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.

So I spent 12 years in the same building uh with Bloomington Transit and their staff and and board members.

So um I would go to board meetings, and um, so my understanding was there was going to be an open.

And so I thought okay, I can do this.

Um, and I've been in this, I actually worked for Bloomington Transit while I was in school then in 1973, when it was still a city department before it became its own public transportation corporation.

So I think about it, if I stayed, I would have been like number one on the seniority list.

Everything is done by seniority uh with the union contract.

So um so you know, with my background in public transportation, um and I continue to stay up with it.

I teach a class over at O'Neill uh just in the fall semester because I tell people if I did it both semesters, it'd be a job.

That's true.

And I finally got them down from the height of 47 students down to 30, and I have a nine-person waiting list.