By: Diane Benjamin
Every vote was 9-0 with virtual no discussion, so the Council part of the meeting was boring.
Public comment was better. Note to City: The length of public comment isn’t 30 minutes – the time citizens spend talking is 30 minutes. The chair is capable of wasting the public’s time.
First up was a lady speaking about the bike lanes on E. Washington. The City’s own documents show they shouldn’t be allowed on a busy street. Meanwhile, what is Bike Blono up to? From their Facebook page:
What is keeping them busy? Buying lunch and dinner for Council members? The resolution was already written and presented at the Planning Commission, supposedly in error, so what’s left besides crying to Council?
Alderman Mathy needs to recuse himself from any votes concerning issues Bike Blono is lobbying for. Also on the Bike Blono Facebook page, Mathy’s bike got stolen – the one he won at a benefit Bike Blono was involved with. He asked Michael Gorman if he had the serial number. Transparency means not appearing to have a conflict of interest. Mathy obviously has one. Jeff Jurgens will say he doesn’t (past experience), so Mathy will most likely not recuse himself.
The next speaker represented AFSME. They are currently negotiating a new contract with the City. You can see the salaries and benefits of labors for the City HERE . The speaker mentioned the jobs they do, it’s not hard to see which ones are probably AFSME members.
Remember a story I did concerning air conditioning in City vehicles? https://blnnews.com/2016/09/06/more-on-no-transparency-bloomington/
I remember thinking it was a special kind of stupid to take the air conditioning out of vehicles, but the speaker confirmed that is happening. I remember Tari claiming it doesn’t, but he would look into it. That was the last we heard.
Evidently moral is really bad among these highly paid people. Maybe outsourcing more is the answer. The private sector can do the work for much less. It’s hard to determine how much of what she said was negotiating tactics and how much was the truth. I’d be willing to listen if anyone wants to talk.
Just hit play for the first speaker:
Ha!! Mathy is not the only one who would need to recuse themselves from the vote if being part of the biking community is the criteria. The Mayor, Schmidt and Black were members of the Bicycle Master Plan Steering Committee. The Council can ignore the recommendation from the Planning Committee if they choose. The Planning Commission had 3 options to vote on. #1–Yes, paint bike lanes. #2–No, don’t paint bike lanes. #3–Table the vote to gather further information.
The Council vote is scheduled for July 10. It really is morally reprehensible if a meeting is held on June 14 with the resolution dated July 10. It is disgraceful If this is an example of the Council’s standard practice. As I recall, many, many Council packets have included pre-dated resolutions.
Well, nobody can dismiss the bike path fiasco as a conspiracy theory. The proof is in the pudding.
Tari has vowed to fight the weather. Air conditioning according to United Nations is a evil polluter and a direct result of horrible capitalistic economies. Maybe pulling air conditioners out of vehicles is Tari’s way of fighting climate change.