Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the most enjoyable thing to do on a Wednesday night, City Council
in Bloomington, Indiana. Hooray. Today's meeting, oh, I'm sorry, will the Honorable Clerk please call
the roll. Oh, I am. Councilmember Flaherty? Here.
I didn't, I just didn't hear him. That's all. Oh, it didn't hear. Okay. Let me try that. Council member
Flaherty here. Can you all hear me? Okay. His volume's not working, but we'll note it. Stasberg here.
Piedmont Smith. Zulick here. Sorry. Here. Daily here. Rollo rough here. Rosenbarger. Thank you.
All right, today we have a handful of reports, including a letter to the Redevelopment Commission, reports
from the Commission on Aging and Commission on Status of Women. We have two things for first reading
and two things for second reading. I'll just make a note about Ordinance 2026-12, which is to amend Title 15.
of the Bloomington Municipal Code that we're not able to pass that today. So we will be discussing it
should the body desire to discuss it, but we're not able to pass it today because we haven't yet received
a statutorily required report from the Transportation Commission. But other than that, we will be taking
all of those other things up for discussion, assuming that the body wants to do that. With that, there
will also be two times of public comment.
The rules as they usually are agendas are posted. Oh Theoretically the agendas are posted on the door,
but they are they are under okay fantastic And there's and there's ones here as well if you'd like to
follow along. Do we have any minutes for approval? We do not so we will move right on to reports from
council members and I'll start with councilmember Piedmont Smith if you'd like to go first Yes, thank you
As my report this evening, I'd like to read a letter addressed to the members of the Redevelopment
Commission. And well, I'll just read it and then we can say a few more words after the letter. Dear
members of the Redevelopment Commission, we the undersigned members of the Bloomington Common Council
are writing to clarify our position regarding the disposition of the College Square site
currently owned by the RDC and identified by the capital improvement board as the ideal location for
a new convention center hotel. In a May 6th, 2024 letter to you signed by eight of nine council members
and a December 15th, 2025 letter to you signed by four council members, members of the council communicated
to you that the college square property should only be used for the convention center project, including
a new hotel,
if the RDC recouped the monies it spent acquiring the site, which came to a total of $6,895,000. We
wish to state clearly that we are not opposed to the RDC's disposition of the site for an amount less
than the purchase price if significant public benefit can be gained, such as the preservation and or
provision of low-income housing. As the December 15th letter indicated,
There are multiple ways to leverage this property to advance affordable housing and enable downtown
residency for those who otherwise could not afford it. These options include one, developing affordable
housing on the site, two, exchanging the property for nearby land owned by the Monroe County government,
now the CIB, and then developing or preserving existing affordable housing there, or three, selling
the property at market rate and reinvesting the proceeds in affordable housing.
So that all is talking about the College Square site. In regard to option two, we recommend that the
May 18th proposal by Bloomington Homes for All and the Bloomington Democratic Socialists of America
Housing Working Group be considered, which would entail an exchange of property with the CIB to allow
a hotel on the College Square site. Creative solutions should be considered to maximize public benefit
and also facilitate the best location for a convention center hotel. Sincerely,
members of the common council who choose to sign on to this letter. So I think we have we have an exciting
opportunity here to do things differently than the status quo. We have multiple parts of this city lost
affordable housing to new development and this is an opportunity to preserve affordable housing and it's
In my view it's worth not recouping the amount of money that the RDC spent on the College Square site.
They would certainly the site of the Seminary Point housing is certainly worth something. We're not
sure how much it is no doubt worth a little bit less than College Square or the amount less is unclear
but but I still think that
The vision of preserving Seminary Point as affordable housing affordable business commercial property
and a community space is something that should be given a chance. And the only way that that can happen
at this point is if the CIB swaps the Seminary Point property for
the College Square property owned by the RDC. So that's what this letter intends to support. And I welcome
any other comments from council members if they'd like to chime in on this. I think there are a majority
who would sign on to this letter. I'm not sure of the structure this evening. I think that it's probably
not a vote. It's just whoever wants to sign on unless somebody wants to call for a vote.
So that is my report tonight. Excellent. Thank you so much, Councilmember. Any comments, additions,
anything that are any responses to that? Councilmember Dailey. Yeah, I just want to thank Councilmember
Piedmont-Smith for putting this letter together. I know there was a lot of work on it and several,
you know, a few different versions that went out.
Former version I did not sign on to because I did not think it went far enough. I think it has to be
a full land swap in order for it to be valuable. So I'm thankful for putting that full land swap language
back in there. So I support this and I'm happy to sign it. So thank you very much. I second that and
I also think that we should vote on it to send as a full body. Any other thoughts.
Folks, a hug. Council Member Flaherty. Thank you. First, can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Excellent.
Hey. Yeah. I'll echo the thanks to Council Member Piedmont-Smith and also to Blue Mission Homes for
All and the Blue Mission Democratic Socialists of America, who I think Isabelle, or sorry, Council Member
Piedmont-Smith said it very well, that the vision here is really quite laudable and
and something I'm excited to support. I think I want to speak a little bit to some of the reservations
I've had in this conversation, which is, I think, not new. In general, my view for many, many years,
since before we've been taking office, was that the food and beverage tax is the city's public subsidy
and contribution for the convention center project, including all things like a host hotel. And we've,
of course, talked about this in the past. And my concern here is that we're not just talking about
public expenditure to preserve affordable housing, which, of course, is terrific and something I've
wished that the RDC did more of, frankly. But we're also talking about public subsidy for convention
center that's TIF revenues. And how much is a little bit unknown because the properties were bought
at different times and, you know, we don't know, I don't think yet, their exact market values. But I've
had some reservations about, let's say, the Bunker Robertson property, former Bunker Robertson property
in College Square,
which were considerably more than the Seminary Point property, that we would just be subsidizing not
only the affordable housing, but also the convention center, which is something that I'm sort
of philosophically opposed to, because I think we set boundaries and we've sort of exceeded them. I'm
worried about future requests to exceed them. So all that said, again, I really support the vision.
And something Pastor Robert Piedmont-Smith said at the very end, that this is the only way to make it happen.
I'm not sure I fully agree with that notion. We had some really thoughtful emails from Bryce Green sharing
his views on this and also his conversations with the, I guess what the CIB has stated, but also I take
it with John Weikert, who is heading the CIB, essentially saying they're not interested in a half or
partial parcel at College Square, which is something I had pitched as perhaps viable if those values
were similar. In other words,
pay to subsidize affordable housing, we should not pay twice. And all of the hotels in downtown Bloomington
are on a half city block, totally viable in my mind. The CIB would still get the subsidy for land value
they wanted, but they essentially said, no, we don't want that. We want twice the subsidy. And absent
of a deliberative conversation and a negotiation of what's realistically on the table and what's fiscally
prudent, I don't take that at face value. The idea that the CIB simply wouldn't accept
a subsidy in the form of land of a half block rather than a full block. So that's the only thing that
gave me pause with all this, that I still have some reservations about. I would urge the, you know,
if deliberations and negotiations are entered into, I would just urge the RDC to be thoughtful about
fiscal stewardship and not unnecessarily giving away additional subsidy to the Convention Center.
But again, absent an actual conversation, which hasn't really been able to take place yet between the
relevant parties and decision-makers, you know, who exactly knows what that is. So just to say my piece,
those are the reservations still definitely opposed in general to us continuing to spend public dollars
from the city of Bloomington on the Convention Center project. But again, very much support the vision.
And without more details, you know, it's a little limited what we can really know at this time, and
I'm happy to support the letter.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Councilmember. Yes, thanks. I agree with my colleague, Councilmember Flaherty.
I think that in spirit, I would like to see this negotiation happen in terms of the specifics. I think
it's up to the RDC to negotiate that. And perhaps they can arrive in the middle somewhere, but
I think that it's important to try to save seminary point and maintain it for affordability. So that's
my main priority here and let the RDC you know negotiate from here. Thanks. Thank you so much. Councilman
Rallo. Any others comments. Anything else. Any motions. I move to allow public comment on this issue. Second.
There's a motion the second to have public comment on the letter to the Redevelopment Commission Any
kind any discussion Please councilman just a reminder that it'll take two-thirds majority because it's
a suspension of the rules In which case seeing no other discussion will the clerk please call the roll I
Councilmember Flaherty. Yes. Stasberg. Yes. Piedmont Smith. Yes. Zulek. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Daily. Yes.
Rallo. Yes. Ruff. Yes. All right. That motion passes eight.
Zero, so we'll now have a time of public comment. Can I just see a show of hands if people wanted to
make public comment on this letter? Okay, fantastic. If it's okay with you, just so we can keep it going,
you have the three minutes, but yield them back if you can. All right, so if you'll sign in, say your
name or alias for the record, and if there's anybody online, you can raise your hands, and we'll acknowledge
you shortly, first in chambers.
Good to go? All right. Hi, I'm Bryce Green. I represent Bloomington DSA, and I work with Bloomington
Homes for All. And I'd just like to thank everybody involved in getting this letter to where it is today,
and I thank you all for being as concerned about the prospects of saving Seminary Point as I am and
as these activists are. And I want to acknowledge the concerns that have been brought up throughout
this process about the
precedent it might set for boundary pushing of public subsidies for these major things. However, I think
that this case is exceptional enough that no one can really claim that it's a precedent for anything
that we can anticipate in the future. Unless there's some other grand bargain to save a bunch of units
of affordable housing in the future, no one's really gonna be referring to this as an example of
Why we should increase public subsidy to something like the convention senator. I just want to reiterate
the You know why this Letter is important the RDC has made it clear that they took the earlier letters
from City Council very seriously in determining whether or not to accept a land swap from the CIB in
the past our plan
our proposal of Homes for All and DSA is to have the CIB put an offer for College Square in which they
would be sold College Square at a nominal fee in exchange for them, contingent on them, the CIB, selling
Seminary Point to a mission-focused nonprofit for a nominal fee. Effectively doing the land transfer without
actually transferring the land, because that would encounter a bunch of bureaucratic hurdles, and time,
and time is something that we don't have right now. The leases for Seminary Point are set to be extended
to August 31st, but that's coming at us very quickly. And every second that it's unclear that there's
a solution on the table, more and more of the people and businesses in Seminary Point are making plans to leave.
If they all leave, that imperils the entire project as a whole. And so that makes this time factor extremely
important. We hope that in addition to this letter is excellent, and I know that you guys appointed
the RDC members with full faith and confidence. But I mean, this isn't done. I don't necessarily know
all of the RDC members' explicit positions, especially given this letter
But I'm hoping that this conversation doesn't stop with the letter but that you know You poke and prod
these people until we get what we need. Thank you so much next in chambers Yeah, go ahead hi, my name
is Barry herbers I'm
moved recently to the neighborhood near Seminary Square and the Seminary Point Apartments. And it's
a really lovely neighborhood in a lot of ways, and it's a really troubled neighborhood in a lot of ways.
And since I moved there, I've really fallen in love with the place. I walk to Friendly Beasts a lot,
take my dogs around, folks around there, pet them and stuff. But it's such a relief to know that there's
people in our government who
are as hopeful about keeping that place thriving and beautiful and communally oriented for people of
all different income brackets as I feel. So I just really want to say thank you guys for being in such
great communication with the activists around here. And it's really wonderful to hear you read the letter
out loud. Thank you.
My name is Sarah Wolford and I'm the housing solutions director at habitat for humanity I'm also a member
of Bloomington homes for all so housing is something that I'm very passionate about and I really appreciate
all of your all support and work and all of the conversations that we've had thus far to try to figure
out something that ends up being
Winnable solution for for everyone I also wanted to kind of announce a save the date for a presentation
Bloomington homes for all would like to give on Saturday June 20th Details to follow but just kind of
wanted to give an announcement you all will be invited as well as members of the CIB and RDC just so I
all of the decision makers and also people of the public can come and kind of have a presentation of
what we hope to bring to the community in regards to this incredible property and how we envision improving
it and kind of our hopes for the future. So thank you all so much for your support thus far and we continue,
we look forward to continuing working with you all. Thanks.
Next in chambers. Hi, I'm Matthew. I'm a therapist in town, but then also a part of Homes for All. Yeah,
just want to say thank you for your kind of collaborative angle that you wanted to take, keeping in
mind the RDC and kind of the ways that they're trying to think about it as well.
So just as a reminder, the land that we're trying to save is considered super affordable land. We're
talking 30% to 40% AMI being served just by this land alone, as well as four to five flourishing businesses,
nonprofits, that really would love to stick around and stay there and keep their communities. We had
an event a couple weeks ago.
We had almost 100 people come to that event and a couple thousand dollars raised just off of a couple
weeks and a couple flyers as well as Friendly Beasts hosting the space. It was a sight to see. It was
incredibly beautiful to see a whole community knowing about this issue that's going on as well as then
supporting it financially and bringing their friends and their colleagues to that.
Well, yes, I do want to say, yeah, we'll be sending an invite to the public meeting. We'd love for any
of y'all to be there. I do want to say, at least publicly, I don't think the RDC has spent a lot of
time negotiating with the CIB. This is something that the CIB was hoping that they would get with that
30-day period, and then the RDC denied that. So I want negotiations to happen, too.
I hope that John Weierkart is bluffing and saying that, oh, I don't want half, you know, half the land,
but let's just, you know, that's where the negotiations need to happen to some extent. And I just think
that that's not necessarily happening, at least publicly, right? I don't know exactly what's happening
behind, but so please, I just, and it seems like y'all have already done so, but please encourage them,
make phone calls, like to encourage that negotiation process to happen.
because really the time is of the essence. Every day that we push this forward, the lease deadline comes,
which means that the businesses are gonna need to find new places and the tenants are gonna need to
find new places. Think about yourself if you had to find a new place in a matter of two months. You'd
be looking for a new place, and that's definitely the case if you're a business owner too. So if we
wanna keep and maintain the people on the land as well as the businesses, we have to act now.
So thank you so much for your time and any sort of things you can pull as well as conversations that
you can have to make this happen. But yes, appreciate you. Thank you so much. Is there anyone online
who would like to comment? Fantastic. All right. Well, we'll come back then. Any other? Please, honorable
clerk. No? OK. Any other comments or motions? I move that we vote on this. OK.
There's a motion in a second will the clerk please call the roll on the motion I have a question. So
please the motion is whether or not we vote or the motion is whether or not we approve the letter I'm
happy to just call a vote. How about I think that sounds a whole lot. Yes, unless there's unless there's
any objection
All right, because there has been a request for us to have a vote and just so that it's clear who's
who's saying yes to this Though I think it's already fairly clear But let's let's call a vote, please.
Will the clerk through smaller role? Do we need a motion to approve the letter? Okay What would you
like? Would you like a motion to approve the letter and then I'll just call what would be best? Well, I
Just to clarify, I just want to know exactly what the motion is. You have a motion and a second to take
a vote on the letter. It would be nice if it could just be clarified if you're making a vote to sign
the letter or if you're taking a vote to vote about signing the letter. That's all I need to know. I
will withdraw my motion and defer to President Asari. OK. Then will you make a motion to approve the
letter? I move that we approve this letter. Second. All right. There's a motion and a second for us
to approve this letter. Will the clerk please call the roll?
Yes councilmember Stossberg. Yes Piedmont Smith. Yes, Zulek. Yes. Sorry. Yes daily. Yes Rallo. Yes Resume
rough. Sorry. Yes and Flaherty Yes. All right. Thank you. That letter is approved 8-0 Thank you very
much for your work and thank you all for your efforts. Are there any other councilmember reports? I
Councilman Stossberg, thank you first I want to apologize just a second to Councilman repeat Matt Smith
because I got up in the middle of her report and in case you were wondering what I was doing I was relocating
a very small jumping spider that was crawling around on the desk and I I I like had a flashback to my
nature education days and when I think I'm gonna move this little guy outside, so anyway
My report though. I first wanted to say it is June and June is pride month. So happy pride to everybody
and Highlighting the pride fest for Bloomington, which is not until August It's August 22nd because
we wait until our student population has come back to town but there are lots of other local pride events
if or not quite local pride events, but
Regional pride events if anybody wants to attend those this month and in addition to that I wanted to
highlight I was reading through the Bloomington Volunteer Network Weekly email this week and Bloomington
pride is looking for board and committee members So if anybody out there is interested in being on the
board of Bloomington pride, which is not It's it's not a city of Bloomington board, right? It is their
own organization you can
Contact them at info at Bloomington pride org or there is a little short URL that that you can go to
it's it's HTTPS Semi-colon backslash backslash be town or bton dot in slash pride 26 So if anybody wants
to get involved with that event and that organization, that would be a great thing to do in June and
And then I also just wanted to highlight a couple of recent conversations I've had with constituents.
I had constituent meetings last weekend and several people talked about need for affordable housing,
which we just talked about in livable communities, which one of our other public commenters just mentioned
And safe streets and then enforcement of traffic laws So I told them all that I would announce that
those are some of the things that that some folks are concerned about over in district three And I think
that is all. Thank you fantastic. I'm just gonna extend councilmember comment by Three more minutes
council members like
Thank you. I just want to say happy pride and a quick reminder that the first pride celebration was
a riot. So keep making good trouble and thank you. Thank you so much. Any other comments? All right.
We'll move then straight along and thank you all for your incredible work to a report from the Commission
on Aging. Thank you so much for being here.
Hello my name is Dana Thompson and I'm the chair of the Commission on Aging. I think our slides are
going up there. You can see now I don't know how many of you have ever been to Commission on Aging meeting
but we tend to be kind of a rowdy bunch and we have had a lot going on the past year. I guess. OK.
So we've gone round and about with what we want to do as a commission, how we want to make impact, and
how we have really focused on that the last couple of years is in a couple of ways. The biggest way
has been advocacy and then some work on awareness, and we've done that in a number of ways. So we really
tried to focus on, of course, things like health and wellness, but
kind of the bigger picture of that, making sure that people know about the resources that are available
to them, making sure that they are engaged in social and recreational things, as well as just those
kind of senior needs that might come to mind for some people. So our mission really is to improve the
public awareness of the senior and aging community. So again, not just what they need, but also what
they are doing and contributing to our community.
So we like to celebrate their accomplishments and encourage programming in that area. We also like to
explore issues and concerns of older adults as opportunities for our community. So you can see all of
our commissioners up there. We've had a little bit of turnover, but we had a really strong board and
all of those commissioners were around for a few years at least.
One of the big things that we've been working on is our senior resource guides. So this was our 2.0
year for that. So we've heard from a lot of seniors in the community that, hey, we don't really know
what's available to us. We don't know who to ask. We don't have anything where that's all in one place
anymore. The things that people found online were not regularly updated. And so we worked really hard
to get a senior health care guide together that had information about different services available in
our community.
And then what we found from that was that a piece was missing, that it wasn't just about healthcare,
they also wanted to know what other opportunities were available for them. So we created what we call
our senior resource guide. So you can see they're differently colored but look very, very similar. And
these are on the commission page if anybody wants to share them or print them out for themselves. But
the resource guide focuses more on non-medical stuff. So where are the senior centers in town?
Where can I engage in lifelong learning? What transportation is available to me? Those kinds of things.
Myself and Sandra McGow, who some of you may know, who I think did this last year, also did a seminar
called Senior Living 101, which is something we will be doing regularly moving forward. So she and I
have both worked with seniors for a long time, probably like 40 years between us, I guess, or more.
And so this really is just one of those events where we help people tease apart all the mumbo jumbo
that's out there. What is assisted living versus nursing home? What is the power of attorney versus
a guardianship? Who the heck do I talk to when I wanna start with all that stuff? Woo, that's great.
I thought I did something. So we will continue to do that as well. With one of my other hats, I also
chair the,
dementia friendly Bloomington committee that's here in town. So if you didn't know, we were the first
dementia friendly community in Indiana. So go Bloomington. There's a slide before this slide. No, I
don't think so. Maybe it's after the slide. But we are also dementia friendly commission and we are
really interested in getting increased engagement in
dementia awareness in our city. So we are really encouraging city offices, other city commissions, councils,
whatever that are interested in that to take part in our dementia aware organization training.
through Dementia Friendly Bloomington. So that's one of the big, big things you can do to support our
mission. I think just collaborating with us. We really love to collaborate with other groups
and organizations in town and then just share our resources and use us as a resource as well. Is this
the one you thought was before? Okay. So these are, this is where we're going from here on out. So we
will continue to do that Senior Living 101.
session that I mentioned we will bring that dementia friendly training to folks at the city who might
be interested in that. We are also working on a project to highlight older artists within our community.
So I don't know if any of you have been to 50 plus expo over the last few years. There were some
really cool art spaces highlighting older artisans in Bloomington. And then we'll continue supporting
other efforts in the community and advocating for seniors in those spaces. So things like the Blue Zones,
things like Dementia Friendly. Yeah. That's why you thought it was before, because it's in there twice.
Any questions? I know I tend to talk fast. Yay, thank you. All right, Council Member Daley.
Thank you so much for this. That was really lovely and kind of impressive and awesome. So thank you
guys very much for all of that work. Can you tell me a little bit more about the dementia-friendly training?
Do you have details, like when, how long? Sure. So when is whenever you want to schedule it with us.
So we have several trained trainers that can deliver that. I think we're at around 40 in the Monroe
County area, people that can provide that training.
depending on conversation that happens in that training, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half.
So it's not super lengthy. It goes through a lot of the basics about what is dementia and what isn't
it, but also gives some tips on environment, communication, things like that. And when we schedule these
with a group, we really try to kind of tailor the conversation to how might this come up for you?
So yeah, we've been doing that training I think now a little over
10 years in one format or another. Yeah, and we just updated it too, so you'd get the newest version.
Thank you. Yeah. Hi, thank you. I just want to say thank you for keeping the guides up to date, because
they are resources that I've passed on to different folks who have different needs in different ways.
And so I appreciate that they're updated. Thank you.
Glad that you're using them Has your commission talked about the possible closure of Kirkwood Avenue
We haven't actually that's That's an interesting topic of conversation for I think because we do talk
about transportation and walkability and accessibility Quite a bit, but we haven't talked specifically
about that
Well, we'd love to hear some feedback on it. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions
online? I had a quick question, then, with the way that our population is increasingly skewed toward
older individuals. Obviously, the population is always older, I guess, getting older, but ours particularly.
And I've long thought about how do we how do we make sure that we're centering a significant portion
of our population and in our budget and and
updates to our UDO and the things that we're doing as a city. And so I'm interested if you had Blue
Sky and you could say, guys, do a thing just to sort of understand the sort of spaces where you feel
that there's gaps. What type of things would? It's almost always the same ones that we'll keep bringing
up. I think transportation is a big one. Not necessarily that it isn't available, but maybe that it
isn't available
Accessible in the right ways for older adults. I think that's one I think another is that when we think
of aging well the conversation tends to go back to medically and we forget that a big part of wellness
for all of us is Our ability to be around the people that we want to be around to to do the activities
that we want to do, you know to go to
to go eat on Kirkwood or to go to our place of worship or to see our grandkids or go to the mall and
not just at the prescribed times of Monday to Friday, nine to five or whatever people work on. So I
think considering when we're thinking of these big opportunities in Bloomington, whether it's housing,
whether it's recreation, whether it's business,
how that impacts seniors as well, because a lot of times when we give trainings, we hear back from the
people in our audience, oh, this would just improve things for everyone. It's sort of like if we are
making things more accessible for people with disabilities, we're probably making them more accessible
for the rest of us. I think there's some similar thinking when it comes to the older adults
in our population, is that if they are able to access these things, the rest of us most likely will be.
Well, right building for one or a hundred That's really helpful. That was really helpful. Thank you
so much, of course Thank you for listening. I appreciate it. Thank you for your time and thank you for
the work that you've done. Thank you We'll now have a presentation from the Commission on the status
of women Good evening
Hi, my name is Cece's falling and I'm commissioner on the status of women and thank you for allowing
us to present on the annual report for tonight So our Commission is comprised of nine volunteer members
with appointments from both the mayor and City Council. I recognize some of you Since 1974 the Commission
has been dedicated to advocating for equity and improving opportunities for everybody who identifies
as a female and
Our main focus area as we plan out our programs and initiatives for the year center around legislation,
community partnerships, and communication. We do this by monitoring policies and legislation, building
positive programming for the community and our youth, and maintaining strategic partnerships. All of
these opportunities allow us to understand the needs of people who identify as female in our community
and be advocates for them.
Some of our highlights from 2025 included the 2025 Women's History Month Luncheon, the third annual
Women's Market, and the largest Young Women's Leadership Summit yet. The Women's History Month Luncheon
celebrated our three 2025 Women's Achievement Award winners and a powerful keynote address by the president
of the Women's Fund of Central Indiana, Tamara Winfrey Harris. The Women's Market,
Had 30 vendors this year hundred of attendees and of those who responded to our feedback survey many
of them reported great sales for the day The young women's leadership summit was very special This year
both in terms of the number of attendees and the impact of the three sessions that focused on overcoming
barriers as we began looking into 2026 we identified several areas of growth and opportunity and
The Cost of the Women's History Month luncheon continues to rise each year and is largely funded by
sponsorships and ticket sales. We explored some grant opportunities for our luncheon this year in order
to help offset the cost, which was a huge help. In order to draw even more people to the women's market
later this summer, we will be ramping up our advertising and are also talking about new ways that we
could allow more vendors to participate. In addition, we've extended the market hours to 3 p.m. this year.
Based on the feedback and ideas we received from the students who attended the Young Women's Leadership
Summit in 2025, we look forward to continuing to create an intentional and meaningful program in the
fall of 2026. These are some of the ways in which the community can get involved and engage with the
commission. We would like to invite anyone with any interest in our mission to attend our monthly commissions
meetings and intend an event or program throughout the year.
Thank you again for allowing us to present this evening. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you
so much questions and from council Thank you, what kind of cooperation and collaboration do you have
with MCC SC with the young women's summit I Think Marissa was better to handle that question Hi there
Marissa Parscott city liaison for the Commission on the status of women um
We coordinate with MCCSE, of course, and we lean on them to help get the word out to students to register.
And then, of course, they also help coordinate the logistics of getting the students from all of the
middle schools and both high schools here into council chambers. And they've been fantastic partners
in that area.
save us on transportation costs when they can by using some of their buses and teacher-driven buses
versus some of their bigger modes of transportation. So we certainly lean on them for those sort of
logistic purposes. And Lashondra McCoy, who is a resource officer with MCCSC
has been a huge help, especially the past two years. And I believe she was extremely instrumental in
getting all of the students, as many students as we had in 2025 in the room last year. So I'll give
a public shout out to her for that. Thank you.
On the question of legislation, and you said, I mean, I think maybe the federal one is maybe a little
more obvious, but at the local level, are there particular things that are priorities that we can act
on? I will have to probably get back to you a little bit on that, but I can tell you that that is our
primary concern, frankly, is working with the state of Indiana on our legislation. Obviously, yes, we
know that the federal government affects us as well, but one of our key
Items this year in 2026 when our councils in session was to spend that time to read through as many
of the Articles as we could regarding things that we felt would affect women disproportionately And
so it's a lot of work that is done in a very short amount of time And as we know the things that go
before them don't necessarily even make it to a vote and so
I think strategically thinking forward is about how can we support Indiana women, particularly Bloomington
women, when we have those state legislation come up and how can we support that way is honestly one
of our most critical missions.
Well, I certainly speak for myself only, but perhaps others feel this way as well. I love lists. And
so if you all ever have a here's an agenda, like you all need to pass these type of things, it's really
helpful because it gives us something to react to, something to work on. And so we welcome that type
of engagement from the commission, all of the commissions for that matter. I'm on the legislation committee,
and I'd be happy to send you lists. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other
questions?
All right, we will move swiftly along then. Do we have any reports from council committees? Seeing none,
we'll now move to the first of the best parts, which is first period of public comment for things that
are not on the agenda. If you'd like to comment.
Anybody like to comment if you just raise your hands. I know Okay, fantastic. Okay, so you'll have three
minutes Just sign in say your name or alias same thing online and you can take it away We'll start in
chambers and then we'll go online
Hi, my name's Kathy Berry, and one of my neighbors brought by an announcement of an exhibit of his artwork,
which opens this Friday, June 5th, at the Eiffel Gallery's 415 West 4th Street. It's a retrospective
called 60 Years of Art Making by Frank Young, and it's sculptures, prints, and paintings. And Mr. Young
and I have been neighbors for a long time. I have seen the beautiful things he makes,
And I know him to be a person who's contributed to the community in very many ways. He's very talented
person. So I just would like to say that any time this month starting Friday till the 30th stop by the
I fell gallery and I believe you'll get a treat. Thank you. Is there any comment or online. Anyone else
in the room.
Mr. M.G., I mean, we're disappointed. All right. Seeing none, we will move along. Are there any appointments
to boards and commissions? All right. Seeing none, we're making great progress. This is great. We'll
move on to legislation for first reading. Are there any motions? I move that ordinance 2026-13 be introduced
and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only. Second. There is a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Alright, will the clerk be calls the role in the motion? Yes, my apologies Councilmember Piedmont Smith
Yes Zulek. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Daily. Yes, Rallo Yes, Ruff. Yes clarity Yes Stasberg. Yes, that motion
carries eight zero. Oh
I move to discuss ordinance 2026 dash. Wait, sorry. Will the clerk please read? Oh, I'm so sorry. I
stepped on your toes. It's okay. They're sturdy. Um, so ordinance 2026 dash 13 to amend title two of
the Bloomington municipal code regarding loans between utilities. The synopsis is as follows. This ordinance
follows Indiana code section eight,
Dash 1.5 dash 3 dash 11 and allows for the wastewater and water Utilities to issue loans to one another
through the creation of a cash reserve fund in each utility Through which such loans can be funded Thank
you very much, are there any motions I motion to discuss legislation Second, thank you There's a motion
a second to discuss legislation 20 26 13 any discuss any discussion on motion and
Seeing none will the clerk please calls the roll Do we don't I forget I don't know I'm sorry This is
why we should have meetings every week. I get I get they get rusty All right, so there's a motion in
the second for us to discuss. It's now on the table. Is there somebody to present? Hello Katherine Sager
director utilities and I'm presenting I think that we do have to vote to discuss it Yeah, I think that
that's what we've been doing
Attorney Allen, would you like to? Clarify I Believe you introduce that you have the discussion and
then you vote on the actual main motion is Is how it's if you give me just a moment. I'll give you a
definitive answer. I'm sorry Kirk Bolden, do you have a thought about this? I
I honestly don't because this is a recent change and how you actually operated by thought you actually
did take a vote on whether or not to discuss it because you needed was it two-thirds people to agree
to Discuss I cannot recall. I'm so sorry My recollection was that we have to vote on it because you
know in case you don't want to discuss it on first reading Yeah in the the document procedures with
discussion of ordinance at first reading. It does not say that a vote is needed
Well, let's take a let me just call a vote just to just to make this go faster. So Well, there was a
motion and can can the court we call the roll on that, please? Councilmember Zoellick. Yes, sorry. Yes,
Daley. Yes, Rallo Yes, Ruff. Yes Flaherty Yes, Stasburg. Yes, and Piedmont Smith. Yes. Thank you. I
All right. Thank you. That motion carries. Please take it away with a nice presentation. Yes. Catherine
Zager director water utilities CBU. So I'm presenting ordinance twenty twenty six dash 13 to amend Title 2.
the Bloomington municipal code regarding loans between utilities specifically this will add a new section
to title to chapter 2.24 that follows Indiana code a dash 1.5 dash 3 dash 11 which will allow for municipally
owned utilities us to make loans between ourselves essentially so that we may make a loan from our water
cash reserve to our
Sorry from our wastewater utility to our water utility If you recall last year's budget presentation,
we reported a negative ENR indicating a deficit in our water and foreshadowed the need for a loan eventually
now here we are we have the need for the loan and in order to make this loan we need to Pass this ordinance amendment
to allow for the creation of a cash reserve fund in each utility in which such monies can be loaned
between the utilities. I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you. Do we have any council member questions.
Council member Stasberg who decides the interest rate for these loans and like whose benefit is it to
charge ourselves interest. There's no interest and we decide.
Okay, so you guys decide and the intention is to have them be interest free Yes, but it's just because
of like the legal bit of the documentation that you have to allow for the concept of interest Yes, okay.
Great. Thanks Councilmember Piedmont Smith So Director Zager you went kind of quickly so there's a deficit
in the water fund correct and you want to loan the water fund the water utility and
Money from the wastewater utility correct very temporarily As you know, we brought a water rate case
to council Between the water rate after that water rate case we should we will be able to pay back this
loan. It will be The loan will be for less than 12 months Where does that water rate case stand currently
We recently had our evidentiary hearing on Tuesday with the IORC
So what does that mean in the process? How many more months do you expect it to go? Yeah You know we
can still only estimate I don't have a firm date, but we are hope we are still on track to implement
rates in the fall Thank you other councilmember questions Councilmember Piedmont Smith
Okay. So since both the water and the wastewater utilities are rate payer funded how is it legal for
one utility to loan money to the other because not all water customers are also wastewater customers.
For example the wholesale water customers. So how is it okay to take the rate payer funds from one utility
and loan those to another utility.
So it is, in fact, a loan. We're not just moving the money. So because it's a loan, we must pay it back
to true it up. It's legal through the Indiana code that we referenced, section 8-1.5-3-11, which allows
us to create this cash reserve to take loans in and out of. It just increases flexibility in between
rate cases. Yeah, it's not a transfer of funds.
A loan that must be paid back. I understand that. Maybe I misspoke. It's a loan. And so I realized from
what you said a few minutes ago there is no interest rate. Correct. That helps as well. Yes. Yes.
Thank you. Council President sorry. Thank you so much. I was just curious about so. So I get as this
is written.
procedural, we're allowing something that's allowed in other places. But I'm curious about any risks
and then particularly to what happens if let's say utilities gives it to water, CBU gives it to sewage
or something like that and then one doesn't pay it back.
Does that then essentially become a subsidy that, you know, so I'm trying to understand the risk associated
with, because I mean, we're describing this like it is just money transferred between accounts, essentially,
that have to be structured as loans. I get that. But is there any risk associated with this? Sure,
of course. There's, you know, risk associated with this in that if there was not appropriate oversight,
that you could lead to one
Fund subsidizing the other I do believe that we have appropriate oversight between both this council
here and our USB who also recommended This adoption. Okay, and then and then in terms of the oversight
do all of those things come to the USB then when we create a new a new transfer between accounts or
what what's the approval process for and yes all of
All transfers and claims are approved through our USB. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Any other council questions.
Council member Stasberg. Thank you. This is this might seem like kind of a weird question but I'm looking
at the way this is actually supposed to be implemented in our code in terms of that language. And I
mean this this is this is the sentence and I just
want to say in preface, I feel like this sentence makes zero sense to me. So if I was reading the code,
I would be like, what on earth does that mean? And so I don't know if that's my ignorance or if the
sentence is just
And kind of strange but anyway, it says a cash reserve fund is hereby created for each city-owned utility
and the utilities service department by its Bloomington Utilities Service Board shall hereafter carry
the same on the records of each city-owned utility by providing for monthly contributions or transfers
to the cash reserve fund of surplus earnings of each utility and
It's like the first part of the sentence seems like it doesn't go with the second part Like I have no
idea what's going on there So can either you explain that or maybe an attorney in the room be like yes,
this is the way the code language has to read Yes, I Do believe this is how it needs to read in order
to align with the Indiana code I will I believe Chris Wheeler isn't online so he may be able to have
a better explanation and
That would be great just because I mean, I know that sometimes like legally is is not easily interpreted
by non-legal people, but this seemed especially Duma best He's not Well, I mean I think this is the
first reading and so it'll go to second reading So if we could maybe just like look into that between
now and next week, that would be fantastic. I
Thank you. Council President Azari. Just a quick follow-up question about what other cities have done.
I think there was that reference to Columbus, for example. Is it normal to write into the code maybe
like a cap of interest rates or anything? Again, I'm not questioning what it is that we're trying to
do. I totally get that.
understand why we need to do that we should do that I'm supportive of it I'm just trying to make sure
that you know when we're all not here and you're not here and so many years that this is done in the
in the best way so would you would you welcome like an amendment for example that capped
let's say the percentage of loans that created a very clear, to Council Member Stasberg's view, a clearer
set of guidelines for how it's governed, for who decides at what times, like those type of, that level
of specificity? Or do you think that it's better at the level, I mean, maybe as a question for Attorney
Wheeler, do you think it's better at the sort of very light level? So yeah, just curious there what
your thoughts are.
So I do think you know we're open to putting certain like basically guardrails I think is what you're
saying you know regarding things like interest rates and caps. I do think that the way it's currently
written does provide a fair amount of flexibility for us to be able to especially if this were utilized
in order to fund potentially in a an emergency project.
This could be used in this way and any guardrails that you would put on it may Inhibit that but I can't
predict the future So, you know definitely be open to suggestions. Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much.
Thank you councilmember Rallo Yes, I'm looking for the amount of the loan what what is the amount? So
the amount of the loan is not in this ordinance. However, we have
Anticipating that the loan will be capped at four million dollars So that is like not to exceed four
million dollars and we anticipate that we will not need to use all of that Okay, thank you any other
questions Okay, I believe we go to council comment now because we're discussing well because I think
we do Any council comments
In that case, we will go to public comment on this specific ordinance. If anyone would like to,
thank you, Director Zager. If anyone would like to speak on this ordinance, please approach the podium.
Looks like nobody. Anybody on Zoom? Oh. In that case, if you could state your name for the record, please.
You'll have three minutes, and you'll be able to unmute shortly.
Good evening, my name's Eric Ost, and I just had a quick question. If the loaned amount is not spent
in its entirety, what happens to the balance of the loan? That's my question, or comment, comment.
Thank you. Thank you. I think maybe just for next time. Thank you. Okay, it appears that there are no
Other comments? Anybody else on Zoom? Chris said he was on Zoom. What's his name on Zoom? Maybe we're
having some Zoom difficulties today. Maybe he's on there as like lawyers or something like that. Yes,
I bet that's it. I bet that's it. Exactly.
But what if a municipal lawyer? Is attorney Wheeler on Zoom? Yes, I'm on Zoom, but I wasn't able to
unmute earlier when questions were being asked of me. I'm also unable to turn my video on, but that's
all right. You guys don't need to see me. I don't have any public comment.
But if the loan doesn't get used up and there's still a balance left, it's going to get used to pay
back the remainder of the loan that needs, it'll be used as part of the payback of the loan back to
the utility that it loaned from. It's not like the utility will keep the money. Great, thank you. Okay,
Council Member Ruff.
Yeah, I just had a question for I didn't realize we're gonna have attorney wheeler Accessible to us.
So I didn't ask this question earlier and I don't know if he's the best person to ask the question to
or But What what does one say as a representative like one of us is someone who might say the purpose
of the utility is not for any of the separate utility funds and
revenue streams to generate a large amount of excess That's not that's not the purpose of it it's just
basically, you know deliver the service cover costs You should be looking at not raising rates rather
than Just what what does one say to that? Argument I'm wondering
Well, I understand what you're trying to say, Councilman. We're not in the business of making money.
We're in the business of having the rate payers pay for the cost of the service provided. But in the
way economics is working, when we get a rate case, it increases the amount of the, and we do it, as
you recall, we do it staggered. So every other year, a different utility is before the board for a rate increase.
When that rate increase comes in necessarily that utility starts to realize more money in its coffers
than it is spending. And so it's got an opportunity to help the other one that's lagging behind. So
we had a wastewater rate case increased its rates. The water rate has not yet increased and we are in
a bind and would like to have a loan paid over from wastewater to water.
This statute allows for that kind of flexibility. And so if somebody were concerned about whether this
is legal, we would simply direct them to pay pay some mind to the fact that our state legislature felt
it was necessary to allow municipalities and their utilities to have this flexibility when it's in between
rate cases. Thank you. Thank you for that very clear answer. Thank you. Is there a motion.
Would you like to make a comment? Just a brief one. I'll just say, generally, super supportive of this,
I think. I mean, it makes sense. I mean, to colleagues, I don't know what the sort of feeling in the
room is. I'd like to explore just doing a couple of just very minor cleanup clarifying things. But to
be honest, we could also do that.
later So I'd be happy to vote for it today if anybody else felt felt that way, but generally generally
supportive Councilmember Piedmont Smith Since attorney Wheeler is online, maybe he could clarify the
passage that councilmember Stossberg was puzzling over earlier that I also find puzzling and
Yeah, what what you're reading there is basically lifting the language from the statute itself and putting
it into this ordinance. It's merely following the actual language in the statute. It's trying to define
the fact that this ordinance will allow the utilities to create these funds. Each one of them will have
their own fund and it's trying to explain that those funds that those
funds get populated by specific monies that each utility realizes. It's wordy, it's not easily understood,
but that's the way the statute reads, and that's why we decided just simply to use the statute so that
we don't find ourselves inadvertently crosswise with it. Thank you. Councilmember Stosberg.
On that vein, since Mr. Wheeler's online now, it's like,
Could that still align with the language of the statute and perhaps be two sentences instead of one
long sentence? I don't see why we couldn't make two sentences if that were to end up making it read
easier for everybody. I guess I think that there's the possibility that it could be easier if it was
broken down into
more sentences than one very long wordy one. And so to that end I guess I would make the motion to move
this to second reading at our next meeting on June 10th. Second. OK. There's been a motion and a second
to postpone this reading to June 10th our next regularly scheduled council meeting with the clerk. Please
call the roll.
Yes. Rallo? Yes. Ruff? Yes. Flaherty? Yes. Stosberg? Yes. Piedmont-Smith? Yes. Zulek? Yes. Asari? Yes.
Thank you. Thank you. With a vote of 8-0, that passes, and I will give control back over to our president.
Thank you so much. All right. We'll keep moving on. Any motions?
I move that ordinance twenty twenty six dash fourteen be introduced and read by the clerk by title and
synopsis only second. There's a motion and a second any discussion. Seeing none. And the clerk recalls
the roll. Yes. Councilmember Rallo. Yes. Ruff. Flaherty. Yes. Stossberg.
Yes, Piedmont Smith. Yes, Zulek. Yes. Sorry. Yes, Bailey Yes, thank you Any of them I'm sorry. Will
the clerk please read? Eventually, yes ordinance 2026 dash 14
to amend Title 2 of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled Administration and Personnel to require
Councilmember sponsorship of legislation under Chapter 2.04. The synopsis is as follows. This ordinance,
sponsored by Councilmember Piedmont-Smith, adds a new paragraph to the Bloomington Municipal Code,
Section 2.04.270, to require Councilmember sponsorship of each item of legislation except for the annual
budget legislation and appropriation ordinances.
Thank you so much. Any motions. I move to discuss ordinance twenty twenty six dash fourteen Second,
there's a motion in a second with a clerk. We call the roll Yes councilmember rough, yes Flaherty Yes,
Stasberg Yes, Piedmont Smith. Yes, Zulek. Yes. Sorry. Yes, Daly. Yes, Rallo Yes
Thank you. All right. Who would like to present on this? I assume customer Smith. Go ahead. Yes.
Thank you. So this ordinance would add a paragraph in Bloomington Municipal Code that reads as follows.
No proposed ordinance or resolution shall be considered by the council unless sponsored by a member
of the council. Exceptions no council member sponsorship shall be required for the annual budget related
legislation.
nor for appropriation ordinances brought forward outside the annual budget process. So currently the
mayor's administration can bring forward legislation. It doesn't have to have any council member sponsor
it. They present it and that's it. This idea of having a council member sponsor was discussed by the
committee on council processes actually I have to think
Last year's member of that committee council member Flaherty for bringing it forward and then we discussed
it this year with the committee and unanimously approved this ordinance on May 21st. The reasoning is
that it it can help prevent misunderstanding and lack of clarity.
of legislation if at least one council member has read it first and advise if there's more context needed
to understand it or more late laypeople's terms to understand it or if there was some some aspect that
the administration from the executive branch perspective did not consider and should have considered
before it comes to the legislative branch. So we think that this will this will improve communication.
At least one member of council will have their name put on the legislation. It shouldn't change anything
as far as who presents the legislation. The sponsor isn't even necessarily committing to vote for it.
It would be odd if they didn't but you never know. And in my memo I have more details as to the
of many other communities do things this way. Either something comes through a city council committee
or a sponsor council members required to sponsor. They kind of just make sense as a legislative body
that somebody on this body would sponsor like it's done in the state house and and in the in Washington.
And then I.
Put a couple of examples from last year in in my memo of items that I think would have benefited from
having a council sponsor council member look at them before they came to us because there was some context
missing and some some other language that was not clear and that came forward and got messy. So that
is the legislation. Happy to take any questions any questions.
Councilmember Rallo. Well, yes, I mean, this is kind of more of a comment, Councilmember Piedmont-Smith,
but, you know, sponsorship, you know, does generally imply support. However, in this case, that is an
adoption of whatever the legislation is.
It seems to me another thing to sponsor it for deliberation. So it's, it's rare for me not to vote in
the affirmative to introduce an item because I think that in most cases, everything should, you know,
even if I don't support it, you know, we're, we're a legislative body and it deserves debate. So.
My question is is it really should it should it be considered rare as you were saying not to support
what you would sponsor in this case. I don't know if it'll be rare or not. I don't think that's really
relevant to whether we pass this legislation or not. I guess time will tell. I mean we can maybe ask.
members of or the deputy mayor who's here. But it seems to me that it would make sense that the mayor's
administration would approach a council member whom they thought would support the legislation. They
have choice of nine people. They probably wouldn't go to somebody who would just grudgingly sponsor
it so that it would got discussion. They would probably go to somebody who likes it in some way. But
whether it's rare or not for a sponsor to vote against doesn't seem relevant to whether we pass this.
Yes. And so you could imagine cases where it fails just because there is no sponsor. So it never comes
before the body. I have trouble imagining that but I suppose it could happen. Are there examples of
legislation that have been voted down unanimously.
Yes and one of them is in my memo that was the city of Bloomington utilities septic disposal rates that
all of us voted against largely in my view because it was so confusing and there were outdated and in
outdated assumptions were made and the septic haulers were not fully consulted and
Other things so I mean that to me that was an instance where it would have been better to have a sponsor
Which probably would have delayed it coming to us, but it would have more thoroughly vetted that legislation
So are you saying is your concern that something won't even get discussed because there's no sponsor
You know, I've always believed that the council should be controlling its own schedule so I'm favorable
to this but
I guess what I'm thinking is that if there's confusion that one is a sponsor of legislation and yet
votes against it, I just wanted to clarify that because I think it might be confusing for, say, just
citizens watching it, you know, because it is a departure from what we have been doing in the past.
But anyway, unfavorable. So thank you for answering the questions.
Thank you so much. Other questions. All right. Any council comment. Seeing none and we'll go to public
comment. You'll get another chance. Anybody like to comment on ordinance 20 26 14. Take it away. Hi.
I'm speaking as a member of the public.
express my concern for the logic and reasoning provided by Councilmember Piedmont-Smith to support the
passage of Ordinance 2026-14. I can concede that legislation sponsorship may have its merits in the
broader context of governing Class II cities in Indiana and in governing the U.S. Congress and Indiana
General Assembly. However, I disagree that sponsorship operates in these contexts as a mechanism for
increasing the transparency of information to the general public
I disagree that sponsorship procedurally guarantees fewer amendments that will be made on a piece of
legislation. I disagree that sponsorship would improve communication between the mayor's administration
and members of the council. And I disagree that the sponsorship will benefit the public at large. I
also take issue with this assessment that this ordinance is not expected to have a major impact on existing
city finances. Without a respect for time, I'm going to limit the depth of my remarks to my
first disagreement, because I think it's easily
the easiest claim to challenge quickly. I'm skeptical that many people here think that the U.S. Congress
utilizes a sponsorship policy to maximize or ensure the transparency of information around their process.
Sponsorship mechanically operates as a form of permission. It's a simple logic gate.
In context where legislators must make priority decisions about how to spend their time wisely, they
rely on sponsorship to discriminate against legislation that no member is willing to champion. So it's
a simple strategy for ensuring popular legislation is heard first, if at all. Especially as the ordinance
is written, sponsorship is prefigured as a non-standardized black box with no warrants or guidelines.
Council members are allowed to fill in the blank and self-determine their own unique standards for allowing
proposals on the legislative agenda.
As such, before legislation can become official business, it must be discussed behind closed doors where
the standards for the public release and organization of information differ from those enshrined by
open door law. While council members may experience discomfort when asking questions for the public
record, it is conceivable that legislative proponents rely on the function of public discourse
for educational purposes.
asking fewer questions about legislation because council members have a privileged perspective of it
will only diminish the resulting discussion for their constituents. Council members want to demonstrate
a good faith effort to increase transparency behind the legislative process. They could do better,
I think, by following the example laid out by the Transportation Commission, where their council
commissioners hold staff and staff hold each other to a minimum standard of preparation before presenting
cases for hearing.
Staff maintain a standard reporting structure to ensure that when commissioners take action their fulfilling
requirements explicitly outlined in BMC title to section 2 subsection 100 paragraph D item 2 The end
result is more documented material relevant to the legislative process for public review and not less
As a closing remark, I want to observe that the materials for this ordinance have not demonstrated I
think a good faith engagement with city staff to clarify the particular details of the stated burden
that the proposal
Ordinance would lay upon them. That's your time. Thank you so much. Thank you If you want to also send
your comments to us by email, though, that would be very helpful. Thank you Good evening council Dave
Askins with a B square bulletin. I have seven questions tonight question one the City Council rules
in Terre Haute Carmel and Fishers have been cited as examples of what Bloomington is now considering
but on their face the rules in those three cities appear to be
Counter-examples could we get a breakdown of why rules in those three cities are analyzed in support
of this proposal? Question two is there anything currently written in Bloomington City code or elsewhere
that would prohibit a rank-and-file resident from draft drafting and ordinance Submitting it to the
council president who would then place it on the agenda sponsored by the named resident if not
Then doesn't this proposed legislation on sponsorship erect a new barrier to council agenda access by
the public? Question three last year the administration chose not to bring the routine annual interlocal
agreements with Monroe County on animal care and building code enforcement before the City Council Instead
the administration sent them directly to the Indiana Attorney General's office which is one option for
the administration under state law and
Does the council sponsorship requirement affect those situations in a positive way under this proposal?
Oh, sorry question four
Under this proposal, suppose four councilmembers agree to sponsor a piece of legislation, but when it
appears on the agenda for a meeting, at that meeting, five members vote against the motion to read it
by title and synopsis. In that case, the legislation would still not be considered. So the council already
has a much higher threshold than the sponsorship of a single councilmember for the council to consider
legislation. Why isn't that higher threshold already sufficient? Question five.
Controlling whether legislation gets considered is a different concept than controlling access to the
council's agenda. If the idea is to control access to the agenda, why does the proposal not mention
the word agenda? Question six. Two examples from last year were described as problematic in the committee
chair's memo. The villain in those two stories was the administration and its failure to make things
clear. A different approach from fighting the villain would have been to give
an advantage to the potential civic heroes, the public. That approach would recruit the public's
participation earlier, just after the required materials are filed in the council office 10 days before
a meeting by posting the materials online 10 days before the meeting and providing a way for the public
to submit written questions. Did the rules committee consider this approach to solving the identified
problem? Question seven.
Did the rules committee consider as a solution to the identified problem a return to one previous function
of City Council work sessions now called deliberation sessions which was to allow council members to
get an oral briefing from city staff about upcoming Legislation a month or two in advance of formal
presentation on the agenda Well perfectly timed. Thank you
Hi there, Zach Ammerman. I wasn't planning on speaking on this, but to me it seems incredibly uncontroversial
that a member of the body should sponsor legislation that it's being considered in favor of. I would
be in favor of this. I think this is a good idea. I also think that council should be asserting its
authority more and flexing its muscle more with the mayor and the administration. For that reason, I
think this is a good thing. You should control your own agenda and what comes before your body. To me,
it seems incredibly uncontroversial.
Thank you. Is there anyone online? No one online. We'll come back to council. Any other comments?
Seeing none, any motions? I motion to move ordinance 2026-14 to June 10th. Second. There's a motion
in the second. Any discussion? All right, seeing none.
Will the clerk please call the roll? Councilmember Flaherty. Yes. Stasberg. Yes. Piedmont Smith. Yes.
Zulek. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Daily. Yes. Rollo. No. No.
And Rosenberger. I'm not voting on that. Sorry about that. I just I just popped on. I don't know what
you guys are doing. Okay. Abstain. I abstain. Thanks. Okay.
But that is thank you six six to one with with one. So six to with one abstention That motion carries
that will be on our agenda for the 10th of June. Thank you so much We'll now move on to legislation
for second readings and resolutions I move that ordinance 2026-12 be introduced and read by the clerk
by title and synopsis only Second there's a motion a second any discussion Council member Stasberg
That's not what the agenda says in the packet addendum that was released. Oh, yeah, that's right.
I mean, that's fine if we want to do that one. It's up to you. That may be the thing you want to do.
All right. I withdraw my motion. Would you like.
Move that resolution 2026-09 be read introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only second
There's a there's a motion and a second is there a discussion councilmember Stossberg
Sorry, I just wanna say that this resolution got added to our packet yesterday and it included like
120 pages almost of reading material. And I find it extremely frustrating. It's really clear when something
like this gets added as an addendum that it did not get given to our council staff and our council office
according to the timelines in our code. So I'm gonna vote no on introduction for this, thank you.
All right. There's there's there's any other discussion. All right. We'll record please call the roll.
Yes. Council. Council member Stasberg. No Piedmont Smith. No. Zulek. Yes. Sorry. No. Daily. Yes. Rollo. No.
No Rosenberger no Flaherty That motion does not carry so you have somebody else to ask sorry where he
said no But did you say did it you said no, correct? I said no. Thank you. Thank you That motion does
not carry are there any other motions I
I move that ordinance 2026 dash 12 be introduced in red by the clerk by title and synopsis only second
There's a motion to second any discussion Seeing none will the clerk we call the roll Councilmember
Piedmont Smith. Yes Zulek. Yes. Sorry. Yes, Daley. Yes Rallo Yes Ruff yes
Rosenberger Yes clarity, yes Stasberg yes. Thank you. All right that motion carries Will the clerk please
read Ordinance 20 26-12 to amend title 15 of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled vehicles and traffic
to seasonally provide a carless
Kirkwood the synopsis is as follows this ordinance seeks to codify streets and alleys in Bloomington
that disallow vehicular traffic specifically this ordinance codifies the seasonal carless schedule of
specific blocks incur of Kirkwood Avenue with this ordinance businesses and residents can expect a permanent
seasonal carless Kirkwood allowing businesses the predictability to invest in outdoor infrastructure
for guests.
The city administration has provided valuable operational feedback in its 2026 a memorandum identifying
important challenges regarding regarding infrastructure sanitation public safety and accessibility That
naturally arise as temporary programs transition toward permanent city fixtures With that this ordinance
aims to provide the necessary legal and budgetary certainty for the city to move beyond
Incomplete solutions and invest in more permanent infrastructure such as more ADA compliant features
and high quality seating recommended by staff Thank you very much any motions I move that ordinance
20 26-12 be adopted second. There's a motion in a second. Oh, we don't this is yeah, there you go All
right Who would like to talk about this councilmember? I
Rosenberger point point of order vote for this. Sorry. No President Asari at the start of this meeting
today. You said that we're not allowed to vote on this to adopt this tonight because of some statutory.
That is my understanding. And so we have a motion but I guess we can postpone. Correct. Correct. Yeah.
And I'll just clarify, in case you weren't here at the beginning of the meeting, and Attorney Allen,
please correct me if I'm wrong, but because this is a change to Title 15, we're statutorily required
to have a statement from the Transportation Commission. And so we do not have that yet. They're meeting,
I think, next week. And so we cannot vote on this until we have that. Or this week. I don't know when
they're meeting. Next Monday. Next Monday. So they'll meet before our next meeting.
So with that, Council Member Daley. All right, I'll kick it off. Thank you. So yeah, we talked about
this last week, the idea of making it a fixture where everybody can expect and understand that it's
just going to happen every summer, that Kirkwood will be pedestrian only. We're not closing Kirkwood.
We're just closing it to cars for a few months to make it very pedestrian friendly.
One thing that we didn't talk about last time that I think is worth bringing into the conversation is
that we're looking at economics of this as well. We have a $71 million convention center expansion that
will be finishing early in 2027. It's projected to bring in up to $18 million annually, as well as 50,000
annual hotel room nights in our city core.
So that is a huge advantage that could really draw more people downtown to hang out in a nice pedestrian
walkway area in those warmer months. On top of that, a single IU Athletics sellout home game can pump
$7 million into our local economy, and it can push downtown hotel occupancy to 95%. So Kirkwood is the
literal front porch.
to all of this. So I think this is just a wonderful opportunity to help centralize a destination area
for Bloomingtonians and visitors to our beautiful town. Thank you so much. Council member Rosenberg
would you like to add. I will. I just wanted to say to sort of also kick it off that
We do have to also hear this at the next meeting. So for me, I was thinking here to answer questions
and do some discussion and then potentially like the meat and potatoes can also be on our June 10th
meeting potentially because like that is when we do have the opportunity to vote on it. Just so, and
this kind of feels to me like an opportunity to discuss
Whatever and like any questions that we might need to get answered prior to June 10th Thank you so much
council members any comments or questions, please councilman Sasberg Thank you. Um, I noticed in The
ordinance that is in the packet this week that there are three blocks of
Listed as being closed but in the ordinance from two weeks ago, there were five So we we already read
it into the record last week So I don't I don't know why we can change that without having an official
amendment on it But I'm I just wanted to bring that to somebody's attention the sponsors perhaps or
and or the attorney Just I mean
I guess as sponsors if you've decided to potentially alter the blocks that you're interested in having
read in then it needs to have an amendment I think as opposed to just changing it, but I Was a little
bit confused Councilmember Stossberg. I don't think that was an intentional amendment I believe there
were two different versions of the previous one. It was updated to include all five blocks This was
unfortunately a previous version that was included in this packet. So it was a mistake and
It should have the schedule X should have all five blocks listed as it was last week as that was the
amended version But of course the sponsors can correct me if I'm mistaken on that Okay, is that correct?
Council members Rosenberger daily Yeah, yeah, okay. Thank you So I hope the public hears that because
I did hear from somebody earlier this week who thought that it was only then three blocks because they
were reading this
This ordinance and I was like wait, I'm confused now. So Yeah, I don't know if if we need to make sure
to issue some kind of a public statement or if this is enough But that definitely made things a little
confusing Councilmember Zulek. Yes. Thank you. Well, I am blessed to serve on the downtown Bloomington
incorporated board and our president is in the audience tonight I know he plans to speak but
Just to give you the feedback from the downtown businesses, they're pretty overwhelmingly against this.
And so I just want to raise that a lot of the at least on the for the businesses that are a part of
downtown Bloomington. The majority of the feedback that I hear is that they are not in favor of this.
There are a couple just
I guess details that I'd like to see hammered out if this is the route that people want to go down,
one of which is the library block, which is not very easily activatable because there's no shade during
the summertime, but also feedback that I've gotten from organizations like Stone Belt who transfer a
lot of people at the same time with maybe different disabilities or different needs. They can't use
the library when
Kirkwood is shut down because their buses can't get into the north-facing parking lot. And when the
street is shut down, there is no way for them to take advantage of the library services. And so that's
just one of the things that I would like, I guess, in the record when we're making this decision. The
other thing is when we think about pedestrianizing Kirkwood,
I would like to see that happen, but I also know how much money needs to be invested in Kirkwood to
make it the beautiful pedestrian street that we'd all like to see it. And I'm not sure that right now
in a time that we're not exactly like overflowing with money that this is the right moment to make that
investment. And those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments or questions?
Seeing none, Council Member Flaherty, go ahead, sorry. Thank you, I had a comment. I thought, so by
way of additional input from businesses, Council Member Rosenberger circulated the memo, gotten articles
here from the Kirkwood Business Association, which is in support of this permanent conversion to pedestrian
and all other users except cars use.
And I think it had some good things to say, including that there's a lot of valid questions and concerns,
which Councilmember Zulich has raised a couple, and we hear them from constituents as well. And I think
they're all really good questions, and they can all be figured out. That, to me, is an important piece
of this. And I guess in looking to what's possible, we should look to what's already been done, specifically
in lots of other
liberal, wonderful communities like ours that have had this vision from 50 years ago to more recently
solving all the challenges that we're raising. And so I think it's just really important for us all
to look to those communities that are doing this successfully and they're throughout the country because
it's like the vision piece that we need. And I guess just one more element of that, which is this kind
of like cart horse question. I believe Mr. MG raised it when he spoke about this a few weeks ago. And
I kind of said something similar then, which is that,
Theoretically, yes, lining up the budget first, all these other things would be nice, but that kind
of requires a level of leadership from the executive that we just aren't seeing or won't see. If the
mayor wanted to do this, she would have done it already. And so the question is whether or not the council
wants to use its legislative authority and budget authority to direct a visionary and transformative
change to our downtown. And we certainly have the power to do so.
Again, taking all the questions and concerns very seriously, it's not to suggest they aren't meaningful.
They don't need to be figured out. They do. But really, it's up to us to do that. And again, it's not
like we're trying something that's never been done. We're trying something that's been done very, very
well in lots of places where, honestly, the pedestrian malls they have, again, I named a number of places
last week, Ithaca, Charlottesville, Boulder, et cetera, really make the town. I think we have that kind
of opportunity here. So I'm excited for that. And it's a comment, not a question. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Which I think was invited. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Council Member Piedmont-Smith. Yes.
So in principle, I'm in favor of Carlos Kirkwood. I think that we could, it's already a great space,
but it could certainly be improved if there's a lot of investment of,
events and infrastructure like to provide shade and to provide places to sit where you don't have to
buy something at the restaurant, but you can sit and And I you know buskers and people selling flowers
out of baskets and I have these great visions And I think we do need to take a step in that direction
Probably this body
would need to push it up on the agenda of the mayor's budget and use of staff time. However, I think
that the way it's written now, it seems to implement these closures immediately. And I don't think that
is feasible. I don't think it's feasible to do this before 2027.
The city has already invested money to activate some blocks of Kirkwood to have they've already scheduled
events. They had a consultant in as to how to, you know, do these things. There are plans, you know,
the restaurants that wanted to already have their parklets operating. I just think it's not feasible
to start to implement this before next year. Also,
Yeah, it is a car before the horse. I'm not sure. It's a tricky situation, because what do you do first?
Say, we shall do this, and then hope that the mayor's budget proposal has the funds needed to pay for
the activation and the public infrastructure next year? Or do we wait and see when we will have money?
Remember, we have SCA WAN to deal with.
when we will have money to spend on the staff and infrastructure to activate the space and only then
put this in Title 15, which is permanent. So I definitely would not support this being activated right
away or being in effect right away. And I'm a little bit hesitant to vote for this without any kind
of funding commitment to go with it as well.
So that's where I am. Thank you, Councilman Borrello. Well, I had similar question about the effective
date. I think we discussed that a little bit last time. The memo from Deputy Mayor Knapp had that as
a concern or a request that the effective date be 2027.
I wondered how the sponsors felt about that. Were you intending it for the remainder of the summer,
or is this acceptable for a later date? Would you like to take that then, Councilmember Daley,
or Councilmember Spicer? I mean, I know I would love to see it open. It was supposed to be open this year.
flexible on Talking about not doing it this year I think I know councilmember Rosenberger really had
had strong feelings wanting to get it open this year I'm more Agnostic on that myself councilmember
Rosenberger. Did you want to weigh in on that? Yeah first I would say we did anticipate an amendment for
for a different start date. And that's why the ordinance, I mean, I think unless they say it, they are
effective immediately. But so we did anticipate setting a start date with all of you. So I think that
would happen next week. With some of the downtown businesses, I talked about, I floated in August one
start date to have the summer to sort of prepare, re-prepare, recalibrate.
I think I took a look at the activations that the consultant did with ESD. And those can happen in a
street as opposed to just on the sidewalk. So I think they're not wasted. They can still get used. When
I met with some of the business owners, too, they talked about a hybrid option that was closing for
major Bloomington dates.
every home football game, all the festivals, of course, that happen. And at that time, this was a lot
earlier. So we're talking about graduation and, like, Little Five. So a lot of closures. And there are
so many home football games this upcoming year. I think we have an extra, obviously, national champion.
So I think it's sold out every game already. If we were to do that, that would look like, I think, like 12.
Weekends, it would be closed. So it's probably easier to look at the full closure. I know no one was
asking this exact question, but just talking about other options that we have discussed with some people.
So I like the idea of trying to get it done for this fall or late summer and fall. And it's just, yeah,
debatable.
Yes, thank you. Well, this is primarily executed by the Department of Public Works And so I'm just going
to say this in the meeting that I will be following up with them to find out what projects would need
to be Deprioritized if we did go through with this because obviously we have limited staff and limited
time and if We're doing this something is going to be sacrificed. And so I'm curious What that might be?
Any other comments or questions? Okay, in which case I'll go ahead I need to find it. I'm sorry In which
case I'll say what I'll say and then I'll pass to you. I think very similarly to to counselor Piedmont
Smith First let me say this that You know if we've really And maybe I'll be a little provocative which
is I think we spend a lot of time
Trying to be a city that we're not and not leaning into the city that we really are and we are a university
town really great one and if you look I think to councilmember Flaherty's point at awesome university
towns that across the country, I mean they have these type of Things that they've invested in that they've
leveraged heavily for their
plan all across economic development for their plan for tourism. And I think that as the sponsors have
said very clearly, we're making all of these investments in other spaces around this. And if we do this
right, this really could be a thing that we could leverage to continue to make Bloomington everything
that it can be. And I share Council Member Piedmont-Smith's view. I've been sending Council
Member Rosenberger and Daley pictures of fountains that I would really like to be able to bring my kids
downtown for example I mean I don't know we also a lot of the times there's there's a lot of people
who get left out of a lot of our conversations I'll tell you one group of people that we hardly ever
talk about in our city which is like people with kids and This city sucks to have small kids in because
there's nowhere to go with them
And there's all these parks, and none of them have any fences. So there's no place for us to just go
and be with our kids that isn't a full-time job. And I would love to be able to go downtown after we
go out to eat and just stay downtown. I love the fact that if we had more Jacob students performing
downtown, I would love the fact that we had more places for public art, and so on and so forth. I really
think that this is a great opportunity to connect city
with university, there's just so many reasons why I think we should do this, but we have to do it right.
And so I think that the way that we did it in the past sort of resulted in it often being empty and
it being under-leveraged and it being under-taken care of. And so my feeling is much like Council Member
Piedmont-Smith's that I think that we set a really good target. We say we want this, this will be closed
permanently
in 2027 and then that way all of the things that are about to happen, these corridor studies, the engagement
of consultants, the thinking about activation are all happening knowing that it's going to be closed
rather than sort of trying to catch up to the fact that it's already closed.
And then the other thing that I will say just to maybe balance out these comments is that, you know,
we are the, you know, budgetary branch of our government. And if we as a body really want to prioritize
that being done, then I mean,
We could push for that to be in the budget. I think, though, the rub, again, is not only SEA 1, but
what we're not talking about is where this fits in amongst all of our other priorities. And when we
thought about our list of priorities for this year's budget, economic development has sort of emerged
as one of them. And I just think that it'll be really good for us to have a very solid idea about where
we're wanting to put
You know our weight if that's something that we say. Hey, this is what we as a council really want I
think that we should push for that but we're gonna have to do that in some type of unified a fashion
because I think that a big failure state would be that you close the road and it basically just turns
into a sort of under leveraged ghost town in the center of town, so Councilmember P wants it that I
give you enough time to find your comment. I'll pass to you Thank you, and then we'll go to public comment So
In the whereas clauses for this ordinance, it does talk about the public's desire for a Carlos Kirkwood.
And I think that we should be careful about making statements like that because, I mean, has there been
a referendum? Has there been a survey? Which public are we talking about? I think I can't, I don't think
anybody here can say a majority of the public in Bloomington wants
cars not to go on Kirkwood. I don't think anybody has the data to say that. So we just need to be careful
when we say broad make broad statements of that sort. The other thing I wanted to mention is and council
member Zulek might not like this but I represent district one and we have I said that about council
member Zulek because she represents
the Kirkwood corridor district. But I mean South Walnut Street is in my court in my district and it's
much more bleak than Kirkwood. I mean it's nobody wants to walk there. Kirkwood is already pretty good.
I mean yeah it can be better and I'm not. And I think that you know as I said at the outset I think
this is a good idea. Let's work towards it. But there are other quarters in Bloomington
that are awful for it. I mean, I wouldn't want to walk on South Walnut. I wouldn't want to bike on South
Walnut. It's, it's, you know, five lanes of asphalt, no separation between the sidewalk and the street,
very little shade. So if we're going to prioritize where to spend money, there might be other parts
of the city that need that have a greater need for improvement.
Thank you so much, Councilmember Zulek, and then we are going to go to public comment after this comment.
I'll just second everything that Councilmember Piedmont-Smith said, and the feedback that I have gotten
from staff at Public Works is very similar, in that we invest a lot of money in Kirkwood, and there
are a lot of other streets that need some TLC, too.
Councilmember Piedmont Smith, I would love to go into your district and invest in South Walnut Bravo,
okay, and we'll go now to public comment same rules as always so I won't recite them please take it
away and And people I will just say one comment. I know there's lots of city staff here We actually
should have given you some time So don't feel like you need to use public comment if you'd like to say
something you can also I'll be really quick. Go ahead
So Jim, my name is Jim during I'm a business owner downtown Bloomington and and I am the current board
president of downtown Bloomington. So, you guys brought up a whole lot of points. We, we were a poor
opposed to this, this Kirk was Kirkard Carlos.
So yeah, I don't know what else to say because you've just you've you brought it all to point to the
point here So yeah, we are there are other things we can be doing we are working with city the city
right now with a with a plan to Regenerate a four-year plan to to get Kirkwood back up and going again
That's what we're working out with them right now as well. So yeah, just I'm not wasting your time but
We're not in favor of that. So Yeah, that's all I got for you. Thank you so much next in chamber council
chambers Hello again, my name is Zach Ammerman I'm here as vice chair of the Commission on sustainability
and resilience we passed a resolution during our last meeting and
About Kirkwood that I authored as a sponsor and I just wanted to read the recommendations to you You
should already have a copy of it as well. I have physical copies if you'd like I can give it to you
But basically we basically said our recommendations There's a whole bunch of whereas clauses before
and they go in the background I don't need to rehash all that but the recommendations are the meat of
it Number one at a minimum continue the seasonal closure of Kirkwood Avenue That's the bare minimum
number two is I think what we're more passionate about and more excited about this possibility of permanently
year-round closure to Kirkwood Avenue, like they have in, like the cities that Councilmember Flaherty
mentioned, Charlottesville, Virginia, Boulder, Colorado, Burlington, Vermont, that have really successful
streets like this, that are the center of their civic life, that they spent a lot of time and effort
and commitment on, and it takes a vision and commitment to get there. And so we need to make that commitment
a vision. So that's number two. Number three is to study those cities.
to see what they've done and quit trying to reinvent the wheel, just copy and paste. They have already
solved a lot of the questions that people are bringing up. Just copy and paste. Quit trying to redo
things our own special way. They've already answered the questions. Look at what they've done and just
repeat them. Prioritize investment in permanent streetscape improvements. Like some of you mentioned,
I know that's gonna cost money, but I think it's worth it. This is the center of our civic life. It's
worth the money. Next, move administration of the Kirkwood pedestrianization.
pedestrian program from the Department of Economic and Sustainable Development to the Department of
Planning and Transportation, which is better equipped to handle questions of public space and sustainable
transportation. And that follows directly into the next one, which is reframe the program from one of
outdoor dining and economic development exclusively, which I think was a mistake to frame it that way
from the beginning, instead to one of public space and sustainable transportation, which is what it
is about. It's not about economic development, although that's important. That's not what it's about.
It's about sustainable transportation and public space.
The next one is already in this resolution, but it's repealing the ability of the city administration
to unilaterally end the program. The council should have to have a say. And finally, cease framing the
Kirkwood program in terms of parking revenue versus dining permit revenue, which was one of the city
examples. And that was, I calculated, we're talking 0.0004% of the city's 2025 budget that they were
talking about. There was a difference between the parking revenue lost versus the dining permit revenue
gained. We're talking pennies, it's nothing, it's silly.
And finally ending with a statement of values, which I'm just gonna read verbatim and I'll end The Commission
affirms that sustainable cities prioritize people over cars Especially in their most central public
spaces and that Bloomington's identity as a walkable bikeable community should be reflected in the design
If it was the most prominent and iconic pedestrian quarter. Thank you Thank you so much. I'm next in
chambers and then we'll go online
My name is Hillary Martel my husband and I own Hartzell's ice cream that's located at 107 North Dunn
and we are here in opposition of having Kirkwood closed to vehicle traffic I Understand the vision and
I've been to those cities that do have that but what we saw last year was nothing compared to what those
cities have putting up ballards and putting picnic tables in Kirkwood and eating up a
Incredible amount of parking spaces isn't going to create what those cities have that create that success
When the students like when students are in session It's so frustrating the lack of parking downtown
to begin with between employees of restaurants and business downtown and then I use students that are
coming to Park to attend class on campus
at 9 a.m. You can go downtown and you can't find a metered parking space because and none of the businesses
are even open yet and When you take away all that parking on Kirkwood your customers people that are
going to breakfast people are they're going to build jelly They're going to so much they can't even
find parking spaces to run in and give you know grab and go coffee or meet a friend for breakfast because
all that parking is occupied by people that are
Either are attending classes at campus or their employees that are working in those restaurants and
that is extremely frustrating at all hours of the day when IU is in session
To go to my business in the middle of the day is the biggest nuisance and to drive around and see no
one in Kirkwood Sitting and I think it honestly really only benefits a handful of restaurants the way
it operates now I see the vision and I think that could bring a lot of people downtown But last summer
I saw picnic tables that were unoccupied I saw teenagers on electric bikes popping wheelies and I don't
know who that benefits I mean it's just as a small business owner the lack of parking and
It's really really frustrating and that's my biggest issue with it I think it has a lot of potential
but the way it's structured now I mean you need shade you need seating, you know What makes bolder bolder
is that there are those people selling flowers in the street their street performers There's artists
there's musicians like that's what you have to have to make this a success And if you don't have that
it's nothing except taking up parking spaces for people to shop at their local businesses and I don't
understand
Why you know, I feel like it's a cart before the horse if there's not funding in place to do those things
What's the point of closing the street like in summer? It's it's struggle downtown. I mean just driving
here. There's no one downtown right now really I mean, it's it's if you have those parking spaces taken
We really depend on people that are coming into Bloomington for campus tours for orientation for sports camps
They don't know downtown. There's a bunch of one-way streets It's confusing as it is and then you're
gonna block off the main thorough way to get from one into town to the other They want to be able to
find a parking space quickly to get an ice cream or get a coffee or get a sandwich or whatever And I
think that the way it's structured now, it really only benefits a very small Handful of people it's
it has potential but you have to have that funding. Thank you so much Is there anybody online? All right,
there's two people online You're next
And then we'll come back to chambers. Chris, Chris Sturbom here. Go ahead. We can hear you.
Can you hear me? Okay. Yes, we can. Okay. Boulder, Colorado, Pearl street. They just had this very same
discussion about extending West Pearl two more blocks. The businesses all opposed.
closing off the next two blocks of Pearl Street. And the original designers, the geniuses who started
this in 1977, also opposed closing another two blocks of Pearl. They got lucky. Pearl Street worked.
But since 1977, 400 municipalities have done this. There are only a dozen left.
Muncie failed twice, closing their downtown. They almost killed it. Evansville failed. These are historic
facts. There was a desire when businesses were going to the suburbs to try and make the downtown more
active. And they tried all kinds of things. And a handful of them have succeeded. They need a certain
level of parking. They need a certain level of density.
The idea of the Paris street, those are eight-story apartments. Nobody drives. They walk down and they
go to their coffee. But everyone drives into town. And in the summer, one, we don't have sports with
IU, so people aren't coming then. In the summer, we don't have students, so it's almost a ghost town.
And the woman who spoke before described exactly what I see when I go down Saturday with my grandson.
bare tables in the sun. It's not a pleasant sight. So we have this myth that the cool towns are doing
it. The truth is this has failed and failed again and failed again. And the people who actually designed
West Pearl spoke against closing off more streets because it was harming the businesses who were almost
unanimously against this. And I'm afraid you're seeing that here too. They know.
the value of a parking spot that turns over and turns over and turns over. And new urbanists have actually
calculated the value of those parking spots. And it's kind of phenomenal. Without those, the place dies.
And people come to town from out of town, and they get here not on bicycles. They get here in cars.
They want to come downtown. And it's true that one-way streets make it even harder to find how do you
park close enough to walk
onto Kirkwood and enjoy that myth. So it's a pleasant dream, but I'm afraid it's a myth for this community.
We don't have the density, and let's do it right. Let's leave it open. Thank you so much. Next person
online, and then we'll come to Mr. MG. Am I up already? Hello? OK.
I thought I was third. Paul Russo. The way I see it is the primary reason to restrict Kirkwood to pedestrians
and bicycles for even part of the summer is momentum. There's momentum, currently momentum for seasonal
car-free Kirkwood. I don't think the street needs to get back to anything, especially not the 20th century.
Kirkwood needs to fully embrace the 21st century
of urban design that gets people back on their feet. I don't understand why the ordinance would require
any significant funding above what was spent last summer, but I did join the meeting a little bit late.
I don't understand why the ordinance would interfere with street events because it seems to me that
maintaining the momentum for a car-free Kirkwood would enable street events. I'm also baffled by all
the talk about the importance of parking, especially for students.
This is a section of street that is right next to the iconic entrance to campus. There are probably
tens of thousands of IU students within a mile of the street, living within a mile of the street. And
walking a mile when you're 19 is nothing. And one final comment is that I once worked for an ice cream
store several years ago, for several years actually.
So I'm very familiar with that product and serving it and how it's used and all the ins and outs. And
I saw over and over in my years, people prefer to walk with their ice cream cones, not sit in a car
with them. So I'm a little bit baffled by some of the earlier comments. I encourage you to have vision
and I encourage you to keep the momentum because it's right now going in the right direction. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Now I understand there's one more commenter online. No, that's it. Okay. Well, then
we'll come back to council change. Yes. Good evening, Mr. President. This is Krister mg representing
the greater Bloomington chamber of commerce on a personal note. I have never worked in an ice cream
shop, but the chamber does support downtown. We've been really active with the planners, the cleanup,
And the amazing job they've done with the sidewalks. I mean, it's important for the day-to-day operations
for that street to look. It's a vital part of our community. But a seasonal closure that's April 1 and
November 15th is not a short pilot nor a special event. It's a seven and a half month operating model.
And the change is the burden proved quite a bit. Before the council codifies this permanently, the city
should look what the cost benefit analysis is, how it's funded, evaluated, managed.
Street closure is not the same as public space. Courier closing does not automatically create a successful
pedestrian district. We've heard this a lot today. A successful public space needs two things, daily
management and clear accountability. This means someone has to own the experience, not just put up barricades
and make the space work, but make the space work for everyone. Without that structure, this risk is
becoming what it has last summer, which is under management street closure rather than a downtown asset.
It became a pedestrian asphalt desert, as we've heard very well from
tool business owners and This is just adding another public space space when existing assets and need
attention. I think Councilmember Piedmont Smith brought that up Bloomington already has a large public
space system a lot of great parks. Many of those need serious Investment Brian Park pool requires major
innovations Frank Southern ice arena might be on its last winner Winslow Sports Park needs basic upgrades and
These are not side issue, but core quality of life for a lot of people. Before creating long-term space
to maintain, the city should ask whether it's fully caring for its public assets its own. And if you've
toured the restrooms at Winslow Sports Park, you would know it is not. It's been mentioned as well by
Councilmember Piedmont-Smith. Corkwood's kind of working. It's one of Bloomington's most recognizable
and successful streets, and it's improved over the last few years. That doesn't mean we should ignore it,
but it does mean that we need to look at where our resources are best met. Other corridors, North College
and Walnut, near the stadium district, have greater redevelopment potential and stronger case for public
attention. The city shouldn't prioritize investments where public action can unlock private investment
and long-term economic growth. And we support practical downtown measures like downtown Bloomington
Inks propose a free parking after four o'clock during July.
This kind of targeted support is more useful to downtown businesses than codifying a long-term closure
before an operating plan is in place. The chamber is not asking the city to abandon correctly, no, but
we ask the city to sequence this correctly. Bring forward a measure of funding, a plan, identify how
this is going to work. Until then, we should not codify this. Thank you for your time. Thank you so
much. Is there anybody else in chambers who would like to make comment? Anyone else online?
Would Heart Souls like to do a rebuttal on, oh no, I'm joking. Okay, so I'm joking. Nobody else online
will come back to council. I saw Council Member Rallo had his hand up. Thank you. So I just had a question
I should have asked before, President. Sorry, I wanted to circle back on this because you had said that
We were not holding a vote on this tonight. I'm not certainly in favor of holding a vote on this tonight,
but I think the reasons that you stated were that it was required to have a deliberation by the Traffic
Commission. Is that the case? I think it's not required. I think the Traffic Commission is an advisory body.
Sorry, I misspoke, it was the Transportation Commission, but Council Attorney Allen, could you speak
to this a little bit? I'm sorry, can you restate the question just for me? I think his question was
clarification on why we can't vote on it tonight. I see. Yes, so I was referring to the Transportation
Commission in code 2.02.100 under purpose.
States that the commission shall provide recommendations and guidance to the mayor and common council
In the pursuit of developing and implementing citywide policy, etc It's not a requirement Yeah, so under
under bloomington municipal code 2.0 to 100 subsection d2 It does provide that the commission shall
essentially review all
Transportation projects proposed changes to title 15 vehicles and traffic relevant proposed changes
to title 12 Etc, etc to make sure that those are consistent with the comprehensive plan and other city
adopted plans to make sure they're consistent with best practices That they're consistent with advancing
sustainable transportation system and equitable access to all transportation facility users
while prioritizing non automotive modes
and has adequately conducted public engagement and considered community-centric design tied to targeted outcomes.
My specific advice here was that originally this was not actually on the agenda is my understanding
of the Transportation Commission for their previous meeting. It was raised to them through public comment
by the council members the sponsoring council members. However I did suggest because you all have passed
that portion subsection D2 of the municipal code it would be wise to have them formally review it in
accordance with how the municipal code is going since it is a proposed change to Title 15.
Um, I- I- I don't have a trouble in, uh, in receiving the recommendation for proceeding, but I- I'm
not sure I follow that this is a requirement. That the council is required to re- to receive
a recommendation. Am I wrong? I mean, I guess it depends what you mean by requirement. I think the-
the danger that you run, of course,
The council can choose to ignore my advice and go forward as they wish The danger you run is that that
review would essentially be meaningless, right? Because you essentially would pass a rule already and
then the review happens after the fact which doesn't allow for For instance if the transportation Commission
did recommend further public engagement then it wouldn't allow for further public engagement because
the rules already adopted and we've moved on and
That's why I was just trying to give effect to all of the language and into the council's prior language
now Let me let me just clarify really quickly. I don't mean to be overly verbose But if the council
wanted to make an amendment to this legislation to say suspend the requirement Under Bloomington Municipal
Code, then you could also do that Thank you so much. I'm a councilman Flaherty. Can I just
So, okay, yeah, go ahead, Councilor Morello, and then we'll go to Councilor Flaherty. Yeah,
just to say, I think, you know, I don't have the Environmental Commission purpose to enabling language
in front of me, but I think that it also states that it is it develops recommendations for the Planning
Commission. Would it be true that the Planning Commission should always wait on a matter before,
you know, to to allow the Environmental Commission to come to a
a conclusion about, you know. Yeah. And I'm happy to review that particular part of code council member
and give you advice on that as well. I think in this, in this case, for certain this code, anytime there's
going to be a proposed change to title 12, title 15 or transportation project, it should be reviewed
by the transportation commission. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Council member
Flaherty. Yeah. Just a question for the sponsors and what
I got fuzzy on the details here. I was on a work trip and had to miss the transportation commission
meeting. I'm a representative on that commission. I had to miss the meeting where this was brought up,
but my recollection is, I guess, did the sponsors request that it be added to the agenda at some point?
And could you tell me more about that, please? Yes. So we wanted to get it,
to transportation commission for the previous meeting that was when you were gone, but materials needed
to be received two weeks before that meeting to be on the agenda. So the chair decided to add it as
a discussion item at last month's meeting. And then from their schedule, if need be a special session to,
to hear it on the agenda and make a recommendation before our last meeting, before recess. Got it. And
the two week timeline, was that a staff request? Is it in the commission's bylaws? Do you know, I could
look it up, look into it, but. I think it's in the bylaws. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. Thank you.
I'll go to council member Zulek and then council member Rosemar. Do you have a further point beyond that?
I did just want to clarify what happened at the Transportation Commission right and just explain why
it wasn't on wasn't an agenda item last time. Okay tremendous. Thank you so much. I Just think this
part of the conversation is a little bit redundant based on the feedback that we've heard from other
council members I don't think that anyone plans on Casting a vote tonight on the way that the current
ordinance is written
I'm happy to take feedback from sponsors, but that's what I'm getting. So I do suggest at this time
that we figure out what questions need to be answered by June 10th, get our response from the mayor's
administration if they would like to give their piece and move this to next meeting. I think that sounds
great. I think council member Raul was making a point about plan commission and not trying to vote on
it tonight,
I don't think that was happening. I did want to also just reiterate or clarify that the Transportation
Commission, they have created a special session and that is June 8th at 7 p.m. if anyone would like
to come watch and or participate. Thank you very much. Are there any motions? Deputy Mayor Knapp would
like to make some comments. So unless there's any opposed, all right.
Deputy mayor Matt Knapp First of all, I'm I want to be sure everybody understands that the administration
including the mayor's office Really wants to have a vibrant exciting Kirkwood and we are all very much
looking forward to the corridor study next year Which I think is going to provide a really exciting
beautiful vision and I think there are a lot of ways to make Kirkwood be a
Exciting and accessible to everyone pedestrians bicyclists people with limited mobility people who need
to park That run between the gamut of fully closed to fully open that I think there are a lot
of possibilities there and it will Most likely require a significant infrastructure investment to make
the street look and feel different in places I guess one of the things that I wanted to ask this group
to think about is there been a lot of
Comparisons made to the really beautiful pedestrian malls and some other cities and often what I hear
is well, that's a college city, too So why can't we be like them? So what I ask you to do is when you
talk about? Boulder Charlottesville Burlington, whatever the place is I'd ask you to Google.
What is the MSA? what are what is the average income and house price and What is the city budget and
how many police officers do they have because I can tell you?
All of those cities are considerably larger MSAs than ours, two times. Charlottesville is a suburb of
DC, essentially. It is incredibly wealthy. They have a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's, and as all of
us who've lived here a long time know, Bloomington has never succeeded in attracting those. We have
never succeeded in attracting high-end retail, which is what is all along Pearl Street. That's what's
along Burlington. Boulder's budget is three times the size bars.
Charlotte has a hundred million dollars more a year to spend they all have many more officers per capita
than Bloomington does we're authorized for 1.2. I think Boulder is around two officers per thousand
people Charlottesville even though it's a smaller city has the same amount of police officers that we
do Burlington authorized for the same amount that we have even though it's half the size look at the
proportion of
When you look at the population of the city, what proportion is students versus residents? We have a
much larger proportion of students. So I'm not saying that these dreams are impossible at all, but I'm
saying our situation is not the same. And the vision we need to develop needs to take all of that into
account. We can't copy and paste because we are not the same community. What worked there won't work
here. And just as a final note, it's important to do it right because historically,
89% of pedestrian malls fail There's a study on that you can google it. It's not a secret So it can
work but it has to be very carefully done and we don't have a careful plan and the corridor study is
the right Opportunity to create that vision not legislation right now. Thanks Thank you so much. I'm
the director seaborne
Good evening, Andrew Seaborg. Just wanted to share a few things for reference and future consideration
of this group and anybody watching. I mostly came to help answer questions, didn't hear any questions,
appreciate some of the questions to clarify what the ordinance is, because as I was writing a report
for the Transportation Commission, I thought it only included two and a half blocks. I verified that
it is five blocks, so just appreciate that and the lack
on what was intended here. Appreciate the intent of this body to wait for the Transportation Commission
to advise and provide their recommendation. I hope that this body listens to that body. I don't know
how they will act. I don't know what they will say. I think they may already have an impression of how
some of you may feel about it, but hope that they just, everybody comes to this with an open and curious mind.
As I'm preparing for the Transportation Commission meeting next Monday at 7 p.m There's there's a couple
of framings of the topic. I just wanted to share so there's there's one question We're all looking at
it. It's a single ordinance, but there's really two questions within it The way I'm seeing it. The first
question is should Kirkwood be closed for some period of time to motor vehicle traffic and
We've got opinions. Yes or no, the Commission has very strict criteria that they should be evaluating
these kinds of things on And just the reports being drafted But there are some of those criteria I think
are not met Is likely what the staff report will share? We'll see how that if the Commission agrees
or not But that that's one of the fundamental questions. The other fundamental question is if it is
to be closed is
Is this the right way to do it? Is this the right ordinance? Is it a traffic ordinance or is it a use
of a street that belongs in title 12? Like other uses of streets and I think that is would be my suggestion
is if it is to be closed Is there is this the right ordinance or is there a more appropriate way to
write an ordinance to do that?
So those are the main questions in my mind looking forward to the Transportation Commission's discussion
and Hopeful recommendation to help aid in your discussion. So just wanted to share that. Thank you so
much Are there any further comments motions? councilmember rough I Appreciate hearing from everybody
tonight staff the members of public council, there's a lot to think about here, but I also share
view that comparisons with I Generally don't like comparisons with other communities for bulletin in
any circumstance But this one Particular particularly As has been pointed out, they're not the same
as these other communities in terms of where we are and what we are now, but furthermore those small
those pedestrian I went to school and
University of Colorado in Boulder. I Went to school in Ithaca, New York Which actually I'll tell I mentioned
in the deputy mayor is actually a smaller community that Bloomington and they have a Pedestrian mall,
but those were created in the mid 70s in the mid 1970s Things were very different students didn't have
cars anywhere near at the rate they do now Not even close I
In the mid-1970s when those were created, I was at school in those places in the 80s, but in the mid-1970s,
my family would come downtown Bloomington, the square in Kirkwood, to basically do all of our shopping.
Our hardware stores were down here, the drugs, everything we needed was here. And that was the time
when they were establishing these pedestrian closed streets in these other towns.
I just don't think we can really compare we need to listen to We need to pay attention what the experience
and what the reality is now we need to listen to our current mix of merchants and businesses downtown
For for for their input And The other thing I'll say real quick is I'm a little bit concerned about
the tenth and
We just forwarded the utilities loan issued at the 10th. We're moving this to the 10th. We have the
AI resolution that Councilmember Rollins bring forward on the 10th It started to look like a Problematic
meeting potentially to me. Anyway, thank you Thank you so much councilmember Zulek, I move that ordinance
20 26-12 be postponed to the next regular scheduled council meeting on June 10th and
There's a motion a second a discussion But councilmember Stossberg I have a comment before that motion
about the general ordinance I think that one thing that we kind of danced around a little bit tonight
But didn't specify was the fiscal impact and there is a fiscal impact statement Attached to this which
basically is there's no fiscal impact But I think to do it right there is a fiscal impact and so I guess
I just want that to be Thought about a little bit next week and at the Transportation Commission meeting things
Councilmember Rosenbacher Sorry, yes, I sometimes the mic goes away So this is it I just there are some
things I would just kind of like to respond to you as a co-sponsor before we postpone it. Okay?
Parliamentarian I'm okay with it, but I think we
there's a motion and we should discuss the motion yeah but but are you so that's my discussion of the
motion okay well that's do I yes go for it go for it
So there's an ordinance for the outdoor dining program that is separate than this. So the outdoor dining
program can cost money. And doing Kirkwood like a pedestrian mall can also cost money. But this is a
Title 15 change that says vehicle travel is not allowed on Kirkwood. So the fiscal impact of that is
zero. I mean, it's putting up bollards. So that is what this ordinance would do.
I did a quick Google. Ithaca, New York has a smaller MSA. It has a smaller budget. It has a very successful
pedestrian mall. So it is doable in communities that have the same metrics as ours. It does happen.
I was going to respond more to the administration's memo, but I can just do it next time. I
had a conversation today with
Council Attorney Allen about whether or not this should be in title 12 or title 15. It should be in
title 15 because this is about streets. We are the legislative body. We have the authority to do that.
Doesn't need to go before Board of Public Works. Another point in there was that would council have
to approve every street closure for construction projects or anything like that?
Uh, the administration called it a street closure multiple times. We are not closing a street. We are
restricting. We are attempting to restrict vehicle traffic. So, um, the board of public works would
still be responsible for, uh, closing streets to everyone, restricting a hundred percent of access except
for the person
or the people or the company working on something like a construction project where they're putting
up fences and they're blocking access. So I just want to say, if you have read the memo or if you haven't,
those things are different. I guess that's most of my notes for right now. Thank you so much. Any other comments?
Okay, there's a motion on table. Will the did I miss? Did I miss hands online or was that just motion?
Okay. Good. Will the clerk please call the roll? Councilmember Zula. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Daily. Yes. Rallo.
Yes. No. Rosenberger. Yes. Clarity.
Yes, Stasberg. Yes, Piedmont Smith. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. That motion carries. We'll now move on
to the last period of public comment for things that were not on the agenda. Would anybody like to make
a public comment? Seeing none. Is there anyone online? Fantastic.
There's almost still sunshine in terms of notes on council schedule. I'm just just a quick one with
clerk and Just for everybody's awareness and there's a couple of things sort of
We do need to probably schedule a hiring committee before we break next week. So I'll send around a
survey for that tonight. And then there's as you all saw, some of you still haven't responded about
possible availability for a joint session with county council.
There's some other dynamics there. But but if you have not yet responded with your availability, if
you could just let me know, that would be fantastic. All right. Any other things for council schedule?
I'm councilor Sasberg.
I'll go ahead and announce even though it's kind of a week early that the next fiscal committee meeting
is the 12th of June which is not two days from now but the Friday after that and one of the reasons
why I'm announcing it now is the last fiscal committee meeting before summer recess and we are going to have
Adam Weiss and sanitation presentation about sanitation rates and so that might be of interest to the
public Also may be of interest to other council members and so that's something that you can check out
the packet He's gonna just kind of be be floating some possibilities that they've considered if you
recall we had to transfer about one and a half million of general fund money to make sanitation solvent
this year Thanks anyone else comments for schedule?
Going once, going twice, we sit adjourned. Thank you very much.