New city seal gets stamp of approval from Bloomington’s city council

Three months after the topic was previewed for the Bloomington city council’s administration committee, the council voted on Wednesday to adopt a new city seal, based on the ubiquitous city logo.

The city logo, which was designed by former city councilmember Tim Mayer, was adopted by a resolution of the city council in 1986. The logo was inspired by quilt patterns, according to the adopting resolution. The square in the center of the design signifies Bloomington’s downtown square and community interaction, according to the resolution.

The ordinance establishing the new city seal makes it “unlawful for any person to make or use the City seal and graphical City seal of the City of Bloomington deceptively, fraudulently, or without express written permission from the City Clerk of the City of Bloomington, or the City Clerk’s designee.”

A first violation of the ordinance on use of the city seal is subject to a fine of $100. Continue reading “New city seal gets stamp of approval from Bloomington’s city council”

Opinion: Bloomington’s new city seal ordinance delivers insight into a possibilities for better legislative process

An ordinance that establishes a new city seal for Bloomington does not appear on the city council’s regular meeting agenda for Wednesday, Dec. 2.

Yet that is the date when it was proposed by the city clerk to be effective.

Those two morsels make for some pretty thin civic gruel in the post-Thanksgiving news cycle. But it’s not too thin to feed a proposal that would tweak the city council’s legislative process.

One part of the approach served up here would change a single line of the local code, which prohibits any debate on a new law when it is first introduced to the city council.

The other change to the process would make routine for all legislation a practice that the city council already uses for the annual budget: Councilmembers submit written questions, which are then answered by staff in writing, and posted for the public to review.

Before looking at that proposal in a little more detail, it’s worth adding a little meat to the legislative soup of the city seal. Continue reading “Opinion: Bloomington’s new city seal ordinance delivers insight into a possibilities for better legislative process”