By: Diane Benjamin
Here’s all you need to know about last night’s 2 meetings of the Bloomington City Council:
- You aren’t using enough water, therefore your storm water bill is too low. You therefore have to pay more because the fund doesn’t have enough money. (Government forced you to be sustainable – now you will pay the price)
- Every business now expects government subsidies. If they don’t get money to do business here, they will go someplace where they are subsided. Your government will never let the economic bottom be reached, therefore the local economy will never recover. Your taxes will be used for economic development regardless of what existing businesses are put out of business. Alderman Lower was the lone dissenter.
- Tari went home sick
- David Hales’s father-in-law died – he wasn’t there
- Nobody on the Council objected to the Scott Oglesby payoff – one person did object during public comment
- Nobody objected to anything on the Consent Agenda
- Failure to budget required maintenance on streets, sewers, buildings etc are costing you BIG
- Master Plans are NOT a guideline – the City is going to implement them in full regardless of the cost
- Your Property taxes are going up – nobody on the Council objected
On the final turn, the entire field crashed into a pile of “I don’t really care”. Get me out of here. Most likely, it was scheduled.
This is what media will report, everything fine:
As expected. The mismanagement by clowns and puppets occurring daily was on full display.
Funny, sustainable! I see Amtrak ridership is DOWN 4% from last year. Drivers ED fees up in Unit 5, Water use is down, No Green Top “grinds”. State Farm raising rates AGAIN, 10% chance of a WHITE Christmas. The PTL club went off the air. And we buy lunch for this panel of “Miss-Fits” And as for the Pantagraph reporting it, well, ONLY if they can get ALL the words spelled right and the english correct. Think I’ll go take a BIG hit of horseradish-chase it with some garlic!
Water usage is down because there is negative population growth so each citizen gets to pay more to make sure there is enough money to move to other funds.
If the Council really understood TIFs they would not be fond of them. There is a reason TIFs are no longer legal in California, the state which first implemented them in the 1970’s. Any increase in property values is just circulated within the district for 23 years to pay off bonds or for more redevelopment within its boundaries. Bloomington Jr. and Sr. High School is probably included to entice the district to support the TIF even though overall the District 87 will not benefit financially. Keep in mind, a prospective developer has to apply for funding–more opportunity for favoritism. The City is also trying to engineer a specific look for one of the entrances into the City–“the right fit.” The previous TIFs, which were just retired, were not at all successful.
The City employees don’t feel the management listens or responds to their concerns. They don’t feel their opinion counts. Well, that is how the citizens feel about the Council and Mayor. Where are our citizen “appreciation awards” to bolster our morale? It is no wonder so few people speak at public comment or attend the mayor’s open house.
The Master Plan over-rides maintenance. Economic Development trumps infrastructure. The City lacks the focus and discipline to manage. They have blinders on.
To think that people wonder why I am an Anarchist.
There is no such thing as good government. No matter how well intended, sooner or later it comes down to this – on every scale, a small group of people will manage to somehow convince citizens to trust them, and then betray them at the first chance, by grabbing a hold of the levers of government (the purse strings) and doing whatever they bloody well please.
Anarchy is cheaper!
Don’t NEED government to do THIS! Most ANY organization has it happen sooner or later! Look what happened to the B/N Air Show! We had some GREAT people in there, they built it up into a legendary, nationally known event, then BAM! Power brokers and idiots take it over and where’s it at NOW???
Where’s the Corvette show?
The 3 Stooges on crack couldn’t put on a better show than this bunch!