By: Diane Benjamin
Five people involved with running the Coliseum have been charged with felonies. The failure by the City of Bloomington to protect taxpayer dollars deserves to be exposed in open court.
The citizens didn’t want it built, there was a non-binding referendum stating it. It was built anyway and has been a constant drain on city finances ever since.
The least former City Manager David Hales could have done is supervise the operation. He could have looked at the concessions sales. The CIAM contract clearly gave them the right to look at anything they wanted. The City owned the concession equipment, they had every right to print reports to verify taxpayers were getting their percent.
Hales and staff never did!
Taxpayers deserve to hear John Butler under oath state that fact. If some of the lower level people charged want to testify against him in exchange for lessor sentences, I don’t have a problem with it. I have mixed feelings about a plea deal for Bart Rogers. He was part of the corruption, I’ve written about him numerous times.
The defendants deserve their day in court.
The fleeced taxpayers deserve their’s too.
I’m betting the City of Bloomington doesn’t want a trial. It will make them look really bad – it’s MUCH deserved. The Council has just as much fault. They were warned numerous times but they did nothing. Without a trail all the facts will never be known. You deserve better.
The State’s Attorney’s office needs to understand the integrity of government is at stake. If they plea bargain John Butler to avoid a trial, citizens will lose faith in equal justice under the law. Many people are wondering why David Hales hasn’t been charged. Unfortunately, being incompetent isn’t a crime. The Council awards lavish raises instead of demanding accountability.
Maybe next year more than 20% will actually vote. Citizens staying home for local elections is why their government is corrupt.
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When will people ever learn that local gov is where they learn how to fleece the taxpayers. They then run for county, state & federal gov Until these people learn to cut this off at the root we’ll continue to have the swamp in Washington. Get out & vote! David Hales should be standing in a court room along with the rest of these scumbags. I just can’t wrap my head around incompetence. My opinion would be from experiencing the theft by Tari that Hales & Renner weren’t taking cash on the side for looking the other way. Just an opinion.
The “MARKORENA” was and STILL is a money sucking vortex! The Management, City Manager, Mayor AND COUNCIL are ALL to blame as they believe whatever Butler, Hales and “mayors” told them.
Meanwhile the pillaging was going on like the Nazis with art works, while NO ONE cared to wonder WHY so much money was and IS needed to run the place!!
NOW, comes the Nuremberg days and NO ONE is accountable and the fingers are spinning like the wind turbines…
Wonder IF WGLT will do a “SOUND IDEALS” story on this???
Local, state, and national government continues to thumb their noses at the rule of law. Eventually when the law of the jungle takes over, they’ll wish for the rule of law to be real again but it will be too late because at that point it will be the people that have the advantage.
The defendants’ lawyer’s top negotiation position is make us a deal or we’ll expose/embarrass the local government and its leaders in open court. Hales was willfully blind. He deliberately looked the other way because Tari wants to keep the illusion that government ownership and management is how an economy works. So too does the local media since they never questioned the role of our local government in the Coliseum fiasco.
I can’t post on this site?
Stupid drive-by comments NO, if you want to be part of a conversation then Yes.