by:  Diane Benjamin

I’m sure you remember Professor Mayor Renner’s attack on Alderwoman Stearns during the budget discussions:

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At the June 9 Council meeting Starcom came up again.  Even though the money for the upgrades was included in the budget, the Council still had to vote to spend it.  Yes, the spending was in 2 parts.  Yes the money didn’t have to be spent now.  What the Pantagraph described as a “heated discussion’  back when Renner attacked Alderwoman Stearns for putting the citizens at “serious risk”, turned out to be spending he wanted, not spending that was required.

Watch the discussion here from last night.  Alderwoman Schmidt had just mentioned rejoining MetCom because citizens keep asking her about it.  Was she serious about it?  No, she voted to spend almost $900,000 on the Bloomington system anyway.

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The system Bloomington has now is being phased out by Motorola in 2016, not immediately.  Metcom is NOT updating their system this year.  The fire department will continue to use the current system AND the new system.  There was no “serious risk”, except to Renner’s credibility.

Pantagraph reporter Rachel Wells didn’t report Stearns was right, Renner was wrong.  Of course, I wasn’t expecting it.

Is Renner going to apologize to Stearns?  I’m not expecting that either.

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