By: Diane Benjamin
It should be obvious to long-time and new readers that David Hales, Mayor Renner, and the City Council aren’t supervising the management of the Coliseum. Why remains to be determined. It’s unconscionable for the City to be negotiating a new contract with CIAM considering all the violations perpetrated by them in the past and with my ongoing lawsuit.
Let’s see if they can explain this one:
Page 20 of the CIAM contract: Management Agreement CIAM
“CIA shall assign to the Coliseum a competent, full-time general manager who shall have no duties other than the day-today operation and management of the Coliseum.”
The Coliseum website doesn’t list a General Manager. It does list 3 assistants though: http://www.uscellularcoliseum.com/contact-us/staff-members Bart Rogers used to be listed as General Manager until I pointed out he doesn’t qualify according to the contract. Now he is a VP.
Why doesn’t Bart qualify? He and John Butler are co-owners of the Peoria Rivermen. Bart has been busy recruiting teams for the Rivermen to play: http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20160208/eminian-at-last-sphl-expansion-turns-north-helps-rivermen How much time does he spend managing the Coliseum? What salary is he taking from the Coliseum to manage the Rivermen? It’s a secret.
Evidently 3 assistants are running the Coliseum, or maybe nobody is. Naming Rights are expiring, US Cellular isn’t going to renew the contract. That is $175,000 a year in lost revenue. (See page 6) Anybody trying to sell the naming rights? The contract with Pepsi Cola Bottlers is also expiring – it’s only another $50,000 a year.
Anybody see even WORSE numbers coming under CIAM’s management?
Oh, there’s more!
The pic below is Bart Rogers walking to his car. Note the license plates: DEALER PLATES from Extreme Motors. No, his car isn’t in the shop. What is Extreme Motors getting for giving Bart a car? Free tickets? Free suites? Extreme Motors isn’t listed on the Coliseum website as an advertiser. Is Bart claiming the vehicle as Suite Income to the Coliseum and then paying CIAM a 4% commission on his private use of a vehicle? Is Bart declaring the vehicle as income on his taxes? So many questions, why is David Hales not asking them?
Decades ago I knew Dan O’Brien at Extreme Motors, so I called him. He wasn’t in, so I talked to Mike, the General Manager. Mike confirmed that Bart is driving a car from Extreme with Dealer Plates. He said Bart has a car because he is a personal friend of the management. He said they give cars to lots of people, he mentioned people at ISU in the sports office. He did say they pay for a sign inside the Coliseum, but they no longer pay for a suite. He also claimed Extreme gets nothing for the free car.
I’ve worked with car dealers for around 30 years. I find that very difficult to believe.
Page 10-11 Coliseum contract: If CIA fully complies with the terms and conditions contained herein, then it shall have the first right of refusal . .
CIAM has violated the contract many times. Are the Aldermen blind? Bought off? Not very smart?
Terminating the contract permanently is the ONLY way to prove to citizens City officials aren’t guilty of Official Misconduct (or worse) for failure to protect the your money.
Extreme Motors may have a problem with Rogers driving around with Dealer Plates though. According to Illinois Law governing the use of Dealer Plates: Illinois Law on dealer Plate Use
If Bart is an agent, that’s his third job. He isn’t an employee – so maybe he is a servant.
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Hauman told me CAIM is following the contract, so there’s nothing City Council can do to cancel their contract. This is what Tari must have told her at one of those lunches we all paid for!
I really thought she was smarter.
the contract is up in April of this year
CIAM has first right of refusal and re-negotiations are going on now. The Mayor and Hales will say anything to promote their cause whether it is true or not.
Usually what happens in ANY cash business in which the owners are not paying enough attention to their receipts is that their employees ARE ripping them off. This council is negligent, city manager should be fired!
I think what the Extreme Motors manager failed to mention is that they donate to ISU and other sports and collegiate programs and get to be members of their respective “wheel clubs”, meaning they get premium tickets, parking and perks in exchange for providing a vehicle for staff or coaches use. I guarantee they are not donating it for free and get advertising and tickets for free. If they are paying for signage, why are they not on the list of Coliseum sponsors??
“We’ve worked hard, along with a couple other league members, to tell the SPHL story to potential markets and show them what we have to offer,” Rivermen co-owner Bart Rogers said. “This is a tremendous step for the league, and we hope will be a catalyst into adding more teams in the north, creating a national presence.”
We’ve worked hard? For a franchise that benefits Peoria while you are being paid as the FT Manager of the Bloomington-owned arena?
HOW SCREWED UP IS THIS BLOOMINGTON???
“The Council decides on the WHAT and the Staff determines the HOW.” –David Hales City Council Meeting 2/8/16.
Tis time for the Public Integrity Unit of the IL Attorney Generals office to recieve a formal complaint so they can investigate.
Do it!!
Indeed I will!! Saturday’s project. More to follow.
🙂
Have they EVER been ACCURATELY audited? OH, what would be found!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Define audit….. No they have not been truly audited and the external auditing company has had other employees taken out for lunch per this site’s factual information.
What is the link to the AG integrity unit to file ??
Not sure integrity and AG Madigian belong in the same sentence.
There seems to be legit legal reasons to go thru with the negotiations for renewal and hopes an impasse will occur and CIAM will bail ?
or
Is this more of the cover up of the real costs which is not being tracked of all the city employees working on overtime all the time in the building ?
They work so hard to hide and not let information out maybe those the have inside knowledge should call the FBI agents handling the Soreson case ?
You we are told about terrorism and even in neighborhood watch programs if you think something is not typical or Normal report it.
How about we all report anything we think is not normal (which is Bloomington) to AG, FBI, and DOJ any other federal agency all at the same time.
You the more the report factual and suspensions the more merit and creditably we give them to pursue investigation.
We cannot depend on local or state officials to do their job. Nor the elected city council to stand up and say we need to show nothing is wrong or there is something wrong and vote for a deep audit that covers back to the beginning of the colisuem.
What say you ? What will you do other than type in a website ? Will you stand up for getting to the truth or let them keep the power over us ?
I filed a lawsuit. What is anybody else doing?
The IL AG Public Integrity Unit is staffed by career attorneys and I have found them pleasant to work with. Even though they work for Lisa Madigan, their ultimate boss is the Governor. Being a small unit based out of Champaign, the Chief of the PIU is based out of Champaign and he takes incoming complaints. If you are interested in obtaining his personal contact information, email me at [email protected]
As a citizen I thank you for filing the lawsuits. Hope that those the run ads in the Ragagraph and WJBC will use their power of the purse and STOP spending money with them. Maybe some of them should consider this site for advertising and support free speech that includes facts.
TIll they commit to real journalism and start showing us they will give their staff enough time which they need to spend the money for. So we can have more than than repeat what they are feed by all the local governments but actually do some you know …educate the public on facts THEY FIND and are not from some media packet. You know all they do at these media outlets most likely do to a lack of time permitted and just use CUT AND PASTE for their story. At least here there are free thinking, open minded and thought provoking words that are from a real person and not some cookie cutter “journalist” .
Have been doing my part do not listen or read either of them. Do not buy any products or services that advertise at the Coliseum either. Including OSF.
If they were competent crooks they would have been covering up as time went along.
But men like these like to have their fun and leave the mess for another day. Or, better still, cloak themselves behind some scapegoats (hence the need for three Assistant Managers and other seemingly irrelevant, redundant staff.)
Another tactic is intentional obfuscation.
There must be some money there else there would be no need for all this smoke ‘n mirrors, and shell-game type bs.
give credit to BLNNEWS for exposing their cover up over the past few years!
🙂
Here’s a cute excerpt from IRS.gov:
“Whistleblower Office At-a-Glance
The IRS Whistleblower Office, which was established by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, will process tips received from individuals who spot tax problems in their workplace, while conducting day-to-day personal business or anywhere else they may be encountered.
An award worth between 15 and 30 percent of the total proceeds that IRS collects could be paid, if the IRS moves ahead based on the information provided. Under the law, these awards will be paid when the amount identified by the whistleblower (including taxes, penalties and interest) is more than $2 million. If the taxpayer is an individual, they must have at least $200,000 in gross income.
The Whistleblower Office will be responsible for assessing and analyzing incoming tips. After determining their degree of credibility, the case will be assigned to the appropriate IRS office for further investigation.” Source: https://www.irs.gov/uac/Whistleblower-Office-At-a-Glance
Assembling and packaging the information for the IRS will be critical toward gaining their interest in reviewing.
Here’s a cute link to a nice little song by Nine Inch Nails. It’s entitled “Head Like a Hole,” it’s in the key of E Major, and I feel the lyrics befit this topic. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV2EUUF47Ms
Could be the reason why they are fighting any FOIA’s. They are possibly not reporting all income, gifts, etc. on their tax filings like they should be. Wouldn’t that be a surprise!
Like a primarily cash business with concessions, like trading out a car for a free ride with concert tickets, advertising perks etc, like working on another business adventure in Peoria (the Rivermen) and charging the City a full time salary and benefits to do so, etc etc.
Welp, there might be a way to get paid for all the research. But if and only if the IRS “collects.” Hidden off-shore accounts, cash shoved in suitcases, cash converted to diamonds and other less-bulky tangibles, opening restaurants or bars or other businesses to launder the money . . . this could shape up to a nice little episode of American Greed (airs on CNBC, Stacey Keach does the voice-over work. Good show . . . educational and entertaining if you can stomach hearing stories of swindles and the victims. Personally, I feel like Bloomington is being victimized by these Peoria flim-flammers.