By: Diane Benjamin
The vile comments made by Tari Renner were posted to this story: http://blnnews.com/2015/02/10/does-tari-know-that-judy-isnt-running/
IWU students have commented at the last two Council meetings. The two took turns attacking Alderwoman Stearns. The obvious question is why since she isn’t running for reelection! Review last year – the answer is clear. Tari is getting ready to replay getting a new budget, that means marginalizing Stearns.
The budget is going to be presented at the next Council meeting. Around this time last year the Mayor attacked Stearns for even proposing cuts. She was not allowed to present or discuss them. Tari wanted tax increases – which he got after threatening to veto the budget – and massive increases in spending. The reason Tari went basaltic, using his son as an excuse, is because he can’t control the conversation as long as I exist. Local media refuses to investigate or report accurately, so I try to inform citizens. Yes, transparency is better at the City, but it also presents data previously unavailable. Tari can’t have it both ways. If the data is available it’s there to be used.
If you missed it, this link shows Renner’s final attack last year: http://blnnews.com/2014/05/01/video-of-renners-verbal-attack-on-stearns/
The proposed budget last year contained massive spending increases and the hiring of 17 people. The final budget was for less, but Tari proudly told people he CUT the budget. He cut the increase – not the budget! Tari also claimed it was David Hales’ budget. It wasn’t. See this email Tari sent back when we were on speaking terms. David Hales is Renner’s pawn, just holding out long enough for his pension – then he is gone!
Tari Renner <tarirenner88@yahoo.com>
4/11/13
to me
Thanks Diane!
I had a very frank conversation with Hales yesterday.
He seems to want to ‘adapt.’ We’ll see. There aren’t five votes on the council to remove him at this point.
I really don’t agree on the UN flag. I believe it was put there because Adlai Stevenson of Bloomington was a UN ambassador.
Best,
Tari
Expect more spending and tax increases this year. Cut won’t be discussed again. Spending for roads will be less than adequate. The $10,000,000 borrowed last year for roads barely helped, spending downtown and Quality of Life projects will be funded instead..
One More email from Tari when he wanted me as his pawn:
Tari’s email comments on this story: http://blnnews.com/2013/06/16/renner-vrs-greenburg/
Tari Renner <tarirenner88@yahoo.com>
6/16/13
to me
Hey Diane!
This is really really funny!
I think you missed your calling.
Anyway, I will be severely bloodied along the way but I assure I WILL win! Maybe not every battle, but I’m winning the war. No unelected bureaucrat is going to prevail in shutting down public access to THEIR documents!!!!
I’ve been going to war with Greenberg almost daily. The latest is just the tip of the iceberg! THANK YOU VERY MUCH for detailing SOME of his transgressions. When I confronted him on Wednesday morning, he yelled at me and threw a tantrum. I refused to get caught up in losing my cool, but my voice raised, I drew the line in the sand (not fundamentally different from your cartoon actually). We will be releasing this information (unless somebody ‘gets’ to the Council by next Monday). Unfortunately, Hales totally refuses to fire Todd Greenberg!!
So, I’ve got to collect my thoughts and plan my next steps. Fortunately, I’m going to the US Conference of Mayors for a couple days next weekend. This will give me the opportunity to learn and get advice from others who may have faced similar situations. What do I do if I have absolutely NO confidence in the legal opinions or character of the city’s legal counsel? ( and that’s DAMN SERIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Thank you Diane for your diligence!
Your parody was actually MUCH closer to reality that the coverage of ANY of the local media outlets – not the Pantagraph, not WMBD, not WJBC, not WGTL, NOBODY got it closer than you!!
THANKS for our community and for good government (I really believe that’s NOT a contradiction in terms).
🙂
Tari
The dude is mental.
I have never heard of this website until today. Wow!
We are what you call taxed without representation in regards to Bloomington/Normal. We purchase goods and services subject to sales taxes collected by both cities.
We have lived in McLean County all of our life and worked here. We think Bloomington is becoming a disgrace and the current mayor isn’t helping matters much. Just this past week coming from Farm and Fleet in on west Washington street what a mess that street is near where Funk’s Seed Co. used to be at. Going east on Oakland Ave. at the corner of Morrissey Ave. there was a big hole there and you had to dodge it. I suppose I could go on about more examples. It makes you wonder where the money is going and what the city is doing with it. This site has been an eye opener.
As far as the downtown area and having a hotel. We just don’t see a need for it. We can’t say the Coliseum was a complete bad idea but rather both B/N should have done something jointly to make it more of a success. If some developer wants to build a hotel, fine, but the city should completely stay out of it. The mayor and city council should focus more on bringing more employers here. While the hotel would employ some this is not what we are talking about in terms of employment.
Seriously why does the city employ a manager and an assistant manager when it seems all they do are recommend hiring consultants. Every time we pick up the local newspaper and read it they are hiring consultants. Maybe I made the wrong career choice and should have become a consultant. With managers like that I wouldn’t have any problem finding a gig. If they were employed in my business I would have terminated them both, totally incompetent to do their job. Shame on the city council for letting this continue!
Honestly the citizens should go to their representative and demand the current mayor resign and bring in someone to better manage the city.
Since you are new – search Coliseum. I’ve found all kinds of interesting things – including they are under investigation by the Attorney General for hiding information.
You know what is frustrating about the roads locally is that they are not repaired adequately. The razor thin budget may have something to do with this however I posit that the road crews work too quickly and often fail to tamp down the cold patch asphalt they use to repair the potholes. This leads to automobiles driving over these poorly filled holes, and while this does occasionally work to apply pressure and smooth the repair. More often the cars that travel over these partially repaired potholes end up destroying the repair, this isn’t taking into account what snowplows do to these when the blade runs over the raised asphalt. We are paying to fill the same holes several times in the same year if not the same season. Sometimes the answer to tightening the budget isn’t cutting spending outright but making sure that the money being spent isn’t wasted.
Pothole repair is nothing more than a band-aid until the budget allows for resurfacing. However your comment about “making sure that the money being spent isn’t being wasted” is right on point and concurs with what BLNnews has been saying forever! As a local reader I would encourage you to continue to support this site and pass the word to others in the community. Best regards!