By: Diane Benjamin
The Town of Normal has waged war on it’s citizens. Besides burying you in debt they want to make sure you can’t talk about it.
They know their Public Comment policy is illegal.
See this story 9/5/2019: https://blnnews.com/2019/09/05/normals-illegal-public-comment-policy-2/
The Town knew LONG before the above – March 16, 2017!
More than 3 years
Where is the above from? A ruling by the Illinois Attorney General in response to a Request for Reviews filed by Craig Stimpert.
See the entire document here: 45349 public comment
The town is purposely violating the law because they do not want to hear from you.
Now see this link from the March 20, 2017 meeting: http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2581
The “professional staff” as in Mark Peterson and Brian Day prepared changes to the Town’s Public Comment policy and left in this line:
Below is the video from that meeting. Brian Day claimed at 24:45 the Attorney General’s ruling that discussion can not be limited to agenda items is not valid because federal court cases show it is legal. He didn’t give any examples. The conservation veered in lots of directions, but many of the Trustees claimed there was other ways to give your opinion.
At the end of the previous meeting Chris Koos stated this item would not be changed.
Bottom line is: They don’t want citizens making anything public on video that is off agenda. It is about control. Nothing else. The Attorney General has already ruled even though they have not ruled on the two cases pending in front of them now. Normal doesn’t care. Citizens need to replace the ones that don’t. April 2021.
There are a couple of things that I must point out from the response from the Public Access Counselor in my case from 2017 that is linked above in this post.
First, is the similar tactics of Mayor Koos and Gov. Pritzker. Welcome to life in Illinois where politicians make up rules, policies and laws as they go along to suit their own purposes without any constitutional authority. If you feel that your rights have been violated, then you’ll have to sue to get your rights back. That’s been the pattern with Gov. Pritzker throughout the COVID 19 Pandemic. I think the Governor learned this from the town of Normal. Once you enter the legal battle, get prepared for the delay tactics to begin. Notice page 2 from the link above and how the town of Normal ignored the original request from the PAC. It was only after I continued to hound the PAC’s office that the town of Normal decided to answer my complaint. Anyone besides me find it odd, or convenient that Kwame Raoul announced he has COVID 19 the day after the Illinois Republican party filed suit against Gov. Pritzker’s orders in federal court? Don’t look for a ruling any time soon. The legal delay games have started.
Secondly, notice that I not only challenged the 45 day rule, I also addressed other issues with the town of Normal’s public comment policy, including speaking on items not on the Council agenda. The PAC did not issue a determination on those issues because my rights had not been violated by those policies. They could only make a determination on the rule that pertained to me, the 45 day rule. However, note pages 5 and 6 of the link above in which they do offer their opinions on rules limiting public comment to only items on the Council agenda. This is very much on shaky ground with them, but someone is going to have to have their rights violated before a ruling can be issued. That has happened several times that I’m aware of and I think complaints have been filed with the PAC. But, due to the delay games mentioned above no determination has been made by the PAC. Makes me question whether or not the town of Normal has even answered the complaint. Wouldn’t at all be surprised if they haven’t.
Finally, what I find particularly offensive about all of this was the most recent tax hearing in Normal. Residents who spoke at that meeting against the increase left that meeting at the end of 2019 thinking that we had dodged another tax increase. All of that was violated at the next meeting by an amendment to a motion by Kevin McCarthy to include a tax increase that was approved. In other words, there’s a double standard that Normal town residents cannot comment on items not on the agenda, but a council member can. He can even offer an amendment that includes a tax increase and deny citizens their right to register their opposition.
Shut up and pay your taxes, Normal. Your Council does not want to hear from you.
I will be voting and so will others April 2021
Demote Koos to a sewer cleaner! That would be a GREAT job for him, since he’s SO full of S*** anyway…
And he could ACTUALLY be underground! Where he BELONGS!