By: Diane Benjamin Remember this story? https://blnnews.com/2022/06/14/need-accounting-services-hire-the-town-of-normal/ MICA is Municipal Insurance Cooperative Agency. Normal’s Finance Director Andrew Huhn is on the Executive Committee. Normal is also doing their accounting while not bidding insurance purchased through them. The MICA website at best is lame, it doesn’t say if MICA is a non-profit or a corporation: https://affinity.marsh.com/mica/home.html. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when CIRBN employees were considered Town of Normal employees with all the same benefits? https://blnnews.com/2021/01/15/can-you-tell-elections-are-coming/ When “professional staff” is your best buddy, all kinds of perks are available! Another “arrangement” you are supposed to ignore: This one involves the Town purchasing insurance from MICA – no bid contract. Review this story […]
By: Diane Benjamin One thing has been obvious for a long time: Kevin McCarthy gets activated by Chris Koos to call “Point of Order” when Stan Nord gets into topics the Town doesn’t want citizens to see discussed in public. It happens at almost every meeting, sometimes more than once. The Council voted to finance […]
Looks like all democrats don’t think the same: Council Meeting January 19, 2021 https://youtu.be/uB9SGVWbytI Pritzker Budget talk, June 1, 2021 https://www.facebook.com/GovPritzker/videos/542249500299020 More below. (It could have been longer) Council discussion starts at 1:22 1:59 – Nord – Motion to pay off debt 2:12 – 6-1 vote against paying off debt early. Pritzker and Nord believe paying off […]
By: Diane Benjamin The only big controversy at the 7:00 meeting was this item: See PDF page 46 for details: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3974 Stan Nord pulled this item from the Consent Agenda because this spending was not bid as required by code. In other words, Normal has been a member of the MICA pool for decades, therefore […]
By: Diane Benjamin The document below and MANY others were received by FOIA via a reader. From the submitted underpass application for Federal Funds: Included in the application for Federal Funds: Who writes a letter and fails to have a DATE on it? Pam Reece: Fully committed? When was the vote Pam? Behind closed doors […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal’s IT staff continues to show their incompetence. The Live Stream video and the posted recorded video are TINY. Early in the meeting the audio would go out, reappear, and go out again. Why does the Town of Normal tolerate employees who aren’t capable of doing their job? I’ve lost track of […]
A reader on Facebook thought this might be 10 entries for a house they are giving away! Andrew? https://www.stjude.org/give/dream-home.html?sc_icid=wtg-mm-dreamhome By: Diane Benjamin In this story I showed a credit card charge labeled “memorial contribution to” for $1,000. https://blnnews.com/2019/01/18/citizens-of-normal-need-to-see-this-one/ I filed a FOIA request for more information. Normal has a new system to track requests. […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve heard that one guy running for re-election on the Normal Town Council is telling people as he campaigns door to door the debt isn’t a problem. I believe he is actually calling other candidates liars for questioning the debt. Hit play on the video below from last Monday’s meeting. The speaker […]
BlnNews 