By: Ulysses Arn The status quo at the College of DuPage cost the taxpayers dearly and has resulted in the states second largest school being embroiled in scandal. The status quo is no more at the college thanks to a new board majority of reformers, several investigations(sadly, but needed), the ouster so far of two […]
More owing added at the end. By: Diane Benjamin The following information was received under the Freedom of Information act. Evidently the various departments keep track of their own receivables. That means they are responsible for collecting their own debts. This note from the City was included with the FOIA response: The information requested in […]
by: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner and David Hales continue to proclaim the City has cut staff. Judge for yourself: From the payroll report in Bills and Payroll for approval at Monday’s Council meeting: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9024 Bi-Weekly Payroll shows 448 employees Weekly Payroll shows 423 employees That’s a total of 871 employees. Some are seasonal, so compare […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Bloomington’s Communications Director Nora Dukowitz decided to ask a judge to declare knocking on a door illegal, I decided to do a little research about her. It wasn’t difficult because I received her application to the City of Bloomington last month under the Freedom of Information Act. Nora also still has her resume […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nora Dukowitz wants a court to approve why she doesn’t do her job. The Cities 92.9 reporter wanted questions answered and she refused to respond. Since Nora refused to see him at City Hall, he knocked on her door. She didn’t answer (no surprise), so he left his business card. That’s it, no stalking. […]
Evidently Hales hired a Water Director who wasn’t qualified! Imagine that. By: Diane Benjamin I know it’s a lot to ask, but maybe the local government-run press (bird-cager liner and 90 yrs on air) could every once a while realize they are being lied to. The latest incident occurred this week when Bloomington City Manger […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today I had some work to do in town at one of my landscaping jobs. Yes, I do that too. Need help – email me! Two things caught my attention. First the corner of Ireland Grove Road and Towanda Barnes. A few months ago the City of Bloomington created 2 turn lanes […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Determining how many employees the City of Bloomington has is a problem since the numbers reported often conflict with each other. The mayor and some candidates keep saying Bloomington has severely cut the staff, some candidates (Renner’s picks) want to hire more people. I found a website with the number of employees […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday former Mayor Jesse Smart spent 2 hours on WJBC – mostly talking about local government. I can only think of three things he said that I agree with: 1) Government needs to spend tax dollars locally. His example was printing brochures for the BCPA. He said they are printed in Champaign. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The retirement of the HR Director last year, and the payout for accumulated sick days, appears to be in Benefits – 2015. The outsourced legal expenses appear to be in Contractual. It’s all money sent outside of Bloomington for legal work. Details included in Book 1 may explain more if you want […]
By: Diane Benjamin The information below is included in Book 1 of the Bloomington budget: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8224 The amount included in the budget is also shown. I believe the Bloomington Election Commission is also housed here, but they aren’t mentioned below.
By: Diane Benjamin Nothing has been disclosed yet, but I guarantee the proposed budget will increase at least 2%. Tari has mentioned numerous times that costs are up 2%, so in his mind he has no other choice but to increase the budget. Meanwhile, median income per household in the country has been decreasing for […]
I over-heard a guy talking about being stopping by the Bloomington Police last night – suspected of drunk driving. He was on his way home from work around 11:00 pm on the west side. He was pulled over by one officer and another arrived as backup. After a license and registration check, the officer asked […]
Tuesday = still in not complying with a court order By: Diane Benjamin The last court date in my lawsuit against the City of Bloomington was January 28, 2015. At that time, Judge Foley ruled that some information withheld by the City was illegally redacted. She gave the City 2 weeks to forward the information […]
By: Diane Benjamin The vile comments made by Tari Renner were posted to this story: http://blnnews.com/2015/02/10/does-tari-know-that-judy-isnt-running/ IWU students have commented at the last two Council meetings. The two took turns attacking Alderwoman Stearns. The obvious question is why since she isn’t running for reelection! Review last year – the answer is clear. Tari is getting […]
By: Diane Benjamin The December City Manager’s Report is now on-line: http://www.cityblm.org//modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=8147 The City goal: Measuring Performance – Targeting Results The report by the Police only has one chart comparing current violent crime to a 4 year average. The property crimes chart is only for a year. I’d like to see year-to-year comparisons so performance […]
By: Diane Benjamin The first point citizens need to understand is this: The City made garbage and bulk waste an Enterprise Fund so they could say it has to pay for itself. Since it doesn’t, prices have to be raised. The Coliseum is an Enterprise Fund, but it’s not required to pay for itself. Why? […]
Check the receipts! Some show tax, some show exempt. By: Diane Benjamin Read the original post here: http://blnnews.com/2014/12/19/make-sure-you-are-calm-before-reading/ I had some help from an outraged reader, Kevin Gerrard, on a Freedom of Information Act request. All the meals came from PCard charges, similar to a debit card but the City just gets a statement […]
By: Diane Benjamin These three Aldermen are going to hold a budget discussion on January 27th. http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=17&recordid=3139 (Maybe they read BlnNews, even though publicly they deny it) Remember last year? Did you attend one of these discussion and make your voice heard? Did you say “RAISE MY TAXES”? If that’s what you said, you got […]
By: Diane Benjamin The ammo purchase is back, same quantities and same price. I emailed the police for an explanation. My research was no apples to apples with what they wanted to buy. Below is there response. They referenced my article in their response: ___________________________________________________________________ Hello Mrs. Benjamin, We have done research pertaining to the attached […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the Council meeting last Monday night, one of the FOIA requests I mentioned Bloomington has ignored is $10,000 listed by them as “Loan To Employee To Create”. http://blnnews.com/2014/12/10/bloomington-wont-answer-mayor-transparency/ I filed a Freedom of Information Request last October for an explanation. Today I got an answer. (VERY late) 2 City of Bloomington […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve done many Coliseum stories in the past year and changes have been made to the financial statements produced by Central Illinois Arena Management (CIAM) because of errors I have pointed out. There are still more and the management fee CIAM pays itself doesn’t make any sense. Worse though is Concession Sales. […]
The clerk contacted me. They can’t find this FOIA Request. Multiple copies and they lost them, imagine my surprise. By: Diane Benjamin On Monday I spoke during public comment at the Bloomington City Council meeting. I posted the video yesterday. Below are details on one Freedom of Information Act request the City of Bloomington has […]
By: Diane Benjamin See all bills and payroll here to be approved at tonight’s Council meeting: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=7660 LYNN MONTEI ASSOCIATES (The lady who ran the Council retreat) CHECK TOTAL 10,419.94 A new law firm: HOLLAND & KNIGHT LLP CHECK TOTAL 43,613.62 Springfield Law firm – Jeff Jurgens CHECK TOTAL 54,686.98 (Note: The City does have […]
by: Diane Benjamin The 3 stooges (previously used to describe City leadership) isn’t enough people. Therefore the non-numerical term “Clowns” will now be used. “Lighting the Evergreen Tree in Withers Park” : It’s a CHRISTMAS TREE City of Bloomington! Okay, it’s really the Downtown Bloomington Association doing this, but they get most of their money from […]
By: Diane Benjamin It should be clear by now that Bloomington doesn’t want taxpayers to know what they do. I didn’t file a lawsuit because Renner is transparent. The City didn’t hire a communications director to communicate, Nora is paid to filter and spin information. Now there is more proof – h/t JS. At the […]
$10,000,000 borrowed to fixed the Bloomington roads hasn’t been enough. MANY roads could shatter bones and bust tire alignment. But Bloomington has new plans: Individual_Projects How much did that cost? Evidently City employees can’t do the work. . . . Deferring maintenance again? Why not, it’s always more fun to do new stuff than fix […]
By: Diane Benjamin Transparency has a strange meaning to Bloomington. They love to tout how transparent they are, but their version of transparency means knowing what they want you to know, not truth. How transparent was Paradigm? Weren’t you led to believe Bloomington wasn’t involved until after Rob Fazzini left the Council? (See previous posts) […]
by: Diane Benjamin One prominent story the City of Bloomington uses to push for more money is “We cut over 100 jobs”. It was nice of them to include a chart with the financial statements for the year ending 4/30/14. The statements will be discussed at tonight’s Council meeting. Here’s the chart: (click it to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Here are some more emails I received under the Freedom of Information Act from the Town of Normal. The first two shows again that Bloomington was involved in the Paradigm deal BEFORE Rob Fazzini quit the Council. Once again, in Illinois this is not a crime! Ethical? Since when does that matter! […]
by: Diane Benjamin The email below was sent to me by Tari in April of last year. I almost believed he wanted transparency. Typos left on purpose. Tari Renner <tarirenner88@yahoo.com> 4/12/13 to me Thanks so much for filing the complain against the City on transparency!! Way to go – we all owe you a debt of […]
By: Diane Benjamin I get surprises with Freedom of Information Act requests to the City of Bloomington. Sometimes emails disclose who your representatives really are, like the one of Renner saying citizens who comment at Council meetings “say all kinds of nonsense”. http://blnnews.com/2014/11/07/what-tari-thinks-of-citizens-who-speak-at-council-meetings/ Doesn’t Renner sound like the MIT professor just exposed for calling the […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was in court again this morning. The City of Bloomington had filed another motion to dismiss, the judge denied it. City lawyers seem to think they can write the law however fits them. The judge didn’t agree. Meanwhile, taxpayers of Bloomington have most likely spent thousands of dollars to NOT be […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is one of the debt tables I misinterpreted. Government accounting is different from the private sector. To me, as a CPA, listing a payment from 2020-2024 means that payment will be made for 5 years. To government, that amount is the total. This table is from the CAFR – the financial […]
By: Diane Benjamin The re-scheduled retreat for the City of Bloomington is going to be held Friday and Saturday. It is happening at the Den – no live streaming will be available. What does Renner and Hales have to hide? I’ve seen the room, the chairs don’t look all that comfortable. So why are they […]
By Diane Benjamin What do the taxpayers subsidize in Bloomington and what pays for itself – or actually makes money? The City was nice enough to provide a picture in the financial statements just released. Are your tax dollars going where you want them to, or a least where they should? Click it to enlarge! […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today the City of Bloomington Annual Account as of 4/30/14 was published in the Pantagraph. If it wasn’t required by law, I’m sure the City wouldn’t do it. How much did the Pantagraph earn from the City of Bloomington? $126,344.49 It’s easy to see why investigative reporting is banned. Maybe the Pantagraph […]
by: Diane Benjamin My only neighbors are critters and fields. I barely remember dealing with obnoxious neighbors, living in the country has many advantages. A Bloomington resident isn’t thrilled with a neighbor. Looking at what appears to be a pile of junk has been deemed a COMPOST pile by the City. Who knew plastic composes! […]
by: Diane Benjamin I was in court again this morning. Nothing exciting happened, the case got continued until November 14th because the original judge was busy with another case. I do have many of the emails the City redacted in violation of the Freedom of Information Act. They gave them to me because they obviously […]
