By: Diane Benjamin
There was only 1 Public Comment. The speaker was greatly concerned about the Salvation Army and the Federal grant they received to rehab apartments on Tracy Drive for veterans. According to him, Bloomington needs to intervene more than they have. Police have responded to numerous incidents and progress isn’t happening:
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Alderman Michael Mosley was absent which led to a tie vote Mayor Brady got to break. The issue was designating the Grocery Tax to infrasture.
Hear that entire conversation beginning at 43:30.
Sheila Montney again talked about the cost of deferred maintenance and again requested a comprehensive list of those items so the Council could concentrate on them:
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Aldermen Hendricks and Ward claimed they were lied to about the grocery tax and what it would fund if passed. Ward originally voted against it, Hendricks voted for it on September 22nd. Just hit play to hear both last night:
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See the documentation provided by staff when the grocery tax was passed: https://bloomingtonil.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1022/files/report/1299
It does say the City needed the money to decrease the “structural deficit”. Minutes for the September 8th meeting were approved last night, not the September 22nd meeting. I had to review the video. After numerous motions that failed, Ward, Danenburger, and Montney voted against the tax.
The fire department union contract was approved. The presentation by the Fire Chief at 59:25 is worth listening to. He explains why moving from 24 hours on and 48 hours off to 24/72 is needed.
Aldermen Kearns and Ward voted against the Sales Tax rebate for O’Brien Honda. Kearns didn’t say a word during the discussion, Ward 1 has to ask her if they want to know why. Ward stated money wasn’t given to the flood victims in 2021 so she couldn’t support this. Mollie must have forgotten about the accelerated millions spent to speed completion of Locust-Colton sewer replacements to prevent the same from happening in the future.
O’Brien will provide the City with increase Sales Tax revenue in the future. I’d love to know what discussions we don’t know about.
Fees were increased only for Commercial FOIA requests.
The meeting on last 1 1/4 hours. The video has about 25 minutes of commercials at the beginning.
Laughable that Kearns has previously been endorsed by the Chamber ‘O Commerce , yet she votes NO when a solid Chamber Member O’brien ( who employs many & contributes significant tax revenue) tries to make their facility nicer.. !
Chamber funds and supports elected officials that actively work against them.
#Irony
Mollie missed the memo. According to the State constitution, municipal tax dollars cannot be used for individuals. There is case law to support the decision made by council majority to not pay individual losses due to flooding.
Economic incentives are allowed for a business who invests in the community even outside a TIF.
What confounds me is how much wringing of hands goes into tax increases and the use of tax incentives all while discussing deficits.