April 12th is the 10th anniversary of BlnNews. Seriously, 10 years of writing! I only started writing because local media was already failing 10 years ago. If local politics can’t be fixed, nothing can be fixed. That’s why MOST of what I write is about local issues. I don’t expect people to agree with me, […]
By: Diane Benjamin I heard Jenn Carrillo handed out candy bars to buy votes two years ago. Now it’s pizza. Maybe in two years they will have to move up to ribeye steaks. At least they provided a partial list of candidates who do not believe voters are intelligent enough to know socialism fails every […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Jenn Carrillo was absent for the Committee of the Whole meeting where plans for O’Neil Park were discussed. She could have expressed her views then, but failed to represent her ward. Last night she voted yes on the $11.8+ million project. Today she evidently has re-thought that vote: Hint […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was sent the below by a reader: The City of Bloomington’s insurance company paid the legal fees for the Watchdogs FOIA lawsuit to get documents the City claimed didn’t exist. Note the legal fees to Loevy & Loevy were reported as an “accident”. Maybe it was an accident that an officer […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you already knew “right fit” businesses are all that matters in Normal, last night cemented their place in history for being unfriendly to business. The Town levied fines on Joe’s Stationhouse Pizza for daring to defy Pritzker’s spewings when the Illinois Constitution clearly states emergency powers last 30 days. It was […]
By: Diane Benjamin Vowing to uphold both the Constitution of the United States and the State of Illinois is beyond the left. Tari Renner proved that again at the emergency Liquor Commission meeting yesterday. See the short video clip as reported by Cities 92.9: https://www.cities929.com/2020/11/21/bloomington-mayor-renner-whines-at-liquor-commission-hearing-about-the-states-attorney/?fbclid=IwAR3IAg490VjyNCDqMzrrp8xgykB7fmsDgfxZdlbgmHMyl4m6kPGO9oEyrO0 Tari expect State Attorney Don Knapp to enforce Pritzker Executive […]
Flying around I heard the League has severed ties with WGLT to conduct local debates. Is WGLT too partisan for LOWV now? Will voters only get WGLT’s candidate interviews to base a vote on? Is the League going to make an announcement? Some organization needs to step up and hold debates! Meanwhile, the League still […]
By: Diane Benjamin April 30th marks the 7th anniversary of BlnNews. It has evolved over time and will continue to evolve. One thing I will no longer tolerate is re-writing history to fit somebody’s agenda. Lately several people have tried to claim Hitler wasn’t a socialist – of course the reason for the re-write is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The budget will be passed with ZERO priority based funding discussions. The City staff writes the budget, the Council members nod their head in agreement. Nothing can ever be cut, the priorities are what the City wants, not citizens. Houseal Lavigne & Associates has already received $125,000 to rewrite the Zoning Code. […]
By: Diane Benjamin I wasn’t at all upset when the Democrats won back the US House last year. We now get to see their far left lunacy for two whole years. If the GOP had held all branches of government they would have lost big in 2020. With Democrats advocating killing babies born alive, reparations, […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Fire Protection billing fiasco earlier this week will likely not be the only problem uncovered at the City of Bloomington. It appears somebody is cleaning house and finding lots of problems. Somebody found a long list of payments that were made but never approved by the Council. Since I don’t remember […]
By: Diane Benjamin The local Democrats shared this on Facebook: Of course they had to pretend the Republicans are the party of the rich, facts don’t matter when talking points to keep the minions uniformed work better. Since democrats don’t bother with history before legislating, Pritzker and crew think the rich will hang around and […]
By: Diane Benjamin Before I answer that question, local democrats and independents need to know the local democrat party is following the same course as the national party – moving so far left it’s difficult to see them as anything but socialists veering straight toward communism Keep in mind, Illinois People’s Action was the group […]
By: Diane Benjamin On the agenda for Monday night is a public hearing on next years budget. PDF page 163 has a brief summary that says next to nothing: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21243 If you want to see details, go here: http://www.cityblm.org/government/departments/finance/annual-budget Also on the Agenda: PDF page 166: Allowing exceptions to the moratorium on video gaming! The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ward 8 has 2 candidates to pick from: Crabill has extreme leftists ideas which will lead to you paying more taxes. He believes in the collective – as long as he gets to define what that means. Crabill thinks corporations should pay higher taxes. He doesn’t understand the taxes paid by corporations […]
By: Diane Benjamin Jim Karch has posted a list of the streets that are going to be resurfaced in the new budget. You can see a map and the list here: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21169 Get ready for a shock – Hershey isn’t on list. Neither is Prospect which is getting as bad as Hershey. Most of […]
By: Diane Benjamin City Manager Tim Gleason has mentioned to Council could pass increasing the Gas Tax with a sunset date. History shows the Council will cancel any sunset clause. I found this while looking for something else: PDF page 9 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=6766 The Council not only cancelled the .25% sunset in 2014, in 2015 they […]
By: Diane Benjamin The proposed zoning changes will be before the Bloomington City Council soon. Everybody claims it isn’t form based code which takes away your right to do with your property what is in your best interest. This is a link to what is proposed: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20438 It 246 pages of gibberish you will only […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington likes to pretend they are transparent. They even have a transparency portal on their website: http://www.cityblm.org/government/transparency One of the items listed is: As I’ve written before, the BCPA documents are mostly non-existent unless I FOIA them. https://blnnews.com/2019/02/14/it-a-secret-bcpa-creativity-center/ These are the event reports currently on the City website, there […]
BY;; Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal continues to have an illegal public comment policy. Normal was forced to change the policy in 2017 when the Attorney General told them they can not have a policy that allows a citizen to only speak every 45 days. Instead of slapping the Town’s entire policy into oblivion, […]
By: Diane Benjamin If the residents of Bloomington still haven’t figured out the Council doesn’t represent you, watch last night’s meeting. The schmoozing was over the top with accolades for each other for everything but breathing. There were a few slaps in the face to citizens. The first one was made by City Manager Tim […]
by: Diane Benjamin According to the City mouthpiece, Bloomington will double the local gas tax to $.08 for every gallon: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/road-weary-city-officials-eye-doubling-local-motor-fuel-tax/article_258321e6-928b-57d7-a1c0-ad250fb8e18b.html#tracking-source=home-breaking Another prediction: Somebody will say it’s only a few bucks. Quote: Here is what the mouthpiece forgot to add to the story: The $.04 a gallon Motor Fuel Tax was passed […]
By: Diane Benjamin This item was on the Consent Agenda for the County Board meeting yesterday: https://mcleancountyil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6509 This was merely a renewal of an existing lease for the Child Advocacy Center in Livingston County. Since it was on the Consent Agent it wasn’t anything controversial and was passed the previous year with no discussion. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Someplace on the video is Tim Gleason claiming working with Normal is a high priority. I really don’t want to re-watch it again to find the exact spot. Meanwhile, Normal is poaching two Bloomington businesses: Farnsworth and AFNI. Both plan to relocate in the new controversial Uptown Circle building. Normal is also […]
By: Diane Benjamin A comment was left on BlnNews last night that deserves a longer response than just my reply. The citizens of Bloomington need to understand who is REALLY responsible for the roads and new designs in recent years. It isn’t Jim Karch. The comment: Why are few roads getting fixed and those that […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you have never watched a City Council meeting, last night is the one you need to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDOCilmu80A I can’t possibly cover everything that happened. Toward the end of the meeting Joni Painter read something that demanded no more video gaming machines. It was pretty incoherent. 2 people demanded the same […]
By: Diane Benjamin Even though many of the Council people questioned Isaac Thorne of Connect Transit about the empty buses, he continued to claim at times they have 60+ boardings per hour on many routes. Below is when Mboka asked about it – just hit play. Thorne’s presentation and discussion starts at 11:15 if you […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m pretty sure the City of Bloomington doesn’t advertise this, but they pay a lot for liability insurance. According to the proposed budget, here’s what it covers: PDF page 194: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=18372 Since Bloomington has refused to fund infrastructure adequately for many years, they should be responsible for any loss you incur […]
By: Diane Benjamin All Tari’s structural deficits put forth only to raise taxes have disappeared. Bloomington is now on a spending spree! Proposed budget for next year: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=18372 Page 349 and following Remember when Bloomington wasn’t interested because they had too many other expenses? According to the last finance report, next years budget only spends […]
By: Diane Benjamin Democrats have lost their minds: High school kids will never have a job again. Businesses aren’t going to pay $15 an hour to a kid who has never worked before. They have to be trained to show up on time and actually work the entire time they are clocked in for. They […]
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 […]
A reader on Facebook thought this might be 10 entries for a house they are giving away! Andrew? https://www.stjude.org/give/dream-home.html?sc_icid=wtg-mm-dreamhome By: Diane Benjamin In this story I showed a credit card charge labeled “memorial contribution to” for $1,000. https://blnnews.com/2019/01/18/citizens-of-normal-need-to-see-this-one/ I filed a FOIA request for more information. Normal has a new system to track requests. […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20879 Prairie Vista got new golf carts almost a year ago for $155,753.80: https://blnnews.com/2018/02/27/bloomington-council-festivities/ Tonight the Den gets them, and it appears the money isn’t coming from the Enterprise Fund profits. The Prairie Vista purchase didn’t either. Remember golf is supposed to balance because it’s in an Enterprise Fund. The documentation […]
By: Diane Benjamin The first thing that is NEVER discussed is what government should do verses what they are doing. Budgeting requires making choices, Bloomington has decided roads aren’t that important. What they want it more important. You will probably be saddled with some type of water park and a sports complex this year. Let’s […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://drive.google.com/file/d/12GPc_b8oSqw33McgRR2arPqOi90ahvaG/view Connect Transit didn’t meet in December, so the packet for today’s meeting contains information for November and December. PDF page 8: November’s loss: December loss – PDF page 15 December marks half way through Connect Transit’s fiscal year. Hear’s what year to date looks […]
By: Diane Benjamin Town Council meeting TUESDAY http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3172 (delayed for MLK Day) Misc spending: CDM is Children Discovery Museum. It’s easy to give your money as a memorial! This is what you need to see: (yes it’s complicated) The Town of Normal owns the building at 104 W. North. It is currently rented to Dan Brady […]
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