By: Diane Benjamin
Normal Town Council meetings are supposed to fixed in advance. Trustees know they are expected to vote YES on everything, after all staff is PROFESSIONAL. Representing taxpayers is shunned, staff is always right.
Kathleen Lorenz and Scott Preston actually chose to act conservative last night. I wonder if both are afraid of claiming to be GOP while voting like a Democrat. Both voted against the budget and the water rate increase. Both votes were 4-3, of course Stan Nord voted against both. Both Preston and Lorenz claimed citizens deserve a break.
If you missed this story, read it now: https://blnnews.com/2022/02/08/gop-accountability-your-questions-are-needed/
Of course Preston is the anointed candidate for the 91st Legislative District and Lorenz might be setting up getting re-elected next year. Normally both would have made some comments and then voted yes anyway.
Normal is hiring 21 more people they haven’t needed since the last time the budget had to be cut because they didn’t have money. Those new hires come with benefits and pension expenses that will increase your property taxes. They aren’t a one year expense, they are a forever expense.
Normal is paying down debt by $8 million, they expect kudos. They still have 15 to 20 years of debt and are planning to add more with Uptown 2.0. Kevin McCarthy claimed citizens are demanding more services because the Town is growing. I hear: FIX the ROADS, he didn’t include that in his list of permits, inspections, etc.
The budget is around $45 million more than last year. $11 million is coming from the American Rescue Plan and grants of around $20 million for the underpass are included. The leaves $14 million local taxpayers have to pay.
Both Preston and Lorenz thought citizens need a break because of the highest inflation in 40 years. Hint: it is going to get worse. McCarthy, Cummings, Koos, and Smith think they need to spend – spend – spend however. Keep in mind 8 cents of the gas price in both cities is a local tax meant to fix roads. How is that working out? That gas tax allows local government to spend the taxes you already pay on other things. Before both passed a gas tax the roads were fixed from the general fund and State gas taxes.
Karyn Smith added this must see comment very early in the budget discussion: (36 seconds)
I’m not going to tell you what she said, but she made it clear everyone needs to vote yes. Listen for yourself.
I could post many delicious clips, but I’m not going to. If any taxpayers in Normal actually care – watch the budget and water rate hike parts of the meeting yourself. Since Public Comment is very rare and voters have had plenty of opportunities to change Normal, it’s hard for me to see many do care.
The video will start where the budget discussion begins:
Sure do miss Paul Harmon!!!
He lives forever in Normal!
I miss Kent Karraker. He was pushed out so Harmon could be installed. All down hill from there.
Oh please! Are you serious? What do you miss? He’s still here as the lead cheerleader for Chris Koos. Point is, this stuff has been going on for a long time in Normal. Paul Harmon was nothing more than a set up to Chris Koos. We didn’t just stumble upon totalitarian rule in Normal. We got there through people like Paul Harmon who pretend to be conservative and ultimately lead us in the opposite direction. Are you listening Lorenz and Preston? They too see Harmon as their hero.
I miss liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Karyn Smith needs to be taken off council in the next election. She campaigned as someone who would be independent and break with the majority but she votes with them 100% of the time. There are clearly two wings on the council – Koos, McCarthy, Cummings, and Smith who will always vote the same. Then Nord, Preston, and Lorenz who are willing to dissent. If Smith voted how she campaigned instead of 4-3 passing these items would have failed. Shame.
Well, I see in the video that Covid is over (at least for now) and the Queen’s seated back on her throne, to the left of the king
I voted for Karyn Smith because Stan endorsed her. Now she is a full on traitor. SHAME ON YOU KARYN SMITH!!
Didn’t take her long to believe the “cool Koos club” was a good place to be
I have to wonder if Smith was promised something to sway her. Is one of her causes or several of them now going to get the green light as some pork barrel spending.
Seems like Preston and Lorenz make the conservative case in situations with a 5-2 or 4-3 vote. Nothing conservative gets done because the other 3 won’t get against Koos. Track if anything Preston and Lorenz vote against Koos for actually passes. Fast forward to after their elections, if they run, and see what they vote for.
Preston and Lorenz are predictably voting as conservatives because it is election time. They have earned their RINO badge through 3 years of consistent liberal votes and only 6 months conservatively. During their campaign they will claim to be conservatives and ignorant voters will believe their lies.
Conservative just started last night. Night and day difference in both of them.
Have Lorenz and Preston signed the accountability pledge?
I don’t often disagree with you Diane, but this is one of those times. Randy has the right take on this. Anyone who has attended or followed town council meetings enough recognizes the political theater that is ‘conservative input’ in Normal council meetings. (Excepting/until Stan.) The standing backroom question on anything that should face strong opposition is “Who’s turn is it to vote no?” As evidenced by the one and only time in recent memory that fiscal responsibility seemed to win the day – when a property tax increase failed to pass, they took a revote at the next meeting so Kathleen could get back on script and vote ‘yes’.
There just aren’t enough votes. Smith, McCarthy, Cummings, and Koos are 100% in lockstep 100% of the time. There are only three votes that are ever a “no”. It’s the same four “Yes” votes and same three “No” votes.
If your argument was correct and the entire council just takes turn taking “no” votes, then McCarthy or Cummings would vote no sometimes but they never do.
I agree there aren’t enough votes at the moment to get anything meaningful done in the right direction. But if Preston or Lorenz truly believed in the values of the Republican party, we would have a LOT of 4-3 votes. Instead, we get a Lot of 6-1 votes and some 5-2 votes, often times with them either attacking Stan for representing the people instead of The Plan, or them actively supporting whatever has already been pre-ordained.
The council members that have no reason to hide their disdain for the citizens and taxpayers don’t need to be in the ‘whose turn’ club, just those that need to maintain a pretense of opposition.
Sad to see Nord, Preston, and Lorenz standing in the way of progress.
Thanks for confirming some people in Normal think government creates prosperity. It has never worked before, maybe this time it will.
Elections have consequences. It’s not “some” people, it’s a majority.
I know how Koos and company won, fooling the uniformed is priceless.
Raising our water rates is not progress..
Your comment is why we need the laughing emoji here. Somehow along the way you have obviously come to believe “progress” is always a good thing – progressing towards the edge of a cliff at breakneck speed is “progress” but it’s not good, a disease “progressing” is never good, sometimes, it’s better to just turn around and go back and start over a different way.