By: Diane Benjamin

The item that should never have been on the Consent Agenda as mentioned yesterday got pulled: https://blnnews.com/2026/03/23/bloomington-tonight-3-23-26/

The Clerk read the names of email public comments and many others showed up at Public Comment. Some were opposed to the City paying Flock cameras bills. The documentation claims those charges were for work already done, they weren’t pulled.

Many others were against a data center being built off Ireland Grove Rd. More than one mentioned Bloomington has a record of pulling items from consideration when they know the public will be attending a meeting or they received a lot of phone calls and emails against an item. The development will of course be back, after a new approach is concocted.

Of course there was no Public Comments about the budget.

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There was discussion on this item:

Consideration and Action on a Resolution Approving a Three-Year Contract with Granicus, LLC, for Government Experience Service Cloud Advanced Platform from Granicus, in the Amount of $637,593.25, as requested by the Information Technology Department.

It’s really obvious which Council members came from the private sector where decision are based on facts instead of hope. This spending supposedly replaces virtually everything the IT department is piecing together now.

Go to 1:18:07 to hear Montney ask for the metrics of how much this will save. Since the IT department is constantly renewing contracts for what they have now, how many will be eliminated?

Most of the answer she received revolved around staff needing to field fewer phone calls. That of course means people would actually have to go to the City website. I still see people asking social media questions about everything instead of going to the City they pay for the service. Evidently this platform will also amount to less paper shuffling.

The current website is pathetic and made worse by slow loading pictures. I wonder how many contracts IT has now have cancellation included?

PDF page 148: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showdocument?id=32393&t=639086455716871107

Why is the IT budget $1 million+ more than “actual projection” in the proposed budget? See PDF page 147 for more details. It looks like equipment purchases were delayed from this year. The abbreviations aren’t clear, so that’s a guess.

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At 1:28:43 the Finance Director reported the City has collected $5,424,505 more than projected.

Just hit PLAY to hear Sheila Montney ask him is the $3 million property tax increase was needed if he knew when that passed the City would be $5 million over budget. Keep in mind the Grocery Tax was also passed after the former City Manager said it wouldn’t be. I will give you a hint: The City has needs, yours are immaterial.

If you want to hear public comments, go to 15:40.