Bloomington Featured Nationally

By:  Diane Benjamin A national magazine for Municipalities features Bloomington in their just released November publication.  This is a link to the entire edition:  http://www.themunicipal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Municipal-NOV-2019-WEB-linked.pdf The Bloomington merger of the water and public works departments is covered on PDF pages 32-34.  Successful Merger According to the article, Bloomington is saving $250,000 per year by not […]

Streator: Your leaders are getting advice from Bloomington’s Mayor!

By:  Diane Benjamin (living rent free in Tari’s head) https://www.mywebtimes.com/2019/10/30/streators-strengths-weaknesses-analyzed-in-study-session/auiei0m/ Quotes: Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner spoke to Streator officials about the city’s future Tuesday night during a planning session for the City Council and its six department heads. Renner said he is blown away by the city’s sense of volunteerism and couldn’t believe the efforts […]

Hiding BCPA numbers

See update:   https://blnnews.com/2019/10/31/update-to-hiding-bcpa-numbers/ By:  Diane Benjamin Read this one slow!  Lots of info to absorb. The ONLY mention of the BCPA in the just released financial statements is the number of employees – PDF page 194  https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23337 First, note the BCPA is part of Parks and Recreation.  Second, celebrate the number of employees has decreased.  […]

More on Michelle Anderson – County Auditor

By:  Diane Benjamin The statement below is from the City of Bloomington’s CAFR for the year ended 4/30/2019.  Yes, they finally got around to posting it but it still hasn’t been presented to the Council.  Of course data that is 6 months old is pretty useless in the private sector, why care about what government […]

Bloomington’s Agenda tonight

By:  Diane Benjamin http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1044&Inline=True The library needs a new sorter, a tractor got inserted with it – evidently No-Bid: Since the current crop running the City of Bloomington believes government creates prosperity, they will be spending your money to plan how: The Coliseum and BCPA were sold as revitalizing downtown.  Both were government plans, there […]

Pension Debt: Reserve the UHaul now

By:  Diane Benjamin Bloomington has finally posted the 4/30/19 financial statement. OPEB = Other Post Employment Benefits Both Bloomington and Normal are in more debt now because of pensions and OPEB. Bloomington has almost $231,000,000 in long term debt and growing Normal has more than $186,000,000 in long term debt and growing. Illinois isn’t even […]

To: A Worried Citizen

Sorry readers, but sometimes when I get anonymous tips in the mail this is the only way to respond. Dear Worried: Unless you have more information, my sources point a different direction.  Not that anything makes sense yet – just different. If you have more, let me know what.  Otherwise, time will sort out the […]

More on the Coliseum LOSS

By:  Diane Benjamin On September 16, 2019 VenuWorks presented THEIR report to the Council.  We know now the report was fictitious.  The audited loss is much higher, VenuWorks should only be allowed to present audited financial statements in the future.      https://blnnews.com/2019/10/25/how-much-the-arena-really-lost/ 11:45 – Kimberly Bray thanked Lynn Cannon for everything contributed and the fantastic […]

How much the ARENA really lost

By:  Diane Benjamin Remember the celebrations when VenuWorks announced they ONLY lost $276,367? They budgeted a loss of $495,514, so everybody happily reported they lost less than expected.  See PDF page 27:  https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23151 Long time readers won’t be surprised to learn the auditors didn’t agree with the  VenuWorks accounting. The audited financial report has appeared […]

What’s Bloomington paying Monday night?

By:  Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23355 I’m not sure all these PCard purchases were reflect in event expenses.  Walking With My Ancestors doesn’t show any catering or concessions:  https://blnnews.com/2019/10/22/bcpa-as-predicted-foia-denied/ Of course the $1500 for the announcement party wasn’t included.  Why does government send “flowers” and pretend they are sympathetic?  Using taxpayer money to express condolences is fraud. […]

What’s up with the E Lincoln HUD housing project

By:  Diane Benjamin The project at 2220 E Lincoln was announced last May.  Tari Renner claimed he had known about the project for many months:  https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/m-affordable-apartment-project-planned-for-bloomington-s-southeast-side/article_4c472d43-f960-54ed-a61e-16e8dc485048.html If this project is a done deal, why is this sign still up on the property? More questions, what is in this redacted email I received by FOIA?  Why […]

Normal’s meeting recap

By:  Diane Benjamin Chemberly Cummings didn’t bother to attend, of course nobody said why.  That led to some problems later with only 6 voting members.  A tie vote would have meant an item failed. Numerous items were pulled from the Omnibus agenda – all these things used to sail through and were never questioned before […]

Connect Transit data appears

By:  Diane Benjamin An addendum was posted to the meeting packet for yesterday with all the “data” normally reported:  https://www.connect-transit.com/documents/Meetings/Packets/ADDENDUM.pdf As reported in this story:  https://blnnews.com/2019/10/21/connect-transit-data-mia/ paying customers for September was way down from previous months.  The passenger reports were missing when I did that story, so that makes this information even more fascinating. Below […]

Kirk Allen Back for Public Comment

By:  Diane Benjamin Kirk Allen of Edgar County Watchdogs was back before the Bloomington City Council again.  We will find out what happened to Officer Squires before he resigned. Kirk spelled out in his comment why the citizens need to know what happened.  Squires was suspended before he resigned.  Kirk read the applicable emails we […]

Where is the new gas tax being spent?

By:  Diane Benjamin Doesn’t Illinois have a law about where has taxes can be spent? If you thought it was for roads you won’t like this: Chicago Tribune:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-viz-illinois-infrastructure-plan-database-20191018-dti3anpgqng7bg6oh4f4yafosq-htmlstory.html There are over 3000 entries on the list of where the $45 million is going, so I could have missed some.  This is what I found […]

Bloomington exposes email addresses

By:  Diane Benjamin Monday Bloomington is holding a Committee of the Whole meeting for two reasons: Discuss Community Development Block Grant Funds Hear from the Cannabis Task Force Public meetings were held for citizens to give their opinion on how CDBG money should be spent.  One meeting was evidently held at the library.  From the […]

Surprise, surprise – event report posted

By:  Diane Benjamin Update to this story from yesterday:  https://blnnews.com/2019/10/16/tari-on-wjbc-3/ Usually when there is good news people like to report it quickly.  The Luke Combs concert profit is good news, why it wasn’t posted as required by the arena contract is a mystery. https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23305 Country music concerts always do well.  If VenuWorks had self-promoted this […]