Tag: Elm Heights

On 4–5 vote, city council rejects direct oversight of Bloomington traffic calming, greenways program

Bloomington’s city council meeting. (May 10, 2023)
Bloomington city council president Sue Sgambelluri. (May 10, 2023)
Tracy Bee spoke against the ordinance. (May 10, 2023)
Katie Yoder spoke against the ordinance. (May 10, 2023)
Pauly Tarricone spoke against the ordinance. (May 10, 2023)
Greg Alexander spoke against the ordinance. (May 10, 2023)
Bicycle and pedestrian coordinator Hank Duncan (May 10, 2023)
Jack Wanninger spoke against the ordinance. (May 10, 2023)

On a vote split along familiar lines, Bloomington’s city council has rejected an ordinance that would have required council approval for the installation of new traffic calming and greenway projects.

The vote came on Wednesday night just a few minutes before midnight, at a meeting that started at 6:30 p.m. The ordinance, which was sponsored by Dave Rollo failed on a 4–5 vote.

It was a familiar 4-4 split, with Sue Sgambelluri providing the deciding vote to give one side a majority.

Supporting the ordinance were Rollo, Jim Sims, Ron Smith, and Susan Sandberg. Voting against it were Sgambelluri, Matt Flaherty, Kate Rosenbarger, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, and Steve Volan.

The outcome hung in the balance until Sgambelluri weighed in. As council president and chair of the meeting, she was last to offer her view.

Continue reading “On 4–5 vote, city council rejects direct oversight of Bloomington traffic calming, greenways program” →

Bike-ped group advises against direct oversight of traffic calming projects by Bloomington city council

May 8, 2023 meeting of the bicycle and pedestrian safety commission. Clockwise from left corner of the frame: Zac Hunec, Mitch Rice, Paul Ash, Pauly Tarricone, Hank Duncan (staff), Ryan Robling (staff), Rob Danzman, Ann Edmonds, and Jaclyn Ray.

On a unanimous vote of its seven members on Monday night, Bloomington’s bicycle and pedestrian safety commission (BPSC) recommended that the city council not adopt an ordinance that would establish the council as the decision maker on traffic calming and greenway projects.

The ordinance appears on the city council’s Wednesday (May 10) meeting agenda.

The council had postponed consideration of the law at its meeting last week, specifically in order to give the BPSC a chance to weigh in on the latest version of the ordinance. Continue reading “Bike-ped group advises against direct oversight of traffic calming projects by Bloomington city council” →

2 more meetings on removal of traffic commissioner set by special Bloomington city council committee

From left: city clerk Nicole Bolden, city councilmember Sue Sgambelluri (Feb. 8, 2023).
Bloomington city councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith (Feb. 8, 2023)
Bloomington city councilmember Matt Flaherty (Feb. 8, 2023).
Feb. 8, 2023 meeting of the Bloomington city council committee on council processes.

On Wednesday night, a four-member special committee of the Bloomington city council met to consider the possible removal of Greg Alexander from the city’s traffic commission.

The outcome of the committee’s deliberations included scheduling two more meetings, both of them before a deadline of March 1. The full council set the deadline when it referred to the committee a motion for Alexander’s removal, which was made at the council’s Feb. 1 meeting.

The next committee meetings are scheduled for Feb. 20 at 3 p.m. and Feb. 23 at 8 a.m.

The motion for removal was made by Dave Rollo—that Alexander be removed from the city’s traffic commission, for “posting obscene and inappropriate statements…that are unbecoming of an appointed member of a public body…” Continue reading “2 more meetings on removal of traffic commissioner set by special Bloomington city council committee” →

Bloomington city council wants research on possible ouster of traffic commissioner for social media posts

Bloomington city council member Sue Sgambelluri (Jan. 25, 2023).
Bloomington city council member Isabel Piedmont-Smith (Jan. 25, 2023).
Bloomington traffic commissioner Greg Alexander (Jan. 25, 2023).
Former Bloomington city councilmember Jeff Richardson (Jan. 25, 2023).
Bloomington resident Stephanie Hatton (Jan. 25, 2023).
Bloomington traffic commissioner Greg Alexander (Jan. 25, 2023).
Jeff Richardson delivers public comment as Greg Alexander looks on from the audience.
Letter sent by Greg Alexander to Stephanie Hatton.

At last Wednesday’s city council meeting, several speakers during general public commentary time objected to the previous week’s re-appointment of Greg Alexander to the city’s traffic commission.

The commission is an an advisory board that, among other things, recommends to the city council and other city officials ways to improve traffic conditions and the enforcement of traffic regulations.

After public commentary time was finished, council president Sue Sgambelluri said, “We are in conversation with our attorney administrator, Mr. [Stephen] Lucas, and have asked him to research possible steps forward.”

Those steps forward could include an effort to remove Alexander from the traffic commission pursuant to Bloomington’s local code.

Local law says the city council can “for cause” remove a council appointee to a board or commission. The definition of “cause” is specific only for one kind of infraction—excessive absences. But it leaves room for other reasons: “Cause shall include, but not be limited to, failure to attend three consecutive regularly scheduled meetings of the board, commission, or council…”

A legal question that Lucas will be researching is whether councilmembers can remove Alexander, based on the kind of statements he has posted to the Twitter social media platform. Continue reading “Bloomington city council wants research on possible ouster of traffic commissioner for social media posts” →

Talk deemed off-topic, ill-tempered: Backdrop for Bloomington’s resolution on embargo against Cuba

Bloomington city councilmember Susan Sandberg (Jan. 18, 2023)
Bloomington city councilmember Dave Rollo (Jan. 18, 2023)
Bess Lee, CUBAmistad.
Frank Marshalek, CUBAmistad.
Dareal Ruble, Bloomington resident.
Outline of Bloomington in blue, superimposed (to scale) on map with Santa Clara, Cuba.

“Who the hell do you people think you are? You’re not the White House!”

That was Dareal Ruble speaking from the public mic at last Wednesday’s meeting of the city council.

He was reacting to a resolution on the meeting agenda that called for an immediate end to the US economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba.

The resolution was not controversial for councilmembers—it passed unanimously.

The vote came almost an hour after the resolution was introduced by Dave Rollo, who co-sponsored it with Susan Sandberg.

Rubel was interrupted twice during his allotted five minutes by council president Sue Sgambelluri, who admonished him—for speaking off the topic of the resolution, not for any particular choice of words.

But questions about the kind of tone and demeanor that councilmembers consider acceptable were swimming just under the surface of Wednesday’s meeting—in connection with an earlier agenda item.

Neither Rollo nor Sandberg supported a raft of resident re-appointments to boards and commissions that were approved early on the agenda.

After Wednesday’s meeting, Rollo confirmed to The B Square that he voted no, because the list included Greg Alexander’s reappointment to the city’s traffic commission.

Based on Alexander’s social media interactions, which Rollo described as “aggressive,” Rollo said he think’s Alexander’s temperament is “ill-suited” to serving on a city board or commission.

Continue reading “Talk deemed off-topic, ill-tempered: Backdrop for Bloomington’s resolution on embargo against Cuba” →