New legislative coordinator position in Bloomington mayor’s office among others OK’d by city council

At its Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council created three new positions in the office of the mayor and eliminated three existing jobs.

Created through an amendment of this year’s salary ordinance were positions with the following titles: special assistant to the mayor, executive office manager, and legislative coordinator.

Eliminated were three existing positions: director of innovation, chief of staff, and administrative coordinator.

The count of positions in the mayor’s office stayed the same, but still worked out to an overall savings of about $26,000 per year, because two of the three positions have a lower salary grade classification than the existing jobs.

The council also approved a change in the salary grade for the existing sidewalk coordinator in the public works department, which means around $3,900 more for the position.

The reason for the change in the sidewalk position was, according to human resources director Sharr Pechac, “to better reflect the importance of this position to the city and to better align with other similar positions within public works.”

The council also approved the creation of a new position in public works called the facility asset and operations coordinator, to administer the asset management software system and the proper assignment of work orders. The total fiscal impact (benefits and salary) is expected to be about $81,144.

The personnel moves, which came at the request of new Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson’s administration, were not controversial for the city council, which gave the changes unanimous approval.

One of the positions to be eliminated, the director of innovation, is currently vacant. Devta Kidd, who served in that role, left city government with the transition to the new mayoral administration.

The one position that drew any questions from a councilmember was the elimination of the chief of staff position in the mayor’s office. Currently serving in that job is Josefa Madrigal, who took the position in early 2023 to fill the vacancy that was created when Kaisa Goodman was promoted out of that position to the job of director of public engagement.

Councilmember Isak Asare wanted to know if the new positions would be posted, and if the person currently serving in the chief of staff position would have a chance to apply for them.

The answer from Pechac was yes—the current chief of staff was told about the planned changes in positions and would have a chance to apply for one of the new jobs.

Deputy mayor Gretchen Knapp added that the administration values the person who currently serves as chief of staff. Knapp said the administration will be working with the current chief of staff to make sure that she finds a new spot, if she does not want one of the new positions in the mayor’s office.

The new position of legislative coordinator comes with a long list of duties, including tracking, reviewing, and summarizing legislative matters at the local, state, and federal level. [The ordinance approved by the council calls the position a “legislative coordinator” even if a memo included in the meeting information packet calls it “legislative affairs specialist.”]

Among the specific duties of the legislative coordinator is to document meetings between the mayor and departmental heads, who are sometimes called the mayor’s “cabinet”:

Prepares agenda and minutes for Cabinet meetings and assembles biweekly Cabinet reports. Prepares presentations, reports, and briefings for Cabinet.

A requirement under state law is that the mayor has to meet with department heads at least once a month and that a record of those meetings with department heads has to be kept.

IC 36-4-5-6 Meetings with officers in charge of city departments; record
Sec. 6.
At least once a month, the executive shall meet with the officers in charge of the city departments:
(1) for consultation on the affairs of the city;
(2) to adopt rules and regulations for the administration of the affairs of city departments; and
(3) to adopt rules and regulations prescribing a merit system for selecting, appointing, or promoting city officers and employees.

A record of meetings under this section shall be kept.

The record keeping under IC 36-4-5-6 by Thomson’s predecessor, John Hamilton, was limited to a list of dates when the meeting occurred. In response to a B Square records request, the Hamilton administration produced only a list of dates

The request was: “For the period Jan. 1, 2016 to Jan. 31, 2022, I would like a copy of the records of meetings that the city executive is required to keep under IC 36-4-5-6.”

The fact that the job duties of the legislative coordinator include preparation of minutes for such meetings, indicates that the Thomson administration might be looking to keep more robust records of such meetings than the Hamilton administration did.