The Bloomington City Council met on Monday, August 31, 2026, beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance and presentations before moving through a consent agenda, public hearings, general business, and a closed session. Key actions included approvals of new officer swearing-in, a Three Rivers Park District partnership update, a controversial townhome rezoning, and ordinances for surplus property donation and unclaimed money.
Good evening, everyone, and welcome. I will call our Bloomington City Council meeting to order. This is Monday, August 31st, 2026. Welcome to everybody joining us here in the council chambers, and welcome to everybody watching online. Thank you much for being here. We uh as part of our agenda this evening, we are going to be swearing in new police officers. So we thought it appropriate to start the meeting, uh, as we always do with our uh our the Pledge of Allegiance, but the presentation of colors by the Bloomington Honor Guard. And so we are going to do that to get us started. I'm going to turn it over to Deputy Chief Damon Bitney to call it, and we will be on our way. DC. Those are one, please stand. Officers, come to attention. Officers. Thank you all for that, and thank you to our honor guard. It's always a great way to start uh a council meeting, I think, to have that take place. And we see there have been so many places around the community. And so extend our thanks to them if you could, Deputy Chief, because they do outstanding work. We are deeply appreciative of it. Council, uh first item of business tonight is the approval of our agenda. And on our agenda, under item two, our introductory items, we have four items. First will be the introduction of our public safety cadet ambassadors program with an overview of the program as well. Item two point two is the main event that I think most people are here for this evening, the swearing in of our new Bloomington police officers. Item 2.3, we will have introduction of new Bloomington City employees. And item two point four, we're gonna have an update on our Three Rivers Park District Partnership. Three Rivers and the City of Bloomington have worked together for years, and it's a wonderful partnership, and we're gonna get an update uh from a couple of uh the representatives from the Three Rivers Park District. Our consent agenda is a bit beefy. We've got I think 19 items on it, and Councilmember Dalessandro has our consent business this evening. Item four is our hearings resolutions and ordinances. Item 4.1 is the Bloomshire Village Town Homes rezoning uh FSBP and the plating and so on. Uh what I would like to do if I could, Council, at the request of uh Councilmember Rivas and I believe Councilmember Dalessandro also. If we can move item 3.16, uh excuse me, three point, yeah, 3.16. That's the award of 2026 803 West 90th Street retaining wall project. If we can move that and let that become item 4.2, just as an information item, because that feeds into item four point what then would become 4.3, which is a public hearing regarding the city code amendment for the donation of surplus city property and disposition of abandoned or unclaimed property. We're good with that. Mr. Mayor, just put point of clarification. 3.16 on our agenda is the approval of the surplus equipment donation policy itself, and that that's why we're asking them to be co-located. So that's the 3.16. My apologies. No, no worries. And I know we've the numbers messed up or mixed up because of the the item that is the approval of surplus equipment donation policy. I think we lost 3.12, I believe. So that will be that will be the one move down to as item 4.2. Thank you for the clarification, Councilmember. I appreciate it. Thank you. And then item 4.2, our public hearing for the city code amendment for the donation of surplus city property and disposition of abandoned or unclaimed property. So very good. And then uh we move on to item five, which is our organizational business. We have uh a closed meeting this evening, which would be item 5.1.