By: Diane Benjamin
Five things:
1)
See 54:12 – Molly Ward is still upset that she lost the ability to offer amendments or changes at Council meetings. At least several months ago that chaos was cancelled. The new policy is changes have to be made by noon the day of meetings. A change was made yesterday that evidently upset her.
2)
See 1:34:40 – Also Molly Ward. Did you know Illinois Wesleyan University is on the West side of Bloomington? Hum. . .
3)
City Code is a mess. Changes have been made to it for years and again last night. Did you know the current code doesn’t allow gravel driveways even though many exist? The code change requiring hard surface driveways is going back to the Planning Commission. The other changes were approved. If you add a shed to your backyard, keep it 5 feet from the property line. If you have a shed that is closer than 5 feet you can keep it.
Vehicles that don’t run can’t be parked on the street or in your driveway. You have to hide them. Ditto campers etc.
Basically, the City has a bunch of rules that are only enforced when somebody complains. See the discussion at 51:35.
4)
It turns out Cordaryl Patrick has worked with Teska before when he work for the City of Decatur. See 38:45. Sheila Montney asks him why the City needs to spend $99,700 for a Quality of Life plan if he has the experience and skills acquired in Decatur to do the job.
He doesn’t have the time, skills, and staff. I wonder what is next from Decatur? We keep switching staff and ideas with them.
5)
Just hit PLAY to hear a public comment from a guy who bought an 8 year old vehicle out of town, ended up in administrative court, and got a ridiculous “replacement tax” bill from the City. Evidently staff is going to quickly resolve this one.
.
Didn’t Normal eliminate this tax? In my opinion, limiting where vehicles can be purchased without Bloomington seizing tax money is tyranny and abuse.
Something smells BAD in the City of Bloomington HR dept.
Someone in Bloomington needs a reprimand. Who is going to be? Who is getting a write up and their hand smacked for not following the code? Absolutely ridiculous!
IWU, where her husband is a professor, is located in Ward 7, although east of Main Street.
Did you hear her mention that gun violence is @ 33% in her Ward, up from last year–where is the (Gun Violence Commission) Safe Communities Commission? Ward 2 and Ward 5 also have pockets of gun activity. Her framing is a misrepresentation of facts…as usual.