By: Diane Benjamin
Chris Koos knows he has nothing to run on. Instead of discussing issues he clipped and chopped comments made by Marc Tiritilli before Rivian incentives were approved by the Normal Town Council. Koos wants you to believe Tiritilli was against Rivian buying the plant when Marc was actually against taking money from Unit 5 – Koos did just that with all his TIF districts and Rivian.
The Unit 5 property tax rate when Koos became mayor in 2003 was $4.430310.
In December of 2020 the Unit 5 School Board raised the rate again. It now stands at $5.638.
The increase is 27.26% and why people leave Illinois in droves. That increase doesn’t include all the Town and other taxing bodies that also increased rates.
Koos and Tiritilli debated last night on Peoria’s Channel 47. It will be replayed, see the schedule here: https://www.wtvp.org/local-programs/at-issue/
The questions were much better than at other debates. The one funny part was Koos claiming the Attorney General has never found them guilty of violating the Open Meetings Act by issuing a “binding” opinion. True only because every time a complaint was filed the Council magically changed the policy right before an AG ruling. The latest was last October.
Chris, if you aren’t guilty why does the policy keep changing?
The two latest rulings against the Town were about allowing comments to items not on the agenda. The Town knew back in 2019 their policy was illegal – see this story: https://blnnews.com/2019/09/05/normals-illegal-public-comment-policy-2/
The Open Meetings Act training from the Attorney General’s office had that exact violation as an example.
Koos and company didn’t change it until October of 2020. Instead of open, honest, and transparent public comment – those wanting to speak about items not on the agenda have to wait until the end of the meeting now. Nobody knows when that might be so obviously the Council doesn’t want to hear from citizens.
Why would anyone vote for Koos, McCarthy, Preston, or Cummings? All of them did nothing to comply with the law.
The video below is a MUST watch short clip (1 minute 9 seconds) from the June 3, 2019 meeting. The current Council is on record voting AGAINST allowing Public Comments that are not germane to the agenda. Pam Reece claims their policy doesn’t violate the Open Meetings Act when it obviously does. The “professional staff” was WRONG, the Council followed her over the cliff.
Tired of being lied to yet? Vote April 6th!
I am sure each of the Mayor and Council candidates are campaigning on fighting for your voice to be heard. People have got to stop believing what politicians say when their voting record proves the opposite. Watch the council video and how they voted. All of the people up for re-election voted to suppress your voice!
Preston, Cummings, Koos and McCarthy are up for election and they each voted for you to sit down, shut up, and open your wallet.
Koos got owned last night in that debate. He looked old, out of touch, and defensive while Marc looked calm, cool, and well informed. In many ways, Koos is basically the Joe Biden of Central IL.
Except Biden actually graduated from college instead being a bike shop jockey drop out..
Can you repeat the question, H?
One thing that is abundantly clear is that if reelected, Koos has no intentions of serving a full term. Either he will drop dead, which after last night’s performance is looking quite possible, or he’ll resign mid term and hand over the reins to Kevin McCarthy or AJ Zimmerman.
Koos’s backup plan if McCarthy does not win is Lorenz for mayor. I heard his responsible cities pac hires a company to study who had the best chance of being elected mayor, Koos, McCarthy or Lorenz. The only reason Koos is running again is because the others had less of a shot.
Koos is absolutely pathetic. He’s Normal’s Joe Biden and if Kathy is the backup plan, Lord help us.
It’s clear that most rational people have lost faith in Koos’ leader and “vision” for Normal. Even the Chamber of (Crony) Commerce won’t back him. Perhaps, they see the writing on the wall. Koos is defending multiple terms in office of demonstrable failures too numerous to name. Since he’s so accustomed to not being challenged or questioned, he can’t form any cogent, persuasive arguments in support of his positions. Marc is prepared, polished, and disciplined. Much like Stan, he doesn’t fall for political traps and sticks to the matter(s) at hand.
I thought Normal was a happy and honest little town. With all the light that has been shown on the deception within their government, I guess I was.wrong. What towns within driving distance of Normal have an honest government?
Government requires servant leadership. Good luck finding it.
Normal and Bloomington are run by Satainists, pedophiles, psychopaths and sociopaths.
When I ran for mayor in 2012, the town of Normal was $100,000,000 in debt. Ten years before that, when Koos became mayor, it was only a half million dollars in debt. The whole purpose of mayors is to put the citizens in massive debt do that their controllers, the bangsters, are happy. Koos is not for the people, but himself and his masters.