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.