By:  Diane Benjamin

Part 2:  https://blnnews.com/2020/07/14/part-2-bloomington-last-night/

This almost 2 hour meeting is going to take more than one story.

Start with the Pledge of Allegiance.  The City solved their Jenn and Jeff signs problem by just not having them on video during the pledge, both appeared right after it ended:

A guy named Zac something (couldn’t understand it) spoke during public comment.  He wants somebody other than the police making traffic stops and dealing with the homeless.  He thinks police could be “around the corner” in case they are needed.  He then tells a story about when he needed the police but now he wishes the police had handled it differently.  Sounds like he is now “woke”:

Tari Renner had to comment on the KKK flyers found around the area last weekend.  He even gives a history lesson but never mentions the KKK was the militant arm of the democrat party.  He never mentions they made a resurgence under democrat president Woodrow Wilson in the early 1900’s because he was a real racist.

Tari, the vast majority of residents disavow anything connected to the KKK, but there have been way to many hoaxes in recent years.  If the flyers are legit you gave them publicity, if they are a hoax you gave them publicity.  Instead of acting “holier than thou” a better approach would have been to laugh at them.  You gave them what they wanted instead of turning whoever did it into a joke.  Their message wasn’t a joke but it was nothing anyone took seriously unless they chose to.   If any real crimes are committed then you can be outraged as will tons of other people.  Of course Jenn and Jeff will want social workers handling it.

See Tari’s comment here:

One more:

City Manager Tim Gleason has no plans to ever go back to meeting in person.  Court rulings mean nothing in Illinois, just like laws.  Donna Boelen asked how long the COVID emergency orders would last.  Tim Gleason said until Phases 5, even though that may never happen and Phase 4 was ruled immaterial in court: