Councilmanic

District VI is the centermost of Bloomington’s six councilmanic [sic] districts. Below I’ve appended a list of the streets which bound District VI, as well as neighborhoods and IU residence halls within the district.

The boundary runs right down the middle of the street. The Bluebird, for example, is in District VI. The Video Saloon, across Walnut Street, is not. (If you live across the street from District VI, that doesn’t mean I can’t be of assistance to you, but the moral weight of you being my constituent is absent.)

BOUNDARIES OF DISTRICT VI

• 17th Street…from Walnut to Fee
• Fee Lane…from 17th to 10th
• 10th Street…from Fee to Jordan
• Jordan Avenue…from 10th to 7th
• 7th Street…from Jordan to Union
• Union Street…from Jordan to 3rd
• 3rd Street…from Union to High
• High Street…from 3rd to Hunter
• Hunter Street…from High to Fess
• Fess Avenue…from Hunter to 1st
• 1st Street…from Fess to Walnut
• Walnut Street…from 1st to 17th

NEIGHBORHOODS PARTLY OR WHOLLY IN DISTRICT VI

• Eastside
• Elm Heights
• Garden Hill
• Old Northeast

INDIANA UNIVERSITY RESIDENCE HALLS IN DISTRICT VI

• Collins LLC
• Briscoe Quad
• McNutt Quad
• Read Center
• Forest Quad
• Willkie Quad

Because Bloomington is more than half the population of Monroe County, the city and county governments rival each other in size. City and county government meetings run side by side all the time on Channel 12, the local cable TV channel devoted to government. Both city and county have executive and legislative branches.

As a result, people are always confusing the two. I have on several occasions been mistaken for a member of the county legislative body.

If you want an example of how politics is not necessarily always about political parties, survey any ten county employees and ask them to comment on their counterparts in city government, and vice versa. (You may have to filter out some choice language.)

So how to differentiate the city and county governments?

Let’s start with their bosses. The city’s chief executive is the Mayor. The chief executive body of each county in Indiana is made up of a panel of three people called “Commissioners.”

The city’s highest legislative body is the aforementioned nine-member Council. The county also has a Council, made up of seven members: four represent districts, three represent the whole county at-large.

Everyone serves four-year terms. The mayor is elected at the same time as the city councilmembers, in the year before a presidential election. The county has elections in even-numbered years; they stagger the seats of both Commissioners and Councilmembers so that not everyone is elected at the same time. (I don’t know why we don’t do that in Indiana cities, but that’s state law for ya.)

The biggest difference I see between city and county is that in the city, laws are passed by the Council, but in the county, laws are passed by the Commissioners. Yes, the executive also does legislation. The primary role of the county Council is fiscal: they approve the county’s annual budget, which gives them a lot of influence over policy, but it’s not the same as actually writing and approving laws.

One thing that confuses people is where everyone does their thing. Since Bloomington is the county seat, most county government activities take place within the city limits. The Monroe County Courthouse is smack-dab in the center of the city, and most county offices are downtown just like City Hall. County employees can be found all over downtown Bloomington. (This actually creates a political issue with one of the b?™tes noires of any locality’s politics: parking. I’ll be covering that topic soon enough.)

There’s more to untangle, such as what responsibilities are the county’s and what are the city’s. But this is good for starters.

# # #

Here is the Monroe County Courthouse, the very heart of downtown Bloomington.

 

Bloomington (70,000) is the only “city” in Monroe County (120,000), and the county seat. The next largest population center is Ellettsville (5,000), which is too small to be a city and so is called a “town.” The only other population center incorporated in Monroe County (in other words, measured by the Census) is Stinesville (200).¬†

In 2000, the Census Bureau determined that Greene and Owen Counties are part of the Bloomington metropolitan area, because a significant percentage (I think more than 25%) of residents of those counties commute to work in Bloomington. Thus, the metropolitan area of Bloomington is now somewhere around 180,000. (The city’s government, of course, only has jurisdiction within the city’s limits.)

And yes, the figure on the weathervane top of the Courthouse is a fish. That’s a long story.

# # #

Indiana has three classes of cities. There is only one “first-class” city, which is defined simply as being more than 250,000 population. That city is Indianapolis, also the state capital. It has a mayor and a 25-person city council.¬†

Then there are “second-” and “third-class” cities. Second-class cities must be at least 35,000 population, and must opt to become second-class. Bloomington is a second-class city and, at 70,000, is the seventh-largest city in the state. There are, I think, around 30 second-class cities in Indiana.

Second-class cities have a nine-member council. Six represent districts and three are at large. All are elected quadrennially in the year before a presidential election.

Any town that opts to become a city starts out as a third-class city, which has a seven-member council. Third-class cities also elect a “clerk-treasurer,” and the mayor serves on the council. In second-class cities, the mayor is elected separately, as is a city clerk, and the city “treasurer” is appointed by and works for the mayor.Here’s an article about a Hoosier city going through these very definitions itself:

Portage should be wary of second-class status  

Portage hit the magic population number in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2004 estimate that would elevate the city to second-class status. But that status isn’t worth acquiring yet.¬†¬†

# # #