I'm Deputy Mayor Gretchen Knapp, and thank you so much for being here tonight. I also want to thank
Kathleen Bennett, our ASL interpreter, who will be with us tonight. Tonight is our chance to get an
update on what work is happening across the city and what are the opportunities that we can all look
forward to. To begin tonight's festivities, we will start with the presentation of colors by the Bloomington
Fire and Police Departments, followed by the National Anthem, performed by Officer Caleb Brinson.
Officer Brinson joined the Bloomington Police Department in May of last year. His time as a student
at Indiana University and his experiences in our wonderful city of Bloomington shaped a lasting connection
to the city, one that led him to serve it. And we're very grateful for that service. Please rise for
the Color Guard and the National Anthem.
You'll live, right? You'll live. You'll live. You'll live. You'll live. Right, face. Color guard, carry
the colors. Post colors, post.
O say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, for the ramparts we watched were so
gallantly streaming.
be seated. Thank you to our police and fire departments and to Officer Brinson for that powerful opening.
To begin tonight's program, I'd like to introduce Fire Chief Roger Kerr II and Police Chief Michael
Diekhoff. Chiefs. Good evening.
I'm honored to stand alongside Chief Decoff as we reflect briefly on the past year in public safety.
For many years, Bloomington Fire lost trained firefighters to neighboring departments offering higher
pay and maintaining minimum staffing required frequent reassignment and overtime. In September of 2025,
our fire department reached full staffing for the first time in nearly a decade.
Since then, staffing levels have remained stable. We also completed long overdue improvements to Fire
Station 3 located on the IU campus. The station opened in 1963 and has not seen major modernization
until last year. The renovation improved firefighter safety and added updates to cancer prevention protocols.
Construction continues on the Operation and Training Center, which will bring training, logistics,
and equipment into one place and strengthen training and daily operations when it opens in September.
Another important part of our system is our mobile integrated healthcare program. Whether that's at
a residence, at a nursing home, or on the street, led by the fire department community paramedics providing
screenings, vaccinations, and follow-up care while helping connect people to mental health services,
substance use resources, and ongoing support. I am proud to announce
MIH handled at least 220 unique responses last year. Later this evening, the mayor will speak in more
detail about public safety and the work ahead. For now, it's my pleasure to introduce Chief Mike Deakoff.
Good evening. On the police department side, we have made important staffing progress. Today, we are
staffed at 94 officers out of 105 authorized positions.
eight candidates moving through the Board of Safety hiring process. If those appointments move forward
as expected, we anticipate reaching approximately 96% of our authorized staffing in the near term. As
staffing stabilizes, we are beginning to see improvements across our community. In 2025, Bloomington
experienced substantial decreases in property crime and crimes involving weapons. These improvements
reflect focused enforcement, continued community engagement,
and the work of officers across the department divisions. Patrol coverage is more consistent, specialized
units are rebuilding capacity, and training schedules are returning to normal after several years of
disruption caused by vacancies. Although staffing for both the police department and dispatch are improving,
we must continue to prioritize how we deploy resources and focus on calls and incidents that most affect
public safety.
Even with these challenges, our officers continue to show up every day with professionalism, care, and
commitment to this community. This progress is a result of their work, and we're proud of what's being
accomplished and what's ahead. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Chief DeGoff and Chief Kerr.
And to everyone who works in our police and fire departments, thank you so much. You serve with integrity
and compassion every day, and I know that when lives are on the line, the people of Bloomington can
count on you. Thank you for your service. And at this time, I'd like to invite Clerk Nicole Bolden and
Council President Isa Kasari to begin the official proceedings.
Thank you, Deputy Mayor Knapp. I now would like to call to order this special session of the Common
Council on Tuesday, March 31st, 2026. Will the Honorable Clerk please call the roll? Happily.
And to begin, Councilmember Asari. I am here. I didn't notice. Daly? Here.
Piedmont-Smith? Rallo? Rosenberger? Ruff? Stossberg? And Zulek? Thank you all.
Please note that this is a special session of the Common Council. Now, if you ever wondered why it is
that the state of the city is a city council meeting, it's because for the last 200 years of Bloomington's
history, it has been the aspiration of every mayor to come to a city council meeting. But please note
that the council will adjourn.
following the mayor's remarks. So with that in mind, we're here to hear from our mayor, and so please
join me in welcoming Mayor Carrie Thompson to the stage. I have been dreaming of getting to a city council
meeting, and so thank you, President Asari, for holding one here at the State of the City.
It's been, I don't know, five days since I've been at a city council meeting. Too, too long for all
of us. So good evening, Bloomington. I am so delighted to see a packed house this evening and to welcome
you all to this beautiful theater. You know, before we start, I want to note that
And we are really in a place that, in 1996, 30 years ago, the city questioned whether or not it would
even still be standing. And here we are today in a beautiful restored theater, one of many city projects
that has successfully been completed
far greater than what we ever expected. And I think that there are other things happening right now
that, in years to come, will feel completely obvious that we did them. Something will wonder how we
ever lived without. Because if there's one thing about this community, we don't always see the ending.
when we're in the middle of it. So tonight, I wanna talk about what we're building now and what it might
become. Before we go any further, I wanna recognize the people whose work makes everything in this city
possible. If you are a member of city council, a county or state elected official,
or serve on one of our boards or commissions, and that includes the CIB, because it's not technically
ours, but it's a joint. I'm inviting you to stand so we can thank you. And if you work for the city
of Bloomington or for Monroe County, you all can stay standing. I also invite you to stand. If you work
for the city or
For Monroe County, please stand. These are your neighbors. These are the ones who solve problems most
of us hopefully never see. They keep our city functioning day after day and administration
after administration. And I am so deeply grateful for the work that you do.
You know, one of the best parts of my job is how often people literally stop me in the street to tell
me why they love Bloomington. Entrepreneurs tell me about how in Bloomington, their startup business
found its first investor, its first customer or first collaborator, and artists tell me about how they
found a community of creatives, venues for their work, and a public that values
arts and culture as central to Bloomington's identity. Retirees tell me about their many volunteer projects
and the fact that they're busier after they retire than when they were getting paid to work, and the
hours of service they've contributed, the friends they've made while working together to improve our
community. And of course, many, many people talk to me about that underrated quarterback who came to
Bloomington
trained hard and left with the Heisman Trophy and a national championship. That is what Bloomington
does. It helps us all tap our potential. And what's described again and again is a community where people
make connections, invest in one another, and we build businesses, nonprofits, culture, friendships,
and tradition.
Part of our job in city government is to create the conditions where those connections can happen and
potential is unlocked. When we get those conditions right, we build and sustain a thriving community
where everyone can belong. So what exactly is a thriving community? First and foremost, it's well-maintained.
It's clean and it's safe. It has a variety of housing that meets the needs
of diverse residents. It offers viable business and job opportunities that lead to wage growth, economic
diversity, and a sustainable future for individuals and our community. And it has a government focused
on getting the right work done in service to the public. All of that makes it possible
for each person to bring their gifts and talents to fruition and to find community and support in a
creative, innovative culture. And tonight, I'd like to talk about what we're doing to build a thriving
community where everyone can belong. A city that takes care of what it has. A thriving community starts
with a well-maintained, tidy city. Over the years, Bloomington has funded
amazing assets. The Beeline Trail, Switchyard Park, Hopewell Commons are just a few of those. We've
also built assets we walk and drive on every single day. Sidewalks, roads, multi-use paths. We've invested
in preserving historical assets like this very building, City Hall, and also the Waldron. And it costs
money to maintain those assets.
as well as critical infrastructure like our water and wastewater treatment plants, our storm systems,
and the facilities for the animal shelter, sanitation, fleet, and street. And those are just a few.
It's also true that deferring maintenance and repairs only serves to drive up costs and increase risks.
So we've committed first and foremost to ensuring that city investments are well maintained.
If we're gonna make decisions about bonding, infrastructure, and long-term investment moving forward,
we need more than just good intentions. We need a plan. We need data, clarity, and a clear trajectory.
We're putting together a full asset and capital plan. Now I'll touch on some of the work we've already
done. In the first two years of my administration, we paved over 32 miles of streets.
Before I was mayor, I had no idea how many miles of streets we might be paving. And so to put that in
perspective, who has ever wondered that? Right? Probably just Adam Wason. To put that 32 miles
in perspective, that's more than the city paved in the previous four years combined.
That investment, of course, is important to stabilize our road network and prevent further decline and
increase costs. But we have more work to do to ensure that we don't fall further behind. Traditional
funding sources are no longer what they used to be. Our road system requires an additional $3 million
annually just to maintain current conditions as they are.
And I know what we feel about our current road conditions based on the number of calls that come in
to the mayor's office for potholes this season. We know we're doing just the minimum, even though we've
done more than we've done before. So we're getting creative and using grants and partnerships to extend
our local tax dollars. And through the INDOT Community Crossing matching grant program, we've been able
to extend our tax dollars for street paving and add ADA-compliant ramps and will continue to leverage
that resource and more. In 2026, the parking meter funds will help us complete over $400,000 in paving
and infrastructure projects downtown that would otherwise have been very difficult, if not impossible,
to achieve. So thanks for paying for parking tonight. Through a partnership
With IU, we'll be able to repair and maintain the brick sidewalks along Kirkwood, keeping Bloomington
safe and beautiful. We'll also renovate some downtown alleys along with building on the downtown
beautification efforts that we made last year to repair concrete planter boxes, power wash, and improve
landscaping downtown. In 2026,
We'll implement the results of the parking and sidewalk studies that we began last year to ensure that
we understand the costs, the needs, and have a strategic plan for those resources that we need.
Next month, the Transportation Commission will review the parking study and comprehensive plan. And
the following month in May, they'll review a draft pedestrian facilities operations plan outlining sidewalk
repair and maintenance.
We're preparing to release the parks master plan, which will guide how we prioritize investments across
our park system. That matters because we have real needs to address. Two pools and an ice rink are in
need of repair. Sports centers and courts need maintenance and a wide range of parks that we care for
every single day. To give you an idea,
Our brand new switch yard park alone will cost somewhere around $125,000 annually just to maintain.
Our controller is working with parks to create a sustainable future, and we are grateful. At utilities,
fluoride is flowing again.
I don't know if Kat Zager's here tonight, but she and I have joked that to celebrate, we should both
learn how to do the floss dance, but I have not gotten there. We've secured $1.25 million for upgrades
to our wastewater treatment with the help of Senator Aaron Houchin. And we're preparing to make long-delayed
repairs to the Monroe Water Plant, and we're also looking at how to build and fund a public works facility
that adequately serves the city's needs and protects our investments in sanitation trucks, snow plows,
fire engines, police cars, our electric fleet, and more. Equipment that costs more than $100,000 should
not be left outside to deteriorate in the weather. Maintaining that equipment requires storage space
and modern tools and facilities. And finally,
we're looking at how best to use the Showers West space. Given the bond restrictions, the city's need
for space and the current state of its aging systems, the fire department moved into Showers West, their
new headquarters, last year as planned in the bond. And we are now negotiating final agreements with
the remaining tenants. Since then,
We've used Showers West to meet immediate needs across the organization, supporting city council,
accommodating departments during renovations, and creating space where it's needed most. Most recently,
our engineering department relocated to Showers West, affording planning and hand the space they have
long needed within City Hall. No more working in closets. As we look ahead, we are actively assessing
how the whole building
should function long term. We're evaluating departmental needs, conference room capacity, and how teams
that work closely together can be physically aligned, and how the public moves through that space as
well. We're also incorporating safety planning into that assessment. We'll soon hire the city's first
emergency management specialist to create a building safety plan for City Hall,
and other buildings. They'll train staff and run regular safety exercises to ensure that we are prepared
to respond to emergencies. Community safety is critical in Bloomington. It is a key responsibility of
our government. A city simply does not thrive without safety. Everyone in Bloomington deserves to be
safe and to feel safe.
And to do that, we... Yes. In order to achieve that, we have to ensure that our public safety teams
operate at their best. You met the two chiefs tonight. And for too many years, both the police department
and the fire department operated well below their authorized staffing levels, which strained response,
increased overtime, and made it harder to retain personnel.
In the past two years, we made targeted changes to pay and policies to address that, enabling Bloomington
to compete again. In 2024, we successfully negotiated two union contracts with police and fire to increase
pay, to be competitive in the market, and both passed with a unanimous vote. That seems like yesterday.
but the 2026 collective bargaining discussions have already begun and we anticipate two more successful
union negotiations. But I want to be clear, unanimous union votes are probably a once in a lifetime
mayoral experience. But what I do know is that we have built a team and our unions have come together
at the table and we collaborate.
and we're transparent and we're honest about what each needs and what resources we have. And
that transparency and collaboration has led to better success than we see in most other union negotiations
around the country. For the fire department, in the most recent hiring cycle, 272 applicants applied
to join the fire department.
That is a 213% increase from the number of applicants in 2024, entire year. That is really pretty awesome,
but public safety is not only about how many people we have, it's about how our police officers and
firefighters show up in our community, building relationships, preventing harm by solving problems early,
and being part of the fabric
of our city. For the police, full staffing allows us to reduce turnover, stress, and the risk of injury.
Also, it reduces overtime costs so service is consistent, response is reliable, and the system isn't
stretched too thin. It also creates space to be present in the community where officers are known and
where relationships come before a response is ever needed.
When people know their local police, trust increases and safer, more connected neighborhoods follow.
That's part of a thriving community. And in 2025, we saw obvious forward movement. BPD welcomed 11 new
officers in a single class. That is the largest group in more than three decades.
Our public safety teams want to work in Bloomington. We just needed to provide the resources to equip
them well. One of those individuals from that recruiting class was Officer Brinson, who opened this
evening with the national anthem. Several officers from that recruitment class were already certified,
which allowed quicker service. And one veteran officer returned to Bloomington after more than 20 years
of prior service.
He returned to serve. We are making progress, but we are not finished. Not every recruit completes training,
and some officers will retire. Others may leave the profession. But this is my commitment. We will reach
full staffing by the close of this calendar year. And just as staffing matters, so does how we respond.
Not every call requires the same response. Some situations require enforcement.
but others require medical care, mental health support, or connection to services. We continue to build
a structure of care that reflects that reality. Stride is our community's nonprofit. It is a 24-7 mobile
crisis response team run by CenterStone, made up of trained mental health professionals who respond
in real time to substance use and behavioral crisis.
Stride works closely with our police and fire and dispatch teams, ensuring that calls are routed to
the most appropriate response. They meet people where they are, whether it's on a sidewalk in a park
at a business, at their home, and they connect them to the care that they desperately need.
In many cases, Stride resolves situations before they escalate, reduces unnecessary emergency room visits
and arrests,
and builds trust with residents who may not otherwise engage with traditional systems. My gratitude
to Cook for working with us and Stride to create the bus wraps and other marketing campaign tools to
promote their work. Because if we don't call Stride, they don't get to serve our community.
The city's downtown resource officers, police, social worker, and outreach teams work together to respond
to individuals in crisis and reduce repeat calls for service as well. Last year, we embedded a mental
health professional within central dispatch to help triage certain calls in real time and direct them
to the appropriate response. And later this spring, we'll launch an analysis
for how we could potentially integrate an alternative response into 911 dispatch. Isabelle's leading
the applause on that one. She helped us find LEAP, the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. Thank you,
Isabelle. And they are... thank you, Isabelle. They're gonna analyze current calls and community resources
to identify where alternative responses can expand.
while still maintaining strong, fully capable police and fire presence for the most urgent public safety
needs. This work is deliberate. It's grounded in data and informed by our local situation, our local
assets, providers, financial constraints, and systems and staffing levels to make sure that the results
are pragmatic, actionable, and importantly, safe for all.
Those same principles apply to the tools we use to support safety in our community. The city is currently
reviewing our contract for flock cameras and we'll be presenting our findings on April 15th to the city
council based on their recent resolution. Safety.
I am happy to meet with people and talk to you about your feedback. I have met with several of you,
I think. I'm gonna continue speaking and happy to have a face-to-face sometime. Safety stabilizes a
community. Housing stabilizes people. That's where we turn next. Attainable housing and homelessness.
For 25 years, my professional worked
centered solely on housing. It was a top commitment of mine when I ran for office, and it remains our
city's greatest priority. We need more houses of more sizes for more people, and we need housing diversity.
The largest opportunity to do that is Hopewell. We have a community that cares deeply about getting
this right, and in Bloomington,
Even when we agree on the goal and what needs to be done, it can still take a very long time to move
forward. Government and politics in our community tend to take the scenic route. And the trip never
gets boring. This isn't the first time there have been lively conversations about problems and their
solutions. At different points in our community, we have debated an abandoned rail line
the hospital leaving downtown, an outdated convention center, a proposed tech park, chickens. And before
that, our community confronted the possible loss of the courthouse, and even of this very building.
And look at where that process has led us. We saved the courthouse. We developed the Beeline Trail.
We purchased, designed, and built
the trades district. We moved forward on the convention center. We built out bicycle and pedestrian
infrastructure across the city, constructed the Bloomington Transit Hub. We've established Bloomington
Entertainment and Arts District, including the building that we're in, and soon we will, one way or
another, have Hopewell.
A once in a generation neighborhood. And all of us will be proud. We all agreed to high standards when
it came to our neighborhoods. We all want housing that is safe, sustainable, and built to last. But
we also have to be honest about the moment that we're in. Costs are rising. Wages aren't keeping pace.
Just yesterday, Novo announced
layoffs impacting 400 people. At the same time, state and national decisions continue to influence wages
and costs in ways that we don't control locally. Like all projects of this significance, the proposal
has been shaped through expansive outreach and engagement. We've engaged experienced planners and designers
renowned throughout the country for their innovative work to
to advance housing that is attainable. Local lenders, builders, developers, and housing experts have
weighed in on what works in Bloomington to make a project like this truly viable. We've collaborated
with the public, with city council, with city departments, and the Redevelopment Commission and Plan
Commission. It takes time for a project to reach a point of action.
Hopewell would be difficult to deliver in today's environment without sustained public leadership. Together
with our council, I agree, this project is worth the work. And we all share the same vision for it.
Attainable housing in Bloomington. Hopewell South is just the first phase of a much larger neighborhood
For this phase, the administration made a clear choice to focus on two things, homeownership that more
people can attain at market rates, and a neighborhood that connects the residents to opportunity. On
those two goals, this plan delivers. It doesn't resolve every challenge. No single project does. But
it moves us forward.
And in a housing crisis, that matters more than perfection. As an administration, we take responsibility
for our part of the ongoing housing puzzle. Outside of Hopewell, we are working to clarify expectations
and legal boundaries, align departments, reduce red tape, and generate a clearer path from concept all
the way to construction.
Our existing UDO does not always allow us to build the kind of housing we say we want. That's why we
use tools like a PUD to create a path to actually build housing. We'll keep improving our code, refining
our tools, and learning from this work. This is not an either or. It's both. We have to stay focused
on outcomes.
where process adds cost without improving the result, it moves us in the wrong direction as a community.
We have capable local builders and we have standards that support energy efficiency, and this is where
we shift from discussion to delivery. I'm confident we'll get to the finish line with Hopewell because
we share the same vision for attainable housing in Bloomington, and that alignment is what matters most.
Housing attainability also requires strengthening the systems that we have. We've enforced Title 16
housing standards, held negligent landlords accountable, and revoked permits for chronically unsafe
properties. In one case, a longtime property owner whose repeated life and safety violations persisted
for decades and spanned 31 properties
within city limits alone is now prohibited from operating rental units in Bloomington for the next two
decades. Unsafe, unmaintained housing will not be tolerated in Bloomington. In parallel, we're working
to reposition local builders and developers to succeed by shifting internal processes.
Two permitting audits are underway. One where the city acts as a zoning petitioner to identify real
friction points. We found them. And a second comprehensive review of every step in the development process
across departments. These audits will lead to tangible change in the time and process for creating housing.
This work is paired with updates to the Unified Development Ordinance and a redesign of permitting systems
to reduce that red tape
and make housing development more predictable and therefore more affordable. Builders and developers
consistently report shifting interpretations, conflicting departmental guidance, and unpredictable review
timelines. It all adds to the cost of a house. These are challenges that hit small single-family projects
the hardest. And when local builders leave the table, we lose local jobs, local investment,
and the ability to keep that economic activity here at home. When housing production slows, the entire
housing system tightens. From starter homes to rental units to the safety nets people rely on when life
gets difficult. If you are listening tonight and you are a housing builder or developer, here is what
I would say to you. Pick a lane and build it well.
We need many kinds of housing in Bloomington and your city wants to make it easier for you to create
it. Housing supply alone does not solve the full challenge. We're also working to address what happens
when housing is lost. Homelessness does not happen overnight. It is the result of a longer chain of
housing instability.
We're seeing the same pressures that communities across the country are seeing. Many residents feel
two things at once, compassion for individuals living in crisis and concern about impacts in parks,
along trails, and in neighborhoods. Both are real. Both come from a place of caring about a thriving
Bloomington. And both deserve a response that is thoughtful, consistent,
and effective. While city government alone cannot solve homelessness, we play a direct role in response.
We support shelter and service providers, we coordinate across departments, and we bring partners together
every day to move people toward housing and stability. Our nonprofit partners do critical day-to-day
work building relationships, providing care, and helping people take their next step.
Our job is to support that work, strengthen it, and make sure it leads to real outcomes. But let me
remain clear. We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness. We prioritize housing, treatment, support,
and connection, because that is how people stabilize and begin to rebuild. And at the same time,
cities must operate within the laws that govern public space. Recently, the Senate passed SB 285, which
prohibits public camping beginning July 1st. This is not a law we supported, but came with a mandate
from the state to empty camps. I am determined to use this as a deadline to see just how many people
we can get housed
into services, and into a place where they never have to sleep outside again. In January 2024, there
were more than a dozen encampments on city-owned property. Today, there is only one. This is a result
of sustained outreach and coordinated response prior to SB 285. Only one established encampment in the city.
and our teams remain engaged with those residents every single day to help them move towards stability.
This is the result of focused coordinated work, daily engagement, cross agency collaboration, and consistent
follow through by city teams. In 2024, our administration put clear protocols in place so that when
encampments have to close, they do so humanely and with structure.
Encampments receive notice, outreach teams connect residents to shelter services and reunification with
family or support networks whenever that option exists. In fact, reunification is one of the tools we
pursue most because reconnecting someone with people who already know and love them and care about them
is often the fastest path back to stability.
Last year, our Bloomington Police Department facilitated the reunification of 50 individuals. They also,
last year, identified and interacted with 139 individuals experiencing homelessness who were new to
Bloomington. Stride, our community's mobile crisis response team, also is working on reunification.
they reunified an additional 78 individuals. Even accounting for some overlap between those efforts,
that means that at least 117 people were reconnected to support systems in the past year. The larger
reality is that Bloomington currently carries a disproportionate share of services for people experiencing
homelessness across our region. Our community has stepped forward to help, and I am proud of us
but too many people are still without housing or support. Our current resources can't meet the scale
of the need, and the need is great. And as communities across Indiana continue to close encampments,
we want to be sure that we can focus on the people who are already experiencing homelessness here or
at risk of becoming homeless.
If we want to make a meaningful impact on individual lives and on the health of our community, we must
acknowledge our limits. That means setting clearer expectations about how services are delivered across
our region, and that's a six county area defined by HUD. The city continues to call for a temporary
approach to regional service boundaries within our six county HUD region.
Regional service boundaries are not a test of whether someone belongs in Bloomington. Boundaries are
not a barrier to immediate food, shelter, or reunification help. Instead, regional service boundaries
are a temporary framework that prioritize permanent housing and housing resources for people whose care
networks are in Bloomington and our surrounding counties. So the help we offer is real and sustainable.
There are exceptions to regional service boundaries, which include domestic violence and other issues
that are very hard to stay in your home county. But we're also making something clear to other jurisdictions.
We want other jurisdictions to stop transferring people to Bloomington without a local connection or
a follow-up plan. If someone moves here, we need to have someone on the other end who can support.
taking someone out of their community and dropping them somewhere where they have no support and cannot
access service does not lead to recovery, and it does not lead to dignity. I want to thank Heading Home
for their leadership in thinking through and exploring training a group on next steps for encampment
closure, and for our county colleagues, especially Commissioner Madeira and Councilor Wilts, for taking
this so seriously
and having an approach of partnership. Solving homelessness requires both compassion and structure,
housing services, and a region willing to take shared responsibility on collaborative and oftentimes
iterative solutions. That's how we're going to solve this. Housing stability allows people to build
a life. And economic opportunity allows them to build a future.
Our commitment in economic development is to grow the workforce population, grow wages, and strengthen
the economic base that supports the services our community depends on. The single most important action
we can take to support that is removing barriers to housing. If families cannot find a place to live,
they cannot take a job here. Housing and economic development are inextricably entwined.
you cannot solve them in isolation. When housing supply grows, employers can hire the workers that they
need. When businesses grow, wages rise, and housing instability falls. And when the economy grows, the
revenues generated by local income, property, and food and beverage taxes allow the city to reinvest
directly in our built environment, safety, affordable housing, and public health. Under Senate Enrolled Act I,
that connection becomes even more important. Cities like Bloomington are increasingly dependent on income
tax tied directly to the workforce. Our role is to create the circumstances where people and businesses
can succeed. One of the most visible investments supporting that work is the Convention Center expansion,
and I know we have some CIB members, maybe even our leader here. Can we give them a hand?
community has worked toward this moment for nearly 20 years, and we have taken it out of politics and
built a joint board that is moving this thing forward faster than any jurisdiction could have done on
their own. And that required blood, sweat, tears, partnership between the city and the county, the creation
of that CIB, and a long term commitment to investing in Bloomington's future.
Today, that vision is becoming real, and it's rising right here at Third and College, connecting our
past to our future. The expanded convention center is expected to bring millions of dollars in new spending
from outside Bloomington each year. This investment is not in isolation. It's part of a broader pattern
of progress concentrated in the corridor stretching across South Rogers, South Walnut, and the Hopewell
redevelopment area.
For years, this area has truly been a gap in the center of our city. Now, it is becoming a place where
we are intentionally restoring connection and continuity. The Convention Center expansion, the Hopewell
neighborhood, the proposed future location of public safety infrastructure, when we locate housing,
jobs, and services in close proximity to one another, the system works better.
People live closer to where they work, and businesses benefit from the steady base of residents and
visitors. Then, just up the beeline, the trades district continues to grow. New employers, expanded
workspaces, a new hotel, and more public art and programming are on the horizon. In late 2024, a $16
million Lilly Endowment grant awarded to Indiana University in partnership with the city
and the mill, now Amplify Bloomington, is accelerating that work. My gratitude, I think we have Rachel
McAfee and John Fernandez in the house tonight, my gratitude for the university and John's leadership
in that endeavor, really foundational and transformative. Last year, the city added a position to deliver
on that partnership.
and move projects forward, and that investment is already showing up on the ground. The Forge, which
is a Class A office building, is now home to companies like Vivum, AI, Folia, and Bloom. Amplify Bloomington
is expanding inside the mill, adding new workspaces, offices, and conference capacity. And next door
at the kiln, Paragraph is fueling new startups with funding, and Soma Coffee is fueling us all with caffeine.
Last Wednesday, we closed on the new hotel in the trades district. We're on track to break ground this
summer, adding rooms, meeting space, and street-level activity that connects directly to our downtown.
When we don't have enough hotel capacity, demand spills into short-term rentals, often taking whole
homes off the market for our residents. This plan is about putting the right supply in the right place
and staying competitive.
Bloomington has fewer hotel rooms than comparable markets, even if we include planned projects. The
Trades District Hotel will help close that gap and strengthen a key part of our economy, destination
tourism and events. We are correspondingly investing in the district's experience by activating it with
our events and programs so it works for residents too, not just visitors or tenants.
This is economic development at its best. There are jobs, business activity, and investment that move
beyond one district alone, and they strengthen the entire community. We're also making decisions about
how people experience our city day-to-day. Kirkwood Avenue is a great example, and I want to acknowledge
Kirkwood's outdoor dining experience has meant a lot to people.
I have experienced feeling like I'm in Paris eating in the middle of Kirkwood myself. The full closure
created moments people loved, but the day-to-day reality did not consistently match the intent of the
program. The city's adopted transportation plan identifies Kirkwood as a shared street. It
carries businesses, deliveries, emergency access, and daily movement, and it also carries a critical
sense of place
at the intersection of city life and campus life. Our responsibility is to balance all of that, not
just on the best day, but every day. We looked at the data, business participation, and overall community
impact, and the recommendation and the Board of Public Works decision is to continue with the shared
street model this year. And this season, we're working with partners to expand activations so the space
works harder for the community.
More events, more programming, more reasons for people to be there beyond just outdoor dining. Because
how a place functions day to day shapes how people experience it. And how people experience a place
shapes whether they stay, invest, and build something here. That brings us to something we should have
done a long time ago. We need to be clear about who we are as a city.
and nearly a decade ago, the city's Wage Growth Task Force recommended that Bloomington define a shared
identity. That work did not move forward at that time, but it is now. Later this year, we'll roll out
Bloomington City and Place branding. We partnered with a national firm to build the framework, but our
story comes from right here in Bloomington. Over the past 12 months, residents, business owners, students,
artists, and community partners have shaped it through surveys,
committees, workshops, and direct conversations. That input continues as we refine the design and strategy
in real time. We all know that if you ask someone why they love Bloomington, they'll give us 20 minutes
of response. That's a strength, but it's also a challenge. And right now, Bloomington has a strong identity,
but we've not always told that story clearly. This will help.
Cities that compete for talent, investment, and growth do not leave their stories undefined. They state
it clearly, reinforce it constantly, and use it to guide decisions. The goal is to make sure we communicate
Bloomington plainly enough that people can see it, understand it, and choose to be part of it before
they ever step foot in our community. And at a time when national conversations pull attention in every
direction, we stay focused on what we can actually shape.
here in the city. We can control the systems we build, the investments we make, and the expectations
we set for ourselves as a community. When those are clear and consistent, people do not have to guess
whether they belong here. They know. We're building a government that works. We start by listening,
and many of you know, because you tell me, you see Team Bloomington out and about
and you know how to reach us. Over the last two years, we've made listening a regular part of our job,
monthly door knocking town halls, traveling office hours, and regular listening sessions with nonprofit
and faith leaders. Our sequence is simple, listen, discern, lead, deliver. We've worked diligently to
get our financial reporting up to date. In 2024, we closed out the delayed 2022 audit. In 25, we closed out 23.
And on Thursday, we meet with the auditors for the exit conference on the 2024 audit. I've never been
so excited about an audit. We'll now be able to complete the 2025 audit on time and be back in compliance
with reporting deadlines. In addition, we completed long overdue update of the city's financial account
numbers. And our housing and neighborhood development department worked hard to return to reporting
compliance with HUD
and has even been invited to present at their conference. It's a big deal. There's more to do and we
continue to clean up and improve the systems, but increasingly we're leading the way rather than playing catch up.
We've discussed our efforts to fully staff public safety, and the same focus has extended across the
rest of the city to ensure we're staffed with skilled public servants. Implementing the salary study
has been a key piece of that success. And as a result, this week, engineering is fully staffed for the
first time since October 2022. I had your new employee in new hire training today, Andrew.
Other departments are experiencing the same thing, and we continue to closely work with the city's unions
to build stronger relationships. Everybody needs an intermission, so I'm gonna skip a whole bunch of
really important government updates and get to the meat of things. SEA 1 changes how local governments
are funded, and will change how we're able to do our work.
Income tax distributions will switch, and municipal revenue growth will slow. Bonding capacity is tightening,
and those challenges compound over time. Cities across Indiana, including Bloomington, will have to
make hard choices, and our response must be disciplined. Our role is to first ensure we deliver essential
services and responsibilities that only local government can provide. We'll honor the commitments we've made
and take care of our infrastructure. If we want to do our essential work well, we have to prioritize.
In a city full of smart people, ideas are never in short supply. But progress happens when we choose
a direction and stay with it long enough to deliver real results. We're going to pair our reduced resources
with a priority list to deliver on our top capital projects
And to do that, we need to know what we spend, what results we get, and whether those investments align
with what matters most. And that work has started. With our new controller, Jeff McKim. Yay, Jeff. We're
reviewing our budget with a closer lens and are preparing already for budget season. The state of the
city is strong and moving forward.
not without bumps and not without limitations, but with purpose, clarity, and community. In 1996, we
couldn't have seen this building in its current form. We would not have envisioned a trail along that
abandoned rail corridor, and I bet we wouldn't have dreamed we would be at the precipice of
a transformational housing development where our hospital used to be. What it is that we're doing this year
that we couldn't imagine living without in 2056. If we look ahead over just the next two years, we can
envision what that might look like. We'll see a convention center alive with activity, visitors moving
through streets and gathering in restaurants. We'll see homes rising in Hopewell, a once in a generation
neighborhood taking shape block by block. We'll see downtown that feels vibrant and cared for.
Events that bring people together, clean and well-maintained streets and sidewalks, a clear, distinct
sense of identity reflected in our branding. We'll see more public art, more activity and more life
in our shared spaces. We'll welcome people home if they've been sleeping outside. We'll see couples
on dates on the new roof at the Trades District Hotel.
Entrepreneurs and small businesses are heading into the forge to the kiln and amplify Bloomington to
grow their success. We'll see our workforce population grow and our wages as well. We'll see fully staffed
departments and we'll see a community that shows up to serve you and to help solve your problems every
day. That's what a thriving community looks like.
wages growing our economy and housing residents can afford, opportunities people can pursue, and safety
that our neighborhoods rely on, and a government focused on getting the work done, a place to belong.
But there's one other thing that we can do that matters just as much. In a moment where national political
rhetoric lends itself to us and them, we can do better in Bloomington.
We can solve problems together, sitting face-to-face and co-creating solutions. We can be tough on challenges
and respectful of everyone working on them. We can rise above identity and party politics and see one
another for what we are. We're a community full of people showing up every single day to transform lives
and improve our community. I believe this even more today
than when I wrote this speech 24 hours ago. In the coming year, I'll be looking at ways we can continue
to help set a different tone in Bloomington where we can call people in instead of calling people out.
I want us to be a Bloomington where we talk in person or in written communication rather than targeted
quips on social media
because... while there are dozens of challenges and hundreds of issues and thousands of opinions before
us, we all know that we're at our best, our strongest, and our most progressive when we are one Bloomington.
Good government is not measured by a single headline, a single announcement, or a single meeting.
The decisions we make today may take years to be felt, but their impact reaches across generations.
And it's the way we come together, not the things that divide us, which define us in the end. It is
that courthouse that Charlotte saved, and now no one can remember ever wanting to demolish it. That
is the long arc of this work, and Bloomington does not need anyone
to invent its potential. It's already here. Our job is to keep unlocking it through thoughtful discussion
and decisions, through a shared commitment to this community, our one Bloomington. And that work is
stronger when people stay engaged and lean toward assuming goodwill and creating common ground. So thank
you for showing up this evening, for paying attention,
for being a part of a community that continues to grow into its potential. Thank you for being critical
of your government and helping us get better every single day. Tonight, we began by talking about what
happens when people come together in a shared space. We'll close in the same spirit because what you'll
see next through movement, timing, and connection is another expression of what makes this community thrive.
Please join me in welcoming Windfall dancers.