Bloomington council members are beginning to narrow down their priorities for the next fiscal year. Aldermen met with Mayor Tari Renner and city staff during a retreat over the weekend to discuss the city's goals for the future. Renner said the group is committed to working together on those goals.
"We really are beginning to know, and work, like each other and move forward and that's only good news for our great community."
Topics discussed during the meeting included capital improvements, downtown, and the reduction of emergency response times. However, Renner said the focus seems to be on bringing investors to the community.
"I think it was really clear that the council spoke loudly 'We have priorities for economic development for growing the local economy in the future.' That is in terms of being being much more aggressive in attracting and expanding business."
City Manager David Hales says aldermen will make a decision on their priorities near the end of the year when they decide on their fiscal policies.
"That'll also be the time when they'll be adopting, in a more formal way during the November/December time frame, high priorities for next year."
The council will meet in another retreat in November, after hearing from the Budget Task Force and deciding on a sales tax increase later this month.