Bloomington Transit Interview Committee A Meeting - August 20, 2026
Bloomington Transit Interview Committee A Meeting - August 20, 2026
Note: The transcript begins by stating the date as August 19, 2026 at 3:07 p.m., but the provided meeting date is August 20, 2026. This summary uses the supplied date.
The interview committee (Councilmembers Kate Rosenbarger, OP Strasberg, and Jennifer Crossley) convened to interview a candidate for the Bloomington Transit (BT) Board of Directors and to deliberate on the appointment. The committee also discussed a vacancy on the Commission on the Status of Black Males and procedural next steps.
Interview with Candidate Perry
- Perry has extensive transit experience: former Director of Campus Bus Service at Indiana University (IU), former chair of the Florida Commission on Transportation Disadvantage, and worked for Bloomington Transit in the 1970s.
- He expressed strong support for robust fixed-route service, paratransit for those with no alternatives, and the IU-BT partnership, including potential consolidation to capture additional state and federal funding.
- He considered microtransit a “great new concept” and a useful tool, but not a replacement for frequent fixed routes.
- On board dynamics, he emphasized the need to work collaboratively, stating, “you may disagree, but you can’t be disagreeable in disagreeing.”
- He did not express a strong opinion on expanding the board from five to seven members, leaving that to the city council.
Deliberation on Candidates
- The committee noted four strong candidates (Perry, Zach, Kent, Hank) and discussed their attributes.
- Councilmembers expressed leaning toward candidates who favor increasing frequency on fixed routes over expanding microtransit—a position shared by Zach, Kent, and Hank.
- Rosenbarger favored “mixing things up” and a fresh, data-driven perspective (Zach), while other members valued deep institutional knowledge (Kent, Perry).
- The committee considered whether to expand the board to seven members, but noted state-imposed political balance requirements could complicate that.
- They acknowledged public comment (via chat) suggesting to wait for the outcome of an upcoming BT board meeting before deciding.
Key Outcomes
- No action was taken on the appointment; the committee decided to postpone a decision.
- They will schedule another meeting after the BT board meeting (now expected in September) and after confirming availability with all members, including absent member Isak.
- The committee also noted a vacancy on the Commission on the Status of Black Males and encouraged applications.
- The next regular city council meeting is in September, where the committee can make a recommendation.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, I will call the meeting to order. This is interview committee A for Bloomington Transit for it is August 19th. 3 07 p.m. Um I am Kate Rosenbarger, City Council of District 2. OP Strasberg, District 3. Jennifer Crossley Clark's office. Okay. So is it okay to call you Perry? Yes. Right. And it is totally okay to call me Kate. Uh thank you for coming today. Well, thank you for having because I was flying back home on Thursday. Oh yeah. It's always a lot to write all interviews. Yeah. So we pretty much have a set of questions that we ask all the candidates to try to keep everything the same, but um weave here a little bit, of course. Uh just as like you say something that we might have a follow-up question about. So we will just kind of head that direction. Um our first question is about minority groups. So we have just asked everybody, so I will kick us off. Have you ever been part of a commission, council, or board that focused on the betterment and wellness of a specific community, particularly a minority group? If so, what was your role and what impact did it have? So on a commission or board. Well, I was the chair of the commission on transportation disadvantage for the state of Florida. I was appointed by Governor Martinez. I served uh as chair two terms. Um our focus was on disabled um lower income people, um and it was quite the experience. I just thoroughly enjoyed doing that. Um I got that role because in Bravard in Florida, they have each county has a transportation um disadvantaged coordinator uh that coordinates all the various social service transportation and public transportation. So uh each county has that, and so it it was quite the uh working with all of the the various groups um really neat. Good. So yes, sorry that's yeah, long answer and you said each was an alliance. No, it was not. Um you said each county then had a coordinator for social services transportation and public, yeah. Typically it was this one and the same. Yeah, if you were transfer director for the county, you were also the CTC for the county. There were some instances where the public transit agency wasn't interested in it. That wasn't the case in most counties. So interesting. Well, what do you want me? Do you want me to continue? No, I'm good. You're good. Yes, okay. I got it all. I listened at the same time as I did some copying and pasting. Um, so uh the next question is uh what inspired you to apply for this position on the um uh uh public transportation board of directors, what draws you to the work and the mission of the board? Well, I know that a background in that, but besides that, I guess like because you're here, you're yes, you're I'm assuming retired, so like why do you want to help you? I retired back in 2018 at IU and I was the director of campus bus service.
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