By: Diane Benjamin
The video below is part of the 7/21/26 Normal Township Board meeting. The ARC report proceeded this. If you missed this story showing public commenters weren’t happy about the firing of long time employees at the ARC, see it now: https://blnnews.com/2026/07/29/whats-going-on-at-the-arc/
The Director, Elicssha Sanders, was promoted to that job in April. The Assistant Director, Josh Taylor, was hired July 8th.
Listen to the comments all the way to the end. No one mentioned any problems, several board members close to the end praised the staff. Tanner Starr, Normal Trustee wanna be, is in the video praising the ARC staff before bowing to Krystle Able. Keep reading.
Elicssha and Josh were fired on Tuesday. They never received a list of goals Krystle Able expected them to achieve. Neither were ever “written up” as a warning. Both were blindsided. Krystle obviously wanted “her” people, the board are “her” people, it’s not surprising they didn’t object.The Senior Advisory Board wasn’t consultanted – just like during the last round of firings. The Agenda for Tuesday’s meeting was posted on the Township website, it was not posted at the ARC as is normal.
Kristen Chimach resigned from the ARC on August 6th. She became Executive Director on August 11th. Makes perfect sense.
It gets worse. How was health insurance canceled a month before either was fired? This is what both received when they were fired:
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The entire Board violated the Open Meetings Act. After adjourning the meeting below, the entire board trapsed to the ARC to fire people in person. A road trip isn’t on the agenda.
I filed a FOIA request on Friday at 11:07 am for the video from the Conference Room at the ARC where the illegal meeting was held. I received this response from Krystle Able at 11:22 am Friday:
Please be advised that Normal Township has conducted a diligent search of our records and files, and no records responsive to your request exist or are in the possession or control of this public body. Consequently, your request is denied.
The person(s) responsible for this denial is/are:
- Krystle Able, FOIA Officer
The only “diligent search” was how to hide video from the new camera her boyfriend installed.
Maybe Colin forgot to turn the camera on after he installed it.
Erika Reynolds, State’s Attorney, refused to at least make a phone call.
OMA violations aren’t her job.
This story reminds of the time the former city manager,Peterson called the person that started the children’s museum into his office and fired her then called the person that for almost 20 years ran the local theatre into his office and fired I guess he said that he wanted the theatre to go a different direction.
Amazing the voters continue to support those have 0 scruples or are just plain mean!
As socialism gains more power, tyranny is bound to be the result, enter the small life of one Crystal Able.
The problem is we let “them”
do this while we (including myself) sit back and let it continue to happen.
You can find postcard sheets at Walmart on Amazon, fitting most any printer costing about .05 each. Stamps are .62 each. You wanna do something? The anonymomus planting of seeds with the oppositions prey. Educate them with facts. Divide and conquer. Yeah, it’s your own money, dang. What is protecting freedom worth to you?
Educated guess..the “Mgt” $$. i.okemeng new HR, Accting (ADP, Kronos, WorkDay (et. al.) And payroll systems/platforms and “employee journey” has to be tracked as a metic for goals and raises and paytoll.
They need new employees to drive that (is bad) Other orgs in area have proven to be doing this in the name if “data drive. Decisions” and recruiting.
It’s AWS based role based access (allows stalking) and Disneyland operations model. Basically emoloyees are test rats for their new HR/comp and employee mgt systems in their SHRM/Human Resources model – Basically bad and exploitive accounting and HR practices.
Many horror stories and data breaches/abuses here so would not be surprised is this is part of the bold and blatant moves in BN.
This is an important topic locally and needs deeper dive into the players $$.
Educated guess..the “Mgt” $$. Implementing new HR, Accting (ADP, Kronos, WorkDay (et. al.) And payroll systems/platforms and “employee journey” has to be tracked as a metic for goals and raises and paytoll.
They need new employees to drive that (is bad) Other orgs in area have proven to be doing this in the name if “data drive. Decisions” and recruiting.
It’s AWS based role based access (allows stalking) and Disneyland operations model. Basically emoloyees are test rats for their new HR/comp and employee mgt systems in their SHRM/Human Resources model – Basically bad and exploitive accounting and HR practices.
Many horror stories and data breaches/abuses here so would not be surprised is this is part of the bold and blatant moves in BN.
This is an important topic locally and needs deeper dive into the players $$.
It’s is ODD the names me ruins were recent hires then canned shortly after with zero reason.
Oh yeah..and ARC visitors and members will volunteer data (all types) their data and faces and be watched (even digitally) constantkynfir theit and other members “safety”. And then fed “continuously improvement” feedback surveys and push notifications to give feedback aka Data Harvesting for management intelligence/analytics.
Quite a business model using live people for test
Major issues with these platforms and systems data access protocol/handling.
Integrrated Enterprise solutions at its worst. But hey…pay to play public private safety and HR projects are a hit in BN and counties.
Corrected
Oh yeah..and ARC visitors and members will volunteer data (all types) their data and faces and be watched (even digitally) constantly by who knows who for them and other members “safety”.
And then fed “continuously improvement” feedback surveys and push notifications to give feedback aka Data Harvesting for management intelligence/analytics.
Quite a business model using live people for test.
Major issues with these platforms and systems data access protocol/handling and Integrations.
Integrated Enterprise solutions and compliance at its worst (same players $) But hey…pay to play public private safety and HR projects are a hit in BN and counties.
Krystal Able has the helm firmly at The Arc. – Destination: Unknown , but veering hard left.