By: Diane Benjamin
If you missed these two stories, read them now: https://blnnews.com/2022/07/07/normal-and-the-mica-fleece/ and https://blnnews.com/2022/07/14/normals-mica-vrs-bloomingtons-gallagher/
Brief recap:
- Normal has purchased comprehensive insurance through MICA for decades, they don’t bid this insurance because they claim MICA does
- Normal’s Finance director is on MICA’s Executive Committee
- Normal does accounting work for MICA
- The cost for Normal’s insurance this year is $1,945,934
- The cost for larger Bloomington this year is $1,084,576
Obviously Normal needs to explain why they pay a lot more than Bloomington.
I did finally receive invoices Normal sent to MICA for doing their accounting. Normal doesn’t think it is a conflict of interest to bill a vendor for doing their accounting while Normal’s employee is on the Executive Committee of the vendor. The cost difference is enough to show it is a conflict!
Normal itemizes one invoice per year that shows how charges for doing accounting are calculated, then it is billed quarterly:
Normal has a staff accountant who works half of their time just for MICA.
Accounting got a lot more expensive this year:
Is the person who manages the no-bid contract the same person who works for MICA? If not, who is working for MICA and getting a taxpayer funded pension?