By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council had a short meeting, only around an hour. Did you miss Tim Gleason’s announcement Bloomington got named the happiest city in America? This is actually from five months ago, but here’s the announcement: https://www.zippia.com/advice/happiest-city-each-state/ Since the City is full of happy people and all the problems are fixed, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Committee of the Whole meeting tonight: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1092&Inline=True Only two items are on the agenda: Creation of a Public Arts Commission Making Juneteenth a City holiday Obviously Bloomington doesn’t believe government is a necessary evil and therefore should only do what is necessary. Every other essential government service like roads, sewers, and water […]
By: Diane Benjamin Ward 6 had no representation last night – Jenn Carrillo decided not to show up and nobody said a word about her missing except in Public Comment. Maybe Jenn had to get ready for her court hearing today: She is charged with disobeying a police officer and improper parking on a roadway […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bullies never go away unless they get squashed! The best defense against a bully is to take them on. Bullies are actually chickens with self esteem problems. Tonight they will be showing up at the Bloomington City Council meeting. First they have hold a little rally outside City Hall: Guess they don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hope Jenn Carrillo isn’t too upset the Council is meeting on COLUMBUS DAY. Agenda – pretty light: We get to hear a rousing report adopting the International Building Codes. Hopefully it will be a shortened version of the last Committee of the Whole where it was first presented. Otherwise: While Illinois […]
By: Diane Benjamin I think I got more questions yesterday about the closed Chateau water usage than about Bloomington supplying water to Rivian. You should be more concerned about Normal actually publishing plans to run THEIR water to Rivian. If you missed the story: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/28/see-if-you-can-spot-anything-strange/ Under FOIA I can’t ask questions, I can only request […]
By: Diane Benjamin The radicals are back demanding a Welcoming City Ordinance. Public comment was filled with people who think ICE needs permanently banned from doing their job in Bloomington. They held a mini-rally outside City Hall featuring a Chicago professor, your two radical aldermen, and Ward 5 Candidate Patrick Lawler. Since they all think […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the previous story: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/28/see-if-you-can-spot-anything-strange/ That story shows the largest purchasers of Bloomington water. I see three locations in Normal that are getting water from the City of Bloomington: Rivian, Bromenn, and Firestone. All three have been buying water from Bloomington for a LONG time, Mitsubishi before Rivian. So why does Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below was received by FOIA from the City of Bloomington. It is a list of the top purchasers of Bloomington water: There is more to this story, soon!
By: Diane Benjamin The audit is done, not released though: Evidently the City doesn’t think they have to print the P-Card spending list anymore, just 1 big amount. Amazon purchases are listed without a descriptions – pages of them. Link to Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25260 Agenda: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1090&Inline=True Tari wants to re-appoint Rob Fazzini to the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The building codes discussion wasn’t very interesting until they got to sprinklers retro-fitted in old buildings – mostly downtown. If more than 300 people attend events they might be requiring sprinklers within the next 3 years. Evidently they want to see a lot more empty buildings downtown! Even Jenn Carrillo knows that […]
By: Diane Benjamin I remember years ago when I mentioned “limited government” some people didn’t understand what that means. Politicians are constantly claiming they will save us from whatever and they actually make the whatever worse. Just this week Minneapolis citizens and their leadership are wondering why the police don’t show up when called. Other […]
By: Diane Benjamin The meeting lasted a little of an hour. Tari wasn’t there because the internet was out at his house. Mboka Mwilambwe acted as mayor. Tim Gleason was also absent, nobody said why. Maybe he didn’t want to be present when they voted on his contract extension and raise – without any discussion. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Monday: Bloomington Council meeting: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1089&Inline=True Bloomington will get their own cannabis dispensary. It will be centrally located at GE Road and Veterans Parkway. It is owned by the same company that operates the one in north Normal. Likely it will draw customers from Bloomington and Normal. Sorry Normal. (Let the city wars […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the agenda packet for Monday here: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1089&Inline=True City Manager Tim Gleason is getting a 3% raise because he’s doing such a wonderful job: See PDF page 57. You have to continue reading to find out how much the new salary is before benefits: $197,219 I wonder if Jenn Carrillo is okay […]
By: Diane Benjamin Why would any business decide to locate in Bloomington when a member of the City Council retweeted this: Black Lives Matter lost all credibility when they bailed looters out of jail. People of all political persuasions know theft and destruction of other people’s property is wrong. Looks like Jenn thinks it’s fine. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Connect Transit held a meeting on August 25th: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EbHKo7ekQqGztDU9fvqRgbALV64ZfNI0/view This is how their year ended on June 30, 2020. (PDF page 8) The actual loss was slightly below the 12,000,000 budgeted: See PDF page 15: The budgeted loss for this year is 12,825,000. Connect is well on the way to meeting that […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nikita Richards is not only the chair of the local Democrat Party, she is an employee of the City of Bloomington in Human Resources. Yesterday she posted this on Facebook: Nikita just alienated all 130 Bloomington police officers. Nikita accused every officer of being unprofessional at best and racist at worst. How […]
by: Diane Benjamin Normally the Finance Director presents a report monthly. Monday night City Manager Tim Gleason said it would be posted to the website. It is now: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25082 Start with the bottom of page 3. The only reason Bloomington is not bleeding now is because they STOCKPILED your money. Under David Hales the number […]
By: Diane Benjamin State’s Attorney Don Knapp just sent me the final documents. The City of Bloomington is getting $430,230. The Illinois Department of Revenue is getting $19,770. That’s where the $450,000 previously reported came from. Butler plead guilty to a Class A misdemeanor for manipulating concessions sales. BMI Concessions, operated by John Butler plead […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner attended the Township meeting held before the Council met at 6:00, but then left claiming he had an appointment. Maybe he didn’t want to discuss a mandatory mask ordinance. Several on the Council would jump at the chance to enforce draconian rules when we know where all the new cases […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember: the Coliseum the citizens didn’t want? the first manager and some staff were arrested for stealing your money? the second management company couldn’t meet expectations? the disaster it has been for taxpayers? I hear it has a new manager: Jim Karch. (Demoted Former head of Public Works) Maybe the City Manager […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is a post by Jenn Carrillo on why people are shooting each other in her neighborhood – see WGLT story https://www.wglt.org/post/gunfire-hits-driver-vehicles-homes-3-shooting-incidents-bloomington The sad truth is Jenn doesn’t expect better behavior. She doesn’t expect citizens to be civil. Just because someone is poor it doesn’t mean they go around shooting each other, […]
By: Diane Benjamin If written many stories about the Art and Camille Taylor incident, they are all linked in this story along with the body cam videos: https://blnnews.com/2020/08/08/was-art-taylor-attempting-to-incite-something/ More information has been received by FOIA after an earlier FOIA obviously didn’t produce all of the documents involved. It was filed by John Boch. Start with […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Council met for a whopping 16 minutes last night, they didn’t have an Executive Session. Tim Gleason started the meeting with a COVID update. He claimed cases are up because people have been traveling now and are out and about more. He ignores the obvious: College kids are back and out […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council will meet on Monday with only 1 item on the agenda (besides approving minutes and hear how everything needs to stay locked down because 20 somethings can’t protect themselves from COVID) Has anyone ever celebrated Columbus Day? I wonder if Jenn knows her native language is Spanish because […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Fire Department seems to be plagued with drinking problems. This one has been kept quiet, probably because he’s a Captain. See the previous stories here: https://blnnews.com/2019/11/04/bloomington-fireman-5-gets-off/ From the County Public Access system it appears he was picked up for DUI in February of this year: He finally was sentenced in […]
By: Diane Benjamin McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael contacted me after she received a phone call from a reporter at WGLT. Knowing that it was likely Tari Renner who told Ryan Denham what to write, she wanted the truth out first. This saga starts with Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason sending an email to Kathy […]
By: Diane Benjamin One more thing from Monday’s Bloomington Council meeting – see 2:45, Tim Gleason’s COVID comments. The City will be implementing a Customer Service Hub at what Gleason calls the Arena, most call it the Coliseum. He claims it will be a one stop shop for citizens. All of these departments will be […]
By: Diane Benjamin The entire meeting was only around an hour but then they spent almost 1 1/2 hours in Executive Session reviewing minutes they won’t release and talking personnel. Bloomington has been holding Executive Session minutes for decades, citizens aren’t allowed to see the glowing endorsements given to previous City Managers by their elected […]
Socialism Kills! Obviously Carrillo was never taught history and doesn’t bother to learn. She is the enemy within. She and Jeff Carbill need to be marginalized by the other Bloomington City Council members. Congrats Bloomington: Two of her buddies are running next April. Capitalism is the fairest way to exchange goods and services and the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Link to all previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2020/08/05/the-art-and-camille-taylor-police-reports/ The story above also has Art Taylor’s version of what happened on July 11th. Besides social media, who did he send it to? That answer was received in a FOIA filed by one of the “neighbors” with Trump signs in the yard. The email below is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington is pandering to the far left radicals. Since regular people with common sense are not speaking up, they think everybody agrees with de-funding the police. (Figure out why the Police Chief retired?) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/discussion-on-divestinvest-of-police-funding-tickets-115500841125 While the City Council continues to hide behind computer screens because of illegal edicts from […]
See response to FOIA below: By: Diane Benjamin First a side note to Tim. Since you have a FOIAable email address I’ll say thanks here. US Representative Rodney Davis was on Cities 92.9 this morning with Steve Suess. Davis was asked about the $8 million grant to Connect Transit for a downtown Bloomington transfer station. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Public Safety and Community Relations Board met yesterday. Since “diversity” has it’s roots in DIVIDE, this board is the perfect example of what that means: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW-u2Zh6e8Y One white community member and THREE minority members. One member was absent, Jeff Woodard – also minority: Monday night Tari is making an appointment […]
By: Diane Benjamin The CT Board held a meeting on 7/28/2020. No financial information was included in the packet because June was the end of their fiscal year. That doesn’t mean other information wasn’t included in the packet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13_-iBZ8DuPQ_3Or2S90fgHrWo9JhJ1Wf/view PDF page 3 shows customers were down 13.6% for the year July 1, 2019 – June […]
By: Diane Benjamin I am very familiar with one of the payouts below – it’s highlighted. What caught my attention was how this was paid – by the City of Bloomington’s insurance company. You will hear the results soon. That got me wondering what else the insurance company pays for that we never see, the […]
By: Diane Benjamin As if it isn’t already ridiculous that Tari puts time limits on your elected representatives, now he doesn’t want them pulling items from the Consent Agenda. Maybe he’s taking lessons from Chris Koos. Tari was upset Donna Boelen pulled two items, he claims Consent Agenda items have no need to be discussed. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington has dealt with Aldermen who disrespect the flag with activist signs and refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance, just make them disappear. Next they need to work on the disrespect to their oaths of office, promoting socialism or worse is not compatible with the Constitution they swore […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1082&Inline=True I bet you thought gas taxes went to fixing roads, not if it can be diverted to other expenses: Sewage backed up in their house after repairs to a water main break went bad: Remember the $172 MILLION Water plan discussed last week? https://blnnews.com/2020/07/21/bloomington-met-too-last-night/ Tonight the plan is on the Consent […]
