HREN
Let's start with John, he writes in each of the candidates has unique experiences they claim makes them the most qualified to lead the city. He notes your time as deputy mayor, and he asks, what was your number one accomplishment? And how did you make it happen?
GRIFFIN
Oh, my gosh, um, I guess just collaborating, you know, the Deputy Mayor's job is one of those things, you kind of have to be a wizard, you have to know how to assemble the right pieces and the right people to to accomplish certain jobs. I tell you, the, you know, the the fire ranking, that our fire station has the police ranking of parks, it was already doing well. But also just projects that I had previously been been working on, on the progress of those. I was working as deputy mayor, but also as the president of the redevelopment commission, working on the Hopewell. That's, that's a big thing that's going to be transformative for our community. I also think diversity and inclusion and accessibility, really leaning in to programs that we were we already have. But going further, actually going further with a lot of the projects that we have, whether it's the Climate Change plan that we have developing a diversity and inclusion plan, and Accessibility Plan, like really digging into things that that that our community finds, dear. The thing is, is this team that I became part of they've been doing it for a while they've been doing it for six years before I came along, not quite six years, but you understand. And so it was it was really an honor for me to step into that role, and help them continue to create community. But it's been the greatest job of my life.
HREN
So the follow up on that Dave, also, emails in: the deputy mayor role has been different for different mayors. A consultant study recently suggested that Bloomington could benefit from two deputy mayors so what role would the deputy mayor play in your administration? Beyond loyalty? What specific skill set or knowledge are you looking for in a deputy mayor? And then one more Cleo wants to know who will you name as deputy?
GRIFFIN
Oh my gosh, okay, so first of all, I'm not gonna tell you who I'm gonna name as deputy mayor. You know, it's, it's about assembling the right pieces. I know that. I know that I'm a big picture person. Right. So I have to find my YIng to my Yang. I need someone that's detail oriented, that, that can look at my big picture ideas and say, okay, Don, we need to pare these down a little bit. So that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a taskmaster master, that will not only help help me keep my staff on point, but also keep me on point. The deputy mayor, the job that I had, all the all the department heads would report to me. And I think we'll continue that on that we went ahead and created a new position within the office of the mayor. And, and so that that position kind of is a is very similar to the report that we that we looked at where it said that we would need to deputy mayors, we would need to. So we've actually got a chief of staff that takes on the role that that that report talked about having when they talked about having two deputy mayors, one was going to take care of the day to day operations of the Office of the Mayor, as well as, as the other deputy mayor was going to take over the primary deputy mayor would continue to take the job of the entire the entire administration. And so we kind of have that going on already. So more of that.
HREN
Michael asks, What do you say to those who seek change and see you as a continuation of the Hamilton administration?
GRIFFIN
Wow. You know, me, me and John are different people. But I think we have to remember the fact that a lot has a lot of good has been done and I'm not willing to throw away all the positive things that the Hamilton administration has done, I just want to build on top of that, I've got my own ideas. But I can only do those ideas because the foundation has already been laid. Like, we have a lot of buildings that we've done a lot of ideas that we've put forward over the last, and we had two things had got had to be adjusted, whether they were our fire trucks or our, our, our, the way we did policing. Right, I think this next chapter is more about the heart of our community, I think we have to start thinking about creating place, a sense of place for all because I think and continue on with the progress that we've made with our infrastructure, you know, with more housing, and that kind of those kinds of opportunities, but I think we really, really got to have to focus on on who we are as a community, and where we're going to go forward. And that's, that's why I'm here.
HREN
Kathy wants to know, what's your vision for the future of the Bloomington farmers market, having multiple markets doesn't have the same community feel, she feels that the city didn't handle all the disruption in a very positive manner previously, do you see a path to combine the markets in a good way for Bloomington?
GRIFFIN
I don't, I don't think, um, I don't think they need to be combined. But I do think they all need to be embraced. And we all need to work together. It, you know, sometimes a problem becomes an opportunity. And I've had a chance to visit all the, all the farmers markets that are now out there. And each one has its own character. And each one is a different type of character. They're all Bloomington. They're all creations of Bloomingtonians, right? They're just they just have different fields. So if we can get to a place get to a place where, where there are some collaboration, and, and respect for all, I think we can move forward, we can Oh, my gosh, we could be this community that people come into regionally, to go to all our different farmers markets. So that's kind of what I see, I, you know, we go me and my wife, we like mid century modern and so we can go into a community and they've got a map, we'll go into one place, antique store, and it'll show us all the other antique places that we might be able to go to. So I think we can do the same type of thing for our farmers market.
HREN
David asks, can you please explain in the specific detail how you would address the need to expand housing opportunities, so residents don't have to leave Bloomington?
GRIFFIN
Oh, my gosh, there, we've got to be more creative on the type of housing that we have. There are cottage communities that were several little houses can fit on less than an acre of ground. Right now we can't do that. There are micro condos that we can consider. I know one micro condo that has a five units that sits right next to the right on the B-Line right next to the what's the, trying to think Hopscotch, sits right next to that building, and no one even notices it. But there's five units that are for purchase. And, and we can do more of those. You know, I don't know if we need to use the term Plex. But if you think about that, those micro condos are a type of Plex, I think we also need to look at a different different type of ownership. So we can look at Co Op situations, we can take existing condos or not condos, but existing apartments that are 30 40 years old, and can have investors convert those into affordable condos. There's all kinds of opportunities there. I had the the planning department utilities and hand start mapping out areas within Bloomington that are underutilized. Sometimes you'll see a house on one and a half acres, but we've got sewer right there. So there's opportunities for more density. If you see what these out of town developers are doing, they are taking existing properties, tearing them down and building much, much bigger places. We don't want to duplicate that. But we can learn from that on a more local level. We can look at how smaller housing opportunities and decide to build more density on those houses in those housing lots. So don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about putting a Evolve size building in your neighborhood, but there are these opportunities to have that same kind of thought process on a different scale. But yeah, and honestly, we're going to still have to look, we're going to have to talk of reevaluate our relationship with the county. Annexation has kind of created these, this division. And I'm not gonna there's no one that we should blame. We can't really blame. That's that's happened. It's it's past. But our community still, Bloomington still needs to grow. I think there's opportunities to talk to the county about areas that are not in the we're not in courts, and kind of look at voluntary annexation in those areas, because we're still going to have to grow. And we've got, we actually have, I talked about future Blucher Poole plant that somebody else can tell me if I'm pronouncing that, right. But that's an underutilized water treatment plant, not water treatment plant, but sewer treatment plant that takes that that's designed to go up north past Oliver winery. So we have an opportunity for more housing, with collaboration with the county and the city to get a lot more housing that we that we desperately need in this community.
HREN
This is from Bill now. He says there is no published audit information for this is wrong since 2017.
GRIFFIN
That's wrong. So Bill, I think one of my competitors is out there saying that that stuff. Look, the last audit was 2020. Right. The last time it was 2020. And what people are not saying is that the state is the one who who schedules the audits, not the city of Bloomington. So the state has done one and 2020. And I don't know when the state is scheduled to do another audit. So that's not on that's not on the city of Bloomington. I know. People want to keep hearing that. And either they don't know what they're talking about, or they're misleading the community.
HREN
Let me ask you this, then what would your position as mayor on transparency and financial tread transactions for the city be?
GRIFFIN
Continued a transaction trend continued? Clarity, I think with the lack of, of local media, I mean, you guys are doing a great job. But you understand there's a lot more players out there that are they're gone. And so it's going to be up to us to make sure that that the information we have is sent out in many different forms, and more consistent and easier to find. You can find these things right now. But you really need to know what it is that you're looking for to actually put it in and say this is what I'm looking for. We've got to be it's got to be easier. I don't know if that's where we you know, we're underutilized and cats the city pays $440,000 a year to cats and I think the county pays an additional amount of money. CATS-TV is always looking for programming, always looking for programming. We've got to do a better job. I was trying to as deputy mayor, I've been trying to actually build our communications department. It's for the next stage, because we're going to have to start providing the cute communications for the city of Bloomington and for the surrounding areas.
HREN
Rob wants to know how you would support the fire department and he says firefighters need raises the police continue to get all the support but the fire department is forgotten about what are you willing to do?
GRIFFIN
You know the fire department is not forgotten about but we are we are at a stage where I do worry. I think we're 23 People 23 folks down right now. Their their current salary is significantly lower than the police currently and in the trend. If you look at the national trend, they're usually very, very close. And we are getting folks outside of Bloomington taking our people away. And some of them are real close and some of them are further up north Northern Indiana. So I would definitely look at I would definitely look at some negotiations on getting them to a level that is competitive. I don't want to spend more money on trying to get new recruits. I don't want to be 40 people down. By the time it's we're ready to renegotiate their contract. I think we kind of have to start it early. But I will say this, I need to look at it. I need to look at the books, I need to talk to the controller. Because when we're looking at these things, we're looking at the impact of the entire the entire budget. And so yes, we I'm interested in talking to them. I want to make it happen, but I want to be fiscally responsible for I guarantee it.
HREN
The city has formed 501-C3 nonprofit organizations to manage the trades district, Waldron, Buskirk and others to move initiatives forward take some of the burden off of city officials, the administration wants to use the same mechanism to expand the convention center. Do you agree with that method - using the 501-C3?
GRIFFIN
The 501-C3, if you know the background, a lot of those buildings right now that we're talking about are are owned by the RTC, the redevelopment commission. And it's their job to create redevelopment to foster growth. It's not their job to hold on to these buildings. And right now they're holding on to the buildings. They're managing, but they're not. They're not really capable of managing the buildings. There, RTC is supposed to purchase something, and then let it go. Right now we've got a lot of properties, we've got the trades district, we've got hope. Well, if you see that I was I was by there today and the grass is way too high on Second Street. And that's because right now, there's really no one that says there's no entity that says, hey, we need to take care of this, the 501-C3 is built for that kind of thing. So it has a ying and yang type of group that would take care of things long term. So it's not a it's nothing to be fearful of - the the split right now, I think they're proposing like a four, four for the mayor and one for the I don't I don't know the exact numbers one for the council, I think maybe that needs to be adjusted. And then as far as the convention center, the convention itself just needs to get done. We've been waiting too long, we've been paying taxes, the folks have been paying taxes, let's see how the collaboration with the county and the city works. Let's go forward with this. Right? Make sure that that everybody's getting their needs man, and we're doing a a, it needs to be a world class event, offense space, it needs to be flexible, it needs to have the arts, our our, our ideas, our future ideas in regards to arts and cultural and music. And plus our civic, we want to be this progressive school of of progressive community, and a place where progressives come in and convene and, and push out ideas to the rest of the world to the rest of Indiana and so forth. So it needs to be built for that. And I think if we all agree on on that we do need this, then we just need to move forward. So I'm, I hope I'm not being too long, but the 501-C3, I think we can eliminate that when we're talking about the the convention center right now.
HREN
Anne writes in, what do you think of the traffic closure on the 500 block of East Kirkwood the restaurants using the public streets for six months of the year to the possible detriment of other types of businesses?
GRIFFIN
You know, um, when I talked to the most of the restaurants there, they love it, the community loves it. And maybe even eventually, that may be a permanent I think I think this is kind of a pilot project to see how that would work. So So you know, long term idea is curbless a curbless Kirkwood with with most likely street closures all the time. I'm not saying that's gonna happen in the next five years or 10 years or what have you, but there will be studies and the public likes this. The students like it. There's other communities that do it and they do it long term. There's we're still going to have to talk and see and talk to the people that it's not working for and see what we can do about about their issues. It There's sometimes there comes a time where property is worth more doing something than what it currently is worth. And there might be a better place for. For that particular business guy. I hate to say that. I'm sorry. But I think I think we are headed to a time where Kirkwood could be closed off. And you know, I think if we remember that Bloomington is a multi generational community, then and we can prepare for that, because that's what I don't want to see. I don't want to see a place where folks who have accessibility issues can't experience the restaurants that they like and Kirk in the in the Kirkwood that they've grown up with. So we've got to figure out a way how that all can can how we all can live together with an exist a Kirkwood that's either closed off permanently or closed off us on a seasonal basis.
HREN
All right, Donald writes in his he has a few low hanging quality of life issues that he'd like to see the next mayor tackle so banning app based scooters and E bikes, banning off highway gas engines like leaf blowers lawn mores, and then porous parking lot requirements, do you have stances on those?
GRIFFIN
So I'm all for for for porous parking lot requirements. I love that I love that idea. I really am pushing when you look at our climate action plan, I am pushing for small gas engines to be eliminated from the city of Bloomington. We're definitely working on that with our own staff trying to convert small engine appliances or equipment that the parks uses and our Public Works uses. So yes, I love that idea. The scooters you know we have 45,000 students say that that all of them don't use it but it's part of our Go Bloomington plan it's part of creating micro transit abilities and getting less getting getting cars off the streets. And so I think that will be part of it. I think more training needs to be done I think we're we're working with geo fencing and we're working with getting the the our partners are the companies that own these these scooter companies and E bikes companies I think we're we're getting them to be more responsive. And and think about safety more I think we even have a proposal I think our next proposal if we sign it it's going to require more bikes a more a larger percentage of of electric bikes and scooters not a larger percentage of but you understand what I'm saying. But I'm actually for that in a safe a safe way. In some communities, it's actually the wheel size that that like the the wheels that we have are too small and they when we hit bumps when folks hit bumps it can have that turnover effect so there's there's a size requirement in some communities like folks we're not reinventing the wheel other communities had the scooters way before we did and they've put things safety requirements in place and and and laws in place. That that protect protect folks.
HREN
Michael writes in what assurances can you offer regarding your ability to prevent your business and real estate interest from inappropriately affecting your actions or influences Mayor?
GRIFFIN
I don't know if a lot of people know this I had to recuse myself from from Griffin Realty while I was deputy mayor all the all the all the the boards and commissions had to sign a resolution saying that they would not do business with Griffin Realty. So for the last two years, that was my my relationship with Griffin Realty was was in my name only Lee and so I will continue to do that and maybe even more it will actually be a true blind trust. If I become mayor, I will make sure that that that I don't have any dealings with Griffin Realty at all. I will not get rid of Griffin Realty I will not that's my you know, I grew up poor. That's my generational wealth. I created a multimillion dollar business with with with no money and and so I've I've got a kid, I've got a family. He may have kids. I've built a brand. I want that to continue. I can't sorry, I can't get get rid of that. That's, you know.
HREN
Victoria emails in some of the nicest neighborhoods in Bloomington evolved within a racist classist, Bloomington what would you do to read to diversify these neighborhoods make it available to more people while preserving the quality?
GRIFFIN
You know, that's, that's a really good point. It's, and I'm gonna make I'm gonna some of this the people that are most concerned about the quality of their neighborhood. They're talking about neighborhoods that they already gentrified that were either working class or African American with these walkable communities. And no one was concerned when it wasn't their neighborhood. No one was saying, let's keep it, let's preserve it for these folks. where I'm going with that is that we have we can keep the character of these neighborhoods but we have to figure out a way to bring a net another generation in. And if that includes some density, some extra density on some of the blocks or some of the yards, then I'm I'm all for it. As long as the character is in play, I studied architecture. So I'm I live in one of those I live in I live in am heights, and I love the field. But my gosh, I don't know if I think we would be a better community. If we had more diversity in these neighborhoods from a socio economic standpoint, as well, as a racial standpoint, I think we would serve our community better, it would serve us all better. We are this. We are this multi generational community with all these different colors and different types of people. But we're still in silos. We're still all living in these in parallel lives without mixing it together. And we could be just this amazing community and have amazing neighborhoods, if we would allow it to happen. So that's
HREN
Casey wants to know how you would handle the drug crisis without punitive action for those suffering from addiction. Will you plan on any drug decriminalization efforts?
GRIFFIN
I would, you know, when it when it comes to? For from from a policing standpoint, within the city? I think so. But there that's a county that's really a county thing. So, so, no, but it Do I think we we as a policing community need to revise how we meet people? I definitely think we do. So so I'll do my best. I think that's what I can tell.
HREN
All right, last question. Nissy emails in what would you do as mayor to deal with the deer problem?
GRIFFIN
Oh my gosh, why is this a thing? Plus the deer thing a thing? It's always a thing. It's a thing. And I'd love to know where she's coming from whether or not she wants more deer, or, or doesn't want deer or just she wants to preserve the do that like there's on that one. There are so many I mean, we even did we aren't we've already done. Hasn't there's already been research done on this recently and tell her I don't know. I'm telling Nissy. I don't know. I don't want you know, I've got I've got a few there are a few people on council actually, who who have had like gotten Lyme disease. Yeah. So they they're very passionate about hey, we've got too much deer and I saw six deer in my yard yesterday and I live in Elm heights. It And I think they're lovely. But eventually, you know, when nature gets that close things happen. My dog is, you know, they're scared of my dog. I mean, it's just I think more research needs to be done. But Nissy, I think something actually needs to be done. Besides research. I'm just not sure what that is yet.
HREN
Well, we really appreciate you coming in today. Like I said, we had over 100 emails. We appreciate your time and effort from our listeners and viewers. Thank you very much.
GRIFFIN
Thank you.
