The 812 - Steve Volan / Plateia Media

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076: Michael Hunt, Monroe County’s Chief Public Defender May 22, 2024

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We're starting to invite guests beyond the humble municipality of Bloomington; we're expanding to the humble county of Monroe, to meet some of the people who make the county tick.
The Sixth and 14th Amendments to the Constitution guarantee the fundamental right of the accused to counsel regardless of their ability to pay. Today we meet the embodiment of that right in Monroe County.
Our guest, Michael Hunt, has been for the past 50 years the county's first and only chief public defender. We learn all about how the Public Defender's Office came to exist, how it works now, and how Monroe County has changed in the past half-century since he began in his role.

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075: Geoff McKim, on How Monroe County Government Works May 21, 2024

Show notes

The 812 is slowly expanding its horizons to include governments beyond the city of Bloomington. There are many people whom we’ve interviewed on this program for their knowledge and experience, yet no one is in a better situation to explain Monroe County than our guest today, Geoff McKim, who’s been a member of the county council since 2009 and is in his last year as a councilmember before retiring. (You may also recognize Geoff as one of the co-hosts of Plateia Media’s first experimental podcast, What’s the 311, a show about local government across America generally. ) He explains and demystifies the unusual form of local government that Indiana practices in its counties, and compares it with townships and cities like Bloomington. It's a useful explainer you won't want to miss.

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074: Different Ways That Money Flows through Local Government: Digest for the Week of May 14 May 20, 2024

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We look back at recent interviews, whose unifying theme seems to be money and how it flows throughout government. Excerpts from last week include:

The mechanics of how the legislative process in the Statehouse works, with Indiana’s Own Dana Black, host of the Turn Left podcast
the advent of a new organization that tries to pair up worthy projects with mission-based lenders, with the leader of that organization, John Zody, executive director of CDFI-Friendly Bloomington;
new City Controller Jessica McClellan on the city budget process and how radically different it is from the county budget process; and
Senior Transportation Planner Pat Martin, on how local road projects come into existence through the financial review filter known as the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

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073: Understanding the MPO with Pat Martin, Senior Transportation Planner May 17, 2024

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How do city road projects get funded? Oftentimes, they're a mix of local, state and (a lot of) federal dollars/ If you've ever wondered why road projects take a long time to come to fruition, today we explore the filter through which those federal dollars flow.
Bloomington is the center of a metropolitan area. Metropolitan areas, especially ones that cross state lines, get special consideration from the federal government for highway, road, public transit and other federal transportation money. A Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is an interjurisdictional body created by federal mandate to oversee the spending of federal dollars on local transportation projects.
Our guest today is Pat Martin. He's the Senior Transportation Planner for the City of Bloomington, but really, his main job is to lead, guide and direct the local MPO. He guides us through this motley entity -- an unelected body made up entirely of people elected or appointed by others -- and helps us understand the vagaries of transportation planning.

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072: Indiana's Own Dana Black, Explaining the Statehouse' Impact on Cities May 16, 2024

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On this show about local government, we're thinking today about the state, and how it affects local government. Dana Black is host of the Turn Left podcast and an inveterate watcher of the Indiana General Assembly. We discuss topics like home rule, annexation, the regulation of rentals, and other legislation that has impacted cities like Bloomington.
Dissecting bills and engaging directly with representatives and their aides, particularly during the summer sessions when legislators are more available, is more easily done when people group together. Black also tells us about the mechanisms by which local citizens can influence state policy -- strategies for lobbying and working with legislators, and the importance of organizing locally to address state-level decisions.

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071: Jessica McClellan, City Controller, Follows the Money May 15, 2024

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Jessica McClellan recently left her job as the elected Monroe County Treasurer to join the new Thomson administration as the City of Bloomington's new Controller. In short, no one has followed more money than her. She explains the byzantine process of municipal budgeting and compares it with her previous experience.

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070: John Zody, on Housing and Community Investing [CORRECTED] May 14, 2024

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[EPISODE CORRECTED. Enjoy this episode as it was meant to sound!]
Our guest today is John Zody. He's the executive director of CDFI-Friendly Bloomington. Community deveopment financial institutions, or CDFIs, are lenders with missions. CFB connects the dots between mission-based lenders and projects that need special kinds of non-standard funding, that may not be able to get funding through regular commercial banks.
We also talk with him about his role as the most recent director of the City of Bloomington's HAND department, where he oversaw the city's rental-inspection program, its relationships with neighborhoods, and its historic preservation program.

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069: Historic Preservation, A Safe and Civil City, and How to Start a Festival -- The812 Digest May 13, 2024

Show notes

The812 is back from its hiatus! To get you reacclimated, it's a Monday-digest addition of the week of interviews from before our mid-April hiatus. We'll hear excerpts from interviews with:

Noah Sandweiss, the city's Historic Preservation Program Manager
Shatoyia Moss, the city's Safe and Civil City Director
and Mat Alano-Martin, stand-up comedian and co-founder of the Limestone Comedy Festival, about how it started and how the city helped

Improvements coming to the show, starting tomorrow...be sure to subscribe wherever you get podcasts!

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068: Noah Sandweiss, the City's Historic Preservation Program Manager Apr 19, 2024

Show notes

How does a building get declared "historic"? Who decides what should be saved or not? We find out some of the answers today, from the guy who sets up the questions. Noah Sandweiss is the new program manager for historic preservation for the city. In our interview, he unpacks the portfolio he's charged with, which includes working with federal and stage agencies, reviewing and preparing for presentation cases to be considered by the local Historic Preservation Commission, and his background that led him to the job.
With this episode, the show goes on hiatus. We return with new shows May 13.

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067: Shatoyia Moss, Bloomington's Safe and Civil City Director Apr 18, 2024

Show notes

How does a community deal with issues that aren't obviously the business of a city government? Cultural issues can overwhelm even the most well-intentioned administration. What does it take to keep a city peaceful beyond law or code enforcement?
Our guest is Shatoyia Moss, the Safe and Civil City Director for the City of Bloomington, who works in the Community and Family Resources Department. She talks today about her job helping the city and its residents navigate issues that don't have ready solutions available, that can't be solved bt patching a pothole, issues that can result in protests. She also talks a little about child care...while her infant son tries to horn in on the conversation.

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