Tag: Bloomington City Council

Possible reform of Bloomington boards, commissions gets study by city council committee

Clockwise around the table from right: City councilmembers Matt Flaherty and Isabel Piedmont-Smith; city of Bloomington public engagement director Kaisa Goodman; city council deputy attorney Ash Kulak; and city councilmember Sue Sgambelluri. On screen in the upper left of the frame is Bloomington city clerk Nicole Bolden. he meeting took place in the city council’s “library” room. (May 25, 2023)

On Thursday night, a special city council committee met to move ahead with a closer look at reforming various processes related to Bloomington’s boards and commissions.

Also up for consideration by the four-member committee are possible recommendations on merging some of the city’s roughly 50 boards and commissions.

The committee is hoping to wrap up its work on board and commission reform by the end of the year.

The committee was appointed by council president Sue Sgambelluri at the council’s first meeting of the year. It was the same meeting when she was elected by her colleagues as this year’s council president.

In addition to Matt Flaherty as chair of the committee, Sgambelluri appointed as members the three officers of the council—including herself (president), Isabel Piedmont-Smith (vice president) and Dave Rollo (parliamentarian). Rollo did not attend Thursday’s meeting. Continue reading “Possible reform of Bloomington boards, commissions gets study by city council committee” →

Local Democratic Party won’t contest District 6 Bloomington council election outcome now, leaves door open to future action

B Square file photo of Monroe County Democratic Party chair David Henry (Jan. 6, 2023).
Monroe County election board member Donovan Garletts (May 18, 2023)
David Wolfe Bender (May 18, 2023)
John Fernandez, who served as a David Henry’s proxy for the May 18, 2023 election board hearing. (May 18, 2023)
Monroe County election board from left: County clerk Nicole Browne, Donovan Garletts, and John Fernandez (May 18, 2023).
The six precincts of District 6 are outlined in brown. Surrounding districts (clowise 2, 3, and 4) are shown in green red and yellow.

Monroe County Democratic Party chair David Henry has confirmed to The B Square that he has not filed a petition under Indiana election code objecting to the outcome of the May 2 primary.

The primary made David Wolfe Bender the party’s nominee for the Bloomington District 6 city council seat in the Nov. 7 municipal election.

The deadline for a party chair to file a petition objecting to the result was noon on Friday (May 19).

The deadline came 23 hours after the election board convened a hearing on the question of Bender’s residency in the district.

The election board voted unanimously to refer to the county prosecutor potential felony charges involving a potential misrepresentation of Bender’s residency on his candidate filing forms. [.pdf of document forwarded to prosecutor and AG]

But in a separate action, the three-member board voted 2-1 to refer to the state attorney general the matter of possible action involving Bender’s eligibility as a candidate.

Thursday’s election board action factored into Henry’s decision, as party chair, not to file a petition. By making its referral to the attorney general, Henry said that the election board had asked the AG to do the same thing that he, as party chair, would have asked a court to do. Continue reading “Local Democratic Party won’t contest District 6 Bloomington council election outcome now, leaves door open to future action” →

Referred by election board to county prosecutor, state attorney general: Residency questions about District 6 Bloomington city council candidate

Map showing the address where David Wolfe Bender registered to vote.
Sworn in at the start of the May 18, 2023 hearing are Justin Fox (left), landlord of the property where David Wolfe Bender (right) the landlord of the property (Justin Fox) where Bender says he signed a sublease .
From left: Monroe County election board members Donovan Garletts and John Fernandez. (May 18, 2023)
From left: Monroe County attorney Jeff Cockerill, election supervisor …., and deputy clerk Tressia Martin (May 18, 2023).
David Wolfe Bender addresses the Monroe County election board (May 18, 2023).
Monroe County election board from left: County clerk Nicole Browne, Donovan Garletts, and John Fernandez (May 18, 2023).

David Wolfe Bender’s name was the only one that appeared on the May 2 Democratic Party’s primary for the Bloomington city council’s District 6 seat.

So Bender is currently the party’s nominee for that council position. All other things being equal, he will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot as the party’s nominee.

But on Thursday, Monroe County’s three-member election board voted unanimously to refer two potential felony election law violations by Bender to county prosecutor Erika Oliphant. The vote came after a hearing that lasted around an hour and 20 minutes.

It was election board member John Fernandez who made the motion to refer the matter to the prosecutor, saying, “I just think we ought to, frankly, just move this process along—without any kind of prejudice one way or another.”

Fernandez added that he wanted to “go ahead and recommend this over to the prosecutor’s office so that they can make that judgment and let this young man get on with his life, if that’s the determination.”

The hearing had been scheduled  after an Indiana Daily Student (IDS) article was published on Feb. 17, 2023, which questioned whether Bender actually lived in District 6: “City Council candidate David Wolfe Bender is running in District 6, residents say he doesn’t live there”

It was based on that article, that GOP county vice chair William Ellis filed a complaint with the election board. Continue reading “Referred by election board to county prosecutor, state attorney general: Residency questions about District 6 Bloomington city council candidate” →

Fee increase: Trash talk for Bloomington city council to start, but not end, on June 7

The first reading of an ordinance that would increase trash collection fees by at least 58 percent got its first reading at Wednesday night’s Bloomington city council meeting.

Sanitation worker uses a mechanical arm to empty a Bloomington solid waste cart. Screengrab from city of Bloomington video.

Under Bloomington local law, no discussion of an ordinance by the city council is allowed on the occasion of a first reading.

The trash collection fee increase would ordinarily be up for a second reading and possible enactment by the city council at its next regular meeting, which falls on June 7.

But on Wednesday, Bloomington city council president Sue Sgambelluri announced she was referring the ordinance to the council’s committee-of-the-whole, for which she set a meeting on June 7, starting at 8 p.m.

No action on the fee increase can be taken at the committee-of-the-whole meeting.

The council’s regular meeting for June 7 starts at 6:30 p.m., but Sgambelluri indicated that she expects the business for that regular meeting to be wrapped up by 8 p.m. when the committee of the whole is set to convene.

It’s not clear at this point when the council will take a vote on the increase. Regular meetings are scheduled for June 14 and June 21.  Continue reading “Fee increase: Trash talk for Bloomington city council to start, but not end, on June 7” →

Social services funding notebook: Bloomington committee spreads $323K across $680K in requests

Jack Hopkins committee meeting clockwise from the top corner: council staff Stephen Lucas and Ash Kulak; committee members Ron Smith, Jami Scholl, Mark Fraley, Tim Mayer, Jim Sims, and Susan Sandberg. Kate Rosenbarger participated using the Zoom video conference platform. (May 11, 2023)

Recommendations on how to distribute $323,000 in funding for this year’s round of Jack Hopkins social services program have now been made by a seven-member committee appointed by Bloomington’s city council.

Pending final approval by the city council at a meeting set for June 14, the money will go to 32 nonprofits.

The biggest recommended award was $27,341 to Hoosier Hills Food Bank, to buy food. That was just 78 percent of the $35,000 that was requested in the food bank’s application.

Only five of the applications were recommended by the committee to receive the full amount in their application: Community Justice and Mediation Center ($21,283) for an eviction prevention project; New Leaf, New Life ($13,600) for an emergency and transitional housing project; Planned Parenthood ($7,500) to purchase contraceptives; All-Options ($6,900) for a diapers and potty training support program; and Community Kitchen of Monroe County ($4,079) to replace a dish sprayer and liners for cargo van beds.

The agencies receiving awards had been winnowed down from 48 that applied for funding this year. Of the agencies that applied, 35 were invited to give presentations to the committee in late April. Continue reading “Social services funding notebook: Bloomington committee spreads $323K across $680K in requests” →

2023 primary election notebook: A closer look at results in Bloomington’s city council district races

The winners of the four contested Bloomington city council district races on Tuesday were Isabel Piedmont-Smith (District 1); Kate Rosenbarger (District 2); Hopi Stosberg (District 3); and Shruti Rana (District 4).

That’s an even split between two incumbents and two newcomers. The incumbents are Piedmont-Smith and Rosenbarger. The newcomers are Stosberg and Rana.

They’ll be the Democratic Party’s nominees in the Nov. 7 city elections.

Those basic results have been known since election night. In the meantime, The B Square has discerned a few noteworthy facts about the election numbers. Continue reading “2023 primary election notebook: A closer look at results in Bloomington’s city council district races” →

After sifting requests, Bloomington social services group faces $681K in needs, has just $323K to give

On Thursday night, representatives from 35 different social services agencies in Bloomington gave presentations to a committee that is made up of councilmembers and other residents, to support their applications for project funding.

Jack Hopkins committee members from left: Tim Mayer, Jim Sims, Susan Sandberg, and Ron Smith. Not in the frame are Kate Rosenbarger and Jami Scholl. (April 27, 2023)

The 35 agencies had applied for this year’s round of Jack Hopkins social services grants.

The total amount requested by those 35 agencies is $680,530. The amount that’s appropriated in Bloomington’s 2023 budget for Jack Hopkins grants is just $323,000.

But this year’s grant cycle started off with an even bigger challenge—48 agencies had applied for a total of about $965,000. Before Thursday’s meeting, the committee had already winnowed down the 48 applications to 35.

The total requested this year is the biggest amount since the Jack Hopkins grant program was started, in 1993.

Based on B Square records, the previous high was $822,971 in 2020. Over the last decade the amount of total requests has been about $550,000. Each year the annual budget allocation, from the city’s general fund, has been around $300,000. Continue reading “After sifting requests, Bloomington social services group faces $681K in needs, has just $323K to give” →

Bloomington city council District 3 Democratic Party Primary: Ron Smith, Hopi Stosberg, Conner Wright

The Democratic Party’s May 2 primary election for city council District 3 is a choice between Ron Smith, Hopi Stosberg, and Conner Wright.

One Republican candidate has declared for District 3 Bloomington city council—Brett Heinisch.

This write-up provides specific background on the District 3 city council Democratic Party’s primary race, as well as general background.

April 20 is the last day to apply for an absentee ballot. Application for an absentee ballot, verification of voter registration, and a preview of the ballot are available through the Indiana secretary of state’s voter information portal.

Early voting started on April 4 at Monroe County’s election operations center, which is located at Walnut and 3rd streets. Continue reading “Bloomington city council District 3 Democratic Party Primary: Ron Smith, Hopi Stosberg, Conner Wright” →

Bloomington city council District 5 Democratic Party Primary: Shruti Rana, Jenny Stevens

The Democratic Party’s May 2 primary election for city council District 5 is a choice between Shruti Rana and Jenny Stevens. There is no Republican candidate in District 5.

This write-up provides specific background on the District 5 city council primary race, as well as general background.

April 20 is the last day to apply for an absentee ballot. Application for an absentee ballot, verification of voter registration, and a preview of the ballot are available through the Indiana secretary of state’s voter information portal.

Early voting started on April 4 at Monroe County’s election operations center, which is located at Walnut and 3rd streets. Continue reading “Bloomington city council District 5 Democratic Party Primary: Shruti Rana, Jenny Stevens” →

Bloomington city council District 1 Democratic Party Primary: Joe Lee, Isabel Piedmont-Smith

The Democratic Party’s May 2 primary election for city council District 1 is a choice between Joe Lee and Isabel Piedmont-Smith. There is no Republican candidate in District 1.

This write-up provides specific background on the District 1 city council primary race as well as general background.

April 20 is the last day to apply for an absentee ballot. Application for an absentee ballot, verification of voter registration, and a preview of the ballot are available through the Indiana secretary of state’s voter information portal.

Early voting  started on April 4 at Monroe County’s election operations center, which is located at Walnut and 3rd streets. Continue reading “Bloomington city council District 1 Democratic Party Primary: Joe Lee, Isabel Piedmont-Smith” →