Monday’s traveling town hall meeting with Mayor Kerry Thomson and councilmember Courtney Daily prompted questions about the removal of Flock cameras, monitoring of e-bikes and providing long-term housing for homeless residents.
Thomson began the meeting, which took place at Jackson Creek Middle School, by updating attendees on how Bloomington plans to replace funding for city parks after budget cuts from Senate Enrolled Act 1, a property tax relief law. Thomson said the city is relying on a state-wide grant from Lilly Endowment to maintain operations and facilitate future improvements.
Additionally, Thomson said that City of Bloomington Utilities has received a $2.3 million Environmental Protection Agency grant aimed at alleviating issues related to water quality. She cited the recent boil water advisory on Sept. 19 as a demonstration of the need for this investment.
Daily highlighted housing organizations including Heading Home of south central Indiana, a group that works to prevent homelessness by providing low-income housing and healthcare access, and a collaboration with their new Streets to Stability initiative, which connectsindividuals with year-long rental subsidies or long-term housing contracts.
“We are working zone by zone in the downtown with caseworkers to identify a name-by-name list of people who are sleeping outside routinely in those zones, and as they're identified, caseworkers begin to work with them and identify housing that will meet their needs,” Daily said.
Daily said their efforts resulted in "significant success” and an Oct. 2 press release from Heading Home confirmed Streets to Stability has moved 13 previously homeless individuals into housing.
On the development front, Daily said the Hopewell project, a housing development that will offer a mix of housing types at various price points, has entered the final stages of planning.
“That will have 98 homes,” she said. “They are compact lots, very modest sized houses all the way up to a 2,800 square foot house. And we also have some multifamily homes going in there.”
The floor was opened to questions, and one attendee asked if community members could expect “less visitors,” referring to the homeless, in Seminary Park.
“The park is a public park,” Thomson said. “We actually love visitors in Seminary Park, and anybody has a right to be in Seminary Park.”
Thomson did note that the city is monitoring “unwelcoming” behaviors, and said police have recently conducted significant drug busts at the park.
“My goal as mayor is to make Bloomington unwelcoming to anybody who's a predator and get people help if they have substance use disorder or another mental health disorder,” Thomson said.
Another attendee commented on the lack of oversight for high-speed e-bikes, which he said disrupt walkers in areas like the Jackson Creek Trail, and create fear of collision. Daily said the city council is working with Bloomington Police Chief Michael Diekhoff, parks and recreation director Tim Street and legislative affairs specialist Julius Mitchell to address unsafe e-bike users.
“We're not going to have officers chasing these kids down because that will end in disaster,” Daily said. “That is when they will get a little bit more reckless. They'll get scared.”
Daily said the focus is on safely contacting individuals and reprimanding them with a fine and possible repossession of bikes.
One attendee asked if two existing Flock surveillance cameras at Fountain Square would be removed. Flock cameras utilize built-in Automated License Plate Reader Technology, which has been criticized for compiling information about individuals that is then stored in a database accessible to law enforcement agencies contracted with Flock.
Thomson said that though the city has ended its contract with Flock following concerns of data sharing with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the cameras will not be removed. However, she said, the data will no longer be shared with Flock.
“We have made very good use of those cameras in solving two shootings now,” Thomson said. “They are a safety risk to remove those.”
Another attendee who supported the removal of the cameras asked if the city followed through with their intentions to cancel their contracts, regardless of the $3000 early-termination fee.
“We have communicated with Flock that we are not renewing any contracts with them,” Thomson said. “When these expire, they are expired. We have done that in writing within the timeframe that we committed to; that was done in the spring. We have not changed our position at all on it.”
Daily said discussions surrounding Flock will continue at Bloomington City Council’s next meeting Wednesday.
