By: Diane Benjamin
It sounds like both Unit 5 and District 87 are as tired of TIF Districts as the citizens. Both Barry Reilly and Mark Daniel spoke about 23 years of diverted taxes being ridiculous. The Council tabled any changes until better language agreeable to the school districts could be worked out. Bloomington may have realized that TIF should never be the first choice for luring development. We will see.
The only interesting part is a change to how things get on the agenda. Alderman won’t need 4 other aldermen to agree to discuss something. Joni Painter is sick of 5 hour meetings, she doesn’t realize this is going to do nothing to shorten them, it will probably make them longer. It will be fun to see what scatter-brained ideas they want Council to discuss though. Meetings could be shortened easily if the City quit dreaming up ideas for how to spend money, especially downtown.
The new procedure will work like this: An alderman fills out a form describing what they want to discuss. It includes an estimate of how much staff time could be involved. That form will appear at a Committee of the Whole meeting, the rest of the Council will then vote whether to bring the item back at a future meeting. Jamie Mathy thinks this will help citizens know what will be discussed, he claimed citizens never know if items will be voted on until after it happens.
Thank the media Jamie, or point them to the City website where every agenda is posted 48 hours in advance so people can know. That is why the Open Meetings Act exists and the posting requirements.
It would have been nice to have this rule when Judy Stearns was on the Council and demanded a discussion on the Coliseum. David Hales buried it instead, we know how that worked out. The Council did nothing to support her, so I could see them easily voting against her item. I bet downtown green space and a fountain would easily pass though.
The Decatur TV station (WAND) has a story on Facebook about Decatur sending their City Manager to Bloomington. You might enjoy (or be appalled) by the comments from people in Decatur. The “police” comments are no doubt in reference to Gleason taking a police car to St. Louis. These aren’t all the comments, I didn’t see anybody sad he was leaving. The picture at the bottom was also included.
If you aren’t familiar with Facebook, the emojis circled are what people reading the comments think of it. It appears they are thrilled Gleason is leaving.
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Wow…the ol’ fix a road comment in Decatur, too. So original. (insert eye roll here). I wonder….would you have also published the negative comments regarding Steve Rasmussen had he been selected? Because he wasn’t universally loved, either.
Evidently only the Council lthought that
You know, you’re right, Rich…Not everyone likes Steve and I’m sure he’s been the subject of numerous negative comments. You see, the Downtown speculators/crybabies and the cronies at Farnsworth don’t like Rasmussen because he challenges the Council and the Mayor to live within our means. If you have your hand out and rely on government like (Dis)Connect Transit, BCPA, Arena, DBA (or whatever it is), etc. then you’d be in the fiscal crosshairs of Rassmussen. So, yeah I’m sure he was the subject of negative comments since he was trying to pull the trough away.
AT LEAST Steve is familiar with the city workings. WHEN (not IF) but when, this yahoo runs more bad ideals thru the council, I’d REALLY like to see what kind of melange spews out of your mouth then Rich. I hope diane saves your blurb..
Just look at Decatur and see what they have said, sounds like we just got ANOTHER Hales.
I have a couple friends in Decatur, good people both of them – they were quite glad to see him go, they said they were sorry for us that we have him now. I said he couldn’t be much worse than Hales, one said – “Well, tell me that in about a year” but admitted she didn’t know anything about Hales.
Coming to a threatre near you, just in time for Halloween, “The Spawn of Hales.”
The Council chose poorly. Those familiar with “Raiders of the Lost Ark” know what happens to those who choose poorly.
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Actually, that’s from “The Last Crusade.” 🙂 Either way, the taxpayers lose.
@ BNIndy–Thanks for the correction…should have said Indiana Jones movies. lol
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City Managers are members of the same club. They just shuffle the deck and send the sht card to a different location w/a comparable salary.
They are essentially unionized in that they’re members of an organization that sets salary and contract terms that none will agree to work without.
Most, (not Rasmussen) are very special snowflakes that performance is not an indicator
of merit or pay.
The fees they pay into the organization gets them listed for jobs. Whether they’re worth it or not.
If it makes anyone feel better, it really didn’t matter who was on the bridge of the Titanic after it struck the iceberg. Sadly, I don’t see Bloomington recovering from the decline of State Farm.
Good point! I just knew that Gleason would get the job cause Renner and his minions were bound to pick the worst choice, as always.
Scatter brained idea!! Haven’t heard that in years….love it!