By: Diane Benjamin http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1120&Inline=True Proving yet again the citizens are not allowed in the closed Connect Transit cabal, Judy Buchanan is being reappointed to the Connect Transit Board. She has already served for 12 years. Didn’t she want to retire when Renner was mayor? New members aren’t allowed evidently, they might find out it only […]
By: Diane Benjamin The IT Department is planning major upgrades, the presentation starts at 50:45. The projected budget for the year that ended 4/30/21 was $3,429,242. The budget for this year increase 15.5% to $4,182,365, an increase of $753,123. Source: Budget PDF page 167 https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/26434/637575549746730000 This graphic at 59:19 shows where the IT Department wants […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Stay tuned, Normal is next. Wirepoints.org analyzed the pensions funding for 175 Illinois communities. Lots of other information is also included. Bloomington received a “D” rating. The results prove how much government has grown in 19 years and how the increased revenue wasn’t used for essential items like funding […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you thought brick streets were ever going to get a little money you’d be wrong. Mollie Ward objected to diverting the unused grants balance of $82,784 to repairs. She wants curbs made ADA compliant first. See 1:04:15. I didn’t hear an explanation from Mollie, but she amended the motion to spending […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yes, I’m defending Tari. One very frequent guy showed up at Public Comment last night – Scott Stimeling. (Spelling may be wrong) I have to correct one thing he said, Tari did not pay back the City for his girlfriends ticket to Japan because he got caught. He paid it back somewhere […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two landlords appeared at Public Comment a few meetings ago complaining about being billed for City water because their tenants didn’t pay the bills. These landlords have also not been paid rent for at least a year. This information is for landlords. Proving yet again Stan Nord is capable of working with […]
By: Diane Benjamin In the latest example of FAKE NEWS, local media is still acting like Jenn Carrillo was censured at the special meeting last Monday. Evidently they didn’t watch the meeting or can’t read the agenda. “Possible action” was on the agenda, not actually doing anything. The vote was 6-3 to do something in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Special meeting at 5:15 http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1113&Inline=True I wonder if Jenn Carrillo will bother to show up? A Code of Conduct is a loser folks. The Council has no ability to do anything but censure and that did nothing to straighten out Tari Renner when he got one. The Council should instead be telling […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you shop at Green Top Grocery you might want to find a new place for groceries. I’ve been watching this play out on Facebook for awhile, now 25% of the staff claims they aren’t going to show up for work. Evidently one management person is making their lives miserable. There is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Jenn Carrillo would have been laughed at, Jeff Crabill was the BLM representative last night. He wanted to approve last years police budget instead of the increased number. State Farm – make sure he doesn’t get a raise this year since he thinks public safety personnel don’t deserve one. The video […]
By: Diane Benjamin Anybody remember BN Advantage? It was a huge collaboration of the unelected who got your money to operate. This story explains who: https://blnnews.com/2015/10/29/round-2-bn-advantage/ It would take a lot of research to figure out how much of your money was thrown to this group. This story shows $423,867 just from Bloomington: https://blnnews.com/2019/04/29/bn-advantage-magazine/ Where […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remind you of democrat controlled cities all last summer? Original story: https://blnnews.com/2018/06/26/jennifer-carrillo-this-looks-like-a-threat/ Didn’t Jenn get fired from the YWCA for this post she hurriedly removed from her page? What will Jenn do when all her people running for the Bloomington Council lose? Don’t forget she’s their campaign manager:: Law enforcement: You now […]
By: Diane Benjamin From the PAC website: https://www.responsiblecities.com/ Gee, it sounds like this group wants the best candidates for the entire community. They don’t. Chris Koos and Kevin McCarthy have recently stated they were elected by the citizens of Normal and they don’t care about Bloomington. They want to run water pipes on top of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night’s Bloomington council meeting: Tari Renner and the Clerk had to be reminded Public Comment was skipped. I hope the next mayor can read and follow an agenda, Tari can’t (numerous examples from recent meetings). See around 49:00. There was only one Public Comment. Ward 3 candidate Willie Holton Halbert took […]
By: Diane Benjamin There has been a moratorium on evictions for around a year now. There are local landlords who haven’t received rent for that long. Even though assistance is available, some renters have decided to live for free instead instead of doing the paperwork. Worse, the City of Bloomington is attempting to collect past […]
By: Diane Benjamin Jenn Carrillo showed at the Bloomington Council meeting last night what a Council with her buddies on it would look like. Readers: The media isn’t going to tell citizens the truth or make much effort to get people to vote. You have to! The majority of the City does not even know […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari’s greatest lies part I lost count: https://www.cities929.com/steve-suess-podcast/ Tari Renner’s interview with Steve Suess starts around 45:00. Lie #1 Nobody has ever stated your entire police force is corrupt. I stated a bad cop can make ALL of them look bad. Lie #2 Diane makes stuff up. Since Tari claimed he doesn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the WGLT mayoral debate the good leftist host had to bring up systemic racism, that discussion kept him from asking about real issues. You are expected to believe minorities can not succeed because whites won’t let them. Obviously it’s a myth because their are countless successful minorities. Obviously it is a […]
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 The Steve Suess show has become the best place to get information on candidates for the April 6th election. Candidates who refuse to appear on his show prove they have no intention of discussing issues with people who don’t align with them 100%. Jackie Gunderson (Bloomington mayor) has refused to be interviewed. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari claimed in his rant that I would never live in Bloomington and I hate Bloomington. He’s right about never living in Bloomington (or Normal) because out in the country I am free. My taxes are much lower and I don’t have authoritarian bullies telling me how to live my life. However […]
The Edgar County Watchdogs did a video in response to Tari’s tirade. You can see it hear: https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2021/02/video-ecwd-response-to-bloomington-mayor-renners-explosive-comments/ Watch the whole video, it just keeps getting better.
Tari Renner on WJBC this morning: https://post.futurimedia.com/wjbcam/playlist/26/listen-1273.html?cb=1614188824.212135&fbclid=IwAR2bkJ0Mt5rUvXFk1H0qILFjNK_Uzw9XZvqqh4fxq08IVJnyR54s8YyUZfs By: Diane Benjamin Numerous media outlet have covered Tari Renner’s rant at Monday’s City Council meeting. Not ONE has bothered to look at the evidence presented by the Edgar County Watchdogs. Not ONE has asked how the story got started. If any of you had bothered to investigate […]
By: Diane Benjamin I could write MANY stories about last night’s Bloomington Council meeting. I might write more, I might not. I didn’t want you to miss this graphic: Every citizen of Normal is in twice as much debt as those who live in Bloomington. That is why the end of the Uptown TIF is […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s easy these days to figure out where people stand politically. The Constitution states we are created “Equal”, those who want to create victims demand “Equity”. Socialism and communism create “equity” by redistributing wealth, except for those in charge of course. Some will never have enough, those who worked hard for theirs […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night Kirk Allen (Edgar County Watchdogs) couldn’t speak at Public Comment so I spoke instead. I wanted to make sure people and the City knew about the story they published yesterday. https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2021/02/city-of-bloomington-police-coverup-exposed-zero-reporting-from-media-even-after-being-provided-all-the-facts/ The story includes proof of a Bloomington cover-up by allowing an officer to resign instead of prosecuting him. The […]
Since the Bloomington City Council refuses to meet in person, the Edgar County Watchdogs did a story today. I can NOT get the link to post. Go to edgarcountywatchdogs.com to see the story. Right now it is at the top of their site. It would have been nice if they could have confronted Tari in […]
By: Diane Benajmin Something I found while looking for something else, this is dated in December of 2017: https://www.wjbc.com/2017/12/13/renner-bloomington-wont-be-sanctuary-city-mayor-sees-need-to-cut-personnel-costs-to-reduce-spending/ Excerpt: Monday night Jenn Carrillo’s Welcoming City Ordinance is on the agenda: Are you going to tell the Council not to approve this Tari? Change your mind? You now want Bloomington to be a sanctuary City […]
Flying around I saw lots of angry citizens who couldn’t get out of their driveway for days, maybe still can’t. I see the trails in both cities got cleared before streets. Are both Normal and Bloomington using snow to fill the potholes? How much MOTOR FUEL TAX was used to clear the trail for bikes […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when Bloomington bought all new garbage trucks so they only needed one person instead of two? Remember when they bought “carts” so those trucks could pick them up automatically? Remember when that didn’t save enough money so a previous Council passed automatic fee increases to avoid ever having to vote on […]
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 Committee of the Whole: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1103&Inline=True Businesses are flocking to low tax states with limited regulations. Proving yet again companies have to be paid to locate in Illinois: Illinois is perfectly located to successful promote economic development without incentives. Standing in the way is Illinois government and the massive debt and unfunded liabilities. […]
By: Diane Benjamin 45:10 Jamie Mathy reported Tari Renner was absent because of emergency dental work. Mboka conducted the meeting as mayor pro-tem. Maybe Tari will recover enough to prosecute more local businesses today that dared to ignore Pritzker. They must not be the “right fit”, kneeling and losing your business is required for that. […]
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 […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.wglt.org/post/final-coliseum-defendant-pleads-guilty-misdemeanor-agrees-restitution#stream/0 The last Coliseum theft case was settled last week. The two main culprits got off with misdemeanor convictions while 2 low level employees who couldn’t afford to pay lawyers for years now have felony convictions. All 4 received plea deals, another defendant had all charges dropped. The City of Bloomington received […]
By: Diane Benjamin Only one Public Comment is worth listening to. Go to 39:40. A guy is upset the Bloomington police post pictures of people of interest on social media hoping the public can help locate or identify the person. Worth listening to for another perspective. This re-zoning got sent back to the Planning Commission. […]
This is Kiplinger, not some conservative outlet trying to play politics: https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/state-tax/601614/least-tax-friendly-states-for-middle-class-families?rid=EML-today&rmrecid=2482908579&utm_campaign=20210126-today&utm_medium=email&utm_source=today Before both Bloomington and Normal decide to raise property taxes, and Unit 5 does again – these were the rates: District 87: 5.144810 City of Bloomington: 1.090100 Unit 5: 5.355410 Town of Normal: 1.032630
By: Diane Benjamin On Bloomington’s agenda tonight Jenn Carrillo wants the Council to petition the Federal and State governments to replace Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous People’s Day. https://blnnews.com/2021/01/22/cancel-culture-back-at-bloomington-monday/ Evidently Jenn doesn’t know the entire month of November is Native American People’s month. Maybe she doesn’t know that’s another way of saying Indigenous People’s […]
