you know, gone in and, you know, and it's ended. And so that's sort of, yes, no, I haven't done that.
And then a follow-up would be, what would you bring to the commission that's unique, that you think
it might be lacking, or just the arts community in general, you know, what you could add? So wouldn't
we be sure we choose, should we do a coin flip or something?
Should we go first with Becca? Sure. Let's start with Becca. And then we will switch for different answers.
Be fair. Okay. No, I have not yet. I've been wanting to sit on council meeting or the commission meetings.
But I have read some of the meeting notes, the documentation on the council meetings, documentation,
and also the strategic agenda, the public art plan.
for the council. I am a lifelong Bloomingtonian, so I've lived here my entire life. So to answer the
second part of the question, I wanted to sort of give back to the community. So I'm going to school
for arts administration now. I've also gotten my background in studio art. And so now that I'm sort
of getting a little bit older and getting my degree in arts administration, I'm wanting to sort of give
back to my community in this way, in a meaningful way that matters to me.
since I am a lifelong resident of Bloomington. And so to me, that means sitting into these meetings
and being on the arts commission, where I feel like I'll be able to make a difference in my own community.
And so part of that also was sort of working in projects that I think matter to me in sort of grant
making. And so I have sat, so second part of that, to piggyback off that,
been a grant reviewer for the NEA, and I've been a grant reviewer for the Indiana Arts Commission as
well. So I have some background in sort of grant reviewing. But I'd like, again, just want to get back
to my own community in a meaningful manner, and also work on public art. So in a way, that's a little
bit different for that. And so work on this big one that's actually happening.
that I know is being built with the convention center that I drive by every day, actually every evening.
So to me, that would be very meaningful for me to actually have involvement in that, in the way that's,
you know, giving back to my community in the arts, in an arts way, where I'm actually working towards
something bigger than myself. So, and what I'm working for, so. Well, thank you. Austin?
I guess I sort of first question. No, I have not been on the Council meetings or anything like that.
This is all purely from folks who have been directly involved just kind of reaching out to me and just
saying, I think you would be into this. I think you should really go for it. And, and then so I guess
my reason for doing it is kind of more of a it's more like a
You see if this is a good fit, really. But I moved here about 13, 14 years ago. I'd like to consider
myself now a lifer. And I came here, as most people do, to go to the school and see what's going on.
But I came for music engineering. And it was really silly of me, because I didn't even apply to it.
And I didn't know what the process was. I was like, I just want to do music engineering. It's like,
did you get accepted? And I'm like, no.
I did, I'm just gonna go to it, but that didn't happen at all. And so I ended up interning at a studio
and I was there at Russian studio and through it I realized that I actually don't like music engineering
at all, but I do like music and so through that
passion for music and art, I still was able to carve a way through Bloomington to where I work at secretly
now. And throughout those years, I've met people that are like minded who, you know, kind of take the
path less taken, you know, where it's like, you know, a lot of people have this formal education and
things like that. And that's really awesome. But then there's a lot of people who just
Like art and the city still reaches out to help them and it's helped me like I've been a recipient of
one of the arts grants and it's been awesome and so I feel like that would be my niche in the committee
if you know if chosen where it's like I'm looking out in the you know
for Bloomington, where it's like, there's all kinds of folks around here who might not be a part of
the main establishment, but still need to be looked after in the same way to curate that kind of, that
different perspective. So ultimately that would be my goal, where it's like to work, you know, obviously
with the university, to work with any organization that we can, but also just keeping an extra eye out
for the kind of, for the little guy in that way, which is, they're very much,
as part of Bloomington as Bloomington has made me. Thank you. Where'd you come from, by the way? Northwest
Indiana in Dr. Ten. Okay. Well, I have a question. It is a little bit of a sensitive nature. I'm sorry
to spring this on you guys. As of yesterday, our director of public art is no longer employed at the
city. So, I'm sorry to spring it on you. No, I read the email today from the ESD director.
How do you all feel about operating in moments of transition and how can you help provide the Bloomington
Arts Commission with a moment of stability that it really might need right now? We'll start with Austin,
yes. All right, so like I said, now a Bloomington lifer who lives right on the city square, actually.
Since I don't really know anything that's going on, I'd definitely like to, all right,
Okay, I'm not going anywhere. So as far as there's that immediate physical stability, but I've been
employed at Secretly for eight years. I haven't jumped ship or been looking for other things. So it's
like when I decide to be a part of something, I'm in it for the most part. And that's about all I got.
As I'm taking it all in, I'm eager to find out what were the issues of the past that we can work towards
in the future.
To me, it seems like fresh learning. Becca? Yeah, I actually would agree with what Austin says. So I've
worked in not just in the arts, well, working towards my art degree or working towards in the art scene
here, even at IU, or trying to work towards being in the arts commission here in Bloomington and just
giving back to my community.
But even prior to that, and just my background before coming into IU, I've worked under considerable
amounts of stress, working in public safety, working for the Indiana State Police, and just moments
of uncertainty and unclarity. And I think just piggybacking off of what actually Austin said, and just
sitting down and sort of realizing what needs to happen and what
what were the issues that sort of led to this and what needs to happen moving forward and how can we
all come together and what, you know, how can we all move forward together for the commission, for the
art scene, and as a community, I think is what really would need to happen for the arts commission.
So I actually would agree with what Austin said. You have another question, I think, in this one?
Go ahead. Do you know if there's going to be a liaison? Because both Chas and Holly have left. I mean,
I would hope that there would be somebody from ESD who would. Jane, Jane ran the Blendings and Arts
Commission yesterday. Oh, right. They met last time. I forgot. Jane Coopersmith is the director of economic
and sustainable development. She ran the meeting yesterday, which is actually where they announced that
Holly and Chas were no longer. So she'll probably do it in the interim.
I believe they're looking at Christina Alem as someone who might be able to supplement some of the work
that Holly was doing, which I don't know if I was supposed to share, but I did. It's too late to take
it back now. It was said yesterday on the meeting. Perfect. I'm the council liaison.
to the Bloomington Arts Commission. So I would be the person that you guys could, you know, if there's
anything arts related on the council side of things that you think that we could pursue, that I would
be the person that you could come to about that. There are a couple of different subcommittees, including
the Subcommittee on Public Art and like the Grants Subcommittee, which I know Austin, you said that
you received one of those, which is great. And I guess I'm just wondering what commission or
what subcommittee would you be interested in being on?
what would you be interested in pursuing on that subcommittee? And we'll start with Becca. Yeah. Well,
you know, so it's interesting. So I, I think I've thought about this question about which subcommittee
I would have sat on. And I would normally being comfortable probably would have gone for like the grant
committee just because like, okay, I did work with,
you know, I did an internship for the Center for Rural Engagement and I worked with, you know, local
communities, Southern communities, and I helped them sort of get grants for public art and that felt
like amazing. And that felt very validating for, you know, communities to get grants for art and artists
for public art. But since, and also since I've sat on, you know, review boards for, also for committees,
That feels very natural for me, but I think I want to sort of like, get outside of my comfort zone and
sit on, like, I think I would want to do the public art some committee sort of help oversee. If there's
anything else that needs to be done with, like, the obviously the strategic plan for public art is,
I think, is underway. But also, I think there's new. Probably new.
directions that that might need to go or new ways that I could probably help spearhead that. I don't
know if there's partners that need to happen at IU that I might be able to help bring in and be like
a liaison for that, or just working with other community partners for that and just help spearhead that
project. I think would be really exciting for me, but I'd love to sort of help set on. So yeah, the
subcommittee for public art would be exciting, I think, and just different. Great, thank you.
Uh, well, truthfully, I'm not familiar with all of the subcommittees. Sounds a little overwhelming just
off the bat, but really it would be more, um, wherever the people that are already established here,
I think would be a great fit for someone that, like myself, who's looking to enhance, um, I guess those,
again, those unturned stones, uh, and just ultimately looking towards, um,
Wherever I can help, I would say grants, but that's really because that's the only thing I can think
of right now where you are overlooking like, all right, what is this project you need help with? I know
you need it. I know you need the money, but does Bloomington need it? And then just kind of engaging
like, does Bloomington need this as much as we want to help? But we'd also rather help someone that's
like, we both fulfill what you want to do,
and what we're trying to do ultimately as opposed to just throwing money out. But yeah, I guess just
kind of going with the fine tooth comb and just ultimately picking the best one, like just really not
just giving money out. I'm sure there's, I don't wanna say plenty, but I'm sure there's money, but like
just really making sure that we're being as economical as possible and getting the most bang for buck,
helping and
spending. So I guess I'm pretty conservative in that way. It's just like I just want to really matter.
So yeah, I guess in any kind of committee where something like that where it's like this person who
really cares about the money and seeing them as opposed to just throwing it all out there. So I would
say that. Thank you. So one of the duties of the arts commission members is to facilitate connections between
City Bloomington staff, artists, artists groups, and so forth. And I wondered about your, both of your
connectivity with artists in the community and sort of your circles. Do you feel well connected and
can you give maybe a couple examples? Sure. Yeah, just throughout my time in Bloomington it's been so
weird where it's like, you know,
just make friends everywhere the oddest ways where whether it be hanging out a bar and you go there
enough times that hey i know the owner and then they're like hey i'm looking for a dj tonight or something
like which is actually how i became a dj is like you you do music i'm like dj is a completely different
thing but i guess and now that's like actually a side job that i do i have a whole rig that just started from
white lie that I told where I just played spy. You know, during that, or it's like, Hey, do you know
a photographer? And it's like, I think I do. And then just kind of building that throughout the years.
And especially through my job at work, we have to find, you know, like, Hey, we have an artist in town.
Can you show them things like that? So it was just by naturally being in the town and the town.
lending itself to me that you just build these connections. And so I would say that I know quite a bit
of people that do all kinds of stuff and just that kind of natural relationship is, yeah. Good. Okay.
Thank you. Yeah, pretty, pretty similar to Austin. I have some connections now working. So I have just,
it's very low key, but part-time.
do an advisory board position at the Eskenazi Museum of Art. And so I'm meeting, constantly meeting
new artists there. I also know some of the people at the University Macala as well. And then also just
in my personal life, I have some dancer friends and they have photographer. I'm a part-time, not part-time,
but I'm sort of like a freelance photographer myself. So I sort of in the art scene myself and I just
know a lot of people as well, sort of just like being
around in the community. And so yeah, just having a lot of friends that sort of know friends that,
you know, are in the sort of the art scene in the community. And then also just, you know, I know a
lot of people at IU that work, you know, in the Center for Rural Engagement who are community partners,
who know artists and other artists everywhere. So, so yeah, so I'm kind of well connected in the community
with just a lot of different people.
Dancers, photographers, just other artists. So, yeah. Okay, terrific. Anything else? Did you ask about
obligations? You know, it's required. Yeah, I understand this commission is a two-year requirement,
right? And it requires about five hours a month. Nothing wrong with giving more, of course. And it meets
What does it be? Second Wednesday of every month. Yeah. Could you both commit to that? I mean, is it?
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's not a problem. Okay. You do have the option to do virtual meetings, but
I believe there are some issues with quorum. So it's preferred that commissioners can come in person
for the majority of the meetings, but it's all right if you need to be on Zoom.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. One more questions. Okay. You guys should hear in a couple of weeks. Thank you so
much for your time and for your interest. Thank you so much. Yes. You should hear from us soon. Thanks.
You'll definitely hear from us. Yes. Okay. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Yes. Bye, Becca. Bye,
Becca. Bye. Bye. I'm so excited.
Great to meet you, Austin. Great to meet you. Thank you for having me. It's nice to see somebody else
from the 219 area. 219 all the time. That's me. That's me. Where are you from? Here. Oh, right on. Yeah.
Mom lives in Hammond. I'm from Chester's Inn, LA of Chicago, and yeah. Oh, I feel like I was. Yeah.
No, you're good. Yeah. No, no. All right. Take it easy, Austin. Bye. Have a good evening. So, Isabel's
not here, but do you want to discuss a little bit?
Do we have two making season one? There's two total. You all have one, and the maker's out. Oh, yeah,
that's what I thought. Yeah, that's one. You're Lays, so you know best. What I like about Austin is
he's got a lot of experience in sort of music and production and set design. It sounds like he came up
from his own bootstraps kind of thing, as opposed to, I mean, clearly a formal education. But you didn't,
you know what I'm saying? It's like, so many people that I know in the arts community know, many, but
they're very, you know, obviously you go to school for it, you get masters. It's like a different journey.
Yeah, it's a different journey. Now the good thing about Becca is, I mean, she's got the grant review,
you know, and connections with, you know,
Yes, which I thought was cool. Yeah. So it's a little tough here. What what's your view? I mean, we
caught my attention that Austin was his resume and his experience with, you know, music and everything.
And is that really represented on the on the arts commission? I mean, there are different baseball,
visual arts,
Performance arts, you know, maintaining, sculpting, stuff like that. But he's got, he's, he's really
into the production and music scene. Yeah. I think that would be a different perspective. And the other
thing is like, BAC is very, um, I don't think there are a lot of young people on it.
which is okay, but like I would like to see some different faces. So I think that I'd be more, are you
leaning towards Austin? Cause I'm leaning as well. I like Rebecca a lot. I don't know if the mayor has
anyone in mind. I was just about to ask Julius, but it looks like he's at our office. So I will ask
him tomorrow. I do know before how we left that
She did recommend Austin an appointment. Oh, is that right? That's interesting. For those very reasons
that you mentioned. Is that right? That's helpful. I tip toward Austin, but she's a really strong candidate
too. We could provide a recommendation to the mayor that, especially for things like finding money.
Everybody needs money, especially artists.
especially artists. I also liked what he had to say about connecting Bloomington's need for different
art pieces with where we're directing grants. I thought that was a really interesting point to bring
up because he's right, we do have certain art projects proposed that are cool, but they're maybe not
Bloomington or we already have something like it. That's right. Yeah.
Um, well, I mean, we could, I mean, I, do you want to wait till, is this a book will come at four, fourth
of the year? I don't know if she's gonna come at all. If she was even able to. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So
we could do, do you want to wait for her? Or do you want to make a recommendation and just go with it?
It's up to you. You'll get to make the motion. So whichever one you'd like, I will second if you make
it. No, you know, I don't want to be visible. Uh, yeah, let's go ahead.
Because we've got a lot of, I was looking, we do have a lot of boards and commissions to appoint,
don't we? Overall. We thought through majority of them last week in your meeting. And so for your particular
name, you guys are good. Now, remember, I just pulled up on board. There was the discussion last month
about one of the persons who applied
for reappointment that's currently on there. It was, I mean, so technically you could reappoint this
individual. If you decide not to reappoint them, then you technically have to. Can you remind us of
the context? Oh, she was recommended for not being reappointed. Yes. Yes. Simply because it seems like that
This person gets a task and as they get a task, they don't follow through with it. And it's after so
many different conversations, um, the tasks just seem to just fall through. Okay. Well, in that case,
do you want to move to a point both? Yeah. Sounds good to me. What are the seats though? It is,
it'll be five. And then right now the, um, Oh, Oh, one second.
Ah, remember there was the conversation. So technically you have two, but you wanted to interview those
two to figure out if you wanted to replace the individual in this seat, because Gerard was highly recommended
to be re-appointed. And he is chair. He's chair. Well, he's not chair anymore. Netta is the new chair.
But he's chairing, I think, the grads committee.
So that, and that is going to be a committee that needs stability. So I would say he should stay. Okay.
So we should, we need to reappoint him. To C4. Yes. And, um, do you want to move to appoint Austin to
C5? Uh, yes. Um, well, I didn't, yeah. Um, so we have to reappoint, um, what's his name? Gerard. Sorry.
Is that his name, Gerard Penowick? Penowick, I see. And Penowick? Yes. OK. So I'll make a motion to
reappoint Gerard Penowick to C2C4. Second. OK. And? Can I make the multiple motion? You could. You could.
I'll do it on one fell swoop. OK. I'll move to appoint Austin White.
Wait, I think, to seat C5. Okay. All right. And Zulek? Yes. And Rollo? Yes. Okay. And that's it there.
And then at 430, we should be having three individuals in front of us for the commission on the status
of children and youth. Yes. Well, we're waiting on that.
You are recording. Hello. This is something that we're gonna talk about. Are you here for? I am. Hello,
welcome in. I'm Andrea, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. I'm Sydney. Nice to meet you. Hello.
You guys ready for me? Come in. Hi, Kevin. Hello, Sydney. Hello. Jennifer. Yep. Sydney, Dave, and Dave.
Andrea. Andrea, okay.
I mean, if one other person joining us. Matthew. Okay. Well, we will get started, I guess, at 433.
And the doors are open. Yeah. I have the thing on there that says the door open. Okay. I know what I'm painting.
Yeah, the sculpture is being used and covered.
for 30. Everyone ready? Yes. Great. Welcome everyone. I'm Council Member Sydney Zulek. This is Council
Member Dave Rall. This is Deputy Clip Jennifer Crossley. Welcome. Thank you guys so much for your interest
in the Commission on the Spets of Children and Youth. This is going to be a pretty low-key interview.
We're going to ask a couple questions about interest, some topics, and then feasibility of commitment, and then
In the next couple of weeks, you should expect to hear back from Deputy Clark Crossley with an answer
one way or the other, you will hear regardless. So thanks for being here. Would you like to start or
I can start? We'll go. Great to meet you. We have a third person. Yes. Not here. I haven't seen any
emails. OK. Maybe they'll arrive. But in the meantime, curious to know whether either of both of you
watch the commission, gone to a commission meeting, read minutes of the commission. That's one question.
And then the second question is, what do you think you might bring to the commission that's unique or
maybe even needed in your view that may not be there? I'll go.
Yes, I did read through some of the minutes. I did some of that yesterday and some of that today. You're
not super current up to date on your site, but sorry there. But I did read through it. I run the Banneker
Community Center, probably now. So I'm pretty dialed in to youth stuff in general, running an afterschool
program on behalf of the city, running a large summer camp on behalf of the city for the underserved.
I'm dealing with a lot of different nonprofits. I'll work with that. It's very fun to look at them all.
But for an idea of being a part of the after school environment. Like I know a lot of people. And.
You know, I had a long history of with these work anyway from the. Critical sports, basketball, particularly
running. I usually wait back when I was in high school even.
I was, I worked for Monroe County Schools. I worked with large community schools. I worked for a nonprofit
called Blue River Services, which was inside the schools down in Jackson County. And then obviously
I have a ton of youth work at Banneker. So I feel pretty dialed in on what's going on. I feel like I
can communicate with people. I kind of know the issues of the town a little bit. I mean, I always have
all the answers to different things, but at least I might know
all the players and all the people and have connections with different things and hopefully that kind
of expertise and that kind of experience both in the classroom and in the nonprofit world and now with
the city can help out. Well, you said a lot of what you would bring. Do you see anything particularly
lacking? It's hard to tell until I dive in it and see there might be
You can say just the community at large, not necessarily. Yeah. Yeah. I think there might be, um,
I mean, there was lots of things. There's a disconnect in some ways between the university and the city
and the town. That's for sure. And there's a lot of overlapping resources that don't, um, that are there,
but no one knows. They don't, they don't communicate well enough and don't get utilized as well.
were a little bit inefficient, I would say, in that regard. Also, there are a huge amount of nonprofits
in this town who are doing tremendous, tremendous work, but they don't always know what each other are
doing. And there's a lot of duplicated effort, a lot of issues that can be potentially solved if they
just had a link to do that. Now I've been working to do that with Banneker. I've got Mayor Thompson
to hold those.
nonprofit town hall meetings and get ready to have our next one next month and we bring all the town
halls together and we do it at Banneker and that's been a really good thing because we've got to be
able to you know here's this person's problem this youth groups problem okay get the same problem so
let's link that together and then this guy here can solve it and let's we want to do that to some degree
but i think there's more of that to be done i also think there can be
And I don't think this is necessarily the commission's fault or anybody's fault really, but the school
system's not the greatest always in communication. There's a way to, they mean well. I'm not trying
to talk derogatorily about them. I have a good relationship with the school system. I've talked about
them quite often, especially with the Fairview people. But I think that there's ways that we should
work better together to get to pool resources, to get things out there,
to the kids and the families that need it. And they're not always as cooperative as they could be. And
maybe there's a way to solve that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So I think that I could very much bring
a good voice to the commission coming from a for the Boys and Girls Club. I'm a program director there.
I've been there since 2019. I started volunteering when I started at IU and from Indianapolis. But I've
been here ever since and I've been at the Boys and Girls Club ever since. I've experienced a lot of
needs just from directly being like working with the kids. But now that I'm a program director, I've
been able to step into a role where I'm not just communicating with the kids. Now I get to hear about
the needs from the kids, but as well as the families that involved.
are involved. and so i would really love to just be able to provide a voice to the commission from that
perspective. i think that is something that might be missing from the current commission. i did look
up everyone that sits on the commission and i looked in like their linkedin profiles and stuff like
that because i was curious like who's actively working with the youth in the committee.
Community and I think that's something that I could provide and bring to the table. I'm not expecting
to like come in guns blazing. I know action starts small, especially from like a city standpoint. There's
a lot of You know,
lot of red tape, there's a lot of like people you need to talk to before action can actually be implemented.
and I'm a very patient person and I but I do follow through with action. and I think that's something
that I've learned through my nonprofit work and something that because you know when I was 18 and I
started at the boys and girls club, I did come in a little guns blazing and I was like expecting to
you know fill a need for every single kid that I interacted with and
know take action. as soon as someone told me something, i was like okay this kid's always hungry. how
can we can you know connect them to community kitchen? like um i had that more like own approach that
was like i said guns blazing. but now throughout my time at the club, i understand that that's
not necessarily how action takes place. and now i understand there's a lot more that happens behind
the scenes. there's a lot more conversations that need to occur. um
And I think in general, I'm just really interested in, like I said, providing a voice from the parents
that I interact with on a daily and connecting them to the resources that this commission seems to gather.
And that was like what really piqued my interest in the first place was the work of promoting connections
within the community and connecting the community to resources that exist.
Um, because I see that as an current need for a lot of families here in Bloomington. Um, but yeah, short
and sweet hopefully, but that's kind of what I hope to bring to the table. Thank you. Where were you
at? I'm at the Lincoln street. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Okay. Sydney. No, what? Maybe.
They actually are about to meet next week. So I think it's the third Tuesdays. Yeah, it's the third
Tuesday. Okay, officially. Yes, third Tuesday starting at 5.30. Is that a time commitment that both
of you are able to make? Yeah, so when I applied for this, I think it was like November, September maybe.
I had started talking to my supervisor at the club and I was like, Hey, this is something I feel really
passionate about, but I don't necessarily want to even like put my name in the ballot unless we think
that this would work for the team. Um, so I did talk that through with my supervisor and we're willing
to make it work. Um, cause it is, from my understanding, the meetings are once a month, correct? Okay.
So then yeah, I should be able to make it work. Yeah. I don't see why I would have a problem that,
you know, I can never guarantee what random
park stuff is going to come up and they're going to, you know, hey, you have to go here and do this.
But generally speaking, I don't see any reason why Tuesday at 5.30 would be a problem. Great.
Thank you. My manicure is only five minutes from here. So it's not like that's hard to get here. Dave,
do you have any other questions? Why don't we just ask them? You don't have to ask another question
if you don't want to. Well, I've got a personal, I mean, it's a personal
It's a personal topic that I, you know, I find what I read about kids, it's the wrong time since I was
one. But social media has a big impact on it. Like when I was a kid, social media was not, I mean, right?
It was just like your friends. A couple of years apart, right? Anyway, you know, is this concern?
Do you find it's a concern among kids? Yeah, I think especially young, young girls. You know, there's
like a self-esteem aspect to it. Yeah. Yeah. They go at each other and stuff like that. Boys trend to
play games and stuff. It's not that it doesn't affect them, but it takes it sucks up time. Yeah. It's
like they're always on their right. Yeah. It's definitely an attention issue. I would say. I this is
sorry. I'm like this. I'm excited because this is one of the things that I personally am really passionate about.
Because I have a background in psychology and neuroscience. That's what I studied at IU. Um, so in my
free time, I like to read up on this and like research and stuff like that and like the attention deficit
that this generation of kids is experiencing is.
I think a huge need that needs to be talked about this is something that like I talk I bring to the
table at the boys and girls club in our like big word meetings is like hey I think we really need to
get ahead of the game and switch up our approach of how we work with kids just because that is a huge
issue and not just social media there is that like self-esteem aspect or like the
idea that they're only comfortable socializing behind the screen, I think is a huge issue. That's something
that we try to tackle in our programming with kids is like community building, social emotional learning
skills. Just because we tried really hard to make sure that we get kids in a spot where they feel comfortable
just interacting with each other aside from the screens, you know. So that's a huge thing that I feel
really passionate about. And I've seen the difference even
Like I said, in 2019, I started volunteering at the club and even those kids that I started out working
with their ability to like commit to an activity or stay at a table and like do a craft or even just
have a conversation. If the staff is going over something like the attention difference that I see from
those kids seven years ago to now, it's crazy. What a difference it like.
social media and screens have just made an impact and the impact they have on kids. And like an idea
that I would love to like bring maybe to this commission is I would love to like get parents talking
about it a bit more. And I think it's a little too normalized in there, like from their viewpoint, like
they're not seeing the impact that it's having on their kids because this is all they know as well,
if that makes sense. And I would love to,
find ways to connect them to, like, the research that's being done and show them, I guess, the effects
of what putting a kid in front of a screen does, you know? Great. Can I? I'd like to say on that topic
too, this is where maybe I could come in handy because there are people in town who will come in and
talk to the children about things just like that. I had Middle Way House come and do a whole mental
health program with my after school kids.
The year before I had the psychology department committed to similar type of things. We went device
free and our after school program just because of that. That's serving more old school with what we're
trying to do there. I don't want the kids on their phones. I don't want the kids. I don't even have
phones really, but they do.
I don't want them on an iPad. I want them interacting and behaving and doing things and being active
in that way. In terms of social media itself, not just a screen, but just the social media aspect itself,
it's part of life, unfortunately. The kids probably of the age now and of the young age of her, remember,
it didn't matter to us. Social media, the UNI was the gossip we heard on the back of the school bus.
to her, you know, everybody's on their device, on their phone and interacting. We had, you know, I dealt
with a lot of this last summer with our summer camp program where we had, do you remember when
the 13-year-old girl or 14-year-old girl was found dead on the south side of town? Remember that?
You knew? Last year? I think it was last year, last summer. There was a lot of
That was a bannacher kid of our girl who'd come to summer camp the year before. And many of the campers
had remembered her and friends with her and whatever. But there were, where I'm getting to is the social
media aspect. That story blew up very, very quickly and was affecting a lot of the parents and a lot
of the kids. And I had to deal with this wanting to do that, just as a story girl, just because of the
prevalence of the social media aspects of it, the false
stories that came out, the exaggerations, the untruths that came out there, I had to scramble, we had
to bring in, we brought in a psychologist, child psychologist from Centerstone, I got the BPD involved
with their social worker and they all came in and we had a big session with each group of kids and talked
them through it and
and sending stuff out to the parents and whatever, trying to handle that just because social media is
an aspect of it that the kids and families have to deal with. And I think there's probably something
to be said for teaching the kids how to use it themselves. We don't really go into that too much yet,
but we may in the summer, but how to be a good quality user of it yourself, not just interpret what
other people are doing, but use it themselves in a positive, constructive way.
ways to go there and a lot of things to do. Yeah, I feel like that's kind of the direction the Boys
and Girls Club is taking because I don't think, I don't see a sense of fighting it in terms of like
trying to convince kids to not use it. I think it's more now we need a refocus of like, okay, this is
the reality that we live in. How do we appropriately use it? We did that middle way program as well.
And our third through fifth graders, we
do like digital safety trainings, um, before they can use any technology at our clubs. Um, and that
kind of walks them through like what's appropriate information to put online versus what's inappropriate.
Um, and just like, I guess focusing more on like, maybe what can we do to prevent, you know, tragic
things from happening. Um, because like I said, there's no sense in fighting it. They're going to use it.
parents aren't going to just magically stop letting them have iPads or, you know, social media or anything.
But that's why I kind of want to find a way to branch that communication, not just to the kids, but
to the parents as well. Because at the end of the day, they're going to have the biggest impact on whether
or not their kid uses something. Yeah, this is a parent school issue too. I mean, I mean, after school
people like her and I can only do
so much. They live with their parents. They're going to be able to do what their parents allow them
to do. And too many of them use a screen as a babysitter to kind of occupy their kids. They don't have
to do what they need to be doing. It affects older kids too. I mean, her and I mostly, not totally,
but mostly work with elementary age kids, but high school kids too. I remember when I was coaching high
school basketball, we had a
Again, leaving the school, sent out an inappropriate picture to her boyfriend, who then in turn sent
it to every single friend he had, who pretty soon was all over the school. And we had the state police
and everybody else there. And I've got my players sent in there who have obviously seen it.
And I'm like, can't have this, boys. And we had a long talk about being responsible and what's appropriate
and what's not.
Well, excellent responses. I'm glad you're on time. You're both on top of it. Yeah. But anyway,
that's all. Cool. Thank you both so much for your time and for your interest. Yeah. As I said earlier,
you should hear from Devin Clark-Crossley in the next few weeks. The reason that it takes so long is
because we are an interview committee that makes a recommendation to counsel as a whole to make the
appointment. And so you will hear when that is all finalized. And so that's just one spot.
So there's two and so these guys here are responsible for the council appointments and so it looks like
there is another spot for the mayor's office. I can't speak to what they might have in mind but they're
just responding like right now council just has one spot. I don't want to take anyone's time but I just
have a question
All right, I was just curious how like current needs are assessed like how does this group collect community
information or like, or, because I was just curious clay, it look over the minutes and like the agendas
and stuff but there's not so there's not a lot of detailed information. I'm sure you guys are aware.
But I was just curious like what that looks like or how do you get the voices. Where is that impact
coming from type of thing.
That's a good question for the staff liaison, probably. I don't think that either of us are liaisons
to that. We have received reports at council. I have come and looked for it in the past, but I don't
know the specifics of it. Like what's being used? Yes. Yeah. So can help you there. I do think that
they try and listen into, and also,
The staff liaison is also responsible for making sure all of these things are updated. Yeah. So if you
looked online, which is a good thing that both of you all did, it hasn't been updated by staff liaison.
So oopsies on the staff liaisons there. But I do believe and listening to some of the reports that they've
given to council and just in general, it seems like they try to work in tandem with
the other groups with students. I do know, I think they've done a lot with the Boys and Girls Club.
I do, or not Boys and Girls Club. What's the whole community's corporation? MCCSC. I'm like, it's the
big school corporation. At the end of the day, my brain is gone. No, no, no, no worries. And so they,
you know, worked with them as well. And I also think that they,
Um, yeah, I think that's the big thing because some of the things that they do, um, here as well is
the, um, every, I think they do it with another commission. They'll also do things like the welcome
back to school and they'll partner with the commission on status black males and we'll do like, um,
and welcome back to school at Fairview. Every year they do that. So that's something that they do. Of
course the staff liaisons and things like that would know more. I also highly encourage that you all
go to the meeting and you can go hybrid as well Tuesday at 5.30 and to get a little bit more or inquire
a little bit more too. I know that their staff liaison actually
Um, is leaving the city. Oh, we got noticed that they are leaving the city. So I think director Moss,
um, will, you know, be taken over for that too. Okay. Yeah. Great to meet you both. We'll be in touch. Yeah.
Enjoy them. If you haven't read the anxious generation, have you read that book? You should really read
it. It's like the whole screen social media thing is something you're interested in. So it's not like
it's meant to be like basic level. I guess it's not for like, it wasn't written or like someone that
already knows a lot about it. It's supposed to be a good like introductory into like research and data and
people that are in that market, but just a recommendation. I appreciate that. I'm anxious. I am anxious
too. With really good luck. It's worth everyone's read on it. Yeah. All right. Good to see you all.
Good to see you. Have a good evening. Stay well. Nice meeting you guys. Nice meeting you. Have a great
evening. Thanks. Thank you. We've got a few minutes here.
You know. Very impressive, both of them. Definitely. And they have CC1 is the only. Correct. Our only.
Yes. Option. Isabel said something about meeting with me. She said a young. Oh, young male. Yeah. Another
male commissioner is or someone who is under 24. I wonder if she's talking about Lucas. Matthew Lucas.
Matthew Luke is, um, another male commissioner or someone who was 24. He is, um, he withdrew his application
today. Um, so got busy and see. Okay. Yeah. They could benefit from another male commissioner. Okay.
Well, this one's real tough. Um, it says tough.
Well, they're both, I think they're both excellent. I mean, he's certainly got threads and has done
a lot. He's really engaged and, you know, basically had a lot. She seems to have a lot of energy. But
he's employed by the city. He's what? Employed by the city. Yes, he is. So does that inherently present
a conflict of interest? Yeah, it doesn't.
You know, that's an interesting take because we do have a handful of city employees on boards
and commissions, like a very minor amount. However, I think in his particular case, it's a little interesting
because technically children and youth, and he works at the Medicare Center, that's kind of, that's
A different situation. It's almost like, I know there are some staff members who might be on like, um,
they're like, they're employed by the city, but they're on something that is completely different from
their job. And so this particular one. Could present a conflict report to does your report.
I think so, because it would be parks. Okay. Like.
I would feel strange about having someone who works in the mayor's administration also be council's
representative on a board. Yeah. I mean, if Kerry wants to appoint him. Yeah, I think that would make
perfect sense. That would make sense. But I'm not sure that we should
pick that to be our representative, just because I do think that like there will be times, there could
be times where like our expectation is something completely different and his employment might get in
the way. Yeah. So Banneker Center is run by Parks and Rec. Where does Kevin, what department is he working
in? That would be Parks. He's works in Parks already. So he reports like probably directly to Tim Street. Yeah.
So, yeah. We like boards and commissions to have some autonomy, right? Otherwise, and nothing nefarious,
but just, you know, we'd like that kind of separation so we can have some independent thinking. I agree
with you. I think that's problematic. So I kind of land on her in that. I guess I land on her too. What
is her last name? Alvarez. Alvarez.
See, that's open. Is it C1? One. You make a motion to agree all elders to council seat one. Commission
for the status of children and youth. Second. Okay. And Rollo? Yes. And Zulik? Yes. Okay. And we can
just say to maybe send
something for the merits of the effect that we communicate with the mayor and to say, he's obviously
very impressive. You're right. So, yeah. We're leaving it to your discretion. Yeah. And we usually do
that between Julius and I to say, hey, we interviewed and then he'll do the same for us. Hey, if council
has any vacancies, we interviewed this person. We thought they might be a great fit for it. So, yeah.
So we can do that. We have one other thing to discuss.
Justin Basil. What was your opinion of what happened when he kind of blew up at staff a few months ago?
Well, he didn't blow up at staff. It was like Austin. Yeah, that was Matt. I thought, OK, I thought
that was a different. Well, he's kind of going back and forth between staff right now.
and you were privy to the emails where we're essentially basically just saying that when what has been
expressed to legal or by legal is anytime that you know they are having any type of meeting with boards
and commissions staff has to be present staff also has to run zooms those different types of things
and so there is this maybe of this like mindset that maybe
staff could potentially decide that they don't want to be available and then we'll try not to allow
them to have the meeting. But I do know that they are trying to have like an eight hour retreat and
to have staff be present, that's actually something that's unheard of. I've never in the four years
that I've been here, I've ever heard anybody doing anything like that. To have staff not be present?
Oh, to be there for an eight hour meeting, like retreat.
Oh, well, here's my vehicle. I think that, so this whole thing arose because Matt was, um, had a proposal
that will give money from ESD department through the commission, routed essentially to his sister who
was running a project. And we, you know,
it gets into obviously nepotism and all of that. So that was sort of the question that was being, I
think there was an attorney that came and spoke about this and decided, look, we should just clear that
completely. Now, by the time she came and made that, and actually I was nervous about it too. I talked
to her about it as president of the council. I said, but we should just declare acts
to say that this is not allowed. And just have a council and mayor, you know, a decision made to do
that. Because it's, it doesn't, you know, just to avoid any ignorance, right? Might be a good project,
sure. But it's just, it's too close. And because you got somebody who's advocating for it on the commission.
Anyway, it never came to that actually.
Carrie sent a lawyer, I can't remember her name, to the meeting. And she said, it's going to be the
case that we're going to allow this. And so I'm sorry, but there are new conditions now. Justin was
a little ticked because he wished that he had known earlier. Because we went through the whole process
of evaluating the proposal and everything like that.
It was Matt that really acted out and was raising his voice and kind of hostile toward Sean Ian. Okay.
And I felt she handled it very professionally. She did not chop back or get her hackles up. She just
kind of took it and carefully explained and the attorney did too. And Matt was, I thought looked terrible,
but anyway. So we're not reappointing him.
We decided not to appoint him. But my opinion is that Justin does good work. He's meticulous as a chair.
He's very, very good at running meetings. He's appreciated by the commission. It used to be back in
the day, and I'm an old timer, when boards and commissions would get together just socially. They would
just get together and go play Frisbee and talk. And it wasn't a big deal.
I'm getting a little block came in. I'm getting a little blowback from the like the Environmental Commission,
who fell a bit shut out at the last our deliberation on the on the impervious surface question. Now,
you know, Joey Scanlon explained that that it was kind of Yeah, you know, it was, it was, it was oversight,
it was missed. And it wasn't
It was because the liaison wasn't there at the time. And so it wasn't purposefully done or anything
like that. But then when the environmental commission wanted to meet, their subcommittee, according
to a member that I spoke to, could not meet as a subcommittee. They had to meet as a formal commission,
and they had to post notice in order to make their decision made.
It put a cooling effect on the commission because I actually thought more members might show up, but
they were told by the attorney that only one member could show up. This is according to the person I
talked to in the commission. Only one member could show up to read the memo and nobody else could speak
on it, identifying themselves from the commission. I've never heard that before.
I don't understand what policy is that would support that and that's something I wanted to explore.
So that's my take on it. I think that we ought to discuss it as council and because I rely on boards
and commissions to come and tell us things that I wouldn't ordinarily know, you know, I can't keep track of.
Yeah. All the nuances that are happening in every domain of the city environment. They used to come
to plant commission meetings and give a memo and I'm not sure that they're really invited to do that
anymore. So I really want to find out like, you know, what's, what's changed and why. Yeah. Why that's
the case. So that's one point of view. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Well,
Keep an eye on it for sure. But thank you all for today. It's 5.04 and I know that everyone wants to
go home. So I will go ahead if it's all right with y'all. One other thing though, cause I was trying
to look as you all are, cause you all don't have a lot of appointments. You guys have done a really
good job and making sure that you, so if you're deciding not to appoint Matt Austin for C3, you do have
other applicants that are,
available. And that kind of hammer man was someone that was suggested, right? Yeah. He actually just
got reappointed. You all reappointed him. And so you have, okay. So you have Sarah Brinkman, Maria Arstead,
Rebecca Payne.
So those are only three. And I do believe maybe Julius might have interviewed Maria or Sarah. So I can
also get with him to see what he thought about those individuals and then maybe kind of come back. Yeah,
that sounds good. Sounds great. But other than that, that's it.
And I think I'm going to try to get the appointment or these recommendations in the memo for council
staff for the packet. Yep. Thank you. For next week. Thank you. So just, I forgot this. What did we
decide to do about Rebecca from the arts commission applicant? We appointed Austin. We re-appointed her.
And Rebecca was a good candidate. Are we going to recommend her to the mayor? Is that what we decided?
Yeah. And so what I'll do is I'll just, I was trying to chat Julius to see if he had anything,
but he's out. So he will be back tomorrow. So I'll get in contact with him to let him know that you
all recommend Rebecca. Thank you. You're welcome. Awesome. Thank you so much. This meeting is adjourned.