Analysis: Age-related facts about Bloomington’s next city council that nobody knew they wanted to know

The outgoing edition of the Bloomington city council officially wraps up its service at noon on New Year’s Day.

Returning to be sworn in at that same time are just four of the nine: Isabel Piedmont-Smith (District 1), Kate Rosenbarger (District 2), Dave Rollo (District 4) and Matt Flaherty (at large).

Joining those four will be these five: Hopi Stosberg (District 3), Shruti Rana (District 5), Sydney Zulich (District 6), Andy Ruff (at large), and Isak Asare (at large). [Photos of the nine incoming councilmembers are included in the above gallery.]

Five out of nine different faces might normally mean that the group would be short on experience at the job of city councilmember—compared to previous editions of the city council.

But it turns out that the group of nine that is to be sworn in to start 2024 has four more total years of council experience than the nine who were sworn in four years ago, to start 2020.

And the fact that the incoming city council features the youngest councilmember ever might suggest that this edition of the council would qualify as the youngest ever on some groupwise metric.

But it turns out that the city council that was sworn in 20 years ago, to start 2004, was on average younger than the incoming council. And the city council that was sworn in to start 2000 showed a bigger gap between the youngest and oldest member of the council.

Prior city council service

The key to the next council’s increased past experience is the fact that one of the different faces to be sworn in has already logged two decades of city council service. Andy Ruff started his council service in 2000 and served through 2019, losing his re-election bid that year.

But Ruff’s return means that he’ll bring 20 years of experience with him. The 2024 edition of the city council will bring 61 total years of previous council experience to the table, compared to 57 for the 2019 edition.

The city council with the most years of collective experience, with just over a century’s worth (102 years) was the council that started off 2017. When Timothy Mayer resigned that year, it lost the councilmember with the most years of service ever on Bloomington’s city council, even if it was not an interrupted span. Mayer served a total of 25 years on the council.

In Dave Rollo, the 2024 edition of the council includes a member who would match Mayer’s quarter century mark by the end of the next four-year term, in 2027. Rollo has already racked up 21 years of service. Besides Ruff, the 2024 edition includes another councilmember with better than a decade of prior experience—Isabel Piedmont-Smith with 12 years.

Bloomington City Councilmembers with 10+ years of service since 1876 

• Timothy Mayer (25)
• David E. Chitwood (25)
• Dave Rollo (21)
• Steve Volan (20)
• Pam Service (20)
• Andy Ruff (20)
• James L. Blair (18)
• Susan Sandberg (17)
• Lloyd Olcott (16)
• Jack A. Morrison (16)
• Chris Sturbaum (16)
• William A. McAninch (13)
• Robert C. Wiles (13)
• Homer Jones (13)
• Patricia Cole (12)
• Oliver R. Buchanan (12)
• L. David Sabbagh (12)
• Isabel Piedmont-Smith (12)
• Al Towell (12)
• Nancy Young (11)
• Jason Banach (11)
• Pressley S. Sikes (10)
• John Murphy (10)
• Anthony Pizzo (10)

Chronological age

Dave Rollo is not just the longest serving member on the 2024 edition of Bloomington’s city council. At 62 and a half years old, Rollo is also the oldest member of the 2024 city council.

The gap between Rollo and Sydney Zulich is 41 years. But that’s not the biggest gap in recent memory between the oldest and youngest councilmember. In 2000, the gap between Anthony Pizzo (78.5 years) and Jason Banach (26.8) was over a half century, at 52 years.

The average (both mean and median) age of the incoming council is about 8.5 years younger than the council that took office in 2020. But it won’t be the youngest council to take office in recent memory.

The median age of the Bloomington city council in 2004 was 41.4 years, which is four years younger than the median of 45.9 years for the incoming 2024 council. The means for the two councils are closer, but the earlier council was still a smidgen younger: For 2004, x̄ = 45.1, compared to 2024, where x̄ = 45.5.

Even if the city councils for the last couple of decades are comparable based on their ages at the time of service, there has been a clear generational shift, which is not surprising, given the onward march of time.

The council that was sworn in start 2000 included just three of nine members who belonged to a post-Baby-Boomer generation. All but two city councilmembers who will be sworn in start 2024 belong to a post-Baby-Boomer generation.

Here’s a generational breakdown of the most recent six editions of Bloomington’s city council, plus the incoming council: