Tag: Peter Iversen

Jail finance committee starts off week of criminal justice talk with diversity, equity, inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion was the focus of Monday afternoon’s meeting of the county council’s justice fiscal advisory committee (JFAC).

The highlight of the committee’s meeting was a presentation on racial disparity at the Monroe County jail. Presenting the information was former attorney Guy Loftman, who serves on the legal redress committee of the Monroe County Branch of the NAACP.

A key fact presented by Loftman, based on Monroe County jail statistics  from earlier this year, was the disparity between the percentage of Black inmates and the percentage of Black residents of Monroe County.

As measured by the U.S. Census in 2020 about 3.9 percent of Monroe County residents are Black. But for the 3-month period between Jan. 1 and March 31 of this year, Black people made up on average 26.5% of the inmates in the Monroe County jail.

JFAC’s Monday meeting was the first of three meetings this week when local officials will have criminal justice-related matters on their agenda.

On Friday at noon, Bloomington’s city council has a work session scheduled, to hear from county officials about options for locating a new county jail.

Appearing on Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting for the full county council is a discussion item  about “potential adjustments to the LIT-special purpose fund rate.” That’s a juvenile detention-related tax. Continue reading “Jail finance committee starts off week of criminal justice talk with diversity, equity, inclusion” →

Capital improvement board created, convention center expansion takes small step forward

A seven-member capital improvement board (CIB) has finally been created to provide the governance for a long-planned expansion of the Monroe Convention Center.

The unanimous vote by the three county commissioners to create the CIB came at their regular Wednesday meeting. Their vote was greeted with a rare round of applause in the Nat U. Hill room at the county courthouse.

Clapping enthusiastically in the audience for the vote were county councilors Geoff McKim, and Peter Iversen, as well as Eric Spoonmore, who is a former county councilor and now CEO of the Great Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.

That appears to end the wrangling between the county commissioners and Bloomington mayor John Hamilton, over the governance of the expansion project, which has stalled the joint city-county effort since early March 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Hamilton’s preferred way of handling the tasks that the CIB will oversee would have been through a nonprofit. A CIB is a public body, which the county commissioners can create under state law.

Still to be negotiated are the details of an interlocal agreement between the city and the county governments, which would lay out, among other things, the way that any land now owned by the city or the county will be incorporated into the expansion project. Continue reading “Capital improvement board created, convention center expansion takes small step forward” →

Storm knocks out Monroe County justice committee

A tree was split by the strong winds that blew through with a thunderstorm around 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 29, 2023.
This the Duke Energy power outage map at around 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 29, 2023
The sign posted on the north entrance to the Monroe County courthouse announces the cancellation of the justice fiscal advisory committee (JFAC) on June 29, 2203.

The storm that blew through the Bloomington area around 4 p.m. on Thursday knocked out power to at least 21,000 Duke Energy customers in the region, according to the power company’s outage map.

Even though the Monroe County courthouse still had power, a 4:30 p.m. meeting of the county council’s justice fiscal advisory committee (JFAC) was canceled.

The chairship of the committee rotates from meeting to meeting among three county councilors, and it was Jennifer Crossley’s call to cancel the meeting. The other two county councilors serving on the committee are Kate Wiltz and Peter Iversen. Several non-voting members are also included on the committee.

Crossley told The B Square that for people traveling from outside the downtown it would have meant driving around crashes and non-working traffic signals, so she didn’t want anyone to take unnecessary risks.

The missed meeting means the committee will have to compress its work a bit. When the county council created the committee in May, the council’s resolution set a deadline for the completion  of its assigned work—by the end of the year.

But the resolution sets a September timeframe as the target for delivering a report to the full council. Continue reading “Storm knocks out Monroe County justice committee” →

Political brief: Iversen runs for county commissioner, Zulich takes formal step for city council caucus

Sydney Zulich addresses the Bloomington city council. (June 14, 2023)
Peter Iversen speaks at an Oct. 3, 2022 county council campaign forum.

Political news from the end of this week included city as well as county campaigns for office.

Sydney Zulich has filed her paperwork to stand as a candidate in the Democratic Party’s city council ballot vacancy caucus, according to election office staff.

The city council vacancy on the Nov. 7 ballot stems from David Wolfe Bender’s decision to resign as the Democratic Party’s nominee for District 6.  Bender won the May 2 primary as the only candidate on the ballot.

No Republican declared for District 6, but the GOP has until July 3 to caucus in a candidate of their own.

The Democratic Party’s caucus is set for June 30 at 4:30 p.m. in city council chambers at city hall.

Looking ahead to the 2024 Democratic Party primary, Peter Iversen has filed the paperwork to form a committee to run for the District 2 Monroe County commissioner seat.

Iversen is currently in his fourth year of service on the seven-member county council, which is the county’s fiscal body. Continue reading “Political brief: Iversen runs for county commissioner, Zulich takes formal step for city council caucus” →

New jail finance committee created by Monroe County councilors

Monroe County auditor Cathy Smith adjusts the mic for Charlotte Zietlow (May 10, 2023).
Isabel Piedmont-Smith addresses the county council (May 10, 2023).
The screen in the Nat U. Hill room reflects the changes made to the JFAC resolution (May 10, 2023).
Gloria Howell addresses the Monroe County council (May 10, 2023).
County attorney Molly Turner-King (May 10, 2023).
Gloria Howell addresses the Monroe County council (May 10, 2023).

Two weeks after the idea was floated at a work session, the Monroe County council has established a new committee to focus on fiscal issues associated with the construction of a new jail.

The unanimous vote to create the justice fiscal advisory committee (JFAC)—consisting of three county councilors and 12 other ex officio members—came at the council’s regular meeting on Tuesday. The ex officio members don’t count towards the number needed for a quorum.

The word “fiscal” in the name of the new committee that has been formed by the county council reflects the fact that the council is the county’s fiscal body.

Any funding for a new jail facility would have to be approved by the seven-member county council, no matter what decisions are made by the three county commissioners about the location and size of a new jail facility.

The county council’s move to create the committee got support from the public mic during the meeting, in-person as well as on the Zoom video conference platform. Continue reading “New jail finance committee created by Monroe County councilors” →

Formation of criminal justice fiscal advisory committee mulled by Monroe County council

As soon as two weeks from now, on May 9, the Monroe County council could be taking a vote on the formation of a new criminal justice fiscal advisory committee.

CATS screen grab of the Monroe County council’s April 25 work session.

The committee’s exact name, mission, membership, and scope have not been finalized.

But at a Tuesday work session, county council president Kate Wiltz announced the intent to form the committee, saying that she wants it to be ”transparent and inclusive in its activities.”

The creation of the new county council committee comes after county commissioners last week suspended meetings of the full community justice response committee (CJRC). Continue reading “Formation of criminal justice fiscal advisory committee mulled by Monroe County council” →

Community justice notebook: County council adopts recommendations on new jail

At its work session on Tuesday night, Monroe County’s seven-member council voted 6–1 to adopt a previously distributed memo “as a reflection of the council’s recommendations for the new jail.”

The image links to a .pdf file of the non-binding memo adopted by the Monroe County council on March 28, 2023.

The three non-binding recommendations in the memo are:

(1) The county council recommends a jail with a bed size of no more than 400.
(2) The county council recommends a jail location as close to existing services as possible.
(3) The justice campus size will be determined by several factors in the future.

Councilor Marty Hawk dissented saying, “I think this is a bit too early… to make that kind of decision that this is the reflection of the entire council.”

The council’s action comes in the context of work being done by an 11-member community justice response committee (CJRC), to make recommendations on a new jail facility for Monroe County.

Making the decisions on location and size of a new facility will be the county commissioners. As the fiscal body of the county, the county council has to approve the funding.

Serving on the CJRC are three county councilors: Kate Wiltz, Jennifer Crossley, and Peter Iversen.

The reason the CJRC was established in the summer of 2021 is reflected in the title of the document adopted by the council on Tuesday night: “Justice Campus Land: Toward a Constitutionally Sound Jail.” Continue reading “Community justice notebook: County council adopts recommendations on new jail” →

Advice on choice for new jail design-build firm to be heard by Monroe County commissioners, justice response committee still struggling

County commissioner Penny Githens (March 6, 2023).
County commissioner Julie Thomas (March 6, 2023).
County commissioner Lee Jones (March 6, 2023).
Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté (March 6, 2023).
From left: Monroe County circuit court judge Darcie Fawcett and deputy prosecutor April Wilson (March 6, 2023).
President of the Monroe County Democratic Black Caucus, Nicole Bolden (March 6, 2023).
Monroe County councilor Jennifer Crossley (March 6, 2023).
Community justice response committee (CJRC) (March 6, 2023).
Jauston Huerta, director of FOCUS Initiatives (March 6, 2023).

At their work session this Wednesday (March 8), Monroe County commissioners are supposed to receive a recommendation on which of three firms to select, to design and build a new jail.

The three firms responded to a request for proposals (RFQ) issued by the commissioners. Reviewing and scoring the three proposals was a committee of staff from the county’s legal department, the sheriff’s office, the facilities department, and the administrator for the commissioners.

The three firms making proposals were DLZ, Elevatus, and RQAW.

The timetable for selection and approval of a company was sketched out by president of the board of county commissioners, Penny Githens, at Monday’s meeting of the community justice response committee (CJRC).

Githens said the commissioners expect to vote on the selection of one of the three firms at their March 22 regular meeting. Whichever company is selected would be invited to give a presentation to the CJRC on April 3, Githens said.

The timetable for handling the responses to the RFQ could be counted as a bit of progress towards the goal of responding to the work of two consultants, released to the county government about 20 months ago. The report described Monroe County’s jail as having “far exceeded its structural and functional life cycle.”

But Monday’s CJRC meeting was again plagued by friction between the three county commissioners and the other committee members. Continue reading “Advice on choice for new jail design-build firm to be heard by Monroe County commissioners, justice response committee still struggling” →

New job for coordinating cleaning of Monroe County jail now has description, on clear path to creation

From left: Elizabeth Sensenstein, Phil Parker, Kyle Gibbons, Jeff Cockerill, Geoff McKim, Peter Iversen.
Monroe County chief deputy sheriff Phil Parker.
From left: Monroe County chief deputy sheriff Phil Parker, Kyle Gibbons, and county attorney Jeff Cockrill.

Now finally settled is the wording of the job description for a new position at Monroe County’s jail, which is supposed to help put the jail into a clean and sanitary condition and keep it that way.

The job description was the topic of a Friday noon meeting of the county council’s personnel administration committee (PAC), which agreed to forward the job description to Waggoner, Irwin, and Sheele, Inc. (WIS)—which is the county’s HR consultant.

WIS will incorporate the job description into the county’s job classification scheme, which determines compensation. The final step in the process will be for the full county council to approve the creation of the position, and its compensation.

That approval could come at the county council’s March 14 meeting. Continue reading “New job for coordinating cleaning of Monroe County jail now has description, on clear path to creation” →

Candid email from Monroe County sheriff presses commissioners for more urgent approach to new jail cleanup position, other issues

Ruben Marté at the Feb. 20, 2023 CJRC meeting.
Penny Githens at the Feb. 20, 2023 CJRC meeting.

“Try as I may, I cannot come to grips why this low-level position, a sheriff’s office employee, is of any interest at all for the commissioners, other than to fully support it.”

That’s one sentence of a 3,500-word email that Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté addressed on Monday night to Penny Githens, president of the board of county commissioners.

The other two commissioners are Lee Jones and Julie Thomas. The email was sent to county commissioners and other members of the community justice response committee (CJRC), among others.

When The B Square asked Githens about Marté’s email at a Tuesday noon meeting of the Monroe County Democrats’ Club, she said she had not yet read through it.

The new low-level position will have the job title of “jail technician”—a member of the staff who would be responsible for cleaning and sanitizing the jail. The jail technician would also supervise inmates who work to clean the jail.

Based on his emailed message, it’s Marte’s view that the commissioners are slow-footing the process to create the new position of jail technician. Continue reading “Candid email from Monroe County sheriff presses commissioners for more urgent approach to new jail cleanup position, other issues” →