Bloomington City Council Member discusses what’s on the docket for the near future

Photo courtesy of the City of Bloomington

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. –  The Bloomington City Council is aiming to tackle local issues through collaborative efforts. City Council Member and Ward 6 representative Cody Hendricks discusses the Council’s role and his respectively.

Some current issues that Hendricks mentioned include those of community and economy. A main topic of discussion amongst the community lately is housing.

“So currently one of the big ones obviously is dealing with housing, you know that’s the big topic for everybody across the nation but also here in the region and in the city,” Hendricks said. “So some of the things that we have looked at here recently at our last Committee of the Whole, which is the meeting in which we kind of hear presentations or future proposals to take action, revolve around some incentives that we’re looking at from a city perspective that might help increase housing.”

The main solution included waiving city fees that are tied to different city services as well as working with developers through decreased fees.

“That’s something that I very, very strongly support. I think it’s going to be one of the drops in the bucket that we’re going to have to make if we want to see some real solutions or outcomes in that area,” Hendricks said.

Another issue is an opening on the Council for Ward 2. Interviews have recently been in the works to find the new member for the Council, who will primarily represent the South West side of the city. The Council people can give suggestions based on interviews conducted, but ultimately vote on the person chosen by the mayor.

“We’ve been going through resumes and talking with individuals to try to find some good candidates, and then from that, the hope is that the mayor will take some of our advice and decide on which one he thinks should be brought forward,” Hendricks said.

In order to actually accomplish goals set forward, the council debates and discusses issues at their meetings that occur every second, third and fourth Monday of the month. 

“So primarily we as council members speak with one another and we also relay information to the city manager,” Hendricks said. “Our city manager has been very good about hearing different voices from us, from the community, and really what they do is they try to take those different voices and ideas, see if they can boil them together as best they can, and then bring policies or initiatives back before the council for us to either debate some more, discuss some more and then ultimately make that final approval or that final vote to try to see it become a reality.”

The next Bloomington City Council meeting will take on place Monday, Feb 10 at 7 p.m. on the fourth floor of the Government Center Boardroom.