- I called the meeting to order the commission to serve in an advisor role to assist residents, businesses,
- and the government of Monroe County in addressing issues of gender equity. The mission is to advance
- the status of women and marginalized genders in all areas of county life. The first item is minutes
- from May, but we do not have those. So then we will move on.
- to Commissioner updates. I don't know, because if you're actually, because you're proxy, if we proxy
- for, I don't know if there's a rule. Just for the record. For the record. So back is sitting in as proxy
- for Commissioner Eve Yarrow. Okay, and then so we'll do Commissioner updates.
- mission or auto you have any generalized updates not covered I mean business they don't believe so except
- to bring to their conversation what was just passed regarding grant funding towards women and that it
- might be something we want to look at and I think we have a contact in the small business
- It just happened this week. I haven't had time to look at it, but just to get it on the record as it
- happened. Because it's discriminatory. Oh, interesting. Wait to hear more about that. Anything else
- you would like to share? Commissioner Hinkle.
- Thank you. I am happy to be here finally after a couple months Get kicked out I Was online sometime
- anyway, no one cares
- I wanted to let you know that the ACLU of Indiana is hosting an event on Saturday the 18th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- here on the square to talk about elections, voting. There's going to be information. There's going to
- be a sidewalk talk. That's what's being said and potentially food trucks. So I just wanted to let everyone
- know about that.
- I also wanted to let everyone know that I recently resigned from Hoosier Asian American Power. The reason
- being is it's me, not them.
- You know, when you break up, it's not you, it's me. Just, you know, the work being done was not in alignment
- with the work that I want to do in terms of more intersectional work, more grassroots oriented work.
- And, you know, so they still do great work. There's work for everybody to do, you know, in terms of
- the state, you know, looking after the state of Indiana for Asian Americans.
- Um, interacting with the legislature, et cetera. So I just wanted to update everyone on that. I'm going
- to skip you unless you have any updates. I do not have any updates. I do not.
- Hello. I don't have any updates real specific to the Women's Commission. The Freedom Schools Steering
- Committee is continuing their work. We tabled it Juneteenth and got a lot of really great ideas about
- topics, particularly for middle school age, which is the group that we're trying to focus on for a pilot
- program this fall. And we're continuing to look into how
- what a curriculum for a freedom school program here in Monroe County might look like, and that's continuing
- to shape up. Lovely. Councilman Decker, do you have any updates you'd like to share to the commission?
- I don't, I don't. Commissioner Madera, do you have any updates you'd like to share with the Women's
- Commission?
- I know, other than we are working with that wonderful class and it is going swimmingly. Yeah. I believe
- so. You'll see the presentation here a little bit. Yes, absolutely. I'm excited for that. Me too. My
- update is nothing super important. I mean, I just thought it was very interesting about now dissolving
- in the county.
- the chapter for Monroe County National Organization of Women. I just thought it was interesting, just
- made this work even, I don't know, I mean, they should work alongside each other, but more important
- in a lot of ways that now we don't have, you know, that kind of a watch. We get to be that too. So I
- don't know, I just thought it was worth noting.
- We will go into old and ongoing business. We have the policy committee with commissioners Hardesty,
- Douglas and Yaro. We have updates for. We haven't. I don't know that we've actually met for a couple
- of a couple of months. Maybe there's been some. I think the last time I have notes is the end of May.
- So I'm not sure if we had a meeting as a women's commission and I reported on that, but it's essentially
- Um, the, having the discussion about the jail site decision came out of the discussion that we were
- having as a policy subcommittee about looking at the gender equity rubric, considering that in terms
- of the jail site decision and that sort of thing. And we thought this would be a good, a good discussion
- for the women's commission to have in general, not just the subcommittee. So, and I want to
- take responsibility for the reason why we haven't met.
- take full accountability responsibility for that, because we have a new job, we being me. And so we
- never know when clients are going to be unwell and need a little bit more attention. But I have been
- thinking about it, that potentially the gender equity rubric might
- I'm not sure if it might be useful in the selection of the jail site, but when we get down to maybe
- some new policies or new procedures or whatnot that need to happen because of whatever configuration,
- I think maybe that might be the time. One thing, though, that I think that we can look at or at least
- continue to be aware of is the site.
- Because what does that mean then for women? What does that mean who are typically mothers who have potential
- partners potentially in the jail? What does that mean for them in terms of the location? What does it
- mean for mothers to be in jail in terms of their children or their families?
- Um, in terms of the site selection, right? So I think like at this point that that's my opinion in terms
- of what we could potentially look at, um, at this point in time. And then I think the gender equity
- rubric could be useful for those, the creation or the review of policies and procedures pertaining to
- Is it? Yes. Yes. I looked at the rubric and I was like, oh, this isn't going to work for trying to pick
- out a site, but we want to be helpful. You know, what about me? Go ahead. I shared an article with you.
- There were two school of public health researchers that did an inventory of all Indiana jails and their
- if they had policies on the books for prenatal care, postpartum care, birthing, what they said about
- their protocols for all of those things. So I sent it through LinkedIn. But I think that would be good
- too. The researcher's name is Ricky Camplane.
- So I can resend it to you as well. So it was just it was just published and it's really interesting.
- So thank you. That'd be a good resource. Is that county jails or is that State Department of Correction
- jails? Because there will be two different policies that apply to each of those. I'm not sure if they
- did both or if it's just one. I'll send the article. If it's a if it's a Department of Correction
- If it looks at state department correction policies, it will be inapplicable to our jail. I think it
- was county, because I remember saying 92 county jails. Oh, that would be great. Yeah. Yeah, that would
- be wonderful. Yeah. And so for the record, the important record of the Women's Commission, I want to
- recognize Kathleen Sobiak as a former commissioner who actually started working on the creation of the
- gender equity rubric with Julie and I.
- It's good to know people are still sending things through LinkedIn. Thank you. That's the best meeting
- I've had all day. Let's go. Oh, it's on LinkedIn. I can do Facebook or email. I haven't read the latest.
- lawsuit or any of that stuff does that or even right now how they have move participant you know inmates
- out of the jail because of overcrowding and stuff and I don't know even if looking at the lawsuit in
- regards to the rubric would be anything worth anything of value in that because I have never read it
- so I don't know what it says if it addresses just
- what it's addressing, I guess, in general. I mean, you could probably speak more about this, but it's
- dealing with overcrowding. And I don't know that it ever discusses anything that's gender-specific,
- like issues that women are facing in an overcrowded jail. But that's the problem. Yeah, or marginalized
- genders, issues that they're facing in an overcrowded jail. And that's the problem. Is that they're
- not? Yeah, because if they're not addressing it and they're
- marginalized populations within a marginalized population, then that gap is a problem. Somebody experiencing,
- if they're addicted to substances and they're not receiving medication, that's a marginalized population
- within your population. So if they're just breaking it down by subgroup,
- you know, issues and like acute matters and healthcare matters that that is not in there, I think.
- I mean, it matters that it's not in the lawsuit, that it is not, I mean, is there any course of action
- to discuss with the ACLU to, I mean, it's too late now, right? I mean, I don't know anything about how
- that lawsuit is or, you know, could get amended or, I don't know how that works, but I didn't go to
- law school.
- like some of us. Thank you for that, Kathleen. I mean, that's pretty spot on in terms of the lack of
- information. But anyway. What would you like me to comment on first? Whatever you want. I would like
- you to comment on, I mean, have you read the, that seems like a silly question, the recent lawsuit?
- Is it generalized as a population as a whole?
- Yes, although it's a class action. And so the two members of the class that are representative,
- quote unquote, are male. And it's unclear what the court will certify in terms of class. And so that
- is a matter for the court. I will say, too, that as to the needs to classify women in prisons,
- I would just draw attention to the special needs to classify subpopulations of that, including trans
- women. That is an area of special concern, I believe, as well. And so it can actually get quite specific.
- And of course, the specialized medical needs, when we sometimes have in our county jails drastically
- reduced medical care, in some cases only a nurse available for a few hours each day. So yeah.
- And that's not in our jail here. We have a much more robust medical treatment program, but in our county
- jails, again, if we're looking at all 92 counties, that's a paucity. Oh, interesting. But I know that
- if you read the complaint, which is available online now, I believe it was posted this weekend.
- to Bloom Docs, it does not really focus on medical care as an area of provision, or as a claim, necessarily.
- Yeah, I didn't see that. I just want to add, I'm not a legal expert, so that was me more as just public
- health, so I just want to add that for the record. I was out of my realm to speak to legal matters a
- little bit,
- Yeah, no, I think you were speaking entirely to public health. OK. Yeah. Yeah. But issues of public
- health and I think how you classify often overlap because how you classify prisoners, of course, you
- classify to further issues of public health. OK. Anything else from the policy?
- committee. Does it like to know our old business anyway? I do. Because Eve Yaro is part of the policy
- subcommittee. I do want to extend our condolences to her in the passing of her girlfriend. Yeah. Oh,
- not that. Just a couple of days ago. That's why she's been absent quite a bit.
- Her girlfriend is not local and so she's trying to work and attend to it was she was diagnosed with
- cancer like four four months ago and Just passed away a couple a few days ago. Yeah I am going to
- Okay, so for the data subcommittee, if that's, can we move on from that, is I do want to talk about
- the project that we've been working on, and we do have a presentation from the class. I just, everybody
- that doesn't know, so last, I mean, it's so funny, because it seemed like that was forever ago, and
- how fast time comes. You know, the Blue Team Commission for the Status on Women had a report a few years
- ago based on this class with Professor Hensel.
- And I reached out to the professor last year asking about if they were ever interested in doing a project
- for the county. That would be lovely, you know, to have. I do personally like working with students.
- I like, you know, also free labor. You know, it's a great exchange of, well, I mean, you know, they're
- doing the work. Well, it's not free because they're, anyway. So I've really enjoyed working on the project
- with them.
- been a great experience. The only, now I'll say that comment, but yeah, I think considering the timeframe,
- I think the outcomes will be interesting to see. I have not seen the presentation. It just got to me
- about two hours ago. So do you want to say anything about the class? No, I think it's going to be very
- interesting too, because we are
- you know, sort of doing this using latest technological tools. But only from the perspective of what
- data we get, but also how that relates to past data. Yes. Well, I will say, I'll just say that I know
- one of the outcomes that they've talked about or one of the limitations was the short turnaround.
- I mean, literally, you know, I had a few weeks to collect data. We are keeping the survey open and we'll
- continue to promote it and
- will work on gathering and adding that data to the existing data already because there's no reason to
- shut it down right away since that. So we're going to keep it open. And Professor Henshaw has offered
- to assist me or us in any way possible if we need to work on the data. So they recorded a presentation.
- And they shared it with me. And then I am going to.
- You want to do this for me? Does anybody know how to do this? What are you trying to do? Share that
- present. Oh, there it is. Okay. You just had to say the word share and then you can find the button.
- Do it for me.
- So this is their presentation. We were all watching it for the first time.
- How do I get the sound to go through there? Does anybody know? You guys know how I get the sound through
- the chair? It should be coming from my computer, but I was giving feedback. Do you need to like hold
- the mute button on your microphone while it's doing that so you don't get feedback?
- Thank you very much.
- added to the meeting so everyone can hear them. What? We have them call into the meeting so everyone
- can hear them. I know, I don't know. It's coming through my computer, but it's not picking up.
- We would have to give the recording to TSD, I think.
- Do we need to try this next meeting? Do you have any thoughts? Upstairs. Do you have a meeting?
- You have to join with sound or something like that Share and you click yeah, you have to join indicate
- that you want this
- Let's just do it next time, like troubleshoot prior and we'll do it next time.
- You also stable long term housing. There's also women's and maternal. Luis and myself, Santiago, this
- project used service. Mapping and data analysis to identify challenges and resource gaps affecting women
- in Monroe County.
- Preliminarily, findings are being used to support recommendations for local leaders, while data collection
- will continue to be collected through the fall of 2026. So I'll talk about the project framework and
- methodology. So overall, the purpose of this project or this capstone was to aid Monroe County commissioners
- in creating policy that improves the status, security, and sustainability for women throughout Monroe County.
- So, our main questions were, what is the current status of women across our county, Indiana, and to
- form a perspective of sustainability, gender-related concerns, and equity given the recent dynamic changes
- in climate politics, infrastructure, and funding around the state and specifically the county. So, the
- social political climate has been affecting women around the county.
- So affordable housing is an issue because there is limited affordable housing, especially affecting
- low income women, single mothers and women living in unsafe homes. And there's also domestic violence
- and safe housing. Some survivors may be facing limited access to emergency shelter, legal support and
- stable long-term housing. There's also women's and maternal health. So there's a lack of access to prenatal
- postpartum and reproductive healthcare.
- And this remains to be an issue around the state as there's also an abortion ban in the state of Indiana
- with limited exceptions, restricting reproductive health care options for women. The population is something
- very important around the survey because we targeted the population of any adult that was 18 or older
- in the state of Indiana, specifically Monroe County. And the survey focused on experiences, needs and
- wellbeing of women as well as families and
- gender diverse individuals. There was also open participation from anyone who was a resident of Monroe
- County and we had inclusive outreach. The responses were residents across Bloomington as well as rural
- areas and unincorporated areas of the Monroe County. The priority populations were LGBTQ plus individuals,
- people with disabilities, immigrants, caregivers, veterans, rural residents and lower income households.
- and the population size was 139,718. So participants were recruited through community organizations,
- social media, email, paper surveys, and QR code scanning rather than random selection. And this approach
- increased outreach, but it did limit representativeness and it generalized our findings.
- For the sample size, we used a crosshands formula. So based on the county's population, our sample size
- was about 384 respondents. Although we have a statistical target, we recruited, although we had a statistical
- target, the way we recruited participants is equally important.
- Rather than randomly selecting resident, we use convenience sampling to reach as many people as possible
- through existing community networks. Oh, this slide before that. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that one. When it
- comes to the study design, we use a cross sectional design.
- meaning it was non-experimental but also quantitative. The study consisted primarily of questions which
- allowed respondents to rate their level of agreement of concern. We also included a free open-ended
- question so a participant could share experiences that structured questions might not have captured.
- Ultimately, the goal was just to collect data. It wasn't just to collect data, it was also to generate
- evidence that we can inform
- recommendations for the Monroe County Women's Commission. When it comes to comparison of the GIS analysis
- survey and climate action plan, the GIS map helps us to identify where women and all the vulnerable
- populations are
- concentrated throughout Mineral County. Survey helped explain what those residents are experiencing,
- including their challenges related to housing, healthcare, transportation, caregiving responsibilities,
- discrimination and disabilities, LBG plus inclusion and extreme weather. The Mineral County action plan
- helped us to understand what strategies county has already identified for addressing public health,
- transportation and equity.
- Looking at these sources together, we gave us a more complete picture other than only looking at one
- source. Overall, these tools help support equitable data-driven recommendation to help ensure resources
- are directed to the communities that need them.
- our primary goal was to develop a survey that was both evidence-based and tailored to the needs of Moro
- County. So rather than starting from scratch, we built upon the validated 2022 Bloomington Status of
- Women survey and expanded it to better reflect the Moro County Women's Commission's priority. We incorporated
- new demographic variables to better understand the experiences of historically
- unidentified population, including LGBTQ communities, people with disability, caregivers, immigrants,
- population, veterans, and rural residents. We also added new assessment areas such as housing, healthcare,
- climate resilience, and civil engagement to provide the commission with more comprehensive data for
- future policy and planning decisions. After developing a survey that reflected the commission's priority,
- Our next focus was to ensure, was ensuring it reached as many Moro County residents as possible through
- a diverse and intentional distribution strategy. So to maximize participation and reduce a diverse,
- enrich a diverse cross-sectional, sorry.
- Cross section of moral county residents, we implemented a multi channel distribution strategy. We partnered
- with community organizations to share the survey through their networks, distributed flyers and libraries
- and farmers market and leverage social media.
- and personal and professional network to broaden awareness. Throughout the data collection period, we
- monitor survey responses in quadrigs and identify population trend and adjust our outreach effort in
- real time to improve representation across county. So this slide establishes the demographic baseline
- for our initial 37 respondents. First, we see strong community tenure with 70% of respondents.
- Living in Monroe County for more than 11 years, 40% have been here for over 2 decades and demographically
- 87% identify as female and 83% fall between the ages of 25 and 54. Geographically 74% reside within
- Bloomington and the remaining 30% are split between rural areas surrounding towns like Ellisville.
- Socioeconomically, this is a relatively stable cohort. 45% report household incomes exceeding 100K and
- 42% are between 50 and 99,000. And additionally, we have captured diverse lived experiences. 24% of
- participants identify as neurodivergent, 14% manage a mental health condition and 10% service on paid
- caregivers. This profile is crucial as it provides a stark contrast to the daily challenges
- and resource gaps we see on the next slide. So this slide details how respondents interact with local
- resources and civic systems. First, healthcare shows a clear disparity. So 83% have reliable physical
- care access, but that drops to 52% for mental health. For housing, while 64% can personally afford safe
- housing, only 7% believe affordable options are generally available countywide.
- And additionally, 59% report utility-driven financial distress. Regarding climate, 55% are disrupted
- by extreme weather in their daily lives. Finally, civic engagement is low, only 46% know how to participate.
- 35% believe their voice matters and 28% feel represented by county leadership. Ultimately, these metrics
- reveal that even for relatively stable cohort,
- critical gaps persist in mental health, countywide housing, and local representation. For limitations,
- this slide outlines our core survey limitations to ensure we interpret this data responsibly. First,
- capstone resource and timeline constraints compressed our data collection window, which limited overall
- outreach. Second, we know geographic and demographic skews with uneven zip code participation and a minor
- risk of out of county social media responses. Finally, this is a cross sectional study capturing a snapshot
- in time rather than longitudinal trends and acknowledging these limitations doesn't diminish our findings
- rather provides a clear roadmap for targeting and expanding our future outreach.
- Okay, so now we will be discussing the GIS analysis that we use to support our survey. So the overarching
- goal of the GIS analysis was to provide maps location information of women and subpopulations throughout
- Monroe County and to provide visual representation of resources and challenges faced by women throughout
- Monroe County. And so, next slide please.
- So the first couple maps are just general external stakeholder maps, providing general location information
- of the county location. And then on the following slide, it details the municipalities located within
- Monroe County, just to give external stakeholders an idea of incorporated and unincorporated territory.
- So when we discuss locations of resources, that becomes more clear. And if we move on to the next slide,
- we take a look at the floodplain map.
- Information is provided by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and it provides an overview of
- potential flood hazards that could be faced by populations throughout the county. And then on the next
- slide, we take a look at the location of schools and hospitals. Now this data was grouped together because
- these are primary service locations. Schools often have multiple functions, hospitals obviously functions
- hospitals.
- And as can be seen on the map, a majority of these resources are concentrated in Bloomington itself
- with relatively few rural locations. So Bloomington and Ellisville, primarily where schools are, hospitals
- are almost exclusively in Bloomington. However, if we look on the next slide, this is a location of
- all medical care facilities in Monroe County. But again,
- they are primarily concentrated within Bloomington itself. So that provides a visual representation
- of some of the healthcare challenges faced by women. Now this map, this is the first population distribution
- map of a series of population distribution maps. Our project team focused on population distribution
- and not population density due to the potential for skewed data throughout census block groups. Block
- groups from the US Census Bureau tend to be the most localized version.
- data provided at the county level. So darker represents a greater total population of women within that
- specific block group of the county. Lighter obviously represents less. So this map represents population
- distribution of women over the age of 18. This was to
- better map our target population of all adults, but specifically women in Monroe County over the age
- of 18 in order to identify and create recommendations for the commissioners based of resources. And
- then on the next map, we focus on the population distribution of women over the age of 65, which is
- generally the retirement age for most people. So this map would help us map
- recommendations for resources for senior citizens, whether that be healthcare facilities, food facilities,
- access, whatever it may be, this map helps us get an idea of where those women are in the county. And
- this map represents the population distribution of women of color in the county.
- So again, mapping the intersectional diversity between women and women of color. And this is broken
- down by block group, as can be seen primarily concentrated in a larger municipality in Bloomington,
- but also throughout the county. And then on the next map.
- This map is from the American Community Survey of the US Census Bureau. It represents the percent of
- single parent households throughout Monroe County. As can be seen, there's a pretty good distribution
- of the percent of single parent households both in and outside of municipalities. However, it is still
- concentrated in that Bloomington area. Then on the next slide.
- housing burden households, it is when the overall household income is paying 30% or more on housing
- alone. Within Monroe County, the highest percentage is 65% and that is concentrated right in the center
- of Bloomington. Now it is important to note that this data may be skewed by students living in Bloomington
- because this data does come from the American Community Survey. However, additionally kind of in that Southeast
- um, census block, census tract, apologies, um, of the county. Uh, there are, there is a relatively high
- percentage of, uh, burdened households. And then we also wanted to take a look at, um, education attainment
- as another intersectional analysis. Um, and again, we can, you can kind of see how the data, uh,
- lines up, um, housing,
- between the comparison of housing burdened households and the households with no high school education.
- And the highest in Monroe County identified by the ACS was 15%. So overall, all of these maps help to
- identify the specific locations of the survey recommendations that we are going to discuss now.
- Thank you. Our recommendations come in our base both on our GIS mapping analysis as well as survey results.
- We recommend expanding healthcare and senior citizen and senior services in areas with highest population
- of women 65 and older and develop mobile services for rural and flood prone communities, increase adult
- education and workforce development opportunities.
- Continue the survey collection through fall 2026 to improve participation and make sure that the findings
- are more accurate. Advance affordable housing initiatives, including housing assistance and support
- programs, strengthening partnership with health care providers, schools, employers, nonprofits, face-based
- organizations, and community groups to improve outreach and engagement.
- I think conclusions, FA, if you want to go ahead and wrap it up for us. You're muted. The Morrill County
- Women's Commission capstone project provides valuable insights into the experiences, needs, and priority
- of women, gender diverse individuals, and families across Morrill County. By combining community survey
- responses,
- From demographic and public data, the project highlights key challenges and opportunities to inform
- future policies, programs, and community initiatives. Why these findings represent a snapshot in time?
- By providing a strong foundation of ongoing community assessment and planning, continued data collection,
- stronger community partnerships, and sustained engagement in residents
- With resident, we enable the county women's commission to make evidence based decision that. Advanced
- equity improve well being and enhance the quality of life for women, gender diverse individuals and
- families throughout more accounting. Thank you.
- Considering the turnaround, that's pretty impressed. Will the slides be available separate from this
- recording? Yes. Yes, great. I think what it shows them, and I kept stressing to them, especially early
- on, that one of my big concerns, obviously, was trying to capture data that
- hasn't been captured before, which was the marginalized genders. And obviously, you don't see a lot
- of that still in there. And based on the turnaround time, I don't expect it. But I still think that
- there would be plenty of work to be done regarding capturing those voices as well. But I mean,
- all considering, I think, rise out of breast.
- survey in fact still open or yeah it's still gathering okay great we can still share social media xyz
- to i will share all that with everybody to push out but we did it because of the timelines and you know
- trying to get it posted through you know the county websites and such that has to be there's steps that
- we just didn't have time to do get those approved
- Are we going to do those steps? Essentially. I mean, yeah, you have to go to the commissioners' meeting
- and present to them, and they have to obviously give their approval. And so that is a possibility.
- I'm sorry, approval for what? To share the survey out through county communication. Yeah. Yes. I'm part
- of the Monroe County Health Equity Council, so I can share there.
- Um, and then I also have two MPH students who would probably be, I mean, have you got, I mean, have
- you gone to like farmer's market or just like targeting community meetings or like they could be. They
- went and did, uh, they went to the farmer's market twice, which.
- Most of those students are all online and don't even live here. So I know they traveled to come do that,
- which was pretty surprising and impressive. So yes. Yeah. So if you want to help with that, let me know.
- But I thought it was interesting. The income levels seemed kind of high for average. And then it said
- they felt like they didn't have a voice.
- that seemed surprising that you picture people with like higher education level and higher income to
- feel like they're more empowered. And then also it showed that they felt stressed by like utility,
- I forget, utility costs at that high of income. Imagine what people at lower, I mean, I thought that
- was interesting. I agree.
- It's amazing how many different meetings I think we all set in that go to what Health Equity Council
- is talking about. But all of this looks at and you could literally take every one of these slides and
- spend six months on just the things that you saw. I always think about food deserts. You know, one thing
- that when the lake went in, which has been significant here since then, but the area of Chapel Hill,
- on the southeast side of the county, there is no quick way to that place. I always tease the deputies
- about that. I'm like, how quick can we get to Chapel Hill? There's no quick way to Chapel Hill. And
- I always think about where are they going grocery shopping? What's health care like? And the interesting
- thing about these numbers is because the income levels tended to be a little bit higher, it was still robustly
- not much trust in your local representation or efficacy to do anything. And this thing that I have really
- noticed a lot that health care issues are cutting across literally every category demographic,
- and everybody's having a miserable time. And that for the initial look at that, it's just, yeah, it
- reinforces that. What? Go ahead.
- I was going to say, if you want a more representative survey, and this piggybacks on the food justice
- issue, and I'm not speaking facetiously, ask for permission to put them in family dollars and dollar
- generals. If you want to really get at people who have a variety of income levels, because people of
- all variety of income levels walk into those stores. Some people go there to grocery shop. Some people
- go there to get a bargain.
- You know, I know many social scientists who, you know, will stand outside dollar generals if they can
- and solicit survey members or just watch who comes in. And you'll see all kinds of cars outside,
- you know, from the Mercedes to the Junkers, for lack of a better term. I mean, you could say the same
- thing. I mean, yeah, goodwill, same thing, right? You know, like all these places. I mean, you have
- just a good cross-section of the community there. Yes. Absolutely.
- It's just that the Goodwill actually might place, Goodwill and other consignment shops might actually
- post those surveys or post QR codes for individuals to take the surveys. Also, I think that if there's,
- and there can be strange rules around this regarding Indiana because of gambling laws and other things,
- I forget, are there incentives
- for this survey? No. Because that can also increase uptake? No. If the survey really were to like gain
- steam and get even more, you know, a significant amount of participants, are they, is his class willing
- to re or other one of his classes willing to re
- the data, do the data analysis, or would then you need somebody else to do it? Well, Dr. Hedgewell has
- volunteered to continue supporting us personally, like as faculty, and I don't know in the future,
- you know, as that continued, you know, if there's other opportunities for classes to look at that, but
- I'm sure. But he said through fall, keep it open. Okay, that's good.
- I find interesting is because I sit on the Monroe Fire Protection District and we just took over services
- in Salt Creek and Polk. Is that right? So to the east side of southeast side where you're talking about
- of the county. So now they actually have not this with the fire department and that contract. And so
- I think looking at that as a way to serve those communities, to build on that. You have a lot of the
- fire house out in Indian Creek is where the trustee sits. So they have a lot of those community combined
- resources in a shared space. And so I think building on that in a way, I mean, for the government to
- be involved, I think
- that that's a possibility. I keep thinking about having, you know, a library, a free library or a free
- pantry. Like, can I do that, you know, at the fire stations around, you know, the county? You know,
- is that something that, you know, we could do because, you know, of the where they're just, you know,
- just, you know, in the county. And I don't know, just seems like a great way to an easy target, I guess, for
- a way into helping the community, because everybody knows where they are. So yeah. Yeah, I would be
- really interested. It seems to me, and they noted it. They noted it. So decent analysis. And you mentioned
- they went to farmers markets. They said like 85% were in Bloomington proper, right? And we know the
- only, we know that
- most of the people that live in Bloomington proper can somewhat afford to do that. So therefore, the
- salary situation. But yes, I would love, and yes, good idea, dollar general. There's a dollar general
- on every, for my four-pay job, I am a child and family therapist that travels, does home-based therapy.
- So to your point,
- Commissioner or council person Deckard. All the words. It's fine. OK. Yeah, I'm driving in these places.
- I've lived in this county for over 30 years and I'm driving in these places that I have never been,
- never even thought of. I'm like, how are people even live in here? Like, what do they do? There's like
- zero resort for miles and miles and miles. I'm driving over like 600 miles a week.
- But I'm curious about those people, and I was a little concerned. But again, they noted it. You know,
- in terms of LinkedIn, I had to point out that they put, that's my fourth LinkedIn joke. You guys have
- missed a couple. But I made them to Kathleen quietly.
- you know, the online, we don't have internet out there, we don't have phones, we don't even know what
- LinkedIn is, and those are the people that I'm really interested in specifically. And I think it would
- be, I think this project was fantastic because I remember being a student on this campus and like I
- didn't go,
- any farther south than Winslow, and I didn't go any farther east, or I didn't even go to West, because
- TJ Maxx and that was not even there, right? So I'm just going east. And so I think it's great that the
- students, at least electronically and at the farmers market, looked at what this community has going
- on in different ways. And I think it would be a very good educational
- opportunity for them to see rural, like rural, rural. And we need that. That's the information that
- we want. You know, we've been talking about this gathering this information for years in this commission.
- And and now that we have kind of, you know, the toolbox or the tools that we could potentially do that,
- I think that we could make a really good case for
- the educational opportunity, as well as the collection of the actual data. Yes. It is interesting to
- me, as someone who at this point feels like they're from the county, but not also from the county, but
- now living out in Indian Creek and being involved in the Lions Club and the Community Association and
- really getting to know people
- that are about as Monroe County as you can possibly get. And I just mean generational families, right?
- And I mean, one of the couples that I work with in the Lions Club, I mean, it's his house under, his
- childhood home is under Lake Monroe. And having that connection is amazing, right? But capturing that
- data and that lives outside of the city,
- generations, I think, is important to capture. I just don't always know how to do it. Can you work through
- churches? That would be a big one, I think. I think that would be huge in the rural. Well, I even think
- about working through the trustees, right? Yeah. Because they're also. So is there a strategy? Do you
- have a written strategy? Going forward? Yeah. This is our proposal to implement the survey in phase two.
- I do not have a phase two necessarily. We can get one. Oh, yeah, we can get one. I mean, there is definitely
- a marketing plan based on what they've done and looking at what the gaps are and moving forward.
- But yes, definitely defining phase two would be great. I mean, it's interesting.
- and very well needed. I found one on the GIS on the Monroe County website, which is really interesting
- to dabble in, but they had, there is a lot of data, granted not targeted towards women or marginalized
- genders, but looking at each township based on poverty levels, and looking at the township I live in,
- and it's 25%.
- you know, and like that's crazy to think about, you know, that there's like not even 6000 people that
- live in my township. And, you know, how many of them are and where are they getting care and food? But
- it isn't I mean, because there are I mean, you know, there are pantries in various places out in the
- I don't know if that's enough. That's not enough. It's definitely not enough. And I'm telling you,
- you know, I've worked in, you know, nonprofit and serving underrepresented or different population
- subpopulations for most of my life. And my eyes are totally open doing the job that I'm doing. I like
- the first couple of weeks, I was like, people just be out here existing.
- I don't know what that means. I mean, I know what that means, but people are just out here living. And
- I told my kid, well, it doesn't matter. But I think some of us, not directed at anybody in particular,
- but I think some of us think they know these statistics, these numbers will show, oh, below 30,000 a
- year or something like that. But there are people that are literally
- literally living on nothing, like nothing. And they have nothing. They have no transportation. Sometimes
- they have water, maybe not, depending on if you can pay the bill. And it's so many people.
- It's not just, oh, a few. My one company that I work for has the X amount of caseload, right? But there's
- I don't know how many companies like mine that actually exist.
- And so there's that, and there's a waiting list. And everybody's overworked, right? And so it's just,
- it's very eye-opening. And a lot, women, I mean, I see children and I see mothers. And it is,
- hard, hard, hard times that you can't even imagine. I'm pretty sure that that's why. I mean, I don't
- know for sure, but we have a community association. It was started long before I moved out there. And
- I'm pretty sure that it was some of the more stabilized individuals that was their way to reach out
- within our township.
- to help people by having events and suppers and all these kind of things. So there are just. How do
- I even know about these things? How do I even get to these things? Literally, people are living not
- connected to anybody else or anything else. So how would I know that this event was happening? Right.
- I mean, that's what I'm talking about. Reaching that population of people. Church, probably.
- Sometimes I mean, sometimes am I going to church? No, I'm trying to I'm trying to live. I'm trying to
- like stay alive. Yeah, I'm not going to church. I may be praying a lot, but I'm not going to church.
- I might go to a food pantry. How am I doing that? Right. Public transportation. But is it out in the
- rural and in the count in the rural areas? No, that's getting harder as dollars get cut and
- as SB1 was passed and as counties have fewer and fewer dollars to fund that transportation. And women
- who own their own businesses are going to be in a harder position because Braun nicks those contracts,
- too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's all it's it's declining. It's getting better. Yes. What one
- of the things that the health department is in the process of doing is getting a
- Mobile health. Mobile health, RV, that can actually go out to locations in the county. And one of the
- things I said when they first brought it before council is you're going to have to really go to the
- old 90s flyer system slash repetition like the bookmobile. We all see the bookmobile. We know what that
- is. We've had decades to figure out the green buses for me.
- And like, I, you know, you see it, you respond to that. It'll take time, but it does like the whole
- notion of doing that with the County pushes into something that kind of drives me up the wall in the
- belief that everything County must happen within this courthouse. And there is so much of the community
- that, you know, if somebody's got a busy life, overwhelming problems, it's got to get to them. And I
- think that.
- that kind of mentality versus it's all here in the night. I think that's how we start to get to some
- of these better, better answers than where we're at slowly. Well, I think that that leads into the trust,
- right? That of who we are serving them is we have to go to where they are, not expect everybody to come
- to where we are. 100%. Can I ask how they get your services?
- if we look at how you were found. Because some of these reported that they're living in some sort of
- conditions or their children are not, are being neglected or, you know, they're reported to the system.
- So they get into the system. Well, I'm curious if, you know, we're at the point now where we have eximatic
- community service specialists instead of armed police officers. Is there a step before reporting to
- the system?
- Yes, there are a thousand million steps before reporting to the system. Be a neighbor like this on my
- in my neighborhood, which is a middle, just a flat middle class neighborhood. He was complaining on
- our Facebook, asking for a friend who mows this lawn like blah, blah, blah. Like, you know,
- and I'm like, you know what? I got on there. I was like, you know what? Why don't you go knock on the
- door and see if they're OK?
- They were like, they usually keep up with their lawn, so I don't know what's happening. Go knock on
- the door. And then she did, and her husband ends up mowing this yard for this elderly lady who mower
- broke, grandson got arrested, you know, who was mowing. So be a neighbor. Knock on the door before.
- Offer, what do you need? What's happening here before you report to the system?
- For sure, for sure. And that's the kind of world that I want to live in. We talk about community care.
- Literally, it's community care. It's not hard. More people knock on the door. You good. I see your child's
- out in the street. How can I help you? I'm going to report.
- I'm gonna call the police or I'm gonna call DCS or I'm gonna, that should never be our first as human
- beings. And if we claim to want community care or support community care, then like, let's do that.
- Like it just do it. Does that answer your question? Do you want me to go on? No, we gotta be better
- neighbors. I mean, I'm out in Alexville where if there's, if somebody lives on my road and they don't
- have a car to get out,
- It's the same situation. So maybe I need to be a better neighbor and know who people are too. That's,
- that's my question. So fantastic. Is that what we start spreading as a women's commission because of
- these statistics we've seen and what we're now, you know, like that doesn't have to go on social media.
- It can just continue in like our person to person conversations and amongst our local representatives.
- It's how we live.
- Like, you can say things and say things and say things, but until you're actually doing them and other
- people see you doing them, your kids see you doing them, your partner sees you doing them, your neighbor
- then will pay it forward at some point in time, you know, I mean, you just do it, right? Oh, see, this
- is what I need. I drive by this house every day out where I live. And I think it's an elderly woman
- that lives there by herself. I noticed.
- Now, I was like, God, it's weird. They're usually on top of the lawn. I mean, I haven't seen anybody
- mow their lawn. I watch the light. That package has been insane. I'm like, gosh, I need to stop. Just
- stop knocking on her door and make sure she's OK. But I do. I think about it every day for weeks now.
- And I'm like, I just need to. Why would I not just stop?
- Why not? I mean, because, again, like I could go on, but capitalism, colonialism, being insular, being
- only for ourselves, like, yes, stop. Hey, I'm Susan, live down there. Drive by your house every day,
- you good? Right. I know. Maybe I just made a new friend, who knows?
- here's if you yeah yeah again I could go here's my question about this information is now what now what
- do we do I mean obviously the next step is we make phase two plan right what do we do for you and you
- and you know how do we how do we make this
- I mean, I know that's always been the plan, right, is to make a dashboard, to make it so that we have
- some place where we can share information, where they, elected officials, have quick access to information,
- a reality check, temperature checks of the community. But I don't, I think that's sometimes where I
- get stuck, is how do we, outside of phase two,
- what do we do with this information? Do I take this and do we write something up and present it,
- submit it? I don't know. That would be probably the first step. When we've got data, if there's more
- data that needs to be gathered, if the survey needs to continue to get a larger data set, then getting
- that completed and put together so that it's something that can be presented and then deciding if that
- is something that is like a dashboard that can be put together so that there's ongoing collection
- or ongoing monitoring of something, whether it's the survey. I mean, that GIS-based information that
- they were showing was census-based. So updating that as more census data, if more census data happens,
- as more census data comes in over time. I mean, I guess that's what I should ask you guys is, I mean,
- how is that useful to you? I mean, you were not even a part of this project. What did you glean from that?
- presentation. I mean, just general. So that was a healthy data-driven reinforcement of a lot of things
- I pick up in every other meeting. And so it tells me that, well, when we were talking about that, we
- were really onto it. And it makes me wonder if those numbers aren't actually worse. I always kind of
- have that, I wonder if that's even worse. And we're just kind of getting a little bit of that. To me,
- I think it goes into some of that I talked to
- I was talking to Terry Amsler the other day about some of the health equity council work that for the
- county, particularly, we need perhaps to have as we're making decision a health and all rubric that
- literally sits there. That's one thing that keeps popping up. So that when we look at something and
- say, we're putting, I don't know, let's make something up. We're putting building C here.
- location of public transportation. How far is that? How far is this neighborhood from a grocery store?
- Little things that we can start doing that I think a lot of folks cobble together, but in the rush of
- the immediacy of public service can sometimes get lost until you say, no, we committed to doing something
- about some of these numbers being different. And the small steps start with, yeah, there's an issue
- here related to food scarcity. There's an issue here related to reinforcing something negative with
- air, you know, whatever it is. I think that's the way you start getting because it seems like this all
- boils down to health.
- health and care for all individuals. But particularly how this is affecting women in the community and
- how the women go. So so goes the community. And I just I think that already what you what has been done
- with more numbers, I think would be a healthy thing to report out to other elected officials. But for
- us to take it and figure out some to do's and to me like that rubric is an immediate like
- And I've been talking about that for a little bit because I've heard it for a long time in health equity
- council meetings. It all gets lost in the public comment until you start saying, right here, we need
- to do this. So what I'm hearing is that we should do a women's health rubric. We love a good rubric, don't we?
- I'm not daggers. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, no, she lives around. I won't speak for her. Yeah, I mean,
- if that is something to look into, that would be probably working with the Health Equity Council to
- figure that out. Like, what would work for women of marginalized gender equity perspective? Yeah,
- I mean, and I'm sure, I mean, I don't know tons about the Health Equity Council.
- I mean, it is interesting because since I work at the School of Medicine as well, and just this disparity
- of how well we're doing in the community is staggering. Staggering on, oh, everything's great. What
- are you telling me right now? I mean, it is very, you know, there are conversations that I've had with
- certain people that it's like, oh, we just run in very different circles, you know, because this circle,
- You know, everything is fine. In the circles and other circles, I'm like, you couldn't be more incorrect.
- So it is fascinating, but I just don't know how to get the circles that think everything is fine, because
- they're the ones that get to make the decisions and have access to the tools that could actually make
- the change. And I just don't know what that is. So would a women's health rubric be helpful in any type of way?
- I think I've long said a health rubric period, but it occurs to me the folks that's hitting are the
- marginalized members of the community. And so women's health rubric to me checks those boxes. Usually
- health and all is going to capture like because to obtain health and wellness as a population, you have
- to bring the marginalized like.
- that you have to address health inequities to get there. So I think we should partner. I don't think
- you need to go on your own. You're welcome to. Some of the stats that we've looked at as a women's commission
- have been based on what the Health Equity Council has already put together. Well, next month, we will
- have speakers from the LGBTQ plus free health clinic coming
- to share with us about what they're doing, because that is a student-run free clinic for everybody.
- And they're great students, very passionate about the work that they're doing. And I can't wait for
- them to come share with everybody about the services they offer. But again, it's promoting those kind
- of things, too, because not everybody knows those kind of services exist, or even
- Maybe they don't even know how to get there. If it's one Sunday a month, then maybe they don't have
- rights. I don't know. This is stating the obvious. If women don't have health, then nobody's existing.
- That's right. Nobody's being born. Instead of crying.
- This has been floating kind of among different groups as a discussion point and at different times I
- hear different elected officials. I think it's time to like form that up and I don't know I just see a lot of
- I hate the word synergy, but I see a lot of it around all the meetings we're having and all the need
- seems to come back to that kind of, what is this really? What are we evaluating to move any of that?
- Is some of that also like in the sense of like, you know, I'm thinking about this, right, and about
- going to healthcare and, you know,
- It feels like more people need to be invited into the conversation about, especially the populations
- that are being affected. But I don't even know how when you're trying to just survive, how you can even
- get beyond that to say, I want to be a part of this so we can help fix the problem. Because they probably
- can't, but I don't always like top down
- directives and trying to figure out how to find those voices that can help themselves would be great.
- Well, you have a mobile unit because people don't always have transportation. You give them a bag of
- groceries to come in and have their blood pressure taken and their A1C checked or whatever can be done
- very quickly. And then you say, what is it that you need? What would be the most helpful to you right now?
- And so you're providing a real need, not a coupon or a gift certificate to somewhere. You're providing
- a bag of groceries. You're providing a health service. And then you are asking them, what do you need?
- I mean, these things, and I'm not trying to be
- aggressive or argumentative, these things are not rocket science. These things aren't hard to think
- of. You just have to make it make sense and do it. However, in the state of the world that we live in,
- it's figuring out how we find the resources or
- to do those things, right? I mean, even if you have, you know, a health, you know, van going around,
- right? And where that comes from. And I mean, I just keep thinking about, you know, trustees because
- they're the ones out there and they're the ones that know those communities, right? Because they're
- the ones coming to those and, you know, future cuts, who knows what's happening with those. And I mean,
- you know, to me, the census, the idea is, you know, get the government out of that social services,
- right? They don't want
- the government to help people. They want people to get help from churches or whatever. That's just my
- thought. So there is I mean, it's an uphill battle, I think, in a world where I think resources are
- going to get smaller and smaller. There's enough resources in this on this planet for everybody to be
- fine, whatever fine means to you.
- And so we can find the resources we can. I mean, I understand what you're saying in the world that we
- live in, you know, government, state money, federal funding, whatever. And if we wait for that to get
- better, for the pendulum to swing,
- How many people are we going to lose? How many people are we going to further disenfranchise
- or disenfranchise? Right here, sitting here, Indiana Recovery Center has some vans. You could take that.
- You could get with Pantry 279 and get some bags of groceries. And I'm sure you could get some.
- donations or sponsorships for gas, and you go. Done. But I think the part of it is, I mean, I see in
- the community that I live in, generational, right? I think they get to be a protective bunch, right?
- So there are some people, I think, when you're talking,
- It is mind-blowing to me as someone who grew up with no family nearby just to meet people on my road.
- And there are three generations of people that live on my road. They're like three families that all
- live on my road. But it gets to be, and this is a generalization that I'm aware, but there is some kind of,
- insulation protective thing to that, that you have to crack that too. I never really understood that
- whole part of the community until living there and realizing what it is to be a real outsider and be
- now trying to be a part of the group and the people, the amazing people that I've gotten to meet that
- I never would have got to meet otherwise.
- There is work in that way to be done. I mean, it's like going into the Amish. I remember one of the
- public health nurses and the years it took her down in Washington County to get into those communities
- to start taking care of them. You just can't barge in. You've got to do the work. And you've got to
- be invited. And I think- No. No. You're bringing somebody food that needs food.
- And I'm sorry, are the people, the three generations that are living on your road, are they in their
- own homes? Well, some of them. OK, because I'm seeing there's three generations living in the home,
- in one home. Most certainly, yes. But also, when you're trying to survive, if somebody's bringing you
- a bag of groceries, you're going to get those groceries because you have no other choice.
- That's the level that we're talking here. They don't have any other choice. If somebody's coming down
- the road in a van with free groceries, and they want to put a cuff on me, check my blood pressure, OK.
- OK. Because they don't have food. And I hear what you're saying. They're very much cultural competency
- very much.
- Cultural competency covers it, I think, in terms of the protective factors and the generational... I
- want to say clans, but I don't know what I mean by that, to be honest. But I hear what you're saying,
- and the people that I'm talking about are the people that have no other option if a van's coming down
- the road with a bag of food.
- or if somebody's knocking on the door with a bag of food, they're gonna take it because they don't have
- any. So the work to do is just do it, knock on the door. We've been programmed so much to want to have
- all of our ducks in a row before we go.
- Yeah, great. But you know what, how, you know, analysis paralysis and decrease the funding and like,
- what are we going to do? So we're going to just stew, stew, stew until, you know, gather resources,
- gather resources until we have all that we need and then go like, look at the jail. What do we do? Like,
- I mean, it could go decades. Right. And so what I'm talking about and this is like kind of, you know,
- my mindset now and why
- I resigned from HAP because I could not sit through another legislative session. I could not do another
- legislative session, right? Because I want to be out there doing, serving people, making a difference
- today, not hoping that some white-haired man behind the desk, no offense, Dave, would listen
- to my three-minute whatever testimony
- and then change his mind all of a sudden. The truth is, it all has to be done, right? There does need
- to be those people up there. And there needs to be these, the people, the grassroots people. I mean,
- it all does need to be done. But if we're asking about what we can do to make a change, we figure it
- out and do it. Right. Well, for me. For me. I was like Jennifer and Tiana last time, just like, yeah,
- we just collected supplies and went and handed it out.
- That's right. And look here, no umbrella. We just did it. We just wanted to make it happen. And we did
- it. Interesting. The two black women that sit on this commission did that. Yeah. And the other person
- of color is sitting here saying, we do that. So interesting. And I was like, no, but legislate. No,
- that's literally what happened. And no shade on you. That's your culture. That's how you've been.
- You know, for me, I'm a sundowner. Like, after three, my brain power just kind of goes up. But that's
- been how you've been. What's the word I'm looking for? Pregnant? Conditioned. Conditioned. Yeah. Well,
- no. I mean, I'm a doer. I like being a doer. But yeah. But the question is, what is the role of the
- Women's Commission? Yeah. Doing things. No, I don't.
- Well, the Women's Commission is, I mean, in the advisory sense, is to just keep bringing issues and
- working with these two. So that's the business of this group. Yes. Because there's, I mean, your personal
- mission, and then there's the business of this group. What you as a group need to do moving forward.
- Where do you fit in that? Thank you for bringing that back. And I will take any platform I get.
- to say things. So outreach committee. So we don't have any updates. We will be meeting in the next couple
- of weeks and hopefully passing out more period products without permission. And then report back next
- month. Thank you for doing that. That's lovely. New business.
- Do we want to merge the data committee and the policy committee temporarily or permanently? I think
- temporarily seems like a good idea to try. I mean, we've got this survey that we're wanting to move
- forward for potentially looking at a women's health rubric trying to construct that. And I think the
- data committee and policy committee can get more done with us working together on those things.
- I don't think that's something we need to vote on, do we? No, no, it's just as long as announces when
- this is what we've discussed in that we are. Unless I mean, feel free to object. Fabulous. So we have
- the jail site decision gender equity discussion. Do we need to have that discussion or are we covered
- that we've had? I mean, we've already been talking about it.
- you know, a little bit. So that's I think the only thing that we haven't really discussed is like what
- what things have happened. So there was the committee that was meeting without the without the county
- commissioners involved to look at options and ended up deciding on their first choice being the renovation
- of the current jail along with the Curry building and then a backup choice of the Thompson site.
- and just considering the locations that they were considering. There were like five or so that they
- were looking at. Those are both well in town and just contemplating site location of the jail and what
- the impact is for women in marginalized genders. Access to services, public transit, even public libraries
- for help with information and a place to meet.
- So people that are in jail, that are women or marginalized genders, or connected to people held in jail,
- they're impacted more severely based on where the jail is located in relation to services in the county.
- And we're seeing from the, just from the GIS slides, that services are really, are very, very centralized
- around the Bloomington area. So I think
- those sorts of things, even though it's not the gender equity rubric really helping out, there's still
- things like that that can be considered in a gender equity sense for a jail site location. So that's
- what I was wanting to try and get across and see if that's helpful for the discussion that is gonna
- have to happen and a decision that's gonna have to be made. That was all I had.
- Anybody else have any comments about that part? Anything there? Did we want to discuss meeting time
- change? Do we need to do that to my two people? I can still commit to 530 once a month for sure.
- Yes, no, I will not be able to. I can only attend today because my client canceled. But I am only one
- person. And I don't feel like you should change the time just for one person. Is it a situation that
- is consistent enough that you would or not,
- just that you know it's going to be that way every single month? Or is it like something where you could
- say, OK, it's like a proxy would be able to come in sometimes? Is that an option? A proxy twice in a
- row, I think. I'm happy to do that. We could try it. I don't know. Like a proxy? Yeah. Well, I mean,
- I haven't. I have not heard back.
- I'm on vacation. Oh, okay. Nerve. But to answer your question, yes. Like I was saying, my schedule is
- past 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. So it may not be that there is another time that's a better
- option anyway. Yeah.
- So do we want to just stick with this time? And then if it turns out that it's not working for you for
- the next meeting or an upcoming meeting, see if a proxy is an option and how that goes. Yeah. I mean,
- ideally, this case would close at some point. But it's a big one.
- You're not seeing that a different time would make things better. A different time would make it more
- likely because, I mean, I'm scheduled A to AP. But if somebody is doing great, then I don't have to
- spend, you know what I mean? But I can't say when that will be and when that won't be. It would just
- make it more likely that I could attend, but it wouldn't guarantee that I could. So to your point, yeah.
- Did we say we're gonna keep going for another month or two and see how it plays out? Fabulous. I mean,
- I'm happy to do whatever it takes to get us all here. So it wouldn't, nothing would bother me, but in
- that regard. Anything else from anyone?
- public comment, but I did, and I didn't say thank you to the class of V600, but I do want to say thank
- you to them if they ever watch and I will certainly make sure that I will pass that along. I think it
- is, I've really enjoyed working with them and I'm crazily pleased with the outcome considering, I mean,
- not even considering,
- They were tarred real fast. Is Dr. Henschel, is that Diane Henschel? Mm-hmm. Okay, cool. All right.
- I actually know who she is. I was like, is that who you're talking about? Okay, yeah. Yes, she is great.
- So she'll be, and she's gonna be continuing this, keeping the survey open. Yes. Okay, the person, great.
- Yes, yes, yes, yes. Dave, did you have anything you wanted to say?
- He's like quit talking about me. I thought he said he had public comment. Oh, when we came in, I think
- he said, I don't know. 709. I called this meeting.