By: Diane Benjamin
The meeting started early with a Work Session. The first presentation was an update on Normal’s Smart City Plan. All you need to know about this plan is the World Economic Forum is pushing it: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/what-is-a-smart-city/
Government making decisions for the future is always a planned disaster to eliminate pesky citizens planning for themselves. Congrats Normal – this is what you voted for. Your cage is being built. Enough good stuff is thrown in so you don’t notice.
At 38:30 the Council finally gets around to discussing how many cannabis dispensaries they want. Normal already has 3 and a 4th applicant has submitted documents. Bloomington limited dispensaries to 2 which eliminated all the zoning problems Normal is dealing with. Pretty multi-colored maps didn’t need to be created.
At 57:00 Kathleen Lorenz rattled off changes she wants to see in the current ordinance. All of them are immaterial if the allowed number is capped. The “professional staff” made it more difficult than necessary.
All of the above took over an hour. At 1:13:00 your tax dollars bought votes – Harmon Arts grants were handed out. A crowd assembled to witness Koos congratulating each recipient while handing out what looks like checks. Koos isn’t on audio while doing it so we have no idea what he said to each.
At 1:28:00 a Liquor Commission meeting was held with 3 liquor licenses being approved along with a gaming license. No documentation on these is included in the packet. If you enjoy the roll being called over and over and over watch it yourself.
The actual Council meeting finally started late at 1:34:05. It lasted less than 14 minutes with much of the time taken up with Trustee comments. Yep, short meetings are back.
“Smart City” – short for the current town administration’s governing philosophy of “Smart City, Contemptible People”.
Why is it so hard for this Council to put a cap on the number of dispensaries we’re going to have in Normal and just be done with all the nonsense surrounding this issue?
Clearly, Normal Council members are playing politics. They want dispensaries in our town because of the revenue they’re going to generate into the town coffers. Since they need the money, they won’t support putting a cap on it, thus the games they keep playing. They love being stuck in the weeds with this issue blaming zoning, BLS regulations and sending requests back to the zoning board of appeals before an election in order to delay a yes vote until after the election. It’s all a cover for them to excuse their irresponsible behavior.
They want people to believe their hands are tied on this when in fact they’re not. They could adopt an ordinance putting a cap on it, but they won’t. Just because the BLS allows for more, does not prohibit this Council from putting a cap on it.
Case in point, Kathleen Lorenz who admits they’ve been “bit” on this issue. How did that happen Kathleen? By you and your Council members inaction and voting for more dispensaries. You didn’t get bit on this, but the citizens of Normal sure did by your inaction on putting a cap on it and your yes votes for more dispensaries in the face of overwhelming opposition. Kathleen is pretending to be a problem solver when in fact she and her fellow Council members are the problem.
This is irresponsible government; an all time low for this Council and in Normal, that’s saying something.