by: Diane Benjamin
These payment were made in Fiscal Year 2013. Some are obvious what they are, some aren’t. You can see the entire list in alphabetically order below. One I find interesting: Sikich Llp $ 162,100.21. This is the auditing firm from Springfield.
Entire list: Bloom 2013 Alpha vendor
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Can somebody please tell me why we are paying the U of I $107,552 and Eastern Illinois University $20,000 and Conklin Dinner Theater over $3,000?????
There may be some logical reason, it would take a FOIA. It would be nice to know who was entertained OUT OF TOWN.
So many times when I question city expenditures, the response I get is that it’s just a very small and insignificant amount of the overall city budget. The implication is that I’m incapable of thinking big picture, citywide (a big argument for the modified ward restructuring). I get this response a lot. Yet these three expenditures that I make mention of above total more than $130,000, a significant amount of money! This is just a small portion of the city budget. I’m sure I’d find millions if I’d really dig into it and who knows, I just might. This is helpful information for the next truth in taxation hearing which I’m afraid is going to be just around the corner when our city leaders ask for more of our money. Wake up people! Why are we spending $3,000 at the Conklin Dinner Theater; especially when we have the BCPA to pay for.
Well there’s the ICMA cost of $13,225 that Hales refused to answer. Wow! Over a thousand bucks a month to compare our selves to a bunch of other cities that are envious of our standing. Dumb.
The comparison stuff is in the future. This is past charges! No one know how much the future will be.
And why does the city hire private investigators? They can use the county to served papers. 10k + to one fellow last year alone, and perhaps they have a few other buried in their too. I’ve seen much more (5-6 times that) spent for part time PI’S in years past. Also, between Kelly Services and a few other temp firms and some people that appear to be paid as individual contract employees, I think the city is just shifting their manpower to independent contractors and are fibbing when they tell us they are short on labor.