By: Diane Benjamin
The Pantagraph thanked Alderman Diana Hauman for serving and for publicly stating she is not running for reelection to the Bloomington City Council because she was not able to develop a cohesive Council.
When Judy Stearns and Kevin Lower were members, the Council was very cohesive. Everything they said was ignored.
The Council was very cohesive when the budget went from $169,633,232 in 2014 to $213,830,887 in 2018.
Source 2014: https://blnnews.com/2016/10/24/bloomingtons-taxing-spending-history/
Source 2018: https://blnnews.com/2018/03/08/bloomington-budget-workshop-saturday/
The Council was very cohesive under-funding fixing the roads.
The Council is very cohesive whenever “downtown” spending is proposed. The rest of the town doesn’t matter.
The Council was very cohesive when they raised garbage fees and passed 3% increases every year so they never have to vote again!
The Pantagraph doesn’t seem to understand the Council is elected by CITIZENS. They don’t work for the City of Bloomington, but once elected they sure act like they do. They believe everything told them without ever checking the facts themselves.
There is no clearer proof than the Coliseum. They ignored all the facts right in front of them showing CIAM was corrupt. They refused to even look at the concession problems when they had a chance. Of course, Judy Stearns had to be ignored and the highly overpaid David Hales who never looked at a Coliseum report was believed.
The citizens were betrayed by the people they elected!
Cohesive Councils have fleeced citizens and made the cost of living much higher. With property values falling, will the Council be cohesive in raising property taxes?
The Council should be cohesive in saying NO. Enough taxes. Cut spending. Cut pension spiking.
Of course that won’t happen unless people are elected who know who they represent. Hint Pantagraph: It’s not the big spending City liberals.
During Hauman’s mayoral campaign, she said Renner was not moving fast enough to implement the “master plans.” What I have noticed with Council, each member has their own vision of what the City should look like–especially regarding downtown.
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Normal is also cohesive. Everything the staff probably with consent of Town Manager and Mayor recommends no matter how much it raises taxes, cuts services or is something that government should never do, the Council always votes for it. Three council persons and the mayor vote for about 99% of everything proposed, such as the multifamily recycle mandate. One more conservative on the council would prevent most of these decisions that drive residents and jobs out of Town. As you have noted 4 to 10 minute council meetings many times have no debate or questioning of spending for beach towels and jackets for employees who have so many they do not know what to do with the except give them away or throw them away. I have been the recipient of a jacket because employee had so many.
Great work, the more you dig, the deeper it gets. It is all intertwined. That is why I walked away from the political arena, the muck is deep. You do good work, and quite a bit of it, I might add.