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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Peoria is facing a $31 million deficit because of COVID-19: https://week.com/2020/04/14/peoria-city-council-facing-31-million-hole-cuts-likely-on-the-way/ Normal is missing close to half of their population because of college closures. What is their deficit? (crickets) http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3608 Since bills were not included in the last packet, there are two lists in this one. Previously Normal paid […]
By: Diane Benjamin On February 14, 2020 I sent a FOIA request to the Town of Normal for CIRBN Board meeting minutes. Since Normal calls their 3 employees Town employees, we should see what these employees are up to. This is what I FOIA’d: “Minutes of all CIRBN Board meetings held between April 2018 and […]
By: Diane Benjamin Marc Tiritilli has announced he is running again for mayor. The local media apparently is ignoring it, Peoria isn’t: https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/tiritilli-announces-his-plans-to-run-for-normal-mayor If only twelve more people had voted for Marc three years ago the citizen’s fleece and Koos ignoring the will of the people would already be over. Obviously the current mayor is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Three emails with my FOIA request showed up last night: Public Building Commission! Almost every other government agency waits 5 days to respond to FOIA requests, even if they have the information easily available. Thanks to Robert Porter, Commission Council. If you missed the previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2020/01/20/ever-heard-of-the-public-building-commission/ https://blnnews.com/2020/01/21/more-on-the-public-building-commission/ https://blnnews.com/2020/01/22/more-public-build-commission-3/ Evidently the records […]
By: Diane Benjamin Would anybody be surprised if there was? We do live in Illinois after all! WGLT did a story yesterday about Stan Nord’s property on W. College. First you need to know this: Below are payments to WGLT from Normal taxpayers while one of WGLT’s employees was a trustee: (RC McBride) Why did […]
No, I’m not moving to either Bloomington or Normal and I’m NOT running for office. This story is about YOU. I started writing this site in April of 2012 only because I saw how bad the local media was. Today most are even worse. The majority of them hate this site without ever reading any […]
By: Diane Benjamin CIRBN is registered with Secretary of State as an LLC – Limited Liability Corporation. They call themselves a Public Utility and claimed tax exempt status as a 501(c)(3). In 2017 they had an operating loss of $778,891 but claim to have assets of $11,907,431. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/461304666/201812419349300236/IRS990 This is CIRBN in short: The Obama […]
by: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22287 Reports to me from people who attended last year: Don’t take your kids: The documentation doesn’t name the Parkview Inn, but this ordinance is so they can get back in the gaming business. It’s generic in case another establishment with video gaming now is destroyed and rebuilt: Tari Renner and Jenn […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Illinois Supreme Court just ruled Danville is responsible for injuries a woman sustained because she tripped on an uneven sidewalk: https://www.ilnews.org/news/justice/illinois-supreme-court-rules-city-liable-in-trip-and-fall/article_c7227c6e-9ccc-11e8-945c-6725ad9095d1.html If government stuck to essential services, like maintaining sidewalks, they wouldn’t have a problem. Bloomington has a BIG one. ____________________________________________ WGLT held a forum to discuss local media last week. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Are property values dropping in Bloomington-Normal? These are random samples of recent home sales. This data was taken from either the County website or Zillow if those records were listed as Public Record. Bloomington: 4 Timbers Court Sold in 2008 for $295,000; sold in April 2018 for $295,000 (first listed in […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Central Illinois Regional Broadband Network (CIRBN) is part a project the State of Illinois applied for with the Federal government. Illinois State University ended up with part of the grant which led to establishing CIRBN LLC. Since CIRBN files non-profit tax returns, they should be incorporated as a non-profit on the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari’s campaign speech is probably memorized by everybody now. Repeat things often enough some people might believe them. No, transparency doesn’t exist at City Hall. I dare anybody to file a FOIA request and actually get the information they filed for. The windows are NOT “wide open” as Tari claims. Here is […]
Were these minutes ever approved by the Council? By: Diane Benjamin On February 20, 2015, the Bloomington City Council held a special meeting to CENSURE Tari Renner for his vile comments made on this site. The minutes have been missing ever since, a Freedom of Information Request had to be sent to obtain them. Luckily, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Besides Tari Renner, you have to remember former Alderman Rob Fazzini to understand this story. Fazzini is the guy who claimed a gas tax doesn’t raise the price of gas and he wasted tons of staff and legal time trying to get both Bloomington and Normal to sell him their garbage so […]
By: Diane Benjamin I won’t have to file another lawsuit for the transcript of the Executive Session that Judy Stearns walked out of. I now have it, parts are redacted. A link is at the end of this article. The meeting was held November 15, 2013. First, everybody in this meeting, except facilitator Lynn Montei, […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s great to have a plan, but Bloomington is going to create debt that future Councils have to deal with. Tari Renner promised to fix the roads. He didn’t promise to raise taxes to do it, and he sure didn’t say it would take borrowing tons of money to do it. Keep […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is another email I received under the Freedom of Information Act while looking for something else. It was written by Alderman Jim Fruin. Normal’s elections for council members are At-Large. That means nobody on the their Council represents citizens, everybody represents the entire town. It also means the Council members don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two months in a row Renner bought former Alderman Rob Fazzini lunch: http://blnnews.com/2015/10/23/september-eating-at-your-expense/ For new readers, when Fazzini was an Alderman he created lots of news by saying things like “A gas tax doesn’t raise the price of gas”. http://blnnews.com/2014/01/27/culture-tales-bloomington-council-retreat/ Fazzini was also behind the failed attempts for Modified Wards and Paradigm […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll for 2/22/16: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=9535 Another $57,721.33 sent to Springfield for Legal! How much of that is work on a downtown hotel? How much more will the City rack up at your expense? Yes, Giebelhausen’s proposal is costing you money. Speaking of Giebelhausen, he wants to change East Peoria’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington is going to raise your taxes. They can’t find cuts because everything they do is so vital to the City. Sure. Let’s talk time. How many staff hours were WASTED on Paradigm? Former Alderman Rob Fazzini was working behind the scenes to put the deal together before he resigned. The legal expenses alone […]
By: Diane Benjamin Thanks for adding your Renner connection to your weekly diatribe, its refreshing to see some modicum of ethics reflected. For those who no longer read the bird-cage liner, Vogel’s column this week is on the departure of Stearns from the Bloomington City Council and the interaction between her and Renner. Steve claims […]
By: Diane Benjamin Both David Hales and Tari Renner have proclaimed their “Bare Bones” budget is unsustainable. This is code for we can’t raise taxes in an election year. Karen Schmidt and Joni Painter voted for all the tax increases last year, you are supposed to forget. Asking them to vote for more now is […]
Check the receipts! Some show tax, some show exempt. By: Diane Benjamin Read the original post here: http://blnnews.com/2014/12/19/make-sure-you-are-calm-before-reading/ I had some help from an outraged reader, Kevin Gerrard, on a Freedom of Information Act request. All the meals came from PCard charges, similar to a debit card but the City just gets a statement […]
by: Diane Benjamin Since Mayor Tari is a Political Science Professor, he should understand the role of government. He should have added some American History and Constitution to his education. The only source of income for the City of Bloomington is taxpayers. The Freedom of Information LAW exists because government does NOT have a right to operate […]
By: Diane Benjamin Many City of Bloomington employees have a PCard. It’s a cross between and credit and debit card. All spending on Pcards is posted once a month after the Bills and Payroll report. http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=6058 I looked at just the Admin spending paid from August – December. This section is miscellaneous interesting charges: Viva […]
By: Diane Benjamin When the City of Bloomington paid Todd Greenburg to leave as City Attorney last October, he was not replaced. Instead they hired a Springfield Law Firm and attorney Jeff Jurgens. All of the below information is from the Bills and Payroll reports: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=6058 This is a list of payments to the law firm […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you contributed to Renner’s campaign for Mayor you are doing well! The unions got massive increases in pension funding – the Council was set up and fell for plans needing tax increases to succeed. More increases coming. At least one campaign contributor has art for sale in the Mayor’s office Rob […]
Sorry, Fazzini’s final day was September 3rd. These are after he quit. By: Diane Benjamin Below are a couple more emails I received under the Freedom of Information Act from the Town of Normal. These will tell who Bloomington City Manager David Hales is: A guy who can’t make a decision. Note these emails are […]
By: Diane Benjamin Transparency has a strange meaning to Bloomington. They love to tout how transparent they are, but their version of transparency means knowing what they want you to know, not truth. How transparent was Paradigm? Weren’t you led to believe Bloomington wasn’t involved until after Rob Fazzini left the Council? (See previous posts) […]
By: Diane Benjamin Here are some more emails I received under the Freedom of Information Act from the Town of Normal. The first two shows again that Bloomington was involved in the Paradigm deal BEFORE Rob Fazzini quit the Council. Once again, in Illinois this is not a crime! Ethical? Since when does that matter! […]
by: Diane Benjamin Note: The Brady grant of OUR money would NEVER have happened without the approval of Renner and Hales. Blame not only Bill Brady but them for bringing it to the Council. Renner’s pick to replace Rob Fazzini, Diana Hauman, voted last night to take $750,000 from the bankrupt State of Illinois for Central […]
By: Diane Benjamin Evidently readers want to know the story of Paradigm that hasn’t been told before. a small percentage clicked I don’t know what Paradigm is, so briefly here’s the background: Bloomington Alderman Rob Fazzini quit the Council to be President of Paradigm BioAviation. They wanted both Bloomington and Normal to pay them to […]
by: Diane Benjamin The editorial staff at the Pantagraph does a Cheers and Jeers column every Friday. I thought there was hope when they jeered the City of Bloomington for the failed retreat posting and the cost/inconvenience it caused. Today all hope was dashed. Not one mention in the column about the failed joint Council […]
by: Diane Benjamin If you wanted to start a business in Bloomington or Normal, do you think you could request a joint City Council meeting (Bloomington and Normal)? Former Alderman Rob Fazzini pulled it off! Next Tuesday at 6:00pm a meeting will take place in the NORMAL Council chambers to discuss Paradigm BioAviation . The Public […]
by: Diane Benjamin If you didn’t look at the 2 applications turned to fill Rob Fazzini’s seat, here’s all you need to know: Diana Hauman – Look at 22. She is fully on board with spending your money downtown. Renner’s agenda. I wonder who she listed as a reference and the City redacted? (section 24) […]
by: Diane Benjamin Tari’s view of government: Repeat a lie often enough and some people might believe it Don’t question me I’m right, you are wrong I can make everything perfect if pesky citizens get out of the way People have to pay more taxes, I need more money The future of Bloomington is downtown […]
by: Diane Benjamin The last time Mayor Transparency Renner got to appoint an alderman, he chose Joni Painter. Since she drove all the way to Chicago to attend a fundraiser for Jan Schakowsky – a self admitted socialist, we know which way her politics blow. (http://blnnews.com/2014/08/14/fly-on-the-wall-renners-pick/) Would you drive to Chicago to hear a socialist? […]
