By: Diane Benjamin
The City of Bloomington hired Bronner Group as yet another consultant back in February. According to Renner, Bronner is examining everything Bloomington does, including the budget line by line.
That’s funny, Council members can’t get a line-by-line budget. Citizens attempting to get that information under the Freedom of Information Act can’t either.
Bronner specializes in working with government. It’s difficult from their website to determine much about them.
When large contributions are made to a politician, who the contributor works for must be included. That makes campaign contributions a good place to look – by employer – to see where the company leans.
Good thing there is a website for that, and Bronner Group employees are on it: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/recips.php?id=D000060441&type=P&state=&sort=A&cycle=2014
2014 Federal Candidates:
No contributions were made to any Republican Candidates.
| Duckworth, Tammy (D-IL) | House | $5,200 |
| Schakowsky, Jan (D-IL) | House | $3,500 |
| Quigley, Mike (D-IL) | House | $2,500 |
| Durbin, Dick (D-IL) | Senate | $1,700 |
| Franken, Al (D-MN) | Senate | $1,000 |
| Landrieu, Mary L (D-LA) | Senate | $500 |
| Markey, Ed (D-MA) | Senate | $500 |
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Below is how much of your money they are receiving for doing David Hales job:
http://www.cityblm.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=8218
It’s a great thing that local elections are nonpartisan, Right?
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Tari – here’s another thing that wasn’t being done 5 years ago. Bloomington, this doesn’t replace the Auditor for the City and the Coliseum.
I have to quit reading your posts so early in the morning. I about spit out my morning soda. I’ve done that too much lately.
I have been a huge supporter of independent, non-bias or low-bias study groups. But there is a free way to determine what the vision the government should take, The Yellow Pages Test. If it can be found in the telephone book, the government probably should not be providing it. There would be no BCPA subsidy, no golf courses, no Coliseum subsidy. No real estate owned by the government or very little. How much money would that save? Both in budget costs and consulting fees? Millions would be saved. There would be more money for core services. How about some extra police officers? How about fixing roads and sewers? It’s a ‘duh’ proposal.
I think Renner doesn’t even trust his own appointees to do what he wants so he needs a consulting group to steal the opinion his way. You get people who already support the guy and then you ask, “What about what this high-priced consulting firm’s suggestions?” Said appointees respond by incorporating the suggestions from the consultants. Renner must know by now that he can’t ram things through without Dianne, Alton, Bruce Meeks, April Huber, Donna Bolen(sp), Gary Lambert calling BS. He has to have total agreement and he knows he doesnt have it save for the council, Hales and the city hall staff. Thing is people won’t care until the tax receipts go down and Tari refuses to cut anything the government owns. They might as be saying to the citizens to start storing money in their mattresses. Because the city will go bankrupt. None of the consultants will tell them that.
They want this area to be like Austin, Texas or Madison, Wisconsin. But there is nothing wrong with what this town has traditionally been. I moved here because it reminded me of Green Bay. It has colleges but it doesn’t feel like it is a college town. Cities change, but other large areas mastered it before us. Why keep up with the Jones?
Why do we have both this consultant and the budget task force? Seems like they are doing the same thing (providing cover for a tax increase) except the task force is cheaper.
Hales is making Hamilton look like an amateur.
Hales, appears to me, to have out foxed everyone after him so far.
I’m not done with him yet!
2014 FY saw $11M spent over budget through budget Amendments during Renner’s Reign. Every yes vote for an amendment adds to the structural deficit. All amendments are recommended by Hales.
“The City’s Budget Team is composed of the following positions: City Manager, Deputy City Manager, Finance Director, Budget Manager, Chief Accountant, Accountant and Budget Analyst.”
I believe their salaries are listed in the same report. One of those accountants should be able to do an audit.
http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8224
If they can’t stop pensions spiking, they can’t make cuts or reorganize either.
Tari and the Council think they have control–joke is on them. Sad for us.
Found something regarding IMRF