Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council approves $4.3 million GO bond after debate over project specificity
Summary
The Bloomington Common Council voted 7–2 on Nov. 20 to adopt Ordinance 2024-24, authorizing up to $4.3 million in general-obligation bonds to fund capital projects including parks and transportation work. Council and the public pressed administration and bond counsel for tighter project definitions and assurances about legal limits on changing the project list after sale.
The Bloomington Common Council on Wednesday approved Ordinance 2024-24 authorizing the issuance of general-obligation bonds not to exceed $4,300,000 to finance capital projects across the city.
City Controller Jessica McClellan said the bond issuance will preserve the city’s healthy fund balance while allowing the administration to fund transportation, parks and other capital needs without raising the tax rate. “Bonding is the tool in our toolbox to fund capital expenses when our levy is not keeping up with our actual growth,” she told council members.
Bond counsel Thomas Cameron (Quarles & Brady) told the council the issuance will be a general-obligation, tax-exempt bond and described why Exhibit A — the list of eligible projects — is drafted as an exhaustive list. Municipal advisor Matt Frisci and underwriter Landon Boehm outlined the short timetable to market and the plan for pricing and closing in early December.
Council members focused their questions on three areas: how the city’s per-capita debt figure was calculated and whether certain debt categories were included; whether the project list in Exhibit A can be altered after the bonds are sold; and the effective maturity of the financing. Bond counsel said changes to Exhibit A would practically require bondholder consent and explained that the list is intentionally narrow to meet market and tax-exemption expectations.
Several members also pressed the administration for more specificity about which transportation projects would be funded, noting that Exhibit A contains both narrowly defined items (roof replacement at named park structures) and large buckets for engineering and transportation work. Controller McClellan said the administration plans workshops with council and staff before spending proceeds and acknowledged that cost-of-issuance expenses were “penciled into” the engineering bucket.
Public commenters expressed concern that broad project descriptions could allow future administrations to spend bond proceeds in ways the council and voters did not expect. The ordinance passed on a roll call vote of 7–2 (Yes: Flaherty, Zulek, Piedmont Smith, Stasberg, Asari, Rosenbarger, Daley; No: Rallo, Ruff).
The ordinance cites Indiana Code section 36-4-6-19. Council members and staff said they expect the proceeds to be appropriated and the sale to close in December; the administration said it will return to council with workshops on prioritizing specific transportation and engineering projects.
The bond ordinance now moves forward to sale and closing; proceeds will be available to fund the listed projects and for the city to pursue related DLGF notifications and levy calculations.
