- So I'll go ahead and call the order of this meeting of the Common Council's Interview Committee B. Just
- naming who is here. I am Matt Flaherty, at-large council member. Courtney Daly, council member District
- 5. And then the other committee member online. Andy Ruff, council member at-large. And then we have
- Jaycee. Jennifer Crossley, deputy clerk. And we are interviewing for the Environmental Commission with
- our two candidates.
- Carl and Justin. We'll get to introductions in a moment. And as Deputy Clerk Crossley probably communicated
- to you, the council divides the responsibility for its appointments to various boards and commissions
- on the city through these interview committees. We convene to both review applications and then decide
- on who to interview and make recommendations to the full council. So we don't ourselves make the appointment
- per se, but we're recommending to our colleagues. And I would say 99% of the time, those recommendations
- are taken up by the full council.
- regular session. The next opportunity for that, for recommendations to be formalized appointments, I
- think is the March 4th meeting, because we like to get folks advance notice through the packet. So that's
- kind of the process, what we're doing here. And with that, we can kick off maybe some questions from
- us, and hopefully we also have some time for any questions you all have. I'll start us, and we'll kind
- of just rotate among council members for questions. And then maybe we can just alternate who starts
- with respect to each question.
- out of fairness, I guess. And so maybe just first question, if you can both introduce yourselves and
- tell us a bit more about why you're serving on the environmental question. We can start with you, Justin.
- Absolutely. I'm Justin Mechter. I've met you before. But currently, I am the water quality coordinator
- for the use that you do in the utilities. I'm quite interested in this council because I see some changes
- at state and federal levels that aren't
- my favorite changes to see recently. And, you know, I think a lot of these changes impacted us locally.
- I see coworkers at work go through some of these changes with their respective programs as they try
- to navigate that. But I think a lot of, you know, environmental changes happen at the local level. It's
- kind of at that local level where you see the impacts more directly. I mean, how they can influence
- your day-to-day life, your neighbors, your friends, whether it's
- know how we treat shared green space or interact with our waterways and maintain contaminants and we're
- out of our home systems. And, you know, I have a background mostly in environmental sciences on the
- research side of things. So I think this council has a good opportunity to meet with people that are
- kind of like-minded and have similar goals as far as environmental standards go. And, you know, probably
- have some different backgrounds as far as
- their interaction with environmental research or legislation or policy through different avenues in
- their life. So I think it's a good way to get kind of a lot of different opinions, but kind of the end
- goal being the same in the same room and hopefully have some sort of positive impact on potentially
- legislation or policy or kind of our local community. Thank you.
- Yeah, so I'm Karl Geiser. I'm a freshwater ecologist working in the Department of Public Health at Indiana
- University. I actually found out about the environmental commissions and commissions in general from
- the Residence Academy. At the time, I was very interested in the survey, so I took a look at the list
- and figured out where my skills and expertise would kind of intersect with my interest and where I could
- be best at contributing to the city, so to speak.
- I also have a freshwater ecology background. That's what I'm doing now. I'm currently monitoring southern
- Indiana freshwater and wastewater streams for avian influenza monitoring. You might have remembered
- aid prices shooting up to like six, seven bucks a while back. I'm trying to work on a solution to that
- issue. But the environment is very much a passion of mine. I think one of the...
- I went to, I graduated from Indiana University in 2016 and I've spent time in Chicago, in Seattle and
- I ballooned back to IU. And one of those, one of the reasons I did is because Bloomington has such a
- wonderful environment and I would like to do what I can to preserve and protect that. So I think,
- you know, maybe one of the big,
- one of the big questions of serving on one of these boards and commissions. I know you served on the,
- I wanted to say Jack Hopkins, it's the other one. The block grant. Yes, the block grant. Thank you.
- The CDBG. So these are very much made up of teamwork. A lot of different voices coming together. And
- as you said in your statement, different opinions may not all agree. So can you talk to me a little
- bit about your experience
- working in teams and maybe how you handle working with somebody who has a different viewpoint than you.
- So Carl, you can go first. Yeah. Well, you may or may not know science is completely collaborative at
- this stage. It's very rare to be the individual-owned scientist working on your own thing and not have
- any input with anybody else. Typically, we work in groups. We present to conferences.
- There's plenty of opportunity to communicate our research and findings there. You'll often run into
- people that have an issue with something you're doing or your work. I actually value that because in
- a lot of ways, the problems that you're trying to tackle are too big for one person. You need some input
- to get you
- acclimate a different perspective. It's very important to consider that because otherwise, you might
- get stuck in your own viewpoint perspective and you're not going to get to an ideal solution. We had
- the experience of that on the Community Black Grant Committee where everybody had their own philosophy
- on how to assign funding. I think we got there and it was good that we came to a consensus there. Let's
- try that generally. Yeah, I'll echo
- what he said because, you know, that's the background of the sciences. You know, one of the fun things
- I found in the sciences is you kind of took a bunch of different
- not opinions, but different research aspects on similar projects. Some may agree, some may disagree.
- And it always gives you a chance to kind of find a place that you could have some input into that discussion
- or that project or that bigger picture. And once you kind of find that niche, you can take different
- opinions from people that have done similar research or are doing the same research and kind of find
- a way to implement that into what you're doing.
- I think one of the big things though is if you don't kind of have a similar end goal, that's when it
- becomes very difficult. If you don't see, if you have point A as your end goal and they have point B
- as their end goal, it's a lot harder to find that middle ground. But I think one of the big things is
- always be open to different ideas. As people have told me in the past, I've been wrong. So it's always
- okay to be wrong.
- But as long as you're okay to actually accept different viewpoints and do a little research into them
- and why they may have that viewpoint, it's a much easier way to find kind of that common middle ground.
- Yeah, great, thank you. Councilmember Ruff, did you have a question you'd like to ask? Yeah, I'd just
- like to ask both candidates, do you think there are low-hanging fruit that bloom
- Let me rephrase that. Do you see some ways right out of the gate that we could be doing better as a
- community in terms of environmental protection, enhancement, and maintaining a quality environment?
- Do you see some? Where do you think we're not doing super well? Yeah, I will say I've only lived in
- Bloomington about five or six years now.
- I've been at the utility for about three years. One of the ones that stick out to me is since I've been
- here, the changes we've seen in our MS4 program and our strong water runoff, I think it was two or three
- years ago, I would have said one of our big issues, we had a big rainstorm and half Kirkwood flooded.
- We went through some utility changes. We had some big projects go on downtown.
- Um, you know, and then since then we've, we've handled bigger storms in a much better way. Um, but as
- part of that, I think runoff in general, as we see Bloomington, um, quickly, you know, expanding, um,
- and a lot of new construction projects, uh, what it feels like around every corner. Um, there's always,
- you know, improvements that can be made in every sort of runoff, whether it's, you know,
- pollutant runoff, whether sediment runoff, you know, sediment runoff is one of the biggest issues when
- it comes to stream water quality in these kind of urban areas. You know, I've looked into some of our
- Clear Creek, you know, it's listed on the 303b list. It's not a very healthy stream running through
- Bloomington. And we've done some B-Cola and we're looking at kind of how bad it is in different areas.
- And, you know, I think just
- being able to take a small piece of that to help mitigate runoff and how quickly runoff reaches these
- kind of pressure points would be kind of an easier one to tackle. But when you say easy in these terms,
- it's not as easy as it sounds. But I think that's one of the ones that could be addressed more readily
- available. So low-hanging fruit. So I've been in a position to attend
- We've had a couple of the previous environmental commission meetings and one of the main focuses in
- the commission is
- thinking about how to better communicate with the city and also the community as a whole, what the EC
- is doing, as well as how we can best get resident input on how to benefit Bloomington as a whole. I
- would say that would be kind of my priority to join the outreach subcommittee in the EC. I also find
- it interesting, there's an ACM
- a white pollution subcommittee that's occurring right now in the EC. And I think it would be very cool
- to join that and very useful because Bloomington as a whole, I think has some gaps in the UDO concerning
- white pollution guidelines and regulation. That would be a very low hanging avenue. I also agree with
- the stormwater approach that mentioned by Justin. But yeah, those would be kind of things I'd be interested
- in. Thank you.
- I have a logistical question, which is that the commission meets, I think it is third Thursday at 6 p.m.,
- estimated time commitment of maybe five hours a month, give or take, but the EC is one of the commissions
- historically that's done really terrific policy advisory work on development, unified development ordinance,
- things like that. And as you kind of referenced, Carl has some different working groups or subgroups
- that we'll meet.
- we sometimes run into challenges achieving quorum, having people, like we need a quorum attending in
- person, things like that. So just wanted to check in about your own availability and commitment to be
- able to attend meetings regularly in person, contribute, you know, as it fits with working groups or
- that sort of thing. So just that the time works, the commitment works in your life, all that. And I
- guess start with you, Karl. Oh yeah, I mean, the meeting typically, or the EC typically meets in like,
- 5.30-ish if I recall correctly. I've had no issue and I will have no issue attending these meetings.
- That's not going to be a problem for me. Again, I've attended a couple in the past just recently. It'll
- be very rare for me to miss a meeting. Yeah, I echo that statement. That should be a time that works
- very well for me. If it means I can go to that instead of the USB meeting on Monday,
- Yeah, I mean, just really pretty basic, you know, are you familiar with the work of the board or the
- commission, I should say, you know, their past and maybe what they're working on now. I think it's here.
- You know, I'll be 100% honest. Like I said, I haven't been here all that long. And having a kid last year or
- a year and a half ago now has been more busy. So I haven't really dove too deeply into it. I've seen
- some of their bigger and I went back through some of their yearly reports. I guess our last one I saw
- nervous from 2024. So in all honesty, I'm not the most familiar with what they do, but it's, you know,
- I've read through some of their admission statements and you kind of what their goals were. And it's
- definitely something I felt aligned with kind of what I was interested in. Is he doing what? I mean,
- What, with an 18 month old? What would you be doing? It's nice to start walking until you never sit
- down again. And when you start getting the sleep back, that's always a joy. Knock on wood, that's one
- thing I won't complain about. It doesn't stop that issue for us yet. Well, congrats. So again, I had
- the pleasure and privilege to attend the November meeting, which actually is when they
- all got together and made a plan for next year. I got to actually hear a full outline of every single
- subcommittee and how everybody is assigned to those subcommittees and what the plans are, the grand
- plans are for this year. I feel very confident that I'm aware of the EC's mission statement and all
- the work they do with the eco-heroes and the Arbor Day celebration. I'm very comfortable with what the
- EC is doing in Bloomington. Thank you.
- Did you have additional questions you wanted to ask? Oh, I would just ask, sort of following from Carl's
- last response, being very comfortable with the work, the duties and the responsibility of the EC and
- as being an EC member, what's the closest role that comes to mind to you that you can think of where
- it was similar? You served a similar role.
- Well, I mean, I guess if we're talking about government, then probably the CDBG board community block
- grant funding. If we're talking about just environmental volunteering in general, I've been involved
- in the Friends of the River, the Chicago River and River Cleanups, discussing how to best tackle
- environmental issues in the environment of Chicago. But truthfully, I've never actually done probably
- exact type of work. What I was getting at more is the EC handles and advises on some fairly controversial,
- I won't go so far as to say divisive, but issues that can cut two ways to a lot of different people
- in the community. We just had an issue with the council
- where there was a proposal to increase the percentage of a lot that could be impermeable surface in
- development in exchange for some density, some housing, in exchange for some public housing type benefits
- that would flow to the city, arguably. I was more getting at
- one of you served, you know, in a group dealing with issues that are likely to be kind of difficult,
- controversial. Like when you're doing the cleanup, you get the example of doing the river cleanup. That's
- pretty, everybody kind of gets on board with that. Yeah, I knew what you're saying. Something where
- there's going to be kind of strong feelings on both sides. You know, I
- I had my opinion on that measure as I shared with you and many council members. I wouldn't say that
- I've had a lot of experience with that if I'm going to be frank, but I will say that I think I have
- a level head. I think I'm willing to share and articulate my thoughts and hopefully mediate and balance
- my strong opinions wherever it becomes a way if not,
- in a disagreement, at least kind of respecting each other. But yeah, I don't know that I've had a direct
- political role in that respect. Yeah. I'm in a similar boat. I have worked recently in some of the watershed
- protection stuff for Lake Monroe with the Friends of Lake Monroe and Lake Monroe Water Fund.
- The closest example would be the Friends of Lake Monroe. They have some grants that they give out for
- cost share programs. So, you know, we do have to take applications for different projects from some
- landowners and kind of decide where that money is best spent based on what we feel those, you know,
- environmental impacts or the mitigation to, you know, issues we have in the watershed. So, you know,
- there is an aspect of, you know,
- Who we're going to fund and how much we're going to fund these projects for. So, you know, there is
- some disagreements there, but, you know, not quite to the level of what, you know, the dilemma you were
- discussing was. Okay, thank you. We have this section of the interviews, I guess, until seven. And so
- I wanted to offer the opportunity to ask us any questions you might have about
- uh, service on the forest commissions, how it works, et cetera. So any questions? Uh, I guess start
- with you, Justin. Yeah. Um, you know, as a, as city council members, what do you guys view or what do
- you view the environmental commission as kind of like their main focus should be or their, their biggest
- benefit to you guys as a council would be?
- I would say the advisory role on policy is really, I put a lot of weight onto what the recommendations,
- the advisory recommendations of, positions of the environmental commission are. So guidance from the
- input from the commission.
- more so than any specific type of issue like stormwater or something. It's more just this overall role
- of applying the work, the research you've done, the discussions, the study of important topics and then
- sharing that with council. Yeah, definitely. We want the expertise people
- who can guide us as we're making some of these decisions and know better than us, because we're not
- the experts. Also note that the importance of environmental quality is kind of a focus area. We also
- have a commission on sustainability whose focus is more holistic from the sustainability framework and
- also more climate oriented and emissions, climate pollution mitigation oriented, which can be quite
- different than environmental quality issues.
- explored the possibility of combining these, but I've decided to keep them distinct because of the importance
- of having focus on environmental quality issues that are not the same as climate issues. So that's an
- area that I think is important for the commission to continue to focus on, which they have done. And
- so that's, I guess, context to share, I guess, about their priorities also. Yeah, I mean, that's a great question.
- I guess that was your expectation of the Environmental Commission as a whole. What do you expect from
- your individual appointee to the Environmental Commission compared to maybe a mayoral appointment? Is
- there a difference? Between the council appointees and the mayoral, I don't see a difference. I don't
- think there is one. I think everybody serves equally. I don't have different expectations.
- I can't speak for everybody. Yeah, I mostly share that. I think occasionally you'll find that a council
- appointee might feel more suited to like engage with the council versus, I don't know, like most people
- probably doesn't matter at all. It's probably a very unique situation if there is a delineation. Yeah,
- that's right. Any other thoughts?
- No, no, thank you. Um, so yeah, yeah, not a lot of goodness there. Uh, any closing thoughts, I guess,
- or maybe we could just wrap with that. Yeah. Any, any parting, parting thoughts from, from you both,
- uh, Karl and Justin? Um, you know, I, I'm, I'm actually kind of happy to,
- Both myself and Justin, both kind of coming from a science background are applying here. I know that,
- you know, David Park just, you know, has stepped down and I think that EC would benefit from having
- a science, more people with a science background to fill the commission. So I'm happy to put my name
- in the ring. And yeah, thank you both. Thank you all for being here.
- That's all I have to say. Yeah, no, I echo that. And regardless, if I end up on the committee or not,
- I want to thank you guys for the time. And I never realized how difficult your positions are at times.
- Just in some of the watershed protection stuff we're doing for Lake Monroe, you see how difficult it
- is to deal with different groups and entities when you're trying to figure out policy or actions or
- So you think I'm in a better interest of getting from the drought, but it's something. Yeah, I appreciate
- it. As far as next steps, you will probably hear next from Deputy Claire Crossley. That will probably
- be in a few weeks after we get a chance to make recommendations to the city council. Also, just to note
- that I needed to double check or review how many vacancies we have available. Is it one or is there
- two? One council.
- Mm-hmm. Actually, they're well- I don't know about that one yet. I was having a hard time interpreting
- the onboard system. Yeah. It's a carryover. So we may have two appointments to make. That'd be great.
- And then also just noting that even when we aren't able to appoint everyone we'd like to in the immediate
- term, sometimes vacancies open up or there's an oral appointment and we'll make recommendations across
- branches and that kind of thing.
- One way or another, probably in early March, you can hear from Debbie or Crossley if you have questions
- or, you know, that sort of thing. Feel free to reach out. Yeah. Great. Thank you both. Thank both of
- you. Thanks very much for your interest. Thanks for coming in. Have a good day. It's good to see you
- again, Jess. See you. Have a good evening. You know, I went home after the tour and I kicked myself
- for not taking
- pictures to go home and show my kids the water plant and brag about it. Daniel Frank, he's been out
- there with his drone a bunch, taking a lot of you. Oh, fun. Thanks so much. Thanks. Thank you. Graham,
- who's coming in for the USB interview. Hi.
- check in my email and I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything.
- Yeah. I wasn't used to this happening in the evening. I feel like it mostly happened during the day.
- I know. I went to RSVP and realized it was a conflict of this. Hello. Hi. Courtney. Awesome.
- Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. How are you? And then we have Council Member Ruff that's joining
- us virtually. Hi. Okay. Thanks for coming in. Yeah, no problem. Can I kick us off here again? Yeah,
- that'd be super. Well, Graham, we are
- interview committee B of the Bloomington City Council, and we kind of subdivide responsibilities for
- reviewing applications, interviewing folks when appropriate, and making recommendations to the full
- city council for appointments to the various boards and commissions, including utility service board.
- And that's what we're here this evening to do. And so we'll probably have some questions for you, a
- little time for any questions you have for us, and kind of talk about next steps, then we can wrap.
- So with that, we could probably just get started, and that can kick us off.
- I guess it's not that you're familiar with folks, but we kind of did introductions on the way in.
- But yeah, I guess first question is just could you tell us a bit more about your background and what
- got you interested in serving on the utility service board? Sure, that's a good question. I moved here
- right before kindergarten in 1987, so I'm a long time resident. And grew up here at all my schooling
- here, tried to get away, that didn't work.
- Ended up at IU and got an undergraduate degree in environmental management, then with SPIA, now a middle
- school. Just procrastinating for internship, tried to get away, did not succeed that well. Ended up
- getting an internship at IU's Office of Environmental Health and Safety, doing predominantly food safety,
- working in public health on the administrative side of the university.
- From that experience, got a job as an environmental health specialist at Brown County Health Department
- when I was a baby. And then about one year after that, I returned to IU and started as an environmental
- health specialist full time there. And I was there for 20 years and essentially ran our version of a
- local health department, mainly background in public health. I think my expertise is mainly like food
- safety, water quality,
- recreational drinking water and communicable disease and things like that. And over time, that led to
- COVID and managing that as well. And my last five or six years at IU, I was the Director of
- Public Environmental Health. So I had all of our environmental managers supporting to us as well. So
- learning more about our hazardous waste permits, our stormwater activities as well, as well as all those
- things. A lot of personal health, family,
- professional reasons I left IU after 20 years and I took a gap year and it was awesome other than the
- lack of income. And so just was really trying to work on myself and my health and now I'm back at the
- State Department of Health now I'm the health educator for the lead and healthy homes division at the
- state of Indiana. Loving that job and it's a it's a full time job sure but
- It's a much more managerial workload than I used to have. I also taught a class at IU for 10 years,
- environmental science, H316, which we've talked a lot about water issues and infrastructure and the
- importance of things like preventative maintenance and routine and preventative maintenance and how
- that impacts your health. But I was just so stretched.
- I had another dotted line to a small office at IU that existed called the Chief Health Officer, OCHO
- we called it affectionately. And I just wasn't doing any one thing well. And so, so happy to just be
- focusing instead of a mile wide, a mile deep now and wanting to do and get involved locally more. And
- with my background, I've been considering working with the County Board of Health. I know we've got
- some resignations there as well, but I've also been looking at this and
- considering this and I've always been following different drinking water regulations, changes and things
- that are happening, you know, either nationally or locally, like, you know, really follow the disinfection
- byproducts issue we had in 2007, 2009 at the height of that, lead and copper rule and those changes
- following that closely now with my day job as well. And just so always had an interest in this and our
- resource here at Lincoln Grove as well.
- some encouragement from some utilities employees as well to have gone in. I know some of the USB members
- now that just seemed like a good opportunity, so that was a very long answer, but that's why I'm here.
- Thank you. Yeah, so I'm sure you're probably pretty aware that serving on a board like this is,
- you know, really a team project, you know, everybody pitching in together and
- Lots of different, aren't they fun? But yeah, then lots of different voices and, you know, maybe everybody's
- pulling their weight a little bit differently. So can you talk to me a little bit about your experience,
- you know, working on teams and also then as a part of that, how do you handle when team members have
- different perspectives? Good question. I think my experience as a director, I had seven direct reports
- prior to my previous job too.
- just managing personalities, managing expectations. I got a lot better at delegating as well and just
- being direct and, you know, just being able to like, we're here to work, we're not here to do anything
- else and just kind of get over those kind of things. So I have a different experience in team building
- and, you know, HR.
- lessons in management as well. But also, I just think looking at the makeup of the board now and its
- dynamic, I think there is a pretty good dynamic there, knowing some of the people and what they do in
- their expertise. And that's where I think where I could bring a great perspective to utilities in the
- environmental health and public health field. And so I think just kind of analyzing, I'm really good
- either at leading if I have to or sitting back and seeing what is needed and maybe stepping up where
- people are lacking or
- encouraging or nudging people in areas I think they would excel and just kind of reviewing those kind
- of things. I think with something like this, having not done this before, I'd probably listen for a
- little bit and learn and maybe mainly talk to my old friend, Kirk White, who's done this for a while
- as well, just to get some education. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks. That's more rough. Did you have a question
- you'd like to ask? Well, you know,
- Councilman Flaherty can talk about this probably a lot better than I can. He has served on the USB as
- a council ex officio member. But you know, the DSB, they participate in budgeting for those contracts,
- all kinds of things. You know, you obviously got a lot of experience in certain areas, but you know,
- what would you, are you comfortable and confident dealing with things
- those other types of things that the USB does, like, I mean, really, really votes to run on policies
- running the utilities. Yeah, yeah. I'd say I'm comfortable, I mean, either creating or maintaining policies
- at IU for our program areas, I think translates a lot to this.
- And actually being an advocate, the conduit for city ordinances of policies as well, being the liaison
- essentially between IU and CBU for any issues or complaints about waste or drinking water on campuses,
- but also informing people like our retail food establishments of 10.17, the fats, oils and
- grease requirements as well. And that, you know, just trying to be that conduit and informing people
- of the law.
- And so I have less experience with some budgeting, certainly, but I'm also aware of some of the costs
- that some of these systems can incur and some of the costs of creating clean water or clean affluent.
- Did a big project at Bradford Woods, not nearly this size, but we had a transient community water system
- at Bradford Woods that was severely aging from 1949 and it failed for lead in 2007. And it took me eight
- years and a lot of work and hundreds of thousands of
- dollars and lots of people, but we were able to transition that to Morgan County rule of water. And
- so some of those bigger projects, the scopes, those policies I feel familiar with, I think, and again,
- having that basis and that broad expertise on the board, I think helps kind of spread some of that workload
- out. But I would say, yeah, I'm not a subject matter expert in those things, but I think I'm comfortable
- and familiar enough with them to be able to evaluate the effect
- Kind of build on the same, which is a little bit more about the specific duties. And as customer graph
- noted, it's really the oversight body for the utility. And so from a fiscal perspective, in particular,
- so doing a lot of reviewing invoices, claims, thinking about rate design and our different costs being
- appropriately allocated across different parts of the utility, right?
- Jeff Amen, who is the outgoing person in the seat, did a really good job of getting the details on that,
- even a few other board members who do. And so just wanted to invite your additional input on suitability
- for that type of work, really, I think, paying attention to the details and reviewing claims and that
- kind of thing.
- Part two is just about time commitment and availability, which is that, I'm sure you're probably aware,
- but the board meets typically bi-weekly from about five to six. Sometimes it goes a bit longer. And
- then there are also a few different committees that advance certain things. Usually they meet at like
- 4 or 4.30. And in particular, if you are generally available for the USB meetings, but then also if
- you need to serve on a committee at some point, is it possible to be able to attend something that
- 4 o'clock hour, I guess. Yeah, I would think so. I think I could make that work. Certainly. I saw, I
- think the environmental subcommittee meets around that time as well. I think that'll be one that would
- be of interest, particularly. And then in terms of rates and reviewing things, I think I'm very meticulous
- in that regard, at least just in my own work and on experience. But also, I think just translating
- this to the public is very challenging. And I think that's something that, you know, a lot of people
- get upset about when rates increase, but of course they expect clean water, but people don't understand
- what goes into that. And some of the costs of these systems, I mean, look at the fluoride thing,
- for example, just the cost of installing a permanent system alone is so expensive and just the operating
- maintenance costs. So I think translating that to the public, I think is important and trying to garner that,
- public support for those, any kind of rate changes or increases. But again, this will be a bit of an
- imperative. Great. Thank you. Additional questions? You guys, you covered everything that I had. That's
- more rough. Other questions? Yeah, I'd just kind of like to get maybe your quick instinctive thoughts
- on where do you think
- As a board member of the USB, your ultimate loyalties, responsibility lies with the administration,
- city administration, the leadership of the USB, the rate payers, the council as a council appointment.
- What do you think about all those bodies that you're kind of serving and connected to, which ultimately,
- who do you feel the most loyalty or responsibility towards?
- That's a great question. I hadn't thought about all those different entities, because I originally just
- assumed that the public and the environment itself, not only being an environmental steward, but a steward
- of public resources and dollars as well. And so that's the first thing that comes to mind. But I guess
- more in the structure, you're in service to CBU itself and ensuring that, one, they're doing
- a good job and doing it the way they should, but also being supportive of their needs as well and being
- able to understand. Thank you. I would open it up to questions from you, Graham, if that sounds okay,
- folks. Was the term length three years? I could not remember. I have a question I want to double check
- as well. Well, it's two. Two.
- Am I on the right? Oh no, I'm on the wrong. It's wrong commission. It's three, thank you. I was on the
- environmental commission. And does that go just from the time that you're appointed? Is it like rolling
- or is it? It's four years, four years. Four years? Yeah. 26, 27, 28, 29. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. All
- the way through the day. Oh yeah. Yeah, you're right, sorry. And they are,
- We have Megan Parmenter, who's just reappointed, who's on this same time cycle. But then the other council
- appointed seat, he decided overlapping. Wow. And meeting frequency pretty much answered that question.
- With the meetings with availability, are we able to attend virtually if that is? Yeah. Obviously, if
- I'm able to attend in person, I want to. I'll say it's not commonplace. I'm Swammer XFSEO, a non-voting
- appointee to the USB.
- On the rare occasions when I'm traveling for work or have a conflict sometimes with transportation
- commission, I don't generally attend remotely because it's actually much more common for the city council
- to have folks attending remotely and we navigate that a lot, but it's just not something the USB is
- done a lot of. They can accommodate it and they're legally allowed to as long as there's some rules
- around it, no more than I think two meetings in a row. I think I remember some of that. There's a maximum
- in terms of the annual amount and then
- Um, you have to do all votes by roll call and stuff like that. Yeah. I think it'd be less ideal, especially
- if you're trying to review certain things in person. It was doable, but yeah, probably so. Okay. I do
- work in Indy most of the time. That's just that consideration, but happy to try to make those adjustments.
- And I'm usually, I know we work for the state, we only work seven and a half hours a day. So usually
- we're back pretty early in the day. Yeah, it's, um, yeah, that wouldn't be a permanent option or like an
- Norm yeah, yeah. Yeah What do you would all of you say are the biggest challenges to cbu currently?
- Or some of them any of them? I think navigating A fraught annexation picture within the
- city and county services context is a challenge. I won't get into the long history of that, but we could
- talk about it if you want, which is that generally, very briefly, historically, typically sewer service
- was extended at the same time as areas of what were annexed, sorry, inefficient from an administrative
- perspective. And so over time that migrated toward do one now, do the other later,
- shared agreements, and then there were changes in state law, a ton of time elapsed between some of those
- agreements, people didn't know about them, and it was kind of just like, I'm sure you're aware of this,
- like a long running issue that is broader than utilities, but it affects utilities because, yeah, these
- are issues with city and county services generally, and kind of like who you serve, who bears costs,
- that kind of thing. And so it's been the policy of,
- utilities and some of this may be changing too. You know, I'm sure they'll revisit it at some point
- of not extending sewer service, um, to additional out of city boundary places right now, uh, absent
- voluntary annexation at that time. But that also is complicated by the fact that the state added new
- rules about what can be annexed. There's a, there's a continuity requirement of like, you have to be
- bordering the city currently. And like, so there's some complexity get there, there gets wrapped up
- in housing development, uh, prior like, um,
- policy priorities. That's a big one, honestly. People will come to us seeking waivers to be able to
- override the policy, things like that. Another is route incursion on laterals that are generally the
- responsibility of homeowners, but can spring a 30, 40, $50,000 cost on you. You would have been exploring
- insurance policy options and other funding options to
- help folks with this because homeowners insurance doesn't generally cover it. That's something that's
- been salient the last few years and trying to figure out ways that are responsible within the utilities
- responsibility, purview, and financial sustainability. Last moment, I'll throw it over, is one that
- came to the council late last year that they need to go back on, which is how to charge fairly for waste
- haulers who drop off solids from septic.
- And it seems like there's really actually a wide range of situations, some of which is really thick,
- hard to process sludge from like 20 years of buildup that is vastly undercharged for right now, which
- means everybody else is bearing the cost of it. And then other folks are just sort of like treating
- it more like holding tank disposal, which is quite different from the solids.
- wastewater management perspective. That's been another challenging policy thing that came to the city
- council and sent it back and has to be resolved. That's actually a lot. That was the one I was going
- to say. That was new to me though and interesting too. What do you have? Well, I was going to say that
- one, but then I would also add on top of it, we were also talking about with the water.
- Increases and, you know, because doing a lot of the facilities there and looking at tremendous water
- rate increases. Yeah. Rates always. Yeah. So that one was also such a steep jump that, you know, we
- kind of had to stop and take a breath for a minute. I would guess that would be one of the other big
- issues too. I know we have the lead service line replacement thing, but that's over the next several,
- 12 years. Anything more of any others?
- No, just the tension that I'm sure Matt can speak more to than me, this tension between seeing what
- the utilities policy is being used as a tool for sort of non-utilities goals, which sometimes you see
- a certain kind of pressure for that when really the utilities obligations are to the ratepayers.
- who are it's all it is you know, we're all joined in terms of the You know helping serve the community
- and help make the community better For everyone, but I do think that it can be tough to sort of navigate
- those And understand and see and then make decisions when there are so many sometimes conflicting Policy
- pushes coming at you for house a decision of the USB might impact some other
- aspect of the city. Other questions? Kind of similar. What is the biggest priority right now? Or is
- that the same as your challenge? Yeah. Good question. I don't know. I think I'll just jump on with rates
- because we didn't talk about that much, which is that kind of since the Hamilton administration, I can't
- speak a ton to the history, and you might be able to speak more to it.
- I know we've been, because we've got the different rates for different, we have wastewater and drinking
- water rates and the wastewater rate, I think, includes stormwater. And so we've kind of got those on
- a counterposing cycle of roughly four years. So there's never major rate jumps or not, not never, but
- it mitigates how much a rate jump might be all at once or in close succession, but it also leads to
- sort of like
- Regular, you know increases which of course are inevitable like everything costs more over time. Uh,
- but that like I think Responsible financial management in that context, uh is you know is always front
- and center for folks and being very Prudent with all costs making sure that where we have shared agreements
- where utilities have shared agreements with the city of bloomington that The cost share is reasonable
- and appropriate. I mean it is a distinct entity, you know and and all that so
- What's that? Or with IU maybe? Yeah, yes, certainly that as well. I don't know. That's always high priority,
- I think. Others? Awesome. I don't think I have many other questions. Just really do appreciate
- the opportunity. And applicants or anything else? Give me my hands. I'll cover next up briefly, which
- is that our
- interview committee will make a recommendation to the full council. They'll vote on that. Usually it
- takes a little bit, there's a little bit of a lag time, so we need to let them know, have the opportunity
- for review, that kind of thing. And probably sometime in early March, I would anticipate Deputy Clerk
- Crossley will be able to go back to you about outcomes. Awesome. Well, again, I appreciate it. And I'll
- watch the wastewater in the meantime. Let me know when Measles shows up. That'll be after spring break. Oh, yeah.
- For sure. Well, thank you so much for making this happen. Yeah, it's awesome to see you all.
- Nice to meet you. Nice to officially meet you. Thanks very much. Yeah, nice to meet you, Andy. Have
- a great evening. Hey, you too. Now I'm going to take out my contacts. Oh, that sounds like hourly.
- Take care. Take care, sir. Thank you. Bye. And so we can talk about next steps to the Environmental
- Commission and also utilities.
- So is it true that on the environmental commission, Nadia Cain's seat C6 is vacant? So I pulled up this
- because originally the, let me find the email again. Let's see. And here we go. So the original
- recommendation from the liaison was that they
- had mentioned not to reappoint her because she just recently graduated and she was moving to Indianapolis.
- And according to this email, she had missed her like fourth absence. And so that obviously,
- because you know, the code, those absences basically would mean that and her fourth one that she missed
- was in December. However,
- All of a sudden, jump to a few weeks ago. Apparently, Nadia wants to still stay on. And she says, the
- liaison says, it appears that Nadia wants to prioritize the environmental commission for the attached
- email. As stated, she indicated that she did not intend to apply because of her position in Indianapolis.
- But she did apply and seems dedicated to continuing duties in 2026. Any explanation with respect to
- the reason for her vacancies from Nadia or from the liaison? It seems like, let's see if she's said anything.
- She missed four meetings in 2025. No, she just said she missed four meetings in 2025. And so I don't
- know because if she graduated, if that could have been a thing that she was finishing out or what. But
- it doesn't, that's kind of left to be interpreted because she didn't say the reasons why.
- Which she's, I'm so sorry, just a little confused. She's living in Indianapolis? Or she's commuting?
- So she's commuting. At first she was going to live. Exactly. And so now she didn't think that,
- let's see. Before we do this, we need to confirm her address.
- because in looking at her application right now, residency requirement means that she has to stay within
- city limits. And honestly, there's no address. And- How's that even possible? Required field? It's something
- I've been trying to go back and forth with with IT. She says, let's see what she said again.
- As stated previously, she indicated she did not apply because of her position in Indianapolis while
- maintaining residency in Bloomington, but she did apply and seems dedicated to continuing duties in
- 2026. That was a follow-up that Rachel has sent later. Yes, that's all a bit strange.
- Mostly inclined to not reappoint her on the basis of missing four meetings. Like normally, like it's
- a bit of a, we're at a transition point. Like normally you could just sort of, like we could ask for
- strenuous circumstances and all that before we would see a removal. And we have a recent instance of
- deciding not to remove someone because there were strenuous circumstances. But this is a little bit
- different because we're not talking about removal. We're just talking about appointing someone else.
- And I don't know.
- I'd love to have more information about it, but at the same time, uh, you know, we don't necessarily
- have the, the time or the bandwidth. Yeah, exactly. Um, Andy, do you have other thoughts? I'm kind of
- inclined to maybe recommend the two folks we interviewed for environmental commission tonight, proceeds,
- I think C1 and C6. Yeah, I'm kind of like you guys that I'd like to know. I wish I knew a little bit
- more about.
- if they were just casually missed those meetings or if they were, you know, really extenuating circumstances
- that now will no longer be, you know, but in the absence of knowing that, I'm kind of in agreement with
- appointing the two applicants. I mean, it's, yeah, it's a, like, four meetings is a lot. Also, like,
- it's not, you know,
- And additionally, there are two mayoral vacancies and actually three. And so if the staff lays on like
- really felt like, hey, to our satisfaction, this person has justified four absences and we feel like
- that's not gonna be an issue anymore. They could always appoint her to a mayoral appointment. And so
- I feel like that's also. I feel like, yeah, yeah. I feel like if that had been the sentiment though,
- that probably would have been conveyed.
- I do know that Julius from the mayor's office kind of wanted to take these two interviewees that y'all
- just did to potentially try to make some mayoral appointments. So you also want to keep that in mind
- too. But I told him to hold off until we do our interviews and then we'll go from there. So what you could,
- If you are still wanting an audience, is we can get more information. First of all, we need to get her
- address because that's first and foremost. You know, if she says that she's an indie, then obviously
- like that's a no because she doesn't qualify because she doesn't live here. So we'll have to, we can get that.
- So you already have like one vacancy and then you have Nadia that is kind of looming. So. I'm trying
- to say this. The whoever is I've seen other interview committee teams do this where if there is.
- a person, whoever is the liaison to the EC, can get more information about Nadia. If you all are feeling
- comfortable with that, then that one individual can say, hey, I talked with them, here's this, and I
- recommend this person to be appointed or not. So that's a thing. Or you can do,
- You can do whatever. There's no way about it. Yeah, I'd support it. I think there's a very, very slim
- possibility that there would be something explanatory. But even then, I'd still want to interview a
- lot more. Well, and then we need to do the residency check. Right. And so because there may or may not
- be vacancies, I feel like there is an option there if there's
- If the staff liaison who also is in a better position to communicate with the mayor's team to a point,
- like feels like that's warranted, but like on the four absences alone, absent other information, like
- I feel it. We're better served to find the two folks to interview. Yeah. Yeah. That's well put, I think,
- man. Would someone like to make a motion? I was. Yeah.
- Um, I moved to point Carl geyser to CC one and Justin measure to CC six of the environmental commission.
- Okay. I need us. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Sorry. And daily. Okay. And you said who to see one Carl. Okay.
- So Daley? Yes. Flaherty? Yes. And Ralph? Yes. OK. OK. And back to Utility Service Board. We did have
- two other applicants since we last met. When we met previously, there was only one applicant, which
- was Graham, though certainly, I think, qualified. Since then, we've had Michael Maybin, who had a very
- thin application.
- and Rick Coppock, uh, who also had a pretty thin application and currently serves on the transportation
- commission and something else. Um, CDBG. Yeah. I believe. Yep. Um, I think Graham was just really strong
- and he knows what's what. Yeah.
- Yeah. I wanted to mention that those are their applications for awareness, but also I tend to favor
- like getting more folks involved than if you're already serving at several things, you know, like less
- of a compelling case plus the applications of Michael and Rick. I didn't feel like there was like, there's
- some qualification there, like, you know, but given where we are and the interview we had and the overall
- qualifications of Graham, I'd be comfortable moving forward with their recommendation.
- Well, I move to appoint Graham McKean to the utility service board serving in seat C3. Second. Okay,
- Rob? Yes. Flaherty? Yes. And Daly? Yes. Okay. That's it.
- And then let me pull up your teams. I'm pretty certain you all are good. But it was somebody just applied
- for something. Let me see. Yes. MLK didn't have anybody that had applied until yesterday. And I just
- saw it while we were in here. Lena Williams applied for a spot on
- MLK Commission, and it looks like she has a pretty strong application, and she was highly recommended
- by Dr. Gloria Howe, who also currently serves on the commission, too. Let me briefly... Let's see. Sometimes,
- the applications don't show up for me. I'm sure most of them are not there. I'm logged in.
- I'm not seeing applications for some reason on that condition. Let me see. Anybody else? No. Where am
- I looking? Was that issue last time? Was there something weird? So, but it's weird that you can see
- some and not know. But you're logged in. Logged in.
- and then after members should be seats and then applications. I don't have an application. That's so
- strange. Yeah, it's showing me I can apply. So it's an onboard issue maybe. Okay. So we do have an applicant
- now and what's their name again? Lena Williams. Okay. And so let me see, I can try to, it looks like,
- I can read it out loud and then it looks like she do a resume. You know, she did not. Okay, so she says she was
- recommended by Gloria Howell, and she says, I'm committed to contributing to the Bloomington community
- and surrounding towns, strengthening civic engagement and helping shape the policies that got our county's
- future. As a resident of Ellisville who values public service and collaboration, I'm eager to bring
- my professional skills, leadership training, and university-based
- experience to a board or commission. I believe serving in this capacity is an important way to support
- transparent decision-making, community representation, and innovation across the community. But she
- also didn't put her address. And let me go see qualifications for MLQA. Yeah, I was just wondering.
- I'm in code. I don't see.
- organizations, but there's not a residency requirement specific to that section of code. Right. It says
- can either be a city of Bloomington or Monroe County resident. Yeah. Wait. Where does it say that? When
- I went to the information tab and onboard and eligibility requirements. So I'm in city code and
- qualification says preference for appointments should be given to courses from your local religious
- organizations, Human Rights Commission, Monroe County government, local community school corporation,
- and National Association for the Advancement of Color People doesn't say anything about residency. We
- don't have, there's not a, I forget, there's not a blanket provision requiring city residency. Is there
- like unless otherwise stated? Yes, there is. And so it does state, I think it's in title two, like title.
- Two amendments are coming tomorrow. Oh, well. Is it like under the executive branch? Yeah. And it's
- in that weird spot that is trying to be moved. Yeah. It says it right here. And 2.0820 that all appointments
- to city boards and commissions and councils shall be made from residents of the city, except those positions. Nope. Um,
- Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That's what it says. All appointments to city boards, commissions and councils
- shall be made from residents of the city except positions, those positions that are directed otherwise
- by state law or city ordinance. So I think there actually is a residential requirement because it doesn't
- say otherwise. It says on the webs on board can be either or.
- But yeah, code controls. But yeah. Exactly, code trumps that. And this person said they're from Ellensville.
- Yep. So then that's really null and void. Yep. So then just kidding, you don't have any. It seems like
- another one where I feel like there would be a reasonable case to be made for not having a city residency
- requirement.
- But remember last year we did a little cleanup to title two for some of the CFRD boards and commissions.
- And I thought we did this one. But I don't know, maybe not. Okay. I think that I'm not on the committee.
- You're on the Council Process Committee still. I know there was some reporting back that we were all
- doing. I did already in the Environmental Commission and Transport hasn't met yet.
- but I was gonna go to them as well with the question and gonna get back to the committee about it. I'm
- not sure where they kept, it was like a subset of committees, like seven commissions, seven or eight
- we were looking at, but it wasn't like, I forget why there was seven or eight and like why it wasn't
- more holistic, but I don't remember this commission being on that list that we were collectively. I
- don't remember that either, cause I do remember that. Yeah. That list was a little strange. So it seems
- like we have our answer for right now.
- What's possible, but we do want to take this back to the process committee for the next meeting.
- And yeah, we're meeting soon. Like on the 23rd. I was going to say, is it Monday? We look, it's coming
- up, which I feel like I just saw it in our office. I think it's the 23rd. Um, so racist. No. Oh yeah.
- No. The 27th.
- Yeah, as we think about any of those shifts, I guess. That's one that's worth thinking about as well.
- I guess my gut is ones that are a little bit more cultural in their orientation. I'm more inclined to
- have expansive eligibility criteria versus ones that are more about city assets, like transportation.
- Yeah, exactly.
- benefit Bloomington in any way to be exclusive in, like you said, a cultural one. So yeah, the next
- one is the 27th at noon. Okay. So you have your two appointments that you made and I will work on getting
- those in the packet for the next regular session. And other than that, that's it. All right.
- Thank you, everybody.