- everyone it is Mayor Kerry and I am here tonight feels a little bit like we have reentered COVID land
- so thank you for rejoining us on on zoom we will try to make this as warm and welcoming as we possibly
- can and with that said if you need captions they are they are
- on, but you need to click on the bottom of your screen to turn them on on your screen. So we have enabled
- them, but each individual Zoom user needs to have them show for your personal screen. So if you are
- in need of those captions, please go ahead and do that. I want to take a minute to welcome Catherine
- Zager, who is our
- Director of the City of Bloomington Utilities, as well as Council Member Isabel Piedmont-Smith, who
- are both joining today. For those of you who haven't been to a town hall before, I'll go over the format
- and I'll do a little bit of orienting to how we'll do this on Zoom tonight. I'll give you a brief update.
- on the city from where I sit, and then I'll ask Catherine to do the same on utilities, and then Council
- Member Piedmont-Smith will give us an update as well. As you know, we were supposed to be at the Frank
- Southern Ice Rink tonight. Instead, our entire city has turned into the ice rink, and so I hope you
- all have enjoyed
- the Winter Wonderland. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. I am welcoming you to chat
- our hosts with questions once the updates conclude. If you can hold your questions until we're done
- with updates, our facilitators will be much more able to digest those questions in real time.
- and be able to answer those better. The panel will respond and answer to those questions. I want to
- just say that usually during our town halls, especially if we have a crowd about this size, we try to
- open up the mic and have a more conversational tone.
- It's a little harder on Zoom. So we'll do more of a Q&A format. And we do commit to keeping these to
- an hour. So these are not some prolonged city meeting that some of you may be used to. This is a one
- hour, come hear what's happening and get your questions answered. So I just wanna start with a shout
- out to our crews, Public Works and Parks.
- street utilities, sanitation, all these folks and fleet who have been out clearing roads and helping
- to keep people safe. We went down to 20% on our crews overnight last night and then came back at full
- force this morning at 6 a.m. ready to get started again. I want to say an extra special thank you to
- CBU that brought
- extra equipment downtown and so that we could load up dump trucks with snow and move it off the downtown
- streets. And of course, police and fire were on duty all night and throughout the winter weather. And
- we were even able to offer some assists to the hospital that was needing some transport of their critical
- personnel during the snow.
- Make a special comment because there seems to be misunderstanding every time it snows. Property owners
- are responsible for clearing their sidewalks. That means businesses and residents. And so the downtown
- sidewalks, whatever is in front of your business, please get that cleared. Homeowners as well, get those
- cleared, landlords, etc.
- We do have a Snow Buddies program where able-bodied volunteers sign up to help their neighbors. So if
- you are physically unable to clear that snow, please check out that program. And if you are physically
- able to clear snow and you know you have neighbors who are less able, please consider taking time to
- knock on those doors and check on your neighbors and help them clear that snow.
- I want to just transition a little bit to talking about where we are at the beginning of this year.
- Over the last year, many of you have commented the same thing, that you see me out in the community,
- and that's what this administration is all about. We knock doors, we show up to
- meetings and community gatherings and that's that matters a lot to me because listening is where good
- government begins and we listen first then we discern then we lead forward with an action plan so that
- we can deliver results to the community and that the number one
- result that we are driving towards right now is housing attainability and you see that happening in
- several different ways but most tangibly we are really looking forward to groundbreaking in Hopewell
- by September 2026. You may already see some earth moving and the core building is moving along but we
- will get moving in earnest on that south side development
- in late summer early fall. We will do the south Hopewell first and then there are at least two more
- phases after that. Ultimately what we're shooting for is that housing doesn't stall between steps. So
- we are in the process of developing Hopewell we are learning a lot about
- where our planning and zoning misses some beats and could be a lot more efficient and the communication
- could be a lot better throughout departments. It is confusing to say the least and what that means is
- a cumbersome process for people who want to get housing built. When we increase supply, of course, we
- can help drive
- the cost of housing down. But really what we need is ultimately to prepare for the generation we already
- have here as well as the generations to come. We know we have people who really want to live in Bloomington
- and they cannot afford to live here, and some of them just simply can't find units to live in here.
- For more on housing and homelessness, I really wanna direct you to our housing and homelessness report
- that we released in November of 2025. That is a large document. We've done our best to sort of simplify
- it, but you can find a lot more details on how the entire city is working on housing and homelessness
- in that document. I'm gonna try to breeze through my next updates.
- Economic development, our goal there is to grow our workforce population and to grow wages so that we
- can reinforce our economic base. Some folks say, why are you focused on economic development? We have
- people who can't afford to live here. These two things go hand in hand.
- In order to really create the housing we need, in order to meet the needs of people who are unable to
- meet their basic needs, we also need active economic development because that grows the pie of what
- we are able to offer. Specifically, you may have seen a press release that I did about the
- about the College Square property and really making that actionable into economic development. That
- property's taxes go directly into our TIF, and that TIF funds lots of affordable housing for us.
- In fact, it's the primary driver that we have been using at Hopewell and that we will be using at the
- summit development.
- We'll continue to support the Convention Center. We are eager to get a new hotel built wherever the
- CIB ends up landing with that. And the Convention Center, of course, is proceeding really well. Trades
- District also is actually developing really quickly, the public arts going up, culture programming,
- new employers, a new hotel there.
- There's a lot of vibrancy in our downtown and reinvestment in Bloomington happening right now. I'm going
- to give an update quickly on public and community safety. We are fully staffed in fire. We had a total
- of 272 applicants and reached full staffing in September of 2025.
- We anticipate police will be fully staffed by the end of this calendar year. We are working really hard
- towards smarter responses, which means that we're matching the right tool to the right call. We're doing
- a lot of publicity on Stride, which is our alternative response. If you don't know about Stride, ask
- me about it.
- during the Q&A because I can talk for a while about stride. That is our crisis center and a call to
- stride gets mental health support and crisis support. We are having fewer unnecessary police responses
- and we believe that increased use of stride will result in better outcomes for people who are experiencing
- crisis. Overall,
- our crime decreased by 6.4% and BPD service calls increased 5.9%, which continued a five-year upward
- trend this year. So we have to drive those alternative responses so that we can get a good balance of
- getting people what they need.
- In 2025, we also targeted several different things that have been plaguing our community, not just ours,
- but throughout Indiana and the nation. Of course, those come in the form of fentanyl at times, which
- has killed a number of people in our community. We have seized multiple pounds of narcotics this year.
- Our police have been working hard not to get the end user, but instead to work up the chain on people
- who are really preying on folks that are vulnerable and are experiencing substance use disorder. So
- we want to get as high up that dealer chain as we possibly can. And our police have been slow and patient
- in working through that so that we can help the people in crisis and cut off the supply.
- We've recovered multiple firearms and stolen vehicles this year, and all of this has contributed to
- about a 43% reduction in crimes involving weapons over the course of the past year. I want to take a
- minute to address FLOC cameras. FLOC has been in the news recently. I want to give credit to Isabel
- Piedmont-Smith, the council member who's on the call today.
- who has helped bring this to the administration's attention. We use flock cameras to support targeted
- investigations. We don't use them for general patrol. The use is limited and governed locally. And we
- have the very tightest controls on our flock systems now, where our flock cameras are only directly accessed
- by BPD and you have to have a case number, an active case number to query any flock system. And so that
- means that an outside system could query if a license plate was used here, but they would have to be
- a law enforcement system.
- We are in discussions with FLOC to make sure that we are protecting civil liberties here and that we
- are locking down this information to the best of our abilities. I'm taking this very seriously and it
- is our intention to ensure that law enforcement, including ICE, cannot access our data.
- under any circumstances. And so we're meeting with Flock in middle of February and plan to keep the
- public updated on those findings and our process. The Flock company is experiencing a lot of feedback
- from the public. That is valuable because it puts a lot of pressure on them to secure their data.
- And that needs to be a constant process for them, especially in this day and age where we see that our
- federal government can turn against its own citizens, especially when it comes to ICE. So we're taking
- the FLOC investigation very seriously and we'll be meeting with that company in about a month's time.
- I'm going to stop my updates because I've taken long enough and I know there'll be plenty of, sorry,
- and Deputy Dog would like to have a voice in the town hall tonight, I guess. I want to make sure that
- Catherine and Isabel both have their opportunity to give some updates and we have plenty of time for
- questions and answers.
- In closing, I'll just say that my priorities are not separate. They act as really a whole cloth approach
- to a thriving community. And I'm really delighted to see how many people are logged on tonight and engaged
- for another town hall. And we will continue to do these. Catherine, I'm gonna turn it over to you for
- a utilities update while I silence my microphone and deputy dog.
- Good evening, everyone. Catherine Zegar, Utilities Director. We've just got a few updates from CBU that
- I would like to let everyone know about. So our first update, I wanted to talk a little bit about our
- service line inventory. And so that is specifically
- we're inventorying looking for lead service lines. So what we're doing is we're proactively identifying
- unknown water service line materials as part of our ongoing lead service line replacement program. This
- work helps CBU meet the EPA's lead and copper rule requirements. And so our drinking water is lead free.
- Lead can enter water after it leaves the main through older service lines, indoor plumbing, or fixtures.
- So there have been recent updates that also require utilities to build a comprehensive service line
- inventory and notify customers about known or potential lead lines. Some folks may have already received
- a notice. We sent those out last year. If you haven't received one, you may receive one soon. And so
- we're asking for resident participation in our lead service line inventory.
- So if your service line material is listed as unknown, we're asking for your help in identifying it,
- which we have some helpful instructions on our website at bloomington.in.gov slash utilities slash inventory.
- When you go to that website, you can click on the button that says Submit Service Line Composition.
- And when you do,
- There will be a link to an interactive tool that actually was put together by NPR, which can help you
- identify your private service line if you can identify it within your basement or where your water shutoff is.
- The more customer participation we have with us, it'll help us update our records faster, thus prioritizing
- work more efficiently and reducing the time that it takes to complete our inventory citywide. Yeah,
- so that's lead service line.
- Next, I just wanted to update everyone about our financial assistance program. I've talked a couple
- times about how we were looking at how to update and expand our program to better support residents.
- And so we have implemented that at the beginning of this year. And so the reason for doing this is because
- we budgeted $100,000 each year for assistance, but not all of that was being used.
- What these changes are doing, they're meant to remove barriers and help make it easier to access. Some
- of the changes are that previously, customers receiving direct payment assistance had to pay two bills
- after every three months of support. Now customers can receive assistance consecutively as long as they
- reapply and continue to meet our eligibility requirements.
- Previously, customers had to apply before being shut off. That requirement has been removed, and now
- eligible customers can now apply even after disconnection, as long as they still meet the program
- requirements to have service restored. So just how to apply. You can start applying with South Central
- Community Action Program at civiform.bloomington.in.gov.
- programs slash water assistance. Really, I think if you just Google CBU assistance, you should be able
- to find it. And so even if you don't qualify through SCAP,
- It's important to note that households with total annual income at or below 300% of the federal poverty
- guidelines may still qualify, even if you don't qualify for other programs through SCAP. So you may
- still qualify for direct financial assistance. And so we're hoping that these changes will encourage
- folks to reach out as early as possible if they know they need help,
- because we're definitely here. So that's our financial assistance program. I have two more updates.
- Sorry. Our next update, I just wanted to give kind of a general update about the status of fluoride.
- Last time we had this town hall, we were exploring some options. We were exploring relining the current
- tank. What we've decided to go with is a temporary system.
- We removed the bulk tank that was leaking after it was determined that relining it was not going to
- be effective. We've installed our temporary system, which has already received approval from IDEM. What
- we're waiting on now is a single part for a day tank and to confirm that it's running smoothly.
- It should be done very soon. I feel comfortable saying that we should be able to have fluoride by the
- end of this month, checking the date. I feel very comfortable saying that we should be able to have
- fluoride again by the end of the month. Once we've gotten the system fully tested,
- and we are up and running, we'll release a press release for the public to make sure that everyone's
- informed and knows that it's back in our drinking water. Then finally, I just wanted to address just
- some general information about main breaks. We've had quite a few main breaks recently, and that is
- something that typically happens when you see big swings in the temperature.
- And so the temperature fluctuations is specifically freezing and thawing cycles. They cause the ground
- to move. And then combined with that, the age of the infrastructure, any sudden rapid changes in water
- pressure, any kind of issues with the pipes, or even ground disturbances can all contribute to main breaks.
- And so some people ask, what can we do to prevent them? So the truth is no utility can really prevent
- all breaks, but proactive maintenance and infrastructure investment can help reduce their frequency
- and severity. CBU does this by tracking main break data to identify trouble spots and prioritize our
- water main replacement projects.
- The current capital improvement plan used to inform the ongoing water rate case allocates $19.8 million
- to replacing aging water mains and servicing valves. So when they break, how are they fixed? I just
- in general want to let folks know big shout out to our crews right now who are fixing these main breaks
- and these freezing temperatures.
- In most cases, when our crews dig up the main to fix it, they do what's called a full seal clamp over
- the pipe to stop the leak. Sometimes when you have more severe breaks, they may require the removal
- and replacement of the whole section of pipe. And then once the repair is made either through the clamp
- or replacing the pipe,
- The line is flushed at the nearest hydrant or house and then the water is tested, especially if pressure
- was lost. Just to make sure that it's meeting all of our standards. And so those are all of my updates
- from CBU. Thanks Kat, appreciate that. Notable that there's only
- I don't know, four days left in January, and you think that fluoride will be back in our water by the
- end of January. So thanks for all your hard work on that. Isabel, would you like to provide some council
- updates? Well, thank you very much. Glad to be here and to see a few dozen people on the call. Always
- good to see people, especially from District 1. Go District 1.
- But I actually, I don't have very many updates. The council has not done a whole lot yet. We're just,
- you know, we have new leadership. This is here with Isak Asari being the new council president, and
- Sidney Zulik, the new vice president. I wanted to speak just for a moment about community. And I don't,
- I don't know about
- you all, but I've been watching what's unfolding in Minneapolis, and it is shocking. And I think no
- matter what your politics are, it is shocking and disturbing to see federal agents in a city and that
- much fighting and violence occurring. And I think it just reminds us all to
- that our local relationships are so important and knowing and being there for our neighbors and supporting
- each other and building the trust between local government and the population we serve is so vital.
- And I think that's what we're trying to do with these town halls. And I really have seen a lot of support
- just with the severe weather we've had.
- with the emergency winter shelter, people helping each other shovel out their cars. We have such a great
- community and those are the bonds that are going to help us into the future as the federal situation
- is more and more uncertain. And so I just wanted to, you know, it's kind of the elephant in the room
- for people who have been following the news that it's been very disturbing. So I just wanted to
- get that out there that we know that it affects everybody, not just the people in Minnesota.
- So thank you. I'm here mainly to listen. Thanks, Isabelle. Thanks for addressing those ICE actions in
- Minnesota where they have
- they've murdered two US citizens, and those were federal agents that did that. So disturbing on many,
- many fronts. And I am hearing from residents who are disturbed about this. For those of you who don't
- know, I am advocating that you call your federal representatives before they vote on the DHS bill.
- That's the Department of Homeland Security Bill, which funds ICE that is happening this week. I have
- called our reps. I will be on the Hill later this week. I will be addressing this with them. Our community
- does not support this and we need to be assured that our federal government is actually on the side of
- the US people and I think many of us are losing faith in that through these actions that we've seen
- with ICE. On that very happy note, I just want to open it up for people to submit questions that you'd
- like us to address. While you're submitting questions, I'll just say that
- A winter storm like the one we have just had is an opportunity for us to see how many helpers there
- really are and that Bloomington really is, as Council Member Piedmont-Smith just mentioned, a special
- island of peace and caring where sometimes
- sometimes we can lose track of that. But I really hope that we can continue to be that for one another
- and to help everyone in our community know that there are neighbors here that want them here and that
- will continue to help take care of them. Desiree, do we have any questions submitted yet?
- Not yet, but if you do have a question, the best opportunity is to chat one of your hosts, depending
- on who you want to direct your question to, whether that's Catherine, Councilmember Piedmont-Smith,
- or Mayor Carrie Thompson in the chat. Okay, we've got one that it reads,
- Good evening, I appreciate this time to be in conversation. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on how
- we as a community benefit from being surveilled by FLOC. How this benefit outweighs what feels like
- substantial risks to safety. The program has been rejected or canceled in at least 23 communities, including
- Austin, Cambridge, Eugene. Yeah, thank you for this question, Jean. We, so,
- Just so you know, FLOC is not a surveillance system. It captures license plates. So we're not keeping
- data on people and their actions. And our data is deleted after 30 days. FLOC has been really instrumental in our
- community in child abductions, in solving murders, and endangered missing elders. It has been an important
- tool in helping to solve things very quickly. You ask a good question, what is the benefit and how does
- it outweigh the risk?
- Those are the benefits. As your mayor, I don't want to look in the eyes of somebody who is missing a
- loved one and say, we unilaterally said we weren't going to use technology that was available to us
- without checking to see if we can
- more formally secure this data. Right now we have the strictest data agreement with Flock that exists.
- And so again, we can only, you need a case number and it needs to be a law enforcement entity with a
- case number to get anything from Flock and all it will tell you is if a license plate has been in the
- community. So again,
- Taking this very seriously, Jean and others who may be listening on the call, if you have ideas for
- how to make this safer, I want to tell you it's a concern of mine too. I'm happy to meet and talk about
- what your ideas are and what we need to be asking for from FLOC if we continue to use it.
- I thought I saw other things popping up, but I don't have here. Nicholas and Helen asked,
- Hasn't the city technically increased housing supply with the abundance of rather unattractive apartment
- complexes throughout Bloomington? How do you think that increasing the supply is going to have an impact
- on affordability? We're considering some form of rent control or something more radical to truly impact
- the issue with affordability. Thanks for this question. I'm going to take this and Catherine or Isabelle,
- if you want to chime in, just give me a signal.
- Just providing increased supply is not affecting the cost of housing at this point. And so we need to
- do more than just increasing supply. And part of the critical nature of what we're doing at Hopewell
- is that we are creating ownership opportunities that, and we are in the process of building some recapture
- Models into that so that we don't have steeply escalating prices there. Hopewell has house models that
- we believe will sell for as low as $83,000 and that's owner occupied. That is a very modestly sized
- house, just a few hundred square feet. Those models go all the way up to about 2700 square feet, and
- as you can expect,
- the more square feet and the more complex the house, the more expensive it is. We have to do some layering
- to get the affordability that we're really looking at. Part of what we are really up against is that
- the market has been really good for student development. I think it'll continue to be good for student
- development.
- unattractive apartment complexes I think you probably are referring to and you know those student
- developments rent by the bedroom and they continue even with vacancies they continue to not be affordable.
- So we really want to drive towards something that that is attainable for people and and
- That will have to also include, even in the face of voucher cuts and other things, working creatively
- with Bloomington Housing Authority and others to create truly affordable housing. On the topic of rent
- control, rent control is illegal in the state of Indiana, so that has been legislated through our state
- house. Now is a good time to note that
- The State House does an awful lot of work that limits what we are able to do at the municipal level,
- including rent control.
- It also implemented a bill last year called SEA-1 and that is, it's being sold as a reduction in taxes
- for our residents. But in fact, what is gonna happen to most is that they will see an increase in total
- tax amount as taxes are redirected to the state. And those with the most expensive or highest value
- property are gonna see more deduction than those with modestly priced property.
- So I think I have answered the layers of question there. Oh, this is a. Can I add something, Carrie?
- Yes. So yeah, preemption by the state government is a big problem when we try to address the housing
- crisis. One thing that we have done recently in the City Council is to pass
- a revision to our incentives. So we can't require affordable housing to be built, but we can offer incentives
- to developers to say, okay, if you build affordable housing, we'll let you increase density or increase
- the height of your project. And the definition of what we consider affordable has recently been revised.
- So it used to be 100
- of area median income that somebody who earned 120% of median income would spend 30% of that on housing.
- And that's how we determined that that was affordable. Now, that never made much sense, I think, because
- 120% is more than the average median income. So we have decreased that down to 90%. And then for a tier
- two for added incentives,
- some of the housing has to be 70%. So for the basic incentive, it has to be 15% of the housing units
- have to be at 90% of area median income affordable. And for the tier two, which is even more height
- or density, I think 7% have to be at 90% area median income and 8% have to be at 70% area median income.
- So we're trying
- to at least make our incentives make more sense to provide really accessible housing. Yeah, thank you
- for that Isabelle and I'll note that we have a good percentage of units at Hopewell even
- even owner-occupied that are going to be attainable at less than 80 percent of the area median income.
- I think something like 76 percent of them will be attainable at less than 100 percent of the area median
- income. It's a complex puzzle. This is something that both council and the administration are working on really
- maybe we shouldn't say in lockstep because we have different parts of that that we work on, but we all
- have the same goal. I'm really appreciative to council that they've been working on this a long time
- and the complexity of getting legislation right and getting in the end the programs right on
- the administration side can be really tricky. It's great to have
- phenomenal partners on council that are working for the good of our residents. The next question is
- from Janeth Welch. Sorry if I'm not pronouncing your name right. Has the city had any conversations
- with the county commissioners or council members about a location for the new jail, especially any properties
- the city owns?
- So I'm not sure what timeline this is referring to because as most of us know, the jail has been a very
- long conversation. And so yes, the city has, I have had conversations with both commissioners and council
- members about jail locations. I'll just say briefly that
- My personal opinion is that the jail does not need to be downtown. There's no jail visitation, so it
- doesn't need to necessarily be on a bus line. Most of that staff actually eats in the cafeteria. They
- have a great cafeteria at the jail. The Justice Building is another issue though. The Justice Building,
- of course, many, many people have to come to the Justice Building
- for many reasons. It is really important that that is in a central area, on a bus line, etc. Where the
- county is now with the jail, we had thought that North Park was totally off the table. Recent comments
- from commissioners have made it sound like maybe it's not. I'll just insert my personal opinion now
- on the jail.
- which is that we really, I believe in a government that really values every dollar that we have. And
- I think building a mega jail,
- in this day and age is not in anybody's best interest. And we would be much better served as a community
- to build just the jail that we need and to ensure that we really are using whatever other dollars and
- expertise we can to do recovery services and diversion programs. So that's my two cents on the jail and
- I have heard a plethora of different properties discussed, so I'm not really sure where they are right
- now. Let's see. This is from Ann Edmonds. My house was one of the ones chosen to complete the survey
- on the new parks and rec master plan. Will there be other opportunities for community input?
- I'm really concerned about the possibility that we may lose our city pools. Swimming is a survival skill
- unlike other sports that the city supports. Thank you for your comment, Ann. I actually don't know about
- other opportunities to input on the parks master plan, but I will say that I
- I also agree with you. As you know, Anne, I am a lifelong swimmer and it is a survival skill. It also
- has been shown in multiple studies that public pools are essential for community fabric, really, that
- vibrant cities tend to have at least one. Where we are with parks right now is that we really need to
- be great stewards of what we have already invested in. And so the Parks Master Plan, the process has
- been about really ensuring that we have good fiscal planning for maintenance and upkeep of the parks,
- which of course we treasure. For a city our size, we have just
- a wealth of parks and they're excellent. I will say that both pools are in need of a lot of repairs.
- We may come to a point as a city where we can afford to have one public pool, but not two. That decision
- hasn't been made. I am just being realistic that we have state cuts
- are with us. We already have a lot to maintain. And so we will be having to make some hard decisions,
- not just about parks, about many, many things in the coming years, unless we can get the State House
- to reverse what they have already done. And they are talking about some added amendments. So then this is
- I don't know if it's a comment or a question, but from Christopher MG, from a business and workforce
- perspective, predictability matters. As the city looks ahead, how does the mayor and council plan to
- improve clarity, flexibility, and timelines in policies like the UDO and permitting processes so Bloomington
- can be actually open for business for private investment? Christopher, I'll answer from
- the Mayor's perspective and then Council Member Pumon-Smith can answer from the Council's perspective,
- I'm sure. As you know, we are going through an audit process with our permitting right now. We're in
- desperate need of complete reform in our permitting process. As we look to the UDO and some changes
- we'd like to make there,
- What is essential to me is that we are driving the UVDO to be easy to develop good things and hard to
- develop bad things. That's the general principle that we are shooting for. An easy means that it should
- be a fast track. It should not take 18 months to get a permit in the city of Bloomington. Some of what
- we deal with,
- by trying to do the right thing is that we add layers and layers and layers of complexity onto our zoning
- code. And then it's very hard to figure out how to get something done. So my hope is that in making
- some tweaks to the UDO and through this permitting process, we can actually simplify things rather than
- make them more complex. And my goal is to get to a place where you can get
- most residential permits within 30 days. That should be doable. If you're doing just a single infill
- lot without any variances, we should be able to get you in and out. That's the goal. That's what we're
- working towards, and I think that's going to make a better Bloomington for all of us. Isabel, I'll let
- you comment on that as well. Well,
- First of all, I want to say Bloomington is open for business, and we do have a lot of investments in
- economic development through the city, through the BDC, through Mr. MG's organization, the Chamber.
- And the trades district has really come a long way in the last few years. And so I think there is a
- lot of movement in that area. And so I would challenge you, if you think Bloomington is unfriendly for business,
- We certainly have tried very hard to listen to the business community, and I think we invest a lot there.
- One other thing I'll add to what Mayor Thompson said is that in addition to the permitting review and
- making that more efficient, the Hopewell South PUD proposal actually offers
- pre-approved plans for building different types of housing. And I think this will be very useful, especially
- for smaller scale developers to just take a plan off the shelf and say, yes, in this block, we're going
- to build these five houses and we're going to, you know, do three of this kind, two of this kind. And
- that's already been approved. So that'll make development there much better. And I appreciate the mayor
- bringing in Flintlock Labs
- Is that right? To create that proposal and we'll be seeing that in the City Council probably in March
- or April. It's exciting. I don't know if there's a question in here, Paul, or not, but I'll read your
- comment. Carrie, I'm dismayed to hear that you prioritize growth because I think that prosperity through
- growth is a myth.
- Growth is ecologically unsustainable and it promotes inequality. Supply and demand does not explain
- the rising cost of housing and increasing supply will not be the cure. For the people who live here
- now, we already have inadequate city services with regard to public safety, sewer and stormwater management,
- street maintenance, et cetera. We do not need more people. So Paul, I'm happy to address your concerns
- and happy to have a conversation with you.
- I will say that Bloomington's population has actually declined. What we're seeing now is that we have
- better than 70 percent of our workforce is coming from outside of the county traveling in. That is definitely
- ecologically unsustainable. What we are seeing is that
- that now especially with SEA-1 in place, the way that municipalities will be able to fund their public
- services is actually through income tax. It's not through property tax. The fewer people that we have
- living here, the worse those services are going to be. Particularly if you look at a development like
- like the Hopewell neighborhood, you're actually investing a very small amount in infrastructure development
- and roads per home and per person that's there. This is one of the most sustainable things that I think
- we can do. Happy to talk to you offline about that or answer further questions.
- Um, and let's see, um, KRKCP, you have a, um, this is, uh, I think a long comment. Uh, uh, this is,
- this is, uh, many paragraphs long, so I'm not gonna read the entire thing. It's, uh, uh, it surrounds, um,
- Oh, audits. And the general feedback is that the timing of audits makes audited financial data largely
- historical. Yes. So for whomever this is,
- think it might be, Kevin. As you probably already know, my administration came in and there
- were significantly delayed audits. We have been catching up on those and we have made a great amount
- of progress with those. We are waiting on, as you know, it looks like you are
- Yes, you're a long time CPA. So you know that they have to be sequential. You can't put all the audits
- together at once. And so we're waiting for the auditor to return the next audit. And then the one following
- is ready to go. And then at that point, we should be pretty well caught up.
- We are working on it. It's a concern of mine as well. But I do want you to know that we have really
- gained a lot of ground in the timing of these and in the transparency, especially the transparency between
- Between the controller's office and the rest of the administration and therefore to counsel as well.
- Council, I think, is getting much better and timelier financial information and a lot of behind the
- scenes that
- that is not always easy to digest. The way that local governments do finances, we have a general fund,
- then we have several bonds and other things that we manage. I know you're a CPA, but to my knowledge,
- we don't have any CPAs on council and the general public are not CPAs. We are really working hard in
- my administration to be as transparent as possible with our finances.
- and really get them to a place where they're palatable and digestible for the general public. Desiree,
- can you see all of these comments? Are we missing anything? Isabel, did you want to comment at all on
- the audits, financials, anything? Well, I think that we do need to get on a better schedule with our audits,
- As you said, Mayor Thompson, your administration had some catching up to do because of the previous
- administration. So I think we're getting there. We're getting to a better place. And we have a fiscal
- committee now with the council where the comptroller meets with us regularly. And we're trying to get
- on a path of more reporting and a better understanding since it is our fiduciary responsibility to approve budgets.
- I think we are learning a lot and heading in the right direction. Thank you. Thanks, Isabelle. This
- is from Sam Dove, wanting to know the status for county homeless camp at RCA Park. Sam, as you say,
- that encampment is actually not at RCA Park, but it is adjacent.
- and that is on county property and so the county many of us have seen the county has talked about that
- at various commissioner meetings we're trying hard to partner with the county so that we have sort of a
- a shared understanding of when camps need to be moved, the best way to do it. At the city, we took the
- recommendations of heading home and the South Central Housing Network two years ago when I first took
- office. We incorporated those into our procedures for when a camp does need to be moved. That creates
- a lot of transparency and also
- frankly, it has helped a lot just to have something people can anticipate. What we do is unless there's
- an immediate risk to health and safety, and I will say that generally, there are health risks of living
- in an encampment. We're talking about more safety risks.
- then we give a 30-day notice and we immediately deploy as many services as possible to get people relocated.
- We keep belongings, etc. so that we can do this with as much dignity as possible. Ultimately, I want
- to share that my vision is that we will get to be a Bloomington where nobody has to sleep outside.
- that everybody is offered a roof over their head. That is what we need to work towards as a community,
- and we really need all the boats rowing in the same direction. I will note that there is some legislation
- at the State House. I don't know if it got heard today because I have been a little tied up today, but
- this legislation is regarding encampments and some of it is actually helpful. But there's a clause in
- that legislation that says that camps need to be moved within 48 hours and that will override
- any municipalities existing policies. I've been working with the legislators that are writing this bill,
- pretty intensively over the last couple of weeks. There've been many improvements, but I still have
- a problem with that particular part of that legislation because especially in a large encampment, it
- is impossible to move people with dignity within 48 hours. That piece of the legislation is concerning.
- We are at 6.58. Desiree, have you seen anything that I'm missing?
- I am seeing one more question. It's from an anonymous participant. Is the cited 70% of the working population
- coming from outside of Monroe County or outside of Bloomington and possibly living within Monroe County?
- What is the current population of Bloomington and how much has it decreased since 2020?
- Okay, so the current population of Bloomington is about 80,000 the school population, we know is decreasing
- because they actually keep track of that and and it has been a challenge.
- The 70 percent is from an ROI study. I believe you can probably find that on their site, and that is
- from outside the county, not outside the city. I do see one more question that I think we can wiggle
- in. The Bloomington Symphony had a wonderful concert at Switchyard Pavilion. However, the chairs at
- the event were exceedingly uncomfortable. Does the Parks Department have any plans to replace those
- chairs? That is a question I do not know the answer to.
- But I saw a symphony performance and those chairs did look uncomfortable and probably we are dealing
- with skating a line between comfort, ease of cleaning, and transportability, if that's a word, when
- it comes to parks chairs for performances. So we may need some of those
- Bloomington innovators to create a comfortable performance chair that's easy to clean and move away.
- All right, that brings us to seven o'clock. I really appreciate all of you all joining on Zoom. I hope you're
- wearing your PJs and have a nice cup of tea in front of you and this was comfortable for you all. For
- any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to me at mayor at bloomington.in.gov. You can
- also feel free to call our office.
- Really appreciate you all being here with us tonight. We will do another traveling town hall in March.
- I can't remember where that one is, but I'm sure it's set and it will be announced. And on the months
- that I don't do traveling town halls, I do traveling office hours. And so I will be out and about in
- the community. That's your opportunity to sit down with me one-on-one and get your
- questions answered, discuss some of these things. So in February, look for that announcement. Sign up
- ahead of time so that you don't have to stand and wait. Have a great night everyone. And if I may, I
- also have my constituent meetings on the second Saturday of the month from 11 to 12. And those will
- be on Zoom all year except for July. So you can go to the City Council website and get the link there. Awesome.
- Thank you, Catherine and Isabelle for joining the town hall. You all are awesome. Have a good night,
- everyone. Thank you.