$626K in general fund spending, $1.3M in ARPA money for police-fire OK’d by Bloomington council

At its Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council unanimously approved $626,000 in spending from the city’s general fund, along with an appropriation of $1.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

After adding another $233,600 in spending for the parks department, and a transfer of $1,875,851 between two kinds of motor vehicle fund, the total for the appropriation ordinance approved by the city council on Wednesday was just a smidgen over $4 million.

The general fund spending will draw on money that was budgeted for 2022, but not spent in that year. If it were not appropriated now, it would revert back to the general fund, and count as a part of the fund balance, from which future appropriations could also be made.

Of the $1.3 million in ARPA funds—that’s money from a federal stimulus bill to help economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic—$1 million was appropriated to pay for a housing down payment incentive for firefighters and police officers.

The $100,000 no-interest housing down payment loan is completely forgivable at the rate of $10,000 a year for up to 10 police officers and 10 firefighters—if they buy a house inside the city limits.

The other $300,000 in ARPA money was approved to make one-time payments to firefighters whose union contract left them with a pay increase of just 2 percent for 2023, compared to the 5 percent that other, non-union city employees received. The one-time payments are supposed to make up the difference between the 2 percent in the union contract and the amount they would have received if the contractual amount had been 5 percent.

The union contract for firefighters goes through 2024, and was settled before the current inflationary trends were apparent. So the union has called for the reopening of collective bargaining on that contract, before the next cycle of negotiations would normally start.

At Wednesday’s city council meeting, city controller Jeff Underwood indicated that outgoing mayor John Hamilton would not be opening the contract early. About the idea of opening the firefighters contract early, Underwood said, “I don’t believe that is something that we are willing to do.”

Underwood continued, “There’ll be a new mayor. There’ll be a new administration. There’ll be a new council.” Underwood added, “We feel it’s more appropriate to allow the incoming group to tackle that issue in the manner that they would think is best.”

According to an email message sent by fire union president Jordan Canada to media outlets in early March, by June the fire department will be understaffed by 17 firefighters. Full staffing is around 100. That’s something Canada attributed to poor pay, measured against the other two fire departments in Monroe County—Monroe Fire Protection District and Ellettsville’s fire department.

At Wednesday’s city council meeting, deputy mayor Mary Catherine Carmichael, said that the incoming firefighter recruiting class numbered 21. The new probationary firefighters will not receive the same extra “premium” pay, interim human resources director Emily Fields said at Wednesday’s meeting.

The total amount of city general fund money that was budgeted, but not spent in 2022, was $1.39 million. It’s out of that unspent money that the $626,000 in general fund appropriations were approved.

Attending Wednesday’s meeting to describe how that process is handled was Cheryl Gilliland, who works in the controller’s office as director of auditing and financial systems. Gilliland said, “In the past, the mayor has allowed departments to spend approximately 50 percent of their prior year annual savings.” She continued, “This type of reward system has been on hold since 2020, at the start of the pandemic. So tonight, we’re really happy to be back offering this type of reward to departments.”

If the $626,000 had not been appropriated, it would have reverted to the general fund, where it would be a part of the fund balance, contributing to the city’s cash reserve. The reserve is the sum of the rainy day fund and the fund balance.

If all $1.39 million of unspent money from 2022 had been allowed to revert to the general fund, Underwood said the reserve would amount to 38.2 percent of the 2022 budget. But by appropriating $626,000 of that money, the council reduced the reserve to 37 percent.

That’s still four points over the city’s target of a 33-percent reserve, which is about four months worth of operating expenses, Underwood said.