By: Diane Benjamin The new Bloomington website is an improvement over what they had. You can now click on agenda items and it will take you to the documentation which eliminates trying to locate a line item. Nobody bothered to write code however so clicking the “back” arrow takes you to where you were. You […]
By: Diane Benjamin Every time Normal wants something big they recruit local elites for Public Comment to praise the project. Last Monday was no exception. Former mayor Paul Harmon spoke both at the beginning of the meeting and the end. Patrick Hoban, the President and CEO of the local Economic Development Council was first up. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Flash back to October 16, 2018 – Committee of the Whole meeting. Funny how expanding the library and O’Neil Park were both discussed at this meeting. Minutes: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/21017/636854797697530000 The library didn’t get Council support. Building a Water Park instead of just replacing the pool did. When easily less than 20% of registered […]
By: Diane Benjamin The meeting, including Township before Council, was over 3 hours. Your representatives look ridiculous behind masks. Normal doesn’t wear them at Council meetings, citizens deserve to see your faces! Of course the camera operator makes seeing faces difficult since it always isn’t in the right location. It was much more fun seeing […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1126&Inline=True On the Consent Agenda: Ordering a new ambulance ($284,444.00) upgrading the City’s Voice Over Internet Protocol (3 yr cost $117,266.71) receiving $70,000 to demolish abandoned properties from Il Housing Authority Zoo is proceeding with a South American Exhibit – all grant money $1,000,000 The Grove will get another 33 lots Didn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since citizens with sewage in their basements only show up at Bloomington Council meetings, the ones’ in Normal have to pay to stop it from happening themselves. Normal passed budgeting a whopping $25,000 so they could pay up to $5000 per house to install something called Overhead Sewers. If more than 5 […]
By: Diane Benjamin More emails the Normal taxpayers need to see. Note the date, Rivian never requested water from Normal. The Town of Normal is trying to talk them into it. Pam Reece has said OVER and OVER spending $5 million+ for water lines on top of Bloomington’s is for future economic development. The email […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night during Trustee comments at the end of the meeting Chris Koos claimed Council agreed to limit each to 5 minutes. Evidently that was done in secret. I doubt Stan Nord got 5 minutes because he was constantly interrupted. Nord showed a map of where Normal plans to run water lines […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal scheduled ONE day for the Council to review next years budget put together by staff. So far they have met for a little over 9 hours and they aren’t done. They will continue Monday before the Council meeting. Note: 9 hours all at once with a few breaks. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 1: https://blnnews.com/2020/12/29/normal-vengeance-part-1/ This snip is from the minutes of the September 8. 2020 minutes: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3759 Obviously Lorenz and McCarthy missed the graphic in Part 1 stating Normal’s priority is to run Water to Rivian. The minutes go on to state this $5,000,000 project would promote economic development, there is no mention […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 1: https://blnnews.com/2020/12/22/im-a-proud-conspiracy-theorist-residents-of-normal-should-be-too/ Remember pre-Stan when meetings lasted about 10 minutes? Last night was close to 3 1/2 hours mostly because items were included that didn’t need to be. The Council heard a report from Beth Whisman concerning how Cultural Arts is surviving COVID. All the the part time staff, around 40 […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the previous story: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/28/see-if-you-can-spot-anything-strange/ That story shows the largest purchasers of Bloomington water. I see three locations in Normal that are getting water from the City of Bloomington: Rivian, Bromenn, and Firestone. All three have been buying water from Bloomington for a LONG time, Mitsubishi before Rivian. So why does Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin Much of the meeting was spent talking about the 3/31/2020 financial statements and the financial trends report. Neither are on-line yet, so they aren’t worth discussing much here. Many accolades were thrown at staff for doing a good job preparing for the audit. I agree, but isn’t that what they get paid […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and payroll 7-13-2020 A total of $12,599,344.25 will be approved tonight. Unlike Normal, payroll is actually listed. $5,216,642.14 of that amount is employees. $1,633,607.61 is Wire transfers listed at the end, not enough details is available to know what most of them are. I don’t remember the last time somebody asked about […]
By: Diane Benjamin Make sure you read to the bottom! http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1069&Inline=True Monday there is an ordinance up for approval to prorate refunds paid for video gaming licenses since these businesses are closed. See PDF page 374. Anybody else hold a license you can’t use? Demand a refund too, equality supposedly matters. PDF page 372 has […]
By: Diane Benjamin Payments for tonight: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23165 Who did they pay moving expenses for in Administration? More traveling at your expense! The cost of auditing, don’t forget – they aren’t looking for fraud. Can’t announce a new season without a party! I wonder if there is a course in “Right Fit”? What’s happening at the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22497 Indoctrination camps, the Illinois Municipal League represents cities, not taxpayers: The Coliseum continues to bleed taxpayers: This is year THREE for the Small Business Development Center. Is anybody asking what has been developed? https://blnnews.com/2018/01/03/knuckleheads/ Option 1 (50/50 split): That the Resolution approving the Small Business Development Center funding […]
By: Diane Benjamin THREE of your representatives, a full one third, failed to attend this meeting. Mathy, Mwilambwe, and Bray were absent. Of course the ones that did attend acted like it was perfectly normal. Only a few items of note: A guy from Millennium Soccer spoke during Public Comment. (22:50) I was not aware […]
By: Diane Benjamin Meeting docs: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/31937 In this story about Bloomington spending: https://blnnews.com/2019/01/26/bloomington-bills-for-monday/ I listed 4 payments to the EDC for $1600 each. It looks like Renner, Buragas, Mathy, and Tyus won the One Voice trip this year to Washington DC. Buragas is leaving the Council April 30th and Tyus is the brand new Assistant […]
Check out the speaker list at the US Conference of Mayors. It was a party for leftists. By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20847 I wonder if Jenn Carrillo and Jeff Crabill know the City already does lots of wealth redistribution? All of the below are low or no interest loans and grants just in this one check […]
By: Diane Benjamin At last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting subsidizing rent in the renovated old Junior High on E Washington was approved. The subsidy will be coming from the General Fund, not TIF income. The amount approved was $228,720 over 10 years. Economic Development Coordinator Austin Grammer stated the Comprehensive Plan calls for affordable housing […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bill and Payroll for Monday: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16156 One Voice is an annual trip to Washington DC to beg for money. Instead of meeting with Illinois representatives IN Illinois, taxpayers are forced to pay for this farce. Just for Bloomington – 4 people went to Washington DC. Each was charged $1600 by Economic Development Council […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal is cutting: communications director, economic development director, and assistant to the city manager. If Normal doesn’t need them, Bloomington doesn’t either. Bloomington isn’t twice as big as Normal – but Bloomington’s budget is more than 100% higher! Bloomington is once again looking at a budget that does not provide enough money to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington, Normal, and the County have been handing out your tax dollars to unaccountable agencies who claim they promote economic development and business retention. Peoria has their own version: http://greaterpeoriaedc.org/ When Logan County de-funded local economic development they kept this group. https://blnnews.com/2017/11/22/de-funding-economic-development-2/ When I first looked at their website I found minutes of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Woodford County is dropping how economic development has been funded: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/woodford-county-dropping-membership-in-economic-development-groups/article_5ca02933-c093-5916-87b4-d68cf5891b78.html The Logan County Board will decide soon whether to cut all funding for their economic development council. Monday night Bloomington wants to go in the opposite direction. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15302 The council will hear presentation about funding BN Advantage and a Small Business […]
By: Diane Benjamin I wasn’t able to attend the retreat last Saturday, so I FOIA’d the audio. Of course it’s long, so far I’ve listened to part one. A link is below. The documents they are discussing can be found HERE Below are comments I had while listening to the audio, it’s not a story in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari’s Downtown Task Force mostly consists of people who had their hand out for your money and Council people dying to give them more. The entire rest of Bloomington has no representation. Maybe that’s why moving the library and adding a bus transfer point got shredded at the meeting Monday night. See […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal came really close to ending their tyranny when Chris Koos was almost defeated in April. Renner didn’t get Modified Wards, but now that he’s reelected, nothing is going to stand in his way. The Council certainly won’t – gee they approved his girlfriend’s ticket to Japan! No, nobody is looking out […]
By: Diane Benjamin Spending for the Town of Normal Monday night: http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2589 There is nothing wrong with honoring MLK, but why are tax dollars used? I wonder how much Bloomington paid considering the Council and employees are invited to come and eat for free, and bring a friend. The Rivian agreement with Normal says you […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight Bloomington is holding a public hearing on the budget for the year that starts May 1st. All you need to know is Bloomington is planning on hiring 4 more employees which will make the pension liability even higher and, to balance the budget, they are robbing the Enterprise Funds: I guess […]
By: Diane Benjamin Recap of spending Normal will approve tomorrow night: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2490 Normal agreed to pay for their employees to ride the bus, evidently those employees don’t want to ride the bus any more than the rest of the population does. What does the Economic Development Council do for $8000+ a month? Don’t forget, they […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal threw away up to $2.5 million last week to get Portillos to locate in Normal. The Normal Town Council was told Portillos would be a destination – people would drive from 100’s of miles away. Meanwhile, Champaign got one for free. Who is at fault? Listen to Kyle Ham, CEO of […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is a link to Town of Normal policy: http://il-normal.civicplus.com/854/Addressing-the-Council The Attorney General’s office needs to hear from a lot of you today. The policy is illegal and violates the Open Meetings Act. The AG is required by law to resolve all Requests of Review within 60 days. The ONLY way to […]
By: Diane Benjamin If the massive tax and spending increases Renner and Council have handed taxpayers aren’t evidence of a need for HUGE changes in Bloomington – Monday night you give you another reason. A 3rd TIF District! Did Bloomington elect a Chris Koos for mayor? Koos has FIVE TIF districts. He has buried Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin The video from last night’s Normal Council meeting is now available. People speaking during public comment are not required by law to give their address! Chris Koos told them they did, 3 speakers complied. Don’t comply in the future – it’s intimidation. No representatives from the Police and Fire unions showed up […]
By: Diane Benjamin I find it hilarious that Renner’s claim to economic development victories include two businesses stolen from Normal: Dick’s Sporting Goods and a Kroger’s Superstore. Both wanted more room, more room just happen to available in Bloomington – of course tax rebates didn’t hurt. He still claims Greentop, Hy-vee, and now Ovation theaters. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Governor Rauner ran on a platform of making Illinois business friendly. He has failed because the Democrat super-majority in Springfield doesn’t care if companies move across the border to save millions of dollars. They don’t care if Caterpillar leaves the state along with other companies who can’t compete in this high-tax high-regulation […]
No – you aren’t safe. Evidently everybody can’t attend, so they changed the meeting from Committee of the Whole to Special Meeting. By: Diane Benjamin Mayor-Developer Renner just can’t stop creating his version of utopia in Bloomington. He’s the king of paying people (with your money) to create economic development. The local, state, and […]
By: Diane Benjamin Facts: The Normal police did NOT arrest Fistbump for knocking on Nora Dukowitz’s door. Dukowitz dropped civil action against Fistbump the day before it went to court. Tari proclaimed in open session that Fistbump was being investigated for a felony: Start watching at 5:30. https://youtu.be/PzTrILJQlLY Diana Hauman believed a person representing Cities 92.9 is not fit […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington is stuck with David Sage and Karen Schmidt for another 4 years – neither has an opponent on April 7th. You are NOT stuck with Renner appointees Joni Painter and Diana Hauman. You can choose to not be stuck with Renner’s choice for Ward 4 – Amelia Buragas. Even if your […]
