By: Diane Benjamin
I was looking for something else when I did a FOIA for emails recently. It never fails to amaze me what some elected officials will put in writing when they think it’s a secret. Emails are part of the public record because State law requires all deliberations be done openly in front of taxpayers. They seem to forget that government has NO money that isn’t stolen from the people.
But, we are in Illinois where laws for elected officials don’t matter and finding a prosecutor is next to impossible. More on that in the coming days, maybe a week.
The email below, written by Diana Hauman, sure looks like she could care less what people at Public Comment say. If you ever attend a Council meeting you will see many of the Alderman never look at the speaker. Of course the camera never shows that in the live stream. Even if they are frequent speakers, these citizens put a lot of thought into what they are saying. They give up their time to come. Many produce good facts and well structured reasoning, and MANY citizens agree with what they say. Hauman doesn’t care because these citizens get in the way of plotting her utopian agenda.
I wonder if she will ignore the tiny Bike Blono minority too?
Not a chance since the Council thinks a few bikers deserve their own lanes while cars get less space. It’s just fine to have empty bike lanes most of the day, but car lanes can’t be empty for 1 minute. See this post for source: https://blnnews.com/2016/06/18/local-lunacy-you-pay-for/
Diana, this breakfast was DURING the week! Ever heard of jobs? People do actually get out of bed, get ready for work, hop in their car and go there because their boss expects them to. Council is a part-time job.
See this email:
Community Leaders should be listening to citizens instead of each other. Obviously Hauman doesn’t get that point.
Then Hauman questioned the City Manager’s report.
David Hales used to make a big deal about his AWARD WINNING monthly City Manager reports. They contain information the City never releases anywhere else (transparency). Of course it is difficult to convince citizens to add additional space to the library when traffic keeps going down. It’s also difficult to raise taxes when the Finance report shows receipts are above budget.
Alderman Diana Hauman doesn’t think the report should be done, or at least it should be changed:
Maybe Hauman doesn’t understand how all that data is complied. Every heard of performance metrics Diana? Hales has been measuring everything since ICMA told him to. Employees are probably driven nuts recording every detail of how long something takes – especially for police and fire. Where do you think response times come from? Since the data is already there, it’s not that difficult to put it in a report. Nora needs something to do and since she sent it to the Council it must be her job. Citizens deserve facts they aren’t getting anywhere else.
Got something against “Transparency” Diana?
I’m sure you do now with FOIA.
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Maybe if they shortened the report, the “town staff” would have time to go to breakfast meetings like in Normal. (sarcasm)
this article is interesting in that Illinois has quite a number of cities showing significant population loss as to enormous gains in other cities and states…I wonder why?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/cities-americans-are-abandoning-and-moving-to/ar-BBtXCo2?li=BBnb7Kz#image=BBtXK2F|50
The article has so many ads on it it’s impossible to read.
Sorry, in my MSN newsfeed there was no issue with ads.
Rockford, Decatur, Kankakee, Danville all shown as cities that residents are leaving, and thats with just 25 cities shown as top “losers”, those GAINING populations show incredible gains.
Cost of living in Decatur is MUCH less than here. If you can find a job there. I might do a story about it later.
Decatur? Would the stench of beans be less than the stench of the Renner/Koos marxist/liberal regime? Probably.
There government is no better. Downtown fever hit them too. The old store there just closed.
Here are my Thursday morning musings:
Alderwoman Hauman has difficulty putting together a coherent statement after working on her Mission and Value project for over a year. She was “inclusive” of a few fellow aldermen, a few staff and a few Bloomington 101 students to formulate the new Vision that now EXCLUDES the Value of Trust.
A year ago she did a presentation from the lectern and expressed her intimidation from that perspective. She even had a prepared Power Point to use as a crutch–something public commenters do not have. Where is her compassion for those who would rather stick a pencil in their eye than speak publicly but do it anyway because of their genuine concern for the City.
Remember when she read a prepared statement during aldermanic comments where she complained about being referred to as a “potted plant?” How hypocritical of her to now refer to public commenters as “frequent flyers.” On several occasions, there has been unsolicited applause from the citizen attendees–to the surprise of the Council. Where are the multitude of speakers that comment in favor of agenda items.
Keep in mind, she voted in favor of Bring it on Bloomington and B/N Advantage even though less than 2% of the population of Bloomington was surveyed. Yes, lets be “inclusive.”
How ridiculous to think that Council members might need to read the City Manager’s Report to be informed prior to voting on budget expenditures. Isn’t that more important than rubbing shoulders with the elite members of the Community.
I could go on but the list is rather long for the few years Alderwoman Hauman has been on the Council.
Well said. I love how you remember things I have forgotten!
A steel trap for the most appalling actions and comments!
You forgot the “brown-shirted Nazi” comment she complained about and when she walked out on public comments when Brother G gave the Morning Buzz’s response to Nora’s restraining order request against Fist Bump.
I don’t think the majority of Council are particularly interested in being elected officials. Most have connections to the social circles in Bloomington/Normal. I seem to remember more regular Joe and Jane types running where I grew up. More small business owners, self-employed folks, people genuinely interested in running for government. People decided not to run to give others a chance. Now they hold onto to it with a vice like grip. They look at it as “what can I accomplish?”–not–“what can I do to help our city?”.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Mr. X, thanks for adding another item of abhorrent behavior she has exhibited. The list IS extensive.