A requirement that Bloomington’s Public Safety and Community Relations Board [PSCRB] include two youth members has not led to an increase in youth engagement.
It’s why the board wants to change wording of the rule from they “shall” to they “may” serve on the board, in hopes of keeping the seats filled regardless of age.
The PSCRB was founded in 2017 to bridge gaps between community members and the Bloomington Police Department. In 2020, language was added that two members between the ages of 16 and 21 shall be appointed to the nine-member board. Only one year has the board managed to attract any youth members.
“What we've been trying to do is talk with school officials, resource officers at the schools and even by, you know, word of mouth, if you will,” said Rachel McFarland, chair of the PSCRB.
McFarland said the problem has been compounded by the fact that youth members only serve one-year terms.
“The truth is that kids are busy, and they're busy in school activities, and it's very difficult to get them involved in these types of community activities,” said McFarland. “So, it's not that we're not getting the word out. It's just that the interest and the ability to get kids on there, it would be nice to have them stay on for more than a year, which is one of the changes that we're asking for.”
City council meeting
The Bloomington City Council considered the PSCRB's proposed change at Monday's meeting but delayed final action.
Council member Mollie Ward pulled the PSCRB item off the consent agenda for further discussion. She said she wanted to keep the two seats reserved for youths and that "we can work harder to recruit people." She said the change risks shutting youths out if adults take the seat.
“I do think there was a reason why the youth positions were created to begin with. And even though we have not, as a community, recruited people and been able to successfully fill those positions in a consistent way, I think the idea of having youth voices is still a good one," Ward said.
Ultimately, the city council postponed a final vote on the issue. The council was voting on text that included “the PSCRB further desires to expand its membership by two full-time, non-youth, voting Board members, increasing the number of voting members from 9 to 11.” It was not the wording the PSCRB intended for the amendment to have — an apparent error in how the change was drafted.
“To rectify the situation at the lowest level, they decided to maintain the number of people on the board, but add flexibility to the two youth positions, since that's where the difficulty was,” said Michael Hurt, staff liaison for the PSCRB, during Monday’s council meeting.
At Wednesday's PSCRB meeting, board members said they already occasionally have concerns about meeting quorum — or getting the minimum number of members to show up to a meeting to do business. The change to the youth seats could help, they said. Increasing to 11 members could make it worse.
“Just having nine and to get people to be able to come and have a quorum every month, we're all volunteers, and life happens, and so we can't always get everybody there every month. Expanding the board would make that even more difficult,” said McFarland.
The issue is expected to be revisited at a city council meeting in February, board members said.
