Tag: Matt Flaherty

Bloomington city council’s first meeting puts familiar faces in leadership, gives public safety some airtime

Shruti Rana (Jan. 10, 2024)
Matt Flaherty (Jan. 10, 2024)
Hopi Stosberg (Jan. 10, 2024)
Dave Rollo (Jan. 10, 2024)
Kate Rosenbarger (Jan. 10, 2024)
Isak Asare (Jan. 10, 2024)
Gretchen Knapp (Jan. 10, 2024)
Kerry Thomson (Jan. 10, 2024)
Sydney Zulich (Jan. 10, 2024)
Isabel Piedmont-Smith (Jan. 10, 2024)
Kerry Thomson (Jan. 10, 2024)
Andy Ruff (Jan. 10, 2024)
Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson addresses the city council (Jan. 10, 2024)
Bloomington’s city council (Jan. 10, 2024)

On Wednesday, the 2024 edition of Bloomington’s city council gathered for the first time at city hall since it was sworn in on New Year’s Day.

One of the first orders of business at the council’s first meeting, which is required by state law, was to choose a president and vice president to serve for the upcoming year.

The job of president went to District 1 representative Isabel Piedmont-Smith. The job of vice president went to at-large representative Andy Ruff.

A requirement of local law, but not state statute, is to choose a parliamentarian. The job of parliamentarian went to District 3 representative Hopi Stosberg.

For all three council officer positions, those who were chosen were the only members nominated. The votes were all unanimous on the nine-member council.

Much of Wednesday’s meeting was first-of-the-year housekeeping, including the introduction of new Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson, and deputy mayor Gretchen Knapp, who each delivered brief remarks.

Also introduced were some new department heads: Jane Kupersmith, head of economic and sustainable development; Jessica McClellan, city controller; and Sharmaine Pechac, head of human resources.

But the topic of public safety—in general, as well as in connection with the clearance of a homeless encampment last Thursday—got some discussion at the meeting. Continue reading “Bloomington city council’s first meeting puts familiar faces in leadership, gives public safety some airtime” →

Local officials sworn in, Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson says, “It’s time to get moving.”

Judge Valeri Haughton administers the the oath of office to Bloomington city clerk Nicole Bolden. (Jan. 1, 2024)
Bloomington city clerk Nicole Bolden administers the oath to Ellettsville clerk treasurer, Noelle Conyer. (Jan. 1, 2024)
Bloomington city clerk Nicole Bolden administers the oath to Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson. (Jan. 1, 2024)

Starting a few minutes after noon on New Year’s Day in Bloomington’s city hall, the mayor, city clerk, city councilmembers, and the Ellettsville clerk treasurer were sworn into office to start four-year terms.

The chambers were packed, including the upper level, leaving some to stand in the lobby.

First to be sworn in was Bloomington city clerk Nicole Bolden. Administering the oath was Monroe County circuit court judge Valeri Haughton, who is Bolden’s mother.

That set up Bolden to administer the oaths of office for some of the other officials.

Bookending the proceedings was the swearing in of Ellettsville clerk treasurer Noelle Conyer.

When Conyer’s turn was reached on the program, Bolden said, “I think it is easy for us in Bloomington to forget that we in Monroe County host several communities, and so it is my distinct honor and pleasure to next administer the oath for my colleague and counterpart in Ellettsville.”

Before the ceremony started, Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson delivered remarks lasting about seven minutes. Continue reading “Local officials sworn in, Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson says, “It’s time to get moving.”” →

Analysis: Age-related facts about Bloomington’s next city council that nobody knew they wanted to know

Bloomington city councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith
Dave Rollo, Bloomington city council member. (Oct. 4, 2023)
2021 Bloomington city council parliamentarian Matt Flaherty (file photo)
Kate Rosenbarger (Dec. 13, 2023)
Shruti Rana, Bloomington city councilmember-elect for District 3 (Nov. 11, 2023 NOW conference)
Andy Ruff (2019)
Hopi Stosberg (March 21, 2023)
Sydney Zulich addresses the Bloomington city council. (June 14, 2023)
Isak Asare (June 30, 2023 Democratic Party caucus)

The outgoing edition of the Bloomington city council officially wraps up its service at noon on New Year’s Day.

Returning to be sworn in at that same time are just four of the nine: Isabel Piedmont-Smith (District 1), Kate Rosenbarger (District 2), Dave Rollo (District 4) and Matt Flaherty (at large).

Joining those four will be these five: Hopi Stosberg (District 3), Shruti Rana (District 5), Sydney Zulich (District 6), Andy Ruff (at large), and Isak Asare (at large). [Photos of the nine incoming councilmembers are included in the above gallery.]

Five out of nine different faces might normally mean that the group would be short on experience at the job of city councilmember—compared to previous editions of the city council.

But it turns out that the group of nine that is to be sworn in to start 2024 has four more total years of council experience than the nine who were sworn in four years ago, to start 2020.

And the fact that the incoming city council features the youngest councilmember ever might suggest that this edition of the council would qualify as the youngest ever on some groupwise metric.

But it turns out that the city council that was sworn in 20 years ago, to start 2004, was on average younger than the incoming council. And the city council that was sworn in to start 2000 showed a bigger gap between the youngest and oldest member of the council. Continue reading “Analysis: Age-related facts about Bloomington’s next city council that nobody knew they wanted to know” →

Analysis | A list checked twice: Unwrapping Bloomington city council’s 1,093 votes over 4 years

Two weeks ago, Bloomington’s elected city clerk, Nicole Bolden, called the roll of the nine city councilmembers for their final vote of the four-year term.

Except for the ornaments, the image was generated by AI, specifically Bing’s Create. The ornaments correspond to councilmembers in a statistical plot showing similarity of voting patterns to other councilmembers. The same plot is provided below with names, and without the distraction of a Christmas tree.

The vote was unanimous: Every councilmember voted in favor of the encomiums that were read aloud for each of the five councilmembers who will not be returning to the council in 2024.

Even the final substantive vote, which was taken on a proposal to sell the 3rd Street police station, turned out to be unanimous. All nine councilmembers voted against it.

Even though the 2020-2023 edition of the Bloomington city council will likely be remembered as one of the most divided in Bloomington’s history, unanimous votes were still easily the most common result.

The B Square kept track of the votes in a public Google Sheet in real time as they were taken, meeting by meeting.

Out of 1,093 roll call votes taken by the council for the four year term, 929, or about 85 percent of them, were unanimous. That includes 8–0, and 7–0 votes where someone was absent or abstained, and other similar patterns where there was a zero in either the “yes” or the “no” column.

Of course, the votes where the council was not unified were more memorable than the split votes, which were often preceded by acrimonious debate. Continue reading “Analysis | A list checked twice: Unwrapping Bloomington city council’s 1,093 votes over 4 years” →

Showers West construction contracts on hold until after Kerry Thomson becomes Bloomington mayor

StudioAXIS rendering of Showers West fire administration entrance.
StudioAXIS rendering of Showers West police station entrance.
Bloomington fire chief Jason Moore addresses the RDC (Dec. 18, 2023)
RDC members from left: Cindy Kinnarney, Randy Cassady, Deborah Myerson, and Deb Hutton (Dec. 18, 2023)
Bloomington councilmember Matt Flaherty, mayor John Hamilton at RDC meeting (Dec. 18, 2023)

At its regular meeting on Monday, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) let four resolutions die that would have approved separate construction contract awards for the Showers West renovation and remodeling project.

That does not mean the contracts themselves are dead.

It just means that the contracts, which totaled around $12.7 million, could be up for a vote sometime in January 2024—but maybe not as soon as the very next meeting of Bloomington’s RDC, which is scheduled for Jan. 2.

The winning bids, which included a base plus some additional money for an IT room were: SCS Construction Services, Inc. (general trades) for $4,623,400; Multicraft Fire Protection (fire protection) for $310,500; Harrell-Fish Inc (mechanical and plumbing) for $4,128,000; and Cassady Electric (electric) for $3,655,900.

The Showers West project is supposed to remodel the portion of the city hall building that was purchased early this year, to make the 110-year-old brick former factory building into a suitable home for the fire department administration and police department operations.

Part of outgoing mayor John Hamilton’s plan was to sell the city’s 3rd Street police station, and move police operations to Showers West. Last Wednesday, the city council voted unanimously to reject the sale of the police station, at least for now.

Hamilton appeared in person in front of the RDC on Monday to advocate for going ahead and approving the construction contracts. Councilmember Matt Flaherty also appeared in person to urge approval of the construction contracts.

As she did on Wednesday, mayor-elect Kerry Thomson weighed in from the public mic on the Zoom video conferencing platform to advocate for putting off a decision.

Thomson said on Monday, “I wanted to ask you all to wait for the new administration to have an opportunity to review these bids in detail and ensure that there’s proper contingency and funding for all of the equipment and other needs before we move forward.” Continue reading “Showers West construction contracts on hold until after Kerry Thomson becomes Bloomington mayor” →

Analysis: Disparate motives, but unified Bloomington city council verdict, police HQ sale nixed for now

Bloomington city council. Jim Sims participated on the Zoom platform. (Dec. 13, 2023)
Bloomington mayor John Hamilton (Dec. 13, 2023)
Bloomington police station from 3rd Street. (Dec. 13, 2023)
Aerial image of Bloomington police station.

On the final agenda item of their final meeting of the year, which marked the end of their four-terms, Bloomington city council members found their way to a unanimous vote on a contentious issue.

At last Wednesday’s meeting, the council voted 0–9 on the sale of the 3rd Street police station for $4.4 million.

Outgoing mayor John Hamilton, who had asked the council to approve the sale, attended the council’s meeting.

Reasons for voting against the sale were varied. Some, like Dave Rollo, opposed the sale, because they do not want to see police operations move to Showers West. That’s the portion of city hall—which is housed in a 110-year old former brick furniture factory building—that the city purchased from CFC properties at the start of 2023 for $8.75 million.

Other councilmembers, like Matt Flaherty, are squarely in favor of moving police operations, as well as the fire department administration, into Showers West. That will put it in the same building as most other city departments. Flaherty put it like this: “I think it’s essential that we have a police that are headquartered in the same place as the rest of civil city staff. Same for fire.”

Rollo also had qualms about the sale, based on a 1923 deed restriction, that requires the land be used as a free public park.

Flaherty and Rollo are two of the four who will return to the nine-member city council in 2024.

Five of the nine Bloomington city councilmembers who take the oath of office on Jan. 1 will be different from the nine who voted on the police station sale. Joining the council to start 2024 will be: Hopi Stosberg, Shruti Rana, Sydney Zulich, Andy Ruff and Isak Asare. They’ll replace Ron Smith, Sue Sgambelluri, Steve Volan, Susan Sandberg and Jim Sims.

The other two returning councilmembers are Kate Rosenbarger and Isabel Piedmont-Smith.

The city council’s work over the last four years, starting in 2020, was sometimes marked by acrimonious debate that, on occasion, devolved into personal attack.

Last Wednesday’s vote could be analyzed as a reason to be optimistic about the tenor of the next four years of the city council’s deliberations. Continue reading “Analysis: Disparate motives, but unified Bloomington city council verdict, police HQ sale nixed for now” →

Bloomington city council rejects sale of police station on 0–9 vote, but door seems ajar for future deal

Bloomington police station from 3rd Street. (Dec. 13, 2023)
Aerial image of Bloomington police station.

At their final scheduled meeting of their four-year terms, Bloomington’s city council voted unanimously against the sale of the city’s police station, which stands on 3rd Street, just north of The Waldron, Hill and Buskirk Park.

Some councilmembers expressed support for Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s overall plan, which includes consolidation of  fire administration and police operations with other departments in the same building as city hall—even though they voted against the sale of the police station on Wednesday night.

Mayor-elect Kerry Thomson weighed in from the public mic, using the Zoom video conference platform. She called for a delay in the sale, in order to get answers to several questions that had been raised, but did not argue against any sale of the property ever in the future.

The specific purchase offer that was rejected by the council was from GMS-Pavillion for $4.4 million. That amount was the higher of two appraisals obtained by the city for the fair market value of the property. Continue reading “Bloomington city council rejects sale of police station on 0–9 vote, but door seems ajar for future deal” →

To sell or not to sell Bloomington’s police station building: Board tees up vote for city council

Board of public works member Kyla Cox Deckard (Dec. 8, 2023)
Board of public works member Elizabeth Karon (Dec. 8, 2023)
Real estate agent Tim Ballard (Dec. 8, 2023)
Bloomington corporation counsel Beth Cate (Dec. 8, 2023)
Bloomington resident David Sabbagh (Dec. 8, 2023)
Police union president Paul Post
Police union vice president Jeffrey Rodgers (Dec. 8, 2023)
Councilmember Matt Flaherty (left) and city council attorney Stephen Lucas (Dec. 8, 2023)
Council president Sue Sgambelluri (Dec. 8, 2023)

Cued up next Wednesday for Bloomington city councilmembers—as the final agenda item for the final scheduled meeting of their four-year terms—is the sale of the city’s police station, which stands on 3rd Street, just north of The Waldron, Hill and Buskirk Park.

That’s the outcome of Friday’s board of public works public hearing, to review three purchase offers.

The board did not recommend that the mayor and city council sell the property to any of the three potential buyers. The board also did not recommend against selling the property.

Instead, the three-member board, all mayoral appointees, voted 2–0 to give no recommendation. That non-recommendation will now go to the city council on Wednesday (Dec. 13) for a vote.

Outgoing mayor John Hamilton administration’s first choice of a buyer is GMS-Pavillion Properties, which after some back-and-forth, offered $4.4 million. Continue reading “To sell or not to sell Bloomington’s police station building: Board tees up vote for city council” →

Bloomington mayor wants Dec. 13 vote by city council on police station sale

The police station is in the upper left corner of the aerial image.
Calendar of upcoming key dates in Showers West projectg.

At its Wednesday meeting in a little over a week from now, Bloomington’s city council will likely be asked by outgoing mayor John Hamilton to vote on the sale of the city’s police station.

That’s a key takeaway from a Monday noon work session of Bloomington’s city council.

Next week’s Dec. 13 council meeting is the city legislative body’s final regular meeting of the year.

But before the council is asked to approve the sale, Bloomington’s board of public works will hold a public hearing this Friday, Dec. 8. Even though the three-member board does not need to approve the sale, it is required under state law to make a recommendation to the city council and the mayor.

So on Friday, the administration is just looking for the board of public works to indicate its attitude about the sale—for, against, or no recommendation either way.

At Monday’s session, deputy mayor Larry Allen revealed that the city had so far received three offers for the purchase of the police station. The building is located on 3rd Street north of The Waldron, Hill and Buskirk Park.

One offer is right at the $3.2-million minimum offer specified in the city’s notice of sale, published on Oct. 11.  The minimum offer is the same as the lower of two fair market value appraisals that were done by the city, Allen revealed.

A second fair market appraisal, Allen said at Monday’s session, put the value of the police station at $4.4 million. The city had also received an offer to purchase the real estate at that price, Allen said.

A third offer exceeded $4.4 million, Allen said.

Even though just five of nine councilmembers attended Monday’s work session, a measure of the topic’s importance was mayor-elect Kerry Thomson’s attendance. Continue reading “Bloomington mayor wants Dec. 13 vote by city council on police station sale” →