When the pandemic hit, Congress responded by sending billions of dollars to states, counties, cities, businesses, and citizens. Many cities had a hard time figuring out how to use the money to fight COVID. Cities, after all, mostly maintain streets, deliver water and sewer service, and answer 911 calls. But the leaders in Minnesota’s third-largest city, Bloomington, came up with a great idea: remodel the bathroom in city hall! And they did it in style! Bloomington used $985,000 of federal COVID money to build a modern, inclusive, unisex bathroom on the first floor of their Civic Plaza building, earning them a nomination for the 2025 Golden Turkey Award.
According to city documents:
A diverse team of City staff and building tenants met in the Summer of 2024 and a survey was conducted with staff and residents to discuss values and preferences of restroom design. Research in public restroom design resulted in our need to include a more inclusive, private and welcoming design.
Thank goodness it was a diverse team that helped design this new “gender-neutral” bathroom. The final product includes 11 private rooms (some with their own sinks), a urinal room for the men, and an art wall feature outside in the hall to display public art. The private stalls are equipped with the latest technology, including a light strip that lights up green for vacant and red for occupied. Project leaders told the feds the new bathroom helped them maintain “vital public services” during the pandemic. There’s nothing more vital than…you get the picture.
The Golden Turkey Committee does have a little sympathy for Bloomington leaders. They were handed more than $11 million from the federal government during the pandemic with a tight timeline for spending. This was all part of the massive overreaction to the COVID-19 virus and the colossal failure of leadership at so many levels. With that much money in the system, we were bound to end up with Golden Turkey material. It’s hard to spend $11 million on masks and plexiglass.
As the late great Tom Steward chronicled in this piece, cities spent COVID money on some very questionable items.
- Maple Grove directed $53,360 to deploy park ambassadors who were “educating, informing folks about the best way to use the park system.”
- Lake Wilson’s fire department got a $9,443 washer and dryer “for when on accident scenes with COVID patients.”
- Anoka invested an unspecified sum on “utility carts for golf courses to keep one employee per cart” that led to “additional wear on the course and additional fertilizer was required to maintain courses with excessive cart use.”
- Hector traded in a used John Deere along with $30,500 in CARES Act funds to procure a Bobcat for “emergency situations to assist ambulance crew with clearing out snow to get COVID patients out of their homes.”
- Bethel plowed most of its $38,000 into park improvements and bike trails because residents “only have one park right in town.
- Hanska used $27,801 to update the municipal bar.
- Forest Lake almost spent $150,000 on an addition to the golf course clubhouse, before a public outcry made them change their minds.
While all of these are questionable, the $1 million Bloomington gender-neutral bathroom at city hall takes the cake and earns a 2025 nomination for the Golden Turkey Award.
