By: Diane Benjamin
Chris Koos proved last night he doesn’t know what an Open Meetings Act Violation is. A violation occurs when a majority of a quorum discuss Town business in private. Koos accused Stan Nord of violating OMA by whispering to a fellow Council member. If TWO people is a violation Chris, the Town’s 2 on 1 meetings are a violation. A Quorum is 4 out of seven members, that means a majority of a quorum is THREE. Maybe this is why Koos doesn’t understand the Open Meetings Public Comment aspect and why he won’t allow citizens to simply be heard by their representatives. Should a start posting all the times you whisper to Kevin McCarthy Mayor?
There really should be an award for the most ludicrous comment of the night. There were so many, but I’d have to pick Kevin McCarthy’s for at least 2nd place – if not the winner.
The topic was the Community Investment Plan. Remember when the left made fun of Donald Trump for saying something is HUGE, the BEST, etc?
Last night the new interactive website showing future “investment” was called INCREDIBLE and AWESOME. Some on the Council sounded just like Trump! You can see the website here: https://tongis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/4e06af344e3a42879a53b3fe0df848e6
It is cool, except it isn’t close to what the Town used to present as the “investment” plan. See that here: https://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/19126/2021-2026-CIP-PDF
The first thing to notice about the old plan is that MANY items are listed and rated by how important they are. Note also there are items listed as “Proposed Projects, not recommended”. What are they? That would be projects with no funding – a wish list.
Stan Nord asked why $3.5 million for Savannah Green (Chemberly’s neighborhood) wasn’t on the “wish list” for last year but it is now a priority. Pam Reece stated it wasn’t because they didn’t have the money. Gee, lots of other unfunded projects made the list Pam. If you missed the Chemberly story, see it here: https://blnnews.com/2021/12/13/is-normal-playing-politics/
That led Stan to ask how citizens can track unfunded projects when there isn’t a list, just a website that doesn’t show them. Kevin McCarthy stated the following in an attempt to make people think Stan is clueless. McCarthy failed because facts show the opposite!
The reality is Pam’s “subject matter experts” (town staff) said what they want. Most of them don’t live in Normal, they just work in Normal. The citizens of Normal didn’t have any input. The Council had no input.
Do you think any of Pam’s experts would still have a job if they didn’t agree with Pam’s plans?
The public and their elected representatives have been “canceled” from the process of prioritizing how their constituents’ money is spent. The Council is at fault for allowing this happen and refusing to change it.
The Council will get a voice when the “professional staff” puts it on the agenda for the all day budget discussions. Then they can discuss it again when the spending is on an agenda at a Council meeting. Ever see the majority say NO?
Anybody?
If you didn’t contact the Town once a week for the past year, chances are good your crappy road didn’t make the list.
More tomorrow, I plan to prove Town Law now violates State Law. They likely won’t care.
Just hit play if you want to hear the entire discussion of the Community Investment Plan:
This charade gets better & better as days pass by!! Please keep up the great investigative work on Normal’s “Clown Council!” Ron
Q: Do you think any of Pam’s experts would still have a job if they didn’t agree with Pam’s plans?
I dislike answering with a question , but relevance –
A. Do you think Pam would even have the job at all if it wasn’t for her mother-inLaw ?
#wentthere