Note: The transcript indicates the meeting was called to order on September 3, 2025, but the provided metadata states the date is September 4, 2025. This summary uses the metadata date as instructed.
The Bloomington Common Council met on September 4, 2025, to approve minutes, hear reports, consider ordinances and resolutions, and receive public comment. Key actions included establishing an affordable housing pilot fund, designating Bloomington as a B City USA affiliate, and introducing two ordinances related to fiber connectivity.
Seeing that we now have quorum, I'm gonna go ahead and call this uh meeting of the Bloomington Common Council to order here on September 3rd, 2025. Will the clerk please call the roll? Yes, Councilmember Flaherty. Here. Rev. Here. Ralo. Here. Pete Montsmith. Here. Stasberg? Here. Daily? Here. Sari. Present. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Two things of note. I do like to start off meetings with some uh something interesting and historical and uh relevant as I can do it. So I have two things to talk about tonight. Uh first, I want to recognize that Labor Day was this past Monday. Um Labor Day was uh created by an act of Congress, making it a legal holiday in June of 1894, uh, right after some massive worker riots as a way to try to repair connections with American workers. Uh the labor movement and labor unions grew vocal during those 1800s when manufacturing and the industrial revolution began really taking off. And at that time, the average American worked 12 hour days, seven days a week in order to make a basic living, and children as young as five or six worked in mills and factories and mines. Working conditions were unsafe and unsanitary. So I want to recognize the labor unions and the workforce working together and how they fought for fair wages and safe working conditions and reasonable hours, um, getting to today's 40-hour, five-day work week, which is like some kind of ideal, which still is not met in a lot of ways. Um, but I want to recognize the how hard unions have fought and continue to fight even while some uh power is being stripped of unions and negotiating. Uh the state of Indiana actually changed rules around uh teacher unions and what they can negotiate about last year, um but in other places workers are are banding together to try to increase their wages and improve their working conditions and creating unions in places like Starbucks and Amazon and Kroger recently signed a new um uh contract with unions. So just wanted to take a minute to recognize Labor Day. And then secondly, uh speaking of service and labor, I want to take a moment to recognize the passing of Pat Williams this morning and her commitment to the city of Bloomington. Pat was the longest serving Bloomington City Clerk, serving from 1982 to 1999, and recognition to her service is evident through the city, including on a plaque right outside of these chambers. She was dedicated to her role and to her community, also serving as Monroe County Democratic Party Chair. So if you could please join me in a moment of silence in remembering Pat and the contribution that she made to Bloomington. Now we will continue on with our meeting here tonight. Uh on our agenda tonight are three sets of minutes for approval. Um and as a note, uh slightly modified versions of those were of two of them were sent out this afternoon. Uh after minutes, we will have reports first from council members and then from the mayor of city mayor and city offices, where we will hear a report from the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability. Then we will hear from council committees, though I do not believe that we have any council committee reports this evening. Uh last in reports is reports from the public, and that will be the first opportunity for public comment this evening. If there are any members of the public wishing to comment on items not on the agenda, that is the time for that. Um after reports, we will have appointments to boards and commissions, and I do believe that we have uh an appointment to make. Then we will have two pieces of legislation for first reading, ordinance 2025 33 to establish the fiber connectivity fund for digital opportunity initiatives, and then ordinance 2025 34 to establish a fund for the proceeds of the surety bond related to the fiber optics network work. Then we will move on to uh legislation for second readings and resolutions. We will start with resolution 2025 13 to establish the Affordable Housing Pilot Fund for the City of Bloomington, and then we will have resolution 2025 14 regarding designated Bloomington as a B city USA affiliate. After those resolutions, we will have an additional period of public comment. So if anybody um decides at the end of the meeting that they would like to comment on an item not on the agenda, that is another opportunity to do so. And you can uh just comment during one of those two periods of general public comment. There will, of course, also be public comment related to the resolutions this evening.