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.