By: Diane Benjamin

The Bloomington Council meeting was ridiculously long – over 3 hours. I left after about 1 1/2 hours and watched the rest on YouTube. Public Comment was still happening when I got home. My comment is at 26:13.

The room started off packed. Many people were there to witness the introduction of firemen who just completed their 1 year probation. 2 others were recognized for being promoted. After that presentation part of the room left because a “pinning” ceremony for the new guys happened after at Miller Park.

Another presentation was recognizing 3 new US citizens who have chosen to live in Bloomington. See 20:06. One of the new residents who has been here since 2003 needed an interpreter because he worked at a Mexican restaurant for most of that time where most employees also never learned English. He is now a school bus driver. I had a discussion with a friend last night who immigrated here legally from India and become a US citizen. She told me her and her husband were required to read and write English before they became citizens. Last night’s interpreter was from The Immigration Project. They are funded with tax dollars to naturalize people who can’t speak English? Since he’s driving a school bus, can he read street signs?

Remember when immigrants came here to assimilate? Thanks to multiculturalism that is no longer required or expected.

Many of the citizen speakers lived in subdivisions that could be affected by the zoning changes the Council approved last night. When single family subdivisions are adversely affected in the future remember the names Sheila Montney and Kent Lee. They are the only two aldermen who voted no to all 3 items on the agenda. Of course the planning staff and Deputy City Manager Tyus claimed that wouldn’t happen, residents are expected to “trust” their government.

One astounding point by more than 1 speaker was large investment companies are assaulting homeowners in places like Old Farm Lakes with offers to buy homes. Do some searching on the internet. They want to inflate the price and then turn properties into rentals. That not only destroys generational wealth, the homes won’t be maintained as well as owners do. With the zoning changes passed last night, any R-2 property could be converted to multifamily rental. The height could be increased without ever getting permission from the Planning Commission or holding a Public Hearing. Of course other area property values will be adversely affected. ADUs could pop up in the backyards to increase rental income.

Public Comment lasted for over an hour. One guy did mention that if Nazi talk has been going on for many years, Bloomington has a problem. Bloomington does, somebody likes creating chaos and too many people gladly participate. (Story tomorrow on who thinks they defeated the Nazis 😏)

The proposal to start charging for some FOIA requests was tabled until October so the clerk could collect data council members wanted.

A few speakers were totally for Opticos. They were very outnumbered. A few were against the police department proposal with Axon Enterprises to bundle many items that will save the City money over the term of the agreement. It passed unanimously. See that council discussion at 1:48:00.

See 2:28:25. Billy Tyus is trying to explain changes that will allow ADU’s to be built. He claims the minimum lot size requirement needed dropped. Since everything passed, expect a flood of ADU’s in neighborhoods currently single family. Staff claimed ADU’s will have to provide at least 1 parking space, many citizen speakers spoke about current parking problem.

Staff claimed current zoning did allow building an ADU but without a kitchen. The changes passed allow kitchens.

See 2:31:50. Sheila Montney decries the “just do something” response to housing when this Council has already approved between 2000 and 3000 homes in housing development areas where nothing is being built because of interest rates and construction costs.

I could make this story much longer but won’t. The bottom line is staff and 7 of the 9 aldermen think they are smarter than you. If you want to see everything but Public Comment, start at 1:32:40. The discussion on charging for FOIA requests start there. The biggest offenders wasting staff time are requests from out of state for body cam video, evidently gotcha requests. The clerk claims those people will go away if there is a charge.

Will all the speakers show up for the next local election? Probably not. I think the vote to “accept” the Opticos report was because they want the final payment. One speaker did mention the City Manager exceeded his spending limit of $50,000.