Hamilton says the monolith is already under construction if not complete, officers carrying tasers is part of a pilot program, and annexation hearings should be scheduled soon.
In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more during a visit to city hall. 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: Some Bloomington officers will start carrying tasers as part of a pilot program. I didn't realize that Bloomington officers did not have tasers. How did this come about?
Hamilton: It actually came about because right when I came in as mayor, I asked the Board of Public Safety to make sure we were complying with the best practices and that includes reviewing the 21st Century Policing Task Force. One of the only recommendations we did not implement immediately was tasers. We actually had already done most everything else.
Now here's the thing for tasers for Bloomington Police are meant to do basically two things one, help prevent officer injuries. Because if you do have to restrain an individual during an arrest, you can be injured and the second thing is to try to reduce suspect injuries as well.
Hren: We have to talk about the North Gateway monolith project at Miller Showers Park that kind of blown up in a recent meeting. From what I understand this was approved and had funds years or so ago. And at a Public Works meeting to close the sidewalk so construction could begin, some public members said let's stop this. What's going on?
Hamilton: I've been in this seat a little while - this can happen. The plans for gateways, they were part of the Bicentennial bonds, which were passed in 2018. So, five years ago, COVID interrupted some of the planning. But in the last year, 14 months, there's been quite intensive public planning on a gateway. And the gateway is just a way for Bloomington to say welcome to town. And it's kind of promotional, for a city.
This gateway has been in development, there's been a lot of public input, the Bloomington Arts Commission worked on it, the parks department has been intensively focused on it, we've had public sessions, but regardless how much you reach out, we got dozens, I think of feedback. Regardless how much you do when somebody notices it, or hits the newspaper or TV show some people go, wait a minute, I didn't get to weigh in on it. So some people are trying to weigh in on we welcome that. But this has been long vetted, it's funded, it's planned, and I'm excited about it.
And I'm actually confident that when it's done, people will get used to it, love it, and actually take a lot of pictures by it, I think. I expect that to be resolved very shortly. We've already got a contract to build it. I think the actual gateway is under construction or done. Now the physical piece that's going to stand there, those are all under contract. Everybody take a deep breath. And I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess that kind of thing. But I think it's really good for Bloomington to have a gateway presence like that. And we hope to do one or two more as well.
Hren: Let's head to another big story - annexation. The city wants to dismiss a much larger lawsuit to allow for a more recent lawsuit to be heard about sections one A and one B, which had enough valid petitions to not be excluded from the annexation, but to have a court hearing, what's the strategy behind that?
Hamilton: It's a little frustrating for all of us who've been working so hard to right size the city and just reflect the growth that's happened around us. And we've had the state illegally intervene in it back in 2017. And we think they illegally intervened again in 2019. So we have two lawsuits going and because of the way they proceeded, we ultimately have to say what's most important for the city.
And I think fundamentally, that west side annexation, which is where one A and one B - they're the largest areas, they're the most populated. They're also the areas where the city and growth is happening the most, those are the most important with this strategy where we drop a piece of the constitutional litigation and say, let's just go to trial on one A and one B, we're confident that the court will say yes, it makes sense to annex, so we did have to make a choice, either we're going to wait three or four more years for litigation because of what the state did in 2019. Or we can split that apart. Let's just go to trial on the west side. Let that other thing work its way through. So that's what we decided to do - not easy, I will say.
Hren: Bloomington City Council rejected a draft piece of legislation widely seen as an effort to prevent homeless individuals from camping on sidewalks, streets, roads. Public Works passed the ordinance. Park commissioners passed something for the parks but City Council has to also approve it to take effect.
Hamilton: The cleanup is almost an ordinance to clean up what was a legal issue. It turned out that in the Bloomington code, if somebody just blocked a sidewalk, put up a table, or erected a bench and said I'm going to sit and block the sidewalk, under current code the police tell us we're not allowed to remove it unless we had more clarity.
Now, there has not been a rash of these issues. And I think that's one thing the city council said. We were trying to be ready but I think it can be handled on a case by case basis with a court order. It could cause some delays in dealing with some things but look, nobody is trying to do here anything other than trying to help make sure our public rights of way are available for people to use whether you are in a wheelchair or a stroller or a bike.
But also make sure that all of our residents can have a humane way to live in our community. So it's complicated, but the council made that decision.
