By: Diane Benjamin
There was a Township meeting before the Council meeting, Council doesn’t start until 59:00 on the video.
This item on the Consent Agenda was pulled before the meeting:
.
The documentation says this Review Board hasn’t had a case since August of 2011 after being established in 2011, but that didn’t keep a good number of people from showing up at Public Comment asking to not abolish it. Public comment starts at 1:05:00. Surena Fish is at 1:08:00 talking about how the tent city in downtown Bloomington is growing and the ridiculousness of investing millions downtown when laws can’t be enforced. Dale Naffziger is at 1:17:30 asking for enforcement of laws to limit noise from motorcycles – specifically revving the engine on purpose.
Alderman Sheila Montney pulled $55,450 for Brand Development, I wrote about that one yesterday: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/26/999-bloomington-employees/
The City is in Phase 4, I mentioned in that story I didn’t know how much the first 3 phases cost. We found out why last night. Council never approved this project because Tim Gleason used his discretionary spending of up to $50,000 to approve it. City code:
The vote last night was to spend more than Gleason already spent. If you listen to Sheila’s comments and responses, Tim Gleason had to be aware the total for this rebranding would be way over $50,000 in total. He spent the money without approval which meant that money would have been wasted if the Council had not approved more last night. Of course they did. That stunt violated the spirit of City Code.
Just hit play to hear Sheila’s questions and the responses. Don’t miss Gleason stating the City workforce should look like the people they represent, in other words DEI. They are hiring based on skin color not ability. Gleason also stated the true cost of this program will be much higher than what was before the Council last night. 999 employees aren’t enough because they can’t recruit for positions they need like firemen, electricians, and civil engineers. The City has a 6 month old program to pay employees for new hire referrals – $500 to each after a 1 year probation. Employees can earn up to $3000 a year.
This “rebrand” includes changing the town logo which means lots of spending for new clothes handed out to employees, letterhead, the Welcome to Bloomington monuments, and on and on and on. I believe the current chevron design isn’t even 10 years old yet.
Maybe the City can’t hire who they want because nobody wants to work in a woke office! Bloomington needs to hire based on merit or nobody is going to want to work for them! DEI is dead everywhere but government.
More of the budget was presented, see the slides here: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/30110/638445390422630000
Donna Boelen’s comment about Connect Transit from the previous story is at 2:10:00