Bloomington budget notes: Vacant police positions help pay for elections, animal shelter lease buyout
The recruitment challenges faced by Bloomington’s police department are well established: Around 20 of the budgeted 105 sworn officer positions have been vacant through this year.
The year-end appropriations that are cued up for a first reading at this Wednesday’s meeting of Bloomington’s city council give a rough idea of how much money has been left unspent towards police salaries, due to the shortage of officers.
To be released out of the personnel category for the police department is $870,000, which will make that amount available to be spent by other departments on other things—like this year’s city elections and a lease buyout at the animal shelter.
When Appropriation Ordinance 23-08 is put to a vote at next Wednesday’s meeting, on Dec. 13, that will wrap up the council’s approvals of spending activity for the year.
Most of the financial activity that the council will be asked to approve with the ordinance is about moving money from one place to another inside the general fund, with no overall negative fiscal impact.
But in the mix are two additional appropriations, totaling $460,000.
One is for another $180,000 in the capital category of the vehicle replacement fund, to cover the purchase of a replacement sanitation truck. The sale of an old truck will cover that appropriation, which means there’s still no overall fiscal impact to the city, according to the controller’s memo.
The other additional appropriation is for a $280,000 transfer out of the rental inspection program fund. Under state law, receipts from the HAND (housing and neighborhood development) department’s rental inspection program have to be put into a separate designated fund that is set up specifically to receive those revenues.
The expenses from the rental inspection program are paid for from the general fund, which means that the money to cover those expenses has to be transferred out of the rental inspection fund.
The money that is being released from other departments—like the personnel money from the police department—will cover the expenses for municipal elections. The elections will be paid out of the administration division of the city’s public works department. (The city reimburses the Monroe County election division for some of the cost of the elections.)
Reflected in the year-end appropriation ordinance is a city cost of $576,000 for this year’s municipal elections.
At Thursday’s meeting of the county election board, it’s possible that the breakdown of Monroe County Community School Corporation’s share of the election cost will be presented. The school district held a referendum this year, which was conducted in an area of the county that included more than just the city of Bloomington.
Also covered by money released from other departments will be a $95,000 buyout of the lease held by Monroe County Humane Association (MCHA) for administrative space in the city’s animal shelter. The 2004 lease was signed by then-mayor Mark Kruzan.
The terms of the lease gave MCHA rent-free space in the facility for 40 years, through mid-2044, in exchange for the MCHA’s transfer to the city of the real estate for the facility. The buyout of the lease was approved by Bloomington’s board of public works at its meeting on Tuesday this week.
After the board of public works meeting, Bloomington animal shelter director Virgil Sauder told The B Square that the city was not trying to get MCHA to abandon its administrative space at the city shelter by buying out the lease. Rather, MHA had approached the city about ending the arrangement, in order to consolidate operations at their facility north of the Monroe County airport on Fieldstone Boulevard, Sauder said.
