By: Diane Benjamin Last night’s Normal Town Council meeting was slightly over 4 hours. It started with a presentation by County Board Chair John McIntyre and County Administrator Camille Rodriguez pertaining to sales tax increase to fund mental health. That presentation took close to an hour. Was that on purpose to deflect from the budget […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.pantagraph.com/opinion/columnists/mike-matejka-normal-election-potholes-vs-progress/article_b11f20fe-e830-5d01-bc84-d912acc37bf5.html Anybody know why the guy who voted to build the Coliseum gets to write a column in the paper? Better yet, why does anybody listen to him when he not only voted against the will of the people but has never apologized for his taxpayer fleece? Of course Mike is campaigning […]
By: Diane Benajmin Something I found while looking for something else, this is dated in December of 2017: https://www.wjbc.com/2017/12/13/renner-bloomington-wont-be-sanctuary-city-mayor-sees-need-to-cut-personnel-costs-to-reduce-spending/ Excerpt: Monday night Jenn Carrillo’s Welcoming City Ordinance is on the agenda: Are you going to tell the Council not to approve this Tari? Change your mind? You now want Bloomington to be a sanctuary City […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.wglt.org/post/final-coliseum-defendant-pleads-guilty-misdemeanor-agrees-restitution#stream/0 The last Coliseum theft case was settled last week. The two main culprits got off with misdemeanor convictions while 2 low level employees who couldn’t afford to pay lawyers for years now have felony convictions. All 4 received plea deals, another defendant had all charges dropped. The City of Bloomington received […]
By: Diane Benjamin No, this has nothing to do with the election. It does have to do with Judge William Yoder. None of the news stories pertaining to the former Normal Police Officer who admitted stealing $12,000 said who the judge was. The only way I know is from a WGLT picture: https://www.wglt.org/post/former-normal-police-officer-pleads-guilty-theft-case#stream/0 How can […]
The case has been delayed until December. No reason given. By: Diane Benjamin Remember Bart Rogers? He was the number two guy at the Coliseum when CIAM managed it for 10 years. His jury trial is supposed to start on Tuesday, I doubt it will – a settlement is likely in the works. The 2018 […]
By: Diane Benjamin John Butler and his lawyers have been telling media John didn’t know his employees were stealing concession money. Evidently he’s such a great guy he agreed to a misdemeanor and paid $450,000 in restitution just because. That of course was after spending who knows how many thousands (hundreds of thousands?) on attorneys […]
By: Diane Benjamin State’s Attorney Don Knapp just sent me the final documents. The City of Bloomington is getting $430,230. The Illinois Department of Revenue is getting $19,770. That’s where the $450,000 previously reported came from. Butler plead guilty to a Class A misdemeanor for manipulating concessions sales. BMI Concessions, operated by John Butler plead […]
See this story for more information: https://blnnews.com/2020/08/25/john-butler-the-rest-of-the-case/ Page 1 of release from State’s Attorney Don Knapp. More documents should be coming, this summary doesn’t state why $450,000 was agreed to. It also doesn’t say if Butler agreed to jail time. See the entire document here:
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner attended the Township meeting held before the Council met at 6:00, but then left claiming he had an appointment. Maybe he didn’t want to discuss a mandatory mask ordinance. Several on the Council would jump at the chance to enforce draconian rules when we know where all the new cases […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember: the Coliseum the citizens didn’t want? the first manager and some staff were arrested for stealing your money? the second management company couldn’t meet expectations? the disaster it has been for taxpayers? I hear it has a new manager: Jim Karch. (Demoted Former head of Public Works) Maybe the City Manager […]
By: Diane Benjamin One more thing from Monday’s Bloomington Council meeting – see 2:45, Tim Gleason’s COVID comments. The City will be implementing a Customer Service Hub at what Gleason calls the Arena, most call it the Coliseum. He claims it will be a one stop shop for citizens. All of these departments will be […]
If this trial was continued because Butler is trying to arrange a plea bargain it will be a slap in the face to the taxpayers of Bloomington. You deserve to know what happened! With two former CIAM employees ready to testify against him Butler should be scared. A plea bargain isn’t justice. The citizens of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington packet: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1084&Inline=True O’Neil Pool demolished: If you have ever wondered why roads that look fine are being treated: Reclamite extends the useful life of roads. Maps of what roads will be treated are on PDF pages 127 – 128. PDF page 152 – Approval for a shopping center along E Empire […]
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 Another election year, more racists. It is nothing more than a deflection of real issues. We know Black Lives only Matter as a talking point. Black Lives obviously don’t Matter in Chicago. They also don’t matter if you don’t vote Democrat, Biden told us. Thinking about running for local office as a […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll for tonight: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=24570 Coliseum expenses: The first entry is for bills Bloomington paid that VenuWorks needs to reimburse – all the rest are coming out of taxpayers pockets: I don’t remember ever seeing a check written for loan payments, usually they do wire transfers: $795,000 was paid in principal […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington has been paying VenuWorks $4,999.98 sporadically since 2016, payments are marked loan principle. This story says why: https://blnnews.com/2016/10/06/so-bloomington-claims/ The short version: VenuWorks paid John Butler (CIAM) for equipment at the Coliseum. The City is reimbursing them for that purchase. The total was $299,999, no interest, payments over 5 […]
By: Diane Benjamin A little history: A lot of department spending at the City of Bloomington is done by PCard. Since December isn’t a month with conferences to attend and employees are more likely to take time off, it shouldn’t be a surprise PCard spending is lower than usual: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23757 https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23995 January: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=24210 February: So […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you haven’t heard, the trial for John Butler as a result from his time managing the Coliseum got delayed again. It will supposedly happen on August 10th. More event reports have been posted, all show a profit. See if you can figure out what is embarrassing about this one: VenuWorks is […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1817 4 ISU hockey events are also posted. Even with dismal attendance the profits were: $1,727.26, $2,269.16, $2,458.26, and $1,997.42. Most of the profit is from charging $2000 to play there. This year the City projected Arena: revenues of $4,883,795 expenses of $5,219,846 – for a loss of $336,051. For the year […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23814 https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23798 . . . . .
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23761 Since the Executive Director’s comments are tiny:
By: Diane Benjamin VenuWorks finally posted 2 hockey reports for the new league playing at the Coliseum. (Grossinger Motors Arena is too long folks) The memo states these are the top two teams in the League, a new one from here will be playing next year. I do not know why these two games were […]
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 The Coliseum didn’t come close to making the projected profit before it was built. Now it is being recreated as a community asset. At more than one City Council meeting it has been announced that around 1000 people attend the indoor Farmers Markets held at the Coliseum. Note: Nobody ever claims these […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Council held an Executive Session on December 9th to review minutes of previous Executive Sessions. Review is required by the Open Meetings Act. The cabal then votes on what minutes no longer need to be kept confidential. See PDF page 46: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1052&Inline=True The Council voted to keep minutes that are 24 […]
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 Live Stream of the Council meeting had no sound last night. Today a video is posted with no sound until around 12:00. When there is sound it wasn’t recorded from the microphones, people whispering, shuffling papers, and footsteps can be heard in numerous places. At 8:10 a lady spoke during public […]
By: Diane Benjamin Here’s my take on today’s hockey announcement: Hockey can show a profit for VenuWorks if they are smarter than in the past. ISU is only charged $2000 to play at the Coliseum, the ticket sales are dismal so they might not break even. At least they aren’t bleeding for the privilege of […]
By: Diane Benjamin After NOT posting the Agenda for today’s meeting 48 hours in advance as required by the Open Meetings Act (LAW!), yesterday Connect moved the meeting and thought people would magically know: https://www.connect-transit.com/about/trustees/cttf_working_group/agendas.asp No surprise, they didn’t have enough people for a quorum, some members of the public went to the wrong […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember the celebrations when VenuWorks announced they ONLY lost $276,367? They budgeted a loss of $495,514, so everybody happily reported they lost less than expected. See PDF page 27: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23151 Long time readers won’t be surprised to learn the auditors didn’t agree with the VenuWorks accounting. The audited financial report has appeared […]
By: Diane Benjamin Update to this story from yesterday: https://blnnews.com/2019/10/16/tari-on-wjbc-3/ Usually when there is good news people like to report it quickly. The Luke Combs concert profit is good news, why it wasn’t posted as required by the arena contract is a mystery. https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23305 Country music concerts always do well. If VenuWorks had self-promoted this […]
By: Diane Benjamin The only hockey that still exist at the Coliseum is ISU. VenuWorks is charging them $2,000 a game – the event report for ISU vrs Bradley shows 120 tickets were sold, 181 people who attended got in free. https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22627 The Flying Aces were charged $5,000 per game. Since attendance was dismal, they […]
By: Diane Benjamin No one showed up for Public Comment last night at the Bloomington meeting! There is A LOT more to cover about Normal, I will get back to that meeting eventually. First on the Agenda was a presentation from VenuWorks. I have no idea why this presentation is allowed instead of the AUDITED […]
By: Diane Benjamin WJBC has reported Tari Renner wants to end the moratorium on new video gaming machines: http://www.wjbc.com/2019/07/29/renner-sides-with-businesses-seeking-to-end-bloomingtons-video-gaming-freeze/ I remember when the moratorium was put in place, Tari was outraged that $50 million a year went into the machines. It sounds like he changed his mind. Back in 2016 Tari was on WJBC talking […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22163 Does the message of MLK matter anymore? Is anybody judged on the content of the their character? Empire TIF payouts: Coliseum continues to bleed taxpayers, is the 3rd one to cover operation losses? Legal fees sent to Springfield is at least down a little: Nothing is on the calendar for 6/20, […]
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 There are no shows posted on the event calendar for Grossinger Motors Arena until September. Luke Combs is scheduled for the 27th. The only other events are two shows of Trolls Live in November. https://www.grossingermotorsarena.com/events-and-tickets/calendar Tonight’s event was moved to the Castle Theatre. This event was held in May – another […]
By: Diane Benjamin Definition of capitalism: Making your life better by providing goods or services other people want at a price they will pay. It is a simple concept that has improved the lives of millions around the globe. It is color blind and doesn’t care who you sleep with. It is what made America […]
