Mayor Kruzan vetoes plan to shoot deer at Bloomington's Griffy Lake

City council will consider the legislation again Wednesday

For the first time in his 10-year tenure, Mayor Mark Kruzan vetoed legislation.


Kruzan shot down the ordinance that would allow sharpshooters to kill deer at Griffy Lake Nature Preserve. The Bloomington City Council passed the legislation 6-2-1 at its April 9 meeting.

The ordinance added an exception to discharging a firearm within city limits that applied to professional sharpshooters who have received the necessary permits from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and are hired by the city’s Board of Park Commissioners. It does not allow the general public to shoot firearms at Griffy Lake.

In a letter Kruzan sent to the city council, he said he believes excellent research was conducted to support the need to cull deer at Griffy Lake, but he can’t support the idea in good conscience. He noted that he was against the plan to kill deer at Indiana state parks when he served in the state Legislature, and said his feelings haven’t changed.

“I simply see the problem created by the killing of animals as outweighing the problem being caused to plants,” Kruzan said in the letter. “That admittedly oversimplified position is based more on emotion than reason, but emotion is a critical component in characterizing the nature of a community.”

Kruzan said his veto isn’t meant to be disrespectful toward the opinions of the council members.

“They feel deeply that the best thing for the community is the sharpshooting,” Kruzan said on Thursday. “That’s a valid position.”

Council member Dave Rollo, who authored the ordinance, argued the ecosystem surrounding the lake is being damaged by the overabundance of deer. The recommendation to allow sharpshooting was included in the report compiled by the Bloomington-Monroe County Deer Task Force, which spent two years studying the urban deer problem.

“(Kruzan) describes it as a matter of conscience, and I don’t dispute that,” Rollo said Thursday. “My conscience tells me something different.”

Council attorney Dan Sherman said a mayor can veto ordinances or resolutions within 10 days of the city clerk presenting it. The mayor can choose to take no action, which signifies a veto, or send it back to the council without a signature and a veto memo, which is what Kruzan did.

The last time a Bloomington mayor vetoed legislation was in 2001. Then-mayor John Fernandez vetoed an ordinance establishing the McDoel Gardens Conservation District. It was his only veto as mayor, and the council overturned it.

“I would have preferred to never had a veto,” Kruzan said. “It’s not something I ever looked forward to.”

He said there’s been legislation in the past that he didn’t agree with, but this is something he feels deeply about and couldn’t put his name on.

“A power a mayor does not have is a vote,” Kruzan said. “Only council members have votes.”

The ordinance is not dead yet — the council will consider it again Wednesday. It requires two-thirds majority — or six votes — to override the veto, which the council has if no one changes their vote.

“I think that we will have a vote that night, I expect,” Rollo said. “I don’t think it will be postponed.”

Sherman said the council has to take action or the veto will stand, and the legislation will be killed.

“This could just as easily be a 9-0 override,” Kruzan said. “Or a 9-0 sustaining of the veto.”