By: Diane Benjamin
I wonder if municipalities that hate the 1st Amendment right to address government will also call on the DOJ to declare citizens terrorists? Teacher unions and school boards have: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-addresses-violent-threats-against-school-officials-and-teachers It looks like Antifa doesn’t protest Marxists in government.
For a meeting that only lasted slightly more than an hour, it was packed with Must See video. The entire meeting is posted below. It will begin with the first Public Comment where Koos lost control of the meeting. Note: Kids probably shouldn’t watch because language you might not want them to hear is on the video.
Another Must See clip is below. It concerns the ever popular Sewer Tap on Fees that normally get Stan Nord cut off. These fees are meant to recover the costs of running sewers to previously unserved areas. If developers don’t pay the cost, guess who does? Reece admitted some annexation agreements state the developer pays the fee, some don’t. The Town is allowing some developers to make Normal taxpayers foot the bill, that cost is millions of dollars. Is Rivian going to pay or will Normal allow them to pass the costs to you? Rivian is not in the video, but Stan is watching! Remember when the Town billed Nord for fees they forgot to have the original developer pay at least a decade before? Normal wants you and Stan to forget. Only 1 Trustee is looking out for taxpayers in Normal, here’s the proof.
Don’t miss Chemberly Cummings comments in the video below at 49:20. One would think she would side with the crowd that showed up, she didn’t. She accused the group of using the death of Julani Day for a political platform. Cummings missed why the group was there: The Town removed a memorial that was never meant to be permanent because the Town had no respect for Julani Day, his family, friends, and ISU students.
I have filed a FOIA with Normal concerning the artwork. That FOIA should show who is responsible for its removal. In a WGLT article Koos blamed “Town Leaders”, if the FOIA doesn’t reveal who they are, Koos needs to state who is responsible. It wasn’t the Council. https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2021-10-04/jelani-day-art-removal-brings-strong-emotions-to-normal-council-chambers
The family deserves to know who gave the order to remove his respectful memorial. Mayor Koos and Pam Reece need to stop hiding behind the veil of secrecy they call “the town” or “town leaders.” Whoever made the order needs to stop making up excuses, apologize, then get sensitivity training.
Cummings was actually right in her assessment about the BLM group present. There may have been one or two present that had legit sympathy but the majority were there to shout “Black Lives Matter” and promote the local Socialist agenda. Also, if I had placed a picture inside a public facility to “honor” someone I suspect it also would have been removed. Again, let the case proceed and get all the facts. Also, ask yourself why Day was seen at a local pot store just before he disappeared? Maybe for medical purposes but the truth will eventually come out.
I too would like know who Mayor Koos calls the “Town Leaders.” I have long argued the Normal council are not leaders but an unwelcome formality imposed by the state upon the town staff. That the council was not asked our opinion before Jelani’s memorial was removed while Mayor Koos says the “Town Leaders knew…” reinforces my claim that the council are not considered leaders. In Normal, the council is expected to be silent, unless being a cheerleader, and rubber stamp the desires of the “professional staff” who really “lead”.
I doubt the truth about who gave the insensitive order will ever come out. Mayor Koos and Pam Reece are skilled at misleading the public and being anything but transparent and truthful.
Stan Nord
Actually, “We the People,” have Representatives, not leaders. Plus, “they” continue to prove they are not leaders in any sense of the word. So kooskoos can call them leaders, but we know better.
Kooskoos and the fortress. Tyrants in arms. The developer who paid it was not a friend, not part of the clique, not with the in crows. I hope the developer who paid shows up and calls them on the carpet.