By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington and Normal are the only cities doing their own garbage pickup in the area. According to the Pantagraph, Normal did their own investigation of rates. They declared NO money could be saved by privatizing garbage pickup. See the chart here: http://www.pantagraph.com/graphic-waste-collection-fees-services/pdf_a5d93a81-e7db-537c-b830-c5fafd8a34bc.html The Pantagraph must not have noticed some of those other cities […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since the biggest expense the City of Bloomington has is employees, I took a look at the employees in 2012 and four years later – 2016. The payroll was $6,196,593 higher in 2016 than 2012. But why? Total compensation per year is on the City website: http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-170 2017 is really for the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington finally released the financial statements for April 30, 2016. The TIF report still hasn’t been released and neither has a separate audited statement on the Coliseum. Maybe another year? Two? At this point, what difference does it make? It’s much easier to read the information from the Comptroller’s site. Total Full […]
By: Diane Benjamin The budget Tari Renner inherited when he became mayor was $167 million. (2014) Page 3 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=5104 2015 budget was $180.4 million Page 3 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=7075 This took 13.4 million out of the local economy 2016 budget was 186.3 million Page 15 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=9210 This took another 6.3 out of the local economy for a […]
By: Diane Benjamin From: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11982 Tari Renner is right – the City is paying around 750 employees! Look through the list and note all the temporary labor purchased! Big government will never have enough employees, meanwhile service gets worse because BIG is inefficient. Local businesses need to ask why “Buy Local” doesn’t apply to the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council voted last night to spend $894,537.07 over 5 years for timekeeping and scheduling software. Claims were made about reducing a massive amount of paperwork. Nobody bothered to ask how many employees will no longer be needed with this massive reduction of time and paperwork. Nicole showed a pic […]
By: Diane Benjamin Sick Leave Buy Back will cost Bloomington taxpayers for decades. New employees are no longer eligible as of (I think) 2013. All other employees could be getting paid for unused sick leave when they retire. The City is too chicken to tell employees it isn’t fair for them to get a benefit […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari: Congratulate your Economic Development people for bring Hy-Vee to town. It just cost you a Cub Foods. I wonder who Green Top Grocery will put out of business? How many hotels were put out of business when Normal decided they needed a Marriott? What will happen when Normal’s second hotel opens? Still want a hotel in downtown […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this story: http://blnnews.com/2015/04/29/austere-budget-short-staffed-really/ ? The opening and closing of a lane at Ireland Grove and Towanda Barnes continues, but I want you to remember the other part of the story. Two City employees were sent out to mow, one guy did while the other guy sat in the truck for almost 2 […]
By: Diane Benjamin I recently received a Freedom of Information Act Request on recently hired management by the City of Bloomington. Requested were applications and resumes, I also included David Hales. You can see what I received for Hales here: Hales, David A Before coming to Bloomington, Hales was Director of Finance/Administrative Services for West […]
