With the Bloomington mayoral campaigns drawing to a close, each candidate has expressed different approaches to environmental policy.
John Hamilton, a Democrat, formerly served as the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. As mayor, he has said, he would continue working for the planet by implementing his ?Environmental Action Plan.
“Bloomington is a city with deep progressive values, and those values include being a steward of our environment, being a cultivator of our economy and helping our economy grow in meaningful ways that are sustainable,” Hamilton said. “I share ?those values.”
His list of initiatives is fairly long and more extensive than either of the other candidates. It includes installing solar panels on City Hall, implementing a citywide plastic bag disposal fee and reducing the use of motor vehicles by Bloomington personnel.
Hamilton said he also plans to track energy usage in commercial buildings and then make that data available to the public and work to implement a tiered pricing system for water to offer the cheapest prices to citizens using water in a ?conservative way.
Hamilton said he hopes to eliminate the use of certain herbicides and pesticides such as Round Up and require city employees to post signs where chemicals are sprayed.
“They’ll all take collaboration, for sure,” he said. “One of the good things we’ve learned is that environmental progress is often less difficult than people fear. Usually we make environmental progress at lower cost than doomsayers predict, and it produces better results than people thought. And I hope and expect that to be the case with many of these initiatives as well.”
Democrat Darryl Neher also has professional experience working toward a more eco-friendly city. He served as a founding member and vice chair of Bloomington’s Sustainability Commission.
In a press release issued on Earth Day, Neher applauded the progress Bloomington has already made, including ?raising the city’s Bicycle-Friendly Community ranking, certifying City Hall as a green building and lowering energy use in city-owned buildings.
“In the past dozen years, we’ve accomplished so much already towards protecting our local resources and natural environment, and under my administration we’ll pull from the best ideas from around the world to do even better,” Neher said in ?the release.
On April 8, Neher’s campaign team issued a press release that highlighted the candidate’s “Energy Innovation Strategy for Bloomington.” Like Hamilton, Neher promised to install solar panels on city buildings as well as encourage other solar projects in the community.
The other main initiatives highlighted in his plan are balancing efficiency investments with investments in renewable energy and potentially using microgrid technology in the Certified Tech Park. This, the release suggests, might be able to store energy using alternative energy sources and then keep technical businesses running when the normal power grid is not functioning properly in Bloomington.
Neher also expressed his plan to support the Monroe County Energy Challenge.
“A commitment to sustainability is a commitment to future generations who will call Bloomington home,” Neher said in an email to the IDS. “As a current council member and, possibly, the next mayor, I have an obligation to view city policy through the lens of sustainability — protecting our environment, fighting for social equity, enriching our cultural vibrancy, and enhancing our economic ?vitality.”
John Turnbull, the Republican candidate, has a different view on the mayor’s role in environmental initiatives. Rather than creating his own plans for increasing sustainability, the current Bloomington Sports Division director has chosen to leave that to ?the experts.
“The City of Bloomington currently has an Economic and Sustainable Development Department,” Turnbull said in an email. “Within that department is a very capable and competent Jacqui Bauer, sustainability coordinator.”
