larger community dialogues, doesn't reach out to or connect with the various communities that exist in Bloomington, and is the artist or arts group partnering with other organizations. They received a total of 37 grants, and 12 of the following have been approved, I'm sorry, are being recommended.
- for $27,983. I'm not going to go into the details of all of these. Holly and the BAC do an incredible job of vetting. The process is thorough. And I recommend to the board that we approve these in total. Can you remind me, is there somebody from the board that sits on that? I think we used to have somebody.
- I remember reviewing those applications, but I don't know. We, I mean, Holly reports back to me on that.
- And she is more than happy to have a board member sit through those applications. She would love to have a UVA board member sit through those applications, for sure. You can come back and report, Mary. Yeah. So if anyone is interested in that, I will definitely let Holly know. And then the balance of that. So they obviously didn't award the $50,000.
- So the balance is for the additional cycle. So it comes in two cycles. So we have this for the first half of the year, and then there's another approval process at the end of the year. So they're spending a little over half of it. A little bit. Any comments, questions on this? If not, I think we can entertain a motion to approve the
- So let's prance. Motion. Jenya, do we have a second? Second. Mary? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. All right, great. Next. Excuse me. This is the application for the Forge in the Trades District. The Forge experienced.
- basically felony vandalism to their building. It was upwards of $30,000 or $25,000. Let me scroll down to see. Oh, I don't know why it doesn't have the total project cost. 26,322. Thanks. I know I had it somewhere, but it's not in here.
- It was on its own page at the very bottom. Got you. Thank you. The Forge is asking for $19,741.50. This is due to, and hold on, I'm going to pull up the information, the insurance broker
- that the city is responsible for the pairs despite clear language in the management agreement. They did not include proper coverage in the initial policy due to the confusion. So since that, their insurance policy has been remedied. I believe not with the same insurance broker. But it was an unforeseen issue. And so their insurance coverage was not going to pay for it.
- Now I know that we have fairly limited funding within these grant lines and I'll move back up to the safety and security. So currently we have $22,000, $3.75 in that grant line because we are
- really kind of coming down to the wire and these grant lines, I would recommend that the board do a max of $10,000 and not approve the entire grant. I feel like at this point, we've given, that will be three safety and security grants that we've given in total, and none of them have been over $10,000. I do want to help the Forge for sure,
- I think that if our grant budget line were much bigger, I would be very open to recommending the entire amount. But at this juncture, and we're in June, and we've almost spent all of this money, I would like to be able to give at least one or two more out, if possible. I think you're going to see an application from the same vandalism for a different building coming in.
- Yes. And I do foresee that coming as well. So would this kind of thing fit into the new grant, the $85,000 grant amount that you had talked about earlier? It would, but the maximum then is $5,000, and it's a hard $5,000. Well, if we give $10,000, can they apply for the $5,000 over there? There's nothing that stops them from applying for the city grant.
- I suggest we give them the solid 10 and suggest that they apply to the new budget to get closer to their goal. This way we would have more to give, and they're working out a new budget that won't totally clear ours. Yeah.
- Everybody forget about that? OK. All right. Do we have a motion to approve $10,000 for the forged request and the replacement of windows for the safety and security grant line item? So moved. Second? Second. Bill? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? OK. Motion carries. Great. All right.
- Maybe tell them to switch insurance. Yes. I'd have to be looking for a new broker. Yeah. The message says that it has been remedied. So however that has been remedied. I mean, just the level of vandalism. It's just. I mean, that is normal. It's sad, but normal. I had it on my property in the last two weeks. So they will go up and down the whole street.
- and vandalize every building. My machine is broken again and my picture window is broken again. Well, I got a grant for that from the city.
- So we do have two requests for the business building improvement grants. And the warehouse is asking for $20,000, over $20,000, and his insurance is asking for $10,000. After looking over our numbers yet again, and I'll go back up, we have $4,000 in this budget line.
- This unfortunately is before these. So there are options.
- I would prefer not to completely zero out the direct assistance and small business community support. Those are the grants under $1,000. Although we haven't spent anything yet, now that people are seeing the citywide safety and security grant, they're going to see the minor repair grant. And I feel like that will probably be utilized quite a bit.
- climate resiliency programs, we haven't really come up with anything for that yet. So although I don't want to zero it out, I feel like maybe we could take a portion of the funds out of there to boost what we have in the business building improvement line. Now, all that is to say that we still need to get through just the review of the
- grant projects. But I just want to throw those out there for the board to know that there is some wiggle room as far as putting some money into this. So back to the warehouse. So the
- Warehouse is on the south side of town, south end of the beeline next to Switchyard Park. It contains an indoor skate park, indoor amazing greenhouse. They host a home show annually, which is one of the largest home shows in the state, I believe, possibly in the region.
- They do a lot of interfaith work with the community. And they are asking for over $20,000 for repairs for their kitchen, which will require new electrical, new plumbing, and new flooring as a safety measure. The budget. The total project is $41,148. I'm sorry.
- $41,148.55. They would be taking care of half of that, which is $20,574.28. And we would be taking care of the other half by their request. Once again, I don't think we would be able to fulfill the whole request, even if it were $10,000 at this point.
- So I am open to any guidance from the board on this as far as what you would like to do or what you think should be done as far as this request. So I'm aware that David has attended a couple of meetings and we haven't had time to speak with him. I'm familiar with them. I've made contributions there.
- But I would like some clarity as to why they were planning to host Lieutenant Governor Beckwith and why that invitation was withdrawn and where do they stand in terms of Christian nationalism. And I have some concern about the Establishment Clause.
- separation of church and state. And just makes me wonder why they were inviting a political person. And what's the background behind that? I understand your concerns, but unfortunately, I can't speak to that at this juncture. So I, once again, will take whatever advice from the board as far as that stands. If you'd like to hold this off again,
- to have Mr. Wilde come in and speak to that. I am more than happy to throw out that option as well. Well, my bigger concern, of course, is that we just won't have budget for this, but I also bring these other concerns to the table. Yeah, I don't know. In making this decision, I think it's really tricky.
- We have to be mindful in what our role is and how we view these requests. And I know we've all seen some reports and so forth. But without firsthand and understanding and just that's their concern in their regard to their nonprofit status and so forth, I feel like we kind of have to look at this request as presented
- weigh it against our budget and you know what we might be able to reasonably offer in support. I feel like we've kind of you know this we all can agree that we're in challenging times with a lot of things going on so I acknowledge that and appreciate your comments. I do though think as a board we probably need to
- Just walk the line of viewing this request as presented. I agree. Look at this respectfully as numbers. And you're right, our budget can't hold the whole thing, the exact amount they're asking for. So let's see if we agree on giving them something. And that's what we're here for.
- If we kind of take a similar approach as we have with the Forge, their group request was about 20. We went half at 10, which is where some of these grants, they don't cap out. But that's kind of like typically, if it's beyond that, you have to make sort of an extraordinary case. And so if we, as a board, agreed to 10 on this particular
- request, I think D, that put us about six in the red in this particular line item. That doesn't give me concern at $6,000. I think there are other places in the budget that would certainly absorb that. But again, that's just kind of thinking about this in a similar way we did with the forage and knowing that these grants
- We do offer up to $10,000. And I will say that this one has been on our docket for a while. And we've given other grants in the meantime while we were awaiting additional information. So if we had had everything three months ago, our budget would have looked different. So I wonder how the committee feels about that.
- Or could we use what we have in the budget for building an improvement and what we don't have, generate the rest from direct support instead of going in the red? Oh, you mean reallocate that $6,000 to?
- Yeah. And when I say in the red, it would be in the red for just this particular line item, but it would come out in the wash. So the net for that category would not put it would not put us in the red because it would be balanced against the other. Yeah, the other. So I think there's some, I mean, this is just my own thought about budgets. Please.
- others sold differently. I think there's some value in seeing what you go in the red for, because that informs you. So I think letting it go into the red, knowing that it'll come out in the bottom line, that income wash, serves a purpose, because this is a high demand. So when we set our budget for next year, we'll see this is what we need to allocate more money. Yeah, you're right. All right.
- So the other issue, before we vote on that, the other issue is the Hazen Insurance Grant. Let's look at that really quick because they are asking for $10,000. They are outside of the zone. And I did put a map in there for you to see where their building is outside of the zone.
- The report that they gave us in their application, they expressed that they have over 200 policies for residents within the zone, and that serves about 157 residents.
- I think that the project is good. They had to repave. They had to do some repaving for a building that they purchased that they will be turning into another office for their insurance company. This is part of their succession plan to stay in Bloomington. This building and this business will go to their son. The company has been here for over 20 years. With their son taking over, we can see another 20.
- And it's a very good project. The sticking point is that it is 0.2 miles outside of the zone. What is the letter of the law on that? We have flexibility? So fringe? So I mean, we've had discussion about this. It's something that we need to decide on. What are the hard lines? Because if we don't make hard lines, then
- it's a slippery slope. Now, if we decide that it's like, okay, the zone and then 0.2 miles outside of that, where does that go? Or if you're outside of the zone, what kind of requirements do you have to report to us? But we don't have those right now. So this one is a tricky one because they do really serve many people within the zone. But I think you could make that case for just about any business, right?
- I agree. I pulled up the bylaws, and I read through them three or four times this section, because I'm like, I need to absorb this and understand this. And I think that first and foremost, let us just say that this is about the articles and the directive of the board. The business and the history and everything that they bring to Bloomington is
- you know, supported. I think that we could all say we support small businesses in the community. We would simply, if this was in the zone, we would not be having this conversation. But we do have this directive that is in our bylaws. And I've read through this again. And it's outside of section 2A, which is to perform other activities for which nonprofit corporations are authorized under the act.
- don't know that we can say that this fits. And again, this is simply my interpretation of it. It's to coordinate zone development activities, serve as a catalyst for zone development, promote the zone to outside groups and individuals, establish a formal line of communication with residents and businesses in the zone,
- Act as a liaison between residents, businesses, the city, and the state enterprise zoning board for any development activity that may affect the zone or zone residents and initiate and coordinate any community development activities that aid in the employment of zone residents or improve the physical environment or encourage the turnover or retention of capital in the zone.
- I don't know where this fits. I think that's the challenge. And that it would open the door for arguments from virtually any business within the city, I think. You could argue that the same arguments about who they serve, where they serve, and how long they've been in business, et cetera. For sure.
- Agreeing with you. It's, I just, it's really tricky. It is. Okay. I mean, again, I want to hear. This is simply what our bylaws have, have stated. So I certainly, pardon me. I would certainly. Oh, go ahead. Oh, no, I wasn't. Oh, okay. Okay. No. So I anticipate this is the first time then this has ever, there's no other business. Oh, no. Oh, sorry. No, go ahead.
- I agree with you. When we used to come across businesses that was out of the zone, I would disagree that we picked and choose what we brought in and what we did not. So I agree strongly that those lines are zoned for a reason. And if we allow a business to get a grant that's outside of the zone, it opens up the floodgate.
- Because we told one someone, yes. And we're biased to tell someone else, no. I don't have the full history. I know, Felicia, you've been on the board longer. Thank you. I don't like that. Thank you for sharing. I disagree. And I understand. I looked at the business. And I do agree they do great work for businesses and residents of our community. But they are outside of the zone. And we're here to help the zone.
- And I think to your point, there have been, I think you mentioned another one that we had funded outside the zone, but it was a non-profit. Well, actually, PALS is actually outside of the zone. PALS is outside of the zone, but it is a non-profit.
- And you actually did something different. And those were extraneous circumstances as well. I feel like that was before the pandemic. No one knew what happened. The only thing outside of the zone currently that this board has approved was the Four Street Festival. However, the radius of that festival encompasses some zone businesses, which is why we approved that.
- Also nonprofit, right? Also nonprofit. So that is the closest thing to an exception that this board has given. Yeah. So we need to vote, and it would be? So yeah, so we have the warehouse. So two things.
- We need to approve the funding for the warehouse. And then I don't think that there needs to be an official denial of this grant. I am happy to talk to Hazen Insurance to let them know what's going on, because we will have expended that budget line. So we're out of money. However. So we just wouldn't bring it forward for a vote? No. So that one doesn't have to be brought forward for a vote.
- unless you guys all want to do a vote right now and just agree to not fund them. But I think that you've just clarified the eligibility, and that's what I needed to know. I think that stands as an eligibility issue. Yeah, it's an eligibility issue. However, they actually do qualify for the safety and cleanliness grant because the efforts that they had were mitigation for environmental. So I will be offering that to them.
- That's good. That's another source there. OK. Yeah. I'm sorry. Can they apply for the new budget by what you're saying? Yeah. So it's OK for us to say no. Well, you're the board. It's always OK for you to say no. You guys can always say no. We can officially deny this grant. It's OK. We can say no.
- Everybody say no. Just know that I will do whatever I can to help them outside of this. Yeah, it's okay. We can tell them we deny them and suggest them they go to another application for help. Yeah, absolutely. But I mean, thank you for- Motion to deny. Yeah. You're so silly. You're so silly.
- But I mean, thank you for even entertaining the request and talking it through. So I mean, that informs me for anything else that comes across my plate, so. Well, and I mean, please express to Hazen that, I mean, this is really just a decision based around what this board is, the directive of this board, and how our bylaws are designed, and what our fiduciary responsibility is.
- that we support and applaud the work that they are doing. We simply have to have guidelines that we adhere to as a board based on our bylaws. So we do still have the warehouse that we need to conclude. We're about a minute over. So I don't want to just blow by Phil's concerns. I was looking through the description of the grant. There is a line that.
- that says the board holds the right not to have any project they deem unsuitable for this grant. Other than that, I mean, I guess I feel like we need a guideline, perhaps, if we're going to go down the road of evaluating the content or affiliations of the business versus the project itself. I mean, some of the things that you raised, Phil, get not to the,
- validity of the grant application, per se, but concerns about what the organization is actually doing in this community. And I don't really see how we can weigh in on that based on the current guidelines. We may want to review that. I'll have to discuss that with Alex, our legal lawyer. Yeah. But I mean, I'm not opposed to exploring that.
- if there's a change that you would like to make to any of the guidelines. I mean, I'll discuss it with legal for sure. Yes, I'm not saying field concerns are not to be heard. If he wants an explanation for those, those are correct. But I was just approaching it at the budget lines. If he has the money to. I think it's fair to consider the mission of an organization. Obviously, there are things.
- We shouldn't be funding, right? In this case, though, when we're talking about hosting someone who is an elected official, I don't see how we can not like that. But if we're going to make that a criteria for denying somebody, that's a pretty broad standard. I don't think we could hold to other organizations that we probably
- supported with grants. Well, this group is nonpartisan. So I think that's the only kind of thing that would be challenging, right? I mean, the fact that since this group is nonpartisan, I think to me, it's rather open and shut. Because I have my own opinions too, of course, like we all do. And I think if we were partisan, it would be a little easier maybe. But I think the reality is I would say we have to act like that.
- doesn't exist, even if we think it's nuts. We have to do the same thing in the chamber. I mean, I'm on the chamber board as well. It's similar. So I think just to throw my two cents in, not to be reiterative, but I don't know. I think it's important, but I think we have to have language to say that that's something that we look at, which I don't know that that would even be appropriate. I agree. I'm prepared to abstain.
- And I am concerned, however, that this is also a part of what I consider preconcessions that we're giving before things have been tested in the courts, things like DEI, things like Sanctuary City. I think we'll be facing challenges and are facing challenges in the court, and I'm concerned that we just
- proceed as if this is now the law we must follow. And there is, frankly, I will use the words, not only autocracy, but fascism that's at play here. And it's represented by people who like Lieutenant Governor Beckwith. And before I could vote in favor of anything, I'll abstain. But before I could vote in favor of anything, I'd want to hear from the warehouse.
- why they had invited a Christian nationalist. And I do think it's worth exploring with legal if there's language that we can insert to give us at least some latitude tied to an organization's mission. But that would be a future thing. I know we're over time, but real quick, maybe it's the same thing that Mary's saying, but is there capacity for adjusting
- the bylaws, when, if, would that happen to speak to political, religious, to speak to out of the zone, just so that those things are super, super clear? I don't know if it's there. I can't say that I've read the whole bylaws. I believe that within the bylaws, the board at any time can by vote change them. I would not want to do that. OK. I would not want to sit on this board if we spoke on religion
- Politics anything I guess I'm saying if there was something in there that said if there is some How can I say? If a grant says something that is charged language Then we won't look at it. It won't be considered. I don't know but I understand what you're saying as well I'm not saying that we have to say unless your
- a Democrat, then we will punch you in your face. You know what I mean? I don't mean that, because that's kind of crazy. Or if you're a Christian nationalist, we're going to kick you in the face. We may want to. But I know that that probably would be bordering on something illegal. I'm too pretty for jail. But I'm just saying that if we were maybe to have language, just so that it would be clear, because sometimes people don't know. You know what I mean? Sometimes people just simply don't know. So maybe if it's there and it's black and white,
- then it's like open and shut for us. So even at the coming in of the application, we know if someone is saying we want everybody to dance around, this is a new religion, and it's clear that anything that is strongly saying this is for religious or spiritual purposes, as a board, we can't touch it.
- That's all I'm saying, just some language so that the applicant is clear and knows that this is a person that religious. But then there are blackout church organizations. I see. Yeah, that's true. That's what I'm saying. You can't touch that. Because whatever religion, whatever beliefs they have, they have the right to do that. I don't ever want to decide or deny someone's beliefs. I won't cross that line. I won't sit on this board for that.
- I do think, though, there's some language that we can insert to the policies and grant descriptions that would give us at least some latitude to consider if a Nazi organization came forward and wanted a grant that, like right now, I don't see in our policies how we can
- to address that, so to explore that with legal. And I also think touching the bylaws, because of the tie to the state statute, I just don't know. I think that would be a more complicated thing. Yeah, the bylaws take quite a bit of, they can be updated, but it's a lot of, you've got to send, yeah, more than just doing it. So I know we're over. Are we prepared to vote on this request today?
- I'm sorry. Being that Phil has concerns, I say we don't move forward on this. I say we sit on this and have the warehouse not talk about religion or their beliefs and what politician, but explain what they're building out for and not just this particular, if that's the case.
- Their larger mission, you mean? Yeah, their larger mission, their goal, and give us a clear explanation of that. Of the request. Of the request. So that we feel comfortable, everybody feels comfortable voting. So you want to move that we continue this to our next meeting and invite them to come and speak to it? Yes. I'll second that. OK. So we have a motion and a second to lay this over to August.
- which it will now be. So I think we need all in favor. Aye. Any opposed? No. That's an opposed. OK. Opposed to laying it over? I didn't realize. We're not going to meet in July. We're not meeting in July. So we're laying this over to August. Yes.
- And then we're- I guess we already voted on that. Yeah. That does kind of change my- is that going to- are they going to complete the project in that time? In that this was only half of the budget. They may. Well, one quarter. Yeah. It's only a quarter of the budget. So it's a quarter. All right. Well, there we are. All right.
- Thanks everybody. Thank you everyone.