By: Diane Benjamin What did Bloomington do right? The audio and video of the council meeting actually synced last night! Even with 3 proclamations the entire meeting was less than an hour. I don’t remember council approval for moving any offices to the government center, they just appeared there. If the HUB was approved I […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when Bloomington paid cash for a new ambulance and Normal bought the same but financed it? https://blnnews.com/2021/08/02/purchasing-bloomington-vrs-normal/ Normal claimed their savings could earn more money than the interest on the loan, but they forgot to put in the ordinance that equal cash is REQUIRED to remain in savings for the 10 […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.wglt.org/post/final-coliseum-defendant-pleads-guilty-misdemeanor-agrees-restitution#stream/0 The last Coliseum theft case was settled last week. The two main culprits got off with misdemeanor convictions while 2 low level employees who couldn’t afford to pay lawyers for years now have felony convictions. All 4 received plea deals, another defendant had all charges dropped. The City of Bloomington received […]
The case has been delayed until December. No reason given. By: Diane Benjamin Remember Bart Rogers? He was the number two guy at the Coliseum when CIAM managed it for 10 years. His jury trial is supposed to start on Tuesday, I doubt it will – a settlement is likely in the works. The 2018 […]
By: Diane Benjamin John Butler and his lawyers have been telling media John didn’t know his employees were stealing concession money. Evidently he’s such a great guy he agreed to a misdemeanor and paid $450,000 in restitution just because. That of course was after spending who knows how many thousands (hundreds of thousands?) on attorneys […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20987 More pensions spiking: (the penalties will come late) Coliseum continues to fleece: Employee partying, but called Community Relations. Were you invited? Springfield Law firm MONTHLY charges: I have no idea what this is, but Nov-Jan wasn’t paid until February? Is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Council held a retreat on November 4, 2017. The minutes from the meeting show just how bad a City Manager David Hales was. See them here, rarely do the minutes reflect contentious discussions – you can see some of it here even if they don’t reflect how bad it was: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16276 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Some local media have reported on the grand jury testimony which laid out the case against the 5 former Coliseum Managers. The City of Bloomington continues to claim they did not know about improprieties at the Coliseum until VenuWorks took over in July of 2016. The local media continues to let them […]
By: Diane Benjamin The reason the courts move so slow is lawyers. The attorney for Kelly Klein filed a motion to dismiss yesterday, but he didn’t sound optimistic when he filed it. The State’s Attorney has 14 days to respond, then another 14 days for rebuttal by the defense, and 7 more for another reply […]
Guest Editorial Council races are finally shaping up so we see who the players are. Who is up for more games and grandstanding and who is finally fed up? . All we know for sure is that Haumann and Sage are out of there, and the reasons for that are obvious to any Council watchers […]
By: Diane Benjamin One of the 5 charged in connection with the Coliseum pleaded guilty yesterday. See this Pantagraph story: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/guilty-former-bloomington-arena-official-gets-fine-probation-after-plea/article_00b6cb16-2aeb-5558-9614-2a50e543d503.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-2 One part of the story doesn’t make any sense: ________________________ I hope these numbers aren’t what the entire case against the five is based on. The commissions don’t make any sense either. According to […]
That would be David Hales – looks like Joliet is way smarter than Bloomington was! https://www.theherald-news.com/2018/10/05/future-of-joliet-city-manager-said-to-be-uncertain/a2qxw45/ City Manager David Hales’ future in Joliet may be up in the air. Sources said that the City Council has begun to consider the prospect of Hales leaving before the end of his contract and possibly before the end […]
By: Diane Benjamin Five people involved with running the Coliseum have been charged with felonies. The failure by the City of Bloomington to protect taxpayer dollars deserves to be exposed in open court. The citizens didn’t want it built, there was a non-binding referendum stating it. It was built anyway and has been a constant […]
By: Diane Benjamin John Butler wants his trial moved out of McLean County because of remarks made by David Hales and Tari Renner. I was also mentioned as a reason because my lawsuit made him look guilty! Yes it did! Since MANY readers are new, this story recaps the information I was able to obtain: […]
By: Diane Benjamin The contract between CIAM and the City of Bloomington gave the City the right to exam anything they wanted to. Nobody at the City ever looked at reports – especially concession sales. Don’t forget, the City bought the Point-Of-Sale equipment. They could have printed off monthly reports to verify what the City […]
By: Diane Benjamin Thanks to a reader who sent me this story from the New York Times – dateline CHICAGO: Maybe this is why the presenter Monday night said the sports complex has to be for more than soccer. David Hales is acting just like he did in Bloomington! He spent $1875 attending […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph thanked Alderman Diana Hauman for serving and for publicly stating she is not running for reelection to the Bloomington City Council because she was not able to develop a cohesive Council. When Judy Stearns and Kevin Lower were members, the Council was very cohesive. Everything they said was ignored. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council LOVES their SECRET meetings – Executive Sessions. They love them so much they won’t release the minutes from when Tom Hamilton was City Manager! Hamilton retired more than 9 years ago. The only reason to not release evaluations etc. is to hide. Some people are STILL on the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The same search firm, GovHR, that found Bloomington’s 3 City Manager candidates also recommended David Hales to Joliet. A reporter in Joliet wrote on June 3rd about Hales’ first 6 months. It’s not going well. This story was on Facebook last night. If you didn’t see it there, read it here: https://patch.com/illinois/joliet/joliets-city-manager-david-hales-may-be-bad-fit-ferak […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington’s former City Manager, who never found time to look at reports from the Coliseum, has moved on to Joliet. Hales will always be known as the guy who the City Council heaped praise and huge raises on while theft of taxpayer dollars was happening right under his nose. I know many […]
By: Diane Benjamin Every once in a while I have to clean up some files. I found a FOIA request I received in December of 2015. It clearly shows that John Butler and CIAM pretended they had no responsibility to the City of Bloomington and the taxpayers forced to cover their losses. I remember filing […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s going to take multiple stories to cover last night. This is #2. (#1 https://blnnews.com/2018/02/13/when-it-happens-to-you/) Tari has a protester at City Hall this morning, it’s not the first time he’s been there, this is just the first time I got a pic. He is a disabled army ranger: ___________________________ Last night the City […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington changed the pension spiking policy for all new hires after they became liable for the increased cost – that was in 2012. The policy has not been changed for existing employees. Why should any person be entitled to a pension they didn’t earn? Employees are getting paid months before they retire for […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s David Hales fault! That is John Butler’s claim to justify the missing bucks. I blame David Hales too, and the Council, and the Mayor who all shut their eyes and pretended nothing nefarious was happening with taxpayer money. The joint was audited! Except concessions never were. Johnny Butler made sure of […]
By: Diane Benjamin The newspaper is reporting CIAM (of 111 felony counts fame) is suing the City for commissions they are owed. . . . . . . . . . Sorry, I couldn’t help it. Maybe the City could counter sue them to recover the costs of the auditors trying to figure out […]
By: Diane Benjamin I reported in Part 1 that Hales blamed the past Council for approving building Fire Station #5: https://blnnews.com/2017/11/08/49548/ Hales claims the Council needs to assert their authority instead of always taking staff recommendations. Two points to consider: Voting against a Fire Station will get you accused of not caring about Public SsafetyHales could […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nobody checked into why David Hales left Bend Oregon after only 2 years and all the records were sealed. See this story: https://blnnews.com/2013/09/17/who-is-city-manager-david-hales/ Obviously nobody in Joliet did any independent research of David Hales either since the Council had no idea 5 people were charged with 111 felony counts while he was in […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=14866 Once again Monday the Council has TWO meetings scheduled instead of just one regular meeting. Besides discussing more Master Plans meant to bind the hands of future Councils and bankrupt citizens, they will convene another secret meeting for which the minutes will NEVER be released: Why the Council would want to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington knew the law had changed on pension spiking in 2012. They changed the policy for NEW hires, but not for existing employees. Here’s the recap: The IMRF retirement fund was tired of paying for spiked pensions because of Sick Leave Buy Back payments that inflated ending salaries. Since […]
By: Diane Benjamin I thought for a minute somebody had kidnapped David Hales and replaced him with a conservative. He actually said the Council must lean how to say NO. He said the City can’t maintain what we have now, but people keep talking about building new things. Library David? Aquatics center? Sports complex? Public […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s way past time for adults to be running the City of Bloomington! We are tired of the lies and the abuse of taxpayers by pretending the city doesn’t have enough money because taxpayers aren’t paying enough. End the charade. Cancel the court jesters. It’s OVER! They just don’t know it yet. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The 10 year agreement with CIAM to manage the Coliseum contained numerous paragraphs granting the City rights to everything happening at the Coliseum. Tari Renner, David Hales, and the Council either never read the agreement or are lying because they failed to protect taxpayers from John Butler and company. See the agreement […]
By: Diane Benjamin The most interesting parts of tonight’s festivities by the Bloomington City Council won’t be the Council business at 7:00. The pre-meeting David Sage led discussion of Renner’s PCard usage will be enlightening. I wonder if anybody will ask why Tari still has a PCard? Will Sage ask Tari how this PCard lunch […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Joliet Herald News was attacked by the City of Joliet for reporting the truth about their new City Manager: David Hales. The Herald isn’t cowering in a corner, they are putting the facts in front of the citizens. They are probably getting a tons of reads, people want real news – […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the Pantagraph story announcing CIAM (John Butler) would not be renewing the contract to manage the Coliseum: http://www.pantagraph.com/entertainment/u-s-cellular-coliseum-to-receive-new-management/article_194a2f7c-d482-5d82-8885-7e5eafddb2b4.html That was March 8, 2016. Tari Renner is quoted saying CIAM might get a short-term contract to help with the transition – maybe 30-60-or 90 days. Obviously Renner had no urgency to remove […]
By: Diane Benjamin These are a few of the past payments to VenuWorks for managing the BCPA after Tina died: See anything strange? I’ll wait. Still waiting . . . . Okay, according to the dead tree, the City wants to contract with VenuWorks to manage the BCPA for a flat fee of $3000 a […]
By: Diane Benjamin Official Misconduct? Flash back to April 14, 2014 The meeting minutes provide a little information, the video below provides much more. Minutes 4/14/14 Alderwoman Judy Stearns knew concessions were not audited at the Coliseum. She knew other problems existed and she wanted answers. Changing hockey from professional to junior was the perfect time […]
By: Diane Benjamin Real journalism isn’t dead yet! The Joliet Herald News just proved it with this story: http://www.theherald-news.com/lists/2017/09/29/da82d31d3ccc4697970889c2a58349a5/index.xml?page=1 This paper isn’t done writing because my interview is not in this story! See this story for context if you missed it this morning: https://blnnews.com/2017/09/29/hales-if-a-perfect-fit-for-joliet/ Some tasty bits: “That’s the guy you want,” Regis said. “If somebody commits […]
By: Diane Benjamin I didn’t think it was possible to find people with even less desire to serve the people they are supposed to represent than the local propagandists. But, they do exist – in Joliet. Speaking with no facts is acceptable operating procedure. Believing every word uttered by people playing CYA is required. Then, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington ignored what Bend Oregon said about David Hales, I wonder if Joliet will make the same mistake? See this link: http://www.theherald-news.com/2017/09/27/joliets-new-city-manager-leaves-behind-brewing-financial-scandal/at26tcc/ This media source and City employees appear to be as clueless as ours! Quotes: “If there’s a pending criminal investigation, I don’t know who knew,” O’Dekirk said. “I don’t think […]
