By: Diane Benjamin Here Are The 13 Most Dangerous Places In Illinois After Dark As the sun goes down, crime tends to rise, and in these Illinois towns, you’ll want to be especially cautious. In no particular order, here are 13 places in The Prairie State that are quite dangerous after dark: http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/illinois/most-dangerous-towns-illinois/ East St […]
By: Diane Benjamin The taxpayers of Bloomington have no idea how much the Coliseum LOST last year because the City doesn’t want you to know. The year-end for the Coliseum was April 30th, no income and expense information has been released. (normally it is released in October) The Coliseum was a mess, so the City […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Central Illinois Regional Airport has their new website: CIRA.com Meeting dates, agenda’s, minutes etc can be found under “About the Airport” and then “Airport Authority”. Since I haven’t had time to follow them lately, I clicked on the November minutes and found this under Public Comments: The address is Bloomington. It’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin I have no idea why Bloomington needed a new website. The one they had worked far better than others in the area – especially the McLean County website. They built a new one anyway. Since I am a programmer, I know it’s very difficult to find all the problems when launching extensive […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hope they aren’t done with it – because it doesn’t go where you click. Why did Bloomington need a new website? The old one was pretty good except for the missing information. What was missing? The financial statements for the year ending 4/30/16 Any reports of tax receipts since Hales quit […]
By: Diane Benjamin PCard Spending for approval tonight: Why are taxpayers forced to fund holiday gifts for a Museum? Anybody know where these Christmas lights are? The Fire Department did the traveling this time: The minutes from the November Council retreat are included in the packet: HERE They start on PDF page 38. EVERY retreat […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal threw away up to $2.5 million last week to get Portillos to locate in Normal. The Normal Town Council was told Portillos would be a destination – people would drive from 100’s of miles away. Meanwhile, Champaign got one for free. Who is at fault? Listen to Kyle Ham, CEO of […]
By: Diane Benjamin . November was not a good month for idiots with guns in the City of Bloomington. Congrats to the Bloomington Police for making two arrests in separate incidents. . Below is a list of incidents I compiled from various sources, I could have easily missed some. The home invasion on 11/9 is […]
By: Diane Benjamin See Part 1 here: https://blnnews.com/2016/11/30/connect-transit-lunacy-part-1/ See the Board packet here: November-22-2016-regular-board-packet Below is a few items paid in September and October. Remember, they knew by this time the State of Illinois was late paying them and they were in danger of running out of money. I have no idea what a Vault […]
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 The 2016 fiscal year for Bloomington ended April 30, 2016. The only financial information issued so far is the treasurer’s report: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=36 Issuing financial reports normally takes a ridiculous 6 months. That would be October. It’s now the end of November and still nothing. Did the City finance department screw up the […]
By: Diane Benjamin If the massive tax and spending increases Renner and Council have handed taxpayers aren’t evidence of a need for HUGE changes in Bloomington – Monday night you give you another reason. A 3rd TIF District! Did Bloomington elect a Chris Koos for mayor? Koos has FIVE TIF districts. He has buried Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari’s signature on a City of Bloomington document – PDF page 8: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11529 Another City Signature from September PDF page 5: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11309 Below are various pages from the petitions submitted by Renner. http://www.becvote.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TariRenner.pdf Look at the printing. Sometimes the A’s are capital, sometimes they aren’t. The same applies to E’s. Now look […]
By: Diane Benjamin I remember great angst from the Council during discussion on privatizing garbage in Bloomington. Even citizens wanted government service because private wouldn’t be as good. Seriously? Private MUST succeed because it’s their money at risk. Government has no incentive to provide the best service at the best price because they DON’T have […]
Alderman Scott Black is the organizer of this event. He wants to show all elected officials can work together. Scott: the Council has NO history of working together! Former Alderwoman Judy Stearns was completely ignored when she presented opinions. Ditto Alderman Kevin Lower. The Budget Task Force was ignored, so was the the Citizens Summit. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight’s festivities of the Bloomington City Council start with feeding themselves. 3 meetings are scheduled so the main event at 7:00 doesn’t waste time discussing the issues. It’s much easier to pass the new tax levy when the discussion already took place earlier. Meeting #1 – Executive Session (secret meeting) The City […]
By: Diane Benjamin With campaigns now beginning, maybe Tari will mention for the 1000th time how many fewer employees Bloomington has now. Truth? Below is what was reported as payroll in 2015 and 2016 for approval at the first meeting in November. Tari claims the payroll goes up roughly 2% every year. (whether citizens see […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday the judge heard arguments on the Motions to Dismiss filed by both CIAM and the City of Bloomington. Both want this case to go away before I find anything else. The contract calls for the City to receive 15% on catering – to date I have NO catering information, especially backstage […]
By: Diane Benjamin On Monday Judge Foley will hear arguments on Motions to Dismiss filed by both the City of Bloomington and CIAM. Both are claiming I have the documents I filed the lawsuit for. I am going to prove I don’t. Should be fun! Come if you can, I love the support from citizens […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) East Side Highway meeting tonight: 6:00-9:00 Central Catholic High School 2) If you aren’t protesting your property assessed value – you are a sheep being led to slaughter. I’m sure it says how and where to protest on the letter you received. 3) I finally listened to the video from Monday’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington included a newsletter with October Water/Sewer/Garbage bills. You can see it here: HERE There are a number of problems with the newsletter. I wonder whose job it is to put it together and include it with the bills. The Communications Director? First, the newsletter sent in October is […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s old news now that VenuWorks fired the Coliseum Manager. VenuWorks found the fraud, the City of Bloomington never would have. They completely ignored the old management and never blinked when the audited financial statements showed MUCH bigger loses than CIAM ever did. Of course, the City never checked to see if […]
By: Diane Benjamin The good news is Judge Foley is still hearing the case. She is familiar with the settlement discussions, so I’m much more comfortable with her in charge. Since both the City of Bloomington and CIAM filed motions to dismiss, we had to set another hearing date for those arguments. I was ready […]
Both the City Attorneys and CIAM’s Attorneys have filed motions to dismiss. I have a surprise for them on Monday! ______________________________________________ By: Diane Benjamin Monday is yet another court date for my lawsuit against the City of Bloomington and Central Illinois Arena Management (CIAM) as an intervening party. http://webapp.mcleancountyil.gov/webapps/PublicAccess/TwoWeekDocketCivil.htm Judge Foley gave the City and […]
By: Diane Benjamin The August Connect Transit report has been posted. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4zAZemF_qQuOUc3ckRxVGZfUWM/view Celebrate now – Connect Transit had a company picnic – and it only cost you: See PDF page 2: Last August Connect had 216,299 riders. This August Connect has 175,700 riders. Last August an average of 28.8 people per hour boarded a bus. […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this previous post for a link to the WJBC interview: https://blnnews.com/2016/09/29/tari-on-wjbc-wiggling/ Tari took Alderman Jim Fruin’s advice and asked citizens to mail their health insurance plan summary to him. MAIL? Seriously, who mails anything! Okay, for the few of the computer challenged, put a copy in the mail to him. The […]
Guess who returned! Nora, since the media refuses to inform citizens, somebody has to. It’s the LAW: _______________________________________________ By: Diane Benjamin There used to be three Facebook pages and a couple of Twitter accounts dedicated to attacking me and some other local conservatives. Issues were never discussed, just attacks. The pages had very few followers, […]
By: Diane Benjamin A month or so ago I heard a rumor about the City of Bloomington’s garbage trucks. The rumor was that at least some of the trucks were ordered with air conditioning by mistake. When the trucks arrived the air conditioner was taken out. So, I did a FOIA request: The first response […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight the Normal Town Council will get a presentation on their newly released financial statements. Included in the presentation is all correspondence from the auditor. Here is the difference between Normal and Bloomington: I used to get the same information from Bloomington – last year they denied my FOIA. If you don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Within a 1/2 hour of receiving the Coliseum Concession documents, I had the numbers plugged into the spreadsheet shown in this story: https://blnnews.com/2016/08/26/bombshell-sit-down-before-reading/ It wasn’t difficult and I did it for FREE! Last year David Hales earned almost $240,000: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=10245 Hales didn’t have time in more than seven years as City Manager […]
By: Diane Benjamin My original lawsuit against the City of Bloomington for Coliseum Concession reports and payroll was filed September 21, 2015. It goes back farther than that because I had previously filed with the Attorney General’s Public Access office. Those documents go back to at least January 2015. I foolishly though Lisa Madigan’s office […]
By: Diane Benjamin If government wants to help a segment of people: It has to steal money from some to hand to others It has to remove any incentive for personal responsibility It has to weaken the economy by not allowing earners to keep their money It has to pay bureaucrats to administer programs It […]
By: Diane Benjamin Some months ago a presentation at a Bloomington City Council meeting talked about the ObamaCare Luxury Tax and how the City might be hit with HIGH penalties. Some of the aldermen had never heard of it. From this link: money.cnn.com/2015/12/18/news/economy/obamacare-cadillac-tax/ The tax has been delayed because people subject to the tax have […]
By: Diane Benjamin This item was pulled from the agenda by Tari Renner before Public Comment. He said he would explain later. Watch the video below – just hit PLAY. The packet for the meeting has this explanation of the change: That’s important because the Boards and Commissions post agendas and minutes and are required […]
By: Diane Benjamin August 2nd I wrote a story about Bloomington’s Liquor Commission: https://blnnews.com/2016/08/02/is-tari-declaring-himself-king/ Monday night Tari wants to be granted all power to enforce, permit, and control liquor in Bloomington. From the agenda: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11004 From the packet page 238: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11003 The only “confusion regarding the authority of the local” Liquor Commission has been FOLLOWING […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll for approval Monday night, obviously the money is already spent: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=10998 In case you always wondered how much the Fireworks show cost: http://www.manta.com/c/mm0jw7x/miand-inc Economic Development: No idea what he did for $5400. Anybody want to FOIA? Paid every month Paid every month Paid […]
By: Diane Benjamin I find it hilarious that Renner’s claim to economic development victories include two businesses stolen from Normal: Dick’s Sporting Goods and a Kroger’s Superstore. Both wanted more room, more room just happen to available in Bloomington – of course tax rebates didn’t hurt. He still claims Greentop, Hy-vee, and now Ovation theaters. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington Finance Department posted a summary as 4/30/16 – the end of the City’s fiscal year: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=10958 The information is un-audited and tax receipts from State sources lag months behind, but the 63 pages provides a good snapshot of where finances were at the end of April. Below is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Almost four years ago, Bloomington voted for Tari Renner as Mayor. He was elected with 5005 votes. Total registered voters were 46,740. The election was stolen by the few people who bothered to vote, a lot of them IWU students who have graduated and left Bloomington. Kevin Lower was elected with 615 […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t A local businessman If you leave along Clinton in Bloomington and are experiencing flooding problems, blame your City. See the pics below – note some show well established weeds blocking drainage – not to mention lots of debris. How about all that hired summer help spend the last half hour every […]
