By: Diane Benjamin Are both councils stupid enough to keep doing “complete streets”? I predict YES! After Millions of Dollars Spent and Hundreds of New Lane Miles Built, Bike Ridership Is Down Across America The 2017 American Community Survey finds the number of people biking to work is falling nationwide. Source: http://reason.com/blog/2018/09/27/after-millions-of-dollars-spent-and-hund Excerpts: Despite spending […]
By: Diane Benjamin Judge Hill is now done with this case. Since she is retiring, the case will be handed to a new judge. Hill cancelled the last warrant for the arrest of Michael Cadena and reissued it. The last one didn’t state is was extraditable and it didn’t state there were no geographic limits. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Atlanta Public Library does not have a liquor license, but that didn’t stop them from buying MANY cases since 2014. Yes, your tax dollars paid for it since the cost was put on the Library credit card. In August an investigator from the Illinois Liquor Commission paid them a visit. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Gerrard is the guy who filed the ethics complaint with the City of Bloomington against Nikita Richards. This morning he left a comment on this site that neither the Pantagraph reporter or the WJBC reporter contacted him before doing stories. He stated he is not behind the Bloomington Deserves Better Facebook page, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Kevin Gerrard, the guy who filed the ethics complaint with the City of Bloomington, also filed for Nikita’s browser history for the entire month of June. According to him, he filed the complaint and FOIA because HE is paying Nikita’s salary as a resident of Bloomington. One quick note about who filed […]
By: Diane Benjamin When Target decided people could use whatever restroom or changing room matched their gender identity, it didn’t go well for them. A national boycott led to loss of revenue. Strange, but people don’t want to encounter people of the opposite sex in places that make them feel uncomfortable. The Target policy means […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below is from the Planned Unit Developments section of Bloomington’s proposed zoning changes http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=19956 Public Health means walking or biking, cars aren’t allowed. Safety? How safe is Constitution Trail? This one is funny: Morals Brought to you by the same people hosting the Naked Magicians at the BCPA. https://blnnews.com/2018/08/22/women-evidently-this-is-for-you/ Evidently the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The proposed Zoning changes cover a lot of ground, but let’s start with downtown. Obviously everything the City does revolves around putting lipstick on this pig. This map is included in the documentation: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=19954 The Purple proposed to be D2. The Green proposed to be D1 Light Blue proposed to be […]
Below is a chart created by Truth In Accounting. It show the excess per taxpayer and the debt per taxpayer for the 5 best and worst states. Illinois is third worst – number 48. Before you vote, ask yourself why you would vote for any incumbent. https://www.truthinaccounting.org/library/doclib/2017-FSOS-Booklet-.pdf PDF page 9: PDF page 12: […]
By: Diane Benjamin The actual election is November 6th, but thanks to the Illinois progressives, voting starts September 27th. Yep, some people can’t get to the polls without over a month of voting. The purpose of early voting is to make sure people vote before any news comes out that might change their mind. Votes […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois is badly run because the people running it think they are brilliant and need to control everything. Illinois is a failed state and local officials make it worse. The job of government is ONLY to do what people can’t do for themselves. Citizens know how to spend their own money far […]
By: Diane Benjamin One item on the agenda for last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting was originally on the consent agenda, but it was moved to the regular agenda prior to the meeting date. Why it was ever on the Consent Agenda, where an alderman would have to pull it for discussion, is a question […]
By: Diane Benjamin A lot of America has a booming economy, but not Illinois and certainly not Bloomington. Removing government obstructions allows the private sector to grow, expand, and start new businesses. If you aren’t the “right fit” here, don’t bother. Ever since Tari Renner was first elected, Master Plans have been created for everything. […]
By: Diane Benjamin It looks like the Decatur newspaper actually investigates government, unlike the Pantagraph. Both are owned by Lee Enterprises. (Stock price $2.75 a share) It’s a long read, but it NEVER mentions Decatur’s former City Manager (and now Bloomington’s) Tim Gleason. Everything is blamed on the City Council. City Managers are hired to […]
Guest Writer We’ve shown you proof of how the trustees of the Atlanta Public Library District have been negligent in the maintenance of the library. In their love for their new building, Union Hall, they’ve also neglected the museum. A leak in the ceiling has left evidence of water damage to ceiling, wall and a photo […]
By: Diane Benjamin Email to Kevin Gerrard concerning the ethics investigation of Nikita Richards: So the City is hiring an independent law firm to investigate the obvious. If Nikita isn’t fired they can blame the law firm. If Nikita is fired they can blame the law firm. If the investigation takes months they can blame […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Village of Downs has this paragraph in their City Code: PDF page 10: https://media.rainpos.com/1071/01071201807310321435182.pdf What a great racket! I wonder why Bloomington and Normal don’t write ordinance violations instead of speeding tickets. They could make a fortune keeping all the money for themselves! They don’t do it because it isn’t legal. […]
By: Diane Benjamin I attended the Atlanta Public Library Board meeting last night. One thing is clear, the Board needs replaced and every vestige of Bill Thomas needs eliminated. Keep in mind, the crowd opposing this board stopped them from paying Bill Thomas (BOARD MEMBER) $200,000 for Union Hall. The have every right to watch […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City is required by law to hold an ethics hearing on the complaint filed by Kevin Gerrard, so far that hasn’t happened. Kevin FOIA’d Nikita’s entire browser history for the month of June. The City has a new way of pretending she isn’t campaigning or shopping while being paid by taxpayers: […]
By: Diane Benjamin Just a few choice picks from Bills and Payroll for approval on Monday: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20012 From previous story: https://blnnews.com/2018/09/20/international-infamy-bloomington/ Tim Gleason is going to the ICMA conference in Baltimore This looks like a FOIA: One month of legal cost sent to Springfield: . . . . . . . . . […]
By: Diane Benjamin I been on the ICMA email list for years. ICMA is INTERNATIONAL CITY/COUNTY MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION. This is the place for managers who think government solves problems. All it takes is money, of course yours. The daily email is a summary of what government is up to, mostly around the country, but also internationally. […]
Judge Hill has not seen these videos and Amber Buck’s lawyer successful kept the court in Massachusetts from seeing them. Amber’s attorney complained in court here that he doesn’t have a copy, he got a copy from Michael’s lawyer at the last hearing. The video is numerous calls between Mikey and his mother. Her voice […]
By: Diane Benjamin I found this payment to the company that did the study: If this was the only payment, the City of Bloomington still got ripped off. The report they received is a worthless 9 pages. See the report here: 2017 Hay Results From PDF page 6 – Executive Salaries: This is a special […]
The stay issued by Judge Casey is still in place. Mikey will not be leaving Massachusetts. It will stay in affect until appeals are heard. This is a copy of the judge’s ruling: 2018-09-18 – Decision Judge Cronan Bottom line is he decided Mikey is in no danger right now. Duh. The danger is if […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/years-after-debt-free-milestone-normal-stands-by-uptown-spending/article_3fc56076-8d9b-5367-9899-4af94445ed20.html#tracking-source=home-top-story The Pantagraph ran this cute story about Normal on Tuesday. Quote from the article: Question: Does Normal not know how much debt they are in, or is the Pantagraph making up numbers? Town of Normal – Comptroller This is the debt reported as of March 31, 2018 to the Illinois Comptroller’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin The library in Atlanta Il is in an adorable historic building: Keep in mind while looking at the pictures below, the Atlanta Library Board was about to pay a Board member $200,000 for a different building (they didn’t need) when citizen watchdogs stopped them. Meanwhile they are ignoring the condition of this […]
By: Diane Benjamin The actual video of last night’s Normal Council meeting is a little over 8 minutes long. The meeting didn’t start until 1:48 and ended at 7:25, close to a new record. In that time they approved spending $3,341,358.99 and some other items that couldn’t get a motion and a second fast enough. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night Alderman Scott Black presented his want list: Most of them took up way too much Council time, a total of 8 minutes for each was extended for most of them. Scott doesn’t really want to know how other communities fund downtown redevelopment, he wants new fees or taxes that are […]
By: Diane Benjamin Of course a feasibility study was done before the Coliseum was built. It predicted Revenue of $7.1 million and expenses of $4.8 million. Operations would easily cover the cost of building it. https://blnnews.com/2016/02/11/the-tale-of-the-coliseum-tari-a-hotel/ At last night’s Committee of the Whole meeting, VenuWorks stated the arena would never lose LESS than $500,000. Any […]
By: Diane Benjamin Although there are a number of items I could FOIA on Bills being paid tonight, I’m not going to. There is one item the citizens of Normal need to see: $90,045.67 was paid earlier in September https://blnnews.com/2018/09/04/normals-fleece-tonight/ $60,728.85 in July PDF page 24 http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3017 $88,020.70 was paid in June https://blnnews.com/2018/06/15/normals-monday-bills/ $46,333.57 was […]
By: Diane Benjamin The VenuWorks report is not the audited version, it is therefore immaterial. Time allowed for the presentation is 5 minutes, included will be the fictional economic impact of the arena. See PDF page 40: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=19928 Financial information is on PDF page 39. The loss does not include depreciation on the building which […]
By: Diane Benjamin Churches are tax exempt because government wanted to make sure they didn’t use the Bible as a basis for informing their congregations about political candidates. In 1954 a law was passed banning political campaigning by tax exempt organizations, specifically churches. Campaigning in a church means the church could lose tax exempt status […]
By: Diane Benjamin Note: Comments on this site will be deleted if it’s obvious the writer is only trying to attack. It’s my site – my rules. Either come here to have discussion or start your own site. Note to the idiot commenting about BEC. The election results are not posted where they should be […]
By: Diane Benjamin Sometimes the biased reporting of the Pantagraph is clear. Gee, they left one word out of the following: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/mcbride-to-run-again-for-normal-council/article_2343d2f9-03af-5b94-833c-eb1310ce6228.html Chissell was just elected in March. I’m betting she was the only person running, but BECVOTE.org doesn’t have the primary election results posted: http://www.becvote.org/wordpress/electiondatesandoffices/pastresults/ Keep that in mind when Democrats say the […]
By: Diane Benjamin It doesn’t seem that long ago when Bloomington finally finished cleaning up the first Bulk Waste Collections Extravaganza. October 1st it starts all over again. Don’t put your junk on the curb too early or they will charge you for picking it up, Bloomington released this information yesterday: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/News/News/7025/ Last time took […]
By: Diane Benjamin He’s running again! At least on the WGLT website they noted RC is also the General Manager of the local National Public Radio station. http://www.wglt.org/post/mcbride-seeks-re-election-town-council So RC gets paid with taxpayer dollars and then he spends tax dollars serving on the Normal Town Council. He gets to MAKE news as a Trustee and […]
By: Diane Benjamin The current Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, will fortunately by gone next January. She persecuted (no I don’t mean prosecuted) businesses in Illinois while allowing public corruption to flourish. Her Public access office just did it again. First see this post: I totally agree – this meeting should have been publicly announced. An […]
