Bloomington board: No action on ‘garbage’, or gateway, or Griffin Realty services for police HQ sale
After two and a half hours on Tuesday night, Bloomington’s board of public works adjourned its meeting without acting on three controversial agenda items.
The items involved: the Miller-Showers gateway project; a professional services agreement with Griffin Realty in connection with the sale of the 3rd Street police station; and the city’s enforcement of city code against “garbage,” which it says Joe Davis is keeping on his South Washington Street property.
A motion to approve right-of-way closures for the Miller-Showers gateway project died for a lack of a second for the second meeting in a row That’s after it was postponed when it was considered initially in early September.
At the board’s most recent meeting, a motion to approve the necessary right-of-way closures died for lack of a second. But the board was short-handed with one vacancy on the three-member board. In the meantime, Jane Kupersmith was appointed to fill the vacancy.
On Tuesday, even with a full complement of board members, a full 40 seconds went by after Elizabeth Karon made the motion to approve the right-of-way closures, before board president Kyla Deckard declared the motion dead for lack of a second.
It’s not clear when or if the item will return to the agenda for a fourth try. Parks operations director Tim Street told The B Square after the meeting that he and others in the administration will need to talk about what the next steps might be.
In other non-action, the board voted to follow the request of the administration to remove an item from its agenda that would have approved a professional services agreement with Griffin Realty in connection with the marketing and sale of Bloomington’s police headquarters on 3rd Street. Under the agreement the firm would receive 4 percent of the gross sale price. The minimum bid is $3.2 million.
Questions about potential conflicts of interest with former deputy mayor Don Griffin’s firm arose at the board’s Monday noon work session. Some of those concerns are addressed in a memo from corporation counsel Beth Cate.
Based on deliberations at the work session, it’s not clear if the board even had to approve the professional services agreement. Public works director Adam Wason told The B Square after the meeting that he does not know how the administration plans to proceed.
Griffin attended the first part of the board’s meeting, but had to leave before the item on real estate services for the police station sale was reached. The board had gotten bogged down with the appeal that Joe Davis was making at the meeting about a notice of violation for allegedly keeping “garbage” on his South Washington Street property.
The board postponed until its Oct. 24 meeting the hearing on Davis’s appeal of the notice of violation, as well as a request for abatement from the city’s housing and neighborhood development (HAND) department. An abatement is a required cleanup, done by the city.
Postponement was not achieved until after Davis had used more than an hour at the mic to argue about procedural matters, not yielding to the request of board president Kyla Cox Deckard to sit down.
The board resorted to moving both items involving Davis’s property to the end of the meeting. When the items were finally reached, Cox Deckard laid out exactly what the board’s expectations are for the Oct. 24 meeting, and then voted to postpone.
