By:  Diane Benjamin

Some points of law are never settled because government refused to act.  Lisa Madigan’s Public Access office is doing just that.

Remember many years ago when Judy Stearns filed a complaint against Tari Renner for violating the Open Meetings Act?  It was right after he got elected.  He decided winning an election gave him the right to be a dictator.  In Executive Session (Secret meeting) he made it clear he expected the Council to fall in line behind him and especially David Hales.  He stated he would not tolerate any public criticism.

Stearns was so outraged she walked out of the meeting.  She waited for Tari to discuss the issue, he never contacted her.  She then filed with Lisa Madigan’s office.

See this story from last year:  https://blnnews.com/2015/04/23/judy-stearns-deserves-a-ruling/

Public Access did investigate, they listened to a tape of the Closed Session, but have never ruled.

Today I called the Public Access Bureau one more time.  The case is still assigned to Chris Boggs.  His email in the story from last year has the case number wrong – it should be 2014 PAC 27199.

He claims that since Stearns hasn’t called over and over, they haven’t gotten around to ruling.

Judy deserves a ruling.  The citizens of Bloomington deserve a ruling.

Maybe citizens need to start calling Chris Boggs:  877-299-3642

I might have accused him of playing politics since Renner is a Democrat and so is Lisa.

He didn’t appreciate it.