WEBVTT 00:00:00.290 --> 00:00:06.536 - Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our Tuesday Celebration of Service. My name is Tracy Yovanovitch, 00:00:06.536 --> 00:00:12.199 - and I'm honored to serve as your president. What a great turnout. I don't know what the deal is. 00:00:12.199 --> 00:00:18.212 - I don't know. Somebody special is talking? It could be. Anyway, please silence your devices, and we'll 00:00:18.212 --> 00:00:24.575 - start off with Where in the World? In the spirit of understanding that this is an international organization 00:00:24.575 --> 00:00:30.238 - and making sure people know that Rotary is in over 200 countries, has anyone heard of San Pedro? 00:00:32.034 --> 00:00:37.089 - OK, well, most of you have heard of it, because actually Madonna sang a song about it. But there is 00:00:37.089 --> 00:00:42.194 - Rotary Club in San Pedro Belize, and they focus on one of our key elements that we like to focus on, 00:00:42.194 --> 00:00:47.451 - which is literacy and education. They spend most of their time working with teachers doing mini grants. 00:00:47.451 --> 00:00:52.808 - And I thought that was interesting because it sounds a lot like our work at Teachers Warehouse. So that's 00:00:52.808 --> 00:00:58.015 - why I wanted to share San Pedro Belize. Next time you're down there, by the way, they have great scuba 00:00:58.015 --> 00:01:00.542 - diving, but you can also attend a Rotary meeting. 00:01:01.986 --> 00:01:09.342 - And with that, I will ask Winston Schindel, someone I know dearly, to come up and introduce our guests. 00:01:31.298 --> 00:01:41.041 - Well, it's my pleasure to introduce the guests. And so when I call your name, if you would stand and 00:01:41.041 --> 00:01:50.976 - we will recognize you and give you a hand. So we have a few guests today. The first Desiree de Molina, 00:01:50.976 --> 00:01:57.246 - a guest of our mayor. Jennifer Meyer, also a guest of the mayor. 00:02:02.018 --> 00:02:25.363 - Kira Penny, a guest of art. Kylie Bard, a guest of Amy Kendall. Carter Herman, a guest of Emily Herman. 00:02:25.363 --> 00:02:30.526 - And April Weatherford, 00:02:31.042 --> 00:02:41.066 - Guest of? Payton. There. Do we have any guests online? Well, I see we've got Katz TV who has joined 00:02:41.066 --> 00:02:51.492 - us today. So welcome Katz. And, you know, I'm going to apologize. I'm not sure if Henry Leck is a guest 00:02:51.492 --> 00:02:58.910 - or not. I was trying to look up real quickly our membership database, but 00:02:59.426 --> 00:03:06.350 - Henry, if you are a guest, welcome. If you're not, I look forward to meeting you in person next time. 00:03:06.350 --> 00:03:13.138 - There you go. Welcome to all. And if you're interested in Rotary, talk to someone around the table. 00:03:13.138 --> 00:03:19.926 - They can help you with that. It's a great club. We do great work here in the community. So welcome. 00:03:19.926 --> 00:03:26.782 - All right. And I want to welcome back our family that's been out in Mexico. Dave and Cindy are back. 00:03:26.782 --> 00:03:29.022 - It's great to see you guys back. 00:03:31.106 --> 00:03:36.951 - And actually just in time, because it's your birthday week. So speaking of birthdays, Dave Meyer on 00:03:36.951 --> 00:03:42.971 - the 18th, Randy Saunders on the 19th, and Mike Wade on the 21st. And for anniversaries, we have Vivian 00:03:42.971 --> 00:03:48.875 - Bridges, four years. Bill Murphy, 47 years. And Bill, I have to apologize. I think I called you Bill 00:03:48.875 --> 00:03:55.070 - Armstrong. I have no idea why. That was one of my teachers in elementary school last week. Anyway, Andrea 00:03:55.070 --> 00:03:59.454 - Murray, three years. Charles Pierce, three years. Lauren Snyder, 17 years. 00:03:59.746 --> 00:04:07.990 - Ellen Stroman, one year here and many years back at home. And then Dr. Markay Winston for one year. 00:04:07.990 --> 00:04:16.070 - And with that, we'll go to announcements. If there we go. All right. I knew it would go too fast. 00:04:16.070 --> 00:04:19.038 - There we go. Announcements. So club 00:04:19.170 --> 00:04:24.116 - assembly update wanted to give everybody we talked to our club assembly about restructuring some of 00:04:24.116 --> 00:04:29.359 - the committees potentially just wanted to let everyone know that we had a board meeting and we're meeting 00:04:29.359 --> 00:04:34.504 - with all the committee chairs next week after the meeting to discuss the role of the various committees 00:04:34.504 --> 00:04:39.895 - that we have there and should they continue you know the classic start stop continue or is there a different 00:04:39.895 --> 00:04:44.891 - way that we should approach it so that we are more efficient with everyone's time. So know that that 00:04:44.891 --> 00:04:45.534 - is going on. 00:04:45.922 --> 00:04:51.609 - Secondly, we will also be doing, Jill is going to help us with a DAC cleanup. And I'm sure everybody's 00:04:51.609 --> 00:04:57.240 - like, what's DAC? That is our system that we use. And I think three people in this room have probably 00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:02.816 - ever accessed it. But that's where we house all of your pictures, your phone address, et cetera. And 00:05:02.816 --> 00:05:08.503 - that is what drives our app, Ignite. And so if you're missing information, it's missing in the app for 00:05:08.503 --> 00:05:14.024 - Ignite. And that is what is something that we use. It's very helpful for us when communicating with 00:05:14.024 --> 00:05:15.294 - each other, et cetera. 00:05:15.554 --> 00:05:22.541 - You'll probably get hit up with by Jill for more information. And if you don't want to share information, 00:05:22.541 --> 00:05:29.133 - that's totally fine. And then lastly, I just thought I would share this interesting observation. So 00:05:29.133 --> 00:05:35.725 - does anybody know what that picture is? It's a pepper. Does anybody know where that is growing? No, 00:05:35.725 --> 00:05:42.647 - you do not because good answer art. It is on Eagleson Avenue at the median right across from the musical 00:05:42.647 --> 00:05:45.086 - arts center. It is just a seed fell. 00:05:45.378 --> 00:05:50.885 - And it's classic, you know, and I swear I've walked by it probably 20 times and Sunday I saw it and 00:05:50.885 --> 00:05:56.502 - I'm like, what's that orange thing? So I look and there's two other seeds getting ready to bloom. But 00:05:56.502 --> 00:06:02.064 - how interesting, you know, a seed can grow reminded me of a tree in Brooklyn, kind of, you know, you 00:06:02.064 --> 00:06:07.627 - just never know what's going to grow where. So I thought that was kind of cool. And. You got to help 00:06:07.627 --> 00:06:10.270 - me, Tyler, this thing's going crazy. All right. 00:06:10.498 --> 00:06:16.683 - So Futurecast is coming up, and I know everybody in here is just a computer genius. So I thought I'd 00:06:16.683 --> 00:06:22.868 - share with you how to get tickets. If you go to the community chamber website, you can look up under 00:06:22.868 --> 00:06:28.991 - events, see the little red circles, you click the events, and then you go to the November calendar, 00:06:28.991 --> 00:06:35.482 - which is in the middle, and you look on Friday the 13th, which sounds rather ominous, and you, especially 00:06:35.482 --> 00:06:39.646 - for an economic outlook, I'll just say. And then you go to the far, 00:06:40.098 --> 00:06:46.585 - right on the screen and it will have you click to register for the event. So you are now computer savvy 00:06:46.585 --> 00:06:52.823 - and you are now all able to join Futurecast, our partnership with the Chamber when we hear from all 00:06:52.823 --> 00:06:59.311 - the experts at the Kelly School where the economy is going. Martha, I can see you're very excited about 00:06:59.311 --> 00:07:06.110 - that. All right. And with that, I would like to ask Jeff Richardson to come forward and introduce our guest. 00:07:16.642 --> 00:07:23.991 - Well, I've been working with political campaigns and political people since 1970. And since you made 00:07:23.991 --> 00:07:31.486 - a movie reference, Tracy, to a tree in Brooklyn, I'm going to make a movie reference to Mr. Smith Goes 00:07:31.486 --> 00:07:37.598 - to Washington. In this case, Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington. I just feel that Carrie 00:07:38.114 --> 00:07:45.032 - really captures the essence of being humble, kind, smart, thoughtful, always prepared, always listening, 00:07:45.032 --> 00:07:51.949 - and especially passionate about her work. I admire her greatly. And a lot of us know that she's a former 00:07:51.949 --> 00:07:58.801 - CEO of Habitat for Humanity for 20 years, former ED of the Center for Rural Engagement. But I just want 00:07:58.801 --> 00:08:02.622 - to talk to you a little bit about what she makes me feel. 00:08:02.850 --> 00:08:09.335 - because we're going to hear about the specifics about what she's doing in the city and what 00:08:09.335 --> 00:08:16.455 - she's accomplishing and what's ahead, the challenges ahead. But I met Carrie the first time when the 00:08:16.455 --> 00:08:23.716 - last UDO, the zoning changes were somewhat chaotic and people were very energized and very excited and 00:08:23.716 --> 00:08:28.510 - had a lot of opinions of what to do and what not to do. And Carrie, 00:08:29.250 --> 00:08:36.194 - was on the phone call. We did Zoom calls and there's still COVID going on. And I went to Tommy Allison's 00:08:36.194 --> 00:08:42.014 - house across the street. I live on 1st Street. And I said, who is this Carrie Thompson? 00:08:42.114 --> 00:08:47.392 - I said, she's so thoughtful. She's so measured. She really is listening. She would after there'd be 00:08:47.392 --> 00:08:52.934 - like an hour and a half of people talking, we had every single city council member as a guest, including 00:08:52.934 --> 00:08:58.264 - mayor Hamilton at the time. And she would say, here's what I heard. And she would distill it down to 00:08:58.264 --> 00:09:03.700 - three items. And then you say, here's what I think we might consider doing. And it was just brilliant. 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:07.870 - And so I said, you know, this is someone I think should run for mayor. I just, 00:09:08.130 --> 00:09:14.417 - just really met her through these these meetings and Tommy said, I've already asked her to do that. 00:09:14.417 --> 00:09:20.892 - And then I thought, well, that's good. So we're we're on top of it. And then later revealed to me that 00:09:20.892 --> 00:09:27.242 - Charlotte had asked Tommy had asked Carrie to run a few years earlier. But it was really through her 00:09:27.242 --> 00:09:33.717 - actions that we we were so impressed with her on the campaign trail. I mean, she has been so energized 00:09:33.717 --> 00:09:36.798 - going door to door and she promised when she was 00:09:36.898 --> 00:09:42.862 - Doing the campaigning that she would do something similar when she was in office and she's actually 00:09:42.862 --> 00:09:48.945 - done that she's still going door to door. She's doing these Outreach meetings town halls and the type 00:09:48.945 --> 00:09:55.029 - thing she loves being around people. She loves listening. She loves learning She's not a know-it-all. 00:09:55.029 --> 00:10:01.231 - She knows that there's a lot to learn and there's no better job I think when you're you're contributing 00:10:01.231 --> 00:10:06.718 - making a difference, but also learning and she loves learning I will say that I I feel that 00:10:06.978 --> 00:10:13.023 - I was very moved when I asked her. I do these check-ins with Carrie every once in a while and just say, 00:10:13.023 --> 00:10:18.951 - how's it going? Just open-ended question. And her first time I asked her that, she said, I can't wait 00:10:18.951 --> 00:10:24.822 - to get to work every single day. And I've called her and asked her sometimes in person, sometimes on 00:10:24.822 --> 00:10:30.750 - the phone, how she's feeling after some of these more, let's say, contentious meetings and struggles. 00:10:30.882 --> 00:10:36.933 - And she says, I still can't wait to get to work every day. She loves what she's doing. She loves Bloomington. 00:10:36.933 --> 00:10:42.489 - She loves the people she's serving. And she also does it again. I'm going to go back to this in such 00:10:42.489 --> 00:10:48.319 - a humble way. You know, touch of humility goes a long way. And it reminds me of President Truman's quote. 00:10:48.319 --> 00:10:52.830 - That's amazing how much you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. 00:10:53.378 --> 00:11:02.327 - She doesn't care who gets the credit. She just wants to get things done. She loves Bloomington. She 00:11:02.327 --> 00:11:11.724 - loves her family. She loves her bike. She loves her neighborhood and she loves her friends. I'm so happy 00:11:11.724 --> 00:11:21.031 - and proud to introduce my mayor, my friend, Carrie Thompson. That was so much better than a canned bio. 00:11:21.031 --> 00:11:23.358 - We're gonna see if we can 00:11:23.458 --> 00:11:32.202 - get those kinds of intros all of the time. Good afternoon. And I see some of our team members from the 00:11:32.202 --> 00:11:40.776 - city. Jonas, I was just singing your praises today. And Michael's here and others. But what I really 00:11:40.776 --> 00:11:44.766 - see are a lot of community leaders here in the 00:11:45.122 --> 00:11:53.986 - in the crowd at Rotary today. And I am just so deeply grateful to each of you for what you do every 00:11:53.986 --> 00:12:03.471 - day for our community. It takes us all pulling in the same direction. And to be frank, it takes us pulling 00:12:03.471 --> 00:12:11.006 - in other directions to get to a place where we know we're supposed to pull together. 00:12:11.650 --> 00:12:20.048 - As I continue to learn every day in the office of the mayor, our entire community is rich with people 00:12:20.048 --> 00:12:28.365 - who just care deeply about this place, about the city, about how it works, about whether or not it's 00:12:28.365 --> 00:12:36.598 - working. And while I do love my bike, I really hate speed bumps. So if you're going to ask me about 00:12:36.598 --> 00:12:41.374 - those, I'll be pretty frank with you about those as well. 00:12:41.506 --> 00:12:51.986 - Um, the, uh, the honor of serving as your mayor, uh, is, uh, outside of, uh, parenting my kids is probably 00:12:51.986 --> 00:12:59.038 - the greatest honor I have had in my life. Um, because in this seat, um, 00:12:59.298 --> 00:13:07.689 - We are able to listen to people and I say we because we really take a comprehensive team approach at 00:13:07.689 --> 00:13:15.166 - the city. But we're able to gather people together that otherwise wouldn't come together. 00:13:15.266 --> 00:13:22.269 - uh, to listen, but also to sit through the hard questions. Um, and there are hard days, Jeff, right? 00:13:22.269 --> 00:13:29.619 - Um, there are, there are days when, um, we think, well, we've really, we've, we've picked the most wicked 00:13:29.619 --> 00:13:36.691 - problem now and, um, we're never going to get to a place where we all agree on this. Um, and, uh, and 00:13:36.691 --> 00:13:40.990 - while that may be true that we may not all agree, um, I think 00:13:41.346 --> 00:13:49.732 - almost always we get to a point where we have chosen something a path that is better than where we started 00:13:49.732 --> 00:13:53.886 - and and that and the best path forward is frequently 00:13:54.338 --> 00:14:01.621 - Not one that any one of us in the room ever had in our mind when we got into the room that we allow 00:14:01.621 --> 00:14:09.342 - each other to be changed by one another's thoughts and and that we we listen in earnest and work together 00:14:09.342 --> 00:14:13.566 - towards the best possible outcome for our entire city and 00:14:14.242 --> 00:14:23.349 - And that is a that's what I call a no lose situation. It's not a everybody wins, but nobody should walk 00:14:23.349 --> 00:14:32.194 - away a total at a total loss when we really are listening well to one another and getting to a place 00:14:32.194 --> 00:14:41.127 - where we can actually dream big dreams and know that we have problems that other communities may call 00:14:41.127 --> 00:14:42.878 - intractable, but we 00:14:43.010 --> 00:14:51.982 - believe that we can make actual progress on them in a way that we can measure and in a way that we can 00:14:51.982 --> 00:15:00.693 - believe that we can do probably better than any other community in the country. And while we're all 00:15:00.693 --> 00:15:03.742 - dreaming big, we know that we have 00:15:03.810 --> 00:15:10.757 - high engagement from our residents. And what I've learned at the city is that that means that we also 00:15:10.757 --> 00:15:17.703 - don't get anywhere very quickly. I don't know if that's government or high engagement, but we do like 00:15:17.703 --> 00:15:24.650 - to take the scenic route in Bloomington. And and I promise you, we always at the city try to take the 00:15:24.650 --> 00:15:31.665 - approach that that's just making it a better approach, even if it's taking a lot longer. And that that 00:15:31.665 --> 00:15:33.776 - is reminding me of Charlotte's 00:15:33.776 --> 00:15:42.371 - signature line on her email, that the impossible just takes a little bit longer. And so as one of many 00:15:42.371 --> 00:15:51.217 - in this community that wants to keep living Charlotte's legacy, I'm now a firm believer in the impossible 00:15:51.217 --> 00:15:59.562 - just taking a little bit longer. What we're working towards in Bloomington and our ultimate vision, 00:15:59.562 --> 00:16:01.982 - my vision for this community 00:16:02.146 --> 00:16:09.556 - is to create a thriving community, a truly thriving community where everyone can belong, where everyone 00:16:09.556 --> 00:16:16.896 - can belong. And so that means the refugees that we were talking about earlier. It means the people who 00:16:16.896 --> 00:16:24.164 - may not be sleeping indoors tonight. It means the people who are too afraid for one reason or another 00:16:24.164 --> 00:16:28.510 - to show up at a public meeting or even at the grocery store. 00:16:28.642 --> 00:16:37.002 - And what we're doing together through acts of service, but most importantly by being great neighbors 00:16:37.002 --> 00:16:45.362 - in every way that we can is making Bloomington a place where anyone truly can belong. And when I ran 00:16:45.362 --> 00:16:52.894 - for mayor, I committed to creating a city government that listens and listens in new ways. 00:16:53.282 --> 00:16:59.613 - As you are formulating questions for me today, I would also love your ideas and your comments about 00:16:59.613 --> 00:17:06.198 - how we can listen even better. And so what we've done is some structural things. I do a town hall every 00:17:06.198 --> 00:17:12.593 - other month. Everybody's invited. We move those town halls out in the community. They're not in city 00:17:12.593 --> 00:17:17.278 - hall and they go to a different city council district every single month. 00:17:17.730 --> 00:17:24.557 - On the months I don't have town halls, I have traveling office hours and that's an opportunity for residents 00:17:24.557 --> 00:17:31.009 - to sit down with me one-on-one. Again, we do these out in public, so sometimes they're at Jiffy Treat, 00:17:31.009 --> 00:17:37.398 - sometimes they're at the YMCA, other times they're at the library, et cetera. But what that does, and 00:17:37.398 --> 00:17:43.724 - as Jeff said, I still door knock, but I don't door knock asking for votes on city time. I door knock 00:17:43.724 --> 00:17:45.854 - just to see how people are doing. 00:17:46.210 --> 00:17:51.209 - and what they're thinking about and what's working and what's not working in their neighborhoods. And 00:17:51.209 --> 00:17:56.159 - if you have, if you think you have a neighborhood that needs some knocking, you can reach out to me. 00:17:56.159 --> 00:18:01.011 - It has to be in the city. Um, that's, that's the qualifier. Um, but do reach out to my office, uh, 00:18:01.011 --> 00:18:05.911 - because we, we pick very different neighborhoods all the time. Sometimes they're neighborhoods that 00:18:05.911 --> 00:18:10.910 - we know are having an issue with something. And sometimes they're just, we just haven't knocked there 00:18:10.910 --> 00:18:14.782 - in a while and we haven't heard from anybody in this neighborhood for a while. 00:18:15.106 --> 00:18:23.180 - That's where I get the best feedback. Just by showing up at people's doors when no one else is watching, 00:18:23.180 --> 00:18:31.022 - people tell me the real deal. They tell me what they're really thinking about and what their families 00:18:31.022 --> 00:18:38.942 - are really concerned about. So we also have a great team at the city and that was one of the immediate 00:18:38.942 --> 00:18:44.094 - things that I took on as mayor was looking at our team and our the 00:18:44.258 --> 00:18:52.768 - Um, the city had done a compensation study, uh, about a year and a half before I took over as mayor 00:18:52.768 --> 00:19:01.618 - and, um, didn't have, didn't have, didn't take the opportunity to implement it. Um, we implemented that 00:19:01.618 --> 00:19:09.022 - in my first year and, um, we, we have now the data to show that we have less turnover. 00:19:09.442 --> 00:19:17.125 - We have happier employees and we just won best place to work in Bloomington. And so we really have made 00:19:17.125 --> 00:19:24.661 - strides to make sure that the people who are serving you are getting what they need at work, not only 00:19:24.661 --> 00:19:32.270 - in terms of salary, but in training and also the ability to make decisions on their own. We also, even 00:19:32.270 --> 00:19:35.742 - taking on that salary survey and other things, 00:19:35.874 --> 00:19:44.970 - we started tackling the $16 million deficit that we were running in the annual budget. And we committed 00:19:44.970 --> 00:19:53.803 - even before SCA 1 to really focusing on preserving our assets. They do take financial resources just 00:19:53.803 --> 00:19:59.838 - to preserve what we already have and to really boiling down what is, 00:20:00.034 --> 00:20:07.906 - What do we have to do? What are the basic things that our residents need? And what are the choice areas 00:20:07.906 --> 00:20:16.157 - that we can choose to spend some money to make an impact? And so you may have heard about our outcomes-based 00:20:16.157 --> 00:20:16.990 - budgeting. 00:20:17.666 --> 00:20:25.507 - which we've dipped our toe into. Jeff McKim is here, our awesome controller. I don't know where Jeff 00:20:25.507 --> 00:20:32.960 - is sitting. There's Jeff. Don't ask him any budget questions. You can direct those to me today. 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:40.879 - He's off duty. But he's done a great job of helping us understand the relatively small portion of our 00:20:40.879 --> 00:20:44.606 - budget actually that goes into anything that is 00:20:44.802 --> 00:20:53.112 - Directive anything that's not sort of essential so that we can do our work to to spend that on outcomes 00:20:53.112 --> 00:21:01.822 - in the future and to really drive what we're trying that the outcomes that we're trying to get to as a city. 00:21:02.050 --> 00:21:10.963 - We are obviously preparing for SCA 1 to be implemented. I'm not going to belabor that point too much. 00:21:10.963 --> 00:21:19.089 - That is the Senate Enrolled Act that happened about a year and almost a year and a half ago. 00:21:19.089 --> 00:21:27.390 - It was enacted. It was amended last year. We're told it's going to be amended again this year. 00:21:27.490 --> 00:21:34.493 - Part of part of our essential city services watch right now is to address that and to make sure that 00:21:34.493 --> 00:21:41.635 - we have no more of that deficit spending happening and that we really know where every dollar is going 00:21:41.635 --> 00:21:46.142 - and that we're making the highest and best use of those dollars. 00:21:46.818 --> 00:21:54.779 - But we also are advocating at the State House to get some things rolled back on that SCA-1 provision. 00:21:54.779 --> 00:22:02.661 - So I have confidence that we can do what we need to do with what we have, but there are some impacts 00:22:02.661 --> 00:22:10.622 - we would like to drive that we're not going to be able to drive without the funding that we have had. 00:22:11.234 --> 00:22:19.159 - Importantly, we have a process that we've taken on in partnership with the county. The county actually 00:22:19.159 --> 00:22:27.239 - called the meeting for a must task force. And that's the group that looks at how we look at local income 00:22:27.239 --> 00:22:35.241 - tax together. And if you go back and look at that first must meeting, I would challenge you to conclude 00:22:35.241 --> 00:22:39.550 - that the city and county are not working well together. 00:22:39.650 --> 00:22:48.151 - That was just a remarkable first meeting. It was really a textbook example of how we can all do better 00:22:48.151 --> 00:22:56.652 - if we're looking out for one another. And I have confidence that we're gonna get to a great place with 00:22:56.652 --> 00:23:04.988 - our discussions with the local income tax. So I wanna talk a little bit about community safety. What 00:23:04.988 --> 00:23:08.702 - time am I supposed to wrap up for questions? 00:23:09.282 --> 00:23:16.460 - Oh, piece of cake. We're going to try to save even more of that for questions. So one of my main goals 00:23:16.460 --> 00:23:23.847 - coming into office was to address community safety. And I'll note for anybody who has particular interest 00:23:23.847 --> 00:23:30.398 - in community safety, the council is having a deliberation session on safety tomorrow evening. 00:23:30.530 --> 00:23:38.105 - All are welcome. And I think that starts at 6.30, their normal council time. That's an open discussion 00:23:38.105 --> 00:23:45.753 - on how we can improve community safety. The safety issues were raised in the last one. This time, we're 00:23:45.753 --> 00:23:52.886 - coming up with solutions together. And again, that's a council session. So I'm not running that. 00:23:52.886 --> 00:23:59.358 - They are. I will be there. But we really targeted some pay changes for police and fire. 00:23:59.490 --> 00:24:06.447 - Importantly, we also got them the resources that they were asking for and needed, and lots of those 00:24:06.447 --> 00:24:10.622 - were non-monetary resources, supportive resources that they 00:24:10.786 --> 00:24:20.769 - had wanted and I'm really proud that both the fire and police union contracts first round passed unanimously 00:24:20.769 --> 00:24:29.927 - and we continue to have a really positive response. Fire is now fully staffed as they have been for 00:24:29.927 --> 00:24:38.078 - about a year and our police department had its largest recruitment class that we know of 00:24:38.498 --> 00:24:46.686 - in more than three decades. We had 11 new officers in a single class this year. So pretty remarkable. 00:24:47.234 --> 00:24:54.162 - You may have heard that we are looking at 714 South Rogers, which is the old convalescent center. It's 00:24:54.162 --> 00:25:01.291 - part of Hopewell and we would like to put the new police headquarters there. That is still going through, 00:25:01.291 --> 00:25:08.151 - partially I'll say it's a due diligence process because we're still doing some structural testing and 00:25:08.151 --> 00:25:15.213 - things like that. But really that is, we've vetted a lot of different properties. That is the top choice 00:25:15.213 --> 00:25:16.222 - at this point. 00:25:16.386 --> 00:25:25.462 - We're going to, the vision is to retain most of that building, maybe all of it. And we will additionally 00:25:25.462 --> 00:25:34.105 - have a category four building as part of that that will house our dispatch and emergency operations 00:25:34.105 --> 00:25:42.835 - center. And for those of you who don't speak category four language, as I do not, it just means that 00:25:42.835 --> 00:25:46.206 - it's a building that's constructed to, 00:25:46.306 --> 00:25:53.845 - to endure a significant tornado or other weather event, seismic event, et cetera, which is really best 00:25:53.845 --> 00:26:01.530 - practice for dispatch and emergency operations. The city does not own currently a category four building 00:26:01.530 --> 00:26:09.142 - at all, which means our dispatch is not in such a building now. So that'll be an improvement and having 00:26:09.142 --> 00:26:13.534 - police and dispatch co-located will also be an improvement. 00:26:14.210 --> 00:26:20.310 - You'll hear more about that new police station as we go through the process, both at the redevelopment 00:26:20.310 --> 00:26:26.232 - commission, because they currently own that building and likely at council when we have to bond for 00:26:26.232 --> 00:26:32.154 - it. But the important thing to know about this is that the police have really been under housed for 00:26:32.154 --> 00:26:38.491 - a very, very long time. They they work in a building that still has flooding issues and moisture problems. 00:26:38.491 --> 00:26:44.176 - They're very overcrowded. And so while this is a bigger building and it may be even more square 00:26:44.176 --> 00:26:53.285 - footage than what we're ultimately going to need for police currently and dispatch. It's not a signal 00:26:53.285 --> 00:27:02.929 - that we are aiming to dramatically increase our police force. We're aiming to get to the 106 sworn officers 00:27:02.929 --> 00:27:08.734 - that has been our allocated steady state for a while. And that's 00:27:09.250 --> 00:27:16.361 - and adequately house them. And that's the only growth that we anticipate, which is just trying to get 00:27:16.361 --> 00:27:23.402 - to where we we should have been a while ago. And and so that's our that's our vision with the police 00:27:23.402 --> 00:27:30.374 - and that police department. We have met with the neighborhood associations over there and get a lot 00:27:30.374 --> 00:27:35.742 - of support for relocating the police in in that area. And the police are all 00:27:35.906 --> 00:27:42.095 - The FOP and police administration are really supportive of that location as well. I want to take a minute 00:27:42.095 --> 00:27:48.050 - to talk about housing and homelessness. And you, if you know me, will not believe that I'm just going 00:27:48.050 --> 00:27:53.947 - to talk for a minute. So that I shouldn't have said that because I'm going to talk for longer than a 00:27:53.947 --> 00:27:59.902 - minute about housing and homelessness. You know, what I've been told lately is looking at the streets 00:28:00.034 --> 00:28:07.725 - Maybe you can't tell that anything's being done about homelessness. I'm hearing from people that you're 00:28:07.725 --> 00:28:15.416 - seeing people in Seminary Park. You're still seeing people sleep outside. And I want to take you behind 00:28:15.416 --> 00:28:22.885 - the scenes on homelessness, especially street homelessness, which is unsheltered homelessness. We do 00:28:22.885 --> 00:28:28.062 - have an increase in numbers in this year's pick count from last year. 00:28:28.130 --> 00:28:35.293 - Um, that can be due to many things. Um, it may be due to having more people who are unhoused here. Um, 00:28:35.293 --> 00:28:42.456 - but there are also things that can affect that data. Um, and we know the pit count was, uh, taken this 00:28:42.456 --> 00:28:49.688 - year on a very, very cold night, uh, which, uh, does increase the number of people who will come inside 00:28:49.688 --> 00:28:56.990 - to the Bloomington, to the emergency shelter, um, as well as to our other, um, shelter partners. Um, so. 00:28:57.730 --> 00:29:08.558 - What we have done is that we have reduced the established encampments in city limits and we had more 00:29:08.558 --> 00:29:13.918 - than 12 of those in 2024 when I started as mayor. 00:29:14.018 --> 00:29:22.793 - We are down to none now. And that includes the, so that was partially city work. There was one encampment 00:29:22.793 --> 00:29:31.567 - on county property and the county closed that earlier this year. That had grown to be a large encampment. 00:29:31.567 --> 00:29:40.342 - And so part of what you're also seeing is that people who had a place to stay in any of those encampments 00:29:40.342 --> 00:29:42.494 - have not been housed yet. 00:29:42.594 --> 00:29:52.582 - And so some of that invisible, unsheltered homelessness is now visible. But we do have Heading Home 00:29:52.582 --> 00:30:02.869 - and other organizations that are working together on a unified approach to ending street homelessness. 00:30:02.869 --> 00:30:08.862 - And what that means is that, especially in the aftermath of 00:30:08.994 --> 00:30:17.557 - the Senate Enrolled Act that illegalized sleeping outside on public property. So that was SEA 285 this 00:30:17.557 --> 00:30:26.119 - past year, which came with no resources to actually house people. It just was a moratorium on sleeping 00:30:26.119 --> 00:30:34.765 - outside. The Heading Home launched Streets to Stability, and that is a zone-by-zone approach to closing 00:30:34.765 --> 00:30:37.342 - areas of downtown to sleeping. 00:30:37.474 --> 00:30:44.553 - Uh, in our first zone, 19 individuals were identified on a by name list. And this is a very systematic 00:30:44.553 --> 00:30:51.563 - approach where, um, outreach workers are going out at four 30 and five o'clock in the morning to, um, 00:30:51.563 --> 00:30:58.572 - meet with people who are sleeping outside and they're looking at the trends. Who's always here, where 00:30:58.572 --> 00:31:04.414 - are they sleeping? What do they need? And they engage with them and get their names. 00:31:04.546 --> 00:31:11.301 - creating that by name list, but even more importantly, they're helping to get them resources like an 00:31:11.301 --> 00:31:18.123 - identification and other things that all of us need in order to be housed, especially if you're going 00:31:18.123 --> 00:31:24.945 - to sign a lease somewhere. And so that first zone again had 19 people on the by name list. And within 00:31:24.945 --> 00:31:28.958 - that month of working in that zone, 13 of them were housed. 00:31:29.730 --> 00:31:36.325 - So that's the vast majority. And caseworkers are still working with people who have much more complex 00:31:36.325 --> 00:31:42.920 - cases. But this is the kind of systemized approach that can really pivot things in our community. And 00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:49.514 - we're really grateful. I see we have some friends from Community Foundation. Community Foundation has 00:31:49.514 --> 00:31:54.622 - really helped take a lead in this and rally the community around this process. 00:31:55.010 --> 00:32:04.620 - that we're working on our next zone now. And that is a larger zone. And so it's going to take three 00:32:04.620 --> 00:32:14.710 - months of work in that zone. But we are seeing real tangible improvements downtown. And I consider this, 00:32:14.710 --> 00:32:22.686 - hopefully, we are seeing more activity in the zone we're working in. And we don't, 00:32:22.786 --> 00:32:30.413 - We don't publicize what zone we're working in, but when my team is engaging with people in that zone, 00:32:30.413 --> 00:32:38.040 - they say, Oh yeah, we're here because we heard that if we sleep here, we can get housing, which means 00:32:38.040 --> 00:32:45.517 - something's working. And I want to just say that a lot of the people that are being engaged through 00:32:45.517 --> 00:32:50.078 - streets to stability are the people that, um, that were, um, 00:32:50.370 --> 00:32:57.795 - disenchanted with services in the past. And so there are obstacles not only to housing them, but also 00:32:57.795 --> 00:33:04.638 - to gaining the trust that is needed in order to find a place where they can live permanently. 00:33:05.282 --> 00:33:14.833 - I don't think that we have all the resources that we need to solve homelessness right now. And so we 00:33:14.833 --> 00:33:24.479 - are continuing to innovate around that. And the city is playing active role in working with providers 00:33:24.479 --> 00:33:35.070 - on that and looking at what more we can do to improve life for our neighbors. We also, outside of homelessness, 00:33:35.202 --> 00:33:43.613 - All housing impacts homelessness, right? It's a lack of affordable housing that ends up leading people 00:33:43.613 --> 00:33:52.025 - to a place where they're unhoused. We have taken action against a long-standing problem property owner 00:33:52.025 --> 00:34:00.354 - who has been renting really unsafe units in our community for better than three decades. And that has 00:34:00.354 --> 00:34:03.294 - had a very tangible impact not only 00:34:03.490 --> 00:34:12.782 - for those people who are residents of those properties, and by the way, paying fair market rent, but 00:34:12.782 --> 00:34:22.166 - also for the neighborhoods around those properties that were really living with some issues that were 00:34:22.166 --> 00:34:31.734 - health and safety concerns. And with a combined effort, our team has developed an approach working with 00:34:31.734 --> 00:34:33.022 - providers and 00:34:33.186 --> 00:34:40.081 - and property managers to help reduce police calls and criminal activity around the areas of some of 00:34:40.081 --> 00:34:47.114 - our permanent supportive housing and to improve the housing conditions there. We also, in addition to 00:34:47.114 --> 00:34:54.078 - these things, we have to create some more housing. There's not enough housing that people can afford 00:34:54.078 --> 00:34:54.974 - in our city. 00:34:55.106 --> 00:35:06.497 - And so some of our existing processes in the city are frankly unnecessary scenic route through planning 00:35:06.497 --> 00:35:10.878 - and and that is that is a that absorbs. 00:35:10.946 --> 00:35:17.618 - resources from the people who are building the houses, but that's not the problem actually. So this 00:35:17.618 --> 00:35:24.423 - myth that developers just want to make more money and that's why they need a fast process. Developers 00:35:24.423 --> 00:35:31.229 - may want to make more money, but the fast process actually is going to reduce the cost of your house. 00:35:31.229 --> 00:35:37.900 - And so whether it's a technically affordable house or not, when a developer has to pay an architect 00:35:37.900 --> 00:35:39.902 - to redo plans or an engineer, 00:35:40.002 --> 00:35:46.981 - That's coming out of the bottom line of the project, no matter what. So that part has very little or 00:35:46.981 --> 00:35:54.513 - nothing to do with the developer making a profit. And so we did a full permitting audit, which was completed 00:35:54.513 --> 00:35:58.590 - this spring. Those changes are already starting to happen. 00:35:58.658 --> 00:36:04.764 - We have contemporaneous review processes throughout the departments where we're able to do that. So 00:36:04.764 --> 00:36:10.992 - it doesn't go from one department and sit and then go to the next department and sit and then go back 00:36:10.992 --> 00:36:17.220 - to this department. Oh, we forgot to comment on these things. No, where everybody's looking at it and 00:36:17.220 --> 00:36:23.936 - commenting at the same time. And there's a workshop around every one of those permits if there are challenges 00:36:23.936 --> 00:36:28.638 - and how can we help solve this and get this to a yes. So it's an incredible, 00:36:28.674 --> 00:36:37.963 - process. But the part of my blueprint when I ran for mayor was to make housing more affordable, no matter 00:36:37.963 --> 00:36:46.725 - what level it is. And part of that is the permitting process. Another part of that is land use. And 00:36:46.725 --> 00:36:48.478 - so the City Council 00:36:48.706 --> 00:36:55.963 - And ultimately the unified development ordinance is owned by the city council they they create it and 00:36:55.963 --> 00:37:03.006 - they amend it, it comes from the plan commission council can send changes back to plan commission. 00:37:03.106 --> 00:37:10.118 - And I'm really proud our staff supported some really pivotal changes in the unified development ordinance 00:37:10.118 --> 00:37:16.865 - that went through a couple of weeks ago. Those should change things in the face of what we're able to 00:37:16.865 --> 00:37:19.710 - build and where and our land use patterns. 00:37:19.810 --> 00:37:27.149 - And I think that an important part of that and an example of how this will live out is the Hopewell 00:37:27.149 --> 00:37:33.534 - neighborhood, which is another one of those governmental processes that took too long. 00:37:33.698 --> 00:37:41.976 - Where we landed with phase one at Hopewell is 98 new homes that will be constructed and they are on 00:37:41.976 --> 00:37:50.668 - small lots with modest size houses and they will be owner occupied. And that is really important because 00:37:50.668 --> 00:37:59.277 - we have a lot of people who are having a hard time affording to stay in Bloomington because our housing 00:37:59.277 --> 00:38:03.664 - prices keep rising, especially in the rental market. 00:38:03.664 --> 00:38:13.022 - And the rental market is really outrageous. We're the least affordable place to live in the state of Indiana. 00:38:13.698 --> 00:38:23.171 - when you can buy into something and start to earn equity in it the the vision at Hopewell is even a 00:38:23.171 --> 00:38:32.645 - young professional can buy into Hopewell with a very modestly sized studio home and as they're able 00:38:32.645 --> 00:38:37.950 - or as they have more needs a larger family etc they can 00:38:38.754 --> 00:38:44.894 - buy something else, either at Hopewell or elsewhere. We've had a lot of interest from retirees in Hopewell. 00:38:45.058 --> 00:38:54.088 - And so I really see Hopewell, it's highly walkable. It's close to all the services you need. It's within 00:38:54.088 --> 00:39:03.118 - about a half mile, not as the crow flies even closer to our transit center, but it's close to everything 00:39:03.118 --> 00:39:11.804 - that you need. And those taxes are gonna be really low for the people on a fixed income because your 00:39:11.804 --> 00:39:14.814 - assessed value should also be low. 00:39:15.586 --> 00:39:23.900 - So I'm going to spend the last five minutes, I'm sorry, I am going to take all of my time talking about 00:39:23.900 --> 00:39:32.134 - economic development and what we're looking at there. So for me, and hopefully for all of us, economic 00:39:32.134 --> 00:39:40.208 - development is a lot more than just supporting successful businesses and being even more successful. 00:39:40.208 --> 00:39:42.526 - It's not that for me at all. 00:39:42.850 --> 00:39:50.681 - good economic development means that our wages are rising in Bloomington. Our wages should be keeping 00:39:50.681 --> 00:39:58.895 - up with our cost of housing at the very least and when we can when we can encourage that housing stability 00:39:58.895 --> 00:40:06.803 - that allows people to grow a life here they continue to invest in our community and they invest in our 00:40:06.803 --> 00:40:10.334 - community by growing their businesses here by 00:40:10.722 --> 00:40:19.327 - getting better jobs here and we get the whole community fabric working together so that we as a community 00:40:19.327 --> 00:40:27.608 - are really thriving. And so economic development and our city commitment to grow economic development 00:40:27.608 --> 00:40:33.534 - is about increasing our workforce population. Our schools are suffering. 00:40:33.858 --> 00:40:43.578 - And if we don't get people living within the MCCSC district, we will continue to see a decline in enrollment 00:40:43.578 --> 00:40:52.763 - at MCCSC. That is not the only reason our school is suffering. We can talk about SCA-1 and we can talk 00:40:52.763 --> 00:41:01.502 - about school vouchers, et cetera, but it's also about population. And we need people to live here 00:41:01.602 --> 00:41:09.374 - to be able to find jobs where if you get into an entry-level job when you're straight out of IU or another 00:41:09.374 --> 00:41:16.710 - higher ed institution, when you're straight out of Ivy Tech, you come to this job, you work your way 00:41:16.710 --> 00:41:23.973 - up, and there may not be room in that company for you to grow anywhere else. You need another place 00:41:23.973 --> 00:41:31.454 - that you can go get your mid-level job, right? And you need to see a path if you're gonna invest here. 00:41:32.034 --> 00:41:39.110 - You also need, and our branding audit brought these things up. You need enough other people your age 00:41:39.110 --> 00:41:46.255 - to date and to go out and play. We laugh, but it's true. We're losing that population because if they 00:41:46.255 --> 00:41:53.331 - haven't found their partner, they go somewhere else. If there's not enough pickup basketball leagues 00:41:53.331 --> 00:42:00.126 - and ultimate frisbee happening in those age groups, then they're not going to stay here. And so. 00:42:00.290 --> 00:42:06.812 - part of our economic development is really encouraging the quality of place that's going to attract 00:42:06.812 --> 00:42:13.595 - people to live and to stay here so that we can grow businesses, we can grow our wages, we can grow that 00:42:13.595 --> 00:42:20.509 - workforce population. And ultimately what I started talking about, which, you know, earlier about housing 00:42:20.509 --> 00:42:27.422 - and homelessness, housing is part of the solve, but we also have more housing to solve that homelessness. 00:42:27.938 --> 00:42:35.267 - And so when we get the fabric working together and working together well, then we have a community that 00:42:35.267 --> 00:42:42.525 - really thrives. And so you do hear me talking about those three things all of the time, public safety, 00:42:42.525 --> 00:42:49.571 - economic development, and housing and homelessness, because those are the keys to really creating a 00:42:49.571 --> 00:42:56.759 - community that works and thrives together. And I am happy, it is 12.45 on the dot, I am happy to take 00:42:56.759 --> 00:42:57.534 - questions. 00:42:57.890 --> 00:43:07.481 - And Michael's got the question asked there. Thank you, Mayor. I'm glad you took all the time because 00:43:07.481 --> 00:43:16.977 - it demonstrates your great knowledge. And I'm so appreciative of your work on our behalf. I want to 00:43:16.977 --> 00:43:27.518 - flip the question now. Instead of how can you help us? How can we better help you? I'm personally disappointed 00:43:28.098 --> 00:43:35.392 - but the corporate community, the faith community, this university aren't more cooperative with the work 00:43:35.392 --> 00:43:42.686 - that the city is doing. And I, what can this Rotary Club think about and do differently so that we can, 00:43:42.686 --> 00:43:49.278 - I think your language was so that we can bring all of these pieces together. Yeah, thank you. 00:43:50.242 --> 00:44:01.627 - Phil, you of course teach master classes in belonging. And I think that in my mind, the secret to community 00:44:01.627 --> 00:44:09.534 - working really well is for each one of us to use our gifts in the way that 00:44:09.762 --> 00:44:16.528 - in whatever way we're called to do that. And usually using your gifts means you find it fun and time 00:44:16.528 --> 00:44:23.294 - sort of disappears when you're doing that thing. That means you have some kind of gift in that area. 00:44:23.394 --> 00:44:32.760 - and think about what those gifts are and find a way to offer those to the community. And it's harder 00:44:32.760 --> 00:44:42.775 - than it looks sometimes. But for instance, one of the things that we're hearing from all kinds of providers 00:44:42.775 --> 00:44:47.134 - in the social service realm is that there is a 00:44:47.746 --> 00:44:59.164 - There is a poverty of relationship happening. And I've heard many, many folks who really are experts 00:44:59.164 --> 00:45:01.086 - in helping solve 00:45:01.410 --> 00:45:07.033 - challenges with homelessness say that homelessness is not just a depletion of financial resources. It 00:45:07.033 --> 00:45:12.600 - is first and foremost, the exhaustion of your relationships and an absolute desert of relationships. 00:45:12.600 --> 00:45:18.168 - And so, you know, when I was at Habitat, we always used to say that we were passion translators. And 00:45:18.168 --> 00:45:23.791 - so if you came to us and said, you know, I want to get involved, but I don't really know how to swing 00:45:23.791 --> 00:45:28.862 - a hammer. If you could bake cookies, we could recruit students to swing the hammers, right? 00:45:28.994 --> 00:45:36.758 - Um, and so it's really about, um, trying to figure out where, um, where your gifts lie and how those 00:45:36.758 --> 00:45:44.829 - can help somebody else in the community or can help you in the community also helps us to use our gifts. 00:45:44.829 --> 00:45:53.054 - Um, and so I don't have a recipe book and that that's, um, by design, um, there's no recipe book. Um, but. 00:45:53.218 --> 00:46:01.107 - Uh, in, in today's day and age where there's social media, um, that people hide behind and, and take 00:46:01.107 --> 00:46:09.308 - cheap shots about what others are doing. Um, don't be afraid to get out there and use your gifts. Nobody 00:46:09.308 --> 00:46:17.197 - has to, um, approve of what you're doing. Um, nobody has to, um, nobody has to, uh, designate you as 00:46:17.197 --> 00:46:22.430 - the, um, queen cookie baker or whatever. Um, there are ways and I, 00:46:22.882 --> 00:46:31.046 - I don't spend a lot of time on next door, but I did notice, um, there's a young guy. Um, Brynn Ren is 00:46:31.046 --> 00:46:39.209 - his name, I think. Um, he, he started a window washing business, um, in the community, probably three 00:46:39.209 --> 00:46:47.293 - years ago. He, he just needed money and he had a, he's a young guy. He had a, he bought a ladder and 00:46:47.293 --> 00:46:49.534 - he had a bucket and he, um, 00:46:49.666 --> 00:46:56.869 - started advertising on Nextdoor that he would wash windows. Well, he posted a couple days ago that he 00:46:56.869 --> 00:47:04.002 - has now served thousands of people. But even more importantly, he was asking people what cool things 00:47:04.002 --> 00:47:11.206 - they were seeing out in the community. And on Nextdoor, where you can see everybody complaining about 00:47:11.206 --> 00:47:16.926 - everything, there was a whole stream of cool that was happening in our community 00:47:17.058 --> 00:47:25.413 - started by a young window washer, right? So he's just using his gifts to create a joy ripple in our 00:47:25.413 --> 00:47:34.185 - community. And that's really what it's about. And I really hope I did some good small business promotion 00:47:34.185 --> 00:47:42.624 - for Brynn because he came and washed my windows once and that post made me want to have more windows 00:47:42.624 --> 00:47:43.710 - in my house. 00:47:48.354 --> 00:47:54.338 - Thank you, Carrie. Thank you for your presentation. We've known each other for a while. We have. And 00:47:54.338 --> 00:48:00.263 - I think that, you know, my main thing in particularly in legislation is basic city services and the 00:48:00.263 --> 00:48:06.306 - best use of our tax dollars. I don't have a question, but I do have a comment. One of the things that 00:48:06.306 --> 00:48:12.349 - I've learned over time is that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. 00:48:12.349 --> 00:48:17.918 - And I just want to thank you for exhibiting that you care. And I think that'll go a long way. 00:48:18.114 --> 00:48:25.735 - So thank you very much. Thanks, Jim. Jim, Jim, we filled 9,800 potholes this year. And counting. Oh, 00:48:25.735 --> 00:48:33.809 - yeah, only about 100,000 to go. That's right. That's a lot more filled than what happened in Indianapolis. 00:48:33.809 --> 00:48:41.581 - Anyway, thanks for coming here, Kara. I think you're the best mailer we've ever had. Well, that's very 00:48:41.581 --> 00:48:44.222 - good. I really do. I just curious. 00:48:44.418 --> 00:48:50.822 - I live next to Griffin nature preserve and I used to love having deer stop by my property, but you started 00:48:50.822 --> 00:48:56.686 - having the deer calls. Um, I don't see any, you aren't going to do that again this year. Are you? 00:48:56.686 --> 00:49:03.090 - I hope not. Um, since I'm not the person who does the call, uh, I can't tell you, uh, it's, it's actually, 00:49:03.090 --> 00:49:09.254 - we, we did one this year already, cause it was in like February or something. That's usually when they 00:49:09.254 --> 00:49:13.982 - happen. I don't know if there's one scheduled for next year. Um, cause it's a, 00:49:14.850 --> 00:49:23.951 - It's Parks and Rec, I think, that does it. So I'll just tell you, this was a hilarious study in government. 00:49:23.951 --> 00:49:31.619 - The reason we got those Griffey Lake deer calls was because people had had it with deer in 00:49:31.619 --> 00:49:40.298 - their neighborhood. And there was literally, this sounds funny, but there was an urban deer task force 00:49:40.298 --> 00:49:42.910 - set up. Urban deer task force. 00:49:43.106 --> 00:49:51.672 - The only thing they could agree on was going somewhere outside of the urban area and calling the deer. 00:49:51.672 --> 00:49:59.657 - Um, so that's how we landed with that. And, um, I find it to be a hysterical Bloomington story. 00:49:59.657 --> 00:50:08.389 - Believe me. We have a question online. Okay. Good. Good afternoon. And thank you so much, Mayor Thompson 00:50:08.389 --> 00:50:11.134 - for that wonderful presentation. 00:50:11.682 --> 00:50:18.343 - I am Gerona Roteach, faculty member at IU. I think we traveled with you to Palo Alto, and I really appreciate 00:50:18.343 --> 00:50:24.460 - your passion for the community. My question is actually related to the comment that you said is that 00:50:24.460 --> 00:50:30.636 - people need people here to date and kind of that stuff. So my question is, given that some of us, and 00:50:30.636 --> 00:50:36.692 - what I've heard is from people from diverse communities, they say, as soon as they graduate or they 00:50:36.692 --> 00:50:38.206 - get another opportunity, 00:50:38.498 --> 00:50:44.563 - They want to leave Bloomington because it's not as diverse as they would love to be and there's not 00:50:44.563 --> 00:50:50.688 - a lot of things to do. So what do you have in mind for enhancing that diversity? And then one second 00:50:50.688 --> 00:50:56.753 - question associated with that is, I noticed that one of the things that helps is the sister cities. 00:50:56.753 --> 00:51:02.878 - I noticed that the city of Bloomington has two sister cities, one in Nicaragua and Cuba. Do you have 00:51:03.010 --> 00:51:10.569 - I know you're focusing on the community right now, but down the road, do you have any, any, uh, plans 00:51:10.569 --> 00:51:18.277 - to expand the sister city and maybe include others in Africa or Europe or other places? Yeah. Uh, great 00:51:18.277 --> 00:51:21.982 - question. Um, I'll tell you, I have a lot of, um, 00:51:22.882 --> 00:51:32.388 - I have a lot of enthusiasm for sister cities and we're actually working on a sister city in Ukraine 00:51:32.388 --> 00:51:42.274 - right now. But we also don't have a lot of staff resources to do that well. And so this is an area that 00:51:42.274 --> 00:51:52.350 - I would say is I am pretty hesitant to over promise and under deliver on a full sister city relationship. 00:51:52.450 --> 00:52:01.599 - Especially with today's federal government, I remain very open and eager to learn how we can work on 00:52:01.599 --> 00:52:10.929 - diversity issues in our community when we're, I think I'm not even supposed to say the word diversity. 00:52:10.929 --> 00:52:19.262 - I mean, it's a ridiculous climate that we're in. But one of the things that I do wanna just 00:52:19.394 --> 00:52:28.046 - It seems like it should be obvious, and I'm sure it's obvious to you, but it may not be to others. Every 00:52:28.046 --> 00:52:36.451 - time somebody from a diverse background can't find enough people here to feel comfortable, that's one 00:52:36.451 --> 00:52:44.691 - less person from a diverse background that ends up staying in Bloomington. And so I consider it all 00:52:44.691 --> 00:52:48.894 - of our work to figure out how to create belonging, 00:52:49.698 --> 00:52:59.759 - how to create inclusion, how to listen well and actually do things that help people feel at home in 00:52:59.759 --> 00:53:10.121 - Bloomington. And there are all kinds of things that we need. We need hair salons that know how to work 00:53:10.121 --> 00:53:17.566 - with diverse hair. We also need a community that knows that when you read 00:53:17.666 --> 00:53:24.923 - that ICE is here in the newspapers, we have people that are scared and can't go to the grocery store 00:53:24.923 --> 00:53:32.756 - and don't feel even comfortable sending their kids to school. So there are organizations that are organizing 00:53:32.756 --> 00:53:40.013 - grocery drop-offs and they're organizing rides for people to and from work, et cetera. And these are 00:53:40.013 --> 00:53:47.486 - all things that we can get involved in. And you don't have to speak another language. You don't have to 00:53:48.322 --> 00:53:55.871 - have a color skin other than mine to make somebody know that they're welcome and you're happy that they're 00:53:55.871 --> 00:54:03.067 - here and you want to help them feel safe. And, um, so as your mayor, I'm just encouraging everyone to 00:54:03.067 --> 00:54:10.686 - play ball with this. Um, but also as your mayor, I'm just going to tell you, I'm still learning about this. 00:54:10.882 --> 00:54:18.219 - And we all need to be learning about this because it's something that is impacting Bloomington. And 00:54:18.219 --> 00:54:25.630 - if you don't care for any other reason, if you want your economic development to grow, we have to be 00:54:25.630 --> 00:54:33.114 - more diverse. Last question. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. My question is, if you can name one 00:54:33.114 --> 00:54:40.158 - thing that you're the most proud of since you've been mayor, what has it been? And then second, 00:54:40.418 --> 00:54:48.688 - What do you look for on the horizon as your next big project? The single biggest thing I'm proud of 00:54:48.688 --> 00:54:57.620 - is that employer of choice award. And here's why. I at my core believe in asset-based community development 00:54:57.620 --> 00:55:06.139 - and that when you're running a large organization means that you have to have a distributed leadership 00:55:06.139 --> 00:55:07.710 - model, which means 00:55:07.874 --> 00:55:17.532 - The mayor's not the smartest person in the room. The room is the smartest, right? And the city had been 00:55:17.532 --> 00:55:27.005 - through COVID just like everybody else. It was just a really hard time when I took over as mayor. And 00:55:27.005 --> 00:55:36.292 - the morale was pretty low. And people would say that they'd walk down the hall and nobody would say 00:55:36.292 --> 00:55:37.406 - hi to them. 00:55:37.506 --> 00:55:45.738 - And, um, and that was, I think that was COVID, right? But it was really my goal to make it a great place 00:55:45.738 --> 00:55:54.048 - to work and a place that, um, people really felt proud of their service because our people are top notch. 00:55:54.048 --> 00:56:02.044 - I mean, what they are doing, you know, when, when our water went down, we had, if, if any of you ever 00:56:02.044 --> 00:56:04.318 - watched that show, MacGyver, 00:56:04.770 --> 00:56:12.054 - We had, you know, our, um, our water treatment folks were there straight through the night, two nights 00:56:12.054 --> 00:56:19.409 - in a row, MacGyvering things because we couldn't get a high voltage electrician out there until Monday. 00:56:19.409 --> 00:56:26.764 - And we had a football game, which means lots of people are drinking beer and peeing. Right. And it used 00:56:26.764 --> 00:56:29.310 - a lot of water really fast. Um, so. 00:56:30.146 --> 00:56:36.569 - you know these kinds of things happen behind the scenes and lots of times we're managing them in a way 00:56:36.569 --> 00:56:43.242 - that um and these are people that you you'll never know their names and you'll never know how hard they're 00:56:43.242 --> 00:56:49.541 - working for the city to make sure you never have to think about your drinking water but they are and 00:56:49.541 --> 00:56:55.902 - um and frequently they're getting us out of a bind so we don't have to do a boil water um alert um so 00:56:56.162 --> 00:57:05.435 - That was, you know, getting that award was, um, probably my proudest moment because it really was a 00:57:05.435 --> 00:57:14.707 - turnaround. And I think what that does is speaks to hopefully the level of service that you all are 00:57:14.707 --> 00:57:21.662 - getting from your city employees. What was your second question? Yeah. Um, 00:57:21.794 --> 00:57:31.199 - Well, let me clarify for those of you who read the paper, it's not college and Walnut two way. So that's 00:57:31.199 --> 00:57:40.245 - not happening during my tenure. I mean, we just are not gonna have that money anyway. So even if you 00:57:40.245 --> 00:57:49.381 - love the idea, I'm really sorry, but we're trying to be clear, it's not happening. I guess they don't 00:57:49.381 --> 00:57:50.814 - like it anyway. 00:57:51.234 --> 00:58:00.044 - Um, but, uh, but, uh, you know, I'm kind of boring or you could just say predictable. We've made strides 00:58:00.044 --> 00:58:08.602 - in the last three years in public safety, economic development, and housing and homelessness. There's 00:58:08.602 --> 00:58:15.230 - a lot of work still left to do. And that's what I'm working on on the horizon. 00:58:22.914 --> 00:58:29.200 - Thank you, Mayor Thompson. And dare I say that in these days, we appreciate predictability and boring. 00:58:29.200 --> 00:58:35.425 - Very much so. In honor of your talk today, we will be donating $100 to Shalom Beacon for the quarter. 00:58:35.425 --> 00:58:41.589 - And I'd like to thank, in the spirit of time, I'm just going to say, you know who you are. Thank you 00:58:41.589 --> 00:58:44.702 - to everyone who helped pull this meeting together. 00:58:44.898 --> 00:58:50.851 - appreciate that greatly. A couple of quick announcements because one of the slides was missing. We have 00:58:50.851 --> 00:58:56.689 - three slots for actually two available slots potentially for RILA. So if there's a young student that 00:58:56.689 --> 00:59:02.412 - you would like to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy, let us know. Secondly, I know parking 00:59:02.412 --> 00:59:08.479 - is a bear. Remember, we still have the Atwater garage that we can leverage. And if you don't mind paying, 00:59:08.479 --> 00:59:14.718 - you can go to the one I always call it the Poplar's garage. That's easy, but we don't get that one for free. 00:59:14.850 --> 00:59:21.322 - So if you have a bind, you can handle that. There's also a Hayraiser 5K race this weekend. There's flyers 00:59:21.322 --> 00:59:27.428 - at the front or see Amy Osojima if you're interested. And then we have the book club on the 21st at 00:59:27.428 --> 00:59:33.534 - Liz Fiddle's home. We have toast tickets available. You can find your toast tickets as well as your 00:59:33.534 --> 00:59:39.945 - holiday party tickets on the roundabout. There are links. And next week, I'll bring you a computer guide 00:59:39.945 --> 00:59:43.486 - as to how to find those on the roundabout. And with that, 00:59:43.778 --> 00:59:50.976 - Let's see, I think that pretty much covers it. So if you wouldn't mind putting the slide up. And those 00:59:50.976 --> 00:59:58.105 - who are able to stand, please stand. Of the things we are able to do, first, is it the truth? Second, 00:59:58.105 --> 01:00:05.234 - is it fair to all concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be 01:00:05.234 --> 01:00:08.798 - beneficial to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun?