McLean County Times

The Bloomington City Council reconsidered a previously denied contract during a meeting held on Feb. 13.

During an earlier meeting on Jan. 23, the council considered forming a lobbying agreement with government affairs firm Thorn Run Partners. The agreement would've had TRP advocate for Bloomington in Washington, D.C., to earn project funding through various grants and other avenues. The council submitted its initial requests for a lobbying agency partnership in October, receiving five responses and ultimately choosing to look further into TRP.

The agreement would cost Bloomington $270,000, paid in annual $90,000 installments over three years. The council proposed the agreement because it wanted to increase its focus on securing funding from Washington, and it believes that TRP has demonstrated its ability to achieve that goal for them.

However, the contract was ultimately denied by a vote of 4-5 due to some council members being concerned about both the amount of money being spent without any guaranteed specific results and TRP representing more communities than Bloomington.

The proposed contract was reconsidered by the council during its Feb. 13 meeting, and it was revised to include a 30-day clause that would allow for the contract to be terminated if there were any dissatisfactions or concerns during that window of time.

Council member Tom Crumpler, who had voted against the initial draft, spoke in favor of the revised version, saying that many of his constituents were in favor of it and that he was more aware of how intense the competition for federal grants can be. Fellow council member De Urban, who also voted against the initial contract, spoke in favor of the revised one.

"Last week, council member Walch made the point that we ought to be able to rely on our senators and our representatives to advocate for us and to be able to go after the kind of grant dollars that would support the projects that this community desires to complete," Crumpler said. "And I absolutely agree with that. However, that's just not the reality anymore. And if we want to compete in this challenge to get the money that's going to build this community in ways that our constituents and this council have chosen to support, we have to be able to play that game. And so I think hiring a lobbyist is going to help us be successful in ways that just relying on our elected officials -- as competent and as dedicated as they are -- we just need a different kind of tool to build a different house. And that's what we're doing here."

However, council member Sheila Montney still had concerns about some aspects of the contract, specifying the lack of time that the council had to fully utilize it before deadlines for projects in the federal grants applications were reached at the end of February. Montney, alongside fellow council members Grant Walch and Nick Becker, voted against the new contract, but with the other six members voting in support of it, the partnership between Bloomington and TRP is now underway.