Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady said this week's decision by the county board executive committee against approving a hiatus on sales tax sharing drives home the seriousness of the matter, as talks continue about the intergovernmental agreement to fund mental health and other services.
"Those are ... at the table, I don't know if they convey it enough to elected county board members to understand the delicacy of this," Brady said on WGLT's Sound Ideas.
The Town of Normal and City of Bloomington asked for a one-year suspension of collection of sales tax that funds jail expansion debt service, information technology upgrades used by police and the courts, behavioral health programs in the county jail, and other mental health services in the community.
The town and city point to a $20 million balance in the fund and the fact sales taxes have generated more revenue than expected 10 years ago when the intergovernmental agreement was first signed.
After months of behind-the-scenes talks, the city and town asked for a one-year pause in sales tax sharing because the fund has a lot of unspent money in it. Brady noted the city and town started out asking for a halt of more than a year.
Brady said he wants to learn more about where the money has gone, adding a lot has changed since the agreement began a decade ago.
"Is there something we can do locally ourselves within the City of Bloomington with that money. Certainly, there are lots of places that money could go," he said.
Echoing earlier comments made to WGLT by Normal City Manager Pam Reece, Brady said the mid-agreement re-assessment of the pact and its performance is reasonable, as would be a one-year hiatus. He added the conversation also should include the priorities for the remaining 10 years of the agreement.
“I'll give you a little example that struck me the other evening. I was doing a police ride-along, and a gentleman that was stopped out, wandering, walking ... It was ... a strange subject. Obviously, the gentleman had some issues. What struck me was the police were really in a situation where there's nowhere to point this gentleman,” said Brady. “If we're putting this money in [roughly $3 million annually for Bloomington] what are we getting in return?” said Brady.
He noted there was common ground to enter the agreement back in 2016. The main motivator might have been bonds to pay for the jail expansion and behavioral health programming at the jail to reduce how often the county had to use other jails for inmate overflow. Reassessing the benefits is another goal.
“I'm the mayor of Bloomington, so I want to see what's tangibly in this for Bloomington and have it as crystal clear as I possibly can,” said Brady.
Asked if the refusal to pause the collection of the sales tax portion makes renewal of the agreement 10 years from now less likely, Brady said, "I think anything's possible ... Remember that when negotiating in good faith, people come to it with different points of view, and that's the challenge. Where are you going to find that common ground?”
Reconcile Church
On another topic, Brady said the city had to move quickly to tear down the rest of the collapsed Reconcile Church on East Mulberry Street, instead of waiting for the church to arrange for demolition — even though it's costing the city money to do it. He said it was a matter of public safety.
“The city has to act for the environment of the citizens around, not only the church, but sightseers, those who come and go ... When I was there, there were individuals there that wanted to see if they couldn't get in to take stained glass windows to, save a relic of the church, etc. And unfortunately, that's the very type of thing you're trying to avoid,” said Brady.
The mayor said fencing off the ruin would have been insufficient.
“Then having a situation where somebody gets in behind the fencing, or whatever the case may be, and then ends up getting hurt. You were warned about the problem, meaning the city and the liability issue,” said Brady.
He said there also was a risk of further collapse, perhaps in the recent rain and wind storms, had the city not acted, adding it remains unclear what the demolition will cost the city, and the level of insurance carried by the congregation. As of Thursday, he was unaware of any history of problems.
“I'm trying to find out when was last time the city was in there to make an inspection. Talking briefly to the pastor, I think there have been some concerns with the roof and trying to work on some things,” said Brady. “Inspection-wise, [the] jury is still out on that, trying to get information whether there were complaints? Were there violations.”
Downtown streetscape
The city council's approval on Monday of a $13.2 million bid for the initial phase of the downtown streetscape project came after removing several million in costs. Factoring the cost of the city bringing some of the project work in-house, the total savings on the new plan is projected at $4.8 million, with city officials putting the value of the in-house labor from the parks and recreation and public works departments at $700,000.
Brady acknowledged there will be an opportunity cost — the time city staff will not spend doing regular duties.
“Where are you going to pull people from. They [staff] felt that from landscaping and other areas … maintenance, snow removal and so on,” said Brady, stressing that 76% of phase one of the project is underground: sewer, water, things like that.
"We are going to need to do that, especially for the areas west of that main section of downtown. We need to do that infrastructure work underground before you start sprucing up anything above ground,” he said.
The millions removed make up a significant chunk of money, yet staff have contended the cost-cutting will not appreciably cheapen or reduce the product. How can both things happen?
“That remains to be seen as in any project. Any project I’ve ever been involved with in government, the costs continue to rise the longer the delay goes on,” said Brady.
The mayor also expressed thanks to Stark and Co, the contractor, for a willingness to revise the project and its commitment to move the project ahead.
