By: Diane Benjamin Thursday the Normal Planning Commission will approve destroying a single family neighborhood: https://www.normalil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4822 Everyone on that commission is appointed by Chris Koos to do his bidding. No one represents citizens because citizens can’t even know who Koos appoints until after the Council votes. It won’t matter how many citizens show up to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is another chart from the BNWRD financial statements. Since the source is the Economic Development Council, all local governments have the same information: Unit 5 has almost 300 more employees now than they had in 2014. That would make sense is they had more students. They don’t! https://blnnews.com/2023/11/01/unit-5-has-lost-1447-students-since-2016/ For the 2013-2014 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Everybody occasionally gets sucked in by things they see on the internet. Everybody should do more research before they post anything. (including me!) Two days ago the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council posted this on Facebook: . Ever heard of Pheabs? It didn’t take much research to find out who they are, the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Meeting docs: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/31937 In this story about Bloomington spending: https://blnnews.com/2019/01/26/bloomington-bills-for-monday/ I listed 4 payments to the EDC for $1600 each. It looks like Renner, Buragas, Mathy, and Tyus won the One Voice trip this year to Washington DC. Buragas is leaving the Council April 30th and Tyus is the brand new Assistant […]
I found this on the City website under Staff Responses: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16236 By: Diane Benjamin Update to this story: https://blnnews.com/2018/03/23/bloomington-more-one-voice/ I FOIA’d the receipts to see why the cost was different for Black, Renner, and Rasmussen. Black drove himself to Chicago and flew from there to DC. Rasmussen left on a flight at 6:26 in the morning […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bill and Payroll for Monday: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16156 One Voice is an annual trip to Washington DC to beg for money. Instead of meeting with Illinois representatives IN Illinois, taxpayers are forced to pay for this farce. Just for Bloomington – 4 people went to Washington DC. Each was charged $1600 by Economic Development Council […]
By: Diane Benjamin Followup to yesterday’s story: https://blnnews.com/2018/03/16/hum-uptown-circle/ As reported yesterday, this new building in Uptown has no tenants on the first floor. The Town of Normal is renting the entire second floor: According to the Pantagraph from 7/4/2016: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/normal-eyes-design-contract-for-office-space/article_9d3ad5b1-f04d-5709-a834-2d10fe6db9eb.html The town will lease 13,780 square feet of office space for 15 years, with renewal options, […]
By: Diane Benjamin How did the Economic Development Council lose $298.319 in 2015 and another $326,863 in 2016? Spending more than they take in! From the 2016 tax return: With losses like their’s, what kind of help did they provide? We now know how much Kyle Ham was being paid in 2016: PDF page 10 […]
By: Diane Benjamin So yesterday Kyle Ham’s resignation from the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council was announced. Of course he went on the junket to DC, paid by taxpayers: https://blnnews.com/2018/03/09/your-tax-dollars-at-work/ It looks like him on the far left. The EDC gets their money from government, that would be your taxes. They are totally unaccountable to you for […]
By: Diane Benjamin More info at: https://www.bnbiz.org/news/one-voice-projects-set-march-trip/ One Voice in Washington DC begging for money – $1,600 each plus other expenses:
By: Diane Benjamin On January 19th I reported three payments of $1,600 to the Blooming-Normal Economic Development Council: https://blnnews.com/2018/01/19/mondays-bills-foias-filed/ The three payments are for Tari Renner, Scott Black, and Steve Rasmussen to go on the One Voice trip to Washington DC: https://www.bnbiz.org/programs/one-voice/ The County and the Town of Normal will probably also be […]
