By: Diane Benjamin
June 1st, Normal Town Council meeting:
Hit play – it should start at 1:14:23 with Brian Day, Town attorney.
The topic is the sale of the property at 1404 Ft. Jesse. Brian Day is responding to questions from Stan Nord. Day attempts to claim selling the property for far less than appraised value is perfectly legal. A few minutes later Koos can’t wait to call for a vote. The rest of the bobble-heads obviously didn’t do any homework. Do they know this sale devalued all commercial property in the area? If that .91 acres was only worth $25,000 then every other property is worth far less than the assessed value.
Start with the Town code: http://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/7775/Chapter-25—Miscellaneous?bidId=
PDF page 4:
Did the Town follow the TOWN CODE?
This is the published bid notice – in the Normalite:
Anybody see the SIZE, USE, and ZONING?
That section has only been in the Municipal Code since 1992
Brian Day also claimed the Town could have declared the property “SURPLUS” which meant the State Law would apply. One problem Mr. Day, the Town did declare this property “SURPLUS” right in the notice:
That means State law does apply:
Normal did not have a written certified appraisal completed.
Normal sold the property for far less than 80% of appraised value.
Keep in mind the property was sold to the wife of a Town employee.
Unless somebody can find a prosecutor, Normal will get by with writing their own laws.
P.S. You weren’t suppose to notice. Before Stan Nord was elected you wouldn’t have. The sale would have been made with no discussion.
Remember this when your property taxes are raised again.
Smells in Denmark! I’m sure there are SEVERAL “rules” being broke here. Never mind “collusion” on the basis of being sold to a relate of a uptown employee. But, as we ALL know this is “business as usual” in uptown koosville.
Exactly, and this is only one of how many different actions they have taken incorrectly. We need that attorney…and now….as for an attorney…this needs to go to Springfield…nothing local.
We have to find a prosecutor? I thought there were checks and balances to keep illegal activity at bay? Who does the checking in this case? Surely the town is not above the law.
States attorney should but likely won’t.
This and all of the other items that have been brought forward need to be presented to Attorney General in Springfield.
AG refuses to rule on the illegal public comment policy. Democrats protect each other
What about discipline action against Mr. Day? He is telling them to make illegal actions. Or at least not trying to stop them. Doesn’t sound like a good lawyer. Excapt in Illinois government. …
As a County land owner, I believe that we need to annex to the County all property that is outside Bloomington and Normal’s current Cities Limits. within a ten mile radius.
Does Normalite even count as a newspaper of general circulation? Online their classified section is not even a clickable link! Scandalous!
Only to them
There was a time when the Normalite may have constituted sufficient notice, but not anymore. Once we have good people in government, that sales policy, and especially the public notice section, needs to be updated. The taxpayers deserve a decent price for any real estate sales.
(Has the town Ever made money on a real estate transaction? Every one I know of has been a major loss. An occasional loss is understandable, but when they Lose A Lot of taxpayers’ money, Every Single Time, it’s hard to come up with any explanations beyond incompetence or corruption…)