In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson addresses this issue and more at 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: There are growing pains with winning and having a championship team when you have 55,000 fans all trying to leave at once after a football game. Are there any long-term plans about how to be able to handle that many people?
Thomson: I think INDOT and the university really are. I mean, the major thoroughfare there is an INODT road, and so the university does most of the traffic management there. Of course, we help out. They also have state police helping out.
We'd love it if we weren't directing people straight out of town right after those games. But really, I think if there are plans to add on to the stadium or continue to host this many people, we probably should look at some transit opportunities that are not currently being used.
Longtime local residents know we just have to plan our trips and not go near the stadium on football Saturdays, and really, that's the best recommendation I have right now: is plan ahead.
Read more: The winning streak is over, Cignetti’s hopes for this season are not
Hren: I really appreciate when people email in. Hannah wants to know, and I know you're going to have an answer to this one because of the recent ordinance that just passed. But does the BPD plan to replace Flock cameras with another company?
Thomson: The LPRs are not being replaced; those are license plate readers, and we worked very hard on that legislation and I feel like we got to a good place where we are clear on license plate readers, and we are not replacing the Flock cameras with any other cameras when it comes to license plate readers.
There are some clarifications that likely will need to be made because there's camera technology that is used in stoplights and things like that, and so those aren't license plate readers. We still need to sort of make some tweaks or clarifications here and there. But the legislation that got passed last week is pretty clear. I'm waiting for that to come to my desk, and then I will happily sign it.
Read more: Indiana sees surge of cities, counties ending Flock camera contracts
Hren: I talked with Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun last week. He said LPRs should have strict safeguards, and he's helping to craft state legislation in this upcoming general assembly. He says Flock cameras are like body cameras, a vehicle, a weapon, body armor, or even a pen and pencil... that it's a tool. So, is this ban taking away a tool from local authorities?
Thomson: It certainly is taking away a tool from local authorities. I don't disagree with Mayor Sakbun with that statement. However, what has been proven again and again is that the Flock company was misusing that tool, and the safeguards that were in place were insufficient.
We looked at putting other safeguards in place with a different company, and frankly, we don't have enough data storage to host that kind of data on an internal server, and so that gets into other challenges.
Body cams first came into being in order to hold our police accountable, and so those work to keep everybody safe on all sides of law enforcement.
Read more: Bloomington City Council passes 2027 budget 6-1
Hren: Councilmember Isak Asari introduced unspecified cuts as a response to the city's ongoing deficit. He said using reserves to pay reoccurring costs will deplete reserves while the structural problem remains. What's your strategy for the long-term?
Thomson: We actually have taken care of the long-term problem already. As you may recall, we inherited a significant budget deficit that was $16 million annually in the red. We have reduced it year by year, and this year's budget actually just had a $4.5 million excess.
$4 million of that was the last subsidy payment to Bloomington Transit that was committed to prior to my administration. So $4 million a year has been going to Bloomington Transit. This is the last year that the commitment was made.
The other half million goes to pay our share of the election cost because it's municipal election year next year, and so aside from those two things, we had an even budget.
The way city spending goes, we have to over budget for in several areas because, we don't know how much snow we're going to get, so we don't know how many overnight plow events we have, or how much salt we're going to have to buy, etc. So we end up having to over budget and then right size throughout the year.
Hren: I didn't watch the whole budget meeting, but it had a contentious feel to it. Some tensions maybe between the mayor's office and city council. And at one point, you responded saying people at the podium expect to be demeaned. What can help to lessen this tension?
Thomson: I don't think it's a particular personal tension. I think that what we're seeing even in those meetings is a reflection of what we see on the national stage. We have a president that doesn't mind calling people names or speaking down to them and belittling them, and some of that tone is being echoed sometimes by the public, but even from council members.
We in Bloomington can do better. We don't need to speak to people that way, and we can speak respectfully and disagree. Those two things are not separate. But the immediate assumption of ill will and the name calling and demeaning of people standing at the podium, and the fact of the matter is that the public or staff they can only respond when they're invited to respond, and so that establishes a power structure that is already off kilter.
Hren: Word circulated quickly about a week ago about the city turning College and Walnut Street into two-way streets, and from what I know, it's a proposal with a lot of funding to carry forward. It's not something that's happening tomorrow, right?
Thomson: It's not happening during my administration. The study was on how to make that corridor safer. The price tag on the ideal situation for making it safer is well north of $100 million, and in order to do two-way traffic on College and Walnut, we would need to do a major project that's done all at the same time, and you can't do it block by block.
So, we have to do the study in order to apply for federal funds to make any of the intersections along the corridor safer, and so we did the study, we published the study to apply for funding to improve some intersections.
Hren: We had a listener email want to know more about an email sent by Indiana Landmark asking people to protect preservation. There's a U.S. Senate Bill 5653 for those that want to look it up that threatens community members' voices when federally funded or permitted projects affects historic places, and someone is concerned on how that could impact, like for example, the historic commission here.
Thomson: So this is not a bill, it's not going to be. It's a federal agency rule. So it's not going to be voted on by Congress. And this is really another move by the federal government to remove local control. And it's a change that is proposed by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. It removes several requirements for federal agencies, and while the adverse effects don't involve physical damage per se, the physical damage and destruction will not no longer be considered.
We are just skimming the surface on understanding this, but the Trump administration has 20 of the 24 seats on this panel that makes these decisions, so it's a local control issue.
