by: Diane Benjamin
On Saturday Steve Vogel had an editorial in the Pantagraph with his predictions for 2014. Way at the bottom was this:
Last month’s dust-up between Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner and Alderman Judy Stearns will be repeated this year – maybe even this month.
Steve, Steve, a dust-up? It wasn’t a dust-up! Ms. Stearns walked out of a Closed Session of the Bloomington City Council because she felt the discussion violated the Open Meetings Act. The Council is NOT permitted under the law to discuss items in SECRET unless those items are specifically listed in the law. She has publicly stated that she told the Council she was going to file with the Attorney General when she walked out. Renner then blew a gasket when she actually did! That’s not a dust-up Steve. That’s one person wanting the law followed and one re-writing it. Besides Steve, the ENTIRE COUNCIL is complicit, not just the Mayor.
Here’s where it gets fun! Mr. Vogel may have some inside information. His DAUGHTER was Mayor Renner’s campaign manager both for his first run for Mayor and his second! From her Facebook page:
Krista Vogel Cardona shared a link.
April 8, 2013
On a personal note, I’ve worked on this campaign since it started last spring. And I managed his campaign 4 years ago when we came up short by 15 votes. This guy has the energy to lead and a plan to make Bloomington a better place–and no, not through tax increases. I’m sick of voting for people who think their length of residency in Bloomington or their family name somehow equates to good leadership qualities. If you care about what Bloomington could be, please vote Rennner!
We have all heard endless speeches from Mayor Renner on transparency. I have pointed out times when he has not been so transparent. Media is NEVER transparent. Steve, the citizens deserve to know your opinions are biased.
Is the Pantagraph going to disclose the Vogel ties? Lee Enterprises – the Pantagraph parent company – has a pesky code of ethics:
5. Competition and Fair Dealing
We seek to outperform our competition fairly and honestly. We seek competitive advantages through superior performance, never through unethical or illegal business practices. Stealing proprietary information, possessing trade secret information that was obtained without the owner’s consent, or inducing such disclosures by past or present employees of other companies is prohibited. Each employee should endeavor to respect the rights of and deal fairly with the company’s customers, suppliers, competitors and employees. No employee should take unfair
advantage of anyone through manipulation, concealment, abuse of privileged information, misrepresentation of material facts, or any other intentional unfair-dealing practice.
Isn’t the fact that Steve Vogel’s daughter was twice the Renner campaign manager misrepresenting the facts? His comments aren’t even slightly tainted by his relationship with his daughter?
See the entire code here: http://www.lee.net/governance/code.pdf Other parts were probably violated too.
Maybe Steve need a class on Open Meetings law. The entire thing can be read in about 15 minutes Steve. Read it slowly and take notes. By the way, was that last part a threat? Just asking, it sure sounded like it.
On December 7, 2013 In a article about referendums and possible changes to the wards Mr. Vogel wrote
“Sign a petition. It doesn’t necessarily mean you support the idea — just that it’s potentially constructive and merits consideration…”
I have no doubt Mr. Vogel is a very intelligent person; however, his logic for signing a referendum was very problematic and faulty. You can discuss, consider and debate an issue without first having it in a referendum. Would Mr. Vogel sign a petition for referendum asking if we should ‘Ban the Bill of Rights?” I would certainly hope not.
Now that this connection to the Renner campaign has been exposed his illogical thought processes on referendums are starting to make sense.
Always interested in how politics work, and why, it makes sense that Vogel’s daughter would manage a campaign for Renner. After all, she is a democrat, an IWU alumni, a former employee of IWU, and currently a government affairs specialist at State Farm. Her husband, Alex, is also employed by State Farm. So, its just natural given the current make-up of both Council’s, heavily branded by these big stakeholders, as well as the ongoing affiliations to and influence of State Farm, Wesleyan, Advocate-BroMenn and ISU, that both Bloomington and Normal government bodies incorporate such a person lead the charge to elect one more of the stakeholder insiders to lead Bloomington government.
Couple that with an influential connection to the local media and it doesn’t take a political scientist to figure out the obvious – at least potential – bias from those players in everything “city” and why certain things political happen.
Unless, of course, there is another explanation.