A contentious session of Bloomington City Council Wednesday night yielded over $6 million in cuts to the city budget — still less than the administration had feared.
The city has been under financial strain since last year’s state budget lowered property taxes, hamstringing local governments that rely on them.
Councilmembers recommended cuts across the board, from funding for corridor studies to subsidies for sanitation. Several passed, including a $3 million cut to the Housing Development Fund, $2.5 million for new parking systems, $10,000 for branding for the mayor’s office, $600,000 for the sanitation department and at least $104,683 for an unfilled position in the transportation department.
But they rejected a proposal by councilmember Isak Asare to eliminate $2.5 million from the city’s general fund, which pays for staff salaries and routine expenses. That measure failed 5-2, with two counselors absent.
Asare introduced the unspecified cuts as a response to the city’s ongoing deficit, leaving the decision on how to apportion them to city administrators.
“If we use reserves to pay recurring costs, those costs return year after year and the revenue does not,” Asare said. “Eventually, those reserves are going to be smaller, and the structural problem will remain.”
The mayor’s office responded to each proposed cut individually in an addendum, saying whether it supported, opposed or felt neutral about the reduction.
Asare’s proposed cuts were a nonstarter to Mayor Kerry Thomson, who said they would require staffing decisions that usually take half a year to be made in just one month.
“Asking us to cut $2.5 million, especially from staffing at this point, would mean that we would go into the year with decisions that haven't been thought out,” Thomson said. “I can say that it would cause harm to our city services. A restructuring of any kind causes a lot of fear in staff, even when the outcomes can be better for everyone.”
But the mayor did proffer some staff cuts on her own; for example, reducing one full-time communications role in her own office to a part-time position.
Regarding layoffs, Iris Bull, an employee in the Engineering Department, criticized the council for introducing amendments that she said would add more bureaucratic drag and demoralize staff.
“I just hope that in the future when we're talking about things that have some real gravity, like dissolving departments and firing people, that there's like some amount of empathy and seriousness to the conversation,” Bull said. “We're trying really, really hard to provide the absolute best service with what are often substandard accommodations for some people.”
Simmering tensions between council and the mayor’s office played out during the meeting when councilmember Hopi Stosberg commented on Thomson leaving the chambers during her comments about feeling sidelined in major decisions.
“It's not that you're just disrespecting the nine of us up here as individuals, as elected officials, as a body, but it also feels like blatant disrespect to the residents of this city,” Stosberg said.
When Thomson returned, she countered that council meetings are structured in such a way that city officials are unable to defend themselves.
“We have gotten to a point that the cabinet and other staff, and even members of the public, expect to be demeaned when we come to this podium,” Thomson said. “That's not acceptable. There's not a structure that people can respond.”
Council will vote on the final budget next Wednesday.
