City Outlines Paths For Convention Center Expansion

Bloomington, Ind. - The City of Bloomington has released a memo outlining options for a 501c3 nonprofit organization and a Capital Improvement Board (CIB) for the Convention Center expansion.

The memo to the mayor from Corporation Counsel Beth Cate, City Controller Jeffrey Underwood, and Public Engagement Director Mary Catherine Carmichael continues to support the 501c3 option as outlined in an October 28 memo (https://bton.in/dC4S1) as more likely to succeed in launching a timely and high-quality expansion.

A 501c3 can fully address expressed concerns, incorporating the components of a CIB that assure public transparency and accountability, including open meetings and records, financial audits and accountability, appropriate insurance against loss, and avoids imbalanced approval requirements of specific bodies, according to the memo. 

The memo notes that the current convention center has been operated by a 501c6 nonprofit organization for the past 30 years without issue, and proposes a c3 instead of a c6, as better suited to the design and building phases of a convention center expansion, while retaining the ability to have robust stakeholder and public input. 

Today’s full memo is available online at https://bton.in/f!4Rj. 

Under the United States Internal Revenue Code a 501c3 organization is exempt from certain federal taxes. Learn more at irs.gov.