By: Diane Benjamin
All emails received by FOIA.
This comment appeared in a December 4th article – Mayor Koos:
The Mayor was talking about the Citizens Summitt. He wanted only “invitees” to participate. Stan Nord invited the Town from his Facebook page. Koos and Pam Reece were annoyed at the December 2nd council meeting: https://blnnews.com/2019/12/03/dont-like-a-vote-take-it-again/
There is more to this story!
Remember that date: December 4th.
Go back 10 days to this email sent by Stan Nord to Lyle Sumek:
Obviously somebody was telling Stan regular uninvited citizens weren’t allowed to attend. Lyle responded:
Sounds to me like Lyle wanted a variety of people who normally don’t participate – like average citizens. Guess who was on Koos’ invitees list?
Julie Hile
Rachel Hile Broad (Julie’s daughter)
RC McBride
Hardly the people Lyle described!
On November 26th and 27th, Stan and Lyle had another email exchange – obviously Stan was getting heat for making this summitt public:
Note: Lyle hasn’t mentioned a word about only 5-7 people invited by a Council person can attend.
Chris Koos wrote this email on November 26th to the entire Council:
Note: This email is over a week before Koos’ comment appeared in the paper.
Lyle sent one more email to Stan, he should have copied Koos – Lyle and Stan are on the same page, Koos isn’t in the same book.
Mike Matejka was invited by Chemberly Cummings, he was unable to attend. Dave Shields attended even though he doesn’t show up on the “invitees” list.
Both of these fail to meet the “diverse” requirements.
I could add a lot more emails. Did you know the staff got food while the crowd got cookies? Pam was so upset by Stan’s Facebook post she emailed ICMA – International City Manager Association. I did not receive a response from them if she got one.
Obviously Koos is the one who wanted a “stacked meeting”. The mayor never thought this event was an open meeting to hear from average citizens. Citizens elected Stan, therefore you aren’t welcome. Pam Reece accused Stan in another email of turning it into a political event instead of a municipal event. It appears the only time the Town of Normal cares about what citizens think is for elections.
2 more emails – this one from a citizen who attended, I redacted the names:
After all the protesting and sniping at Stan, Pam sent this email to the staff who helped out:
Has Pam has figured out average citizens are worth listening to?
The mayor never will.
Mayor Koos apparently only wants to hear from people (he knows) will agree with him and never question him. He seems to have completely forgotten that he is working for ALL of the people of the Town of Normal.
Julie Hile is a CT Board member. She was assigned to co-chair the CT Working Group. She appointed her son to be a member of the Working Group.
Now, Koos invited her and her daughter to the Summit? It looks like inbreeding to me.
Normal needs new blood!
Julie Hile is one of the most vile of Central Illinois Leftists. Have archived her statements, letters, and quotes for many years. Truly, watching her ideology and agenda in action, I consider her both worse and more dangerous than either Tari or Koos. That is saying a great deal.
I appreciate the time and energy Stan puts into his position on the council. Most would have given up by now and surrendered to Koos and his select group.
We need to speak up, get involved and support Stan and his efforts. Bloomington is evidence of what happens when everyone stays on the sidelines.
Koos wants it his way or no way. His arrognance knows no limit. Although with that said he is merely a demonrat minion taking orders from the fools above.
I said from the beginning this was a farce. It did not disappoint. A real radio or TV station involved in the community would have a public town hall meeting to let the people speak as part of the mandate to serve the public interest convenience and necessity (the justification for the FCC by Congress in handling station i licenses). I did work at a TV station long ago that did this. Obviously it was not in this VAST WASTELAND that exists in Peoria/Bloomington. We have no journalistic broadcast facilities here, all we have is outlets for the garbage Newton Minnow mentioned when he gave his vast wasteland speech in the ’60s. Hey they could run it in place of a lawyer infomercial, dancing idiots, masked singers, untalented slobs or women trolling for a bachelor.
Koos still doesnt get it and never will. His standard phase is and will always be : “sit down,shut up and give me your money!” Some people just never learn until its too late and Koos is one of those people. Until he is replaced and out of the mayor’s office he will never learn. Last election he won by 11 votes ( I still question that ) Next time, well we shall see! Koos does not like the “radical” ideas of Mr Nord because he is interfering with his fifedome and that is what is not acceptable How dare Stan invite everyone to Koos’s farce of a meeting!
I went to the meeting uninvited! I was challenged by staff when I did not see the agenda posted for the public. After the staff had a huddle, I was told that this was NOT a public meeting. I was told to sign in and was assigned a table away from the console members. The others at my table were a diverse group, but clearly agreed for more responsible spending on needs rather than “Uptown”. I struggled to only respond to scripted questions. I asked the City Manager how much the moderator was paid and she could not tell me.
I have a great concern for the amount of debt the administration is passing to future citizens. This is not the town that I grew up in. Sad.
Since the genda wasn’t posted t the meeting that makes it not only fixed but illegal. typical
What frustrates me the most is the continued and intentional discouragement of citizen involvement by the Town of Normal. The communication issues around the Summit are yet another example to add to the list. Some others on the list…
– The public is not allowed to speak at council meeting unless their issue is on the agenda. (Potholes will never appear as an agenda item so you can never complain about them.)
– Petitions are not recognized as valid citizen input by some council members. (Mural and Blackstone Trail petition signers should have been told their efforts were going to be ignored.)
– The Citizen Summit, a public meeting. Telling the public their opinion would be irrelevant unless they were approved by Town Staff discouraged many people from attending.
I hope the majority of current council and staff will change their attitudes toward citizen involvement to embrace and encourage Community interaction. If they don’t I hope voters will remember who they are come election time.