- OK, we do need a roll call. Let's start online board members, please. Felicia Spinelli. OK. Felicia.
- Kate Rosenberger, BUEA. Felicia Spinelli, BUEA. OK. Mary Morgan, BUEA. Heather Robinson, BUEA.
- Phil Amerson, BUEA. Jane Coopersman, BUEA.
- This always strikes me as a little bit odd, the way we do our roll call and state our board positions.
- But yeah, that's what we're doing. I guess so. OK. I'm BUEA. Yeah. Tizio Rosa, ESD BUEA. And Alex Fretzi,
- legal. OK. Do we need an introduction from guest or online or? Yes. Yes. OK.
- Do you want to introduce yourself? Eric, could you introduce yourself to the board? Sure. My name is
- Eric Ost. I'm a member of the Bloomington community. Thank you. OK. Great. Thank you. All right, Dee.
- Yeah, let's roll. So well, first is approval of minutes.
- Minutes from the October meeting. Were there any questions, comments, corrections on the minutes? Anything?
- They look at me. I'll move approval. Second. OK. And we'll need to do a roll call for minutes approval.
- We'll start online for Lisa.
- Okay. Okay. Approval of minutes. She said yes. I think I heard yes. Okay. Yes. Heather Robinson, yes.
- Phil Emerson, yes. Jane Cooper-Smith, yes. Okay. Unanimous approval. Minutes carry approval for the
- meeting. Okay.
- So up next, was Cheryl going to join us for the financial report? Cheryl is not going to join us for
- the financial report, basically because we've asked her to do quarterly reports. Right. So you've put
- the finance in there? Yes. And I have put in the financials at this point. I just found out that Cheryl
- wasn't going to meet us this morning. So I'll go over the financials.
- grants budget versus actual right now. At this point, we have two penny grants within the safety and
- security area. So that brings a total disbursement, if we account for that, a disbursement committed
- at $76,131.51.
- leaving us with a total balance for the zone improvement grants at $58,869.49. I do have another grant
- that's pending more information for the business building improvement section. We have had discussions about how
- we were utilizing some of the leftover funds from last year. So I've kept that grant open to see what
- we really can spend in that area for the budget for next year. So once I get that information, I'll
- present that to the board. There was a discrepancy in what they were asking for as opposed to what they
- were matching. So at this point, it's
- At max, it would be around an additional $6,000 for that budget line. OK. Just as a quick clarification.
- Sure. I know the $2,000 you talked about for the mill, the cup and kettle, those have not. Those haven't
- actually been expensed, but they were being approved. They were being approved. I just signed contracts,
- and then I think we just
- Once those are assigned, that payment goes out. And the business billing improvement takes into account
- the two grants we'll be reviewing today, right? Yes. So those are pending. Yes. So hence, that's highlighted.
- So if those are approved today, that's where we sit. That's where we sit.
- you know, sort of an informational piece for the board to understand how the expenses are flowing. And
- then Dee, you've been talking with Assistant Director for Sustainability, Shawn Mia, about the $20,000
- Climate Resiliency programs and grants. Yes. At this juncture, we've discussed potentially, and you'll
- see it in the
- 2026 budget, I'd like to dedicate that line to two additional efficiency grants through the SEAL program,
- specifically for zone residents. They run about $10,000 a piece. We still have that money available
- this year. So I'd like to discuss with Sean about expending those dollars this year.
- I think that she did have a couple of applicants or a few applicants that didn't make it into the program
- so we didn't really have anything set in stone when that line was put in but this seems like a very
- feasible way and since it is dedicated to sustainability I believe that that's something that we could
- we would be able to expand that for. Question about quickly about the incubator I know we've made we put
- $100,000 into the budget. I haven't seen anything that's spent through the financials. So where does
- that stand as far as should we expect to see any of those funds? We will not see those funds expended
- this year. Oh, OK. That we'll have to carry over to next year. I can get into the weeds of that if you
- would like to. That's fine. I can just answer for it. But we will get into the weeds of it during our
- budget discussion next month.
- Yeah, so I think that then needs to come out of that disperse committed and the balance technically
- would be 100 just for this informational sheet. And then the understanding that the board approved this
- in 2025 it will be the board will be asked so technically isn't a carryover, but the board will be asked to.
- approve the $100,000 for its 2026 budget, because it simply was unspent in 2025. I don't see that there'll
- be an issue with that, but just the clarification there. And I don't know if there were any, if anyone
- else had any other questions. I appreciate the putting that consolidated piece together for
- our informational. It helps understand the flow of things for us.
- I didn't know if there were any other questions on the financials. No. OK. Kate or Felisa, any question
- on the financials? No. OK. OK. Then I think we can I know that Cheryl presents quarterly, but we should
- we have them in the
- prepared and in here. So we should vote, I think, to approve the financials for October then. All right.
- Do we have a motion? I move we have a motion. Second. Second. Roll call for approval of Felisa. Yes,
- Felisa Spinelli. Kate. Kate, yes.
- Mary Morgan, yes. Heather Robinson, yes. Bill Amerson, yes. Jane Coopersmith, yes. Motion carries with
- unanimous approval. Thank you. All right. OK, the director's report. OK, so just some general updates.
- Not too much, but I do want to focus on the 2026 budget.
- We said that we were going to present that this month. However, we are refining the annual staffing
- agreement after looking at what the BU EA has Committed to in the past and that incremental increase
- once we looked at What we've learned from the crow study as far as what the staff is making at this point is
- And then we're going to look at the fringe benefits and COLA. There will be a substantial increase,
- but we're still refining those numbers at this point. Additionally, there are resources that the staff
- utilizes for the BUEA. And those are expenses that the BUEA has not incurred in quite some time,
- if ever. So we want to make sure that we are solid on those numbers and we can show you exactly what's
- going on for that increase.
- at this juncture. Other than that, there aren't too many surprises. Most of the stuff that we have talked
- about over the year as far as increasing items, as far as grants, it's pretty straightforward. Administrative
- fees that do just tend to go up. I think that our insurance is probably going to be fine and the
- Board has encouraged and supported additional staff for the BUEA. So that is something that will be
- in the budget. So be watching out for that. So I'm looking into adding a part-time position to help
- me out with all of this. So that's the general update on the budget. There will be plenty of details
- for the next meeting. And I hope to have that memo out to you soon. And then
- Just working on the meeting schedule, I'll present that along with the budget so we know exactly what's
- happening at every meeting. So I hope that helps out considerably with quorum and it's not a last minute,
- hey, is everybody gonna be here? And being able to prioritize some meetings over others because I know
- that we all have incredibly busy schedules and most of those schedules don't involve this building.
- So I want to make sure that you guys can feel like if you have to go to something that you're able to
- do that. Do you anticipate moving the time or day of the meetings or anything like that? I don't anticipate
- that at this juncture. I think that that would take a massive amount of organization right now between
- everyone's schedules, the actual schedules of meetings that go on at City Hall. I know there's a lot.
- That's a broader discussion as far as strategic planning and things like that. So not something that
- we're not going to look at, but that's down the road. Next up is the grant updates. So we have two safety
- and security grants.
- up for review. The first is Fox Capital 415 LLC. This is Justin Fox. We assisted him in 2024 with a
- historic facade grant for the, I guess,
- Best Taste Building, World Courier Building. I don't know if you've been around there or down on 4th
- Street, but it is really beautiful. The restoration has been great. So Fox Capital right now is asking
- for support in securing a security system for the building that houses Two-Sticks Bakery. There has
- been an arson attack
- that has occurred there. They've had extensive damages that have been done to the building that have
- been repaired and taken care of. However, that area has been difficult for them to maintain because
- they do not have a security system in there to be able to enforce. So the projected cost of the entire
- project is 8,800 and, sorry,
- $8,884. They are requesting a total amount of $5,000 with no other assistance from any other program.
- The quotes are included from BTEC Fire and Security and some photos. The overall impact
- And I'll just read to you, the installation of a comprehensive security system will reduce the likelihood
- of future vandalism arson, enhance resident safety, and promote confidence among the commercial tenants.
- There are additionally residents in the second floor, or the second part of that building. So I think
- that this fits well within the bounds of the safety and security grant. I don't know if you have any
- additional questions, but I'm happy to answer them.
- Felicia is confusing myself about something else. I feel very positive about this. Sorry for my face.
- That's okay. Any other comments or questions from either of you? No. No? I totally agree if it looks
- like the insecurity. Okay. I'll just go on to the next one and we'll, unless you want to just go ahead
- and approve this one right now. Can you do a quick one or do we want to do them together?
- Yeah, it's fine if we want to do them together. Okay, I think the other one fits Pretty yeah,
- pretty well. Yeah so Though other properties this is they are the real estate entered entity for secretly
- group This is also a safety and security grant. They do have an alcove that has Additionally has had fires
- It's been occupied by our unhoused neighbors. They've had vandalism issues, trash, basic loitering.
- So to deter this, they have put in a chain link gate. This work has already been done, so this is for
- reimbursement.
- which is within the bounds of this grant is for reimbursement under a certain time period and they fit
- within that time period. The total project cost is $3,000. Bellwether properties will contribute 25%
- of the match, also part of the requirement for this grant at $825. So the requested grant amount is
- $2,475,000. They're asking for no additional funding from any other source.
- This one is also pretty straightforward. If there are any questions, I am happy to answer that. Yeah,
- sorry. I do have a question about this. I'm confused because I thought that I signed an agreement on
- the city side. That is for, oh, that is for actually a different building. So the city building is for
- chain link.
- The city side project is for Chainlink at a different property. Yes. And that, I'm just verifying while
- I look at this to make sure we're all square. I had the same confusion because I thought they were asking
- for money for the same property and the address numbers are very close. This says 213 North Walnut.
- And this should be for the... South Rogers. ...Rogers Street address. Okay. Okay.
- I was fully confused by that as well. There were several phone calls back and forth about it. That's
- what I have at this point in time. They have gotten a certificate of appropriateness from NOAA. It is
- a historic building, so they have gotten this cleared through historic preservation.
- There's a lot in the packet here. I just want to make sure I'm seeing everything. Do we have, okay,
- we have the certificate here and do we have their, okay, it looks like they've included the receipt
- here as well or am I, yes, 33, okay, they have the receipt here as well, okay.
- I assumed, I looked at the packet and didn't see it. And it's all right if it's not there. But I assumed
- they're working with other city resources, human resources, like police. And they are. Yeah. As I mentioned,
- Fox is too for the center. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
- Oh, yeah. Those pictures really kind of highlight some of the graffiti and some fire damage. Yeah. Ugh.
- OK. I feel ready, I think. I did just go back over this application. So I think I feel ready to move
- approval. I'll second it. We have a motion to approve and a second. Felisa, Kate.
- Online. Yes. Yes. OK. That was Kate saying yes. Mary Morgan, yes. Heather Robinson, yes. Bill Norton,
- yes. Jane. Oh, sorry. Jane Cooper said yes. OK. All right. So thank you. So two grants unanimously approved
- there for safety and security. Thank you, V.
- OK. All right. So now we're looking at a great score and we're great. OK. So Alex said this to us today.
- I guess we'll go over some of the questions that we have in general for why we're doing this.
- Over the year, and I would say over the past few years, there's been a struggle with the board as to
- whether we fund projects inside or outside of the zone. There are a lot of factors that can go into
- determining this. I think that we've said yes to some nonprofits, we've said no to for-profits,
- But there's never been something just very straightforward. We do or we don't. And I think that this
- will help inform us for the coming years and for boards in the future. Because it'll be a massive time
- saver. And then people know what they're walking into when they do ask and apply for this, for any funding.
- So I have...
- My old eyes will do it. So thank you, Alex, for this. Much appreciated. That would be great.
- guidance that I did. But I think for now, we're just going to look at the statute and see what the statute
- outlines in terms of responsibilities and duties that the BEA has. The statute is also referenced in
- the bylaws. I know Jane was asking if the bylaws specifically address this. But it is a bit outdated
- as stated in the bylaws. So I would just look at the statute for now.
- So to summarize, I think the statute allows the VUA to fund businesses and nonprofits outside of the
- zone, as long as there's some kind of nexus connected to residents or community in the zone. So if you
- look at the first part of the statute, so the first part
- responsibility of the VUEA to support the zone through various activities. So first, coordinate zone
- development activities. Second, serve as a catalyst for zone development, which is very broad.
- It could be, anything could be a catalyst for zone development. Promote the zone to outside groups and
- individuals, so clearly there's some kind of outside interactions here.
- establish a formal line of communication with residents and businesses in the zone, and five, act as
- a liaison between residents, businesses, the city, and the board for any development activity that may
- affect the zone or zone residents. And then the statute also allows the BUA, the BUA doesn't have to
- do this, but the statute says,
- The BUA may also choose to initiate and coordinate any community development activities that aid in
- the employment of zone residents, improve the physical environment, or encourage the turnover or attention
- of capital in the zone. Can you read that one one more time? Yes. So initiate and coordinate any community
- development activities
- that aid in the employment of zone residents, improve the physical environment, or encourage the turnover
- or retention of capital in the zone. So with that part, it seems like the community development activity
- the board may choose to support
- community development activity that's not directly in the zone. But it has to have one of these direct
- relationships with the zone. So it would have to improve employment, improve the zone physical environment,
- or the capital piece. So those three requirements. And in the past, I think, like in the before times,
- which it's not even purposeful to really talk about, but I think when the board
- would consider funding something that wasn't directly in the zone. They would evaluate generally whether
- there was impact, but wouldn't tie it to one of these three categories of activity. So that, in a way,
- although it is broad, Alex, it seems like that gives a pretty specific framework for how to
- make a connection. I don't know. Excuse me. Are we looking for now to?
- Check all the boxes for one or. It says it can be any of those, so it doesn't have to cover everything.
- OK. OK. So it would be the BUA right now. Your memo says the BUA must do the following.
- One, two, three, four, and five. So really, you're saying it's the BUAA must do at least one of the
- following, but not. Well, these are just broad responsibilities, and the BUAA are responsible for all
- of them. But in evaluating what they support financially, it can look to one of them and say, hey, we're
- performing our duty number two through this funding. OK, got it.
- And you mentioned that the bylaws were outdated in relation to this. Is that something we need to do
- to clean up the bylaw? That's probably a good idea just to kind of capture the full picture for the
- statute. I would agree. I've looked at bylaws, and they are outdated. So I know that that requires some
- submission to the Secretary of State and so forth. But I think it's a fairly straightforward process
- update the bylaws. I believe the bylaws might be possible to be updated by the board and then the articles
- of incorporation would have to go through the Secretary of State. Oh really, I thought that I lost it
- too. Yeah, going back to that there is, oh if I can open this up, there is a section that says that
- the board can amend
- by board decision. So some of these things are probably just amendments that we need to add to the bylaws
- to clarify some things. Because I think, broadly, they're addressing things, but there have just been
- some things that need to be chiseled out because times have changed. So I'm thinking about the insurance
- company that approached us and that made a case that they served
- residents in the zone, and therefore had an impact in the zone. And based on this, we could have approved
- that, because we could have accepted their argument. Well, did they aid in employment, improve physical
- environment, or encourage turnover or retention of capital in the enterprise zone? I think if there
- were a connection,
- it would be related to whether those capital improvements adjacent to the zone improved the appearance
- and the general development of the zone. But I don't see, I'm just, this is new to me too, I'm reading
- it for the first time, so I'm really just thinking aloud. But I don't see an employment play. But maybe
- one of the last two, what do you guys think?
- I think the church is a more direct case. The church, to me, seems very clearly something that would
- be acceptable under these broad categories. And so as we're discussing this, it feels like, because
- the rubric that you have is very much a draft. That's why we're having this conversation.
- When we're talking about actual scoring, then having these different headings of, okay, physical improvement
- to the zone, employment impact, and having those as actual scoring points, I think are part of what
- goes into the scoring sheet for the board members. Yeah, I think you could have three buckets there.
- It's like physical improvement, capital, job creation,
- And you could keep it really simple and be like, scale of one to three. Is it direct? Is it indirect?
- Or is it not applicable, nonexistent? That seems like it could take this pretty far into becoming less
- subjective. Yeah. I like that, too. Yeah. I do, too. I think that that would be pretty
- easy rubric, and it would allow the board to do a nice evaluation of, you feel confident in a fair evaluation
- of how we consider funding. I mean, if there's a business that's a mile outside of the zone, they're
- going to have to make a pretty significant case or something. But to Mary's point, especially the request
- from First Christian Church, I think based on this and its proximity to the zone,
- It's absolutely within the guidelines of what we can find, I think. Is that something that the board
- would want to revisit? Or is that for a conversation for a different day? Given the fact there's been
- a fire since, I don't know what their situation is. I don't either.
- I don't know, Dee, I haven't seen it come back to us. So is it on hold or? It's on hold. OK. Because
- this was the debate that we were having on the fund. And then they had the fire. And then they had the
- fire. I think if the board agrees today with the idea of implementing a rubric based on establishing
- these three different criteria for
- businesses and nonprofits outside of the zone, but proximity, I think, you know, proximity is important
- to the zone, and that was maybe a gray area a little bit. But I think that having the first Christian
- Church grant application come back to us seems like a fair thing to do because we never gave them an
- answer. So I think we should absolutely have that come back before the board for consideration.
- I thought we were just waiting for them to give us an estimate. Oh, was there an estimate? No. Additionally,
- I thought we didn't get the details of an estimate. And I thought we were like, can we just get that
- for our next meeting? I thought this was happening. I don't know. Was that not right? My recollection
- is that the board was not comfortable funding it with the ambiguity over
- Boundaries. Oh yeah, we recorded things. Let me see if I can look up those notes. That may be what happened.
- Yeah, I think it just got tabled. I don't think we voted. I think we just tabled it for future discussion.
- Absolutely tabled for future discussion. The proximity was a factor.
- However, the board did request more information as well. But I am happy to bring that back to the table
- for sure. One other thought on the rubric is just, and this might not be, I don't know if we can work
- on this or not, but the rubric, if you score a single grant application according to a rubric,
- it's not super meaningful because you just come away with a number that's independent. But if you have
- a cohort of applicants and you evaluate those grants together, then you can get a sense of the range
- and the scores become a little bit more meaningful when they're comparative and you're using the rubric
- number to evaluate them together. But I think what is really helpful about the BUBA funding for businesses
- is that we allow them to come
- needed. So I guess I'm just saying like the rubric is going to help us in our evaluations and also some
- challenges might remain when we're looking at one-off grant applications. So I agree flexibility that
- the BUA has in its grants it's one of the benefits but I wonder is there any thoughts around having
- them quarterly?
- collection of them quarterly and then so essentially the board knows then that four times a year they'll
- have a handful of grants groups to evaluate and so that it also allows for meetings for other discussion
- items and so forth so we can focus meetings I would not put it on this maybe the same quarter as the
- finance discuss you know or whatever you can
- I say quarter loose and that every three months or something as determined or something, but perhaps
- that would be a way. Again, I hate for a business to have to wait, but at the same time, 90 days really
- is not an unreasonable amount of time to work through a process. I think that that is fantastic. Well,
- because I'm already working on a calendar for the year.
- And that's something that can be put into that place, you know? So it's already scheduled out. We already
- know we're gonna look at grants. You have all of them in front of you, you know, in a certain amount
- of time, and then that's it, and there aren't any surprises or anything like that. So I think that putting
- it on a quarterly schedule, I think is... personally, I think is fair.
- Especially when we think about how Holly does her grants, she does them biannually. So I wonder, too,
- just trying in full transparency to businesses and organizations that would be applying for the online
- process, D, would you be able to add something like, grants cycles are, and so that it's an awareness
- piece for anyone applying online, that they're clear on when grants are reviewed and so forth? Absolutely. OK.
- Yeah, and I think that would also help as we try to publicize these grants more, that it wouldn't end
- up being on kind of a first come first serve basis, that we would have that core group to evaluate against
- each other. Yeah. And it gives you something to promote. When there's a grant deadline, you can issue
- that invitation to the public. Absolutely. I think it will encourage participation and it can raise
- awareness.
- No, would this be for the smaller grants also? Or would this be for just the grants that come to the
- table for the board to discuss? So for the smaller grants, especially like scholarships, the Resident
- Independent Scholarship, the Business Enhancement Scholarship, those are first come first serve scholarships.
- So as long as they meet the requirements, that's something that I just
- put out, and that's been agreed upon for as long as the BUEA has pretty much been doing them. That might
- be something that we should flag for the bylaws update. Sure. That the executive director has the ability
- to approve those grant programs. Oh, no, yeah, for sure. And then we also agreed that for the smaller
- grants, like for the ones that we're doing for Cup of Kettle, the one for the mill, those $1,000 grants,
- the board approved
- me doing basically the same thing that I do for the scholarships, which I am fine with either if the
- board would like for me to bring in the list and show you what's going on, or if the board still feels
- that I am able to continue with that responsibility, I'm happy to do that. I think that when we look
- at the volume of these larger zone improvement grants,
- We have a lot of them, so to add anything to our schedule already is asking kind of a lot of the board.
- But that's 100% my opinion. I think that rapid kind of the idea behind those $1,000 grants or up to
- $1,000 are that they are rapid grants that they can, that a business can apply for and receive them
- in a quick manner. I don't have any issue continuing, Dee, for you to review those and to your,
- office there to approve and get those out. I think just as you're updating us here with financial information
- and so forth, I think that's fine. I think that's the purpose behind what those grants are intended
- for. And again, to Jane's point, I think just a clarification and the bylaws update that grants $1,000
- or less for blah, blah, blah
- at the executive director board's extended authority to the executive director, just making sure we're
- outlining that appropriately. Because I would hate to delay a business that had, I don't know, something
- like a broken window or whatever and needed $500, and then that has to wait 90 days. That's not the
- purpose of those.
- grants. Alex, thank you so much for digging into this and making this really clear and thorough analysis.
- Sure. Yeah. I just wanted to flag the ones that were in the first section. If you could go a little
- bit further out. Sure. Yeah. I thought that number two, serving as catalyst for zone development and
- promoting the zone to eyesight in groups and individuals, could also be something to work in.
- Consider, I know Dean mentioned the Fourth Street Festival. Like, I see that as something that would
- promote the zone to outside groups and individuals. So it could be something that can fit into a real
- break. Yeah. Absolutely. Agree. Thank you. Alex, will you be assisting us with the bylaws, the legal
- side of the bylaws? Sure. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.
- Yeah, so it sounds like there's some work to be done, for sure. I do want to dedicate all of the next
- meeting to the budget, because there is a lot of information in the budget. I hate to ask for a special
- session, but I think that that's something I might want to consider. I don't think you're going to.
- You don't think so?
- That's just my opinion, but so we're supposed to meet on the 10th. Yes, for the budget. Right? Yes.
- It's not on my calendar for some reason. It's not? That's a curious name. Is it the 17th? Let me look
- at my calendar. It should be on there. Although, sometimes this happens at the end of the year.
- They fall off. Yeah, they fall off. Yeah, it's not on mine either, although I know it's supposed to
- be there. It should be the 10th that we meet.
- What's your thought behind a special session? Are you nervous about not having one meeting to approve
- the budget? Yeah, we do have. I would like to get the First Christian Church and the other grant that
- is up. I think that we could potentially get those knocked out before the budget discussion. I'm unsure
- of anything that.
- might also just randomly come up. That doesn't happen often, but it is the end of the year, so who knows?
- Is it worth tacking on a half hour like we did this month? I was wondering about too. I thought we'd
- try it again. No, we try again. That's more, I mean, from my perspective, that's more manageable than
- an additional meeting. OK. But I don't, I can't speak to everybody else. And I'm happy to do either.
- I do think that we need a little bit more time to just,
- knock out these last couple of grants. If we can get First Christian Church their money, I would love
- to be able to do that before the end of the year. Right. And you're close on the budget, so you'll likely
- be able to circulate that in a memo well in advance, which should help the meeting move along.
- I think so. Yeah, I think if the board can accommodate an extra 30 minutes again,
- to start early and maybe put that out D and just get a solid head count in advance just to make sure
- that that that will work. Just get you know I know things come up from time to time for people but I
- you know I'd love to have Blake and Brad here you know and I don't know Virginia I know she was traveling
- this time but if we could have
- All board members, that would be incredible, especially for a budget discussion. Is it possible to do
- noon to 1.30 instead of, I mean, it seemed like we just didn't get people to show up. Yeah, I'm happy
- to do noon to 1.30. I think that makes that easier because it's already scheduled in. I think that we
- were trying to get out earlier so we could all eat. Maybe we just need to eat before. But then people,
- they needed to leave early, they could, as opposed to us waiting for people to show up. Yeah.
- The December meeting would be on December 10th. Yeah, I can go either way. So noon to 1.30. Either way.
- Yeah. So if it's start time noon, maybe since everyone's kind of used to that. So it's basically asking
- people staying longer instead of coming earlier. And if people have to duck out, but at least we can.
- We'll try to plan the vote for anything.
- at one. Yeah and let's advertise to the group early on and make sure you know you have a good head count
- on that. I'd like to do this for the 2026 schedule for the November and the December meetings to just
- be longer meetings because I think we do have a lot of business at the end of the year to take care
- of so I'm gonna go ahead and put that into the 2026 calendar for the BUEA.
- OK, there are no objections to that. Good deal. Thank you. OK. So Jane, I know you had something on
- the agenda. And I think, Phil, you had something you wanted to add for the good of the order as well.
- So we have time if you want to talk a little bit about. OK. Do you want to go first? I'm happy to wait,
- or it doesn't matter to you? You go ahead. OK.
- Just as Dee and I have been talking through her work and preparing the budget, it seemed like a good
- time to share with you the administration's economic development framework, which is a newer and a living
- document for us. We've had a lot of different reports and studies in terms of economic development,
- and we continue to get really good information, especially
- on the city side of these work, she's engaged with DBI, an organization called Retail Strategies, and
- they have been evaluating best practices or what's actually happening against best practices for the
- health of our downtown businesses and the health of our downtown. So we have a lot of outside work that's
- been done, but what we haven't had is a really clear document for
- What are we working toward internally and what are our priorities? So this starts with our
- city of Bloomington values, which may or may not be familiar to you all, but we try to live them every
- day. Some days we do it better than others, but we seek to be co-creators with our community.
- accountable servant leaders. We want to demystify government. We want government to be simple. And we
- want to remember to bring joy to our operations at the city. And sometimes it's hard to remember all
- that. But then ESD has a unique vision. Okay, so our overall economic development vision, this is sort
- of more from Cary, is for Bloomington to be a prosperous, inclusive,
- innovation and cultural magnet where businesses can grow and thrive, all residents can access economic
- opportunity. Sorry, I can't read this far. I have it in front of me on my laptop. Our natural world
- and resources are protected, treasured, and celebrated. This is pretty good. It doesn't get exactly
- at our sustainability values.
- But this is an economic development vision. And so we kind of think of sustainability as the quality
- in which we want to engage in economic development, rather than the end goal in and of itself. And then
- ESD's mission statement is to cultivate a resilient community built on shared prosperity.
- Inclusive economic opportunity environmental stewardship and a thriving arts and culture ecosystem.
- Yes, he works to improve quality of life for all residents through dedicated service and collaboration.
- So it's another lofty statement in and this once older this predates this is from the Hamilton era, but
- It also kind of environmental stewardship isn't exactly what we're doing with sustainability. We're
- we're doing a lot more We're improving our and our climate resilience and we're Reducing our greenhouse
- gas emissions. Those are two big swings for all of our climate work, but Then getting into our economic
- development goals. They're pretty simple. We have three. Can you scroll back up a little bit? We have
- three big ones grow the workforce population and
- grow wages and reinforce our economic base. So it's not like super crazy sounding, but we know our population
- has declined. We know specifically that workforce age people are having a hard time planting roots here
- and finding their lives in Bloomington because of the high cost of living and the low wages. And so
- we want to really focus on making it a place
- that can attract the part of our population that's missing right now so that we have the full life cycle
- well represented in our population. And the first goal, I guess we'll just like scroll down a little
- bit, Dee, so we can go to the... Yeah, so that's okay.
- or you can give me that mouse and then you can do your work and I'll just blab through this and I'm
- tracking the time. I'll try to just talk five minutes on all of this. The big swing here is remove barriers
- to housing. That's really the main thing that we're working on and I guess backing the frame up even
- more. This economic development strategy isn't focused on the support that the city is doing for
- in homelessness and working with Heading Home and other local partners. But that's the big balance,
- right? We want to remove barriers to housing, but the administration's priorities are really like, we've
- got economic development priorities on one hand to really drive our economy forward and make it so that
- our residents can earn better incomes. And then on the other hand, we're really working to address the
- crisis that people are experiencing out on our streets. And that's kind of a separate team of people
- I'm looking at Mary to see if you're going to affirm or deny my summary. But she's got a poker face.
- But that's really critical. And the city is investing a ton of resources in that work. But that work
- is also not particularly reflected here. The removing barriers to housing is really about housing production,
- housing starts, and the cost of housing. So right now, we are working on creating a PUD at Hopewell.
- We're working on trying to get the development started on the Southwest Quadrant Summit. We're trying
- to support that PUD development. We are looking at the
- the process for getting plans approved and we're doing an audit because we know one of the barriers
- is that developers don't even want to work here because the cost of capital is so high when the process
- takes so long to get approvals and then whether the approvals coming is a big question mark. So that's
- the big one. And then under that is increased access to early learning. Well, we already know we have
- a challenge with early learning.
- access to early learning. And then if we're also trying to grow our workforce population, we know that's
- going to become an even more critical need. So those are the two big things. And I anticipate, as we
- put into motion the housing policies that we've been working on for almost two years, those wheels are
- really starting to turn now. And I personally am going to be looking at ways to focus on early learning in 2026.
- And then I'll just go through the rest of these. Increase and communicate about quality of place amenities.
- We already are a really wonderful community with a lot to offer, but we haven't done a great
- job communicating about that. So part of that is the branding initiative that's happening and just really
- thinking about the way we tell our own story, build bridges to campus. So some people might feel in
- this historic moment that we have too many bridges to campus, but in reality, we have a high number of
- college grads who want to stay, but they don't believe that they have opportunities here. And so we
- want to help create opportunities. Not that we don't also value the townie kids, the kids that are graduating
- from our high schools, they're really important too. And we're also at work for them and workforce
- development and providing opportunities as well. But this is just a renewed opportunity every year.
- And so we're citing that as important. Establish and activate nodes of distinct identity.
- So I really like this goal. We have a lot to offer. We have an embarrassment of riches as a community.
- It's more than just our downtown, even though our downtown is obviously a gem. And so this is really
- observing that we have a lot happening in different parts of the city. One of the things that Dee is
- doing is working on gathering businesses in these different commercial nodes so that they can self-organize
- and start to
- advance their corridors, their areas, and support each other and build community. Become the center
- of creativity for Indiana. So Bloomington is already known as the center for the arts, but retaining
- this mantle requires dedicated effort. Creativity should inform our community at all levels, helping
- make sure we grow a creative economy of the future, as well as supporting practicing artists in destination
- tourism. So this is just, again, we've leaned into the arts for a long time, but what can we do
- help it be something that, you know, living artists or working artists can afford to live and practice
- in Bloomington and how do we have the right resources for them. The grow wages category, I sort of mentioned
- the telling our story. That's critical.
- a critical piece of that. And then target attraction of businesses in high demand, high wage sectors.
- So we just want to make sure that we're attracting good jobs that will pay really well. The reality
- of our regional economy is that our largest employer has been higher ed for a long time and it's been
- IU. And the entire region, all the employers in the region have benefited from the suppressed wages
- at that institution. And so because the largest employer had suppressed wages,
- other employers were able to pay less. This started to shift during the pandemic when Catalan started
- paying New Jersey wages for its workers and they really were able to capture and attract workers away
- from other employers. So that's a little bit of the context and we just want to make sure that we're
- attracting good jobs that pay well. We want to develop sectors just understanding that we don't want
- to make up new
- areas to work in. We want to develop and support this cluster development around the areas that we're
- already strong in. It creates efficiency and allows for more mobility for workers. And then goal three,
- reinforce our economic base. Again, we have a lot of strengths. We do a lot of things well as a region,
- and we want to lean into that and
- We don't want to take risks, especially at this economic moment, but we want to reinforce what we're
- already doing well. So I'll park that there. You guys have this document. It's a living document. I
- welcome feedback. Our plan in ESD for 2026 is to build out subplans under each of these areas for what
- our activity is internally. And these are a lot of cross-functional
- projects that will require community and other staff departmental participation. But that's kind of
- the overview. That's how we're thinking about economic development on the city side. And again, housing,
- I went through it maybe faster, but it's the thing. It's everything for us and we're at a turning point.
- happy to take questions or just to move on to Phil's comments. I guess my question is how this fits
- within the broader county economic development. There's BEDC and I guess the trades district to some
- extent. How is that collaboration or is there overlap? There's a lot of collaboration and we wanted
- to have a document that
- we could use for us at the city because we felt like we were a little bit lost in the BEDC's broader
- goals. You know, they're attracting, for example, advanced manufacturing. Well, that doesn't make any
- sense for us. We have a scarcity of real estate. And so it just isn't a good use of our time to work
- on developing those strategies within city limits. But we support BEDC in doing that. And we think that's
- good for the county writ large. And then we do our,
- working very closely with leadership at the trades district. And they had input into this document.
- And we see them specifically in this reinforcing our economic base area and supporting small business
- development. I mean, they're just critical partners. And they're really driving a lot of our economic
- development activities within Bloomington. Yeah. These are great.
- One of the realities, and I'm not arguing for UNICA, but one of the realities is that Ellitsville is
- going to shape a lot of the future of this county. And how will we be in conversation with them? Yeah.
- And we have had really great, I think, connection with Ellitsville. We're all on city leadership, and
- Ellitsville leadership sits on the
- the EDC executive committee together. So we have time with them once a month and they feel very open
- to collaborate with me. Thank you Jane for this really good mission, a good plan here. Everyone rolling
- in the same direction, right? Trying to.
- Thank you for sharing that with us. Thanks, Jane. I hope you want to stop for some screen share while
- we listen. Yeah. Phil, you said you had a couple of comments coming to me. Yeah. Just a couple of moments
- of personal privilege. I'm going to be stepping down from the board the end of this year. January 1
- is I'm a New Year's baby.
- And so I'll be Amy on January the 1st. And I'm doing that in part to make room for younger people,
- I think. That's part of our seniors have that responsibility. But that doesn't mean I'm going away.
- I do want to just express appreciation for each one of you. You bring such remarkable gifts. And Dee,
- you're great.
- a fine, fine leader, and we're fortunate to have you. Thank you. Heather, I want you to know that Elaine
- and I have been on boards for years in various places. You are tops. Oh, thank you. I mean, people have
- forgotten how to do meetings. Oh, thank you. And how to move through the process. I can thank Captain
- Steve Howard for that back in my early days. He knew how to run a meeting.
- So finally, a secondary reason, and primary reason really is my age, but we live in times, all of us,
- I think, experience is a crossroads. And for me, I have to sort out and think through how I respond
- to the meanness and the racism
- and the economic threats to development. I just returned from Chicago, where my family say they never
- thought they would get used to the smell of tear gas in Lakeview, which is a relatively safe neighborhood.
- What's going on in Broadview and my friends, my clergy,
- lay friends there is horrific, just horrific. And so there's a lot of confusion about what patriotism
- means and it gets confused with nationalism. And I think nationalism is in fact identity theft.
- from those of us who want to be patriotic. So how does one practice citizenship in a state that passes
- ever more restrictive laws, and some of them are anti-sanctuary laws? And they're ratcheted up.
- So I'm going to end with a benediction, just to say that I'm aware. I mean, these are real threats.
- And they're real threats to business development. Small businesses throughout Chicago, not just in Little
- Village and not just in Broadview, are losing economic opportunity.
- because of what's going on. And if this is just a rehearsal for what's going to happen in other parts
- of the country, we're going to lose some economic opportunities. Some of the things that were on your
- dreams there will be challenged. And so what's my role? I'm just an old, tired country preacher. Well,
- it may involve civil disobedience. And if that happens, I don't want you to think I'm against you. I'm
- working along with who I owe.
- try to keep economic development alive, or as the Hebrew scriptures say, when the question keeps being
- asked throughout the Hebrew Bible, why are we doing this? The answer comes again and again and again
- and again because we were once strangers in a land, because we were once excluded. So I believe in sanctuary.
- in Christian sanctuary. So Wendell Berry will be our benediction or my benediction. Only love can bring
- intelligence out of the institutions and organizations where aggrandizement has been made. It's into
- the presence of love that work must be done.
- Love is never abstract. It does not adhere to the universe, or the planet, or the nation, or the institution,
- or the profession, but to the singular sparrow of the street, the lily of the field. The least of these,
- my brethren, love is not by its own desire heroic. It is heroic only when compelled to be.
- It exists by its willingness to be anonymous, humble, and unrewarded. So thank you, Wendell, for reminding
- us of why we have BUEA in the first place. Thank you, Phil. Thank you, Phil, for that such lovely words.
- And thank you so much for your service, not just to BUEA, but your service to our community, your long-term
- service to Bloomington.
- the thoughtfulness that you bring into all things that you do. And we will miss you. We'll see you one
- more time. One more time. We will miss you. Thank God you didn't have a special one because it'd be
- too many times. So it takes the thunder out of this one. Yeah. Felisa said thank you. Yeah.
- We heard you, Felisa. Thank you. On that note, meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.