By: Diane Benjamin
The reason the courts move so slow is lawyers. The attorney for Kelly Klein filed a motion to dismiss yesterday, but he didn’t sound optimistic when he filed it. The State’s Attorney has 14 days to respond, then another 14 days for rebuttal by the defense, and 7 more for another reply before the next hearing January 11th. Klein’s lawyer stated whatever charges are left, maybe all of them, can be discussed then. Klein’s lawyer had just received his 4th discovery request.
Bart Rogers was also in court His attorney wants 2 months to review what she thinks will be thousand of documents requested from the City of Bloomington.
I can’t imagine what documents she requested or how much staff time it took to gather them. The City failed to supervise the management of the taxpayer owned arena, maybe she’s looking for documents confirming it. FOIA requests I received showed very little written correspondence between CIAM and the City.
All of this could have been avoided if BMI Concessions hadn’t been allowed to hide concession receipts. The City owned the Point of Sale equipment. The contract gave the City authority to inspect anything they wanted at the Arena. Receipts and money deposited could have been compared. The media could have reported the actual audited loses instead of the much lower losses CIAM reported.
Unfortunately, nobody from the City has been charged. The Bloomington taxpayers are stuck paying.
Herding CATS would be MUCH EASIER then sorting out ALL the paper work AND mis-management in this fiasco! From CIAM to Hales, Stockton, the council, auditors, I’m surprised Mickey Mouse don’t have to be in court, as THAT’S what this ALL is!
The defendants and their attorneys certainly have every right to file motions and review paperwork. However, I wonder if part of the strategy is to make the local leadership look bad so that they, in turn, will pressure prosecutors to settle the charges and make this go away. Think about it. How are Tari and Co. going to sell the next boondoggle, especially Downtown (ex. bus terminal or emminent domain of blighted buildings), or book shows/acts at the Collesium/Arena with this case front page news. If you’ll pardon the pun, this is exhibit A as to why taxpayer-funded economic development doesn’t work.
I’m sure they want to blame the City. I do, they allowed everything that happened even after being told repeatedly what was going on.