By: Diane Benjamin In Bloomington only 9.23% of registered voters voted. The only thing that will change on the Bloomington City Council is all votes will now be 8-1 instead of 7-2. The taxpayer paid lunches for aldermen with Tari Renner and David Hales will continue so all the Council meetings are fixed in advance. […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you are a Corn Belt Electric customer, don’t ignore the April 2015 issue of Country Living magazine. Turn to page 6 or see this link: http://icl.coop/illinois-rural-electric-cooperative-upgrading-to-new-generation-of-smart-meter/ Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative upgrading to new generation of smart meter Call, email, or write to them – Tell them you do not agree to […]
By: Diane Benjamin After the Bloomington City Council voted for the Coliseum – every member who voted YES left the Council. If citizens had elected like-minded people you wouldn’t be saddled with the Coliseum today! Failure to vote in local elections put aldermen on the Council who didn’t represent you! It’s happening again: Tari Renner […]
By: Diane Benjamin EVERYONE has something to vote for tomorrow – even outside of Bloomington – Normal! School Board elections: I don’t have time to investigate every candidate, but I did write this on Unit 5 and District 87: http://blnnews.com/2015/03/24/early-voting-already-started/ Tri-Valley has a long list of candidates including Steven Stark, son of the former board […]
By: Diane Benjamin Determining how many employees the City of Bloomington has is a problem since the numbers reported often conflict with each other. The mayor and some candidates keep saying Bloomington has severely cut the staff, some candidates (Renner’s picks) want to hire more people. I found a website with the number of employees […]
By: Diane Benjamin From City Manager David Hales’ February report: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8404 Page 51 The green line is the current year. Please tell Tari the number of visitors is decreasing. Ask him to explain why the library needs an addition!
By: Diane Benjamin Only 3 of the 5 alderman seats up for election in Bloomington tomorrow are contested. The Ward 4, 5, and 8 races couldn’t be more clear: If you think Bloomington is headed in right direction – throwing more money away downtown, then vote for Renner’s candidates: Ward 4: Buragas Ward 5: Painter […]
By: Diane Benjamin Just this week the Pantagraph admitted guilt when Alton Franklin was left off the candidate summaries. I say “admitted guilt” because a few days later they printed Franklin’s responses to questions AND a correction to what they had printed for two Normal candidates. Then today, Steve Vogel editorialized about Bloomington’s garbage. He […]
By: Diane Benjamin The last time next year’s budget was discussed was March 7th. Since then – crickets. Why? Council meetings were held on 3/9, 3/16, and 3/23. Budget discussions disappeared, but then there is an election Tuesday. The new budget has to be in place on May 1st. Last year the budget wasn’t approved […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal has FOUR TIF districts as of 2011: (the latest info on the comptroller’s website) http://www.comptrollerconnect.ioc.state.il.us/Office/LocalGovt/ViewTIFReports/DisplayTIFRpt.cfm?CFY=2011&BetaSel=N The City of Bloomington has TWO as of 2011 and wants another one to fund a downtown hotel: http://www.comptrollerconnect.ioc.state.il.us/Office/LocalGovt/ViewTIFReports/DisplayTIFRpt.cfm?CFY=2011&BetaSel=B Why isn’t the information listed more current than 2011? Maybe government doesn’t want you […]
Update: Memories Pizza is almost to $600,000. Religious liberty will NOT be attacked in America without consequences. See link below. By: Diane Benjamin This email was received via my lawsuit against the City of Bloomington. It is one of those I didn’t know existed, but the judge ruled it had been illegally redacted by the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Thanks to the Chamber of Commerce for endorsing some candidates in next Tuesday’s local election. Since the Chamber believes in amnesty so companies have cheap labor (your former job), citizens now know who NOT to vote for. Also, the Chamber thinks government creates economic activity. While spending your money, government creates temporary […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday Joni Painter was interviewed on WJBC. Besides saying the City should go ahead and raise garbage fees, she stated that maybe the City should run the Coliseum. The insiders on the Council may have finally realized that Central Illinois Arena Management (CIAM) is a disaster. The City running the Coliseum would […]
