By: Diane Benjamin
Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/26488/637588526176300000
Wasn’t Sick Leave Buy Back abolished?
Buy local? Not when Amazon can deliver office and cleaning supplies with a mouse click. This is what the City spent in one month:
Even administration participated:
Remember when the Coliseum was sold as it would pay for itself? https://blnnews.com/2017/01/28/coliseum-who-to-blame/
Hint: It isn’t, but then you knew that.
The Bloomington Election Commission continues to fleece COUNTY taxpayers. Bloomington writes the checks from money the COUNTY is forced to pay them. BEC needs abolished because it duplicates services with NO ONE to hold accountable when they screw up.
Fireworks are back:
That’s cool you are calling out spending $17k on Amazon. I hope you caught this week the BPD is asking the city to spend ~$90k from an Indiana gun dealer without bidding it out locally.
Still reading the documents, only 357 pages
Likely because it is cheaper to purchase bulk firearms from Indiana and readily available. Also Indiana has quick purchase verifications that can flag in a matter of minutes. Everything is done electronically and is more efficient than what Illinois has in place. You also do not have to deal with the arcane paperwork that you do in Illinois. Didn’t get my FOID card this time around until six months after I renewed. Illinois efficiency. In general, everything is more streamlined in bulk purchases for municipalities and governments than they are here without the endless duplicate hassles, this saving money. Kind of like purchasing a head of lettuce at Kroger versus Green Top. Moving their in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait.
Yep and it’s cheaper to get cleaning supplies on Amazon.
Does it mean we should?
Only if you want local suppliers out of business
They are actually now paying principle one of the Arena Bonds? Is that new or is it just Normal that only pays interest?
I’m pretty sure bloomington always has
Regarding SLBB…IMRF has been reconfigured so as not to generate “spiking.” The sick-leave is paid after retirement date. Public Safety never generated “spiking.” The “spiking” component has been eliminated.
Regarding buying local…that is primarily for small local businesses not Big Box Stores where cleaning supplies are cheap. Although $17K is a lot, bulk online purchases from Amazon generate local tax revenue.
Regarding waiving the bidding process for the pistols…lower costs save tax dollars. I suppose the procurement department could spend time determining the cost differential/economic impact between buying from Indiana or a local sporting goods store but time costs money, too.
So we can ignore demands we buy local. Amazon doesn’t pay salaries here for local businesses
Kelbo: When dealing with taxpayer dollars you should always look for the best deal. If not, you are not being responsible to your constituents. When you are rehabbing the one Section 8 house you work on each year, I am sure you look for the best deal on materials. If not, you are making your clients pay more for their shelter. That’s one way to keep affordable housing affordable. We all know now if you would have been elected, how you utilized taxpayer money would haven’t been a big deal. Then again, you are probably still buying a $6.00 head of lettuce at Green Top with your state-supported paycheck.
Sorry Mr. Reed but I do believe government needs to strive to both hire and buy local if we don’t want to end up with Jeff Bezos or Alibaba running the country. If you want the purest form of free enterprise capitalism then the city should just get everything from China directly to save the tax payer money.
Also I PM multiple large projects in multiple states well over $50mil a year in construction, not a ‘single section 8 house’
I do my best to hire and buy local on the projects I’m running.
As a true capitalist, I believe local government should purchase most products and services at the lowest price possible to be good stewards of the people’s monies. Only when quality requirements stipulated as part of the bidding or other procurement processes are necessary should anything more than the lowest price be paid.
I doubt they check prices, Amazon is too easy
If they are buying supplies of certain items in large enough amounts that the individual item should be bid on without Amazon being a winning bidder then we have a separate issue. I know time limits you but that might be interesting to look into.
See the list, tons of small charges