by: Diane Benjamin
Everybody understands that you want the citizens of Bloomington to believe you are doing a great job. The citizens want to believe their government is working for them, not the other way around. Citizens want to see government providing essential services without making their lives more difficult, or more expensive.
Bloomington achieved a Transparency Award from the Illinois Policy Institute. Great job – lots of information is now available, but it is not close to everything. Transparency doesn’t mean releasing information you want released – like Nora Dukowitz churns out. Transparency means being an open book. No secrets and no discussions behind closed doors unless permitted by law. The law has a very limited list of what is permitted.
Why was the financial status of the Coliseum kept secret Tari? Why did the City issue a News release instead of real numbers?
Do you realize you would have more respect from the citizens if you admitted David Hales screwed up supervising the Coliseum? Is the Council going to admit the guy they keep giving big raises to isn’t doing his job? You would have more respect if you stated publicly you are fighting for the taxpayers, instead you buried the information. Why are the actual financial statements prepared by CIAM still not on the City website? TWO full years of statements are posted, but then you stopped at October 2013? Why Tari? No transparency unless you want it?
Luckily facts were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
The latest statements no longer show Sales Tax and Gross Merchandise Sales as Revenue. Those items don’t belong to the Coliseum, so they aren’t really Revenue. That’s a good thing Tari, but why aren’t you proud a long-time error was fixed? You should be! CIAM is no longer paying themselves a commission on questionable items. It’s GREAT Tari! No press release about your fidelity to taxpayers? You righted a wrong! Celebrate it.
Maybe there is no celebration because of what the rest of the statement says. Revenue is way down.
May-July 2013 shows Revenue of 495,789
May-July 2014 shows Revenue of $330,991
But there is more. The 1st Quarter SALARIED wages show $172,476.93. The Salaried budget has been the same for at least a few years. The staff hasn’t changed for years either. Budget is: $997,500.
Since salaried workers checks don’t change, the 1st Quarter salaried wages should show: $997,500/12 * 3 = $249,375. It should show the same figure for every quarter. Instead, it appears expenses are pushed into other quarters so the loss doesn’t look as big. Or, maybe Tari told them the Coliseum doesn’t do enough business to justify TWO $100,000+ managers. If so, celebrate that one too Tari!
If the Salaries are being played with, what other expenses are too? Maybe the audit will say. It should be out soon.
Meanwhile, is TRUTH too much to ask for Tari?
Pretty easy thing to do…push expenses into the next fiscal quarter and then not worry about reporting it for another three months or unless someone (CITY) asks or they don’t care. Maybe they laid off some FT workers. I doubt it. Great investigative work BLNNEWS.
Seriously? The mayor is NOT concerned about the respect of the citizens, only those within the limited local lemmings. Carry forth with the agenda with nary a thought towards the local peasants, er subjects, er citizens.
Of course he didn’t announce these good things he did because ordinary citizens will just hear that the coliseum lost money. Have to keep up appearances that government knows best how to spend money. Thanks for doing all the investigating. Im glad there are CPAs to watch over the government.
For free no less!