Category: Hales

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

5 Things you need to know

By: Diane Benjamin 1) Pantagraph article on the Normal Town Council meeting: https://pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/watch-now-mural-controversy-raises-new-questions-about-disconnect-in-normal/article_9ea2ebcb-99b6-55e9-8798-76e5962bb873.html Excerpt: Did the reporter watch the meeting? A “number of people” were disrupting the meeting. Was the reporter told not to mention the only reason Public Comment was moved is because Stan Nord made a motion to let them speak? It wasn’t […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Parting gift: Tari guilty of another OMA violation

By: Diane Benjamin WGLT reported yesterday Bloomington was found guilty of violating the Open Meetings Act in 2017 for discussing ending the Metro Zone agreement with Normal in secret. The Attorney General had previously ruled it illegal, according to the article the current ruling reversed a lower court ruling. https://www.wglt.org/post/appeals-court-bloomington-violated-open-meetings-act Besides the fact Justice Delayed […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Trust Renner? Bloomington Monday

By: Diane Benjamin On Monday’s agenda: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1102&Inline=True Renner won’t be Mayor in just over 3 months. Why is he trying to enshrine Gleason until 2025? If the socialists take over the Council April 6th Tim won’t be nearly radical enough for them. I’m sure Gleason has a huge buyout in his contract to leave, David […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

How much was wasted allowing employees to spike pensions?

By: Diane Benjamin The law was changed in 2012 to require additional contributions to IMRF retirement fund if employees received large payouts that increased their pension at retirement. (accelerated payments) That law was badly needed because cities and employees never contributed to the higher payouts. Since the spiking practice should now be over in Bloomington […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Before you believe John Butler:

By: Diane Benjamin John Butler and his lawyers have been telling media John didn’t know his employees were stealing concession money. Evidently he’s such a great guy he agreed to a misdemeanor and paid $450,000 in restitution just because. That of course was after spending who knows how many thousands (hundreds of thousands?) on attorneys […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Flashback 2014, what we don’t see anymore

By:  Diane Benjamin I was searching my site for one name mentioned in this 2014 story, sorry no hints. Maybe you too have forgotten how bad the PCard spending was in 2014.  Happily we don’t see this excessive eating at your expense anymore, just occasionally now. Relive the “free lunch” Tari used to claim didn’t […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Fact Checking Tari

By:  Diane Benjamin At last Monday’s meeting Mayor Tari Renner mentioned for the thousandth time the City of Bloomington is down 100 employees.  He claims they are doing more with fewer employees. He never mentions that possibly Bloomington at one time had too many employees and couldn’t afford them! I compiled the below from what […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington – Monday night

By:  Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22419 There isn’t any new business on the agenda – everything is on the Consent Agenda.  Unless some item is pulled, the meeting will last 10 minutes. The former Gypsy Room, now Mystic Kitchen and Tasting Room is up for a Liquor License.  It includes package liquor.  To start they will only […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Tari’s Racist comment isn’t going away

Link to WEEK TV story: https://week.com/news/bloomington-normal-news/2019/06/24/black-chamber-of-commerce-member-addressed-bloomington-mayors-racial-comments-at-council-meeting/   By:  Diane Benjamin Public Comment during the Bloomington City Council meeting featured two speakers from outside of Bloomington who felt they had to travel area to confront the mayor.  The first guy was Cornel Darden representing the South Suburban Region Black Chamber of Commerce.  Hear his comments at […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

$2,559,595!

By:  Diane Benjamin Below is what the failure by the Bloomington City Council to change the Sick Leave Buy Back policy has cost you.  Penalties began to be charged in 2012, they are assessed for allowing employees to spike their pensions with pay for unused days off. Received by FOIA from IMRF:  (the final cost […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Trust Lesson for Tim Gleason

By:  Diane Benjamin The new Bloomington City Manager seems to be launching a campaign to make citizens trust their government.  No Tim, spending money on signs when a few roads get fixed isn’t going to cut it.  The people paying more for gas will see that as just another waste of their dollars. Since Tim […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

UPDATE #2: HUGE Bloomington Error

Jim Karch just informed me the letter was sent to around 1200 businesses. Doing rough calculations, this cost the Water Department about the same amount they lost when the City diverted $2.4 million to the Coliseum from their Fund – and then wrote off the loss. https://blnnews.com/2015/12/13/2400000-disappears-at-coliseum/ On the bright side, this money stayed in […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Where is Mark Peterson?

By: Diane Benjamin The former Normal City Manager isn’t sitting back enjoying retirement on his fat pension, he has a new job: https://www.govhrusa.com/associates/mark-peterson/ Mark is a Vice President for GovHR! Click the link above to see his glowing resume. Quotes: Mark doesn’t mention the still empty first floor of 1 Uptown Circle. He also doesn’t […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington Bills for Monday night

By:  Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20987 More pensions spiking:  (the penalties will come late)           Coliseum continues to fleece:     Employee partying, but called Community Relations.  Were you invited?     Springfield Law firm MONTHLY charges:     I have no idea what this is, but Nov-Jan wasn’t paid until February?  Is […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Last night – Finally some financial transparency

By:  Diane Benjamin I hope your furnace is doing better than mine, it’s down again for the second time in 2 weeks!  At least this time we didn’t have to wait 24 hours for our road to be plowed so the repair guy could get here. Every Ward had their representative show up last night!  The […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Liars lie – More lack of Transparency

By:  Diane Benjamin I really hope the Bloomington City Council realizes how foolish they were tolerating David Hales management of the City for over 8 years.  Keep in mind they heaped praise on him and lavish raises while Council meetings dragged on and on with little being accomplished. Last night’s Council meeting was 45 minutes […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Updated: Bloomington Bills for Monday

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 […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Tari needs reigned in AGAIN

By:  Diane Benjamin The Council held a retreat on November 4, 2017.  The minutes from the meeting show just how bad a City Manager David Hales was.  See them here, rarely do the minutes reflect contentious discussions – you can see some of it here even if they don’t reflect how bad it was:    http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16276 […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington’s fun last night

By:  Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council held a Committee of the Whole meeting last night.  Scott Black was absent this time, David Sage and Diana Hauman were absent at the last meeting.  Getting the whole gang to show up must be difficult. Part of the meeting was dedicated to next years budget. As as […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Tuesday: More Master Plans

By:  Diane Benjamin Faulty planning forced the citizens of Bloomington to pay for a Fire Station that has NEVER been used.  Tom Hamilton thought Mitsubishi would bring another 10-12000 people to the southwest side of town.  He guessed wrong and wasted millions of dollars! From Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_planning The most notable critique of economic planning came from […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

The CIAM Grand Jury

By:  Diane Benjamin Some local media have reported on the grand jury testimony which laid out the case against the 5 former Coliseum Managers. The City of Bloomington continues to claim they did not know about improprieties at the Coliseum until VenuWorks took over in July of 2016. The local media continues to let them […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Coliseum trials not close

By:  Diane Benjamin The reason the courts move so slow is lawyers.  The attorney for Kelly Klein filed a motion to dismiss yesterday, but he didn’t sound optimistic when he filed it.  The State’s Attorney has 14 days to respond, then another 14 days for rebuttal by the defense, and 7 more for another reply […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

The rats are leaving the ship!

Guest Editorial Council races are finally shaping up so we see who the players are.  Who is up for more games and grandstanding and who is finally fed up? . All we know for sure is that Haumann and Sage are out of there, and the reasons for that are obvious to any Council watchers […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Coliseum – one guilty

By:  Diane Benjamin One of the 5 charged in connection with the Coliseum pleaded guilty yesterday.  See this Pantagraph story:   https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/guilty-former-bloomington-arena-official-gets-fine-probation-after-plea/article_00b6cb16-2aeb-5558-9614-2a50e543d503.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-2 One part of the story doesn’t make any sense: ________________________ I hope these numbers aren’t what the entire case against the five is based on.  The commissions don’t make any sense either. According to […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

UPDATE: Council’s Home values fall!

Jamie Mathy’s house is under his wife’s maiden name – it lost assessed value too: I hope you realize decreases in assessed value likely mean your house is worth less.  When you sell it it will sell for less.  If your house was your nest egg, it is being chipped away by bad fiscal policy. […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Future of Joliet city manager said to be uncertain

That would be David Hales – looks like Joliet is way smarter than Bloomington was! https://www.theherald-news.com/2018/10/05/future-of-joliet-city-manager-said-to-be-uncertain/a2qxw45/ City Manager David Hales’ future in Joliet may be up in the air. Sources said that the City Council has begun to consider the prospect of Hales leaving before the end of his contract and possibly before the end […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington Taxpayers Deserve a Trial

By:  Diane Benjamin Five people involved with running the Coliseum have been charged with felonies.  The failure by the City of Bloomington to protect taxpayer dollars deserves to be exposed in open court. The citizens didn’t want it built, there was a non-binding referendum stating it.  It was built anyway and has been a constant […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Pantagraph fails again

By:  Diane Benjamin John Butler wants his trial moved out of McLean County because of remarks made by David Hales and Tari Renner.  I was also mentioned as a reason because my lawsuit made him look guilty!  Yes it did!   Since MANY readers are new, this story recaps the information I was able to obtain:  […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Jim Karch: Class Act

By:  Diane Benjamin Last night at the Council meeting this was presented: It’s a huge award! I know there is tension between Jim and his employees.  They need to see the response I received from Jim when I congratulated him: Jim has always responded promptly to any questions I’ve asked.  I’ve emailed him on weekends […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Soccer facts plus update on David Hales

By:  Diane Benjamin Thanks to a reader who sent me this story from the New York Times – dateline CHICAGO:  Maybe this is why the presenter Monday night said the sports complex has to be for more than soccer.     David Hales is acting just like he did in Bloomington!  He spent $1875 attending […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Pantagraph wrong again, but nothing new

By:  Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph thanked Alderman Diana Hauman for serving and for publicly stating she is not running for reelection to the Bloomington City Council because she was not able to develop a cohesive Council. When Judy Stearns and Kevin Lower were members, the Council was very cohesive.  Everything they said was ignored. The […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington’s spending priorities Monday

By:  Diane Benjamin If the new City Manager is able to sell his house in Decatur, maybe he can take David Hales’s house off his hands.  It is still for sale, reduced AGAIN to $245,000.  It started at $279,900 last November.    https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5-Conway-Cir-Bloomington-IL-61704/76972678_zpid/?fullpage=true Tari’s favorite non-profit, Illinois Policy Institute, wrote about Bloomington’s new City Manager, it’s […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Council Recap

By:  Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council only had ONE meeting last night instead of 2 or 3.  It didn’t help them not spend your money, but at least they only contemplated how to shovel out more.  Of course, it was on downtown.  More later. Jamie Mathy did not attend, so Ward 1 had no […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Arena – Will Gleason shut it down?

By:  Diane Benjamin The local paper has an editorial declaring the new City Manager the right guy because Decatur re-did their downtown.  They think Normal did, so there is no reason Bloomington can’t. They forgot Normal was in ZERO debt before they spent around $100,000,000 on Uptown.  (Is that restaurant space on the Circle still […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

A Can’t miss story:

By:  Diane Benjamin The same search firm, GovHR, that found Bloomington’s 3 City Manager candidates also recommended David Hales to Joliet. A reporter in Joliet wrote on June 3rd about Hales’ first 6 months.  It’s not going well.  This story was on Facebook last night.  If you didn’t see it there, read it here: https://patch.com/illinois/joliet/joliets-city-manager-david-hales-may-be-bad-fit-ferak […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Threw a party, few came

By:  Diane Benjamin Yesterday a Meet and Greet was held for the three remaining Bloomington City Manager candidates.  The paper failed to report a crowd was expected but didn’t show up.  The below is from reports by two people who did attend.  Citizens can vote for their choice at a link below. People who did […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Arena losses – fiction

By:  Diane Benjamin I’ve been writing about the Coliseum (Grossinger Motors Arena) for YEARS.  This “White Elephant” has been a constant drain on taxpayers since it was conceived.  The losses are huge, theft is being prosecuted, the City failed to oversee operations, economic impact numbers are made up, and new management is doing little to […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Karma for David Hales!

By:  Diane Benjamin Bloomington’s former City Manager, who never found time to look at reports from the Coliseum, has moved on to Joliet.  Hales will always be known as the guy who the City Council heaped praise and huge raises on while theft of taxpayer dollars was happening right under his nose.  I know many […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Who destroyed downtown?

By:  Diane Benjamin According to Wikipedia: Back in 1967 virtually nothing existed where Eastland Mall is today.  Locals tell me the City Council cheered the new mall without understanding moving anchor stores from downtown would result in today’s conditions. How many employees did the Pantagraph formerly have downtown?  They recently created another empty large building […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Another one bites the dust

By:  Diane Benjamin YMCA, State Farm, and now Specs Around Town are just some businesses who have or will be leaving downtown Bloomington. City of Bloomington:  Whatever you are doing is causing flight from downtown. Downtown is for bars, restaurants, lawyers, and government.  Until Bloomington quits trying to make downtown something it isn’t, the few businesses […]