By: Diane Benjamin
DON’T miss the Update to this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/02/04/normal-foia-fail/
At last Monday’s Council meeting Pam Reece stated the bonds owed for construction of the parking garage that houses the ISU Art Gallery does not require a fiduciary duty to lease the space for a profit.
Did anyone but me wonder about Normal’s fiduciary duty to taxpayers?
That wasn’t mentioned, but they did have lots of conjecture about the economic impact to the Town for giving ISU a free lease – for 5 years. Nothing said was proven by real data.
Since Normal just loves case law, this document has a ton of it: https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.197/7b1.61b.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/RealEstateOpinion.pdf
The above was written by a former Illinois Attorney General. Unlike FOIA and Open Meetings Act law, government’s fiduciary duty to its citizens has never changed.
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Next see this link: https://www.scu.edu/government-ethics/resources/public-officials-as-fiduciaries/
The actions by 4 members of the Town Council gifting the gallery space to ISU violates all of the above.
The only defense Normal would have if sued would be to proclaim the space worthless. Of course, they can’t prove that since they never attempted to market it.
The Town of Normal has violated their fiduciary duty to you!
They need to be sued!
Hmmm… on a similar note, I wonder if the politicians currently paying token rent ($1/mo iirc) have filled out the appropriate ‘contribution in kind’ election filings listing Town of Normal as donors to their campaigns? Most likely that’s either just another law that doesn’t apply to those that Make the laws, or another instance of lawmakers legalizing corruption for their own benefit.
Seems the only “duty” that uptown HAS, according to Koos and cronies, is to leave a legacy of spending, corruption, stone-walling, over spending, and basically being financially irresponsible!
Other then that we leave NO old buildings behind! We NEED new structures and an underpass-no matter HOW MANY studies it takes!
Mr Matejka will help them with everything else.
So Maybe YOUR vote will NOT count, but ADDED to MANY others, it will. ONLY NEEDED 11 LAST TIME!
Surly the town attorney would not let the town do something illegal. But if what you wrote is true and Normal has broken the law then who enforces the law? Who do taxpayers report complaints?
At the federal level there are checks and balances. What are the controls at the local level? Please don’t tell me Koos and Co are above the law.
Unless somebody wants to sue, or a group of people, nothing happens.
issues like this are one reason that Koos CANNOT allow Marc T to become mayor. Marc T is smart enough to know when the taxpayers are being lied to and how to dig the money questions out.
How does an individual, or group of individuals, bring a lawsuit against a town?
Find a lawyer