by:  Diane Benjamin

First, congratulation to David Hales for getting the January report out much quicker than past monthly reports.

Bloomington Library:

The citizens have been led to believe the library is growing way too fast for the current building.  Maybe not.  This graph is included in the City manager’s report:  http://www.cityblm.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=6417

Clearly the growth this year has stopped.

One more thing:

At the beginning of the report is a list of awards the City has received. There are 4 listed on page 4 and another one listed on page 6.

The award from the Illinois Policy Institute wasn’t applied for.  IPI is assessing government transparency state-wide and publishing the results.  Unless the City wanted to appear non-transparent, they had to comply.

The other 4 awards took employee time to apply for.  Remember, the proposed budget included new administrative staff.  A lot of man-hours were spent putting together a presentation to COMPARE Bloomington to other cities around the country through the International  City/County Management Association (ICMA).  it was discussed a few meetings ago.  No cost was listed.  Why comparing Bloomington to other cities is important is still in the brains of David Hales and Tari Renner.

It’s obvious the impression Bloomington projects is more important than reality.  The staff has lots of time to dream up ways to get recognized, meanwhile there isn’t enough money for what the City is supposed to do.

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