Mayor John Hamilton’s administration remains the lone holdout in the creation of a capital improvement board to run the Monroe County Convention expansion.
That’s after Bloomington City Council voted 8-1 Wednesday night on a resolution to support going the CIB route. The mayor’s office wants a non-profit 501(c)(3) entity to have say over the management of the convention center.
That remained its position throughout the three-hour long debate on the resolution.
County commissioner Julie Thomas said the goal was to put pressure on the city council and the mayor’s office to resolve the issue. After all, she said expansion talk began well before the pandemic.
“We’re trying to get movement on a common goal,” Thomas said. “It’s not just the vote, but it’s also the vote. We’ve been going back and forth, and we wanted to move the conversation forward.”
The county’s ordinance gives the city until Jan. 1, 2023, to take action on the CIB.
The conversation got off to a rocky start. Amendments to the simple resolution adopting the CIB weren't released until two hours before the meeting, leaving some members in the chamber seeing the amendments for the first time at the meeting.
The amendments included language on the selection of the board members, but that was struck because the state selects the members.
Also struck was a line that read, “If no agreement can be reached, the parties must then establish a 501(c)(3) or alternative governance structure that will maintain the balance.”
The county said that gave an advantage to the city, which could get its desired 501(c)(3) by simply not reaching an agreement.
What stayed was an amendment that included the majority of the 15 recommendations by the administration it wanted included if there was to be a capital improvement board. Another said the innkeeper’s tax would continue to go to financing the convention center’s operations.
Two other amendments dealing with interlocal agencies, cooperation and obligations.
A lot of details need to be worked out, but county officials said that would fall under the prevue of the CIB.
And as council members and county officials asked and questioned each other all night, Thomas said the vote boiled down to one thing.
“The question is super simple,” she said. “Do we want a CIB or a 501(c)(3)?”
At the end of the discussion, the council decided on a CIB.
Council member Steve Volan appeared ready to just move on after years of stagnation.
“I’ll vote for the resolution, because I want to get on with it,” he said.
Volan did admonish the city administration and county officials for some of the rhetoric and tension throughout the process. He echoed Thomas’ earlier sentiment that the city is the county, and the county is the city.
“There’s a lot of distrust between the two sides that shouldn’t exist,” Volan said.
Kate Rosenbarger was the lone no vote on the council.
