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” →