Tag: council meetings

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?” →

Column: Quorum issue for Bloomington city council highlights need for objective study of procedures

Attendance at Bloomington city council committee-of-the-whole meetings, chronological from left to right.
Attendance at Bloomington city council work sessions, chronological from left to right.
Percentage of votes at council meetings (regular and special sessions, not including committee-of-the-whole meetings) for which councilmembers were present. For this chart, abstentions are counted as present for the vote.

This past Wednesday, Bloomington’s city council failed to achieve a quorum for its committee-of-the-whole meeting.

For the nine-member council, a quorum is five. But only four councilmembers showed up: Susan Sandberg, Jim Sims, Dave Rollo, and Ron Smith.

In practical terms, the lack of a quorum just meant that the four councilmembers could not take an advisory vote on the one agenda item, which was the historic designation of the Bethel AME church.

The four councilmembers still heard the presentation from the city’s historic preservation program manager, and comments from the public.

The lack of quorum did not mean the church’s historic designation was delayed. That item will still appear on the city council’s Wednesday, Aug. 17 agenda, but without a committee recommendation.

But as Wednesday’s gathering was wrapping up, councilmember Jim Sims remarked on the lack of quorum.

He started by noting who else was in the room: “I probably shouldn’t say anything, but I just got to say, we’ve got people from the public that have come here to share their voices, staff that is here to make a presentation. We’ve got a couple of historic preservation commissioners here.”

Sims added: “I personally think it’s a bit of a disservice that we don’t have at least five people here on this council as a quorum to conduct proper business.”

Sims was right to say something. But I think it’s time for the city council to do something. Continue reading “Column: Quorum issue for Bloomington city council highlights need for objective study of procedures” →