An engineer says the downtown creamery smokestack will have to be reduced in size. A proposed local income tax increase could fund police dept. raises. And decisions on city annexation lawsuits could be announced in a week or two.
In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more during a Zoom interview Tuesday. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: On Monday, the state recorded 137 COVID cases, down from 320 on Friday. It seems like the pandemic is over, but you can't let your guard down as news comes out of a new variant stealth omicron.
Hamilton: We've had two years of weekly news conferences and we decided last Friday to have that be our last regularly scheduled in light of the dramatic reduction in in hospitalizations and case numbers and such. But as was mentioned on that call, this is not a victory lap - we still have to be wary, we recognize the dramatic reduction in cases hospitalizations, etc. but we do need to continue to be wary.
It is important to recognize that tracking what may happen in the future is very, very important. I know there's been some uptick in Europe. I have not heard of that new one directly. The CDC has made clear that we need to keep watching for wherever if ever we have blooms of hospitalizations or sicknesses and those kinds of things or a new variant.
I think the general hope is that the treatment of the coronavirus migrates really into the general health care system. Whether it's for vaccinations, whether it's for testing, whether it's for treatment, that it becomes evolves into like the flu.
Hren: As we learned last month, all but two areas have been voided by the remonstrance period, but areas 1A and 1B have until Wednesday to file a court hearing to appeal. You've mentioned a few times, the city could take the remonstrance process to court. Where's the city right now?
Hamilton: We have not filed any action, though. I expect we may. The bulk of the reason that the annexations didn't go through quite easily was because of the 2019 law that purported to negate a whole bunch of waivers. And we continue to believe that that law was inappropriately passed, illegally applied.
So we are continuing to look at legal remedies. We can pursue that for all seven areas. And we may well need to do that. The state sets up very complicated ways to do the annexation. I do expect over the next week or two, we may have to take some action.
READ MORE: Residents opposing annexation doubling down on fundraising efforts
Hren: If remonstrators go to court to appeal annexation, their case is that the city didn't follow all the state procedures. Do you feel confident the city did follow annexation law?
Hamilton: We do, we do. It's a very complicated process, but for for all involved, we've done our very best and think we've complied with the law starting in 2017. But some of that may have to get measured out and evaluated in a court, we'll see.
Hren: Let's say there's a new area that wants city sewer, city water, they want city utilities, but not part of the city. Will the city move forward with voluntary annexation before installing utilities so that this doesn't happen again?
Hamilton: That is kind of an appropriate way to go forward, given the the risk of waivers now, if you will, we will and would pursue voluntary annexation. The difficulty, Joe, is that under state law, you cannot voluntarily annex unless you're immediately contiguous to current city boundaries. So if there's an area that wants to be developed, let's say it's in a seeking sewer, if they're not right next to city limits, they're not they cannot do a voluntary annexation.
Assuming that meets general standards, we would say yes, let's do a voluntary annexation in connection with your receiving city sewers, and move forward with that and skip the whole waiver process.
Hren: The historic Johnson Creamery smokestack is in danger of falling. The property owners Peerless Capital of Chicago were notified to complete repairs within 60 days. That was back on January 13. Do you have an update?
Hamilton: We agreed and they paid for and got a very intensive engineering study done. It is made clear that they are going to need to bring for safety purposes that down - significantly down. That is unstable and not really even repairable in many ways, top half of that smokestack.
The historic preservation commission and the city council will need to make an ultimate decision on whether it should be rebuilt. But at the short term, we know it's got to be reduced significantly in height just to protect safety. And I expect you'll see some action on that.
Hren: A new collective bargaining police agreement announced last week includes a 13% pay increase, longevity pay. FOP President Paul Post said the agreement is the highest contract proposal he's seen in 20 years. How did the city get to those numbers so quickly?
Hamilton: We call it a contingent contract because it does depend upon getting revenue to fund it. As you may recall, the council urged that we put in place significant police salary increases which we did for this year, but need to have ongoing revenue to do that in the future. Police departments all across the country are facing challenges in recruitment and retention. That is true here.
I think we're finding this contract helped us get to a place where we think we can recruit and retain - it is a significant increase. We have one of the finest police departments in the state and they're nationally accredited and doing excellent, excellent work.
READ MORE: State of the City: Hamilton to propose another local income tax hike
Hren: You're proposing an increase of the county local income tax, what needs to happen to get that approved? What's the process?
Hamilton: The main way that a local government like us here in the state of Indiana can raise revenue is either by bonding, for fixed costs and buildings or by increasing the local income tax, which is basically the only revenue source that we have for general operations that we can do. There's something called the local income tax Council, a statutory body, which is made up of the legislative bodies of the city council, the county council, and there are representatives from Ellettsville as well as Stinesville.
Those votes are what have to pass a local income tax. And it's a very complicated voting scheme. Different combinations of different members of those bodies have to make up a majority 50% total to pass an income tax, which then is put in place over the whole county.
Hren: Have you talked to city council members, county council members and find out if this is something that they would support yet?
Hamilton: I've had discussions with all of our city council members and most of the county council members as well as Ellettsville. And, some other interested parties. I think there's a variety of views on it. I think the city does feel the immediate pressure of the police contract and other needs that we have in front of us.
I think the county faces and acknowledges and looks at serious revenue needed around the criminal justice system. They've done a major criminal justice study. They're just starting to dig into what does that mean, but I think most of them recognize it's going to take some revenue related to the jail to wraparound services in mental health and substance use disorder and diversion programs and recovery programs, harm reduction programs.
Hren: How many votes you would need from city council to be able to get it to pass?
Hamilton: The LIT vote is complicated. It used to be a majority vote of the city council would put it into place. Now, I think it would take eight city council members, if no one else supported it... it would take eight city council members.
Other combinations could be seven city and Ellettsville. Or it could be seven city and one county. It could be six city and two or three county. It's a mathematical formula that it depends, but we'll be working first, I think with the city council to try to identify their interest in moving ahead.
