Bloomington Councilwoman Allison Chopra is standing by her actions after Community Access Television Services captured video of her making an obscene gesture to a fellow councilmember Tuesday night.
The hearing was on the city’s proposed Unified Development Ordinance. The meeting focused extensively on the possible addition of multifamily “plexes” into the city’s core neighborhoods.
The public comment period had lasted for nearly two hours when council began discussing how long to continue.
Council put a time limit of four hours on each meeting because of the controversial nature of the UDO.
Chopra was against extending the meeting, saying it was unfair to those who were expecting the scheduled time to be kept.
“Why set a rule if you’re not gonna freaking follow it?” Chopra asked at the meeting. “What’s the point? We do this all the time. It’s embarrassing.”
“Well, go home then,” Councilman Chris Sturbaum responded.
That’s when Chopra turned to her left, extending her left middle finger in Sturbaum’s direction.
Chopra says she felt Sturbaum was purposefully demeaning her.
“I thought that was just really rude and inappropriate,” Chopra says. “It made me feel like, ‘Well, we don’t even need you here.’ And they certainly do.”
“He [Sturbaum] has been a bully through this entire process,” Chopra says. “Fearmongering and spreading rumors and inciting fear in people about this change in the UDO.”
Chopra says she thinks time limits keep people from pushing their own agendas.
“Previously we never had any time limits as to how many questions that you could ask,” Chopra says. “And I think actually that’s been really effective because it’s forced councilmembers to only ask questions that are actual questions. And even if they’re not gonna do that – at least limit their leading questions. I’m a prosecuting attorney. I know a leading question when I see one.”
Sturbaum said the comment was a slip of the tongue.
"Well, we had citizens who'd waited three and a half hours to talk," he says. "And it seemed to me that Councilmember Chopra was in favor of not allowing them to finish and make their comments after waiting for three and a half hours. And really I just thought, 'Why don't you go home,' but it came out out loud."
Sturbaum also says he apologized to Chopra the day after.
"I was just speaking up for the public's right to speak and for our role as servants of the public," he says.
"I'll just point out that she called me a name," Sturbaum adds. "I did not call her a name."
The Bloomington City Council will continue its hearing on the UDO Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
This story has been updated.
