By: Diane Benjamin According to Renner’s interview this morning on WJBC he has been plotting since December to appoint Amelia Buragas and Justin Boyd to the Connect Transit Board. He wants two people who know economic development and have experience spending millions of dollars. (his words) Keep in mind, Amelia wanted to tear down a […]
By: Diane Benjamin It should be more than obvious that Connect Transit is not meeting the needs of people who MUST have public transportation. Proof: Buses that are too big to run in places formerly served – mobile home parks, neighborhoods with narrow streets cutting routes and increasing fares political appointments to the Connect Transit […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Amelia Buragas wants brick streets funding and newly elected alderman Jenn Carrillo posted this today: I think a review of the cost needs to be made. Brick Streets Master Plan: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=9107 There are 3.5 miles of brick streets out of 320 miles of streets in the city, which is 1.1% of all […]
By: Diane Benjamin THREE of your representatives, a full one third, failed to attend this meeting. Mathy, Mwilambwe, and Bray were absent. Of course the ones that did attend acted like it was perfectly normal. Only a few items of note: A guy from Millennium Soccer spoke during Public Comment. (22:50) I was not aware […]
Guest Editorial Now that Buragas is the 3rd rat to leave the ship (out of the 4 slated to run), let’s wish her goodbye with this ditty sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice. . Three Blind Mice Three Blind Mice See how they spend See how they spend . Planning and spending is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The first day petitions for the City Council could be circulated was August 28th. That’s almost 3 months ago. Amelia Buragas finally decided on the final day that she wasn’t running again. She probably notified Tari a few days ago which led to a frantic attempt to get signatures for a candidate […]
By: Diane Benjamin The live video of last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting wasn’t working for much of the meeting, the Council microphones weren’t working for any of it. The only one that worked was on the podium. Green Top has to wait until the end of August to find out if their customers will […]
A reader was concerned about these properties and how they are devaluing the area around them. Are maintenance codes enforced? The captions were written by the reader. Recently closed Heartland Printing on IAA drive. Should owner of commercial property be allowed to walk away and leave ugly property. Owner should be required to at least […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15904 The report from Tari’s Downtown Task Force is back on the agenda for Monday – minus moving the library and tearing down a parking garage. One question that won’t be asked or answered: The current downtown businesses didn’t care enough about downtown to fund the Downtown Bloomington Association. The City took […]
By: Diane Benjamin Is the Bloomington City Council finally waking up? Do they realize they have no wide-spread support for their downtown spending when the roads are still crap? Alderman Bray pulled a revised Council schedule from the Consent Agenda in order to cancel next Monday’s Committee of the Whole session. Renner doesn’t understand that […]
By: Diane Benjamin Monday’s Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15550 More spiked pension expense: More Interest-Free loans? I don’t care how great the cause is, what statute allows the City to hand out your money to people they chose? Most people call this vote-buying: More handouts: I’m guessing the City if buying tickets to a Chamber event for […]
By: Diane Benjamin TIF districts are like Greek to most citizens. If you don’t understand them, government will continue to redistribute money and call it Economic Development. TIF’s made easy: Government sets a Tax Increment Finance area. All government bodies in the area have to agree to forgo tax increases due to increasing property values. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Maybe some members of the Bloomington City Council finally realized their fearless leader has been abusing his government credit card. We’ve listened to Mayor Renner spew his “there are no free lunches” for years in order to raise taxes while he was dining on the backs of taxpayers. The Japan trip finally […]
By: Diane Benjamin When you pick progressives to run your City you will pay more in taxes. You picked their vision to “keep moving Bloomington forward”. Fiscal responsibility and Needs before Wants aren’t ever discussed. Send this article to the local leftists so they know what progress looks like: Why Are Liberal Cities So Unaffordable Alderman […]
By: Diane Benjamin David Sage decided to have an opinion last night, but the media probably missed it. It didn’t happen during the regular meeting – it happened during aldermen comments before adjourning. What was Sage outraged about? Moving the library! He pulled the minutes of the joint Library/Council meeting in June (that wasn’t live […]
By: Diane Benjamin Renner didn’t ask to extend the time so everybody could speak, so everybody didn’t get to. Tari did make sure Mike McCurdy of Bike Blono, WGLT radio, and Connect Transit got to speak though. To hear all of the public comment – just hit play below. Then listen to the second Public […]
By: Diane Benjamin Only a tiny group of citizens want bike lanes. Tari Renner ran for office twice pledging to fix the roads. He obviously isn’t as serious as the people with damaged vehicles are. This is from 2015: http://www.cityblm.org/government/departments/public-works/streets-sidewalks/street-resurfacing The table shows how much money per year is required just to have TERRIBLE STREETS. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington is selling this property for $5,000 tonight. The house was condemned years ago, the City tore is down for $9,690.00. The address is 206 N Dorrah. PDF page 54 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12802 The sale was advertised in the Pantagraph, the City needs to find a new way to publicize sales […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) East Side Highway meeting tonight: 6:00-9:00 Central Catholic High School 2) If you aren’t protesting your property assessed value – you are a sheep being led to slaughter. I’m sure it says how and where to protest on the letter you received. 3) I finally listened to the video from Monday’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin Government has forgotten why they exist and we let them get by with it. Government has one mission: To secure our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It isn’t government’s job to predict the future, redistribute wealth, or do anything more than the bare minimum necessary to maintain […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Amelia Buragas normally recuses herself from votes when they involve sending money to Farnsworth Group. Her husband Michael is employed by them. Last night she didn’t recuse herself from this vote: These are the people promoting bike paths on major roads and subsidizing buses. They also promoted the East-Side Bypass and […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the May 9th Council meeting Alderman Buragas went into a long speech about the Hales review process, but then voted yes to his raise anyway. Her speech seemed out-of-place unless she was going to vote against the increase. Last night she voted against the TIF feasibility study. I don’t know why […]
By: Diane Benjamin In the continuing sage of Aldermen don’t need to attend Council meetings: Amelia Buragas was absent AGAIN last night! Since January 1st, including tonight, 8 meetings have been held. Buragas has missed two. That’s more than a 20% failure to attend rate. How long would you have a job if you were […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m sure you’ve seen Bloomington’s symbol: What the symbol means is listed on the City website and in the presentation for Tuesday night. It isn’t new, no Tari didn’t change or create the definition: According to dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/progressive 1) Favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to […]
By: Diane Benjamin It appears obvious the ordinance the City of Bloomington has for inspection of rental property is illegal. It was illegal before it was changed Monday night, but with the City wanting to hire a second inspector, it is tyranny. Not just illegal – it is massive over-reach by government. All the City […]
Another link, more info: http://www.athensmessenger.com/news/local-impact-not-expected-from-federal-ruling-on-rental-inspections/article_445cb108-ea0f-5498-b9e4-433713621313.html By: Diane Benjamin Last night at least one landlord showed up too late to speak, he didn’t know the public comment rules. He wondered why nothing was done to stop the local boot on his neck. Easy! You aren’t paying attention. Nobody cares until the fees and taxes affect them. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Amelia Buragas on WJBC: http://cdn.stationcaster.com/stations/wjbc/media/mpeg/Amelia_Buragas__Bloomington_Alderwoman__12_17_15-1450373042.mp3 Apartment owners in Bloomington currently pay around $30 a year to register their property. Buragus wants a small increase to $65-$75. According to Amelia, Bloomington should be charging at least as much as Normal! She also mentions Urbana. How much does Champaign charge Amelia? I don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin David Hales on WJBC 9/15 : http://cdn.stationcaster.com/stations/wjbc/media/mpeg/David_Hales__Bloomington_City_Manager-1442324001.mp3 Hales was asked about the comments made by Alton Franklin Monday night calling for him to be fired over the pension spiking which cost Bloomington taxpayers more than $1.2 million. Obviously Hales is the source of Alderman Buragas’s information, her email sounds just like him. […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll to be approved Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9118 Contracted and Purchased Legal: CLARK BAIRD SMITH LLP CHECK TOTAL 15,122.10. ANCEL GLINK DIAMOND BU CHECK TOTAL 750.00 HEYL ROYSTER VOELKER & CHECK TOTAL 675.00 HINSHAW & CULBERTSON L CHECK TOTAL 2,340.00 MEYER CAPEL A PROFESSI CHECK TOTAL 587.50 SORLING NORTHRUP HANNA […]
By: Diane Benjamin Another taxpayer asked IMRF for information about the City of Bloomington’s policy allowing pensions spiking. Remember this cost you more than $1.2 MILLION dollars. See the email below FROM IMRF. The RED and BLUE are from me. From: John Krupa <[email protected]> To: (redacted) Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 10:53 AM Subject: […]
By: Diane Benjamin Obviously the LAWYER on the Bloomington City Council believes David Hales instead of looking at the facts. Amelia stated this during the last Council meeting, I had hopes you would figure out the truth by now. No such luck. She sent the following email to a Bloomington resident this morning: (mis-spelled words […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this post from yesterday: http://blnnews.com/2015/08/26/imrf-what-did-hales-know-and-when/ David Hales could have stopped this insanity in 2012. $1,216,177.70 of Bloomington taxpayer dollars would not have disappeared if employees and David Hales had any ethics. All that needed to be done is this: Employees get their accumulated sick leave pay THE DAY THEY LEAVE CITY […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Amelia Buragus didn’t think she had a conflict of interest with votes to spend taxpayer money to redevelop downtown Bloomington, even though her dad owns property very close to the properties proposed. Michael Buragas, Amelia’s husband, works for Farnsworth Group, a frequent receiver of taxpayer funds: Is it a conflict of interest to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The last time next year’s budget was discussed was March 7th. Since then – crickets. Why? Council meetings were held on 3/9, 3/16, and 3/23. Budget discussions disappeared, but then there is an election Tuesday. The new budget has to be in place on May 1st. Last year the budget wasn’t approved […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below information from 2008 was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act more than a year ago, the City of Bloomington does not have Coliseum reports on-line prior to 2012. Click on either picture below to enlarge. The 2014-2015 Budget numbers can be found here: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8264 Note: The revenue budget has […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington loves to justify spending with economic impact numbers. The Coliseum management claims they have generated MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars of local economic activity, the Zoo is getting ready to create their own numbers. If we just spend more . . . Meanwhile, tax receipts are down while […]
By: Diane Benjamin Here’s the problem with candidates running for office: They are unwilling to stand on principles and values Almost every candidate tries to hide where they stand on the issues because they know they would not get elected saying what they really think. In 2013 I filmed Aaron Schock at a Town Hall […]
Another question: Why are these guys reading this post? Washington, District of Columbia, United States Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd & Evans (216.59.96.10) [Label IP Address] blnnews.com/2015/03/11/amelia-looks-like-a-problem/ (No referring link) By: Diane Benjamin http://thedorrislawfirm.com/amelia-buragas.php (Click on the pictures to enlarge) According to the Dorris Law firm website, Amelia Buragas graduated from the University of Illinois […]
By: Diane Benjamin I have video of the entire debate last night between the 5 candidates for Ward 4. I will post it later. I will also be posting more clips, but I will start with the two below, turn your sound up! First, you need to understand who Amelia Buragas is. -Amelia is a […]
