Both races for Monroe County commissioner are contested this year. In one race, incumbent Democrat Julie Thomas is competing with Peter Iversen for the party’s nomination. Iversen currently serves on the county council.
In the other race, incumbent Democrat Penny Githens is competing for the nomination with Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor, and Steve Volan, who lost his re-election bid to the Bloomington city council last year.
For the seat where the Democrats have a three-way primary, the Republicans also have a contested race. Vying for the GOP nomination are Paul White, Sr. and Joe VanDeventer.
Background: Contested primaries
County commissioners are elected to four-year terms. Two of the three commissioner seats are elected on the same cycle as the presidential elections—that’s this year. The other one is elected on the presidential midterm cycle.
The Democratic Party saw a contested primary race for county commissioner as recently as two years ago, when Dominic Thompson made an unsuccessful challenge to incumbent Lee Jones.
In 2020, the two seats for incumbents Thomas and Githens, were uncontested.
In 2018, there was a two-way primary between Lee Jones and Patrick Stoffers, which was won by Jones.
In 2016, the incumbent Thomas was not challenged. For the other seat, there was a three-way race in the Democratic Primary, between Amanda Barge, John Whikehart, and Rick Dietz. Barge won the primary race and went on to be elected.
All eligible voters in Monroe County can cast a ballot for each of the county commissioner seats. The geographic districts associated with the seats determine where candidates have to live, not the voters who elect them.
Candidate forums so far this year
This report focuses just on this year’s Democratic Primary contest between Githens, Madeira, and Volan. It draws on three events, over the last several days.
On Saturday, March 23, all five candidates in the Democratic Party primary races for county commissioner fielded questions at a forum that took place in the auditorium of the downtown Bloomington location of the Monroe County Public Library. It was hosted by the League of Women Voters of Bloomington and Monroe County (LWV).
A previous B Square report covered the other race for the March 23 forum, where incumbent Julie Thomas is competing with Peter Iversen.
The full forum from Saturday (March 23) is available to watch on CATS.
Other events that feed into this report include the March 19 Democrats Club forum at DeAngelo’s, and the March 28 forum hosted by the Building Association of South Central Indiana (BASCI) at the Bloomington Country Club.
Commissioners versus challengers?
Evident in the three-way primary race for commissioner has been the way that both of the challengers, Jody Madeira and Steve Volan, have made their race against “the commissioners,”and not as much against Githens specifically.
For example, at the March 19 DeAngelo’s event, Volan stated: “The commissioners often talk about ‘our community’. Bloomington is the crown jewel of our community—the county and city are inseparable. Our community as a whole is changing around them, whether they like it or not.”
At the DeAngelo’s event, Volan talked about “the challengers” as a group: “And I think you see that the challengers here are all sort of united, at least in saying: Look, the status quo has to change.” He continued, “And I think that no matter who you elect among the challengers, you’re going to find that they’re going to get something done.”
Madeira’s references to “the commissioners” as a group have been far less frequent than Volan’s, but are not unattested. At the March 28 BASCI forum, Madeira said, “We need to come to the table in a different way than the commissioners have, with developers and home builders, who are members of our community, who have solid reputations, who have built homes for our residents for decades, who do quality work.”
For at least a couple of reasons, it’s not surprising to hear Volan, and to some extent Madeira, frame the question for voters as commissioners-versus-challengers.
First, forums that lump all five candidates together make it somewhat harder for them to draw distinctions between themselves and just the person they are actually running against. Second, Githens and Thomas have leaned into the idea that they should be considered as a pair, not as separate candidates, by hosting a joint fundraiser, for example.
Even during non-campaign season, it is common practice for incumbent county commissioners to present themselves not as separate individuals, but as a unified group—by taking turns reading aloud prepared statements, or by wearing the same T-shirt to fit a specific occasion.
But at the March 28 BASCI forum, which included just candidates in the three-way race, Madeira made a clear attempt to separate Githens from Thomas, by pointing to Thomas as having the strongest voice among the three commissioners.
Madeira’s remarks came in the context of calling for a more inclusive process for considering issues like the county’s comprehensive plan. Here’s how Madeira put it: “But if you watch a commissioner meeting, it’s not a ‘we’, it’s a ‘she’ making those decisions. There is a voice that is stronger among the commissioners, than any other voice. And that’s Julie’s voice.”
Madeira, who holds PhD in communications studies, continued, “And I hear it over and over again—it does not take a PhD in communication studies to know that that is what is going on, at least when decisions are forthcoming.” To start a better planning process, Madeira said she would bring more diverse voices to the table—voices that can challenge decision makers.
Connecting with residents versus getting along with others
It is a common, even expected tactic for candidates at forums to wedge their own talking points into a response to whatever question is asked, even if they are not a perfect fit for the question.
One moderator prompt at the March 23 LWV forum was: How do you and how will you connect with residents?
Both Madeira and Volan took advantage of the prompt to criticize Githens and the other commissioners.
Githens was first to answer the question. She led off talking about her experience volunteering with Hoosier Hills Food Bank. She said, “For the last four years, as they’ve done their food distributions and also their book sales, I’ve been volunteering—I’ve been out there putting food in the back of people’s cars, meeting people where they are.”
Githens also said that because of her efforts, some of the county’s ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money was used to make sure that over 2,000 families were fed at Thanksgiving. She had helped deliver some of those Thanksgiving meals to people, Githens said.
When people were first moved out of the Seminary Park encampment, Githens had herself talked to people who were living in the encampment, she said.
Githens said that she works with the Indiana Recovery Alliance. Githens noted that the commissioners hold virtual office hours every week. When the commissioners get a request for a rezone, she visits the locations where the rezone has been requested.
Before getting to any specifics of how she would connect with residents, Madeira worked in one of her talking points, which is the idea that Githens and other commissioners do not cooperate well with other government officials.
Madeira prefaced her response to the question by saying: “I’ll answer this question by starting from the premise that we’ve got a collaboration crisis between the city and the county, and between county offices themselves.”
Madeira continued, “This prevents us as a county from moving forward. It has delayed critical infrastructure like the jail, like the convention center, and it also hamstrings our efforts to deal with emergency issues such as homelessness, and access to health services that again demand close collaboration.”
Madeira added, “It’s time to respect other government officials like the sheriff and the county clerk as co-equal.” Respecting the county sheriff and the county clerk as co-equal elected officials is an allusion to episodes where friction has arisen inside county government between the commissioners and the county clerk, Nicole Browne, and the county sheriff, Ruben Marté.
Through a good chunk of 2021, the commissioners were at odds with the clerk over space allocations for the county’s election division. Browne wanted all of the old Johnson’s Hardware building, aka Election Central, at 7th and Madison streets, to be allocated to elections.
Since Marté was sworn into office at the start of 2023, there were two episodes that got aired out publicly, because Marté wrote lengthy email messages on the topics.
One situation involved the hiring of a jail technician who would handle basic repairs. Marté felt that commissioners were slow-footing the process. The other situation was the sheriff’s concern about the lack of transparency in the process for selection of an architect for the new jail. Indiana’s public access counselor eventually opined that in connection with that process, a committee meeting should have been open to the public.
As for collaboration outside of county government, with the city of Bloomington, Madeira has been critical of delays in the progress towards the Monroe Convention Center expansion. In 2023, the state legislature passed HB 1454, which uses the local food and beverage tax as a prod, to require Bloomington and Monroe County to show some progress on the convention center project.
Before wrapping up her answer about how she would connect with residents, Madeira said, “I would connect by being present, being an active listener. Maybe changing the [regular commissioner] meetings from 10 a.m. on a Wednesday to a time when people who live in the community and have jobs can actually attend them, or holding additional meetings to hear resident concerns after working hours.”
Madeira then drew on her experience as an advocate for legislative action: “I spent my research career listening to how law affects people’s lives. I have created a new social movement, for example, for fertility fraud, demonstrating that we can move past conversations into action.” She said that since 2019, she had helped get 11 state laws passed, which have helped hold criminals accountable in ways they previously could not.
Madeira wrapped up by saying, “When you start having the conversations that matter, people start being able to do things. I won’t just stop with the connections with residents, I will make those connections matter.”
In Volan’s answer to the question about how he would connect with residents, he focused on criticizing commissioners and specifically the answer that Githens had given to the question.
Volan allowed that personal outreach is good, saying, “I suppose we want somebody who’s empathetic in office.”
He then moved straight to criticism: “They don’t talk about how they intentionally excluded Bloomington police from the CJRC (community justice response committee).” Volan continued, “They intentionally did not want Bloomington to take part in this important discussion about the entire justice system—even though BPD is a huge and important user of the system.”
Volan continued, “They talk about the little things—they don’t talk about the big things that matter.” Volan brought up solar panels, and the fact commissioners had cited the county’s installation of solar panels as a point in their favor for protecting the environment: “Everyone’s doing solar panels—that’s the baseline in 2024. If you’d be remiss, if you weren’t doing it,” Volan said.
About the commissioners, Volan said, “They tend to listen to the neighbors who speak up—the loud ones, the ones who are malcontents.” Volan continued, “They don’t necessarily go to listen to the neighbors who don’t come to meetings who don’t have time to come to meetings.” He echoed Madeira’s criticism of the 10 a.m. meeting time.
Volan continued with his answer about how he would connect with residents by asking why the commissioners were “hoarding” ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money. “Costs have gone up on all the big things that matter,” Volan said. “They keep focusing on the little stuff—they talk to people, and therefore they’re good people.”
Volan wrapped up by saying, “Of course, they’re good people. But that doesn’t make them good leaders.”
Regarding ARPA funding, the money has to be obligated by the end of this year, and spent by the end of 2026. According to the DLGF Gateway, the county’s APRA fund balance at the end of 2023 was $22,551,895. The fund balance for the city of Bloomington at the end of 2023 was $11,357,022.
Reentry and treatment versus jail location
At the March 23 LWV forum, candidates were asked about the Integrated Reentry and Coordinate Support (IRACS) program.
IRACS is a program partly funded through the state, which helps prisoners transition back to life outside the county jail through the use of peer coaches who work with prisoners. Monroe County has applied to participate in IRACS. Githens has been given credit by other commissioners for taking the initiative to put Monroe County in a position potentially to be included in the program.
The question.was essentially a chance for candidates to show that they were familiar with IRACS: What are your thoughts on the IRACS proposal brought forth a couple of weeks ago in the Nat U. Hill Room by commissioner Githens?
Madeira had first crack at the question. She led off by saying, “Well, I think it’s wonderful.” She continued by saying that in every successful community that has made some progress on the issues confronted on reentry, wraparound programs are “incredibly, incredibly important.”
Madeira continued, “We cannot just release people from jail, give them some clothing on their backs, and hope that they will be successes.” Madeira noted that Monroe County’s inclusion in the program is not yet a “done deal”. Madeira said it is important for plans to be in place, in case Monroe County is not chosen as a pilot site for IRACS.
Madeira added, “These are things I believe we are already doing in some capacity, but not enough.” She repeated her point that connecting people to services as they are released from jail needs to be done, even if Monroe County is not chosen for the IRACS program. Madeira finished her answer by saying wraparound services are essential, not just for people who are released from the jail, but also from the hospital.
Volan was next up to answer the question about IRACS. He started by saying, “North Park again is the same problem as Fullerton Pike. It’s in the middle of nowhere.” He continued, “There’s literally nothing there, and a whole new community would have to crop up around it and it’s not going to grow like Bloomington downtown grew—it’s going to be suburban sprawl at best and it’ll be devoid of surfaces at worst.”
The locations to which Volan referred—North Park and Fullerton Pike—are places that have been considered for a new jail. North Park is currently under investigation. The rezone for Fullerton Pike was rejected by the Bloomington city council, of which Volan was a member, in late 2022.
By way of background, in 2008, the ACLU filed a lawsuit stemming from conditions at the jail, and the jail is now operating under a settlement agreement, reached in 2009, which has been extended several times.
The work of two consultants was delivered to the county in mid-2021, which included a conclusion that the current facility is “failing.”
For B Square background on the question of a need for a new county jail, see: Monroe County sheriff, commissioners square off at committee meeting, ACLU lawyer says: “Look, you need a new jail. Everyone knows that.”
Volan’s answer to the question about his thoughts about IRACS continued by saying that the reason the city council had voted unanimously against the county government’s requested rezone of Fullerton Pike was because “it was completely undeveloped land on the very edge of the city.”
Volan then pointed specifically to transportation as one of the services people need when they leave jail. He touted the city ordinance that he brought forward as a Bloomington city councilmember in fall 2023, that allows Bloomington Transit to provide services to locations outside the city limits, like the North Park site.
It was as early as January 2020 when some members of Bloomington Transit’s board appeared eager to extend the agency’s service outside the city boundaries. But the board did not push the issue, because they did not think there was enough political support for it on the Bloomington city council.
At the March 23 LWV voters forum, Volan continued his response to the question asking for his thoughts on IRACS. He said that after the transit ordinance was passed, the commissioners ”have yet to even pick up the phone and call anybody at Bloomington Transit” to start talking with them about how to start providing service outside the city limits.
At the March 28 BASCI forum, when Volan made the same claim about the failure of commissioners to start conversations with Bloomington Transit, Githens responded by saying, “Steve [Volan] has not been part of those conversations, because he’s not part of Bloomington Transit.”
At the March 23 LWV forum, Volan was prematurely interrupted by the moderator before his time was over. When he was allowed to continue, he stated his position that the new jail should be built downtown, and that the county government owns adequate land in the downtown area, to construct a jail there. That would require building a multi-floor facility, even though the jail itself should be on one floor, Volan said, with other things on top of it.
Towards the start of her answer, Githens responded to Volan’s stated position that there is adequate land in downtown Bloomington to fit a new jail: “What we’ve been told by our jail designer is that we need at least 25 acres, if we’re going to have the single story jail—the sheriff’s office and co-locate the justice campus.”
Githens then recounted how she put Monroe County in the running for inclusion in IRACS. When she first heard about it, she contacted Jayme Whitaker—he’s vice president of forensic services and director of the IRACS program at Mental Health America of Indiana.
Whitaker told Githens about an upcoming occasion in Indianapolis when he would be speaking publicly about the program. Githens attended the program, spoke with Whitaker afterwards, invited him to Bloomington and discussed how Monroe County might be included in IRACS. Githens also reported that she had spoken with Heather Rodriguez, who is vice president of recovery advocacy and programs for Mental Health America of Indiana.
Jail sites given consideration so far
Learning from sheriff about a new jail location?
At the LWV forum on March 23, candidates were asked: What have you learned about jail design and location from conversations with sheriff Ruben Marté?
Getting first crack at the question was Githens, who described undergoing three days of training with the Planning of New Institutions (PONI) Program, initiated by the National Institute of Corrections. Githens said that Marté was in her PONI training group, which meant they had had several conversations. Based on their most recent discussions, Githens said, Marté is in favor of the North Park location, which is currently under investigation. Marté is in favor of a one-story facility, Githens said.
Marté and Githens agree, according to Githens, that co-locating other elements of the justice system with the jail would increase safety for everybody. She continued by saying Marté is in favor of participating in the IRACS program.
Githens closed her response by saying that commissioners had requested a rezone of the Fullerton Pike site, to allow for use as a jail, but that Volan had voted against it as a Bloomington city councilmember. When his turn came, Volan pointed out that the vote against the Fullerton Pike rezone had been unanimous on the city council.
In her answer, Madeira first established that she had visited the jail and that she had talked to Marté about it. “I learned a number of things from sheriff Ruben Marté when I actually toured the jail two weeks ago,” she said.
Her extended conversations with the sheriff about the jail pre-dated the visit two weeks ago, she said—because as a law professor, the topic is “something that touches deeply at my heart.” Madeira then cited the ACLU lawsuit alleging unconstitutional conditions, and from there criticized current county commissioners.
From Marté, she had learned that Monroe County commissioners “didn’t listen when he represented a need to clean the jail to avoid MRSA [Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus] infections.” Madeira said that commissioners at the time had characterized the specific issue as an “aesthetic one.”
The reference to aesthetics came from commissioner Julie Thomas, who said at a Feb. 1, 2023 work session: “It sounds like the floor issue is really aesthetic, and it’s not an issue of health and safety.” At the March 23 LWV forum, Madeira noted that the areas in question were where inmates walked barefoot.
Marté had to borrow from another county the needed equipment needed to clean the floors, Madeira said.
About the topic of jail location, Madeira said, “We need a justice center as close as possible to the downtown, co-located with prosecutor and public defender offices, recovery and mental health services, and new technologically updated courtrooms, amply served by public transit.”
Madeira also said the current jail has to be maintained—she described it as “an abysmal mess.” The current jail faces problems “that are serious, not aesthetic, that pose everyday risks to the safety of employees and individuals who are incarcerated,” she said. As examples, Madeira gave: a broken elevator; sewage flowing into administrative offices: and leaks in the roofs.
Madeira started the wrap up to her answer by saying, “I’m eager to work with sheriff Marté and his staff on site design and programming, including preventative and post-incarceration.” She closed by saying she looks forward to respecting Marté, the elected sheriff, who is a co-equal branch of government.
Volan responded to the question about what he’s learned from Marté, about jail design and location, with prepared material that was critical of commissioners for delays on two projects—the Monroe Convention Center expansion and the construction of a new jail.
Volan started by saying, “The commissioners dithered for years on the issue of the convention center, driving up costs.” He continued on the topic of the convention center: “Whatever we could have done with that tax money in 2019 was lost in the bickering between them and the mayor.” The commissioners had also “dithered” for years on the issue of the jail, Volan said.
The commissioners have had no strategy for working with the city of Bloomington to meet the challenge of building the new jail downtown, Volan said. Instead, Volan said, “They have thrown out all sorts of poorly vetted ideas, to build it anywhere but downtown.”
The Fullerton Pike rezone request was unanimously rejected by the Bloomington city council, because it was a “bad idea,” Volan said, just like North Park is a “bad idea.” Putting the new jail on the outskirts of town would mean “eviscerating” the center of Bloomington, Volan said. Volan chalked up the lack of any current prospects for building a new jail downtown to the “spiteful attitude” of commissioners towards working with city of Bloomington officials.
Only towards the end of his response to the question about what he’d learned from Marté, did the sheriff get a mention. “As far as sheriff Marté goes, I asked him about the idea of maybe repurposing Showers West as a mental health facility,” Volan said. According to Volan, Marté had responded by saying the problem with that would be: Every other jurisdiction in the state would also be able to refer people to that facility.
Volan ended by saying, “So it’s a problem that we all will continue to struggle with. But at least [Marté] had a useful answer for me.”
Rental housing, septic for housing, annexation
Housing has been a big focus of all the campaigns for Monroe County commissioner. At the LWV forum on March 23, one question focused on a specific kind of housing: Should the county encourage rental housing? And if so, how should its habitability be ensured?
Of the three, Githens got the first chance to respond. She said, “We do need to ensure habitability, and one of those things that occurs, out in the county especially, is that a lot of the homes are on septic.” She continued, “Our health board has been going out…providing sort of ‘reviews’ of the septic systems, I’ll say, and enforcing problems when it occurs.”
Githens pointed out that for new construction, a septic inspection has to take place. Githens said that there should be a way for commissioners to receive and review complaints so that they can evaluate if there are county departments that could make a difference.
Madeira started her answer by saying, “I do believe we need to increase rentals.” She added, “But rentals are also a short-term solution to a long-term problem, which is affordable housing.”
Madeira called for programs to transition people to homeownership. The kind of rentals that are constructed is important, Madeira said. “We need more rental space of a different type—built by community developers not by REITs—real estate investment trusts, from out of state,” she said.
Madeira described REITs as the developers who come in to develop “the student housing that we can’t seem to fill.” Madeira called for partnership with developers: “We need to make our developers community partners in helping us solve the housing crisis. And we need to build in protections for renters.”
Madeira pointed to her 15 years of service on the Community Justice and Mediation Center’s (CJAM’s) board of directors. CJAM has a landlord-tenant mediation program, Madeira said, for which she has mediated cases for free.
Madeira wrapped up her answer by saying “When you have difficult solutions, you need community solutions to those problems. And [CJAM] is an excellent provider of those solutions.”
Volan started his answer to the question about rental housing by saying, “We need more housing, period.” Volan continued, “We need a glut of housing to bring prices and rents down.”
Picking up on the mention by Githens of septic systems, Volan said, “The commissioners know the problems of septic—they know it’s an environmental problem. Sewers are the answer.”
Volan rejected the idea that there is not adequate capacity in the city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) sewer system: “It’s not a capacity issue. Because annexation is tied up in litigation, CBU is no longer extending sewer services to anyone outside the service area, because they don’t know whether a sewer waiver will ever be honored again.”
When Bloomington mayor John Hamilton in 2017 proposed an ambitious annexation of territory into the city, considerable opposition arose. About that opposition, Volan said, “You saw what happened in 2017. And [the county commissioners] were cheering it on! The whole time!”
Volan added, “Monroe County commissioners are abetting anti-annexation activists! They are the cause of CBU’s limiting of [sewer] service!”
Volan said that if the property tax burden could be shared among more homes, that would reduce the rate for existing owners. But that would happen only if more homes can be built, Volan said. Because the new housing needs to be hooked up to sewer service, the commissioners need to sit down with the city and figure out a way that they can live with, whatever the city does, Volan said.
Opponents of annexation have pointed to the fact that it will mean higher taxes for new city residents, who have previously lived in the unincorporated portion of the county.
“Taxes are going to go up—whether annexation is accepted or not!” Volan said. He had become agitated enough during his speaking turn that when he stopped talking Volan said, “Sorry, I’m a little upset.”
Candidate Links
Penny Githens campaign website
Penny Githens Vote411 profile
I Got The Blame-Throwing Blues
It’s the single party news
Can’t have no jail
Cause you can’t have no shoes
When you can’t make the bail.
I Got the blame-throwing blues
No convention center for youze
They blamin’ each other
Ain’t for the citizen’s, brothers,
I got the blame-throwing blues.
I got the blame-throwin blues
Don’t be listenin’ to Marte
Instead, they just party
Gotta have a new jail but they fight it strong
‘Hope a judge just fine’s the hell out of them, they doin’ this wrong
Cause they don’t want to tell you about the new jail property taxes
They know you’ll fight that with pitchforks and axes
I got the blame throwin’ blues.
Ain’t no one touchin’ the problems
Of unchecked speculation and devastation
O’ where people has to live
The po folk just wantin’ a space
To be a part of the human race
Can’t keep up with the pace
Them fat cat monopolies
When we just wanna live, give us a small raise–please!
Cause we can’t afford the damn lease
I Got The Blame-Throwin Blues.
So there’s fussin and fighten
And blame goin’ round
Can’t no po folk get no ride to the meetin’s
So that they can make a sound
At the meetin’s and goin’s on
Where those fat cats and their mouthpieces
Rail on and on, yes- their souls are blackenin’, their morality gone
‘Bout their money, their lands, their biz, their fears
When Life is so short
To be cryin’ them tears
‘Cause the folk doin’ the work
Been done wrong, too long.
I got the blame-throwin’ blues.
I think I would have preferred straight up news reporting on the three fora rather than this single analysis column. Whenever I see this sort of switching between quotes of different people at different times I think of how difficult it would be to do in a representative way and wonder if it was done effectively.
If the jail needs to be downtown, and needs 25 acres, where is that 25 acres? Tearing down the justice building isn’t going to give you 25 ace, and where do you put the prisoner? Send then out of town to jails even harder for family and lawyers to get to? Perhaps the area from 2nd to across 3rd would be enough space, but then there would be no convention center. It is easy to criticize from the outside. The devil is in the details.
“One moderator prompt at the March 23 LWV forum was: How do you and how will you connect with residents?
Both Madeira and Volan took advantage of the prompt to criticize Githens and the other commissioners.”
>They have virtual office hours. Something that no previous commissioners did. Did Volan ever do this when on the city council?
“Through a good chunk of 2021, the commissioners were at odds with the clerk over space allocations for the county’s election division. Browne wanted all of the old Johnson’s Hardware building, aka Election Central, at 7th and Madison streets, to be allocated to elections.”
>The Clerk was being unreasonable. They offered her a much newer and nicer building with plenty of parking and directly across the street from the bus station but she wanted to not only in an old building with almost no parking but she also wanted to displace the probation offices that have been there a long time and it would be a major move because of all the people that visit that office as well as the expenses that go along with all of the security concerns for the probation offices.
“One situation involved the hiring of a jail technician who would handle basic repairs. Marté felt that commissioners were slow-footing the process.”
>It is a slow process. It was a newly created job. The job description had to be created. It has to be approved by the council; they have to find the money to fund the position. It is not a fast process. Look back at council meetings to see how long it has taken for other departments, the sheriff got it a lot faster than other departments. In addition, there is an outside contractor that does the maintenance for the justice building. I remember reading many statements that questioned why the jail go in such bad shape and If the sheriff is now hiring maintenance then why should the county use the contractor?
“In Volan’s answer to the question about how he would connect with residents, he focused on criticizing commissioners and specifically the answer that Githens had given to the question.”
>So, he will NOT connect with residents?
“North Park again is the same problem as Fullerton Pike. It’s in the middle of nowhere.”
>Middle of nowhere? It is 8 minutes from downtown Bloomington! If that is the middle of nowhere, does that mean Volan will never visit his constituency if he wins? The Harrodsburg Heritage Days festival, the Fall Festival, the Stinesville Stone Quarry Festival, etc. are all more than 8 minutes from downtown, will he only want to talk to constituents if the come downtown?
“At the March 23 LWV forum, Volan was prematurely interrupted by the moderator before his time was over. When he was allowed to continue, he stated his position that the new jail should be built downtown, and that the county government owns adequate land in the downtown area, to construct a jail there. That would require building a multi-floor facility, even though the jail itself should be on one floor, Volan said, with other things on top of it.”
>Okay. Where? Name a spot so others can consider it.
“Volan started by saying, “The commissioners dithered for years on the issue of the convention center, driving up costs.” He continued on the topic of the convention center: “Whatever we could have done with that tax money in 2019 was lost in the bickering between them and the mayor.” The commissioners had also “dithered” for years on the issue of the jail, Volan said.
The commissioners have had no strategy for working with the city of Bloomington to meet the challenge of building the new jail downtown, Volan said. Instead, Volan said, “They have thrown out all sorts of poorly vetted ideas, to build it anywhere but downtown.”
The Fullerton Pike rezone request was unanimously rejected by the Bloomington city council, because it was a “bad idea,” Volan said, just like North Park is a “bad idea.” Putting the new jail on the outskirts of town would mean “eviscerating” the center of Bloomington, Volan said. Volan chalked up the lack of any current prospects for building a new jail downtown to the “spiteful attitude” of commissioners towards working with city of Bloomington officials.”
>So basically, if volan wins, he will be the city Yes Man.
“Volan started his answer to the question about rental housing by saying, “We need more housing, period.” Volan continued, “We need a glut of housing to bring prices and rents down.”
>This has not worked yet. Trickle down housing is a fallacy.
The three running against the incumbents have not really answered with anything but misinformation and attacks on the current commissioners.
You are very clearly against this one candidate running. Do you live near “North Park”? Residents in the area do NOT want the jail complex here. Also many county and city residents are against the expansion of the jail anyhow. Have you thought about the fact that the commissioners are not mandated to pursue the ONE design their ONE firm is pursuing? They can pivot also and likely make the problem at hand which resulted in the ACLU suit be addressed – the jail itself. Instead they are trying to force fit other items into this project with a seriously delayed timeline, and it not connected to residents or city reps.
I do not know if North Park is good or bad, my point was that it is not in the middle of nowhere. People keep saying to keep it downtown but no one seems to be able to name a place available downtown. Convention center area? Nope. Hopewell? Nope. Old post office? Does not appear to be for sale and definitely not large enough. So really, where is a downtown location?
It is in a poor location in the sense that THERE IS NO SIDEWALK, BIKING, OR OTHER TRANSPORTATION FROM SR46. The nonsense 8 minute estimate to downtown is via speeding vehicle only. Needs a new location. Downtown can work. The large size complex is not a must, it’s a want.
Get this project out of the North side! Such bad impact to adjacent Ellettsville and northwest community. Residents don’t want it here! Just because a few commissioners have neglected their responsibilities doesn’t mean that the land development and poor communities should be punished! It seems the sheriff is amenable to most all sites that have been proposed so long as he gets his expanded new jail, so that baseline isn’t great. DO BETTER MONROE COUNTY AND BLOOMINGTON!