Hello and welcome to Cats Creek. I'm Annalise Poorman. At their meeting on November 12th, the Monroe
County Commissioners voted three to zero to hire an attorney for the county's lawsuit over Steinsville's
agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On November 10th, the town of Steinsville ratified
a controversial agreement between the town police department and ICE, which states that local police
officers can carry out federal immigration enforcement duties.
County Attorney Jeff Cockrell said that the City Attorney Larry Allen will handle most of the work for
free. As a reaction to a resolution that the community commissioners approved regarding Steinsville
and the town marshal's ability to enter into contracts for town marshal for the town of Steinsville
without going through the board, the Indiana Attorney General issued an opinion that said that the town
marshal didn't have to and that if
And it had threats against the county for fines and things related to ICE and ICE immigration,
which is, I guess, the underlying cause of what brought this to our attention, where the issue is who
has the authority to enter into contracts for a political subdivision. And so the commissioner said
it's a town board. The attorney general said not in this case and then made threats about
fines because of some statutory language about dealing with ICE. And so this is an agreement with Larry
Allen, who is an attorney in town. He used to work for the city of Bloomington. The vast majority of
the work is going to be pro bono under this agreement. It's just in the event that there is a hearing
or something that he has to attend, then he is going to charge $250 an hour for those limited times
with the hearing. And so he is going to
take on the brunt of the work on this. Commissioner Julie Thomas said that the commissioners filed the
lawsuit in Monroe County Circuit Court challenging who has the authority to make a decision in this
case. The lawsuit challenges
In October 6, 2026, advisory opinion from Indiana Attorney General Todd Burkita asserting police chiefs
and town marshals may enter into Section 287G agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
ICE, without approval from their city or town's council. Commissioner Jody Madeira says the dispute
is also about public accountability when local police take on federal immigration enforcement duties.
When a local police department takes on federal enforcement powers, the people who live there deserve
to know about it and the officials the elected should go on the record. Our message to Steinsville has
always been consistent with September's. This was your decision, not ours and not an attorney general's
and not a U.S. senator's. Make it in public and according to Indian law so that an audit trail is created.
And that's what this is all about. The county is asking a judge to block the agreement from being carried
out. Commissioner Lee Jones described what they're hoping to achieve with the litigation.
The lawsuit also seeks court orders temporarily and permanently prohibiting Steinsville from carrying
out the agreement until it is lawfully authorized and applicable statutory requirements are satisfied
and preventing the attorney general from taking enforcement action against the Monroe County Board of
Commissioners
or the county based on the resolution or lawsuit. The Monroe County Board of Commissioners is not asking
the court to overturn the town's decision and the lawsuit does not seek relief against ICE or any other
federal authorities. The commissioners say a hearing on the lawsuit has yet to be set.
The board also heard an update from the Monroe County Health Department on the rise in measles cases
across the state of Indiana. Director of Public Health Preparedness Linnea Amy explained. First of all,
there are no suspected or confirmed measles cases in Monroe County at this time, just to reassure you.
However, statewide, as of November 10, so Tuesday, the number of measles cases reported by the Indiana
Department of Health has risen to 153 known cases. That's up from 117 cases this time last week. During
public comment, Christopher M.G. from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce asked about cost estimates
for two projects related to food and beverage tax revenue. He walked through what he sees as the long-term
costs of maintaining
Corry in the Uplands and Huntington Nature Preserve. MG also applauded the County Council for rejecting
an increase in commissioners' salaries.
county employees received 2% raises. Voters earlier in the month made affordability a clear concern
this election, and we should reflect that in how county government approaches its own spending. Commissioners
also approved a policy for handling disaster reimbursements by a 3-0 vote. Emergency Management Director
Jamie Nebel said that the county has held onto some of that funding since the 2023 tornado and state
disaster relief.
So the dollar amount comes from the funding that we've obtained in the past. So the 2023 tornado, that's
the FEMA funding that we had received that hasn't been dispersed back to its original expenditure. There's
some state disaster relief funding that we received in 2024 that hasn't been expended to where it originally
came from. So that money's just being held. And once we get this policy passed, then it will be put
where it came from.
The commissioners will meet again for their next regular session on Thursday, November 19th.
On November 10th, the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability met to discuss protecting heritage trees
in the city, as well as superintelligent AI. City Council Member Dave Rallo started the meeting by discussing
the city's ordinance barring superintelligent AI from being distributed or used within Bloomington.
The ordinance defined superintelligence as AI that can outperform humans in mental tasks and autonomously
rewrite its own code.
This is a technology that's not available yet, but it's on the horizon. It's what companies that Frontier
Labs are aiming to do. It's known to be extremely hazardous. The reason is multi-fold, but one reason
is in order to get there, they're endowing these models with what's called recursive self-improvement,
which is where the models themselves design the models. Right now there's human oversight.
but they're giving ever more latitude for the AI to utilize that. So this has been warned about for
years that this could result in an iterative loop of improvement to super intelligence, which would
be impossible for us to control potentially. People say, why don't you unplug it? It resides on the
internet. So where do you unplug it? It could be in any server anywhere in the world.
The Bloomington Commission on Sustainability also discussed giving the Neighborhood Planting Project
roughly $4,000 to fill funding gaps for next year's tree giveaway. Christopher Miles, Bloomington Commission
on Sustainability Treasurer, described the grant. The event is basically a distribution of thousands
of what are called small whips. They're very small trees that
can be bought quite cheaply in bulk and then distributed. The number we have for this is 6,000 that
are gonna be given away in town, and that's what this funding is for. They actually coordinate with
other projects around the state, so there's like tens of thousands of trees that get distributed around
the state. But this money is strictly for Bloomington. The commission approved the grant unanimously.
The next Bloomington Commission on Sustainability meeting will take place on December 8th.
The Monroe County Council met on Tuesday, November 10th. During the meeting, Health Department Director
of Public Health Preparedness, Linnea Amy, reported on the increasing measles outbreak and said updates
are available on their department's website and Facebook page. We're going to start providing some slightly
more regular updates. Typically, we provide them every couple of months so people don't get alert fatigue.
but as it is becoming more pressing, and as you can see on your map, a little closer to home as well,
we'll be offering some more regular updates as well. The council amended the meeting's agenda to discuss
a proposed increase in board of commissioners' salaries. The proposal failed unanimously with opposition,
citing previous commissioner increases, comparisons with other counties, and concerns about compensation
for other county employees.
Councilmember Kate Wilts said the commissioner's positions are part-time and that she could not justify
a raise while other county employees received less. This is not meant to be a lucrative position by
any stretch. As it stands now, this is still considered a part-time position and by nearly any standards,
being paid
I mean, 69,000 plus is much closer to full-time salary already than it is part-time. It's more than
I get paid in my full-time job. So there you have it. I mean, I can't look at the employees of Monroe
County government and say, you know, we had to stop at 2% and put you all through the wringer, but we
can afford to dig into our pockets
amazing $12,000 plus increase for the commissioners. It just it doesn't work. Council President Jennifer
Crossley said that the commissioners had not sufficiently justified their request. I don't think that
I've seen Commissioner Thomas anything that is from your office or from you that says that here is what
we have. This is where we are comparable to other counties and things. And to see
where we are versus what we get paid. So again, I guess I ask, show me the car facts, show us where
it is. Because right now, again, as I think it was Councilor Wilts that said this, the outliers, the
true outliers is the 700 plus employees that come here every single day that are not elected, that do
their job under some crazy ass situations. And they don't complain or sometimes maybe they do, but they
deserve so much more.
And it behooves me to have politicians literally ask for what you are looking for when we really should
be taking care of those that serve the public and serve our greater community every single day. During
public comment, local resident Kaden Smith spoke against the proposal focusing on inequities.
The issue of additional pay for the commissioners is not a question of whether we agree or disagree
with their job and how they are fulfilling their duties, but it's really an issue of pay equity here.
If we're giving all county employees a 2% COLA, elected officials and non-elected officials, I don't
understand why the commissioners feel that they should get more when what we've seen, we've seen multiple
substantial increases within the last few years that
the commissioners have gotten. And I just don't think like, yes, we can find the funds. I understand
that argument, but also we could use the funds for so many other things that, you know, if we were to
have a public vote, you know, the public would want to send it to so many other issues. The council
then moved to approve a hiring freeze exemption request from Monroe County courts to hire a full-time bailiff.
Court Administrator Jama Chandler explained the need for the position. We recently had a bailiff position
open. One of our bailiffs moved to Johnson County and took a position there. So we're requesting that
we can get his job filled as soon as possible. As you know, they play critical roles in maintaining
security within the Monroe County Justice Facility. We've been here a couple times this year requesting
to have the same position filled. So we're back again.
The council then moved on to approve a $110,000 grant appropriation for the health department's sexually
transmitted infection prevention work. The department's financial manager, Eric Gauss, described the
services funded by the program. Services provided by our dedicated staff include STIH IV testing, partner
notification and linkage to care, case follow-up to ensure
proper treatment and prevention, retention or reinfection, prevent reinfection and education and outreach
to promote prevention and safe practices. Just to give you a few current items that staff are doing.
Staff have been offering walk-in testing on Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and averaging between 4 to 10 walk-ins.
each Thursday. Staff has also been providing outreach testing at Shalom, Indiana Recovery Alliance in
the back door. Next, the council considered two aviation-related appropriations, including funding for
the tornado recovery insurance deductible and pavement repair. The council later voted unanimously to
resume PAC meetings to consider a countywide salary study. Council member Peter Iverson voiced his support.
The need for a salary study that impacts every single department in county government has never been
more clear as it has been tonight, where we have yet another department coming and asking for a raise.
So what I said in my statement, I think was pretty forceful, but I think it's true. We do have these
different categories.
of employees and some folks are at the bottom there and we need to be looking out for every single employee
here in county government and so a county-wide salary study I think is the way to go. This study will
include employee compensation, staffing levels, labor hour use and department workloads.
The Council also extended the existing suspensions of the overtime budget and KSA through the year of
2027. The next regular Monroe County Council meeting is scheduled for November 24th.
The Ellitsville Town Council met on November 9th. Council members started the meeting by thanking voters
for narrowly passing the merger with Richland Township. The referendum needed majority support from
both inside and outside Ellitsville. Council member William Ellis acknowledged the close vote, saying
the town has work to do to earn the trust of residents outside Ellitsville. I just want to thank the voters.
for trusting us with the vision of moving forward with Ellisville Reorganization. I know those and it
was a very close race in the township part and we are going to do every effort to win your trust and
win your belief that this is actually something that's gonna be good for the entire community and just
we had record turnout and I just wanna thank you. Council President Scott Oldham said putting the merger
into practice will have its complications. However, he says he is looking positively to the future.
I look forward to making this thing happen. It's very complicated. There's a lot of people have been
putting a lot of time and effort into this and it shows. And I think in the years to come, you're going
to see where this is a absolute turning point in the development of this town. So again, thank you and
congratulations to everyone. The two town governments are set to become one entity starting January 1st.
During the meeting, the council voted four to zero to release about $601,000 in bonds for the prominence
fields subdivision. Town manager Mike Farmer says the development will help meet the need for more housing
in the area. I just really appreciate the builders and the developers we have in town right now. It's
one of the prime needs of our community, of the whole county.
if not the whole nation of affordable housing, housing that looks good and is well built and the subdivision
looks good. So I really appreciate it and it's part of the reorganization effort that we keep this going
on. People need a place to live. Everybody's friends, family, especially their kids and someday their
kids' kids will need places to live.
And so I think it's a big deal, so I really appreciate the efforts that our developers and builders
make in Ellitsville. The Ellitsville Town Council will meet again on November 23rd. And that is all
for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.
is what it looks like and where I found it.