Discomfort zone: County commissioner rips Bloomington chamber; Spoonmore fires back

On Thursday morning, Monroe County commissioner Julie Thomas exercised a point of personal privilege at the end of the board of commissioners regular meeting—to condemn the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce for its recent criticism of Monroe County plan commissioner Margaret Clements.

Thomas said in part, "It is inappropriate for the chamber to direct their vitriol against an appointed member of a body. It is disrespectful to her personally. Maligning someone who is essentially volunteering her time to the community is misdirected and disgraceful."

When reached shortly after Thomas gave her remarks, chamber president Eric Spoonmore said, "Thomas has…come unhinged again." He added, "She does not sit well with constructive criticism from the community who has a difference of opinion than she does."

In terms of policy, the difference of opinion is over zoning for housing and development. The chamber is a strong advocate for zoning to support more development. Thomas has been a stalwart supporter of the idea of pursuing development only in areas that are already urban—she wants to preserve the rural character of areas that are rural.

The chamber's specific criticism of Clements, to which Thomas objected on Thursday morning, was included in an opinion piece posted on the chamber's website more than a month ago, on April 17.

That was the day when commissioners approved the downzoning of more than 200 parcels in two of the so-called "islands" which the city of Bloomington is trying to annex.

Written by Christopher Emge, the chamber's director of advocacy, the piece includes this section, which was directed at Clements, as "Chair of the Monroe County Plan Commission," even though she is not mentioned by name:

The Anti-Bloomington Crusade
The Chair of the Monroe County Plan Commission seemingly isn't opposed to housing options, she was opposed to Bloomington itself. In her own words today, Bloomington "has lost its community."

No community?

Someone might want to tell the 80,000 people who live there, the thousands of local business owners, teachers, nurses, artists, and, yes, Little League families who are part of what is very much a community. Just because you do not like annexation doesn't mean you get to write off an entire city.

Thomas's complaint was focused on the idea that Clements is an appointed official, not an elected official, and that Emge's piece does not mention that the downzone proposal had the support of five other plan commissioners, not just from Clements.

Thomas did not dispute the quote attributed to Clements. But Clements did. When reached by phone, she said about the quote attributed to her: "I never said that. Because I don't believe that."

After reviewing transcripts of the April 17 commissioners meeting and the March 18 plan commission meeting, The B Square was unable to find a quote from Clements matching the words in the chamber's piece. Asked to pin down the spot in a public meeting when Clements said Bloomington "has lost it community," Emge left a voice message for The B Square indicating a timestamp to a place in the April 17 commissioners meeting (original emphasis in bold):

I think I found what my interpretive quote was, which was: "…I would argue that we're pushing people away. We're not pulling them, and part of that is because of what we've done to the idea of community." And I think I interpreted that quote.

Here's a longer chunk of the remarks from Clements that Emge "interpreted" as his quoted attribution that Bloomington had "lost its community":

We, as government agents, need to consider whether or not we're pushing people away or pulling them in. And I would argue that we've been pushing people away, we're not pulling them in, and part of that is because of what we've done to the idea of community. Annexation Area 3, Maple Grove Baby Farms says it all. It's an area where…those people have expressed quite vociferously and on repeated occasions that they would like to be less dense. And supporting long-term residents should be a goal of our government, and I share that goal to support long-term residents.

Another complaint of Thomas was that no one from the chamber had responded to Clements's effort to set up a meeting to talk through the issues. Thomas said during her remarks on Thursday: "Here we are, a month later, and they have not had the courage to sit down with her. I say: Shame on them." Thomas continued, saying that Clements and others who serve on boards and commissions "deserve our thanks, whether we agree with their votes or not." She added, "They do not deserve to be attacked."

For his part, Spoonmore called the idea that Clements had reached out to the chamber "a total fabrication." Spoonmore put it like this: "She said that they have asked for meetings with us—that is a total fabrication. We have not received one meeting request from Julie Thomas, or from Margaret Clements, or anybody. "

Clements forwarded The B Square an email message that she says she sent to Spoonmore and Emge, which is date stamped April 30, 2025. The message was sent also on behalf of county plan commissioner Scott Faris and asks, "Do you have time to meet with us yet this week or sometime next week?"

In her remarks, Thomas also raised the specter that the chamber, in its political advocacy, had strayed from the requirements that a nonprofit corporation not engage in political advocacy. While the chamber has a separate 501(c)(3) foundation, the chamber itself is a 501(c)(6)—which is not subject to the same kind of prohibitions against political activity.

Spoonmore also said about Thomas's remarks on Thursday, "She did the same thing to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation last year, when she berated and belittled them." The BEDC is a 501(c)(6), like the chamber.

Spoonmore's allusion to the BEDC was to $30,000 of funding the Monroe County council had appropriated in Monroe County's 2024 budget for the corporation. But when the memorandum of understanding (MOU) came in front of the county commissioners, they voted down the memorandum. Part of the mix was an op-ed that BEDC executive director Jen Pearl had written, critical of the CDO (County Development Ordinance), which was under development. But among the three commissioners on that occasion, Thomas was the sole vote of support for the MOU that would have awarded $30,000 to the BEDC.

Thomas confirmed to The B Square that she counts as inappropriate political activity the chamber's call in 2024 for voters to participate in the Democratic Party's primary, instead of the Republican Party's primary. The chamber's idea was that the winners of county level races have in recent years have been Democrats—so voters who wanted to have an impact on county leadership should vote in the Democratic Party's primary. That was a move that was analyzed as an attempt to benefit Thomas's Democratic Party primary opponent, Peter Iversen, who potentially could have picked up some crossover votes. If he did, it wasn't enough to win.

Even if Thomas and Spoonmore are at political odds, their differences are not partisan. Both are Democrats. Spoonmore served as a Democrat on the Monroe County council until he resigned in 2021 to become president of the chamber. He also recently held a seat as a Democrat on the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB), which is required to be partisan balanced. The CIB is the public agency responsible for the governance of the Bloomington Convention Center expansion.

Thursday's intense verbal sparring between Spoonmore and Thomas came less than 48 hours after they shared the stage at the ceremonial groundbreaking for the convention center expansion.