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.
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.
Bloomington city councilmember Dave Rollo. (April 12, 2023)
Bloomington traffic commissioner Greg Alexander (April 12, 2023)
An expected up-down vote on the question of Greg Alexander’s removal from Bloomington’s traffic commission did not take place at Wednesday night’s city council meeting.
The motion for Alexander’s removal—because of Tweets he posted late last year—had been postponed from the council’s March 29 meeting. That postponement had unanimous support from the council, in order to give Alexander at least five business days to respond in writing to the specific reasons listed out in the motion.
On Wednesday, councilmember Dave Rollo wound up withdrawing his motion to remove Alexander.
Bloomington city councilmember Dave Rollo at a September 2022 city council meeting. (B Square file photo)
Bloomington resident Greg Alexander addressing city council on Nov. 2, 2022. (B Square file photo)
A possible vote on the removal of Greg Alexander from Bloomington’s traffic commission is now set for the city council’s April 12 meeting.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, Dave Rollo made a motion for Alexander’s removal, because of three posts on Twitter.com that Alexander made in November 2022.
The Tweets cited in Rollo’s motion read as follows:
“with all due respect, taking things away from elm heights *IS* exactly how the rest of the city gets help.”
“i would really like to know. it sounds like they are going to savagely penetrate your neighborhood and I want to know what they’re going to use to do that?”
“haters gonna hate and bloomington democrats gonna lick the shit out from between elm heights’ neighbors ass cheeks”
As a traffic commissioner, Alexander had opposed installation of the sign. The traffic commission as a group had recommended against the stop sign’s installation. Alexander sees the city council’s decision, which was contrary to the commission’s recommendation, as showing undue deference to the Elm Heights neighborhood.
The traffic commission is 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.
On Wednesday, the council postponed Rollo’s motion until April 12, in order to allow at least five business days for Alexander to respond in writing.
As expected, there was no action by Bloomington’s city council Wednesday night on a motion that had been made four weeks ago to remove Greg Alexander from the city’s traffic commission.
Somewhat unexpected at the end of this Wednesday’s meeting was the lack of any motion that was still pending on the question of Alexander’s removal.
The previous motion, which had been made by Dave Rollo, described the cause for Alexander’s removal as “…posting obscene and inappropriate statements…” on social media.
As planned, Rollo’s Feb. 1 motion was withdrawn on Wednesday by unanimous consent of the council.
But after council deliberations on the new, revised motion that Rollo made on Wednesday, it seemed at least a little bit in doubt whether it would have enough support to pass—either that night or after a planned postponement.
So, not as planned, Rollo wound up asking for, and getting, unanimous consent to withdraw his new motion.
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.
