Bloomington mayor, city council try to tackle 2025 budget tensions ahead of Sept. 25 hearing

Bloomington city council president Isabel Piedmont-Smith (Sept. 4, 2024)

Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson (Sept. 4, 2024)

City controller Jessica McClellan and Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson. (Sept. 4, 2024)

Bloomington’s city council. From left to right: Sydney Zulich, Dave Rollo, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, Hopi Stosberg, Isak Asare, Courtney Daily. On screen: Matt Flaherty and Kate Rosenbarger. (Sept. 4, 2024)

The city of Bloomington’s 2025 budget could get approved on the same schedule that currently appears on the calendar—with a city council vote on adoption set for Oct. 9, after a public hearing on Sept. 25.

That’s based on the back-and-forth that came on Wednesday between Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson and city councilmembers at the end of the regular council meeting.

After last week’s four days of budget hearings, it was uncertain that five votes on the nine-member council could be found to approve the budget as it had been presented to the council.

One possibility was, and technically still is, that the council would vote on Oct. 9 to reject the budget or delay it, in order to extract concessions from the mayor.

Postponement was the tactic used in October 2021 by the council, with then-mayor John Hamilton The vote that year came at the end of October.

Thomson had been unable to appear in person last week in front of the council due to illness. But on Wednesday, standing in front of the council, with controller Jessica McClellan, Thomson appeared to have gone a good ways towards persuading those councilmembers who had qualms about unfunded priorities that there is a path forward to getting some of those items funded. Continue reading “Bloomington mayor, city council try to tackle 2025 budget tensions ahead of Sept. 25 hearing” →

New pay grades for Bloomington non-union workers OK’d by city council, could have $10M impact

Bloomington’s city council on June 18, 2024. Participating on Zoom were Kate Rosenbarger and Courtney Daily.

Bloomington’s director of human resources Sharr Pechac (June 18, 2024)

At its Tuesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council unanimously approved a new salary grade system for the city’s roughly 430 non-union employees, which would eventually mean pay increases requiring around $10 million dollars of investment.

The old non-union salary system had 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 approved new system has 14 grades. The grades at top of the new scale have significantly higher salary ranges than the top of the scale in the old system. The grades at the bottom of the new scale have lower salary ranges than the bottom of the scale in the old system.

The $10-million per year figure came from Bloomington’s director of human resources Sharr Pechac as a ballpark estimate of the eventual impact of re-grading all of the city’s non-union positions that are listed in the 2024 salary ordinance.

As a part of the same ordinance as the one that approved the new salary grades, the council added a new deputy clerk position.

The new deputy clerk position is for communication and outreach, in connection with supporting city boards and commissions.

Continue reading “New pay grades for Bloomington non-union workers OK’d by city council, could have $10M impact” →

2 extra salary grades, boost in non-union employee pay to be mulled by Bloomington city council

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” →

Weeklong Bloomington annexation trial: It’s a wrap, each side gets 45 days to submit final brief

Attorneys in the annexation trial wanted to be able to leave their exhibits in the courtroom overnight, so a sign was placed instructing the cleaning crew to skip the courtroom used for the annexation trial. (May 2, 2024)

Map of annexation areas. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1_7o1q_H6CpeK-1gdEzDTxnPk84RZQ_E&usp=sharing

The image of Reed Quarries is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s property lookup system.

Now over is the trial on the merits of Bloomington’s plan to annex two territories on the west and southwest sides of the city.

Around 3 p.m. on Friday, both sides rested their cases after five full days of witness testimony in the courtroom, located inside the justice center at College Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Bloomington.

This past week’s trial was just about the merits of annexing Area 1A and Area 1B into the city, and did not address a different, constitutional question for other territories, which relates to annexation waivers of remonstrance, which were signed by some land owners.

Over the course of the week, not every witness on either list—for the the city of Bloomington, or for the remonstrators—was called to the stand. Those who did testify included current and former elected officials, current and former city staff, the city’s paid consultants, as well as a dozen or more landowners in the areas to be annexed.

Nathan Nikirk, the special judge out of Lawrence County who is presiding over the case, gave the two sides 45 days to submit their proposed orders in the case, which will include their final arguments. No closing oral arguments were given on Friday.

Before leaving the courtroom on Friday, Nikirk thanked all of the attorneys for their professionalism. He noted that annexation is a “passionate issue.”

Nikirk said he does not know the “perfect answer” on the case but promised to do his “very best.” He would be giving the matter all the consideration that he could, Nikirk said. Even if some are not happy with his eventual decision, Nikirk said he hopes that they understand that he had given it a lot of time and effort. Continue reading “Weeklong Bloomington annexation trial: It’s a wrap, each side gets 45 days to submit final brief” →

Courthouse closed as Nov. 10 fall property tax deadline approaches, treasurer describes ways to pay

Monroe County courthouse looking south at the north side of the building. (Dave Askins/Square Beacon)

Dropbox for taxes on the north side of the Monroe County courthouse. (Dave Askins/Square Beacon)

As the Nov. 10 deadline for paying fall property taxes approaches, Monroe County treasurer Jessica McClellan is making a push to make sure residents know what their options are for making tax payments.

The county courthouse building is closed, except by appointment, due to the COVID-19 pandemic precautions. That’s an extra reason McClellan is trying to get the word out this year about how to pay.

For folks who want to deal with a live human being, facemask to facemask, appointments can be made by calling the treasurer’s office at 812-349-2530. McClellan says it will likely switch callers to voicemail: Leave a message and it will be answered in the order it was received.

For those who want to use the mails, the address is: PO Box 2028, Bloomington, IN 47402. To count as on time, the tax payment has to be postmarked by Nov. 10.

That’s more lenient than the law that applies to absentee ballots. Ballots have to be received (not just postmarked) by the clerk’s office no later than noon on Election Day.

For taxpayers who don’t want to send their payment through the mail, but don’t feel a need to hand deliver their payment to another person, a dropbox has been installed at the north entrance to the courthouse. Continue reading “Courthouse closed as Nov. 10 fall property tax deadline approaches, treasurer describes ways to pay” →