WEBVTT 00:00:04.738 --> 00:00:11.280 - Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. On September 3rd, the Monroe County Commissioners 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:17.696 - met to discuss a series of funding approvals for improved spam and phishing detectors, as well as for 00:00:17.696 --> 00:00:24.049 - fixing the air conditioning in the Monroe County Courthouse. The Commissioners also voted 2-0 to set 00:00:24.049 --> 00:00:30.528 - aside funds to replace the emergency exit doors in the Justice Building. A representative from Indiana 00:00:30.528 --> 00:00:34.302 - Door and Hardware Specialties, Inc. explained the contract. 00:00:34.530 --> 00:00:40.421 - We had two exit devices fell at the Justice Building and due to the secure nature, Commissioner Thomas 00:00:40.421 --> 00:00:46.369 - went ahead and signed the agreement so we could get that going. This request is to ratify the agreement 00:00:46.369 --> 00:00:52.432 - with Indiana Door and Hardware Specialties Inc in the amount of $7,840 for the replacement of two delayed 00:00:52.432 --> 00:00:55.006 - egress exit devices at the Justice Building. 00:00:55.394 --> 00:01:03.341 - Also during the meeting, the commissioners appropriated $20,000 for the public relations company, Hallowell 00:01:03.341 --> 00:01:10.773 - Consulting. Commissioner's administrator, Angie Purdy, explained the spending. This is a requirement 00:01:10.773 --> 00:01:17.689 - with Hallowell Consulting Services who will provide professional communications for the board 00:01:17.689 --> 00:01:23.870 - of commissioners, your county government using strategy, positioning, looking at... 00:01:25.474 --> 00:01:31.622 - development of those messages, working on media relations and public relations and engagement. Bloomington 00:01:31.622 --> 00:01:37.541 - resident Jamie Ford, who is also a volunteer at WFHB, disagreed with the decision. It seems to me that 00:01:37.541 --> 00:01:43.632 - you wouldn't need to spend $20,000 for a PR consultant firm to develop, quote, a strategic communications 00:01:43.632 --> 00:01:49.436 - framework designed to improve public understanding of the project and establish a consistent cadence 00:01:49.436 --> 00:01:51.102 - of communication, or, quote, 00:01:51.298 --> 00:01:56.554 - develop a clear, fact-based response to recurring questions and concerns surrounding this project," 00:01:56.554 --> 00:02:02.494 - if you didn't repeatedly say one thing and then contradict yourselves by saying and doing the complete opposite. 00:02:02.562 --> 00:02:07.576 - I hope the public is paying attention. More importantly, I hope the council is paying attention. Budget 00:02:07.576 --> 00:02:12.446 - hearings have started and departments are trimming their budgets as much as possible in an effort to 00:02:12.446 --> 00:02:17.268 - allow a mere 2% COLA increase for its employees. Meanwhile, y'all are throwing $20,000 at a PR firm 00:02:17.268 --> 00:02:22.186 - to help you keep your story straight. Clearly your budget is overinflated and therefore council needs 00:02:22.186 --> 00:02:27.055 - to slash it to the bare minimum. The commissioners unanimously agreed to pass the contract. The next 00:02:27.055 --> 00:02:30.334 - Monroe County commissioners meeting will be held on September 10th. 00:02:31.394 --> 00:02:38.072 - The Bloomington city council met on September 2nd and considered several pieces of legislation. Amongst 00:02:38.072 --> 00:02:44.879 - these was a discussion of the Bloomington city and place branding report. A representative of the company 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:51.429 - civic brand discussed their process of branding for the city. If the city of Bloomington actually did 00:02:51.429 --> 00:02:57.979 - spend $95,000 for a logo, I would be right there with you and say, that's insane. But that's not what 00:02:57.979 --> 00:02:58.750 - a brand is. 00:02:59.266 --> 00:03:06.636 - That's not what we were tasked with. That's not what the 116 page audit found. That's not what the 50 00:03:06.636 --> 00:03:13.933 - page implementation plan suggests. There is a visual identity component. It's a small piece of that. 00:03:13.933 --> 00:03:21.303 - We're going to talk about that. But place branding, what it is, is going back to those decisions that 00:03:21.303 --> 00:03:25.566 - people make every day. It's not about selling Bloomington. 00:03:26.402 --> 00:03:31.865 - to an outsider, it's not about an outside audience, it's about an internal audience. It's actually probably 00:03:31.865 --> 00:03:37.024 - more about council and staff and leadership and arming them with making choices. How do we, we're all 00:03:37.024 --> 00:03:42.234 - doing the best we can to make choices, decisions every single day, but even if you're making the right 00:03:42.234 --> 00:03:47.342 - choices, if we're all making choices in different directions, the sum doesn't add up to greater than 00:03:47.342 --> 00:03:52.350 - the part, so we're kind of just aimlessly drifting, and that's the challenge with a lot of cities. 00:03:52.898 --> 00:03:59.369 - And what a brand does is it creates a shared vision, a shared north star of this is what we're all trying 00:03:59.369 --> 00:04:05.473 - to solve. So that at every level of staff, council, budget, policy decision, all of those decisions 00:04:05.473 --> 00:04:11.456 - can slightly align towards one shared direction. Council members brought up a number of concerns. 00:04:11.456 --> 00:04:17.682 - Specifically, council member Sydney Zulek raised questions about the contracting process, questioning 00:04:17.682 --> 00:04:21.406 - why local firms were not considered for the $95,000 project. 00:04:22.114 --> 00:04:28.897 - Councilmember Isa Kasari went on to question the methods used to gather information for the report didn't 00:04:28.897 --> 00:04:35.296 - thinking about the method so You did two site visits. How long were you here on both site visits? I 00:04:35.296 --> 00:04:41.695 - think it was actually three because I think our team technically split the second year here now and 00:04:41.695 --> 00:04:46.046 - I'm here now Which is a separate visit? I think I don't know it was 00:04:46.786 --> 00:04:53.234 - three to four days per trip, so about probably eight days on the ground. And then those in-person trips 00:04:53.234 --> 00:04:59.496 - bookended some really robust virtual engagement that happened between those. How many in the virtual 00:04:59.496 --> 00:05:06.006 - engagements, how many people did you actually speak to? I don't have that number off the top of my head. 00:05:06.006 --> 00:05:12.454 - I do think it's captured in the audit, because we have here's the survey results, here's how many focus 00:05:12.454 --> 00:05:14.686 - groups, here's how many interviews. 00:05:15.138 --> 00:05:20.832 - I don't know that like at the pop-ups what was the methodological approach to choosing who you spoke 00:05:20.832 --> 00:05:26.807 - to. Yeah so at first we were looking at different stakeholder groups we want to talk to you know business 00:05:26.807 --> 00:05:31.486 - owners we would start to hear things we need to talk to students right so we were. 00:05:31.906 --> 00:05:36.734 - Identifying different groups and demographics that we felt like we needed to hear from also as we did 00:05:36.734 --> 00:05:41.467 - the online survey We're always paying attention not just who are we hearing from but who are we not 00:05:41.467 --> 00:05:46.484 - hearing from and then going to that and saying like hey We're not really getting responses from students. 00:05:46.484 --> 00:05:51.264 - For example, let's do a focus group And so we would work with staff of can you help us pull together 00:05:51.264 --> 00:05:56.423 - a focus group of students? members of the City Council also expressed concerns that the report was redundant 00:05:56.423 --> 00:05:58.174 - to the city's comprehensive plan and 00:05:58.562 --> 00:06:05.374 - Jane Cooper-Smith, Director of Economic and Sustainable Development responded. The primary recommendations, 00:06:05.374 --> 00:06:07.518 - one, two, three, four, five, six. 00:06:07.746 --> 00:06:13.244 - I think actually most of them have been implemented. So branding Bloomington was the first one that 00:06:13.244 --> 00:06:18.906 - didn't happen in the previous administration But it was identified because we knew that if we couldn't 00:06:18.906 --> 00:06:24.954 - tell our story as a community we could not market our community to other employers or talent so Councilmember 00:06:24.954 --> 00:06:30.451 - Rosenberger made a comment about attracting employers with abatements, but actually the primary The 00:06:30.451 --> 00:06:36.004 - primary we drive primary way we drive attraction is through quality of place initiatives. So quality 00:06:36.004 --> 00:06:37.598 - of place initiatives attract 00:06:38.082 --> 00:06:43.462 - Workforce and workforce attracts employers. It used to be decades ago that employees would go wherever 00:06:43.462 --> 00:06:48.842 - the jobs were but that's not the case anymore So what we've done in Bloomington is we've made a really 00:06:48.842 --> 00:06:54.170 - beautiful community with lots of assets that we don't know how to talk about so back in 2016 they had 00:06:54.170 --> 00:06:59.654 - already identified that we had this gap in In our communication and our way of talking about Bloomington 00:06:59.654 --> 00:07:04.094 - So that's why it was recommended number two create an innovation culture. So this is 00:07:04.322 --> 00:07:10.222 - Why we've been investing so significantly in the trades district, which has been incredibly successful 00:07:10.222 --> 00:07:15.951 - and there were questions about KPIs during my council presentation and I think It would be great to 00:07:15.951 --> 00:07:21.679 - share some of those successes and numbers with you in more detail creating quarterly business slash 00:07:21.679 --> 00:07:24.830 - academic stakeholder gatherings these were created and 00:07:24.930 --> 00:07:32.117 - It was called the Lido meetup. It was organized by the mill They happen now in different ways, but that 00:07:32.117 --> 00:07:39.373 - original Lido meetup that had town and gown economic development orgs some employers present those those 00:07:39.373 --> 00:07:46.352 - have been paused because I think that they were not They were helpful for relationship building, but 00:07:46.352 --> 00:07:48.702 - they weren't purposeful enough to 00:07:49.442 --> 00:07:55.035 - require the time skills, skills gap training to match Bloomington's existing labor pool with high demand, 00:07:55.035 --> 00:08:00.312 - high wage, local jobs. Well, we knocked this out of the park during the pandemic, frankly. And then 00:08:00.312 --> 00:08:05.748 - we have really great resources through work one and the state's workforce development programs and Ivy 00:08:05.748 --> 00:08:11.024 - tech and all the training that they do. City council member David Rollo questioned the value of the 00:08:11.024 --> 00:08:16.407 - report in the context of the city's budget constraints. This whole process has shown me that there is 00:08:16.407 --> 00:08:17.726 - a communication problem. 00:08:17.890 --> 00:08:27.422 - I think that The message has is flat as far as I can tell from feedback from people I've spoken to I 00:08:27.422 --> 00:08:37.142 - think mostly because we've just started budget We have budget constraints We are drawing down reserves 00:08:37.142 --> 00:08:46.579 - We're not keeping pace with Jack Hopkins funding social service funding relative to inflation which 00:08:46.579 --> 00:08:47.806 - I brought up 00:08:47.906 --> 00:08:54.593 - We're looking to raise taxes in various ways. We're looking to raise water rates. We're looking to raise 00:08:54.593 --> 00:09:01.153 - parking fees. And people are scrutinizing discretionary funding or spending. And so it comes at a time 00:09:01.153 --> 00:09:07.713 - when people are, I think they're limiting their budget right now and they wonder what they're getting. 00:09:07.713 --> 00:09:14.210 - Community member Rowan Morse expressed frustration with the lack of tangible suggestions presented to 00:09:14.210 --> 00:09:14.974 - the public. 00:09:15.362 --> 00:09:22.121 - My grandfather, Tom Coleman, he was the one who created the Bloomington Transit logo, the BT. And as 00:09:22.121 --> 00:09:28.947 - a whole family of graphic designers, I just gotta say this new one is just really not it. It does not 00:09:28.947 --> 00:09:36.241 - feel like Bloomington. The one, as Liliana said right before me, it feels like home. It feels like something 00:09:36.241 --> 00:09:43.134 - that's comforting and that I've known my entire life. This new one, as Rollo, you've presented like it 00:09:43.426 --> 00:09:52.681 - There's a bunch of them. I spent a couple of minutes and I printed out eight different versions of pretty 00:09:52.681 --> 00:10:01.412 - much the same exact logo. And any graphic designer should double check that it's not a logo that is 00:10:01.412 --> 00:10:10.231 - already well known or that you might have any competition with. And I think just the lack of effort, 00:10:10.231 --> 00:10:13.374 - the lack of care that they've shown 00:10:13.666 --> 00:10:21.996 - and just putting into making a logo or interacting with the community to have them work on a logo has 00:10:21.996 --> 00:10:30.164 - shown that they don't really care about us. Frankly, have you guys gotten anything of what that was 00:10:30.164 --> 00:10:38.494 - supposed to be, any tangible thing that we are supposed to do that makes our city better? I got zero. 00:10:38.818 --> 00:10:44.353 - I mean that was a whole presentation where that should have been sold and I don't think any of that 00:10:44.353 --> 00:10:49.999 - was sold. And so I just I'd say we've spent ninety five thousand dollars on this already and I really 00:10:49.999 --> 00:10:55.922 - implore you just don't spend any more money wasting time on something that truly nobody wants. The council 00:10:55.922 --> 00:11:01.513 - also heard updates regarding the removal of Raynard Cross from the Bloomington Historic Preservation 00:11:01.513 --> 00:11:05.886 - Committee. Council attorney Larry Allen explained the allegations against him. 00:11:06.146 --> 00:11:12.912 - Under for cause under the municipal code The council has specifically referred to a code of conduct 00:11:12.912 --> 00:11:20.017 - that applies to all boards and commissioners that is kept by the clerk's office and that code of conduct 00:11:20.017 --> 00:11:26.783 - applies to Certain behavior treatment decorum in meetings. There are several factors to that. There 00:11:26.783 --> 00:11:32.670 - are four factors I can read them off if you prefer more specificity of that Those were 00:11:32.802 --> 00:11:39.596 - violated or thought to be violated at least that's the Allegation here is that those were violated the 00:11:39.596 --> 00:11:46.324 - code of conduct was violated in two particular meetings those occurring on July 9th and at the end of 00:11:46.324 --> 00:11:53.250 - July as well Secondarily there was Messages sent to all commission members asking for immediate response 00:11:53.250 --> 00:12:00.638 - that has a potential of violating the open-door law that is one of the other allegations that was made and then 00:12:01.250 --> 00:12:07.362 - Finally it is there and this kind of goes hand-in-hand with the code of conduct There's a requirement 00:12:07.362 --> 00:12:13.653 - to be able to do the business of the Commission and to respect the time of the public and the Commission 00:12:13.653 --> 00:12:19.705 - significant amount of time was being taken to delay the action of the Commission and also of staff's 00:12:19.705 --> 00:12:24.798 - time over the course of that period and that was inhibiting potentially the business 00:12:25.218 --> 00:12:31.565 - of the commission. The council voted to postpone the decision until their next meeting, which will take 00:12:31.565 --> 00:12:37.728 - place on September 16th. The Monroe County Election Board met on September 3rd. Council Clerk Nicole 00:12:37.728 --> 00:12:43.953 - Brown gave an update on a recent tabletop event that she conducted, which was held in preparation for 00:12:43.953 --> 00:12:50.117 - the upcoming general election in November. The feedback that I got from that, I'm just going to read 00:12:50.117 --> 00:12:53.534 - an excerpt from the feedback that I got on August 13th. 00:12:53.954 --> 00:13:00.826 - 2020 26 Monroe County conducted in a tabletop exercise to assess abilities to deal with possible emergencies 00:13:00.826 --> 00:13:07.194 - on Election Day. The test was conducted at Election Central. Clerk Nicole Brown hosted the exercise. 00:13:07.194 --> 00:13:13.499 - Seven members of the public representing various perspectives were invited to observe the test. The 00:13:13.499 --> 00:13:19.867 - participants discussed how to respond to example emergencies in three areas, polling sites, Election 00:13:19.867 --> 00:13:21.822 - Central and natural disasters. 00:13:22.082 --> 00:13:28.975 - The observers were invited to contribute to the debriefing after each scenario and the exercise concluded 00:13:28.975 --> 00:13:35.998 - with a general discussion of what went well and potential problems that were not included in this scenario. 00:13:36.546 --> 00:13:43.117 - The collaborative relationships among the participants were evident, and the discussion of potential 00:13:43.117 --> 00:13:49.754 - new problems demonstrated the ability to work across jurisdictional lines. So I'm incredibly grateful 00:13:49.754 --> 00:13:55.870 - to my staff, incredibly grateful to our friends. We had a really, really positive experience. 00:13:56.130 --> 00:14:02.537 - I already felt as though our plans in Monroe County were good, but this kind of reinforced that and 00:14:02.537 --> 00:14:09.137 - just gave us a little bit of feedback on something we could do to improve with respect to the upcoming 00:14:09.137 --> 00:14:15.544 - tabletop event, the secretary of state. Democratic board member Penny Githens expressed her concern 00:14:15.544 --> 00:14:20.606 - about not being part of the event. I would like to know why I was not invited. 00:14:21.154 --> 00:14:27.156 - It was my event. Neither of you was invited. I had proxies for you. You did not have a proxy for me, 00:14:27.156 --> 00:14:33.218 - not one that I appointed or that the Democratic chair appointed. And how you could claim that a proxy 00:14:33.218 --> 00:14:39.399 - who does not live in Monroe County and who, although is a wonderful young woman, how you can claim that 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:45.401 - she is the Democratic representative when she votes in Republican primaries, I do not fathom this. I 00:14:45.401 --> 00:14:49.502 - was incredibly, incredibly shocked since I'm the one that asked last 00:14:50.146 --> 00:14:57.860 - and then to see that one was held here in Monroe County and I was not included. That's very disrespectful. 00:14:57.860 --> 00:15:05.068 - Neither neither board member was included. I did not want to publicize that I was having a tabletop 00:15:05.068 --> 00:15:12.422 - exercise. We picked people to role play. They did very well. You do have an opportunity to attend the 00:15:12.422 --> 00:15:19.198 - tabletop exercise that I am getting ready to read if I can finish my update. Well, but again, 00:15:19.554 --> 00:15:25.646 - To claim that somebody was the Republican, I'm sorry, the Democratic representative who is not even 00:15:25.646 --> 00:15:31.982 - a Democrat and who does not live in Monroe County is an insult to the Democrats in Monroe County. Clerk 00:15:31.982 --> 00:15:37.892 - Brown explained that there is another tabletop event scheduled to take place in the near future. 00:15:37.892 --> 00:15:44.228 - Approximately halfway through the meeting, Republican board member Danny Shields announced that a proxy 00:15:44.228 --> 00:15:49.406 - would take his place for the remainder of the meeting. All I have been interested in 00:15:52.450 --> 00:15:59.713 - In these complaints is that if a law was broken. And that's with any of the complaints we've dealt with. 00:15:59.713 --> 00:16:06.700 - Then we pass it on and let the prosecuting attorney make the decision about whether or not something 00:16:06.700 --> 00:16:13.686 - should happen. I don't want this to become a circus. We've seen. So what I have decided to do is for 00:16:13.686 --> 00:16:17.214 - the old business and the remainder of the meeting. 00:16:17.730 --> 00:16:24.838 - I have assigned proxy for Mr. Jack Schmidt, Dr. Jack Schmidt, to come finish the meeting and handle 00:16:24.838 --> 00:16:32.089 - the complaints. That way we don't have any of the arguments that you and I are biased against someone 00:16:32.089 --> 00:16:39.197 - before it even started. I just, I want the truth to come out and I want the law to be followed. So, 00:16:39.197 --> 00:16:45.950 - Dr. Schmidt, the... Are you leaving the meeting? No, I'm going to go sit with, sit back and... 00:16:46.274 --> 00:16:54.490 - So you returned because I've got a couple. I'm sure the balance would like sure so doctors made the 00:16:54.490 --> 00:17:03.117 - board then discussed the next steps needed to address the complaints submitted by Monroe County Assessor 00:17:03.117 --> 00:17:11.004 - and incumbent Judy Sharp and Assessor candidate Janay Trimble. My position has not changed. Oh, 00:17:11.004 --> 00:17:15.934 - I am not. Here to vote. To move this forward. I believe it. 00:17:16.194 --> 00:17:25.288 - The violation has occurred and would be voting to move it forward. But now by moving forward, that means 00:17:25.288 --> 00:17:34.035 - for us at another meeting to hold a hearing and then to decide whether or not to forward that to the 00:17:34.035 --> 00:17:42.782 - prosecutor for prosecution. We don't make a decision legally on whether or not a violation occurred. 00:17:43.554 --> 00:17:49.337 - our responsibility, if I understand it, and, Molly, please correct me if I'm wrong, our responsibility 00:17:49.337 --> 00:17:55.177 - is to determine whether or not this is something that should receive further investigation. Ultimately, 00:17:55.177 --> 00:18:01.128 - the board voted to dismiss both complaints. Later in the meeting, Penny Giffins asked election supervisor 00:18:01.128 --> 00:18:06.912 - Kylie Farris why some Richland township ballots contained a question regarding the town of Aletsville, 00:18:06.912 --> 00:18:12.414 - while others did not. When I reviewed the ballots this morning, I think that there was a major... 00:18:13.538 --> 00:18:19.912 - question about some stuff in Richland and I want to make sure that we get that resolved. The ballots 00:18:19.912 --> 00:18:26.412 - can be printed on time and ready to go. Ferris said that communications are ongoing to ensure that all 00:18:26.412 --> 00:18:32.849 - ballots have the relevant questions on them. I will add to that. So I was reading through some of the 00:18:32.849 --> 00:18:39.286 - emails, one that you Miss Giffins had sent and then some that was in response from the IED. I'm going 00:18:39.286 --> 00:18:43.262 - to move forward with requesting a certified statement from the 00:18:44.450 --> 00:18:51.694 - group proposal that has put together the question for Ellensville. And then I'm going to move forward 00:18:51.694 --> 00:18:58.867 - from there. Once I receive that stating exactly which precincts they would like to have the question 00:18:58.867 --> 00:19:06.111 - on, then I will send that to the election board, make sure you guys are all informed as well and make 00:19:06.111 --> 00:19:12.574 - those changes. The next Monroe County election board meeting is scheduled for October 1st. 00:19:13.666 --> 00:19:20.222 - The Bloomington Common Council Committee on Council Processes met on August 31st. The meeting began 00:19:20.222 --> 00:19:26.910 - with a presentation on structural changes to the city's transportation and environmental commissions. 00:19:26.910 --> 00:19:33.663 - Council member Hopi Stasberg explained a new guideline regarding school superintendent recommendations 00:19:33.663 --> 00:19:38.974 - that ensure the city does not overstep its legal authority. We can't really tell 00:19:39.138 --> 00:19:47.377 - superintendent what to do of schools which of course is a good point and so then instead put in this 00:19:47.377 --> 00:19:55.697 - mayor shall request line the superintendent recommend up to three applicants and then in the event no 00:19:55.697 --> 00:19:58.878 - qualifying applicant is identified and 00:19:59.522 --> 00:20:06.046 - Basically, that's if the superintendent at some point in the future declines to put forth any 00:20:06.046 --> 00:20:12.987 - recommendations. Then I defaulted that to the mayor, she'll just appoint somebody who is a resident 00:20:12.987 --> 00:20:20.206 - of the city and then preference for appointment to somebody related to MCCSC, which is how the language 00:20:20.206 --> 00:20:25.342 - currently reads in terms of that preference for appointment. I'm not sure 00:20:25.474 --> 00:20:31.953 - if we should put any kind of a timeline in here in the event of no qualifying applicant. But I guess 00:20:31.953 --> 00:20:38.688 - I'd kind of like to keep it simple unless it becomes problematic. Committee members also weighed whether 00:20:38.688 --> 00:20:45.102 - to keep a fixed number of seats for the Transportation Commission or to allow expansion due to high 00:20:45.102 --> 00:20:52.094 - public interest. Ultimately, the committee decided to keep the body at nine members to maintain consistency. 00:20:52.514 --> 00:20:59.373 - The meeting then turned to the Environmental Commission, where Deputy Clerk Jennifer Crossley highlighted 00:20:59.373 --> 00:21:05.845 - long-term vacancy issues that have repeatedly prevented the body from reaching a quorum. I actually 00:21:05.845 --> 00:21:12.510 - have been able to work with ITS because I wanted to have council be able, like, board discussions like 00:21:12.510 --> 00:21:18.334 - this. I wanted you all to be able to see, like, seats that have been vacant. So on board, 00:21:18.626 --> 00:21:27.864 - When you go to seats, it should show you field and vacant and it should show you the length of time 00:21:27.864 --> 00:21:37.472 - that a seat has been vacant. And so that just happened within the recent weeks. And so if I'm scrolling 00:21:37.472 --> 00:21:44.862 - to environmental commission, one seat has been vacant since October 23rd, 2024. 00:21:45.026 --> 00:21:51.675 - Following the discussion, the committee voted unanimously to recommend the proposed structural changes 00:21:51.675 --> 00:21:58.452 - to the full Common Council. Next, the committee addressed procedural issues at the Historic Preservation 00:21:58.452 --> 00:22:05.037 - Commission, which were brought to light in a briefing by advisory member Reynard Cross. The committee 00:22:05.037 --> 00:22:11.879 - focused on how the misapplication of Robert's rules and a lack of training led to confusion over motions, 00:22:11.879 --> 00:22:14.590 - debate limits, and the chair's authority. 00:22:14.946 --> 00:22:23.985 - Committee Chair Isabel Piedmont-Smith specified what went wrong during the commission's June meeting. 00:22:23.985 --> 00:22:33.024 - The first issue I think that came up was that HPC commissioners, a subset of them, wanted to postpone 00:22:33.024 --> 00:22:41.886 - a vote on releasing a dumb omission delay, but did not think they had the opportunity to do so. And 00:22:42.370 --> 00:22:50.013 - Then the second issue was that there was a motion to limit commissioner comments to three minutes. It 00:22:50.013 --> 00:22:57.806 - was adopted without meeting the two-third majority that's actually required by Robert's rules. And then 00:22:57.806 --> 00:23:05.449 - the third issue was that the chair limited a commissioner speaking time without a motion or a vote by 00:23:05.449 --> 00:23:11.518 - the commissioner, which actually is required per Robert's rules. So I think that 00:23:12.706 --> 00:23:22.814 - taking the first item, while all of these items, I think, reflect a lack of familiarity with Robertsville's order. 00:23:22.946 --> 00:23:28.945 - Council attorney Larry Allen agreed that there were procedural mistakes, but said that state law and 00:23:28.945 --> 00:23:34.884 - local code leave little room to reopen the decision. If it's a clerical error, right, you can maybe 00:23:34.884 --> 00:23:40.883 - go back. If it's an actual substantive question of law, it looks like the Inespera court has decided 00:23:40.883 --> 00:23:45.278 - you cannot go back unless expressly authorized by statute. Again, there's 00:23:45.890 --> 00:23:52.299 - smaller nuances, but I don't know that this rises to a small clerical error that you could go and fix 00:23:52.299 --> 00:23:58.771 - as much as it might be substantive, particularly now that, and Mr. Cross pointed this out as well, the 00:23:58.771 --> 00:24:05.495 - 30-day deadline for challenging this in the local Monroe County Circuit Court has also passed. The meeting 00:24:05.495 --> 00:24:11.841 - moved on to public comment where participants expressed frustration over these procedural errors and 00:24:11.841 --> 00:24:15.486 - a possible proposal to remove Raynard Cross from the HPC. 00:24:15.618 --> 00:24:22.800 - However, the committee clarified that the removal of a commissioner falls outside of their current purview 00:24:22.800 --> 00:24:29.713 - and will only be presented to them if the City Council so decides. HPC member Dr. John Butler publicly 00:24:29.713 --> 00:24:36.962 - apologized for his own procedural confusion and urged city leaders to provide better educational resources. 00:24:36.962 --> 00:24:44.210 - I am Dr. John Butler. I'm also a member of the HPC. I just want to bring up a couple of sort of corrections 00:24:44.210 --> 00:24:45.150 - or add to the 00:24:45.634 --> 00:24:52.708 - the record. As per our training that we received, we did receive training. It was like an hour long, 00:24:52.708 --> 00:24:59.921 - I think, or a little over an hour. But it covered such a range of topics that Robert's Rules was maybe 00:24:59.921 --> 00:25:06.925 - 10 minutes. And if you know Robert's Rules, that's not enough time to really understand, especially 00:25:06.925 --> 00:25:12.318 - if you're a new member, because we also covered open door law and, you know, 00:25:12.674 --> 00:25:19.323 - respect and how to treat each other as commissioners. I would urge you to consider more training because 00:25:19.323 --> 00:25:25.972 - I certainly felt under-trained. As to whether or not a lawyer was present, there were no lawyers present 00:25:25.972 --> 00:25:32.495 - because at the same time, city legal was holding a training session and so all the city attorneys were 00:25:32.495 --> 00:25:38.891 - at that and there was no attorney present online or in person for that meeting. We also did not have 00:25:38.891 --> 00:25:40.094 - a parliamentarian. 00:25:40.226 --> 00:25:49.424 - Um, our chair does not understand Robert's rules in a way, um, in a deeply enough to, um, fully instruct 00:25:49.424 --> 00:25:58.623 - the members of, you know, how we're supposed to run the meetings. For instance, the 4-2 thing, you know, 00:25:58.623 --> 00:26:07.733 - I don't even know. Um, so, so we need more training. Um, and then, uh, you know, for Commissioner Cross 00:26:07.733 --> 00:26:09.310 - to sort of be the 00:26:09.570 --> 00:26:17.512 - person who's facing some sanction for attempting to get us to do a better job of following Robert's 00:26:17.512 --> 00:26:25.850 - rules, I think is sort of sad. I think really as a body we need to do better. And so I think the failure 00:26:25.850 --> 00:26:27.518 - lies with all of us. 00:26:27.906 --> 00:26:34.950 - And myself in particular, I did not make the motion in the proper language, and that is on me. I also 00:26:34.950 --> 00:26:41.994 - didn't understand when I was allowed to make the motion. And prior to that, when Commissioner DeSolar 00:26:41.994 --> 00:26:49.177 - was the chair, a person, the tradition in the HPC was a person would phrase the, you know, I would like 00:26:49.177 --> 00:26:51.870 - more time, and then DeSolar would say, 00:26:51.970 --> 00:26:59.441 - Am I hearing a motion to delay? And then we would say yes. And so since that did not occur that evening, 00:26:59.441 --> 00:27:06.556 - I didn't know when I was allowed to bring it forward. And so unfortunately, since it's a subsidiary 00:27:06.556 --> 00:27:13.671 - action, the vote, if we release it for demolition, we can't delay it. So the delay vote has to take 00:27:13.671 --> 00:27:16.446 - place before we release it, obviously. 00:27:16.610 --> 00:27:23.000 - And that didn't occur. So then once we released it, I couldn't get my vote forward at that point, even 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:29.391 - though that was my intention. So I apologize for messing the whole thing up. But I feel like we really 00:27:29.391 --> 00:27:36.153 - could have and should have handled it better. Amy Butler spoke on behalf of Cross, criticizing the potential 00:27:36.153 --> 00:27:43.102 - removal and calling out leadership for failing to maintain proper rules of order. I'm just really disappointed. 00:27:43.330 --> 00:27:49.225 - that it's even considered to remove Renard. I have been to multiple meetings with HBC, none of them 00:27:49.225 --> 00:27:55.239 - before August of 2025. So I have no idea how it was run before that. But that meeting on the 25th, or 00:27:55.239 --> 00:28:01.134 - whatever date it was, was ridiculous. And there were many things that were wrong. And every meeting 00:28:01.134 --> 00:28:07.029 - that I had been before, like when commissioner members and members of the public had asked for more 00:28:07.029 --> 00:28:11.038 - time, when more time was in the time frame allowed, it was granted. 00:28:11.266 --> 00:28:16.475 - And this was blatantly ignored. And Sam, who had been the previous chair, as far as precedence, if a 00:28:16.475 --> 00:28:22.045 - commission member was asking for more time, he would say, do I hear a motion? And then it would be brought. 00:28:22.045 --> 00:28:27.409 - And that was not the case that day. I don't know what happened. But it seemed to me like decisions were 00:28:27.409 --> 00:28:32.773 - already made before that meeting happened, like people's minds were already made up, and that they were 00:28:32.773 --> 00:28:37.982 - going to let those buildings go down. And that really upsets me that Bernard is going to be bullied. 00:28:38.402 --> 00:28:44.537 - and try to be kicked off the commission for trying to make things right because he is speaking truths 00:28:44.537 --> 00:28:50.552 - and I am here to speak truth that Renard knows Robert's rules better than anyone else. In response, 00:28:50.552 --> 00:28:56.747 - committee members discussed implementing mandatory training on Robert's rules and rules of conduct for 00:28:56.747 --> 00:29:03.183 - all commissioners while working with the clerk's office to make simplified rule summaries. The committee's 00:29:03.183 --> 00:29:05.950 - next meeting is scheduled for September 28th. 00:29:06.498 --> 00:29:13.726 - And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.