Monroe County commissioners Lee Jones, Penny Githens and Julie Thomas at a Wednesday meeting.
(Courtesy of Community Access Television Services (CATS))
The Monroe County commissioners are poised to vote next week on the creation of a capital improvement board (CIB) to oversee the Monroe County Convention Center expansion.
The commissioners discussed an ordinance to establish a CIB — a public body which finances, constructs and operates capital facilities or improvements — at a Wednesday work session. Their approval is the last step needed to form a CIB.
County attorney Jeff Cockerill said the commissioners could have voted at the work session but doing so would have gone against their general practice.
“Their standard policy is they don’t vote on new items at a work session,” Cockerill said. “They typically want to do those at regular sessions. Occasionally, you’ll see something approved at a work session; but typically, that is an item that is either a contract we’ve had before or something that has an emergency or routineness to it.”
Jeff Cockerill (Courtesy of Community Access Television Services (CATS))
Commissioner Penny Githens said she has concerns over the ordinance’s current language.
As written, the ordinance says the CIB will consist of seven members: three appointed by the city, three appointed by the county, and one appointed by the city- and county-appointed members.
The ordinance states the city and county councils will each appoint one member while the mayor’s office and commissioners will each appoint two members. The mayor’s office and commissioners both must select appointees from “different political parties,” according to the ordinance.
Githens said she wanted to change that statement to say appointments by the mayor’s office and commissioners “shall not be from the same political party.”
Githens also said she wants the ordinance to indicate no more than four appointees can be from the same political party.
Cockerill said he will edit the ordinance before the commissioners take it up at their July 5 regular session.
City and county officials have been working for years to advance the expansion project, and there has been a long-standing dispute over what type of body should oversee the project.
Last fall, the commissioners approved on a separate ordinance that also would have established a CIB. However, that ordinance was contingent on approval of the CIB from the county and city councils and the mayor’s office.
The city and county councils both agreed with the idea of a CIB but Mayor John Hamilton instead wanted a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to manage the project, so he vetoed the city council’s resolution supporting the CIB’s creation in December.
In January, the Bloomington City Council overrode the veto. All but one city council member — Kate Rosenbarger — voted for the override.
Hamilton’s administration has said much of the cost of the expansion project would fall on the city if it were run by a CIB, and that a 501(c)(3) would be a more effective way to manage it. Others were concerned a nonprofit would not be subject to Indiana’s open door laws like a CIB would be.
Per state statue, only the commissioners have the authority to create a CIB.
By postponing a vote, the commissioners fell short of their goal to establish a CIB before the end of June. Githens expressed that desire earlier this month when city and county officials met to resume discussions on the project.
Local leaders also have drafted an interlocal cooperation agreement laying out potential next steps in the project. It includes some items city council members asked for late last year related to the creation of a CIB.
The interlocal is still in draft form, and the parties who need to sign off on it — including the mayor’s office and the commissioners — have not yet done so.
“The interlocal is an agreement between the city and the county on items such as assets and funding, which is just inherently more complex,” Cockerill said. “With any interlocal between the city and the county, the executives have to sign off on it, and then the fiscal bodies have to then approve it. Or, if they don’t want to approve it, it would go to the state attorney general for approval.”
Officials want to finish the project quickly because of the recently approved House Enrolled Act 1454, which puts more oversight on local governments that impose a food and beverage tax. That’s the expansion project’s planned funding source.
The law requires distributions and expenditures be reported to the state annually and requires Monroe County and Bloomington to spend money from the food and beverage tax before July 1, 2025. They must also develop a written plan before Dec. 1 of each year that includes information related to the use of food and beverage tax funds.
If Monroe County does not meet those requirements, the law will end its ability to collect on the food and beverage tax.
The expansion project started collecting on the food and beverage tax in 2018. To date, it has collected more than $14 million with no official project plan in place.
