- Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annaliese Poorman. The Monroe County Capital Improvement Board met
- on July 15th and unanimously selected Dora Hospitality as the developer for the Convention Center Host
- Hotel. This allows the CIB to start negotiations with Dora to build a roughly 200-room hotel south of
- the Convention Center.
- The decision comes despite appeals from Local Advocacy Group, Bloomington Homes for All, who are urging
- the Board to pump the brakes and consider a land swap with the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission
- to preserve Seminary Point's affordable housing. CIB President John Wykart explained why the Board selected
- Dora Hospitality as its Hotel de Air.
- The Dora hospitality proposal not only met expectations for 200 guest rooms, restaurant and bar, fitness
- center and meeting space, but it exceeded expectations, including a plan for 200 parking spaces. Dora
- proposed an architectural design that is not only aesthetically and uniquely created for Bloomington,
- but one that allows us to vision a host hotel on South College that has the potential to anchor
- transformational southward development of our community. Board member Doug Bruce explained why the board
- declined to wait for a land swap, saying Dora identified the South parcels as its preferred location
- for the hotel. Time is of the essence, so the CIB reissued a second RFP as President Weickart mentioned
- back in April for the parcels that the CIB actually owns and selected again the same hotelier and
- this hotel here, if they started today, this hotel as a host hotel would not be open until sometime
- in 2029. The hotel here that we selected has spent a great deal of time and money in their RFP submittals
- and now have stated in our interviews that the South parcels are there and after there, I'll say increase
- scrutiny because they've had two RFPs to look at this.
- is a better and preferred location for their hotel. CIB member Jay Baer says despite encouragement for
- the land swap, he does not believe it's the board's duty to tackle affordable housing. I personally
- understand and appreciate the enthusiasm of members of this community to preserve or attain affordable
- housing in this community. We all live in this community. That's why we're on this board. There's a
- sign in the room right now that says
- Homes, not hotels, but I think that's a false equivalency. Our role is not to solve affordable housing
- for Bloomington or Monroe County. We certainly believe that affordable housing is a massive priority
- in this community, but there are many other places and frankly, more appropriate bodies to solve that
- problem than the CIB. And just speaking personally, I certainly hope that those issues and initiatives
- are undertaken.
- Developer Russ Lauterbach said Dora Hospitality is ready to move forward and remains confident that
- the South parcels are the right location for the project. We are going to build a sustainable project.
- We're gonna, we're using Weddle Brothers. We're gonna be at least 70% union. We care very much about
- the local community. All of us are part of this local community as part of this development team. So
- we're gonna do our very best, provide you the very best
- host hotel that we can. And we do like this site very much. And thank you very much for voting for us.
- On the other hand, Bloomington Homes for All organizer Bryce Green said despite the CIB pursuing the
- project, he still believes the land swap is worthwhile. We still believe that the land swap is still
- something worth pursuing just because it is one of the only ways that we can see that we'll be able to save
- the Seminary Point housing from being demolished. And as has been made public, the value of the properties
- is not as big of an issue. The relative value of the properties is not as big of an issue as it was
- earlier. And the immense public support
- for preserving Seminary Point, while it is not the role of this body, I think it is still something
- that this body has the ability to act on and has, you know, it's my hope that this body will. Habitat
- for Humanity Housing Solutions Director, Sarah Wolford, urged the board to reconsider negotiations with
- the city's redevelopment commission to preserve affordable housing in the city. The housing crisis cannot
- afford the loss of 29 units.
- Inaction and silence are individual choices that have real world consequences. The idea that a conversation
- would delay constructible
- The idea that a conversation would delay construction is laughable to anyone in the business. You still
- have to complete phase two environmentals, go through IDEM approval and bid out the project. You have
- the opportunity to be a savior of affordable housing while also serving the purpose the CIB was called
- to do. Having a community space near the convention center is a mutually beneficial situation. I would
- be interested in what
- CIB plans for the hotel or for the land that the hotel is not taking up. The Capital Improvement Board
- voted six to zero in support of selecting Dora Hospitality as the Convention Center host hotel, opening
- the door for negotiations on the final development agreement. The CIB will meet again on August 19th.
- The Collaborative Justice Project Working Subcommittee voted Monday to recommend renovating the current
- jail facility and expanding into the nearby Curry Building for the new jail project. The subcommittee
- also selected the Thompson property as a backup recommendation. This vote comes as the county now faces
- a new federal lawsuit over constitutional standards at the current facility.
- Bloomington Mayor Carrie Thompson said that she believes the Curry site offers the best path forward.
- It just appears to me to be the best case scenario and most efficient to move forward is this site,
- especially given the challenges at Thompson.
- in terms of timing. So when it came down to a vote for me, that is why this got my top vote. I'm not
- sold on the Justice building needing to be downtown. Mayor Thompson said that the Thompson Road property
- remains a strong option. However, relocating power lines could halt construction. Thompson also was
- my number two choice. I think if for some reason there is a
- for gone conclusion, which is not my understanding that it is a must to have everything on one floor,
- Thompson would be my top choice. That's obviously not possible at Curry, which was my top choice. Thompson
- has, you know, it's already stoning adjacent to what we need.
- And so the ask is a minimal ask, same process, acknowledging that. And I think even with an accelerated
- time frame, you're two years out from finishing this for sure, and probably beyond that. So starting
- to move with the power lines now would be prudent.
- making that property marketable in the future for the county is going to necessitate moving those power
- lines anyway. So my recommendation would be get those power lines taken care of. Deputy Prosecutor April
- Wilson said that she's concerned that the Curry site would not have enough room for both a jail and
- future justice center offices. One of the concerns that I have is it feels a little like we might be
- repeating the same conversation that happened 40 years ago.
- And we've kind of boxed everyone in in that building. It's not just that the jail is overcrowded. It's
- that the county offices below don't have enough space as well. And it seems like if an alternative or
- an option for Curry is, well, there's other places we can move us, in some ways, it's also acknowledging
- the concern that maybe it's really not enough space to be able to have
- all the justice partners by each other. And that's where I think I'm a little concerned or very concerned
- is I think it will cost a lot more than anyone expects. I think by nature of doing the project the way
- that we're doing it, you're going to have to do more of it than you intend in phasing. If you build
- a jail annex, you're going to have to move all the employees out of Curry Fiscus. And then when you
- put the jail annex, you're going to have to put all those employees back.
- unless you choose to put them someplace else. And then that means the site wasn't originally big enough.
- Wilson expressed urgency with the project, citing the latest federal lawsuit and saying that county
- officials need to move quickly to find a solution. These allegations are what is alleged to be happening
- now. And when we talk about delay, we're also talking about cost.
- And it's not just financial cost, it's human cost. If we choose to build in the city, we are choosing
- for there to be inflation and construction costs. We're choosing for reinvestment and redesign, costs
- and new site evaluations and preparation, litigation and fees or attorney fees. The longer the lawsuit
- continues, at some point it's going to be an impact to the community. There's also transportation costs
- and case delay.
- City Council member Sydney Zulik critiqued what she sees as years of inaction that led to the county's
- current situation. The settlement agreement has been in place since 2008. I was six in 2008. Somebody
- could have had a child in 2008. That child would be eligible to vote this year. The county has failed
- to build a new jail. There are fabricated
- There are fabricated false choices that we are currently experiencing because elected officials failed
- to do their due diligence. I'm talking about the Thompson property. I'm talking about renovations that
- could have been made to the current location. This notion that now we have to rush after 18 years of
- pretty much stalemate is infuriating. And to all the young people who are listening, I hope our generation
- does a better job at serving our community.
- The mayor maintained that the county-owned Curry site gives officials more flexibility moving forward.
- It is true that there is some assumption that because you own the property, it is more affordable to
- develop it. It's not always true. It's frequently not true. But site control does pave the way frequently to
- quicker development. And so in the model of time is money, having site control, which you by nature
- have if you own the property, is something that I have considered in my selections. The committee approved
- Curry as its first recommendation by a vote of three to two before unanimously selecting the Thompson
- property as its backup recommendation.
- These recommendations will now make their way to the full collaborative Justice Project Committee, which
- includes county council members and county commissioners.
- The Monroe County Council met on July 14th and covered several grant related appropriations along with
- updates on this jail subcommittee and community events. Council member Marty Hawk asked that the health
- department's request to transfer $956.65 of strengthening prevention grant funds be removed from the
- consent agenda. Why are we considering moving money around when
- property in the negative. I mean, has everybody looked at that? They say they're in the process of receiving
- grant amendments for additional funding, but the process when it comes to getting grants is not a guarantee.
- You might be in the process of asking for it. I mean, I don't want to put my name to saying, yes, we're
- going to let you go ahead and move around and start spending when it's in the negative.
- And I didn't pull out those budgets, I just am believing what was put on there. Perhaps the auditor
- has some advice for us. Gregory? Yes, this is a reimbursable grant fund, so it's typically in the red
- until reimbursements come through. The transfer passed 6 to 1 with Hawk dissenting.
- Later, in discussions regarding the current state of the county jail, Councilor Hawk raised concerns
- about a recent state review, saying that the report described conditions differently than those that
- have been presented to the council, and asking that the report be recent to all council members and
- to the press. They came back with glowing reports just a couple of months ago. If you go through it,
- you're going to think,
- Were they someplace else other than here? We didn't see anything coming back from the sheriff or anybody
- saying we disagree with this report. This report was a report from the state after they had reviewed
- and gone through our jail. And they sent the report out, as they're required to do. And I didn't hear
- anything from the commissioner saying,
- Well, this report's all wrong. No one said the report's wrong. But clearly, it says something very different
- from what's being presented as though the council knew something different. The Monroe County Council
- will meet again on July 28th.
- The Monroe County Commissioners met on July 16th and considered several jail-related resolutions, a
- tax abatement for ciencia and legal representation in the county's jail lawsuit. The commissioners moved
- to ratify a resolution acknowledging that the Monroe County Jail is overcrowded. Under the now therefore
- section, we've
- I think we need to change this to be more general because it's not. We're not the experts in. Determining
- functional capacity bed counts all of that. That's that's not our business. What we are saying is. Instead
- of what's in point to the board. Acknowledges the sheriff's
- exceeds its functional capacity. I am forwarding this to Ms. DeLotter Myers once we approve it. The
- commissioners referred members of the public to their July 9th work session for further discussion and
- Commissioner Jody Medeira clarified the function of the resolution. Just wanted to say that it's largely
- a technical and rather general
- vote of confidence in our sheriff. It's not really necessary as we understand it, and it's scarcely
- controversial to say the jail is overcrowded. So what we intend to say is that we know the
- jail is overcrowded. We support that principle, and we know this is going on to others who will vet
- it more closely, like the board of judges and the council. But it is not our job to vet it, and we are
- not the experts in vetting it in that capacity.
- County Attorney Jeff Cockerill also presented a letter of representation for Clark Johnson and Knight
- limited to represent both the Monroe County Commissioners and Sheriff's Office in a case that the ACLU
- brought against officials for quote unconstitutional conditions unquote at Monroe County Jail. This
- morning we received a letter from the law firm of
- Clark Johnson and Knight. This is the same firm, I believe, the commissioner has approved last week
- for representation in the ACLU lawsuit. This letter is for the same work, for the same price, but it
- also adds the sheriff as someone that she will represent in this case. The bulk of this letter discusses
- the conflict of interest.
- assessment that was done by the the law firm and they came to the conclusion that they could represent
- both the sheriff and commissioners and not have a ethical violation or a conflict violation as as you
- guys are aware and i told you a while ago if this didn't become part of a litigation that our office
- would be conflicted out and that we represent the entire county and we have three different members
- of the county who have been named in this lawsuit and we don't think we were
- positive we couldn't ethically represent each party to their satisfaction or basically without creating
- a conflict between the without with us between those two parties so we we are unable to handle it for
- anyone and we do not believe that this is conflict is a waivable one but it is one where we are just
- we have this we have to step out so this letter is
- of continuing the thought that they would represent the county commissioners but it also adds the sheriff
- and the bulk of this letter it's a four-page letter and pages two and two and half of page three talk
- about that conflict analysis that they had done and so same price
- same representation, it's still hold. The commissioners also heard a resolution approving a tax abatement
- for the company CNChia as they expand their building and employment on the county's west side. What
- we have is we have a local company who is currently in a TIF district, the west side TIF district, they
- want to expand their building
- but basically make it twice as big. So add another 6,000 square feet. They want to increase their employment
- in that building from 40 full-time employees making about $4.2 million to add 30 more employees that
- would make about $2.3 million. The total tax evasion savings is about $100,000.
- which is about 10,000 a year. This has been approved by the council. This comes to you because it is
- in the TIF district, so you have an obligation to review the statement of benefits. For that, we did
- have a redevelopment commission meeting last night where we discussed it, and they were made aware of
- it, and they did not indicate that it would affect any of their abilities to pay for anything in the
- future. So all in all, I think, particularly with the shift of
- from property tax to income tax, that the wages being paid here are significantly higher than our average
- wage in the county. And this group indicated that they have about 75% of their current employees live
- in Monroe County. Typically when we look at a tax abatement, it's a 50-50. Half of them live in the
- county, half are out. So that's a little bit higher for this group as well. The Monroe County commissioners
- will meet again on July 23rd.
- The Ellisville Town Council met on July 14th, where they began work on a wholesale water rate tracker,
- which officials said is the only reason water bills will increase. Utilities Director, Mike Kornman,
- warned that without the adjustment, the utility could quickly begin operating at a deficit. We just
- want to maintain the rates that we established in 2024 so we can do the work that was projected and
- maintain our O&M
- expenses and without providing us this tracker, we could lose $25,000-$30,000 a month. During public
- comment, residents urged the council to adopt an ordinance allowing off-road vehicles that mirrors Monroe
- County's UTV regulations. Supporter Tom Orman spoke in favor of the proposal. 88 counties of the 92
- in the state of Indiana have UTV ordinances.
- They're safe. They've got roll cages. They've got seat belts. My particular unit, you can't drive over
- 15 miles an hour unless you have a seat belt or it's reduced speed. I understand Highway 46 is not the
- place for these. During supervisor comments, town manager Mike Farmer presented a personnel policy change
- allowing police officers to convert unused holiday hours into floating holidays. The council approved
- the change unanimously.
- The next Alexville Town Council meeting is scheduled for July 27th. The Bloomington Utilities Service
- Board met on July 13th, where they approved a memorandum of understanding between City of Bloomington
- Utilities and milestone contractors to settle a dispute over damage to utility infrastructure. City
- Attorney Chris Wheeler went into greater detail. We should do well to run video down through our lines
- to see the condition of our lines.
- so that if any of our lines get damaged, we can point to those videos and say that our infrastructure
- is in good shape. If you look at the MOU, you can see the gist of what we're looking at here is the
- fact that that milestone didn't work. We've had a good relationship with milestone over the years, but
- we thought it was more probable than not that milestone caused damage to our infrastructure.
- The board approved the settlement agreement between CBU and Milestone. Assistant Director of Transmission
- and Distribution, James Hall, also announced that new utility rates approved earlier this year will
- take effect on August 1st. Board President Kirk White suggested including information with customer's
- bills explaining how the additional revenue will be used. We can look at kind of overall like how much
- money we think we're going to spend at the water plant, how much money we
- to spend on water main replacement. Those are kind of big numbers from the CIP that we could easily
- pull and put in the memo of the bill and fit in there. The board also heard an initial presentation
- on the 2027 budget. Finance committee members said the biggest change will be the new water rates, resulting
- in a slight increase to monthly water bills. The biggest change will be, as was just reported a while back,
- the new water rates. We finally did get approval from the Indiana Regulatory, the State Regulatory
- Commission, and everyone will see a slight increase in their monthly water bill. The Board will continue
- to work on the 2027 budget as additional financial projections are completed. The next meeting of the
- Bloomington Utilities Service Board will be on July 27th.
- And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.