By: Diane Benjamin
If you thought brick streets were ever going to get a little money you’d be wrong. Mollie Ward objected to diverting the unused grants balance of $82,784 to repairs. She wants curbs made ADA compliant first. See 1:04:15. I didn’t hear an explanation from Mollie, but she amended the motion to spending $15,653 on bricks and the rest on ADA compliance next year. It passed.
The manufactured housing development in Ward 2 failed. The biggest problems were it didn’t fit the area and owners would have a difficult time selling because they don’t own the land. The developer could reject a buyer. 1:28:50. Tari made a snide comment about not wanting “poor people”, that set Donna Boelen off. You might want to start listening ay 1:27:45 to hear the lead up.
Insurance coverage for next year is going to cost a lot more. 1:49:15. Insurers are fleeing the municipal market because of civil unrest and police liability. 1:50:25. Bloomington experienced it’s 2nd large property loss in 2020 (Lake Bloomington Fire), I have no idea what the first loss was and when. (I will find out though).
PSCRB (Public Safety Citizens Review Board gave their annual report. 2:02:45. It was reported the police received 22 complaints in 2020, 11 in 2019, and 20 in 2018. Evidently the police aren’t a major problem in Bloomington.
2:29:15. Tim Gleason reported Bloomington will receive $13.8 million in COVID relief funds. Make sure your kids know Biden and the Democrats enslaved them by printing money for votes. The Council will hold a special session on how it can be spent in the future.
2:30:30. Tari Renner couldn’t slink off to ex-mayor status without extoling his accomplishments. He didn’t mention the taxes that didn’t exist before him (local motor fuel tax, amusement tax, short term rental tax) or the taxes he increased (utilities tax, sales tax), or the fees that automatically increased every year so people can’t see the votes (sewer, solid waste). He also didn’t mention the huge budget increases or one of his favorite projects – alcohol for Ovation Cinemas. Maybe that’s because the pandemic closed them. He don’t mention Green Top Grocery either, it was difficult to pay attention however.
Mayor-elect Mboka’s speech about Public Comment is at 2:43:15. Carrillo responded at 2:51:36. This part you might want to watch. Zoom faces are priceless.
Thanks Diane for this summary. I hope more people will find out about your service. It is so helpful to have someone go through these meetings and report on the important things.
I thought the meeting went pretty well. Everyone was on their best behavior.
I don’t feel sorry for Jenn even though there have been some ugly comments made. There is no place for racist comments no matter what. Racist comments destroy credibility on either side of the discussion.
On the other hand, her statements that our police department as a whole and our community as a whole are racist is as much a racist statement as anything said about her. Threatening people you work with and encouraging violence is as incendiary as anything spoken to her. So she can’t claim she’s the innocent victim.
If you would like to be a part of civil discourse regarding local issues, please join me at the McLean County Libertarian Party monthly meetings. We are happy to have both Stan and Kelby regularly attend our meetings as our guests. It is our goal to be a place where the community can come together to solve local problems regardless of labels.
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