By: Diane Benjamin The meetings last night lasted until a little after 10:00 pm, The first one started at 5:30 pm. Public Comment had a lady BEGGING the Council not to use asphalt on Jefferson street downtown. She wants something fancy! Maybe she can fork over the money to pay for it too. See her […]
More from Bills and Payroll
April 24, 2018 by 13 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=17440 How did Alderman Hauman travel to One Voice in Washington DC for half the cost of Renner? https://blnnews.com/2018/04/03/remember-the-one-voice-air-fare/ Is your full service City planning to throw parties? Note it’s an Admin expense. The Springfield Lawyers are running out of budgeted funds, only $33,175 is left for April. (see […]
What they didn’t want you to see:
April 23, 2018 by 4 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin I haven’t looked at the entire Bills and Payroll yet – it just got posted late this afternoon. See the very last page: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=17440 They threw away $135,015 on spiked pensions: . . The City of Bloomington government exists only to scam YOU. . . . . .
Update: FOIA filed
April 23, 2018 by 5 Comments
See what they were hiding here: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=17440 By: Diane Benjamin I wouldn’t have to file so many FOIA requests with Bloomington if the information actually got posted to their website. Many are THEIR fault: This was filed today. I wonder if the Council knows what they are approving for payment tonight? 9 hours before the meeting, […]
More “Not The Right Fit”
April 23, 2018 by 18 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Back on February 26 approval of a Final Plat for a Circle K at the corner of GE Road and Hershey was sent back to the Planning Commission. Alderman Painter didn’t want it in her Ward. This property has been a field for campaign signs for as long as I can remember: […]
Hear the sucking sound from Connect Transit?
April 22, 2018 by 5 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin A while back Diana Hauman told me the city she visited in Arkansas to see their sports complex doesn’t have bus service. The city pays non-profits to give rides, even religious organizations. Maybe they can afford a sports complex because they have more brains than the local leaders! March Connect Transit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LT_orEvHzWxPnw_LZw5tzvv9Y4kxyxDN/view […]
Miscellaneous:
April 21, 2018 by 4 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin The next time you are present when Tari talks about his transparency award – please start laughing! Bills and Payroll for Monday night are not posted. Normally delaying them means they are hiding something. (as of 10:30 Saturday morning) http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1609 They know what they are paying because the total is on the […]
The Tari attack video
April 20, 2018 by 7 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin The 2014 video of Tari Renner attacking Judy Stearns during a Council meeting because of cuts she proposed now has been viewed over 15,000 times. 13,000 of them have come in the last few months. I have no idea why! A viewer left a comment last night that perfectly summed it up: […]
He’s Back
April 19, 2018 by 1 Comment
Did he figure out nobody wants to meet him in private? http://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/News/News/5881/
Peoria: Private Garbage since 2010
April 18, 2018 by 7 Comments
Update: They do charge something for recycling, I’m attempting to find out how much. It depends on where you live in Peoria. The City does have drop off locations. By: Diane Benjamin The City of Peoria just approved a new 7 year contract with a possible 3 year extension for private garbage service that includes […]
Cut Sister Cities
April 18, 2018 by 14 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin It looks like Sister Cities is planning another trip. Their website doesn’t have any minutes posted since June 2017 however. http://www.bnsistercities.org/about/#committee They have a general agenda posted which shows meetings in 2017 were scheduled for: August 7 (Moved to Aug. 14 due to 55th Anniversary Trip) September 11 October 2 November 6 […]
Happy Tax Day!
April 17, 2018 by 7 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin I’m sure you have all filed your tax returns and are ecstatic about paying what is due. If you got a refund you allowed the government to use your money interest free. I’m sure they appreciate it. The State of Illinois stole even more this year and plans even more once JB […]
Downtown Downtown Downtown!
April 17, 2018 by 17 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin The Council thinks they can make downtown a destination. The Coliseum and the BCPA were supposed to do the same thing. Since the Council spent close to two hours last night discussing beautification and streets, it proves the MILLIONS already spent have failed. There were some tiny shreds of fiscal responsibility when […]
Sport complex is already decided
April 16, 2018 by 15 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.wjbc.com/2018/04/14/consultant-community-has-room-for-new-sports-venues/ According to the WJBC story. the decision has already been made by the consultants who were just hired: we need a sports complex. The Pony League fields began in 1988 with no tax dollars. Hundreds if not thousands of kids and adults play there every summer. Have you noticed all the […]
Are they really this clueless?
April 15, 2018 by 12 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council is holding a Committee of the Whole Monday night. Before Tari, the Council didn’t have 4 Council meetings a month and an additional meeting in between. Think the endless hours of meetings have something to do with the spending being out of control – of course it does! […]
Government’s Boot
April 10, 2018 by 18 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin It isn’t possible to have verbal or email permission from government to do anything and expect it to be honored. If boats on Lake Bloomington are so hazardous to the drinking water that supposed “illegal” docks must be removed, why are any boats allowed on the Lake? $250 fine per day? Send […]
Funding roads? Ha Ha
April 9, 2018 by 17 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin I asked Jim Karch to explain how much will be in the budget for roads. This is his response: (click to enlarge) Roads are Not a priority! This is what it looks like when politicians lie to you to win elections. Your Motor Fuel Tax will be raised 4/23 to add a […]
Another reason roads won’t get fixed:
April 9, 2018 by 6 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Below are the payments per year to the law firm in Springfield. In 2013 they got NO tax dollars because Bloomington has an attorney on staff. Normal still has their own attorney. Tari wanted an Administrative Court to squeeze the citizens into complying with his wishes. Remember when Tari used to tell […]
Grant handout Monday!
April 7, 2018 by 5 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin On the agenda for Monday night – Bloomington City Council: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16340 PDF page 56 So, Federal Tax money is funneled down to the City to distribute. Mid Central Community Action is getting a piece of it for Rental Assistance at Mayor’s Manor. MCCA manages Mayors Manor. Here’s where is gets fun: http://www.mccainc.org/clarion_rocket/programs/mayors-manor/ […]
Surprises on Bloomington’s Agenda!
April 6, 2018 by 12 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin The packet for Monday is 877 pages! I’m sure the Council will read every word: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16340 PDF page 294: Remember how Tari claimed he wasn’t interested in the west-side sports complex? Evidently Normal didn’t like paying the full cost of the study. Since it won’t be downtown, maybe Tari wants the Council […]
Multiple things that need covered:
April 6, 2018 by 11 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin If you haven’t figured out who did the report in yesterday’s marijuana story: https://blnnews.com/2018/04/05/legalize-marijuana-think-first/ White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in 1996 Colorado is a microcosm showing what happens when some drug laws don’t exist. Are our kids worth the risk? See the program website here: https://rmhidta.org/default.aspx?menuitemid=781&menugroup=RMHIDTA+Public+Overview ________________________________ More proof […]
The roads can’t get fixed but . . .
April 6, 2018 by 4 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington can’t find money anywhere in their budget to fix the roads. They will raise your Motor Fuel Tax though! In the latest example of ridiculous priorities: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/News/News/5867/ The City of Bloomington has completed a comprehensive inventory and assessment of 8,519 trees in parks, trails and public spaces as […]
FAA, CIRA, and Soccer
April 5, 2018 by 6 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin I filed a FOIA request with the FAA pertaining to the soccer fields on January 31, 2018. I received it today by mail. It’s not that big, no word on why it had to be mailed. So, why does soccer need to leave the airport property? See this 1994 letter written by […]
Bloomington spending Monday:
April 5, 2018 by 7 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16320 The report shows paying 461 Bi-Weekly employees and 361 Weekly. That’s a total of 822 employees. January 2015: 458 Bi-Weekly and 335 Weekly Total 793 https://blnnews.com/2015/08/21/less-employees-at-the-city/ That’s an increase in employees of 29 in 2 years. SLBB: Sick Leave Buy Back (Pension Spiking) Ashley Furniture: We have NO idea where […]
What’s wrong with Bloomington?
April 4, 2018 by 12 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Everybody knows the streets aren’t being fixed. Bloomington can’t even find money in the budget (that has skyrocketed under Tari Renner) to invest in infrastructure. https://blnnews.com/2018/03/26/nice-pantagraph/ They will happily raise your taxes though to pay for a couple of roads. Yesterday we learned there was a “disconnect” ordering tickets for the One […]
Just something interesting – CIAM
April 3, 2018 by 5 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Every once in a while I have to clean up some files. I found a FOIA request I received in December of 2015. It clearly shows that John Butler and CIAM pretended they had no responsibility to the City of Bloomington and the taxpayers forced to cover their losses. I remember filing […]
Bloomington Library facts
April 3, 2018 by 13 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin The City Manager has issued a report for February. The library stats posted for 2018 are not the same stats used in 2017, so I took the ones that can be compared and turned them into a chart. 2018 Library facts: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16111 2017 Library facts: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12434 The library wasn’t included in the […]
UPDATE: Remember the One Voice Air Fare?
April 3, 2018 by 22 Comments
I found this on the City website under Staff Responses: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16236 By: Diane Benjamin Update to this story: https://blnnews.com/2018/03/23/bloomington-more-one-voice/ I FOIA’d the receipts to see why the cost was different for Black, Renner, and Rasmussen. Black drove himself to Chicago and flew from there to DC. Rasmussen left on a flight at 6:26 in the morning […]
WGLT finally sees the light?
March 29, 2018 by 5 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin See this recent WGLT story: http://wglt.org/post/new-documents-link-vague-coliseum-contract-criminal-charges The former Coliseum management could get greatly reduced sentences because the documents WGLT presented prove the City didn’t care – as in David Hales didn’t care. Hales was paid huge bucks to manage the City, he failed. I really hope he is called as a witness to […]
Why is Fazzini signing contracts?
March 28, 2018 by 7 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Remember former Bloomington Alderman Rob Fazzini? You might remember him from his attempt to create Super Aldermen who represent the whole City, or you might remember his plan to turn the garbage into jet fuel, or maybe his statement that gas taxes don’t necessarily raise the price of gas. Since I heard […]
Tari speaks in the Pravdagraph
March 28, 2018 by 6 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin It looks like the Pantagraph is now allowing Tari to write about himself, from March 23rd: http://www.pantagraph.com/special-section/bloomington-a-leader-in-open-government-communication/article_6376ee0b-1adf-58cd-ab19-55d71d5eccfd.html#tncms-source=infinity-scroll-summary-siderail-latest I wonder what section they ran this in? The article/editorial has some problems. Tari must have forgotten he changed the rules for his “Open Houses”. They aren’t open, citizens have to make an appointment. The […]
Bloomington, the rest of the meeting
March 27, 2018 by 6 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin (Something isn’t right about the Habitat solar panels, I’m waiting to hear back from an expert.) The $135,000 sales tax rebate to Habitat got tabled. Austin Grammer stated the City asked Habitat how they could help them with their project. In other words, the City volunteered to give them money. Solar panels […]
Wasting time doing nothing
March 27, 2018 by 13 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Government should operate on facts, not feelings. The illegal immigration issue won’t be solved in Bloomington for the same reason it isn’t solved in DC. It has nothing to do with people not being able to make decisions. They have decided: To some laws matter, to others they don’t. The people camping […]
Since immigration laws don’t matter . . .
March 26, 2018 by 12 Comments
Let’s deface public property! Yes, that’s City Hall. I’m told it says: Separate ICE and the police not immigrants Now everybody can draw on City Hall since nothing happened to these folks!
Nice Pantagraph
March 26, 2018 by 7 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Today the paper has a cool graph showing City of Bloomington budgets for the last 10 years. I recapped the same info here: https://blnnews.com/2018/03/08/bloomington-budget-workshop-saturday/ See the Pantagraph graph here – bottom of the story: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/council-eyes-business-fees-overdue-parking-fines-to-balance-budget/article_b1dd3a23-7b7c-50aa-8f9e-30046a7375a9.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1 Instead of pretending spending is up over 10 years, they should have marked on the graph […]
Why people flee: Tari
March 26, 2018 by 13 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Forbes magazine printed the latest addition of what states people are fleeing based on data from United Van Lines data. Illinois is #1 https://tinyurl.com/Forbes-United-Van-Lines While McLean County and Normal were smart enough to cut spending, Bloomington is looking for more revenue tonight. Tari Renner is quoted in the paper saying City budgets […]
Another Bloomington OMA violation?
March 26, 2018 by 2 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Remember the February 12th meeting when alderman comments had Karen Schmidt accusing Tari Renner of disparaging public remarks about the 5 alderman blocking his Welcoming Ordinance? Remember Alderman Bray pulled the minutes at the February 26th meeting because they didn’t accurately summarize the comments made? https://blnnews.com/2018/02/27/bloomington-council-festivities/ The February 12th meeting minutes are still […]
Courtesy of the Progressives:
March 25, 2018 by 24 Comments
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday a lot people rallied in downtown Bloomington to force government to limit 2nd Amendment rights. Tonight the radicals are rallying to force a vote on protecting people living in Bloomington illegally. They will show up at Council tomorrow night. One of these radicals is raising money to move to a new […]
Update: Tari on WJBC
It looks like WJBC is going to hide the Tari interview, it isn’t posted. By: Diane Benjamin Tari again forgot he changed the rules for his “Open Houses” on WJBC this morning. Evidently Scott Laughlin forgot too. Funny how the City website still says you have to make an appointment: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/7500/17?backlist=%2fHome%2fComponents%2fNews%2fNews%2f4327%2f18%3fbacklist%3d%252F Did you know […]