By: Diane Benjamin
The budget isn’t called Proposed Budget, but it is on line as a 5 years budget. Good luck reading it: https://www.normalil.gov/DocumentCenter/View/21181/Town-of-Normal-2022-23-to-2027-28-Five-Year-Operating-and-Capital-Investment-Budget
Tonight – a whole 5 minutes is devoted to a Public Hearing about the Proposed budget. Even though the announcement below claims the budget is on line it isn’t. Kathleen was on WJBC this morning and called is “ceremonial”. She is right! Nobody can comment about the proposed budget if they can’t see it!
It isn’t here:
https://www.normalil.gov/127/Budget
It isn’t here:
https://town-of-normal-open-data-tongis.hub.arcgis.com/pages/finance
It isn’t here:
https://www.normalil.gov/108/Clerk
Maybe it will magically appear!
It’ll appear within an hour of the hearing if at all. Typical Illinois, city, Koos games.
Sunshine laws mean nothing to this elected government
I wonder how many more luxury vehicles are in the budget.
Does anyone know when the budget was uploaded to the website? If it was just uploaded today, or even before the weekend, how is it expected that anyone could possibly read all of it prior to a vote? I have zero faith that any of them know what’s actually in that document that they’re going to vote on. It’s a sham.
Search key words love me debt, pensions, city manager, etc
Nearly everything in Normal related to public input or comment is ‘ceremonial’ – meaning just for show. This council election is not about who you want to represent you on the council, but IF you want to be represented on the council. The status quo candidates don’t care what the people think or want, just how much money they can be coerced into ponying up.
The bottom line is we need to vote for the bottom 3 – Nord, Tiritilli, and Sila.
Your pal Stan didn’t show up for the budget session earlier this year. Was he representing citizens from home that day?
Have you watched a meeting? They don’t care what he says because the rest approve whatever Koos wants.
I actually asked Stan about that, because I was thinking of attending. The meeting you’re referring to was also ceremonial – the various departments heads Tell the council what they will be spending money on and there is minimal interaction, questioning, etc. In other words, largely a waste of time.
Both Stan and I *were* at the planning meeting where council members theoretically had some input into prioritizing items for the budget: https://blnnews.com/2022/09/28/report-from-normals-planning-session/
2 years ago council told Pam to get out of the lease of the second floor. She ignored them.
If it is a waste of time for you and Stan, why are you running for council? Isn’t that part of your duties? Do you both(and I’m sure your third buddy Tiritilli is involved) get to pick and choose when you represent citizens?
Stan isn’t allowed to represent citizens now. 6 of the 7 don’t care what he says because he uses common sense. They hate it.
You apparently misunderstand – There was no ‘representing’ going on. Your attendance question is equivalent to asking about whether or not we went to a cornbelters game, or watched a parade or went to the fairview fireworks.
Are equally tenacious in asking the mayor and board about ‘representing’ when they ignore or even fight petitions with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of signatures? That is true ‘selective representation’ that needs calling out…