City Council - Regular Meeting

um meeting of the Bloomington City Council to order for Monday, March the 23rd. And we'll ask if you please stand for a for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silent reflection. Madam clerk, you take roll call for attendance, please.

Council member Karns here. Council member Mosley here. Council member Mney here. Council member Dannenburgger here. Council member Strazza here. Council member Hendrick here. Council member Ward here. Council member Lee here. And Mayor Brady here.

Thank you. Next we will move to um recognition and appointments. And before we do that and before we get to public comment, I do want to make an announcement. If anyone is here for a um consent agenda item number 8H, uh it's not going to be uh ready for consideration this evening and uh has been removed from this evening's agenda. So, if you're here for that item, uh you're still more w mostly welcome to uh your comments, but if you would prefer that you come back if it's related to that item when we have it scheduled for the next meeting, um please feel free to do so as well. With that being said, uh we'll start with the proclamation in recognition of the 2026 Community Development Week as requested. And if you would come forward and we'll go ahead and read the recognition. Whereas on March 20th 26, excuse me, March 23rd, we'll get the right one here. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development implemented the community development block grant program in 1974 for the purpose of providing local governments with financial resources to assist low and moderate income persons. The city of Bloomington has utilized the CDBG funds for more than 50 years to provide funding to principally benefit low to moderate income community members. The city of Bloomington has demonstrated for more than 50 years a commitment to improving our community through the CDBG program. The community impact and enhancement department has demonstrated the capacity to administer the CDBG program to identify,

prioritize, and to help resolve pressing problems. The city of Bloomington uses the CDBG funds to complete improvements and repairs to exist existing affordable housing, improve public infrastructure, provide critical support to local nonprofit partners, and demolish abandoned structures to create new affordable housing opportunities. Now, therefore, I, Dan Brady, mayor of the city of Bloomington, on behalf of the Bloomington City Council, do hereby proclaim the 6th through the 10th of April, 2026 as Community Development Week. in Bloomington and urges residents to join in recognition recognizing the positive impact of the community development block grant program and engage in its acts of service to improve our community. And we'd ask at this time if our clerk would be please present the uh resolution of congratulatory and if you have comments sir Spessor please go ahead. Uh, thank you, mayor, council, and city man, deputy city manager. Uh, I want to take a moment to to thank my team for working every day to build a better community. Uh, Tony Brown, Katherine Dunlap, Joanie Gerard, and Lorie Shamira are dedicated public servants, and our community is better because of their work. The CDBG program has been the foundation of community development in the city for over a half century. From housing repairs that make affordable homes safe and accessible to house to funding unhoused street outreach efforts with home sweet home ministries, CDBG has improved lives for generations in our community. Beyond housing, CDBG plays an important role in replacing and improving some of the oldest infrastructure in our city, paving the way for residents to connect with work, leisure, and basic services. For more than 50 years, the city has proven, like many other communities across the nation, that CDBG and other federal investments in community development make life better for everyone. Our hope is these investments

are expanded, not diminished. We appreciate the support from the mayor and council of community development, and thank you for the proclamation. Thank you. Next, for those receiving a uh resolution uh recognizing uh Edie Felte Day, um please step forward to the podium as well if you'd like. Whereas March 20th, 2026 is celebrated as EDI alta day by the Muslim community all over the world. And this edi is a day of gathering by the people of Allah as he renews his bounties in them and distributes his blessings to his worshippers while also calling on them to share their bounties with the needy. Through the graciousness of the Islamic Center of Mlan County, they have invited others of the community to witness the strength of their faith and to share their joyousness on this day. and the strong and serious character of the families of the Islamic Center of Mlan County have enriched the fabric fabric of Bloomington through their faith, good deeds, substantial achievements, and commitment to the American values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I, Dan Birdie, mayor of Bloomington, extend my best wishes to members of the Islamic Center of Mlan County in Bloomington on the recent occasion of EDL felt day and appreciate all people in a spirit of true brotherhood to further build Bloomington's intercultural strength. And we'll ask our clerk to go ahead and present the resolution at this time. And you're welcome to make some comments if you like. Good evening mayor. Good evening the good evening council members and greetings of peace

to everybody my dear brothers, sisters and elders from different mothers. So Bloomington has always been a place of peaceful please peace historically and now as well uh irrespective of whatever the situation happens the minor situations all the time we have been given utmost resp utmost respect every single place. Thank you so much for the enormous response from the community and especially from the the council members and uh Dan as well. We thank you once again. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next we'll move to uh public comment and indiv individuals wish to provide public comment. Do we have individuals this evening, madam cler?

We do. Um, we actually have 11 registered to speak, one virtually and 10 in person. And so after you read your statement, we will begin with our virtual uh speaker, which will be Alan Ledger. And for the record, we received emails from Amanda Matthews, Tori Weinberg, Roy Magnus, Noah Kirby, Jesse Slater, Patricia Morren, Bakus Whiteman, Roxanne, Rajiski, Monica Inis, Maddie, Jessica Connor, and Katherine Sheek.

Thank you. And for the record, um, those wishing to speak, public comment is an opportunity for speakers to provide their views and feedback to the city council. It's also an opportunity for the city council to listen and hear diverse points of view to maximize the impact of public comment and show respect for the expression of all views. Speakers should maintain civility and focus on city related issues. Speakers must identify themselves for the record, but are not required to give their addresses. Each speaker is given the floor for three minutes and the council does not respond or engage in debate. Any speaker that engages in threatening or disorderly behavior will be deemed out of order and their time will be revoked. So, our first speaker,

our first speaker is Alan Ledger. Alan, are you online? Uh, yes, I am. Thank you. I'm sorry. Can you hear me? Alan, can you hear us? Oh. Uh uh hello. Can you hear me?

All right. Uh why don't we come back to Alan and we'll go ahead and start with in-person public comment. Alan, we'll have few um speak last once our it has it figured out. Sorry about the difficulty. Um that said, we will start with Stephen Jeepson. That's what my start does. Good evening. Uh I come here to comment on the uh dat uh data center coming up uh possibly the next week for a vote. Um so I just want to point to a few things. uh January 2nd, there was a post by the city of Bloomington in regards to water um asking for voluntary uh conservation of water from its citizens. So, I just wanted to point that out as we consider a massive data center um possibly using water. Um, I will also point out to a WGN TV article, Juliet City Council passes 795 acre uh AI data center development project. And within that article, they say to cool the large number of computer servers housed in the data center. developers said that the uh project will need an initial initial intake of 100,000 gallons of water with up to 150,000 gallons used for cooling on a daily basis. March 2nd, the city council uh or the city Facebook page said uh they had 30% of water loss. Where that water went, no one knows. So, with that being said, I do want to finish my thoughts with a uh quote from Theodore Roosevelt, and I'll try and read it as fast as I can. We have become great in material sense

because of the lavish use of our resources and have uh just reason to be proud of our growth. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted. when the soils ha shall have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams polluting the rivers denuting the fields and obstructing navigation. These questions do not relate only to the next century or to the next generation. Uh one distinguished characteristics of a really civilized men is foresight. We have to as a nation exercise foresight for this nation in the future. And if we do not exercise that foresight, dark will be the future. Also, we need more roundabouts. Thank you.

Next.

All right. Next. Next up, we'll have Chris Gibbons. And then to follow will be Katherine Czech. Good evening, city council, mayor, and members of the public as well. My name is Chris Gibbons. I live in Ward 4, uh, precinct 27, and I'm here today to speak on a number of items on the consent agenda. I'll work through them, uh, pretty quickly here. Um, firstly, item D, flock funding, $26,959 into the flock contract. I urge you uh to pull this from the consent agenda and to vote nay in keeping with my own personal wants and also the wants of the Bloomington public uh to cancel this contract and to remove this surveillance from our city. So far as item F goes, gas mask funding for Bloomington Police Department, $73,14. Again, I urge you to pull this item and vote nay. Um, I think about this and and I think of the implications of $70,000 worth of gas masks that I assume the police department will be wearing um in the course of their duty in using gas uh on whom I ask I imagine the citizens of Bloomington, which seems um not very good. Uh and then so far as items GH KL um the specific data center item included in those. Thank you Stephen for what you said earlier. I agree. Um I urge you also to vote nay on this when it comes up eventually. I

understand it's been pulled from today, but I think this deserves a nay vote. Um we need to protect the people of Bloomington. We need to protect our water resources here in Bloomington. And I would further say that um all of the items on this consent agenda that have been uh requested by the development services department should be pulled and voted nay. Thank you. Thank you. Next.

Next up we have Katherine Sheek and then to follow will be uh Maline Given. Um, okay. I'm Captain Czech. Um, I came here to speak on the data center as well, which, um, I know it's been pulled from today. I just also want to, um, uh, express my disappointment in that matter. It's one it's a it's one in a pattern of several things that have been pulled when they know that there's a lot of u basically issues that are that people are wanting to talk about that um that are pulled suddenly the day of. Also, I tried to find today's meeting agenda and could not. Um I'll just echo basically a lot of what was said before me. uh water concerns, air concerns, noise pollution, um climate concerns, uh energy prices, energy concerns. Um and um basically data se data centers have never been profitable. They don't create significant number or significant numbers of long-term jobs. Takes between four and or four and 25 human beings to run a data center. that's not a long-term investment and it's going to ruin our community in the process. Uh any value it does provide goes to inflating an AI bubble um and and compromising individual privacy on the um I also do want to echo. We don't need flock in our communities. Thanks. Um, speaking of privacy, in short, data centers introduce and worsen a number of health, safety, and environmental problems while providing little to no discernable benefit to the public to date. And um, I will not quietly tolerate one in my own community, and I urge the city to block and dismiss all proposals related to building one here.

Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, next up we have Matteline Gibbons, and then to follow will be Sarah Adelman. How are you all? Um, I hate public speaking, so I guess compliments to you guys for bringing me out. Um, I hope you're all doing well. Uh, my name is Maline Gibbons. I live in Ward 4. Um, I'm here just to speak really briefly on a few items. They will sort of mirror my husband's. Um, that's we're just like minds. We both feel passionately about these issues. Um, in regards to item D, Flock's budget for this time, this $26,000, um, I urge you to vote nay on that. Don't pay that bill. It's completely unnecessary. Please terminate the contract. I learned recently that it was a 12-year contract that we signed, and that is heart-wrenching. My son will be 18 by the time that that is done. I urge you to please cancel that soon. On item F, the $73,000 for gas masks for the city of Bloomington police. I find this concerning for a few reasons. It's an ungodly amount of money. Um I I don't understand the use of gas masks in our communities. Our crime rates are low. We don't have a rioting problem here. Our citizens aren't using gas on the police. So will they be using gas on us? This is unwarranted. and an absolute waste of our funds. I will not go into the data center today. I'll save that for another time. Um I'll you can all assume and I will say I am absolutely vehematly against that. Voting yes on any of these items is an exploitation of our humanity and our resources. Please consider pulling these and discussing them individually

on your own. However, please vote no.

Thank you. Next up, we'll have Sarah Adelman. And then to follow, Ashley Stradley. Good evening. My name is Sarah. Uh I am also here to echo many of the sentiments and statements shared by my fellow uh community members. Uh in regards to the flot cameras, no one here signed up to be surveiled on. the city of Bloomington and Normal have lied to us about the use of those block cameras. They say that the data was not provided to police or ICE and it was and I don't think there's any need to continue to fund that kind of uh activity and surveillance on our citizens in tandem with that. the gas masks. Um, as others have stated, there's not a large amount of gas related hazard at this stage, which leads me to believe that the intention is to either partner with ICE to use gas on normal citizens or residents um or for some reason to use gas meth without ICE on citizens. I can't think of any other reason why that would be funded right now other than preemptively planning to use gas weapons on innocent people. Um I also came here tonight to speak about the data center and I would also like to echo that last year when the water quality was really bad in Bloomington um there was a lot of outcry on that on social media and a lot of people were prepared to show up for the city council meeting on that evening and it was canceled same day. And then tonight data center again a lot of outcry on social media a lot of people showing up and then it removed from the the agenda with no rescheduled date provided. Um so I would like to request u a publication of the date when that will be addressed so that I can come back here to state my opinions on that date. Um and also I'm as many others have said it does nothing good for our community. It provides fewer than 200 permanent jobs. the the water use, the pollution, the energy costs. We are

already s like people already cannot afford their energy bills. Um, and I understand that there's consideration of energy sources and and uh payment rates. However, as we have seen in other cases, that has led to less environmentally friendly fuels being used, pumping out gas generator fumes to meet those needs. I don't see anything good that comes from our community from this data center. Thank you. Next up will be Ashley Stradley and then to follow Katherine Petty.

Hello, my name is Ashley Stradley. I am a community member from the west side by Miller Park. I am bringing a public safety matter to you guys. Um I believe Cody Hendris, I will be reaching out to you further about this. Um, so any officer that has been on the police force more than a few years knows the address of 911 West Taylor, the home of an elderly woman that had been used as a home base of criminal activity by her younger generation of her own family. Countless calls and arrests over the years, known as the problem home in that neighborhood. Um, since the man who was the center of this activity went to prison, a sense of calm was given back to the residents of this neighborhood of my neighborhood. Until recently, um, the next generation of their family have been again using their grandmother's home for the home base of their unsafe activity, putting not only the elderly grandmother who owns this home at risk, but the entire neighborhood in danger, including myself and my daughter. Friday night, I placed a call to BPD because there were three young individuals outside of 911 West Taylor with an assault rifle. This is directly outside of my living room window. The police were unable to locate these individuals. I believe because they hid inside of that grandmother's home. It is from my knowledge from the family that at least one of these individuals are in fact the victim of Sunday night shooting. He was a minor. Um seemingly this is a retaliation shooting for a disc or threat video that these young individuals made outside of that home um on West Haylor outside of my home. I am coming to you as a community member representing the members of this neighborhood who are no longer afraid to speak up. I am coming to you to beg for your help. I am begging for a police camera. I am begging for a community camera. I will go as far as I need to. I will attend every other meeting, police

board, community development, whatever I need to. We need this to be proactively placed in our neighborhood before a larger event occurs. proactively. Personal cameras and ring cameras only go so far. A community police camera will really change that. Criminals are less likely to offend if they are seeing that police camera. This request for a community camera also comes compiled with multiple reports of vehicle breakins, attempted vehicle thefts, hit and runs, and excess excessive speeding. I'm bringing all of this to you in the hopes that you will hear me and please place a safety camera in our neighborhood. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have Katherine Penny. And then to follow, Caitlyn Selman.

Good evening. I'm Katherine Penny. I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. I would like to address my concerns about the MLAN County Regional Planning Commission plan to increase industrial areas around the Bloomington Bloomington community. I would hope the council does not adopt this plan as is. I attended the meetings the commission held and learned that the industrial areas proposed around Bloomington came as a result of a city employees proposal to the commission before the council accepts the proposal in increase in industrial areas. I would ask that you look hard at all the undeveloped and underdeveloped industrial areas we now have in our plan. These areas will soon be increasing as State Farm vacates some of its properties. Why is there a need to expand and swallow up good farmland when we haven't utilized what is already there? Adding industrial adding additional industrial areas will increase our water use, generally assumed to be 20% over other uses, something Bloomington does not have a lot of. I realize that part of your responsibilities are to find revenue to support the city through growth. I would ask the city council thoughtfully consider the desires of the community as to what kind of growth is best. Data centers should not be part of Bloomington or MLAN county's plan. They will only increase short-term employment for building, not long-term for job growth. They use enormous amounts of electricity, put out a lot of heat and noise. Their use of excess water is the biggest concern for Bloomington.

While it is true they are willing to use waste water, we need to understand that if something happens to that supply, they will need to use other water supplies. I am sure they would not be willing to shut down until their supplies are fixed. The city already has a serious water supply issue and cannot afford risk losing any of our resources in great volumes to data centers. Lastly, I would like to thank those of you who are today who are here today who are involved in the Locust Colon project, which I think that's just two of you maybe. um that I was involved in and I appreciate the action you took to speed up that process. It makes me believe that this is working.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next up, we have Caitlyn Selman and then to follow will be Michael Perez. Hi everybody. My name is Dr. Caitlyn Selman. I'm an assistant professor in criminal justice at ISU and I'm also a resident of Ward 4. As your con constituent, I trust that you want Bloomington to be a safe community. I also trust that you know that the best strategy for effectively implementing policies is by looking at the evidence. This is why I feel compelled to share with you that the evidence is not in flux favor. A 2025 study found no evidence that the ALPR expansion in their city was associated with reductions in violent crime. And they could not confidently attribute the decreases they saw in shootings, motor vehicle thefts, and property crimes to ALPR expansion. The claims made and sold by companies like Flock that ALPRs act as a deterrent are unsubstantiated. While the benefits are shaky, the risks are clear. A 2026 study finds that quote, "predominantly black and high poverty neighborhoods bear a disproportionate share of ALPR surveillance infrastructure. Recent electronic frontier foundation research showed flock allowed US Customs and Border Protection to access Illinois data in violation of state privacy laws. I know that Bloomington's contract is more restricted than others, but even our own MLAN County Sheriff's Department admitted that it allowed federal immigration agencies to search its database of flock ALPR footage for more than four months in 2025. despite Illinois law prohibiting it. But I'm not really here to tell you what the evidence says doesn't work. I'm also here to tell you what does work and what cities like ours can do. In Philadelphia, crime rates decreased after lowincome homeowners were provided with structural housing repair grants. Crime rates on repaired block faces decreased by 21.9%.

Assault went down by 19%. Robbery went down by 22.6. Homicide down by 21.9. Each additional repaired house up to four continued to reduce crime rates. Over 250 US cities across 20 plus years experienced crime rate drops directly causally caused by investments in local nonprofits. Every 10 additional community organizations per 100,000 residents focusing on crime prevention and community building led to a 9% reduction in the murder rate, 6% reduction in the violent crime rate, and 4% reduction in the property crime rate. Those are some big wins. I could go on and talk about the evidence-based things we're doing here in Bloomington right now, like the bridge shelter village, Envisioning Justice's skate skate park Saturdays, programming like that provided by Project Oz and the YW.CA. But I trust and hope that you're already aware of those things. So if as members of our city council you want to be good stewards of our taxpayer dollars, I hope you'll consider the evidence on what does work for creating a safe community and intentionally invest in those sorts of projects instead of investing in things like flock and now this new concern a potential data center right by where my kid plays t-ball. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up we have Michael Perez and then to follow will be Ruth Burke.

Good evening. Uh thank you very much. Uh Michael Perez in Ward 7. Um I don't think I'm going to add too much more to what everyone said about the data centers. I would uh like to reiterate about the water usage. Uh we already are under a strain. I think everyone who lived here in the late 80s remembers our water uh when we had that crisis. Uh, additionally, our electric usage um through Emerin prices are already high. I fear that a use of a data center will drive those prices even higher because of increased demand and less supply. Uh, additionally uh would I would uh want to bring attention to the possible heat island that data centers will um generate. um this would uh this would not be a good thing to add more heat to our uh climate that we already have especially locally. And uh lastly out in the data centers will there be tax incentives involved in this if it is brought to um more of a vote. I would strongly urge you to say no. Um if you are inclined to vote for it, we do not need to give them any kind of tax incentives uh nor any free money. Um, the next thing I would like to talk about, I don't think uh we have a need for gas masks in this community. Um, we do not have protests that are violent. We never have. Um, unless I guess maybe if we went back in the 1800s, but uh recently we have not had any kind of um civil disturbance that would even rise to the need for increased police pre presence. Um, the last one would be on the flock cameras. I do not think I could uh speak to it any more than Dr. Selman just did. Um and anything else I would like to say? Uh you told me to be so. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up we have Ruth Burke and then we will end with uh Alan Ledger who is virtually online.

Wait for the There we go. Good evening. My name is Ruth Burke. I'm here to urge all of you to abstain from inviting any data centers into our community and to pursue new industry with transparency, responsibility, and environmental stewardship. I have serious concerns about the 350 acre future mega site, the industrial site on Ireland Grove Road, and other future industrial zones southeast of Bloomington. There's a few things that have happened in the last year that make me confident that the city would welcome a data center. Amaran built a new power substation on Toanda Barnes. Benward was authorized to sell effluent waste water often used by data centers to cool machines and selling that to industry. There's new technology that uh have air chilled plants that reduce the amount of water uh usage. The DCEO megaite grant makes the site transportation ready, solving truck logistics before a tenant exists. And that feels like we're courting a large business behavior. The city staff rallied for a rushed strategic land use plan and under their staff recommendations decided that about 1,200 conti contiguous acres of farmland south and southeast of the airport would have best and highest use as a massive industrial site that includes a technology park. Technology park is the same planning designation that the city of Peakin used to describe their proposed location for a data center. We know it's coming. The city of Bloomington quietly annexed the land uh the 350 acre site in January 2025. And just recently, the largest data center in Illinois was approved in Joliet with no tax incentives for the company. I hope the city of Bloomington does not see deals like this as a way to solve financial issues. I probably don't need to remind you that public confidence in the city of Bloomington seems like it's in a very delicate place right now. Our community deserves transparency in the attempts to expand industrial sprawl outside the city, covering farmland with hundreds of acres of non-permeable surface. Please do not sell us out to put a data

center or another resource guzzling industry on the industrial and technology park that your staff is planning for southeast of Bloomington. The city and Sierra hope that the 350 acre site will be the start of what is eventually that 1,200 acre acres zone as industrial technology park employment centers. There's zero info available to the public about how that mega site is uh how the agricultural impacts will be evaluated before zoning changes are proposed. What criteria will determine whether the land is considered buildable versus preserved? And how will the transportation design account for rural safety and non-industrial traffic? Do you have this information? I understand that this is a safe financial deal for the city, but is but is it good for the people? Please do not leave us out of the conversation until the project is 80% complete. That's not good planning. That's selling us out. I promise transparency is the way because we see what's happening when, not if data centers and other exploitative industries are invited to our community. It will create massive public backlash, likely legal action, decimate any public confidence in the city staff and council members, and plainly, it'll create a very big headache. We've seen this type of community push back all over the country. Please do not put us in a position to do this. No data centers.

Thank you. Uh last up, we have Alan Ledger, who is online. Alan, can you hear us? Uh yes, I can. I'm uh trying to see if my microphone works. It's working. Oh, great. Good to hear. All right, I'm going to start a timer. You've got three minutes.

Okay, thank you. I am just going to read off an email that I fired off just a few minutes back uh for public comment. I hope it's in the record. I'm not sure, but I'm just going to reread what I wrote. To the esteemed members of the Bloomington City Council, I am a citizen of Bloomington concerned with the prospect that you may be greenlighting a land development project on parcel numbers 2113200013, 21132009, 22181008 and 22183007. While normally I welcome the possibility of more business being brought to our growing town, I am concerned about the lack of transparency regarding which types of industry will this will this land be proposed for. The strategic land use plan laid out for this project includes a designation of a technology park. But what kind of technology is being input here? I am not opposed to computers or even technology in most regards. What I am opposed to is the use of our town's resources to prop up an emerging technology that has not shown any major benefit to society and is conversely a parasite on local infrastructure. AI technology and the massive data centers that are erected to house AI technology offer no benefit to the people who have to suffer having these data companies in their backyard. Instead, AI companies and their data sensors consume massive amounts of water and electricity resources, which in turn drives up the cost for those resources for all who live within the city's jurisdiction. Correspondently, the neighborhoods closest to any data center typically experience a major depreciation in real estate value due to their proximity to these large resource hogs. What I want as a citizen of this town is for the members of the city council to go on the record and state very clearly that this site is not being developed for the purposes of selling or leasing to a data center company or any

company involved with developing artificial intelligence programming. If city council acquiesces to this then I can rest assured that my duly elected council members hold my best interest in their consciences. Thank thank you very much. kindly yours Alan Leger.

All right, there is no further public comment. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you all. Uh next we'll move to the public hearing scheduled for this evening's uh on this evening's agenda. uh the public hearing for the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget as requested by the finance department. And we'll uh call to order the um hearing before u the public input. And at this time, we'll have the hearing called to order at 6:39 p.m. on Monday the 23rd of March with our director, Mr. Scott Wthburn, finance director, to present. Mr. Lurn. Nope. I'm sorry. Mr. No, you all know that the city budget is our our roadmap for how we're going to implement the policies and procedures and your initiatives over the course of a year. I think this is the fourth meeting related fourth meeting related to the budget that we've had since February in the interest of transparency and this one is is as it relates to people having an opportunity to make comments related to a public hearing. So again with that we try to be as transparent as we can. We try and overcommunicate versus under and that's what this is all about. So for tonight, we'll have Scott make his presentation and then we'll be obviously available for the public to make comments. So Scott, go for it.

Thank you, Deputy City Manager Tus, Mayor, Council, Community. Um, as Billy mentioned, this is a fourth review, so it's going to be more of a recap um with uh some added perspective on how we put the budget dollars to use at the end. We've already done a a budget preview on February 23rd. We did the proposed budget on the 9th. Capital projects and key initiatives. A lot of great information shared during those three uh previous presentations. So again, this will be more of a highle recap and an additional perspective and a time for answering questions or taking comments from the community. Next slide, please. So from the high level, the general fund uh budget this year will be 148.3 million. That's up from 136 point or 137 million uh last year or this current fiscal year up 11.4 million. I'm going to skip to the bottom next. Citywide 370.5 million uh 318.9 million. Uh la last fiscal year that's up 15.52.7. Now to the middle section though, the reason that that's such a large increase primarily or solely uh due to capital uh improvement projects. So 111.7 million almost $112 million in capital projects. FY26 was 81.1 million. So that's up 30.6 million and that's really being driven by uh improvements in the water fund. Next slide please. So why the increase? Just mentioned it. So 80 almost $82 million in capital projects for the water fund. Uh this is the total budget for the water fund is 112 million. This time last year when we were doing the future years, uh we do the current we do the next uh year when we're doing the budget, then we do four additional years, so fiveyear budget. We budgeted $112 million. That's exactly what we're budgeting this fiscal year. So we've had visibility on this. We knew we were going to frontend uh this big large 300 to $400 million capital project plan for the water fund. And and you're seeing the realization of that this year with 82 million. Um and that's

really what's driving up the budget this year. Next slide, please. So, but for to use uh the city manager's terms, but for the water fund, our our total uh citywide budget would actually be going down by 3.5%. Next slide, please. So, again, um like to reference some of those previous presentations. A lot of great information. In a way, this doesn't really do it justice, but um in the interest of keeping it short this evening, the key points, the emphasis of this budget, uh really a substantial increase, bullet number one, on streets and sidewalks. So, this references road work, but is also uh sidewalks involved, 66.6 million uh dedicated for streets and sidewalks. A historic investment in neighborhood revitalization of nearly $1 million, a historic investment in water capital plan. We just talked about that of $82 million. And then uh I'm going to jump to the last bullet here. Um really a large emphasis on public safety. There was some discussion about that tonight, but public safety very important in our community. It's one of those things, you know, you're not sure you really need it until you really need it. And so I think um everyone appreciates we want to make sure that we have the best uh employees in our public safety. We want to make sure they have the best training and the best equipment. So dedicating uh $76.3 million for fire and police services. That's over 51% of the general fund. And then jumping back up to that second to the last bullet, uh with all these emphasis, we we still tried to maintain um some conservative approaches to uh compensation and salaries with um attrition etc. So overall salary increases of just 2.6% while emphasizing those initiatives. Next slide please. So the additional perspective uh we um created these slides I mean three or four years ago trying to provide some tangible context to the budget. So what are the dollars really being used for

and what have they been used for? So we referenced this as our your budget dollars at work. So police this is for calendar year 2025. 68,000 calls that they went on for fire was 14,000. That's 82,000 public safety calls in one calendar year. very significant number. Uh that kind of puts into perspective those dollars needed for public safety. Parks, 465,000 attendance for aquatics, um the ice arena there, a zoo, golf, um developmental services, development services, excuse me, almost 2400 building permits. So, a lot of work going on behind the scenes. A lot of the community doesn't see but you know part of the development of the community being addressed by our building our development services facilities maintaining a million square foot square foot of uh facilities. Next slide. I'm going to go through these kind of fast. So streets maintained 844 lane miles. We have sewer and uh water systems a thousand miles maintained. Water a lot of discussion about water um over the last few months over the last couple years for that matter. 10 millions gallons per day, 3.65 billion gallons annually. And then administration, I'm gonna, you know, blow or toot my own horn here, not blow my own to our own horn. Finance, 369,000 utility bills are processed per month and the related payments nearly 30,000. The clerk, almost 4,000 foyas and those are going up um exponentially almost. So something that's not within our control, but something that we have to address as a local government. and then information services 3,000 devices um 100 applications maintained over 40 location as our society changes there a lot of discussion tonight about the data center but just in general as society changes there's just more reliance on technology and and the city uh is part of that too you know public safety body wor cameras just the different things that's being utilized to keep the community safe and

I just want to emphasize as a little another plug for something the finance department does a lot of this information is available in our annual audit. It's just not numbers. So you can see what the city is up to by looking at the audit. Next slide please. Budget resources. So there are ample I'll use that you know air quotes exclamation point ample resources available for the budget especially online. There's hard copies downstairs in the hub. Uh but two budget books. All these presentations are online. We have a budget video series that's narrated by our very own Chris Tarlan sitting in the back back there. So if you want to get some information on how the budget is developed and some of the key aspects to it, the financial structure, etc., and you don't want to read a bunch of stuff, there's a video series that's online as well. Next slide, please. So this is the calendar. As I mentioned, you know, we we've done the 23rd, the bud budget preview, the proposal on the 9th, um the 16th with the capital projects and key initiatives. Tonight we're doing a budget hearing. Uh so hopefully bringing a lot of transparency as the deputy city manager emphasized going into this presentation. Uh we're really trying to address the varied needs of the community. So uh it's it's what I've referenced when I first started working here. Pools versus potholes. Not everyone's uh needs and desires and emphasis is the same. But, you know, as a staff, uh, hopefully as a council, we're trying to address, uh, the needs as presented to us, uh, and and providing excellent service to to the community while being good stewards of the taxpayers dollars. So, with that, we'll open the hearing or any questions.

Thank you. Uh, next we're going to go ahead and open the public hearing. We've got it opened. We opened at 6:39. Um, we had no one register in advance to testify. However, if anyone public uh or here present would like to speak um and testify at the public hearing, they could come forward to do so right now. Any members from the public that would like to speak? Any members of council that have any questions since our finance director is before us? again.

I'm just curious the two slides that were titled work-services, can you give an idea of each of those line items trending since the stats that were shared was were just point in time like point in time calls to public safety point in time um you know data points. Can you share with us what the trends have been? I don't have those off the top of my head, but I'm looking at Chris. We do in the audit, don't we show 10 years of that data like for public safety service calls and things of that nature? I just don't I just don't know know what the trends are right now. We can get that for you. Absolutely. Yes,

I I did. And Scott, thanks again for these past couple weeks with you guys sharing all of this information. I just have a different question today. Um I know you noted from a water perspective, right? And we had anticipated um some of those compliance needs and rate increases. Do we in obviously you're not a fortune teller, but do we anticipate the the budget will come back into service because we'll be able to meet some of those regulatory expectations that's on us? Um or do we see this as being the norm as far as the amount of the budget? Right. This year obviously water is caused an increase.

Uh no this is certainly not going to be the norm. Um next year is going to be another significant um capital project budget year for water and then it's going to to dramatically decrease. Um the way we budget we we budget when we um approve those contracts for those projects. But a lot of these like a lot of the projects this coming fiscal year have three year to fouryear buildout timelines on them. So that's going to come into play when we go to the borrowing. We may review doing one borrowing or splitting the borrowing up over over two pieces or two years to address those those cash needs. Um but no, it will um kind of standardize um in about three years. There's still going to be some leadline uh replacement that's going to extend, you know, out into 10 years. So it's it's going to be a little elevated, but it won't be like it is this this year and next year and last year as well for this current year. So, one additional question that I've sent in in writing. So, um you know, I'm hopefully you guys have had the opportunity to look at it. Looking back over the last five years, not just specifically the general fund, but the total budget and the total actual spend for those years. Have you all been able to obtain those numbers? and um maybe they've already been shared and I've just missed it.

Yes, I I thought we addressed uh that during the last presentation. On the budget, we don't have it on this exhibit or this um presentation. The budget growth um exhibit, we have it's total actual year-to- date expenditure plus incumbrance incumbrances. We have a line item on that exhibit that shows the budget versus versus that. And there there are some significant differences and uh I believe I addressed some of those last during the last presentation. Uh like for the state motor fuel tax, the Fox Creek Road and the Hamilton projects, those got bumped yeartoear, 30 plus million. We we are um executing those this year. So we're going to have a $30 million decrease related to that. Um but those were some of the reasons why there's why there's always a large variance between budgeted and actual spend.

Thank you. Any other members from council? Any members from the general public that's changed their mind? No. Okay. Then we'll go ahead and close the public hearing at 6:52 p.m. And we will then move on to our consent agenda for this evening's meeting. Um, are there any members that wish to have an item removed from the consent agenda? Uh as I indicated earlier in the meeting, item 8H is going to be removed and move to a different date um meeting. Are there any other members that have questions or want any other items pulled? If not, is there a motion from a member for a vote on to accept the consent agenda? I'll make a motion to approve as presented with the exception of 8 H.

Motion made by member Hendrick, seconded by member Montney. All in favor or I'm sorry. Let's go ahead and vote. I can just take a voice vote really quick. Council member Lee, how do you wish to vote? Yes. The item passes. No to announce.

Okay, motion carried. Thank you. Next, we'll move on to our regular agenda items for this evening, which starts under 9A, consideration and action on an ordinance authorizing the execution of an amendment redevelopment agreement by and between the city of Bloomington and UE Bloomington LLC as requested. And we will have um our city manager, Mr. Deputy City Manager, Mr. explain further.

Thank you, mayor, mayor, and council. Um um if you'll Thank you. Um you may recall, you will recall that you all as a council approved an agreement with Urban Equity Properties or UAP Bloomington LLC, which is an extension of Urban Equity Properties based in Rockford, um for the redevelopment of the former State Farm Fire Building. And I've been corrected in the titling on a number of occasions to make sure that I called it the fire building. um uh to develop it into a housing with studio one, two, and threebedroom apartments. You approved that agreement in um April of 2025. Uh $68 million project. As you can see, the terms of the original agreement, food hall, restaurant on top, sharing of some revenues, uh, and also development of the former Coachman Hotel site. If we didn't have a developer, by spring of 2026, in addition to some garage spaces, um, as is the case with projects of this size and scope, they sometimes change over time. Uh, financial markets change, construction's costs change, etc., etc. And so we were approached in I believe January, December, January, December. Thank you, Kelly. Uh of this year about the possibility of amending this agreement to phase the project versus doing it all at once because of some of that and also uh to have some add some other components. And so next slide please. So instead of doing the project at once, the the project would be phased and I'll say staged more than phased because it's really a short break between phase one and phase two. Uh phase one if this agreement is approved would do 57 apartments plus the developers secured a Starbucks plus there would also be other ground floor commercial and um other restaurant on on the top floor. Well,

let me back up. Phase one would be the 57 apartments plus the Starbucks. Phase 1B is that the developer has purchased the Park Plaza garage across the street on Jefferson, which had fallen into disrepair. They're going to be rehabbing that garage, putting in new parking, but also would have to provide public level park, public parking on the ground level for for the public. Obviously, phase two would kick off roughly four months after phase one finished. um after phase one finished and uh it would do the remainder of the apartment units, the food hall and additional retail and restaurant space. And uh I apologize I believe I have the wrong date for the end of phase one. I believe phase one ends in is it summer of 27? December. Okay, it's right. So all right. Yeah. The other part would would involve um the a potential $600,000 fourmonth tiff bridge loan in December of 27 if UEP doesn't get what are known as historic tax credits and they are required to apply for those credits. They have a lot of experience with obtaining those credits. Um they are confident that they will receive them but it would be a bridge loan for four months. Uh but only I want to be clear with this only if they don't get the tax credits. And if they do get the tax credits then the loans would not be given. Um it would be a tiff loan paid from site generated tiff increment another increment in the tiff fund with any balance necessary paid from the general fund. Now it is our thought that the the the bulk of this would be paid from and from the start from tiff funds with the rest as I said from the general fund if necessary. Um, we've also built in several guarantees that we, you know, as when you reopen a contract, you have an opportunity to reopen protections.

And so, we were trying to make sure we were prep protecting taxpayer dollars. A couple of those are that the TIF loan would be paid from site generated TIFF increment in the event that they don't pay it back. So, the site if as it gets developed will grow in value. that increment would go into a special sub fund and be used to repay the the loan in the event that they do not pay us back on time. Um the other thing is that the uh owner of the company who is here tonight, Justin Fern, uh in the back uh Justin, if you will raise your hand please, would provide a personal guarantee and he there would also be a mortgage on the property just again as another level of protection in the event that the loan is necessary and that it doesn't get paid back on time. And again, we would also remove the Coachman project. One of the things that was in the original agreement was that the developer got the coachman lot to develop in the event that we did not have a developer. We're doing this simply because it's like let's work through this first. Let's not put too many projects on the board at this time at one time. So that is the reason for that and we will still go out and get and work to get that site uh developed. Those are the details of the uh amendment. As I said, Justin Fern is here in the event that you have any questions of him. staff is here as well. Kelly Feifer, uh Samantha Malot. It's been a lot of work that have gone into getting this amendment to where it is versus where it started. We started at a much higher level of potential loan and uh through negotiations and agreements, we've gotten to where we are and so we're comfortable with this. Uh we recommend approval. Happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you. Let's go to council questions first if there are. Member Ward. Yeah, just a clarification. I think what you originally started to correct um may be still needed because what's on the document that we received ahead of time says phase one goes from July 26 to July 27 and um 1B is April to July 27. That is correct. rather than December. Kelly, help me because it shouldn't be December for phase one. Okay.

Yeah, let me look at that. I think the exhibit might be changed. That would mean four months from July to November when phase two would kick off. Yeah. Yeah. So, what you showed us on the screen is incorrect. That is, but what was attached to the agenda would make more sense. Kelly's going to help us.

Sorry, it's a really long agreement and I'm actually going into the agreement versus the exhibit. Yeah, there's a It's in a couple places.

Well, we're looking for answer to that. Go ahead, Mr. Ty. Phase 1A commences no later than July 15 of 26 and obtain temporary certificates of occupancy for all phase 1A residential by August of 2027. So it's that the screen is wrong. The Yes. Yeah. The terms um on page seven of the agreement are the correct relational dates. in all phase one commercial spaces by December of 27. So it should have been for commercial spaces.

Um answers your question and we'll move to member Lee. Yeah, just a clarifying question. Um, so what is the four months, four month break for like do they need time to um wrap up something and then prep for something or like what's the reason for that? So what they do is they anticipate that four-month delay is between closing a new capital stack. So there'll be new lenders for that second phase. And so that is the duration that they think might be between kind of paying off the one and securing and closing on the second phase.

Other members, member Hendricks.

Yeah, not so much questions as just for public information. I received some concerns over the Starbucks. Uh, and while I'm very pro uh, local business and pro obviously our downtown local shops, um, we're not voting on whether or not Starbucks is going in there. We we voted on language that said that there would be three food type retailers and commercial retail on the first floor. Right? So, the developer gets to ultimately decide that, and I'm more so saying that rhetorically. And also thinking about normal where there is a Starbucks and we still have local uh, coffee shops that are there and sustained. So, wanted to put that out there. The second thing uh that I just wanted to say in appreciation, I called uh the assistant city manager uh just with making sure that we are upholding the PLA language around local labor um and he was able to get a hold of of the developer uh right away and the developer got a hold of our uh individuals who are in charge of the different unions uh in town and and assured them that that's still going to be the case. So, just wanted to put that out on public record as well. Thank you. Other members with questions, comments, anything to close, Mr. Tus.

We remain excited about the project. Um, feels a much much needed need in our community with housing developer that's shown that they can do it. So, they plan to get started pretty quickly is my understanding and Justin is nodding his head. So, yep, we're excited. I'd make a motion to approve. I'll second.

Seconded by member Ward and moved by member Hendricks and clerk take the role vote. Council member Ward, how would you like to vote? I thank you. And council member Dandenburgger. Thank you. The item passes. No names to announce.

Okay. Motion carries. Next, we'll move on the agenda, regular agenda to item 8B, which is a consideration and action on a resolution approving a three three-year contract with uh Granus LLC for government experience service cloud and our deputy city manager, Mr. Tyus, will explain further.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, mayor and councel once again. Um, we have Mark Owens, our IT assistant director, interim interim and and Angela Yandel is our enterprise systems manager, but so much more than that. Um, what you have before you tonight related to this item is much more than a website redesign. It is a a ga is a combining of of our digital ecosystem into one system that is more efficient, more userfriendly, is going to allow people to get to information across our websites more quickly and easily. I don't know if you've gone to our website recently and tried to find something. It's just not easy. I mean, you'll get a list of different things and none of it makes sense, honestly. So, this project brings together all those systems over the course of a three-year agreement. Um, it also allows us to take advantage of new technology that that allows for that, but also allows us to meet new required ADA standards. So, with that, um, I'll pass things to Mark Owens, and you can let the let the council and the public know what this is is all about.

All right. Thank you for having us tonight, mayor, city council. We appreciate you having us tonight. I also like to say that some members from Granicus are here. Kim Steelman, Kevin Russell are also available for questions. So, the city of Bloomington's current website and digital services environment is aging. It's fragmented and operating on a legacy granicus infrastructure that is being phased out. At the same time, we have new federal ADA title 2 regulations that require all municipalities over 50,000 residents ensure full accessibility of websites, digital forms, documents, mobile apps, and service tools. And this is needs to happen before April of 2026. Over the past year, city staff has made substantial efforts to align existing systems with these new accessibility standards, implementing in as many improvements as possible within the constraints of our current platform. However, these efforts are inherently limited by the underlying technology that we have today. Recognizing that ADA compliance is not a one-time re remediation but an ongoing operational responsibility, city ID has conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the current digital ecosystem, associated vendor contracts, and long-term service needs. This assessment indicates that maintaining multiple disconnected systems significantly increases cost, operational complexity, ADA compliance risk, and staff workload. As a result, modernization is necessary regardless of the vendor selection, particularly given the requirement to redesign and maintain accessibility across all subsites and dis digital services. Next slide, Bill, please. Why service cloud advanced? The city it views this proposal not as a website renewal, as Billy indicated, but as a strategic modernization and consolidation of these services. Moving to Granicus service cloud advanced

platform provides a fully ADA accessible redesign of the main city website and four subsites on modern supported infrastructure. It also provides us with built-in tooling aligned with web content accessibility guidelines that exceeds the Department of Justice's minimum requirements. So, we're setting ourselves up in the future. It provides a single integrated environment replacing fragmented systems that we have today for websites, forms, service requests, mobile app, engagement pages, and resident communications and it reduced operational complexity and long-term it decreases long long-term maintenance burden. Next slide, Bill, please. Key features and digital service improvements include a new economic development subsite supporting business attraction and redevelopment efforts. It also provides a government experience agent which is a driven digital assistant that can reduce routineformational call volumes, freeing up staff capacity and also making it easier for residents and businesses to interact with the city. We'll have unlimited ADA accessible forms and digital workflows which eliminates separate form tooling licensing. We'll have unlimited engagement and project pages which reduce reducing consultant built micro sites and improving consistency. We'll have a modernized branded app mobile app for integrated 311 style citizen service requests and it eliminate existing licenses for the current current my Bloomington application. We'll also have a unified communications platform and expanded data and service insights. And along with that, we'll have access to a dedicated account manager and um uh annual consulting credits for ADA guidance, onboarding,

and future site optimization from Granicus. So, that's a service we'll get with that contract. Uh next slide, please. The city currently has several fragmented digital tools that perform overlapping functions. Consolidation under the service cloud advance absorbs or replaces the ex existing contracts. So that's our consolidation. Provides a predictable cost structure and unlimited forms and engagement capacity reducing future add-on purchases. It includes a phase payment options aligned with existing subscriptions that we have today and align with our budget timelines. Next slide, please, Phil. Uh, from a city IT perspective, from a technology strategy strategy standpoint, this modernization ensures the city is positioning for the April ADA deadline and future accessibility updates. It's going to replace unsupported legacy infrastructure with sustainable future ready platform. It'll enhance digital service delivery and consistency for residents and businesses and will reduce our long-term redundancy risk and maintenance efforts across departments. Next slide. So in conclusion, adopting service plat advance provides Bloomington with a unified ADA ready digital foundation that addresses urgent compliance requirements, consolidates fragmented tools that we have today, improves service quality and strengthens long-term operational sustainability. This approach invests in a modern, scalable platform that supports sustainable operations, improved accessibility, and supports a long-term citywide innovation, citywide innovation and service delivery. So, with that, like to open up to any questions you may have,

questions from uh members of council me. So, maybe if we could put up slides slide three for starters. just a few very quick questions. So, thank you so much for sharing this.

Appreciate it. Um, so bullet point for reduced operational complexity and long-term maintenance burden that along with the hypothesis on the next slide of the reduced call volume. Um, what analysis have you done to translate that into a benefit statement? what your starting hypothesis would be as to the overhead cost savings as a result of reduced operational complexity of reduced inbound call volume and manual processing. I think this is something that you speak into your microphone. It's all good.

I'm sorry. I think this is something that uh Granicus in developing the proposal spoke to. um we didn't include it in this, but I think you can answer this question.

Yeah, there's there's several different studies that we've uh we've referenced um that weren't referenced in here, but typically uh in terms of the reduced call volume. Um we see typically around a 30% um call volume reduction um once we implement um the tools that we're proposing in this in this proposal. Um, a lot of that comes down to people are often coming to the website to find um routine information um that should be easy to find on the website. But unfortunately, you know, it the structure of government isn't always easy to navigate for um for most people. As if you don't live and breathe government, it's it's difficult to understand what department owns what and where do I need to go to find the specific information. Um, so there's um there's different um uh tools within ServiceCloud Advance that make that navigation much easier um and make it easier for residents to find that information that they need, increase that transparency and trust um and also we see about a 30% reduction on average in call volume.

So is it is it Kim? I would.

Okay. Um, so how do you place that statement on the context of the single point of contact strategy that the city of Bloomington implemented to help residents navigate that um, you know, in the hub structure that we already have? Is that something that you have considered as you put forth the proposal and the expected call volume reduction? We've certainly talked a lot about the hub um when we we've worked together to to to create this proposal. Um and how we see that is um this is certainly not at all about any kind of reduction in in staff at all. It's about freeing up your staff for those interactions that really do need that um more um hight touch like you know a more personal experience um instead of those routine questions that can be answered really easily um with information that already does exist on the website. It's just not always easy to find. Um, so, uh, certainly the hub has, like I said, been a main point of conversation, um, but really freeing up that staff, um, so that they can really intentionally focus on the phone calls that do come in that might be a more complicated, complex question or that walk-in traffic that comes in that again, um, is maybe a more nuanced answer that isn't so easily found on the website.

And if we were thinking about process flow, I mean, they're just the funnel, right? So that additional um, implication goes throughout the organization. So, I'm interested, you know, in in understanding from any of your case studies and if you want to send them after the fact, um, you know, that's fine, too, as to whether or not there was a translation to realized labor cost savings through attrition. um you know because obviously when we're making an investment that is predicated on an efficiency gain um there should be some connecting of the dots to the capacity that is created in the organization as a result result of this significant investment.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think part of that also goes to some of the other tools like um u like the digital form solution that has built-in backend workflows that are very um that reduce manual processes. So once a a resident submits that form um going going directly to the correct departments and the correct people within that department making the approval process very streamlined um cutting out a lot of the manual work um and processes that may exist today. Um so there's there's several different um you know avenue avenues I could go down and answering that question but um absolutely uh happy to to provide additional information on the efficiency gains and um things like that that we have on hand. Well, and and really at the end of the day, I mean, this is a question for staff as you continue to build acumen and running the operations in a way that includes more discipline. You know, this issue of how long should it take me to do my work versus how long does it take me to do my work and the efforts to continuously uh improve upon that. So, um thank you again,

other members. Member Mosley.

Yeah, I'll just add um because not that I was going to ask that question. and I had thought about that and so I went to your website and found some of those resources. Um, and so we didn't have access to you guys sent us a document and the link didn't really open for me. I don't know if anybody else it was the response to the RFP and I just assumed that the information was within the RFP. So I just went to your website to kind of find some of that. Then I found on your solutions and then your resource section um some of that data like that she's asking for right now as well. So thank you. Other members questions, comments? Okay. Um, just a point of clarification for me. So, Mark, you're the uh interim director. Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. Okay. Assistant, assistant director. Sorry. Assistant. Okay. I promoted myself. Angela, enterprise systems manager. Okay. And I'm sorry, I didn't catch at the beginning. You folks play what role? Supports? We we're we're with Granicus. So I'm Kim Steelman, a town account executive with Granicus. I'm Kevin Russell, the vice president of Granicus. Great. Thank you very much. Anyone else from council? Is there a motion? I'd make a motion to approve as presented.

Motion made by member Hendricks. Is there a second? Second. Just a second. Right here. Dannenburgger.

The item passes. No names to announce. Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your information. Um that concludes the regular agenda items. Uh and next we have a finance director's report in addition to your earlier comments. And Mr. Wrathburn, anything else? Anyone else? Billy sir need to say anything? Uh you are ready to go, sir.

Thought I'd stand since I'm going to keep it short this evening. So we skipped the uh finance director's uh report last month. Uh there's been a lot of financial discussion with the budget. So again, we'll keep this short. Just in general, our revenues are trending um in a way to kind of bring that budget into focus for us. So, you know, we're seeing trends that that correlate to the the numbers that we've been presenting to you. So from that perspective, the numbers tonight should should be should make sense. Um and I'll just keep going here. Next slide, please. Lost for words for once. Right. So, um the big the big stories here really been the sales tax revenues. Home rule and state sales tax. The online legislative changes enacted by the state uh have have increased revenues there dramatically. You can see that home rule sales tax is $3.9 million uh over budget year to date with state sales tax nearly $1.6 million over. Now, those are partially offset by the local use tax about two-thirds of the way down the um page. I've discussed how uh the transition related to legislative change changed the nature of the way those taxes were remitted by online retailers. Um just where initially or previously they would just file the six and a quarter total total sales tax for the state and it would be allocated on a per capita basis. Now we're we're capturing our home rule component. We're getting the sales tax specifically allocated to um to the city of Bloomington. The other comment I'll make on this is replacement tax. replacement tax has been trending under. It was way under after the first couple of payments. The department of revenue and IML issue projections on that tax, the state distributed tax, and they said they had it so that it looked like we were going to be coming in basically on par with last year or on par with budget because we kept that budget essentially um flat. So, right

now we're $20,000 uh over budget year to date. So, that's good news. the the the one thing we we I like to remind uh the council and the community is uh replacement tax uh was very high for a few years and the state has been doing a clawback. So that was one of the adjustments that we had to make over the last couple of budget cycles. It is literally down almost $4 million from its highest in FY2023. But at the bottom of the page, you can see that we're $5.4 million over year to date. Um so that's like I said um having us helping us transition into FY27 because just as a a point of re uh recap uh for FY26 we had to delay a lot of equipment expenses thinking that we were going to be facing a structural deficit for the year. Next slide please. So this is the first month where we've introduced projections a projection column. So uh you can see over in the middle section there we we've done a projection adjustment. So this is an adjustment adjustment to the revised budget with a projected year and then total. So first thing I'll highlight is that the use of reserves use of fund balance since we're we're talking about the actuals here with a projection those those again are not real revenues. We're utilizing reserves but that is a function of how we balance our budget by showing a balanced budget. We show the use of reserves or if we're going to have excess for the year a contribution to reserves. So that projection adjustment and the projected year end is zero. Uh the note section here is really primarily referencing why the projection is changed u versus the revised. We just went through the taxes, so that one's pretty obvious. Um the other one I'll highlight is um investment income $250,000 over the revised budget. We retained our reserves a little longer. We thought we're going to be utilizing those more. Our revised budget is $13.5 million use of reserves. Um we're coming in way less than that. You'll see in the

next exhibit and rates have stayed a little higher um than anticipated going into the fiscal year. Next slide please. Total expenditures. So the projected um column you can see that we're projecting to be almost $2 million under in salaries for the general fund. So this is related to vacancy savings. Uh PD is always challenged to uh fill their ranks and uh due to attrition. uh benefits is going to be over by 600,000. Um this is relates primarily to the health insurance. We've been talking about how health insurance is has gone up dramatically. That's been somewhat of our challenge going into FY27 and work comp claims. Um I won't go through all the uh the other items specifically, but you can see uh the the the changes there for the from the revised. I will highlight for the um contractuals. We've been talking about that a lot. Uh the engineering department had a project associated with a DEIO grant and that got bumped out a a year. So that's a half million dollar reduction in his current budget, but it's another example of um when we can't address or or whatever reasons changes occur rolling u one budgeted item to the next fiscal year and how u that impacts that um that year-to- date actual versus the budget. And then um the last one I'll comment on here is the other intergovernmental expense, $65,000 basically over budget versus a revised budget. And that is primarily due to the higher payments to the county mental health related to the increases in home rule sales tax. And then under that projected year-end uh total, you can see that we have a $5 million uh use of reserves, 5,72,000 compared to the 13.5 million we had on the previous slide. uh revised budget. We thought we were going to be utilizing $13.5 million reserves. 10 million of that was related to downtown streetscape, but due to the increases in um sales tax and the reduced reduction in expenditures that we budgeted into

the year, we're only going to be using five millions of dollars of reserves. So projecting a year in a reserve balance of 35.8 million for the general fund. And next slide, I believe that's it. We we remove the enterprise fund reference uh this month or slide this month for uh for time. So that's it. I will take questions.

Thank you. Other questions from members of council. Member Mottney. So if you knew in December what you know now in terms of us coming in, you know, substantially over our revenue expectations, seeing this significant growth in the general fund balance, would we have needed to raise property taxes by $3 million?

Yes, we would have. Now, that that did pro provide us with we're hopeful because we incorporated another an additional I'm going to say a million half to two million because there's going to be another legislative change um coming and we'll have visibility on that in April to provide any um ability to address a public works campus and any other bonding. But we when we were going through the levy discussions, we were discussing a $4 million deficit when FY27 that we had to address. Um, then we have inflation of about $4 million. So that's that's $8 million. I I won't go through the whole list. I I'll stop right there. No, I mean it's helpful, but I mean with respect to the opportunity for 2020 hindsight, you know, which I know no one does, so I'm not judging, you know, the the presentation at that time, but just kind of this contextual understanding of the trends of being what I call gifted sometimes by the state of Illinois with significant opportunities for revenue growth that are outside of the need for us to impact housing costs by continually leaning on property taxes locally. That's that's my point. Um you know, seeing that um that sales tax um and the overall revenues coming in at that 5.4 million range when, you know, the conversation, which was very helpful at that time, and I certainly understand, you know, the point of that. Um but if it happens consistently year over year over year, at what point again do we revisit the knee? um when we get to December of this year for continually leaning on property taxes.

Other members, comments, questions? Scott, you indicated that work comp was up from 2026 from 2025, I believe. Um, how significant is with the comp claims up or if you don't have that with you now, you could get that to me. Yeah, I'll have to get back to you on that one. Thank you members. If not, thank you very much for the report. And at this time, we will move then to um our discussions and we will start with our deputy city manager, Mr. Tus.

Thank you, mayor. Um, next slide, please. Wanted to let the council know that the severe drought designation has been lifted. I know that you we shared that with you. Um, we're still remaining in a drought phase and we still want to encourage people to conserve water. So, this isn't we're not out of the woods. So, we want to make sure that people are still conserving, but wanted to let you know that we've gone from a high of 11 feet on on March 2nd until 8.7 feet as of today, I believe. Below below. Thank you, Sue. Uh below. Thank you. Next slide. Uh Trisha Yurwood show on um Thursday, March 19th. Just wanted to shout out Anthony Nelson, Mike Wilcott, and the whole arts entertainment crew. It's a sellout show and it set a record as the highest grossing single event in BCPA history. So, just wanted to let the community know that that was the case and congratulate that team for bringing in that show. brought in $115,000 in ticket sales for the Mirror Tour acoustic for Trisha Yearwood. Next slide, please. Uh, and finally, the Bloomington Bison. We had three games over the weekend. I think the Bison won two out of three. And I mention this only because as of earlier today, they were still hanging on to the last playoff spot in the Western Division. And I just I I bring that up because that's unheard of for a secondyear hockey team. And it's a pretty big deal. So, I want to encourage people to keep supporting the Vice and they still have a chance to make the playoffs. Let's get out and support them. So, that's all I got. Mayor,

thank you. And we'll go ahead and start with members discussion if they wish. And member Lee.

Yeah. Um, so I was out and about today and noticed Route 9 is down to one lane. So just uh if people are traversing Route 9, please give yourself extra time um and you know be mindful of workers um out there. And then also I had a concern come up to me regarding the traffic in downtown. Um there's some areas where it's down to single lanes and u one concern that was brought to me was that the construction crew had parked a trailer in that single lane. that was the only lane that was accessible. Um, so if we could maybe make sure that the single lane that is supposed to be for traffic be kept open for emergency vehicles and such. Um, because the person that contacted me was a little concerned about emergency vehicles if needed would be able to get through when when we're down to single lane. So, um, if we can maybe have that conversation with the construction crew, um, would appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you, member Hendricks, member Ward, member Strazza, Dannenburg, Matney, member Mosley, member Kurts.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Brady. Um, I just wanted to quickly highlight the fact um, given our community's continued um, concerns over the flock cameras that on Wednesday this week, the public safety and community relations board PSCB will have their quarterly meeting on Wednesday right here in this room at six o'clock and the chief will be there to engage in questions and conversation about about these if you have questions to come to that meeting and hear um, what our police department is doing if you have remaining questions. Thank you.

Thank you. And my comments, I believe we've got just a couple slides. One of the things uh off of our deputy city manager's comments uh with the bison and Friday evening I was able to be a guest of the over to Fisers, Indiana to see the Indian Indiana fuel. Uh and if things stay on track, the house may have a big decision to make between the Bison and a playoff game playing the Indiana uh Fuel. So, we'll hope for that. Um we also had a number of activities that many of us were involved in over the weekend, but uh this morning uh we had the uh pleasure to be over at the Bloomington Police Department and some of you attended. member Straza was able to be there. Uh to thank Congressman Darren Le Hood for uh securing funds through community uh grants that the Bloomington Police Department and Real Time uh center uh received and it's variety as the chief is is back there. Uh um we thank you, your department um for your work on this and special thanks to obviously Congressman Le Hood. uh the funding about a half million dollars a little more than that um is going towards the technology side of many things and I won't go into everything tonight but it's all about the u opportunities and having the resources financially uh to provide as much safety and intelligence uh and uh technology that we can. So we thank the congressman for being here this morning and helping us secure that. With that, um, there is no other items for action or executive session. So, I believe I need a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting.

I'll make a motion to adjourn. That would be a motion from member Hendricks. I would be to second and member Montney seconded that. Would there be a uh in favor a motion? Thank you very much and have a nice evening.