by:  Diane Benjamin

The Pantagraph has another unsigned Editorial – this one praises the City of Bloomington for passing a Transparency Ordinance.  I almost fell off my chair laughing at one of the lines:

That’s a promise especially important to media outlets and government watchdog groups that are charged with a “fourth estate” responsibility to ensure open and fair government.

So when are you going to start your “fourth estate” duties?  I’m very happy you realize what your job is, but “knowing it” and “doing it” are two different things!  I can give you a list of things you have never reported – maybe somebody you pay to report news will take them up:

• Coliseum has virtually no events scheduled – who is paying the staff?  Taxpayers?
• Coliseum has no football team – that violates the contract CIAM has with the City
• Coliseum basketball created their own league since they got kicked out of theirs last year – another contract violation?
• Are Bart Rogers and John Butler ever at the Coliseum?
• Why hasn’t the Coliseum issued any reports since October 2013?
• Are the demands of the new hockey owners legitimate?  Do you even know what they have demanded?

• How about that multi-million dollar fire station that has never been used?
• How about the unusable parking garage that will cost millions more to fix?  Who’s fault is it?
• The Grove contract favored developers.  In 2009 the agreement was changed, but it’s still not adequate – who put that together?
• Who was on the Council when all these bad ideas were passed?

All the City problems are always the last administrations fault – or the one before them.  Is it really that difficult to report problems with what the current City management is doing?  You keep cheering the Renner Downtown plans, I bet I can find articles of you cheering Hamilton’s City management too.  Pantagraph, you reported last year the City Council charged David Hales with cleaning up the bar scene downtown.  Where’s the follow-up report?  Since the area still has to be power washed every weekend, is Hales doing his job?

Rachel Wells did a great story when Alderwoman Judy Stearns was forced to file an Open Meetings Act violation against the City last year for holding illegal discussions in Executive Session (secret meetings of the Council).  Have you asked Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s Office of Public Access why a ruling hasn’t been issued?  Have you asked why Renner hasn’t been required to release the recording?  I’m sure that falls under the “open and fair government” clause!  It’s a BIG deal when elected officials tout transparency and then act the opposite and aren’t called on it.

You already have plenty to work on, but I will throw in one more.  Your reporting has led citizens to believe representatives on the Councils in both Bloomington and Normal should agree on everything and just get along.  Representing citizens doesn’t have anything to do with “getting along”.  When nobody fights for citizens you get a Coliseum, a new unusable parking garage, bad agreements with developers, an unused fire station, and now multi- million dollar spending downtown.  Renner is dying for a hotel.  Obviously after 2 studies the private sector isn’t going to build one.  What are you going to report when the Council is asked to kick in more millions?  Meanwhile maintenance to existing buildings is deferred year after year and the roads are barely improved after borrowing $10 million.

Your printing of mostly fluff pieces allows local government to destroy the citizens with higher taxes to pay for all the boondoggles thrust on them by Councils “getting along”.  When you start being the “fourth estate” people might start reading your paper again.