By: Diane Benjamin Why meetings are long: Public Hearing on a new west side development: The annexation will be voted on later in the meeting. Going solar by spending money on design: See the entire packet here: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/25972410-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1689879654.pdf
By: Diane Benjamin 1) The smoke from Canada is back: 2) The company Bloomington hired to do the $750,000 downtown study is all in on DEI. https://www.cmtengr.com/dei/ The report is due in August. The City keeps using recommendations from old outdated reports like Bring It On Bloomington and the Downtown Bloomington Task Force. How many […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington is allowing yet another PrideFest downtown. Pride month is over, calendars too difficult to navigate? At least Normal had the sense to hold their drag show indoors and after 10:00 pm: https://blnnews.com/2023/06/19/free-drag-show/ Bloomington’s is outside at 7:30 pm and billed as “family friendly”. Why do the performers need […]
By: Diane Benjamin Performance Fee: Profit $5,302
By: Diane Benjamin Mboka Mwilambwe wasn’t there – he’s out of the country. John Danenberger was AWOL. So was Cody Hendricks. Tim Gleason was MIA, of course he has TWO assistants, so Billy Tyus did his job. The only Public comment was Scott Stimeling who once again raged about fireworks. He seems to think whatever […]
By: Diane Benjamin City is handing out ARPA money tonight – American Rescue Plan money is a driver of inflation. Handing out money that has to be borrowed/printed increases the money supply and therefore inflation. There is nothing on the agenda for action other than the Consent Agenda. https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/2595281e-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1688669950.pdf There is a Public Hearing on […]
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 320: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/2593119f-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1687541345.pdf The documentation starts off with a stretch of the truth: Additional discussion on the Initiative took place at the Committee of the Whole meeting onJune 19, 2023, at which time there was a consensus to bring a formal proposal forward at afuture meeting. Consensus isn’t a 5-4 vote […]
By: Diane Benjamin The PIN # of the property taxpayers are demolishing on W Jackson was corrected, otherwise the property wasn’t discussed. The contractor is required to pay prevailing wage since public money is being used. You evidently gave a present to the labor unions and the property owners. Congrats. For all the anti-religion people […]
By: Diane Benjamin Mollie Ward’s initiative is back: Anybody want to guess how many of these “experts” will be FOID card and gun owners? Definition of expert is: People who claim some hidden talent not available to normal people. The Council will approve it and it will develop zero solutions because morality can’t be forced […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this item that is on the Consent Agenda. It won’t be discussed unless an alderman pulls it. The City plans to demolish a building damaged by fire – $99,900 of your money. The PIN number listed in the documentation is wrong. It needs to be corrected before the Council votes or […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Bloomington has a “woke” police chief and this is Illinois where criminals are coddled (Safe-T Act), stopping gun violence won’t be easy. Asking nicely isn’t going to work. “Woke”: https://blnnews.com/2023/06/21/problem-identified/ Was anyone FIRED over the failed gun safe giveaway when the documentation clearly says FIRE SAFE? https://blnnews.com/2023/06/14/dont-store-guns-in-the-free-gun-safe-you-got-from-the-bloomington-il-police/ DEI means incompetence is […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/departments/police Quote: Simington is a graduate of the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety, School of Police Staff and Command. He also earned a bachelors degree in Criminal Justice and a masters degree in Public Administration from Governors State University. Simington holds a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace Certificate from […]
By: Diane Benjamin Copied from Nextdoor: Is anyone else concerned about the deteriorating condition of Walt Bitnerpark in eagle Crest East? The playground equipment needs painting, and the roofs are beginning to rot. It is only a matter of time until a child gets injured. Also, the shrubs at the entrance on Connie Kay Way, […]
By: Diane Benjamin The slide below was in the presentation by Public Works Monday night – see 42:00 What does “Improve Equity and Affordability” mean? It wasn’t discussed at the meeting. I really hope Bloomington won’t be discussing a two or three tiered rate structure for water depending on address or income. That isn’t “Equality” […]
By: Diane Benjamin Celebrate now Bloomington – your water bills will increase. The City did a study and you just aren’t paying enough as compared to other area municipalities. See 43:30 on the video below. Water rates haven’t increased since 2012, everything else the City charges on your bill goes up 3% automatically every year. […]
By: Diane Benjamin This meeting lasted almost 1 1/2 hours, 4 people spoke at Public Comment. Mayor Mboka always reads a prepared statement before public comment. That statement is incorrect. Public Comment isn’t for the Council, it is for citizens. The Council regardly ignores what citizens say, that happened again last night via Mollie Ward. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Juneteenth must not be important enough to delay meetings 1 day. Bloomington Committee of the Whole: Agenda I wonder if anyone will mention the police gun safe giveaway that will rust guns? https://blnnews.com/2023/06/14/dont-store-guns-in-the-free-gun-safe-you-got-from-the-bloomington-il-police/ Minister Ward should already know why gun violence exists and is increasing. A commission won’t solve moral decay, kids […]
I drove by here this morning. The grass is mowed even though a lawn EXPERT told me not to mow in a drought because it harms the grass. There are some lilies blooming now that weren’t when this pic was taken. By: Diane Benjamin The County and the City of Bloomington got together to improve […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) The stole/scarf type things the Council members were wearing were gifts from the visiting people from India. Most of that isn’t on microphone, so the purpose is unknown. See 11:20 on the video. . 2) I have reasons to believe the Danenberger/Henricks vote flip flops was a setup to make their […]
By: Diane Benjamin H/T a solid source If media cared they would FOIA recent emails. I bet they won’t. . I wonder how they gave away 312 when the documents for the April 24th meeting shows purchasing 308: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/1910041/4764_Quote_Premier_Gun_Safes_Redacted.pdf Documentation for the April 24, 2023 meeting: Problem: This is a link to the manual for […]
By: Diane Benjamin This was the vote on Tom Crumpler’s motion to add requirements to the agreement with the East Washington developers to pay prevailing wage: . This was the final vote on the project: . Danenberger and Hendricks flipped their votes. The Hendricks flip doesn’t make sense since he was bought by the communists […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unlike Chris Koos in the Town of Normal, Mboka Mwilambwe asked the Council if they wanted to extend time for Public Comment. They all said yes so they could hear from two final citizens. Recently Koos used his tyrannical powers to end Public Comment, nobody on that Council objected: https://blnnews.com/2023/05/03/one-guy-stood-up-to-koos/ The actual […]
By: Diane Benjamin We are close to a nuclear war in Ukraine, China wants Taiwan, Israel has to prevent Iran from finalizing nuclear missiles, our “institutions” buried the country in unpayable debt, and culture is on a race to the bottom, but Bloomington is proclaiming this World Peace Week and welcoming visitors from India. I […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t Kelby Cumpston for posting this on Facebook . Taxpayers are subsidizing this building by waiving the 6% Short Term Rental tax and providing 20 parking spaces in the garage across the street for 15 years (or 20 since the docs say both). https://blnnews.com/2022/04/24/69-million-for-water-projects-so-you-wont-notice-the-cii-east-giveaways/ It gets better! The same two guys behind […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two new BCPA reports below – of course the Performance Fee aren’t included. Did they quit reporting attendance because it’s embarrassing? The performance fees are hard to decipher because they aren’t marked correctly on Bills and Payroll reports. There wasn’t an event on 4/23, did they mean 4/20? Then there are these […]
By: Diane Benjamin The streets and sidewalks presentation from Monday night is now online: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/29386 PDF page 2 states Bloomington has 842 Lane Miles (streets). Below is the same graphic I posted earlier, except this one is readable – PDF page 12: From 1995 to 2022 Bloomington resurfaced a total of 359.6 lane miles. 27 […]
By: Diane Benjamin A couple more things from Bloomington’s Monday meeting: Jeff Jurgen, who was promoted to the 2nd Assistant City Manager has a base pay of $186,134. With benefits the total is $234,297: https://bloomingtonil_redesign.prod.govaccess.org/home/showpublisheddocument/29259/638174076712770000 An employee now with the State’s Attorney’s office has been hired to replace Jurgens as Corporate Attorney – Christopher Spanos. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The report presented last night is supposed to be on-line, so far I don’t see it. Instead of posting reports before meetings, staff likes showing slides that are frequently barely readable on the screen. The presentation was very comprehensive! If you want to know about the roads and sidewalks, watch the whole […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s always nice when the clueless show up and claim they elected the new members of the Bloomington City Council. Unfortunately they are right. The new members plus Mboka and Tom Crumpler knelt before them. I love this visual – the first communist who spoke surrounded by police: The police weren’t there […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington has had other opportunities to unload the old Coachman Hotel property. They didn’t like what the buyer wanted to do with the property so they refused to sell it. Tonight the council will consider a different development project. This agreement included a small parcel the taxpayers paid $95,000 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since this Committee of the Whole wasn’t scheduled to set up future spending, the heavy hitters didn’t have to be there to cheerlead the agenda. The Police Department presented their annual report followed by the Fire Department. See the police presentation here: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showdocument?id=29357&t=638197614615245340 I did learn something new about guns. Criminals are […]
By: Diane Benjamin What did Bloomington do right? The audio and video of the council meeting actually synced last night! Even with 3 proclamations the entire meeting was less than an hour. I don’t remember council approval for moving any offices to the government center, they just appeared there. If the HUB was approved I […]
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 33:10 – Mayor Mwilambwe recognized the 4 aldermen that are leaving office April 30th. Mboka gave a short speech and presented each with a plaque. (Remember when Normal totally ignored Stan Nord’s 4 years?) Public comment starts at 44:00. Two speakers thanked their outgoing aldermen. Gary Lambert is a can’t miss at […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington has wanted to destroy the Market Street Garage since at least 2018. Remember when the Downtown Task Force recommended moving the library there? https://blnnews.com/2018/10/16/library-expansion-sinks-water-park-doesnt/ Tonight documents – PDF page 246: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/258aad0d-7d4f-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1682127141.pdf The documentation doesn’t say why the old Pantagraph property didn’t work. It was February of 2021 when […]
By: Diane Benjamin I will continue to call the arena the Coliseum until it has a real name. One note: I was told if parents left the arena after IHSA events their child participated in they had to pay again to re-enter later. If the goal is increasing traffic downtown, this policy prevents that from […]
By: Diane Benjamin I had to file a FOIA request to get this reports posted. Some dates of performance fees don’t match any performance dates. Loss: $206.84 Loss: $7,932.72 Loss: $6,854.53 Here’s where report dates don’t match event reports: There wasn’t an event on 2/23/2023. https://www.artsblooming.org/events/calendar?cury=2023&curm=2&curd=28&curview=month Three performance fees are listed as 3/23/2023, there were […]
By: Diane Benjamin I keep forgetting to mention the City has a new website. It is much more functional, content remains to be seen. The last one was impossible to search quickly for the information wanted. See 2:19:56. Bloomington already has it’s second Deputy City Manager. Corporate Council Jeff Jurgens is taking the job. Tim […]
By: Diane BenjamÃn Normal: https://www.normalil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4622 Bloomington: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/30c3f027-75a9-11ed-9024-0050569183fa-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1681411797.pdf
Roads resurfacing scheduled: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/Home/Components/News/News/9524/1394?backlist=%2fdepartments%2fpublic-works%2fbloomington-streets Oakland isn’t one of them. by: Diane Benjamin Oakland and Macarthur are major roads, they both become one way streets in West Bloomington. Oakland is a disgusting mess of holes and patches long before it becomes one way. I drove the whole thing today and heading back East on Macarthur. It […]
