WEBVTT 00:00:07.682 --> 00:00:10.142 - and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. 00:00:10.754 --> 00:00:17.638 - The Bloomington City Council met on September 23rd and moved one step closer towards adopting the city's 00:00:17.638 --> 00:00:24.718 - 2027 budget. Council members spent several hours questioning city staff about budgetary concerns, including 00:00:24.718 --> 00:00:31.340 - fuel costs, parking meters, employee health insurance, and job vacancies. Public Works Director Adam 00:00:31.340 --> 00:00:38.027 - Wason said that the city is trying to conserve fuel and look at alternatives, but says that they have 00:00:38.027 --> 00:00:40.190 - limited control over the market. 00:00:40.514 --> 00:00:47.521 - I'm shaking my crystal ball is saying we are not sure you know, that's the the reality of it We're simply 00:00:47.521 --> 00:00:54.462 - not sure what we've seen and councilmember all and I had a chance to talk about this a little bit at the 00:00:54.594 --> 00:01:00.563 - finance subcommittee we're seeing the trend go up you know we're really trying to work with all the 00:01:00.563 --> 00:01:06.652 - departments on fuel conservation we're looking at different fuel types that we then we've used in the 00:01:06.652 --> 00:01:12.920 - past to try to lower that cost but right now we are at the whim of the fuel markets next council members 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:19.009 - addressed a projected decline in the city's parking meter fund controller Jeff McKim said the fund is 00:01:19.009 --> 00:01:24.560 - expected to drop significantly due to a proposed two and a half million dollar technology up 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:33.299 - for the city's parking services. The parking meter fund does have several different departments that 00:01:33.299 --> 00:01:42.125 - have budgets in it so yes of course the parking department does have a substantial budget in that and 00:01:42.125 --> 00:01:51.557 - that 2.5 million dollars is in there for their capital outlay for the tech refresh but the street department 00:01:51.557 --> 00:01:53.374 - also has substantial 00:01:53.954 --> 00:02:01.699 - You know has substantial expenses being paid out of that at out of that department or out of that fund 00:02:01.699 --> 00:02:09.369 - I think as you know We struggle to keep up with street department expenses. I mean fuel but also just 00:02:09.369 --> 00:02:16.888 - rising labor costs everything it just the the costs of running streets department outstrips the gas 00:02:16.888 --> 00:02:22.302 - tax and the excise tax that are kind of the traditional ways of funding 00:02:22.594 --> 00:02:28.814 - Those functions so, you know, I think as you know, we're now putting property tax into funding Street 00:02:28.814 --> 00:02:35.095 - Department through MVH now I think you you started you did that for the first time last year and we've 00:02:35.095 --> 00:02:41.376 - continued that this year and the parking meter fund Provides another simply another funding source for 00:02:41.376 --> 00:02:47.596 - providing these kind of necessary expenses the discussion surrounding the budget shifted to employees 00:02:47.596 --> 00:02:50.462 - and the cost of providing health insurance and 00:02:51.042 --> 00:02:58.079 - The proposed budget calls for the city to absorb a 9% increase in health and life insurance costs. City 00:02:58.079 --> 00:03:05.252 - Councilmember Hopi Stasberg questioned how the city can balance rising health insurance costs with recent 00:03:05.252 --> 00:03:10.462 - employee salary increases. Human Resources Director Shar Paycheck responded. 00:03:10.626 --> 00:03:16.576 - You know, it's one of those things is it better to have no increase for our employees one year and then 00:03:16.576 --> 00:03:22.583 - a really big one or to have smaller increases as we go along and what kind of consideration you've given 00:03:22.583 --> 00:03:28.990 - to those different possibilities. That is a great question. It is honestly a little difficult to answer because 00:03:29.250 --> 00:03:36.553 - without having certainty of what is to come in the future, I wouldn't want to answer too specifically. 00:03:36.553 --> 00:03:43.714 - I will say that, and I can reiterate this based on my budget presentations, our participation in the 00:03:43.714 --> 00:03:48.606 - AIM Trust has helped us have significantly lower healthcare premium. 00:03:48.706 --> 00:03:54.913 - increases than you would normally find in a market. And so as long as we continue to participate in 00:03:54.913 --> 00:04:01.431 - the trust, then I think we'll be in a good position financially as far as our health care costs. Council 00:04:01.431 --> 00:04:08.011 - members also heard concerns about whether the city should continue allocating money for vacant positions. 00:04:08.011 --> 00:04:12.542 - One of these positions is the transportation demand management position. 00:04:12.802 --> 00:04:19.391 - Jane Coopersmith, Director of the Economic and Sustainable Development Department, said the work remains 00:04:19.391 --> 00:04:25.855 - important. However, she debated whether it requires a full-time position given the city's tight budget 00:04:25.855 --> 00:04:32.569 - constraints. So if we were still in the 2021 funding environment, I would probably come out very excitedly 00:04:32.569 --> 00:04:39.095 - and say, yes, let's keep it and reinvent and tackle it. But in this funding climate, I just don't think 00:04:39.095 --> 00:04:41.982 - it's the most essential work that the city is 00:04:42.178 --> 00:04:49.450 - doing, not to say that mode shift is not critically important. Mode shift is critically important. The 00:04:49.450 --> 00:04:56.793 - council also discussed Bloomington Transit's loss of economic and development local income tax funding, 00:04:56.793 --> 00:05:03.854 - or ED-LIT. The estimated balance goes from almost $4.5 million at the end of this year to less than 00:05:03.854 --> 00:05:11.550 - $800,000 at the end of 2027. Bloomington Transit controller Krista Browning described what the ED-LIT funds. 00:05:12.162 --> 00:05:18.946 - Continued operational services funded by the partnership are included in our proposed twenty twenty 00:05:18.946 --> 00:05:26.206 - seven budget such as the Sunday service all the micro transit service the fare capping the staff positions 00:05:26.206 --> 00:05:31.294 - and then we will also use some for the match for our new transit facility. 00:05:31.906 --> 00:05:39.245 - Lastly, council members returned to their discussion around rising fuel costs, asking what happens if 00:05:39.245 --> 00:05:46.656 - fuel prices rise substantially or if the city faces a shortage. Council member Dave Rollo asked if the 00:05:46.656 --> 00:05:53.923 - city has a fallback plan for reducing its use of fuel. Public Works Director Wason responded, saying 00:05:53.923 --> 00:06:01.694 - that they do have a contingency plan. I assume we have contingency plans in case of very high fuel spiking. 00:06:02.402 --> 00:06:08.420 - Or tip or potentially interruption is a is a correct as we discuss, you know, we would look at what 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:14.558 - services would be reduced You know right now we offer sanitation service both trash and recycle every 00:06:14.558 --> 00:06:20.575 - week to every resident in the community contingency plans for true Emergencies here would result in 00:06:20.575 --> 00:06:26.713 - service interruptions or service reductions Wason continue to describe what the city would prioritize 00:06:26.713 --> 00:06:29.662 - in the case of a major hike to the price of fuel 00:06:30.018 --> 00:06:35.736 - In terms of emergency management, emergency purposes, we would be looking at public safety. We would 00:06:35.736 --> 00:06:41.455 - be looking at our utility. We would be looking at absolute core basic public services. We prioritize 00:06:41.455 --> 00:06:47.343 - everything else. Do we have additional storage opportunities? No, we are limited by the storage we have 00:06:47.343 --> 00:06:53.174 - underground. The City Council will continue tackling changes to the 2027 budget before formal adoption 00:06:53.174 --> 00:06:59.006 - next month. You can expect more budget conversations during the Council's next meeting on October 7th. 00:07:00.194 --> 00:07:07.519 - The Monroe County Council met on September 22nd. The meeting began with the temporary tabling of two 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:15.134 - council business items concerning the High Tech Crimes Unit Fund and an additional appropriation request 00:07:15.134 --> 00:07:18.398 - for a VOCA grant until October 27th meeting. 00:07:18.754 --> 00:07:25.909 - Department updates began with the Auditor's Office presenting on how remaining ARPA dollars are being 00:07:25.909 --> 00:07:32.994 - used, including a small in-house transfer to keep a septic program on track ahead of looming federal 00:07:32.994 --> 00:07:40.501 - deadlines. Carly Woodruff, Financial Director of the Auditor's Office, explained. The deadline for vendors 00:07:40.501 --> 00:07:47.726 - to complete the projects... I'm so sorry. The deadline for vendors to complete the projects and submit 00:07:47.726 --> 00:07:48.638 - in voices is 00:07:48.770 --> 00:07:54.180 - September 30th. There is an October deadline for the department. So this will be the health department 00:07:54.180 --> 00:07:59.484 - to then submit all those invoices for payment to the auditor and commissioner. And then the December 00:07:59.484 --> 00:08:04.789 - deadline that we hit on is going to be the deadline for the county to fully expend. So the reason we 00:08:04.789 --> 00:08:10.041 - set the other deadlines a little bit sooner is to give us a little bit of time and wiggle room that 00:08:10.041 --> 00:08:13.822 - if we need to move some pennies around, we're not giving anything back. 00:08:14.402 --> 00:08:20.926 - Council President Jennifer Crossley raised concerns about late vendor invoices and whether some departments 00:08:20.926 --> 00:08:27.027 - might miss cutoffs, potentially putting community projects at risk. I'm just trying to look to us to 00:08:27.027 --> 00:08:33.309 - figure out if there's any way that we can help you all as liaisons to departments and whatnot to really 00:08:33.309 --> 00:08:36.510 - kind of light a fire to make sure, you know, because 00:08:36.738 --> 00:08:42.824 - If there are members of the public that are benefiting from these projects and they might be in jeopardy 00:08:42.824 --> 00:08:48.735 - of not getting completed because people aren't doing what they need to do, then we definitely need to 00:08:48.735 --> 00:08:50.590 - light a fire and get to moving. 00:08:50.946 --> 00:08:57.686 - Next, the meeting turned to hiring freeze reviews, beginning with the technical services department. 00:08:57.686 --> 00:09:04.693 - Counselors used the request to highlight how much the county now depends on around-the-clock IT support, 00:09:04.693 --> 00:09:11.633 - with Director Greg Crone explaining how those hours are covered. So we maintain our office from 8 a.m., 00:09:11.633 --> 00:09:13.502 - actually 730 a.m. to 5 p.m. 00:09:13.602 --> 00:09:20.005 - Monday through Friday, and then it goes on to an on-call rotation after normal operating hours. So the 00:09:20.005 --> 00:09:26.283 - way we do that, we have four full-time technicians who share that. So one week out of every month, a 00:09:26.283 --> 00:09:32.500 - full-time tech is covering 24-7 on-call during those hours that were closed. So yes, we do maintain 00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:36.478 - constant coverage. You have to remember, too, we have the jail. 00:09:36.610 --> 00:09:43.110 - the sheriff's deputies, and the Youth Services Bureau that are 24-7 facilities. So we have to maintain 00:09:43.110 --> 00:09:49.484 - that. We do get calls, not so much from the youth shelter, but the jail and patrol deputies. That is 00:09:49.484 --> 00:09:56.236 - a routine that we get calls from them during that, so. The council next approved two key health department 00:09:56.236 --> 00:10:02.673 - staffing requests. The first was to refill the maternal child health coordinator position with health 00:10:02.673 --> 00:10:06.270 - officer Dr. Sarah Ryderband explaining the role. We have 00:10:06.626 --> 00:10:16.719 - had our maternal child health coordinator poached by the state. And so we are in a position of wanting 00:10:16.719 --> 00:10:26.616 - to replace that individual. She has done, as you can see in your packet, a lot of good work over the 00:10:26.616 --> 00:10:33.182 - time coordinating, running around the city and county, handing out 00:10:33.538 --> 00:10:43.431 - child care seats when people were in accidents or you know in the middle of the day when something happened 00:10:43.431 --> 00:10:52.775 - and they had to have them replaced so she did that she also was working under the grant which is part 00:10:52.775 --> 00:10:57.630 - of our hfi grant to simply help reduce the amount of 00:10:58.242 --> 00:11:07.304 - infant mortality, which is still very high in this state. It's one of the highest states, unfortunately. 00:11:07.304 --> 00:11:16.021 - Some of the efforts in HFI have helped to reduce that, but we're nowhere near where we would want to 00:11:16.021 --> 00:11:24.910 - be as a state. And our maternal child care coordinator was the person who would work with the pregnant 00:11:24.910 --> 00:11:28.190 - moms, then would work with them after 00:11:28.738 --> 00:11:38.967 - They delivered and also did some of the education. They also did tobacco education. The rest of tobacco 00:11:38.967 --> 00:11:49.197 - education was withdrawn from HFI funding, but it was kept in this area because it is such a contributor 00:11:49.197 --> 00:11:53.918 - to at least infant morbidity, if not mortality. 00:11:54.082 --> 00:12:00.965 - The next approved request was to fill the recently vacated health administrator position. Discussion 00:12:00.965 --> 00:12:08.393 - centered on the challenge of finding an administrator who can juggle state requirements, local partnerships, 00:12:08.393 --> 00:12:15.208 - and internal leadership. Later in the meeting, the clerk's office secured additional appropriations 00:12:15.208 --> 00:12:21.886 - to fully fund the 2026 general election after the county had previously covered only the primary. 00:12:22.242 --> 00:12:28.862 - Election supervisor Kylie Farris explained the added expenses, including increases in overseas ballots, 00:12:28.862 --> 00:12:35.673 - higher-than-expected voter turnout, and a change in ballot size. One thing that we are seeing a difference 00:12:35.673 --> 00:12:42.420 - in is going to be the ballots, because, for the general election, we had to move to a custom-sized ballot 00:12:42.420 --> 00:12:46.430 - due to the amount of races on the ballot and public questions. 00:12:46.530 --> 00:12:53.267 - There will be a completely new ballot size that has never been seen before. Ballots costed more than 00:12:53.267 --> 00:13:00.005 - what we were expecting. So they went from the legal size to another eight and a half by 17, which is 00:13:00.005 --> 00:13:06.942 - it's a learning curve for all of us right now. Closing out the council business portion of the meeting, 00:13:06.942 --> 00:13:10.878 - the Youth Services Bureau presented three funding actions. 00:13:10.946 --> 00:13:19.333 - a $950 D appropriation from the state-funded Project Safe Place grant after the state reduced its award, 00:13:19.333 --> 00:13:27.959 - a federal runaway and homeless youth grant appropriation, and an appropriation of about $3,300 in donations 00:13:27.959 --> 00:13:33.950 - to help underwrite the upcoming Monroe County Childhood Conditions Summit. 00:13:34.562 --> 00:13:42.274 - Prevention Coordinator, Melanie Vaisledge, also credited outside sponsorships for supporting the summit. 00:13:42.274 --> 00:13:49.692 - And I do just want to acknowledge we received a total of $3,800 in sponsorships so far for just this 00:13:49.692 --> 00:13:57.258 - appropriation. And we are scheduled for the MC3 event to be held on November 16th. These contributions 00:13:57.258 --> 00:14:04.382 - include $800 from the IU School of Public Health, 1,000 from United Health, 500 from CareSource, 00:14:04.578 --> 00:14:12.517 - 500 from the Southern Indiana Exchange Club, $250 from Ivy Tech, $250 from Farrington Specialty Center, 00:14:12.517 --> 00:14:20.532 - and $500 from the City of Wilmington. Later in the meeting, counselors dug into how to balance GO bonds, 00:14:20.532 --> 00:14:29.310 - the edit fund, and cumulative capital amid the constraints of Senate Enrolled Act 1, which limits short-term debt. 00:14:30.082 --> 00:14:37.494 - The broader finance debate also included a $1 million request for Beacon Center's new homelessness services 00:14:37.494 --> 00:14:44.769 - hub, with executive director Forrest Gilmore outlining the scope of the organization's work and providing 00:14:44.769 --> 00:14:51.700 - updates on the new center. I think there's a lot of fear in our community about quantity of services 00:14:51.700 --> 00:14:57.534 - for homelessness to some degree that if you build more, that more may come and such. 00:14:57.730 --> 00:15:05.005 - that we really focus on quality of service in this. And so while there is some expansion of shelter 00:15:05.005 --> 00:15:12.354 - beds, for example, the real focus was on what are the solutions that our community needs and how can 00:15:12.354 --> 00:15:19.120 - we bring together a center that really improves the quality of service for people struggling 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:25.886 - with homelessness so that they get out of homelessness, not just sit in it and remain in it. 00:15:26.018 --> 00:15:33.907 - we're doing that through a threefold process. Emergency shelter, in our case, primarily targeting women 00:15:33.907 --> 00:15:41.569 - because that's the huge gap in our community at the moment. And that will, and primarily the biggest 00:15:41.569 --> 00:15:49.534 - innovation in that is we would have just, we would step away from bunk beds and step into just one level 00:15:49.730 --> 00:15:56.180 - beds and that is one of the greatest issues we're seeing right now with women in particular. Huge amount 00:15:56.180 --> 00:16:02.752 - of disability and challenge such that actually getting onto the second tier of a bunk bed is is difficult. 00:16:02.752 --> 00:16:06.622 - And so we actually have empty beds that are on the second tier 00:16:06.722 --> 00:16:13.039 - that cannot be accessed by clients because we don't have enough clients that can climb those steps to 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:19.294 - get to the top of bunk beds. So just one minor thing, dogs will be allowed and pets will be allowed. 00:16:19.294 --> 00:16:25.549 - Council member Trent Deckard went on to express his frustration with what he described as a trend of 00:16:25.549 --> 00:16:31.742 - people elsewhere in the state enjoying the benefits of the community while becoming less willing to 00:16:31.742 --> 00:16:35.582 - help or participate in discussions about the issues it faces. 00:16:36.450 --> 00:16:42.504 - This is an area I think that we're having to do a lot more because somebody's got to do something. We 00:16:42.504 --> 00:16:48.500 - can't just leave not for profits and good intentions and a couple churches and a Hail Mary Pass. And 00:16:48.500 --> 00:16:54.435 - this is where I would say to our federal and state friends, there was a time when I think there was 00:16:54.435 --> 00:17:00.430 - greater activity on their parts to do this. But here's what I see now. Our federal and state friends 00:17:00.430 --> 00:17:06.366 - watch us do something or worse, they look at our community where they also like our football games. 00:17:06.658 --> 00:17:14.443 - they also like our bars occasionally they'll send a son or daughter down here they look at us and instead 00:17:14.443 --> 00:17:21.862 - they talk about us like we're zoo animals and we have a damn fine community we have a lot we have to 00:17:21.862 --> 00:17:29.206 - do and we can do it and this is what talking about this with the area leader on all these issues is 00:17:29.206 --> 00:17:33.246 - what a local government is doing because there's a gap 00:17:33.698 --> 00:17:41.131 - So federal and state friends out there, I know you honestly, you don't give a whatever on what I'm saying 00:17:41.131 --> 00:17:48.283 - clearly, but there was a time when there was involvement. And I think if ever there was a time to get 00:17:48.283 --> 00:17:55.365 - into the game, it would be now and not do the zoo animal. Let's look and see what they're doing over 00:17:55.365 --> 00:18:00.414 - in the Republic because this is what faith leaders, government leaders, 00:18:01.378 --> 00:18:07.513 - join with not-for-profit leaders to figure out the dignity of life and solutions. None of these things 00:18:07.513 --> 00:18:13.470 - are 100% guaranteed for this or that, but my God, try something, rather than drive past on your way 00:18:13.470 --> 00:18:19.546 - to that stadium and say, wonder why they live like this here. During public comment, the next regular 00:18:19.546 --> 00:18:23.358 - Monroe County Council business meeting will be on October 13th. 00:18:24.482 --> 00:18:31.072 - A special meeting of the Monroe County Election Board was held on September 24. The meeting began with 00:18:31.072 --> 00:18:37.663 - updates about the progress of absentee ballots being mailed out. Election supervisor Kylie Farris also 00:18:37.663 --> 00:18:41.374 - listed the number of registered voters for Monroe County. 00:18:41.602 --> 00:18:49.802 - for the current number of registered voters. We have 76,029 active registered voters, 14,321 inactive, 00:18:49.802 --> 00:18:57.763 - which brings us to a total of 90,350 registered voters in Monroe County. We currently have 554 that 00:18:57.763 --> 00:19:02.142 - are pending with an additional 18 that are incomplete. 00:19:02.946 --> 00:19:08.744 - And then I wanted to give just a little bit of background about inactive and what that means. So we 00:19:08.744 --> 00:19:14.543 - did have a couple of voters who have asked about the inactive We just wanted to make sure that that 00:19:14.543 --> 00:19:20.399 - was pretty clear that on Election Day when you come to vote or during early voting. If you are in an 00:19:20.399 --> 00:19:23.646 - active status that will prompt you over to being active 00:19:23.810 --> 00:19:29.379 - when you come and vote. There are no extra steps that you have to go through in order to vote at that 00:19:29.379 --> 00:19:34.838 - time. So with inactive, it could be multiple things. It could be just not voting within eight years 00:19:34.838 --> 00:19:40.789 - to presidential cycles, or it comes from voterless maintenance. So when the state does voterless maintenance 00:19:40.789 --> 00:19:46.358 - every two years, they send out a postcard. That's your first mailing. If it comes back undeliverable, 00:19:46.358 --> 00:19:51.817 - a second mailing will be sent out. If that second one comes back as undeliverable as well, then you 00:19:51.817 --> 00:19:53.182 - go into inactive status. 00:19:54.466 --> 00:20:01.627 - If you guys have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Democratic board member Penny Giffins mentioned 00:20:01.627 --> 00:20:08.262 - how mailing addresses played a role with voter registration and asked Ferris how voters could update 00:20:08.262 --> 00:20:15.028 - their address if necessary. We had talked about this Monday when the machine testing was done. And you 00:20:15.028 --> 00:20:21.795 - explained that for the thing that appeared in the newspaper about all this, part of it was is that the 00:20:21.795 --> 00:20:22.846 - individuals had 00:20:23.650 --> 00:20:30.455 - residential address, which you have to have on file so that we know what precincts you're in and things 00:20:30.455 --> 00:20:37.259 - like that, but also their mailing address was actually something that they had not used for many years. 00:20:37.259 --> 00:20:43.933 - So if people get online and check at indianaboters.gov or .com, either one, they can check both their 00:20:43.933 --> 00:20:50.475 - status and what their mailing address is. And if that is incorrect, what's the best way for them to 00:20:50.475 --> 00:20:51.326 - update that? 00:20:51.458 --> 00:20:57.035 - they can update it by filling out another registration online, or they can call our office and we can 00:20:57.035 --> 00:21:02.667 - send them a registration in the mail. And when we send anything out, we send it with a return envelope 00:21:02.667 --> 00:21:08.244 - so that they don't have to pay for postage to send that back. They can also come to our office at any 00:21:08.244 --> 00:21:13.712 - time, Monday through Friday, 8 to 4, to fill out one of those registrations to change their address 00:21:13.712 --> 00:21:19.235 - as well. And I guess I just want to point out that it wasn't that those individuals were expected to 00:21:19.235 --> 00:21:20.766 - mail a postcard back, which 00:21:20.866 --> 00:21:27.538 - was the impression that I came away with from the article. Maybe that's wrong, but it was that it was 00:21:27.538 --> 00:21:34.341 - undeliverable. And that's why it bounced back. Yes. Deputy Clerk Tanner Branham stated that an inactive 00:21:34.341 --> 00:21:41.014 - voter status will not prevent a registered voter from casting a ballot on Election Day. Maybe just to 00:21:41.014 --> 00:21:44.350 - clarify, just to recap and clarify for the public. 00:21:44.674 --> 00:21:50.253 - A voter being listed as inactive does not prevent them to vote. When they show up on Election Day, they 00:21:50.253 --> 00:21:55.725 - will then be moved to active and able to cast their ballot. Next, the election board voted to approve 00:21:55.725 --> 00:22:01.143 - the list of Election Day poll workers and grant the clerk the ability to add more workers as needed. 00:22:01.143 --> 00:22:04.094 - Republican board member Danny Shields made the motion. 00:22:04.802 --> 00:22:12.561 - Giffins then pointed out that the absentee ballots still list the former Seventh Street address for 00:22:12.561 --> 00:22:20.708 - Election Central rather than the new address on Morton Street. Ferris elaborated on communications about 00:22:20.708 --> 00:22:29.243 - changing the address and mail forwarding procedures in place. I've alerted Kylie to this that the application 00:22:29.243 --> 00:22:33.278 - for an absentee ballot lists the incorrect address. 00:22:33.602 --> 00:22:41.115 - And that's put out by the Secretary of State. Apparently, it's still is the old location. So I want 00:22:41.115 --> 00:22:48.778 - to make sure that everybody knows that it should be 501 North Morton Street in suite 101 and not West 00:22:48.778 --> 00:22:55.390 - 7th Street. How soon can we get the Secretary of State to update that? Well, I've we've 00:22:55.586 --> 00:23:01.151 - had a conversation with them. The answer that we had got was that they would update it if they found 00:23:01.151 --> 00:23:06.661 - that they needed to. No update was changed between the primary and the general. I don't necessarily 00:23:06.661 --> 00:23:12.171 - expect there to be one in between now and the general election, but that is one of the main reasons 00:23:12.171 --> 00:23:17.736 - why on our website we have multiple places where we have asked for the 501 North Morton to be there. 00:23:17.736 --> 00:23:21.758 - In addition, the Google listing for the office has been updated as well. 00:23:22.306 --> 00:23:28.048 - And then we do have the mail forwarding. So if anything were to go to the 401 West 7th, it does still 00:23:28.048 --> 00:23:33.678 - come to our office. But I know the local poster clerks are quite good about working with you. But I 00:23:33.678 --> 00:23:39.590 - just want to ensure that there's no slowdown, because there are deadlines for when people have to submit 00:23:39.590 --> 00:23:45.726 - the absentee ballot request. I am agog as to why they would not just open up their computer and change that. 00:23:46.370 --> 00:23:52.535 - It's the same one that they use on the state's website so everywhere that you go even in other counties 00:23:52.535 --> 00:23:58.521 - when they have it posted it's going to have the same address on the back. I believe it's even on the 00:23:58.521 --> 00:24:04.982 - voter registration document as well so any of the state forms that have all of the county voter registration 00:24:04.982 --> 00:24:10.969 - offices listed on the back it's going to have our old address still. Giffins asked about the process 00:24:10.969 --> 00:24:12.510 - for changing the address. 00:24:12.642 --> 00:24:19.246 - Ferris stated that the Indian Election Division must be notified. But how would the secretary of state 00:24:19.246 --> 00:24:25.657 - know when he needed to do this? He's not the one that sees the things being slowed down or going to 00:24:25.657 --> 00:24:28.158 - the wrong address or how would he ever 00:24:28.386 --> 00:24:34.624 - I mean, was a formal request made? Yeah, so whenever you change the location of your office, you have 00:24:34.624 --> 00:24:40.800 - to notify the Indiana Election Division. It also has to be changed in SVRS so that that does show in 00:24:40.800 --> 00:24:47.344 - their system that the address is 501 North Morton. So that's how, whenever you go on to indianavotors.gov, 00:24:47.344 --> 00:24:52.909 - that's when it shows where the office is, that's how that updates. When they receive that, 00:24:52.909 --> 00:24:58.352 - they are notified. And then we also send in a form to the Indiana Election Division that 00:24:58.352 --> 00:25:05.531 - says the address has changed from this address to this address and we sent that before the primary election 00:25:05.531 --> 00:25:12.378 - of this year. Another concern mentioned by Giffins was that campaign financial forms were removed from 00:25:12.378 --> 00:25:19.424 - the county election website. Ferris stated that the public could not access them due to technical issues. 00:25:19.424 --> 00:25:25.406 - On the website it used to be that the forms that people filed for the primary for the CAN 00:25:26.338 --> 00:25:32.765 - ones and the CFA floors, all your campaign finances and candidate filings. Right now it says that they, 00:25:32.765 --> 00:25:39.377 - why were those taken down first of all? Yep. So there was a bunch of complaints coming in that individuals 00:25:39.377 --> 00:25:45.618 - could not access those files because they had to log into a Microsoft account in order to access, be 00:25:45.618 --> 00:25:51.797 - able to access them, access them, sorry. And so we went through the process of trying to figure out 00:25:51.797 --> 00:25:55.134 - what was going on with that. If you were in in-house, 00:25:55.266 --> 00:26:00.527 - anybody in the county, we were able to get on no problems. There were some individuals that when they 00:26:00.527 --> 00:26:05.787 - would log in onto their personal cell phones, we could not see any of the documents on there. So that 00:26:05.787 --> 00:26:11.151 - was the first step of that, trying to figure out what was going on there, trying to make those changes. 00:26:11.151 --> 00:26:14.142 - And then the more that we started adding to that from the 00:26:14.274 --> 00:26:20.455 - primary filings, we noticed that there started being more lagging in the software itself. So they were 00:26:20.455 --> 00:26:26.516 - then pulled. All of them have been updated and we're currently working on getting the rest of all of 00:26:26.516 --> 00:26:32.817 - the CFA force that were filed in the primary uploaded to those as well. And then they should be reloaded 00:26:32.817 --> 00:26:38.878 - before too long. The next meeting for the Monroe County Election Board is scheduled for October 1st. 00:26:39.874 --> 00:26:46.633 - On September 23, the Monroe County Community School Corporation School Board had their monthly meeting. 00:26:46.633 --> 00:26:53.263 - First, Alexis Harmon, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, awarded the 00:26:53.263 --> 00:27:00.542 - Monthly Excellence Spotlight to Mary Hartman and Jamie Tremblay, both from Arlington Heights Elementary School. 00:27:00.930 --> 00:27:07.253 - This monthly recognition is a standing feature of each regular board meeting and serves as a dedicated 00:27:07.253 --> 00:27:13.514 - moment to honor individuals who daily contributions exemplify the mission, vision, and core values of 00:27:13.514 --> 00:27:19.713 - the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Then, Bloomington resident Marsali Andrews commented 00:27:19.713 --> 00:27:22.046 - on AP testing for non-MCCSC students. 00:27:22.370 --> 00:27:28.442 - Being denied access to both AP exams and the PSAT exam comes at a real cost to Bloomington families. 00:27:28.442 --> 00:27:34.454 - A passing AP score is worth three to six college credits, which is hundreds to thousands of dollars 00:27:34.454 --> 00:27:40.587 - for families in tuition. The PSAT is a qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship. That means 00:27:40.587 --> 00:27:46.599 - that a student who cannot take that exam can't qualify for that scholarship at all. So our group is 00:27:46.599 --> 00:27:48.222 - asking you for two things. 00:27:48.354 --> 00:27:54.367 - One we're asking Dr. Winston to make an administrative decision for this year specifically to allow 00:27:54.367 --> 00:28:00.441 - outside students to register for the AP exams and the PSAT exams. The deadline to order the AP exams 00:28:00.441 --> 00:28:06.574 - is mid-November so we ask for that decision to be made soon. And then two we ask for a written policy 00:28:06.574 --> 00:28:11.806 - for future school years and that part could come on whatever timeline the board needs. 00:28:12.386 --> 00:28:19.595 - The school board then listened to presentations about the annual health and safety report and technology 00:28:19.595 --> 00:28:25.842 - policies, which led board member April Hennessey to suggest that the district should think 00:28:25.842 --> 00:28:32.845 - about brainstorming an AI policy for the future. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining 00:28:32.845 --> 00:28:35.934 - us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.