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 Hello and welcome to "Cats Week."
 I'm Annalise Poorman.
 The Monroe County Board of Health
 met on Thursday, March 20th.
 During public comment,
 county resident Melanie Davis spoke to the board
 about a name and gender change that was denied.
 Davis expressed concern that there has not been
 enough clarity to help people impacted
 to navigate the executive order
 instated by Governor Mike Braun.
 I had a friend come in earlier,
 I guess a week ago,
 who had a court order to change her daughter's
 and her gender on the birth certificate.
 And that was denied.
 And we've gone through a lot.
 They're actually trying to seek legal counsel
 through the ACLU, I understand that this has been
 something that was handed down from the state.
 So it's not just a no-county,
 but actually, I mean, I can't ask questions,
 but I will make some clarification.
 We handed this down, where this came from,
 where we can find more information on this,
 because this is,
 I understand it's in respect to
 the executive orders from Governor Bond.
 However, it's going to affect a lot of people,
 including people like myself,
 who are members of the intersex community.
 I didn't find out until I was an adult.
 I'm also transgender because I was raised as an adult.
 But people who are intersex also will be impacted by this.
 And there's no clarity.
 There's nothing that's been put out for the public.
 There's been nothing that would help people navigate this
 and also find their address.
 Health Department Director Lori Kelly
 explained that the local county vital records department
 is able to make name changes.
 However, they can only request a gender change,
 and then the Indiana Department of Health
 is in charge of making the gender change.
 Guidance in the past that we have received historically
 is that the Indiana Department of Health
 is the organization that makes gender changes.
 So when individuals present to the health department,
 we do have access to go in and make name changes.
 The process then goes to submit a ticket
 to the Indiana Department of Health
 to have a gender change made.
 What we received from the Indiana Department of Health
 on March 14th was that they will no longer process
 gender change requests.
 And so that's kind of the situation
 I think we've been dealing with now.
 So it's counties between the rock and the hard place
 if they have a parent come into the court order
 saying to change the gender,
 yet IDOH is saying don't change the gender.
 IDOH actually is the one who goes in
 and makes that change.
 And we have been instructed that we cannot make that change
 that it goes through the Indiana Department of Health.
 Chair of the board, Aurora DiOrio,
 followed up asking for clarification.
 County registrar, Kathy Hertz responded.
 Forgive my ignorance of how the data system works,
 but we're, we in vital records,
 we can request some change be made,
 but we can't actually make the change.
 Is that a good way to say it or no?
 The state has always mandated local health departments
 not do gender changes.
 They will never tell us why,
 but they've said we can do the main change,
 but we have to put in a request
 for them to do the gender change.
 So following that instruction,
 last week with what I assume was your friend,
 they told us they were not going to do them anymore
 citing the governor's order.
 And I am holding a court order instructing all,
 anyone issuing an identity document to change the gender
 and they wouldn't do it.
 They have told us we're not allowed to do it.
 So that's where we are.
 Okay, so we're between the rock and the hard place.
 The state registrar and division director
 at the Indiana Department of Health
 reached out to county health departments
 with guidance on the new executive order.
 County attorney, Dave Schilling,
 explained what the guidance entails.
 Basically, this sets forth all the statutory requirements
 relating to creation of birth records
 and the role of the health department in.
 So the court's order basically say,
 we're directing anybody that has issues, identity,
 records, including the state board of health
 and its subsidiary.
 So we're an establishment, we're a subsidiary,
 talks about the process that we go through.
 And then it talks about the state requirements
 for maintaining the birth records
 on the Indiana birth records system.
 And in those, we also have our own birth records system
 for people born up to 2006.
 And that's under the county control.
 So what the county has done, and after that,
 it's the state that the state has been maintaining records
 on the Indiana birth records system.
 So what this is basically saying is,
 when we get an order from the court,
 we change the name and the gender marker
 on our local system.
 We have the authorities change the name on the state system,
 but not the gender marker.
 So then we send it up to the state.
 We used to send it up with a ticket.
 Then they've let us know that they're not even processing
 those tickets until they hear from the attorney general.
 So we just send copies for the order
 to the state board of health there,
 their vital records response team or whatever it's called.
 And that's what we're doing.
 And if a record comes in that is 2006 before,
 change in ours, if not, then send to the state.
 So we will, I just wanna be super clear for everybody
 before we have a discussion.
 So we will change gender on a record that we have control
 over which means 2006 and older.
 That's, I think that's what we've been doing.
 Okay.
 And we don't have control of anything newer like 2007 on,
 so we are unable to change that.
 Oh, we can only change the name.
 Okay.
 Because the state has authorized us to do that.
 The board of health voted to submit a legal report
 which documents the Monroe County health department's
 compliance with the court order to change a petitioner's name
 and gender marker on local birth records,
 despite Governor Braun's executive order
 prohibiting state agencies
 from processing gender marker changes.
 County health board members discussed
 what the report entails.
 This would be, the intent of this is to possibly
 file this with the issuing court just to let the court know
 that the county has complied with its order
 for the next thing that came.
 Basically, this outlines the circumstance
 which we, and how we know about making our decision, really.
 I guess the form of this document here,
 if you believe that, that any word that walks in,
 we can just plug in the cause notes and other things.
 But Lisa, the ticket, if somebody comes under the order,
 we'll do the ticket process with the state
 and then file this, which basically says,
 we've changed from our records
 and done the ticket process with the state.
 Okay.
 The board voted unanimously to file the legal report
 in the Monroe Circuit Court.
 The Monroe County Board of Health
 will meet again on April 17th.
 The Monroe County Women's Commission met on March 20th.
 During commissioner updates,
 Commissioner Juliet Hardesty shared what her goals are
 as vice chair of the commission.
 I do wanna say happy first day of spring,
 whether or not it feels like it,
 and also happy Women's History Month,
 and let's go make some women's history now.
 So I'm now, I'm vice chair this year,
 and what I'm interested in doing,
 kind of wanting to see what you all think,
 but I'm interested in what information is available
 about the status of women in Monroe County.
 And it's been something I've maybe been kind of
 circling around a bit for a while,
 but I'm interested in digging into that a little bit,
 and I'm also interested in what information
 is not available, that's kind of the other side of it.
 So, and then the sources of any information,
 and if that's like community organizations,
 or local or county government, state level,
 or federal level, and if the information has been available
 and is removed or no longer made available,
 I think I'm kind of interested in looking at that
 as time goes on this year.
 I think there are some topics of information
 that seem like they're pretty easy to come by
 for Monroe County, such as wage gap for women,
 number of women-owned businesses, life expectancy,
 age group trends county-wide, that sort of thing.
 I think those seem to be like
 they're gonna be pretty easy to find,
 but there are other topics related to the status of women,
 like the number of women experiencing homelessness,
 number of women property owners,
 trends in contraception and miscarriage and abortion
 and birth support in the county,
 the number of women supporting children in the home,
 the percentage of women in elected positions,
 trends in childcare support,
 trends in gender affirming care,
 trends in post-menopausal healthcare
 and topics that impact other marginalized genders,
 and those I think are gonna be more difficult to get at,
 but things like that I'm kind of interested
 to see what we can find out
 that can give us a way to share a fuller picture
 of the lived experience of marginalized genders
 in Monroe County than what we can share,
 even as the members of the Women's Commission like we are.
 So I'm planning on researching a topic for each meeting
 and sharing what I'm finding or not finding.
 Hardesty continued to explain her goal
 to provide an update at each meeting
 about what information is available to the community
 and what is not available
 on the status of women in Monroe County.
 As a very basic baseline of information,
 at the federal level,
 the United States Census has a quick facts sheet
 on Monroe County, Indiana.
 So this is not just Bloomington,
 but it's all of Monroe County.
 And at the estimated total population of Monroe County
 as of July 1st, 2024, so that's July of last year,
 is 140,702 people.
 And they also estimate that of that population,
 50.3% of that population is female.
 So that puts the estimate at 70,773 people are women.
 So the topics we'll be getting into
 impact more than half of the population in Monroe County.
 Can consider things that way.
 The topics we might not be able to find out
 anything about impact more than half the people
 in Monroe County.
 And the historic inequities that have existed
 for over 200 years since the founding of this county
 in 1818, now affect more than half the people in the county.
 So I'm not going to get into any particular topic today,
 but because I wanna hear, I'm kind of interested
 to hear what you all think about this as a concept
 and what sorts of things you might think
 or you're considering are important
 to find out more about.
 But this is what I'd like to focus on
 for the remainder of my time as vice chair
 when I'm giving updates.
 So we can see where it takes us.
 Later in the meeting, Hardesty shared a presentation
 that she's been working on with commissioner Maria Douglas
 to present to Monroe County commissioners
 to contribute to the conversation of the new jail.
 To get a little bit of background on this,
 starting, this kind of came out of work
 that the Monroe County Women's Commission did
 when we were considering issues around
 the new Monroe County jail
 in terms of women and marginalized genders.
 And we were doing this work in 2023 and 2024.
 And we were arriving at topics
 that we wanted to make sure were brought up and considered
 around things like separate areas
 needed for safety based on gender,
 things like needing menstruation supplies provided,
 needing care for pregnancy, giving birth and childcare
 when people are incarcerated.
 And then diversion support
 needing to include childcare support
 and reentry support needing to include childcare support.
 So making sure those sorts of things
 were being considered when a new facility
 and a new system for the Monroe County jail
 was being considered.
 And working on this, we started contemplating
 that this lens of supporting
 and improving conditions for marginalized genders
 could be used to evaluate policies and ordinances as well
 and improve the lives of all county residents
 by centering and elevating gender equity concerns.
 So we are proposing this gender equity rubric
 to the Monroe County commissioners
 as a tool that they can use
 to help mitigate these inequities
 and produce better ordinances and policies
 that are better explained and maintained
 for everyone in our community.
 She went over the next steps and recommendations
 for implementing the gender equity rubric.
 The next steps for this are we hope to finalize these,
 finalize the rubric and the guidelines
 possibly with another test run
 on a county ordinance or policy.
 I think it would be interesting to see this
 in more of a conversational setting
 where multiple people are trying this out.
 And then we're interested if it's possible
 to publish both the rubric and the guidelines
 on the Monroe County Women's Commission webpage.
 And at that point, it's a tool that is available
 for public use.
 So it would not be just something that county government
 or local government could use,
 something that businesses could consider,
 community organizations could consider,
 anyone that is putting policies into place.
 Commission members recommend that they reach out
 to a subject matter expert like a gender equity professor
 at Indiana University before they present
 to the commissioners.
 The Monroe County Women's Commission will meet again
 on April 17th.
 The Waste Reduction District Citizens Advisory Committee
 met on March 20th.
 Executive Director at Waste Reduction District
 of Monroe County, Tom Glassen,
 gave an update on legislation that could impact the county.
 There was a number of bills,
 this legislation that we were monitoring.
 And of all the ones that we were monitoring,
 only three House bills and one Senate bill
 actually made it over to the other chamber.
 And at this point, none of the four had any action.
 One is actually had a hearing and they held it in committee.
 They said they would bring it back up,
 but they held it in committee for the time being.
 So the bills that are still moving,
 one was originally drafted to address executive sessions
 of a governing body and add some additional topics
 that would be covered by the executive sessions.
 While that's still there, that's since been amended to,
 for lack of a better way to phrase it,
 it appears that somebody added amendments
 trying to fix all of the virtual meeting stuff
 that was rushed through when COVID ends there.
 So they're shoring up some of the requirements
 of the virtual components of public meetings.
 And the one, I guess the one tidbit that's in there
 is it does provide a mechanism of public to challenge
 the facts taken at a meeting if there's a problem
 with the virtual, any disruption of the streaming
 or technological failure.
 So that's something that we're watching.
 Another house bill had to do with doing public notices
 on a website that the state would establish
 that would satisfy the statutory public notice
 requirements that did make it out of the house
 into the Senate.
 Obviously the newspaper lobby,
 it's very vocal against that bill.
 That is the one that did get one hearing
 in the Senate committee, still in that committee.
 Another one is a bill that has to do,
 title is waste disposal.
 But what it does is define illegal dumping
 and make that a criminal offense, misdemeanor.
 That's one that we're pleased to see and following.
 And it made it through the house 95 to zero.
 Well, it certainly has bipartisan support there.
 He continued to explain that one bill
 could impact them financially
 if they have to focus on cybersecurity.
 The one Senate bill we're watching
 is an environmental matters bill,
 but what it has in it is cybersecurity requirements
 for publicly-owned wastewater treatment works,
 which the Leachate Treatment Finance Land Bill
 would qualify, would be defined
 as publicly-owned treatment work.
 So that's one that we're watching,
 'cause that would certainly, if it goes through,
 would have an impact on us.
 Potentially a financial impact
 that may or may not be significant.
 I understand the purpose behind the bill.
 Talked to a couple of senators
 and suggested, requested to maybe an amendment be proposed
 to have it applied to facilities
 that are doing over X thousand gallons a day.
 So let me, I don't view our facility
 that's doing 25,000 gallons a day
 as a priority target for somebody
 that really wants to do something.
 The next meeting of the Waste Reduction District
 Citizens Advisory Committee will happen on April 17th.
 The Monroe County Plan Commission met on March 18th.
 The commission held the final hearing
 for the Southern Meadows Major Subdivision
 Preliminary Platt Amendment Two.
 Senior Planner, Drew Myers,
 presented a summary of the request.
 The petitioner requests to amend the phasing schedule
 of the Southern Meadows Major Subdivision Preliminary Platt.
 Phases one, two, and three have been platted and recorded.
 The acquisition of building permits
 and the construction of single-family residences
 within each of the three phases is ongoing.
 The petitioner now requests new configuration
 of phases four through six.
 Phase four will be split up into two non-contiguous sections
 with a total of 16 lots and will include the construction
 of the road connection to South College Drive.
 Phase five will be reconfigured and consists of 10 lots.
 Phase six will be split up into two non-contiguous sections
 with a total of 10 lots and will include the construction
 of the asphalt side path to Clear Creek Elementary.
 Although phase four and phase six involve
 non-contiguous sections, each phase will be built out
 as if it were one contiguous phase.
 And after reviewing the language
 in the 1997 Subdivision Control Ordinance,
 the legal department confirmed
 that the Subdivision Control Ordinance
 does not preclude developers from using this strategy
 for configuring subdivision phases.
 The approval of this preliminary plot amendment
 will retain the original plan for the roadway connection
 to South College Drive to occur within phase four.
 And the additional turn lane on South Old State Road 37
 onto South Orchard Lane will also remain with phase four
 under this preliminary plot amendment.
 The asphalt side path to Clear Creek Elementary
 will remain with phase six.
 So some new language with this update for tonight's meeting.
 This preliminary plot amendment also involves a change
 to the written commitment.
 You'll see exhibits seven and eight in the staff report
 with respect to the improvements currently detailed
 to occur under phase four through phase six.
 The written commitment amendment,
 specifically exhibit eight, updates the timeline
 for completion of these offsite improvements
 and establishes commitments
 to the timing of their completion.
 For example, the petitioner commits to the installation
 of the roadway from South Abington Avenue
 to South College Drive to be installed
 prior to recording the final plot for phase four,
 save for final asphalt coat, sidewalks, and street trees.
 During public comment on the development,
 county residents, Randy Cassidy and Tammy Wickle Cassidy
 said that they want the improvements
 that were promised to be followed through
 and asked the commission to help facilitate that.
 I hope that we're able to move this forward
 so that these improvements can get done,
 especially the ones that were committed to
 by the developer before the current owners
 even owned that property and before I was even allowed
 to bring a petition forward from IPUD.
 The plan commission committed or made the developer commit
 to making these improvements along South Roger Street
 and that road.
 So please do what it takes for that to be able to get done.
 The only reason there's not a floodway permit
 is because there were two permits
 and once you have a second permit
 and it expires with the state, it is not renewable.
 It would not have been allowed to expire.
 We inquired about it last year.
 It's why we rushed to get our sewer laterals
 across under South Roger Street and get done
 and get out of the floodway so that our work on CINL side
 is out of the floodway for phases one and two.
 So please honor those commitments
 that the county made last time
 to because that was all part of our tearing down our building
 and allowing them to come through
 and make the road to connect to their project.
 Otherwise they would have had no connection at all.
 So they made commitments to us as well to do that road,
 to do that improvement, to do that intersection
 and please let's promote what it takes
 to help them get it done, not to hinder it.
 Commissioner Tron Enright-Randolph said
 that the petition has had issues
 but that he thinks that the amendment with the changes
 is the best solution.
 There's a lot of petitions
 that kind of don't necessarily move in the ideal manner.
 And we've seen a few of those.
 I do think what planning has put together
 allows us to move forward
 and achieve those public improvement projects.
 And also I think there's a few other commitments
 with kind of the multi-use trail connection
 and other things that wouldn't have been put in place
 until they got to those certain phases.
 So I'm willing to support this.
 It's not the position I like to be in
 because there's been a lot of issues with this petition
 but I feel like this is the best situation that we have.
 Commissioner David Henry thanked everyone
 for the work that they've done.
 I just wanna thank both staff and petitioner
 for their perseverance on working through this.
 I know we've been on this matter for a few months now
 or at least since I've been involved with Plant Commission
 and to get to a place where we can get to an accommodation.
 To move forward, I also just wanna say again,
 I do appreciate that we will have another ingress
 and egress in that neighborhood
 for our emergency services personnel to get in and out of there
 which was a priority concern of mine
 as we moved this through.
 So thank you all concerned.
 Thank you, thank you.
 Does anyone else care to say something?
 I just wanna say one thing.
 I think the testimony tonight really describes
 how interrelated all these moving parts are.
 And we are a community
 and we want all of the approved projects to be successful
 and to not be as cost enhancing for the developers.
 And so we do have to be concerned
 about the safety of the property owners
 and of future property owners
 and of people who currently live there.
 And so I really commend staff
 and the petitioner for working through this
 and coming up with a solution.
 We hope we can get DNR on board sooner rather than later,
 but there are a lot of moving parts,
 but so thank you for working through that.
 Commission President Margaret Clements also spoke
 on the work that they've done to collaborate
 with the developers and current residents in the area.
 I think the testimony tonight really describes
 how interrelated all these moving parts are.
 And we are a community and we want all
 of the approved projects to be successful
 and to not be as cost enhancing for the developers.
 And so we do have to be concerned about the safety
 of the property owners and of future property owners
 and of people who currently live there.
 And so I really commend staff and the petitioner
 for working through this and coming up with a solution.
 We hope we can get DNR on board sooner rather than later,
 but there are a lot of moving parts,
 but so thank you for working through that.
 Commissioner Jeff Morris motion to approve
 the preliminary plat amendment two.
 For case SPP-24-4, the Southern Meadows
 major subdivision preliminary plat amendment two.
 I move approval of the preliminary plat amendment
 to alter the phasing subject to highway engineer
 and stormwater program manager reports
 with the conditions listed in the packet.
 The commission voted seven to zero to approve it.
 The Monroe County Plan Commission will meet again
 on April 15th.
 And that is all for Cats Week.
 Thank you for joining us.
 For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.
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 a.k.a. WFHB.
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