By:  Diane Benjamin

Can an elected official say anything they want on emails to citizens?  Can they present as facts anything they want the facts to be?

Sorry Joni.

See this post from Monday:  http://blnnews.com/2015/10/26/problem-joni/

Alderman Painter claims the Coliseum Contract on my site is NOT the current contract.  She also claims 4 changes to the contract.  Since the information I received under the Freedom of Information Act doesn’t support what she wrote to a citizen, I attempted to find out from the City of Bloomington what she is talking about.

Yesterday I sent this FOIA request to the City:

In an email to a citizen, Alderman Painter stated that she downloaded the CIAM contract from blnnews.com and then found it to be totally incorrect when she went to a meeting:

I don’t read Diane’s website any more because I have found it to be riddled with errors. When I first got on City Council I read it because I thought she had already done my homework for me. Before a meeting with CIAM management I downloaded and printed 30 some odd pages of the “CIAM contract.” When I got into the meeting I discovered to my horror that the contract I had in my hands was totally different from the actual contract in force at the time.

I am requesting whatever document was given to her as the correct contract.  Also, Painter stated in another email to the same citizen:

There have actually been about four iterations of the contract for the Coliseum

I am also requesting what she considers “four iterations”.

My FOIA was sent at 1:16pm.  The City of Bloomington NEVER responds to a FOIA request on the same day, but for this one they did.  I received a denial at 4:41.  Here’s the excuse:

A specific public record/file was not requested. The City cannot guess to ‘whatever document’, if one was provided, was given to a person. Nor can the City guess to which contract is being referred to by the phrase “There have actually been about four iterations of the contract for the Coliseum”.

Did the City ask Alderman Painter?  Joni claims to have had a contract in her hands that doesn’t match the one on my site.  That means whatever she had in her hands IS A PUBLIC DOCUMENT and subject to FOIA.

Did you notice the denial says “if one was provided”?  What are they trying to say?

Since the Coliseum contract with CIAM is currently being renegotiated with NO signs it is being put out of bid, the City should know what documents were given to members of the Council.  (Unless there really weren’t any)

The original 10 year contract was never put out for bid.  The contract heavily favors CIAM, not citizens.  It does say CIAM has the first right of refusal on a new contract.  It does NOT say to what contract.

If the City really cared about citizens, the contract would be put out for bid.  CIAM can still have first right of refusal.  As I’ve frequently written, there is plenty of evidence to cancel the contract for violating management and financial reporting clauses.

Alderman Painter needs to produce the documents she claims make me a liar.

The City needs to explain why the contract has not been put out for bid.  Yes, others ARE interested in managing the Coliseum and YES I can prove it.

The first court date on my lawsuit is Monday.  I sued to obtain documents the City refuses to review.

Maybe a libel suit should be next.

Since the audited financial statements have still not been released – 6 months after the year-end – citizens don’t know how much the Coliseum REALLY lost.