Both races for Monroe County commissioner are contested this year. In one race, incumbent Democrat Julie Thomas is competing with Peter Iversen for the party’s nomination. Iversen currently serves on the county council.
In the other race, incumbent Democrat Penny Githens is competing for the nomination with Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor, and Steve Volan, who lost his re-election bid to the Bloomington city council last year.
On Saturday afternoon, four Democratic Party candidates for the three at-large seats on the Monroe County council fielded questions at a forum that took place in the auditorium of the downtown Bloomington location of the Monroe County Public Library.
Over the course of 90 minutes, they answered more than a dozen questions that asked for their thoughts on balancing mental health services against building a new jail, financing a new jail, housing, and reducing the cost of child care, among other topics.
In the council at-large race, eligible voters in Monroe County choose up to three candidates. No Republican candidates declared a candidacy in the primary.
Vying for one of the three seats are incumbents Trent Deckard and Cheryl Munson. Hoping for their first turn of service on the seven-member county council are Matt Caldie and David Henry. Incumbent Geoff McKim is not seeking re-election.
The full forum is available on CATS. Below is a summary of just a few highlights, which are not organized in the chronological order of the forum.
The event was hosted by the League of Women Voters of Bloomington-Monroe County, and cosponsored by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, Monroe County NAACP, Monroe County NOW, IU PACE, IU BIG Voting Challenge, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Kappa Tau Omega Chapter.
Purple shading indicates more yes votes than no votes. Orange shading indicates more no votes than yes votes.
The 8.5-cent property tax increase, which was proposed by MCCSC, and now approved by voters, is supposed to pay for early childhood education programs.
The margin for the referendum approval was thin—just 108 votes out of over 10,000 ballots cast.
Here’s the raw total breakdown: 5,229 yes to 5,121 no. That’s 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent.
The narrow passage reflected a number of concerns, including the fact that voters had just last year approved an MCCSC referendum.
Other voters expressed a lack of confidence in the current MCCSC administration, at least in part fueled by a recent controversy about unifying the daily schedules of all four Bloomington high schools.
The MCCSC referendum showed uneven support inside Bloomington compared to outside the city. That’s based on the precinct-by-precinct tallies released by the county clerk’s office.
Hawk still voted in favor of the salary ordinance for non-elected county employees, which included an 8.5-percent raise, and a roughly 11-percent raise for those workers who are lowest on the salary grid.
Hawk was also the sole vote of dissent on the salary ordinance for elected officials, which included the same 8.5-percent increase as for other county employees.
After the meeting, Hawk clarified to The B Square that when faced with an up-or-down vote on the same percentage increase for all elected officials, she felt she had to vote it down—because she was not in favor of the same increase for all county elected officials. She put it like this: “I would just say that I’m not as inclined to approve of the jobs some of them do. Most do a great job. Most do.”
On Tuesday, county council president Kate Wiltz noted that the 2024 budget does not include funding for the planned new jail facility. No decision has yet been made on a site, even if the county is taking steps to consider the Thomson PUD as a location for the new jail.
Lawrence county circuit court photo of special judge for Bloomington annexation lawsuit Nathan Nikirk
The plot of dots is from the 2020 census. 1 dot = 1 person counted in the census, with randomized locations within each census block.
Early Thursday, special judge Nathan Nikirk issued an order that says the Bloomington annexation trials for Area 1A and Area 1B will now go forward.
The ruling came after a hearing held Wednesday morning on the question of whether Nikirk should grant the city of Bloomington’s request that he lift a stay, which Nikirk had imposed in early September, on the annexation trials for the two areas.
With the stay now lifted, the trials for Area 1A and Area 1B, which lie to the west and southwest of the city, can now be scheduled. They probably would not start until early 2024. But Nikirk has set a conference for Oct. 23, to sort out the timing.
Bloomington’s request for certification of its appeal of the original stay order, so that the city could go in front of the court of appeals on the question of the stay, became moot under the order that Nikirk issued on Thursday. So Nikirk denied Bloomington’s request for the appeal certification.
Early Wednesday morning, special judge Nathan Nikirk heard procedural arguments in the Bloomington annexation trials for Area 1A and Area 1B, which are west of the city.
Lawrence county circuit court special judge for Bloomington annexation lawsuit Nathan Nikirk
Nikirk said he would likely issue a ruling on the question in front of him “first thing in the morning,” which would mean early Thursday, Oct. 19.
The question for Wednesday was whether Nikirk should grant the city of Bloomington’s request that he lift his stay, which Nikirk had imposed in early September, on the annexation trials for Area 1A and Area 1B.
The stay, which is the legal term for a pause, was meant to allow a constitutional question concerning annexation waivers to get resolved, before conducting the statutorily defined trials for the two areas. The constitutional question bears on a 2019 law that invalidated older annexation waivers, which is the subject of some separate lawsuits filed by Bloomington.
If Nikirk’s decision on Thursday is for Bloomington, that would mean going ahead with the annexation trials for the two areas, just as soon as they can be put on the court’s calendar.
Lawrence county circuit court photo of special judge for Bloomington annexation lawsuit Nathan Nikirk
The city of Bloomington is now executing a two-pronged approach to overcoming a setback in early September, in its effort to get a standard annexation trial moving ahead.
In early September, special judge Nathan Nikirk put off a standard judicial review of the Area 1A and Area 1B annexations, which were approved by Bloomington’s city council two years ago. The areas are located to just to the west of the city boundary.
Nikirk’s Nov. 5 ruling said that the standard annexation trials for Area 1A and Area 1B would be delayed, until Bloomington’s related, but separate litigation—over constitutional questions related to annexation waivers—is resolved. At the time, resolution seemed like a couple years away.
But that separate litigation is now resolved—at least as far as it affects Area 1A and Area 1B. On Sept. 19, special judge Kelsey Hanlon out of Owen County granted Bloomington’s motion for dismissal of the Area 1A and Area 1B constitutional cases, and agreed to reconsolidate just the five remaining lawsuits.
That appears to satisfy the “until” condition in Nikirk’s Sept. 5 order. That is, the separate litigation, as it relates to Area 1A and Area 1B, is now resolved.
Ten days ago, the city of Bloomington lost an argument in court, to move ahead with the standard judicial review of annexation for two areas west of town.
The shading on the map reflects a 1-dot-per-person plot based on the population of census blocks as measured in the 2020 decennial census.
Two days later, on Sept. 7, the city of Bloomington filed a motion to start the process to appeal the ruling of special judge Nathan Nikirk, out of Lawrence County.
Nikirk had ordered that the standard annexation trials for Area 1A and Area 1B would be delayed, until Bloomington’s related but separate litigation—over constitutional questions related to annexation waivers—is resolved.
In addition to the appeals process, the city of Bloomington has now started another procedure that could lead to faster scheduling of a standard annexation trial for the two areas. The idea is to take a step towards quick resolution of the related constitutional litigation—but just for Area 1A and Area 1B.
On Wednesday, Bloomington’s legal tactic was to file a motion to dismiss its own lawsuits for Area 1A and Area 1B, over the constitutional question of waivers.
Lawrence county circuit court photo of special judge for Bloomington annexation lawsuit Nathan Nikirk
Order issued on Sept. 5, 2023 by judge Nathan Nikirk
The special judge assigned to a Bloomington annexation case has ruled that a standard trial to which remonstrators are entitled will not go ahead in mid-November as originally scheduled.
That’s what remonstrators in Area 1A and Area 1B had requested—a delay on those proceedings, until some related litigation has been settled. The related litigation was initiated by the city of Bloomington, on constitutional grounds.
The related litigation will start to come into clearer focus in the next three months, because the current case management plan calls for a Dec. 10 hearing on the city’s motion for summary judgment.
The shading on the map reflects a 1-dot-per-person plot based on the population of census blocks as measured in the 2020 decennial census.
After hearing oral arguments for a little more than one hour on Friday morning, judge Nathan Nikirk told attorneys for annexation remonstrators, and for the city of Bloomington, that he’d take their arguments under advisement.
Then he told them he would issue a ruling next Tuesday, the day after Labor Day.
That means on Sept. 5, Nikirk will answer this question: Should the standard annexation trial for Area 1A and Area 1B be put off—until a constitutional question about the status of annexation waivers is resolved?
[Updated Sept. 5 at 3:01 p.m. Nikirk granted the request by remonstrators for a stay on the trial. Here’s a link: Nikirk’s order on the motion.]
Nikirk is the special judge appointed in the case. His home court is in Lawrence County, but the hearing on Friday morning was held at the Charlotte Zietlow Justice Center in downtown Bloomington.
