Tag: 2025 budget

Thoughts turn to employee pay raises as 2025 budget season approaches for Monroe County, Bloomington

Next Monday, Aug. 26, marks the first day of class for Indiana University’s Bloomington campus.

It’s also the opening day of budget season for Bloomington’s city council. That’s when Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson is expected to present her draft 2025 budget proposal to the council, which is the city’s fiscal body. Monday’s draft budget presentation starts at 5:30 p.m.

The rough equivalent for the start of Monroe County government’s budget season is a budget preview to be presented to the county council by its own administrator. The county’s budget preview is tentatively set for 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29.

As they watch the deliberations, among other questions, employees of both organizations will have their eye on this one: What kind of increase in compensation will they see next year? Continue reading “Thoughts turn to employee pay raises as 2025 budget season approaches for Monroe County, Bloomington” →

Monroe County sheriff’s deputies push for retirement plan changes

Presenting to the Monroe County council are deputy Jeff Brown and corporal Josh Fuller. (July 23, 2024)
Monroe County councilors (from foreground to background): Peter Iversen, Trent Deckard, Geoff McKim, Cheryl Munson, and Marty Hawk. (July 23, 2024)

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Monroe County council, sheriff’s deputies advocated for changes to their retirement package, which will require about $200,000 more funding each year, based on an actuarial report done by McCready and Keene, Inc.

Deputies would like to see two basic eligibility options for retirement.

One option would make deputy sheriffs eligible to retire at age 50, if they have logged at least eight years of service. The second option would allow for retirement at any age, after 25 years of service, which would allow those who start their careers at age 21 to retire when they are 46 years old.

The current retirement plan makes deputies eligible to retire at age 55 with no reduced benefit. Under the current plan, they can retire at age 52, if they have 25 years of service. So part of what the deputies are requesting is the elimination of the age requirement that is currently tied to the 25-year option.

No decision was made by the council on Tuesday night.

Council president Trent Deckard indicated that the decision on changing the retirement plan for deputies would come as a part of the council’s upcoming regular budget process. Continue reading “Monroe County sheriff’s deputies push for retirement plan changes” →

Column: Besides loyalty, what budget outcomes does Bloomington’s city council want to buy?

On Wednesday, Bloomington’s city council is holding a work session to talk about budget priorities for 2025.

Here’s something to watch for: Will the city council start to apply the principles of outcomes-based budgeting to its own part of the budget?

Specifically, will Bloomington’s city council start asking: What outcomes are we buying with investments in our three full-time staff, and how are we measuring those outcomes?

Outcomes-based budgeting focuses on getting specific results and impacts, in contrast to more typical budgeting for governmental units, which allocates funds based on historical spending patterns and departmental needs. Continue reading “Column: Besides loyalty, what budget outcomes does Bloomington’s city council want to buy?” →

Bloomington budget notebook: Outcome-based budgeting, city council salaries

Next Wednesday (May 29), Bloomington’s city council will hold a work session to discuss budget priorities for 2025.

Possibly part of the conversation will be the concept of outcomes-based budgeting, which is a notion that was given some discussion at an April 24 budget work session.

Outcomes-based budgeting focuses on getting specific results and impacts, in contrast to more typical budgeting for governmental units, which allocates funds based on historical spending patterns and departmental needs.

Outcomes-based budgeting is also the topic of a resolution that will likely appear again on the city council’s agenda for June 5, after councilmembers ran out of time to consider it on May 15. Continue reading “Bloomington budget notebook: Outcome-based budgeting, city council salaries” →

Column: How do you get food justice (or anything) on the Bloomington city council’s agenda?

Plot of persimmon trees in Bloomington’s public right-of-way as of Feb. 18, 2024 data download. Dynamic map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=15iaaQgixGgGejufUIbYNJJWXMePIwJc&usp=sharing
From left: Lauren McCalister, Ephraim Smiley, and Isak Asare. (Feb. 17, 2024)

Bloomington city councilmember Isak Asare spent part of his Saturday talking about food justice—the idea that everyone deserves access to nutritious and affordable food.

Asare was not the only one.

He was one of five people who participated in a panel discussion hosted by the People’s Market, and moderated by Jada Bee, a market co-founder. Other panelists included three Black farmers, Lauren McCalister,  Ty Simmons and Ephraim Smiley. Simmons and Smiley had made the trip down from Fort Wayne to participate. McCalister’s journey from Ellettsville was shorter—she’s the LFPA (Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program) executive director at People’s Market.

Rounding out the group were Asare and Monroe County councilor Jennifer Crossley.

Asare talked about the nine-member city council on which he started serving this year. “Nine of the nine people on city council will be like: Yeah! We need food justice!” Asare said.

He added, “But we will not talk about that anytime soon.”

Why not?

Asare’s answer: “Because, we—hear me very clearly—we, as a body, can’t figure out how to get it on our agenda!” Continue reading “Column: How do you get food justice (or anything) on the Bloomington city council’s agenda?” →

Now released: Salary study done by city of Bloomington consultant in 2023

The city of Bloomington has now released the files that were delivered by Crowe LLP as part of the firm’s job classifications and compensation study, which was done last year.

Based on the study, Bloomington could change  the way it approaches equitable pay for city employees.

On Friday (Jan. 26), the files were posted on a page of the city’s website that has been set up for that purpose.

In a series of 7 installments, starting on April 14, 2023, including one early this year, Crowe LLP has been paid $164,153.84 to do the work. According to one of the files released on Friday, Crowe completed the initial project under budget, which means there is about $61,000 remaining in the project contract.

Based on a Friday (Jan. 26) email to news outlets, from Bloomington deputy mayor Gretchen Knapp, it sounds like Kerry Thomson’s new mayoral administration will be tapping some of that remaining money in the project budget, with an eye towards incorporating potential revisions to compensation into the city’s 2025 annual budget. Continue reading “Now released: Salary study done by city of Bloomington consultant in 2023” →