Juneteenth holiday – The B Square

The areas rendered in black, Area 1A and Area 1B, had their lawsuits with constitutional claims dismissed by the city. The remaining five five areas, shown in different colors are subject of the consolidated lawsuits with a constitutional claim.

Lawrence county circuit court photo of special judge for Bloomington annexation lawsuit Nathan Nikirk

On Tuesday, judge Nathan Nikirk issued a ruling that denies the city of Bloomington’s constitutional challenge to a 2019 state law, which causes annexation waivers to expire after 15 years.

Nikirk’s ruling, on five consolidated lawsuits, affects Bloomington’s annexation in five different areas. There’s one lawsuit for each territory.

Even if the city of Bloomington does not appeal the ruling, that does not mean that the question of annexation in the affected five areas is settled.

There’s more to the five consolidated lawsuits than the constitutional claim.

Nikirk’s Tuesday ruling has no effect on the separate litigation for two other areas (Area 1A and Area 1B) about which a bench trial was held in early May.

A ruling on the merits of annexation in those areas could be expected towards August. Continue reading “Annexation lawsuit: Judge rules against Bloomington on constitutional claim, but it’s not over” →

A new salary grade system for the city’s non-union employees, which would eventually mean big pay increases requiring millions of dollars of investment, will be considered by Bloomington’s city council on Tuesday.

The council’s regular meeting day was shifted from Wednesday to Tuesday, due to the Juneteenth holiday.

The current non-union salary system has 12 grades, each with a range of compensation. Each job title is assigned a grade. The compensation for the person with the job title falls somewhere in the range.

The proposed new system has 14 grades, many (but not all) of them with significantly higher salaries, at both the low end as well as the high end of the ranges.

According to the staff memo from Bloomington’s human resource director Sharr Pechac, the purpose of the new salary grade system is to “relieve pay compression between mid-level employees and their supervisors, as well as to better differentiate between grades.”

Pay compression is a term used to describe a small difference in pay between employees no matter what their skills, experience, or job responsibilities are.

As a part of the same ordinance that changes the salary grades, the council will be asked to approve the creation of a new deputy clerk position for communication and outreach, in connection with supporting city boards and commissions.

Continue reading “2 extra salary grades, boost in non-union employee pay to be mulled by Bloomington city council” →