The Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency (IURA) Governance Committee on an unnamed meeting date voted 3-0 to extend and annualize its independent minute-taking contract, approving a $1,500 stopgap extension and directing staff to move the service to a standard 12-month contract cycle.

Committee co-vice chair Donna Fleming opened the item and moved approval of the change. "Next item is a new item of business regarding independent contracting services for minute taking," Fleming said before asking staff to explain the recommendation. The motion was seconded by Ellen McCallister and passed unanimously.

Nels, an IURA staff member who explained the item for the record, said the agency trialed an independent contractor through a temporary employment agency in 2023 after internal staff capacity limited in-house minute production. He told the committee the contractor has been paid $35 per hour and that the IURA originally used a one-time $5,000 contract. "So that's the nutshell here is to, 1, do a $1,500 extension, and secondly, move this contract to an annual 12 month kind of contract rather than just a, you know, $5,000 until you spend it down," Nels said.

Nels said the contractor prepares minutes from the online stream, which the agency has found efficient, and that annualizing contracts would align minute-taking with the agency's other independent-contractor practices and make budgeting simpler. Fleming and McCallister both supported the change; McCallister said she "like[s] the consistency of that with the other independent contractors," and noted that paying a contractor frees IURA staff to focus on higher-priority work.

The committee recorded the vote as 3-0 in favor. The approved action funds the service through the agency's next budget cycle and directs staff to convert minute-taking to a recurring 12-month contract to be reviewed with other independent-contract services in January.

The committee did not adopt additional changes to the scope of services in the motion and did not set a competitive-bidding requirement; Nels said the annual review would allow the agency to pursue more outreach or competition if desired.