By: Diane Benjamin
Since Bloomington’s Communications Director Nora Dukowitz decided to ask a judge to declare knocking on a door illegal, I decided to do a little research about her. It wasn’t difficult because I received her application to the City of Bloomington last month under the Freedom of Information Act. Nora also still has her resume on-line: http://www.indeed.com/r/NORA-DUKOWITZ/e1c1550e909497e8
Nora graduated from college with a Bachelor’s Degree in 2004. I don’t know her birth date, so I’m assuming she was around 21 in 2004. Today she is in her early thirties.
Since 2004 she has worked for:
General Growth Properties- Spring Hill Mall – Dundee, IL
General Growth Properties- Market Place Mall – Champaign, IL
Uptown Marketing Manager – Normal Il
Fort Madison Partners – Fort Madison, IA
City of Bloomington since 2011
In 2011 Nora was in her late 20’s.
Reading her resume, Nora appears to have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. She worked for the Town of Normal for around 3 1/2 years. She only worked in Iowa for about a year before applying to Bloomington. According to her Bloomington application, she was earning $72,000 a year in Iowa.
Evidently she wasn’t happy in Iowa. $72,000 a year didn’t make her happy. Remember, she was in her late 20’s in Iowa.
What did she put on her application to Bloomington for “Reason for Leaving”? HOMESICK
She also wanted to return to marketing, a job she no longer does for the City unless “controlling the message” can be called marketing.
She was making $72,000 a year in Iowa, but she wanted $35,010 – $52,514 working for Bloomington.
Many years ago I managed 10 people and hired staff. If I saw a resume claiming great accomplishments, an applicant making more than the average salary but the person is willing to work for MUCH less, AND they want a job with my company because they are HOMESICK – that resume would be tossed. I would consider the applicant borderline unstable and not capable of being a long-term employee.
Maybe the City hired her because HOMESICK means “I can control” this applicant. She has lots of experience and is willing to work for much less than she is currently earning. She must not be a person who makes friends easily – Iowa didn’t go well. She isn’t a leader, rather someone who wants led.
She also listed a Pantagraph reporter as a reference.
Nora claims Media Relations Training under “Additional Information”.
I wonder if that is where she learned to fear reporters?
Nora wasn’t hired as a Communication Director with Bloomington. The job was created in last years budget and she was moved into it. Citizens never received an explanation as to why the City needed this job, Tari just wanted it.
See her City application here: Dukowitz, Nora K
Interesting article. Definitely is making sense.
Diane, you should talk to some of the small, independent businesspeople–other than Babbitt’s Books–who dealt with her regularly during the imposition….er…..I mean creation…..of Uptown Normal. Let’s just say I fully understand why she would fit nicely into the Renner regime, attitude, ideology and temperament-wise.
Interesting, suspicious, and a waste of a position. Why did she not list a college? 1 N. State, Chicago, is a high rise building, not a college.
She has the name on other documents – International Academy of Design and Technology
What is the name of the supposed College? Is this another example of hiring without checking references, background, qualifications? Or is this just another example of adding another useless administrator to the Bloomington staff? I can’t wait for the Mayor’s comments on video at the last meeting to come back and haunt him. I think you know what I am getting at.
I know exactly what you are talking about! International Academy of Design and Technology
Note that IADT does not offer a degree in marketing. It would be an associates degree in fashion merchandising.
I wouldn’t live in Iowa for any amount of money. Very often other factors are far more important than money and that shows someone who has their priorities straight in my mind. My concern with her is where is the background to really deal with media and write press releases not to mention public relations.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
I like Iowa! Much more scenic than Illinois!
As far as we know, Nora wasn’t kidnapped, taken to Iowa, and forced to work there!
She has a degree in Art and Design, not Communications. Advertising is not the same as talking.
I wouldn’t put too much into her “degree.” After all, it is from a for-profit school owned by the Career Education Corporation. This company is known for extremely low education quality and fleeces the tax payers out of millions in federal financial aid for degrees that don’t provide gainful employment. But hey, they bribe politicians to let it happen, so it’s all good. Oh, and it’s now closed – as it should be.
Better watch it, she might slap a restraining order or no contact order on you for publishing this…
Ha! I figured it was some crappy degree that like. I wonder how much help/bribes they provided her in gaining government employment. I’m glad it’s closed (I wonder if it re-opened under another name, just like ACORN did). And I would welcome a restraining order…just let her try it! She is a joke, mayor Renner is a joke!
First of all, if her resume is still online does that mean she is still looking for a job? Second, money isn’t everything so if being homesick is an issue then move home. Nothing wrong with that. However in regards to her resume as a resume is meant to exhibit ones strengths:
“Specifically: Ÿ Coordinated outreach for the Uptown project, serving as the primary liaison with the district’s business and property owners as well as the community as a whole.”
Ÿ Managed media relationships and communicated with a wide audience implementing several methods (presentations, web, newsletters, face-to-face contact, education materials, etc.)
Ÿ Collaborated with local agencies on business growth and retention
Ÿ Built consensus regarding project elements and programs, particularly controversial topics such as public/private partnership, special district designation, major traffic pattern changes, parking policy, etc.
Ÿ Assisted Uptown Development Director with a variety of tasks such as grant writing, budget process, preparing Council reports, etc.
Ÿ Completed media crisis training
In review of this paragraph we see an individual that notes her as being, 1) a primary liaison 2) managed media relationships including face-to-face contact 3) completed media crisis training. And then she freaks out when a local media guy leaves a business card on her door. What a joke! The entire city administration is a joke, a bad joke!
Point of clarification, Nora earns $62,230 per year in her current position as communications manager:
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/city-hires-communications-manager/article_f4bfe4e6-ec94-5cf7-a2c7-5c8a58a36771.html
She does now, that’s not what she was hired at. The point was on her app she stated she wasn’t expecting anything close.
So in other words she took a lesser job with the city of Bloomington having been promised a better job. But first, the job had to be created. This was a set up deal, creating a job for someone rather than filling an existing job through qualified applicants.
I’m not sure we can say that. She took the job in 2011, that was pre Renner. Budget discussions last year was the first I heard of the position.
Homesick, you can bet I would have trashed that resume no doubt about that. I saw that and said to myself, you’ve got to be kidding. Not that I’m not surprised seeing the generation this person is from. Also anyone willing to take a pay cut like that I would have questioned with a big WHY. Another reason why I would have trashed the application. Also poor reference too.
I suppose Mayor Professor’s future cell mate David Hales did the interview and hiring. If he did this is even more proof of his in(st)ability to manage.
I also don’t see where the “International Academy……” shows up in the Higher Learning Commission search. https://www.ncahlc.org/Directory-of-HLC-Institutions.html Most likely the degree would not transfer to say for example Illinois State University. What I don’t understand is why the city doesn’t have a release on the application to acquire any school records. It is apparent to me that no thorough background check was done.
In summation this application would have went in a file and a thank you letter sent to the applicant. Thank you and we wish you the best in your career where ever that may be but it won’t be here. Try again using your savvy social media user computer skills.
I meant to say “Try someplace else using your savvy…..”
Mr. Hales resume was posted here a while back. He too had a long list of “accomplishments” (many different employers) during his career before coming to Bloomington. I didn’t look favorably on that either. So, given all of that experience in management, managing to give a response to a reporter should be easy.
I call those kind of people job (s)hoppers and I don’t consider them as stable or long term employees with any allegiance other than to me, myself and I. Also this a big red flag.
So Hales and co get trashed for hiring out of towners who have no connection to or stake in Bloomington. Then someone gets hired who is from here and wants to move back badly enough that she openly admits she is homesick, and Hales is attacked for that decision. Who exactly should be hired?
Also I agree with the other commenters. Money is not the most important thing in life. Millenials understand this much better than most other generations. We grew up during the great recession watching large amounts of people lose everything they had worked so hard to get. It was a very important lesson on how quickly things can change and an eye opener on what is truly important.
“Many years ago I managed 10 people and hired staff. If I saw a resume claiming great accomplishments, an applicant making more than the average salary but the person is willing to work for MUCH less, AND they want a job with my company because they are HOMESICK – that resume would be tossed.”
That’s a shame you would take that approach. For someone who claims to support free market economics none of the factors you describe assign relative worth to her accomplishments to your organization. If the accomplishments can be substantiated, what do you care if her relative worth of the position, all other things being considered, is $0.75/on the dollar versus what she was making.
Frankly, the deliberative value of what someone made in the past in terms of predicting future performance or longevity went out the window in 2009.
When many more people are looking for jobs than jobs jobs available, why settle?
Sue, putting “homesick” on a resume or job application demonstrates lack of maturity. Fine if someone puts “family reason” or “family related” or “help care for elderly parents” or “need to relocate for xxxx reason”.
Also taking a pay reduction or seeking out a lessor paying position isn’t well accepted in the business world. Even McDonald’s wouldn’t find it okay. If you are unemployed then seeking out any paying position would be acceptable, even one paying less than your previous position.
Please explain this below more. I presume you derived this from the layoff’s and terminations from the 2008 economic down turn. I don’t see where this is true.
“the deliberative value of what someone made in the past in terms of predicting future performance or longevity went out the window in 2009.”
Thank you Marc. The differences in viewpoints must be an age thing.
A few years ago or maybe longer someone published a book on work place values or it dealt with conflicts between generations. I can’t remember the title of the book. It might be this one “Decades of Difference: Making it Work ”
Not to go far off the topic but a couple of years ago I had a conversation from someone who works in HR at a major bank about hiring recent graduates. He called them the “helicopter” generations. Mostly because their parents hovered over them. He found most if not all didn’t want to be on call for their job, didn’t want to work the hours, weren’t able to make some type of decision. I forgot what he called it. As a consequence they generally only hire older mature candidates. He said if the younger generation didn’t want the responsibility and only wanted to work 9 to 3:30 then go work at some department store.
I’m enjoying her reference list. Since when did Mary Ann Ford get so much power, (as well as Brian Simpson), that by knowing them (among others) one can obtain a well-compensated government position? I know they say, “It’s not what you know, but who you know . . .” So, when did these two become movers and shakers. Power Players, if you will? Mary Ann is a power player because she used to be married to Bill Flick?? Really.? Because she writes for the Slantagraph (ed. note, please italicize Slantagraph)? That newspaper has certainly gone downhill, as has our community, when the journalists like Steve Arney got “let go” when they tried to organize because of shoddy treatment by management.
Additionally, she is not “from here.” She put homesick, but she is not from the Bloomington-Normal, nor Mclean, Dewitt, Livingston, or Tazewell county areas. “Homesick” is a nice way of implying this is a hometown, but it is not.
Oh well, maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll use this a jump to a higher paying job somewhere else. Perhaps Bloomington might get to know the thrill of fobbing off an employee who thinks she can pick and choose what duties she wants and doesn’t want to perform.
Incidentally, does anyone here remember Bloomington’s answer to the hippy rags of Haight Ashbury: the Post Amerikan?