- As we have a quorum, I'll go ahead and call to order this regular session of the Bloomington Common
- Council on Tuesday, September 30th Will the clerk please call the roll? Councilmember Rallo here Piedmont
- Smith here Stasburg here daily here. So like here Rosenberger here. Sorry here. I
- Great thank you. Before I do our agenda summation for this evening I'm going to start off the meeting
- with a point of interest which is something I often do or I nearly always do for our regular sessions.
- And tonight I thought it appropriate to remind everyone why we're here oddly on a Tuesday night because
- usually our regular sessions occur on Wednesday evenings. But tomorrow is the first day of the bird sorry is.
- the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. And Yom Kippur is celebrated starting just before sunset on the 10th
- day of, and I hope I'm saying, I'm pronouncing this right, Tishrei, until just after the following nightfall.
- And this year it corresponds roughly to October 1st to 2nd.
- And for those of you who, like me, don't know anything about the Hebrew calendar, I went down a little
- rabbit hole looking at that today. It doesn't follow the solar-based Gregorian calendar. And so that's
- why Jewish holidays are not always on the same day of the year. They kind of float in the way that there
- are several holidays in other cultures that kind of float throughout the year. And Tishrei is actually
- the first month of the Hebrew calendar. So there's several holidays during this time for that faith
- tradition.
- Yom Kippur is considered one of the holiest days of the year and is translated to mean day of atonement.
- And Yom Kippur is traditionally celebrated by fasting and otherwise abstaining from other physical comforts
- and going to synagogue and praying for forgiveness and repentance and participating in special religious
- services during that day.
- So for any of our community members here in Bloomington who may be celebrating Yom Kippur, may you have
- a meaningful fast. Then moving on to our agenda summation for the evening. We don't have any minutes
- for approval.
- So we will jump right into reports tonight. First, we will have reports from council members. Then we
- will have the mayor and city offices and there are no reports from the mayor and city offices this evening.
- Council committees where we will have a report from the special fiscal committee and a short conversation
- about that. And then we will have our first period of reports from the public. So that's the first time
- that a member of the public who wishes to speak tonight can speak to an item not on our
- agenda and they'll have three minutes during that period to do so. After reports we will have appointments
- to boards and commissions and we do have some appointments to boards and commissions this evening and
- then we will have four pieces of legislation for first reading. We will start with ordinance 2025 32
- Amending title 20, which is the unified development ordinance regarding a use table amendment urban
- agriculture commercial Then we'll have ordinance 2025 38 fixing the salaries of officers and employees
- of police and fire departments for the year 2026 Then we'll do first reading for ordinance 2025 39 fixing
- the salaries of appointed deputies and employees for the Bloomington City Clerk and
- For the year 2026 and then we will wrap up with ordinance 2025 40 to fix the salaries of appointed officers
- non-union non-union and AFSCME employees for the year 2026 After those first readings, which we don't
- discuss things on first reading. So we'll just read those into the record We'll have our legislation
- for second readings and resolutions. These are items that will be discussed and potentially voted on
- this evening We'll start with resolution
- 2517 Re initiating a proposal to amend title 20 which is the UDO regarding Affordability incentives
- and planned unit developments then we'll have resolution 2025 18 Approving the naming of the stadium
- district in the area around Miller Showers Park
- And then we will have appropriation ordinance 2025 08 transferring funds from the general fund to the
- fiber connectivity fund and then appropriation ordinance 2025 09 to appropriate general fund expenditures
- that were not appropriated last year. That's kind of a cleanup appropriation.
- because sometimes adjustments have to be made mid-year. Then we will have Ordinance 2025-35 amending
- Title IX, which is the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled Water, and that is a rate adjustment. And
- then we will have Ordinance 2025-36 authorizing acquisition, construction, and installation for certain
- extensions and improvements to the Water Works utility of Bloomington and issuing
- bonds after those pieces of
- Legislation we will have an additional period of public comment for items not on the agenda So if you
- have something else that you would like to share with us that is not on the agenda That will be another
- time to do so and you may speak at one of those two periods of general public comment And of course
- each piece of the legislation that is discussed tonight under second readings and resolutions also has
- a period of public comment attached to that we will have any notes about the council schedule and then
- we will adjourn and
- So after all of that no minutes for approval, so we have reports from council members. So let's start
- down at the far end with Council members, sorry to ever report this evening. Thank you. Thank
- you councilmember Rosenberger Yes, thank you
- Tonight I just wanted to take a minute to I guess talk about a few sad things and offer some condolences
- on Friday night. Sean Sullivan was shot in the downtown Bloomington area and actually ended up happening
- on my property. I live in multifamily housing and it happened right there next to the beeline and the
- convention center and I know it's hit a lot of people really hard and I didn't really prepare
- Sentences like I should I guess I just want to say like this was Such a sad event. It was like two minutes
- of people arguing and then one gunshot that went off and Like the Bloomingtonian has reported that these
- people did not know each other And it's just like so sad for someone to get murdered in the heat of
- the moment or any time and I so I just want to offer condolences to the Sullivan family and to let anyone
- know if they
- would like to contribute to funeral expenses, there's a GoFundMe that you can find on the Bloomingtonians
- website. Another sad thing that happened, someone downtown, Bobby, was assaulted by two other men on
- Friday night. And there's also a GoFundMe for Bobby on the Bloomingtonians website for dental work.
- He is missing a lot of teeth and could need some help.
- And then the third thing is, it was just recently the third anniversary of the murder of Nate Stratton,
- who was riding a scooter on North Walnut Street when Madeleine Howard left Kilroy's Conkirkwood driving
- drunk and ran him over. I wanted to say thank you so much to Jonathan Frey, who just did a very long
- article on the life of Nate in the IDS. So if you all get a chance to read that,
- It is very touching. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Zulek. Yes, I do have a report. And also, I
- second everything that you said. So thank you. Recently, the Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Committee,
- also known as FABTAC, which is a lot easier to say, met for the first time this year on Friday.
- Am happy to announce that I was elected chair of that committee and now have to produce the annual report
- within a month So that's exciting And that's the only report I have thank you. Thank you and congratulations
- Courtney sorry councilmember Daley No report. Thank you. Just congratulations councilmember Zulek. Thank
- you for taking that on Thank you down at the other end councilmember Rallo. I
- Yes, thanks to councilmember Rosenberger for Describing those terrible incidents. I won't I won't expound
- on those but I will say that Something unexpected happened today. I was driving on hillside and I saw
- the aftermath of a deer vehicle collision and It was five o'clock in the afternoon
- And which is rather surprising. I think most of them happen in the evening and it just brought to mind
- that Over a hundred on average deer vehicle collisions occur every year on in Monroe County many of
- them in Bloomington many of them on thoroughfares like hillside I Think that this again reminds me and
- maybe others that deer management would be something advisable for a community to consider and
- Not just because of the damage caused by the deer or the terrible situation of a deer that is I killed
- in that manner or maimed and wanders off to die maybe weeks later of sepsis or something a horrible
- I think we've all seen deer with broken legs hobbling through neighborhoods And we profess to be a community
- it cares about animals so I
- We really should pay mind to this. But besides the humane aspect, there is also urban agriculture, which
- we're going to be considering in the near future. People try to grow food in their yards. I think it's
- unfair to people, especially low-income people, who can't afford to build fences to try to exclude deer.
- And there's also tick-borne diseases that have become more and more prevalent
- And there's a number of them in our community that people are subject to. So it's something that I think
- that we need to attend to. I know that it's sort of dropped off the radar in certain respects. And I
- was on a dear task force for nearly two years. We made recommendations. Those are dated now. I think
- that we could revisit it. There are probably advances, probably in brief control that we could revisit that
- could be applied, we might be able to get grants for it, et cetera. But in any case, I'll just conclude
- by saying the peak deer collisions happen this time of year in October through January. That's the rut,
- and so they're more active. The bucks are chasing does, and they run out into traffic, and so with the
- cooler temperatures. So we should really pay mind to driving defensively, going to speed limits, and
- trying to avoid
- Collisions just for your own sake That's all I have. Thank you Thank You councilmember Piedmont Smith
- Yes, I Also wanted to comment on the violence against unhoused people this weekend As councilmember
- Rosenberger said there was one who was one
- community member who was shot and killed on Friday evening on Madison. And then there were at least
- two other unhoused members of our community who were beaten up in downtown Bloomington on Kirkwood.
- Of course, this is unacceptable. It highlights the vulnerability of this portion of our population in
- Bloomington and nationwide.
- I just wanted to read a little bit from Dr. Margot Kushel, who wrote an article for the Benioff Homelessness
- and Housing Initiative a few years ago. She writes, without a door to lock, people without housing are
- vulnerable. Dramatic cases drive headlines, but violence directed at homeless people is constant, mundane,
- and devastating. On top of that, due to longstanding effects of structural racism, homophobia, and transphobia,
- Black and Native Americans as well as lesbian, gay, and transgender Americans are overrepresented in
- the homeless population. Furthering their vulnerability, the homeless population is aging in this country.
- As a physician and researcher who studies homelessness, I hear from patients who share how frightened
- they are, not just when there's a potential serial murderer, a law about, but every day in their lives.
- Despite such violence, instead of focusing on safety for our unhoused neighbors, the misperception that
- people without homes are perpetrators rather than victims of violence contributes to both criminalizing
- homelessness and dehumanizing people who don't have housing. Exaggerated attention on rare violent incidents
- that individuals experiencing homelessness commit and emphasizing their housing status leads to policies
- supporting criminalization of survival behaviors
- like sleeping, sitting, and living in vehicles, while doing nothing to improve safety. Criminalization
- of diverse resources worsens impoverishment, increases incarceration, and poses barriers to exiting
- homelessness. It also makes it harder for individuals without homes to report threats or protect themselves.
- Fear of people who are homeless rather than compassion on their behalf contributes to dehumanization,
- seeing them as less than,
- and not deserving of our protection, care, or equitable policies. These fears in turn contribute to
- violence against people without homes, rates that appear to be increasing, and lessened political will
- toward lasting solutions. Finally, the false perception of people who are homeless as perpetrators
- contributes to challenges inciting shelters and housing to meet their needs.
- I appreciate Councilmember Rosenbarger calling out the names of those who were attacked this weekend
- or two of the names. But this is a national problem and something we need to pay close attention to
- locally from not just when these terrible public violence incidents occur but as we move on in government and
- policymaking. I also on a separate topic I wanted to mention the passing of Barry Leso who was a longtime
- director of the United Way of Monroe County. I did meet Barry a few times in the last 20 years.
- But I didn't know him that well, so I wanted to just read a comment that the Community Kitchen posted
- on Facebook. Barry Leso was a passionate, tireless leader of our community. Even before his years as
- executive director of United Way, Barry was making an impact on local service or social service organizations
- by helping us understand the importance and process of strategic planning, how board members should
- carry out the roles of governance,
- and oversight and how to build consensus around topics. Community Kitchen specifically benefited from
- his direction and support for strategic planning. As United Way Director, Barry listened and worked
- with agencies to find solutions to community or funding issues. He listened to local agencies and pushed
- back against eliminating United Way member agencies when the pressure came from outside our community
- to do so. When state-level funding programs were threatened, Barry brought us together to collectively
- make our voices heard.
- Our community has been fortunate to benefit from many compassionate leaders and champions of our county
- over the years, and Barry sits among them. Barry was often larger than life with a really bad joke to
- open an event, but humble and ready to listen, learn, and support when needed. We will miss him.
- Rest well, friend. You earned it. That's all I have. Thank you.
- I also have a report tonight kind of shifting a little bit into the national sector of public health
- and vaccination. And it's something that I've, you know, this was in the news a couple of weeks ago
- and our news cycles seem to filter in and out so quickly. But I just was not able to talk about this
- in terms of our meeting schedule and reports. But if you weren't aware of that,
- Robert Kennedy is advocating to really do a lot of changes in terms of recommended vaccinations for
- children, especially, and changed various requirements related to, for example, the COVID vaccination.
- But I want to focus tonight a little bit on childhood vaccinations because those are under assault.
- Actually, the state of Florida has a proposal put forth to eliminate all requirements for any childhood vaccines.
- I wanted to share a little bit about my personal story with this. So my daughter was born in 2008, and
- vaccines were still this like controversial thing at that point as well. And it was actually before
- some of those studies related to autism and vaccines were totally debunked, which they are now. But
- at the time, you know, it's my first kid and I'm pregnant, right? And I'm doing all of the possible
- research because if you know me at all, you know that I do all of the possible research on all of the
- things, right?
- One of the things that I feel like I don't hear about people doing enough research on is the risk associated
- with the actual disease itself. Because when you do that research, I mean, there's risk, right? Sure,
- there's risk of vaccines. There's risk of every single thing that you could ever possibly think of doing.
- And you have to make this risk assessment for your entire life.
- And when you're pregnant and you're about to have a kid, or even when you do have a kid, you're making
- all of these risk assessments every day. Oh, and I have teenagers now, right? Oh, you want to go out
- with your friend in their car? You're making a risk assessment of whether or not you let them do that.
- So when they're little and they're in utero, you're making this risk assessment and going, OK, when
- they come out, what am I going to do about this vaccine thing that seems like maybe is controversial?
- risk assessments that I made was what are these diseases that my kid is actually getting inoculated
- against? What would they do? How likely is it that my kid might catch one of them? And then what would
- happen if they did? And then you have to weigh that against, well, what might happen if they get the
- vaccine? And you have to make that assessment.
- Or I guess you don't have to. You can just not think about it and just do it. But I made that assessment.
- And one of the things, I guess, that I want to highlight here are some of the assessments that I made
- in my situation that
- didn't necessarily follow what the medical establishment would necessarily recommend. Because in my
- situation, I was a stay-at-home parent. My kid was very not exposed to things. And if they were exposed,
- I could be like, oh, if they get chickenpox, well, we're going to be home for a few days, and it might
- be miserable. But I'll just wait and see on that one. Oh, if we get the flu, we're going to be home
- for a few days, and we might be miserable. But I'm not going to worry about that one.
- But there are other ones that like, oh, you get the measles, you could have like these lifelong problems
- with the measles. And at some point with something like chickenpox, it could become, you know, it's
- much more serious to get chickenpox the older you get.
- I don't know if people realize that. I was teaching high school once, and one of my high school students
- got chickenpox. She was out of school for two solid weeks, maybe even three, and then on half days for
- another two weeks. It was really, really serious and really bad because she was so old when she got
- it. So you've got to make those risk assessments. And so I guess my conclusion here is you've got to
- do your due diligence, and it's not just about
- The vaccine might give your kid a fever or these small chances of vaccine side effects. It's also about
- the much larger chances of side effects from the actual diseases itself if your kid lives through that
- with something like measles or something like polio, which seems to be eradicated but is also on the
- question mark list of people whether or not they seem to want to get the polio vaccine. These are serious things.
- and very minimal side effects from vaccines, potentially larger side effects from actually getting those
- diseases themselves. There really are some potential public health catastrophes waiting to happen if
- we reduce our herd immunity with some of these things. That is my report for this evening. Moving on to
- Council committee reports, since we don't have any reports from the Marin City offices, Council Member
- Piedmont-Smith, I will hand it to you for special fiscal committee reports and conversation. Well, the
- special fiscal committee met recently and talked about setting the salaries for elected officials for
- 2026. We kind of reviewed briefly
- the conclusions of the ad hoc salary committee that met last fall and came up with recommendations for
- salary increases and also talked about the amendments that was then passed by the council to bring down
- the to reduce the increases but still provide an increase for council members and the mayor and the clerk.
- So we felt it was important to check back in with the full council on this issue because there were
- some strong viewpoints last year and we didn't really know what direction to go this year. So that's
- why we're here tonight just trying to get some more feedback from folks who aren't on that committee
- or even if you are on it and you have some new ideas to share.
- I just wanted to open it up to to you all. I provided lots of background information in the packet so
- hopefully you had a chance to refresh your memory on this topic. Do council members have thoughts or
- questions around salary for elected officials for next year. Council member Rosenberger.
- I am sorry. I did not prepare to have the discussion at tonight I guess that part was in your memo,
- but I just read through it and looked at everything before Is there a way to do it is everyone ready
- tonight? I don't know. That's my question. Are we throwing out answers or what exactly do you Like I
- would love to discuss it Well, we are timeline is that we need to pass the
- Ordinance before the end of the year If there are going to be substantial fiscal impacts then the sooner
- the better since we have our vote on the budget coming up soon But yeah, we could we could hold a discussion
- another evening I suppose if we do it relatively soon As a point of reference our next regular session
- is not until the 22nd, I believe so
- Next week is budget Hearings is the vote on the budget and then the week after that is the deliberation
- session and then the week after that is our next regular session Councilor daily I Mean I'm prepared
- to make you know to share my feelings right now if that's what we're cool with I think considering all of the
- SB 1 and the federal funding and all the cuts that are happening to budgets everywhere and everybody
- tightening their belts. I'm highly uncomfortable with the idea of Increases for elected officials right
- now Even cola increases I'd be open to discussing those but anything beyond that I I feel strongly would
- be inappropriate for us Okay, thank you are there other comments
- Councilmember Rosenberger do you want to try to say something off the cuff. No I do not. I mean I was
- on the fiscal committee last year where we put in a lot of time research hired a consultant you know
- and that was just kind of dismissed. Thank you to this current committee for for reading that again
- because I do think it was just really dismissed at council.
- which is just disheartening, but that's not really a professional feeling. It's just disappointing when
- work goes into something and other people don't tend to read it. I would, I don't know, I'd rather have
- a different kind of discussion. I guess two of our council members aren't here tonight. And I think
- in this case, it's important that all of council is because I don't know, seven out of nine doesn't
- feel great for talking about our salaries. And I think they are two that tend to have pretty big opinions.
- Yeah or perspectives on things. So I don't know. I don't I don't think I'm the only one that missed
- the discussion point of this so I would just like to do it a different time whether in regular session
- or something more casual to a committee of the whole or the part of the deliberation. Other comments.
- Councilmember Piedmont Smith.
- First, I do want to mention that even if we have budgetary impacts, there is a possibility of additional
- appropriation ordinance as long as we have the support of the mayor's administration. But I think,
- I mean, what's important to me is at some point getting to a rational, logical basis for setting these salaries.
- That was presented last year. The results were a little shocking as far as the price tag. But then it
- was kind of, the logical structure was kind of, an asterisk was added to that, and then we'd reduce
- the amounts, and the asterisk said, let's look at what people in other cities are making in these positions,
- which I also think is valid.
- I do think it's important to have a valid basis and not just this is what they've been paid in the past
- and you know this is what they're being paid in fishers or whatever. So I do want to attain that before
- the end of this council term. I think that some of the hesitation about significant increases
- was because we are voting on our own salaries. And it never feels quite right to say, well, I deserve
- to make X amount of money. And as some colleagues have pointed out, we did run for these positions knowing
- what the salary was. But part of the problem, as was pointed out, is that
- Since it's not a salary that anybody can live off of, it does limit who can run and hold these offices.
- So even if we don't reach a logical way of thinking about and analyzing and recommending salary levels,
- this year I do want to get that accomplished before the next council term.
- Councilmember as murder. I guess one logistical point in all this last year the mayor Sort of told us,
- you know, this is your job go and do it Helped us hire a consultant or you know, we used what
- the administration used For their HR studies and then in the final hour called a couple council members
- and said I'm not supporting that right? So unless there's no
- Increase for council or just the cola or just a minimum for everyone. So I guess I would ask the committee
- And you can't know but like if you know if the mayor is not going to be on board I think she needs to
- say that ahead of time before you all put a lot of work into it again because um Yeah, it was just sort
- of a lot of work for nothing and and again, I guess it's almost impossible to ask since last year she
- She said it was up to us and then would not support it. So I guess I don't even know what to do there,
- but potentially it's worth considering or maybe getting something in writing. Other comments?
- If there are no other comments on this then we can move on to the next agenda item which I'm hesitating
- on because I'm writing down notes on something so. So then we're moving on to reports from the public
- if there are no other comments on salaries. Councilmember Piedmont Smith I just wanted to inquire.
- since the president of council sets the agenda if you would be willing to put this back on the agenda
- sometime in October. Yeah I mean I think that that would have to be October 22nd. I mean I do want to
- want to point out that in the memo that was included with this it does state actually in a couple of
- places to that
- We wanted to bring the issue of elected salaries back to the full council for discussion, intending
- to do that as part of the report during September 30th, and then again at the end, please review these
- materials and come prepared to discuss how you would like to proceed. So it feels a little frustrating
- to me right now that it was written there, and then if people weren't prepared to discuss it, it kind
- of feels like we do, you know, as somebody who's on the fiscal committee, like we're supposed to have
- a meeting next week, I believe, where we were gonna discuss this, and we do need to,
- You know in terms of timing get this ordinance in there. So I guess it's a little frustrating to have
- to put it on the agenda tonight because people weren't prepared in the way that The chair of the committee
- that I'm on Asked us to be prepared but sure it can go on the agenda again for further discussion on
- the 22nd if that's what needs to happen Does that address your
- Concern and would you like it on the agenda again? Councilmember sorry Just a proposal because I'm in
- response to a councilmember Rosenberger said that I guess there is the option of making one of the fiscal
- committee meetings So we have one this coming week, but we would have one two weeks later just making
- that a committee of the whole meeting so so those who want to come and comment can do that and
- That might give a sort of you know compromised way of being able to talk about it in a more relaxed
- fashion I'm not sure that I would want to make it a committee of the whole meeting because committee
- of the whole is Such a challenge in some ways, but we could call it a work session for us
- for council if there was going to be a quorum of full council members there we could absolutely throw
- that in as like a special meeting essentially so because then there's also not this sort of artificial
- time well not really artificial we have like so many things on the agenda but you know the sort of time
- constraint and it's up to the committee itself but the next one's the next one's this this coming Wednesday
- yeah our next the next fiscal committee meeting is actually we have enough time to notice it
- So right is is Wednesday October 8th from 1 30 to 3 So is that a time that any other council members
- that are because there's four of us on the committee So we would need one more council member to be
- that would be a quorum of council. So I'm seeing one Councilmember Rosenberger is that a time that yeah,
- wait 130 130 to 3 on the 8th so you were able to
- To make that okay, so we will work on re noticing that meeting in whatever way it is that we have to
- re notice that meeting Yeah, I Think so or a work session, but I think that work sessions and it's still
- it's like fuzzy thing to you So I think it's just a special session. It's still a special session. Yeah,
- okay Does that work for you councilmember? Piedmont Smith in terms of that like is the fiscal committee
- meeting and I'm not sure what else we were supposed to discuss that night My only concern would be is
- that we have
- Two council members who are not here tonight who may also not be able to participate on Wednesday the
- 8th. So So I guess I still would prefer to tag it on to either the discussion session on October 15th
- or the regular session on October 22nd How about we inquire with those two council members?
- I guess I know I would like to discuss this but I don't know if other people want to discuss it so if
- nobody does then we don't have to meet I Mean no one else's really weighed in right about whether or
- not they want to discuss it With her thoughts on it that seemed pretty firm so I Mean because I can
- have a conversation with Isabelle and
- You know if that's all that needs to happen is what I'm saying or I'm sorry councilmember Piedmont Smith
- Because if nobody else has anything to say then I don't need to try to make everyone meet, you know
- Councilmember Piedmont Smith First of all, if we if we have a special session we need to check with
- the clerk's office and the council staff for their availability But
- Perhaps we can not make a decision now and check in with colleagues who are unable to be here today.
- Of course, any colleague is welcome to contact any member of the fiscal committee and give their input
- that way. So I think we're ending this by saying we're taking all of that under advisement. And we'll
- figure it out.
- I think that that's the and and technically that fiscal committee meeting is already there's usually
- a member of the clerk's office there So I would assume that that could What was that What would you
- like to say Clerk Bolden just to clarify. Are you responding to my request to speak now by saying what
- would you like to say? Yes, I did not see that you had a request to speak somebody said that that
- You did but when I looked over to you didn't seem like you were ready. So I understand I was just waiting
- for you to finish or acknowledge the request. So anyway Councilmember P Montsmith actually addressed
- the concern about clerk staff. It was already noticed. And yes there is usually a staff member there
- to keep a memo although it would probably shift who's responsible and who will be in the room if you
- change it to a special session.
- I do think it would be a nice idea to do it on the deliberative session night as opposed to during the
- fiscal committee meeting. And it would be nice if you actually invited the other elected officials who
- are impacted by your salary ordinance officially as opposed to letting us hear about it secondhand or
- after the fact and having to insert ourselves into your discussion as I just did. Thank you. OK. So
- we'll figure that out. I think that's the conclusion.
- Does anybody else have any any other comments about this? All right, let's move on to our first session
- of reports from the public so if you were a member of the public who Would like to speak to an item
- not on the agenda and
- This is a time to do that. If you're in chambers, you can go ahead and make your way to the podium.
- You would have up to three minutes. If you're online, you can use the reactions tab to raise your hand
- or you can send a chat message to the host. I don't see anybody moving in chambers. Is there anybody
- online who would like to speak? Yes, and I'll unmute them now. Wonderful. Thank you. Please state your
- name for the record when you're unmuted and then you will have three minutes. Yes, this is Kevin Keel.
- As a citizen of Indiana, if anybody from any city in Indiana asked me what I would suggest on how to
- compensate elected officials, I would think a good pinpoint, a baseline to use would be the median household
- income. Like for the median household income for Bloomington is $50,156 per the Bloomington Economic
- Development Corporation. I'd say, hey, that's a good figure.
- Take 50% of that, you got the city council, four times that, the mayor maybe. I mean, it gives you a
- good idea of where you really sit in comparison to the median. We're not talking the real taxpayer,
- the individual citizen out there. I think that would be a great benchmark to use. So I suggest I would
- suggest that for any elected official. So anyway, I just throw that out. Good luck.
- much are there are there any other folks either in chambers or online who would like to make public
- comment all right then we will move on to appointments to boards and commissions which I do believe
- we have some does anybody have a motion related to
- Councilmember Zulek On behalf of interview team committee see on The Historic Preservation Commission.
- We recommend that Drew Heron be appointed to seat c4 and for the Arts Commission We recommend that Lynn
- Hooker be appointed to seat c3. I
- Thank you. We have an emotion and a second related to interview committee team see recommendations Are
- there any councilmember questions or comments related to these recommendations? Attorney later, can
- we do a voice vote for these approvals or do we need to do roll call for appointments to boards and
- commissions? All those in favor of those two appointments, please say aye aye
- Any opposed? Thank you. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you to Drew Heron and Lynn Hooker for
- your service. Councilmember Daly. Thank you. Interview committee team B would like to recommend for
- the Transportation Commission the appointment of a bond binder to seat C one. Second motion and a second
- related to committee team B recommendations. Are there any questions or comments?
- regarding this appointment Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye aye any opposed Thank you.
- That motion passes 7-0 and thank you to a bond binder for their service and Councilmember, sorry Team
- a would like to recommend Joshua Brewer to seat c3 of the Board of Housing quality appeals Second
- Thank you. We have a motion and a second related to interview committee team A recommendations. Are
- there any questions or comments from the council?
- I do think that this particular seat, I think, illustrates how important it is for us to be thinking
- about making, figuring out a way to make our appointments a bit more quickly to boards and commissions.
- It was reported, I think, widely that, you know, the Board of Housing Appeals wasn't able to meet on
- an occasion because they weren't able to meet CORA. And so I think that we've talked about this when
- we've talked about liaisons, but I really, really think that this illustrates the sense
- that what we want to do is have the liaison make the recommendation to the body of council rather than
- have these committees and meet because it's just really hard to get everybody in a room together than
- to do the interviews and all of these type of things when sometimes it's sort of a matter of being able
- to do important city business, so Just as a reminder Okay, are there any other comments or questions
- related to this appointment All right, all of those in favor, please say aye opposed
- Thank you. That motion passes 7 0 as well. And thank you to Joshua Brewer for his service. Moving on
- to legislation for first readings. I move that appropriation ordinance 2025 dash 30 first readings ordinance 2025 32.
- It's just ordinance not appropriation. Yes, it's just ordinance Forgive me rewind do over I move that
- ordinance 2025-32 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only second Thank you. It's
- been moved and seconded to introduce ordinance 2025-32. All those in favor, please say aye. I Opposed.
- Thank you. Will the clerk please read? I
- ordinance twenty twenty five dash thirty two to amend title 20 of the Bloomington municipal code regarding
- use table amendment urban agriculture commercial. The synopsis is as follows. This amendment introduces
- a new land use urban agriculture commercial. This new land use would allow some expanded services and
- offerings within the city for urban agriculture uses beyond the current similar land use of urban agriculture
- non-commercial.
- The new proposed land use would allow for an outdoor education component, on-site employees, and year-round
- retail sales for produce grown on the property. This use is proposed to be a conditional accessory use
- in the R1, R4, RM, and RH districts, and a permitted use in all other districts. There are use-specific
- standards, a new definition, and related adjustments to the numbering of preceding sections of the UDO.
- This ordinance is in accordance with Indiana code thirty six seven four six hundred We will hear that
- ordinance on October 22nd at our next regular session Twenty five dash thirty eight be introduced and
- read by the clerk by title and synopsis only It's been moved and seconded to introduce ordinance 2025
- 38 all those in favor, please say aye aye opposed
- Thank you. Will the clerk please read yet. Just one second please ordinance 20 25 38 an ordinance fixing
- the salaries of officers and employees of the police.
- and fire departments for the city of Bloomington Indiana for the year twenty twenty six. The synopsis
- is as follows. This ordinance sets the minimum and maximum salary rates for all sworn fire and police
- personnel for the year twenty twenty six in accordance with council approved collective bargaining
- agreements. Thank you. It's twenty twenty five dash thirty nine be introduced and read by the clerk
- by title and synopsis only.
- Second, it's been moved and seconded to introduce ordinance 2025 39. All those in favor, please say
- aye. Aye Opposed. Thank you. Will the clerk please read Ordinance 2025-39 to fix the salaries of appointed
- deputies and employees of the Bloomington City Clerk for the city of Bloomington Monroe County, Indiana
- for the year 2026 the synopsis is as follows this salary ordinance establishes the 2026 maximum salaries
- for Bloomington City Clerk employees and
- I Move that ordinance 2025-40 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only Thank you,
- it's been moved and seconded to introduce ordinance 2025-40 all those in favor, please say aye aye opposed
- Thank you. Will the clerk please read?
- Ordinance 2025-40, an ordinance to fix the salaries of appointed officers, non-union and AFSCME employees
- for all the departments of the City of Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana for the year 2026. The synopsis
- is as follows. Ordinance 2025-40 sets the maximum 2026 salary for all appointed officers, non-union
- and AFSCME employees for all the departments of the City of Bloomington, Indiana.
- Thank you so much as I already mentioned our next regular session is October 22nd. So those four ordinances
- will be heard for second reading on that date. Now we're moving on to legislation for second readings
- and resolutions and I'm passing the gavel to Vice President Councilman Pete Mott Smith for this.
- All right. Resolution 2025 dash 17 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only.
- It's been moved and seconded. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Well the clerk please read
- resolution 20 25 17 to initiate a proposal to amend title 20 of the Bloomington Municipal Code by restating
- resolution 20 25 10 regarding preparation of a proposal to amend chapter 20 point 0 4.1 1 0 and 20 point
- 0 2 0 4 0.
- The synopsis is as follows this resolution sponsored by Councilmember Stasberg initiates the prior proposal
- in resolution 2025-10 adopted on July 16th 2025 which directs the Planning Commission to prepare amendments
- to the Bloomington Municipal Code title 20 to make changes to the affordable housing incentive qualifying
- standards That resolution 2025-17 be adopted Second
- All right. And council member Stossberg would you like to present this resolution please. Yeah this
- is actually the third time that I've presented this resolution. So I hope we can make this nice and
- quick for those in the public who maybe aren't aware of last November. This is a resolution to request
- the plan commission to modify affordability incentive eligibility requirements and the affordability
- standards for the
- planned unit developments or PUDs Last November I initiated this originally and there are certain state
- guidelines around how long the Plan Commission has both to hear it initially and then to vote
- on a recommendation to forward to council after that and The for the first resolution from last November
- the Plan Commission heard
- the initial proposal but then did not vote on it with the required time. So I re initiated it with a
- couple of modifications on July 16th and Plan Commission has failed in 60 days to hold a hearing with
- regard to this. So I am re initiating it again. It is an identical resolution except there's a little
- language in there about re initiating that.
- Our staff was so kind as to help me with so if anybody has any questions about this, let me know Thank
- you, are there questions for councilmember Stasberg and I see planning and transportation director Hiddle
- is here as well if there are questions Yes councilmember. Sorry
- This is the second time, right, that thoughts on, I mean, you're on the planning commission. What's
- the delay here, and what can we do? Because it sort of seems a bit strange that we're having to reengage
- on a thing that's written in code. Well, the first delay was partly because there were two pieces of
- the original resolution, and one of them just took a little bit longer in terms of engagement.
- Second time. I don't think that there's a good reason except Overlooking it. I'm not sure if director
- Hiddle wants to speak to that or not and it looks like he's standing Planning and transportation there's
- not a good reason we mishandled this twice and so we've put some safeguards in place so that doesn't
- happen again we put checks and balances in the form of
- The mayor's legislative affairs specialist and clarified our positional roles as to who is responsible
- for making sure that this happens. So we don't have a good reason as to why we've been back twice. Can
- I ask a follow up question. Yes.
- Is there anything that we can do? I mean, because there's a sort of cosmic, or cosmic maybe elevates
- this a little bit too much. But there is a functional matter here of that council has a role to play.
- And if we initiate that role, that if there's a breakdown, that's a failure of our system of government.
- And so is there something that we can do as a council to better support? I'm grateful that you acknowledge
- that it is on your side.
- What can we do to build that capacity or clarity or whatever needs to happen? So that so that things
- that we want to see done aren't delayed. No, there's I don't think there's anything I think it's on
- our end and I think it's anomalous. It's a rare mistake that happened to have happened twice And I don't
- think it'll happen again. Awesome. Thank you. No, I appreciate Asking the question, but I don't know
- if there's anything different council could do. Thank you, sir Councilmember Stossburg
- I do want to highlight that after the first time this happened our council staff created a calendar
- and I don't know for sure how widely they shared it I know that that they shared it with with me in
- terms of my role as president I think just to put these types of resolutions on the calendar with the
- deadlines and then in our
- legislative calendar as well in terms of like that's the internal document that staff and I use to track
- legislation there's also that comment like when is this due by In in that document so that then on our
- end we can track dates better and that is something that I Recall mentioning that to planning staff,
- but if planning staff was uncertain about whose exact responsibility it was to
- Get it on because I mean as the representative to the Planning Commission, I believe this response is
- already written essentially in terms of the UDO changes that staff was going to propose to Planning
- Commission because we've already heard it at Planning Commission. We've already had a presentation from
- Anna Killian Hansen from hand around affordability because several Planning Commission members wanted
- to understand that better and the whole thing better and so the proposals there it just didn't get
- Finishing push of getting on the agenda this time and I'm glad that that's been internally addressed
- Let me just see if anybody else has a question any other councilmembers have questions Okay, go ahead
- councilmember. Sorry quick follow-up and then I'll leave maybe a question to our attorneys Is that what
- type of recourse do we have as counsel when?
- Because again, I mean we're talking about a question of law and then a thing just not being done and
- we're going to do it again So so what? I'm somewhat concerned not in this just this single instance
- but just in the in the larger sense that if you know if council can pass a thing according to Indiana
- code and that that can just whether for by mistake in this case a mistake, but you know
- I could imagine another instance somebody just ignores it. Not not Director Hittle not the planning
- department just in the broader sense. What recourse do we have as a council. Often the Indiana code
- will state what that recourse is in the 600 series with respect to this type of text amendment to zoning
- ordinances. There isn't a stated recourse.
- The statute indicates that when the proposal was initiated by council, then certain things have to be
- performed by the plan commission, such as notice, hearing, and then a recommendation being made back
- to council for its action as a legislative body.
- Generally there there potentially could be some type of legal action taken in court It's unclear what
- exactly that might be though Questions from council members Okay, we'll go to the public is there any
- member of the public who would like to comment on resolution 2025-17
- See anybody getting up here in the chambers. Is there anybody on zoom who is raising their
- hand electronically. No there isn't. OK. All right. We'll come back to council. Are there any final
- comments. Council member Stossberg thank you for what I hope is yes vote on this for a third time.
- Okay I will just say that it's disappointing that we have to do this a third time. I want to thank our
- council staff who kind of stepped in to try to help the situation by creating an online tool or calendar
- with all of the deadlines per Indiana code related to planning issues. And I look forward to actually
- seeing the UDO revision
- That will make hopefully Will work with other Tools that we have to make more affordable housing or
- accessible housing Available to residents because we sure need it any other final comments All right,
- clerk Bolden, could you please call the roll on resolution 2025-17? Yes
- Councilmember Piedmont Smith. Yes, Stasburg. Yes. That's member Daley. Yes. Councilmember Zulek. Yes.
- That's member Rosenberger. Yes. Councilmember sorry. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And that passes by a
- vote of seven zero and we'll now move on to the next resolution.
- I move that resolution 2025 dash 18 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only second
- all in favor of reading resolution 2025 dash 18. Please say aye. Any opposed. Will the clerk please read.
- Resolution 2025 dash 18 to approve the naming of the stadium district in the area surrounding Miller
- Showers Park. The synopsis is as follows. This resolution co-sponsored by Councilmember Stossberg names
- the area around Miller Showers Park as the stadium district. This naming will foster community pride
- promote economic growth and enhance tourism in the area. I move resolution 2025 dash 18 be adopted. Second.
- Seconded and we'll go back to council president Stossberg for to start off the presentation Thank you
- so much. So I just wanted to give a little bit of Background with my involvement with regard to the
- stadium district So last year I was approached actually by Christopher mg of the Chamber of Commerce
- and I believe that a few other council members were also approached at the time about this concept of trying to
- give some life and vitality into this north side area in terms of
- Geographic nodes and identity and the business owners in that area wanting some support and
- some identification around that And so that conversation happened in July of 2024 It was on the telephone
- and during that time because there's been so much Conversation in the community over the last couple
- days about the named stadium district. I wanted to call out I was the one that actually floated that
- name in the first place not as a salute to IU but as the economic reality that if we're looking at this
- as supporting business
- Businesses trying to drive the economy in that area have some identification in that area that it is
- just a reality of that space that there are these large
- sporting facilities right there that attract thousands of people each year to that space. And so between
- August and January, maybe February, I had several conversations with our ESD department director, Cooper
- Smith, about the concept, about some preliminary maps, about how that would help that area, benefits
- of creating a named district, and how that can support businesses in the area simply by having
- some kind of identification. And it was somewhere around the January, February time when I took over
- as president, honestly, and I was very busy. And there was also this riverfront district piece, which
- is not out yet, that has to do with a much smaller area of land in that same space in terms of economic
- driver that is a more technical part that I was like,
- That is not the technical expertise that I have, but I'm very supportive of giving this space
- some encouragement in life and vitality and ways to really create some pride over there, create some
- identity so that it can attract
- folks into that area. And so at that time though, because these two things were very intertwined, I
- passed it over to the ESD department and Director Cooper-Smith to kind of bring it through the rest
- of the way. And so at this point in the story, I'm gonna pass that over to Director Cooper-Smith to
- talk about the different things that she did to pursue this concept.
- I'm Jane Cooper Smith the director of economic and sustainable development for the city of Bloomington
- and I am really pleased to talk with you about Resolution 2518 this evening this legislation. Oh, there
- it is seeks to advance quality of place in the north side area that serves as a gateway to Bloomington
- This legislation does three things it establishes a name it establishes a geographic area and
- And it empowers the Department of Economic and Sustainable Development to promote that area. So we're
- then able to include that in our economic development efforts. It does not do other things. It does
- not establish an economic development incentive. It does not have a planning component or requirement.
- It does not require participation from anyone. It does not commit funding to the stadium district.
- And it does not have a cost to participate for anyone who does choose to participate I do apologize.
- This map was hard to fit on the slide. So I'll describe the boundaries here for you The boundaries of
- the stadium district are our 13th Street on the south side to Clubhouse Drive on the north so Clubhouse
- is the drive that connects
- Old State Road 37 and Cascades to the Cascades golf course. So it goes all the way up there and then
- it cuts over to North Walnut Street there scooping the area that contains visit Bloomington I Have to
- find my place again. It's approximately Dunn Street on the east and Kinzer Pike Roger Street on the
- west that's
- It's actually further west than that in certain areas. So when we had GIS create the map, the desired
- boundary was Kinzer. And so it's all the parcels that touch that. And so the physical boundary, geographic
- boundary ends up going farther west. But that's how those parcels became included.
- Yeah. And this effort is focused on commercial activity. There is an economic development program whose
- this is an economic development program whose purpose is to drive activity to the commercial parts of
- the district. The map includes a mix of residential and commercial areas specifically the area between
- Walnut Street and Dunn Street which is part of the Garden Hill neighborhood is zoned for mixed use student
- housing. So this is the area
- You can see the blue-green squiggle going north south. This is the area to the east of that.
- This area is mixed-use student housing. It's a zoning district that is intended, this is a direct quote
- from the UDO, intended to accommodate a variety of housing opportunities for students in areas adjacent
- to or within easy walking distance of IU's campus. The district is located primarily along commercial
- corridors with easy access to campus serving public transit and is most concentrated in the areas directly
- west, southwest, and northwest of Memorial Stadium. So even our UDO calls this area out to,
- have Be an attraction for student housing to drive student population into this corridor and it calls
- out the stadium specifically The initial footprint of the map was smaller but was expanded after discussions
- with businesses And recommendations from businesses and as part of the city's consideration of the riverfront
- district permit program which councilmember Stossberg mentioned that potential program will be brought
- to you for consideration in October and
- And the why naming a thing is a powerful action. This action in particular will strengthen Bloomington's
- identity as a college town. It's not the only part of our identity but it's a key piece of what makes
- Bloomington who we are and why we have the resources that we do.
- It also highlights activity that is already happening in and around this area. With 2019 changes to
- the UDO, the student population has indeed been driven to the district. Any time of day, you can see
- people walking, dog walking, biking around an area that previously functioned as a pass-through.
- And again, that's the area surrounding Miller Showers Park. And while student housing development has
- driven the student population to this area, businesses continue to welcome a range of patrons
- To the neighborhood whether for personal services professional services food or drink. So I think it's
- a really Lovely balance in a diversified area for this reason. We have a mix of residents in the area.
- We have students and we have Businesses attracting and serving students and long-term longtime residents
- of Bloomington permanent full-time year-round residents there are also a number of underdeveloped properties
- in the area that I believe will be positively influenced by the creation of this district and
- I think I skipped one of my slides. Okay, so now I'm gonna tell you about the slide that we've been
- sitting on Okay, the the district naming this district supports multiple goals in the city's economic
- development framework Establish and activate nodes of distinct identity for Bloomington's key commercial
- neighborhoods. This is just to say in the past I think we've done a really beautiful job of
- Promoting downtown Bloomington and Kirkwood and we've kind of expanded that along the beeline trail
- to include the switchyard Park and areas north including the trades district But Bloomington has really
- wonderful diverse commercial neighborhoods To offer visitors and so we and ESD are really trying to
- figure out what are the ways that we can bring businesses together in these different hubs and the way
- that that these
- Business neighborhoods can kind of function in similar ways to Kirkwood. What else can we offer visitors
- and residents by really thinking about our identity in these areas? The second goal is to support destination tourism.
- This gateway area plays a critical role in one of the prime drivers of visitors to Bloomington each
- year, athletics, specifically IU athletics. Naming this area helps differentiate this district from
- other parts of Bloomington, helping visitors determine where they should stay. And secondly, the hotels
- in this area, I believe, will play a critical role in the early days of the convention center. So we
- know that it's not realistic that the convention center host hotel will be online.
- As the new convention center opens in 2027 and so we will have to direct visitors In and around our
- community and help them navigate. I think this offers a counterpoint to that area Why are visitors so
- important for? Bloomington visitors that stay with us serve the same functional economic role as a company
- that sells its goods to buyers outside of the community That is they bring outside revenue
- into Bloomington supporting our businesses and paying into the food and beverage tax which will play
- an increasingly important role for Bloomington as the impacts of Senate enrolled act one are realized
- The next item is it supports a small business development Naming the district offers a shared marketing
- tool to the businesses located in the stadium district and it has already fostered a sense of community
- and connection among participants
- Then finally we have a goal to increase and communicate about quality of place amenities So again naming
- this district makes it a thing that can be promoted and therefore communicated about I Also want to
- name a couple of other inputs The office of the mayor is engaged in citywide branding efforts and the
- initial report from the brand audit includes findings that recommend bridging the town and gown divide
- so I think that covers everything on that list
- And this slide is just a summary of engagement. So we we held business stakeholder meetings in May and
- August We have had some email communications with businesses We've done direct outreach with a number
- of our economic development stakeholders. We have a presentation plan for the Monroe CIB in October
- and We'll continue doing outreach on this topic to communicate with our
- Business neighbors and our residential neighbors. So with that I'd be happy to take any questions.
- Oh Sorry, I had one more slide. This is just a summary of the slides timeline. It's simpler than it
- looks It's basically you may vote tonight We're presenting it tonight We will add to relevant mapping
- resources and then effectively
- Businesses when if this is approved and when it is approved Businesses could start using this name.
- Anyone could start using this name again. No one is obligated to in 2026 in the 2026 budget we have
- proposed funding for wayfinding audit and then that will happen in partnership with visit Bloomington
- and that will roll out also in tandem with the next phase of the citywide branding So that all kind
- of works really well together Okay
- And with that, I'd be happy to take questions. I think council member Stossberg wanted to round out
- the presentation. I just wanted to add one thing, partly because of some community concern about this.
- And I received an email about this, too, like naming this district the stadium district does not negate
- other names associated with this area. So I had a constituent reach out to me saying, please don't rename
- Miller Showers Park. We're not renaming Miller Showers Park. It will stay Miller Showers Park.
- It does not like the name stadium district does not negate any of the neighborhoods that might overlap
- this like the neighborhood name is still there and is of course going to end up the more prominent name
- especially for residential spaces that this name is predominantly for commercial
- Uses as opposed to any residential uses So I just wanted to take a minute to make sure that that was
- clear for council members and the public with regard to the name Thank you. All right councilmember
- daily you had a question. Yeah. Thank you both very much for that presentation and actually kind of
- hopping off what you were Just alluding to what what kind of impact might this have on the residents
- in these neighborhoods? Well, I
- That's a great question, thank you. And I realized sometimes I bury the lead in my presentations and
- I apologize for that. Why did we include the residential areas at all? I think is a good question and
- in line with what you're asking. Our assumption, my assumption was that nothing would be required if
- residents didn't wanna do anything with this label, but if there were small apartment buildings,
- Rental units in these neighborhoods that were being marketed those property owners could also use the
- stadium district name in addition to their neighborhood name so that was kind of why it It it expanded
- to include the residential areas on both the east and the west sides of the neighborhood So for neighborhood
- impact, I think it depends on what the neighbors want to do with it if they don't want to do anything
- with it They don't have to
- Individuals might include it in in something again if they're renting their house I don't know what
- they might be doing or if there's you know, there's a small apartment building in Maple Heights, for
- example Perhaps Olympus properties who I think I think owns that could use the label On their listing,
- but I don't imagine it changing Maple Heights or Garden Hill
- Especially in terms of your neighborhood signage and in your identity your core residential neighborhood
- identity remains that of your neighborhood So are there any like possible negative side effects that
- a neighborhood might see like a residential neighborhood might experience maybe more traffic or anything
- of those sorts that we might think about with the association I think that that would
- Only happen if there were signage related to that and the citywide Wayfinding audit and branding will
- make really thoughtful Wayfinding signs for our visitors so we won't be slapping them In places that
- we don't want them to go the purpose of the label so when I think about how a property owner or rental
- owner might use it and
- The purpose of the label is just to indicate that it's close to this stadium part of town, that you
- are in walking or a short ride to the athletics facilities. I think that's the primary purpose. So I
- don't really see a negative there. I don't really see it harming anyone, especially if they choose not
- to use it. A neighborhood association might meet and say, we don't want anything to do with that, and
- that would be fine.
- Did you want to reply as well I just wanted to address the signage thing a little bit I mean there are
- restrictions in the UDO about people putting up signs So, you know if there is say a small apartment
- that's next to you in a residential district Which there might be in some of these zoning districts
- in terms of what is allowed over there they can't just slap up a huge sign that says now you're in the
- stadium district and
- Because there are sign ordinances that talk about how big your signage can be and how much it can be.
- And you have to get approval for a certain signage. So it's in terms of effects on neighbors. It's not
- like suddenly there's going to be some huge sign next door to you. No matter what is next door to you
- right now, they would have to go through the same process of any kind of signage. I envision it honestly.
- I think one of the things that I could imagine it being used for is Airbnbs, honestly. So when those residents
- areas there might be some Airbnb is that might then advertise themselves on Airbnb as part of this this
- district and Then one of the other benefits of course once you do I mean I've I've gotten things through
- Airbnb to write as you go like oh It's part of this district and here is this restaurant guide and if
- you know the businesses all the restaurants there want to want to get together and make some kind of
- online restaurant guide like this is all the things that are here and that's something that they can do and so
- That's the piece of advantage that I really see in terms of the commercial pieces that are there. But
- I think that residentially there would be little to no, especially like immediate impact of all of a
- sudden there's this big sign next to you. I hope that answers your question.
- Councilmember Rosenberger. Thank you so much. I have an 8 p.m. and that I am about to leave too so I'm
- glad I get to talk right now and I'm sorry that I have to leave early tonight everyone.
- Thank you director Cooper says so much for being here. I want to say because I'm leaving I will have
- a question that Generally, I think this is awesome and I support it I have had a lot of emails from
- folks and constituents in district 2 because Mabel Heights is a chunk of this and I would like it if
- Mabel Heights can be
- Consulted in all of this. So mostly I do need to leave early, but I would be voting no on this tonight
- just because I think like Process is very process is very important to me again economic development
- impacts streets houses humans, you know and so I think that if we I kind of relate it to if we have
- duplexes as a conditional use that you know, there are multiple meetings and neighborhood approvals for
- Two unit home. I think that we should just have approvals for like where this district might be and
- how it impacts Neighborhoods, I know that the naming is it's a name and I totally understand everything
- just like you can use it or you cannot use it to advertise Sort of with the geography of the name of
- it. I know it's in relation to this In the process for the river district, but like in my mind if something
- is called a stadium district the stadium is in the middle so just like
- It is a ways from the stadium. So people have asked like what other names, you know Like if you don't
- like that name what other name and some folks said like City Market Which there's not really a market
- there, but there is I guess one market a grocery store But also like no dough right like north of downtown
- I was just trying to put out some ideas because people were like have an idea if there's nothing like
- I understand that so could you discuss a little bit your perspective on a
- Resident engagement when you are doing economic development such as this. Yes Just frankly as the residents
- probably who are here this evening No, we didn't reach out to the neighborhood associations because
- we were seeing this primarily as a commercial district that's it's the initiative is for the commercial
- district and we added we included the residential areas because in our view which people may or may
- not agree with it was
- not harmful to include them because it was Up to them whether they would use it in future or not And
- it's so primarily focused on the commercial so we didn't do direct outreach to the neighborhood associations
- Thank you Councilmember Arlo Well following up on that So I'm concerned about unintended consequences
- this you know, it sounds benign but
- Suppose So something that concerns me Prennely is the conversion of single-family owner-occupied homes
- To rentals and Airbnb's and so forth me as well. Yeah, so we've got about a thousand in town and counting
- and they're going up and so could this expedite that can that conversion and
- owner occupied to rentals and Airbnb simply because that district is going to be known now as the stadium
- district It's nearby the stadium. You market it in that way, right? so now the You know, it's it's very
- attractive then for you know Investors to buy a home and say we're in the stadium district and that
- so it's nearby and you can walk so it
- It seems to me that it's not necessarily benign that there isn't that there might be a harm involved
- in here Do you what? What do you think about that was that discussed? We didn't discuss the Airbnb's
- but I think about Airbnb's and how much they harm our economy constantly This is very heavily on my
- mind and I'm familiar with the statistics and I'm familiar with our great housing need and what we need
- to have by 2027 for example, so I don't
- You know, Airbnb's are so popular, I guess, for lack of a better word, in Bloomington. I don't know
- that this name is going to worsen the current state. I don't know that it's possible to worsen the current
- state. Sorry, I hear you laughing, but it's true. Well, no, no, I'm not laughing at that. I'm just,
- you know. Yeah, we're all familiar. Yeah. It can't help it, I guess. Just to follow up, how difficult
- would it be to exclude neighborhoods and just have
- You know businesses or well, I think we need I Think that we need to have a contiguous district, right?
- So I think that if we were to remove pieces From the map we would just want to make sure that it's not
- parcel by parcel, but it's a section and I Don't personally think that's super difficult. It's just
- more time and more edits and coming back So I I think that it's really important to
- District to go all the way down to 13th Street And which is just north of that rail Indiana railroad
- line, I think that There are commercial property properties on either side of college and walnut. There
- are commercial properties along 17th Street that connect into Maple Heights their commercial properties
- along Dunn Street the area east of
- Sorry east of the college and walnut corridor Makes a lot of sense to me to be included in the stadium
- district, even though it has a lot of residential in it again It's got commercial lining Dunn Street
- and it has dense student rental for which the UDO Offers a definition that includes mention of the stadium
- So I don't know that was a meandering answer, but I don't know if it gets what you wanted Yeah, that
- gives me perspective
- Thank you Yeah, I just wanted to mention the other thing that like Especially what we looked at in the
- beginning stages of like the mapping process and what what area should there be? I was consulting our
- zoning map a bunch and director Coopersmith referenced that a little bit, but if you look at the zoning
- map You know, we have that mixed-use student district that goes all the way from the bypass down to
- 13th Street in this
- rectangle essentially from done to walnut and then like a long college walnut and down 17th and then
- up to there's a bunch of Multi-use districts and so or mixed sorry mixed use I think they're mostly
- medium scale and then some of them are neighborhood scale and those are areas that are kind of you know,
- specifically designed to have commercial in them and
- Dr. Cooper-Smith mentioned the nodes earlier in terms of commercial nodes. And there's a few other commercial
- nodes in different places, like Hillside and Henderson, for example, where we have a bunch of commercial
- stuff right here in kind of this node. Now, this isn't quite a node. It's a little bit bigger than a
- node because the space is a little bit bigger. And there are several businesses already along both 17th
- and College Walnut.
- And then while not going north to you and a lot of those places are already really catering. So in terms
- of the Maple Heights area which has been brought up like in the original map if you look at the zoning
- map the original proposal for this district more like mirrored that mixed use medium scale that kind
- of winds through.
- the kind of corner of that neighborhood as it goes that transition from college to 17th Street and I'm
- using my hands a lot because it's this shape that will only make sense if you're looking at the zoning
- map. And so I think that that the map could potentially be be shifted to exclude some of those areas
- that are zoned more specifically residential but you know that
- That area goes from the mixed use medium scale to the residential urban with a little bit of I think
- it's residential maybe multifamily and maybe high density. I'm having to scroll up and figure out what
- color is what. And so that speaks some to.
- to the possibility of apartments and other builds going in there. So that was just something that that
- was looked at originally in terms of that map in terms of what made sense. Yes. Council member sorry.
- Could you tell us a little bit director Cooper Smith or perhaps council member Stasberg about the outcomes
- of some of the outreach.
- Yeah. Do you mean with businesses or yeah. So I mean if you go back to your slides you had a list of
- here the groups that we that we reached out to. I mean it was really informational and honestly there
- there wasn't I don't I would like to go back to that slide if we can. We'll just go through it if that's
- OK. Thanks.
- Sorry, it's well anyway, so I gave a detailed presentation to DVI last Monday The chamber has been involved
- from the beginning. We haven't given a formal presentation to Like the chamber policy council, but we've
- they've been connected Since the beginning visit Bloomington has been engaged since the beginning again,
- that's leadership and not that full board BDC staff level
- communication IU we communicated with the previous VP Morris and the previous VP for capital planning
- and I apologize I forget the full title and then we've shared information with VP D'Angelo and haven't
- had a back-and-forth exchange, but I use been Very supportive. There was a clear understanding that
- from the beginning they were supportive they didn't think it was super appropriate to be included and
- then we also felt like
- This program was actually better. You mean when it's focused on the city property and so that was really
- great and then the CIB again, I spoke briefly with President white cart and will be presenting to them
- in October. Okay Yeah, cuz I think that there's um, well, I'm this is question time so I won't make
- a comment I have a follow-up question, but I like can I ask
- Is there can I ask a follow-up question right now or Councilmember Stossberg wanted to reply to you
- as well. Yeah, I also just wanted to mention that that IU connection just just a tad bit because in
- the earliest conversations there was this idea like do we include the IU property and councilmember
- Rosenberger alerted to wealth the stadium district Don't you expect the stadium to be in the middle?
- but if we were thinking about it in terms of economic development and businesses and in terms of like
- the property that it
- Surrounds are the stadiums is all IU owned property. So businesses can't really develop there So you're
- not going to have businesses that are, you know bordering the stadium They're all going to be off to
- one side because of just how the map looks and how the ownership of property looks and So that made
- a whole lot more sense and IU seemed kind of agnostic either way. It didn't really matter and so this
- is the result of that and
- Councilmember sorry, did you have an additional question? I'm so just then as a follow-up because you
- know this question about anchoring to a stadium So so I'm confirming with the two of you that when presented
- to IU as a start I you said oh, yeah, that sounds great We've really really resonates with us to have
- a stadium district north of the stadium So this is West of the stadium. Yeah west of the stadiums. Yes, I
- Yes, and then, and so- They were not trying to drive the program, but they were saying like, you know,
- it's like your friend saying, yes, I really love this for you. Yeah, okay. And then just that question,
- I think, and I think you answered this to a member of the press who asked about the consideration of
- other names. Could you talk a little bit about how we arrived at Stadium and, you know, because again,
- this is a branding exercise. And so my follow up to that question is going to be, are we at any danger
- that because we're going through this
- Branding exercise and wayfinding that at some point the professionals that are doing the consulting
- for the city come and go You know what this should actually be called No, the professionals that the
- city's been consulting with are aware of this and have looked at our economic development framework
- and think the nodal commercial strategy is great and Frankly with most of our outreach the name Stadium
- District resonates with
- Very well with the people it's practical. It's direct. It's clear. It's exactly what you want out of
- a branding You know, it's a branding outcome that you want did we go through a full Branding exercise
- for this specific slice of neighborhood No, but we did consult our experts visit Bloomington is maybe
- one of the chief branding experts in Bloomington they go through brand audits and updates on
- a two or three year cycle, they look at data, they look continually at the data, both of the makeup
- of our visitors and the people who live here. So being able to have them be engaged in this is having
- marketing professionals at our side. And it was a no-brainer for them. To go back again to where I started,
- When I had this conversation with Mr. MG in July of 2024, it was brought to me as the business owners
- in this area are interested in something. It was brought to me as something related to the fact that
- there's lots of people who come here, tourists who come here to spend tourist dollars associated with
- going to sporting events. And so it was posited to me as the sports district.
- And I turned around and said stadium district instead of sports district because I think that we have
- lots of other places in Bloomington that could be considered sport districts including.
- city-owned property like Twin Lakes Recreation Center and Winslow Sports Park and So that was kind of
- a piece of that and I didn't know at the time if that was going to stick through Going back
- to the stakeholders in terms of the business owners in that area in terms of going to economic
- and sustainable development as the experts in this But it did and so that that was a piece of it and
- it it was named that way to recognize that in terms of economic driver in that space it
- It's the stadium. It's the sports facilities up there that bring thousands of people into the city for
- those sporting events. And so it's those people that are really going to frequent those businesses and
- get those outside dollars and to like to like help the rest of.
- you know, our small businesses over there. And I think also in terms of some of that housing and especially
- that student housing, it's not just that, you know, for some of those folks that's adjacent to IU as
- the university, like the place where they go to school, but I suspect that a whole bunch of those students
- actually really want to live there because it's right by the football stadium.
- or the basketball, or all of that thing. For a certain subset of the population, that's super desirable.
- Now, for me personally, I try to avoid that area on game nights because it is just very, very congested.
- But if I was 20, I might really be making different decisions.
- Okay seeing none let's go to the public there's any member of the public who would like to comment on
- resolution 2025 dash 18 naming of the stadium district. You can approach the podium and you'll have
- up to three minutes. There should be a timer that you can see and please do sign in. I see the first
- person is already doing all those things so that's great. And after.
- A few people are in the chambers. We will check in online to see if there's anybody raising a hand there.
- And when you're ready please say your name for the record and you'll have like I said three minutes.
- Good evening. My name is Sarah Alexander and I am a resident of the Maple Heights neighborhood the northeast
- half of which seems to have been included in the area of the proposed stadium district. While I appreciate
- the efforts to activate the area surrounding Miller Showers Park, I am afraid that whoever made that
- map doesn't seem to have any understanding of my neighborhood, or perhaps Bloomington at all. The defined
- borders include 13th Street, which doesn't exist at all in the proposed area because of the railroad
- tracks, and North Kinzer Pike isn't on the western boundary,
- runs sort of three quarters of the way over. Jackson is actually on the west. So perhaps I should not
- be surprised that the proponents of this resolution don't understand that while some businesses line
- the edges of the neighborhood facing out, most of it is zoned residential, including my own home, which
- is included in the proposed area. I object to the connection of this residential area to the stadium
- in any way.
- The only result of such a connection would be the further encouragement of short-term rentals. Such
- properties sit empty most of the year, creating hollowed out neighborhoods where it is impossible to
- foster relationships with the people with whom we should be able to build actual physical communities,
- which is to say nothing of how short-term rentals inflate the cost of housing. Perhaps if those who
- were in charge of
- outreach on this project, had consulted with someone whose eyes weren't exclusively focused on how to
- magic a drainage feature into a river so that they could more cheaply get more drunk drivers onto a
- strode, we could have avoided all of this. Needless to say, I request that the council vote no on this
- resolution.
- Anybody else here in council chambers care to comment? Hello, my name is Greg Alexander I'm always amazed
- by the power of prayer We have something inside of our heads just an idea and it leaps out of our heads
- and it changes the world the way we think and talk about things matters
- Generally, past planning documents have described this area as a gateway, and there's a downside because
- it elevates the people that come through here over the people that live here. It's not the same thing
- as a neighborhood. A gateway can be a highway. There are advantages to thinking of it as a gateway,
- though, because it symbolizes a transition for that visitor. Now you're in a city, you need to be patient,
- you need to pay attention. The gateway should tell people, you are entering my neighborhood.
- By comparison, stadium district doesn't say a thing. The stadium only really exists less than a dozen
- days a year. I'm not alone in saying I hate it. I don't like what those few days do for my community.
- I don't want our planners and our business leaders to meditate on the stadium when they think about
- my neighborhood. I live in this district and the stadium is a problem for me, not an asset.
- The economic and cultural strength of this district is it's thousands upon thousands of residents and
- it's extraordinarily insulting to say otherwise. Look at the material thing they're trying to lead up
- to, more liquor licenses. They're trying to make a bar district on a highway. That's villainy,
- that's evil. We already have an epidemic of drunk driving here. It's immoral to put a bar where people
- only drive. I do want to see it develop. I do want to see more bars by my house. Our problem
- is the College of Walnut Corridor. There are already businesses within this district that I want to
- go to, that are not safe to walk to from my house, that I go less often because of that. We don't have
- a problem with names. We don't have a problem with insufficient liquor licenses. We have a problem with
- the highway that runs through our neighborhoods and restricts our commerce. We have a planning department.
- You guys spend millions of our dollars
- paying for this department, we have experts, use their expertise, no one from the planning department
- is here, this is a planning issue, you're designating a district and you don't have planners here, like
- what the heck? You know, we deserve the benefit of their expertise. Ask them, they'll tell you, we need
- to do something about that highway, I'm comfortable saying that because our planning staff has already
- recommended a college and walnut corridor study, a road diet, in as many words. This body voted for
- that six years ago, seven years ago now, right?
- That plan would actually help my neighborhood. That plan would actually help these businesses. Don't
- just vote this down. Drag planning staff in here. Ask them what we should be doing to make this district
- come to life and ask them why the hell are we passing plans that are sitting on the back burner for
- seven years? Thank you. All right. Next person in chambers and then we'll go to zoom. Thank you. Council
- member Piedmont Smith. This is Christian from the greater
- Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. I was referenced by Madam President there. It was wonderful to work
- with her and Miss Coopersmith on the stadium district. And a couple things I want to sort of bring up
- on this. I was on Channel 13 News sort of promoting this. They had called on a late Friday. I had two
- people from the community just randomly come up excited about it. One of the things they're excited
- about is investment in that area. And what this is supposed to do, this marketing, is spur that investment.
- I get more questions on what about that Colorado steakhouse? What's gonna happen there? This is a no-cost
- proposal. This is about harnessing IU Athletics into helping the businesses along that corridor, which
- is what spurred this idea to begin with. I don't know anything and cannot talk about the map itself
- onto that. I didn't have anything to do with that. I do have something to do with the businesses along
- that corridor that need
- this sort of marketing tool to harness IEU athletics, which is a big deal. This is also a chance for
- those student housing based on zoning to market their housing. If we want students away from the central
- corridor, this seems like it would be a good idea on that. I just, I think sometimes we can't see the
- forest from the trees in this community, and I think tourism is something we have to look at. SB1 is
- making tax revenue very difficult. It's gonna put a strain on
- The fiscal committee hopefully will go about that business and look at some very hard issues and not
- just salary issues that we need to Bring that revenue up. How are you going to do that out of towners
- and visitors? There's a way to do that. We want that part of The north side to be redeveloped. This
- is a first step in sort of doing a no-cost
- It is not a seven-year plan. This is simply trying to harness that IU athletics into something some
- something a little bit bigger something of labeling that people can understand that don't live in Bloomington
- and The businesses need that there they need this this we want to spur private investment in there This
- is just a means to do that whether the boundaries move or not I you know I don't have an opinion on
- that but we need to start thinking about economic development and
- Spurring that in a time that is very difficult on Bloomington it is this is a tough time to where if
- we can get Out of towners in here to spend their money and the multiplier effect of that It's not just
- transferring money If I go to the movies or if I go to the bowling alley does not do anything economically
- when out of towners come in There's a multiplier effect on it. We got to start thinking about that.
- I feel for the residents I don't want to ruin any neighborhoods with this Residents are what make it
- but this is not what this is about right now
- This is about businesses and business investments. So let's just sort of think about that as we move
- forward. Thanks. All right. Is there anybody who has a hand raised on Zoom who would like to comment.
- Yes we have three people. OK go ahead with the first one. If you're you should be unmuted when you get
- unmuted please state your name for the record and you'll have up to three minutes. Hello.
- My name is Aubrey Williams and I am one of the co-founders of Heartwork Brewing on the north side in
- the proposed stadium district. I'm a proud townie and graduate of Bloomington North who came back with
- my family. And while I leave the map discussion up to the council and I do agree that we need better
- visibility of crosswalks and crossing safety in our area.
- and we have bike racks that we'd like to see used a bit more, I wanna bring up the perspective as a
- small business along the corridor. One challenge any new business has is visibility and awareness, and
- we see an opportunity to unite the area and highlight the entry to the area to help us further enhance
- that north side. We and our neighbors recently cleaned up over 100 needles on just our two properties
- and have been trying to make some of the area less of an eyesore after many properties were vacant for
- a long time.
- I know that additional liquor licenses can be a scary thing to consider, but when the census was done,
- Bloomington actually didn't receive an increased quota due to the absence of the students to really
- match our population growth. And what we've seen in other cities is that similar districting has driven
- the opening of more family-friendly establishments. And the city would be able to manage who has access
- to any of these permits, preventing them from being student-centric bars and focused more on local businesses.
- businesses. For us, it would simply mean that we can sell local cider instead of just the beer that
- we make. We could have somebody who's 20 years old could come in and have a pizza and, you know, sit
- there for trivia night. It's hard to get any new businesses, especially restaurants, to open without
- access to licenses that should be $1,000 but in Bloomington trade for a quarter of a million. And so
- family-friendly restaurants, small businesses, we don't have the access that others do.
- to be able to afford licenses that would truly allow us to serve more of our community. I've got two
- little kids in this community and I think that it's important to me that we're a place that
- serves Townie Beer and serves our community through events and other gathering spaces the way that we
- like to talk about third spaces. So would love to be able to explain to people where we're located,
- other than just saying, oh, we're north of downtown south of the bypass. So just one small business's
- perspective in a very challenging economic environment where you've got those post-pandemic consumer
- trends. Thank you for your consideration.
- All right, who is the next speaker on Zoom? Once you are unmuted, please state your name for the record
- and you'll have up to three minutes for your comments. Hello, my name is Gabriel Holbrough. Am I heard
- right now? Yes. I am an employee of the city. I'm also a resident of Maple Heights, but I'm not speaking
- on behalf of the city or really even speaking on behalf of the Neighborhood Association. Either I'm
- speaking on my own behalf,
- I hear the perspective that the stadium district branding won't affect the identity of the existing
- neighborhoods, including Maple Heights. I respectfully disagree. I think the proposed stadium district
- boundaries, they cut through the established area of the Maple Heights neighborhood, and they even cut
- through the mapped Maple Heights historic district. I see the map in this proposal specifically is splitting
- up Maple Heights,
- and undermining the branding effort that my neighbors, unfortunately, I can't take any credit, but my
- neighbors have put so much effort into. Recently, some of our neighbors worked on refurbishing our sign
- that's on Madison just after you crossed the bridge from Rogers Street. There's a lot of work put into
- the historic district, creating it, creating district guidelines for it. That's all part of the identity
- of the district, the branding of the district. To identify, to address council member
- Daley's question about impacts on the neighborhoods. The thing is we are already experiencing the traffic
- and the short-term rentals. We'll be experiencing those impacts whether or not there's a stadium district
- or whether or not a stadium district branding is adopted at all. But those impacts are okay. It's just
- part of the pluses and minuses of our neighborhood. I mean, we also get to go to the great restaurants
- like Heartwork Brewing. So those are some of the pluses.
- But what I don't want it to have happen is the branding efforts to weaken my neighbor's efforts to create
- a neighborhood identity. So specifically, my request to you council members is to amend the map to remove
- the established Maple Heights neighborhood area from the map. That's what I would like to say.
- Thank you. All right. We appreciate everybody's comments.
- third person on zoom Okay, when you're unmuted, please state your name for the record and you'll have
- up to three minutes to give your comments Good evening council. This is Mike McAfee from visit Bloomington
- and thanks for considering this tonight. I I'm not going to repeat what ESD director Cooper Smith and
- council member Stossberg said and the excellent comments from Aubrey Williams as well But I do want
- to say we certainly hope that you will
- approve this and move it forward. We look forward to supporting the efforts of our tourism and hospitality
- partners in the area with this simple common sense marketing tool. I do think one thing that has failed
- to be mentioned is that this is going to be a great marketing tool for them to use during the slower times.
- We're not worried about two weekends ago when the market was at 95% capacity during the Illinois game
- at a $600 a night rates. We're worried about
- June when things are really slow and November and December and January. And this is going to be a great
- marketing tool for them to work together and market. And all of us who support those efforts and also
- promote that can wrap our arms around that and help create some business for them during the slow time.
- So I do hope you'll approve this and move it forward. And thanks for considering it.
- Right. Let's go back to in person. Are there is there anybody else who would like to comment in person
- here in the council chambers. Please come to the podium. And please state your name for the record and
- also sign in. And then when you start you'll have up to three minutes.
- My name is Casey Green. I am in Maple Heights. And I've been there for five years now. I've been in
- Bloomington for 20 years. I used to live down on Grant Street right across from the Cajun restaurant.
- So I am well-versed in being right in the thick of it. It's not new to me. I love it. So being near
- the stadium isn't intrinsically a drawback. Development is not a drawback. But there are two things
- I want to say.
- Two points I want to make about this which is the first one is identity We seem to have a lot of double
- speak tonight which is both that naming is this powerful tool that is quintessential to development
- and bringing money in and also it's not going to change anything and not going to impact anything and
- And I think that's naive. Whether the district goes through Maple Heights or butts right up to the edge
- of my house, which has been included in Maple Heights, we are gonna be impacted. We have seen for two
- years things escalating and more and more negative impacts in our neighborhood. The thing that I loved
- about the marketing surrounding this is that it described that the strength
- of Bloomington and its partnership with IU is the unique character that we add to IU. And I think the
- best way to get economic benefit is to have it fully integrated, not partitioned off. And right now,
- I'm seeing a lot more movement towards trying to realign the character of Bloomington to overlap and
- be overwritten by IU, more IU colors, ripping out native landscapes that are more reminiscent of our
- Midwestern culture, naming it the stadium district. And we're losing our uniqueness. We're losing what
- makes us interesting. The stadium is going to be there. People are going to live near the stadium no
- matter what. We don't need to call it that and make that our only point of personality.
- Especially given the news these days where I don't believe we want to be aligning as a neighborhood
- with I use headlines. We don't want to be associated with that. A lot of us don't. Second issue I want
- to bring up is the communication and the characterization around the neighborhoods being referred to
- as a doormat.
- or a gateway is absolutely insulting. We aren't here as a pastor. We're not the city's financial foyer.
- If the funds aren't staying here and it's clear that the businesses are funneling that out, then we're
- not actually benefiting. We're just providing services and losing.
- Anybody else here in council chambers would like to give a comment Is there anybody else on zoom Okay,
- we'll come back to the council then any council members want to follow up with a question or make a
- comment councilmember Rallo Yes, I so I'm There's a dimension here that I wasn't considering and that is in
- Director Cooper Smith, could you maybe answer a question? So with this As the speaker said this is just
- a name but it has implications That might be profound One of which would be to allow more liquor licenses
- in a special designated business district Is that is that likely in a likely outcome?
- legislation that proposes River the creation of a riverfront district which would allow the issuance
- of Low lower cost licenses to locally headquartered Restaurants within a narrow footprint. So I think
- this would not be a high volume of permits, but I think it will foster new starts for locally owned
- restaurants, which we desperately need in this community and
- That is not being proposed tonight and it is not related to this map So it would require that legislation
- That let yes that legislation will would be an ordinance. It would have two hearings and again public
- outreach will Happen I that is technically slated for October 22nd at this time and that will get a
- full full fleshing out Which I would welcome, okay Council president's husband
- I was referring to earlier that like when when that started getting like paired conceptually with naming
- a district I was like, oh, okay, like that is over my head and I'm like I I don't want to say I don't
- support it right now because I've like seen it and I think that the safeguards that are in place around
- Making sure that somebody mentioned bars earlier bars would not qualify for
- for this so you know we don't want this area to turn into another bar zone or drunken you know spaces.
- So it is very different. But that was a point where I was like, OK, that is kind of above my pay grade
- in terms of those details. Those details are there. They're not quite ready. They're, as I said, a little
- bit more complex in terms of making sure that they get vetted all the way. And so right now, it's tentatively
- scheduled for a first reading on the 22nd and then a second reading on the 5th. But I also think that
- that's still in flux because the attorneys are still looking at the details of that and wanting to make
- sure that that program
- Is set up in a way that is going to work? and do what we want it to do and not do what some of the commenters
- tonight have alluded to being Uncomfortable with or nervous of and would be really not desirable outcomes
- Councilmember Osari
- Thank you. First, I'd like to note that we have a little bit of a structural problem with the proceeding
- today, namely, one is that the council member who represents what now would be this district is no longer
- here. They said that they were going to vote no, and I'm the only at-large member right now. I do think
- that we have some
- It's really important to make that distinction that Council Member Rallo made, which namely is that
- there's two different things that we're discussing. Some of the comments were actually about the legislation
- that is going to be put forth. And it's important not to sort of conflate the two, because the one is
- the sort of tool that we have. This other one is about branding and marketing. So with that in mind,
- I'm really quite interested. And I guess I can also comment, because my time's on. I mean, I'm quite
- supportive of the latter thing,
- I have a little bit of an issue with the current thing on our agenda, namely because of the seeming
- disconnect between sort of the engagement efforts and outcomes of those engagements, right? And particularly
- who we're engaging with and who's doing that engaging I think also to an extent matters a little bit
- here because right now what I've heard from a lot of residents is that they're not quite happy
- with the way that the map looks. They're confused about what this name means, all those type of things.
- And then we're calling this a branding exercise, sort of gets off on the wrong foot. And so I'm kind
- of interested in to what extent we'd be amenable to changing the map and what that process would look
- like. You know, this should be, in my mind,
- Should be a big win for the community that feels mostly good And so the fact that there's a neighborhood
- that I used to live in by the way and loved very much and then spent 13 years in the neighborhood adjacent
- to You know that they feel marginalized and not supported by this is Not great and in editing the map
- conversely editing the map is something that's really manageable to do and I think this conversation helps
- You know it helps me see that in our language we're centering the commercial activities and so even
- though I understand why we expanded the footprint to include these residential areas the map should
- also probably be narrowed.
- to focus more deliberately on the commercial areas. That's what this is about. So thank you for answering
- that. And so by way of my comment, I think what I would, unless we feel that it's something we can amend
- today with all of that in mind, I really think that we should postpone it only so that, one, so we can
- tie it more carefully to the tool legislation that's coming forward, which I think is super important
- and something that we need to be discussing. And that was sort of the gist of this conversation. Secondly,
- so that we can ensure
- proper representation of this district. That's why we have districts. So it just feels, you know, if
- the people of the district are particularly, you know, concerned about it, I think that it's important
- that their representative or, you know, at least more of their at-large representatives be here. But
- I think that we should have some discussions just around sort of the, you know, where this district
- is so that we get a lot of support for it. So if we were voting today, I'd have to vote no, but I would
- like to move this forward because I do see it as an important
- piece of the legislation that's coming again later. So I would just my sort of recommendation to the
- council is that we postpone this to sort of fix this a little bit more carefully with the separate
- legislation so we can talk about those in unison. Thank you. Council member Stossberg did you want to
- respond to that question. Yeah I also I guess we're going to. Yeah we kind of are. I think they're.
- Yeah I also.
- Earlier tonight, I think that I alluded a couple times to the zoning map. And earlier today, actually,
- in one of the email communications in response to a constituent, I was like, I'm not actually sure.
- Actually, it wasn't in response to a constituent, but it was about another constituent comment. I'm
- not actually sure how the map got expanded into more of that residential area in Maple Heights, as opposed
- to kind of staying on that border that was the multi-use area. And so I think that Director Coopersmith
- addressed her reasoning
- in that tonight and I support the concept of that reasoning but I also think that the residents who
- live there that it makes them really uneasy and I think that that they have a point and it's kind of
- like well is it really necessary to include that that residential space and I don't think it is so to
- that like and I also support changing the map and so I would move that we postpone consideration of
- this until our next regular session on October 22nd.
- Okay. Does does this motion is their discussion allowed with a motion to postpone. Yes. Well I would
- like to take an opportunity to to make a few comments. I'm in favor of the motion to postpone. I in
- addition to what my colleagues have said as far as you know listening to the neighbors in Maple Heights.
- I want to call up also what what I think one or maybe two residents stated in particular which was the
- lack of safety along the Walnut and College Avenue corridor and the fact that we have for many years
- put in our plans that we're going to do something about it and it's been studied and then it was put
- on hold and now I don't know what's you know we keep putting it off it seems like that something that
- I thought during
- This meeting tonight is that maybe we should wait with this whole thing until After we actually see
- some movement in making that corridor more safe So obviously that won't happen before October 22nd,
- but but that's something I'm thinking of So I'm in favor of the motion other other council comments
- Yes council member. Sorry on the motion I would I would motion that we amend it rather than
- I guess it's a question to us to deliberate, but I wonder if it makes more sense to have it on the day
- when we would do the second reading of the legislation around the riverfront district so that they're
- clearly paired. When I made this suggestion originally, my first thought was, OK, give us time to amend
- it. I think this accomplishes that. But I just wonder if there would be some value in pairing those
- clearly, especially because we've had some comments today where they're conflating
- both of those so we can have a clear you know this is what we're talking about and this is what we're
- talking about and sort of how they overlap I think also helps with the branding of this part for that
- matter. Can I make a statement or can you. I just want to be really clear I think I appreciate what
- you're saying that you want to have the second reading of the potential stadium riverfront district
- legislation follow this would be
- Potentially voted on and considered first and then that I want to make it very clear I have heard a
- couple times that these are related and they are and they are not the marketing efforts From the naming
- are super important and are not dependent on the outcomes of the liquor Licensed Riverfront District
- program and I think for that reason we we ended up deciding to separate them in this way because we
- really wanted you to consider just the name
- So I I'm sorry, I'll be quiet after this Council members toss. Sorry. Did you want to respond to that?
- Yeah, I just want to second that that we were really specific and deliberate about separating those
- things And I think it actually sometimes makes it Makes it worse in terms of conflation of things when
- they're sitting right next to each other as opposed to when they're like
- they're two separate things. And these are really two separate things. And as I said earlier, like,
- I mean, I've no qualms about this. I mean, I put my name on it because I have no qualms about naming
- a place. But I do, you know, like the requirements, et cetera, you know, I mean, it's really important
- on the other one, there's more details. It's, you know, and I'm not even,
- after talking with the attorneys this week, I'm not even sure that that's gonna have a first reading
- on the 22nd right now in terms of some specific due diligence that needs to happen with that. And so,
- postponing this, I think, after the 20, I don't even know if we could do that in terms of, because I
- think we have to postpone to the next regular session. Okay, okay. Yeah, and I would just say as a thought
- to that, that I mean, I totally appreciate that view, and I think it's a fair one.
- I personally hold the view that I like them being connected. I like people viewing that there are two
- different tools in a toolkit trying to achieve a broader overarching goal that is related. And so I
- don't view the sort of marketing of this with creating and operating. And again, I don't want to get
- into the details of this thing that's not currently in front of us. But I just think this does go to
- the broader conversations that we're having around.
- I think sometimes for the general public, we as a council, because what happens behind the scene is
- opaque until it's in front of people. So sometimes it seems like we do things in this sort of like,
- we did this, then we did this, then we did this. Again, just speaking as a person who does a lot of
- listening sessions. But I think that it would be really, really wise of us to sort of
- think about this in a way where you actually can manage the way that it's communicated in a way so it's
- just not scatter shot, at least from the perspective of our residents. Because there is a lot of thought
- that's gone into this and a lot of work that's gone into this. And I just think that we do ourselves
- a disservice when the way that we debate it sometimes doesn't reflect that. But I am not opposed if
- we continue with the motion as is. I will stop talking and I will vote yes on it.
- on the motion Councilmember Rallo I'm in favor of postponement. I think my concerns about encouraging
- rentals and Airbnb's was Substantiated by the expressed by residents so if a revised map could be available
- if it could be amended in some way and you know, maybe I'm meeting offer to the residents so that they can
- Express their views on that other than that. I think you know As a wayfinder or something. I suppose
- that this has some utility and could be helpful And I'm happy that the Discussion about liquor license
- is a separate matter because I have a lot of concerns about about that especially related to what my
- colleague Councilmember Piedmont Smith said about the safety of that area and
- and so forth, so Thank you Any other councilmember comments before we vote on the motion to postpone
- All right Clerk Balding, will you please call the roll on the motion to postpone to October 22nd? Yes
- Stasberg yes daily. Yes, Zulik. Yes. I
- Rosen. No sorry. Yes. Rollo. Yes. Thank you. That motion passes 6 0. I'll hand the gavel back to President
- Stossberg for the next item. Thank you. Next. Next item.
- I move that appropriation ordinance 2025-08 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis
- only Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to introduce appropriation ordinance 2025-08 all those
- in favor, please say aye. Aye opposed Thank you. Will the clerk please read To transfer funds from the
- general fund to the fiber connectivity fund and specially appropriate funds not otherwise budgeted
- The synopsis is as follows appropriation ordinance twenty twenty five dash oh eight transfers funding
- from the general fund to the fiber connectivity fund and appropriates that funding for the ITS department
- for the city's master developer agreement with Meridian Hoosier Networks and Street fiber.
- I move appropriation ordinance twenty twenty five dash oh eight be adopted. Thank you.
- Looks like we have control McClellan here to present. Please introduce yourself for the record and go ahead.
- Good evening council controller McClellan to ask for your consideration of this appropriation ordinance
- it transfers $250,000 from the general fund from the cash balance of the general fund to our new fund
- the fiber connectivity fund and then it creates a budget of 250,000 for the ITS department to use to
- pay the to pay that those portion of the drop costs that we that we agreed to pay in the 2022 meridian agreement
- This is to fund connection to the high-speed fiber network to low-income housing. Thank you. Do council
- members have any questions about this appropriation? I see none.
- So let's go ahead and move to public comment regarding appropriation ordinance 2025 08 If you remember
- the public who would like to make a comment on this appropriation ordinance and you're in chambers Please
- go ahead and make your way to the podium and you'll have up to three minutes If you're online, please
- go ahead and raise your hand using the reactions tab or send a chat message to the host. I Don't see
- anybody moving in chambers. Is there anybody who's raised her hand online? Okay
- Brings us back to council again for any councilmember comments or questions if anybody has thought of
- any Councilmember sorry quick comment for the general public might be watching and maybe didn't watch
- our last meeting but this is You know, we're just making a transfer to a fund that we established and
- debated at length At the last meeting that clearly specified how this money can be spent. So this is just a
- Necessary action so that we can enact our plans from before If you hadn't made that comment that I was
- gonna make that comment, so thanks for doing that So I didn't have to any other councilmember comments
- regarding appropriation ordinance 20 2508 All right seeing none will the clerk please call the roll
- on the appropriation ordinance Councilmember Stasberg, yes daily
- Yes. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. And that passes unanimously six zero. I move that ordinance
- twenty twenty five dash thirty five be introduced and read by the clerk. No we're on D appropriation
- ordinance twenty twenty five. I just accidentally crossed it off. Thank you. You did oh eight before.
- Yeah. Okay.
- It's been a long night folks I apologize. I move that appropriation ordinance twenty twenty five dash
- oh nine be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only second it's been moved and seconded
- for appropriation ordinance twenty twenty five oh nine. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed.
- Thank you. Will the clerk please read appropriation ordinance.
- 2025-09 to specially appropriate from the general fund expenditures not otherwise appropriated. The
- synopsis is as follows. Appropriation ordinance 2025-09 additionally appropriates funding from the general
- fund for expenses in the ITS department, for expenses in the engineering department that have been reimbursed
- by Indiana University, and to approve a transfer between categories in the clerk's office budget. And
- the appropriation ordinance 2025-09 be adopted.
- And we have controller McClellan again. Good evening council. Long time no see. I'm back to ask for
- your consideration of three three adjustments to the budget that we group together in one ordinance.
- The first one is for the clerk's office. It is just simply a transfer with zero effect on the general
- fund cash balance from believe it's from other services and charges to supplies.
- The second one is an additional appropriation for the ITS department where the 2025 budget that we developed
- last year just wasn't realistic now. It's missing some things that were absolutely necessary for applications
- such as adding users and for some infrastructure that was needed in some offices that got remodeled
- and some offices that opened up over in Showers West temporarily.
- And then the fourth or the third item for engineering is kind of interesting. That really has and that's
- part of an agreement with IU where you paid us the city the seventeen thousand six hundred and eighty
- five dollars for part of a project. So we received that as revenue but this is just housekeeping in
- order to kind of expense that project against that revenue. We need to add it to their budget. So that
- is truly also just housekeeping and
- Rick Dietz the IT ITS director is also here. Sorry to put you on the hot spot Rick But if you want any
- more detailed questions about the ITS budget, I'm sure he'd be happy to answer those two Around this
- appropriation councilmember Piedmont Smith Yes
- This is about the ITS request. So in the memo it says that Some of the additional funds requested are
- due to Federal funds not being available federal funds that we expected not being available because
- did you put a dollar figure to that? Yeah, that that item is referring to
- a service that we take advantage of that provides us with timely notifications about cyber security
- vulnerabilities that was provided By an organization CISA, which is the cyber security and information
- security agency which stopped funding that service which it provided to Local governments across the
- across the United States We
- then decided to take advantage of subscribing to that service which was provided jointly by the government
- through a private entity. And so now we're continuing that service but there's around a five thousand
- dollar cost for that subscription on an annual basis and actually by signing up early for that it's
- sub it's reduced compared to what it would otherwise be.
- And then there was also a grant that was offered and then rescinded. Is that right? Yes, that's a entirely
- separate issue. But we were announced to receive a large digital opportunity grant at the beginning
- of the year. And then that was rescinded. How much was the federal administration? That was almost 12
- million dollars.
- Thank you. Thank you. Are there other council member questions. OK. I have one that says in the memo
- that it's the infrastructure costs including hardware supporting our storage and computing presence
- at the data center. Can you tell us more about our computing presence at the data center. Yeah.
- We have a node in our virtual private network at the IU data center. It is the most secure and robust
- data center that is available to us, you know, within, you know, at least until you get to Indianapolis.
- So we've taken advantage and partnered with IU to host some of our infrastructure there. Great. Thank you.
- Other questions, council member, sorry. Thank you so much, Director Dietz. Super quick one, and maybe
- for both of you. Some of the costs were recurring costs, operating costs. And so any reflections on
- the 2026 budget? Because I mean, I get the grant and all those things, but were some of these
- just misaccounted for? Like, did we not budget enough?
- Some of the some of those are increases that we needed to make for instance. I'm just gonna you know
- pick Pick one DocuSign licenses for signing contracts You know, we increased that earlier in the year
- in discussion with The legal department and kind of mapping out what we needed on an enterprise basis
- We went ahead and moved forward with that for operational reasons
- That number is incorporated in our current budget proposal for 2026. So there's not Not an adjustment.
- Okay. Okay. So so so so no there We don't see any sort of like structural issue moving forward that
- might create, you know similar out No, no. Yeah, we that is baked into our 20, you know for items like
- that is baked into our 2026 proposal. Thank you Councilmember Piedmont Smith
- Yes, again for Mr. Dietz. In the memo, it also talks about a need for funds to repair conduit slash
- fiber for a segment supporting the 4th Street garage that was damaged during Convention Center construction
- site preparation. So are we getting any money back from food and beverage tax money to cover that?
- Not in this instance, it was infrastructure that was damaged that did not have line locate wire through
- it so technically is not the fault of the of the vendor and so, you know, we needed to repair that to
- support our facilities and working staff at the 4th Street garage the garage and the
- the parking enforcement group that is there So It was somehow that line was not properly marked and
- so it's not the fault of the construction or demolition. That's correct Okay, do we? Was a lesson learned
- here our other lines in that area going to be marked so that you know by ends by and large our Infrastructure
- is is properly marked My understanding of this is we actually had two conduits and
- Not immediately beside each other but a number of feet apart one of those Headline locate wire the other
- did not it was the one that did not unfortunately that had That had our fiber in it. Okay. All right. Thank you
- Let's go ahead and go to the public regarding appropriation organs 2025 09 if you're a member of the
- public who would like to comment on this piece of Legislation if you're in chambers You can go ahead
- and make your way to the podium and you'll have up to three minutes If you're online, you can go ahead
- and raise your hand using the reactions tab or send a chat message to the host I don't see anybody moving
- in chambers. Is there anybody online who's raised their hand? I
- Okay, still seeing no one. Um, let's go back to council for any council member comments related
- to Appropriation Ordinance 2025 09 All right seeing no comments, um, I will go ahead and make a comment,
- um two things first of all, uh, I appreciate council member piedmont smith for highlighting through
- questions that uh,
- money that is no longer being being used to support cybersecurity for local governments and I'm really
- pleased that here in Bloomington we can manage to appropriate additional funds so that we can still
- have a robust
- cybersecurity, but I just want to highlight that as kind of a continued problem. Last year, Monroe County
- government had a cybersecurity incident over the summer, IU did, and cybersecurity threats are very
- real and they're impactful, and it's really, really frustrating to me that our federal government has
- decided to not support municipal governments in cybersecurity efforts. That's very frustrating. The
- second thing I want to highlight with my comments, we did not talk about
- the very small appropriation to the office of the city clerk because I already knew what that was about,
- but I do want to highlight that our council office moved over to West Showers in order for all of our
- staff to be co-located in the same place. As a result of that, our staff has spent personal money.
- Outfit that office as opposed to asking for an additional appropriation and maybe that goes back to
- something else councilmember Piedmont Smith said earlier that we're just loathe to support ourselves
- But I think that it is ridiculous that our council staff was not supported through additional furnishings
- and related to that move
- And I think that that is just a failing that over the summer when that all was happening, it was like,
- oh, there's just no money for that. Oh, there's just no money for that. And maybe we should have spent
- the money then and asked for it later, which is what happened with the Office of the Clerk instead of
- asking for it first and then spending it. And that's really frustrating to me. I don't think that we
- should spend money first and ask later as a matter of course. But I also think that it's just really,
- really frustrating that
- ourselves and our staff end up going without or spending their own money and I think that that is a
- systematic problem, so That is my comment. Are there other councilmember comments? Thank you. Will the
- clerk please call the roll on appropriation ordinance 20 2509. I
- I have to go on recess right now because we no longer have a member of the clerk's office monitoring
- this meetings will recess for We'll start with five minutes and come back at 903. Thank you All right
- I'm gonna call us back to session here if we could stop our side conversations, I know this is a long
- meeting and
- At nine oh three, we are back to session. We were about to call the roll on appropriation ordinance.
- Twenty twenty five oh nine. Will the clerk please do that? Okay. Council member daily. Yes. Zulek. Yes.
- Sorry. Yes. Rollo. Yes.
- Tiedemann Smith. Yes, and Hopi Stasberg. Yes All right, and that passes unanimously on to the next I
- move that ordinance 2025 35 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only second Motioned
- and seconded to introduce ordinance 2025 35 all those in favor, please say aye. I Opposed. Thank you.
- Will the clerk please read?
- Ordinance 2025 dash 35 to amend Title 9 of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled water. The synopsis
- is as follows. This ordinance amends the rates and charges in Title 9 of the Bloomington Municipal Code
- entitled water to reflect increased costs of supplying water and services to customers and to make debt
- service payments on bond financing for required capital improvements. Thank you. I move ordinance 2025
- dash 35 be adopted.
- It's the race to second Thank you very much it looks like our director of utilities is here you've had
- a you've had a long meeting to wait and prepare Go ahead and introduce yourself for the record and I
- look forward to this Good evening council Catherine Zager utilities director
- I'm pleased to discuss ordinance 2025 35 to amend title 9 of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled
- water we will be presenting a Presentation on our proposed rate increases for our water utility This
- will be in three parts. First. We will have our revenue requirements by Jennifer Wilson from Crowe and
- We will then have a presentation from our consultants at Stan Tech Danica and Andy and they will be
- presenting our cost of service study which we based our rates upon. And then last I will present some
- additional information I think the council would like to have including our capital improvement plan.
- So with that Jennifer Wilson from Crow very good. Thanks Kat.
- If you could advance the slide. Oh sorry I can advance the slide. Is there somewhere I'm supposed to
- press. Going the wrong way. OK there we go. All right. Very good. I'm Jennifer Wilson with Crow and
- we prepared as I said the revenue requirement report.
- I'll just go through this and tell you when we prepare the report we take a look at the past three years
- the twenty twenty two through twenty twenty four and then we use twenty twenty four as the test year
- and make fixed and measurable adjustments to it which then we come up with that your revenue requirements
- which include your operation and maintenance or debt and lease payments and your extensions and replacements.
- The key considerations of this rate increase is that you have an $84 million capital improvement plan,
- and we're trying to fund $54 million of it with bond issuances. Those bond issuance will include the
- water treatment plant projects, the water distribution system, and an annual water main replacement
- projects, and the water portion of the new service center. You'll also be funding some capital improvement
- projects with your revenues on an annual basis.
- And those include the other ones less listed there. But it's going to be approximately seven point one
- million dollars per year that's going to be funded from the revenues as they come in each year. What
- we show here is your income statement over the past three years to show you on the blue line being your
- operating revenues and the yellow line being your expenses in 2022.
- You had 20 million dollars of revenues and 18.1 million dollars of expenses. Then you can see in 2023
- you had 20.2 million dollars of revenues and then in 2023 you also paid for quite a bit of your pilot
- and shared services from the utilities to the city and they had accrued after a three year time period.
- So that's why the expenses in 2023 is higher than both 2022 and 2024.
- And then in 2024 it's not showing the shared services in the pilot. So again the revenues are greater
- than the expenses. That is all to say that in 2022 you had about one point nine million dollars to expend
- on capital projects and went negative by one point nine million in 2023 and then in 2024 there's three
- point seven million. So much lower than the expected or the amount that we would want on an ongoing
- basis of seven point one million dollars.
- We took that 2024 test year and we made adjustments to it of approximately $3.2 million to increase
- the operating expenses to your typical average year. And that includes the shared services and the pilot
- expenses. We also increase the salaries and wages for the wage increases that happen here in 2025. And
- we also made some other adjustments to normalize the test year.
- I always like showing a pie graph of your operating expenses. So you can see that your employee costs
- are approximately 42% of your operating expenses. And then the other ones are purchase power and other
- miscellaneous and materials and supplies that round out large bulk of those pie pieces. There's an $84
- million capital improvement plan. As I said, you're trying to fund 54 million of it through two bond
- issuances.
- One and being in 2026 and the other one being in 2028 and then the seven point one million dollars annually
- to come up with the 28.4 million dollars that will be funded of the projects from revenues as you Get
- them over the next four or five years Your current debt service is seven point one million dollars and
- you can see there then in 2029 it goes down to 1.7 so we've been strategic in the way that we're trying
- to fund your capital improvements by
- We're going to issue debt in 2026 and 2028. And during that time period, we're going to fund the interest
- during that time period with proceeds from the bonds. And then in 2029, we are going back up to debt
- service of 7.1 million. So overall, after these debts are issued, we'll continue that $7.1 million of
- annual debt service that you currently are experiencing and we'll continue it and fill it so that you
- can do so much. You can do $54 million worth of projects.
- That brings me to the overall, sorry, yes. Yeah, I should have made a better bar graph, because I looked
- at that afterwards. I didn't like how it declined. It's really that yellow should have gone all the
- way over straight to 2029, and then go down to 1.7. So it wasn't declining during that year.
- So it's $7.1 million, and yes.
- That's 2029. Yes. Yep. So it should have been 7.1 million till 2028 and then down to 1.7. So yeah, I
- noticed that myself. Yeah. All right. Total revenue requirements is 29.1 million dollars and you're
- currently bringing in 22.6. So that's a deficit of 6.5 million dollars. That means you would need an
- overall revenue increase of 30.5%
- 30.5 percent, but that doesn't necessarily mean each each customer will see that increase of 30.5 percent
- because the person speaking next is Stan tech and they've done a cost of service study in which They'll
- explain how this overall revenue increase of 30.5 percent will affect each customer class Do you have
- any questions for me or I'll hand it over to stand tech and they continue the presentation I
- Usually, we do questions at the end about all of it. So if we could finish the presentation first, that
- would be great. Great. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Danica Katz from SanTech. We also have Andy
- Burnham here as well from SanTech.
- Cat, are you going to be sharing the slides from the chambers or shall I present those on my end? I
- have them in the chambers. I can advance the slides for you. Perfect. Thank you so much.
- all pulled up and ready to go. Yes, we're all set. Okay. Sorry, I can't see them on my end.
- There we go. Awesome. Thank you so much. So thank you for the opportunity to present today. StanTech
- is going to be speaking to the cost allocation and rate design portion of this analysis and I'll kind
- of step through each of those components.
- Before we get into the cost allocation and rate design itself, I want to start by highlighting the test
- year and some of the analysis that was done on this front. So in order to review the test year, we looked
- at historical rainfall trends to ensure that 2024, as Jennifer spoke to for the test year,
- was a representative year when it comes to rainfall patterns.
- You'll see on the next slide, we also confirmed that build consumption, so build monthly water usage
- by each year for each of the months was a representative test year for the system. And so we went through
- this analysis on many different fronts on a monthly basis as well as here on a customer class basis.
- Ultimately, just to confirm, like I mentioned, that that is truly a representative year for the system.
- Additionally, one of the other elements that has come into this study is the AMI data, which provides
- a very data-driven component to the study. So it allowed us to look at the daily AMI data by every single
- class, which you could see here on this graphic, which represents some of those peaks and just how the
- system operates on a customer class basis.
- which on the next slide, you'll see we also have that on an hourly basis as well. So not only did we
- have that daily data, but we also had, you can see there at the bottom, 233 million data points. So
- very accurate representation of how each of these customers act on a daily and an hourly basis. And
- so with all of that data, what we had
- done is pulled together a summary of the peaking factor comparison for a max day basis as well as a
- peak hour basis for each of those individual customer classes. So you could see in the columns it highlights
- the prior rate case, peaking factors, the current revenue classes, and then you'll see there
- is a recommendation for consolidated revenue class there.
- which ultimately just combines the commercial and industrial class together and I can go into a little
- bit more detail on that but just from a high level those customer classes behave very similar and there's
- a very small amount of customers in that industrial class. And so moving on to the cost allocation and that
- Analysis itself just from a high level the objective of a cost of service analysis is we essentially
- take the annual revenue requirements that Jennifer just spoke to and we utilize those as our total cost
- of service and we go through a process where we Allocate each of the specific revenue requirement line
- items per the AWWA manual
- And through industry guidance ultimately to determine that cost to serve for each of the customer classes
- Compared to the current revenue that they are collecting and so the goal is to you know Make them consistent
- with the cost of providing service for each of those classes And so how we do that is through a four-step approach
- And so step one is ultimately to take those revenue requirements that Jennifer spoke to and we functionalize
- those into various functions that are specific to your system. You can see the listing there of those
- various functions.
- In step three, we then take all of those functions and we allocate them to specific demand characteristics.
- So that would include your average day, your max day, max hour, and then the customer component. And
- ultimately in step four, we then distribute all of those costs to the respective customer classes that
- you could see listed there. So that's the high level process that we go through.
- I'll just touch on this quickly because Jennifer just went through this a little bit, but this is the
- revenue requirement. So it just shows kind of the components that make up that $29.1 million overall
- revenue requirement.
- And so in step two, as I mentioned, we take all those revenue requirements and we functionalize those
- based on how they operate within your system or within the city of Bloomington system. A majority of
- these functions or departments within the system line items are allocated on a direct basis.
- When I say direct it means you know source of supply is directly allocated 100 percent to source of
- supply function. But there are a handful that are allocated on some different basis whether that be
- the capital improvement plan you know fixed asset listing and things of that nature.
- And then step two, this is just a summary here of all of that $29.1 million of revenue requirements
- allocated to those different buckets or different functions. So just as a couple examples, you could
- see treatment and pumping is about 10.1 million or about 35%. Distribution means about 11% and so forth
- for some of the other customer and other functions.
- In the third step here, we then allocate all of those functionalized costs to the specific demand parameters.
- And so you can see there are certain functions that get allocated specifically to average day, max day,
- max hour, some directly to fire protection, and then a handful there on the right to customer and meter
- size cost.
- And so this just shows essentially what you saw in that prior slide, but the actual percentages that
- are allocated. So you can see how each of those specific functions are allocated on a percentage basis
- across all of those demand characteristics. These are all derived from production data that's provided
- by CBU and ultimately to get to those percentages that you see there on the screen.
- This is essentially a summary of those two prior slides that you saw, so taking the percentage and the
- buckets of the costs. And this is just a summary of that 29.1 million of revenue requirements by those
- different functions and by the different demand parameters across those columns.
- As part of the analysis we also looked at fire protection and fire flow So we were provided a specific
- city fire department calls of service Demands things of that nature so that we could ultimately get
- to the capacity analysis for fire flow specifically here We also looked at the shared or
- The cost split between public and private fire. So we are provided the number of hydrants both private
- as well as public ultimately to get to that percent split there over there on the right.
- And then moving along to step four, just wanted to highlight here the units of service or ultimately
- how those unit costs get spread across the customer classes. And so you can see all of those units specific
- for each of those customer classes. I will highlight that general service now includes that commercial
- industrial that you saw on one of the beginning slides there.
- And then ultimately in step four here the goal is to get to the cost of service summary. And so that
- bar in orange is the existing revenue that's collected by each of those various customer classes. And
- in blue is the cost to serve each of those or the cost of service findings with that 30.5 percent overall
- increase that Jennifer highlighted in her presentation.
- along with the percentage increases that you see there down below in the gray highlighted area. I will
- note that these are unadjusted and do not include any caps or limitations on specific customer classes
- which we will speak to here in some of the upcoming slides. That summarizes the cost of service and
- then we also
- did a portion of analysis on the rate design or rate calculation. And so I just wanted to highlight
- here the current monthly water fix and usage charges for Bloomington. So there is a fixed charge that
- increases by meter size from $6.50 up to that 395, as well as a usage charge or a volumetric rate.
- Per thousand gallons for each of those different customer classes there on the right Also wanted to
- highlight the Current monthly fire protection rates so you have both a public fire protection as well
- as a private fire protection for private fire lines those also increase
- meter size or are charged by meter size for both inside and outside city customers as well as based
- on connection size for the private meter there on the right. I'll speak quickly just here at the fixed
- charge component or that scaled meter size component. There are
- Four pieces that make that up. So there is a customer service related to the cost of service accounts
- meters so anything that's related to the maintenance of meters specifically Services so anything related
- to service drops and then as a component for billing and collection costs So those are all what make
- up the fixed charge and on the next slide here. We're going to talk about
- the costs for each of those. So in developing the fixed charge, we take all of those costs that come
- out of the cost of service that I just touched on, and some of those are scaled, and some of them are
- flat. So billing and customer services are flat across all meter sizes, whereas meters and services
- are scaled based on capacity or meter size.
- And down below in that table is essentially the unit cost to derive the flat and scaled portion. And
- so what you can see here is that in order to calculate the updated fixed charge for water, you can see
- that flat component is the same across all meter sizes. And then the scaled component essentially scales
- based on a factor as the meter size increases.
- and those ultimately get added together to become the total fixed charge there you see in bold. Then
- we've also compared that on the right to the current fixed charge. Moving on to the public fire protection,
- so very similar to what we just talked about on the regular retail side.
- We take the public and private fire protection costs that came out of the cost service. And we ultimately
- at that bottom down there calculate a unit cost for both inside and outside. And then we scale those
- just as we did on the other rates that I just talked about by meter size and compare those to the current
- charge. So you can see that those are all decreasing
- From varying percentages on the inside and outside city based on the cost of service findings Okay,
- and then again very similar here on the private fire protection rate development So we also take the
- cost of service for private billing associated with private fire and calculate a unit cost there and
- then similarly we
- We scale that monthly component and keep that milling component flat and compare that to the current
- there on the right or a increase of anywhere from 11% to 43%, depending on the meter connection size.
- I know there's a lot going on here but just I'll kind of point out the big takeaways here. So this just
- shows the calculated revenue for the fixed and volumetric side ultimately making up that total cost
- of service revenue across all of those customer classes as well as their billable unit. But one of the
- things we did want to highlight there could see it in the bottom and orange is the capped at four times. So we are
- proposing or recommending a cap at no more than four times the identified overall rate increase of 30.5
- that Jennifer discussed. And so that would be that 122% that you see there on the volumetric rate side.
- And then this is the same graphic that I showed before, but just with that cap
- that four times cap on irrigation. So you could see that 110 percent drop down a little bit from that
- prior slide that I showed, but still collecting that 30.5 percent overall increase. So with all of that,
- we've got some summary tables here that just highlight again,
- These were on some prior slides, but just wanted to summarize it in a clean way here to show the current
- rates versus the proposed. So you can see those for the fixed charge on the left and then for the usage
- charge on the right. And then same for public as well as private.
- And then we also wanted to highlight just a couple of quick bill impacts to show some of the summarization
- for what those impacts might mean for different customer classes. So we have a couple different here
- for some various customer classes. So the first one would be a residential at that smallest 5-8 meter
- at a handful of different usages there varying anywhere from zero to 5,000 and then
- in 5,000 increments, all the way up to 50,000 gallons. And this is the total current bill and proposed
- bill, which includes both the fixed and the usage component. So you can see on those smaller usages,
- if we just look at that 5,000, it would be a $6.06 change on a monthly basis for around a 19.8% increase, and then
- You know goes up there a little bit as we get higher into the higher usages But a majority of the residential
- customers at that five eighths are typically on the lower side of the usage here And these also do include
- fire protection. Sorry public fire protection. I just want to mention that Okay, we showed one here
- for the general service or what was prior
- commercial and industrial. So we showed two different meter sizes here, a smaller three-quarter inch
- and then a one-inch meter. So for the three-quarter inch, we show a small user, medium user, and a large
- user. So you can see that total and current bill there or a change of $3.38 on a monthly basis.
- up to $22.44 for a larger user on that three quarter inch meter. And then on the one inch down below,
- anywhere from $32.85 for that smaller meter up to $54 on that larger meter.
- touch on the wholesale here so we just pulled a four inch meter larger meter at some higher usages for
- the wholesale customers and showed some of those current and total bills for some increases anywhere
- from 38 percent up until you know around 48 for some of those higher users.
- Just to highlight quickly here again, the IU master meter for a large six inch meter. So someone using
- 400,000 would see about a $655.39 increase for about 47% there.
- We included irrigation as well at a small three-quarter inch. So 5,000 gallons would see about a 97.3%.
- And these reflect, as I mentioned before, that four-time cap all the way up to 120%. And that concludes
- the presentation on the cost of service and rate design.
- Thank you so much for your time. All right. Thank you. And I think we'll hold questions till the end,
- like we were saying. And so now I'm going to talk a little bit about what this may look like on your
- typical residential bill. I think we just looked at a lot of numbers and looked at a lot of graphs.
- And I think your average resident would like to see what's my bill going to look like. So here's my bill.
- and we projected those changes on my bill I have a three quarter inch meter I In this billing cycle
- used three units or three thousand gallons. I have a small cart for sanitation and My bill would go
- from being it was 7101 that month it would have been 75 35 for that month with the proposed changes and
- now I'm also going to Present some water and water and sewer rate survey that was recently completed
- by crow What this is it's a survey of the combined water and sewer rate for cities and towns in Indiana
- with populations over 25,000 So as you can see here our combined water and sewer rate is currently 24th
- of the 39 cities and towns with populations over 25 K and
- Proposed rate increase would not change that standing and in fact There are many rate increases pending
- in these other cities and towns as indicated by the little two in parentheses To your far right there
- in the chart So that would drop Bloomington even further down on this list even with our pending rate
- increase Here is that same survey but this is just for the water portion and
- water rates so currently our water rate is in the lower third of this survey and Our proposed rate increase
- would put us temporarily at 25th again considering that many towns and cities Have those pending rate
- increases that would pull them further up This is just I know we've been asked a lot where where we
- compare to other cities and towns and I think it's helpful to see this and
- So with that, I am going to do a fairly brief overview of our capital improvement plan, because I'd
- like to talk about what we're spending the money on. So this is in three parts. The first part is water
- treatment plant projects, so projects that are specific to our plant. And then we'll talk about projects
- that are specific to the distribution system. And then third, we'll talk about the Winston Thomas Service Center.
- The first portion water treatment plant park projects is for a total of thirty point seven million dollars
- These projects include electrical upgrades including phases one and two along with a skater
- and instrumentation upgrades What this is is projects that will update obsolete systems increase resiliency
- and provide enhanced cyber security at our plants and
- We have sedimentation basin rehabilitations, which will restore critical water clarification equipment,
- improving the efficiency of early treatment processes. This project will enhance CBU's ability to remove
- organic and inorganic materials from the raw water drawn from Lake Monroe, helping to address seasonal
- taste and odor issues. Our next big project is chemical building improvements and feed line replacement.
- These projects address treatment reliability and staff safety along with restoring a safe and sustainable
- fluoride delivery system. Next we have our high service pump rebuilds and variable frequency drives.
- Our high service pump rebuilds will provide redundancy and increase resiliency in our treatment process.
- The addition of these variable frequency drives will help prevent service interruptions by preventing
- the wear on our pipes at the plant and throughout our system. We also have maintenance projects, which
- includes the completion of an asset management system that will allow for improved, oh, I clicked it
- on the wrong one.
- That will allow for improved maintenance assessment and replacement practices Improving the longevity
- and integrity of our critical equipment at the plant We have treatment plant water handling and delivery
- updates that have the addition of air quality monitoring to improve worker safety Maintenance to address
- leaks in our pipe gallery and the replacement of a back watch backwash header valve actuator this will
- also provide funds for item required tank inspections and maintenance and
- We also have a bypass pumping improvements project this resiliency project will establish a contingency
- for lake withdrawals Should the main intake tower suffer a mechanical failure ensuring our ability to
- continue water production This also includes a residual project Which will have a backwash pump replacement
- that will improve the cleaning efficiency and consistency of our filter cleaning at the Monroe plant and
- helping to maintain our water quality and reliable treatment capacity. Next we have our distribution
- system maintenance totaling $34.4 million. This is in essentially two parts. One is our booster station
- and storage tank rehabilitations and upgrades. Upgrades to our booster stations and tanks are gonna
- help ensure consistent water pressure and flow throughout our system.
- This will also include the addition of emergency generators, which will improve our preparedness and
- reliability during natural disasters, electrical grid issues, or other emergencies. The second component
- of our distribution system maintenance projects are water main projects, maintenance, testing,
- and replacement. This will replace aging water mains and servicing valves. It means that we'll have
- fewer service interruptions and boil water advisories for our rate payers.
- This will include hydrant maintenance and testing ensuring our water is available when it's needed most
- by our emergency personnel. And then finally a total of eighteen point seven million will will go towards
- our water funding will be the portion of water funding the new service center. So CBU has outgrown our
- current facility in regards to personnel equipment and adequate inventory storage.
- We want to build a purpose-built service center to improve logistics for field crews allowing for faster
- deployment and better emergency response This will also allow for a stronger protection of our capital
- assets such as our specialized service vehicles Which are currently being stored in the elements?
- Building the service center that's going to meet our needs moving forward is an investment that will
- save resources over time and by investing now and Setting we hope to be setting ourselves up for operational
- excellence fiscal responsibility responsibility and community resilience We are happy to take any questions
- now about anything
- There councilmember questions right now councilmember Rallo Yeah, my first one is about So it seems
- to me that we're maintaining the same debt service over time. Is that correct and Instead of retiring
- debt, which we would have we're gonna extend it into the future could you describe what the length of
- the bonds are and what the
- You know what the interest would be over that period Right. Yeah, and just to clarify the the bonds
- that are currently outstanding will retire What we're planning on is issuing new debt to fill in that
- debt service And we're proposing debt that would be issued at a 20-year term-length
- Length and right now we're estimating the coupon at 5% We won't be selling bonds till 26 or 2028 So
- it's very hard to tell in the future what that might be few 5% is the normal coupon rate that bonds
- are sold at and it might be sold at a premium or a discount and That will all be determined at the time
- of the bond sale not the best time to Have a bond sale necessarily because of interest rates, but I
- guess my question was then what is the total amount over that?
- 20 years over. Let me do some quick words. What will we be paying ultimately. So it's basically over
- two bond issuances the proposed twenty twenty six and the proposed twenty twenty eight. And so that
- looks like it would be about one hundred and three million dollars in total payments.
- but we're financing approximately $54 million worth of projects with that. So, 103 million of total
- debt service and 54 million of principal repayment. Sorry, that will be a little bit higher. I was just
- saying the projects amount, there's actually capitalized interest and other things that are involved
- with that. So just go with my $103 million total payback
- But you'll be funding fifty four million dollars worth of projects. But there's capitalized interest
- cost of issuance other items that would be included in that bond issuance. Yeah. OK. I have other questions
- but I can wait.
- I don't know who the question is for, but thank you so much for I think a super informative presentation
- and also the many presentations leading up to this point and the work that you're doing in ensuring
- that our water facilities are strong. I have quite a few questions, but I'll sort of
- group them, my first sort of set of questions is around rate shock. And you specifically talked about,
- there's a term used, gradualism, and setting certain rates. And so we proposed this overall 30.5 increase,
- but there's sort of varying impacts, if I understood correctly. And that was the time when I was like,
- I don't know what that sentence meant. But there was this sort of varying impacts by class. And I'm
- kind of interested in why
- We seem to have selectively applied the sort of gradualism concept and particularly to like things like
- irrigation But not to like IU or wholesale Customers who are gonna experience large jumps. Yeah, sure.
- I will take a crack at it and Danica if you have anything to add feel free but so essentially
- We put a cap on just irrigation because that so the cap is representative of our total revenue requirement
- of thirty point five percent. So four times that revenue requirement was the cap we put on irrigation
- at the hundred and twenty two percent. That's for the volume metric which is I think the non
- fixed percentage. Right. So there was that big
- the slide with all the numbers on it. And so that cap was applied to irrigation because irrigation was
- the only one that was that high. So we were avoiding rate shock by putting that cap on it. In the past,
- we've capped irrigation when we've done these rate adjustments. We've capped irrigation to, I believe,
- two times in the past and it hasn't
- We haven't quite met the cost of service and so we are increasing it to a four times cap to hope to
- Gradually meet their cost of service for irrigation And I should explain that irrigation is their specific
- irrigation customer class with specific irrigation meters If we're not talking about people watering
- their gardens, I just want to make that clear
- Like when we're talking, like what exactly, like explain to us like we're five, what a cap is here.
- Sure, yeah. So when we looked at the cost of service, if we just took it for what the data said, irrigation
- would take up 188%, whereas... 180% of what? Yeah, yeah, okay. Good point, okay.
- eighty one hundred eighty eight percent of what they're what they were previously paying. And so when
- you disperse it among it among the different customer classes where we're dispersing that total revenue
- requirement among the different customer classes. Right. And so the percents that you're seeing are
- the percent change from what they're currently paying compared to what their what their cost of service
- would be based on our revenue requirement.
- And so without a cap, irrigation, irrigation's increase based on its cost of service would be 188%.
- But we, not only did we decide, but it's also kind of industry practice to avoid rate shock. But where's
- the, and I'll stop asking this line of questioning here, but like where's the,
- Where's that line at which rate shock? Considerations kick in because you know 50% and later a lesson
- question about elasticity But like the like the you know, if we if we get to a like, what is the marker
- where you go? Oh, we're in rate shock territory That's a great question my understanding is that that's
- around two times your revenue requirement and that is what we've previously capped irrigation at but
- We're continuing to not allow it meet its Yes, you want to explain this you might explain it better
- Specifically on that point where we have to go in front of the Indiana utility regulatory commission
- And it's just been historical practice that anything that's two times the nor the revenue requirement
- is considered rate shock got it and so
- All the other summaries that Danica had shown They were all kind of almost in line with what the rate
- increase was. Yep But except for irrigation as cat was it's got it. Understood. Thank you so much Yeah,
- and I'm looking at the The capital improvement plan so that adds up to about 84 million dollars and
- But the the basis for the Crow study on the slides was 54.5 million with bonds and then 28.4 million
- with extensions and replacements. So that's only 82.9 million. So it's a little bit off of the 84 million
- capital improvement plan. So is that on purpose or is that.
- What happens to the last million dollars that was needed for the plan. So we're doing 54 million dollars
- in bonding of that 84 and then approximately
- Twenty eight point four million is being funded with revenues on an annual basis and then sorry there
- is a one point two million dollars that we included in the capital improvement plan but they are truly
- operational and matters and it's already being taken care of in the operating budget. So if you're talking
- about that one point two million that that's what that differential is. All right. Thank you. I have
- lots of other questions but I can wait.
- I Have some questions, but let's go ahead with councilmember Rallo I think there may be people waiting
- here Some of the left or online who might have comments on this that we might go to at some point soon
- And then come back to council for more questions motion
- Yeah, it's not a motion. I guess I'm hearing the preference from a couple council members to have public
- comment now and then have more questions after the public comment. So I think that I want to ask one
- question before we do that. And so that'll be like a first round of council member questions and then
- we'll go to public comment.
- It kind of follows what council member Rallo was asking about the bond stuff, which is also kind of
- separate, but I guess I'm kind of wondering like how much of this increase is due to bond related projects
- as opposed to like standard cost of service. Cause I guess like, I feel like the way it's been, the
- way the economy is right now, like, I mean, things like cost more than they used to. We increase salaries,
- all of those things, but then there's also these,
- Outstanding projects that also need to be done that will require bonding and then require repayment
- So I'm just wondering if part of this increase is because of those large projects that need to be done
- to maintain our infrastructure and then how much of the increase is because of that kind of Long-term
- maintenance and upkeep versus the standard costs of things increasing and
- Yeah, so that's a hard thing to dissect and to give you a good answer. But what we're trying to say
- is that you need about $6.5 million additional revenues. And we're saying we're going to be issuing
- the differential between 7.1 and 1.7 million in additional debt to fund the capital projects. So by
- funding your capital projects, we're maintaining debt service at $7.1 million. If we don't have a rate increase,
- you would not be able to issue that much debt and you wouldn't be able to continually invest in your
- utility with ongoing capital projects. So I don't have that specific number for you for that differential
- but we are basically trying to increase revenues by 6.5 million total and that includes a component
- of debt and some components of operation and maintenance increasing.
- I don't think I answered your question. I'm not sure that you could have but I think you took a good
- stab at it. Thank you.
- So with that, let's let's go ahead and go to public comment and then we'll have more rounds of councilmember
- questions after so if there are members of the public who would wish to make a comment regarding ordinance
- 2025 35 if you're in chambers Go ahead and come to the podium and then you'll Introduce yourself sign
- in and have up to three minutes If you're online go ahead and raise your hand using the reactions tab
- or send a chat message to the host Let's go ahead and start here in chambers since there's somebody
- at the podium. Go ahead and
- Good evening again, Madam President. This is Christopher M. G. from the Greater Bloomington Chamber
- of Commerce. Before I start, sometimes people get confused and text me later. The Chamber's position
- is neutral, so we are not taking a stand. I just want to say it was a wonderful presentation today.
- I learned quite a bit, kind of goes into some of the statements I have, and I have a little bit clearer
- view of that. And one thing, having toured the water treatment plant here and touring other treatment plants,
- The need for capital investment is clear, and I think it may make a great case for that and why we need
- to invest in that. And those improvements cost rate payers. Our concerns a little bit is how it's structured
- and the impact on the business community. From a business perspective, commercial industrial customers
- are gonna face a 50% increase.
- That's like more than double than the residential increase that's around 20%. And for many businesses,
- this is a little bit dramatic in it. It doesn't, I think, obviously go to the 2% shock rate as defined
- here tonight. And sorry, I sort of mentioned this in the gradualism, but if we were having our way,
- this would be much more gradual in that and a more predictive approach. I don't know if rate cases align
- with that as much as we'd
- like, but avoiding sudden spikes in financial disruptions. The economy is very sensitive. There's tariffs.
- Everything's costing more. So keeping Bloomington's business climate competitive and welcoming is one
- thing that we want to do. I also just noticed the Indiana University disparity on what local businesses
- and smaller utilities would see. Meanwhile, I think we have always had to remember that students do live on
- on campus and they are residents here and they align with the rest of the community as well. But I just
- want to appreciate all the investment and time that went into this. The benefits definitely have an
- essential service for our community. It's just a surprise cost a little bit on the business community
- on what this is going to look like. I appreciate your time tonight deliberating in this long meeting.
- Thank you. I don't see anybody else here in chambers. Is there anybody with a hand raised on zoom. OK.
- And nobody else in chambers. All right. Thank you. That was our public comment then for ordinance 20
- 25 35. So we'll return to council then for a round two of questions. Council member sorry.
- Ah, thank you, thank you. My next sort of set of questions are around the dependency. So there's a sort
- of timing and dependency thing for the IURC, which is a confusing acronym for people in Bloomington,
- the Indiana Universal Rate Commission or something.
- And there's been a lot of movement at the state level. I know that Governor Braun has made some statements
- around wanting to make these reforms to the URC, et cetera, et cetera. What happens here if we pass this?
- But everything's dependent on IURC, right? So I guess in many ways I'm trying to inquire around, because
- what I haven't heard both in the public sessions and the meetings here, it's like,
- Whatever the antithesis argument is here, I get there's a one side of like, we don't do it. So if we
- don't do it, we get the sort of terror of too much ammonia in our centers during football games or something
- and cyber security threats. I get it. We have a lot of serious issues, and I'm not trying to minimize
- those. But what are the alternatives that we've explored in terms of, are there alternative rate structures?
- Mr. M just mentioned maybe like a more phased approach like are there other things that we've thought
- about here that that we sort of arrived at no This is really the only way that we can go about I think
- what we all agree are very needed Investments into our water infrastructure that are going to become
- more expensive and more needed. So could you maybe speak a little bit to You know what what else might
- have been on the table that that was rejected as a not as good of an option if anything
- I don't know if during my time as director there were other options that were put on the table besides
- potentially phasing. It was decided that phasing would not be in the best interest of the utility right
- now. As you can see from our capital improvement projects list a lot of those projects are pretty dire.
- Our water cash situation I presented the budget here recently is also in a pretty dire state.
- So we didn't think that phasing the rate adjustments would benefit the utility.
- Thank you so much and just as a follow-up there like what happens if I use iurc is either Delayed or
- or you know, we get some type of adverse Ruling do we have some contingency plans? And and similarly
- like the question with the bonding like so how does this interact with our abilities to bond? If if
- for example, it's delayed past August so I will address contingency if
- As far as delay goes and I think we can talk about bonding and maybe Jennifer can talk more in detail
- about our bonding options which I believe are slim. So currently what we're doing is.
- very closely managing our water cash balances. It's very a one in one out situation right now. We are
- managing any expense that is not a recurring operations and maintenance expense that needs to happen
- either at our distribution system or at the plant.
- We have to take into account everything that we're doing that's outside of normal operating expenses
- and that includes sudden repairs or Replacements and so that is what we've been doing to get this far
- but further delays our contingency right now is To continue to manage that water cash balance and if
- necessary take a loan from sewer until we're able to get some rate
- rate adjustment and talk about the bonds So on the bonding side what we're trying to do in order to
- keep the rate increase lower We are using capitalized interest, which means any of the interest that's
- owed between the time of bonding in 2026 and when we start paying for the interest out of rates in 2029
- will be funded from the bond issuance. So really
- The time of the bonding doesn't really affect it just affects when they can actually start on the projects
- Final follow-up on this line of question So so the so the what I was interested in then because we get
- all of this sort of increased
- Degrees of freedom once some of those kick in Do we envision being able in post-2029? Being able to
- lower rates or like, you know, is this sort of you know necessary to meet the times and you know, it's
- Increasing from there It would need to be evaluated at that point in time. I would just say in my 30
- years of experience I've done
- Hundreds of rate increases and probably for rate decreases Thank you Thank you other second round questions
- councilmember Rallo Well, this is kind of it might if I would presume might get to it's a variation
- of councilmember council president Stossberg's question so a certain amount of this Rate increase is
- going to be used for maintenance
- Cost of materials increase, et cetera. Some of it's gonna be used for expansion of facilities, right?
- So there's a $19 million share of the new facility that utilities is going to be assuming. Are there
- other expansion of facilities besides that? In other words, are we bonding for other types of projects
- that would expand facilities as opposed to
- maintenance Cost of materials or replacement things like that All of the projects that are at the plant
- as far as if you're wondering about expanding plant capacity No, all of these projects simply maintain
- and replace the equipment at the plant to maintain our current capacity Okay But a share of this bounding
- is going to go for the new facility and
- Yes, no, so that'll be a separate. Yes a share of this bonding will go to the service center, which
- is our Which will be a larger facility for our operations Sorry, you're asking about growth so I'm Just
- trying to be clear that it's not to expand the water plant. Yes. I'm sorry. I meant to say the new service
- center Okay, and
- What's the longevity of that new service center? so the service center is currently at 50% design and
- part of that process was to Try to predict the needs of the utility for the next 20 to 30 years Okay,
- so a couple of decades out. Yes, okay All right, that's all I have for now
- Yeah, I just want to understand the total debt of the water utility. Uh, I think in the ordinance or
- yeah, I think in the whereas clause, there's a listing of other bonds that are outstanding and I added
- them up and I get like 34,000,490,700. Is that an accurate total for the current bonds for the water utility?
- I my quick adding shows that there was 36 million outstanding At the beginning of this year Okay Yeah,
- sorry, I actually have that number here well including the long-term Long-term lease at the end of 2024.
- You had 39 million dollars worth of debt outstanding What's the long-term lease? That's the ESG and
- the solar leases
- Okay. Um, but just counting the bonds, it's about 34 and a half, 2 million. Actually, I come up with
- a third. It was 39 million and it's almost 2 million worth of long term lease. So that'd be 37 million.
- So it feels like I'm missing something. Then I was just adding up. Um, I know in our, in our council
- memo, the staff was pulled out the amounts for the
- The bonds that are still outstanding and I added that up So and sorry. Yeah, I was giving you the numbers
- as as of January 1st and there's been a principal payment on July 1st since then so looking through
- this we did have We did have at least three million dollars worth of principal payments during that
- time period so that might account for much that difference Okay
- And currently you're about 25 percent of revenues go towards debt service. Is that right. I think I
- saw that in the pie chart from. Yeah. Let me look here. And that's yes on the revenue requirement seven.
- Yeah about 25 percent. Yeah. OK. We'll be going towards 25 percent of the debt service is sorry. Debt
- service is 25 percent of the total revenue requirement.
- That's the best way to say it. I have another question but it's not related so should I wait. Yeah yeah
- yeah wait wait till I think I have a feeling there's going to be around three other questions on round
- two. OK. I have one if I can find it again because I just.
- I just scrolled to our council member Piedmont Smith was talking about my thing is gone on the on the
- slide show that you gave us and so that's what I'm trying to find again. You have the the income statement
- highlights with
- 2022 with revenue being more than expenses and 2023 it flipped because of that shared services and so
- and then in 2024 again there was more revenue than expenses. And so it kind of feels weird seeing that
- chart and going oh now we have to raise rates a whole bunch even though two out of the last three years
- there's been higher revenue than expenses. So if you could just talk maybe a little bit about
- 2025 projections right now in terms of that and also help me understand what those shared services expenses
- that kind of came up in 2023 like what those are and like how often that appears I think that that would
- be helpful in my Understanding like this particular slide. Yes, so going back I also had a slide there
- where I showed test year of 2024 and we made adjustments
- Of 3.2 million dollars to bring it up to what we think it's going to be in 2025 Of those that 3.2 million
- dollars with adjustments 1 1 million to 1 1 million 250 thousand dollars of that has to do with salaries
- and wages increases and then 836 thousand has to do with the shared services agreement between the utility
- and the city and then 477 thousand of it
- Has to do with the payment in lieu of taxes that the utility pays to the city for its property It's
- its payment in lieu of tacit taxes. It's because it's a municipal utility It doesn't actually pay property
- taxes It just is estimating what they would have paid had they had been a property taxpayer And so they
- provide funds to the city in lieu of taxes so the combination of those two items make up the bulk of
- the adjustments and
- that we are making. Now I need to go back and make sure I'm answering your question. I would I would
- actually have to ask one of these to talk to what the shared services actually is and how that affects.
- Are you saying that on the next slide that adjusted rate is the expected expenses this year. Okay. And
- but where where's the expected revenue this year.
- and that comparison because the slide that I referenced I mean it has that comparison between revenue
- and expenses. So like our expenses aren't really meaningful without our revenue attached to them. That's
- correct. So that's that's part of our problem that we're bleeding money right now and that's why we're
- going through the rate increase in 2025. You're not going to have that implementation of a new rate
- and it won't happen until 300 days after we make filing which is basically 10 months. So whenever we
- make a filing after passage
- We won't see the implications of that rate increase. There's just a time lag that happens. So 2025 they
- as Kat was saying they're trying to monitor how much money they're actually spending trying to keep
- costs as low as possible. But these costs are increasing and that's what the case that we're proving
- here is that we need a rate increase.
- They might not be doing as many capital projects. They're just really monitoring their cash flow this
- year in 2025. OK. So the short answer 2025 our revenue is going to be significantly lower than our expenses
- if you would fully expand your expenses. Now they're going to make cutbacks because there isn't that
- revenue there or they're going to have to borrow money in order to make those actual operating expenses
- that they need to do. OK.
- Help answer this. So you asked about the differences between 2023 and 2024 and how we went from in the
- negative then back up to in the positive and what that projection was for 2025. I think we discussed
- kind of that projection for 2025 but I think it's important to think about. So we made those payments
- right. The pilot that we were talking about and the interdepartmental we did not make those in 2024.
- Which is why it is not as so our expenses aren't as high because we were not making those payments.
- So those are those shared expenses that were referenced in 2023 that then we didn't make in 2024 but
- then we're making again in 2025.
- Right. So is that an every other year kind of thing or is that something that should be every year but
- we don't always have the money for it like it should be Every year not having the money for it has not
- necessarily been the reason it's not been paid. It has been The timing of it it has to be approved by
- the USB and there were multiple meetings where they asked for additional clarification and
- So we are working with the controller now to make sure that that interdepartmental is as transparent
- as possible. And we'll be bringing that back to them soon. OK. So is it the kind of thing then where
- like if you don't pay it one year then essentially you pay double the next year to make up for it. Yes.
- OK. Thank you. That that helps my clarity around the meaningfulness of that chart.
- Yeah, sorry. I thought that would help. Yeah Okay, is there another round of councilmember questions
- councilmember? Sorry Thank you very much elasticity So we're asking we're making these assumptions that
- rates will sort of that rates will not change people's habits What happens if they do? So if you increase
- the rates and people stop consuming like and and as a
- Yeah. What do we what do we what do we how do we do this. Yeah. If Danica is still online if she can
- speak to that because in the rate design there are certain assumptions that are made on what's fixed
- costs what's variable costs and anyhow Danica you there. Yes I am. Thanks Jennifer. So I guess speaking
- to the elasticity we did not
- account for any of that directly in reviewing some of the billing and consumption records. Demands were
- generally pretty stable over the years with some of the historical rate increases and things of that
- nature, as well as customer usage. And so anything, any significant changes, I guess, in demand would
- ultimately be factored into some of those future studies.
- portion of it? We do. Yep. Absolutely. And so how did like how have we thought about balancing that
- out to account for for elasticity? You know, particularly in a time when people are super sensitive
- to rate increases and it's becoming hyper politicized. The reason why I'm asking all these questions
- actually is exactly that. I think that this I mean, it's very clear that
- what we're doing today, actually, I mean, it's gonna take 300 days for any change to happen to people's
- rates, but I think that the way that it'll probably be reported is that, you know, Bloomington votes
- to raise your rates by 50% or something like that. And so I do think that that sort of engagement very
- clearly with the general public around, hey, like, this is a very careful consideration. There's a point
- I was making earlier. So anyways, I was just trying to get this sense of, you know, that balance and
- that complex equation that you put up there between, you know, the fixed
- The variable rates and and why we think that we've reached like the right balance there. I think is
- is quite relevant Look at myself rather than you. I'm sorry. I can't see Yeah, absolutely and as we
- go through kind of that rate development and I had some of those sides up that kind of talked about
- you know the scaled pieces and the costs that are included in that fixed first the usage component there
- to your point to be able to kind of
- to balance those as well as kind of what we talked about on the irrigation side as well. Fantastic.
- So I'll make one so that I don't waste time in coming back to it. My very last question is just around
- the considerations of affordability measures. So I think that
- With the the current packet doesn't mention anything around like lifeline rates customer assistant programs
- something like that So maybe something would you consider once, you know in 300 days coming back to
- us and Having a discussion about how we might create some, you know something to protect our residents
- particularly who might be Most affected by rate increases. Yeah, I actually can speak to that now. So
- we're currently making improvements on our
- financial assistance program As I've discussed in previous presentations about our budget we've reduced
- the number of barriers that exist for example Previously customers could not seek assistance if they
- had been shut off where we are working on removing that barrier now We're updating our working on updating
- our contracts to be able to do that In addition we increased
- our quality the Income sorry the income qualification for our assistance program from 200 to 300 percent
- of the federal poverty guidelines We are hoping to we we are budgeting a hundred thousand dollars next
- year in our financial assistance program and I if
- We're able if these changes help the way that I'm hoping that they will we'll be able to spend every
- penny of it amazing Thank you so much. I will stop asking you questions now Other Councilmember Rallo
- Question so I want to just make a proposition and see if we're in have points of agreement on this and
- that is so
- Capital improvement plan for five years is 85 million dollars 54 of it is being financed by debt by
- bonding 19 of that about 35% is for the new facility so That new facility According your capital improvement
- plan is needed because you've outgrown the old Facility, right? We've reached some capacity and it's
- now being exceeded and now you need a new facility and
- Your fault. We've been on that trajectory, right? but my my point is is that This debt service and and
- by the way that new facility is forty four million dollars, but it's gonna be shared by other right
- by public works and No, not public works who's gonna be no no forty four million dollar facility no, no the
- This fist the funding for this utility is shared by the other utility funds So the financing for this
- would be so the water portion with that 18.4 is the water portion Versus this the sewer and storm portions
- of funding. This is just a facility for The utility so there's not going to be anything else at Winston
- Thomas. Just your facility That we are financing. No, no, no that the city is financing
- The city is planning to what the city's financing What's that? I don't I can't speak to what the city's
- financing at Winston Well, I guess okay. All right. Well, let's just sorry the point is is that We are
- projecting debt into the future to pay for past Growth so we have grown as a city and now we've exceeded
- the growth and now we have to continue paying debt and that's everybody in Bloomington to
- Greater or lesser degrees and I appreciate the fact that residents are paying less relative to other
- users But the point is is that we're subsidizing growth Is that is are we an appointment point of agreement
- with that? I'm not sure can you further explain subsidization of growth? Well, you've exceeded your
- capacity we are now building a larger facility and
- That's being paid for by debt So and that's reflected in people's utility rates. Therefore people are
- paying for the expansion of a facility for for growth Because we've reached that point of needing a
- new facility So is that a good assumption? So ratepayers are paying for the growth of our utility I
- Can agree to that
- Yeah, um, so I guess I'm glad we're in agreement because this is something I want to keep bringing up
- is that whether it's water or sewer or stormwater or police or Sanitation or whatever people are paying
- for the expansion of our city and They ought to be aware of that We ought to be aware of that and we
- ought to be trying to internalize that in other words
- You know, it's not fair. I don't think for current residents to be paying for future growth I mean maybe
- they prefer a bigger city, but That's fine, but I think that that cost should be borne by those who
- are actually profiting from that growth and so It's kind of a qualm it's I I'm sorry about that, but that's
- That's where I'm going with this. And so I wanted to just this is a bit very expensive You know, this
- is a big rate increase. We had one a couple of years ago I think it was incremental to it was 17% I
- think to 17 a half or something over four years, but the point is is that This expansion comes at a
- cost and It's reflected in things like taxes and it's reflected in fees. So
- Other questions, I don't even remember what round we're on right now. Maybe for Councilmember P Smith
- Yes, you talked about the What was it customer assistance program, yeah, what about businesses or customers
- that are using the irrigation Water for irrigation is there any
- Assistance program for them because I mean it's not just residential that's going to be affected It's
- also our business community and our farming community so the current assistance program is specifically
- for residential customers Who meet the income requirements? we partner with scap, so
- Gap improves those applications. So no, there's not a financial assistance program for commercial general
- service or irrigation, et cetera. When you ask about irrigation, because irrigation is seeing the steepest
- rate increase, so irrigation is a customer class that is
- easier to conserve than perhaps a residential home or Potentially a hospital and I think Stan tech I'm
- not sure if Danica or Andy are here on the line to talk a little bit more about that But you know there
- was there that was kind of behind the reasoning to increase to the four times rate increase cap for
- irrigation because that type of
- Increase can help influence usage and that is a customer class where we feel like you will have you
- can see better results in a rate signal to maybe conserve usage Educate me a little more as to who makes
- up that customer class of irrigation and
- Yeah, so the customer class of irrigation is primarily, so there's some in residential, some in general
- service, and quite a few IU accounts as well. And the golf course. And what is general service?
- General services commercial and industrial. It's the combined customer class. So it's not irrigation.
- When I think of irrigation I think of agriculture. Is that not. I mean within city limits we don't have
- much of that I guess primarily it's landscaping or you know golf courses landscaping.
- Specifically your like like I said, these meters are specific to irrigation. They're typically your
- landscaping and golf course type things. Yeah Okay, um, I have a another unrelated question should I
- hold it Are there other questions from council members Go for it councilmember Piedmont Okay, I'm looking
- at the Stan tech slides and I
- The proposed rate summary has for example for residential nineteen point eight percent increase. But
- then when I look at the cost of services summary the residential is an eighteen point nine percent increase.
- So the percentages mean that's not a big difference. If we look at general service the proposed rate
- summary is 42 percent increase. Cost of service summary is thirty three
- percent increase so There's no there's not a direct correlation there. So could you explain that please?
- Absolutely So when we put it here again, so when we put a cap on irrigation, it has to go somewhere
- and so whatever we're not charging irrigation to meet their cost of service we're spreading among the
- other customer classes and the way that it is spread and correct me if I'm wrong Danica, but
- The way that it was spread among the customer classes is the amount of irrigation customers in each
- of those customer classes. It's based on the amount of so you can have a residential customer class
- with an irrigation meter. Yeah. I'm going to jump in quick. It was based on the amount of usage for
- each of those specific customer classes. So just the building.
- Consumption amount for each of those was how it was reallocated So I'm sorry, I'm still trying to just
- understand how this works. So if you have let's say you have a business That you know has a nice property
- and you want to irrigate the lawn So so the the business is in general services but part of their bill like for
- for the water in their bathrooms or whatever is is built in one way as one customer class and the part
- for their lawn is built a different way. Is that right. I did not know that. Yes yes yes it is built
- a different way. It's based on the specific irrigation type meter. OK thank you. Any other council member
- questions.
- Since we already did have public comment on this in the midst of our councilmember Questions, I think
- that that means we're down to a period of councilmember comment. So any council members want to make
- a comment around this legislation? Councilmember Rallo I Already took my comment, but I'll just say
- a little bit more and that is I
- Now at the federal level, you know, we're facing a debt showdown and I assume that they'll work it out.
- That is no one wants the default at the federal level But on the trajectory that we're going that the
- federal debt is exponential growing at a trillion dollars every hundred days It's hard to ignore, right?
- I mean we this is related. I mean our exposure to debt is local, too And I would have liked to have
- seen that debt paid down over time because I don't know what the future looks like We're being told
- that right now we're in a fiscal squeeze And so but we're gonna continue borrowing in order to expand
- because we need to okay It's hard to say no because it's not
- Because apparently we're at that point where we need larger facilities, etc but You know my job is also
- looking at the exposure of this city in terms of What may happen in the future and we're going to be
- locked in with the amount of debt that we have looks like So it's a difficult position to be in and
- That's why I bring up the fact that if we continue expanding and we've been told in some quarters that
- Either dead or growth is inevitable or it's it's it's benign or it's great Well, it comes at a cost
- and you're seeing it tonight that the cost we've just been we've been told what the cost is I do appreciate
- the fact that because of the You know the differential classes
- The residential customers are going to be spared most of it that is a good thing and I appreciate that
- so I will likely support this because I don't have a a sound fiscal argument right now, I mean detailed
- in terms of how to transfer those costs to those who assume more growth and
- But at this point I simply want to say that it comes at a cost and we're gonna have to think
- about internalizing it instead Just paint passing it off the current residents So I will support this
- I appreciate the presentation was very informative Very carefully done and and and and thorough. So, thank you
- Councilmember Asari I'll just say you know that when I think that sort of headline figure of rate increases
- is always difficult and so I think that from you know on for individuals when we hear about 30% increases
- like it's natural so it's a worry and I've seen a lot of reports out there on you know proposals increase
- IU by 55 and your rates by 30 and
- But I think what's been really useful about this very long but thorough conversation is that we've,
- I think, made very clear, and I think you've made a very clear argument, that this ordinance isn't just
- about, it's not just like a wanton ordinance to raise rates, but it's very specifically about making
- sure that Bloomington continues to have safe, reliable water for decades to come. And so we're really
- making sure that our water system, I think,
- Right now like our water system with the point that I heard throughout this evening Is that it's you
- know, every dollar that comes in is going directly out and that's Not allowing us to make needed investments
- You know, we really don't have a cushion to do that and that this is sort of an unsustainable Situation
- to be in we need this adjustment I think to pay for repairs replacements upgrades that will keep water
- clean and flowing to our homes schools businesses, etc I think we have a lot of tough questions
- Tonight is our responsibility as a council to make sure that these rate changes are fair and that they
- don't fall too heavily on one group and that, you know, we sort of thought about the consequences of
- sort of these changes to our residents, to our businesses, et cetera, and also thinking about the agency
- that we have as a city government also to help those who might fall outside of some of these considerations.
- And so I think having gone through all of that
- I'm very happy to strong to support this this ordinance and and certainly not easy I certainly don't
- like anything that raises cost to a residence But I think that the argument here is very clear. It sort
- of passes that necessity Test and so water is not optional It's the foundation about everything else
- that we do and so just wanted to appreciate you all for the thorough work that you're doing and any
- support that we can offer
- And making that and making that communication clear to the people that we represent very happy to support
- in that So thank you again, and thank you for enduring our questions Thank you other councilmember comments
- All right, I have one I'll I
- not repeat what council member sorry just said about water being an essential service, but it is an
- essential service and nobody wants a rate change. But it's also really important that we manage to keep
- this infrastructure solid and consistent and serve residents adequately in terms of access to clean
- water. And I think that it's really a valuable thing to kind of understand that
- Like, what we pay for our water bill is not subsidized in any way. But it's also true that, I mean,
- they're not making a profit either. And so one of the things in that list that you put about where we
- land in the middle. So I used to live in Richmond, Indiana. And the water that's there is actually a
- private utility instead of a public utility. Interestingly, they have a public electric utility. So
- in the transitioning to Bloomington, I pay less for water and a lot more for electricity than I did there.
- You know, that's just something to remember to consider that we're actually paying for what it is that
- we use. I also wanted to talk for a minute about what Councilmember Rallo said about growth because
- in a lot of ways like what he says makes sense, but he described rate payers as paying for growth and
- that expanding our city comes at a cost. But I want to clarify that most of our growth recently is related
- to IU students.
- And we don't control how many students IU admits and how many students accept their admission and attend
- the university and come here. And I used to consider that the population of Bloomington was about half
- IU students and half permanent residents or long term residents. But I think that that number is
- continuing to creep up in terms of percentage. I think that there are more than half of our population
- is now IU students year after year after year. I hear that they have record numbers of entering students
- in their classes and there's an imbalance there in terms of our population with far more
- in terms of percentage, IU students, then there are permanent residents. And I want to make very clear,
- I don't have a problem with IU students, but that imbalances our population in detrimental ways. It
- imbalances taxation, it imbalances income tax and also property tax because of the amount of property
- owned by a state university that doesn't pay
- property taxes, and I don't think has some kind of a nice pilot program in paying something in lieu
- of property taxes. It would be nice if they did. Additionally, it affects other entities like schools.
- If you've been paying attention to school stuff, the schools are losing population, and part of that
- is because of this imbalance. There's a lot more IU students, and you know what? IU students don't have
- school-age kids.
- They don't they just don't and so that really has this detrimental effect in terms of the percentage
- of our population that ends up being being short-term temporary residents in a very specific age bracket
- and To balance that we do then need to figure out as a city ways to drive growth and
- In areas that would attract population groups to help balance out counterbalance all of those You know
- 18 to 22 or 23 year olds in terms of population groups. We need to be able to attract young professionals.
- We need to be able to attract Families we need to be able to diversify our population groups and that
- does mean increasing population and that ultimately then would be of service to the whole population
- when you think about larger amenities and
- institutions and organizations that are going to be of benefit to our whole population. So growth is
- not as simple as when you grow you have to pay more. It ends up being a lot more complicated because
- maybe you would have to pay more financially in terms of this utility project that we're talking about
- right now, but we would also pay in other ways that it's harder to document in terms of actual like
- physical cost because it's some of those like softer things of quality of place.
- It's harder to calculate. So that is my comment. I'll also be supporting this tonight I don't I don't
- love it. I never will love a rate increase, but I think that it's the Only option in terms of keeping
- our utility viable If there are no other councilmember comments if the clerk could please call the roll
- on Ordinance
- Now I have to find the number twenty twenty five thirty five. Sorry. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Yes. Thank you. And that passes six zero. I want to acknowledge right now that it is
- After 1030 so according to our rules to introduce any new pieces of legislation if I'm remembering correctly
- We need to have a two-thirds majority for that So we will need to do a roll call vote for the introduction
- of ordinance 2025 36 Parliamentarian I Motion for a roll call vote to introduce new legislation
- No, just no, just no We just need your usual Just your usual motion, but we just need to do a roll call
- instead of a voice vote tonight right now to make sure that We have a two-thirds majority Look, it's
- past my bedtime and I've had a long clearly. I've not been on the ball at all tonight. I Move that ordinance
- 2025 dash 36 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only Second
- Thank you. We have a motion and a second to introduce ordinance twenty twenty five thirty six if the
- clerk could please call the roll on that that would be great. Councilmember Rallo. Yes. Oh my God. Piedmont
- Smith. No Stasberg. Yes. Daily. Yes. Zulek. No. Sorry. Yes.
- So that vote is four to and I think that four out of six is two-thirds, which means that it passes So
- will the clerk please know I do that math, right? Yeah, the Bloomington municipal code says no legislation
- may be introduced After 1030 without a two-thirds vote of the members of council. So I think it requires
- six Then Well, is that
- Right now. I'm not sure that that's allowed right now. So if if our code says that we need a 230 a two-thirds
- vote of total members as opposed to those present Yeah, that the code doesn't delineate by staying two-thirds
- of the members present during the meeting It says two-thirds of the members of the council Okay, I think
- that that means that that motion fails Councilmember sorry
- I just just to our colleagues and I promise I will ask no questions or something but the reason I think
- in respect to our colleagues from water we can we can reconsider a motion is totally in code but the
- I would ask us to reconsider the motion because they have waited here
- all night long while we debated what we want to name a sausage sized district in next to a lake. Like
- I kind of feel like we should at least give them the respect of being able to do this. We can limit
- our questions. But I mean at this point I mean we can't make them go through this all over again. I
- just don't think that's that's fair respectful.
- Anybody who voted no willing to reconsider if we need two-thirds majority of council, then that means
- all six of us have to be unanimous I'm happy to change my vote. But like is it gonna take two more hours
- or Okay Great, I'm happy to change my vote councilmember Piedmont Smith I think that
- Either one of the no votes can call for a revote. I think that's how it works. Ms. Liner. OK. May I
- read from the Bloomington municipal code. Yes please. When any question has been decided in the affirmative
- or negative any member voting with the majority may move a reconsideration of that we reconsider the
- motion to introduce ordinance twenty twenty five thirty six.
- Thank you. All right. So I think that that would be the clerk calling the roll again on ordinance on
- the motion to introduce ordinance 20 25 36. Councilmember Piedmont Smith. Yes.
- I think that was my name. Yes. Okay. Daily. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. And Rallo. Yes. Thank you all.
- I know this is a really long meeting. Well the clerk please read. Oh yes.
- Um ordinance 2025-36 an ordinance authorizing the acquisition construction and installation by the city
- of Bloomington indiana of certain extensions and improvements to the city's waterworks utility the issuance
- and sale of revenue bonds to provide funds for the payment of the cost thereof and the collection segregation
- and distribution of the revenues of such waterworks utility and other related matters.
- The synopsis is as follows. This ordinance authorizes the city of Bloomington to issue one or more series
- of its waterworks revenue bonds in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed 71 million dollars,
- a portion of which are anticipated to be issued in 2026 and the remainder in 2028. The bonds will be
- issued to finance all or a portion of the cost of design, engineering, acquisition, construction, equipping
- and improvement of capital projects related to the Monroe water treatment plant, the waterworks,
- Distribution system and water main and a new service center and maintenance buildings and pay costs
- of issuance of the bonds Thank you Be adopted All right, you're up again
- Utilities director and this is an accompanying ordinance for to our rate adjustment ordinance I will
- allow for the utility to bond for our capital improvement projects that were just presented Today we
- have Bradley Bingham from Barnes and Thornburg LLP to help explain the bond ordinance and help answer
- any questions Thank you, are there any councilmember questions? Councilmember Piedmont Smith Yeah, just
- a very broad process question so the rate
- Increase has to go to the IURC to be approved So why are we already talking about the bond when we don't
- know if the rates can be approved? Who wants to answer that mr. Bingham
- Bingham you should be able to meet yourself and speak. OK. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry I was trying
- to unmute there. Again Brad Bingham with Barnes and Thornburg. Great question. The reason is that just
- like the rates and charges you've been discussing have to be approved by the I.U.R.C. the I.U.R.C. also
- has to prove the issuance of any bonds and be payable from the waterworks utility. So this is really
- a companion piece of legislation that kind of goes along with the prior measure that was just debated.
- OK. So those
- the two things go to the IURC together. That's exactly right. Yeah. Just a few quick remarks on the
- ordinance itself. I know it's been a long meeting, but really the bond ordinance is the contract between
- the city and the bondholders. As you've heard earlier in the various comments, this particular ordinance
- will authorize the issuance of up to $71 million of Waterworks revenue bonds. It's anticipated they
- would be done in two separate series, each of which would have a term no greater than 20 years.
- and the proceeds be used to finance part of the projects identified the capital improvement plan, which
- are described in greater detail in exhibit A of the bond ordinance. With that, I'm happy to take any
- questions you may have on the orders itself. Thank you. Are there other questions by council members?
- I have one before we go to a second round. In the actual, and this is like
- technical thing maybe in the actual ordinance in the third whereas clause. It says that the city has
- obtained estimates prepared and delivered by the engineers of said improvements. And in the actual documents
- associated with this ordinance, I only saw the project list and not the costs associated with each of
- them. So in your presentation on the slides, I think I got that answer of those project costs, but I just,
- want to make that clear right now that the ordinance specifies that those costs are in the materials
- that were provided, but those materials weren't actually in that package. And your memo at the end did not
- list out those charges separately. And I'm not sure if that was an oversight or if that was, or if that
- slideshow was really intended for both of those ordinances that we just considered. I just want to make
- sure that that project list is right. Right. So the project list was, that's shown as exhibit A.
- We in our rate report have actually listed out the entire capital improvement plan as what cat described
- that comes to 84 million and those each of those projects are then Designated to how we're gonna fund
- them through the 2026 bonds or the 2028 bonds. I Guess I'm just trying to figure out where that is in
- our materials in the materials Like It's actually in the revenue requirement report that I that's
- The Crow report and it's on pages the capital improvement plan is listed on pages 21 22 and 23.
- Thank you. But it doesn't have any costs with it. And that is a day. Yes. Sorry to interrupt. Exhibit
- A will list out the projects but it won't be specific in the actual cost because eventually they will
- bid out these projects.
- and have actual costs but it is built from this capital improvement plan. It won't actually specify
- the actual dollar amount per project and that is just very typical of how bond ordinances are written.
- But the whereas clause actually seems to say that it will have those costs per project like that's mean
- I'd have to get back to it now. I mean that the city has obtained estimates.
- prepared and delivered by engineers employed by the city for the construction of said improvements additions
- and extensions Yes, so they made the estimates that went into the capital improvement plan And then
- we've sized this bond ordinance so that when we actually do get bids we'll have the funding for those
- projects Sorry, I'm turning later do you understand what I'm trying to get out here I
- So you're looking at the second whereas clause third whereas clause third. I don't see where it refers
- to those cost estimates being in exhibit a. That that's the issue that comes to my mind. OK. I guess.
- Yeah. Councilmember Smith. Sorry. I had the same question. That's why I'm jumping in here. So on in
- section one at the end of section one of the actual ordinance it says a description of the proposed
- improvements additions and extensions is set forth on exhibit a attached here to and the project shall
- be constructed in accordance with the plans here to for mentioned which plans are hereby approved. We
- just have a list. We don't have plans. So that's why it's
- I also am a little bit confused why we don't have more details in exhibit a I guess that's where like
- between that whereas cloud clause in between the section I kind of felt like okay exhibit a should also
- have those Estimations or approximations that were on the slides, right? And so that's where like like
- should Exhibit A have those numbers in it that were on the slides? Because then when I got to the slides,
- I was like, oh, the numbers are somewhere. I mean, clearly the numbers have to be somewhere, because
- otherwise, why do you know exactly how much you need to ask for in bonds? I'd ask Brad, do you have
- any comments on that? Yeah. Jennifer, as you mentioned earlier, it is very common that the actual bond
- orders itself just has a very
- broad description of the types of projects to be financed. There's certainly nothing wrong if you want
- to put in all of the detail that, as Jennifer mentioned on pages 21 and 22 of her report. What the ordinance
- is trying to say is that there have been estimates prepared, and that was the basis of the
- capital improvement plan. We just didn't attach and include all this detail that the crow has shown
- here in the bond ordinance. And part of it, the reason is because, as she mentioned,
- They have to be bid out. So the actual cost may be different than what's actually shown here These are
- these are best estimates based upon the Crow report Okay, thank you, I guess I'm satisfied with the
- concept of The stuff on the slideshow as long as our attorneys feel like the language in there and how
- attachment a is listed is acceptable like legally so if
- Y'all are good with that then. Yeah, I don't have any concern because I don't read this ordinance as
- indicating that the costs are identified in exhibit a. Okay. So thank you. Okay. Are there other questions.
- Councilmember sorry.
- Just being sure that sea1 Impacts the because I know it has bonding things for the city The utilities
- is used at a separate entity under sea1 correct. So so so okay, so no no Implications for bonding in
- other places of the city. Thank you very much To clarify for anybody might not have seen that we were
- seen nodding yes, they're totally separate entities and sea1 did not affect the
- Utility bonding capacity or abilities. Yep. All right any other questions from council members?
- All right, let's go ahead and go to public comment then on ordinance 2025 36 if there's a member of
- the public who would like to comment on ordinance 2025 36 if you're in chambers you can go ahead and
- Approach the podium if you're online, you can raise your hand using the reactions tab or send a chat
- message to the host
- I do not see anybody moving in chambers. Is there anybody who has raised a hand on Zoom? Thank you.
- If you could please state your name for the record and then you'll have up to three minutes.
- They there the comment is actually for the general session session instead of this one. Sorry. Okay.
- Thank you Is for the additional public comment, is that what you mean? Okay. Yes. All right. Great So
- seeing no public comments on ordinance 2025 36 going once going twice
- All right, let's return to council for any council member comments. Do council members have any comments
- related to ordinance twenty twenty five thirty six Seeing none will the clerk please call the roll on
- ordinance twenty twenty five thirty six Stasberg. Yes. Daily. Yes. Zulek. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Rallo
- yes Piedmont Smith. Yes.
- Thank you, that passes with a vote of six zero. We are done with our legislation for this evening, moving
- into the period of additional public comment here at the end. So if there's a member of the public who
- would like to comment on an item not on the agenda, you can go ahead and make your way to the podium.
- If you're online, you can go ahead and raise your hand and as a reminder,
- If you spoke during the first general period of public comment, then you are not allowed, according
- to our public comment rules, to speak during this additional period of public comment. So I don't see
- anybody in chambers moving to the podium. Is there anybody online who would like to make an additional
- public comment? OK, thank you. If you could, when you're unmuted, introduce yourself, and then you'll
- have up to three minutes.
- We I think that we can hear you can you state your name for the record and then go ahead with your comment
- Okay, is that the best way Wonderful if you could go ahead and read that comment for mr. Dove that would
- be excellent
- There will be a block party at Butler Park at 1230 p.m. on Saturday, October 25th at Reverend Ernest
- D. Butler Park, 812 West 9th Street. Immediately follows the west side tree planting. The party will
- have food trucks and live music by busmen's holiday to elevate the greener near west side neighborhood.
- We'll also have the chance to win a gift basket at each event as thanks for their efforts event details
- and look and Registration links are located on the city's zero in Bloomington webpage That's the that
- concludes the message. Thank you so much for that event announcement Are there any other I don't see
- anybody in chambers moving Are there any other hands raised on zoom or any other comments in the chat?
- Okay, thank you very much. We are almost at the end. Note on council schedule. Next week, we will have,
- well, back to Wednesday, October 8th, and we will have our special session for our budget adoption meeting.
- And then on October 15th, we'll have a deliberation meeting, joint meeting with the Historic Preservation
- Commission. And our next regular session meeting is on
- October 22nd, and as we mentioned way back in the beginning of the meeting, we will figure out elected
- salary stuff. So there might be a potential special meeting in there. Maybe we'll discuss that again
- on the 22nd. And there's a fiscal committee meeting next week on the 8th at 1.30 to 3. At least that's
- the way it's scheduled right now. Are there any other notes on council schedule? Council member
- Piedmont-Smith. The committee on council processes will meet on Monday, October 6th at 12.15 in the
- Allison conference room.
- for hanging in through this meeting, we are adjourned.