By: Diane Benjamin
Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/12/19/oops-did-i-say-that/
A few people have wondered if the video in that story was taken out of context. If you want the 20 minutes before of ceiling shots, people cleaning their cameras, and others jumping in and out I can post it. The meeting was about to start when this video was snipped.
Obviously Gayle Price is responding to the guy who popped in the door behind her. There is no context, previously the only comment about a fire was to say one guy wouldn’t be attending the Zoom call because he was at a fire. There was no mention of where and nobody asked.
Everything that happened occurred during that 49 seconds.
That is until this comment was made by another City of Bloomington employee:
This guy isn’t a building inspector, he’s a Patrol Officer (George and William are the same guy https://www.pantagraph.com/news/bloomington-officer-charged-with-dui-returns-to-work/article_1081938a-657e-5c62-b6ad-910f56009b7c.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share ):
These two civil servants have no compassion for people who can’t afford to live in swanky neighborhoods with less crime and drugs. People don’t live in sub-standard housing because they want to, they live there because they can’t afford anything better.
(See the never ending tax and fee increases under Renner)
Having no compassion is one thing, but these two “civil servants” want homes to burn down! Can the people living there get out first? Get their possessions out first?
How many more people at the City of Bloomington wish housing for the poor would burn down?
How many of those on the first video agreed with Gayle? Nobody called her out for her comment!
Gayle Price and William McGonigle didn’t lose a paycheck during the COVID shutdowns. If government employees had faced the same tyranny the private sector has they would understand compassion. Above average salaries, job protection, and lavish pensions have created employees without public service mentalities.
If Gayle Price thinks some buildings shouldn’t exist, why isn’t she making that happen with code enforcement? She would rather wait until they burn down?
William doesn’t think people should judge? How about a cop getting a DUI? Can we judge you for that one?
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REALLY cannot even make an HONEST post here. As a person who was RAISED on the west side and went to Irving School. I DID get a good education. And then some-knew a LOT of poor folks , but I just cannot have sympathy or empathy for ANYONE who wants to see ANYONES house or neighborhood burn. THAT’S JUST PLAIN WRONG!
So they are poor, what with the system we have nowadays, with EVEN a good scratch off ticket they COULD be a MILLIONAIRE! Rare but it happens. But still I cannot justify in ANY way shape or form a city official saying the SHIT that she did. WONDER IF I could be HAPPY IF her house burned?? Just THINK about it Gayle before you open your YAP next time.
Really CANNOT find ANY JUSTIFICATION for a dumb assed statement like that.
HOPE that THEY have a GREAT CHRISTMAS without their house burning down. .
I think it’s kind of a stretch to say that McGonigle wants the homes of poor people to burn. I think he was trying to come up with an explanation as to why Gayle would say that given what he knows about her position. Despite this article painting him to be a careless human who doesn’t care about poor people and his irrelevant DUI, Bill is an upstanding guy and an amazing police officer. Yes, he made a mistake back in the day but that does not speak to his character. The media would have made a bigger deal out of it if he got out of the DUI…lose lose situation on that one. I usually like your news posts, but this one was disappointing because you stretched what someone said and used it to fit a certain narrative.
I read Diane’s blog religiously. Can’t deny her foia backed facts and provided accounting education (Thanks Diane!!). I enjoy the comments, and find many of them to be spot on – most of the time. This story has struck a nerve though. I don’t know Gayle Price, but I have had the unfortunate opportunity to make a disparaging remark about a customer when a relative was within earshot. It was my mistake. However, what I said was true – they were a complete pain in the a$$! 🙂 When a complaint was made to my boss he simply asked them – “In your line of work have you ever said anything negative about someone that you wouldn’t have wanted overheard?” The complaint went no further. I think it is safe to say most of us have done this. Fortunately, we weren’t on a Zoom public meeting making an off the cuff comment. In my mind, Gayle has probably done more good for this community’s underserved than most of the people who will comment here. I would imagine if we knew the history of where her remark was aimed, most of us would probably get the comment. It is likely a pain in the a$$ property! I doubt very much if she was rejoicing about people losing their home. I hope not anyway. Just my $.02.
For about two minutes I was with the haters. But then I decided to actually do a TINY bid of research. This report is Monday’s trash. I’m sure, from other articles I’ve now ready about this woman in the Panntagraph and WGLT (actual good reporting BTW), Gayle, resolved over 2,500 tenant complaints PER YEAR over the last two or three years. To say she hates renters and poor is B A I T. I also remember someone saying over coffee one day SHE (and some other inspectors) ARE THE REASON THE CAR SEATS AT BELL INTERNATIONAL are being taken care of. I can’t stand seeing that pile of junk, but its shrinking.
No building should be on fire. No life lost from smoke inhalation or favorite teddy bear burned. It’s called BLACK COMEDY/DARK HUMOR. Its a coping mechanism for stressful jobs. Public employees just can’t say it on camera. This one did. Gonna stand on her proverbial neck for 9 minutes Diane? Try not to kill someone’s career who might actually be good.
Shock reporting is atrocious. This oration is natural, unfortunate, speech intended for someone else. Its a shame, but its not hateful intent. Someone should FOIA how many times this Gayle has probably helped Diane’s so called POOR PERSON or RENTER in that building from a landlord who doesn’t care to resolve a violation. I bet Gayle resolves more complaints across the city in a month than Diane is in age, or more than Diane has reported in her lifetime. (How old is Diane? Who cares) Gayle helped people I know get results from a slumlord named ED.
Diane’s reporting is typical clickbate with some video montage that is mildly distasteful. No one called her out? Do you see how many faces turned sour. Are visual social cues not enough? In a rule of popular vote, most disagreed with the comment. Diane mentions sub-standard housing. Gayle didn’t do that. Lack of good reporting did. Right Diane? No, also not causation. Swanky neighborhoods?. What’s the threshold there Diane? For someone maybe a “basic” apartment feels pretty swanky. It had for me at one time.
City jobs are good jobs because they are stable. There are probably no earnings bonuses and definitely Below inflation raises. They are NOT the municipal jobs of yore. They DO have benefits, vacation. It seems that MORE employers should be able to offer that. The real problem is people who can’t afford to live in Diane’s neighborhood because their full time job take-home pay doesn’t allow them to live ANY range of the dying middle class life. THAT is a story. Who owns these units? How long have they milked them dry? THAT is a story. Why do trombonists have to release that spit valve during the middle of the show? That’s not a story. A little spit flies from time to time for the greater good of the band.
Diane seemed to gloss over STATE LAW and FEDERAL LAW and PROPERTY RIGHTS in her quip “If Gayle Price thinks some buildings shouldn’t exist, why isn’t she making that happen with code enforcement? She would rather wait until they burn down?” It most certainly can’t work like a magic wand where city inspector throws an ordinance book and POOF. Which is why there is some kind of city court and then some kind of county level court when the city court doesn’t work. I’ve heard cases can takes YEARS to resolve even with diligent city work behind them because of RED TAPE, PACKED COURT DOCKETS and LAWYERS who make more money defending scummy landlords who own failing housing than the landlord puts INTO THE HOUSING REHAB. Imagine a world without inspectors, before you chastise this one. Like calling 911 and no one answers, except for heat complaints and no hot water and broken walls and windows.
In summary, your brain chemicals say HEY that comment kinda sucks. Sure it does, but getting a parking ticket for staying six minutes over in the government lot parking 2 hr limit is a REAL kinda suck that actually lingers. So, for ending 2020 with good cheer, I’d say we let this lady move on with internal admonition.
Its just a spit valve, not the Sataion Nightclub.
Gayle not only made the comment but laughed about it and then snickered “did I say that?”. If it was off the cuff she could have apologized to the others on the call. There was another on the call who laughed at her comment as well.
People like this have no business serving our community. If she knows of fire hazards in other buildings then she should do something about it. It could be a comment about the tenants more than the buildings themselves. Regardless it was not taken out of context. She knew exactly what she was saying.
The Pantagraph headline should read “Local blogger forces us to do our job, again.” 🙂
To Diane’s naysayers – Don’t throw her too far under the bus! I don’t always agree with her posts either, but she is still far and away the best journalist we have in the area. I’d much rather have media that are too negative about government vs all the lapdogs and outright partisans we see elsewhere.
Which reminds me – as readers are doing their last minute shopping for the important people in their lives, take a moment to think how important the rare Good media are in keeping the truth afloat among the sea of fake news, and maybe send Diane a little something as well.
Thanks