Good evening, everybody.

Thank you for joining us this evening for the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting of the Indianapolis City County Council.

And I'm we're going to start this evening's uh presentation with an introduction of our committee members starting below with Councillor Dilk.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Mike Dilk, District 24.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Josh Bain, District 21.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Jesse Brown, District 13, Darius Side.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman Brienne Delaney, District 2 on the North Side.

Good evening, Chairman Boots.

Counselor Krista Carlino, District 11, West Side.

Thank you, Chairman Boots.

Counselor Jared Evans representing District 17 on the far west side.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Frank Mascarry, District 19.

I apologize.

I have to leave at 6 30.

Thank you.

Have another meeting.

And thank you all.

I am Dan Boots, District 3, Northeast Side, Washington Lawrence Townships.

I have the honor of chairing this committee.

We're going to get started right away with a buzzer present budget presentation by the Department of Parks and Recreation.

And I believe Director Crohn will be leading the charge this evening.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you all for your presence here this evening.

We are excited to present our 2026 budget proposal.

And so I'm again deeply grateful to be here alongside members of our team up here up front, but also in the audience this evening.

And you know, this will be an adventure.

My very first budget presentation to you all.

So thank you for having us this evening.

Tonight I'll share highlights from the work we've accomplished so far in 2025, the impact it's had on Indianapolis residents, and a preview of our upcoming projects.

And then our CFO and I will then walk you through our proposed 2026 budget and how we plan to allocate our resources.

Before diving in, I do want to take an official moment to recognize the people who make this work possible.

Our Indy Parks team is filled with dedicated, hardworking staff who bring their passion to serving our community every day.

Our park rangers, our many community, corporate and philanthropic partners, and finally to you all, the members of this committee, for your leadership and support.

So our next slide here, as you'll see on your screen or in front of you in the printout is a review of our mission, vision, and our commitment to community.

Our mission is simple but powerful to provide enriching experiences for all.

We pursue this mission to realize our vision, healthier lives, inspiring experiences, and vibrant communities.

In our racial equity statement is uh a commitment to our community, and this is both outward and inward facing.

Outward, it commits us to expanding access to green space and resources across Indianapolis.

Inward, it commits us to building a stronger, more equitable workplace culture.

These principles serve as a compass and are embedded in our comprehensive five-year master plan, which was updated most recently in 2023.

A little bit about us.

This slide shows the scope of Indy Park's work.

We now manage 218 parks covering over 11,000 acres and serving nearly 10 million residents and visitors annually.

That number continues to climb year over year.

Behind those numbers is a team of more than 780 full-time, part-time, and seasonal staff who combined work hard every day to maintain spaces, activate programming, and serve the public.

A little bit about our structure as a department for you all.

Serving a city of this size requires strong coordination.

So this slide shows our leadership structure, which ensures every part of our system is managed effectively.

In the summer months, our programs and operations staff expand significantly, reflecting the increased demand for camps, pools, and seasonal recreation.

Our administrative teams, which include parks leadership, construction and planning, finance, and communications teams, are all housed right here in the city county building.

But our front-facing staff, which is the majority of our team, can be found at their respective parks.

Parks within each region of our city county have their own regional manager who serve as a touch point for staff support and for community that that region most frequently serves.

This structure allows us to have more presence and to better understand what our neighbors need and want to enjoy from Indy Parks as a third space right there on the ground.

Diving just a little deeper into our staff breakdown.

And in the summer, our staff grows dramatically.

Over 600 seasonal employees support programs, camps, and lifeguards in our summer season.

It is an enormous undertaking that brings opportunities for young people to gain experiences while serving their community as well as people of all ages and backgrounds to uh appreciate and enjoy our park system.

We are very proud that our staff demographics represented here are beginning to truly reflect the diversity of our beautiful city.

Our staff reflects this diversity as you can see on the screen.

By gender identity, we have 59.5% male, 39.1% female, and 1% non-binary or nonconfirm conforming.

By race and ethnicity, we have just under 55% white, 31% black, 6% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 6% of our staff not specified or not wanting to disclose uh their racial identity.

One thing I've come to deeply admire in my first months as director is the longevity of service across our staff, the expertise that our staff bring to the field.

On the screen and in your presentation this evening are several of our most senior staff members who've dedicated anywhere from 16 to 54 years to service in this community through our department.

And if you are here tonight as I call your name, I would like you to please stand so we can uh recognize you here.

Phil Trebovic, Sean Coward, Kim Campbell, Cheryl Richardson, Don Colvin, Rhonda Greenwaade, and Judy Watts.

We thank you for your service to this agency.

I really can't talk about this team enough.

I mean, they they do incredible work, and while this work is happening constantly, and there's not enough time truly to name all the examples of how phenomenal this team is.

I do want to take uh a little bit of time here this evening with you to highlight a few recent successes and to celebrate some of our team members who really stand out as champions of our mission.

First up is Windsor Village Park, managed by the incredible Sean Cowhert.

According to him, Windsor Park's motto is that it truly takes a village.

The staff at Windsor aren't only offering space for fun recreation, they have become a staple in providing resources for neighbors of all ages.

Their programming includes the Teen Talk, which teaches teens how to talk through difficult issues in their lives and find support, a food pantry that has served over 9,000 people this year alone, summer camp, free summer meals, and more.

Their passion for building community is truly inspirational, and Sean is at the helm at Windsor Village Park.

Sean, if you could stand one more time so we could recognize you.

Next up, I would love to share some of the work Pride Parks Assistant Manager Michelle McPhillips is doing to embody the art of successful community programming with minimal resources.

She opens the doors of Pride Park daily to the Norwood Community Center.

She also makes strides in providing food through the Second Helpings and Summer Servings meal programs, and will soon offer drive and dish grocery services at the park, something I'll speak a little more to later this evening.

She brings unique and diverse programs to Pride, including arts, chess club, adaptive chair yoga, after-school homework assistance, a derby program, and to top it all off, a community garden.

Michelle's a great example of how passion and imagination see no limits when someone is as determined and committed to serve the needs of a community as she is.

And Michelle, if you're here tonight, please stand and be recognized.

Some of you may have also heard about the new environmental education center at Grassy Creek.

Park manager Sheree Cooper, naturalist Quinlin Malloy, and facility attendant Isabel Robinson, who are all new staff, by the way, have already activated this space with daily programming for families on the Far East Side.

This small but magical team has hosted field trips, trail walks, painting classes, bird watching, and more.

And Grassy Creek team, please stand if you're here this evening so we can recognize you for the work you do.

I think they're feeling shy.

Yeah.

Next up is our team at Cranert Park, including Park Manager Zachary Harry, assistant manager Alex Sinarvik, and recreation coordinator Hara Boyd.

We've heard incredible feedback from both their regular programming and their most recent summer day camp.

Thanks in part, of course, to new building amenities.

Enrollment was near full for every age group every week this past season.

The staff set their counselors up for success with plenty of training and meetings to touch base.

Having such a strong communicative staff directly impacted the campers who will cherish these memories for years and years to come.

Cranert staff, please stand to be recognized.

They're also feeling shy.

And finally, to top off some of our staff achievements and accomplishments, I have to call out the remarkable work of our senior manager of production arts, Lydia Campbell Mayer, assistant manager of production arts Quessy Rogers, and Production Arts Coordinator Max Wilkins on expanding our free Indie Park Summer Concerts and Movie Series this past summer.

Thanks to their coordination between individual parks, local artists, sound engineers, and the community, eight of our parks saw over 50 concerts this season.

Plus, there's ongoing.

Seeing so many of our park spaces activated in musical celebration is such a wonderful part of how we function as a community that also prioritizes the arts in this city.

Arts team, if you are here, please stand and be recognized for your dedication.

As you could see, and I'm sure you can imagine, I could go on and on and on about this amazing team.

The tremendous work they do, as I said, is being done daily to provide access to fitness, fun, and essential resources to residents across Indianapolis.

Another way our staff regularly get involved is through the participation in internal committees.

These are spaces designed and dedicated for internal collaboration.

Each committee has a specific focus to help us meet our mission and live out our comprehensive plan.

Some, like the Fun Committee and the Staff Development Committee, are focused internally on maintaining a positive and supportive work culture.

Others, like the special events and partnership committees, serve as touch points for community efforts to activate our parks.

Many of our committees, however, work simultaneously to serve both the staff and our visitors.

All right, so transitioning into fiscal and programmatic success, I'd like to take some time to highlight a few recent wins and how we've allocated resources wisely and uh what that has meant for programming on the ground.

As depicted in this graph, you uh can see park usage has climbed year over year.

We believe that's tied to better amenities, more programs, and stronger communication.

We're on track for another record-breaking year with 10.3 million plus visitors already in 2025 alone.

This underscores to me how vital this system is for residents and visitors alike.

An important reminder when reflecting on the services that we provide is that all of our programs are either low or no cost, especially when compared to similar programs across Indianapolis.

When we say parks are for all, we meet it.

And you can see that in our numbers.

We also offer alerts for any major closures or other announcements throughout our park system.

The website and related forums for things like scholarships and shelter rentals can also now be translated into Spanish on our new website with the click of a button, which has made big strides in in terms of access.

If you haven't tried out the Find a Park feature on our website, I do highly recommend it.

It's been a very helpful tool for anyone wanting to learn more about our expansive system.

I want to call out now a few recent programming initiatives at Indy Parks that highlight the dedication of our staff in providing enriching experiences.

This is on top of what you heard in our staff achievements.

Riverside Park hosted a free self-defense class led by former heavyweight champ Lamon Brewster, which built confidence as well as community for women right here in Indianapolis.

Grassy Creek's new environmental education center is already buzzing.

We've had uh guided hikes, homeschool programs, and the Perseid Meteor Shower visitation night, and we're sustaining beloved trans traditions like bugfests where parks collaborate to deliver hands-on nature-centered fun.

This year, we also had the incredible opportunity to bring teams from our citywide basketball program to scrimmage on the official court of Gambridge Field House during halftime of the Big Ten Games.

The crowd cheered them on, and there were many, many high-fives afterwards, even from some of the players from Purdue.

These kinds of moments will become core memories for our youth, inspiring them to dream large and work hard to bring those dreams to life.

Our conservatory at Garfield Park also offers a seasonal rotation of programming, including succulent and bonsai shows, in addition to their very popular annual Gnome Show and Conservatory Crossing Holiday celebration.

And of course, our incredibly successful 2025 free summer concert and movie series that I mentioned before.

Our summer camps are another crucial service we provide each year.

This summer we saw an increase in our number of camp locations to 17 thanks to the new Grassy Creek Environmental Community Center, with a variety of programs offered to 4,253 campers.

We fully utilize our scholarship funds thanks to our application form being available online and in multiple languages.

A few fun camp examples from this year include but are not limited to the Wilderness Camp, Clown Camp, Art and Nature Camp, and as you can see from the Happy Camper on the screen or in your presentation packet, the Down and Dirty Camp.

Our aquatics team continued to build on the success of last year's season, opening 15 pools this summer.

The vast majority of these were open even earlier than last year.

We hired 279 seasonal aquatics employees, which is a record number for us post pandemic.

We provide free community swim hours at all open pools this week, along twice a week, along with swim teams and lessons offered across the city to promote access to essential water safety.

And I have so much gratitude for our aquatics manager and our leadership team on the operations side, our deputy director.

This summer we saw temperatures well into the 90s.

Our splash pads offer fun for families, but they are also a great way to cool down.

So because of this, we have decided to keep all splash pads open a little longer this year through September 30th.

One of our newest splash pad additions is in Washington Park, which is a must see if you haven't visited it yet.

A little on our food programs, our meals program continues to help fill the gaps in food security and access in our city.

Since 2013, Indy Parks has served over 3.4 million meals, making us the largest non-school provider of free meals in the entire state of Indiana.

This year alone, we served over 111,000 meals, with nearly 50,000 of those served during the months of May to July through our federally funded summer meals program.

We also have food pantries at Windsor Village and Riverside Parks, which we which have collectively served 7,200 individual patrons.

In addition to these programs, we have partnered with Gleaners and the Pacers Foundation for our new drive-in-dish program, which provides free, customizable groceries on a weekly basis.

Residents can shop for food that best fits their needs and visit one of seven park locations for pickup.

The program launched its first test site at Frederick Douglass in early 2025, so new as of this year, and has already expanded to seven park locations with more to come.

Current active sites are located at Thatcher Park, Watkins, Cranert, Stanley Straighter, Washington Park, Municipal Gardens, and Frederick Douglass Park.

This program has been a major success with plans to expand and meet the needs of more Indianapolis neighbors.

Our business and corporate partnerships also carry out countless park improvements, including beautification and others, thanks to the coordination from Amy Anderson, our senior manager of community partnerships.

Amy is not here tonight, but if she were, I would also ask her to stand and be recognized because this work and our whole team has worked with over 40,000 volunteers this year alone to date on a wide range of projects that beautify our parks through painting shelters, picnic tables, mural assistance, landscaping, mulching, planting, trail maintenance, and trash cleanup.

Now I'd like to share some recent completions in construction across our system.

Following last summer's court renovation at Fall Creek and 30th Park in partnership with Pacers Sports and Entertainment, the Pacers returned to celebrate their 2025 season tip-off at Frederick Douglass Park with a newly refurbished outdoor court.

After the ribbon cutting celebration, the Pacers players hosted a game of knockout for local kids to compete.

We look forward to continuing this partnership in the coming years and going into 2026.

Back in July, we had the incredible opportunity to partner with the WNBA All-Star Host Committee in the unveiling of a couple new courts, including the new legacy court at Al Pullin Park.

Local artist Kiara Reddy brought the court to life in a vibrant color, which immediately got some use from our Indy Parks Youth Summer Basketball Clinic.

Projects like these highlight the intersectionality of art and wellness in building community.

We hope to continue strengthening these partnerships and explore new opportunities for collaboration in our park system.

Of course, Indy Parks contains multitudes.

We're not just all about sports.

I'm excited to provide an update on the historic projects funded by the mayor's Circle City Forward Initiative, first announced in 2021.

All five of these projects, which included the Riverside Promenade and Adventure Park, Frederick Douglass Park, Cranert Park, and the Grassy Creek Environmental Community Center are now officially complete and open for the public to enjoy.

We have a couple beautiful slides with photos of these projects.

Both Grassy Creek and Riverside Adventure Park.

We have been fortunate to receive such transformative funding from Circle City Forward, the American Rescue Plan, and the Lilly Endowment, and are continuing to deploy these investments across our system, including the 28 ARPA Playground Projects and 42 Lily Endowment Funded projects.

Over 40% of Indy Park's playgrounds have been or will be replaced for community use.

These listed parks all have projects actively ongoing or upcoming in 2026, specifically thanks to the Lilly Endowments Investment.

This list is a living document and is subject to change as construction schedules do.

Please be sure to check our website at parks.indy.gov for the most up-to-date information.

As I mentioned before, our communications team works incredibly hard to keep that information up to date.

The first of two playgrounds were also completed at Washington Park.

This was funded by the Lilly Endowment.

Located at the park's north end, it features new equipment for youth of all ages to enjoy.

When I attended Washington Park's national night out celebration last month, I got to see firsthand how many families and community members were already enjoying that new playground.

And also at Washington Park, our most recent ribbon cutting was held late last month, and we also celebrated an additional new playground, two shelters, a comfort station, event lawn, and splash pad right there at Washington Park.

This project is particularly special due to the storied past of the park, which has served as a community gathering space for decades.

On the 57th anniversary of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, community leaders came together to break ground on almost a $7 million project at Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Park.

This project includes a new plaza, walkways, landscaping, an expansion of new of the existing landmark for Peace Monument, and investments in the new lighting and security cameras around the park.

This project is on track to be completed in time for next year's April 4th anniversary event.

The 2025 CIP saw general aquatics and facilities maintenance, funding for gel coding of pool slides, pool pump repairs, security cameras, landscape and forestry activities, picnic tables, a new parking lot at Washington Park, renovation of JTV Hill Family Center, and more.

Projects included in the 2026 CIP are the Jack Butler Park Design, formerly known as Decatur Farms Park, the Grassy Creek Regional Park Master Plan, along with the Geist Soccer Complex, as you see on your screen here, and Graham Edward Martin Park.

And now to speak a little on our community engagement efforts, I want to share a few examples of our continued emphasis on working with community.

Working with stakeholders in our city is absolutely key to ensuring that our parks are a reflection of the people they serve.

Public meetings are key to this as they help create a vision for individual park site development and master plans and are essential an essential part of gathering community input.

In this way, neighbors feel involved in the process of determining what amenities best fit those who will use them most.

In 2025, we've hosted 16 public meetings at parks across the city to get this input.

Another engagement piece we have with community is our Indy Parks Corps program.

The Indy Parks Corps is a 12-week training program done in collaboration with Employee Indy and Edna Martin Christian Center.

This program is divided into three four-week phases, with Indy Parks leading phases two and three.

The program is meant to improve the life skills and job readiness of at-risk youth aged 18 to 24.

During phase two, the cohort receives trainings in OSHA 10, mental health first aid, CPR, Stop the Bleed, Naloxone Use, Budgeting, Resume Workshops, and Job Application How To.

They also receive a plan of park session with our park planning and construction team and five to ten experiential sessions with park staff and family centers, where they assist with everything from trail maintenance at Eagle Creek to food pantry service with our food team at Riverside.

Phase three of this program consists of placing cohort members with park staff internship opportunities.

Past cohorts have worked with Eagle Creek, Indie Urban Acres, Windsor Village, the Food Program, Southeast Way, Holiday, as well as animal care services.

These internships offer future pathways to employment.

So now a little bit about our 2026 goals.

In addition to ongoing projects, we are always looking to the future for opportunities to enhance the lives of Indianapolis neighbors and visitors.

Our goal is to provide programs and resources to protect and serve our staff and citizens, leverage our partners, and deliver equitable outcomes.

So on our first goal regarding access and activation, building on so much success in this year alone, we are looking to further increase access to parks facilities programs and amenities for residents through continued capital improvements, park activation, and partnerships with local organizations and nonprofits to bring new opportunities across the Indy Park system.

We have a particular focus on access and are happy to share that all family centers now have Wi-Fi for staff and public use.

We are also increasing our ability to offer documents and services in multiple languages through our new websites one-click translation capability I mentioned before.

We also have bilingual staff support, translation services, bilingual programming, and providing interpreters at public meetings.

Another example of increased activation can be seen at Riverside Park, which is larger than Central Park in New York City if you want a bit of trivia for your next trivia night.

This space sees consistent use in a variety of ways, from walks along the promenade to concerts and more.

We are very excited for the continued development of the Riverside Adventure Park, which includes a $6.8 million grant from the Department of Natural Resources through U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service.

This grant is in place to help us build an outdoor archery range, which will be the first of its kind in Indianapolis as well.

Another bit of trivia.

Future plans are also in place to create a Riverside Nature Center, which is currently in the design phase after public meetings were hosted to gather community input.

Our county option income tax for the spring of 2025 included a $2 million allocation to parks.

All of the following projects are actively in process with many to be completed in 2026.

Those are all the items that you see in your presentation now.

And I must say we are very fortunate to have been chosen by a number of city county counselors to receive one million dollars toward park improvements.

We've hosted public meetings for each of the projects to gather essential community input and are in process of preparing for construction on these projects in 2026.

Another focus of ours is to further establish parks as safe, welcoming third spaces by increased safety measures, including security, staff resources, coordination with the park rangers unit of IMPD, and the presence of our very new park safety administrator, Eric Davenport.

Eric and I actually share the same start date as some of you may remember, and I have seen him work already to strategize ways to optimize our current safety procedures, as well as to coordinate with other agencies, community partners, IMPD and IFD to provide resources for our staff as well as our patrons.

We recognize the ongoing efforts of our city to provide lasting resources to our unhoused neighbors as well.

Part of this, of course, is the Streets to Home Initiative, and we are a ready and willing active partner looking forward to next steps of that initiative to be activated in supporting our neighbors in need.

One ongoing resource that we do provide for our unsheltered neighbors and the general public for public safety is that all open Indies parks facilities serve as cooling and warming shelters in periods of extreme weather, and that's during normal operating hours.

We have also activated an emergency warming shelter this past winter at Washington Park during periods of freezing overnight temperatures, and this is in collaboration with our sister agencies, Mesa and IMPD, as well as other local organizations.

So, as you've seen throughout this presentation, the work we do certainly relies heavily on our team, our staff internally, but also on our philanthropic corporate, nonprofit, and community partnerships.

You'll remember that 4,000 volunteers that I mentioned before.

By exploring new adventures for volunteerism and fundraising support, we can provide more essential services to residents across the city, county, and beyond.

The Parks Alliance of Indianapolis is also a remarkable asset in pursuing these opportunities.

And we are very grateful for the staff who work uh at the Parks Alliance, working hard to bridge gaps and further the mission of our agency.

Another source of revenue comes from our many rentable facilities and shelters.

As projects continue to offer updated amenities to our parks, we anticipate even more desire for the use of these spaces by our community.

And then I want to be sure to mention our advisory councils.

Many of you may know about these advisory councils already, uh, but these are uh groups comprised of community members who are vital in the work that we do.

They serve as advocates and volunteer efforts and fundraising for their local parks, and they are guided by our dedicated Indy Parks Advisory Council steering committee.

These groups range from uh friends groups of parks like the Friends of etcetera insert park name, supporting smaller neighborhood parks up to the level of a 501c3 nonprofit foundation at some of our largest and oldest parks.

At this time, I will now turn it over to our chief financial officer Jonathan George to review our 2026 budget allocations.

There we go.

Thank you, Director Crohn.

Uh good evening, Mr.

Chair and Counselors.

Uh my name is Jonathan George, Chief Financial Officer of Indy Parks.

Thank you for the opportunity and for your partnership.

I also want to thank the Office of Finance and Management and the Controller's Office for their guidance through a very constrained fiscal landscape this year.

Uh sorry.

Tonight I'll be clear about three things.

Uh first, we protected people and programs, two, we write size lines that were underspent or non-core, and three, we leveraged outside dollars to residents see more access, not less.

This first slide will be a breakdown of our funds, and so just uh as an overview.

The first row, Parks General is made up of three funds.

That's going to be our Parks General Fund, the Golf Fund, and the local grants fund, which is uh like gleaners, um parks alliance uh things like that.

Uh the next line, the next row you see there will be our um kind of like our CIP budget, the capital asset lifecycle development fund.

Um then we have consolidated county, which is the fund that we all share, all city agencies, and then we have federal grants and that also includes uh state grants, I think.

Um so there is like the breakdown in the overview.

So our character one did grow a little bit, um that pays for COLA and health insurance increases.

Uh we also identified uh 19 vacant long-term vacant positions.

Um, associated with Willard Pool, which are not going to be Willard Pool is most likely going to be closed next year.

That's what we're anticipating due to indigo blue line construction.

Um, so that's where most of these uh position vacancies were identified.

Um then our federal grants character one is increasing because we have a new food contract with uh with a new vendor, and due to their staffing arrangements, we are foreseeing uh higher need for seasonal positions to help with like distribution, things like that.

Um so that is character one.

Character two uh saw about a decrease of 174,000.

Um we decreased concessions, uh seasonal concessions by 87,915.

We will still be having concessions at Indy Island and Perry, those are full-time uh indoor concessions.

Um then we'll we reduced water treatment chemicals by about 31k.

We identified that we had an underspend of 60,000 there last year, so uh we thought we would be able to decrease that a little bit, and then we decreased uh closing by about 22,000.

The remaining 32,000 was flatly equally distributed to the remaining budget lines.

Um so that's how we got to that 174 number.

Uh the other two character two budgets are flat.

Uh character three, uh we saw most of this is coming out of our controlled accounts, so like chargebacks are decreasing.

That's where most of that 521 comes from.

Uh 143 of that is coming out of our uncontrolled, 143,000 of that's coming out of our uncontrolled character three, primarily uh stormwater and marketing.

Um we just identified historical underspend, um, and that's what led our decision.

Uh and then everything else is staying flat.

And character four, this reduction of 75k is coming out of local grants.

We uh put a reserve in there coming into 25 because we are expecting a capital grant.

We got the capital grant, we're not expecting it next year, so it's that's where the reduction is.

That reduction does not apply to our uh operational budget, and then everything else is staying flat.

And then our character five increased, and it's primarily driven by our parks maintenance chargeback and our OCC chargeback.

And uh, Mr.

Chair, that concludes our presentation this evening.

Uh, we uh would love to turn it back over to you and and really appreciate the time this evening.

Thank you, Director Cronen, and thank you, CFO George.

Um, any questions by committee members?

Councilor Muscary.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

You know, I've been asking this with every uh department.

Um federal grants.

Do you feel you're secure for next year?

As we know, everything in Washington is being turned upside down, especially free money.

That's a great question.

Uh we have our our biggest grant is with uh DNR and DOE, and we have uh been meeting with them regularly, and so they've been encouraging us.

Uh you know, the reimbursements are gonna keep coming.

Uh, so we we don't have reason to to be too startled and want to pull anything from projects.

Uh the DNR is state, what about the federal?

Yeah, the DOE.

Oh, DOE.

I apologize that there's a DNR.

Thank you.

Thank you for that question, Counselor.

And and our CFOs is exactly right.

I'll add um just to emphasize we are watching those grants closely, and we do receive regular alerts from them.

Um, our deputy director of operations and programming, Kim Campbell, um, is also paying attention to that that DOE grant specifically from the Department of Education on the food side very closely.

At this time, thankfully, we we don't have um too too many concerns to those being threatened, uh, but these are strange times we're living in, and we are paying very close attention to make sure uh that we're ready if anything were to change.

Thank you.

On that note, the you mentioned in character four that you're not expecting a certain grant of roughly $75,000.

Uh and I'm sorry, I did not hear from whom would that grant come from in the past.

So this year we got a grant from gleaners uh to help with the drive and dish program.

And that's the one you do not expect for next year.

No, I don't think it's a standard I don't think it's like an annual standard grant that we would get.

Our standard food program grants that come from the local scene would be Parks Alliance.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Councillor Evans.

Thank you, Chairman Boots.

Um, I want to speak in support of continued and increased investment in Indy Parks.

Parks are not a luxury, they are a necessity for strong and safe neighborhoods.

One of the biggest challenges facing our city, at least publicly, is youth crime.

Too often young people get pulled into trouble because they lack safe, structured, and positive outlets.

Parks are a part of that solution.

They provide after-school programs, sports leagues, summer jobs, and mentorship opportunities that give our youth something to do, someone to guide them, and somewhere safe to belong.

Every hour a young person spends on a ball field in a rec center or working a summer job with Indy Parks is an hour, they are not at risk of making bad choices or being pulled into bad situations.

In District 17 and across Indianapolis, we see how parks serve our communities, and they serve as community anchors.

Keeping kids engaged, connecting families, reducing the stressors that often lead to crime, and beyond public safety, parks improve health, property values, and quality of life for everyone.

When we talk about building safer communities, we must talk about funding our parks.

If we want fewer police reports tomorrow, we need more programs for kids today.

Indy Parks is not just about green space, it's about prevention, opportunity, and hope.

I do not believe gets us to where we should be at in what we classify as a world class city.

That is not an attack on you, Director.

I appreciate everything that you're doing.

It's an attack on those people who are upstairs who are not listening to this council.

This budget does not get the job done.

I appreciate the staff and all these folks that show up and work hard and do the very best that they can for the city of Indianapolis.

I believe in this city.

I grew up in this damn city.

I want to see it achieve the quality of life that it can provide all of our citizens.

This is not it.

When we're picking and choosing winners, we are not succeeding.

There are three fundamentals to a city, in my opinion: public safety, infrastructure, and our parks.

And for every reason that I've already stipulated in this, it's something.

So I hope that I want you to take my comments, and whoever may be listening or whoever may text me or call me later, I'm saying it publicly.

If you disagree with me, you say it publicly.

That's how I feel, and that's where I'm at.

Whether or not I will support this budget moving forward, I'll decide at a later time.

I appreciate what you are trying to do, and everyone else at our parks who work their butts off for this city.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, first, just wanted to say ditto to every word counselor Evans just said.

Thank you very much for that, spoken very clearly.

Um I have I have similar comments.

So, you know, thank you, Director Crohn, and to all of your staff.

I think you're doing amazing work.

I tell everybody who asks me that you're doing you know $10 worth of work for 50 cents, uh, easily easily uh claimed, right?

And as you know, I've had constituents really giving me a hard time about you know the Kennedy King pool, they love the the increases uh to security and cameras, they love the new renewal, the renovation project, and they're very upset that multiple years in a row they have not had a pool to go to in the summer.

And Brookside Park, there's been bulldozers come through, we've started to make some movement, which I'm very grateful for, and it's still been at this point two years since the last playgrounds were taken out.

That's unacceptable.

It's obviously unacceptable.

And I know this isn't your fault, and it's not your staff's fault.

And if you ask any person to try to get by this year with the same budget that they had last year, it's impossible.

We know the prices are going up for everything for labor, for supplies, for everything we're doing.

And so when we have not just a flat budget, but a decrease to our parks budget.

I mean, you know, every person who's ever had to manage an allowance knows that that's not going to go well, right?

It's gonna lead to cuts that our constituents are gonna feel.

And so, you know, putting you in an awkward position, I understand that.

I know you have to cheerlead your staff and your department, but can you try to talk to us about what differences our constituents are gonna see for this drastic decrease in funding compared to the cost of living?

Thank you for that question, counselor.

Um so in my very new um tenure here in our department.

I can tell you we are having regular conversations and an incredibly committed group of people looking at solutions to problems that we are anticipating.

Um although, you know, thankfully with our our CFO and our finance team, as well as the cooperation from our leadership team, including our deputy directors, uh, we were able to identify areas of underspend in past years.

So we are very careful when you look through the reductions that have been made and and then look toward the future at the reserves that we were asked to set aside.

Um thankfully we were able to have some very critical conversations with our operations and programming teams to to help us identify what were the right things we could take could uh reduce.

Now, to your point, a very valid point, counselor.

Um, we do have to predict that there will be times that we feel a stronger squeeze.

And my commitment to my team as well as our neighbors, you know, the public that we serve, is that we'll continue paying very close attention.

We will continue uh measuring and thanks to the gifts that we have in our CFO, looking at every possible option uh to be a little more creative in our fundraising.

Um we are in a very positive position.

I would label it as positive thanks to our corporate and philanthropic community here in Indianapolis who, like all of you, care very much about our park system.

Um, and and I believe that every one of my colleagues, even outside the parks department um has a priority to to find other ways to bridge the gaps.

So we will be looking at some additional means for recovering revenue.

I'll be honest, you know, this could look like some fee increases in the in the distant future.

It could look like doing some additional fundraising through the Parks Alliance or through other partners.

It can look like those kinds of solutions.

And I would love to come back to this council when we have a formal plan and we get through some of this creative problem solving discussion and share that plan with you.

And I would also welcome and encourage your input as our committee and your feedback on some options and things that we could be doing.

We can anticipate maybe one example that we've talked about internally when it comes to our supplies budget, for example.

Maybe in years past we've been able to buy 10 boxes of the largest set of crayons that you could ever imagine.

And it's just like every single color from A to Z duplicated, you know, again and again.

So instead of getting 10 of those huge boxes, maybe it's just five of those, and the other five are a more regular set of colored crayons.

So that's one example where residents may see a slight difference.

But thankfully, we do continue to see investments from the community, both in dollars as well as time and energy and through our volunteers.

Thank you.

And I'll be I'd be happy to speak more on that, counselor.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I really appreciate the honest answer.

And I just wanted to quickly wrap my comments up just by you know, don't want to get you in trouble for giving an honest and fair answer.

But when we talk about having a balanced budget, and that budget is balanced by taking crayons away from children, that is a moral failure from our leadership from Mayor Hogslet.

And so you know we look at cities like Baltimore that have solved youth crime to an extent that we haven't, and one of their chief tools that they use is pool parties for you know kids in the summertime.

And we don't have the staff for that for our parks, and we're cutting our funding for our parks year after year while we're claiming we have a balanced budget.

We're increasing crime, we're taking crayons away from children.

This is an abomination, not a comment about you or your staff.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Brown.

Councilor Carlino.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um Yeah, I agree, Director Cron, everyone in this room.

Um we're definitely on the same side, but I think Chairman Evans, I agree with you, cuts to our parks um isn't acceptable.

And while um Council Brown, you shared that you you would even understand even a flat uh budget proposal would be a little more palatable.

Um but I will share publicly that I refuse to support any cuts to to our parks, even if the overall delta is just a couple hundred grand.

Um, you know, Don Colvin will use it.

So I'll be a no vote if we can't uh at least keep it flat.

Um and I appreciate your your comments um that were shared by Jesse Brown about what is the impact to our constituents.

But one of the questions I have is in regard to the large amount of clothing cuts and what that impact would have on our workers.

I wonder if it doesn't have to do with uh the um lifeguard uniform subsidy.

Can you speak a little bit more about the clothing uh budget cut?

Well, if I may, if it uh pleases this committee and our committee chair, I'd like to invite up our deputy director of operations and programming who's worked diligently with her team on answering that question, maybe in better detail than I might be able to.

Thank you, Kim Campbell.

Absolutely.

Good evening, council.

Um, Kim Campbell, deputy director of operations and programs.

So the cuts that we made, um, we had a little bit of understand in our uniform um budget this past year.

And so the cuts that we made to that particular line item, we will still be able to purchase uniforms for our seasonal staff, which includes our day camp counselors, our lifeguards, um, those are key.

Where we may uh dial back a little bit are the the t-shirts to our um our campers, um, the participants in our camp, um, our staff, we may not um be able to purchase as many uniform t-shirts for our staff.

We may um have to be a little more selective in how we go about purchasing uh uniforms for our staff this year.

So, what that may look like is instead of all staff members being able to order two or three shirts, we may um implement something where new we order shirts for new staff coming on board, um, but we it may be you know one shirt or something for staff that have been online for a while.

Um, but we it may be you know one shirt or something for staff that have been online for a while.

So we just may be a little a little more selective or creative about how we go about it for staff who are already online, and and many of us have shirts that we've had for for years, so we may just you know be replacing shirts that we've had for a while.

I appreciate that.

I'm all for sustainability.

Um, and but my concern definitely, and I appreciate that explanation was definitely on those new employees and some of that those uniforms are truly a piece of that public safety, um, especially for the lifeguards, and it's an early onset cost at the beginning of the job.

So want to make sure we're not passing it on to those teenagers who you know we truly need to get those pools open in district 30.

And it's not a no across the board even for our current staff.

It's not I appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

But Mr.

Chairman, if I could conclude my remarks, um I think the the cuts uh what's not hidden what or what's not listed are those deferred maintenance costs, those capital investments and those things that we're not gonna be doing due to these cuts.

Um so that's something that also gives me great heartburn to have 80 million from the Lily Endowment, and then for us to um just 24 months later cut our parks budget in a way that doesn't feel um sustainable and doesn't feel right size for a world class city um here in this in the city of Indianapolis.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Um Counselor Delaney.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um one of the something that's been brought up among um a lot of conversation um in district two, my district, is user fees at our parks.

And some of my constituents have brought up um the idea that maybe some of our big corporate users um are able to use our parks for a fee that maybe isn't equal to the usage that's being incurred on our park system.

And I am not speaking about the specific entity in my district.

I'm no way saying that they're doing anything bad.

What I'm trying to say, I'm using that just as an example that's come up.

Um what I'm trying to say is I hope as you're looking at user fees.

There's been other agencies that have hired outside consulting firms to look at fees to look at ways to make sure that we're we're using and charging fees and revenue streams are equal to 2025 and not to 1988 40 years ago.

And so I encourage you to, I'm not saying that they're they're that that's wrong that the fees, I'm not trying to say that at all.

What I'm what again, what I'm trying to say is please look at that and and how across the board, I'm not just talking about, you know, I'm coming in to swim at the pool for the day as a as a constituent, talking about some of our corporate users, people that are renting out our parks for big events and things like that.

There's all types of people that come and use our parks in different ways.

Um and so I just I I think that that's something that needs to be looked at, and and it was the fee structure in terms of you pay for the day that you use it, but they might get a day or two before and a day or two after, but they're not paying for those days, but they're getting they're granting a right of usage permit.

Like there's it's very complicated as I've learned in terms of how you allow um people to use the properties, and so I'm just asking you to look at the user fee structure because it's way more complex than I had ever thought.

And so I think there's definitely room for study and improvement there.

And again, I don't want um the group up in my district to take this in any way, shape, or form that I'm targeting my comments at them.

This is just site-wide as we're looking at tightening budgets.

That was something that really was eye-opening to me, is like we're not we're not just talking about our our citizens.

There's a lot of corporate users of our parks um and other folks that um maybe could pay.

I know I've heard of like sliding scale fees.

There's there's many different ways to look at it, and I just I'm asking and hoping that um as you go forward that could be a part of um your continuing budget talks as things are probably gonna get tighter in the next few years.

Thank you.

Yes, madam counselor, thank you very much for those comments and for the um what I'm really hearing you say is is encouragement, you know, encouraging us and and pushing us to think broadly and creatively.

Um I am committed to this as well as my team.

We have begun these discussions internally, and um I greatly appreciate your recommendation to continue that process and welcome welcome that input and feedback.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor Bain.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, and thank you, Director, for the very thorough presentation tonight.

Appreciate all your work on this.

Um touch on how this budget directly affects parks maintenance.

It's when it comes to parks on the southwest side of Indianapolis, it's the number one thing that I hear about.

And uh I know myself, some other members on this committee and multiple people that are on the parks board have spoken very openly about the need to put all of parks maintenance back under the parks department, because right now it seems like there's this weird quasi agreement with DPW where there's some things in parks that DPW maintains or some things in parks that you maintain, the things that DPW maintains in parks is like funded through stormwater, which kind of feels like we're hacking the system a little bit there and maybe underfunding stormwater as a result of that.

And so, can you kind of explain what that agreement's like over your tenure in the past few months?

Have you had success in working with DPW on parks maintenance?

Thank you, counselor.

So we are actively taking a look at the agreement that we have.

Um right now, as you rightly said, um our grounds maintenance is managed by our sister agency DPW.

Um they also have a new director over there, and thankfully um Director Wilson and I have a strong working relationship.

And to answer your question specifically, we have already begun engagement um in conversation about how to improve that relationship.

It is a an issue near and dear to our hearts, and and I'm grateful to hear that it's important to you all as well.

It is something that we anticipate um seeing improvement in.

Um I will need my CFO to confirm this for me, but our our budget as it's laid out before you this evening does not impact uh the maintenance that we receive through that agreement.

Um so we we do have conversations scheduled and dedicated to reviewing the MOU with DPW in great detail.

Um DPW has also committed uh thankfully to us that they are going to invite us into additional conversations that uh are looking at the contractors they bring in for that ground maintenance, and so we do anticipate seeing an improvement in that relationship.

I appreciate that.

Um I should say I can appreciate that.

Um I find it odd that the parks department and the parks director has to be invited into conversations about maintenance within the parks department or within city parks themselves.

And again, when we talk about the MOU, I think the best thing that we can do is shred it and again put all of parks maintenance back within the parks department because you ask someone whose responsibility is this fence in a park, and everybody points different direction.

Some people say, well, it's actually the Little League Softball organization that you have an MOU with to maintain grass and structures within a park.

Sometimes sometimes it's uh DPW, sometimes it's the parks department.

And I know the parks department doesn't really have a budget to fix like fences and things like that.

At least that's what I've been told in the past.

So I think it's important not only for clarity, but also for accountability because when we ask who's responsible for maintaining city parks, I think it should be the parks department.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Bain.

Um quick questions too.

I've been remiss.

I haven't uh allowed uh counselor McCormick to introduce yourself.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Apologies for my tardiness.

Uh well let it pass this time.

So thank you.

Uh Jessica McCormick, District 16 on the west side.

Thank you.

Um couple quick questions that I have too is uh I saw that in the summer camps the utilization rate um just barely ticked up less than two percent in the number of campers.

Is there any affirmative plans in place to increase the day camp usage of the park system?

I think I speak uh correctly on behalf of our team here tonight when I say we would uh love to continue to increase activation and utilization of our day camps.

Um we have experience and I'll invite our deputy director of uh operations and programs back up to speak to this more specifically, but we have um been kind of sold out in a way.

We we see our camps completely full at many many of our locations, so there is a need.

Um we would uh love to have the opportunity to bring on more staff, I believe, to increase opportunities for more kids in our parks.

Um capacity is always going to be the question.

Um do we have the the staff to safely program um our camps, and then do we have uh people ready to sign up and be a part of that and do we have the space for it?

So I'll let um Deputy Director Kim Campbell speak more in detail to that.

Yes.

Um Director Cronus correct.

You may remember the last two summers, our camps have wait listed our traditional and our environmental education camps have all waitlisted.

And so um in order to address that this year, there were a couple of things that we did to try and get ahead of that.

One, we expanded the number of spots available at all of our traditional camps at an art at our EE camp, so we made more seats available within those camps so that we could take in more kiddos.

We also worked with more partners because we did not have the budget to hire more staff for our camps, which meant that we couldn't take on more kids, just protecting our ratios.

We wanted to make sure we were running safe camps.

So we couldn't take on too many more kiddos um because we couldn't hire additional staff members, but we worked with a number of partners to offer some additional camps through our AmeriCorps program and then bringing on the um the site at Grassy Creek.

We offered some additional camps with some of our some of our staff.

So we offered the art camp at Washington Park, which was new this year, um, with partners at Art Mix, and then we had an environmental education camp that ran at Grassy Creek Park this year.

We work with friends of White River Park to offer a camp to um twin tweens and teens, um, uh a white water rafting camp.

So we we've been working with partners and will continue to do so to try and offer some new camp opportunities through the summer to expand our camp opportunities for kids as our camps continue to grow.

So our team is continuing to work on what those opportunities look like going forward.

Okay.

And how has the uh fee structure for the camp program?

Is it been static or have you looked at possibly uh adjusting that fee structure as well?

We have um so this past summer we um we actually raised our camp fees slightly um and the fee structure for our day camps is um it's a little varied, so not all of our camps are the exact same fee.

Um and I'm happy to provide more information to the council about what that looks like across the system.

Um it it varies from the the lowest end of the scale.

We have camps that are as fortable as about 40 dollars a week, ranging up to some of our what we what we call our specialty camps, which are um those focus camps that happen for about a week at a time.

Um some of our art camps, some of our environmental education camps that um are about maybe 175 dollars um plus or minus for the week.

Um, and then we offer scholarships to supplement the cost of those camps as well.

So um we did raise some fees um by maybe five to fifteen dollars for the weekly costs across the board some um in some places, and as Director Crohn mentioned, is our as we are continuing to look at our fee structure um across the system is a part of our budget project for this year that um that is part of that project.

We're looking at our camp fee structure as well.

Great.

Thank you, Deputy Director.

You're welcome.

Um one other question for the CFO before I hand it off to someone else.

Um looking at the salaries and wages information versus your your character one information.

Um I saw that your your character one cost has gone up, but yet the salary and wages figure has gone down.

Uh can you explain that paradox?

Uh sorry, I don't know if I understand the question.

So we uh everybody's getting a collabor of 2.6 percent uh so that people's wages are going up.

Um could you Yeah.

Well, I'm just looking at the gross number in the expense sheet, the nodes that we get.

Yes.

It shows your budgeted revised 2025 at 12.3 million, but your introduced budget at 26 is at 12 million for salary and wages.

Is that because of fewer FTEs?

Yeah, it could be we did.

Well, we didn't actually get rid of FTEs uh when we moved around these 19 positions, but we just kind of identified 19 vacant positions that we would be able to hold vacant.

Okay.

Um so we have some things going down and some things going up.

Um I'll have to get back to you on that uh discrepancy that you're noticing.

Uh I should be able to get you an answer.

That'd be great, thank you.

Um Counselor Evans.

Yeah.

Thank you, Chairman Boots.

Um Director, every year I believe that OFM asks for uh basically kind of like what's your high level budget, what are your asks versus what you eventually present to us.

Did that occur this year, or what was the delta between what was asked?

Because typically in my experience, is that what is asked is basically to maintain and address backlogs projects within our departments.

But off the top of your head, would you have to know like what the delta was?

Was it 500,000, a million, two million, five million, a hundred?

Thank you, counselor.

I'll defer to our CFO who started in April of this year, um, and he'll be able to provide that answer.

Thank you.

Um I would say 500,000 less, maybe a little less than that.

We primarily just ask for staff.

Um build out the safety team, uh, build out uh the these new facilities that are coming online, uh, Grassy Creek, uh Douglas.

Um that's pretty much what we asked for.

And that was requested basically under the guidelines of knowing that we were looking at a pretty tough budget, right?

Yeah, it was I mean, budget requests were a little weird this year given that everybody saw SB1.

SB1.

Um, so it was it was kind of like you know, we'll do it, we'll submit it, but uh obviously like we kind of the writings on the wall for what's what's manageable.

Okay.

Um Mr.

Chairman, with your permission, I'd like to ask Deputy Director Colvin a question with regards to um high level need on backlog worth of projects that are with our current facilities.

Sure.

Deputy director.

Uh Don Coven, Deputy Director of Pox Planning.

I think to really answer that question, Councilor, it it would take a meeting unto itself.

We we have been crunching those numbers, and it really needs further explanation of how do you separate up.

I don't know.

A quick thing, we've had over 200,000 of investment which reduced some of those capital deferred maintenance needs.

And some of that was delilly, the capital program, the American relief program.

So that was exciting news that it's it peeled that back.

But then you have uh projects that are in future plans like master plans or total pool renovation plans, and those can be some very substantial numbers that really need further explanation.

But your basic where we're we're falling in our basic needs, it's it's hovering between that three to four hundred million dollar price point, and that's the stuff just to stay operational.

That's not the big vision ideas or uh it's it's kind of the day-to-day.

Yep.

Okay, thank you, Director.

I appreciate that.

Uh Mr.

Chairman, you know, I'll end my remarks by saying uh parks to me are so critical to a thriving city.

So many people decide in part where they live based on the connectivity of trails, green space, parks, rec centers, pools, operational pools, um, you know, the programming for kids.

I mean, these are the quality of life things that are the bedrock with with with which so many people choose where they live.

And I know there are other things such as schooling and housing stock and those, but parks are so critical as a part of that.

And I don't want to at all sound like I am not appreciative of how we did things with regards to ARPA and using those dollars and the the Lily endowment dollars, but we have got to start thinking big about how we're addressing our parks and stop skirting around and just basically doing the the get by mode.

It does no good for me to serve on this committee to keep sitting over here saying yes to budgets and things when we every counselor on this committee damn well knows it is not funding our parks, and it's not even doing it anywhere where it needs to be.

When you have figures like that that are just to take care of what I assume are a lot of the existing things that are here, these are not the big thinking things.

We're not talking about big critical 21st century ideas and how do we make our parks even better.

You know, I you know I I'm a I'm a border district.

I compete with Avon in Plainfield and I see what they get and what they're doing, and I'm sitting over here thinking, God, we could do better than them.

And so it's extremely frustrating, and I'm I'm losing my patience as a counselor with some kids in the room, so I don't want to cuss.

But doing things half you know the rest.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And amen, brother Evans.

Uh I have even though the maps have changed, I have borderline caramel and fishers for the last five years, and I hear the same rhetoric of Carmel's impact fees and their funding of their parks.

It's not rocket science.

And we just chose not to do it because of our conservative management of this city, in my opinion.

Any other comments from the counselors?

Counselor McCormick.

Thank you, Chairman.

Um, I have all sorts of comments I could say.

Um I I wanna start with thank you for your presentation.

You made it through your first one.

Good job.

Um, and thank you, sta uh park staff for being here.

Um parks near and dear, I think to all of us that are on this committee.

This is the most fun committee to be on, I think, right?

But as uh my colleagues have said, the quality of life and the services that you provide are so crucial to every member of our community.

And the return on investment that we get from the dollars that we spend are not just seen today and tomorrow, they are seen for generations.

Um and so not funding parks is just a disgrace.

Um we need to get the money back.

So I I have a few things um so to go on is we do have this momentum from the money that we've got from our community partners.

Um and we need to think about growing the pie.

So I think looking at fee increases, right?

That's something we can do.

Efficiency and reduction of redundancies, um, and other ways that we can cut costs and save money is great.

So while I don't necessarily say like we don't need the if your budget goes down, if we did responsible cost cutting, right, and cost savings, but we're not cutting programming, like I s I can support that, right?

If we can say like we're not changing the services that we're providing, we just are doing it more efficiently.

Uh my concern with what Chairman Boots said about the dollar discrepancy is it appears that you pulled like the the decrease in character one is 19 FT full-time positions are now no longer budgeted for most of the positions are not full-time, they are associated with lifeguard and aquatics positions that will be at Willard Pool, which is closed due to indie go construction on the blue line.

Right.

So, my question for that is reducing those.

Okay, so they're not FTEs, but so reducing those 19 positions, are we gonna regret not having this in the budget in two years when uh there's something is back up and running, right?

Like if we pull it out now, what are the chances that we'll be able to get that back?

Like Yeah.

Um OFM has expressed support uh and that they will work with us uh moving forward.

Um so and I I appreciate the work OFM has been doing with us uh in this budget season.

So um I'm confident that the right decision will be made when it when it needs to be made.

Um yeah.

I I think your confidence might outweigh some of those of us sitting over here potentially, but I will just take it at that for tonight.

Um talking about that long-term preventative maintenance, deferred maintenance.

I think knowing what then uh director Colvin, Deputy Director Colvin mentioned, right?

That dollar amount, like when we're having these conversations, what's that like dream dollar amount that like we would have like what to fight for to be like we're funded to where we can like do what we need to do and keep everything going the way it is and still talk about the future.

So like I think keeping that in mind and letting us know what those numbers are.

Uh going to the camps, like partnering with others.

So I I have a little one who did the down and dirty camp this year.

He did a week of that, that was fun.

Um, we also did um one of your partner camps, so the peace learning center that's at Eagle Creek.

So we attended a camp there.

Um, and then talking about so last year wait lists.

I I went through this last year.

We had some things change, and I needed a camp last minute, and uh I couldn't find anything.

Um we managed, but this year I noticed I had I did have while it was there were full and things and certain weeks maybe didn't work, but there were more opportunities, right?

So everything wasn't full and just blacked out, which was great.

Um if we can and I know there's families that need this, right?

And some of us don't know that we need it until last minute, and when everything's waitlisted.

And I will say, yes, we need to increase the pie fee increases, but like any part, like what you give and the cost that it is compared to other camps that I've looked at, when like there are some camps where I it was almost a thousand dollars for a one-week non-residential camp for my eight-year-old.

Like so, like in in the city, and that's just ridiculous.

So what you provide for the dollar, like again, that return on investment is unparalleled.

Um, so I I'm here along with my colleagues to support whatever we can to make sure that we're not losing funding and cutting funding from the most important, while not always said out loud and understood by everybody, but the most important part of our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor McCormick.

Counselor Bain.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I'll be very brief.

I just wanted to echo what a couple counselors said.

That you know, I I represent a border district as well.

I actually represent a corner district, and we're competing against two counties uh where I live that have Hummel Park that have Pioneer Park that are beautiful investments and attractions.

And uh it's all about quality of life and whether or not a city is investing in quality of life.

We have a 1.7 billion dollar budget.

I don't really know where it's going because it's not going to quality of life.

You know, I think you guys are what 3% of our budget.

I think it'd be an interesting study to look and see what our surrounding cities, counties, and townships are spending uh on parks, because I would hazard a guess it's more than 3%.

And you know, we're losing a lot of people, we're losing a lot of income tax revenue, property tax revenue because people are choosing to live in those surrounding communities that are making their investments in parks.

And you know, I think one of the most staggering thing that's been said this year in a committee meeting was when we were having the discussion around residency requirements, and we had the controller of the city of Indianapolis tell us that if city employees were allowed to live outside Marion County, that they suspect roughly 49% of them would choose to do that, which I think is staggering.

People are not going to live outside Marion County because it's cheaper.

It's not, it's actually more expensive.

They're choosing that because those surrounding communities are making investments in quality of life.

Thank you, Councillor May.

Anybody from the public wish to speak to the park's budget presentation this evening.

Pardon.

If there are people seeing none, um I say my best question for last.

Um can you just give us an overview of how the golf courses are managed in the city, and particularly how the one uh nearest me, uh Som golf course is the managing the kind of pseudo-public-private management structure.

Thank you for that question, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I will ask our deputy director Don Colvin uh back up to give you a uh probably more detailed answer than what I would be able to give um being in my third month.

If he's still here, okay, Don.

And while he's coming up, I also wanted to uh if it's all right with you, Mr.

Chair, address one other piece in our FTE conversation, uh, the character one.

We also um this may be the first time some of you are hearing this, but we uh restructured our department um prior to my arrival here in this seat, um the center region, uh, as you saw in our agency structure.

We had the regions listed out there.

We formerly had a center region for parks, and we no longer um have done that because we have re uh structured and and reallocated the parks that were in the center region um to other regional managers um for efficiency and in a way that our deputy director um Kim Campbell and and her team identified that to be better.

So just wanted to take a opportunity to share that, and we would be happy to share more with this committee about um that rationale um as well.

Thank you for the clarification.

Thank you, and over to Don.

So again, Don Cobin Deputy Director, Pap's planning.

So the golf course are under a private contract relationship.

So we did request for proposals on all the golf courses, and then we grouped them.

Um some golf courses, as you're probably aware, were more profitable than others.

So when we grouped them, we tried to add a profitable golf course into one that was not making significant revenue to maintain that.

So those were we uh awarded through a request for proposals to various uh professional golf pros.

And they're responsible for the day-to-day operation of those golf courses, the water bills, the utility bills, the general maintenance of the course.

There's uh some discussion sometimes on the capital improvements on the course, if it's a major capital improvement, because at the end of the day, the city of Indianapolis owns those lands and those assets.

Um but the golf course pros uh response, we get a revenue from the pros from each one of the the golf courses.

They're gonna I believe all those contracts are gonna come up in four more years.

I think the 29, 2029, and we'll put out another request for proposal and then repackage those to put out.

Some is is uh managed by the CoopRiders.

Um they've been doing it for a number of years up there.

Uh that's that is one of our uh profitable golf courses as well as Eagle Creek and there's uh there's a few others.

Pleasant Run does a really good job.

We have others that uh they they take a little more revenue to sustain them.

Great, wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other final questions for uh Director Crohn or CFO George Hearing none, thank you for the presentation.

We're gonna take a five-minute break and then we'll hear from Indy Arts.

Thank you.

I was like, hopefully, I wouldn't okay.

Oh wow.

Thank you, everybody.

We're going to continue here with the presentation of the Indy Arts Council, and I presume we have uh CEO President Judith Thomas honoring her us with her presence this evening in the presentation.

So uh the floor is yours, madam.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chairman.

I am truly excited to be here.

It brings back a lot of memories.

Uh good memories, not very many bad ones, uh just to say.

So truly honored to be with you all and good seeing everybody on all the good work and hearing the updates uh from parks has been exciting considering I've worked with uh Brittany Crohn, Director Crohn, for many years and seeing her uh step into this role.

It's wonderful.

So I am now beginning my fifth month here at the Indie Arts Council.

Uh it's been uh uh a great four four months working with hardworking staff here.

I have uh uh Nikki Kirk uh is with me right now uh who works with our annual grants programs and other programs, but also have Vice President Kafita Mahoney, which will be sitting back.

We are both former city staff members, so it feels good to be here.

Um we also have several board members here as well, and of course, the arts community who always shows up and wants to and a very proud group of people, and I love working with everyone.

Our top priorities uh right now, you know, I've had a 30, 60, 90 day onboarding process.

I've learned a lot about the work being done in in the arts community and the culture here in the city.

Uh we also had our start with art uh fundraising or start with art, our big fundraiser at the uh Indiana Roof Ballroom.

I'm sure many of you were there, and we had a a uh we met major goals during that event.

So uh excited to say that.

We also had a strategic plan rollout, as many of you may have been uh interviewed for our strategic plan.

It is a was a community-wide uh strategic plan where many stakeholders were interviewed uh and discussed what they felt the arts community uh the the role we play and where we should be moving toward in the future, and we engaged with key stakeholders and funders.

So, and if I could go back uh to start with art, we had 15 new sponsors, so we're bringing in even more people looking to support the community.

Uh and within that strategic plan rollout, uh we developed an action plan uh with key strategies, and each strategy has action items uh with our team members and our board members assigned uh with priorities.

Uh it's a working document, it's woven into our work every single day, uh, and and we're learning and and and making a lot of progress with that uh every day.

Of course, so you know our mission is to champion the arts and culture in our city.

Our vision is a creative life for all, and our values, our care, community, and creativity.

So through this strategic plan, we were able to establish five priorities for the next five years.

That's sustainable funding, which I think in this world these days that's key for everyone, but for us and our community, that is a top priority, looking to expand and diversify sustainable funding for arts and arts organizations.

Of course, everyday arts access that everyone has access to the arts to ensure that culture and creativity are accessible regionally to our residents as well as visitors, but especially to our residents.

Increased awareness to remove lack of awareness as a barrier to engagement.

Again, these are things that we have pulled from our strategic plan when we heard from the community and key stakeholders.

Professional development and shared resources, important, increased professional development and services for regional arts and arts organizations, and of course, this city and our arts and culture community as a destination that people are looking to come to Indianapolis to celebrate the culture of our city and looking at investments and potentially creating an arts hub in our city and even a major festival that we attract not just our residents but also our visitors.

In 2025, we had a record of 103 total awardees with our annual grants program.

So that's 128 in percent increase since 2016.

2016, as you can see, the number 49 and 2025, 103.

Just shows you how creative this community is and the growth.

That that is proof in the pudding right there.

And of course, we also had uh some wonderful support through the bond bank in 2025 as well as the CIB.

So we will continue to crease the number of organizations applying for funding and increase in our funding, still lags a little bit behind, but we are really focused on looking at sustainable funding and being creative about that.

Uh programmatic and fiscal success, again, 1.95 million granted to 103 organizations.

That city funding, thanks to the Bond Bank and CIB, grew to 2.3 million.

Uh 1.5 million paid to artist opportunities, 56% to artists of color in 2024.

60 plus activations, I think we all remember the hot summer for the WNBA.

You can look at those activations, 60 plus activations throughout the downtown area, 270 artists, 70,000 visitors.

106,000 uh invested in public arts for neighborhoods to grow to 700,000 uh by 2026.

And uh we also had an NEA National Endowment of the Arts Health, Art, Health and Well-being initiative that was launched, as well as a regional venue study that is underway now with IEDC and CICF, which will give us an idea of what is needed or what's lacking in the city and what's needed in the city when it comes to uh venues for our many arts organizations to be able to provide uh incredible programming that they do.

Another opportunity that we had was the opioid settlement opioid settlement fund at impact back in 2024.

We had 450,000 dollars that was allocated by the City of Indianapolis.

So the fact uh that uh the arts community was was was um invited uh to apply for these grants, which was wonderful, mental health and wellness for creatives, those were many grants, microgrant grants for mental health and wellness services, therapy uh related as well as wellness for the professionals creative here in the city.

So we had about 199 microgrants uh which made uh connected to about 143 unique individuals that also made impact uh on others' lives.

Uh Arts for Awareness, another uh grant for art-based interventions to support a substance abuse use disorder prevention and for treatment.

So we had four grantees with that particular program, American Lives Theater.

Uh they had an addiction workshop series, Dove Recovery House was another.

Philip Campbell, an artist that created uh some large-scale installations, and Summit Performance who worked in this area as well and reached out to our art community, uh arts community.

Uh, we also had recovery starts with us campaign, uh, which was uh a campaign together with Marion County Artists, and it was an initiative that created original artwork to support and promote uh the education of substance use and the disorder.

It ran through October 25 to January, I'm sorry, October 24 to January 25.

So the campaign really combined the power of local art and messaging to get across very important information about mental health and wellness.

So our sector wide marketing.

This launched in 2025 and building on the redesign of our indiearts.org website.

Have many of you been to our website?

It's a wonderful website.

You can find our calendar there where you can see the various events going on across the city, and our arts organizations are able to input their events and programs into that calendar, as well as an artist directory.

So if folks are looking for artists that they want to reach out to or they need an artist, it's wonderful.

And they're able to put their information on there.

We're trying to make it as easy as possible and user friendly for them.

Our marketing team, our entire team is a strong, incredibly hardworking team.

But the marketing team is really focused on that particular area where it's about awareness and how people can access what's going on.

And we continue to work on that and work with our community to understand what is needed and how we can make it accessible for all, not just for those that can pay for it, but for those smaller organizations, artists that may not have the resources.

We want to be a resource, and I think our marketing can prove that.

Opening open rates are higher, and social media has significantly increased.

We have over 1.5 views across 5 million views across Facebook and Instagram.

And our video content is absolutely wonderful.

We actually partner with other influencers to bring unique views and talk about various events going on.

So it's it's a collective effort, and we're really looking at leveling, taking that to another level with the PR support, influencers, digital ads, so we can really celebrate the uniqueness of our city and the culture here.

So really really uh looking forward to where we go in the future with this and with the support of uh the current budget.

Funding requests and to that point uh for 2026, we are asking for the 1.3 million uh city investment, the level funding that we have received.

We know there have been changes within the budget, uh, but uh are very grateful for level level funding uh during this time.

This supports 6.5 million annual attendees, 524 million economic impact in our city.

Uh we we continue project grants with the parks and looking to grow the project grants uh for parks, libraries, and public spaces as well as community centers to be able to grow the project grant.

We've heard that this is what uh organizations are looking for, and to be able to put more programming throughout every uh area in our county within our city and partnering and collaborating uh with uh great programs that already exist and creating new ones in public spaces because this is what we heard in our strategic plan.

Residents uh mostly uh look for arts and culture and quality of life in these public spaces.

So the project grants that we are looking to continue to develop make a major impact and will make an major impact.

Um we have anticipated uh events taking place and programs potentially in 2026.

Of course, the men's NCAA Final Four will be coming and the ASAE convention, which is a um pretty much a super bowl for Visit Indy, where the top uh association presidents come and make a decision on if they're gonna have a convention in uh whatever city uh that they're looking for, but every single one of them we will be here next year.

So we want to be able to show uh how incredible this city is, and of course, artists and arts organizations make the city come alive in so many unique ways.

Uh so this is uh what we're looking at again, the 1.3 million.

So currently, that project funding I I referenced, we have uh 50,000 from the city in the project grant, but we're looking to grow it uh via other funding sources and private uh resources.

We've been working very hard on that in communicating and connecting with funders in our city.

Uh and with the next slide, the Americans for the Arts does um a study every five years with individual cities uh to show the impact and the power of arts and culture.

Many of you may have seen this.

Uh we have another uh study coming up in uh 2028, so it will be interesting to see our impact in a few more years, uh and we know it will grow uh because we see it every single day.

Uh so you can see the jobs supporting services and goods, generating uh tax revenue and uh a direct economic impact, and I'm looking forward to see how we can grow in the future.

study coming up in uh 2028 so it will be interesting to see our impact in a few more years uh and we know it will grow uh because we see it every single day uh so you can see the jobs um supporting services and goods generating uh tax revenue and uh a direct economic impact and I'm looking forward to see how we can grow in the future so we can look at now city uh funding levels throughout the years the history uh as you can see in 2008 uh 2008 was a rough year all across the country uh and there was change after that and and we continue to have level funding and then of course through ARPA and and other uh investments and we have now with the bond bank and CIB have seen some growth uh in 2025 and our community felt that impact so uh we are looking at continuing uh of this so why now with with discussions that we're having with our strategic plan looking at new funding models and what's next yes we're all in a transition right now federal NEA grant loss throughout the entire sector uh but we particularly um we have 5000 plan for project support thank god we have the 50 thousand from the city uh but now we've we've lost 50,000 through the NEA grant uh Indy Arts Commission uh was cut by 38 percent so a lot of our arts uh organizations are feeling that specifically those in Marion County right they're facing significant impacts uh losing the federal challenge uh grants the state funds and of course the upcoming loss revenue due to any taxes and changes within the city uh so we're trying to get ahead of that we're listening to our sector to make sure that we understand what is going on and and and creating a strategy and we're looking past 2026 what is 27 28 29 look like and that's what we're focused on so we're looking at uh one third of uh public uh dollars are at risk uh here for our community uh and specifically um if i can give you I want to make sure that you hear the numbers uh Indiana as I mentioned arts commission saw a 38 percent cut in its current two year uh appropriation central Indiana organizations will experience a 19 percent decrease in state operating support funding and Marion County experiencing that harder with a 23 percent decrease for project support central Indiana saw a a huge 44 percent decrease with Marion County even more significantly impacted with a 75 percent decrease in project funding so the largest funding gaps are in project funding and general operating uh so project support uh is being cut uh in a major way which is why we're very focused on uh raising funds for project um projects in general so the sector impact the arts and cultures uh culture strengthen so many things in our city and that's why I was excited to come to the Indy Arts Council because I know the impact that the council makes and the arts community make here it's all about community development public safety that we've discussed youth and adult learning health and wellness we touch on all of these workforce development and quality of life and quality of place that we have been talking about this entire evening and we love partnering with the parks and other organizations to be able to make that come alive for all of our residents and we plan to continue to go in that direction and to collaborate and work with people as much as possible.

So we truly truly appreciate the 38 year partnership and support that Indy arts and culture have had through the city and the commitment from the city the city council and and really the entire city that supported the arts council in the past it's important to our city's creative economy and to our creatives so that we stay inspired and I'm truly looking forward to the future because I think we're at a turning point we're at a renaissance and and we're looking at how we can take it to the next level from here on out and Kavita if you'd like to uh uh add anything because she has been hard at work over the you've been at the council for how long now um a little over a year a year and some change a little over a year so so uh we're working hard with our team it's truly collective effort and we are we are excited to be in front of you all yes thank you Mr.

Chairman and thank you madam CEO Thomas it's so good to see you you are thoroughly missed especially um on the west side you are familiar face to have in committees uh community meetings um mr chairman I um have a couple clarifying questions about the budget I appreciate the ask of uh a flat line with the understanding of the the budget constraints that us the the city county is facing um but madam CEO what updates do you have um or you know information with regard to conversations with the administration and the anticipated funding from potentially the CIB and the bond bank once again this year because I think that if you look back on that slide I think the administration the previous um CEO Julie who is here tonight give you the when I was chair we worked to make sure that even after the ARPA funding ran out um that we were able to bring those funding levels back up because I think the investment that we make should grow if we want to see the return on that investment if we want to see continued impact and so I'd be curious Mr.

Um and so I'd be curious, Mr.

Chairman, if you or even if our CFO has any information, or if anyone from the mayor's administration knows, um, will that one million dollar gap be filled by our partners at the Capital Improvement Board and the bond game?

Well, we're definitely having conversations.

We have been talking um I mean before I uh took this position and we continue to have discussion.

So we are those are active discussions.

Thank you.

Yeah, my colleagues are when when would we know?

I know we have an a review and analysis hearing scheduled, but in the meantime, I think members of this committee would be interested in supporting those conversations or um being able being afforded an opportunity to help fill those gaps if those aren't viable avenues.

Um we want to work alongside you in this community.

I think that our artists um help all those things that you've just showed a couple of slides ago, that and more.

I appreciate their documenting of our history, the place making.

I was talking with my students today about Kurt Vonnegut and their homework is to go downtown and explore some murals and learn about the people and the artists and the athletes here in our city that are here and that have gone, right?

Um so the final note, Mr.

Chair, and then I promise I'll stop talking is um the opioid funding.

Um the other night in committee we learned there are uh lots more dollars coming down the pike, and I would just encourage the arts council and the board to continue to have conversations.

What you've done to support and care for artists is beautiful.

Um it's needed, and that funding, should it be there and have that opportunity?

I think can be um even further realized, not only supporting the artists, but their artwork heals us too, and so I think it can be a really beautiful um expansion of what was done before, and I would definitely be an advocate for that.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Well, thank thank you, Counselor.

Uh, that is on our radar as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Carlino.

Any other members?

Yes, Councillor Brown.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

And thank you, CEO Thomas.

Glad to see you here.

Uh huge credit to the council that you're able to serve as a CEO, so I'm grateful for that.

I just wanted to, you know, and I had to look this up when I when I, you know, earlier this evening was looking at the city funding levels over time, and I noticed that you know CIB funding is about one-third of what it was in 2005.

And so I just started looking at Indiana's GDP, and in 2005, the state brought in 247.4 billion dollars total.

In 2024, we brought in 419.5 billion.

The city budget in 2005 was 542.7 million dollars.

2024 was 1.7 billion.

So city budget growing faster than the state overall, triple what it was in 2005, and yet Indy Arts Council has a lower budget than we had back then.

Thank you.

Which doesn't make much sense to me.

If you break it down by a percentage of GDP, you're actually getting less than half the funding that you were in 2025 or in 2005, rather.

I also I I I cognizant that it's the cheapest trick in the book for an elected official over looking over one budget to pass the buck and say, well, look over there at what those other people could do.

And so, you know, I I want to acknowledge that first.

But I was reading in the Indianapolis Business Journal August 22nd of this year, that in 2019, the CIB spent seven million dollars upgrading the Wi-Fi at LucasOil.

And they're proposing in this year's budget to spend seven and a half million dollars to upgrade the Wi-Fi at LucasOil seven years later.

So when you compare that to the few hundred thousand dollars that we're receiving right now, again, I'm not on that board, and I you know I know it looks bad for for me to say look over there, but I just think that speaks to our priorities as a city.

For me, I can very rarely afford to go to Lucas Well, but when I do, I'm certainly not looking at my phone.

And you could look at my social media to know I'm on my phone all the time, but when there's paid professional athletes in front of me, that does not seem like a priority for our city.

Uh so I just would encourage the other entities as well as as our council and the budgets I get to vote on to really think about what we're saying about the arts and their value to our city.

That's all.

Thank you, Councillor Brown.

Any other comments of the council?

Is that a hand up, Counselor McCormick, or just itching your shoulder?

Okay.

Any comments from the public.

All right.

Yeah, before you speak, we have a our clerk will read a uh statement.

Okay.

Before we open the floor to public comments, we would like to remind committee members and the public of a few ground rules.

So everyone can have a fair chance to speak and be heard.

It is important that we each observe the following rules.

First, each speaker will be limited to two minutes.

Second, any public comments must reasonably relate to the agenda item under consideration.

There are speakers who stray from the item under consideration or become undubly repetitious, may be asked to move on to their next point or conclude their comments.

Finally, attendees who cause disruptions that prevent the committee from proceeding through tonight's agenda in a reasonably efficient manner will be removed.

Please remember that some types of threatening speech or incitement to violence are not protected by the First Amendment at all.

We will deal with those issues if they come up, but we don't think they will.

And now, Mr.

Chairman, if a committee member asks you consent to adopt these rules, we can proceed with public comment.

And I think we had a list.

Are you first?

Yes, clerk.

If you could please read off the first three lists.

Okay.

Julia Whitehead.

Yes.

Um, Stephen Lane and Jenny Warner.

You'll each have two minutes, and if you could please your name, your organization, and your county and residence.

Yes, I'm Julia Whitehead, Kurt Vonnegut, Museum and Library Founder.

I live in Marion County.

Um, so this is our boy Kurt Vonnegut.

He went to Short Ridge High School.

That's where he learned to be a writer and a great uh world-renowned author.

And yes, the literary arts are also arts, and I want to thank all of you, the board, the staff of the arts council, and all of you for the support for our organization and our fellow organizations.

Um, I mentioned Kurt and Shortridge because this is a photo of Short Ridge many, many decades later.

Um we have a youth writing program in partnership with IPS.

We have a room in all four of the IPS high schools with our logo, we pay college students and others to come and work with the high school students on assignments, creative writing, college application essays.

I went to Cleveland to a gathering of national youth writing uh organizations around the country.

They said what you're doing in Indianapolis is better than anything anybody in the country is doing for youth writing, and it's because we are partnered with the schools, we pay the teachers for their after-school time and summers, holidays.

We know what we're doing, and we are setting the the best example for the country.

It's growing.

We were serving 53% of the student population in 2324.

Now we're past 70% of the student population, and the funding needs to increase so that we can keep hiring tutors to help the teachers and paying teachers for their after-school time.

And we are so grateful to all of you, and also for my former um creative renewal fellowship.

Thank you for that.

Good evening.

My name is Stephen Lane, and I'm the director of the Fonseca Du Bois Gallery that features artists of color, and I'm also a proud resident of the Hallville neighborhood.

I'm here to express my disapproval of the mayor's current proposed budget for the arts, especially as it is.

Two million dollars for the arts in a one in a budget of 1.7 billion dollars.

That is not an oversight, it's an insult.

It's a conscious choice to dismiss the well-being, the creativity, and the very soul of our city.

This administration is intentionally starving our communities of the resources we need to thrive while pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a police force that continues to fail us.

Over 60 cents of every single dollar in this budget is allocated to policing and the criminal justice system.

And we are told this is public safety.

But true safety isn't just reacting to crime and shooting black men at alarming rates in our city.

It's the presence of opportunity of hope and community.

With the budget as is, you are choosing to fund violence and containment over vitality and creation.

You are choosing to invest in handcuffs instead of paintbrushes, and surveillance cameras instead of independent films, and jail sales instead of art galleries.

We are not asking for charity.

We are demanding what our communities are owed, what our artists are owed.

The arts are an essential service.

They are how our youth process their trauma and and daily life.

They're how we tell our stories.

They are the economic engines for our local businesses and the glue that holds our neighborhoods together.

When you underfund the arts, you are telling our children their dreams are not a priority.

You are telling our seniors their cultural heritage doesn't matter.

You are telling every artist working to make this city beautiful that their labor is worthless.

This is a failure of leadership and a failure of imagination.

We see the money as there, it's sitting in the police budget.

We demand you redirect it to where it belongs into our communities, into our cultures, and into our future when our children are nurtured by creativity.

The people are watching, history is watching, fund the arts, fund our future.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Hi, I'm Jenny Werner.

I'm the executive artistic director of the New Harmony Project, and I live in Marion County.

Uh good evening.

Uh I want to share with you the impact of your investment in the Arts Council and their support of PlayFest Indy, our program that develops bold new plays.

Uh we lost 40,000 from the NEA this past year, and so the city city funding is incredibly important to us.

Uh in 2025, PlayFest Indy is transforming from a single week where we developed eight new plays into a year-long series, developing five brand new plays, offering free public readings and partnerships with five local theaters and ASL interpretation at every event.

This is live theater that's accessible, inclusive, and rooted in Indianapolis.

And we know that this work matters because we've seen what happens when it's supported.

In our 2024 festival, one of the eight plays that we supported was WAD, a powerful new play by Keiko Green.

Thanks to that early development, WAD is now receiving its world premier production right here in Indianapolis, produced by American Lives Theater in collaboration with the New Harmony Project at the Phoenix Theater Cultural Center this month.

From page to stage, from idea to full production, that's the pipeline that city funding and funding of the Arts Council makes possible.

It's more than entertainment.

The arts are not optional, they're essential.

They help us understand each other.

They provide platforms for voices we haven't heard enough.

They generate economic activity and they bring people downtown.

But most importantly, they feed the soul of our city.

We can't have a vibrant Indianapolis without storytelling, creativity, and community.

And theater brings all of those together in one room, live and alive.

The New Harmony Project is nurturing playwrights, engaging audiences, and building something lasting.

And that doesn't happen without your support.

Thank you for believing in this work.

Please keep investing in the arts because when we develop new stories here in Indianapolis, we're not just creating plays, we're creating connection, culture, and civic pride.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Marty Mix, Julie Goodman, Monica Minuos, and Elena Thompson.

Welcome, Mrs.

Goodman.

I'm back.

Yes.

Hi, Julie Goodman with the Cabaret.

I want to thank you all for your service and our heartfelt thanks to the Arts Council for your tireless advocacy and partnership.

As a reminder, the council's current strategic plan includes benchmarking of 15 peer cities that shows Indianapolis at the bottom in terms of per capita arts investment.

So thank you for your call and request that our our residents deserve better.

I'm honored to represent the Cabaret, one of the city's five largest theaters, serving 1.5 million annually and helping to earn Indianapolis recognition as the cabaret capital of the Midwest.

I have now seen firsthand the impact of the city's investment through the annual grants program.

We use that investment to support free outdoor concerts, the Alley at the Cabaret series, our artist in residence program, and free master classes with national artists for students, including our IPS partner schools.

In fact, we just recently hosted 200 high school students for a free masterclass with Matthew Morrison, who you may know as Mr.

Schuster on Glee.

This year, the Alley series provided 65 local musicians and artists with well-paid performance and professional development opportunities, and we reached a record in-person audience of 1,500 members and 80,000 more via live broadcasts on WICR.

Importantly, 71% of the artists and 52% of our audience members identify as people of color, reflecting our deep commitment to serving communities that represent the rich diversity of our city.

We heard over and over how much it meant to be able to come together and experience these free, high-quality performances in public spaces together with friends, family, and a parade of well-behaved music-loving dogs.

City arts funding is more vital than ever.

This year, the Cabaret has faced the cancellation of a $20,000 NEA grant and a 34% drop in our state arts funding.

So I understand how difficult this is and how essential it is to support this funding.

Thank you.

Ms.

Goodman.

Might you be able to share that study you mentioned with us?

Yes, it's it's included in the in the Arts Council strategic plan.

It's a benchmarking study of 15 peer cities and shows the per capita investment.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

We'll make sure that you all get copies.

We'll send you emails if you don't already have it.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

I'm Marty Miles.

I am the director of the board, the chair of the board of directors for the Indianapolis Women's Chorus.

Singing is good for the body and the soul.

I can't think of a time where we don't need something that's absolutely critical for the body and the soul.

And we've had 120 singers as a cap for our chorus because that's all that will fit on the stage, but that is far less than we've had audition for the chorus.

And they have said that they need the joy and the inspiration and the sense of community that comes from singing together.

Likewise, our audience size has more than doubled in the last three to four years.

They too need the joy and the inspiration and the sense of being part of a larger community that that can bring.

And so I am so grateful to you for the support of the arts that you're providing.

And I want to speak as one of the many, many, many small nonprofits that are part of those 103 agencies that were mentioned.

We do what we do with less than one FTE, a half-time artistic director, and some administrative assistant.

And yet we are working hard to take our music beyond the concert hall into the community.

In this last year, we did four different community things in neighborhoods like Irvington in Riverside Park to just engage neighborhood residents in the joy that comes from being a community that sings together.

And we've also taken a small ensemble of folks to go to and work with agency staff at organizations like Trinity Haven, which is serving uh LGBTQ young adults who are seeking who are in housing issues, and to have a chance to just sing together.

And we've gone and gone and done that for people at Dove Recovery Center for Women as a chance to bring music to them and have a chance for let's sing together, whether it's karaoke or whatever, to experience that inspiration.

Your support of a small nonprofit like us is making it essential to what we can do for the community.

So I really thank you for that.

Thank you.

Hello, my name's Monica Muñoz, and I'm the executive director of Kids Stance Outreach.

I first want to start by saying thank you for your support and thank you to the Arts Council for your partnership and all the work that you uh do together for the arts and for our city.

Um, Kid Stance Outreach serves children uh across Indianapolis public schools and through various programs.

We see over 2,000 children every year.

No child pays a penny.

The majority of the children, over 70% identify as minorities, and uh we're just so very proud of the work that we're doing, and I just wanted to read a statement.

Um we hear about a young life lost to gone violence, we're reminded painfully of a crisis that runs far deeper than headlines and statistics.

Beyond every number is a name, a story, and a future that was never giving a chance to unfold.

And too often these tragedies are rooted in environments where hope is scarce, and opportunity even scarcer.

Young people are growing up in a world where violence can feel inevitable, especially in communities where systemic inequality, poverty, and a lack of supportive resources leave them vulnerable.

They may not always have access to safe spaces and creative outlets or mentors who believe in their potential, and there's no positive path laid out before them.

Too many are pulled into cycles of trauma and survival.

That's where we come in.

I can only speak to what I know, and I believe fiercely that organizations like our very own kids dance outreach are not just nice to have.

KDO meets children where they are and shows them who they can become.

Through dance and the arts, the experience provides more than just physical activity.

It offers structure and expression and discipline and joy and community, and it helps young people build confidence and connect them to something larger than themselves.

It gives them a language that speaks louder than violence, movement, music, and meaning.

We affirm children that no matter where they come from, they can be seen and heard and empowered, and they can lead successful lives.

Last year, our funding was caught by 50%.

Um the growing number of incredible organizations in the city powering the work for surpasses the support that we're receiving.

So we just continue to advocate and plead for increases that help us all thrive and connect to the work and the our communities that we serve.

So thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Elena Thompson, and I'm the executive director at Arts for Lawrence.

Thank you so much for having us here.

Um we appreciate the opportunity to thank uh the Indie Arts Council and you as well.

Um, when I um if you're familiar with Arts for Lawrence, it's located in the Northeast Quadrant of Marion County.

Um at Arts for Lawrence, we do performing arts, visual arts, we have galleries, outdoor festivals, um, many of our events are free to the people in the community.

We also have the world's first musical swings.

If you've never visited, please come out.

Um, they are the first installation, and each note as you swing makes a different look um sound, musical sound.

I mean, it draws last year it was over a hundred and one hundred and forty-one swings on the swing.

Um, so we are excited about that.

When I think about love, I think about art, and I think about um that art is love and art is joy, and art is language, um, art is discovery, artist community, art breaks barrier, it's art as a movement, um, art knows no race, art speeds with without sound, art brings people together, art impacts our mental health, and art strengthens our city.

The thing about um we in the arts, we are quite creative, which is sometimes a double-edged sword.

Um, we are able to take something, um, we're able to take nothing and make it into a masterpiece.

And so, even though we do that, we bring these masterpieces bring people to the city, it brings visitors, uh, masterpieces, they connect humans, masterpieces that support the economic impact of our city.

And so we ask you to continue to support these masterpieces, to continue to help bring um creatives and artists and bring and build togetherness in our city.

So, thank you on the behalf of um Arts for Lawrence and um on behalf of um all the artists and um nonprofits in the city, so we appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else, clerk?

Anyone else would like to speak?

So just please introduce yourself, your organization and county of residents.

Good evening.

My name is David Starkey, General Director of the Indianapolis Opera.

And I live in Recordsville, but I come here every year, and I'm encouraged because I see a council that is becoming more pounce more passionate than we are.

And that's progress.

That means we're gonna fight together.

But let's make a realization that maybe we need to think outside the box.

Because I think we're all realizing that we have something that is slightly broken.

We are growing, we are thriving, we have survived through COVID, we have survived through economic uh uncertainty.

We are now facing constant volatility of our funding and is politicized.

So, what other sector in our city is so vulnerable from a funding standpoint as us.

No sector in the entire world was so impacted by COVID than the arts and music and entertainment.

And yet we survived, and we're proving to you in numbers that we are growing.

And yet, we're not asking you to fund our entire budget.

We're asking you to please don't think about giving us leftovers.

So thank you for your passion.

Thank you for your dedication that matches our passion.

And let's think about one thing.

We just said thank you to the numbers that have just been introduced.

6.5 million people we are impacting.

And our impact on the state GDP is top 10 statewide.

And Indianapolis in central Indiana leads that.

Let's be a leader passionately together and not think that 1.3 is safe funding.

It's not.

It's a devaluation.

Let's go the other direction.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the public?

Hearing none, any additional questions from council.

Your hand was up first, Councilor McCombie.

I win.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

So many things to say.

Thank you all for coming and speaking.

All of the reasons that everyone's at our is why we need more funding for the arts.

One of the things that items that wasn't brought up much, which I think is justifies for justifies the reason for the allocation of money to some folks who may not see the value in the arts is if we want to grow our workforce, if we want to bring in companies, if we want to have development and the economic development, um, and be this world class city that we continue to talk about in these budget presentations.

Investment in the arts is important.

When employers are recruiting, what can I do when I'm not at work is a huge question.

The access that we have in this city for not only those that participate in the arts and do the arts, but those who enjoy it is equally as important.

I love the the swings, the singing swings.

And I'm like, that's art engineering and parks, right?

So like I have to go visit, maybe I can incorporate it.

Um I want to I want to say thank you because the passion and commitment that y'all have for the industry that you work in is unparalleled.

Um there is no other industry where people will work as hard for as little than you folks, maybe teachers.

Okay.

But I believe you are that that is where you are, right?

You you work the hardest, you put in the most hours, you give the most, and you do without the most, but you give us the best part of what we have in our city.

So thank you.

And like let's find some more dollars because there's more lives to touch and impact.

Thank you.

Councilman Carlino.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

That was very beautiful, Madam Chair.

So thank you.

Um I agree 100%.

Now it makes my comment maybe seem a little more kitschy, but I'm gonna say it anyway, because you already know who I am.

And that is Julie Goodman shared a fun fact about you know Indy being the cabaret capital of the Midwest.

And so we're also the racing capital of the world here on the West Side.

So you can come to Indy to watch cars go fast and maybe shake a little tambourine.

That's all, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Uh quick question that I have for uh director Thomas or CEO Thomas, I should say.

The public art for neighborhoods program.

I see that it in this past year it was 106,000, but then you project 700,000 for next year.

Why the that's quite a jump, and I just want to get an understanding of that.

New developments within the city, so that percentage of new developments go into that pot.

Uh and that's something else that we've been looking at, changing maybe a little bit of the ordinance, talking through that.

Uh, but that's why the more developments in the city progress.

And that's the program tied to one percent of the public incentives for capital projects.

Yep.

All right.

Any other questions?

Hearing none, we are adjourned.

Thank you, everybody.