By: Diane Benjamin
One of the policies instituted by Tari Renner was limiting discussion at Council meetings. Pre-Tari there were no limits, Agendas are now issued with the amount of time the Council will spend on each item. Why are your elected representatives not allowed to talk as long as they want?
The Council represents citizens, not Mboka. Time limits should not be placed on ANY discussion. Roberts Rules of Order allows for “calling the vote” if discussions get ridiculous, arbitrary time limits prove Renner and Mwilambwe don’t believe in representative government. Extending the time by voting distracts from meetings and wastes time.
This isn’t the first time Mboka has used this trick, but last night he sounded more like a tyrant than a leader. He extended the discussion for a very LIMITED amount of time and stated he won’t allow even one minute more:
Remember hearing repurposing some other empty building for a library isn’t possible?
Last night the comparison to the Decatur Public Library was made AGAIN. What has never been mentioned is Decatur did repurpose an old building. When Sears moved to the Forsyth Mall the City bought their building and turned it into a library:
See the history of the Decatur library here: https://www.decaturlibrary.org/history
Obviously the Library Board (stacked by Renner) didn’t want to move to another location or they wouldn’t have kept claiming retrofitting another location isn’t possible. Decatur did it – it was possible!
That brings me to Julie Emig. She claims the library was an essential resource during COVID. Julie, the library was closed for much of 2020 with few hours to even pick up ordered materials. It reopened for awhile and then closed again in November 2020. Below is a curb pickup schedule for when it was closed.
It was closed before May of 2020, that’s just the first screen shot I found. It didn’t reopen permanently until January 18, 2021.
I don’t know why the ADA presentation was made, most of it was old data from 2015.
The late Barb Atkins (died over a year ago) was honored with a proclamation calling here a true public servant. That ignores what she cost the citizens of Bloomington by spiking her pension: https://blnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/barbatkins.pdf
I wonder who’s idea the proclamation was?
Hope you’re celebrating higher taxes today!
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Ahh the comment made by a former alderman during the selection process when Kevin Huette resigned and the establishment was pushing for Mboka, “we can control him” is true. I was seeing signs of life that Mboka could be his own man but alas the tentacles do have that hold on him.
In Beloit, WI, they had a library that was built in 1903 with a grant from Andrew Carnegie. About 10 years ago, they renovated an abandoned JC Penney store, that was part of a defunct shopping mall, in to a new library.
I wonder if he’s trying to limit the time certain council members speak about certain subjects.
He has an agenda, he used to be more normal
Decatur also has the Howard Buffett Foundation which provides financial support for their Parks and Police taking some of the burden from the taxpayers.
Decatur’s Water Park may have also received funding.
Decatur to Bloomington is like apples to oranges.
https://herald-review.com/lifestyles/some-of-what-the-buffett-foundation-has-funded-in-macon-county/collection_6ec2b4eb-ff4e-501a-92f0-3192f5fe6072.html#17
Many see Decatur as a dump but at least they have some common sense in their actions. So what’s that make Bloomington Normal? A dump with no common sense and a swimming of sewage in every basement. BTW Decatur moved twice to buildings left behind by Sears.