NOTE: This article that highlights The Chamber's Elect Connect: Mayoral Forum on Business event was published on April 11, 2023 in the B Square Bulletin by Dave Askins. Photos are provided by B Square Bulletin. At a forum for mayoral candidates hosted on Monday night by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, not a lot of new, additional daylight emerged between the three candidates as far as their known policy positions.
But a sharp difference in perspective emerged in response to a couple of the questions—one involving public safety and another involving the working relationship between city and county governments. Moderating the forum was Paul Helmke, who was a three-term mayor of Fort Wayne, and is a professor of practice at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
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NOTE: This article with featuring a Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce event was originally published on April 6, 2023 in the IU Bloomington Today newsletter. Voters who are interested in Bloomington’s mayoral race have two upcoming opportunities through Indiana University to learn more about the three Democratic candidates, Don Griffin, Susan Sandberg and Kerry Thomson.
The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce’s mayoral forum will take place April 10 in Presidents Hall inside Franklin Hall. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the forum start at 6:20. Issues of focus will include public safety concerns, collaboration with the county and university, infrastructure, and accountability. WFIU/WTIU News is hosting a live debate from 8 to 9 p.m. April 13, with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren moderating. A livestream of the debate will be available at indianapublicmedia.org. The candidates will take questions, and people can submit them now on the Indiana Public Media website, or through WTIU’s or WFIU’s Facebook pages. Debate updates will be posted on Twitter with the hashtag #IPMDebate. The primary election is May 2; no Republican candidate is on the ballot. The elected mayor will be dealing with issues such as annexation, the convention center expansion project, housing, homelessness, jobs and infrastructure. Griffin, the former deputy mayor under current Mayor John Hamilton, is president of the Monroe County Black Democratic Caucus and owns Griffin Realty. Sandberg is president of the Bloomington City Council. Thomson is executive director of the IU Center for Rural Engagement and the former CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County. Learn more about the candidates and get more election information from the 2023 Bloomington municipal election guide on the IU Political and Civic Engagement website. NOTE: This interview with the President & CEO, Eric Spoonmore was originally aired by Bloomington's Voice Glass in the Afternoon on Monday, March 28th, 2023.
It's Your Business: Chamber ready to support Bloomington in recruiting new police officers3/23/2023 NOTE: This "It's Your Business" column by Chamber CEO Eric Spoonmore was published in the March 10, 2023 edition of the Bloomington Herald-Times. ![]() The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce believes the most fundamental role of government is to protect the safety and well-being of all residents. In January, I addressed the Bloomington City Council to express concern about what seemed to be an increasing number of high-profile crimes in the community over the past several months including rape, stabbings, shootings, attempted murders, murders and other violent behaviors. In February, the city of Bloomington delivered its annual State of Public Safety report to the community, which confirmed violent crime in the city has increased by nearly 6% over last year. Any increase in crime rates — and particularly violent crime rates — is of significant concern to the business community. It is also important to recognize that the increase in violent crime in our community is not solely a policing issue; much of the problem can be attributed to a lack of public health investments in addiction and mental health services. The Chamber fully supports the law enforcement agencies who make many sacrifices each day to protect and serve our city, working tirelessly around the clock to keep residents and businesses safe. We recognize that police work is difficult and that many communities around the nation are experiencing significant police officer shortages. The Bloomington Police Department (BPD) is currently understaffed by nearly 20 sworn officers. NOTE: This interview with the President & CEO, Eric Spoonmore was originally aired by WGCL Glass in the Afternoon on Monday, March 6th, 2023.
NOTE: This article with featuring Government Relations Manager, Jim Shelton, was originally published on March 6, 2023 in the Indiana Daily Student by Marissa Meador. Amid continued opposition from members of the public, the Community Justice Response Committee for Monroe County met again on Monday to move forward with plans for a new county jail. The committee was initially formed in May 2021 to review reports that described poor conditions in the jail and currently meets two times per month.
Built in 1986, the jail was described as having “far exceeded its structural and functional life cycle” in one of the consultant reports. Since then, there has been little movement on the push for a new jail, with the previous plan of building a jail in the southwest corner of the city failing to receive approval from the Bloomington City Council. A key player in the opposition movement is local advocacy group Care Not Cages, which hosted a block party in front of the courthouse in advance of the meeting. The event recognized this week as the Week Against Mass Incarceration and hosted Jauston Huerta, the director of Forever On Course United in Solidarity Initiatives, as a speaker. FOCUS Initiatives is an Indiana-based organization that aims to help people transition out of prison life and re-enter society. NOTE: This interview with the President & CEO, Eric Spoonmore was originally aired by WGCL Glass in the Afternoon on Monday, February 20th, 2023.
NOTE: This "The More I Know" podcast episode featuring Chamber CEO Eric Spoonmore was published on February 6th, 2023.
The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce welcomes Dr. Trudy Weddle to the Board of Directors1/27/2023 ![]() Dr. Trudy Weddle was brought into the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors effective January 25, 2023. Dr. Trudy Weddle is the Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Services and Student Success for the Bloomington campus and has been with the College for 15 years. In her current role, she provides leadership that enhances the overall student experiences, from enrollment planning and management to student support and development. Additionally, she assists with strengthening relationships with K-12 educational institutions and community organizations, improving cross-functional teamwork in support of retention and educational achievement, and establishing progressive strategies for advancing continuous quality improvement efforts in an environment that promotes and values diversity and recognizes the various needs and services required for a diverse student body. Weddle earned an associate degree from Ivy Tech Community College Terre Haute, a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College, and PhD in educational administration with a higher education leadership concentration from Indiana State University. ![]() On Wednesday, January 18, Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce President Eric Spoonmore addressed the Bloomington Common Council to express deep concern about numerous violent crimes that have occurred in the community over the past several weeks and months including rape, stabbings, shootings, attempted murders, and murders among other egregious acts. The Chamber fully supports the law enforcement agencies that make many sacrifices each day to protect and serve our city, working tirelessly around the clock to keep residents and businesses safe. The Chamber also recognizes that the Bloomington Police Department (BPD) is experiencing a significant shortage of police officers, which only exacerbates current public safety challenges for both BPD and the community. Given the rash of troubling incidents, the Chamber encourages elected leaders to act with the highest level of urgency to address the current police officer shortage and ensure that our highly skilled police department has all the personnel and resources needed to meet its critical mission to the community. “Safety always comes first, and the optimum levels of public safety can only be achieved for our community when we have a fully staffed police department,” said Spoonmore. “We have excellent police officers, but we need about 25 more of them. It’s our highly skilled team of officers that so often make the difference.” Spoonmore also noted that elevating police staffing to the necessary levels should be the community’s top public safety priority. “City leaders have demonstrated they can ambitiously pursue innovative initiatives city-wide, including the new gigabit fiber infrastructure project and dramatic decreases to carbon emissions. I am confident that we can also aggressively solve the police shortage with that same spirit of innovation and ambition,” Spoonmore said. |
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