By: Diane Benjamin If the citizens knew David Hales threw away more than $1.2 million tax dollars on spiked pensions The Council NEVER approved the IMRF payments because they were never on Bills and Payroll Monday the Council will approve over $50,000,000 already spent without Council approval Coliseum management isn’t held accountable by David Hales […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tomorrow at the Den: Public Comment – sign up before 8:00 http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9090 Monday night at Council: Public Comment – sign up before 7:00 http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9124 Same meeting – time undetermined: Public Comment will be allowed again on Raising the Sales Tax. If you want more of your money stolen by government, stay home. […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll to be approved Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9118 Contracted and Purchased Legal: CLARK BAIRD SMITH LLP CHECK TOTAL 15,122.10. ANCEL GLINK DIAMOND BU CHECK TOTAL 750.00 HEYL ROYSTER VOELKER & CHECK TOTAL 675.00 HINSHAW & CULBERTSON L CHECK TOTAL 2,340.00 MEYER CAPEL A PROFESSI CHECK TOTAL 587.50 SORLING NORTHRUP HANNA […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nobody gets fired. David Hales isn’t held responsible. It was just an accident that Wire Transfers weren’t brought to the Council for approval for YEARS. Nobody’s fault, just slipped through the cracks. Monday night THIS Council is asked to approve Wire Transfers from 2013, 2014, and 2015. They all weren’t members of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Why has the media NOT reported truthfully on the City of Bloomington’s waste of $1.2 Million? Pantagraph? WJBC? Cities? WGLT? Maybe they interviewed Hales or Renner, but they wouldn’t be getting truth! If you clicked on the link to IMRF in this post: http://blnnews.com/2015/09/10/proof-they-lied/ you can get to their page showing FOIA […]
By: Diane Benjamin Another taxpayer asked IMRF for information about the City of Bloomington’s policy allowing pensions spiking. Remember this cost you more than $1.2 MILLION dollars. See the email below FROM IMRF. The RED and BLUE are from me. From: John Krupa <jkrupa@imrf.org> To: (redacted) Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 10:53 AM Subject: […]
By: Diane Benjamin The agenda for the Saturday Council retreat has been posted. They plan to spend the first 3 HOURS in a secret meeting to discuss this section of the law: Closed Session: Self-Evaluation of practices and procedures or professional ethics, when meeting with a representative of a statewide association of which the public […]
By: Diane Benjamin Obviously the LAWYER on the Bloomington City Council believes David Hales instead of looking at the facts. Amelia stated this during the last Council meeting, I had hopes you would figure out the truth by now. No such luck. She sent the following email to a Bloomington resident this morning: (mis-spelled words […]
By: Diane Benjamin I had hopes that only IWU was training kids to be offended: http://blnnews.com/2015/09/01/iwu-teaching-kids-to-be-offended/ Bureaucrats must be lacking work, ISU has joined the ‘microaggressions” cause to justify keeping their jobs. If any problems were solved they would be out of a job – so invent more injustice that needs fixing. Remember, IWU is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The citizens of Bloomington have a right to be angry. Renner appointed his own hacks to study the budget while David Hales tells them what to consider (certainly not the Admin budget!). The library wants to build while traffic is decreasing. Hales throws your money out the window so employees get higher […]
By: Diane Benjamin Just to make this perfectly clear: David Hales could have avoided spending $1.2 Million + JUST by changing when employees got their accumulated sick days pay. If they had been paid the day they left City employment, their pensions would not have been spiked and therefore IMRF would NOT have sent them […]
By: Diane Benjamin The David Hales saga continues, make sure you read this story first: http://blnnews.com/2015/09/08/what-did-hales-know-plenty/ From the City of Bloomington website: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=262 (b) The Council shall approve for payment all expenses and liabilities of the City of Bloomington. Seem pretty clear to you? Need a definition of “shall”? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shall (directive, mandatory, expected) The City […]
By: Diane Benjamin A LOT more information on pensions spiking is coming. Citizens deserve better than Bloomington throwing away $1.2 Million when it could have been avoided. This won’t be the last post, but I have to lay out what I know slowly so you can understand the facts. First, let’s review. For DECADES employees […]
By: Diane Benjamin Pretend a big corporation has a CEO and a Board of Directors headed by a guy who tells the CEO what to do. Most on the Board believes anything they are told and never look for facts themselves. The Board fails to realize they have a responsibility to the stockholders, they happily […]
By: Diane Benjamin Friday the bird-cage liner did their weekly version of Cheers and Jeers. Make sure you are sitting down. Ready? They CHEERED the Bloomington Budget Task Force! Evidently they have changed the paper to the local comedy show. Hey Editor – How about asking Tari Renner and David Hales why a group of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Mayor Transparency wants his Budget Tax Force to report to the Council in September. Gee Mayor, how are they putting everything on the table when nothing is on the table yet? The audited financial statements for the Coliseum, which will show a much bigger loss than previously reported, won’t be out until […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written lots of stories about the Village of Standford and the Allin Fire Protection District. Even though the Supreme Court has ruled that “bloggers” are media, the Standford Police Chief doesn’t care. Ed Petrey refuses to answer my emails. Earlier in August I asked Ed to refer investigations to the McLean […]
Update: The City just sent their daily propaganda. The title of the Coliseum loss story: Coliseum 1st Quarter Economic Impact Are the citizens sick of being lied to yet? By: Diane Benjamin Both the Pantagraph and WJBC have stories today about another BIG loss at the Coliseum. Obviously the City sent them a press […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Public Library Trustees have voted to spend up to $85,000 with Farnsworth Group for an expansion study! Meanwhile, in City Manger David Hales’ July report, patrons of the library and items checked out plummeted compared to last year: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9060 Page 54. Georgia, I will do the study for $25,000. I […]
Note: Hales claims the tax numbers are from May. Not all these taxes are. This year the City notes on the report how many months are reflected. Last year they didn’t. See the original document at the link below for more information. By: Diane Benjamin From the August 10, 2015 City Council meeting – Watch […]
These pictures are from Tuesday night outside the BCPA. A Town Hall meeting was being conducted by 4 Bloomington Aldermen. See the original story here: blnnews.com/2015/09/02/4-ward-meeting-the-report/
UPDATE: I have lots of great ideas for shirts, not nearly enough people willing to wear them! Who can spend 10 minutes making an appearance? By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council is poised to raise taxes AGAIN. Maybe they heard the opposition last night at the 4 Wards meeting, maybe they didn’t. If anyone […]
By: Diane Benjamin Cities 92.9 no longer employs Ian Bayne or Fistbump. I’m getting reasons why from a LOT of different sources, I will try to piece together what I know. First, I’m sure Ian’s listeners felt the same way I did. For the very first time we had a media source that represented us. […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s funny how the bird-cage liner can count the crowd accurately when it’s liberals holding the meeting. Yes, there were around 100 citizens at the BCPA last night for a Town Hall meeting held by Aldermen Sage, Buragas, Schmidt, and Black. What their report omitted was at least 10% were of them […]
By: Diane Benjamin When I moved to this area in 1980 if Democrats wanted to get elected they had to run as Republicans. Nobody here then would ever elect a Democrat. Some of those “pretend” Republicans are still in office. Today it’s hard to tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Big time Republican Matt […]
By: Diane Benjamin Another Police Officer was murdered this morning – this time in Fox Lake Illinois. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) unanimously adopted a resolution in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday afternoon during a summer meeting in Minneapolis. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/31/black-lives-matter-democratic-national-committee Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter was marching and chanting “Pigs in a […]
By: Diane Benjamin I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Martin Luther King, Jr. Remember the IWU teacher (professor?) who wrote a book about the racist TEA […]
