By: Diane Benjamin
See this recent WGLT story: http://wglt.org/post/new-documents-link-vague-coliseum-contract-criminal-charges
The former Coliseum management could get greatly reduced sentences because the documents WGLT presented prove the City didn’t care – as in David Hales didn’t care. Hales was paid huge bucks to manage the City, he failed. I really hope he is called as a witness to explain himself!
There is nothing new in this story that I didn’t report years ago. The audited profit and loss wasn’t ever close to what CIAM reported. I wonder if WGLT played along and reported John Butler’s numbers instead of reality? I remember other media dutifully reporting CIAM’s fictitious numbers every quarter and never reporting the actual audited losses.
I looked back at some old stories and found this one: https://blnnews.com/2015/10/26/problem-joni/
Alderman Joni Painter is emailing a citizen claiming the Coliseum contract on my website was not the correct one. Was Hales or Renner lying to the Council? The emails sound like the Aldermen were fed a completely different story than I had been reporting. If they were, is that why they refused to renegotiate the contract back in 2014 when they had a chance? https://blnnews.com/2014/04/15/coliseum-thanks-alderwoman-stearns/
The review promised to Judy Stearns never happened.
WGLT needs to keep digging. The letters they included from the Coliseum auditor to the City Council are just part of the story. The auditor wrote the same type letters to the Council about the City! I reported years ago the same deficiencies were reported by the auditors year after year after year. YOUR tax money was at risk because nobody cared. Your tax dollars are disposable – the Management letters prove it.
Here’s one of my stories from 2014: https://blnnews.com/2014/06/06/award-winning-financial-statements-is-a-joke/
Keep in mind the City Council heaped praise and money on David Hales for years while keeping their evaluations of him a secret. The City Council should be forced to testify under oath about the role they played losing your money. How much more theft occurred because the Management letters were ignored?
The taxpayers of Bloomington may never see their million dollars+ again. The Council, David Hales, and Tari Renner need to explain why they did nothing to protect your money.
Does the Council realize because of these letters they are dragged into the Coliseum prosecution?
The letters were addressed to the Council, evidently the Council ignored them. They need to explain why. Start with Alderman Painter and the “meeting” she refers to in her emails. Who told her the contract I posted was out of date and it had been changed 4 times when it hadn’t? I FOIA’d the City for what was handed out at that meeting. I was told no documents exist!
I appreciate media finally doing their job. Four years ago would have been better.
Keep working WGLT – citizens deserve to know the truth. The City used to post those Management letters on their website until they decided to hide them. See this email exchange with The City Attorney Jeff Jurgens:
WGLT is hardcore, Marxist (taxpayer funded) Leftwing. Can’t imagine them going against a hardcore, Marxist, Leftwing city government, unless they KNOW something so devastating bad is going to be revealed that they can no longer “back a loser”. We can only hope and pray.
Hope and pray for a change but never, ever trust them.
Lovers quarrel over the CT transfer station/library?
Tari likely knew more than he’s letting on. How much is a matter of debate? I think he saw the Collesium was a money pit and tried to keep the exact figures from getting out to the public, not because he has anything bad to hide per se, but because it interferes with his Downtown-centric view. He knows Downtown is a tough sell, but if people knew of the shenanigans at the Collesium, this would really derail any hopes of a Downtown strategy. He turned a blind eye to keep the gravy train moving.
Well they know the numbers about the bus system and ignore them like the others sump pits.