By: Diane Benjamin
From this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/02/28/so-is-the-town-paying-koos-to-retire/
So the Town of Normal used your tax dollars to buy a retirement present from the Mayor’s business.
Of course, by the time Normal gets their mitts on your hard earned bucks, they consider it theirs.
To further prove most elected officials don’t consider themselves “public servants”, the expensive present went to none other than Jeff Fritzen. He’s been out of office for 10 month because he chose not to run again for Trustee.
This exchange is between Doug Fansler and Pam Reece:
Why did Normal wait 10 months?
Why wasn’t it presented at a Council meeting?
Shouldn’t taxpayers see their “gift”?
If anyone sees Fritzen on a bike or jogging in spiffy workout wear, please forward a pic.
For god’s sake… this is cronyism at its finest. Use public money to provide a payoff to a good soldier? And the public money that is used to provide the payoff to the good soldier is spent in the mayor’s store? Really? This is a shameful waste of hard earned taxpayer money.
So what does Mayor Koos and his band of elitist leftist have to do before the taxpayers of Normal start raising some real Hell? When is enough….enough?
Thieves and crooks
Wait a minute. Was that purchase even legal?
Unethical definitely
Taxpayer dollars to be used for the function of government, not the retirement of elected, government servants. Most people are lucky to get a framed certificate. Karen Schmidt served on Bloomington’s City Council for 20 years. The residents in her ward purchased a commemorative bench that was placed downtown.
Funny how people are beginning to be concerned about bills & payroll now that Stan is doing the job he was elected to do.
Im sure Rc Mcbride and WGLT will get to the bottom of this.
At my job (ISU), when someone retires, we all pitch in money for a gift.
In a way this is very much like what an ex Baltimore mayor just got 3 years in jail. She sold her books (she had self published) to govt entities Her crime was selling of these books to entities that her position had a great influence. Her name was Pugh. Here in Normal we have a bicycle (or whatever) sold to the city by a mayor who owns the shop. That would be Koos selling to someone he has great influence. Pugh’s story was covered exstensively by NPR, of course here we will not see McBribes’ local version of NPR do a thing. In Baltimore Pugh means stinky politician; in Normal Koos means stinky politician. What a corrupt system we have when we find ourself comparing Normal to BALTIMORE.
The whole point of Koos running for mayor in the first place was to further enrich himself by promoting bike-friendly and anti-car projects that would entice people not to use motorized travel. His parents were Communists and just passed their politics down to their children.
I wonder if there is a bill relating to this or emails?
Getting ready to retire soon myself. I want my 500 buck bike before I leave state please!
Why didn’t Koos just give the bike to Fritzen and leave us taxpayers out of the mix? Since both of them are joined at the hip that’s the least Koos could have done for his buddy. Was this to reward Jeff for his rant after Koos won the election by 11 votes?
These people are disgusting. Absolutely no regard for tax payer money at all.
Jeff is a God-fearing Christian who just happens to like free stuff like expensive bikes and attending ISU athletic events for free by having a permanent seat at the scorers table whenever he likes.
I do not like the purchase of the ‘retirement gift’ but Fritzen does volunteer his time at ISU athletic events. He is working while he is sitting there, so that part was off-base.
The local Elitist Clique has been entrenched here for decades. Although most do not realize it, we have had corrupt mayor’s, municipal managers, planners and zoning people for years. Only the present zoning director at the county is without sin. The transgressions include receiving kickback money for developments, gifts in kind during and after service, use of government vehicles for private use and gas, using government building materials for personal residential use, getting streets and driveways fixed, etc, etc. Friends make sure other friends get elected to public office or get government appointments and the beat goes on. As transients from other communities continue to populate the area, these incidents will become standard operating procedure with much more frequency. All hail the Clique.
If you are referring to Phil, I’d take issue with that.