By: Diane Benjamin
Normal Town Council last night:
First to speak was Craig Stimpert. (4:27) The topic was pensions funding and the constant raising of property taxes to fund them. Craig called this Town practice unsustainable. The Town uses property taxes because they refuse to make pension funding part of the budget. He called out Chemberly Cummings for her 2017 comment insisting law says property taxes have to be used, she was wrong. I wrote about her comment in 2017: https://blnnews.com/2018/09/12/normal-is-lying-about-police-and-fire-pensions/
Next was Patrick Hoban, head of the EDC. He was there to proclaim the incentives to the Fiala brothers very worthy. (8:44). He promoted drinking and driving by claiming his family travels to other cities to visit their brew pubs. Nice.
Chris Koos’s buddy Dave Shields is still depressed over the results of the last election. (9:55) Ever hear “numbers lie and liars use numbers”? Dave Shields is the poster child for that statement. Koos may have written his speech for him.
Karl Sila was next (12:51) He talked about the ISU gallery space. He did a little comedy when he asked the Council to approve the zero rent lease since the space was useless anyway and no market exists to rent it to anyone else.
Next was Jonathon Siden (sp). (14:30) He was there to chastise Stan and Karyn for voting no on the Fiala giveaway at the last meeting. Expect to see him appointed to something soon, if he isn’t already.
An ISU student was next – Davie Rivers (14:44) He is upset his apartment complex isn’t complying with Normal’s mandatory recycling ordinance. I suggest the owners send a notice to all their snowflakes raising the rent $25 a month. Include a note saying the increase is because Normal is forcing them to recycle. I wonder if Davie has researched how much ends up in the landfill anyway? Davie can always hop on the bus his tuition pays for, ride to Walmart, and drop it off himself. He would rather keep it in the corner of his apartment.
Davie spoke about something that wasn’t on the agenda – Koos didn’t stop him!
17:50 Marc Tiritilli – he countered Dave Shields use of numbers. He also talked about the incentives given to the Fiala brothers. He asked if they are so great, why not make them available to every business? Marc next attempted to talk about the empty seat on the Connect Transit Board. See 19:45. Koos cut him off, Marc fired back. Marc mentioned the Attorney General’s OMA training – Koos cut him off again.
Marc mentioned during his comments this issue would come up later in the meeting. He obviously knew Stan Nord would bring it up. Stan did at 2:00:15. He requested the rules be suspended so Marc Tiritilli could continue saying what he wanted before Koos cut him off. The council voted – only Karyn and Stan voted yes. Koos claimed again it was a “business meeting”. Every other member of the council voted no.
Stan then went on to say much of what Marc likely wanted to say. The topic was the “purpose” of Connect Transit. According to Stan, bus service should first provide rides for people who have no other options, it shouldn’t subsidize people who can afford other options at the expense of taxpayers who never ride the bus. He called out Koos’s failure to appoint a person to the empty seat. Koos countered claiming he wasn’t playing politics. Kevin McCarthy chimed in next, proving he is nothing but a Koos clone.
The prize for most out of touch Trustee goes to Kathleen Lorenz. She must know the Town of Normal continues to violate the Open Meetings Act by requiring speech only on agenda items. See 2:14:40. She wondered how Marc Tiritilli knew Connect Transit would come up during comments. Duh Kathleen. You and the other Trustees have proven you do not respect the results of the last election. You have no respect for the Attorney General’s Open Meeting’s Act training. You have no respect for under representation of Normal on the Connect Transit Board. The result is citizens working with the people they elected since people like you refuse to.
There is still more to cover from this meeting!
Onsite Recycling is another waste of individuals money! The Town of Normal currently provides FOUR
locations for residents to drop-off their recycling! Everyone in Normal has access to recycle their trash. The ordinance that Davie Rivers strongly supports (as evidenced by attending the council meeting to complain about his property manager and imply they are a bad “large company”) will certainly increase the cost of his apartment, and everyone else in an apartment in Normal. I wonder why Davie didn’t address the fact that he will gladly pay more for rent because he values the convenience of an onsite recycling container at every building? I wonder if Davie considered there is a large population of Normal residents in apartments who are already balancing a tight budget and most likely do not want to pay more for onsite recycling?
That has been one of my complaints about the recycling ordinance from the beginning – The town cut back their drop-off points saying they were too expensive, then instead forced the town’s lowest-income residents to pay for it instead. Not my idea of ‘affordable housing’.
Further, it was pushed largely on the basis of a petition from about 3K ISU students. I don’t know that my experience is typical, but I see half a dozen recycling containers every day on my way to work, and that’s above and beyond the two that walk directly by. ISU students who say they can’t recycle don’t actually want to recycle.
I can’t believe Lorenz has the nerve to call out Nord and Tiritilli for having similar points in their comments, but says nothing about Dave Shields and the ilk basically doing PR for the mayor every meeting. Double standard?
Of course!
For the record, I wrote what I said last night. If Marc would have written it, the speech would have been more elegant.
My only disappointment after watching the video of this dog and pony show late last night is that the Royal Fortress actually managed to keep her mouth shut. That’s saying something. I was expecting more colorful entertainment from her section of the peanut gallery.
That was one of the best parts of that whole meeting when she didn’t say a word. I’m willing to bet it had something to do her announcement on Friday and then the major dirt that Diane dug up on her this weekend.
Or the fact that Erik Rankin was in attendance trying to keep a lid on his hand picked candidate. He’s going to have his hands full,
FYI most fortresses in England that were worth anything were built with stone. Wood was used for interior items such as a chair for a chamber pot which seems somehow appropriate for the subject at hand. I did watch the video of her and regret I can never get those moments of my life back….