Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

You’ve been Duped Bloomington – Local Main Street Task Facilitator Julie Hile Tells All

It comes to no surprise to those of us “in the shadows“, as we have been tagged. To those of us “in the know”.  Those of us who have been involved in this Main Street/Form Based Code debate with local government from the beginning have known all along something was amiss. And those of us in the know have been well aware that the facts have not been forthcoming from those who have led the Form Based Code charge for local government – both Bloomington and Normal. We have said so all along.
   In the wake of last weeks Bloomington City Council’s brief and not-even-cursory presentation of the proposed update for Bloomington’s Comprehensive Plan, my interest was peaked upon learning that former Main Street Task Force facilitator, Julie Hile, of the Hile Group in Normal, was the chosen one to lead the visioning process.

Reading Hile’s  narrative  report to Council while revealing  her  mindset and strategy did more than  peak my interest.  It overwhelmed it. I couldn’t help but feeling like I was reading a best-selling Agenda 21 novel straight from the UN book store.

But let me digress just for a moment for those of you who are not familiar with the process up to this point.
For the last three-plus years, local opposition to the Form Based Code plan, the Downtown Bloomington Plan, and the Main Street Corridor plan have worked tirelessly to expose these projects for what they genuinely are. The components of these plans are generated of a protocol that would ultimately implement an agenda not in the best interest of our community, not in the best interest of the citizens, and not driven by citizen nor community demand or need. Neither are they derived from any public-policy making activity or need or discourse that orginated from local elected representatives – your City Council members.
In the course of our multi-year effort to protect the rights of local citizens, local officials have pushed, pushed and pushed some more, these plans, unwavering in the effort. We have opposed them every step of the way. We have attempted to show the public, as well as City Council, the nefarious origin, nature and objective of these plans and projects, and that the public, as well as every member of the City Council have been deceived regarding the origin, nature and objective. The majority have opposed us every step of the way, calling us conspiratorialists, ridiculing our analysis and position, and repeatedly ignoring the facts we present.
And, we have experienced this not only with Main Street issues and Downtown Form Based Code issues, but also with East Side Highway matters, municipal electric aggregation issues, and anything sustainable- related.
But now the truth has finally emerged.
As I read through Julie Hile’s narrative report more than a few things alarmed me regarding the methodical process that she touches upon ever so cursory – the same methods she employs to train your City Council members with each time she instructs them at those Council Retreats we hear the Mayor talk about.
I have posted images of that narrative report of Hile’s recommendations for the proposed visioning process (recall the purpose of the visioning process and its origins) at the end of this article because they are not available online.  Here are several of her comments with my interpretation:
  •   “…the City’s governance…”  – Normally this might suggest the manner or system of governing our City. In this context, considering the whole of the matter at hand however, I see it more as establishing and exerting the government’s control and authority in our affairs to meet their objectives.
  • “…consensus-based…process…will…educate citizens/the public…” – The “consensus” method produces manufactured consent, and this is undoubtedly what is necessary to induce officials and citizens into accepting a plan that would otherwise be rejected.
  • “The City of Bloomington is…one part of a vital region…which also includes…Illinois Wesleyan University, Illinois State University…” – And while this is certainly true at large, here, Bloomington has been reduced to nothing but one, simple component of a larger entity with no more importance, weight, or consideration than two colleges, local schools, the Town of Normal and regional business (stakeholders). The importance or consideration of the citizen is not mentioned.
  • “…the essential precondition of a unified City Council.”
  • “…the challenge of City Council unification…”
  • “…bringing the City Council together…so Councilmen and Councilwomen agree to support a … public process fully.”  – These three previous points go to the heart of pre-conditioning – their use through the visioning processes  and consensus methods – manufactured consent – in order to circumvent and overcome any challenges or resistance to the end-game. The following two comments will support that:
  • “…framing the project up and positioning it properly prior to public engagement.”
  • “…to set its visioning process up for strong public support by positioning (emphasis Julie Hile) it effectively before engaging the citizenry…”  – Here is what it all comes down to: the outcome is being pre-planned; a predetermined outcome by the manipulative processes, i.e. scheming behind the scenes before the public ever becomes engaged or able to mount any resistance.
This is democracy?  Is this is what you, Citizen Bloomington and Citizen Normal. elect your local Alderman for? But, that is exactly what this process, explained by Julie Hile, attempts to facilitate – a complete transformation of the government and social process.  As a regular citizen who may be otherwise uninformed about these issues, you  might question the effects or impact? How might this relate to your personal situation? It might affect where you live, what your house looks like, where you work, how you get to and from anywhere, where you shop, if you can drive a car, or if must walk, not to mention the social and economic factors, just to name a few. It affects the entire community. And that means it affects every one of us individually.
Ms. Hile teaches and instructs, or facilitates, the very methods that enables governments – your City Council – to accomplish these things and states as much in her presentation.
And, as Ms. Hile intimates, she is readying for phase two in the proposed visioning process for Bloomington’s Comprehensive Plan.
In May, Ms. Hile gave a presentation for the Congress for New Urbanism.
Her presentation was video-taped and appears below. In Ms. Hile’s “tell-all” presentation, she let’s the proverbial cat out of the bag, and in my opinion, reveals the intentions to fix the process again, as she reveals was done before.
As a result of the revelation the last three-plus years’ effort for the opposition finally comes to fruition – our effort to reveal the facts, the analysis, and the overall covert effort regarding Form Based Code, sustainability, and the agenda it attempts to accomplish, is finally validated.
In Ms. Hile’s presentation you will hear many disturbing statements that make it obvious that the entire plan that local officials seek to implement in Bloomington and Normal, are intentioned to have predetermined outcomes, and whatever methods are necessary to accomplish those outcomes must be employed. Whether it involves preconditioning and manipulating our City Council or deceiving the citizen with pre-arranged engineering, nothing falls short of necessity.
You will hear Ms. Hile, at the outset, speak about “human engineering” in the process. Human engineering is the precursor to social engineering. First the individual, then the society. Can we not see what effect this could have in our community?
Ms. Hile boasts in her presentation that Bloomington/Normal is a “case-study”.  Is that intended to make us feel important? Rather, as I see it, it presents not only the citizens, but the City Council as a social experiment. Have we been reduced to nothing more than laboratory rats?
Here are a few of the many interesting points made by Hile in her presentation:
  •  to “blind-side’em…with sound bytes…” @ minute 45
  •  that Hile would “never say form based code in her hometown”  @ 46:55
  •  that Hile learned to “never impanel a group again without her conservative friends” included.  @ 50:30

Doesn’t sound very above-board. Nor does is appear as if the strategies posed for the next phase serve the public interests of the common citizen. In fact, for all intents and purposes, it appears underhanded and certainly suggests a fixed, predetermined, manipulated agenda and outcome.  And there are dozens more instances where the facilitator and task force authority essentially, in so many words, admit the process is a rigged one, with an intention of a predetermined outcome.

And one more thing: at least some of the City officials of Bloomington and Normal have employed the Hile Group to knowingly accomplish this objective based on deceptive methods. It’s obvious that whatever means were necessary to accomplish that end were considered, used, and will be used further. Hile notes that she is now in “phase two” of the experiment. This means there’s more to come. Thus, we see the narrative memo, her comments in the presentation, and the City of Bloomington once again contracting the services and methods Hile employs and implements to accomplish the objective of a comprehensive plan update for the City.
Makes one wonder to what lengths, to what extremes and to what extent our City officials go to with regards to other projects, etc, for a means to an end?
It’s obvious that our City, our citizens, and our City Council have been duped.  Have been misled, lied to, and our communities hi-jacked. Hile makes mention of the fact that they  had “rounded the corner” and thought they were home free until the resistance they allege is Tea Party affiliated, became an obstacle out of nowhere from the shadows.
In her presentation of lessons learned, Hile asserts they have determined how to deal with that opposition – the citizens, the crazies, the anti-Agenda 21 faction, and how to overcome their presence.  She teaches her audience that they must listen and engage and plan accordingly. To what? To accommodate? To please?  To represent accordingly?  To pursue that which is in the best interest of the community and the citizen? Absolutely not. The objective and solution Hile teaches in this case study, in her experiment, is how to overcome and better “educate”, to better manipulate the citizen and the process to, in the end, facilitate (or brainwash) and implement an agenda that is diametrically opposed to everything liberty, freedom and independence fundamentally means. And, against the wishes, needs, desires of the majority of the citizens in our communities.
There have been those public officials, elected and otherwise, who have been integrally involved in this deceptive process knowing the origin, the objective, the plans and the deception that has been practiced and taught. There are those that also have operated fundamentally opposite to  the oath they swore to uphold in the name of the citizen.  Those individuals, some who are named in the Hile presentation, should be  compelled to offer their resignation for their actions.
The next time you hear about Form Based Code, sustainability, smart growth, or any of the various feel-good terms used to facilitate Agenda 21, and the programs and projects “facilitated” in your community, know this: that you’re being
duped, manipulated, or brainwashed and facilitated, and your community and your welfare is at stake and it may be your own city officials you need to be wary of.
Watch the video at the link below before it is removed:
Ms. Hile’s presentation begins at the 33 minute mark. Make sure you listen to the Q and A at the conclusion.

And just a little collateral data if you’d like to know more about the person that teaches and instructs your elected representatives and City officials:

1. Here is a old webpage for BNCPJ group. It lists Julie Hile as a contact person and also on the same page lists Al Gore student, Carol Treadway.
2. Julie Hile’s Linked In Profile Groups and Associations links to the White House.
3. Julie Hile’s quote about McLean County being Obama’s shining light.
5. Pantagraph article about Julie Hile being biased and Main Street Association.
6. Recent Slide Presentation by Hile about Main Street. http://www.hilegroup.com/sites/default/files/CNU%202012.pdf
7. Julie Hile is also listed as a member of the EV Town Task Force in the Pantagraph http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/article_5c182794-228a-11e0-9b2b-001cc4c03286.html
8. Julie Hile is listed on the Normals 2030 steering committee. This is the 2030 not the 2035. It is Agenda 21. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/46831404/Town-of-Normal-2030-Report
9. Julie Hile was also heavily involved in Normals 2035 plan. http://www.normal.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=872
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8 thoughts on “You’ve been Duped Bloomington – Local Main Street Task Facilitator Julie Hile Tells All”

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  7. The Main Street Association did a great brochure on this recently as well. This “visioning””process is truly a scam. Any elected official that falls for this is a fool.

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