WEBVTT 00:00:00.418 --> 00:00:12.838 - I will call the meeting to order. This is interview committee a for Bloomington Transit for it is August 00:00:12.838 --> 00:00:24.904 - 19 307 p.m. I am Kate Rosenbarger City Council district to help each else for district three Jennifer 00:00:24.904 --> 00:00:28.926 - cross Lee clerk's office Okay, so 00:00:29.346 --> 00:00:36.226 - Is it okay to call you Perry? It's totally okay to call me Kate. Thank you for coming today. Well, thank 00:00:36.226 --> 00:00:43.368 - you for having me because I was flying back home on Thursdays. It's always a lot to wrinkle with interviews. 00:00:43.368 --> 00:00:50.117 - So we pretty much have a set of questions that we ask all the candidates to try to keep everything the 00:00:50.117 --> 00:00:56.801 - same, but we veer a little bit, of course, just as like you say something that we might have a follow 00:00:56.801 --> 00:00:58.046 - up question about. 00:00:58.466 --> 00:01:04.679 - We will just kind of head that direction. Our first question is about minority groups that we have just 00:01:04.679 --> 00:01:10.773 - asked everybody. So I will pick us off. Have you ever been part of a commission council or board that 00:01:10.773 --> 00:01:16.867 - focused on the betterment and wellness of a specific community, particularly a minority group? If so, 00:01:16.867 --> 00:01:22.961 - what was your role and what impact did it have? So on a commission or board? Well, I was the chair of 00:01:22.961 --> 00:01:27.262 - the Commission on Transportation Disadvantage for the state of Florida. 00:01:27.426 --> 00:01:39.564 - I was appointed by Governor Martinez. I served as chair two terms. And our focus was on disabled, lower 00:01:39.564 --> 00:01:51.352 - income people. And it was quite the experience. I just thoroughly enjoyed doing that. And I got that 00:01:51.352 --> 00:01:54.270 - role because in Brevard, 00:01:54.754 --> 00:02:04.654 - Florida they have each county has a transportation disadvantaged coordinator that coordinates all the 00:02:04.654 --> 00:02:14.652 - various social service transportation and public transportation. So each county has that and so it was 00:02:14.652 --> 00:02:20.670 - quite the working with all of the various groups really neat. 00:02:21.602 --> 00:02:27.562 - Well, good. So, yes, sorry. Yeah. Long answer. And you said it wasn't a long answer. No, it was not. 00:02:27.562 --> 00:02:33.580 - If you said each county then had a coordinator for social services, transportation, and public. Yeah. 00:02:33.580 --> 00:02:39.599 - Typically, it was one and the same. Yeah. If you were transfer director for the county, you were also 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:45.500 - the CTC for the county. There were some instances where the public transit agency wasn't interested 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:49.630 - in it. That wasn't the case in most counties. Got it. So interesting. 00:02:51.266 --> 00:02:58.103 - What do you want me to do? Want me to continue? No, I'm good. You're good. I got it all. I listened 00:02:58.103 --> 00:03:05.146 - at the same time as I did some copying and pasting. So the next question is what inspired you to apply 00:03:05.146 --> 00:03:12.120 - for this position on the Public Transportation Board of Directors? What draws you to the work and the 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:19.710 - mission of the board? Well, I know a background in that besides that, I guess, like you're here, you're you're 00:03:20.258 --> 00:03:27.412 - I'm assuming retired. So like, why do you want to? I retired back in 2018 at IU and I was the director 00:03:27.412 --> 00:03:34.635 - of campus muster house. So I spent 12 years in the same building, uh, with Wilmington transit and their 00:03:34.635 --> 00:03:41.650 - staff and board members. So, um, I would go to board meetings and, uh, so my understanding was there 00:03:41.650 --> 00:03:48.318 - was going to be an old thing. And so I said, okay, I can do this. Uh, and I've been in this, I, 00:03:48.546 --> 00:03:56.096 - actually worked for Bloomington Transit while I was in school back in 1973 when it was still a city 00:03:56.096 --> 00:04:04.024 - department before it became its own public transportation corporation. So I think about it, if I stayed, 00:04:04.024 --> 00:04:11.876 - I would have been like number one on the seniority list. Everything is done by seniority with the union 00:04:11.876 --> 00:04:17.086 - contract. So, you know, with my background in public transportation, 00:04:18.594 --> 00:04:25.154 - and I continued to stay up with it. I teach a class over at O'Neill just in the fall semester because 00:04:25.154 --> 00:04:31.778 - I tell people if I did it both semesters, it'd be a job. That's true. I finally got them down from the 00:04:31.778 --> 00:04:38.209 - height of 47 students down to 30, and I have a nine-person waiting list. Popular. Yeah. What is the 00:04:38.209 --> 00:04:44.126 - class? Public transportation management. It's just called public transportation management. 00:04:44.322 --> 00:04:50.838 - Great. You mentioned that so when you used to share the building with them, you would interact with 00:04:50.838 --> 00:04:57.419 - board members. I would go to board meetings. You would go to board meetings. How have you interacted 00:04:57.419 --> 00:05:03.999 - with the board since then? Are you up to speed on what's been going on? How much do you track? No, I 00:05:03.999 --> 00:05:10.841 - would not say I'm completely up to speed. I read the v-squared articles when they come out and I haven't 00:05:10.841 --> 00:05:12.926 - been to a board meeting since I 00:05:13.794 --> 00:05:29.559 - retired. Great. I have a question. How do you understand this board to operate? In a way, it's just 00:05:29.559 --> 00:05:42.014 - a question of what do you think their role is in terms of Bloomington Transit? 00:05:42.178 --> 00:05:49.297 - And I think I would just add on to that as another question that's, do you think anything is missing 00:05:49.297 --> 00:05:56.769 - representation wise from the current board? And if so, what do you bring skills and to like an experience 00:05:56.769 --> 00:06:03.888 - to fill those gaps? Well, I have a lot of experience in public transportation and I, you know, I was 00:06:03.888 --> 00:06:04.734 - on a board. 00:06:05.154 --> 00:06:11.400 - statewide board, but I also worked with boards and elected officials because in, you know, 00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:18.538 - over the years, you know, you could have your own board like this. I had one in Brevard County and then 00:06:18.538 --> 00:06:25.402 - we were taken over by the county and I became the first county transit director and it was the city 00:06:25.402 --> 00:06:32.471 - of the Brevard Transportation Authority, which actually was the city of Melbourne. So you have to work 00:06:32.471 --> 00:06:34.942 - with your board members, right, and 00:06:35.202 --> 00:06:44.818 - as a staff person, but then as a board person, you have to work with the rest of the board, right? And 00:06:44.818 --> 00:06:54.433 - it's very important that you have good relations with everybody when you're on the board. And my whole 00:06:54.433 --> 00:07:04.702 - theory on this, having worked for boards and city and county commissions, you're there to make things happen. 00:07:04.962 --> 00:07:13.895 - right for that they're the elected officials or the appointed officials or even in the case of working 00:07:13.895 --> 00:07:22.654 - with the union they're elected president of that union i'm not elected as the manager of the transit 00:07:22.654 --> 00:07:31.673 - system so you've got to be able to work together with everybody in all kinds of different and i'll give 00:07:31.673 --> 00:07:34.622 - you an example so in florida each 00:07:34.722 --> 00:07:40.666 - five years, they're required to have a transit development plan. It's like a strategic plan, it's state 00:07:40.666 --> 00:07:46.038 - law. And so you have to take it to the county commission. And so when I took mine and we made 00:07:46.038 --> 00:07:51.811 - our presentation, well, the consultant made the presentation, I was there. And I had two people with 00:07:51.811 --> 00:07:57.926 - me, the chair of our citizens advisory board, which was appointed by there were seven county commissioners 00:07:57.926 --> 00:08:03.813 - and each commissioner appointed one member. And then on the other side was the president of the union. 00:08:03.813 --> 00:08:04.670 - And they both, 00:08:05.282 --> 00:08:12.589 - said the exact same thing supporting what we wanted to do. Oh, and by the way, the chair of the Citizens 00:08:12.589 --> 00:08:19.965 - Advisory Board was also the chair of the Republican Party in Palm Beach County. And the county commission 00:08:19.965 --> 00:08:26.994 - chair came up to me after the meeting and was blown away that both the union president and the chair 00:08:26.994 --> 00:08:34.718 - of the Citizens Advisory Board and chair of the Republican Party could both support what we were trying to do. 00:08:35.266 --> 00:08:43.465 - So I think that's what I always try to keep in mind is you may be disagreeing with somebody today, but 00:08:43.465 --> 00:08:51.505 - you need them to vote with you tomorrow when you're on a board. And that's how we ran the Commission 00:08:51.505 --> 00:08:59.704 - on Transportation Disadvantaged had like 15 members. It was from all over the state. So you had people 00:08:59.704 --> 00:09:04.958 - from Miami and Pensacola, and you were trying to get things done. 00:09:05.346 --> 00:09:13.761 - And you have to get things done with just about everybody when it comes to doing things in the public. 00:09:13.761 --> 00:09:22.094 - Because if somebody goes off, there can be issues, right? So that's my sort of personal philosophy on 00:09:22.094 --> 00:09:30.427 - how you work in the public sector. You've got to have support. And you've got to be able to work with 00:09:30.427 --> 00:09:35.166 - everybody. And they need to know you will work with them. 00:09:35.522 --> 00:09:42.634 - Kind of on that theme, limiting transit serves people with very different transportation needs. And 00:09:42.634 --> 00:09:49.959 - how should the board think about serving all of those things? I just found out I had a, I took the bus 00:09:49.959 --> 00:09:57.355 - here from the route from Kroger over and you know, the students are back. The last time I was on, there 00:09:57.355 --> 00:10:04.254 - weren't that many students, but we've also got a lot of issues. You know, there were people with 00:10:04.450 --> 00:10:11.684 - and all health issues, and the driver had to say to the fellow, you've got to put a shirt on before 00:10:11.684 --> 00:10:19.062 - you come on the bus. So, you know, we have, I think back to Lincoln in the 70s, when I first got here 00:10:19.062 --> 00:10:26.296 - as a freshman in 1970, how it's changed. But, you know, I've lived in big states. I lived in Miami, 00:10:26.296 --> 00:10:32.734 - I lived in West Palm Beach. You know, you have issues, and you've got to work with them. 00:10:33.314 --> 00:10:41.274 - and the people and the issues you can't just walk away from. So since you just said that you took the 00:10:41.274 --> 00:10:49.235 - bus here, do you ride bus frequently? I wouldn't say since I have been retired, but I do take it into 00:10:49.235 --> 00:10:57.195 - campus, you know, because especially next Monday, you know, you don't want your car at a parking lot, 00:10:57.195 --> 00:11:02.814 - right? Because people are still thinking they can park anywhere, right? 00:11:03.298 --> 00:11:12.752 - When I lived downtown and worked at the garage on Grimes, I would take the bus from the old where the 00:11:12.752 --> 00:11:22.020 - buses met there at Washington and 4th Street on the corner. That was the old transfer center before 00:11:22.020 --> 00:11:32.030 - the new one was built. When I would take the bus into campus, because the 7 would go right by on Walnut and 00:11:32.194 --> 00:11:38.995 - I could take it in instead of driving. And so that's what you do now, like when you teach your class 00:11:38.995 --> 00:11:45.796 - in the fall? I won't say every day, right? But that's like, it's not infrequent. No, yeah. It's like 00:11:45.796 --> 00:11:52.530 - one of your kind of normal options. Well, because I'm asking the students to, one of their projects 00:11:52.530 --> 00:11:59.331 - will be, give me a write-up on your experience commuting into campus, whether it's bicycling, a park 00:11:59.331 --> 00:12:01.822 - and ride to the stadium, or taking a 00:12:02.082 --> 00:12:11.620 - BT bus, so. OK. So then you also consider your commutes onto campus. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I want 00:12:11.620 --> 00:12:20.879 - to follow up on the different needs question. Do you think Bloomington Transit is currently meeting 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:30.324 - the needs of its riders? It seems so. I mean, I think the routes, there's been restructuring over the 00:12:30.324 --> 00:12:31.806 - last few years. 00:12:33.122 --> 00:12:40.422 - Like the seven is no longer is the one, right? You know, so I mean, I haven't really studied it in depth, 00:12:40.422 --> 00:12:47.378 - but it seems to me that, you know, the feedback I get from the students and over the years, I've had 00:12:47.378 --> 00:12:54.265 - hundreds of them and they've all done this project since 2018. So it's good, you know, but you have 00:12:54.265 --> 00:13:01.220 - to understand that many people come here and this is the first time they've ever used public transit 00:13:01.220 --> 00:13:02.942 - if they're from Indiana. 00:13:03.362 --> 00:13:10.515 - Even Indianapolis, you know, people in Carmel and Fishers, they've never been on public transit. So 00:13:10.515 --> 00:13:17.955 - it's neat to have out of state or out of the country students because they are users of public transit. 00:13:17.955 --> 00:13:25.394 - And given me a lot of insights, like how the best way to get to the freest way to get to New York City, 00:13:25.394 --> 00:13:32.190 - take the Staten Island ferry, because it's free and it runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 00:13:33.250 --> 00:13:44.281 - So, um, so I, you know, I can't really, you know, Say, I know everything about what's going on. That 00:13:44.281 --> 00:13:55.640 - would be perfect. Great. Same for me to say that. So, right. Go back to because I skipped. I know we're 00:13:55.640 --> 00:14:02.302 - kind of jumping around. Yeah. Um, here's, here's a question. 00:14:02.594 --> 00:14:09.742 - Here's an interesting one to hear from you about. What ideas do you have to create impactful private 00:14:09.742 --> 00:14:17.314 - and or public partnerships, initiatives that can address challenges to Bloomington Transit? And of course, 00:14:17.314 --> 00:14:24.604 - since you were with IU for a number of years. Well, you know, I think that partnership has been great. 00:14:24.604 --> 00:14:32.318 - I always reckoned it as having a roommate. You can share all your expenses. Right? You know, the power bill, 00:14:32.482 --> 00:14:41.150 - you know, the cleaning, whatever it is. And I think that relationship is the most important. And having 00:14:41.150 --> 00:14:49.652 - worked at Gainesville, Florida, where it was the city operation and there was no campus service owned 00:14:49.652 --> 00:14:58.321 - or operated by the university. But when I first got there, my first, second day of the job meeting with 00:14:58.321 --> 00:15:02.238 - people at UF, they basically said, if you guys 00:15:02.338 --> 00:15:10.203 - don't clean up public transit from the city of Gainesville, we're going to start our own service. And 00:15:10.203 --> 00:15:18.300 - I asked them to give me a year, and they did. And to this day, and that was 1996, so it's still operated 00:15:18.300 --> 00:15:26.782 - by the city of Gainesville by a person that I hired, who's been there all those years since. But so that city 00:15:28.066 --> 00:15:35.773 - town, gown, city, university relations. That's the first one. I've also done a lot in private sector 00:15:35.773 --> 00:15:43.481 - contracting. That was a big, we'll go back to the first Bush administration. That's how far back and 00:15:43.481 --> 00:15:51.188 - really even into the end of the Reagan administration where there were a lot of initiatives by USDOT 00:15:51.188 --> 00:15:57.598 - and the Florida Federal Transit Administration to have private public partnerships. 00:15:57.922 --> 00:16:05.343 - So we, one of the things we did in Brevard County, we contracted out the maintenance of all the buses. 00:16:05.343 --> 00:16:12.836 - And to this day, it's still going on. The contract has been renewed and put out for bid. So I have gone 00:16:12.836 --> 00:16:20.617 - through those kinds of things. In Palm Beach County, we had a huge, huge contract for paratransit services. 00:16:20.617 --> 00:16:27.390 - Because in Florida, it's a big deal to have door-to-door services. It's a huge market because 00:16:27.874 --> 00:16:35.237 - with older population. Florida is now is what the rest of the country will be like in 30 or 40 years, 00:16:35.237 --> 00:16:42.599 - as far as the number of disabled people and senior citizens. So it was a huge contract. And so we had 00:16:42.599 --> 00:16:49.962 - to do that in the private sector. So I'm familiar with that kind of stuff. So, okay. We'll go back to 00:16:49.962 --> 00:16:57.758 - the IU and the Lincoln Transit relationship again, because I know one of the things that we've talked about 00:16:57.986 --> 00:17:06.813 - generally over the years is those two systems merging and they're just being one transit system and 00:17:06.813 --> 00:17:15.728 - what's your perspective on that? I think there are a lot of pluses for it. Federal funding, there is 00:17:15.728 --> 00:17:25.438 - funding on the table that we're not getting for intensive use systems aimed mostly at university communities. 00:17:26.498 --> 00:17:33.794 - There's state funding that's on the table. And if you think about, I'm dated on the, because ridership 00:17:33.794 --> 00:17:41.374 - has gone down since COVID all across public transit. And unlike airlines, it hasn't come back yet. Certain 00:17:41.374 --> 00:17:48.599 - metropolitan areas are getting close. LA, for instance, is almost to where it was. It just, it's been 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:54.974 - a long haul to get people, most of it, a lot of it is just people not going back to work. 00:17:55.810 --> 00:18:04.610 - in a big city, right? In Denver, it's been oral to get ridership back. And they're, you know, much lower. 00:18:04.610 --> 00:18:12.995 - But anyhow, off on a tangent there, but there's the ridership at BTE or at Campus Bus is about three 00:18:12.995 --> 00:18:21.214 - million a year. And I think Wilmington Transit's four or five million a year, something like that. 00:18:21.922 --> 00:18:30.156 - Well, if that's my last information. We're down above 2 million. And we're at 3.5. OK, that was, yeah. 00:18:30.156 --> 00:18:38.551 - Campus bus is at 3 million a year. Well, it was. I'm sure it's down from what it was, but my information 00:18:38.551 --> 00:18:47.105 - is dated. But nationwide, ridership is down. But there's still ridership there, and it's not being counted 00:18:47.105 --> 00:18:51.742 - in any state or federal formula. And those are important. 00:18:57.410 --> 00:19:06.577 - I understand. Are you, have you with that? Yes. Yes. Line of questioning. Okay. I, because that's something 00:19:06.577 --> 00:19:15.235 - you said too, I wanted to jump to paratransit and AT access like we have here. And I guess, you know, 00:19:15.235 --> 00:19:24.062 - kind of to the best of your ability, how you see balancing paratransit with fixed route buses and maybe 00:19:24.994 --> 00:19:32.883 - Yeah, where do you see that going in the future here? Well, I'm a big advocate for, because based on 00:19:32.883 --> 00:19:40.694 - my experience, for people with disabilities having access to door-to-door services. You know, I saw 00:19:40.694 --> 00:19:48.661 - the industry over the years fight that. I mean, I was at conferences where people in wheelchairs were 00:19:48.661 --> 00:19:54.910 - chaining themselves to the front bumpers of a bus in protest that there weren't 00:19:55.298 --> 00:20:03.662 - wheelchair lifts. And then we got the ADA. We're really happy to get the ADA because in Brevard County, 00:20:03.662 --> 00:20:12.107 - we did not, I got there in 83, we did not have lifts on any of our buses. And I said to the board, okay, 00:20:12.107 --> 00:20:20.230 - we need to retrofit and we need to buy all of our new buses with lifts. And we did that before 1991. 00:20:20.230 --> 00:20:24.734 - And so, and the paratransit services, the door to door, 00:20:24.866 --> 00:20:33.083 - You know, again, an example from Brevard County, we would do the Space Coast Symphony, always did a 00:20:33.083 --> 00:20:41.546 - holiday at one of the mega churches, a free concert. And we ran all the buses on a Sunday from all the 00:20:41.546 --> 00:20:50.174 - nursing homes. And we had county commissioners, there were five, not three like here, but coming to help 00:20:51.298 --> 00:20:58.959 - and saying, wow, this is the best thing. And I think it really, I mean, having gotten the calls from 00:20:58.959 --> 00:21:06.696 - people who had issues using paratransit and trying to help them get through it, it's really important 00:21:06.696 --> 00:21:14.508 - that, you know, they don't have alternatives for the most part, right? And we're that alternative. And 00:21:14.508 --> 00:21:17.694 - I think we got to keep that in mind first 00:21:18.146 --> 00:21:25.393 - priority are for people who really have no alternatives. And, you know, we did a lot of stuff in Florida. 00:21:25.393 --> 00:21:32.572 - For instance, one of the things we did was instead of having Medicaid pay for paratransit trips, because 00:21:32.572 --> 00:21:39.750 - Medicaid is just a low income medical, right? It's not about being disabled now. Oh, people are disabled 00:21:39.750 --> 00:21:45.630 - on Medicaid. But so by giving them a monthly bus pass, they were able to go anywhere. 00:21:46.338 --> 00:21:54.695 - And it was transferable within the family. So instead of just going to a doctor's appointment once a 00:21:54.695 --> 00:22:03.136 - month, they had access to countywide public transit. I think it's important to work within the system 00:22:03.136 --> 00:22:11.824 - that's set up. But we have to have that as the highest priority. I really don't see anything else higher 00:22:11.824 --> 00:22:15.134 - than that. What about the microtransit? 00:22:15.394 --> 00:22:22.613 - So in the past couple of years, Bloomington Transit has really expanded their microtransit, not just 00:22:22.613 --> 00:22:29.974 - the access, but microtransit for everybody. Well, I think that's a great new concept. And I think it's 00:22:29.974 --> 00:22:37.192 - sort of new, so new at this point. It'd be hard to evaluate its effectiveness because it's only been 00:22:37.192 --> 00:22:40.766 - a couple of years. So it's a tool in the toolbox. 00:22:47.778 --> 00:22:54.357 - It's just like, you know, we now have bus trackers. I was standing there at the right time and going, 00:22:54.357 --> 00:23:01.065 - oh, okay, I took it out and it was delayed a few minutes coming around from, well, I'm sure at the mall 00:23:01.065 --> 00:23:07.708 - because it, you don't want to go to Target, right? So yeah, it was fine. So it was fine. But those are 00:23:07.708 --> 00:23:14.158 - great. You know, it's great to have real time information instead of looking at a schedule that was 00:23:14.158 --> 00:23:16.222 - put together months ago, right? 00:23:16.322 --> 00:23:24.921 - didn't know there was a snowstorm going to be there that day, right? So I think technologically, we 00:23:24.921 --> 00:23:33.951 - have done a lot in public transit over the last 50 years in changing things. And so I think microtransit 00:23:33.951 --> 00:23:43.582 - is just one of those new tools that we now have that we couldn't have done 20 years ago. To change gears again. 00:23:43.938 --> 00:23:51.835 - What is one thing that you can name that you might identify as the largest problem? What is transit 00:23:51.835 --> 00:24:00.285 - and how would you work to change that as a board member? Well, if you go back historically, public transit 00:24:00.285 --> 00:24:08.656 - and urban development, right? The biggest challenge we have in public transit is making sure that they're 00:24:08.656 --> 00:24:10.078 - aligned together. 00:24:10.594 --> 00:24:18.253 - And why does public transit work in a town like this? Well, think about the campus, right? It's walkable, 00:24:18.253 --> 00:24:25.768 - parking is scarce, or it's over at the stadium. And you've got people choosing to use the service, even 00:24:25.768 --> 00:24:33.282 - though they could, a lot of students can afford a car and they would like to park everywhere, you know, 00:24:33.282 --> 00:24:36.606 - out of campus everywhere, right? And they do. 00:24:36.834 --> 00:24:45.941 - Like at the Kelly Garage, that's the cash cow for parking operations hourly rates. But so it's, I think 00:24:45.941 --> 00:24:54.785 - we've got to kind of go back to our roots of if we have a community that's walkable, that's pleasant 00:24:54.785 --> 00:25:03.542 - to be in without a car, that you don't need a car. And I think that's where, if you look around the 00:25:03.542 --> 00:25:05.118 - nation, you know, 00:25:06.018 --> 00:25:14.143 - New York has bounced back, okay, from COVID. Denver, yeah, there's pockets, you know, Boulder is a beautiful, 00:25:14.143 --> 00:25:21.899 - you know, college town, right? And you love going down Pearl Street Mall and, you know, downtown Denver, 00:25:21.899 --> 00:25:29.360 - but it's spread out over, what, seven counties or something, the metro area, and it hasn't come back 00:25:29.360 --> 00:25:35.934 - to the level of ridership it had before COVID. And a lot of it you've got to look at as, 00:25:36.194 --> 00:25:44.697 - is it based on the development pattern of, they're spread out, way spread out, right? And so, you know, 00:25:44.697 --> 00:25:52.872 - I think Bloomington has a lot going for it when it comes to having a walkable community that's, you 00:25:52.872 --> 00:26:01.293 - don't have to, you know, you can do part once kind of thing and walk around, you know, or take the bus 00:26:01.293 --> 00:26:03.582 - to campus and downtown. So, 00:26:04.770 --> 00:26:14.222 - It wasn't a bad walk to walk over from the transfer station here. That's almost academic, isn't it? 00:26:14.222 --> 00:26:23.675 - Getting ready for class. In the built environment, make sure there's room for buses. Yes, it has to 00:26:23.675 --> 00:26:29.630 - be part of it, just as it was at the turn of the last century. 00:26:29.794 --> 00:26:39.227 - They were building streetcar suburbs, Shaker Heights outside of Cleveland, Coral Gables outside of Miami. 00:26:39.227 --> 00:26:48.216 - They were doing it the same. It wasn't just an add-on or an extra thought. It was part and parcel of 00:26:48.216 --> 00:26:57.560 - what they were trying to do. And we got away from that. We just have gotten away from it. But in college 00:26:57.560 --> 00:26:59.518 - towns, we really have 00:26:59.938 --> 00:27:16.475 - a step up above just an ordinary town of 50 or 60,000 people would have. That's why we'd like living 00:27:16.475 --> 00:27:29.246 - here, right? That's why I came back. I knew I didn't want to stay in Florida. 00:27:29.634 --> 00:27:57.790 - It's good, huh? Too bad. I think this is the question we asked a couple that we could ask to Perry. 00:27:58.274 --> 00:28:08.935 - the chat about so the the BT board is five members and it could be seven and so I think with your history 00:28:08.935 --> 00:28:19.193 - with campus bus in BT. What do you think that do you think five serves ET well? Or do you think seven 00:28:19.193 --> 00:28:25.630 - with? I mean, it does give you a chance to add on other people. 00:28:27.458 --> 00:28:35.851 - You know, I don't think 547 is a saver kind of number, but certainly seven isn't so huge that it would 00:28:35.851 --> 00:28:44.325 - be out of control. You know, Denver just, they reformed their elected board. They had a 15 member board 00:28:44.325 --> 00:28:52.636 - for the RTD and the legislature just changed that to everybody appointed by the governor. Sounds kind 00:28:52.636 --> 00:28:57.118 - of familiar, but. So they went away from the electing, 00:28:57.410 --> 00:29:07.220 - board members from 15 districts that they had from the beginning since like 1969. So, you know, that's 00:29:07.220 --> 00:29:17.125 - I think really the purview of the City Council to make that decision as to size the board, whether it's 00:29:17.125 --> 00:29:22.078 - five or seven or nine. I've worked with big boards. 00:29:28.866 --> 00:29:35.861 - I think for me that is not a the most question. Yeah, I think that I'm good too. Is there anything else 00:29:35.861 --> 00:29:42.588 - that you want us to know or anything that you just want to add to or things that you wanted to make 00:29:42.588 --> 00:29:49.381 - sure to say? Well, one thing I would is that if I were appointed, I would try to work with everyone. 00:29:49.381 --> 00:29:56.511 - And I know that that's very important, getting things moving to keep things moving. You know, you cannot, 00:29:56.511 --> 00:29:58.462 - you know, sort of, you know, 00:29:59.746 --> 00:30:06.808 - Like I said earlier, you may disagree, but you can't be disagreeable and disagreeing. And you've got 00:30:06.808 --> 00:30:13.871 - to know that later on, you may need their support. You want their vote on something else. So my mind 00:30:13.871 --> 00:30:21.003 - is you've got to be able to work with everybody. Now, that's not going to be easy. But I think that's 00:30:21.003 --> 00:30:23.870 - got to be what you have to keep in mind. 00:30:24.130 --> 00:30:31.403 - on something like this because, you know, you're appointed by city council or the mayor. You're going 00:30:31.403 --> 00:30:38.748 - to have that relationship, right? But you're going to have your own judgment because that was what the 00:30:38.748 --> 00:30:45.950 - appointment was all about, right? You were appointed because the appointing body felt like you could 00:30:45.950 --> 00:30:52.510 - do the job. So that's always been how I felt about working with boards or being on a board. 00:30:55.394 --> 00:31:10.410 - Great. I think I even managed to keep my notes in order. I don't have an order. The only thing that 00:31:10.410 --> 00:31:19.870 - I was going to say from the clerk's office perspective is that 00:31:20.322 --> 00:31:28.416 - Council committee will deliberate, and then once they figure out who they recommend, that's a good word. 00:31:28.416 --> 00:31:36.356 - They have to do that in a public meeting. They'll have to do that at a regular session in city council 00:31:36.356 --> 00:31:44.065 - meeting. Of course, right now they're in budget cycle. Whatever the decision is to be made, they'll 00:31:44.065 --> 00:31:50.078 - hear from me either way. I just want to let you know that as well. Thank you. 00:31:51.362 --> 00:32:01.131 - Yeah, and our next regular session meeting is until September. So that's the earliest. Yeah. And make 00:32:01.131 --> 00:32:10.900 - that recommendation. Well, thank you. Great. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Great. Thank you for coming. Yeah. 00:32:10.900 --> 00:32:20.094 - Thank you. You are welcome. And you can catch the rest of us on Zoom or in person. Okay. Great. 00:32:20.290 --> 00:32:40.830 - Thank you. Thanks, Jim. I just realized that I do not have my notes totally in order. So I think our 00:32:40.830 --> 00:32:49.982 - orders were to talk about our candidates and 00:32:51.170 --> 00:32:59.561 - recommend someone that would then be discussed at City Council. I'm okay with that. I do wish ESAF was 00:32:59.561 --> 00:33:08.034 - here, but it's okay. I think we had a good discussion last time too. I think this is a pretty important 00:33:08.034 --> 00:33:16.181 - board and council members might have questions and we can just talk more about the process here and 00:33:16.181 --> 00:33:19.358 - the candidates, I think, a little bit. 00:33:19.714 --> 00:33:31.471 - in our next regular session where we recommend someone. We're just kind of messing something up. As 00:33:31.471 --> 00:33:44.169 - long as I fix it right after we get out of this. One of our considerations last week ended on what happened 00:33:44.169 --> 00:33:49.342 - at the BTD last night. It was just delayed. 00:33:49.538 --> 00:34:08.462 - Yes. So they did not vote on anything. And their next meeting is until September 15th. Great. So I think 00:34:08.462 --> 00:34:18.014 - with that, I know, I think too we could use, I mean, 00:34:18.114 --> 00:34:26.131 - that into consideration either way. I think we could say we could wait until after that meeting. We 00:34:26.131 --> 00:34:34.388 - could also recommend someone without considering that meeting. It's not that we need to. Yeah, I think 00:34:34.388 --> 00:34:42.646 - that at this point I'm not sure that I want to push it off. I'm just always, it's all in my hair. Your 00:34:42.646 --> 00:34:46.494 - hair looks beautiful. It's just like an animal. 00:34:46.626 --> 00:34:55.315 - Luffy is having problems today, but whatever. Um, so I'm, I'm okay getting into it, but I think I'm 00:34:55.315 --> 00:35:04.264 - kind of all in the same space as our last meeting. Uh, when he sock was here too, I think, and I mean, 00:35:04.264 --> 00:35:13.474 - I have thought about this more, you know, the first thing is I think these four candidates are excellent. 00:35:13.474 --> 00:35:16.254 - I think it's rare that we have. 00:35:17.058 --> 00:35:29.225 - So many good candidates for one board position. Really interesting. And they all bring. Some overlapping 00:35:29.225 --> 00:35:40.928 - skills and experiences and some that are different. Last meeting. I would say I leaned toward mixing 00:35:40.928 --> 00:35:46.142 - things up a little bit on the board because. 00:35:46.818 --> 00:35:57.357 - I get the impression that things are not working well, not working super well right now. And so I, I, 00:35:57.357 --> 00:36:08.102 - I would say I favor like the kind of a fresh perspective and like data driven decision making that Zach 00:36:08.102 --> 00:36:12.958 - brings with an added bonus of a transit rider. 00:36:30.050 --> 00:36:40.020 - I'm thinking really hard right now. For those of you who can't be out in the world, I'm thinking really 00:36:40.020 --> 00:36:49.606 - hard right now. I guess I'm conflicted, you can say, between the experience and what you just said, 00:36:49.606 --> 00:36:55.454 - Zach, in terms of the data-driven stuff. I really think that 00:36:57.282 --> 00:37:04.682 - I may be strongly convinced that we need to expand this board to seven. We, of course, can't do that 00:37:04.682 --> 00:37:12.741 - until the CCP meeting because I think that both of those voices will be good on it. Harry is very interesting 00:37:12.741 --> 00:37:20.068 - because he has a lot of experience, but it's most recently from the IU perspective, which is really 00:37:20.068 --> 00:37:22.046 - different, I think, and is 00:37:23.138 --> 00:37:31.188 - is also kind of interesting. And I can't, and one of the things about this board per state code is there 00:37:31.188 --> 00:37:38.932 - has to be a split, a political split. So we can't have anybody of just one party or another and that 00:37:38.932 --> 00:37:46.905 - they have to have to be split. And so I think one of the things that I wrote in my notes last time was, 00:37:46.905 --> 00:37:51.582 - well, we should look into that with our candidates to see if 00:37:52.514 --> 00:38:00.712 - like what political parties they do identify with and in terms of expanding that to seven, that might 00:38:00.712 --> 00:38:09.152 - be problematic to try to keep the balance per state code that's required. But I would be very interested 00:38:09.152 --> 00:38:15.582 - in that because I do feel like, I mean, I feel like all four of them could make 00:38:17.602 --> 00:38:25.264 - slightly different but very valuable contributions. One thing that we said about Hank last time was 00:38:25.264 --> 00:38:33.078 - like, well, maybe he should be attending these anyway sometimes as part of his role in the city. That 00:38:33.078 --> 00:38:40.817 - could be a way to get his perspective and voice in that space a little bit more and some of the data 00:38:40.817 --> 00:38:45.950 - that he brings to that. But even with the other three, I guess I'm 00:38:46.082 --> 00:38:57.612 - most tied, I think, between Zach and Kent in terms of Kent and Perry having similar experience, but 00:38:57.612 --> 00:39:09.950 - Kent's is more BT versus Perry's is more IU focused at this point. Yeah, I think the same and I think too, 00:39:11.394 --> 00:39:24.865 - I do think policy-wise and priorities-wise for Bloomington Transit, I do like where Zach and Kent and 00:39:24.865 --> 00:39:35.166 - Hank land on increasing frequency and convenience and predictability that was 00:39:36.642 --> 00:39:44.187 - lessening resources, decreasing resources, you know, we have to kind of decide sometimes and what that 00:39:44.187 --> 00:39:51.513 - looks like for micro transit versus fixed routes. I tend to agree, I guess, with that approach. All 00:39:51.513 --> 00:39:59.131 - three of them were pretty negative about micro transit and Perry was more neutral about it. Or, I mean, 00:39:59.131 --> 00:40:01.182 - they were saying we need it 00:40:01.538 --> 00:40:09.945 - we do it and we can continue to look at how to innovate that or you know reach more people but that 00:40:09.945 --> 00:40:18.437 - our bus system needs more frequency. They all said that overall to get people riding and choosing it 00:40:18.437 --> 00:40:27.012 - and I really liked that. I find it interesting that Perry brought up that that idea of the university 00:40:27.012 --> 00:40:28.862 - may be concerned that 00:40:28.994 --> 00:40:34.728 - that the city transit system wouldn't support their students enough because that was something that 00:40:34.728 --> 00:40:40.003 - I don't remember which applicants said that because he thought, you know, about that. Like, 00:40:40.003 --> 00:40:45.908 - what do you think? I use resistance to that was I think it was Ken. I think it was to that. And he was 00:40:45.908 --> 00:40:51.642 - like, well, make sure that we serve their student. I want to give up the role of order. No, I think 00:40:51.642 --> 00:40:54.910 - that was the control was somebody else. I think Kent was 00:40:55.138 --> 00:41:02.115 - One of them, and I think it was Ken, was they want to make sure that their students are served very 00:41:02.115 --> 00:41:09.162 - well and that there would be fear that their students wouldn't be as prioritized if it was all under 00:41:09.162 --> 00:41:16.488 - BT. It's interesting because Perry has that experience from being the municipal transit person, ensuring 00:41:16.488 --> 00:41:19.070 - that the university and the town did 00:41:19.202 --> 00:41:25.814 - like their students did end up being served by the system. So I find that really interesting because 00:41:25.814 --> 00:41:32.491 - that's another theme that comes through here. But this is such a hard choice right now. I think there 00:41:32.491 --> 00:41:39.103 - are two, yes, two hard choices, who and then when. And I think I was just looking at something about 00:41:39.103 --> 00:41:45.715 - paratransit that scaling up paratransit does not see the same ROI as scaling up fixed routes and the 00:41:45.715 --> 00:41:49.054 - microtransit fills in those gaps. And I like that. 00:41:49.474 --> 00:42:02.480 - So right, I think it is because we're in the 90 days of our time to a point or a point. I'm I'm struggling 00:42:02.480 --> 00:42:15.122 - on the timeline, so I just I want to think about it for a second. What do you mean? We want to not make 00:42:15.122 --> 00:42:17.310 - a decision today. 00:42:18.114 --> 00:42:26.143 - I'm on board with not making a decision today. It does look like the 90 days for Ken can go through 00:42:26.143 --> 00:42:34.413 - October. I think that's better. Open door law rules, we can talk one-on-one to fellow council members. 00:42:34.413 --> 00:42:42.603 - I'm happy to talk at a regular session about it even before we all meet again because this feels like 00:42:42.603 --> 00:42:47.742 - a pretty important decision and all we're doing is recommending 00:42:48.162 --> 00:42:58.249 - So it can change on council day, who we vote for. It's probably less dramatic if it doesn't. If we have 00:42:58.249 --> 00:43:08.142 - colleagues that are. That's okay. I don't think there is a harm in waiting. Especially since we can't 00:43:08.142 --> 00:43:15.998 - make a decision until September. Our next council meeting isn't until September. 00:43:17.346 --> 00:43:24.009 - I find it unfortunate that they postponed that piece of action yesterday because that could potentially 00:43:24.009 --> 00:43:30.480 - make our decision a little bit easier depending on what they do there in terms of our applicants and 00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:37.015 - their continued interest and service. I also am interested to hear thinking of the seven versus five. 00:43:37.015 --> 00:43:44.126 - That is something that I was going to bring up at the CCP meeting and that is not until the end of this month. 00:43:45.026 --> 00:43:52.625 - I think it's the 31st. That's just what the next meeting is. I want to at least know from my three colleagues 00:43:52.625 --> 00:43:59.810 - there what their thoughts on that are, but that could also be something that gets prefaced that we also 00:43:59.810 --> 00:44:06.718 - speak with our colleagues about, and especially with the stuff going on in BT right now. This might 00:44:07.618 --> 00:44:15.389 - And I mean, clearly it's engaging more people because we actually have members of the public. And an 00:44:15.389 --> 00:44:23.084 - entertainment interview in three years. Yes. And so I think it's really important to do as much due 00:44:23.084 --> 00:44:30.855 - diligence as we can for this. And yes, I was going to say it doesn't look like they necessarily like 00:44:30.855 --> 00:44:36.318 - delayed it. I think state law was like because it has with a contract. 00:44:36.450 --> 00:44:42.902 - Um, it looks like they have to introduce it. It was like a first read-in yesterday would have technically 00:44:42.902 --> 00:44:49.050 - been the first reading. Okay. And so the next meeting, which is in September, is their second, where 00:44:49.050 --> 00:44:55.381 - they would be able to vote. I don't think anybody. Yeah. No, like, I mean, even if they had to lay that 00:44:55.381 --> 00:45:01.894 - right. Right. Sometimes big decisions need to get right. Right. Yeah. I think too, I just like the context 00:45:01.894 --> 00:45:06.398 - of all this is unique right now in this time, this timeline. And I think. 00:45:06.946 --> 00:45:15.197 - I do lean mixing things up and I just liked a lot of like what Zach said about the role of the board 00:45:15.197 --> 00:45:23.448 - to like push priorities like in a very professional way and I really like that. I think too having a 00:45:23.448 --> 00:45:31.862 - current board member and I totally understand all this serving a very long time which is super awesome 00:45:31.862 --> 00:45:34.558 - and also kind of being done if a 00:45:34.658 --> 00:45:44.023 - happens a certain way. We have that. I think I I think that is OK and I think. I think it is just like 00:45:44.023 --> 00:45:53.115 - right serving for so long and feeling like maybe you know you'd be like hey, I just feel over it in 00:45:53.115 --> 00:46:02.388 - some way where again that just kind of. I don't think that's the wrong feeling, but it does also kind 00:46:02.388 --> 00:46:03.934 - of make me lean. 00:46:04.610 --> 00:46:11.955 - new blood in there too. Yeah. And I think maybe that's another one of my things though, because with 00:46:11.955 --> 00:46:19.518 - only five members, it's like, whenever, like a single new person, I'm not sure how long any of the rest 00:46:19.518 --> 00:46:27.009 - of them have been serving. But depending on that, it could also be like, wow, but like, we've suddenly 00:46:27.009 --> 00:46:31.518 - lost institutional memory because, you know, I mean, yeah, so 00:46:33.314 --> 00:46:40.545 - with only five members, it definitely feels like that's a little bit easier to do just in any group, 00:46:40.545 --> 00:46:47.777 - anywhere. And that also makes this decision a little bit harder too. Once again, goes back to the, I 00:46:47.777 --> 00:46:54.937 - think that Seben might be better for- It's a tiny board, really. Yeah. Her BT. Well, and especially 00:46:54.937 --> 00:47:02.526 - for how important it is. Right. And how much they are responsible for. I know. Like, that's- Right. Yeah. 00:47:02.690 --> 00:47:12.101 - Okay, so today we'll say no action and we'll schedule another meeting. And I assume everyone watching 00:47:12.101 --> 00:47:21.511 - now is excited about that. And I think we just need to get with Esau then to figure out when he might 00:47:21.511 --> 00:47:29.630 - be able to zoom in or be here in person, especially if we wait until after the meeting. 00:47:30.946 --> 00:47:37.974 - I guess we need to decide right now if we want to wait until after the BT meeting. Okay. We don't have 00:47:37.974 --> 00:47:45.002 - to engage with public, but I did just see public comment that folks were like, well, let's wait. Yeah, 00:47:45.002 --> 00:47:51.961 - I think in some ways waiting would be good and other ways. The other thing I was just looking through 00:47:51.961 --> 00:47:59.262 - and thinking about any other business that we might have as a board as we do, I think have that vacancy on 00:47:59.586 --> 00:48:05.815 - Yes, our committee. Sorry. There's no current applications for that. Maybe because I know that he's 00:48:05.815 --> 00:48:12.293 - not just traveling right now, so maybe we can give scheduling another meeting like a week or something. 00:48:12.293 --> 00:48:18.584 - You thought it's supposed to be back next week, correct? I'm not. I'm pretty sure because he said he 00:48:18.584 --> 00:48:24.875 - was not going to be there for this week's budget hearings. There was an implication that he would be 00:48:24.875 --> 00:48:28.862 - here for next week's budget hearings. I believe that he will be 00:48:29.634 --> 00:48:36.978 - back next week and we can cross our fingers that maybe by then there'll be some applicants for commission 00:48:36.978 --> 00:48:44.253 - status of black males and so then we can have those to consider. Hey, out there if anybody is interested 00:48:44.253 --> 00:48:51.528 - in serving on the mission of status of black males, there's a vacancy there, please apply. Yeah. I think 00:48:51.528 --> 00:48:58.942 - we're no action and then we're pushing a decision on when to have a next meeting until at least next week. 00:49:00.482 --> 00:49:10.075 - And then, okay, yeah. Okay, because then we can look at our availability via email and schedule something. 00:49:10.075 --> 00:49:19.309 - Right. And then we can also know if we have any applicants for sessions as blackmailers. There was the 00:49:19.309 --> 00:49:27.198 - press release that just went out, I want to say last week. So hopefully we can get some 00:49:27.298 --> 00:49:34.470 - type of traction also have been in communication with since students are coming back. There's an emoji 00:49:34.470 --> 00:49:41.572 - day that's happening. Oh yeah. And so I think I might go just to see if we can generate some interest 00:49:41.572 --> 00:49:48.673 - with students with boards and commissions because when I've gone last year to talk to various groups, 00:49:48.673 --> 00:49:54.174 - we have had some students that have applied that have actually been appointed. 00:49:54.498 --> 00:50:03.996 - to a couple of the board's animations. So that might be something that we could get to. Great. And then 00:50:03.996 --> 00:50:13.404 - I just want to highlight this comment that was just made. A potential new person is unlikely to change 00:50:13.404 --> 00:50:23.998 - the vote, but waiting is not bad either. I don't have a strong opinion on that. It's all. It's all realistic. Okay. 00:50:24.354 --> 00:50:32.530 - That's our plan. Anything else? I think the other thing is I can do maybe like a poll and figure out 00:50:32.530 --> 00:50:40.949 - when everybody is back and then we can get everything scheduled so you can deliberate again. Thank you. 00:50:40.949 --> 00:50:49.368 - Yeah, of course. Thank you to the members of the public who have come to engage and interview committee 00:50:49.368 --> 00:50:53.982 - meetings. So excited. Thanks everybody. See you tonight. 00:50:54.210 --> 00:50:56.446 - You have to.