By: Diane Benjamin
At Monday’s Bloomington Council meeting approving money for the Ecology Action Center was on the Consent Agent. Everything on it was passed with one unanimously vote including this to the Ecology Action Center: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/5a1a631e-a62d-11ec-8a90-0050569183fa-36dc0a47-f3e1-4a7f-ab53-55227cac04fe-1654897109.pdf
One problem – h/t a reader:
Julie Emig is listed on the Ecology Action Center website as a Board member: https://ecologyactioncenter.org/about/board-of-directors/
The EAC website could be wrong (Kevin Kothe’s name is misspelled) or maybe Emig didn’t read the packet and didn’t know she was voting to send tax dollars to an organization she helps direct. Or maybe she hasn’t read the City Code: https://ecode360.com/34402845
This link describes the penalties for violating the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act which Bloomington adopted: https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/documents/000504300K50-5.htm
If Julie is a Board member she should have pulled it and recused herself from the vote.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for a resolution, laws rarely matter anymore. Emig’s 4 year term ends early next year.
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Rules do not apply to government because the same people who are supposed to enforce them are the same corrupt politicians benefiting from ignoring the rules in the first place.
Email the mayor. Mathy understood the concept of conflict of interest. Julie Emig does as well but has chosen to ignore it.