It's 7 o'clock. Oh, I'm looking at the time clock at their. Sorry. It is 7 p.m. and I am calling to order the regular meeting of the LGBTQI plus commissions scheduled for Wednesday, July 15th, 2026 at 7 p.
Second order of business is approved little minutes for the June 17th, 2026 regular meeting of the LGBTQI plus commission. Make a motion. Motion by Dolly.
We've got a second in house from Katie.
Any discussion?
All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed say nay.
Any abstentions?
Matter passes by unanimous consent.
Should we just mention who is on for the recording?
Thank you for doing that. I'll let you kick off.
Sure. Dolly Hedad by Sherp.
Monica Dane, Commissioner.
Start with Derek, you're the upper left hand corner of our screen.
Derek Cartagena, Commissioner.
Hi.
Good to meet you.
Angela Crowe.
Laura.
I
think Laura is frozen, but Commissioner Laura Timmings is joining us online.
Yeah, did you hear me, Laura Timmings?
No, I didn't.
And Katie Mayer.
Awesome.
Katie Mayer, Commissioner.
And Brianna Blooms-Devara, Chair.
We enter public session on agenda items.
I see no member of the public, so we move on.
New business, screen of information, ethics, minority representation, and private history
workshop by Christopher Floyd. Christopher is dealing with a family emergency tonight
as is a council person named Fulton. So I will briefly go over what Christopher has
prepared for us. I am going to, I can answer some very high level questions, but if you have
specific in-depth questions about the workshop or the LGBTQI plus commission, okay.
I am going to ask that you email Christopher directly and he will have your questions answered.
It is Christopher's intention to be attending in person, the remainder of our meetings of this calendar year.
So at the beginning of this packet, there is the, what is the LGBTQI plus commission,
which talks about how we got established.
One of the important things is to know item by powers.
We are advisory to both the Common Council of the City of Middletown and the Mayor.
What this means is that when we vote on resolutions or movements, what is actually happening is
I or Christopher are taking the information and going to the mayor on monthly basis and saying here are the actions
and he either says move forward as he almost always does, or if there is a major concern, which there rarely, if ever has been, he will not take our recommendation.
An example of this though, however, was our policy review for personnel policies.
Once we escalated it to the mayor and invited our recommendations, it was entirely upon
his discretion how he wanted to proceed.
The next part is the Freedom of Information Act.
I strongly recommend everyone reading through this to understand your responsibilities to maintain
public records.
Additionally there is a note in here that any gathering of seven or more members
of the LGBTQI plus commission, no matter the place of the purpose, could be considered a meeting
under the FOIA.
So be careful if there are seven of us hanging out at an event together for some
reason. It is improper for the groups discuss any aspects of the LGBTQI plus commissions business.
There is the ethics code which I encourage everyone to read. There is a backstory of Middletown pride
included in the packet is going to be the marcher rules and regulations that are set forward
and also comments on protesters and the establishment of a protest zone.
So, again, I am just highlighting aspects of this. If you have general questions,
I'm happy to open the floor for an informal discussion, but I will say
Christopher Hort will be better suited to answer some questions with authority.
Does anyone have a comment question?
Seeing none, hearing none, we'll move
forward to new business B nominations for an election of chair of the chair serves from July
to June. With that in mind, are there any nominations for chair? You may nominate yourself,
okay?
I was going to nominate Brianna, who scored a scowler of four chair.
I accept the nomination.
I was second that nomination.
Thank you.
There is one nomination.
We can have more.
That is perfectly legitimate.
Are there any other lot of nominations?
Okay, seeing now that we have one nominee, I don't believe a vote is required now, but we will do it anyhow in case I am wrong because I am not Christopher.
So all those in favor for the nomination and election of Rihanna Bloomskvera as chair for the calendar year 20 sorry for 2026 through 2027 say aye.
All those opposed.
Any abstentions I will stay.
I would like to nominate Katie Merritt for Vice-Chair.
Do we have a second to that nomination?
Okay.
Was that.
Okay.
So that has been addressed.
Now, we have nominations for an election of Vice-Chair.
Are there any nominations for Vice-Chair?
I would like to nominate Katie Merritt for Vice-Chair.
Do we have a second to that nomination?
I'll second that.
Okay, was that Angela, Angela Beatonica, because the G comes before the alphabetically KDG
except this nomination.
I accept.
Okay, are there any nominations, other, once, going twice?
We only have one nomination, so all those in favor of the election and appointment of
Katie to vice chair say aye. All opposed.
Any abstentions?
No abstentions. Oh, so I should abstain. Okay.
Okay, Katie abstains.
But accept it. All right. So thank you, Dolly, for your years of service to the commission. I will still be on the commission.
But you've been holding down the fort and taking on a huge amount of responsibilities.
So I'd like everyone to either give a round of applause or wave.
Thank you guys.
And thank you as well.
Okay, next matter of business is holding a commission meetings in person only hybrid as we currently do or entirely remotely.
this is up to the commission. I will entertain a motion for any of those to
open debate. I would like a motion to keep a hybrid because currently I'm
traveling, they do in the summer, I'm in Florida right now, so that would make
it really difficult to work on the summer. Okay, there is a motion from kind to
Hold our meetings hybrid is there a second Angela has seconded is there any discussion?
Hearing none all those in favor of the motion to have our meeting scheduled as hybrid throughout
Technically fiscal year 27 July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027 say aye
Any opposed? Any abstention?
Matter passes unanimously. Next is a selection of date for
pre-Fest 2027.
To be Saturday, June 5th with a rain date of Sunday, June 6th, that is
is the first Saturday of June, as has been our practice.
I would like to have a discussion about that just
because we had fewer attendees this year and largely,
I think we're attributing it to Boston,
doing theirs the same weekend.
Do we know?
They shifted that because they had anticipated
an invasion of Scotland by the Scottish,
it was for the World Cup.
That's why they shipped it is because the city was taken over so it probably will be back to I would imagine. All right, that was my only thing that I managed to take note.
Do we have a motion for the selection of the date? I move that. Thank you, Beth. We have a motion by Beth that the date of Pride Fest 2027 be Saturday June 5th with a rain date of Sunday June 6th. Do we have a second?
second. Second by Katie. All those sorry any discussion.
All those in favor say
aye. Aye. All those opposed. Okay. Any abstentions. Matter passes if unanimous
consent. Next item is Middletown Pride Scholarship Program Subcommittee. This
would specifically be the creation appointment of the Middletown Pride Scholarship
subcommittees to include Beth Shapiro and Trevor Charles as members.
Is this where I say something?
Yes, please.
Okay, so I have happily served as the chair of this commission or the subcommittee.
I would like to continue doing so.
However, there will be a conflict this year, and I just want to make talk about it now.
My son will be a senior graduating and we'll absolutely be applying for the scholarship so I really don't feel like I can serve and vote on the subcommittee because I feel like it would definitely raise some impropriety.
So just looking for some feedback because I still want to be involved.
would love to be put back into that position afterwards, but whatever you guys feel is appropriate,
that's what I will do.
Is this like just this stuff's time? Let's just have a discussion.
Okay. Does that mean someone would have picked place this year? I'm sorry, Kai, can you repeat
that question? Does that mean that someone would have picked best place this year then? So right now,
The only person on the commission is Trevor who is not on the commission. He is the GSA advisor at Middletown High School, so we would need somebody from the commission to step up.
And you know, as I said, like if it's cool with everyone, I would like to just step back for this year.
I'd be happy to be there to serve as you know, the chairperson of this subcommittee, but would not vote.
So you like to recruit your self even appropriate or I think back in the subcommittee, you know,
because the way it's been going, it's just Trevor and I.
So we just kind of discuss, we make a decision, we vote on it, and that's it, since it's just
been the two of us.
It's had ever been more than three people.
Okay.
I'm going to call out specifically in the packet.
There is a...
Hi, Laura.
You want the one all the way to the left and all the way to the right the middle line is begun
So
Okay.
The following financial interest shall be imputed to be those of an official employees, a city that have espoused a child of an official employee. Personal and as distinguished financial interest shall include, but not limited interest rising from family relationship or business association. At this time, there is not an application open.
Your son has not applied. And this is a hypothetical. If the rule
of thumb according to Christopher's packet is avoid an appearance essentially if you believe
that some item you have the power to vote on could be inappropriate in any way, you should
recuse yourself from that vote to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
So the rule of thumb, I did read that but I just, sorry to interrupt, I just, the only thing
that concerns me is that since the subcommittee is so small, if I recuse myself from the
vote, but I'm still involved in the discussion about applicants, does that raise any impropriety?
Or would I have to recuse myself from the whole process?
Personally, if I'm just giving you my thoughts, I would say that if you want to still be helping
with like putting the information out there knowing who to send it to because like you're
in the school system and you have those contacts and stuff and putting together the application
itself but I do think personally I would think it would be like you shouldn't be reading
the applications or having anything to do with that side of it so it's a different commission
or what should step in to do that part at least yeah I think that could be very I agree
if you
volunteer to do that part.
Like read applications and go on now.
Right.
What are we doing is to step in and do that.
Okay.
I'm thinking on how many applications we get, Angela, if you need help with that,
I can support you in that role as well.
I'd be happy to join in and take that up this year.
Well, we only got one last year, right?
Yeah, and we get more than if we get more this year for some reason,
I'll happily join in.
Okay. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. This first of all, this is not an issue of people jumping in as needed. This is an issue of establishing a subcommittee. It is a commitment to be part of the subcommittee, not if needed at a later point.
I want I would like a clear just direction from that that would you feel most comfortable
not being involved in the subcommittee at all this year, other than providing guidance
on past practice and forms I would I don't want I don't think I want my name attached
to the subcommittee at all. I just I just don't think it looks right. I will be more than
happy to disseminate the information like I've been doing in the past, but I would love
for someone else to step up and Angela, if you would like to do that, the thing is we
have room.
As I said, three has been the max.
It's really nice to work with a small number of people versus having a huge subcommittee.
So last year, there was just two of us.
We only had one applicant, so it really was not an issue.
But if you and Trevor and perhaps one more person could be part of this subcommittee,
you know, I have every intention of rejoining the following year.
So this really would just be a one year commitment to do this.
In terms of the time it takes, there's one meeting usually in like December
where we just review the application, which I do regularly.
you know, I will do that. I will do that. I'll just bring forward any changes and you know,
you can take a look at that. And then the other meeting happens at the end of April beginning
of May, because the deadline for the applications is like the like the last Friday and April, whatever
day that is. And then we have like a two week turnaround to figure out who is going to be receiving
this scholarship so we can offer that recommendation to the commission. So it's really just two days.
I would be happy to step up to the subcommittee. Now that's some of my other responsibilities.
Beth, would you like to move the creation appointment of the Middletown Prize Scholarship
subcommittee to include Angela Crowe, Goliath Dodd and Trevor Charles as members?
I would. Okay, a motion by Beth. A second please.
seconded by Laura Timmins. Thank you, Laura. Any further discussion? I just want to comment.
Beth, thank you for being very concerned about the appearance of impropriety and bringing these
concerns early in the process and being willing to work with the process. I really appreciate that type of
of, of rightedness.
Thank you very much.
As I said, this is like very close to my heart, the scholarship.
Yeah, so looking forward to get back on the subcommittee next year.
Good.
So we've had a motion and a second.
All those in favor of the motions say, I, I, all those posts say,
Any abstentions?
May.
Oh.
You, you can, this is fine, but you.
Because it's a subcommittee and really the subcommittee at the end of the day is making recommendations, not binding.
But I would favor it or I understand whatever is most appropriate appropriate.
Well, some of us already have stayed. We'll give you the benefit of it.
So we can say the matter passes with one abstention.
I voted for personal. Yeah, that's.
Moving forward, we have no submitted applications for both events.
Okay, we are going to move forward into age financial overview.
first in the main packet there was kind of a breakdown of sources of revenue and expenses
as well as a transactional breakdown. Separate from that. Christopher Ford has prepared a
I'm so sorry there is definitely feedback coming from someone.
Okay thank you.
hearing my own voice electronically makes me literally lose my mind. I don't know where
my mind is. Is it in the computer?
So going over this impact of budget for Middletown
Pride from 2025, from the 26th. First, we have lost approximately $32,000 in sponsorship.
The chamber is no longer serving as a partner and physical sponsor, which we'll talk about
momentarily.
And although it says Wesleyan is no longer serving, Wesleyan may no longer be serving.
They are reevaluating their approach to local non-profit causes.
and I have thoughts that I will not share it as a visit or progress. So we anticipate a total
projected deficit for this fiscal year of $56,700.
There is a summary of costs herein.
Christopher has created some food for thought and, again, I'll say, depending on Wesleyan's
commitment, we're looking at a deficit of either $56,000 or $31,000 or $32,000.
So Christopher has kind of put together three options ways we could move forward and this is not going to I personally am not comfortable having a vote tonight on someone moves for it because there's a lot of unknown variables.
The chamber is still processing income and also external payments and obligations.
So the final numbers aren't fully in.
But option one is the same but less.
This includes increasing vendor fees eliminating restocking of our merchandise and spending down our merchandise.
Looking at capping our grant programs, capping our community events, reducing our showcase concert from three hours to one.
reducing our stage setup to a much smaller stage and audio, eliminating the one or more zones
at PrideFest, eliminating professional photography, and to cap the cost on balloon arches
and decor at 2000.
That's option one the same but less.
option two is we only focus on pride fest and we do know year round programming.
So we would
eliminate the grant program, the community events program and scholarship program. Okay. And by
community events, that means like game night, game night, yeah, all of those like that. Any events that,
That's any events that have a cost associated with them.
And then, option three, we keep our year-room programming and we significantly reduce
pride fest into a much smaller front with no-shake case concert, preliminary zones.
We remove the 21-plus area and we reduce our rentals.
So those are three general options that Christopher has suggested has food for thought.
Although I really don't want to have a motion to make a binding decision right now because
I think this is a weighty conversation and do think that it would be appropriate for us
to kind of talk through what we think are the most valuable aspects of what our
commission under the banner middle-found pride offers are community and I am
going to actually entertain a motion to suspend the rules of order for this
conversation. Motion will spend the rules of order. Thank you Laura motion second.
I'll second that motion.
Was that Kai?
Yes.
Kai, you got the second, all those in favor.
Hi.
Okay, all those opposed.
Sentience.
Rules of order are suspended, which basically means this is just a free, undirected conversation.
I will suggest that we do a time checking about 15 minutes and see where we are.
right? We can just go around and share thoughts which may be easiest. Katie, do you have thoughts?
I would love to just start out one thought which we talked about just a little bit last time
with Dean Knight that if we were still keeping community events is that we could right away put
game night back to like every other month or slash it in half. Just slash it in half definitely.
That's how we had it in the past. I know this last year we did it monthly, but we could definitely go back. I just want to go
That's an idea because that would save like $6,000 of the
That full community events budget if that would help kind of with any of these like if that would help we would be fine with that
I know that's how we did in the past. So I just want to throw that out there.
Yeah, I'll throw out that
But I think we need to be a little bit more careful with the scope of investment that
we make in community events.
I think we've done some very large community events over the past few years that we should
definitely scale down if we do them again.
But I think game night, frankly, is important not to think game night is important to the entire community.
It is a constant social engagement and a building community.
I also think that things like our community dinner is necessary because there's people who don't have anywhere else to go.
But, you know, when we come to doing other events and workshops looking at the cost and
trying to reduce those costs as possible, but I think the community events are important.
I also agree that I think the community events is kind of what sets us apart as a commission
and like I just hear so much positive feedback like and I get messages from I'm in communication
with Jen from the cafe and she like send me messages and be like you know
someone came in today and they were telling me like how thankful they were for
the game night like it really like it was meaningful to them and they were
like thanks so much for having it and like so like hearing that kind of stuff and
I've heard now multiple times of and I'm not attributing this to game night but
just in general what we're doing with these community events is like I've
worse, more than enough, a non-zero amount of people say that they have moved to Middletown
because of
How this community is and, like, the subject. So, like, it's been more than a couple of people that I've heard that problem. I'm always just like, wow, that's amazing. So, I definitely, like, would not want to eliminate community events programs. And I wouldn't want to eliminate the scholarship program. Like, that's where we make impact, right? I have a question that I'm going to the 21 plus area that
we do like the people who run it are making money off of it right like a profit off of it like
what's the cost to us do we know? The cost is the requirement to rent and put up fencing we get paid
a portion of the gross profits of the okay so yes it is at the cost for us to implement the fencing
we don't get back that amount from the profits off of the like blue sales and stuff like that.
Wait, these are our costs. Yeah. They're like so. I'm just curious. I'm just thinking
about it. Do we get money from them? Yes. Is it usually greater than
however much it is? 2558? 2558. Yes. Is it $5,000 greater than that amount? Okay.
As far as I'll step in, I agree, I think what everyone's saying, as far as the events
are either.
I know there have been a lot of folks asking to bring back the speed dating.
We lost relish unfortunately when they closed down a mining of venue that would give
us their space for, and no extra cost has been a challenge.
However, I know there's lots of other restaurants that we can host a mixer where we don't have
to give.
I don't think we really would lose attendance if we took away the free drink ticket.
that we can definitely cost that way
and have people just make sure we go to spaces
that have their own food and beverages
or like Bergenhaus,
which doesn't charge for community spaces.
Bergenhaus, they're closed.
They're completely closed.
Oh, darn it.
Okay, well, I know I can bring my budget down
for the mixers and social events that I do
that people are wanting
and I know that we can come up with some creative ways
to still have mixers meet up stating situations
and still have those bring that same kind of programming
and cut the costs in half if not even completely
if we can just find a venue that will let us come there.
The only downside is it might not be
to shut the whole venue down for us
but I think we can still work around that
and still have fun safely.
So I'm just saying I'll work hard to bring programming
and still keep it in a budget.
I agree with what everyone's saying.
Like I feel like the community programs
and the scholarship programs are all really important
and what that's a support, I would hate to see that go, I think, by just being more
fiscally responsible on, you know, the price of those activities and just really paying
attention because I feel like we really haven't had a lot of insight on what the budget looks
like. And so, you know, it's very easy to approve things and not really think too much about
the price tag. Knowing that we need to go in and be more responsible, we know right now
at the beginning of the year that we have to, you know, be careful as we're doing this.
And I feel like we can't balance that. The other thing I want to say is that,
you know, we did have some success with the fundraiser that we did with the 5K or
or wakethon or whatever it was,
but I feel like we can add more things like that,
where we are raising money and trying to recover
some of the losses.
I appreciate, Angela, I just wanna say,
I appreciate the comment about fundraisers.
And I think doing fundraisers is a good way
to stop the bleed, but at this time,
And I also don't think because we have a track record
of multiple fundraiser that we can say
with confidence over this year,
what that will bring in for guaranteed record.
But I think it's, the fundraisers are a great way to start.
Angela, thank you for letting me in.
I agree with you, Bree.
I definitely do think we should be running fundraisers.
I don't think we should be counting on that income.
It'll be a nice bonus.
but we should definitely not be counting on it.
I also agree that we should keep going
with the community events.
It's the community events that set us apart.
If we have to cut back on pride, we can,
but also just looking at the list of expenses
from the commission, or not from the commission,
from the center, there are a couple of expenses on there
that I'm wondering if we can cut back on.
For example, there is a monthly storage unit fee
of 169.50 a month.
If we can, we need the size storage unit we've got, which I'm assuming
based on a little preliminary research is a 10 by 10, is there someplace else we can
store that in a less expensive way. We've also got a square fee on there of, I think it's
big the budget. The budget. The full budget. Now that's a square plus membership. If that,
I'm wondering if that is for us or if that is for the chamber. And if it's for us. It's for us.
Okay. It's our website. It's website. Is it or is it actually the ability to take credit card
payments? Because you can get the free credit card payments. Which not for credit card payments,
credit card payments are generally processed directly through the chamber.
Okay, but they're using a square device based on what was they provided for us at the
yes, but I mean we can like if you want to reach out and ask them specifically for the contract
what is that charge is, please feel free. Okay because I mean if it's just the payment processing
we can get a free account where they just charges per transaction. I don't think we've got
that many coming in that it would be add up to four to twenty bucks a year. I will just caution
that we cannot get money. Yeah, we we as mission are financial sponsor, which will be a discussion
conversation. Yeah. And depending on that, they may already have a mechanism that will not be
charged to us which is totally fair but I think we need to go through every expense that is being
assessed against our budget and see if we can bring it down.
I agree but that means that again
when we say we need that means that one is going to volunteer and do it otherwise it doesn't get done.
Hi, I volunteer.
I will be here.
The answer is I will dig into this.
Yep, if you want to explanation current charges, you can reach for a Haley.
As long as they remain.
Active, although I just be clear the Chamber of Commerce contract is over.
Right.
Great.
Can I ask a question about the grant program with Q plus and peer pride.
I know just like in the example one just has an example of capping it.
So would that just be they would then probably go through everything and let's say events
in half that they're doing in the community that we're paying towards.
So it seems like capital 10,000.
So it's save 11,000, 575, is that what it means just that the ongoing events they're doing
monthly hypothetically for each and we need to restructure both grants because they're
expired anyhow okay so I'll say that Q plus is already brought up significantly reducing
their offerings due to lack of consistent attendance okay um I know I'm going to talk about fundraising
during events later even though we're kind of like tapping in we've talked a little bit about it
But the other thing too is like I
don't maybe I shouldn't talk about it now when we're talking about like who's taking over like our fiduciary like stuff
Potentially like there might be opportunities because I know in the past it's basically been like Chris writing Christopher writing grants, right?
Applying for grants and stuff or who's writing them?
Applying for grants like for we've received like a little something
That was made just a lot of a couple of years.
Okay, you know, potentially as a commission maybe like we could have a subcommittee that
does like goes into that and like starts trying to get other and again we can't rely on
it right now but it could be something that we start up right try to take some of that.
It's just it's weird I'm struggling with like we're acting like a nonprofit but we're not
nonprofit, and I'm really having our time with that.
We can talk later, I guess.
That's what we did. We're in a brother. Yeah. So the important thing is we are
go back to a middle, this commission is an advisory to the mayor who makes all final decisions
based on our recommendations. So Christopher or I have met with the mayor regularly after our
commissioning the case.
We advise through the mayor with our recommendations how the mayor
authorizes our financial sponsor which is the 501C3. We, that is all commissioners here,
none of us are on the board of this violon C3. Okay, so they're in the 501C3.
The 501C3 exists. We never had our own 501C3.
The chamber contract included here in the packet
explains the relationship a little bit more in detail. But effectively they created a sub-account for
a project called Middletown Pride and received funds on behalf of that project and dispersed funds
as directed under the mayor's decisions in our recommendations.
So with that, let's lose in the chamber, are they still going to solve where you have
50,000 dollars.
So was that me by them saying or no longer a partner, sponsored, how much income?
Well, that's what I, we can, that's the status of the Chamber of Commerce contract, but
So basically, spoiler, we cannot operate in any fashion as we currently are without a financial sponsor.
And so my suggestion when we get to the status of the Chamber of Commerce contract is going to be that we need to immediately recommend to the mayor tomorrow to issue an RFP in accordance with the city of middle town's purchasing ordinances.
So we can identify a new find and basically someone who can pretty much step into what the chamber has been providing.
So to be honest with you, to me, you're now the chamber running price, we're not going to have price.
That's why, yeah, we need to discuss filing an RFP. We're not only would we not have a price fast, we will not be able to have community events.
What about this event that's literally Monday?
So the chamber has not terminated their services.
They are legitimately decent partners.
And so they're still handling as Katie knows.
They're still paying stuff on our behalf.
But they are waiting for us to make a decision sooner rather than later.
Okay, that makes sense.
So now what are we going to do with the 200K rollover route?
The 200K rollover would go to the first of people who would win an R&P and enter into
a multi-year contract with us.
It's in their contract at the time that their contract spires and we identify a new financial
sponsor.
It rolls over to them.
If we do not, then it reverts and is given, I believe, to the city of Middletown, which
means it disappears into the general fund that's lost for our use permanently.
Do we want to have more conversation?
This is the 17-minute time check.
So my philosophy, I work with a lot of budgets, is you
really got to hang on pass history for
future success, at least for faces.
So a lot of good thought in operating scholarships and raising fundraisers for income, but it's something that is tough to bank your dollar on.
So you generally start with the biggest budget line items first and you work their way down.
You know, you produce the soundstage, kind of, disco, the amount, the reduces I can say,
you kind of disco the time of the event.
And so we ask for you, I think.
We need to cap our events that we have, like, the dating night, you know, at 2000 or facts, whatever, I don't know how much. The, you know, the game night is, but maybe cap it at $1,000. They, they are, they are, it would be hard press to have them lower what it is because they're, they're not really pulling the profit.
Yeah, well, I think we could lower the cost by capping the number of people.
Sure.
And maybe also reducing food options and things like that.
Those are things we could do.
But yeah, and I appreciate your insight on that.
And I would just suggest rather than capping event costs at $2,000,
I think we need to set the total expenditure in our next couple of conversations.
It's like how much money throughout the year we're going to get to community advice.
And that track our commitments because otherwise we'd run through the risk of, cool, now we
have $10,000 or $10,000 of us.
Right, but at a high level for you, how many events do we have?
0.25, 0.26, you know, divide that by a certain amount.
Now, you say, well, when I happen to have many,
there'll be cats that they're going to have.
And then it could be more.
It's kind of that easy.
It sounds like we have a lot of good ideas
for how to reduce things.
And now, because we have been kind of like, OK, OK, OK,
because we really haven't had to worry about this all that much.
So I think between all the people that are here
and like I think we have enough of a mindset that we are going to be able to cut costs and places
like I don't think anybody's like no I want to keep everything expensive like we'll figure it out
as long as we have the community events like
um given the time is it okay if we resume the
schedule meeting okay do we need motion anything yeah I can have a motion uh motion to resume schedule meeting
second Laura motion second and dolly all those in favor say hi hi all those
opposed sanctions here we go fairly we raise our hand too next item violation of
performer contracts hey everyone yeah so I know last month we had talked
briefly about an issue I raised about performers that violated their contract and
how we would like to pursue that moving forward.
I'm still in the same sort of
mindset that I had last month and so yeah interested in hearing if anyone has
any thoughts about anything to pursue it otherwise I'm good at yeah yeah for me I think what
my understanding was Derek that you were going to kind of come up with a wording of emotion
that rather than by name we'll simply set performers who no show no called or did XYZ are
are prohibitive from performing at Middleton Pride or something.
Yes.
So I would make the motion.
So essentially performers, contractors who fail to fulfill their obligations of the contract for Middleton Pride would not be hired for future Middleton Pride events.
Okay. So let's just be, I want to write this out specifically. So in case Christopher can't
transcribe it. So can you say the motion slowly? Sure. So it would be, so I would make a motion
that performers or contractors who fail to fulfill the terms of the Middletown Pride contract
will not be hired for future Middletown Pride events.
Okay, I'm going to kind of leave a kind of a statement.
So first, I'm going to ask because there's a motion on the table.
He said, I propose, you know, I don't think he officially motioned.
He said, I would make a motion.
If it's okay, Laura, I mean,
What I was also going to say is I see where you're going is to do it as an amendment.
This one.
Yeah, but I think you're on.
I think you have a great idea because I suspect you're now Angela.
Yes.
I would like to amend that myself.
So we're going to first.
We do not have a motion.
Sorry, we have a motion.
We do not have a second.
Derek has made a motion.
We cannot amend something.
And I'm just trying to do this formally because this is going to have an impact.
We have a motion, we cannot amend it until the second by Laura's evidence.
We now enter into discussion by which Laura, do you want to offer an amendment?
I offer an amendment that we include in outlaws that fall on advisement by the middle
down, right, LGBTQIA plus commissions, that we can consent to an excused. Okay,
so just
to get the wording is like contractors who fail to fill their contract without a formal
I'm going to ask you one more time to say that's because we have to vote on it.
contractors who fail and what's your how how do you want to word it so he said that contractors
reconsideration will be
granted
based on an appeal to the military LGBTQA plus commission okay
do we have a second
Do we we are seconding the motion to amend?
Sure second
Monica has the second motion by Laura to amend now. We're just discussing this a method
So the amendment adds a reconsideration option
I would like to tweak that slightly a
A, the reconsideration suggests a formal process.
I would like to put a clause in there that specifies, essentially, that contractors who
fail to complete their contract without notice are there for,
because if they want to cancel
the contract and they tell us about it, they should not be subject to this, the same degree.
We're in discussion for Laura's and you can amend an amendment and we'll just track them each.
I will say that without notice is not, that means someone could tell you five minutes before that they're not performing.
And that's notice.
I would say if you want to pursue that without prior approval from the commission.
Can I say like in the contract right there is there something in the actual contract
that says what is a failure to like complete the contract like what counts because maybe
that instead of us like trying to figure out the exact wording right now, like we can obviously
do what we're doing, but like failure to what's the... you know what I was saying, we need
60 days notice, we need 20 days notice for this, we need 20 days notice for this, or barring
an emergency or something like that.
and having these are the circumstances under which there are a lot of people.
Hi everyone. So there is language in the contract that states
the agreement that contractors perform is subjected to tension by sickness, accidents,
riots, strikes, epidemic acts of gods or other legitimate conditions beyond their control of the
contractor fails to perform during the a lot of time for whatever reasons. The party agrees
that no compensation will be owed to the contractor.
Okay, so as Derek has pointed out, the excuse and notice is baked into the contract already.
So right now, what we have on the table is that we have the right to not hire them again
and they have the right to appeal to the commission.
Only if you approve my amendment.
Right. But that's what's on the table. Yeah, we're currently approving the amendment only so the amendment will add the reconsideration was there further discussion on this specific amendment.
Okay, seeing none all in favor.
Commissioner Timman's amendment to add the reconsideration language.
Say aye.
All those opposed.
abstentions. Okay, amendment passes. So now we vote on the policy recommendation from Derrick,
which is failure. I'm not going to even try to remember exactly. I'm going to have to look at
the transcript, but failure to execute your contract is going to result in a prohibition against you
being hired again by Middletown Pride, reconsideration is possible as Laura
meted. So with that in mind, that motion was already seconded so we go directly
into a vote. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay.
Any
status of the Chamber of Commerce contract.
We have the contract in the packet.
The contract is term is over.
Chamber, as I said, are partners.
They've been good partners.
They understand the importance of middle company.
So it's not like they're walking away and saying,
your money is now dumped on your left.
They are giving us some grace to understand
how the city wants, but I think in general, what they were contracted to do is pretty solid.
Like it's the services that are ultimately necessary to maintain not only
in a high-fest, but some year-round financial stability
and processing of payments, as well as general point of contact
because obviously none of us are full-time pride commissioners.
And when it comes down to dealing with contracts,
when it comes down to dealing with contractors,
when it comes down to maintaining the infrastructure,
the merchandise, the inventory,
we don't really have that ability.
So, for that in mind, I would strongly, I mean, I'll happy to make the motion myself.
I'm going to suggest that we recommend the mayor that in accordance with Middletowns
purchasing and procurement guidelines that we advise the mayor if he should immediately
issue an RFP for similar services.
It's the just so folks know and able to your contract an excess of $100,000 will go has
to go before the council.
There has to be at this point a competitive bidding process which will be handled by an
RFP for those of you who know it as a request for proposals.
The request for proposals is actually handled as a formal government business process.
It is published. There is a sealed bidding period. The same materials is provided during
the RFP process.
This is going to be clear. We cannot communicate with bitters. If you
know someone who's interested in it, it is important for that conflict of interest, for that
ethics that once the RFP is issued, we do not engage. If someone has a question, we direct
them to the RFP administrator who will be purchasing.
Is the idea it would be for the same
$50,000 for three years or is there- That is generally not how an RFP is- Okay, they are actually
bidding how much they'll charge us. Okay, that is- Thank you.
Technically open to negotiation, um, once depending on how it is, you know, the 20. Yep, so we
comes in. I would be surprised. Technically, the commission was doing it for 40 because
that there was a 10 K bonus that was amortized over the term in addition to the base thing.
I would strongly recommend we don't characterize that as a bonus. That was because
Their understanding of their responsibilities did not match the expectation when our
pride fest exploded into a 35,000 person and they and I'm going to be frank, they have
suffered losses in supporting us.
They have taken hits and $10,000 in my opinion does not cover their losses, but that's what
they were willing to take in order to continue the project. So I now, bonus to me, it's basically
making up for a long time.
So this is scope, right? So we have scope growth and that's a, that's one of the things
or that like we didn't tell them that maybe doing logistics for a 35,000 person event with
taking over half the city, downtown, having to deal with.
We expect. Yeah, well, yes, the commission did not success
It's just how good our ideas are
So do you need a motion to say I go to the mayor and do this I would appreciate a motion
Okay, that motion that you immediately go to the mayor
The rest that we have a RFP for services that the chamber of commerce provided
that it's no longer present.
Okay, there's a motion to make a recommendation
to the mayor to immediately issue an RFP.
We have a second.
Okay.
I heard Katie first, so we're going to get Laura's
made the motion.
Before we go, before the vote, just so everyone knows the process.
It's going to take once the mayor approves.
It's going to take a bit to formally write the RFP.
It is not an easy process because each one has to be tailored, then it has to get approved.
It goes out to public for, I have to look at the minimum requirements.
Then there is a review process to confirm that the bids match the bare minimum requirements.
at that point, a decision will be made on how to process that RFP, who would award it to.
After that, a contract has to be formally negotiated.
That contract then has to go probably to finance and government.
Once finance and government approves that, it has to go before the Common Council for a full vote,
only after that time period, after that vote, 15 days later, I believe it can be executed.
The reason I'm bringing up why it has to be done now is that if we don't get the RFP issued we may not be able to bring us to the council enough to October.
So this is going to be a quick turnaround so we can at least have a contract award hopefully by September October at the latest.
So from a discussion standpoint, I know that two years ago before you came on, we were
submitting ARP's previously, is that a different scope or is that the same scope?
That scope was to take over primary organization responsibilities, not financial.
So that was specifically for someone to run an organizing plan.
and just the Prime Funds, not hold our budget.
So that the one response, that was like $60,000 bid,
that was $60,000 just to deal with one day about it.
This will be scoped to mimic the chamber.
All right, so started in a row.
So, a lot of times suppliers that handle that much money
haven't been qualified suppliers that are kind of certified to, you know, that's a great question.
So I first they have to be established by the one C3 or there's a couple of non-profit types
that I suggest, you know, I'll suggest to the mayor that we go with because there are lobbyist groups
groups who still represent the community. I'm going to suggest that they have to demonstrate
a proven track record of having handled previous ones, which is common in our RFPs. We solicit
full experience, like what relevant experience do you bring? I would also suggest that either
a requirement or preferred, because we can do one or both, is that they have a mission
that includes service to the LGBTQI plus community.
It doesn't have to be a requirement,
but I definitely think that we should be clear
that you're working,
you have experience working with LGBTQI plus people
if you wanna be part of a pride.
It doesn't have to be a mandatory,
if we only get a couple of respondents
in the early middle of the United Way.
My question is realistically, what is the last possible day like that we need to have
this to be able to actually pull off a pride fest next June?
What month did I take over as a organizer?
I don't know.
I think it was November.
Okay.
I just, because like there's going to be onboarding, there's going to be like, you know, it's
not, it's, it's like going to be hit the ground running.
You've got to have the contract to place by January 1st.
We'll want to contract in place before January 1st because we can't do stuff like start
negotiating and booking.
I understand, but you've got December where everybody's all, I'm hoping that if we issue
the RFP, we can have the vote at the council meeting.
Yeah, I was just wondering, I'm saying a lot, if that doesn't happen, what do we think
like realistically, like, how late could we go without being like, that we can't do this
year?
Um, January, we delayed this, um, and there's still more to talk about.
Yeah.
I'm, yeah.
Sorry.
That's okay.
I, I think that drop dead date, um, is kind of more up in the air and let's, let us, um,
At this point, we don't have respondents,
then the real reality is that not only made me not have a
pre-profess, but we will be unable to continue any type of
programming or grant programming for the future.
Okay, can I say a quick question?
Of course.
Is there a minimum amount of people you need from our peers?
Like, if one applied, that's okay.
It's not like you have to have a certain amount.
It is not a requirement to have a certain amount and just because we only have one doesn't mean it has to be awarded.
Yep, we don't have the last one.
Yep, so if someone technically qualify like gets in the door but then we look at it and say,
huh, your entire thing may may be been made up and written by AI. May. I mean this is
a hypothetical. Okay. I'm really going to emphasize, do not call people on the RFP.
In advance of the RFP being issued, please feel free to tell folks that an RFP is
going to be issued. That is okay because you can inform them that there's an opportunity,
so
yes. It might be nice. Yeah, and yeah, we have made it clear to some of the organizations
that were aware of the contract ending that once we get to this point, members of the commission
who have been having conversations with them, just about the future middle-town pride,
those conversations at that point.
We have a motion in a second. All those in favor of
making their recommendation from there. Say aye. All those opposed say nay.
Sentions.
Matter passes with unanimous consent.
Routine responsibilities. So there's a question
And what do I kind of do separate from being organizer?
Okay.
It's on the back.
Yeah.
I am going to also say at this point,
like you have the list.
I don't think we need to do anything.
We're going to list at this moment,
because honestly,
until we know what's happening with that RFP,
until we know,
like what is this commission going to be doing? I don't think we really need to
start figuring out who's going to be taking individual tasks. I'll continue
to do these to maintain, but this is also me saying, you know, again, if folks
anytime someone says we should, that means that's we either identify a person right
than for that or it's not going to get done. So thanks to everyone who said we should do something
and then follow it up by volunteering to do it tonight.
Any discussion on that task list?
We will discuss it later. That's on point. We'll discuss it later, especially because for all we know
Oh, as we rescope the contract, they might be, for instance, they might be much better
and have an existing grant administration program that we can plug into and not take on
responsibility to ourselves.
Who would meet with us?
Sorry.
right?
Yeah, right.
We wasn't, if they wanted to do it.
Okay.
Similarly, with Militant Pride 2027, we're all some responsibilities.
You know, we have people who volunteer for Valley Producer, March Producer, and Showcase Producer.
Thanks to everyone who did.
Thanks for everyone who stepped up.
But I think it's premature right now to even come up with that assignment.
because we don't know what price is going to look like next. But keep in mind as we get closer
with that RFP, once it's awarded, we will still be giving direction on how we imagine things to go.
Yearly events?
Does anyone have any comments?
So given the fact that
to some of the ease that are going to be a hurry
for we have to move kind
of to soldier outside the chamber.
How are we playing on like that?
I think that in terms of our yearly events
and our current community events,
we should think about what events we want to host
and we can propose them after we come up with,
just how we want to handle the options of finances.
But I wouldn't, I would suggest that we not abandon our general routine plans.
We should be making sure that whatever we pose is very, has an eye towards keeping costs
in control.
And it could be like maybe when we propose an event and we approve it out of the meeting,
we have to go to the chamber and say, would you be willing to process this thing of course?
At this point, I'm going to take it as a given until they tell us otherwise that they're
going to continue to serve as our financial sponsor.
It's just like they are in the process of kind of can tell you, as we get closer to November,
they're not going to be as engaged in terms of planning for the next year.
They're not going to handle the contracts or anything.
Uh, um, do you have any other comments, Laura?
Um, you know, given that Wesley and I'm not clear on their relationship,
you say they've made
love and longer be sorry. We did all the events at Wesley and because they were sponsored.
And I wonder if that's going to be something that we want to see good doing.
Do you want to?
I will just say I don't think that Wesleyan is just going to stop hosting events on campus.
That's, I can't imagine that happening.
And in particular, like the October ones are like they do a whole month long thing.
And I'm sure it's in the budget for this year for the Resource Center.
I can check with Dolatria, but I'm sure it's already there for this year.
There are effectively multiple branches of Besson, so the office that is in charge of
basically their community engagement is not the office that has been working with us
and partnering with the student body and employees faculty and us to host the event.
It's a completely disconnected, but that's a good, that's a good concern to have.
Yeah, moving
out to end, fundraising during events. I just, you know, we host these events for free to the
public, and I love that. But there are people that I think would be willing to like donate
something if it was just like a like when they check in just be like there's no
cost to this event but if you ever want to donate to Middletown Pride to help
us keep events like this going here's a QR code like that's it like I don't
want to be like pushy or anything but just like saying going forward at any
events that we do host just having a QR code available to be able to like but I
don't even know if we have a portal for donations that's the other like so
That's why I wanted to talk about it.
My suggestion, dolly, would be to reach out to Hilly
and CC me in Christopher, please, and vice chair Katie.
And say we, you know, I always start up
I think, you know, we are in the process of, you know,
identifying a new financial sponsor, but in the short term,
could you help us create a donation portal so that we can start fundraising at our events?
So I think that's going to be a small ask and then you can report back to us
and what they say and if they say yes before our next meeting share the QR code with everybody.
Cool thank you. Thank you for bringing me up. Anything else to discuss on that?
old business. Another pain. How was the last game? Fantastic.
We had a good
group of people. That was only a lot of new people again. Yeah. Yeah, it's great.
We're just seeing every time that there's new people coming and it feels like
we're reaching more. I find it just really interesting. This is the last couple
months. It's a good amount of people. Sometimes there'll be even like ten
and people that come in that are brand new,
just really excited about it, it's really laid back.
I feel like we have waves, like we'll have waves
and people coming over and over again,
and then they'll kind of stop coming,
and then there's like this new wave that comes in.
But like I said, Jen keeps getting feedback
from the community, it's kind of become a,
like every time I'm there, there's definitely
like community there, like it's become a safe space,
I think, in the community, which is nice.
it's fantastic yes I want to read my check-out was when we first started in
2019 I want to have pride 365 and so I had December now skating at the ice
ring one person so for this growth is really amazing it's nice I'm more
consistent stuff, I think, it's like people start hearing about it and be like, oh yeah,
it's cool.
We can do a nice skating again one day.
Okay, I'm going to let it ring again. Oh, it's gone.
These would be demolished if it's a Middletown 5 gram program, Q plus is on
suspension, pure pride. At this point it's
operating as if the grant has not been suspended but I have to
if there's some folks about how your privacy is structured for taking leadership responsibilities.
And then we'll be able to have a conversation like I'm not going to suggest we renew.
I'm not going to file for renewals to grant until we come up with our next steps in our guidance.
We skipped A to the Pride pedal.
Well, I want to end on the Pride pedal.
Oh, perfect.
We have to make the motion to, you know, move the agenda item.
I hear by Rizanta's chair.
I'll say it was great event. We had just about 30 people who came.
A lot more than that signed up and.
They were still impressed by how many came because they said sometimes they'll get.
15, maybe 20 people so it was a great event.
We went after to the brewery and had pizza and beverages
and it was just, it was really neat to see a community in a different way.
On the river it was really neat to see there was a bunch of new people.
I would say half the people there had not participated in the pool before,
possibly had ever kayaked before. So they brought a lot of boats for people to use and we're
you know teaching them at the beginning how to do it and how to pull the invasive water chestnuts
well. And then it was meet people at the snacks and drinks. We're just really spending time.
I don't know hanging out and talking. It was very neat. It just felt very community heavy and just
great showing. We did not have ASL, so we did not, it'll be 500 less than what we had originally
put through, so that was, that worked out too. But yeah, it was a great event.
Thank you.
I'm going to entertain a motion to adjourn. A motion to adjourn. Thank you. Laura made the motion.