WEBVTT 00:00:07.682 --> 00:00:15.000 - and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Bloomington City Council met on February 18th. During 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:21.972 - public comment, local residents urged the council to consider cutting the city's contract with Flock 00:00:21.972 --> 00:00:29.428 - Safety, a surveillance company that has been utilized by immigration and customs enforcement. One resident, 00:00:29.428 --> 00:00:37.022 - Sam, says he wants the council to ban Flock altogether. I just think we need to go a lot further because this 00:00:37.122 --> 00:00:43.402 - is a threat to our lives when you think about who can use it. I do not believe the mayor's line that 00:00:43.402 --> 00:00:49.619 - this is a purpose-driven limited use tool, because by definition is a general surveillance network. 00:00:49.619 --> 00:00:55.837 - The data is live-streamed, the cameras are independently powered and networked, the public does not 00:00:55.837 --> 00:01:02.365 - own the data, the public cannot access the data. We don't know who can get it, and it's been shown being 00:01:02.365 --> 00:01:05.598 - used in terrible ways. So I would ask you, council, 00:01:05.730 --> 00:01:11.670 - to go a step further and create an ordinance to ban the use of FLOC and similar fascist technologies 00:01:11.670 --> 00:01:17.552 - and help stand up for citizens here. I know the current contracts have terms in them that you can't 00:01:17.552 --> 00:01:23.492 - necessarily touch, but you can ban future use beyond those contracts, and it takes an ordinance from 00:01:23.492 --> 00:01:29.374 - council. So please consider that. Thank you for your time. And that's your time. Thank you so much. 00:01:29.538 --> 00:01:37.112 - Another resident Seaforth Breeze says that they live down the road from where a flock camera is installed. 00:01:37.112 --> 00:01:44.403 - Breeze says that they believe flock is not accountable to the public. My name is Seaforth Breeze. I've 00:01:44.403 --> 00:01:51.836 - been a resident in Bloomington for a little over a decade now at this stage. I wish to speak about flock 00:01:51.836 --> 00:01:59.198 - cameras. I'll keep my comment pretty brief. The residence that I'm currently staying at, it's a rental. 00:01:59.778 --> 00:02:08.876 - is directly in the line of sight just down a hill from one of the cameras. Every single day, when I 00:02:08.876 --> 00:02:18.246 - cycle to work, when I get in my car, all hours, even when I'm on my patio, the camera is staring right 00:02:18.246 --> 00:02:25.342 - down at me. To bring back one of the earlier public comments, these companies 00:02:25.602 --> 00:02:32.972 - and it's not just flock but expanding beyond that to the security apparatus that is represented by these 00:02:32.972 --> 00:02:40.131 - companies, they are not accountable to the public in a meaningful way. They have been demonstrated on 00:02:40.131 --> 00:02:47.430 - numerous occasions now in cities as far-flung as like California, for example, to have ignored requests 00:02:47.430 --> 00:02:54.238 - from the municipalities that they contract with to keep the data contained to that municipality. 00:02:55.106 --> 00:03:06.079 - You know, I'm relatively young. I'm around 30ish and like seeing the expansion of this technology into 00:03:06.079 --> 00:03:16.945 - every part of my life, into every venue from my workplace, when I'm driving down the street, when I'm 00:03:16.945 --> 00:03:23.870 - going into the shops, when I am, I mean just everywhere. It is a 00:03:25.154 --> 00:03:33.023 - tech solution that does not have a horizon. And it justifies, you know, it's a response that is not 00:03:33.023 --> 00:03:41.129 - solving things. It is retroactively putting Band-Aids on more structural concerns and needs. Community 00:03:41.129 --> 00:03:47.582 - member Moby Jean Glazer also urged the council to cancel its contract with Flock. 00:03:48.450 --> 00:03:54.035 - I want to encourage all members of council to take every possible action available to them to end the 00:03:54.035 --> 00:03:59.127 - current contract with FLOC and to prevent any future contracts from being made. Right now we 00:03:59.127 --> 00:04:04.931 - need preventative and proactive measures taken to ensure the safety of our community members. In a recent 00:04:04.931 --> 00:04:10.516 - town hall, I asked Mayor Thompson about FLOC surveillance and its benefit risks to our community. And 00:04:10.516 --> 00:04:14.622 - she said she did not believe this technology is surveilling our community. 00:04:15.330 --> 00:04:20.878 - However, myself and many others strongly disagree with her. She spoke to the contract itself as a means 00:04:20.878 --> 00:04:26.266 - of creating safety and preventing abuse. Many folks feel we cannot trust Flock to keep our community 00:04:26.266 --> 00:04:31.761 - safe and believe there's too much potential for those in power to harm our community. This is informed 00:04:31.761 --> 00:04:37.309 - by what we are seeing nationally in regards to Flock data being used against protesters, by ICE to harm 00:04:37.309 --> 00:04:40.830 - community members, by a police officer to stalk a former partner, 00:04:40.994 --> 00:04:46.165 - by police officers to track community members accessing reproductive health care in other states. And 00:04:46.165 --> 00:04:51.387 - these are just a few documented examples. Considering the violent and oppressive nature of our current 00:04:51.387 --> 00:04:56.659 - federal and state governments and the legislation we are seeing proposed especially at the state level, 00:04:56.659 --> 00:05:01.374 - the safest thing we can do locally in regards to FLOC is to end the contract and remove FLOC 00:05:01.506 --> 00:05:07.644 - from our community. Councilmember Isak Asari introduced a draft resolution that addressed automated 00:05:07.644 --> 00:05:14.028 - license plate readers. According to a letter that he sent to the council, the resolution pauses further 00:05:14.028 --> 00:05:19.675 - expansion of FLOC systems and other automated license plate readers. Asari calls it, quote, 00:05:19.675 --> 00:05:24.094 - a first step, unquote, toward curbing the city's affiliation with FLOC. 00:05:25.250 --> 00:05:31.470 - The Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees met on February 18th. In his monthly report, Library 00:05:31.470 --> 00:05:37.690 - Director Greer Carson updated the board on their partnership with Health Net, a health care and support 00:05:37.690 --> 00:05:39.006 - service organization. 00:05:40.322 --> 00:05:45.679 - Our partnership with Health Net resumed in January. You may recall a couple of years ago we started 00:05:45.679 --> 00:05:50.660 - that partnership when we had some folks from Health Net come and speak to you all about what 00:05:50.660 --> 00:05:56.231 - their partnership and what their work is all about. That started in January after a brief hiatus. We're 00:05:56.231 --> 00:06:01.695 - glad to be able to work with the group again. They provide space and opportunities to support patrons 00:06:01.695 --> 00:06:07.319 - who are experiencing homelessness, who have some basic health needs, and they provide referrals to those 00:06:07.319 --> 00:06:08.926 - folks for more serious needs. 00:06:09.570 --> 00:06:17.500 - General Manager of Community Access Television Services, Martin O'Neill, reviewed the CATS annual contracts 00:06:17.500 --> 00:06:24.842 - with the board. Four contracts this evening, one from the city, the county, town of Ellisville, and 00:06:24.842 --> 00:06:32.258 - a memorandum of understanding with WFHB. The city contract is a one percent increase over last year, 00:06:32.258 --> 00:06:39.454 - county is a three percent increase, Ellisville is a two percent, and our agreement with WFHB that 00:06:39.906 --> 00:06:47.579 - That is the continuation of our weekly government roundup show called Cats Week that we do every Friday. 00:06:47.579 --> 00:06:55.106 - And that's basically it. The Cats annual contracts were approved unanimously. Next, communications and 00:06:55.106 --> 00:07:02.852 - marketing director Tori Lawhorn presented the library's Banned Books Week campaign. We did kind of quotes 00:07:02.852 --> 00:07:09.502 - on banned books and intellectual freedom. We did the top 10 most challenged books and why. 00:07:09.730 --> 00:07:16.885 - kind of educate our audience on that. We also were able to reserve half of the glass case in City Hall 00:07:16.885 --> 00:07:23.902 - for September, which is something we haven't been able to do before. So that was another way to kind 00:07:23.902 --> 00:07:26.750 - of get our message out in the community. 00:07:27.650 --> 00:07:34.803 - We also always have a blog post that talks about statistics for book challenges and intellectual freedom, 00:07:34.803 --> 00:07:41.889 - especially throughout the country. ALA always releases those numbers right before National Library Week. 00:07:41.889 --> 00:07:48.705 - So we try to make sure that our posts and our content are always data-driven to inform our audiences 00:07:48.705 --> 00:07:55.454 - as well. And those always do really well. The MCPO Board of Trustees will meet again on March 25th. 00:07:56.354 --> 00:08:03.665 - the Richland Bean Blossom School Board met on February 17th. District Business Manager Paul Federle 00:08:03.665 --> 00:08:11.195 - gave an update on cash flows for 2026 through 2028, the timeline for the school's three-year financial 00:08:11.195 --> 00:08:18.506 - plan. He said 2026 numbers are already being made available. I encourage you to keep an eye on your 00:08:18.506 --> 00:08:25.598 - beginning balance in January and your ending balance in December. That's what this is all about. 00:08:25.730 --> 00:08:34.607 - knowing what's coming before it gets here, okay? So then because of that loss of revenue in 2026 and 00:08:34.607 --> 00:08:43.836 - knowing we need to have at some point a discussion about 2027 and 2028 because of what the legislature's 00:08:43.836 --> 00:08:53.065 - done to you. You've heard me say you're gonna lose 900,000 to a million dollars in your operations fund. 00:08:53.065 --> 00:08:55.262 - That's not chicken feet. 00:08:55.714 --> 00:09:02.546 - We're really gonna have to prepare for that two or three years down the road. Board member Brad Tucker 00:09:02.546 --> 00:09:09.180 - noted that the school is over budget by roughly $1 million in the next three years. Federally added 00:09:09.180 --> 00:09:15.880 - that the overage does not include consideration for additional costs, saying the town reorganization 00:09:15.880 --> 00:09:22.646 - could cost the school half of a million additional dollars. I was interested in what's happening here 00:09:22.646 --> 00:09:24.702 - with your city and the county. 00:09:25.058 --> 00:09:32.104 - and I saw that number. And so that's not in here, okay? So we're gonna, that's what we need to talk 00:09:32.104 --> 00:09:39.361 - about, stuff like that. So we're blessed to have a cash balance from some good, making good decisions, 00:09:39.361 --> 00:09:43.518 - but some things are being taken out of our hands now. Yes. 00:09:43.938 --> 00:09:50.622 - RBB Director of Budget and Finances, Debbie Tate, then updated the board on the status of two students 00:09:50.622 --> 00:09:57.242 - in private placements for special education. The two placements cost the school almost $1 million per 00:09:57.242 --> 00:10:03.731 - year. Board members asked how the school affords it. RBB Director of Special Education, Noah Dixon, 00:10:03.731 --> 00:10:10.351 - said that the state reimburses a large part of that cost. That's kind of the very nice thing with the 00:10:10.351 --> 00:10:13.790 - seek reimbursement that we get in the sense of if we 00:10:13.986 --> 00:10:20.593 - didn't have it, then we would be paying, I mean, without reimbursement, like for the JRC, $877,000. 00:10:20.593 --> 00:10:25.086 - But very thankfully, the state does give us that allowance to where 00:10:25.186 --> 00:10:31.244 - we're just paying a minimum and then the rest gets reimbursed. So. Dixon said that the students require 00:10:31.244 --> 00:10:37.185 - special placements because the school cannot provide them the help that they need. Board member Larry 00:10:37.185 --> 00:10:43.418 - DeMoss said special education reimbursements were discussed at the state house this week, but the chairman 00:10:43.418 --> 00:10:49.359 - of the education committee said there is nothing the state can do this session. On February 19th, the 00:10:49.359 --> 00:10:54.718 - Monroe County election board met to discuss the upcoming primary election and early voting. 00:10:54.850 --> 00:11:04.526 - The board is still deciding whether early voting will be 28 or 16 days before election day. Early voting 00:11:04.526 --> 00:11:13.925 - hours are also being determined. That if we're going to the 16 days, then the resources that we would 00:11:13.925 --> 00:11:24.062 - have spent between the 16 and 28, that we might be able to use those resources to add more polling locations. 00:11:24.962 --> 00:11:34.121 - for Election Day. But Election Day is a different situation than early voting. And in this county so 00:11:34.121 --> 00:11:43.734 - far, we've been about 50-50 for early voting versus Election Day. A lot of people cannot vote on Election 00:11:43.734 --> 00:11:52.803 - Day. They have to go to work. And they have to perhaps work 20, 30 miles away from where they vote. 00:11:52.803 --> 00:11:53.982 - So extending 00:11:54.306 --> 00:12:00.743 - Early voting hours would allow those people maybe a better time and shorten lines. And I don't think 00:12:00.743 --> 00:12:07.307 - we can make those decisions until we actually know when or how many days we're going to be voting. The 00:12:07.307 --> 00:12:13.808 - upcoming election will have more polling locations and will include new sites. Registered voters will 00:12:13.808 --> 00:12:18.014 - receive a postcard with election information in the coming weeks. 00:12:18.754 --> 00:12:24.873 - So a postcard will have to go out to every registered voter anyways before the election. We do that 00:12:24.873 --> 00:12:31.482 - after voter list maintenance to ensure that everybody is up to date and that they have correct information. 00:12:31.482 --> 00:12:37.663 - That would be a question for Clerk Brown I feel because I've not been here yet when we had to update 00:12:37.663 --> 00:12:39.070 - some of the locations. 00:12:39.874 --> 00:12:47.118 - The board then discussed potential problems with the updated voting locations and times. Jack Schmidt, 00:12:47.118 --> 00:12:54.643 - a proxy for board member Danny Shields, shared how voters can best help themselves. I think it's incumbent 00:12:54.643 --> 00:13:01.746 - upon us all to remember that voting is a privilege, and it's something that we should open ourselves 00:13:01.746 --> 00:13:08.638 - up to know where we need to go, when we need to go, and how we can vote. So the idea of having it 00:13:08.738 --> 00:13:14.785 - easy for everybody every single day. I think it's a bit extreme in my book. I think we just need to 00:13:14.785 --> 00:13:20.833 - self-gate. This is the time you can vote. Here are the days. You've got early voting on these days. 00:13:20.833 --> 00:13:27.001 - Different ways you can do it as well. You've got folks who will take you to the site. So again, let's 00:13:27.001 --> 00:13:33.230 - give people a chance to realize that they're responsible as well for this wonderful right we have. The 00:13:33.230 --> 00:13:37.342 - next Monroe County Election Board meeting will be on February 24th. 00:13:38.338 --> 00:13:45.562 - The Monroe County Redevelopment Commission met on February 18th. Highway Director Lisa Ridge introduced 00:13:45.562 --> 00:13:52.508 - bids on Curry Pike reconstruction. We also did some televising on some of the stormwater structures 00:13:52.508 --> 00:13:59.662 - underneath Curry Pike to get a feel of what we need as part of the bid and the reconstruction. We also 00:13:59.662 --> 00:14:05.566 - identified different sidewalk areas that need sidewalk replacement, curb and gutter. 00:14:06.722 --> 00:14:14.689 - fix this along that way this this first phase is basically Bloomington city limits which is around Beasley 00:14:14.689 --> 00:14:22.508 - Drive to the state limits or city limits around State Road 48 just is just south of State Road 48. Ridge 00:14:22.508 --> 00:14:29.954 - introduced the firms that placed bids on the construction project. We received five bids the sealed 00:14:29.954 --> 00:14:35.166 - bids were opened on February 5th at the County Commissioners meeting. 00:14:36.386 --> 00:14:49.119 - DC construction services was the low bid of $679,428.75. Our engineer estimate at the time was $609,993.75. 00:14:49.119 --> 00:14:59.966 - As you can see from the bid tabulation sheets, the highest bid went on up to $1.29 million. 00:15:00.098 --> 00:15:05.441 - The board wanted the bids to be approved so that they can be discussed at the Commissioner's meeting 00:15:05.441 --> 00:15:08.350 - next week. The motion passed by a vote of four to one. 00:15:09.410 --> 00:15:15.823 - The Richland Township and Town of Ellisville Reorganization Committee met on February 18th, where town 00:15:15.823 --> 00:15:22.175 - manager Mike Farmer talked about public outreach. He said the committee has yard signs for people and 00:15:22.175 --> 00:15:28.588 - businesses to put out and asked about funding for a billboard. Committee member William Ellis said the 00:15:28.588 --> 00:15:34.939 - billboard should be put up closer to the vote. I would hope that any organizations that donate to put 00:15:34.939 --> 00:15:35.998 - the billboard up 00:15:37.090 --> 00:15:45.429 - would do that closer to the vote. And I would suggest the digital one also by Kinzer 45, 46. Farmer 00:15:45.429 --> 00:15:53.183 - said he met with the Builders Association about the logistics of the reorganization process. 00:15:53.183 --> 00:16:01.522 - All the builders, obviously, are interested in what we're doing and what it might mean to them. The 00:16:01.522 --> 00:16:06.942 - other thing is, when I talk to the Builders Association, they're 00:16:10.658 --> 00:16:19.850 - They wondered if we would like to have a booth for free so we could provide information and answer questions. 00:16:19.850 --> 00:16:28.206 - Committee member Jerry Sanders said he could probably help with tabling. Mason Greenberg, a Realtor 00:16:28.206 --> 00:16:36.646 - of the Government Affairs Committee for the Indiana Upland Realtor Association, said the association 00:16:36.646 --> 00:16:40.574 - supports the reorganization. I came tonight to 00:16:42.114 --> 00:16:50.677 - see if there's any public opposition, any reason why we wouldn't want to support it, just making sure 00:16:50.677 --> 00:16:59.408 - we're having all perspectives in mind. So if there's anyone here with that perspective, I would welcome 00:16:59.408 --> 00:17:07.887 - hearing it, but I also just want to know that we're interested in being a vocal resource, a resource 00:17:07.887 --> 00:17:09.566 - in getting this out 00:17:10.018 --> 00:17:16.425 - And so understanding when and where we can, that's important for us. Ellis said he has heard public 00:17:16.425 --> 00:17:23.089 - opposition because there is not a finalized plan. He said the committee is working to address community 00:17:23.089 --> 00:17:29.880 - concerns as they arise. Committee member Andrew Henry then brought up subcommittees and reports. I really 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:34.814 - like that idea because I want people to be able to see the unfiltered report 00:17:35.266 --> 00:17:41.255 - from the subcommittee. I also wanted to note there have been a bunch of updates to the website, which 00:17:41.255 --> 00:17:47.302 - is ellitsvillerichlandinfo.org. All the contact info for all the subcommittee volunteers is now listed 00:17:47.302 --> 00:17:53.349 - there. So if you want to contact any specific subcommittee volunteer on any one of the committees, all 00:17:53.349 --> 00:17:59.338 - their contact info is now there and you can ask them questions, give feedback, give suggestions while 00:17:59.338 --> 00:18:04.446 - they're still submitting and drafting their reports before they come to us for review. 00:18:04.898 --> 00:18:11.556 - So at the end of February, we get draft reports. We have a week to go back and forth with the subcommittees. 00:18:11.556 --> 00:18:17.726 - Then they submit final drafts in early March. And we have the rest of March for us to put together a 00:18:17.726 --> 00:18:21.758 - comprehensive proposal drawing on all those subcommittee reports. 00:18:22.082 --> 00:18:27.973 - The draft reports are due on February 27th and the finalized versions on March 4th. Henry said 00:18:27.973 --> 00:18:34.422 - the reorganization committee has until April 1st to use the reports to create a comprehensive proposal. 00:18:34.422 --> 00:18:41.181 - But I would really like the public to have access to all those subcommittee reports, unmodified, unredacted, 00:18:41.181 --> 00:18:47.444 - unsynthesized, so that anybody can look at them and see exactly what the subcommittee gave to us and 00:18:47.444 --> 00:18:50.110 - then compare that later with our proposal. 00:18:51.074 --> 00:18:57.620 - Ellis said the subcommittee members and the public should be involved in modifications to the reports. 00:18:57.620 --> 00:19:04.038 - He then made a motion to post final subcommittee draft reports before they are combined into a final 00:19:04.038 --> 00:19:10.520 - plan. The motion passed unanimously. During public comment, Ellisville resident Lisa McCarchuck asked 00:19:10.520 --> 00:19:17.193 - how the reorganization would affect taxes. She said to her understanding, there are twice as many voters 00:19:17.193 --> 00:19:18.782 - outside the city limits. 00:19:20.034 --> 00:19:32.198 - it's an easier sell to that majority to join Aletsville. It's not gonna impact their tax rate as much. 00:19:32.198 --> 00:19:44.243 - And so I think you know where I'm going with this. I would hope that as soon as possible, there would 00:19:44.243 --> 00:19:47.550 - be a clear communication to 00:19:48.130 --> 00:19:54.795 - all the residents of the affected area as to how this will affect their taxes. Ellis said that the tax 00:19:54.795 --> 00:20:01.394 - changes are still fluid and will depend on services outlined in the plan. Ellis said the website will 00:20:01.394 --> 00:20:08.253 - have all the information about the reorganization and people can contact him with questions. The Richland 00:20:08.253 --> 00:20:14.206 - Township and Town of Ellitsville Reorganization Committee will meet again on February 25th. 00:20:15.202 --> 00:20:22.590 - And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.