After a six-week summer recess, the Bloomington City Council returned to work as usual with its July 22 meeting, followed by its July 29 meeting the next week. Here’s what happened:
Kirkwood closure
Though anticipated, the council did not vote to overturn the mayor's veto on a piece of legislation about Kirkwood Avenue at its first of the two meetings.
Despite a relatively calm return to business as usual for the council, which passed a single piece of legislation at each of its July meetings, the council remained divided on Ordinance 2026-12. The legislation would close sections of Kirkwood Avenue to cars from April 1 to Nov. 15 annually, precluding emergency street openings by the city engineer.
The council passed Ordinance 2026-12 in a 5-4 vote at its June 10 meeting before going on a summer recess. On June 22, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson announced that she was vetoing the ordinance.
"This is particularly significant as Indiana communities adjust to Senate Enrolled Act 1, which creates substantial uncertainty for municipal revenue and long-term financial planning," Thomson wrote in a letter to the city addressing her veto. "In that environment, the City must be especially disciplined about adopting recurring commitments."
The council needed a two-thirds majority to overrule the veto at its next meeting.
The vote was 4-4, with Council President Isak Nti Asare, Parliamentarian Courtney Daily, Matt Flaherty and Kate Rosenbarger voting in favor of a seasonally carless Kirkwood. Councilmembers Hopi Stosberg, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, Dave Rollo and Andy Ruff voted against passing the legislation, and Council Vice President Sydney Zulich was absent due to illness. The results were consistent with the June 10 vote on the same subject.
Bloomington began closing Kirkwood to vehicle traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has continued to do so in a seasonal manner, encouraging restaurants to expand their outdoor seating into the street.
In January 2025, the council passed Ordinance 2025-02, legislation that similarly called for annual Kirkwood closures and expanded the Outdoor Dining Program. The city announced earlier this year that it planned to reopen Kirkwood to vehicle traffic, and the council spent recent months debating the issue.
New Monroe County jail
Monroe County Board of Commissioners President Julie Thomas and Commissioner Jody Madeira spoke publicly at the July 22 meeting and requested that the council consider the Hopewell site as a location for a new Monroe County jail. The county has been involved in litigation over conditions in the jail since 2008, including a newly filed lawsuit earlier this month.
Hopewell is a city-led development, and the mayor and council have both called for the building of affordable housing on the site, despite various disagreements over its future. The council spent months discussing, and after multiple delays, passing a Planned Unit Development to rezone the area to meet specific affordable and sustainable development goals.
"There is an important caveat, however,” Thomas said during the meeting’s public comment portion. “We cannot utilize this site if it will require a full plan commission and city council review because that would mean an additional minimum of nine months of time that we really do not have."
Thomas suggested that the county could purchase Hopewell property from the city or arrange a land swap for the Thomson property, a county-owned piece of land on South Rogers Street that has often been a site for homeless encampments.
Piedmont-Smith declined to support the commissioners' request in a July 27 open letter that Stosberg said in the July 29 meeting she "wanted to second," citing a lack of any prior consideration for Hopewell as a possible jail site.
In the letter, she wrote that the request didn't take into account recent recommendations from a joint local government task force, the Collaborative Justice Project Working Subcommittee, which the commissioners opted out of having a representative in.
"All the reasons for the urgency you are now citing to build a new jail have existed for nearly 18 years, and that is the responsibility of your office," Piedmont-Smith wrote in the letter.
On July 13, the subcommittee voted 3-2 in favor of recommending the current jail be renovated, with the Thomson property as its second choice for a new jail location. Hopewell was not one of the top five sites considered, Piedmont-Smith wrote.
Fire Merit Commission
At the July 29 meeting, the council passed Ordinance 2026-15 unanimously, which will amend the Bloomington Municipal Code to recognize the Bloomington Fire Department's Fire Merit Commission.
The commission was established in January 2025 to oversee the hiring, promoting and disciplining of the fire department. The city council, mayor and fire department appoint commission members. The new ordinance clarifies that the Bloomington Board of Public Safety still oversees the fire department, except for the employment responsibilities the merit commission has taken over.
The city council's next regular meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 5, in the Council Chambers of City Hall.
