By: Diane Benjamin

Start with One Normal Plaza. STAFF convinced the Council to instigate zoning changes. The area residents only want ONE THING – alcohol sales banned in the park. Drive through – it’s a park like setting with narrow roads and family atmosphere. They want it to stay a tranquil place.

STAFF refused to listen to concerned citizens after attending at least 2 meetings with them. Obviously they have plans the citizens don’t know about or adjustments would have already been made to their proposal. The citizens are forced to take their case to the Koos appointed Planning Commission – the citizens demanded in person because of the number of people wanting to attend. (Zoom comments are a joke) Suddenly an In-Person Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for September 10th. Why the rush when Council won’t meet in person?

Now refer back to the PAC formed to recruit Council candidates Koos and company approve of. ( https://blnnews.com/2020/09/02/the-document-you-must-see/ ) Dave Shields and Bob Broad both signed AND both are on the Planning Commission. Supposedly Bob Broad will recuse himself since he owns property in One Normal Plaza. His wife and daughter also signed the letter, Julie Hile-Broad has supported alcohol in the past.

If the Planning Commission ignores the citizens like STAFF has, the zoning changes will go to the Council next. The chances of being listened to there are 6-1, Stan Nord is the only Trustee who has been listening. The bobble-heads will not meet in person to hear any comments directly from the people who have to live with their decisions. The majority has a history of approving whatever STAFF wants.

What we know:

• The local elites think everything is great, they don’t want their fiefdom upended by riffraff (mere citizens)
• They formed their own PAC to prevent that from happening
• They hate Stan Nord for actually representing taxpayers
• Ditto Marc Tiritilli
• Mere citizens have no voice, they have been ignored over and over and over
• The Friends of Koos get sweet deals at the expense of citizens
• What happens to One Normal Plaza will be very telling. The only way I see a citizens win is because Koos is worried about a Tiritilli win.
• In the past STAFF has always won

Now tie it all together:

Marc Tiritilli did a Q&A with WGLT: https://www.wglt.org/post/qa-marc-tiritilli-why-he-never-stopped-running-mayor

Stan Nord posted the story with quotes from Marc:

Below is what Koos posted about the story, he ignored everything accept the debt. Koos only received a few comments, none positive:

Anybody think Koos has a prayer of winning again?

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More next: Rules Don’t Matter if we want to ignore them.