Column: Bloomington’s next mayor should routinely field questions in public from residents, press

Should the mayor of Bloomington hold a monthly news conference, where any resident or member of the press can ask a question on any topic?

Incumbent mayor John Hamilton does not appear to think it’s very important to make himself available like that.

No such news conference has been held in the last three and a half years, which is the time The B Square has been in publication.

Hamilton is not seeking reelection. But I hope the next mayor of Bloomington thinks it’s important to hold a regular public event where anyone can ask a question.

Most Bloomington voters seem to think so, too.

On behalf of The B Square, Public Policy Polling conducted a recent survey of likely voters in the Democratic Party’s May 2 primary.

Those survey results show that 92 percent of respondents think it’s very or somewhat important that Bloomington’s mayor hold a monthly news conference.

The text-to-web poll was conducted from March 1-3, 2023, and received completed responses from 594 registered voters in Bloomington. The margin of error for the survey was +/- 4.0%.

Hamilton’s lack of actual accessibility to the public and the press could help explain his low approval numbers in the same poll.

Just 27 percent of respondents approved of Hamilton’s job performance, while 39 percent disapproved of his performance.

About one-third of respondents weren’t sure about Hamilton’s job performance. That probably indicates that a lot of Bloomington residents aren’t sure what impact any mayor’s performance has on their world.

I don’t think the Bloomington mayor’s approval rating gets routinely polled by the local press. In any case, I could not find any historical numbers against which to judge Hamilton’s results.

But one standard against which to judge Hamilton’s approval ratings are presidential numbers.

Donald Trump’s final approval rating was 34 percent. To find a lower final approval rating for a US president, than Hamilton’s 27 percent, you have to go back to Richard Nixon. In his final poll, Nixon had an approval rating of 24 percent.

I don’t think holding a routine news conference is some kind of magic bullet that will ensure that Bloomington’s mayor enjoys high popularity.

But a commitment to routinely answering questions in public, from the public and the press, would go a long way towards improving perceptions of the mayor and city government in general.

It might help convince Bloomington residents that their mayor has enough confidence to face those the city’s executive is supposed to serve—the public.