It is October 8th at noon. This is the BUIA meeting, Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association meeting
for October 8th, 2025. Take it away, Heather. All right, welcome everyone on this beautiful day in our
fine city. It's absolutely lovely fall weather. So thanks for being here, everyone. As is customary,
we will start with a roll call and around the room.
Phil, if you'd like to start, please. Michael Hover, BU-EA. Kate Rosenberger, BU-EA. Heather Robinson,
BU-EA. Jane Coopersmith, BU-EA. Erin Morgan, BU-EA. Della Rosa, BU-EA ESD. Cheryl Billeland, Controller's
Office. Elisa Spinelli, BU-EA. And we have some guests in the room. John?
John Zoddy with CDFI from the Bloomington. Davon Woodwell, Wellandale Fellow. Julius Mitchell from the
Office of the Mayor. Cirilla Helm, Foundation for American Community Schools. Lily Albright, the Director
of Elementary Education in the American Community School Corporation. And Alex Pratt from the Law School.
All right. Welcome, everyone. Thank you all again so much for being here.
We need an approval of minutes from the September meeting. Were there any comments, corrections, questions
on the minutes? If none, do we have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second, please? Second.
All those in favor? Aye. Oh, we do. Sorry. Yeah, we have online, so we'll need to do a roll call around
the room, Phil.
Paul Emerson, yes. Michael Hover, yes. Kate Rosenberger, yes. Virginia Guthrie, I guess, yes. Minnis.
Oh, of course, yes. Heather Robinson, yes. Jane Kuversmith, yes. Mary Morgan, yes. All right, fantastic.
Thank you. Dee, it looks like we have some guest presentations today.
We do. First, we have John Zote from CDFI Friendly to give his report while I get this screen shared.
No way. He brought snacks. Virginia. Hi, John. I've probably never seen these again, but here you go.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm John Zodi. I'm the executive director of CDFI Friendly Bloomington. We
are a regional organization and I'll say as for those
at home or online, passing out popcorn that we handed out at our event last night that the BEA helped
sponsor and support. And local business, Dr. Gutheri, from popcorn with a twist on college.
We had extra and I brought it with me, so enjoy. Enjoy snacks during my presentation. Anyway. Well done.
I teed it up. That's right. I just have a short presentation. I know you've got a full agenda, so I'll
be quick and be happy to answer any questions from you all when I'm finished.
You can head to the next slide there if you want. So what are CDFIs? Just a reminder, I think most folks
in this group know, and I want to say hello to Ms. Spinelli online. She was in attendance last night,
and thank you for coming. So a Community Development Financial Institution or CDFI is a mission-based
lender whose job it is to help unlock financing for people or places that have not previously had access
to it in towns and cities and counties all around the United States.
the CEFI community will assist those who might be lower income, may have troubles starting a business,
building an affordable housing project, investing in child care. So the CEFIs are a tool in the community
development toolbox and their $500 billion sector of financing here in our country.
And so what does the friendly mean a lot of people ask that so we were created to be a hub, so we serve
a 13 county region here in South Central Indiana Monroe county and 12 counties around it, and so our
job is to bring.
investment and interest from CDFIs and other community development investors into this region. My job
is gonna be a cheerleader for the region and say, hey, look at this housing project, look at this small
business, look at this childcare facility and come here and think about investing in it. Here are the
local partners involved, here's what we need to do to try to get this done, can you help us? And just
to be clear, this is loan financing, it's not grants, but if you can secure the stack of financing that
is in place for a project,
that can be enhanced with grants, and maybe that makes the loan a little easier so that there's a financial
stack that's more palatable for the project. So as a mission-based lender, we do those things, and part
of that job, and Jane will speak to this as my predecessor, not speak to it, but you'll know this, a
big part of that job is writing technical
technical assistance. So as a community development financial institution, we are one, but we provide
technical assistance. So if we're trying to get a project to financing, we will work with that potential
borrower and look at their budget, look at their business plan, whatever it is related to the project
and help them with some technical things with numbers or a communication or how they wanna present this
project to a potential lender. And so part of that is providing that technical assistance
We've done 218 hours so far of technical assistance for projects in Bloomington and the region. About
60% of that has been with projects within the city of Bloomington. Bloomington's very busy and there's
a lot going on here. I don't have to tell the city of Bloomington that, but certainly a lot of activity.
And historically, CDFIs have not always been present. And so a couple of numbers that put that into
sharp focus is that if you spread CDFI financing out across
the United States per resident over basically the first 20 years of this century, you're going to get
a $714 number back on the per head investment from the CDFI. In Indiana during that time, it was only
$169. In our region, it was $22 a person. Now we're now approaching $50 in this region. That number's
close to, well,
Doubled, thereabouts. But that tells you that there are what are called deserts of investment for community
development across the country. So CDFIs historically have invested very heavily in larger cities. Obviously
population centers there. There's a lot of business, a lot of housing, that kind of thing. But rural
areas have been tougher. Smaller cities have been tougher. And it's harder to do stuff there because
there aren't the programs that exist in smaller communities that exist sometimes in larger cities. And
so there just isn't the financial base there sometimes.
trying to get that amped up basically. We are kind of a CDFI desert in southern Indiana and so our job
to be that hub to bring that investment in is to help help get that number up. So that's what we're
working to do. So since our creation we've seen about 26 million dollars of CDFI investment, additional
CDFI investment come into the region to help impact 371
housing units that's affordable housing created or retained. That's larger multifamily projects, smaller
multifamily projects. I'll end with the latest project that's been finished. And that totals about $57
million in project costs. So total project investment in the region since 2018 or so.
And so we just want to thank the BUEA. You provided us with lending capital as well as financial support
for operations. I want to tell you that as things get tougher over the next couple of years and we tried
to be thoughtful about how we're doing that, we're trying to stretch that money over a couple of years.
It was a $250,000 operational support. And so we're not, we didn't use all that at once. We're not using
all of it. We're trying to say we're gonna use this much this year and that much. And so as the years
come, we'll continue to keep you updated about that. But we are trying to stretch those dollars out.
And in that lending capital, we invested in projects to help in multi-family affordable housing in and
around the urban enterprise zone.
So big news this year is we got certified. Jane started this process for us. So we received a technical
assistance grant a few years ago. That put us on a path to get certified. Before Jane left, she started
laying the groundwork for that. And I'm not sure you, I do have to point out, if you've dealt with federal
money and federal regulation, you've laid a lot of groundwork on the regulatory side for us. So you
put a lot of stuff in place that helped us
There was a ton of federal stuff that you teed up both for a couple of grants.
The certification process for the US Treasury CDFI fund is sort of a vetting process. So there are 1,400
CDFIs in the country that are certified. We became certified in July. And that helps us build relationships
with banks. It gives us literally that sort of stamp being certified that we've met certain criteria
as a community development mission-based lending organization. So we were happy that that got done.
A few months, but move faster than we thought. Will that mean that your friendly status will be, I mean,
are you going to change the name to be just CDFI? No, I think we're going to stay friendly. We'll always
be friendly. At least for the time being. So what that means that friendly, we were not set up to be
a direct lender. We were set up to bring loans in, but because of the capital that was
provided us by this organization and the Redevelopment Commission, we are able to participate. So part
of that friendly model is also to help
put money in, sort of put some skin in the game locally. So we do have those loan funds that we can
participate with. If we wanted to do direct loans, we would have to engage underwriting services and
things like that, which we're talking about doing. But right now, we'll be mostly that sort of matchmaker
plus a partnering lender before we go into direct loans. I liked the way the speaker last night, the
first woman, I forgot her name.
Aspen Aspen talked about the complexity of capital stacks for housing development projects having like,
you know, nine or ten components to them and some of them are big and some of them are small and so
I think that Just highlighted for me that you having these Capital funds available really can make make
or break a project if it's not the bulk of the finance sure That's true so
and sort of part of our technical assistance process helps.
sort of put that together. So we were awarded a $300,000 technical assistance grant. Jane totally teed
that up for us because she hired the consultant, started the application before she left and then I
finished it and we were awarded that last fall and that helped us this year and will help us next year
and allowed us to hire another staff person. So we have doubled our team, if you will. So this year,
lots of changes in the
state and federal levels and advocacy has been a piece of what we do. We're a non-profit so we can't
make it all of what we do or even a very big percentage, but we have been active in the
network of CDFIs and other community development lenders around the country and activists to try to
make sure that we are vocal about the importance of community development funding, both at the CDFI
fund, which is about a $320 million appropriation every year in addition to money that impacts community
development otherwise with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other places. So part
of this is that when you, sort of our central talking point is that if you look at the
federal money from the CDFI fund, every dollar you put in federal gets you $8 back out. And this is
not all public money in projects, right? So that nine or 10 sources that Jane mentioned, some of that
is private loan money. Some of it is private philanthropy. It's not all public money. And so you're
bringing in different sectors here to complete a project. So that federal money is an important sort
of catalyzing resource to help get a project done.
We're currently in a federal shutdown, but we are still pushing for appropriations to the CDFI fund
to be made. And that's going well. There's positive direction from where it started. And so one of our
senators, Todd Young, has been very helpful with keeping that movement going. CDFIs is a good time to
say they've always had bipartisan support. And so on both sides of the aisle, you get people that understand
the importance of CDFIs and what they do. So we're happy for that.
So last year, I showed the picture on the left to you. I looked back at my presentation and said, here's
the house that's going to be built on the west side of Bloomington. And here's the finished product
that just finished at the end of July. So this is a seven-bedroom cooperative housing structure that
just opened. That picture was taken July 31st.
They're done. And you all helped do this. The city helped do this. This was, again, a partnership between
our organization, the city of Bloomington. They got a grant from the hand department. And then LEAF,
the Local Enterprise Assistance Fund, is a CDFI based out of Boston that worked with Bloomington Cooperative
Living. And this is actually a separate arm called Avalon Community Land Trust. This is a separate legal
entity for this particular house.
Still a lot of the same folks involved and sort of the same model of financing that was approached for
this. So this is a great innovative way to get cooperative housing, not only in Bloomington, but looking
at other ways to do this around the state. There's what's called the Indiana Cooperative Development
Center. And Hugh Farrell, who is president of the board for Bloomington Cooperative Living, is also
the executive director now of
the Cooperative Development Center statewide. So he is trying to get more cooperative housing in place
around the state where, unlike Bloomington, there are not those housing protections for rental housing.
And so this is sort of a self-governed model, which works really well here. But we like to see it other
places too, because it's a way to approach affordable housing in communities across the state. So this
is Bloomington Cooperative Living. Bloomington Cooperative Living. This is Avalon Community Land Trust.
Similarly, it's a- But not affiliated.
It is affiliated. It's a separate legal structure, but he was still involved in a lot of folks there.
It just was a separate, it came together in a different way, but as the same model of cooperative housing.
Exciting because it says seven bedrooms, but it's really seven units. It's seven unrelated adults who
can live here and it's inherently or sort of organically affordable. So there aren't major federal subsidies
driving compliance and construction costs up really high.
It's really a version of something that's just attainable. And so just, yeah, just really inherently
low, low, low cost for people without having that compliance burden. Yep. That's right. So on West 8th
Street. So indeed, you can head to the next one there if you want. So that's it. Glad to answer your
questions. We're trying to amp up our social media. So give us a follow if you can.
Emma, our program coordinator, is working hard on that. So we really appreciate the support of the BUEA
and all of you individually in all your own different ways. I've got a lot of folks interested in what
we're doing, and we appreciate that. So happy to answer any other questions. Or enjoy your popcorn.
Thanks for coming in. All right. Thank you.
Thank you, John. I'll leave this for you. You get a popcorn. Thanks, John. Thank you, John.
Great presentation. Okay, cool. Thank you, John. Next up, we have Lily and Sorola for MCCSC to present
their proposal for 2526.
This is email support that we give to MCCSC for various programs, various education programs. A lot
of new faces. It's been about a year since we were here, so it's nice to see you all.
I'm Cirilla. I run the foundation for Monroe County and our offices are adjacent. We do see each other
periodically and bumping. Normally there's an evaluation on last year's. There was a little slowdown
and the funds being released. So we didn't actually receive the funds until June this year. So with
education life moves with legislation life moves. So some of the things that
we have asked for, we cannot purchase. We've had an adoption change in math, so some of that curriculum
was math related. Or we have found solutions in the, yeah, in the time in between. Yeah, so solutions
have changed. So our things have changed inside of that. So the schools, the principals and their teams
are working on what's the best use of all of those resources to make sure that they're buying what they
need today versus what was asked for a year ago behind that. So, cause they were all out.
on summer break at the time that that came in. So unfortunately, we didn't get it used, but we're going
to get it used. Does that make sense for everybody? Can I ask what the time frame originally was? Can
you remind us when you were expecting to get those funds? It usually arrives in November, December-ish,
so just some. December, yeah. Wow, OK. Yeah, just some. No fault of date, I would believe. She and I
were working hard. No, I believe that for sure.
Yeah, just some unfortunate delays. But like I said,
It is all there. They are working through that. And with the change in science of reading, some of the
materials that may have been used last year, we're now looking at some other sources, things that are
coming through the legislation, because now anything in literacy has to be approved by what's classified
as science of reading. And Lily's way more attuned to that. So I'm going to flip it over to her. She
runs elementary.
Eric Gilpin is our secondary director now for middle school and the only middle school inside of here
is Tri-North. But Liz can go ahead and speak to that. He's at a conference today and wasn't able to
make it. Thank you. There's a lot of that today. Eric is getting to, he owes me. That's what I think.
He needs to skip out on several meetings. No. If you want to go to that last summary page, it might
just be easier.
So you're probably all aware, but in the BUEA zone, we have three elementaries, so three of our 14 elementary
schools within there, and then one middle school. So we're looking at Fairview Elementary, at Summit
Elementary, and then Trenworth Middle School, and also Templeton Elementary School.
So they've requested similar sorts of materials here. They kind of could be categorized in a few ways.
Some materials to support foundational literacy. So I would say at Fairview, that would be the boost
reading site license.
the developing decoders, the MyHaggerty subscription. Generation Genius is more related to science and
social studies, but it's integrated into language arts. So all of those are really language arts and
literacy initiatives. Down at Summit, you can see UFLY manuals, decodables, novel effect, hand-to-mind
versus tiles, literacy kits.
and literacy support for levels and Spanish immersion. At Templeton, those decodables, those are all
related to literacy foundation, building literacy foundation skills. And then another category you see
across all of them would be library support and just bumping up the library resources that we have available
and the titles that we have available to students in our libraries.
and you see that across all four schools. You can also see their vertical math supplies. We're employing
some strategies in our math classrooms to get students up and out of their seats and working collaboratively
in vertical spaces. So when you go into classrooms, you'll see on the wall whiteboards or large post-it paper.
kits where we're filled with markers and post-it notes and all kinds of things that could be used for
groups of students to go to that vertical space and learn about math together. And so all schools are
trying to build up their supplies to support that initiative. So this will be really helpful there.
You can see that across all the schools or three of the four schools. Summit Elementary was using some
of their building supplies or building funds to do that.
And at Tri-North, finally, you can see PBIS support. PBIS is Positive Behavior Support. So they are
intervention and support. So those are things like prizes and certificates and experiences. And I think
Fairview has some of that as well. So they have parties.
every quarter to celebrate and things like that so you're helping defensively. I think last year they
had a bounce house or you know they've done things like that to try to encourage students to really
be their best at school. So I think that's a pretty good summary of just general overview and you can
read more detail about each specific thing that we're requesting in the in the grant proposal itself
but I want to make sure that I just
Also, in addition to answering your questions and providing a brief summary, just express how grateful
we are for this opportunity. Of course, it's not a surprise, but I'm a huge advocate of public schools.
And I truly believe strong schools equals a strong community. And your investment in our schools,
I think, supports that belief and philosophy about how we become stronger together.
I think supporting our children is a community effort and these sorts of partnerships are an example
of that and in these really difficult times in many ways, but particularly financially, the financial
landscape is really challenging right now just due to legislative mandates and also declining population really.
locally and across the country, these sorts of partnerships are critical to our public schools. So just
want to express my gratitude and acknowledge that as well. Anything you'd like to add, Cirilla, or any
questions from the group? If you guys have questions. I do, but Heather, do you want to? Oh, yeah, no.
Thank you so much for being here and for a truly very
agreed the strong schools are strong communities, certainly strong public schools. So I did just want
to note that the request from this year is a $25,000 increase over what the past year has been. And
I just kind of was flipping back and forth. And it looks like each school has some new things that they're
looking for support. And it seems like that relates to the challenges that are being experienced with
funding and so forth. So they're really just trying to, in some ways,
Are they filling some of the need or are they simply trying to augment some things that maybe aren't
otherwise being addressed?
Well, one thing is where you see a lot of language arts requests there and next year we have the opportunity
to present a proposal. I expect it will be a little different because we are one year before adopting
a new curriculum in language arts. So we're ending our time with one curriculum and getting ready for
a new. The old curriculum really isn't meeting all the needs of our students. So we have a gap in our
curriculum that we're trying to fill. So that's where you see all that foundational literacy
supplies and materials. That's what that's about. All schools are really challenged with finding ways
to fill that gap and we're working on that. Your support of these schools allows us to redistribute
funds and to support other schools in other ways too. I suspect next year you'll see a lot less of that
because we have some really good curriculums that we're exploring and we'll hopefully be able to adopt
for next year.
the literacy team set a lot of work on which ones are best because if you just Google decodable readers,
you're going to find a bazillion of them. All kinds of companies are trying to get in the game, right?
Yeah, all kinds of them. They do have to be aligned with the science of reading. And so following that
type of mandate has led us into certain paths with
who's recommended and who's highly recommended. And the highly recommended, they're not inexpensive.
When you look at it, you're like, oh my goodness. But what those have done that I thought was
very interesting, and I'm not really an educator, I just have a strong interest in it, is that what
those books are doing is they're knowledge base. So as they're breaking down words and decoding, they're
written to be in a knowledge base
experience so that you're not just reading about cat, rat, bat in order to break those sounds down.
They're actually building a knowledge to it that allows them to carry that into maybe social studies
or science. So that book may be written about a species of animals. So they're getting some level of
scientific knowledge. So they're
The structure of that particular developing decodables I found to be like super interesting when you
look at it and say it's really doing two different things here. It's helping and that's kind of I think
the challenge with literacy has been is that so much of the model before was just phonics based and
how do you just break it down but without
putting an interest in if you're not interested in what you're reading that context that context giving
them context if they're not interested in it then they're not so like what they will tell us like you
see the librarians asking for that four thousand if you have let's say a boy who's interested in snakes
and lizards and all these things if they have a decodable that is hitting that knowledge space of interest
they're gonna they're gonna take it
they're going to check that out. And even if they only build one word of vocabulary out of that book,
that's a success. So it's hard to visualize it because we're all up.
Go with we're all 45 foot above, right? I'm looking around the room. I don't want to get anybody. It's
hard to imagine how you learned how to read. Did I not get you? I'm in that. I'm definitely in that
group. I don't think we want to assume. That's why I was like, maybe.
So when you think it's hard to remember how you learned, like what did you have and what you had at
your hands, you're probably the one I knew I would not, I was gonna miss there, yeah, so. So there you
go, so that's kind of when you think back at it, or if you go in and you do a reading, it's interesting.
And we hear that, we have a program that's not in this, it's Real Men Read, and we have volunteers from
across the community going into these kindergarten classrooms, and they're all like, oh my goodness,
you just completely forget what it's like to be in those rooms.
To have that age and so helping anything that you do works helps so I think you kind of touched on it.
I just wanted to know How you anticipate the needs changing going forward with these enormous budget
cuts? I mean we saw the headline about Reduction six million dollars in MCCS funding and we know about
the rifts and or not rifts, but we know about the
not back-filling positions. This money can't hire people, obviously, but I'm assuming you're a very
busy person these days, Paula. She is. Coming from all directions. It's coming from all directions,
yeah. The operational side is, you know, it's tough. And when you get into education, a huge chunk of
our budget is, it's people. So, it's people. Yeah. But we're doing a lot of work.
you know, obviously in these times you have to really prioritize and be really focused and intentional.
And I think hopefully, Cirilla has felt a really aligned approach to our requests for funding. And so
it's definitely, we're not requesting funding for frivolous items here. This is really critical and
which is both nice, but also tough, right? So.
We'll see how our request changes next year. It's hard to predict, but I do anticipate it'll be quite
different. I do have a question. How are you determining which programs to, is it purely based on what
the educators themselves would suggest?
Or is there like a template that most of those in Indiana are using? How are you coming up with those
specific ones? For programs? For like the literacy programs or for any of them? It would be through
reviewing research and evidence based practices and I mean that's really where it comes from. Teachers
might have some suggestions from their experience but we have a really strong team in our curriculum
office that reviews all those resources to make sure they're aligned with research
evidence-based practices. So, yeah. So, where can we see some of that research? We could provide some
to you. Yeah. Did you note anything? Did Allison provide any? They usually don't. From other grants,
we could probably pull some of that that we've used. I mean, it's okay. I mean, you're asking for pennies
on the dollars that we really need. Yeah. And it would be helpful for some of us to have a better sense of
what the research is showing us as a result of the cutbacks. Okay, yeah. We can work on that. What would
be the best way to share that information? Yeah, you can do that. Yeah, a lot of it is going based on,
a lot of it they're looking at iLearn as well, like where are the holes, which schools have, you know,
where are those, and the literacy coaches,
Each school has a literacy coach, correct still? Instructional coach. Instructional coach. So there's
instructional coaches inside of each of these buildings that are really in the elementary that are really
looking at where the evaluations are showing weaknesses in individual kids and how they build interventions
in order to meet them at a one-to-one versus just at a full classroom load. So a lot of this is intervention.
A lot of these are used for intervention resources.
but they can also be used for that kid who is ready to pop up a little bit too. And it's all based on
data. So we have database, really robust database decision making processes where we're doing universal
screeners and seeing which students are struggling with which things and then diagnostics to see why
they might be struggling with that thing. And then we have resources and interventions that match that
specific skill.
You know, there's that piece, too. What do we need? What are our students struggling with most? And
then what does the research say is the most effective practice there? And then trying to find a resource
that matches it. It's quite complex. I always like the teaching reading is rocket science. You know,
t-shirts are mugs. It is rocket science. It's really challenging, which I think is shown just over the
many, many, many, many, many years that we've been working on trying to find that silver bullet.
And it just doesn't exist because we're complex human beings. So yeah, just have to be nimble and responsive.
Yeah. Overwatching in our state and our nation. Yeah. As more and more groups are expected to pick up
the slack from what our state legislatures should be doing. Yeah.
if there are ways we can have research that can help lobby legislators, I'd like to have it. I mean,
I think there's some wonderful initiatives in town, but every time I support those initiatives that
really are substitute funding for what the legislature should be doing, I have a little heartburn.
I'm very supportive of your request. I wish we could give you more. But I think the deeper issue is
around deep structural chasms. And it is, of course, the poor that suffer the most. So I appreciate
these three schools. But we're really facing some serious issues. And I appreciate any research you
could give to help. We'll give that to you.
Maybe to track a group of children or that's going through the program to see their success with the
diversion of going through these programs and see the outcome of it. To have that track of where they
started versus where they ended up. Yeah, certainly. That would be a good research to show.
I'm sure that's what you would share in an update, right, in the following year? I haven't been a part
of one of those updates yet. Usually the updates will try to show you if they were looking at literacy
scores, was there movement, was there any in that category, and a lot of these are kids that are in
that below proficiency and approaching proficiency groupings.
So we do have it. Unfortunately, it's not moving as fast as we would all love for it to move. But I
think that's just a nationwide problem and no one's quite sure why. It's multifaceted. It's multifaceted.
It's not just what we do inside those six hours that we get on each day. It's beyond that.
community effort. That's right. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it very much. Yeah.
Thanks. I think unless the committee has any other questions, thoughts, concerns, comments or whatnot,
I think we can take a vote on the request today for the $75,000 to support the three schools listed
here through the MCCSE Foundation. So I would entertain
Motion to approve the request today. Motion. Second. Second. And then if we could do an around the around
the room please, Phil. Phil Amerson, yes. Michael Hover, yes. Kate Rosenberger, yes. Jane Coopersmith,
yes. Virginia Gethier, yes. Heather Robinson, yes. Mary Morgan, yes.
And there would be no opposed. Thank you. And that was the yes from everybody. Motion carries.
Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. And that will be reflected in the budget for the 2025-26
budget, I believe. So the 2026 budget. Yeah, the 2026 budget. Sorry. So will it
So if the disbursement typically hits November or December, wouldn't it hit this budget then? We usually
sign the contract in November or December, and then the disbursement happens at the beginning of the
year, if I'm not wrong. But we'll have it out by January. So was this just a fluke that the? Yes,
it 100% was. Yeah.
So I think we, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I think we have some financials to talk about. Is that right?
Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. I'm Cheryl. I'm thinking, thank you for having all of the financials
here. Maybe unless others have a preference, we could focus on September because that's going to give
us the everything. Yeah, actually I thought I would.
If we like the quarter three, because that goes through September. So that's right on target with what
you. Yeah. I mean, the overall. Yeah, because we're like, June, July. Yeah, we've got July, August,
September here and the balance sheets and all of that. So you have that as all the details. I could
just do like quarter three, which is just really your budget versus actual. Okay.
September 30th. Do you want me to pull that up? Yeah, if you want to. That would be great. Yeah. Dee,
where do we look for this? Is this the most recent packet? You want the one? Mm-hmm. I sent an amendment.
Just the Q3 by input? Yes, I sent it separately from the rest of the packet.
I just wanted you to have everything. Yeah, there you go. So yeah, but one page earlier, thirty-four,
we'll get you started there. So for quarter three, basically going through September 30th. On the income side,
I can't make it any bigger right now. Go ahead. Okay. Yeah. So you've generated $766,622.82, which is
above your budget, which was $458,780. And that is a direct reflection of Cadillac catching up in previous
years. So,
If you took that out, you're right on target of having brought in your income for the year. In addition,
you had $3,663.71 generated from your CDs. And you'll see that's at the very bottom of this particular
document. So you need to include that in addition to your regular income. On the expense side,
Overall, you have expended 40.6% of your budget, which totals $257,354.52. The details of the expense
comes from your different categories of administration. You've spent 8.3% of your budget.
And this is low because of the outstanding administrative payment owed to ESD. And we'll get that process.
So you'll see that go up in the next quarter. In the grants category, you've spent 46.3% of your budget,
which is $538,500.
That's your budget and of that you spent two hundred and forty nine thousand three hundred and ninety
three dollars and fifty two cents Can I just one comment on that and I e-mailed you about this knowing
that we had the MCCSE foundation Yes, yes, I looked and I saw the hundred thousand dollars there and
so that raised a question for me So I think that's just an entry error. So technically I
our total grant expense is just under $200,000. Once that adjustment is made, you are cut. If you get
down into the details of the different categories of your grants, I will point that out as well. Under
the arts and culture, you've expended 14.4 percent of your $260,000 budget. Of that,
Um, you'll see the, like, you haven't spent the a hundred thousand and your arts incubator and then
nothing out of your, uh, city arts program. So those are like two big things that haven't been expended
out of, uh, arts and culture. So I'm not sure. We're working on working on those. Okay. So just,
you know, there's in like today, you've got a lot of other grants that are going to be coming through,
but, um, this is just where you are right now.
So then, yeah, the second is education and entrepreneurship. It shows here that you've expended 60.8%
of your $76,000 budget. So that one is going as planned. Under education grants, I'm showing, and this
is where the air is showing up,
I'm showing that you have overspent, but that $100,000 for MCCSC is actually only $50,000, because I
had it marked as a $50,000 distribution, and then it came in as two individual, there was an error in
there, so that has to be corrected, so it will show $50,000.
in your next report. Then under your zone improvements grants, you've expended 48.8% of your $135,000
budget. So you're halfway there. And again, you probably have more grants probably that are coming this
month that I've seen come through.
So overall, you've actually, I think, spent, you've expended better this year than you did last year.
And your income is perfect, so you're on target. Yeah, so this second page shows your total expense there.
Yeah, and you'll see that actually when I send us for next month when I'll just do the one for October
I think it's worth just noting our our total our total total current assets are three point four million
dollars and
We've seen about a $540,000 increase just from, I think, July. And I know a big part of that is catalysts
and whatnot. But we have tipped $3 million. So I think that that's quite a pot of money for us as an
organization. And just to put some awareness around that, that we have
quite a few funds there. And this will, you know, ultimately lead into some of our budget discussion,
of course, and then just what is our future revenue stream look like. And so those will be some discussions
to come, but I think just, you know, kind of making a point and everyone awareness that we have over
$3 million in assets at this time. So, all right.
Thank you. And then I think all of your, they're listed as I think assets, all of your RF loans. I think
we'll have a discussion with Dee on how that needs to be reflected in this reporting. Right. Because
if you're going to write some off and just how that needs to be
Right. Documented and reflected. Right. You know, just go in and say, zero, and I'm out. I mean, because
it ends up being a loss. Right. So they'll have to move from the balance sheet to the income statement,
and we'll record it as an expense. Yeah. Yeah. So that process has to happen. And if we wait to do it
at the end of the year, after you know exactly which one are
You know do it all at once or if you want to do We can talk about that so Make a request. So where it
will be Likely looking at a proposed or draft budget at our next meeting and then we had had a number
of questions come up over the last couple of months about grant eligibility and our bylaws and I know
there's a bigger conversation about where we're going with revenue and the strategic focus in the group, but
in the short term, when we're budgeting for 2026, if we could really look, like ground ourselves in
the bylaws before we start the budget discussions, I'd really appreciate that. And I think doing that
here in this meeting would be really helpful, because then it's shared with the public. Yeah, absolutely.
I think we were going to kind of have some of that discussion here. I know we're nearing time, Dee,
but you had put that in your report, correct? Yeah. So with that, yeah.
Are there any other questions on financials for this? If none, we do need a motion to approve, but I'd
like to make a note that the approval would be contingent or reflective of the $50,000 adjustment that
will be made so that that will be corrected for the next group of financials that we will take a look at.
And this is for the quarter. This is for the quarter. Yeah. So we have, this will take us through Q3
September 30, 2025. So I would move approval of the Q3 2025 financials as presented with the exception
of a $50,000 adjustment in the grants category. Second. And then around the room, Bill. Bill Langerson,
yes. Michael Hover, yes. Kate Rosenberger, yes.
Jane Cooper Smith, yes. Virginia Gutierrez, yes. Heather Robinson, yes. Mary Morgan, yes. Molly Benelli,
yes. Motion carries. Thank you. D, your report. So really quickly, my director's report is pretty short
because I wanted us to move along. If I can find it.
So I'll have a couple of outstanding grants for your review for the November meeting. With that, I would
like to ask the board if we could potentially extend the meeting in November by 30 minutes so we have
time to take care of outstanding business aside from the budget.
I would say 30 minutes before the meeting, as opposed to after the meeting, because I know a lot of
people have to go with two things afterwards. So. That's November 12th. Yes. And you're suggesting we
start at 1130 and go until one o'clock? Yes. And I'll be out of the country. OK. So are you going someplace
good? It better be good. It better be good. At all. I'll have to tell you after the meeting. I wish
you could come. Of course. Yeah, I won't even be in the country.
I know I'll miss you all too. Is there going to be an issue with, like, do we need quorum to talk about
that discussion? So is there a better day to move that, like a week ahead or something? Are you available,
Michael? Yeah, I'll be available. Okay, so I think we might have quorum.
If everybody else. Are you available, Felisa? You're on mute, hon. You are still on mute, Felisa. OK.
So we're speaking of the first week of November. November 12. The meeting would be November 12 that
we are looking for an extension for that meeting.
There's nothing that prevents me from moving. At 11.30. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I will be fine. I will be
available. One, two, three, four, five, six. So that still gives us quorum as long as everybody can
show up. Right. And Brad may potentially be able to. Okay.
Do we need to vote on that? I think it's fine, right? I don't think it is. Yeah, I don't think we need
to vote on that. Just send an update to that meeting calendar invite so everyone will remember. Because
I'll forget if it's not on my calendar. Yes. I will change all of that. Awesome. Thank you very much.
So as we saw, the Catalan payment is received. I will put proof of it in the packet. Thank you all so
much for your patience on that. I'm very excited.
that that has happened. Another thing that I'm working on is a calendar for 2026. So every meeting will
pretty much be kind of charted out. The thing is that every October, it always ends up being CDFI and
MCCSE reporting. There are certain months where something is just going to happen, no matter what I
want to actually happen for the meeting. So I'm going to go with the natural flow and try and get things
sorted out. I think this will also help with
grant reviews and things like that, just kind of being able to stack them up in a way that is digestible
for everyone. And everybody kind of knows what's coming. And it's like, oh, I'm going to miss this meeting
because of whatever. It will help you all plan your schedules accordingly. And then finally, and I know
we're very low on time, but I did add the scoring rubric that the board requested.
This is just to establish a consistent awarding practice and provide clear communication to applicants
and partners who we work with when they want to tell potential applicants about it.
Questions I asked were, how will the board use this? How will the board consider granting funds to businesses
outside of the zone? Or will the board consider granting funds outside of the zone? And if so, what
are the parameters of qualification? So you asked, and I gave you. So what do you think? I thank you,
first of all, Dee, for the rubric. I think it's well done, and it will be very helpful.
There are a couple pieces of discussion in there. But as Jane mentioned earlier, in just all of you,
I know we've been in discussions for grants that have come before us this year that have been outside
of the zone. And we've struggled in trying to really decide how we want to treat that. And I think that
we need to make a solid decision on what
are we absolutely 100% always sticking to businesses, organizations, nonprofits, whatever in the zone,
or do we have some piece of that that has some flexibility, which the rubric would help with?
And if so, how do we define that flexibility? What is that piece? And so I know we don't have a lot
of time today, and I don't expect that we'll fully get this answered, but I'd like to at least start
that discussion
and get thoughts about that. I know we struggled with the Hazen Insurance grant that was before us.
And one of the main factors was it was just a business outside of the zone. And we still have First
Christian Church, which is right on the line.
of the zone. And so we've had some precedent, I will say, where we funded something, Fourth Street Arts
Festival, again, on the line of the zone. But the huge impact, the economic impact that it has to the
zones, the impact that it has on the residents and businesses of the zone. So I would like to be quiet in
hear from the others on the board. I'd love to hear some thoughts.
TF, Alex, before we have our, and I'll also be quiet, because I do a lot of talking, but Alex, have
you done a legal review of our bylaws? Are we restricted? Are we able? Are there any gray areas in terms
of whether we're funding outside of the zone? So I was thinking it might be good to do a legal round
on that subject, and I can look at case law, I can look at statute, it's going to have a few days, and
I can look at the bylaws and kind of like
I do have a general question quickly. I think it seemed it would be a little oppressive possibly for
the organizations or businesses, but is there a way to request that everyone show their impact
to the resident, I don't even know how that could be feasible. Because again, sometimes it's sensitive
to ask those questions, especially, let's say, for a first Christian church. If someone is coming and
has a need and is not necessarily in the zone, you're not going to turn away if they have a need, right?
So there's service to a person, but they may not be living in the zone. But I guess I'm trying to ascertain
whether there's a way to. Well, we do have some sort of precedent for that because of our support of Ivy Tech.
because they're clearly outside of the zone. But when they report, they show us how many zone residents
they've helped or whatnot and the effect that has, the impact that it has provided. So there is some
precedent for that. But when you start talking about like, they track numbers because they are an educational
institution. But when we're talking about nonprofits, businesses, that's some
different and potentially dicey territory. So, um, it's not that we haven't asked. It's that we've only
asked certain institutions that actually just formally carry those numbers. I don't, not the nonprofit
status isn't what makes it dicey. It's that, okay, Ivy tech has access to data that clearly demonstrates
their zone impact and they can, can,
kind of segregate that and show that they're targeting their activities in the zone, but like
Other nonprofits might not be that sophisticated. They just might not be able to do it. And it may not
be quantifiable in some ways. So if First Christian Church is helping someone, maybe, I don't know all
of the programs that they offer, but maybe the unhoused population or others in need, their services
provided to them are then directly impactful to the businesses downtown or in the zone that would be
adjacent to that that are in the zone. Because then, you know,
Just using that as an example, I'm not trying to stereotype or anything, but if someone gets a meal
there or gets some services or help, then it's less likely to maybe those challenges may be less likely
to have an effect on maybe businesses or those in the zone. That's hard to quantify. That's information
that's hard to say.
I think this looks good though and I think like getting that memo from Alex would be good too because
I think like just I think the rubric does it looks great and looks like it like follows like the legal
definitions for BUEA already but I think just like diving a little deeper with Alex would be good on
that. So I'm gonna put this topic at the top of the agenda for the next meeting so we can get through
it and move forward.
Excellent. Thank you, Dave, for your work on that. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Melissa.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Have a great week.