Good evening.

Welcome to the February meeting of the Environmental Sustainability Committee of the Indianapolis City County Council.

Let's get started by introducing counselors.

Let's start with Councillor Roberts.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair Nick Roberts, District 4.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Jesse Brown, District 13.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Mike Doak, District 24.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Michael Paul Hart, representing District 20.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair Briandelaney, representing District 2.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, Dr.

Carlos Perkins, District 6.

Thank you, Chairman Andy Andy Nielsen, District 14.

Thank you, Counselors, and I'm John Barth, Chair of the Committee.

I represent Council District 7.

Okay, this evening we have uh two um presentations.

Um one of them um has the potential to be an ordinance depending on the will and the interest of the committee.

Um we're gonna start with a presentation from the Marion County Health Department and Sydney Granland, if I got that right, we'll give the presentation.

We'll turn it over to you.

Okay, this is my first time here, so thanks for having me.

Um my name is Sydney Granland.

I'm the planning and collaboration coordinator in the chronic disease department at the Marion County Public Health Department.

Um I've been in this role since October of 2023, but I come from a sort of planning and zoning uh sustainability background.

So that is the mindset going into this presentation.

Oops.

Okay.

Um so I have an overview of what we'll cover today.

Um, just a general, I feel like I'm talking to experts, you guys all know your community so well.

Uh, but I'll just do a kind of touch up on the social determinants of health and what the concept of moving upstream, um, health and all policies, sustainability and public health, and how they are one and the same, uh, different health and all policies models throughout the country, as well as some opportunities that I think exist in Indianapolis.

So I like to start out with this map.

Um, it is the life expectancy map um for Marion County, and you can see the darker areas have a longer life expectancy at birth, and the lighter areas have a shorter life expectancy at birth.

Um and I think this map does a really good job of introducing the concept of the social determinants of health.

You know, why is the life expectancy so much different in um on the near east side compared to the Geist area, for example.

Um and it's not necessarily that there's not doctors' offices around there, it's not that those people don't go to the doctor.

Um it's really about the environment that they live, work, and play in.

So um the federal government in Healthy People 2030 breaks down the social determinants of health into these five overarching categories.

Um I won't go into too much detail, but they are education access and quality, economic stability, um, social and community context, health care access and quality, and neighborhood and built environment.

And I think this graphic itself is really insightful because you can see that healthcare access and quality is only a fifth of a person's health here.

Um that's not the exact number that it comes down to, but you can see it's not everything.

Like there's a lot more that go into someone's health and well-being than just do you go to the doctor, yes or no.

So I think the the big question from that is kind of like okay, well, what do we do about it?

I think we've thought of health as sort of this like individual responsibility.

Um, if if you're not going to the doctor, you aren't going to be healthy, and that's kind of on you, but um, with the social determinants of health and looking at it through a health and all policies lens and realizing that so much more in your environment impacts your health.

Um, there's this concept of moving upstream.

And the way this was explained to me when I entered the public health world was if you're standing downstream and you keep having to pull people out of the river and they're drowning.

Um, instead of just standing downstream and continuing to pull people out who are drowning, maybe you go upstream when you ask why are people drowning in the first place?

Why are people falling in?

How do we keep them from falling in?

So that's kind of the concept of health and all policies and moving upstream.

So I have this quote from um Nate Show, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, uh, which I think is just a really good overview of health and all policies, but it's basically a change in systems.

It's an approach to governance and just an overall shift in the way we think about decision making and implementing these programs and policies.

So health null policies emphasizes the need to collaborate across sectors to achieve common health goals, which I think is why this topic is so relevant to the Environmental Sustainability Committee because I think I mean I'm so grateful for our partnership with the Office of Sustainability, and we I just know we can get so much more done when we realize our shared goal of improving lives in Marion County and working together to do that because we all have the same goal really at the end of the day, we might just be talking about it differently.

So I work to uh break down silos really throughout the city-county enterprise and the health department.

So this is just kind of uh I took I went through Thrive and um the sustainability programs that are offered through the city, and I just wanted to highlight how much overlap there is.

So I won't read all of these, but you know, no zone is a climate strategy, but also when we uh improve air quality that improves health outcomes, and something that the Office of Sustainability and I've talked about a lot is the communication that a lot of people are considered a vulnerable population on these no-zone action days.

So there is a lot of overlap there.

Um obviously recycling and composting, renewable energy, all of these things.

You're if you're you're talking about it as an environmental goal, which is valuable in itself, but I think it's important to talk about the co-benefits and how this really can improve people's health and well-being in Marion County as well.

Um, and then this quote, I just really wanted to point out that health null policies is explicitly called out in Thrive.

Um, and again, the Office of Sustainability does such a good job of working across sectors and across departments.

Um the health department is just happy to support that with this health and all policies initiative, and I am happy it's in Thrive.

So I'm I'm working on that.

Um, and then again, here I appoint I pulled out all of the uh Thrive actions, and um I specifically called out how it overlaps with health and all policies or a health and all policies approach to government.

Um so we really focus on the built environment as something that can make the healthy choice the easy choice for people.

So if you want to walk to work, you should be able to do that.

If you want to ride your bike to the library, um, you should be able to do that.

If if you want to uh partake in active transportation, then we we want that to be easy for you to choose.

Um economy, uh we know that financial security is a social determinant of health.

Um energy, food and urban agriculture, that's another thing that the chronic disease department is really focused on is access to healthy foods.

We run the Fresh Bucks program for Marion County and the food as medicine kind of program as well.

Um and then obviously public health and safety speaks for itself, but um, transportation, I think that transportation and land use, it's really important to talk about public transit and um the land uses in the concept of a 15-minute city, sort of that you have access to a public health issue, you know.

If you can take the bus, that obviously reduces emissions, which is great for the environment, um, but it also is kind of like a piece of mind that you can get where you need to go if you don't have a car or if you don't want a car.

Um if you're living in an area where uh small commercial uses are not permitted nearby, and you know a corner store can't really come in or uh um something like a mom and pop shop like that, uh, that affects your health.

You know, it'd be if you can't access that from where you live, then you you can't really access that, and that um has implications.

So basically, health null policies is not one thing.

I think we are doing a lot of health null policies.

Um it's just really hard to necessarily find it because it's not you're not like I'm this is health and all policies, I'm doing this right now.

Um it's just you know, considering health and all the decision making and programming and policy making.

Um, but some examples are like a special resolution.

Um, and I have all these green things are links, so I'm happy to send this or post it or whatever.

Um the more the mirror you click away.

Um, but so then there's also the concept of a health null policies task force that publishes progress reports.

So this is something we kind of started working on, um, but just basically cross sector collaboration, viewing everyone's work through a health lens, and then similar to how the Office of Sustainability reports on Thrive reporting on the goals of that group or similar to Vision Zero or something like that.

Um, another kind of method of implementing health and all policies is like health impact reviews, health notes, health impact statements, they're all a different way of saying the same thing of basically doing some level of health impact assessment for developments and policies and programs, anything like that.

Um, it's very broad.

Um, and then on a bit of a smaller scale, this tool that I really like is the health impact checklist from the Kansas Health Institute, and things like decision support tools that I recently found from the city of Chicago.

So just kind of a way to slow down and know that you explicitly looked at the health implications of whatever is in front of you, and kind of having that accountability aspect, sort of, um, you know, proving and showing that it was considered.

Um I have a few screenshots in here from of the health impact checklist.

Um, I really like it because it has this kind of like summary page, which I think would be really impactful for breaking it down.

I feel like it's kind of challenging sometimes to look at a topic outside of like explicitly public health, you know, maybe in zoning or something, and think why does it matter if there's a bus stop near my house for my health?

Um, so I really like this summary page that breaks it down.

Um I think it's really impactful and easy to understand.

And then on the next slide, I just screenshotted some parts of the checklist where it specifically calls out social determinants of health that might be impacted by a proposal or a policy.

Um I think I like that because it does a lot of the thinking, I guess I would say, you know, maybe you're like, I would have never considered how this impacts housing quality, but going through this checklist, you have to kind of sit down and think well, does this impact housing quality?

Um then in the screenshot on the right, you can see how it kind of asks you to go through the impact on the social determinant of health, and then how that will impact health.

And I think yes, uh on the on the far right side, it really forces you to come to a conclusion on the overall impact of health.

So you have to write is is this positive, negative, mixed, none, or unclear.

Um, and ideally the goal of health and all policies is we're not moving forward with anything that has a negative impact on health.

So if there's something here on the checklist that is determined to have probably have a negative overall impact on health, then it would ideally be revisited and you know fixed before it actually went through.

So I would think of these next two slides as like a menu of sorts.

Um I think there's lots of really cool opportunities to infuse public health into the non-public health offices throughout Marion County.

Um, and again, I think we already are doing this, and I think we should lift up where we're already doing that.

So that's kind of where this first one comes in, doing a sort of inventory of where this is already happening and where there might be natural next steps.

Um the Office of Sustainability does a really good job with this of incorporating public health data into plans, reports, and press releases.

So you know, when you say we're implementing this program, like maybe don't stop there, and you could say we're implementing this program because uh research shows that it will have this impact on health.

Just like talking about it more, I think is really a good first step, too.

Um updating zoning and land use standards to promote public health, that's definitely an option, although a larger undertaking for sure.

Um, health null policies working group, health impact statements or health impact assessments for relevant topics.

Um the health department does engage in health impact assessments when asked for um you know by community members or for important projects or anything like that.

So that is an option to explore as well.

I think it's important that the health department maintains and has in the first place a seat on advisory groups, committees, and boards.

I thought it was really important that the Vision Zero Action Plan added that as uh something that is a goal for this upcoming year.

So I think that's exciting just to have someone in the room, and that's kind of what I've been in like departmental meetings and advisory groups and things like that.

Someone in the room where you look at them and you're like, okay, they're gonna ask about health.

Like they they are reminding me that I need to think about health right now.

Um another cool thing could be adding a healthy communities element to the comp plan um to further embed health into Marion County's long-term vision.

Um, because like I said, we're doing we're doing this.

People are thinking of this.

I think it's just important to explicitly call it out and reassure people that this is top of mind and the goal is to improve health outcomes in Marion County.

So then my last few um like options here are um I give a presentation like this a little bit more in depth into the social determinants of health, and um yeah, it just it goes into a little bit more depth of how your how the built environment impacts your health.

Um I've given a lot of those presentations to various city departments and a few neighborhood groups, so um I think it would be interesting to continue that for sure and um just make sure as part of you know annual trainings or or who knows what that everyone knows how to talk about their position and through a health lens and understand the impact that they can have on public health.

Um and I think there's also an opportunity for um presentations on social determinants of health for sort of like um boards and committees like this as well.

Um also health reviews of city programs and policies.

So the the health impact checklist can be fully customized to whatever Indianapolis wants it to be if if that's something we wanted to move forward with.

Um so I think that's really cool.

Um there's also the the concept I know of budgeting for equity.

There could also be budgeting for health and sustainability.

Um we've sort of thought about like what would it look like to have a health review as part of the contracting or bid process.

So that's a public document where you know the contractor would have to say, like, is is this good for health?

Do I do I know what I'm doing in terms of health outcomes?

And then what I think is most interesting is a health review for all projects seeking Board of Zoning Appeals or a Metropolitan Development Commission approval.

Um admittedly, this was written with like a a little bit of a data center view on things because that's just the the times we're in right now in Marion County.

Um but I think um really it you know, people just want to know that decision makers are considering their health, and if there is a way to explicitly say, yes, health was considered, this is what we expect to happen.

I think that would go a long way and is a really good first step towards um accountability and just transparency between decision makers and the public.

Um that is oh, sorry, uh Counselor Hart, I hope you don't mind that I took this quote from your newsletter.

Um but I think you really summed up health and all policies here.

Um Indianapolis talks about health like it is only a doctor visit problem, but the healthiest communities treat health like infrastructure, the same way we treat roads, public safety, and utilities.

And I think that is a perfect encapsulation of health and all policies, and the same way we would treat, I think we should we should treat public health and health outcomes at the same level, um, holding up to that same level as streets and um policing and utilities and things like that.

Um, and just being really clear that it was considered and that it is something decision makers in Marion County care about.

Um, I think that would go a really long way.

So my last slide here is a bunch of resources because again, these are all clickable.

So I don't know how you have access to this, but if you emailed me, you would have access.

We we received it.

Or people who are watching, maybe.

It'll be online.

Okay, great.

So yeah, feel free to click through all this.

Lots of really good health null policies resources from other communities and health null policies implementation.

And also just kind of a larger overview of the social determinants of health and maybe what decision makers can do to address those.

So then I have my email and my name.

And I am always on the lookout for projects.

Anything presentations on there.

So yeah, feel free to reach out if you have any ideas or you just want to brainstorm or anything about what health null policies could look like in Indianapolis.

Because I've talked to a lot of practitioners from other communities.

So I have lots of lots of thoughts.

There's lots of options here.

But thank you.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Cidney.

Nice job.

So I'm gonna see if anyone has questions.

But let me just um uh have asked number one.

I also want to congratulate Councillor Hart for getting in there.

How'd you work your way in there?

Um social determinants of health is something I've worked on pretty much my entire career.

It's uh uh uh major component of healthcare.

And if I'm understanding you correctly, health and all policy social determinants of health are elements that need to be adjusted for and um addressed in policy.

And your point with Health and All Policies is try to implement or bring in um elements of policy that address those SDOH items through the public policy arena sort of further along, so it's built into the process.

Um is that am I understanding you correctly?

Yeah, and I think just understanding that um, you know, even like seemingly small decisions, like as to whether or not there's gonna be a sidewalk or a bike rack or or something like that, uh, really does have a huge impact on how people can have control of their health.

So just bringing more awareness to the fact that pretty much everything is public health.

Um with that, we should be doing everything we can to make sure that um whatever we're moving forward with has positive or at least neutral health um outcomes for people.

Yeah, and um one of the things that um is the most challenging is when you have a big enterprise like the one that we're navigating in uh where you are, which is part of the enterprise, but it's a but really a separate entity as part of your municipal corporation, getting those policies sort of blended in and addressing all these silos um is really challenging.

Um that's something I really it's it's a it's a it's an ongoing process that's not easy, and most people can't see it happening because that change happens um uh more slowly uh than some folks would like to see.

Uh that's especially true in some work that uh Councillor Nielsen and I have been doing on Vision Zero.

Can you talk a little bit about how so is your position part of how the health department is trying to make that happen across the enterprise?

Is that part of what what you're doing in your role?

Yeah, I think um my role was brand new in 2023.

It was funded by the public health infrastructure grant from uh CDC.

Um really it's I would say it's one of the first roles we've had that's really like a lot of my position is you know, emailing people like Mo and LeAndre and saying, what are you up to?

Can I be there?

Uh how are you considering health?

So I think a lot of it so far has been education and just showing that um the health department is uh a willing partner in all of these things that aren't traditional public health issues.

Um yeah, that that's really what I've been focused on so far.

So now it's kind of you know what what comes next.

I've inserted myself into a lot of enterprise activities.

Um so then just the the next step sort of.

Well, that that's what I was gonna say.

The the most important thing for you to do is don't be shy about trying to insert yourself into those things because the I think the biggest challenge is that when people are going about their day-to-day lives and uh and executing the responsibilities of their job, they won't always think about these matters, right?

But if you're sitting there and they can see you and you're bringing this up, that really matters.

So you're doing the right thing, so don't hesitate to continue um showing up and sending emails because I think that's important work.

Um okay, um, members of the committee, any any questions?

Councilor Hart.

Let's see if this makes the newsletter.

I almost feel obligated to speak at this point.

Um, thank you for for reading the newsletter.

Um I love it.

I'm a big fan.

Um I'm grateful for that.

Uh I will say that you know where this came from was actually a result of what was kind of what's actually going on right now with the YMCA on the east side of Indianapolis.

And I've been doing a lot of research and I've been bringing a lot of stakeholders together on that topic, and you know, it's all laid out in the in the Sunday Post.

But I I think it is an opportunity where you know what we're not even I mean, getting into here, but I mean where we have a as a a major stakeholder as the city of Indianapolis when we look at um how we're ensuring the people for the city.

Um I mean, there's 10,000 employees for the city of Annapolis, you know, countywide, and how we can help improve their um their their health and well-being, but looking at how we're doing that is a part of it.

And you know, what that's translated to also from these conversations is that um public health is also public safety.

I mean, we're looking at um again, using the YMCA as an example.

Um, you know, I've I've had conversations with the volunteers of America where you know what happened to the seniors that don't go that don't have the opportunity to go there anymore and their mental health in that conversation.

You know, what happens to the you know hundreds of juveniles that go there and play basketball as it pertains to um their ability to you know have a a quality of a place that's that's safe to you know place and interact with others.

Those are all components of health as they're maybe not in an office clinical setting, right?

And I think that's what's just been you know shown to me over experience through these last couple of weeks is that it's you know, health is is is like infrastructure, it's like public safety.

It is it is a pillar that I think is detriment to the success of Indianapolis.

And what's interesting is the first slide in this presentation shows where we are mapped.

But if we look at our peers around us, they're excelling faster.

And you know, I don't discredit that you know the makeup and the demographics of counties are different, but we we have an opportunity to succeed because we're seeing others, I'm seeing others succeed.

And so uh I'm grateful to see this presentation to hear from you to see that you're working on it, Sydney, and would I'll probably reach out knowing that you're doing this and um if you're joining boards, smart indies going head in um to health in the topic, but would also like to continue the conversation with you, VP Barth on on health, knowing that it's uh a topic close to your heart as well.

Yeah, uh, thank you, Cam Sorry.

Yeah, it's a it's a big issue for me, just um uh uh personally, but also it's been my entire career is low-income health care.

So um thinking about these issues and uh actually doing something about them is what matters.

And I think you you just made a really great point.

There's so many things you don't necessarily think of.

Like, for example, one of the biggest risk factors for someone going into long-term care is like loneliness or disconnection from the community, and your point about the YNCA is a great one.

That's where some people find social connection, right?

Yeah.

Other questions from the members of the community.

Council Brown.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um yeah, just appreciate both the presentation and the commentary so far, which I agree with all of it.

One thing that I think has come up frequently, even when I've seen health outcomes acknowledged in you know, specifically zoning, let's talk data centers, right?

Yeah, people could say, okay, sure, 36 diesel generators for for down times.

Yes, running a diesel generator does have a negative health impact, but that's barely ever going to happen.

And you know, it feels like sometimes it becomes an apples to oranges conversation where we haven't done a great job as a society of translating the cost of low health outcomes into dollars and cents, and so it's really difficult to say, well, people's health is at stake when the alternative is yeah, but it'll bring X number of dollars that you could then spend on fixing people's health care, and so that it becomes this kind of uh, you know, you're comparing subjective and objective information, and and I feel like that makes it harder.

So I don't know.

I'm sure I mean you see I see you nodding along, I know you're familiar with this concept.

What um what have you seen be successful at getting like metrics to show the needle moving or um some way of quantifying the dollars that it costs people to have lower health outcomes?

Yeah, I think that's really interesting.

It's definitely something that I wanted to look more into this year.

Um because like you said, it's it is about the the messaging and making it make sense to people, and I think that is what makes a lot of sense.

Um and that's not that's just really not something I've focused on up to this point.

So um I think it's important and it's something I'm definitely gonna look into.

Um so yeah, I don't really have an answer for you, but yeah, I totally agree with what you're saying.

I had to ask just in case you had solved it all, but yeah, something we can all continue to work on.

Thanks.

Councilman, what's your question about how do you judge the finance?

I'm I didn't quite track that.

Yeah, I guess just um when you know, like certainly to use an example, uh putting on a sidewalk or a bike rack has huge impact on whether you know a place is now able to be chosen as an active transportation route or destination.

How much is that worth, right?

Compared to a developer who's telling you, well, we just can't afford to build it if you're gonna insist on sidewalks.

Um we know developers are gonna say that regardless.

And so having dollars and you know, having more quantifiable metrics to point to, I think could help us better argue those points.

Yeah, and I and good point, and I think it's also to the to your first slide of thinking trying to think about things more systematically, like a short-term gain and for one budget is a long-term negative for another budget, and how do you how do you more effectively manage that?

Uh anyone else?

Oh, Councillor Delaney?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just wanted to point out it feels like as a council and as a body or just as a city, we are doing things that sort of fit in your health in all policies from whether we're trying to allocate money towards tree preservation or vision zero, or we're doing our new county comprehensive plan.

There are bits and pieces of things that we're doing all across the city enterprise that fit into that.

Um we're just kind of missing the umbrella to pull it all together just to tell our story.

So, like the what Councillor Brown said with the metrics, like being able to say we're doing this here, this, here, this here, and once you know that, then you can say, okay, well, here's where we're gonna improve.

So I I kind of see, you know, we've been working at it for a while now, but just kind of like in little silos and not under the whole umbrella.

So thank you for your presentation.

Councilor Delkin.

Thank you, Chairman.

You had mentioned about uh presentations for HOA groups.

Can you kind of expand on what I mean?

Do you get do research on that group, or is there one presentation that covers them all, or I guess just kind of elaborate on it?

Yeah, I've definitely focused um on my first year here.

2024 was really big on city department education and outreach, and then last year I tried to branch out a little bit more to neighborhood groups.

So um I um I gave an info session with uh the neighborhood resource center that reached a good amount of people from across Marion County.

Um and I also presented to the Irvington Community Council.

Um I think it's I and that's a huge goal of mine in 2026 is to get more into the neighborhoods and um talk about what actually matters in their neighborhoods.

I do try to change my presentation every time I give it to make it more relevant and um impactful to whoever I'm giving it to.

So um yeah, it's it's totally flexible.

I just want people to know that where they live impacts their health, and um that they should feel empowered to talk about it.

Thank you.

I think that's something I'm gonna try to reach out to to see if we can do some HOAs.

But I think as far as grassroots and the beginning, that's a great place to start.

Thank you, Chairman.

Council Roberts, did you have anything?

Okay.

Great.

Well, thank you very much to our friends from the health department, both of you for coming tonight and putting on the presentation.

Thank you for speaking.

You did a great job, and uh we'll we'll stay in touch.

Thank you.

Okay, now we'll move on to our next um agenda item.

We're gonna be hearing from the Audubon Society.

Um is uh who's who'll be speaking for us?

Is Mr.

Green?

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you.

Um good evening, and thank you for uh for having us.

This is my first time visiting you guys.

Um I live up uh on the on the north side, so nice to come down to the city center.

Um my name's Jesse Green.

I am the community outreach coordinator for Bird Safe Indy.

Uh I'm joined by Wesley Homoya, um, who is our uh head of surveys for Bird Safe Indy uh and Bird Safe Indy is a committee of the Amos Baller Audubon Society, which oversees as the local Audubon Society for our area.

Uh we're here for one uh one clear reason, and that's because large quantities of birds um are hitting windows in Indianapolis.

Um and there's a lot we can do to prevent it.

Um and when we prevent it, it's not only uh good for birds, but it's gonna be good for the city of Indianapolis as well.

Um so to start, I want to quickly just explain a little bit more about who we are and uh a couple different organizations and and how we operate.

Um so I am perfect.

Um so Awesome Butler, um, our mission statement uh is to promote the enjoyment and stewardship of birds in central Indiana.

And then Bird Safe Indy is to work with building owners, managers, and municipalities to save birds by mitigating window strike mortality risks wherever feasible.

Most people, teams, community members, communities don't know that this is an issue until we've pointed it out.

You may have uh had a window strike at home, you may have had one at your office building, but especially as we look at scale, I think I'm gonna open eyes today at just how big of a problem it is.

Um our um our goal here today is to be a helpful partner and to bring workable solutions for you.

Um and with that in mind, um, here's what's happening um in our in our cities.

Um I I've uh copied a couple um maps here for you.

Um the one on the right is uh projection map, um, and I encourage you to look at it this spring.

It shows how many um birds are projected to fly over the United States on a nightly basis.

Um on the one pictured on the right, that is uh 420 million birds uh will pass over the United States in one evening um during migration.

Um and you'll see on the left uh that's actually a radar view of the birds actually migrating during migration.

So it's not just a couple birds.

Um I can't count to over four hundred million, um, so a lot of birds.

Um we think of the satellite view of of the uh night time um when you see all of the different light pockets across our country.

Um you could probably name each city just by the lights without me labeling um at night which cities are which.

I can tell you where Chicago is both because of the lake and how bright the lights are, but I can also tell you where Indianapolis is, where Cincinnati is and all of our surrounding cities.

Um all these birds are migrating at night, um, and then they get disoriented by all of the artificial light that they're seeing.

Um we see huge pockets of birds that get drawn into downtown Indianapolis in particular because of the light pollution.

Uh once they are down in Indianapolis, um, they get extremely disoriented.

Um, and I'm gonna show you a little bit of a bird's point of view once they're down in Indianapolis.

Um, windows can reflect, as you know, um they can reflect nature.

That could be skies, trees, green areas, um, stars.

Um it can confuse birds and it gets the uh disorienting.

Um think of a uh I I've seen lots of videos.

I am, I think, smart enough not to go into these or I would get hurt.

But what are those rooms of mirrors or those mere mazes?

You'll see um videos online of people running and smacking their heads into them.

So imagine you're running full speed through that and you have to get through it.

Uh that's your only way out.

I think all of us could safely say uh we would have at least sore foreheads uh before we got out of there.

So similar picture there that these birds are experiencing if you think about Indianapolis, lots of glass, lots of reflections, and they don't have the ability to perceive window.

They see, as you can see in the picture here, reflection, they see sky, they see the flowers, they see the greenery, they see the other nature or other buildings, and they cannot escape.

Um so with that in mind, I want to zoom out a little bit and look at the um national picture and some things that are going on around the country.

Um example in particular is McCormick Place in Chicago.

Um they've documented since 1978 40,000 uh bird deaths and window strikes just at one building since then.

Um, and their largest total um that has been counted is 1,000 birds in one night in one building were documented uh flying into the windows.

Um imagine being the one that's the first one there in the morning and seeing thousands of birds laying outside a building.

Um luckily um they have found uh some remedies to resolve that, I think up to 90% um decrease in in bird deaths, and we'll get into our partners that actually helped them do that.

Um but we have lots of buildings that are are still untreated.

Um on a national level, um the we estimate that there are over one billion birds that are lost to window strikes each year.

One billion.

Um the Journal of Science reports in North America uh we have lost 29% of our bird population uh since 1970.

Um and then the 2025 state of birds um reports say that uh that trend is still ongoing.

Um this is why we're focusing on window strikes today.

This is a common common, unfortunately, but preventable, fortunately, problem.

But let's bring it back home.

Here's what we're seeing in Indianapolis.

Lots of local evidence.

While we don't have the manpower that some of our surveyors in maybe Chicago, Philadelphia, some of the other uh bigger cities have, um, we still do surveys, uh, we still collect our own data.

Um, in we have found um since we've been survey surveying thousands of birds uh just in Indianapolis alone.

Um, these are actually pictures uh that we have found on the route.

Um I have thousands of pictures of loan alone of just individual birds.

Um I tried to pick some of the less gruesome ones, um, but that still shows um, and these are actually pictures of the windows that are they flew into.

Umes actually uh he is one of our lead uh surveyors, um, and he has found um on one day, and this isn't just an anomaly, um, over 30 birds, um, sometimes well over 30 birds just on one route in Indianapolis on a on a um weekday morning.

Um so I think I think we need to look um the importance of birds.

What why save birds?

I can tell you why um because I love to go bird watching, um, but there are bigger impacts than just my love for bird watching or your grandma's uh love for bird watching or whoever it may be.

Um overall quality of life.

Um this ties in uh a bit with what we heard uh earlier this this evening.

Um but but birds matter to our community.

Um I think when I start to think spring or outdoors in Indiana, and I think about our parks, um, I don't know what the sound would be like without the sound of birds calling.

That's that's kind of where my head and my heart go when I start to feel like okay, I'm outside of the workspace, I'm getting my mental health, I hear the birds, whether I love birds or not.

I think that's a staple in our environment and in our um outdoor mental mental health.

Um, and that could be anyone from the casual bird watcher to the um competitive big year participants that go around to Indiana trying to see how many birds they can see uh throughout the year.

Great movie, by the way.

Um, and then we have the ecosystem services that birds provide from pollination to pest control uh to seed dispersal.

Um I believe, and I I don't know the scope of this, um, but I read that they provide services birds do um up to a billion dollars of economic or um sorry ecosystem services um to our uh community.

Uh the good news is though, what we're asking for and what we're doing, we're not pioneers, we are not the we are not the first ones to um come up with this, thank goodness, because um I would not be able to do it alone, neither would any of us.

Um but there have been at least 29 agencies, government or otherwise that have um initiated bird-friendly ordinances or legislation.

I've listed them for you.

Um what this means for us is that there's a proven path of working examples, uh, learned lessons so Indy can start smarter and move faster going off of the success of other um other agencies.

Um and along with the environmental side, um I I do recognize that there needs to be somewhat of a business side as well to really um kind of nail home the impact that we are are looking for, and I think just to get more people on board as well.

Um overall economic impact.

Um, birds are part of the bigger outdoor recreation economy, both here in Indianapolis and on a national level, um, supporting major jobs spending and even tax revenue.

Um there are an estimated 108 billion nationally um annually revenue driven from birding trips, 1.4 million jobs, uh 38 billion in tax revenue, 279 billion in total economic output.

Um that's not small change.

Uh it is a big um big business both nationally, um and I can name it park or two here that thrive off of recreation in Indianapolis.

Um protecting wildlife strengthens in Indy's image as a clean, healthy, well-run place to visit and live.

Um there is also a downside if we don't address the problems.

Um frankly, it's bad for business.

Um I'm a big sports guy.

Um, I participate also through work and lots of expos, conventions, um, so I get to experience all the different sorts of um great things that Indianapolis has brought into the to this city.

So anything from Gen Con to the NCAA Final Four, Big Ten Championships, swim trials, conferences, trade shows.

I know there's a bunch of things we're working on now to bring to the city that we haven't even announced yet.

So lots of opportunities here.

But I think about when I come into town, what my experience is going to be.

We have the murals, we have we decorate, we do everything up the airport, looks phenomenal when we fly in.

But when I get up in the morning from my hotel and I go walk to get the coffee, do I want my first visual to be something like this where I'm seeing 30 dead birds before the city streets department has a chance to come and get it and clean it up?

Like, is that the image we want when we invite all these hundreds of thousands of people to Indianapolis?

Um, frankly, I don't think it's great for business.

It's not the image we want, um, especially the first thing in the morning in Indianapolis before we head to Fanfest.

Um I want to talk a little bit about some of the organizational interest we've already had.

Um, and this is uh mainly here in Indianapolis.

Um Eagle Creek, great partners, um, but they're also working on getting their windows treated.

Um they don't have any new building projects coming up, um, but recognize that there's also things we can do after the fact to treat their windows, um, especially with the type of park and the uh type of consumer that they attract, um, they realize the importance.

Um, so they've been fantastic partners.

We've started their windows, continue to do more.

Um the NCAA, um, they've they've been working with us.

We're working on solutions.

Their building has been we've we found some issues with their building, and they've been great at communicating with us, still working on resolutions with them, um, but we appreciate their um support and interest.

The DNR has formed a working group to work on government buildings in particular.

Um, there's been a number of government buildings that have been identified as problematic, um, either through surveys or research.

Um, so there's a working group there to figure out how to both correct it and fund the uh issue.

Um the uh IU Indy has um has been doing research on their campus and doing their own surveys.

They have identified problematic windows as well.

Um, so they're currently working through solutions.

Uh the one of my partners is feather friendly.

Um they have been great in helping us with education, sending us materials.

Um, they do a lot of the treatments for windows that are uh pre-existing and can treat those.

So they've been great.

And then the American Bird Conservative Conservancy, um, we're gonna get into them because they're gonna help us a lot as we move forward, but they're great partners as well with local governments.

Um I'm gonna talk about so we have three pillars here.

We're gonna focus on the last one, but I'm gonna tell you about the other two.

Uh we say lights, windows action.

Uh so I I like to think pretty catchy, um, but we we want we ask that everyone turns off their lights at night, um, especially during migration, both spring and fall.

We want to decrease that light pollution.

Um, and that will decrease the amount of birds that are disoriented, and it's something that everyone can get involved with.

You can turn your lights out at home, your business can turn their lights out, the government agencies, they can turn um this building is a participant and they do turn their lights out.

Jesse, I think you actually helped us with that.

I'm sorry, I appreciate that.

Um, but uh this building's a participant, and then we love energy saving.

Um, so lights out means we're we're consuming less energy as well.

Um, our second pillar, as I stated, is action.

Or sorry, is windows.

Uh windows um are the long-term fix, especially for new commercial buildings.

Uh, the best time to prevent window strikes is going to be when the building is designed and built.

Um we have found working through the partners I just listed, it can be a challenge to treat windows that are already built because we're either putting dots, stickers, film, um, and it can be expensive to be frank to treat existing windows.

Uh so we've learned that proactive is easier than reactive and building using materials that are uh bird safe and using bird smart design uh built from the start can be a huge help.

Um next is gonna be action.

Um being frank, we are newer in Indianapolis to the action uh phase, but as I said, there has been leaders across the country that have led us and we just are following in their footsteps.

Um the mayor had a bird safe proclamation.

I believe it was last year, and I believe that's the picture of it there.

Um, encouraging people to turn lights out during migration.

Um so that was a great first step for us, um, but we are asking a little bit more today to keep that ball rope uh rolling.

We're asking for a bird safe building policy and legislation ordinance uh for Indianapolis that focuses on new commercial construction in particular.

We are going to utilize the American birding conservancy, which is the best place that's just the best place to start is using their model ordinances that cities can adjust to fit your local needs.

So they have models that they use, and they have been great support systems for other cities, towns, even a couple states that have introduced legislation.

They have models to follow.

I believe it should have been sent to you.

But it's a good place to start, and then we can go from there and build something that will fit and we can get passed in Indianapolis.

100% bird friendly materials focused on the first 100 feet where many collisions happen.

So not necessarily your skyscrapers all the way up.

We're just looking at that first 100 feet because that's where we believe the the collisions happen.

So our request is that the council supports moving Indianapolis in a direction with bird safe standards for new commercial construction.

As I uh transition to close, I want to leave you with an image and I'm gonna tell you really why it matters.

Um I walk down Indianapolis a couple times a year.

Um, but I want to you to just envision an angel and what what the symbolization of an angel means to our community.

Um generally it's a sign of hope, it's a sign of promise, uh, and even a sign of protection.

Um unfortunately, the signs of angels in Indianapolis are something other than that.

Our signs as we walk through.

I think I took my first survey a year ago and I counted 40 angels on buildings around Indianapolis.

And uh these angels are not the reminder of promise and protection, um, but more so a preventable man-made loss of life.

So our ask is simple today.

It's how do we move Indianapolis from cleanup to prevention?

Everything that we have shared with you today um is backed by um lots of research, lots of support, um, and happy to connect you.

I think you have these resources, but happy to connect them to you.

Um they're fantastic resources.

I learned a lot just preparing for today from these resources.

So I encourage you to dive into them.

Um but as I close today, um, I want to make sure you know one, how to reach us.

Um, Deb is our chair.

Uh, she couldn't be here with us today.

Um, and then our email address is listed.

Um, but feel free to connect with uh both myself and Wes.

Uh, we're all on this email together, so any messages you send will go to all of us.

Um, and if there's any other contact that's better for you, um, I'm happy to connect you.

Uh we are ready to partner to support and connect with you and connect you to any resources you need to help push this through.

Um we are just volunteers uh but can connect you to the experts with proven resources.

Um we'd like to coordinate um if anything I've said to you um hits home just a little bit or you see any value in it.

Um Wes's surveys, uh he's fantastic at training them, but they are also very educational.

So um I encourage you this spring to catch up with us.

Um I would love to have Wes walk you down down the street, see what we're talking about, see the birds, see the um see the buildings, see the cause and effect of um some of the things that I've said today.

Um while it's it's uh one thing to see it in person, um it really gets to you when you see it uh down on the streets and the imprints on the building itself.

So I encourage you to take us up on that uh and take a look around town.

Um, and then hey, you can take a step forward if you know anyone who wants to volunteer, we need more resources, um, as does anyone.

Um but I I thank you guys again for the opportunity.

Happy to take any questions, so is Wes.

Um, and then definitely want to hear from you guys on what a first realistic step looks like and what milestones can look like so that way we can uh clean it, clean our city up and make it safer for birds.

So thank you.

I really appreciate your time.

Okay, well, thank thanks to you both for being here and Mr.

Green for the presentation.

Um, when it comes to the survey time, um I would suggest uh coordinating through um the OSI sustainability, and we can let the committee know when that when the timing is because I think you probably have some interest and some participation.

Um that's one and number two is on uh um the bird-friendly building policies that you're suggesting.

Um hundred and hundred.

Um, how come is any of that not just standard?

What why is that just standard building practices now?

Like why why would we um I'm just trying to understand why that wouldn't just be built into a natural part of the development process.

Is it is there an expense that that's greater than we would expect, or is there some element that is outside of the traditional building process that's more um problematic for developers than there has been.

I'm just trying to, it just seems like a natural thing you do um as a as uh building a building a good building.

Um I'm just curious why anyone wouldn't.

Yeah, um, I'll take a shot.

Um, and engineering was not my degree in high school or college.

Um so I'll give my volunteer um understanding.

Um I I think in the past um a lot of this research is newer.

Um, and I think a lot of the passion um from the community um is relatively newer.

I mean, some of the older studies I cited were still 30, 40 years old, and those are the older ones.

Um so when there's not a demand for it, um they are not produced.

Um there are um now window companies that produce it, and there are treatments that you can do that are preventative that can be applied.

Um I have not gone through that process.

Um I'm not a developer.

Um, and so um beyond that, I would need to refer to developers and um the uh ABC to help us um answer some of those questions and some of the rebuttals we're gonna get as we push this.

Um because I also I respect where you're going and I know uh we would get a lot of pushback on hey, this is this is gonna be a different process um for buildings.

I could there be an additional expense?

Very well so.

Yeah, that thank you.

I mean, I I'd be interested in continuing to engage with you on this, but my process is to do it 360 and really engage with everybody who is impacted by a particular policy, and so I'm just anticipating sort of the feedback that we would get.

But with that, let me turn over any other members of the committee uh want to weigh in.

Councilor Dillick, then Council Brown.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um we've been focusing on buildings, but I know residential homes just last week we had a rental property that uh uh cardinal shattered the window and went into the house and died.

Yeah.

So is there things as residential homeowners we can look at to try to help prevent that?

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Um Feather Friendly is one of our has been a fantastic partner, and they focus on window treatment.

Um so uh they don't make the windows, they don't make the um the glass, um, but they have a couple different options, and there's lots of companies out there, well there uh a handful that do, but fender friendly is the one I'm familiar with.

Um, and they have uh window tape um and it they're little dots.

Um and some people will say, I don't want those on my window.

Um you tend not to notice them.

Uh one of the more well-known photographers in the area um who uh uh takes pictures everywhere um just put them on their home and said you didn't even notice them after a couple days.

Um so yeah, those are terrific, and they reduce window strikes um again uh from 95 to 100 percent uh 99%, 99.9%.

Um and the science behind it, um, they are I want to say two inches apart um the dots, um and that breaks up the window reflection enough so that birds can't fly through it.

The um downside about some of just the decals um is it still leaves pathways that birds believe they can fly through it, and while that is a step in the right direction, um we recommend treating the entire window um to break up the reflection of the sky, the trees, the um, but yeah, there are there are um a lot of solutions out there um that you could do today.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

If I can just add or elaborate, Jesse.

Um beyond uh stickers, there are plenty of other options uh depending on the homeowners or building owners' budget and ability and aesthetics.

So there's films, you can simply just use some chalk or markers uh if you want to go really low budget um strings, other textiles, um mesh, you know, anything that's external is gonna break up that uh visual for the birds.

So it just kind of depends on on what you want to do.

Um but there are yeah, there are plenty of examples.

Council Brown.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yeah, thank you, Jesse, for the presentation.

That was great.

Um I echo Chairman Barth in expecting that we'll probably have some sort of barriers put up by developers, either the complexity or the cost.

Um and then in my experience, what I've tended to hear a lot of is like, you know, what we heard it, for example, last budget season, um, you know, Department of Uh Business Neighborhood Services very minorly increased some fees, and we had a lot of developers saying, well, this will stop home building in Indianapolis or or significantly slow it down.

And so it tends to, you know, we get like very large sounding words without a lot of dollar impact.

So it'd be really interesting to know like what percentage of a hundred-foot-tall building with glass walls, like what percentage of the project cost would this treatment be.

I hope it'd be like less than one percent.

Um, but having those kind of numbers in hand would be helpful.

And then the other point, which I know Wes and I have talked at length about is trying to create some sort of incentive structure where you know, for example, a lot of our more successful uh developer guidance systems in the city offer some sort of what's in it for me to the developer.

Either you'll have higher access to city funds for things, uh, you won't have to meet every strict criteria in another area.

Um yeah, some some other reason why someone would participate, and so I'd love to get your thoughts on how we could better incentivize that.

You know, even like low-cost things.

We've talked with um offices of sustainability people about just highlighting you know in a newsletter or with a little like gold star you could put in your window about people who are doing good work without much city backing.

Yeah, um, just to try to help with their marketing, if nothing else.

So yeah.

Um I mean, I think first and foremost, our role needs to be connecting with those who've gone before us and passed it through.

Um so I think and we we can help connect you with all of those, and I'm sure they're happy to share their numbers um and how they've incentivized and how they've worked with um developers.

Um so I don't I don't want to uh come across that I'm the expert there, but I can definitely we can definitely connect, and I think that's um while we're very early in for me today.

This is an awareness.

Um we're that definitely is gonna be the next step for sure.

Um I do know just in my small um my small world of marketing, um we do have to find other aspects um where they get value, um whether that's the developer or um the company that's gonna be taking over the the building.

There is a lot of um public positivity and publicity that comes um from uh some of these uh animal saving um initiatives.

Um and then I think the challenge for us is assigning a dollar amount to that.

Um so I appreciate that, yeah.

Councilor Delaney.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I um want to take this time just to bring up the fact that the Holiday Park Nature Center um up off Spring Mill Road does have um bird safe dots all over the windows as they're out the back.

And that was the first time that I had to ask like what are all these dots for?

And so I think as the government, we have an opportunity to you know outfit our own buildings um in our parks and other buildings just to help educate people because that was the first time I had ever become aware of what those were and what they were for and how they were used.

And so um I just wanted to bring that up that the city does have a great example of um bird safe windows if anybody wanted to go check them out.

Just to add to that, a couple other more famous ones, Eagle Creek Park, Ornithology Center, um, and um the nature center at the uh Newfields uh Fairbanks Park.

Those are some good ones to check out as well.

Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned the Newfields one because I uh walked there frequently and I I didn't even I just accepted those the what's in the I never even thought about them for the reason that they're there.

I just uh thought they were uh a clever design.

And I think that's a good thing.

Just vertical lines made after many years of walking in by that building, and I'm realizing what that's what it's for.

So okay.

Well, listen, thank you very much to your presentation.

Now there's a lot of interest uh from the committee.

I think we have some follow-ups both with uh your survey and uh to keep thinking about um what the council can do to be supportive uh of these uh of these issues, and so there's there's more to come, but um thanks for all the work you're doing.

And now you both volunteers are employees, I guess you both volunteers.

Well, thanks for your work in this area, we appreciate it, and thanks for being here tonight.

Councillor Delaney.

I just wanted to take a moment to um remind everyone that we have the funeral today for Officer Brian Elliott, um, and that's been heavy on my heart.

Um he gave his life for the citizens of Indianapolis and Beach Grove, and I just wanted to take the time on um public record to honor him and his sacrifice for our city.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yeah, and thank you, uh Council Delaney for for bringing that up.

And um, I know Council Delaney was able to attend the services today.

I don't know if anyone else was, but thank you for doing that and for representing us and Councillor Hart, um, both of you for representing us.

Um really important to remember that today, and thanks for thanks for reminding us.

Um with that, I'd like to uh go ahead and adjourn uh the meeting for uh uh February, and we'll see everyone uh back in March.