Bloomington Committee of the Whole Meeting – September 25, 2025
Bloomington Committee of the Whole Meeting – September 25, 2025
This meeting of the Bloomington City Council Committee of the Whole considered three appropriation ordinances for the 2026 fiscal year: the water and wastewater utilities budget, the Bloomington Transit budget, and the civil city (general government) budget. All ordinances were recommended for adoption by the full council after presentations, council questions, and public comment. The meeting also included extensive discussion of the city's fiscal outlook, tax rates, sanitation fund subsidies, and audit timeliness.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kevin Keogh (Bloomington resident) expressed concern about the late publication of the city's 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and the timeliness of audits in general, stating that audits should be completed within 90 days of year-end. He also noted that his property taxes increased 20.69% last year and averaged over 10.5% annually over the previous three years, calling such increases unsustainable. He urged greater transparency and timely financial reporting.
Discussion Items
- Appropriation Ordinance 2025‑13 (Water & Wastewater Utilities Budget) – Presented by Utilities Director Caslin Zager. The water utility budget totals $23,119,000 and the wastewater utility budget totals $34,590,000. Councilmember Piedmont‑Smith asked about a negative $603,000 entry for "extensions and replacements," which Director Zager explained is a balancing mechanism used to achieve a net‑zero budget; the negative amount indicates a shortfall that will be covered by a one‑time loan from the sewer utility. Councilmember Rollo asked about water treatment plant capacity; Director Zager replied that maximum capacity is 30 million gallons per day (MGD), average usage is about 15 MGD, and peak is 19–20 MGD. Director Zager confirmed the budget does not assume any rate increases.
- Appropriation Ordinance 2025‑12 (Bloomington Transit Budget) – Presented by General Manager John Connell. The total 2026 budget is $19,383,402 with a proposed property tax rate of 0.0371 (down from 0.0403 in 2025). Councilmember Piedmont‑Smith asked about the rate comparison; Mr. Connell noted the 2025 budget was $32 million due to significant capital programming, while the 2026 capital budget is 72% lower. Councilmember Stasberg questioned a line item for miscellaneous revenue that jumped from $0 in 2025 to $6.4 million in 2026; Mr. Connell said that figure includes ED‑lit funding from the city and the Public Mass Transportation Fund (PMTF), and he promised to follow up on why 2025 was zero. She also asked about a $1 million increase in "other charges for services, sales, and fees," which Mr. Connell attributed to increased partnership agreements, including service to Monroe County. Councilmember Piedmont‑Smith wished Mr. Connell luck in finding a new location for the transportation center.
- Appropriation Ordinance 2025‑11 (Civil City Budget) – Presented by City Controller Jessica McClellan. The total advertised budget is $163,152,557. Since the budget hearings, key changes include: a 2.7% cost‑of‑living adjustment (COLA) for all non‑union regular appointed employees (police and fire already budgeted for 3%; AFSCME employees will receive a 5% increase while negotiations continue), corrections of a $2 million error in the budget book (due to an export issue between New World and the budget book), and an increase in general fund support for the sanitation fund from $700,000 to $1.5 million. Controller McClellan explained that the advertised tax rate of 1.36 is intentionally high to give the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) leeway; the actual estimated tax rate for 2026 is about 0.8426, down from 0.8627 in 2025. She noted the city expects to spend about 90% of its budget, reducing the projected deficit from $11 million to $9.4 million. Councilmember Stasberg raised questions about personal services vs. personnel services terminology and about the discrepancy between the total in Form 4 ($163,152,557) and the memo ($162,556,352); Controller McClellan attributed the difference to an over‑advertised rate for the CUMCAP Development Fund. Councilmember Sari asked about the impact of SEA 1 on circuit breaker losses; Controller McClellan said the budget internally accounts for expected losses. Councilmember Piedmont‑Smith asked about the composition of city revenues: 37.4% from property taxes and 33.1% from local income taxes, with the city's share of income tax based on county‑wide collections until 2028 when it will be limited to city residents. Controller McClellan confirmed that the sanitation fund subsidy has historically hovered around $1 million, and although the budget advertises $1.5 million, the actual need may be closer to $1 million. Councilmember Sari questioned why the administration did not make more aggressive cuts to studies and consulting; Controller McClellan replied that the time between budget hearings and adoption was insufficient to assess dependencies and ripple effects, and that cutting studies would not free up enough money for capital projects. Councilmember Stasberg noted that corridor studies remain relevant longer than engineering studies and provide information for future budgeting. Deputy Mayor Gretchen Knapp clarified that the $2 million error stemmed from a macro issue when ESD divided its budget into new divisions for internal tracking.
- Response to Public Comment on Audits – Controller McClellan explained that the city is catching up on ACFRs after prior delays. The 2022 ACFR was completed in December 2023, the 2023 ACFR was completed in July 2024, and the 2024 ACFR is currently in progress. The city expects to return to a normal cycle with the 2025 ACFR completed by September 30, 2026. The smaller Annual Financial Report (AFR) due April 1 has been filed on time.
Key Outcomes
- Appropriation Ordinance 2025‑13 (Water & Wastewater Utilities Budget): Recommended for adoption by a vote of 7‑0.
- Appropriation Ordinance 2025‑12 (Bloomington Transit Budget): Recommended for adoption by a vote of 7‑0.
- Appropriation Ordinance 2025‑11 (Civil City Budget): Recommended for adoption by a vote of 6‑0.
- All three ordinances will be presented to the full council for final action. The committee also directed staff to provide additional information on the sanitation fund's long‑term subsidy needs and to continue developing a framework for evaluating deficit spending and potential service cuts.
Meeting Transcript
I call the committee of the whole to order, and we will start with appropriation ordinance 2025-13. The council will now receive a presentation from Caslin Zager, Director of the Utilities Department. Welcome. Please state your name for the record. And hi. Uh Kat Zager, Utilities Director. I'm presenting the uh an ordinance adopting the budget for the operation maintenance debt service and capital improvements for the water and wastewater utility departments for the city of Bloomington, Indiana for the year 2026. Our uh water utility budget totals 23,119,000. And our wastewater utility budget is 34,590,000. Happy to take any questions. Thank you. The floor is now open for questions from council members. Under Bloomington Municipal Code Section 2.04.250, parentheses C. There is no limit on how often a member may speak. However, no member may speak for longer than five minutes at a time. Any questions from council members? Oh councilmember Piedmont Smith. Yes, um, I asked this in the written questions, but I and you answered, but I still don't understand. So I'm hoping to get some clarity. And that is the extensions and replacements under section one of the water utility is a negative amount, negative $603,000. Um why are we budgeting a negative amount? Yeah, sure. Um so I'll answer that question. Also another question I received around the same topic. So when you look at our budget, there's actuals and then our budgeted amount. The actuals are zero or close to zero because we don't um charge things to extensions and replacements. Extensions and replacements is how we balance our water budget, which needs to be a net zero budget. So when we have a positive extensions and replacements, we use that for things like unexpected expenses and maintenance. When it is negative, it's indicative of a shortfall, which I discussed during our budget presentation. Um that shortfall, we are planning on taking a one-time loan from our sewer utility to make up for that. Helper. Yes. So what why is why is it called extensions and replacements? Is that just historical? Yeah, it's a historical name for it. It doesn't actually refer to extending or replacing people assume it means it's physically extending and replacing pipe, but that's not the meaning of it. No. So it's its own fund. Yes. Okay. All right, thank you. Any other council members have questions? Councilmember Rollo. Yes, thanks. Um I had a question. Forgot to ask it during budget, and that is um I'm curious to know what our current spare capacity is of our water treatment plant. In other words, where are we in terms of um it's you know, we we had improvements about 10 or 12 years ago, maybe more, 15 years ago. And I don't think there have been any other expansions since then. Where are we? I think the maximum was about 34 million per day or so the maximum capacity of our water treatment plant is 30 million gallons per day.
openpublica.com