By: Diane Benjamin
Take a trip down memory lane:
Chris Koos had been driving a 2012 Mitsubishi owned by the Town of Normal. Of course that means taxpayers owned it: https://blnnews.com/2021/03/10/koos-car/
Instead of putting government plates on it that only require one payment, the Town paid for plates every year just like you do.
Read the link above, Koos paid very little in additional compensation to drive the taxpayers owned Mitsubishi.
All of the above brings me to yesterday: Chris Koos has a Rivian sitting in his driveway. h/t more than 1 reader who say it!
It doesn’t have GOV plates, just like the Mitsubishi Koos formerly drove:
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Have fun with this poll:
Just hit play to hear the discussion when buying 2 Rivians was on the agenda. Koos and Reece implied these would be FLEET vehicles, not a Koos personal vehicle. He needs to say at the next meeting whether this vehicle has been assigned to him or if he bought one himself. Karyn Smith proves why she needs removed, don’t miss her TWO speeches. Koos admits on this video HE authorized putting deposits down on 2 vehicles. Koos also claims it isn’t a luxury vehicle, just expensive. At no time during this discussion was it stated taxpayers were buying a Rivian for Koos. I wonder who gets the second one?
If this is a Town owned vehicle, how much is Koos paying to use it? It better be a lot since it cost around $70,000. Keep reading below.
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72% of all cobalt in batteries is mined in the Congo with SLAVE labor under extremely hazardous conditions. Listen to this podcast if facts matter: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ZBdeZLitzqNPBbvv9QIEz?si=7l_rHY7ZSoi-JGPF3WaHKQ&nd=1
You only need to listen to the first 15 minutes, I listened to the whole thing. Luckily not a Joe Rogan usual 3 hours!
Isn’t Mboka Mwilambwe from the Congo?
Yeah from the Congo and if I remember correctly became a U.S. citizen in 2008. Ya think he’d have enough reason, i.e. life experiences to be less liberal. I think that his father might have had some government type position. It’s been awhile.
Karyn Smith summarized how the government/tax payer vehicles should be used =
she said the Town employees should “check out” the vehicle and then carpool together when traveling somewhere for the Town …instead of everyone driving separate and then requesting reimbursement. I agree with her summary of how city cars should be used!
BUT that is not how Koos operates – meaning that he answers to no one about his behavior and use/misuse of tax dollars – it only makes sense that he decided to let the taxpayers buy him a Rivian truck – for his unlimited personal use.
Remember Koos recent Covid behavior when he kept his Vitesse Bike Shop OPEN and never closed, but during the same time period – directed the police to remove patrons from other small businesses in Normal! Wonder why the police never ran patrons out of his bike shop – OH, he had money to make!
Also remember how he drove to Target to watch to looting going on in real-time.
This guy is a KLOWN!!!
PS – Listening to Kevin stammer with his words was difficult – but I think I heard him implying Rivian was doing the Town a favor, so the vehicle purchase was the least we could do. How many unnecessary deals are you all making!
Shady board members reporting to a shady mayor and everyone falls in line.
That is why families are moving OUT of Normal Illinois! Stop robbing us through HIGH taxes and then turn around and waste as much as possible! UGH!
God bless us all
I was actually in a closed door meeting one evening when Koos remarked he didn’t care what the taxpayers thought about the Town’s projects. I believe alot of his attitude comes from the fact he thinks he is owed something because he served in Viet Nam. Many that did so wouldn’t see it that way but I believe he always has.
He demonstrates that he does not care what tax payers think by finding unnecessary ways to increase the property taxes we pay.
I totally believe you. He told me once in a meeting regarding the clean up of criminals off of Orlando Northbrook properties that he would not allow the police to removed criminals but they would when they wanted to arrest. I told him they would be in his backyard next year because I would get them removed. I called the federal marshals and they removed the criminals and cleaned up the area. I have saved this information for 15 years. I am ready to tell it how it is.
More please!
He should have stayed there; as he is a communist and Marxist ….. and his brother and his wife are radical even for Normal.
He and his brother literally would get drunk and antagonize religious solicitors back in the 70s.
He betrayed his friends when he forgot about them and gave away every construction job possible to unions for uptown. Then tried to get TIf money reclaimed when a LOCAL construction company got work remodeling a store and cafe.
I have known him since his little pathetic shop next to The Pub. He is a cancer on this town. Anyone who supports Vitesse should be considered to be of the same quality of Comrade Commissar Koos.
Feel free to get in touch Chris! Oh wait, you refuse to acknowledge me in public those last five times!
Merry Christmas from the taxpayers of Normal! They bought two. Where’s the other one? Pam’s driveway?
The other one is an SUV, they don’t have it yet
In that case it looks like Chris spoiled Pam’s Christmas. He could at least share until her’s arrives.
She’d have to give up her huge car allowance!
Diane:
Maybe she would take the car allowance along with a Town of Normal Taxpayer’s Rivian??
Concern for taxpayers & laws do not matter to TON staff.
While I think Koos is a self-centered ego-maniac, Telsa and Rivian have developed battery technology that doesn’t rely on cobalt.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/10/rivian-changing-battery-cells-to-lfp-following-tesla-and-high-nickel.html
It isn’t ready for prime time yet. Working on it
This council is such a joke. Koos orders and pays the down payment on a $150,000 dollar puchase and then presents the bill to the council to get it paid. Council says sure thing. This was for two vehicles not approved to be purchased by the council not required to replace fleet vehicles. The council minus one member all agree that is a wonderful thing to do since Rivian has paid two million to the city in permits. Do we owe them a thank you for paying their permits. NO…do you as a citizen expect a thank you gift when you pay your bldg permit, taxes etc.?
Council stated that the addition of these two vehicles are exceptable because they are electric, saving the environment, little to know upkeep costs? will be used to transport multiple people to meetings saving mileage etc for town trips. Then why is the truck in the mayors driveway? What trip and who did he transport? Come on do you all think the citizens are this stupid. We know what your doing and have been doing for years. I think the mayor should now be owning two vehicles and no MONEY out of our tax dollars should be granted to pay his bill.
kingkoos fancies himself the emperor and we’re merely the serfs who pay taxes to fund his uptown utopia. The underpass, trail east, uptown south, so many plans in the works which will jack up property taxes. He doesn’t care what we think. He cares what his fellow leftist marxists think. That’s who he wants to impress.
As much as I despise this man, this is much ado about nothing. The wait time for a Rivian is too long for it to be one the town bought,. Therefore, it’s either his own, or a friend’s. Nothing to see here, move on.
It was before council because they got 1 deluvered
We live one block away from the mayor
Also saw the Rivian in his driveway a couple weeks ago but didn’t have plates so we were going to wait to share but another reader beat us to it. Now we wait for an explanation on who owns the vehicle.
Don’t like your tax dollars being spent on these perks? Stop voting for the people who approved them. Karyn Smith and Kathleen Lorenz voted for it and are up for re-election. Call them out when they campaign about how fiscally responsible they are with your money.
If I remember correctly I think Kathy voted no on this one. So did “Room Service” Preston and of course Stan Nord. Doesn’t matter. Only token “no” votes from Rinos posing as conservatives.
It’s doubtful this will get Koos to his Amtrak confirmation hearing in D.C. That is if there ever will be one. So far he’s 2 and 0 with getting confirmed. But, just like the Connect Transit board members who aren’t taking the bus to their meetings, Koos won’t be taking Amtrak or his Rivian.
There are apps and services available to run a trace on the license plate number (pictured above) as cheep as a $1 per search if I really wanted to know who owns this vehicle. I think I already know the answer, but I’d like to hear it from the mayor directly. Think I’ll email him and see what he’s got to say to his subjects in Normal.
There was a time in Normal when Koos and the rest of the Council could get away with purchases like this. No one noticed or even cared. And, to a large extent that pretty much still exists even now (friends of WGLT). But, there’s a growing population in Normal that’s waking up to years of widespread corruption of a very self serving government. Crap like this is proof that your taxes are too high and Koos doesn’t care.
Black Lives Matter. Except for the Six year old black children slaving away 12 hours a day for electric cars.
And Pam has the other one. Told ya.