By: Diane Benjamin
The Council held a retreat on November 4, 2017. The minutes from the meeting show just how bad a City Manager David Hales was. See them here, rarely do the minutes reflect contentious discussions – you can see some of it here even if they don’t reflect how bad it was: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16276
Under Hales the minutes became more and more vague, they don’t reflect what really happened.
To prove that point see what they say about economic development:
Why would they have to discuss Official Roles in economic development?
Two words: Tari Renner
I FOIA’d the audio of the meeting, it isn’t on video since it was held at Fox Creek. I made notes on the discussion while listening. I printed them here: https://blnnews.com/2017/11/08/49548/
Some of my notes:
- Strong mayors make life miserable for City Managers. (Remember that guy who thinks the mayor’s job is full-time?)
- The Giebelhausen fiasco cost the City way too much money in consultants and staff time because it went through an elected official. Hales didn’t mention the Fazzini jet fuel kerfuffle.
- GE project developers have come to staff, not elected officials.
- Basically the message was Tari needs to stop playing developer. He cost them too much time and money. Bloomington has an economic development guy, it isn’t Tari.
A link to the audio was included in my story, it no longer works. What happened to the GE Project?
Tari is back to doing economic development! The last few weeks he’s been claiming he is talking to companies, one wants to lease the arena the other wants to buy it.
Even if anybody believes him, he can’t negotiate anything. He is likely trying to make people think the City is finally being responsible and unloading the albatross. Tari can’t make that decision, the council has to. Nothing has been brought to them, even for discussion.
If they do vote to investigate selling or leasing it, it would have to be opened for competitive bidding. Backroom deals to unload the building aren’t allowed by law.
Renner is also saying he could do something with the State Farm building if they would let him.
Taxpayers deserve better, the Council needs to tell Tari AGAIN to shut his mouth before he does Gielbehausen/Fazzini 2.0
Tari in the media:
Pantagraph story: Renner-City-has-potential-buyers-for-Grossinger-Motors-Arena
WJBC story: Renner-slow-going-for-state-farm-building-arena-sale
Diane: You of ALL people should know DARN WELL that TARI RENNER can’t keep his mouth SHUT!!
He “spews” out more spew then a volcano spews out magma, but at least that eventually turns into SOMETHING good-soil.
IF you believed everything Tari says, you’d KNOW that Bloomington is on course to be utopia, U.S.A.
The GOSPEL according to Tari..
By the way, I heard on WGLT this a.m that the ANNUAL conference of mayors is ADDRESSING obesity amount young adults in D.C. I’m SURE Tari and Koos are doing their part by eating like a couple of Poland-Chinas!!
Replying/adding to Townie post: Obesity started becoming more of a problem in the mid-90’s when many more of the GMO’s were released. Not to mention the addictive substances added to many foods. The FDA is a rotten organization that is bought and paid for by the big corporate powers. However it’s guaranteed that none of these lemming mayors will have the stones to mention the facts. Instead they’ll discuss soda taxes and more ways to get more money from the people.
Even Russia has figured out the harm from GMO food as it isn’t grown and it isn’t allowed. Many countries are refusing USA grown GMO products.
Stanky: It’s a “small” world now.. Recently, 3 of the BIGGEST hydroponic concerns (indoor growing, which has a BIG potential future) was bought by a company (Hawthorne), which was bought by Monsanto, BEFORE they were bought by BAYER! So now, Bayer is the LARGEST purveyor in the world of agricultural products, both indoor and outdoor, and the BIGGEST supplier of GMO seed! Bayer is located in a E.U. country, (Germany) in which GMO seed is not used.
Bottom line, EAT a good diet and get plenty of exercise. But HOW MANY cars do you see in line EVERY DAY when you go past a McDonalds, Burger King, Hardees, etc.?? I don’t think THAT is fighting obesity, but it’s PROBABLY the “right fit” IF any of those wanted to build ANOTHER one here in town..
You MAY see an obese cook, but it’s highly unlikely you’ll find an overweight gardener..
Should the mayor be in control of city council meetings ? No. The mayor is a tie breaker on votes, a ribbon cutter, and a cheerleader for the city.
He’s never read Roberts Rules of Order
GREAT! We have Ivan the Terrible for a “cheerleader”!! The “mayor” ideally is a “PR” person for the city, and as such represents a “welcoming” feel to newcomers, as a “representative of the citizens” . This DOES NOT INCLUDE ILLEGALS OF ANY NATIONALITY, but CITIZENS who have moved here because of work, , school or other reasons. WHAT would YOU think IF Tari was the FIRST person YOU met upon moving here??
As with almost all college professors, Mayor Renner has never been exposed to what you and I call the real world. College professors spend years going to school and then end up teaching in academic environments which do not expose them to the reality of our world. They deal with the world as an abstraction to be viewed, commented on, written about, but never really experienced. They develop a pompous “know it all” and “I am so much smarter than everyone” attitude which is reinforced everyday by the status of their jobs and their academic communities.
So the world that exists in the minds of college professors, who don’t really have to experience the world is far removed from our world. So Mayor Renner has no idea of what Bloomington is right now and what it will become. Both the present and the future are abstractions to him. Not being able to understand the reality that we are now facing in Bloomington is a major handicap for leading the town into the future.
So when I first so the Pantagraph article about Mayor Renner talking about selling the arena and the potential buyers for the State Farm building, it was evident that he is desperate to put some hope in a situation that even he is now seeing is hopeless. Unless the City of Bloomington is willing to dump millions of taxpayer dollars into the downtown… the downtown is dying and is not coming back.
So what was and abstraction for Mayor Renner and an abstraction that he wanted to change and mold with real world leftist socialist policies is not conforming to his expectations. The premise that underlines his governing of the city is hopelessly flawed. Although he will never admit it, what he thought would improve the City of Bloomington has actually aided in it’s decline. This will become more apparent with each passing day.
Yeah Lawrence I agree that the downtown isn’t coming back any time soon. It simply does not serve the modern day shopper, mostly due to lack of convenience in parking, competition with online sales etc. The continued claim that utopia will arrive and everyone will be walking and riding their bicyles is another failed idea. All this hoopla is centered to the continued transfer of wealth to the very rich via idiots such as Renner and his lemmings.
So many government failures. Prohibition didn’t work, drug war didn’t work, etc., etc., forcing people downtown ain’t gonna work.
The pride event is back next summer though!
Did you HAVE to bring that up? The photos from the last one were reminiscent of the bar scene out of Star Wars with ALL the different alien life forms..
Good analogy Lawrence! One of my BETTER professors used to say “Those that learn well, go out in the field and do good, and those that don’t, teach”!
This man has no business being the Mayor of anything… Plus he has Little Man Syndrome or what is commonly called Napoleon complex. Read the following to see if Tari is described in any of this article on the Napoleon Complex Psychology: https://flowpsychology.com/napoleon-complex-psychology/
Since when does the State Farm building belong to Tari?