By: Diane Benjamin
Somebody at the Pantagraph must read this site because they picked up and expanded the sewer billing fiasco between Bloomington and Normal. They even credited BlnNews for the story! You might want to read the comments: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/documents-bloomington-may-owe-normal-up-to-600-000-in-unremitted-sewer-charges/article_be624fb0-2c5f-50e4-8150-73c1f5824ac8.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1
Link to both stories I wrote: https://blnnews.com/2021/04/21/return-to-civility-by-normal/
What they didn’t cover is:
- Pam Reece and Chris Koos were in government during this entire time. Evidently the “professional staff” isn’t?
- How much more have the citizens of Normal been paying because Normal has no clue who they should be billing?
That last one I can answer!
In 2011 the residents of Normal were paying $1.19 per 100 gallons plus $2.50 a month service maintenance fee.
Source: https://blnnews.com/2019/11/04/normals-tax-and-fee-history-comprehensive/
What are they paying now?
https://normal.org/501/Utility-Rates
Do the math using their example. In 2011 your bill would have been $8.45 verses $18.30 now.
Did your income more than double since 2011? How much difference would have been made if the money Normal failed to collect since 2012 had been collected? How much interest was forfeited by the failure of the “professional staff” to collect what is due?
One more note: The governor for the State of New York is making $225,000 a year. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/04/20/andrew-cuomo-is-americas-highest-paid-governor-in-history/?sh=75c43a4ae2c5&fbclid=IwAR07xKHPCMym0xhmGFAqYuRb6kgvgKQnUgUz0f3MDFPs1R9S8gq5w9SlUhk
Last year Pam Reece was paid $190,550, with benefits $242,754. https://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/14857/Total-Compensation-Report—Town-of-Normal
Which job do you think is harder? Managing a tiny town where the population is largely college students or a huge population state?
Isn’t Pam due for another raise? Andrew Cuomo declined his.
I wonder if Chris Koos is still not planning on taking his increase?
.
.
.
.
.
.
In private industry, making a mistake like this costs the person his/her job. Not so in the nepotism, old boy/old woman cronyism of politics. She should be fired immediately, if not sooner. She should have been fired when it was discovered she was paying taxes that were not owed. She’s a joke as an administrator.
Bloomington-Normal was built on nepotism. Relatives are all over the place whether it be local government, higher education or the insurance industry. One never had a real chance making anything of themselves in this town unless your family was connected or your relatives were embedded in the local corporate or education structure. This area could have been twice to three times what it is today but the old power structure was more than happy being average and lazy but fat and sassy. For what could have been just look at the Indianapolis area just 160 miles to the east. It’s simply leadership and work ethic compared to no leadership and no work ethic.
The students at the Vidette do a better job reporting local news than the Pantagraph. They continually scoop the Pantagraph on just about every news story including ISU athletics. Needless to say they also wind up getting better jobs upon graduation. Since the hometown newspaper went corporate and then became a stepchild to the Decatur Herald & Review it has become totally worthless. How someone who has any pride in their work product can continue to work at that place is beyond me. Have been totally MIA on any usable news for years.
Guaranteed the money will be spent on the Underpass or more new bike trail extensions. No chance will they use it to fix more of our $hit roads or pay down debt. Pam just got more money to spend window-dressing uppity town.
You do a great job Diane!
The media use to say “We speak truth to power!”
Now they say “We speak whatever power tells us to say”.
The pantagraph is part of that new kind of media.
We are fortunate to have you.
More tomorrow on this story! ðŸ¤
Let me get this straight. Normal has been overtaxing us because they are hyper-focused on vanity projects and they have incompetent staff. Why do I have no expectation that anyone will be held accountable? Wait, I answered my own question – INCOMPETENCE and no one has a passion for spending like Pam.
Peabody, excellent comments!