Monroe County council mulls donations to BEDC, Seven Oaks Classical School

Donations are not the usual way that the county government awards money to nonprofits. But appearing on the 5 p.m. Tuesday (Dec. 9) meeting agenda for the Monroe County council are two resolutions that would make donations.

One resolution would make a $1,800 donation to Seven Oaks Classical School. The other resolution would make a $30,000 donation to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC).

Even if the potential path to making the awards is not the usual one, both resolutions have some familiar history.

The background to the Seven Oaks donation includes the decision of county commissioners in mid-November to exclude the school from the list of contracts for recommended awards from the Sophia Travis grant fund for this year. The awards to 44 different nonprofits totalled about $174,000.

The background to the BEDC donation includes a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the county government and the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation for $30,000 worth of services, that did not win approval last year (2024) from county commissioners. At the end of 2024, however, the county council made a $30,000 donation to the BEDC.

The added context this year includes a tax abatement to Simtra BioPharma, which was awarded August. Under the terms of the MOU on the tax abatement, Simtra pays Monroe County a fee of up to $40,000 that has to be passed through to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC).

The provision of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) covering the fee notes that it relies on a provision of state law that allows such an arrangement. But the payment by Simtra does not kick in until the tax abatement is claimed, which means no money has to be paid this year.

Board of county commissioners vs. county council

In the state of Indiana, the board of county commissioners makes up the county’s executive branch and also holds some legislative authority. But that authority does not extend to fiscal matters. The county council serves as the separate fiscal legislative body.

When it comes to contracts, it’s the county commissioners who wield the executive authority to approve them. But the authority to appropriate the money used in the contracts is held by the county council. In the case of the Sophia Travis grants that were recommended by the county council, after consideration by a committee made up of councilors and residents, the money had already been appropriated by the county council. It was then up to the commissioners to approve the contracts, or not.

For the case of Seven Oaks, the commissioners decided on a 2–1 vote not to approve the contract. The two-person majority was made up of Lee Jones and Julie Thomas. Jody Madeira dissented.

What the county council will now consider on Tuesday is making a donation directly to Seven Oaks, without a contract that could be used to enforce how the money must be used. In its application, the Seven Oaks said it would use the money to support a food security program that sends food home with kids in backpacks and to pay for AP (advanced placement) test fees for students in need.

Even if the county council approves the resolution making the donation, the county commissioners could block the payment of the money to Seven Oaks. That’s because only the commissioners have the power to approve the claims register, which is normally a perfunctory step at any meeting of the county commissioners. But they have the power to pull the donation to Seven Oaks off the claims docket for separate consideration and then deny the claim.

It’s an open question whether the commissioners would pull a Seven Oaks donation claim off the docket and deny it. In a similar situation last year, after commissioners had refused to approve the MOU with the BEDC in connection with the $30,000 payment, the council took a vote to give a donation to the BEDC. Even though commissioners could have pulled the $30,000 off the claims docket and denied it, they included it with their approval of the rest of the claims for that meeting.

Reaction to Seven Oaks contract denial

When the commissioners took the 2–1 vote on the Seven Oaks contract, commissioner Julie Thomas gave two reasons for not approving the contract. One reason was the status of Seven Oaks as a charter school, which receives taxpayer funding.

The other reason was a lawsuit that Seven Oaks filed against the county government in 2021. It stemmed from a citation issued in 2021 by the Monroe County health department against Seven Oaks for noncompliance with an order on facemasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The school appealed the citation to the county commissioners, which was denied. The school then filed a complaint with the Monroe County circuit court.

In May 2022, the court ultimately found in favor of Monroe County government on the grounds that the executive order of the governor was no longer in effect and that the request for relief from the health department’s enforcement of the local order based on the executive order had become moot.

Since the vote, criticism of the commissioners has included the fact that a second charter school, the Project School, had its Sophia Travis grant approved. Criticism has also included the fact that the now-resolved lawsuit should not be factored into consideration. A third angle of critique includes the idea that the county council had made its recommendation based on a thorough vetting of the Seven Oaks application by the Sophia Travis committee.

Immediately after the board of commissioners excluded the Seven Oaks contract from approval, there was a clear reaction from the council’s side. County council president Jennifer Crossley said that the vote to exclude Seven Oaks “feels like a governmental vendetta against them due to their previous history.” Crossley added, “This situation reminds me of the Trump administration’s approach to withholding funds for SNAP benefits due to political reasons.”

The topic was taken up at the Sophia Travis committee meeting on the day after the vote by commissioners, and again at the council’s regular meeting the following week (Nov. 18).

At the committee meeting, Crossley described the reasoning by commissioners as a “personal beef and a personal vendetta.” At the council’s subsequent regular meeting, Crossley said, “It was very Trumpish to decide to do something like that.”

Crossley’s sentiments were echoed by committee members at their Nov. 14 debriefing about the year’s grant application review process. One community member of the committee, Jenny Stevens, wanted to see the request for Seven Oaks sent back to the commissioners, telling them, “We need to know why you won’t fund this 501(3)(c) need in the community.” Anther community member of the committee, Julie Robertson, said about the decision by commissioners to exclude the grant: “I don’t agree with that. I think that is totally wrong.”

Seven Oaks board president Jamie Crowhurst attended the committee meeting to express the school’s disappointment about the decision and to question why Seven Oaks was singled out as a charter school to have their award contract excluded from approval by the commissioners—given that the contract for the grant award to another charter school, The Project School, had been approved.

At the committee meeting, as well as at the council’s regular meeting the following week (Nov. 18), the other two councilors who served on the committee besides Crossley—Liz Feitl and Trent Deckard—also expressed their objection to the decision by commissioners about the Seven Oaks contract.

At the council’s regular meeting on Nov. 18, Deckard indicated that the resident input on the committee had been disrespected by the commissioners. He put the issue in a broader political context: “We’ve all got to—politicians at every level, federal, state, local—we have got to get out of the dipping-in-each-other’s-buckets business, and get off of our butts towards solid things, towards hope.” He added, “I think a lot of it’s a bunch of crap, not worth it. So that really makes me mad.”

David Henry described his “absolute disappointment” in the decision by commissioners and said an apology is owed to the Seven Oaks community and to the children “who had to see bad civics.” He added, “I want kids to look at this building and have a point of pride and not the bickering that we see.” He also had a message for commissioners: “Do not come to this room and preach public health and then take food out of kids mouths.”

Marty Hawk said she did not recall there ever being a time, since the Sophia Travis grant program was established, when the commissioners had not approved a contract for one of the council’s recommended grant awards. Hawk called it “the most vindictive, hateful, mean-spirited thing [she had] ever seen.”

Kate Wiltz said about the decision by commissioners: “At no point should your personal feelings about individuals or an organization’s past behavior … get in the way of feeding children and incorporating our community in something that is fundamentally good, like the Sophia Travis grants.”

BEDC donation

Unlike last year, this year, the possible $30,000 donation to the BEDC was not preceded by a refusal of the commissioners to approve an MOU. But the $30,000 allocation to BEDC got some discussion during 2026 budget deliberations. There was a $30,000 allocation for the BEDC included in the 2026 draft budget, but was eliminated in a round of cuts made in September.

During the deliberations on the budget cuts, the logic behind a $40,000 pass-through arraignment from Simtra to the BEDC, as part of a tax abatement for Simtra BioPharma that was awarded earlier this year, was established. The idea had been to incorporate the pass-through payment so that the county government’s own contribution to the BEDC could be reduced in the 2026 budget.

But that does not address the question of a possible allocation to the BEDC for this year. The money was included in the 2025 budget. Making a donation in the amount of $30,000, same as last year, would be a way to get the money that was allocated into the BEDC’s hands.

One added wrinkle for this year could be the recent departure of BEDC president Jen Pearl from that role. A message to BEDC members last Thursday (Dec. 4) indicated “a new direction for leadership” thanking Pearl for her service: “We are grateful for Jen’s contributions and the impact she has had during her tenure, and we wish her continued success in all her future endeavors.”