By: Diane Benjamin
Remember the Eagles song Desperato? That should be the Chris Koos theme song. He has NOTHING to run on so he is now personally attacking Marc Tiritilli instead of addressing the issues.
Chris is a divisive leader because he knows people don’t want the things he wants. Marc Tiritilli is running to be mayor for all of Normal, not just the parts Koos likes.
Rivian came because of a cheap empty plant and state and local incentives. Yes they are an asset, but we’ve been here before with Mitsubishi. They were great too until they left. Spending $5 million to run water pipes around Rivian, maybe just to keep Bloomington from serving them as they are now, isn’t attractive Chris. Tiritilli wants to work with Bloomington to benefit all citizens, Koos doesn’t.
What Koos can’t run on and why all he has is attacking Marc personally:
Uptown got built with no way to pay the debt without extending it for decades.
The first floor of 1 Uptown Circle is still empty because Koos’ “right fit” never came along.
The second floor is rented by taxpayers for $36,000 a month while engineering used to be in a mortgage free building on Linden.
Public safety pensions are seriously underfunded and may never recover without massive tax increases.
Property tax rates have increased almost every year under Koos. So have other fees citizens are forced to pay.
Water quality issues plague many neighborhoods because old pipes haven’t been replaced.
Investments in road resurfacing is dismal.
Property taxes were paid on properties the Town owned but never filed the tax exempt paperwork for. (Thanks Stan Nord for finding those)
Koos wanted to rent the Linden property for $100, it got pulled when the public found out.
Property on Fort Jesse was sold for below assessed value to the wife of a Town employee without ever erecting a sign stating it was for sale or using a realtor to market it.
A $120 a year lease was given to another Koos buddy for the old Sprague’s Gas station property on Pine Street that never opened this year.
Koos doesn’t want to hear from citizens at Public Comment. Somehow the rules changed right before the Attorney General decided the Town violated the Open Meetings Act. Right now if you want to exercise your 1st Amendment right to address your government on an issue not on the agenda, you have to wait until the end of the meeting which could be 10:00pm or later when nobody cares what you have to say.
The Citizens Summit has been ignored. Koos wanted a private event by invitation only, citizens showed up anyway, filled out the documents, had discussion, and then were summarily dismissed.
Koos didn’t want to hear from anyone wanting the Uptown mural saved. Koos didn’t want to hear from the people who just wanted a fire station moved across the street at Blackstone Trails.
Koos and buddies want alcohol permitted in One Normal Plaza, the citizens don’t want alcohol sales in a park.
Koos retaliated against Maggie Mileys and Joe’s Stationhouse. He rules with an iron fist in Normal.
Responsible Cities PAC was started by Koos, Mike Straza, and others to protect the local elite agenda. Nobody who signed the original letter can be called a public servant, they have agendas they want citizens to pay for.
This list could be MUCH MUCH longer, but who can forget what he did to people just wanting to work:
Steve Suess had a great show last night. Catch the podcast here: https://www.cities929.com/steve-suess-podcast/
WGLT “fact-checked” Marc Tiritilli for Chris Koos. Steve had Marc on and then did some “fact-checking” himself on statements Koos made during their debate. Koos did some fibbing.
Mboka Mwilambwe was also on. A can’t miss show!
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Plain and SIMPLE on April 6th KOOS HAS TO GO!
Remember Koos, Preston, McCarthy and Cummings voted to double the gas saying it was to fix the roads, then they voted to use gas tax money to build new bike trails. There is not one incumbent who should be kept. That all lied to us.
Zimmerman is Koos’s groomed choice for council, so No vote for him. McMillian’s platform is to continue the Koos agenda.
The 2 most retaliatory and divisive people in B/N if you do not agree with their politics are Chris Koos and Dave Shields. One thing these 2 major a-holes have in common is Mike Straza was both of their campaign managers. This is why I have zero respect for Straza.
Desparado! Yes, yes, yes!!! But let’s not forget another song that fits King Koos, “Asshole” by Dennis Leary. Here are the lyrics for your enjoyment: https://genius.com/Denis-leary-asshole-lyrics Listen to the song once and the chorus is easy to pick up and sing along. Substitute “he’s an” as necessary. It’s fun!
Koos found in violation of Ooen Meeting Act in his enforcement of same as determined by state AG office.
https://week.com/2021/03/14/attorney-general-rules-against-town-of-normal-for-violation-of-open-meetings-act/
I heard at least one incumbent apologize about the Normal residents who’ve had to deal with brown tap water for about two years now, saying they didn’t know about it. That’s technically true, but it’s actually because the council didn’t Want to know about it – their public comment policy was (and still is) designed to keep the public from bringing embarrassing things like this out for people to know about.
Do not assume the council was made aware of the AG’s letter stating that our meetings violated the OMA. The council is kept in the dark on many things. Transparently and full disclosure is lacking even with those elected to be “in the know”. Information is shared when the manger determines we need to know and then only the pieces to get the requested vote. Trying to get full disclosure and answers to simple questions that the manager or mayor do not want to release is meet with extreme resistance. Your elected representatives are making decisions without full disclosure. I have repeatedly complained of this. I hope the next mayor and council will desire to bring open and transparent sharing of information on matters of how your tax dollars are being spent.
Stan Nord – Town Council member
Don’t believe me? Please ask an existing council member if they knew about the OMA violation, the brown water issue, the Rivian expansion across Rivian Mtw, or that a ~10% discount on trash disposal was offered to taxpayers.
Please correct me if I’m missing something, but how much of uptown Normal is there to benefit the citizens of Normal? The transportation hub makes logistical sense because it’s right next to the train station. A couple of very fancy hotels in a city with a lot of hotels already? A roundabout? Several nice looking buildings but some are still empty? As new and polished as everything looks, it feels to be devoid of personality, something that the previous incarnation of uptown had. The whole thing reaks as a monument for some people to point to and say ‘I built that!’ as long as they live. Maybe that mural was more important than I thought.