(From left) Monroe County Commissioners Lee Jones, Julie Thomas and Penny Githens with County Residents Against Annexation President Margaret Clements.
(Lucas González, WFIU/WTIU News)
That’s what President Margaret Clements told WFIU/WTIU News at a Thursday gathering at the Monroe County Courthouse organized by the Monroe County Commissioners.
“We want to appeal, and we’ll do everything we can to appeal,” Clements said. “We’ll just get our groundswell together, and we will appeal. We probably expect that the city would do the same.”
Margaret Clements (Lucas González, WFIU/WTIU News)
Clements was among several dozen residents opposed to annexation who attended the event, which was held in the courthouse rotunda. The gathering was celebratory, with the commissioners lauding residents who have organized against annexation.
Areas 1A and 1B are the two proposed areas that had more than 51 percent of remonstrance signatures, but less than the 65 percent needed to overturn annexation.
Municipalities in Indiana can annex people without consent. However, state law allows the effort to be voided with signatures from 65 percent of residents living in the area proposed for annexation.
Adopted Bloomington annexation areas (Courtesy map)
Attorneys for CRAA and the city have 45 days from May 3 to submit closing arguments. Judge Nathan Nikirk will issue a ruling afterward.
CRAA and the commissioners say they expect Nikirk’s ruling in August, possibly toward the end of the month.
Clements testified as a witness for CRAA at the trial. She said she was not persuaded by the arguments the city presented.
“In my opinion, the city did not prove their case; the burden is on them to prove, and they did not prove the case,” she said. “I felt that we made our case. I feel that the community members spoke up once again.”
Clements does not live in the areas being annexed, but as CRAA’s president, she has been a leading community voice against annexation.
Commissioner Julie Thomas said Thursday’s meeting was meant to celebrate the work of those who rallied against the city’s annexation attempt, which she and her fellow commissioners have opposed.
“We know the fight is not over; there are still legal battles to be fought, but we wanted to take a beat and thank them because this was a massive community grassroots effort like I’ve never seen,” Thomas said. “This was a really nice way to thank them and celebrate them.”
Julie Thomas (Lucas González, WFIU/WTIU News)
Thomas, who is on the board of directors for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit CRAA, testified at the recent trial.
She said annexation — at least as proposed — would not only affect the county’s financial bottom line but is not in county residents’ best interest.
“We have a lot of people who bought their home 20, 30, 40 years ago, they are retired, and they plan to age in place,” Thomas said. “They need that ability to stay in their home, but having an additional tax on their property tax would make it unaffordable to them. We hear a lot of talk about affordable housing; we have to keep housing affordable for people who are already here, too.”
Thomas added she believes annexation can be done well, but the current effort, spearheaded in 2017 by former Bloomington mayor John Hamilton, was too much all at once.
Thursday was also an opportunity to answer any questions from the community and to allow CRAA to regroup, as members could not do so during the trial, according to Thomas.
Both Clements and the commissioners described CRAA as the largest grassroots movement in recent memory in Monroe County. They spent much time Thursday thanking individual residents and offering them paper certificates for their efforts.
“The people said, ‘No,’ they did not want to be annexed,” Clements said. “It’s not because they hate the city, and it's not because they don't want to be part of something thing bigger than themselves. They just don't like what's going on around here, number one. Number two, the policy was a bad policy.”
That lawsuit is against former Monroe County Auditor Catherine Smith and the State of Indiana. Clements said Smith, who is now the county treasurer, had hoped to attend the Thursday event but could not attend.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect Catherine Smith's current title.
