By:  Diane Benjamin

1)

Tari Renner was on WJBC earlier this week with Scott Laughlin.  One of the topics was public comment.  Scott wondered why they bother or why they don’t set ridiculous rules like Normal and the County.  Tari played along.  What Tari should have said is the County and Normal’s public comment policies are illegal!  The Attorney General ordered the County (binding opinion) to fix theirs (I think) years ago.  All this County transparency talk now is cover for doing what they were told to do.  Somebody might have tipped off the AG that they hadn’t complied.

The Illinois Policy Institute is also doing a transparency review of the County.  The County had extremely low scores before, so they might be trying to not be publicly embarrassed again.  Matt Sorensen didn’t want transparency, I wonder why?  A big issue was posting documents on-line that aren’t searchable.  It’s an easy fix, but it also makes it easy for citizens to find what they are looking for.  Last time I checked, the financial statements still weren’t searchable, but now the Board minutes are.

2)

Ian Bayne announced today that he is running for Bloomington Mayor.  He did an interview on WJBC with Terry James, a guy that isn’t pro-conservatism.  I talked to him when I ran for County Board.  My opponents easily got 10 minutes with him, I got less than 5.  Making sense will get you in trouble with some hosts on WJBC.  Anyway, James went after Ian for Fistbump showing up at Council meetings and his dustup with Nora Dukowitz.   Then they got to when Diana Hauman walked out when Brother G (Cities 92.9 employee) spoke – a black guy.  She never walked out on white Fistbump, but did on a black guy.  Yep, Ian called her a racist.  If Hauman was a conservative the press would have shredded her.  The press should have shredded her for not being able to sit for 3 minutes and listen to somebody she doesn’t agree with.  James went after Ian instead of the real villain.  Hauman obviously thinks it isn’t her job to listen to ALL the people – just the preferred ones.  She is completely unfit to be mayor.

3)

Heartland Community College announced they are raising your taxes!  $25 for a $165,000 house.  Obviously this is just another level of government that thinks taxpayers should fund any games they plan to play.  Their elections never get much notice, so the big spenders easily win.  It’s hardball time folks!

Today I sent them a FOIA request for all Credit/PCard/Debit card statements since January 1st.  This is the response I received:  (click to enlarge)

This could get interesting!