By: Diane Benjamin Why are Minutes missing from Liquor Commission meetings? The LAW requires approval within 30 days or the next meeting. http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=9530 Citizen Bruce Meeks filed a Request for Review with the Attorney General and they agreed to investigate: 42623 FI Let Meeks alleges: The 5/24/16 meeting did not have a quorum The only […]
By: Diane Benjamin Former Alderwoman Judy Stearns spoke during public comment last night. Mayor Renner broke HIS own rules and responded to her comments. Since he responded, so do she, at which time he called her out-of-order. Stearns was there to talk about the majority of the Council not representing the citizens of Bloomington. She […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m reading a great book called Anatomy of the State. Shock: “We The People” aren’t the government and government is not for “We The People”. Look no farther than the State of Illinois, now close to its second year of no budget. Mike Madigan is threatening 4 years of no budget because […]
By: Diane Benjamin The agenda screw-up from last Monday will be fixed Friday at a special meeting of the Bloomington City Council. They aren’t approving just one liquor license, they are approving two! Of course, approving the release of the verbatim audio and written account of the illegal Executive Session isn’t on the agenda. On […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph needs to explain why an alleged Open Meetings Act violation against the McLean County Health Department is so much more important than the one they also reported this week against the City of Bloomington. That story was quickly buried on their website – comments were NEVER allowed. Comments ARE allowed […]
Tari, It’s wonderful that the Illinois Policy Institute rated Bloomington’s website 100% on their 10 point scale. It’s great that citizens can see information without filing FOIA requests. But that’s just a website Tari, and only 10 things IPI thinks are important. You now have the opportunity to prove you are really transparent. (Of course, […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Central Illinois Regional Airport is owned by taxpayers. It isn’t a private company doing whatever it wants – it just acts like it. The meeting minutes aren’t posted on their website. No agendas and no meeting dates either. That means they are violation of the Open Meetings Act! I thought CIRA […]
By: Diane Benjamin Total spending by vendor is NOT available on the County website. This means nobody at the County really knows where taxpayer money is spent! Numerous committees approve their own bills for payment. The only place we can see them is by month and by committee. NO totals – even by committee. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Standard Operating Procedure Did you notice our illustrious Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, never prosecuted corruption in the Chicago Police Department? She finally called on the Department of Justice to investigate when a judge ordered the video of a cop shooting a black guy released after a “blogger” forced the issue. Note: It […]
By: Diane Benjamin Don’t miss the update: http://blnnews.com/2015/11/04/more-on-the-illegal-meeting/ Today an illegal meeting was held at City Hall. David Hales has divided the Council into groups of three to meet on various issues. Instead of being open and transparent by discussing City business at City Council meetings, they are meeting with no public notification as required […]
By: Diane Benjamin I wrote previously about filing a Request for Review with the Illinois Attorney General. Coliseum Management is refusing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act Request. Details here: http://blnnews.com/2015/02/06/coliseum-investigated-by-attorney-general/ As the Council considers spending another $2,510,00 on the less than 10 years old Coliseum, they need to consider how Central Illinois […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Coliseum Management has refused to turn over documents I requested under the Freedom of Information Act. I asked for the payroll for calendar year 2014 and various Micros reports for events held in the building. (the City owns the Micros equipment) I even included rulings from the Attorney General’s office saying […]
by: Diane Benjamin Reasons why: She will never prosecute any corruption in Illinois unless it’s okay with her daddy Her Public Access Office created to protect citizens from government is a joke. Ruling shouldn’t take many months or years Elect Paul Schimpf instead: Veteran Military lawyer Assisted Iraqi attorneys prosecuting Saddam Hussein Want term limits? Term limit Lisa Madigan! […]
Attorney General, Wanting Open and Transparent Government was a great idea. God knows Illinois suffers from more corruption than most other states, but lip services doesn’t fix the problems. You created the Public Access Office to give citizens a remedy for holding government accountable. If the office worked, Illinois would be a better place to […]
Attorney General Lisa Madigan fails to protect the people of Illinois. If corruption is too big for her to handle, she should step aside. We can’t even hold local governments accountable because of her Public Access Office. It shouldn’t take a year of more to get an opinion! 60% of Freedom of Information Act […]
by Diane Benjamin When I filed the latest Open Meetings Act violation against the Library Board (http://blnnews.com/2013/09/05/the-illegal-library-board-meeting/), I made it clear to the Attorney General’s Office that 2 previous Open Meetings Act violations were still outstanding – one from over a year ago. What good does having a State Office charged with protecting the citizens […]
Update: I sent a copy of this post to the guy who was suppose to issue a final ruling before the election. He finally issued it: 23271 rfr o vio mun The only remaining question is: What will the City now release? I hear they don’t want to release anything. Personnel issues, union contract negotiations, maybe land purchases or […]
by: Diane Benjamin Polls show Lisa Madigan could easily defeat Governor Quinn if a primary election for 2014 was held today. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the following information was received: Lisa Madigan was originally sworn into office as Illinois Attorney General in January 2003. At that time, this office had 718 employees on payroll, as […]
I spoke this morning to the Attorney General’s Office (7/30/12). Bloomington is responding to Request For Review today. The Attorney General will forward a copy of the response to me when they receive it. by Diane Benjamin I thought the Pantagraph was going to file – Pantagraph?
