Responsible Cities PAC not so responsible

By: Diane Benjamin I’m pretty sure most of you got a card in the mail from Responsible Cities telling you who to vote for. Guess who also got a card in the mail addressed to “Responsible Citizens at . . . .”: Me I can’t vote in Bloomington elections -their preferred candidates are on the […]

Normal needs a PSCRB

By: Diane Benjamin Thankfully Bloomington’s Monday meeting was short. Most of it was the annual report of the Public Safety and Community Relations Board. The Board only had 3 cases to review for the entire year. In one case the Board made a policy recommendation the police did adopt but in all three cases the […]

West Side Neighbors Candidate Forum

The two video below are from West Side Neighbors Facebook page. They are evidently inviting a few candidates at a time to speak to their group. Brad Wurth and Mollie Emery were also there. Since Danenberger and Hendricks skipped a forum I attended, these videos will allow you to hear both for yourself. Both think […]

Bloomington Council 3/13/2023

By: Diane Benjamin Watching the video is much more difficult than listening. The mouths and the sound continue to not match. Spending millions on IT evidently can’t get quality video. Most of the meeting was reviewing the budget again. You can page through the presentation slides beginning at 17:40. See 20:24. Unit 5 thinks the […]

Bloomington is still spiking pensions

By: Diane Benjamín Bills and payroll: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/29123 IMRF wouldn’t have required this payment if some pension wasn’t spiked: . . Agenda for tonight: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/25841e19-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1678461338.pdf The meeting is mostly budget. PDF page 30 might be interesting. Take a look. .

Ward 6: Henricks is Danenberger

By: Diane Benjamin Thanks to WGLT for this story on Ward 6: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-03-08/bloomington-ward-6-city-council-candidates-share-visions-for-downtown They made the choice easy between Jordan Baker and Cody Henricks. Don’t forget democrats threw a fundraiser for Henricks, very non partisan: If you don’t know what Ward you are in, find out here: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/government/city-council/ward-map Henricks wants to “radically transform” downtown. That’s the […]

Subliminal message?

H/T a reader In case you can’t ready the signs, they are campaign signs for the two FAR leftists running for Bloomington Council: Cody Hendricks and John Wyatt Danenberger. This was described to me as a third looking finger or a phallic concrete monolith. Classy place for signs!

Seen on Facebook: Cody Hendricks

By: Diane Benjamin Hendricks is running in Ward 6 against Jordan Baker. Ask Hendricks if he’s a closet socialist: Socialist former mayoral candidate Jackie Gunderson supports Hendricks: It appears Vicki Tilton and Tari Renner do too: (talking about campaign group) Willing to cheat to win? Just Funny – Green Top didn’t solve the food desert. […]

Bloomington Roads, No Celebration should be happening

By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington is expecting to end this fiscal year with more than $37 million in General Fund Reserves. This is a huge increase compared to pre-Tim Gleason. See PDF page 2: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/29073/638125001757630000 The $7 million is this years budget, next year $10 million is budgeted. Asphalt and Concrete is roads and sidewalks, not […]

Bloomington tonight

By: Diane Benjamin The budget is the big item for tonight. Will anyone notice fixing the streets isn’t allocated enough money to even begin catching up? Streets are becoming like pensions. It doesn’t matter how much money is thrown at them, they will never be rated well funded. Is Bloomington investing pension money with companies […]

Bloomington spends HUGE next year

By: Diane Benjamin This is just spending on Capital Projects. FY 2023 ends on 4/30/2023, FY 2024 is what matters. Asphalt and Concrete should have been $10M years ago, it needs to be that high for MANY MORE years. See the slide at 30:13. It’s not all roads however. The Coliseum will forever be a […]

Bloomington un-redacted some from FOIA

By: Diane Benjamin More on this story: https://blnnews.com/2023/02/16/bloomingtons-lack-of-transparency/ In the original FOIA multiple comments from attendees were redacted. Bloomington realized they were not correct in redacting negative comments about the training at the Holocaust Museum in Skokie Il, I now have un-redacted copies. The entire page below had been redacted. The last paragraph is fabulous. […]

Violating Municipal Code is fine, I bet both think it applies to you however.

By: Diane Benjamin Both Bloomington and Normal are meeting on a Federal Holiday Monday: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/#url=2023 Bloomington Committee of the Whole: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/30b941a9-75a9-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1676574142.pdf Normal starts at 6:00 instead of 7:00: https://www.normalil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4575 Bloomington municipal code: https://ecode360.com/34402891 Normal municipal code: https://www.normalil.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7697/Chapter-03—Council-Meetings-and-Ordinances?bidId= Next time either tries to hold you accountable for violations of Municipal Code, ask them why violations are […]

Bloomington’s lack of transparency

By: Diane Benjamin Numerous Bloomington upper management police officers were sent to a 2 day training in Skokie Il. The training was called BRILL LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTION IN DEMOCRACY. “Democracy” is the first clue to this training. We aren’t a Democracy. The second clue is it was held at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education […]

New use for the Coliseum

By: Diane Benjamin FYI: The Council that hired Tim Gleason and that mayor are long gone. Gleason was hired to revitalize downtown because he revitalized Decatur’s (sort of). After 5:00 very little happens in the closed up downtown businesses. It is nothing like Bloomington’s downtown that exists for lawyers, people accused of crimes, homeless people, […]

I could have predicted this one

By: Diane Benjamin I filed a FOIA request with the City of Bloomington on January 31st when rumors started to swirl about a revote on hiring a lobbyist. Of course they delayed my FOIA until 4:30 today – after the vote. They claimed legal had to review. Ha Ha. Here is part of one email […]

Bloomington Incompetence!

By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington failed at Live Streaming the meeting last night. There was no audio! The incompetence shown by City staff should make you wonder what else they are incompetent at doing. Below is this year’s budget for Information Technology. Almost $6 million and they can’t get a Live Stream to work in a […]

Remember when Bloomington bought License Plate Readers?

By: Diane Benjamin February 28, 2022: https://cityblm.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=cityblm_f2826ec9d9b5f6bf9ebdb349f14596b7.pdf&view=1 The actual name of the company is Flock Group Inc. https://www.bizapedia.com/ga/flock-group-inc.html The listed CEO, Garrett Langley, is the same guy who runs Flock Safety https://www.flocksafety.com/about/meet-flock-safety The “fixed cost” isn’t so fixed: The cameras haven’t even been installed a year yet and repairs aren’t covered? The fixed annual cost […]

Fly on the Wall: Tim Gleason

Overheard while flying around: Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason really wants the lobbyist the Council voted 5-4 not to hire. Money, money, money – never enough! Gleason wants a re-vote. The aldermen didn’t fall in line! Who is going to flip and change their vote? Does Deputy City Manager Billy Tyus still have a job? […]

Something else to ask the Ward 4 candidate

By: Diane Benjamin I would ask him but he didn’t respond to my last email. I heard a request was made to District 87 for John Wyatt Danenberger’s child (children) to attend Oakland School instead of Washington. Since Danenberger didn’t answer my last email I saw no reason to ask him. I asked District 87 […]

Bloomington dumps Thorn Run Partners!

By: Diane Benjamin Sheila Montney pulled hiring the lobbying firm from the Consent Agenda. I don’t remember the last time something was voted down after being placed on the agenda. Administration knows where everyone stands before it’s placed for a vote – 3 on 1 meetings usually clear the path. Tim Gleason didn’t attend the […]

Bloomington: $31.5 Trillion in debt is immaterial

By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/28905/638096498401870000 806 Employees, remember when the City had 650? Maybe shows aren’t booked because you have to pay up first? Your cost for empty buses: Agenda: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/257b0a83-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-a809f54d-d2d4-4538-9941-6f673252daac-1674252308.pdf National debt is now $31.5 trillion. That doesn’t include all the unfunded liabilities that can never be paid. Our national security is […]

Both Bloomington and Normal last night

By: Diane Benjamin I had another meeting to attend last night so I didn’t watch either Normal or Bloomington live. Normal’s was only around 1/2 hour so I did watch it. I heard 2 media outlets showed up with video cameras, maybe they were expecting fireworks that didn’t happen. Mayor Koos wasn’t there, maybe not […]

NO response to FOIA – Bloomington

By: Diane Benjamin H/T a reader This picture is of the NEVER used Fire Station #5 on Six Points Rd in Bloomington: I filed a FOIA request on January 4, 2023 for any documents stating why public safety vehicles are parked in this fire station when it has never been used as a fire station. […]