The Bloomington City Council meetings never start on time now that the time has been changed to 6:00 pm.  The members that did show up are happily chatting away after 6:00:

Last night Amelia Buragas, Scott Black, and Diana Hauman were no shows.  Of course no explanation to the Wards they failed to represent. Kimberly Bray was on the phone.

The first 45 minutes of the meeting was recognitions and swearing-in new firemen. One fire employee retired after 28 years, does he know the pension fund isn’t well funded?  Since Springfield refuses to change the State Constitution, I hear the trend will be municipalities declaring bankruptcy to get out from under the crushing pension debt!

The only part of the meeting that made no sense was the vote on the fee structure.  The City Manager claimed it was only to correct staff errors, there were no increases.  Mathy, Sage, and Schmidt voted NO without any explanation.  Renner broke the tie by voting yes.

The outside auditor discussed the financial statements.  He mentioned a letter to the council that attorney Jeff Jurgens refuses to release by FOIA.  It is a letter I used to get.  It describes weaknesses in internal controls that could lead to employee theft.  The same items were mentioned year after year after year when I did get the letter.  I wonder if they are still on the list?

The City Clerk resigned effective December 27th.  Since she can’t spike her pension because she doesn’t qualify for one, I wonder if she’s taking off all the accumulated time until then.  A different person filled in as clerk last night.

Visitors from Bloomington’s City Sister in Russia were present.  Tari claimed he spent a couple of hours with them yesterday.  Gee, I thought Democrats blamed the Russians for election interference!  I wonder when they arrived?  In time for elections here?

Maybe these Russians are the “right fit”.

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