- Seeing that it is now 630, I would like to call to order this regular session of Bloomington's Common
- Council on July 29th. Will the Honorable Clerk please read the roll? Thank you. All right. Councilmember
- Flaherty? Yes, here. Same thing. Stossberg? Here. Piedmont-Smith? Here. Zulek? Here. Asari? Here.
- Come back Rollo here rough Rosenbarger and Then Daley here, okay All right. We have a fairly straightforward
- agenda today plenty of minutes for approval you will have hopefully note that there was a
- Amendment sent out to these minutes. We have reports as we usually do a handful of appointments at Boards
- and commissions and then three items two items for first reading one item for second reading and there
- will be two times of public comment and Those are the times we eagerly look forward to so with that
- there are minutes for approval are there any motions and
- January 7th January 2006 No, January 7th 2026 January 14th 2026 February 4th 2026 February 25th 2026
- and March 31st 2026 Motion and a second any further amendments to the minutes All right, will the clerk
- please call the roll
- Councilmember Flaherty Stasberg Piedmont Smith Zulik sorry. Yes, Daley. Yes Rallo Yes Thank you very
- much. We'll now move on to reports First from council members. Does anybody have a report for this week
- and go to councilmember Piedmont Smith Yes, we
- were on council recess when the 250th anniversary of this country or the Declaration of Independence
- came around this July 4th. So in a somewhat late celebration of that, I wanted to read part of a poem
- by Amanda Gorman called In This Place, An American Lyric. I won't read the whole thing because it is
- somewhat lengthy, but I'll start in the middle. There's a lyric in California where thousands of students
- march for blocks, undocumented and unafraid, where my friend Rosa finds the power to blossom in deadlock,
- her spirit the bedrock of her community. She knows hope is like a stubborn ship gripping a dock, a truth
- that you can't stop a dreamer
- or knock down a dream. How could this not be her city? Sou Nation, our country, our America, our American
- lyric to write. A poem by the people, the poor, the Protestant, the Muslim, the Jew, the native, the
- immigrant, the black, the brown, the blind, the brave, the undocumented and undeterred, the woman, the man,
- the non-binary, the white, the trans, the ally to all of the above, and more. Tyrants fear the poet.
- Now that we know it, we can't blow it. We owe it to show it, not slow it, although it hurts to sew it.
- When the world skirts below it, hope, we must bestow it. Like a wick in the poet's
- so it can grow, lit, bringing with it stories to rewrite. The story of a Texas city depleted but not
- defeated, a history written that need not be repeated, a nation composed but not yet completed. There's
- a poem in this place, a poem in America, a poet in every American who rewrites this nation, who tells
- a story worthy of being told on this minnow of an earth,
- to breathe hope into a palimpsest of time, a poet in every American who sees that our poem penned doesn't
- mean our poems end. There's a place where this poem dwells, it is here, it is now, in the yellow song
- of dawn's bell, where we write an American lyric we are just beginning to tell. Thank you. Thank you
- for those beautiful words.
- Um, any other comments or reports? Oh, I see a council member. Thanks. Thank you. Um, I meant to report
- this last time, um, but a profoundly important event happened about two weeks ago and it was either
- missed by the media or it was quickly forgotten. And that is the recent escape of opening eyes model,
- advanced model, uh, to hugging face.
- So what happened was advanced autonomous agents broke out of their secure servers, which is called a
- sandbox, and discovered a software flaw and immediately hacked an external real world, in this case,
- network, and that was hugging face. So they were being tested and they found an unknown vulnerability.
- They didn't expect
- to have in the sandbox. And they use that to reach the public internet. Once online, the AI figured
- out that Hugging Face might hold data or test answers that it needed to complete its task. And it attacked
- the platform successfully to get a higher score. It used stolen credentials, chained multiple attack
- vectors together to execute remote code on servers and was successful
- ultimately. It did the hacking in hours and days that would have taken advanced human hackers weeks
- to do. So why should we worry about this? This is the loss of control that we've been, that experts
- have been warning about. It proved that AI, powerful AI can act completely on its own to bypass safety
- limits when hyper-focused on a specific goal. It demonstrated a real-world
- threat. That is, instead of staying in a harmless digital test zone, the AI launched a real unauthorized
- intrusion, which was illegal, by the way, against an outside company. And this is a warning sign that
- work on models that are, after all, they're meant to explicitly replace people is becoming too dangerous.
- This is a rush to superhuman intelligence that would very likely be out of anyone's control.
- In response to this, there has been some Congress people concerned. Congressman Ted Lieu, for instance,
- from California introduced the bill to require kill switches for these models. But recall that it took
- humans using AIs, by the way, a week to determine what happened. That is far too late for any meaningful
- kill switch. So the only reasonable way forward to safeguard our future is a moratorium on the development
- of artificial super intelligence. AI should forever remain a tool and not be designed to be an agent.
- And it's up to citizens to take action. Unfortunately, one regretful thing that has happened in our
- 250 years is corporate capture of regulatory agencies. And unfortunately, the AI companies have dedicated
- about $200 million a year for this purpose.
- So it's up to us to contact our representatives and compel them for our own safety to deploy a moratorium
- on this very dangerous technology. Thank you. Thank you so much, Council Member Arlo. Any other comments,
- Council Member Stasberg? Thank you. I have a few random bits of things that I wanted to share, so sorry
- about that.
- So first, something that I also meant to announce last week. For those of you who are unaware, Lynn
- Coyne was appointed Interim Director of Planning at the Planning Commission meeting earlier this month.
- And so that has, in fact, happened. And he has begun that position. And I believe there's an interview
- with him and the mayor out there in the netherworld somewhere if you want to hear more about him. Secondly,
- I wanted to announce that on August 8,
- So that's not this Saturday, it's the next Saturday. I'll be at the farmers market from 9 to 11, just
- kind of doing a drop-in little meeting. If anybody wants to pop over and say hi, I will be in information
- row at the Democrats booth during that time. For anybody who has anything they want to talk to me about,
- I would welcome a discussion both from specific District 3 constituents, but anybody else who happens
- by and wants to bend my ear.
- And third, for my colleagues generally, and part of the reason I'm saying this is to say it out loud,
- because sometimes when you say things out loud, then you make commitments, then you have to fall through
- on them. Just wanted to give a brief little tidbit about fiscal committee stuff, because last week we
- heard some extensive stuff from Reedy Financial. Well, but it's not... A committee report technically
- needs to be written.
- So I'm committing right now to give you a written committee report and also encouraging you to go back
- and maybe look at some of that information that Reedy gave to us on Friday. It's very interesting and
- I'm going to pull some parts of it out just both in terms of our own preparation and also in terms of
- the consequences of what
- the state did because there's some more specific numbers out there and then the last thing that I want
- to mention is a Response you could say to the county commissioners and their public comment last week
- with regard to a jail location I want to applaud my colleague councilmember Piedmont Smith for her written
- response to them and I just want to say that that
- I don't think that there was anything in there that I disagreed with, and so I kind of want to second
- all of that and very specifically say that, because I've had a few constituents message me about concern
- for putting a jail there because it had been planned for housing. There were several years of
- feedback given about what to do with Hopewell and There was not any discussion in there at the time
- about it being a jail and I think that that would have been a very Appropriate time to bring that up
- and talk about it when there was still that community discussion around it and at this point it feels
- Not necessarily too late but especially given that there was a collaborative working group all summer
- long that the commissioners declined attending
- It feels a little bit Obtuse perhaps to suddenly come out and suggest something that they could have
- Participated in a collaborative community discussion about and so to bring it up now just It just doesn't
- sit very well with me So if you're not sure out there what it is that I'm referring to I would direct
- you to councilmember Piedmont Smith's very
- eloquently written public letter. Thank you Do we have anyone we don't have anyone giving a report today
- from mayor's office wonderful Also, I would love to call on a counselor P1 Smith them to talk a little
- bit about councils special committee on processes and
- Well, it's just an informal report since reports actually have to be written. I am told Okay, well this
- is very relevant to that because So just briefly the committee on council processes met last week and
- We discussed two small revisions on the membership of two different commissions the Transportation Commission
- and the Environmental Commission and councilmember Stossberg
- is taking the lead on that. And I think we'll be presenting the final proposal at our next meeting.
- And then we have been for our second meeting in a row. We have been going through the municipal code
- title to the section on the council. We've been going through that paragraph by paragraph to see what
- could be clarified and what could be perhaps moved to a separate administrative document, rules of procedure
- document. This work started last year, and so we are continuing an initial review that was
- done by Councilmember Sari and staff. And maybe we should add to that that we should allow nonwritten
- reports from council committees.
- We will get to that. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Are there any other council committee reports?
- All right, we'll now move on to a time of public comment. The way that this works, you have three minutes.
- If you could so kindly sign in, it helps us with keeping of the minutes. And if you could state your
- name or alias for the record, that would be tremendous. Folks online, you have a button that you can
- press to raise your hand and we'll acknowledge you in due course. You can comment at either this one
- or the next one. Is there anyone who would like to comment today at public comment?
- Seeing none, is there anyone online? Hey, we're zooming through this. That's wonderful. Okay. All right.
- We have some appointments of boards and commissions. Do we? We don't? Oh, okay. I thought we did. Well,
- hey. None? Oh, okay. I thought we had the one. Okay, fine.
- All right moving on then. Um, are there any motions? We'll go to legislation for first readings I move
- that ordinance 2026-16 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only please There's
- a motion in a second any discussion will the clerk please call the roll Stasberg yes, Pete Monsmith.
- Yes Zoo Lake Yes, sorry. Yes daily
- Yes, Rollo Yes, Rosenberger. Yes and Flaherty. Yes. Will the clerk please read Ordinance 20 26-16 to
- amend an ordinance fixing the salaries of officers and employees of the police and fire department for
- the city of Bloomington, Indiana for the year 2026 the
- Synopsis is as follows this ordinance amends ordinance 25-38 by adding a lieutenant position within
- the police department. I Move to discuss ordinance 2026-16 Great is is dr. Paycheck here was a vote.
- Sorry. I forget Any discussion comes over Sasberg? I guess I'm just wondering
- As you just said if dr. Paycheck is here and who is gonna present this and if dr. Paycheck isn't oh
- there she is That answers the question. All right. So with that any other discussion or questions call
- that to a vote, please All right beat want Smith Yes Zulik. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes daily. Yes, Rallo Yes,
- Rosenberger
- Yes, Flaherty Yes, and Stossberg. Yes. Thank you very much. Dr. Paycheck if you'd like to present Well,
- we're moving fast I got a little sidetracked and I was like, is that me? So I started running down here.
- Okay sharp paycheck
- director of human resources Before I Jump into this because I have some a little bit of background that
- I want to share with you However, it has been called to my attention that there are some typos and errors
- and transpose numbers in this salary ordinance amendment
- Because some of those things were called to my attention I know that we need to go back and we need
- to take like a much closer Look to make sure that we catch any additional errors So I am happy to do
- that and submit some additional an additional amendment for the second reading But I just wanted to
- call that out before I share any more details Okay, okay so for this particular I
- Salary ordinance amendment. I want to give just a little bit of background so you have some context
- on March 24th of this year HR launched a 2026 mid-year work request and so just so you remember Work
- is w-e-r-c it's an acronym and it stands for workforce evaluation and realignment committee and so for
- this mid-year work
- request process department heads were given the opportunity to submit adjustments for work functions
- actual position functions including changes in job duties and reporting relationships and also how work
- was distributed either across the Department or within a division and so the goal of this mid-year work
- request process
- Was to give department has the opportunity to address any operational misalignments and also to help
- improve efficiency and support departmental priorities so all of these requests had to be Aligned with
- using existing financial resources so they had to be
- Reviewed and confirmed by the office of the controller that they were either cost neutral or they reduce
- cost and that no additional funding would need to be allocated in order to support the request the request
- can only be submitted by Department heads and those requests had to be submitted by April the 7th and
- so since those
- Requests have been received HR has been working with the office of the controller To review those requests
- and of those we received the ones that you see presented today if they had an effect of on the salary
- ordinance Those are the ones that are presented today. So specifically for this particular salary ordinance
- for public safety
- The police department was the only one who submitted a work request and it came from chief D cough He
- requested to add a fifth lieutenant Details regarding this request are outlined in the memo, but basically
- per chief D cough The purpose of adding the fifth lieutenant is to help improve management of the department
- with additional support for administrative functions such as training and
- recruitment and supervision and there is a estimated fiscal impact for this request of Just over $19,000
- and this request though is budget neutral Because it will be covered by Existing vacancies. So no additional
- headcount has been requested for this. So it was approved as a budget neutral request and
- So that is a little bit of background for this salary amendment and a lot of these details Relate to
- the next one up to but I'm happy to answer any questions Thank you so much, that's your paycheck any
- questions counselor Puma Smith Yes, thank you for putting that in context dr paycheck sir So you say
- there's no
- Fiscal impact but perhaps for this year and I understand, you know funds are available for creating
- this a position this year, but in the future Years, there will be a fiscal impact because we will have
- an additional position to fund. Sure at a significant salary. So I Guess I'm wondering why that's not
- wasn't considered fiscal impact in your memo Yeah, if I could
- my colleague the controller to speak since he Helped evaluate the request based on fiscal impact. Are
- you okay? Jeff McKim City Controller good evening council and thanks for your question Councilmember
- Piedmont Smith first of all, I want to clarify something that this is not a Completely new position.
- This is replacement of a sergeant with lieutenant. So it's not a new
- Increased headcount not a new human being it's it's the conversion of a sergeant position to a lieutenant
- position and overall the the fiscal impact is That the the fifth the figure that is given in the memo
- a little bit over $19,000 would be for a full year. So actually for this year, it's it's approximately
- seven thousand six hundred and eighty two dollars and the standard we did use is The fiscal impact for
- this year. So is it something that had that would require additional resources this year? You are correct
- that if next year the Police department were fully staffed Which I hope they are they are not at this
- point if they were fully staffed it would have an approximately
- 19 I'm $20,000 fiscal impact on the next year and next year's budget. Does that answer your question?
- Yes, it was not clear from the memo that this was converting a sergeant position Okay. Yes, it is does
- make me feel a little better about the fiscal impact. Yeah, it is not adding a new headcount Okay. Thank
- you counselor Stossberg
- Thank you. I also had that question So thank you to once again to councilmember Piedmont Smith for asking
- that but the the thing that I did was was I compared Our original packet last October and it lists 13
- Sergeants last October and then this one today still lists 13 Sergeants as opposed to dropping one of
- those sergeants down and picking up a lieutenant. So is that like shouldn't
- It lists now 12 sergeants with five lieutenants in order to actually be Like person neutral. I believe
- that that's that the preview and and perhaps Sharkin can help me out on this one, but I believe that
- that was actually a typo in the last Not the current but the the previous salary ordinance
- That is information that I I really would like to be able to
- Confirmed for you. So I need to go back and I need to have a conversation with D cough to confirm it
- Because even when I talked to him earlier today, we had a conversation on if there were actually 13
- or 14 lieutenants, so Sergeant sergeants, I'm sorry sergeants 13 or 14 sergeants. So let me just confirm
- that And then that way I can come back and make sure that the numbers are accurate I
- I agree with the controller the way that Chief explained it is that it would be no more headcount and
- that they would promote internally So if we do have to update the sergeant count to reflect accurately
- in the salary ordinance, then we'll do that Okay, great. I would I would appreciate that. Thank you.
- Yeah, sure customer umbrella Thanks, I'm a little curious about for city our size or
- police force are sized. Is that a typical number? Five lieutenants or 13 to 14 sergeants? Is this a
- hierarchy that is equivalent compared to other cities our size? I have never done that research, so
- I don't know the answer to that question. I am happy to do it, but I just haven't done it to this point.
- Do you know? No, and it also sounds like something the chief might be able to provide some input to
- Okay, maybe another question I have to is are the duties equivalent between forces I Mean do the lieutenants
- do the same thing in other other municipalities? Yeah
- say we have done just a little bit of research related to that when we were looking at the lieutenant
- position description to make sure it was classified correctly. So I will say that I do feel like there
- are some similarities, maybe not exactly the same, but some similarities. So I can actually say we have
- done some research related to that. Okay. You know what I'm getting at? Some organizations get a bit
- top-heavy in a sense?
- I'm just curious about the structure and whether we're sort of within a sort of a Normal. Yeah Some
- of the duties and the scope of the roles are similar with other municipalities I just don't know related
- to the actual numbers in a in a division in an org chart Thank you Councilmember Flaherty
- I guess The the instructions to department heads in consideration was that there any proposed changes
- in position would need to be budget neutral Is that right? Yes Do you feel like they all understood
- that that only meant this year and that they could propose a change that would increase their budget
- in the future for future years relative to no change in the position because it sounds like that's like
- What is allowed is or at least what the administration allowed for the for the police department and
- it surprises me that no one else No other departments like proposed anything and I wonder if there was
- a common understanding. What are your thoughts? I do feel like there was a I Feel like it was communicated
- on multiple occasions. How it was actually received and processed, I can't speak for other department
- heads. I know that my call for it went out in email. We had a pretty lengthy period where anybody could
- have asked me follow-up questions. We also, Jeff and I, partnered to reiterate the process
- and the expectations during a cabinet meeting.
- I submitted a request, and I was pretty clear on the process. So I can say that it was communicated
- multiple times. How it was actually received, I do not know, aside from
- the controller and myself, I also feel like Deputy Mayor Knapp was very clear that this would not be
- an opportunity for you to say that you had money available this year or you reduced funding to cover
- this request this year, and then next year or the following years, ask for the money back. So I feel
- like she was very clear in that communication as well. So these, I feel, are changes that we felt we
- wanted to request to best support the operations and our priorities.
- for more of like long-term gains. A brief follow-up, if that's okay, which is, did you say that you
- submitted a request, but that's not coming to us? So maybe I was misunderstanding to you. I thought
- I understood your earlier remarks to be that only the police department submitted a request, but maybe
- there were others that didn't. For the public safety... Oh, yeah, that's right. ...solar ordinance,
- so next will be Civil City. Sorry, yes, yes. Yes, okay. Completing ordinances. Thank you. Any other
- questions, colleagues?
- All right, I'm seeing none. Are there any discussion points or motions? Oh, yeah, we can do that. Yeah,
- sorry. Is anybody who'd like to make public comment at this time about this ordinance? Is there anyone
- online who'd like to make public comment? Okay, back to colleagues. Any final comments, Council Member Stosberg?
- I guess I would just like to second the interest in more information next week when we hear this second
- reading both about what I had brought up with the 13 sergeants and and that thing but also what councilmember
- Rallo was asking about Departments our size and leadership and concern was being top-heavy so if that's
- something that either director paycheck could look into or if chief de Koff would
- Be able to provide those answers. I would appreciate that for next week. Thanks And and I actually would
- like to add to that just for for next week as we do the amendments I'd be interested because we've had
- been having conversations about staffing of police Workload of police and so I think it would be really
- helpful to understand I mean if you're shifting the workload from sort of in the field to in the office You know
- what the sort of assumptions that are being made here about how that affects the rest of the force,
- because that, to me, feels contradictory to the information that we have been receiving about where
- the stresses are on the police, especially at their current staffing. So I would be interested
- in understanding what's then shifting to be covered in the other direction as well. Excellent. Any other
- things? Great. Are there any motions?
- Moved to send this to second reading on August 5th All right. Do we need to vote on that? Okay. Good.
- Could the clerk please call the roll? Sorry, yes daily. Yes Rallo Yes Rosenberger. Yes Flaherty. Yes
- Stossburg. Yes, Pete Monsmith. Yes
- Thank you very much. We will discuss that again next week Moving on I Move that ordinance 2026 dash
- 17 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis only Great many discussion Will the clerk
- please call the roll? I'm sorry. Yes daily. Yes Rallo Yes, Rosenberger Yes, Flaherty
- Yes, Stasberg. Yes, Piedmont Smith and Zulik. Yes. Thank you. Will the clerks please read Ordinance
- 2026 dash 17 Which amends the 2026 salary ordinance adopted officers non-union and ASPE employees for
- all the departments of the city of Bloomington Monroe County, Indiana for the year 2026 the synopsis
- is as follows
- Ordinance 2026-17 amends the 2026 appointed and asks me employee salary ordinance to incorporate updates
- to certain civil city positions. I move to discuss ordinance 2026-17. Any discussion on the motion?
- All right. Will the clerk please call the roll? Daly? Yes. Rollo? Yes.
- Rosenberger? Yes. Flaherty? Yes. Stasberg? Yes. Piedmont-Smith? Yes. Zulek? Yes. And Asari? Yes. Okay.
- All right. Director Pichak. Okay. Sharpe Pichak, Director of Human Resources. Hi. Two things.
- Number one, we also received some
- Feedback that there are a couple of typos in this salary ordinance as well I'll take a proofreader on
- the HR staff if you want to prove that at some point But so we so we will come back with some additional
- amendments they are small typos that I think have been carried over but we need to Read a little more
- closely. So those are forthcoming the second thing is
- The context that I provided for the 2026 mid-year work request. Department heads could submit them.
- The request had to be neutral. Same thing will apply to this salary ordinance. Okay? All right. So this
- is the 2026 mid-year work request for civil city positions, basically. For this call, we received a
- total of eight requests.
- that actually pertain to the salary ordinance. So there were others, but they weren't.
- changes that needed to be addressed in the salary ordinance. So those eight requests came from three
- different departments, utilities, human resources, and public works. So I'll give you a little bit of
- insight on each one of those, and potentially my colleagues from utilities and public works may be available
- virtually if you have specific questions, but if not, I'll just bring back answers for the second reading.
- Okay, so this first request, real quick, was from the utilities department to reorganize
- the environmental program coordinator position from the engineering division to the environmental division
- I guess it just made more sense to better align this position the title the scope of work in the division
- where the director felt was the best
- fit in order to help with regulatory compliance and responsibilities and day-to-day operations. This
- particular request is just a change of division. It has no fiscal impact, but the salary ordinance needed
- to be amended to reflect this change in the division. The second request that came from the utilities
- department as well was to reduce a
- vacant customer relations rep position Reducing it from full-time to part-time. So apparently the utilities
- director didn't feel like this needed to be an actual FTE a full-time position in order to still meet
- the service needs But also have enough coverage for operations, especially during peak seasons. So this
- particular quest is
- Request actually reflects a budget reduction of about $32,000, and that reduction reflects both the
- decrease in pay and compensation and also in benefits, since this position will be reduced from 40 hours
- to not more than 29 hours, which is a position that is not eligible for benefits, hence the additional
- savings. Request three and four.
- are also from the utilities director and they are related. The utilities director asked us to look at
- the assistant GIS coordinator position and also the GIS coordinator positions. And the utilities director
- wanted these positions reviewed to see if they should be reclassified for a higher grade.
- This this request was handled a little deeper dive from human resources because we had to consider GIS
- positions that are both in ITS and also in utilities to evaluate them to see how the scope of work and
- the skills and the education Aligned with other positions that are out in the market, but also how they
- aligned in
- internally. So we did that research. We partnered and had communications with department heads, and
- we also collected some data from incumbents that were actually in those GIS positions in ITS and utilities.
- Based on that, what I feel was a pretty comprehensive process, HR does recommend that the
- Request is approved for the assistant GIS coordinator in utilities to go from a grade 6 to a grade 8
- and also the GIS coordinator position In utilities go from a grade 8 to a grade 10. So those are requests
- 3 & 4 For request 5
- This comes from Human Resources. So I requested to reclassify a current position with an incumbent of
- our HR talent coordinator in a grade five to be reclassified to a grade seven.
- The reason why I requested this is because I've had a strategic goal to enhance the services that we
- provide for talent. So that includes all of our recruitment, our selection, our candidate evaluation,
- all of our employee relations events.
- job descriptions that we have and just being able to provide some additional support services to Departments
- like utilities that have asked me employees that require a little bit more support So this is just a
- way to recognize what the current talent coordinator is doing which are some additional duties
- and responsibilities but then better align with the strategic and
- The strategic vision that I have for how we will provide talent services here at the city and so our
- director of classification and compensation looked at this and agreed that this would be a
- Approve requests in order to reclassify that HR talent coordinator position to a talent acquisition
- specialist This particular request for human resources does have an estimated fiscal impact of 22,000
- just over $22,000 and so this is a budget neutral request for human resources because I will have
- some nominal savings from category one, potentially for vacancies in category one. But I also have some
- funding that I will save from category three, which covers our consulting services, because as you may
- remember, we had a lot of special projects and consultants that came in to help us with a lot of this
- work in human resources, and now we will be able to bring it in-house.
- More internal, more specialized, and we have basically like internal institutional knowledge in order
- to do that work. Request number six.
- Also from human resources This one has no fiscal impact. It is a request for a title change only We
- currently in human resources have a position that is titled payroll coordinator We actually do not do
- payroll in human resources what we do Related to
- actions in human resources is make sure that all of the compensation and benefits information is Entered
- correctly into the systems so that office of the controller can process payroll So I want to make sure
- that that position in human resources actually reflects that work and the services that we provide so
- I requested to retitle the payroll coordinator position to HR I s
- or Human Resources Information Systems Coordinator. This is especially important to me because I have
- a goal in 2027 to implement a new HRIS system. So I want to make sure that I have a person internally
- that will specialize and focus on helping to make sure that that system is implemented. The last two
- are actually related.
- Request number seven and number eight came from public works number seven was a request from the director
- of public works to reorganize the downtown specialist positions from reporting to the in the facilities
- division to the administration division so number seven
- really has no fiscal impact. It is just a division change. However, it does relate to request number
- eight. And request number eight is to reclassify the special projects and operations manager position
- from grade eight to grade nine.
- so in addition to Officially having those downtown specialist positions report to that position downtown
- the Special special projects and operations manager position. There are other additional duties that
- this role has acquired including
- Level of responsibilities related to downtown specialists and expanded responsibilities So with this
- additional scope of work and super super supervisory responsibilities Looking at other comparable positions
- within the city We do feel like this request should be approved to reclassify the special projects and
- operations manager position and public safety from a grade 8 to a grade 9 and
- The estimated fiscal impact for this position is this request is a little over eleven thousand dollars
- This cost will be absorbed through existing departmental appropriations The increase will be funded
- by reducing contractual temporary services and if those savings are insufficient to cover the full cost
- the department will request a
- Transfer of funds again from category three to category one during year-end appropriations Very much
- questions that's more P. Smith then Stasper Yes, since we do have several requests well two
- From I think from your own department. I wanted to check who who serves on the work committee Is it
- people from just from HR from other departments? Um, so in general it is just from HR in partnership
- with the office of the controller So within human resources the primary individuals that serve on the
- work committee are Kelsey Carmichael she is our director of compensation and benefits and
- Kelsey Carmichael. Also on that committee is Kate Scales who is our talent and engagement manager.
- Would not normally be directly involved with this process. However, Kelsey Carmichael is fairly new
- This was her first work process. So I was a little bit more engaged than I normally would be so HR serves
- in the capacity of looking at the request to make sure that they make sense and
- For the department and also for the city overall and for the priorities of the city and then again We
- partner with the office of the controller so that they can look at the fiscal Estimated fiscal impacts
- to make a recommendation on if they it should be approved or not. So human resources office of the controller
- Off to the mayor if we have requests that need their review and feedback as well But primarily HR and
- office of the controller. I See, okay
- I have another question, but I can wait. So one of the changes you propose is a change in title to HR
- IS coordinator is HR is human resources information systems. Is that a general word for software that
- HR departments use?
- Or is it a specific system is in it's a It's broad in general so it could be a variation of different
- types of HR systems Yeah, so it's just a broad title. Okay. I just didn't want to tie us to a specific
- software with a job No, no, no, it would be very broad. So whatever we go with they would have some
- Leading responsibilities to make sure that that system can be implemented and that all the data Ensuring
- data integrity as well Thank you
- Have a couple of questions my first one in the beginning of this part of your presentation You mentioned
- that there were eight total requests But then it sounded like there were some of those requests that
- we weren't seeing but then there's eight actual asks on here So, can you clarify? Yeah so there were
- I want to say that maybe there were like 12
- Request but for example some of them could have been like for example off the top of my head like two
- of them were for part-time positions for example and Part-time positions are not listed in the salary
- ordinance So they were still requests that we received and we processed but you don't see those additional
- two for example because they don't affect the salary ordinance Okay, so
- So they're either miss heard or you miss it. So there were 12 total and we're seeing eight of them and
- I I think there were 12 I'd have to go back to confirm the exact amount but I think there were 12, okay,
- but only eight of them were Affected by the salary ordinance. Okay, and are there any that are like
- pending or outstanding still? No, unless I miss them. No I'll expect that you didn't miss them because
- you know what? I don't know my email is
- Interesting, but I don't they would they would follow up with me right if we miss something. Yes Okay,
- I have another couple of questions that okay. Okay, so in terms of number five I Guess the question
- that I have it sounded kind of like there's somebody in this position currently that is doing more you
- can say than their job description
- Asked them to do or currently says they're doing and I guess the question is is that kind of an? Expectation
- that you would have moving forward in terms of this position So if that person were to leave and you
- were to hire somebody new Would you need or expect that new person to fulfill all of those
- same? Responsibilities or as part of this just like the existing person is just like super good I
- The existing person is super good. However, I have been trying to advance talent services for the past
- two years, and this is the strategic direction that I would want to go. So if not for this employee,
- anybody else who would come in to backfill this position, hopefully that wouldn't happen. But if so,
- then yes, I would have the same expectations that they function at the level of a talent acquisition
- specialist.
- and Then the other question I have is one that I'm not sure that you'll be able to answer but might
- be one that's Director Wason needs to needs to fill us in with next time. I can call a friend Yeah,
- yeah, maybe I don't know if anybody is online who can answer this but in terms of that Shift in the
- downtown specialist position and who they're going to report to I guess the question that I have is
- currently they are reporting to somebody so I
- that somebody is then losing a piece of what their responsibility is. So I guess the question is, does
- there need to be a similar reevaluation for that, or is that person picking up a different
- set of responsibilities, kind of with the overall kind of question of how is this gonna ultimately benefit
- Bloomington residents?
- Bloomington operations in terms of public works. And I see that it looks like Director Wason just popped
- on maybe to answer that question. Hello, folks. I hope my audio is coming through. Am I good? Perfect.
- Thank you, Isaac. Yeah. So to your question, Council Member Stossberg, this has been actually something
- that's been shifting for quite a few years in the sense that the facilities division has always hosted the
- downtown specialists as part of their organizational chart. Our facilities division's really focused
- on buildings and the grounds around City Hall, et cetera. And whereas Public Works Administration's
- very involved in the downtown from a day-to-day activities perspective. So when the downtown specialists
- were originally proposed in Public Works, I think in, oh gosh, at least 15 years ago, facilities kind
- of made sense then, but as we've,
- really in public works, gotten more involved in the day to day of the downtown with the special projects
- and operations manager and all their involvement with the downtown Bloomington Inc, the Chamber of Commerce,
- KCA, all the different variety of things. We're doing a lot more downtown in the last five plus years.
- And so this is just a realignment of those to just better meet our organizational needs.
- Our facilities division has also been growing in responsibility and such. You know, they've, I think,
- obviously have taken on different property acquisitions to help manage over the last several years,
- et cetera. So this is just really a realignment to better position the downtown specialists to where
- they actually report.
- Okay. Thank you. So basically the answer is who they're reporting to now. They have already picked up
- additional responsibilities over the last few years. And so they wouldn't be picking up more additional
- responsibilities. They're just shedding some that don't make as much sense anymore. And you know, I
- don't want to, it's also a little bit of post COVID.
- Honestly where all the downtown events and things are, you know picking back up over the last several
- years And it's just a matter of trying how we really manage our public right away with those staff as
- well Okay, thank you. I think those are all my questions. Thank you so much other councilmembers Councilman
- Smith Sorry while mr. Weissen is still here I wanted to follow up on councilmember Stossberg's question and
- because I'm not sure I understand the answer or have gotten the answer. So the person in facilities
- who was supervising the downtown specialists is now going to have fewer responsibilities because that
- person is no longer supervising the downtown specialists. So I guess my concern is that we then have
- somebody who has fewer responsibilities but we're not downgrading that position.
- Not that I wanna congratulate anybody, but. So JD Boroff is currently our director of facilities operations,
- and JD, if any of y'all have met him, has a wide-ranging load of responsibilities for all city facilities
- that are non-parks and recreation. So as that has grown over time with the acquisition of West Showers,
- College Square,
- 627 North Morton responsibilities with the mill and coordinating all of their capital needs and such.
- That position has not taken on less responsibility by any means it's taken on more and more and this
- is just Public Works is a very large organization as you all know and this is more of just shifting
- of responsibilities across divisions and in the department to better align with where we're actually
- where the operations are actually happening. So the position that this reports to, the Special Projects
- and Operations Manager, I'll just use the name of the current employee, that's Cassie Werney. For any
- of you all that attend any of the downtown meetings or anything else, the downtown specialists really
- work closely with Cassie to be the liaison to the entire downtown. And so this is just a realignment
- to really, to that approach. Thank you.
- I had a quick question if nobody else. So we often...
- It's helped me understand something because we're talking about this in a silo and then but this exists
- within a system Not just that I'm not talking about public all of these requests And so the two systems
- that I'm trying to understand our first, you know, we're about to have Budget meetings, I know in the
- budget memos that went out everybody was asked to you know, certainly not raise any any cost and I know
- that there's been discussions on
- trying to figure out ways that we cut costs. And so how does this exist where overall we're asking for
- an increase of a couple hundred thousand dollars in impact
- just this year that's gonna have a knock-on effect in future. So I'm trying to understand, first, have
- there been discussions about other changes that are gonna be made in departments that are gonna be reflective
- of this change now? And then the other question that I had is how, and I should have asked this when
- we did work in the first place, but how work fits in with the large reassessment that we did two years
- ago that we not only
- Completed but then returned money from we didn't spend the full six million dollars And so just trying
- to understand sort of those two processes and where this fits in within that broader system
- Okay, so the your fiscal questions I'll let the controller address The one thing though that I do want
- to point out about work in general You know, it is challenging the way that we structure work and how
- we schedule opportunities to come to council to submit salary ordinance amendments if you think about
- like the timeline of it departments can
- have to go almost a year without adjusting their staffing, their structure, right sizing, adjusting
- duties over the course of a year. And so this mid-year work request, it would have been ideal if we
- would have had this done in the beginning of January, but because I had new staff and we have a new
- controller,
- We are just now getting to the point to where I can even submit something mid-year. I wish this would
- have happened sooner, right? And so I'll say that This is challenging the way we do things, but I'm
- just happy to at least be here for now The other thing that I can say is that I have not received work
- requests for 2027 so it is my understanding in the instruction that we receive from the office of the
- mayor that there would be
- no staffing adjustments or requests for 2027, especially considering budget constraints. And so I have
- not processed anything unless it comes my way sometime soon. I have not seen anything that would be
- presented to you related to staffing for 2027. That hasn't come my way yet, right? I don't know what
- will happen tomorrow, but as of right now. And so that's where we are today as far as the process. To
- my understanding about all the work that we did two years ago,
- All of the money that we were allocated to do this work, we used the money that we needed, right? What
- happened to the remaining balance? I don't know. I'm sure there is a great answer for that, but we didn't
- use it. HR did not use it for the purpose of the salary study and work, and so we understand now even
- that there are budget constraints now and going forward, so the primary focus of our work
- our work related to work is just to go back over the last two years and just re-evaluate what we did
- to see how we did to apply lessons learned. And whenever we get a little small window of opportunity
- like this mid-year work request to kind of correct some things, then we sneak in there, and that's what
- we try to do. But then I guess the reason I'm asking this specifically was that
- when we did the first salary adjustments, and this happened in a public meeting, so I guess I can repeat
- it, but we had city employees come to our meeting saying that they weren't adjusted, that their adjustment
- didn't work out, et cetera, but yet we haven't seen that then come through with this process. So how
- are we to interpret, are these WERK adjustments
- only to be seen in the sense that somebody's made those changes within the last year? Is that the window
- that... So it's not like a cumulative change. It's really just saying, look, this last year and moving
- forward, this is the change we wanna make. This isn't like us trying to catch up to mistakes or missing
- elements to the broader study that we did. Sure. The way that we approached that is if it was up to
- the department head.
- So if the department had felt like there was something that they wanted to present for a work request
- to be evaluated just as utilities and Public works and human resources then that would have been an
- opportunity For them to present it to us so that we can then do that research like we did for the other
- requests that were received Excellent. Thank you so much
- And but then the fiscal the fiscal question because particularly is this if I could get to the sort
- of gist of it it's do you feel in your in your professional opinion is When we're about to be under
- quite a lot of duress and the decisions that we're making Like is this reducing degrees of freedom is
- putting more duress on us and the decisions that we're gonna be making in the next few months about
- budget moving forward. Yeah so obviously anytime you increase
- Your salaries of permanent full-time staff you are creating a future burden There's no doubt about that
- because we don't ever Reduce salaries salaries only ratchet up. So that is certainly true now I will
- I will tell you that it is kind of awkward as Char mentioned in terms of the timing that
- We're going through this process or hopefully finalizing the work process at the exact same time that
- we're developing budgets for 2027 But I will tell you that through this work process. I have been working
- with the departments to when they get a When they have a request that to figure out how to reduce their 2027
- budget request as well. So, for example, the HR department, their budget request in the category three
- services has been reduced by $41,000, which more than covers this. And same thing with public works.
- That's the key thing that I want to jump. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Council Member
- Sosberg. Just a really quick one, and I think it might be for Controller McKim. In terms of these utilities
- positions, the first one is totally budget neutral because it's just
- Moving something then the second one we get money back and then so the third and fourth They end up
- Being costing a little bit more than the money that we got back from number two But the utilities department
- if I'm remembering right like has various financial streams So I'm wondering if three and four can actually
- be offset by number two or whether they're in different like divisions and they can't actually be
- Was afraid you were gonna ask me a utilities question Unfortunately, I don't have the same degree of
- kind of day-to-day access to the utilities Budgets that that I do to the rest of the civil city. So
- this would be a good group Assuming this goes to second reading that it would be good to get an explanation
- from the utilities finance staff That would be great. I'm just kind of curious about that. Thanks and
- this is is the is cat online or
- Yes, okay. Well, we'll go to to to director Ziegler and then and then we'll go to Council member Stasper.
- I'm sorry councilmember Rosenbacher. Yeah, so first to the directors a year Hi director Sager Catherine's
- a utilities director. Yeah so we can offset because these positions are Paid by all three funds because
- they all service
- Water wastewater and stormwater and so we split positions By those funds and so we can offset Certain
- positions you can't because they only serve water or wastewater or stormwater, but all of these positions
- are split the same way Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here to answer that. Thank you
- Councilman Rosenberger Hi, thank you. I have a question about the public works some of the public works jobs
- So the one that was supervising folks that are now going to a different place was that position resubmitted
- and reevaluated by HR to be in the proper spot. I'm sorry, I got my AirPods back in at just the wrong
- moment where it cut you off for just a second. Can you repeat that one? Yes, I'm asking if,
- So the position that is losing employees that it manages, was that position resubmitted to
- HR for reevaluation? I'm not sure if it was formally, no, it was not formally submitted, but as part
- of this evaluation, I think it was understood that their workload and responsibility level was changing
- over the last couple of years. And I'd also just wanna remind folks that
- until 2026 here, we only had one downtown specialist. It wasn't until 2026 that we actually added the
- second one. So it's just been since this year that we've added the second one, but over the last year
- and a half plus, we've been kind of transitioning these positions in the day-to-day operations because
- of just how we operate.
- And so no, it wasn't formally submitted for a reevaluation, but I can confidently tell you that their
- responsibility load has only increased and not decreased over the last several years. And even though
- Director Wason did not officially submit that position for reclassification, that is something that
- Human Resources would consider. So we looked at the position, and even though there was a change in
- the responsibilities, it wasn't significant enough. And normally, what we call...
- what we would qualify as significant would be if there was at least a 20% change in responsibilities
- that were completely taken away or if the changes in the job description changed the primary focus of
- the position. So even with making that adjustment, it didn't take away from the level of responsibility
- and the consequence of error and all the things that we look at for that other position in order to
- warrant it being reclassified or downgraded.
- Thank you. Thank you so much. Any other comments? All right, seeing none. We'll go to public comment.
- Is there anybody who'd like to make public comment on this piece of legislation? Is there anyone online?
- All right, keeping with our current pace any other comments or motions? Councilmember Piedmont Smith
- Yeah, I am
- I feel strongly that the fiscal impact should be calculated beyond the current fiscal year for any ordinances
- or other legislation that impacts salaries or category one expenses. So I'll put that request in with
- the controller because I mean when you look overall just using this year's salary scale the
- Total impact is forty three thousand two hundred forty seven dollars. That's quite a lot You know almost
- ten thousand in utilities, which of course is rate payer funded. That's different and thirty three thousand
- five hundred in The city of Bloomington budget. I'm not sure which fund probably the general fund But
- that you know, if you look at a cost of living increase that's that is going to amount to a lot of money
- over over the course of
- the coming years, so I think we need to be cognizant of that. I don't think that would cause me to Vote
- against the ordinance, but I think we do need to recognize that fact. Thank you Councilman Rosenberger
- Thank you, I understand that
- Ideally, this would have come in January or February, but we are two weeks away from budget hearings
- So for me, I don't like deciding this in a vacuum and I agree with councilmember Piedmont Smith that
- It's not just about the fiscal impact of this year So I would like to if this comes back for a second
- reading I would like to see the fiscal impact moving forward of these changes Thank you
- I actually have a have a just talking amongst us about about both of those comments. I mean I that was
- my initial feeling as well, but the one of the things that Controller McKim, I think made clear at least
- to me is that the fiscal impact moving forward Like it's it's hard. It's hard to think about it as impact
- per se because they can make cuts in other places and so like in many ways maybe it actually is
- nice that we're doing it now because we're saying, look, we'll adjust these positions knowing, I mean,
- whether they expect their budget to be $22,000 more next year because of this position, I guess, is
- the question that we'd like a solid answer to. But I think that
- The sense that I get also from seeing the way that budget memos are requested and the discussions that
- have gone on, my understanding is that there will be other cuts anyway. So I don't know if saying this
- will have this impact is gonna be a real indicator because they'll be cutting their budget in other
- ways, and I don't know if it's gonna be a one to, because they have this position that they're making
- the cuts. I think there will just be cuts. So I don't know how to think about the fiscal impact
- From that perspective, but I mean just just just for for discussion there Any other thoughts are yeah
- Because I would also kind of appreciate that fiscal impact into future years and maybe kind of in light
- of that it's maybe maybe thinking about fiscal impact a little differently is it's not necessarily how
- much more we're gonna spend but potentially what might need to be cut and
- Where are those cuts might happen? Especially because it's it's being discussed now so close to budget
- and that and I'm also saying that with with an understanding that I have that in a Huge number of ways
- the people who actually work for the city make the biggest impact and
- It's not necessarily always the tool that you have or the technology that you have. It is the person
- in the position, and I really value the people that are in the positions, especially the people who
- are doing great jobs, who are expanding things, who are really rocking it, and I want to keep those
- people, but I think that I would just appreciate having that greater kind of understanding going into
- future years. We either have to increase budget in this area
- or that department needs to decrease to compensate for the additional personnel expenses. And so having
- some kind of an understanding of how that might work for 2027 right now would be helpful, I think, next week.
- And actually said that way, I'd like to actually concur because, you know, thinking about it a little
- bit more, it's that we're making a choice, and I think the police is very clear on this, it's like we're
- making a choice to spend more money now and moving forward on a particular function. And I guess regardless
- of the fact that you might cut other places where we're saying that we value, you know, this administrative
- load and that we're going to continue to do that. So that reflection would be useful. I do agree with
- my colleagues.
- Any other comments or is there a motion? To send ordinance 2026 dash 17 to a second reading on August
- 5th There's motion a second any discussion on the motion seeing none will the clerk please call the
- roll Yes Rosenberger yes Flaherty Stasberg yes, Pete Monsmith. Yes
- Zulik Sorry, yes and daily. Yes. Thank you very much. We'll discuss that next week. Thank you so much
- for your time All right. We'll now move on to our last item of legislative. Well, I mean maybe Are there
- any motions? I move that ordinance 20 26-15 be introduced and read by the clerk by title and synopsis
- only Motion and second any discussion on the motion? All right seeing none. Well the clerk was called
- the role Rosenberger
- Yes. Flaherty? Yes. Stasberg? Yes. Piedmont Smith? Yes. Zulek? Yes. Asari? Yes. Daly? Yes. Amarillo?
- Yes. Will the clerk please read? Okay. Ordinance 2026-15, amended Title II of the Bloomington Municipal
- Code regarding establishment of the Fire and Merit Commission. One second. The synopsis is,
- As follows this ordinance amends title 2 of the Bloomington Municipal Code to delineate the duties between
- the Bloomington Board of Public Safety and the City of Bloomington Fire and Merit Commission and to
- create a new chapter which identifies the existence of the statutorily created City of Bloomington Fire
- and Merit Commission. Fantastic. I move that ordinance 2026-15 be adopted.
- Fantastic. All right. Well, mr. Wheeler, you can give the world's shortest presentation if you'd like
- to Doesn't have to be it could be long I guess but just Good evening, Chris Wheeler with city legal
- department. I Watched the show last week and I Don't know that I can do any better than mr. Allen in
- the presentation I will say to the council that
- Historically first reading was a Non-issue and it just happened as a matter of course, so I did not
- show up last week I had been told that the process had changed and then promptly forgot so I apologize
- For not being here last week, and I certainly want to thank mr. Allen for his wonderful presentation
- but moving forward this is in fact as the synopsis says an opportunity to
- Present to the Bloomington Municipal Code the fact that there is a fire merit commission that was established
- by Operation of law it was established on January 1st of 2025 We have had meetings it is up and running
- but if you were to go to the Bloomington Municipal Code you would not see it and In fact, you would
- only still be laboring under an impression that the Board of Public Safety is the board that does the
- hiring promotion and
- Discipline of the fire department members, which in fact is wrong So it makes sense to go ahead today
- and update the code at title two by doing two things first of all showing that delineation within the
- existing code with regards to the Board of Public Safety to show that they do not Have the authority
- and control anymore over the hiring promotion and discipline of fire members and
- and then also to create a whole new section in Bloomington Municipal Code under Title II, which expresses
- the fact that we do have a Fire Merit Commission and breaks down basically its powers, expressing how
- many members there are in that commission, what their terms are, who appoints them, things like that.
- So I'm happy to answer questions, but it seems pretty self-explanatory, but happy to take a question
- or two. Thank you very much. Any questions?
- Alright, we'll go to public comment. Does anyone like would anyone like to comment on ordinance 2026
- 15? Is there anyone online? All right back to council any comments Any motions In the committee on council
- processes we've been toying with the idea of a
- Consent agenda and this seems like a good example of an item that could be on a consent agenda Thank
- you and with that any motions. Oh Yeah, yeah Yes, we did actually and nothing happened I know All right.
- Well with that will the clerk please call the roll? Flaherty Stasburg Piedmont Smith
- Yes, Zulik, Azari. Yes. Daly? Yes. Rollo? Yes. And Rosenberger? Yes. Hooray. All right. Thank you very
- much, Mr. Wheeler. That passes. We'll now move on to our final period of public comment. Is there anyone
- who would like to make public comment? Just for fun? No? No? I mean, sure.
- This is the first time we've never at this. I feel like what what is this anybody online? All right.
- Well with that we'll go to issues of council schedule Anybody have an issue that you'd like to raise
- at this moment? Well, great. All right, then we're adjourned. We'll see you guys next week