By: Diane Benjamin
Remember the charge to Repairs and Maintenance pertaining to the License Plate Readers? https://blnnews.com/2023/02/09/remember-when-bloomington-bought-license-plate-readers/
I received an email from an officer wanting me to call him for an explanation. Since I prefer explanations in writing so they are useable, he put it in writing. That payment isn’t for Repairs or Maintenance. It is a scheduled quarterly payment. As a former CPA, that is the LAST account this payment should be charged to. At budget time it will look like RepMaint needs more budget.
The officer does have an interesting way of signing emails however:
This is what he emailed:
We do not pay for repairs for this system – if needed they are covered in the existing contract and are the responsibility of the vendor. While we have had cameras repaired/replaced, always at cost to the vendor, we have not had any cameras damaged during the course this program.
The payment you are citing from COB is actually the standard quarterly installment for year 2 of our existing contract, not a repair bill. The year 2 contract for operation of 10 cameras is $27,500. This quarterly payment for a year is exactly ¼ this total – which you cited as $6,875 in the upcoming COB bill.
In the nine months the cameras have been operational, they have been utilized daily for missing persons, suicidal subjects, armed robberies, homicides, shootings, stolen vehicle locations and a variety of other violent crimes.
I hope this helps clarify things. Have a good weekend.
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Gleason sitting up in the top chair at the podium – with the ELECTED Mayor to his left — the ego on this guy is exceeded only his Pekin-White Privilege !
Until citizens care enough to send people to the council that represent them, we are going to have expensive dictators using our city as an ATM and treating residents like sheep and doormats.
The streets and city look like crap – yet Gleason makes sure HIS salary is sky high and his favorite lobbyists get a bite of our tax dollars.
Gleason sits at the top of the dias – the city council night as well sit on the floor.