People who attend Bloomington city council meetings and want to address the local legislature will now have a uniform three minutes at the public mic—instead of a default of five minutes, but sometimes less.
That’s the result of a unanimous vote on Wednesday night to enact an ordinance that changes the council’s regular order of business to prescribe a 3-minute time limit at the public mic, for items not on the meeting agenda. There are two slots for public comment on non-agenda items, near the start and near the end of a regular meeting.
The customary time limit for commentary on items that do appear on the agenda has for years been three minutes.
The wording changed by the council was: “Speakers are allowed five minutes; this time allotment may be reduced by the presiding officer if numerous people wish to speak.”
From left: Monroe County councilor Trent Deckard and Bloomington city councilmember Andy Ruff. (April 5, 2024)
Bloomington city council work session. (April 5, 2024)
At the table from left: Bloomington city councilmember Kate Rosenbarger, Monroe County councilor Geoff McKim, and Bloomington city councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith. (April 5, 2024)
Panorama of convention center looking to the southwest as seen in August of 2022.
This coming Wednesday’s (April 10) council meeting will make two out of the last three regular meetings that the council has had an item on its agenda involving the convention center project.
At its March 27 meeting, the council voted to ask the food and beverage tax advisory commission (FABTAC) to review a $250,000 expenditure from the revenue generated by the tax, to support the 2024 budget for Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB). That’s the group of seven people who are providing the governance for the convention center expansion project.
This coming Wednesday, the council will be asked to approve the CIB’s budget, based on the $250,000 appropriation, which was already a part of the 2024 adopted budget for the city of Bloomington.
This past Friday, the council held a work session on the topic, at the urging of councilmember Kate Rosenbarger, who is looking to spend food and beverage tax money on projects other than the convention center.
Based on Friday’s work session discussion, besides Rosenbarger and Matt Flaherty, there’s little appetite among city councilmembers, or other elected or appointed officials, for altering course from the current plan in any significant way.
Samantha Kerr with B&L IT Services, feeds ballots into a scanner. In the background are B&L owner Bob White and Monroe County election supervisor Kylie Moreland. (March 26, 2024)
From left: Monroe County election board member Judith Benckart and LWV spokesperson Deborah “Ralf” Shaw. (March 26, 2024)
Seated from near to far: election supervisor Kylie Moreland, deputy clerk Ashley Lirot, and chief deputy clerk Laura Wert. Standing is Bob White, owner of B&L B&L IT Services. (March 26, 2024)
From left: election board member Judith Benckart, deputy clerk Ashley Lirot, election supervisor Kyle Moreland, and election board member John Fernandez. (March 26, 2024)
Bob White, owner of B&L IT Services (March 26, 2024)
On Tuesday morning, Monroe County’s election equipment, manufactured by Hart InterCivic, passed the logic and accuracy test mandated under state statute.
That means the machines are ready to go for the May 7 primary elections.
Panorama of convention center looking to the southwest as seen in August of 2022.
Bloomington city councilmember Kate Rosenbarger.
Monroe County capital improvement board president John Whikehart.
Downtown Bloomington, Inc. executive director Talisha Coppock.
Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson.
Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce director of advocacy Christopher Emge.
Bloomington corporation counsel Margie Rice.
The governance structure for the expansion of the Monroe Convention center, which currently stands at 3rd Street and College Avenue, is now settled.
On Wednesday night, Bloomington’s city council approved its side of a four-way interlocal agreement about the way the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) will interact with other local units, to handle the convention center expansion project.
The vote on the nine-member city council was 7–1. Dissenting was Kate Rosenbarger.
The tally does not add to 9, because the District 5 seat is currently vacant, pending the selection of a replacement at Saturday’s (March 2) vacancy caucus to be held by the Democratic Party.
Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson attended Wednesday’s meeting, but did not address the council. After the council’s vote, Thomson responded to a B Square question by saying she would be signing the agreement as soon as it is presented to her.
At last Friday’s work session held by Bloomington’s city council, councilmember Steve Volan announced that he would be submitting a new ordinance for consideration that would “set a hard limit for all meetings to five and a half hours.”
Volan’s proposal to make city council meeting length a matter of local law comes after a record-setting nine-hour city council meeting that took place in early March.
On Friday, Volan added, “I don’t know when leadership would like to take that up. I’d like to see it taken up as soon as possible.”
I’d like to see Volan’s proposed ordinance ignored by the council’s leadership.
Consideration of such an ordinance would count as a distraction from a more pressing need—to address the kind of basic procedural dysfunctions that plague Bloomington’s city council.
Over the last few days, as July 4 approached, posts to social media by Bloomington area locals included several complaints about noise from fireworks.
They pointed to increased stress on dogs, cats and kids who are trying to sleep. Also a part of the mix is the impact of fireworks on military veterans who suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome.
Similar complaints are reflected in the archives of the Herald-Times at least since 2006, when Indiana’s state legislature decided that Indiana residents should be allowed use consumer fireworks.
It’s hard to know if letters to the editor, op-eds, or a social media posts have had an impact on a typical Hoosier’s decision to set off consumer fireworks. In any case, the effect is not immediately apparent in the data collected by two different departments of Indiana’s state government.
But the numbers from the Indiana Department of Revenue and the Department of Public Health both show significantly less fireworks activity in 2012 compared to the years before and after.
The reason likely has little to do with a public relations effort against fireworks.
