By:  Diane Benjamin

Both Jamie Mathy and Kimberly Bray were absent.  Jenn Carrillo called in because she was sick.

Public Comment started with a guy representing the same group that presented in Normal demanding both cities create a climate change plan for extreme weather.  See 5:35.  He claimed Normal agreed to work with them, I didn’t hear that when he was at the Normal meeting.  At the February 17, 2020 meeting  Jamie Mathy said the McLean County Emergency Management Agency put out a list of emergency shelters.  This group would rather “bankrupt the system” through duplicate efforts than utilize existing agencies.

A lady from the Connect Transit Working Group also spoke.  Connect wants both cities to fork over more money for equitable transportation.  See 13:00.

There were a few other speakers, watch those if you are interested.  A Public Hearing was held on Bloomington’s budget.  NO ONE showed up to speak.  Bloomington will now assume all citizens agree with the spending.  I assume more money for Connect Transit and a climate plan are now dead because the budget is a done deal.  Changes would likely require another Public Hearing.

Both Jenn Carrillo and Jeff Crabill were upset by this item on the consent agenda:

Jenn didn’t understand this produces no money for the City that could be exploited locally by not paying more for “green”.  Both eventually figured out this vote makes citizens pay more for electricity to buy pieces of paper so a company in Texas can create more “green” energy.   The company Bloomington is using to facilitate supposedly buys the cheapest pieces of paper possible.  This practice still hurts the people they claim to care about because everybody is paying more,  That discussion started at 18:23 and went on for quite awhile.

The Police Chief gave the annual report beginning at 52:15.  The presentation included slides, you can breeze through those.  Crime is down from 2018 in many areas.  Jenn Carrillo had many questions, the best one was asking the Chief for a position of abolishing cash bail.  See 14:30.  He avoided a direct answer, she didn’t pursue it.

During City Manager discussion, Tim Gleason talked about the One Voice trip.  Bloomington went to obtain money to complete Hamilton Road.  Tari Renner didn’t go this year because his house sold, he evidently had to look for a new place to live.  It will be interesting to see if his expenses were paid in advance and not refunded. At 1:21:50 Renner claimed to be homeless until last Sunday.