City of Bloomington Announces New Way for Residents to Weigh In on Local Issues

Bloomington, Ind. - The City of Bloomington is introducing a new way to gather resident input about important local issues via an online public engagement tool by Polco. Beginning Thursday, November 15, Bloomington residents are encouraged to go to polco.us or download the Polco app, register as a user and complete the first of many locally relevant polls this site will offer over the next year. The topic for the first set of six questions is rentable electric scooter usage in Bloomington. New questions will be released approximately every two weeks and will remain up for two months. Participants can receive notifications when new survey topics are released.

The City always welcomes resident input to guide choices, and Polco provides another opportunity for Bloomington residents to share opinions about important topics, influencing decisions that will determine the look, feel and functionality of the city for decades to come.

Polco is offering the online engagement platform to the City at no cost for one year because of the City’s membership in the Mayors Innovation Project. Following the first year, City officials will gauge the effectiveness and value of the tool and determine next steps.

“This new tool for engagement will give residents an efficient, easy and transparent  -- and maybe even fun -- way to provide input on important topics here in Bloomington. I hope participating in these polls becomes a regular part of resident engagement. I’m excited to see what we will learn from our Polco participation,” said Mayor John Hamilton.

The city will request resident input on a wide range of topics, including measuring the performance of city services, requesting feedback on various proposals and asking what Bloomington residents like and dislike about living in the community.  

Participants will create a user ID by entering their name, zip code, and email address. With this information, Polco confirms participant input from residents registered to vote in Bloomington.

Responses will be anonymous, and individual responses are not shared. Polco provides the city with aggregated results only. Polling results will be available to the public on polco.us.
 

###