In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson addresses this and other issues. 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: There have been some concerning incidents of unhoused people downtown. There was a shooting, killing, and arrest. There's the security guard facing trial for battery of a homeless man, there was an attack on a homeless man on Kirkwood and an unrelated incident this past weekend of an arrest of that same man.
What are you thinking when this comes across your desk and is the city taking some immediate action?
Thomson: Many of these are related to late night altercations. And as we know, frequently down on Kirkwood, people have had plenty of mood changing intake. I want to make it clear to everybody, these are not individuals just going after somebody seated on a sidewalk. Each of these incidences has a different background to them, but there's some kind of interaction that already is not good.
It is true that several of these victims have been unhoused. We don't believe however they're being targeted in any way. They're having some negative reactions. They happen to be unhoused, and unfortunately, there have been two pretty serious assaults resulting from these interactions.
We have increased our police presence downtown, not only after hours - at all times of day. Our after-hours ambassadors are down there, and I just want to talk to all of Bloomington and say, first of all, it's not kind and it's not polite to ever tease anyone. And one of these altercations seems to have happened as a result of that. It's important that we treat everybody with dignity and respect.
And if you're in a group and things start to escalate, it's really important to help the members of your group that are escalating to de-escalate and get police or Stride involved immediately.
Hren: That incident with the security company hired by the city whose employee struck a person experiencing homelessness with the baton. How is the city following up on that breach in policy?
Thomson: So we've had conversations with that company. We hire a security company, and then they hire their employees. It's my understanding that employee has been terminated. They are not to be carrying batons in the first place, and so that whole interaction was against policy, and the company involved understands our priority is to keep everyone safe, and this was a real breach of that.
Hren: City Council adopted the 2026 budget last week, about a total of $147 million, about the same as last year. You talk about not filling some positions to make up some lost revenue and higher costs. Do you have any numbers or indication about how much the city cut and where from?
Thomson: Yeah, we have many cuts for things like studies, things that we don't need to do right away. We have really looked at anything that is a program that maybe is not serving a high number of people, any positions that might be able to be merged, and so just really looking whole cloth on how we deliver excellent services and try to do that for a more limited funding line.
Read more: Bloomington aiming to reduce deficit as state and federal funds dwindle
Hren: It was reported the city had $55 million in reserves last year. At the budget hearing last week, there's a $26 million planned cash balance at the end of 2026 - almost $30 million over two years. That seems concerning.
Thomson: No, we're not concerned about it. The council intentionally wanted to spend down what was a pretty hefty cash reserve. That also was sort of the plan, my understanding, from the last administration. They started a lot of capital projects that we inherited, and we knew we needed to spend some of that money that had been sitting there in order to do some of these projects.
I know that if you look at a small snapshot of how the budget is flowing, you could get concerned. But if you look at the trends, we're actually decreasing that deficit budget over time and the kinds of things that we are really tightening down on can be sustained.
Read more: Monroe County Council to hear $8 million request for new jail property
Hren: Council members Matt Flaherty and Kate Rosenbarger voted no for the budget because of the lack of trust they have with the administration. They give a couple examples. Could you respond to trust issues?
Thomson: I think trust absolutely is earned, and if you have a values conflict with someone, it's always best practice to talk to that person. And there has not only been no outreach, but there's been no response over the last several months.
I think lots of times if you're just refusing to talk to somebody, of course, you don't know what's really happening. So I think that's natural with a lack of communication. And frankly, I'm not sure what those comments had to do with the budget, which is what we were voting on.
Hren: Do you feel there's a trust issue going the other way?
Thomson: I don't have a trust issue. I think that we probably have different reasons for why we're serving and we have different priorities, and that's why we have really a whole team of elected officials. We want differing opinions. We want to be challenged. It's healthy for your government to have vibrant discussions. It's healthiest, though, if we can have them in a way where it's not a one way shot, it's a conversation so that their input can improve what I'm doing and vice versa.
Hren: Anything new you'd like to share with us?
Thomson: The thing that I'm super excited about is Hopewell and we have a public meeting October 20 to sort of unveil some preliminary sketches of what we'd like to do at Hopewell South - it's really exciting. It is a huge move forward in how we're thinking about housing and how we're really meeting the needs and the wants of especially young professionals who we've been really trying to retain here in Bloomington.
Hopewell South is the first significant piece of Hopewell. We have the Kohr Building already going, but Hopewell South, which is directly adjacent to McDoel gardens, so right around First and Rogers, so the old hospital site.
We'll start with the southern end of that and then we'll have a portfolio of home designs that will be approved eventually, and they'll be approved for building throughout the city.
