By: Diane Benjamin
Renner was on WJBC yesterday with Scott Laughlin. You don’t need to listen to the whole discussion, just the last 30 seconds.
http://cdn.stationcaster.com/stations/wjbc/media/mpeg/Mayor_Tari_Renner-1439933912.mp3
The topic was the fine paid by Bloomington taxpayers when Emily Bell spiked her pension with accumulated sick days. Renner and the Council were “shocked” according to Tari when the Chicago Tribune story came out. I wrote about the story on August 16th: http://blnnews.com/2015/08/16/how-many-screw-ups-from-hales-can-you-afford/
Evidently Hales paid the fine without telling anybody! Renner claims he didn’t know. The Council didn’t know. So who did?
Maybe this is why David Hales Administration budget is now huge. More people to hide the truth!
It gets worse. I wrote back in 2013 about former City Manger Tom Hamilton spiking his salary: http://blnnews.com/2013/03/26/bloomington-you-have-a-problem/
City officials knew what’s going on, you just weren’t suppose to find out.
As I do not, nor want to, live in Bloomington-Normal, I watch these goings on because of the impact it can have, just by association, on my tax bill. You know, Sales Tax and Real estate taxes. But to listen to a college educated person in leadership claim that he did not know of this, proves to me he has too many irons in the fire or is totally unprepared for the elected job he has. If there is no amount of money that the City Manager does not need approval on before the City Manager pays the bills that’s one thing, but if Hales paid this and just never told the Mayor, Hales is dead meat. If this group is the best you’ve got, well we are in a bunch of do do.
The Council or Mayor can not plead innocent. They approve Bills & Payroll. I’m sure the information is buried in there. Although, at Monday’s Committee meeting, the Finance Director gave an unaudited Q-1 report that only included revenue not expenses. The Council asked no questions. The Consent Agenda hides plenty of “shady” items which are rarely pulled for discussion. And, recently the Council voted to allow the City Manager the authority to approve spending on items up to $50K without Council approval–not sure if this retirement payout would be included.
The Bell penalty was $385,000!
This can add up to $7M budget gap really fast.
No matter WHICH way you “spin” this “story” SOMEONE isn’t doing their job! PERIOD-end of discussion. Either Hales can’t be trusted or Tari is lying to the citizens-in which case HE can’t be trusted! Plain and simple. That’s as black and white as it can get. And if the council cronies know NOTHING about it, they aren’t doing their elected jobs either. No matter how you polish this up, SOMEONE isn’t trustworthy! And we pay $200 K a year for THIS BS? Are we getting ripped off!
How could Hales not know? We’re not taking a $10.95 charge to Kmart here. $385K should have raised some eyebrows. What has it been a year since Bell left and he didn’t put this on a priority list right then? It makes you wonder what else is being covered up at city hall that we don’t know about.
Is there a clawback from the spiked pension or is Ms. Bell allowed to keep the higher pension?
What she did was perfectly legal! No way to get it back.
If it’s legal, why the fine?
Because jacking up her final salary qualified for the fine. Nothing criminal, IMRF just wanted more money to cover it.
So I wonder what the retired Fire Chief got to add on to his retirement?
http://www.openthebooks.com/search/?PensionCode=1000&F_fiscalyear=2014&F_employernm=City%20Of%20Bloomington&F_employeenm=
Click on the squiggly line in front of the Year to see the salary spike
Perfect! Now the question is could the non union employees have this benefit removed legally? I say yes. It is a question for someone who has researched this state wide. Also, can Hales get this when he leaves?
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2015 14:09:04 +0000 To: [email protected]