By: Diane Benjamin Proof COVID is over, Bloomington employees are back to traveling: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/27940/637884879474800000 Go to PDF page 130 and following see for yourself. Don’t miss this one: $6754.00 for ONE Conference. I could say I hope more than one person went for that price, but then I’d have to ask why more than one […]
By: Diane Benjamin Recap: Grant Walch was appointed Ward 1 Alderman – Jeff Crabill and Julie Emig voted against him. Evidently they didn’t like replacing a self-identified progressive alderman with a more conservative one. Road funding isn’t close to what it needs to be. The $7 million was increased to $9 million, factor in inflation […]
By: Diane Benjamin Making budget cuts isn’t a matter of cutting BIG things. It a myriad of small things that add up to big bucks. Here’s one example: This pic is from Normal’s budget: Normal will be handing over $109,250 to the CVB and $100,000 to the EDC. Why is Bloomington also giving the EDC […]
By: Diane Benjamin’ I think the Grossinger Motors naming rights expire next year. It was a 5 year agreement in June of 2017. Expect something really original like Bloomington Arena to replace it. Of course that means new signage. Maybe the City can just paint the name on the building instead (don’t hold your breath). […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda for Monday: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1150&Inline=True Bloomington wants to rehab these two water tanks off Fort Jesse. The NEVER used water tower in the same area isn’t mentioned: https://blnnews.com/2015/08/04/more-ineptness/ Money was budgeted for this project – WAY more than what the project will cost: PDF page 185 Monday they are already spending what they […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-114 No BCPA event reports have been posted to the City website. Evidently I have to FOIA all of them. From this year’s budget: $1,700,000 of the Revenue is from Home Rule Sales Tax. Of that $840,206 goes to bond payments. See the complete BCPA presentation in the budget starting on PDF […]
By: Diane Benjamin Council is meeting tonight at 6:00 to clear the rest of December for Christmas. None of the event reports at the BCPA have been posted on line: https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-114 Evidently I have to FOIA all shows. Is the City afraid to tell citizens how much is lost to subsidized entertainment for the well […]
By: Diane Benjamin Three more Performance Fees at the BCPA are on Bills and Payroll tonight: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/27250/637727480979430000 On 11/12/21 there was only 1 show: The Brubeck Brothers Quartet The 11/17/21 was Shake & Holla Only two items are on the Regular Agenda: FY2021 ended 4/30/2021. Seven months later the Financial Statements are released. I wonder […]
By: Diane Benjamin I had to FOIA the event reports for all BCPA shows, they still aren’t posted to the City website. Below are 6 shows, every one of them lost money. The performance fee is not on the reports because the BCPA thinks other acts will want more money if they see what some […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two performance fee bills were paid last night for the BCPA: 9/29 was: Escape to Margaritaville 10/8 was: When Disco Was King Two other events were held earlier in September. Meanwhile, an events tab hasn’t even been created yet on the Bloomington website: https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-114 In previous years I had to FOIA these […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/26917/637667133834300000 Payroll shows 887 employees. Remember when Renner constantly reminded us the City only had 650 employees? Some of those 887 are seasonal and maybe part time employees. Below is what the City of Bloomington reported to the Illinois Comptroller as of 4/30/2020. Updated information as of 4/30/2021 should be available in […]
By: Diane Benjamin The event calendar for the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts is mostly blank. They do have one event scheduled for October. Unfortunately it is a fund raiser for themselves: https://www.artsblooming.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/13308/762 Remember the grand plans for the Creativity Center? Details here: https://blnnews.com/2019/01/26/what-no-one-in-bloomington-talks-about/ The City even hired a fundraiser for the Friends of […]
In case you don’t see the comments on BlnNews.com, here’s one that might epitomize Jackie Gunderson supporters. To vote for a socialist brain cells have to be missing. I do know who made this comment, usually I just file his filth for future reference. This one was too much fun though. My response: Thanks for […]
By: Diane Benjamin I heard Jenn Carrillo handed out candy bars to buy votes two years ago. Now it’s pizza. Maybe in two years they will have to move up to ribeye steaks. At least they provided a partial list of candidates who do not believe voters are intelligent enough to know socialism fails every […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and payroll 7-13-2020 A total of $12,599,344.25 will be approved tonight. Unlike Normal, payroll is actually listed. $5,216,642.14 of that amount is employees. $1,633,607.61 is Wire transfers listed at the end, not enough details is available to know what most of them are. I don’t remember the last time somebody asked about […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington City Manger Tim Gleason didn’t answer my email from yesterday: The “Sorry, no hello” is an insider joke. Tim Gleason has always been straight forward with me, this time I don’t see it. What the whole “parade” shenanigans amounts to is City employees do not understand your tax dollars aren’t their […]
Renner’s open house will be by phone today: I can’t imagine what you could ask Tari, – oh maybe why the BCPA is not transparent? Wasn’t Renner Mayor Transparency? https://blnnews.com/2020/03/20/bcpa-resorts-to-deception/ How about telling Tari to scrap the $738,000 STUDY for O’Neil Park! They can no longer afford it!
By: Diane Benjamin Since the BCPA is shut down, staff had time to do event reports. Well, they sort of did reports. To disguise how much money they are losing, most of the reports below don’t show any REVENUE. Of course the Artist Fees aren’t on the reports either. You are looking at the reason […]
By: Diane Benjamin Events all over Bloomington-Normal are cancelled because of the Wuhan Corona Virus. The BCPA cancelled shows through August 12th. Taxpayers are likely cheering that one, months of no money losing shows! Are the employees going to be laid off until then? WEEK compiled a Bloomington list: https://week.com/2020/03/12/bloomington-shuts-down-bcpa-calls-off-arena-events-due-to-covid-19/ Connect Transit still transports people […]
A reader located the missing artist fees. The BCPA should know by now they will lose money paying more than $10,000 for an artist! Only 1 show made money! By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1784 A lot of reports were recently posted. None of them have the artist fee. I added a few that I could quickly […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23753 Looks impressive, RIGHT? Not so fast, see below. The artist fees are blank again! (see previous stories) https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23691 Obviously this show lost money just like most of the others. See the event as promoted here: https://www.artsblooming.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/10963/710?curdate=12-13-2019&curm=12&cury=2019
By: Diane Benjamin Jamie Mathy urged citizens to look at the upcoming shows at the BCPA during Aldermen comments at last night’s Council meeting. He claimed a show that costs $100 in Chicago could be only $30 here. See upcoming events: https://www.artsblooming.org/events/calendar Meanwhile, the last event report posted for the BCPA was a show held […]
By: Diane Benjamin No bills were approved at the last council meeting since it was held off-schedule for the holidays. Monday night $14,244,476.43 is up for approval. https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23691 As always, there was extensive travel. A lot of it is in the PCard spending, see PDF page 271 and following. 2020 starts where previous years […]
A READER put this together for me! He took the show recaps in this story and looked up the artist fees: https://blnnews.com/2019/12/11/bcpa-reports-finally-posted/ He saved me a lot of time, I really appreciate it. A previous reader said the Pirate Penelope show didn’t have artist fees. Since it appears the artist fees were not included in […]
By: Diane Benjamin In Bloomington and Normal government believes they are required to spend your money to create economic development. Peoria evidently doesn’t. Maybe it’s because Peoria is too broke – they have made significant budget cuts. Maybe broke government is the key to allowing the private sector to flourish. See this story: https://www.pjstar.com/news/20191210/kim-blickenstaff-purchases-stake-in-peoria-armory-plans-renovation Excerpts: […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1051&Inline=True Does the highlighted name look familiar? https://blnnews.com/2019/11/04/bloomington-fireman-5-gets-off/ You might have missed the Edgar County Watchdogs version: https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2019/11/illinois-state-university-police-let-fireman-off-of-alleged-dui-due-to-his-employment/ The BCPA staff uses this building instead of the the BCPA offices. No event reports have been posted for the BCPA since my last FOIA. Citizens have no idea what happens in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unlike the BCPA who think event reports aren’t important, VenuWorks posts theirs. This proves the difference between a company that can be fired and City employees who know nobody cares if they do their job. The BCPA hasn’t posted any event reports since the last time I FOID’d them. Thanks for the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The last event report posted by the BCPA was from October 2: https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1784 Are they: hiding losses? afraid to show what happening at this TAXPAYER owned building? on a long vacation? way too busy to do a simple report? coming to work late and leaving early? Taxpayers deserve to know what the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Obviously the mission of the BCPA is not to make money or even attempt to break even! No event reports have been posted since the last time I FOIA’d them. The Carole King show was close to a month ago – still no report. It gets better! This show is FREE, I’m […]
By: Diane Benjamin The numbers for the Cultural District were included BELOW Parks and Rec. Thanks to the person who pointed that one out. Update to this story: https://blnnews.com/2019/10/30/hiding-bcpa-numbers/ https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23337 PDF page 195 PDF page 196 Can somebody explain why this is a great idea? Why is attendance way down? It isn’t Quality of Life […]
See update: https://blnnews.com/2019/10/31/update-to-hiding-bcpa-numbers/ By: Diane Benjamin Read this one slow! Lots of info to absorb. The ONLY mention of the BCPA in the just released financial statements is the number of employees – PDF page 194 https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23337 First, note the BCPA is part of Parks and Recreation. Second, celebrate the number of employees has decreased. […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23355 I’m not sure all these PCard purchases were reflect in event expenses. Walking With My Ancestors doesn’t show any catering or concessions: https://blnnews.com/2019/10/22/bcpa-as-predicted-foia-denied/ Of course the $1500 for the announcement party wasn’t included. Why does government send “flowers” and pretend they are sympathetic? Using taxpayer money to express condolences is fraud. […]
It must be too difficult to list each event held at the BCPA separately. The posting buried two shows by posting all on the same link. Normally each show has it’s own link. These two actually made money, one would think they would want people to see them: Since September this brings income to $18,083.26 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Evidently I have to file a FOIA to get event reports posted. They will be posted and then my FOIA will be denied because they are posted. I wonder if they would ever be posted without a FOIA? So far only one report from a month ago is available: https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1784 This looks […]
Take your pick: (or don’t)
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22247 Tari and the employees had fun: Add the previous Hawaii expenses of $1,968.00, and Tari’s trip cost $3,892.50. https://blnnews.com/2019/04/18/off-to-hawaii/ This is what the Pantagraph reported: Pantagraph.com twin-city-mayors-focus-on-transit-climate-at-conference The cost of the CONFERENCE was $950.00. The paper didn’t include that part. What did taxpayers get? The bill? Remember the FREE entertainment […]
By: Diane Benjamin That would be – sucking up your tax dollars! June event reports: http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1702 Read the Executive Director’s Comments. Some shows were Free Free Free! How did the “free” Gothic at Midnight show have revenues of exactly $10,000? Bloomington is now pretending to be Normal where people have to be lured downtown […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hear public comment will be worth watching at this meeting. Bring your own camera if you attend. Film the Council instead of the speaker. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22075 Note this is ONLY for the hotel: What is BEDC? BASIC Economic Development courses. Was there a course on government getting out of the way to create […]
By: Diane Benjamin For May 2019 the BCPA has only posted one report: http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1702 More proof government isn’t capable of “entertainment”. The poor are forced to subsidize losers at both the BCPA and the Coliseum. When is the Council going to figure it out?
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21875 The BCPA has a show tomorrow night, they NEVER pay this much for an artist: https://itkt.choicecrm.net/templates/BLOM/?cts_legacy_app All the colored dots are tickets still available, the cheapest seats are $49, they go up to $64: Jamie Mathy went to a conference in Denver. Room rates are normally $160-$180. Billy Tyus has a […]
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