By: Diane Benjamin

Last night’s Normal Town Council meeting was slightly over 4 hours. It started with a presentation by County Board Chair John McIntyre and County Administrator Camille Rodriguez pertaining to sales tax increase to fund mental health. That presentation took close to an hour. Was that on purpose to deflect from the budget discussion that took place at the end of the meeting? More on that item later.

I’m sure Stan Nord will be blamed for making the meeting longer than staff and the Council wanted because he questioned many items on the Omnibus Agenda. One item I didn’t get around to writing about before the meeting: Extending the auditor’s contract for 2 more years for a total of 7.

Getting cozy with auditors mean problems can be missed. Readers should know auditors are not looking for fraud, they merely make sure the numbers are in the right columns. If they happen to stubble across malfeasance, they include that in their report. When the Town knows what the auditors are going to concentrate on because the same firm has done it for years, the chances of “stumbling” across anything are reduced.

Stan wanted a one year extension instead of two after no one on the Council would agree not to extend the contract. Of course he got no support. Six years is long enough for the same auditor, seven is troublesome. Karyn Smith proved that point without meaning to. She claimed the auditors have their working papers prepared and ready to go. New auditors would have to start from scratch. That’s the point Karyn – FRESH EYES.

Stan Nord mentioned Dixon Il and the Coliseum. Kevin McCarthy proved he doesn’t grasp facts by claiming the Coliseum was a separate entity. (1:29:20) He evidently doesn’t know the contract between Bloomington and CIAM gave the City complete access to whatever they wanted to see. The City just never exercised that power. The Coliseum operations were audited, those auditors never reported a problem except that concessions were off limits.

The Council voted to extend the current auditing firm contract for two more years. The vote was 6-1.

The video below is not the beginning of the conversation, but it will cover the above. The discussion proves the importance of electing Trustees and a Mayor that don’t marginalize those who want answers for citizens. Stan Nord is all alone now.