By: Diane Benjamin
Actually the City Council meeting lasted 13:26 minutes, that included 2 public comments – Ron Ulmer and Marc Tiritilli.
Guess what got about SEVEN SECONDS before a vote was taken?
Normal has such severe financial issues they are offering early retirements to cut expenses and there is no discussion? Start watching the video around 9:45. The Council members couldn’t move fast enough to a vote. It’s all over by 10:03.
Why would there be no discussion? This is pretty easy . . .
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The Council had already discussed it, just not where you could watch. (The private sector would be doing layoffs, but since they can’t tax – they have no choice)
Details will be available at some point – nobody ever said justice was swift.
The Council ended the meeting by going to a Secret Meeting (Executive Session) to discuss buying property! Yeah! More property producing ZERO property taxes.
Watch the intense 13 minutes here – if you can take the drama! (kidding)
Marc Tiritilli is excellent as always. Please run again!
Yes he was!
Marc Tiritilli & Ron Ulmer are more intelligent than the entire city council combined yet they are laughed at , ridiculed and ignored.
That’s the MO of the “progressive” set – you know that – marginalize and ridicule anyone that they fear may “unseat” them or expose them for what they are.
A couple quick observations about the current state of affairs with Normal city government. The city is currently experiencing a $1.2 million deficient. If I do recall, this is the exact amount of Normal’s share of the metro zone agreement with the city of Bloomington. Thank you Mark Peterson for making your point of how Normal got screwed by Bloomington. The fix is in and Bloomington is to blame for Normal’s mismanagement. How convenient that is for Peterson who is on his way out. Apparently we’re going to attempt to fix this with a buyout incentive for town employees further compounding our pension problem. For those who take the offer, new hires will have to be made because God forbid we’d downsize government in Uptown. Pure and simple this is a set up for a property tax increase in December to keep up with the rising pension debt. It’s the perfect storm that Peterson is unleashing on Normal residents. Springfield has done nothing to solve the pension problems, Bloomington gave us a $1.2 million shortfall, and on top of everything else Normal owes Springfield an extra quarter of a million. If that’s not enough there’s a secret meeting going on about acquiring new property. Are we going to turn around and sell it at a loss like we did last year? Anybody who doesn’t see the tax increase coming is blind and this Council will march lockstep to Peterson’s commands.
Peterson said it is more than the $1.2 million, but has never said how much more. $5 Mil? $20 Mil? $1.25 Mil? (It’s a secret!)
It appears Koos does not like either person, especially Tiritilli. Tiritilli definitely has the vote of my wife and I if he decides to run again or runs for a town council seat in the interim. I hope he decides to run for that to put a better voice on the board.
Perhaps Koos’ sour looks are because Tiritilli called out his very poor track record of making bets with taxpayer money to acquire property. Perhaps Koos’ sour looks are because he had to come in and meet for such a short amount of time.
Sounds efficient and it sounds like council members were already prepared and informed; like government OUGHT to work. Certainly better than the hand wringing and lack of preparation among some Bloomington Aldermen. Well done, Normal!!
Obviously never read the Open Meetings Act dude. Thanks for playing though. Oh, the packet had no information detailing just what the budget hole is.
“Rich” doesn’t care, as long as the “progressive” agenda keeps right on a rollin’ down the hill – details are just so boring but HEY there are BIKE LANES and nearly empty (most of the time) pretty Hotels right in “Uptown” Normal – bet he doesn’t realize how many people avoid Normal partly because of “Uptown” – another thing that needs to be discussed “up” there is the incredibly NON user friendly Uptown Station – Taxis can’t even drop off in front or pick up, and the free parking for the Bus users is a nice little walk if you have much baggage. There IS a Bike rack however, I wonder how many people balance their Roll-aboard and their backpack on their bike and peddle on down to the train station… I use the Uptown Station now and then and never see bikes parked there, not to say one or two are NOT parked there now and then, but they are likely NOT using the Uptown station for travel. Wonder if “Rich” knows that even the Panatgraph has had to admit that Normal is NOT in a good place financially – maybe it’s because the council is so prepared and the meetings are so quick and efficient…But, there are those 57% occupancy nice Hotels down there , in other words, they are around 1/2 full and that includes the times they do have 70%+ so sometimes, they are nearly empty. Of course how many people really want to pay over 250 bucks a night to stay in “Uptown Normal” when they can spend 55-75 bucks a night and stay one to three miles away? They must really push those conferences and seminars and those “reduced” rates I need to do some research and see how many conferences are actually held at those two hotels.
I’m not a progressive. I’m a fiscal conservative and like efficient government (who doesn’t?!?). You’d rather see a protracted meeting and uninformed council? Thanks for mentioning the Open Meetings Act. I looked. Looks like it requires action be taken in public. Discussion can occur among groups smaller than a majority of a quorum. I’m sure you’ll correct me if I’m wrong. I also don’t ride a bike much…so. Not sure where that rant is coming from, “Ronin.” Don’t really care about bikes as much as the people on this blog.
See the last line:
(5 ILCS 120/1) (from Ch. 102, par. 41)
Sec. 1. Policy. It is the public policy of this State that public bodies exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business and that the people have a right to be informed as to the conduct of their business. In order that the people shall be informed, the General Assembly finds and declares that it is the intent of this Act to ensure that the actions of public bodies be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.
The Council has ZERO deliberations.
Rich, glad you are a fiscal conservative, my apologies that I assumed you were “one of them” I can be a bit quick on the trigger these days – and the rant was just that – a rant – there is nothing efficient about Normal or Bloomington anymore, getting stupid stuff done, whether it be quick or slow is still stupid stuff. Aside from their little “private meetings” they also have LOTS of REAL private meetings and that is actually where a lot of the crap is dreamed up and the “winners” and “losers” chosen.
Hopefully more on that soon!