The Bloomington City Council has authorized the spending of more than $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds on housing assistance and bonuses for the city’s first responders.
The funds will be spent in part on two new incentives Mayor John Hamilton announced in February: a $100,000 no-interest down payment home loan for up to 10 police officers and 10 firefighters and bonuses for certain Bloomington Fire Department union employees.
The money will also be used on economic aid in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure and other government services.
The city says five first responders have expressed interest in the down payment assistance program — four firefighters and one police officer.
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City Controller Jeffrey Underwood said the city is still working on negotiating an agreement with a local bank to establish the program.
“Unfortunately, mortgage loans are very highly-regulated industries, so the bank has a lot of hoops that they’ve got to go through in order for us to put the program in place,” he said.
When asked how soon the program might be established, Corporation Counsel Beth Cate did not give an exact timeframe but said she hopes it will happen in a matter of weeks.
Council member Isabel Piedmont-Smith questioned whether the raises would be enough to stem the flow of recent resignations from the fire department and asked whether the city would consider opening contract negotiations early. The union’s contract goes through the end of 2024.
Underwood said the city believes the incoming mayor should address that.
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“There will be a new administration, there will be a new council, and really, rather than trying to open that up and negotiate a long-term contract by this group, we feel it’s more appropriate to allow the incoming group to tackle that issue in the manner that they think is best,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Mary Catherine Carmichael called the city’s latest incentives “a couple of ingredients to a bigger recipe,” adding, “We obviously value and want to support and do the right thing for the (fire) department, because we know the importance of public safety.”
Carmichael said 21 new firefighters will be joining the department this summer. However, they are not eligible for the new bonuses.
Approval of spending on the incentives was part of an ordinance to appropriate a total of $4,035,551 from four different funds for a variety of expenditures.
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Eight of the nine council members who attended Wednesday’s council meeting unanimously approved the ordinance. Council member Kate Rosenbarger was not present.
A breakdown of the amounts council approved are as follows:
- $626,100 from the city’s general fund
- $233,600 from the parks and recreation general fund
- $1,300,000 from the ARPA local fiscal recovery fund
- $1,875,851 from the motor vehicle highway fund
Appropriations from the city’s general fund and parks and recreation general fund use money that reverted to those funds from past years.
