By: Diane Benjamin Attn: Council If your information on ANY topic, especially the Coliseum, is from David Hales or Tari Renner you are getting “Fake News”. Jamie Mathy is quoted in today’s paper saying the Management Agreement with CIAM “literally forbid the city from having access to the raw numbers”. SOURCE Jamie, why did the City […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are some of the stories I’ve written about the Coliseum. Some are opinions, some questions, and some proven facts. This isn’t everything, but it’s enough to prove the 5 Coliseum employees would NOT be under indictment of I hadn’t started investigating in 2013! Each link has a quote from the […]
Listen to the interview here: http://www.wjbc.com/2017/09/26/bloomington-officials-react-to-alleged-arena-fraud/ ________________________________________________ By: Diane Benjamin Of course the Council will do nothing to David Hales for extreme S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g of the truth this morning on WJBC. Of course Scott Laughlin didn’t know enough facts to confront him. When a podcast is created I will add it to this story. Hales wasted […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City Manager is the only employee of the City Council. When David Hales leaves, another guy just like him will magically appear. The voters elected a progressive left-wing mayor and compliant Council, so citizens shouldn’t expect a sudden lurch to fiscal responsibility. Your taxes will continue to rise because the guy […]
Looks like the Council vote is Tuesday: http://www.theherald-news.com/2017/09/15/joliet-council-could-vote-tuesday-on-city-manager-contract/alcxm1o/ https://patch.com/illinois/joliet/new-joliet-city-manager-could-be-bloomingtons-david-hales Should I disable comments so readers don’t ruin anything?
By: Diane Benjamin When the Pantagraph appears to do a study of anything, it usually means Bloomington is up to something and using them to gauge public opinion. Today it was legal expenses and justifying the outrageous amount the City sends to Springfield every month while telling you not to buy on the internet – […]
By: Diane Benjamin It looks like Bloomington has to be destroyed by government spending before people realize local elections matter. Or, maybe only the people who can’t move will be left paying the bills which are about to get much bigger. Monday night the Bloomington will see the results of doing “Wants” before Needs. MANY […]
By: Diane Benjamin Watching the Council spin themselves into the ground felt a lot longer than 23 minutes! Most of the conversation was on whether to build a metal retaining wall or concrete so the City Hall annex can be demolished. The difference in price was around $61,000. The Council was handed some revised numbers […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council meeting last night was conducted without the mayor and without any accusations against citizens like “crazy”, “nasty”, and “small vocal minority”. Renner did hold another edition of his media blitz earlier in the day, but Karen Schmidt only announced he wasn’t there. According to media reports of the […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was just checking media reports from Topeka Kansas to see if the Council had picked a City Manager yet. Nothing so far. Something else interesting did pop up though: They paid their last City Manager $175.134. The population is 126,808 Supposedly the population of Bloomington in 2016 was 78,005 Note: one […]
Update: The management announced today the naming rights have been sold – and for the same amount US Cellular was paying: $175,000 a year. It will be name Grossinger Motors Arena for at least 5 years. I haven’t heard who is paying for the new signs, letterhead, business cards, menus, etc. _____________________________________ By: Diane Benjamin […]
By: Diane Benjamin The old type Bloomington City Manager reports with real usable information ceased to exist when Alderman Diana Hauman called their “printing” a waste of money. The last REAL report was April 2016. City manager David Hales still does a City Manager report on-line, but it has little useful data. The old reports […]
By: Diane Benjamin Kimberly Bray was just elected to represent the 9th Ward. Rumor has it she has never voted in a local election before this one. (If she did – she could easily prove it!) Rumor also has it that Joni Painter and Tari Renner recruited her to run. She obviously doesn’t read BlnNews […]
By: Diane Benjamin I will be on Cities 92.9 today at 3:30 with Ben Yount to discuss the future of BlnNews. Now for last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting: Bring in the CLOWNS! Oops, they were already there! Starting at 1:05, and ending 45 minutes later, the Council droned on about spending $300,000 at The […]
By: Diane Benjamin All the City of Bloomington had to do to prevent paying the penalties below was change when accumulated sick and vacation got paid to employees. David Hales, Steve Stockton, and Tari Renner refused to change their policies, so the below was paid as a penalty. These employees were allowed to spike their […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this story from yesterday: Why City Councils Don’t Listen After writing more than 4000 stories, I had forgotten I wrote about the Julie Crowe case when she won the lawsuit: Julie Crowe Defeats the City of Bloomington That story contains a link to the original Council vote denying her the Vehicle-For-Hire […]
By: Diane Benjamin Everything is scripted in the City of Bloomington to make sure citizens only know what the City wants them to know. Unlike Tari Renner’s claims of transparency, very little exists. Try filing a FOIA request and see how long it takes, what is denied, and how much is redacted. It has gotten […]
By: Diane Benjamin Thanks to Steve Vogel who today mentioned in his weekly column that Bloomington is in a recession. Moody’s Analytics reported that in January (and so did I), but the media has been ignoring it. Anyone who attended the Bloomington “Budget Workshop” today would have seen Bloomington is also ignoring that fact. If […]
By: Diane Benjamin Cuts could be easy, but nobody at the City wants to cut! It is impossible to suggest specific budget cuts for Bloomington because the data isn’t available. The City issued hundreds of pages saying where the money is being spent without any details. Was there a line item last year for the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner’s claims to now be protecting the taxpayers of Bloomington in the Metro Zone flap are a joke. Why? Besides the fact that 5 Aldermen put Metro Zone on the agenda, not Renner – what happened to the letters Tari received at Rosie’s from citizens about their health insurance costs? We […]
By: Diane Benjamin I started this project to show how much David Hales has increased spending on Administration. The 2017 budget numbers could be immaterial since spending over budget could be happening. The 4/30/2016 financial statements are still a secret, the 2017 statements won’t be available until at least October. All of the page numbers […]
By: Diane Benjamin Thank Alderman Joni Painter and Mayor Tari Renner for the 30 MPH speed limit. The citizens of Bloomington paid for TWO studies of Hershey Road and BOTH were ignored. The speed limit was lowered to 30 because of 100 signatures on a petition. The petition to change it back now has close […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Page 10 – City Manager’s December report: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=11954 From page 44 of the December 2015 City Manager’s report: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=9706 Information for December 2015 isn’t available. Library information is missing from many of the new jumbled City Manager reports. David Hales is DONE winning awards for delivering information to citizens! The transparency […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday the Pantagraph did a story about County union employee salary increases: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/mclean-county-highway-workers-get-raises/article_e1a807b1-6dcc-535b-83dd-f39b4b00079f.html This paragraph is in the story: Two problems: The City of Bloomington has been hit by at least 24 penalties amounting to around $1.6 million. (it could be more by now) That’s not “several”. Second, the County negotiated with […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was looking for something else when I came across this again on my computer: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-municipal-pension-padding-met-20150816-story.html The story is from August 2015. It is where we found out for the FIRST time that City employees were allowed to spike their pensions, and then taxpayers had to make additional payments to IMRF (the […]
By: Diane Benjamin It was way back in November of 2013 when Judy Stearns walked out of what she called an illegal Executive Session (Secret Meeting). She filed a Request for Review with Lisa Madigan’s Public Access office – they didn’t bother doing much with the filing until Judy was long out of office. She […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is an update to yesterday’s story: https://blnnews.com/2016/12/29/is-past-due-now-costing-you/ Bloomington has two reports that are now past due at the Comptroller’s office. Last night a guy from that office called me after I requested information. First, one of the reports is a TIF report. If the City is trying to use the excuse […]
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 assault on Bloomington taxpayers continues at Monday’s City Council meeting. The target isn’t on citizen’s backs – it’s on their wallet and their Quality of Life. Other people need your money more than you do – the City Council will gladly hand it over and claim Economic Development! Is Kroger really […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hear David Hales and Patti-Lynn Silva will be talking about raising property taxes! This meeting is open to the public. Detroit Drive is off Towanda Barnes Road just north of the theater. I can tell you how they decide your taxes. They need X dollars, they go to the Assessor and […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when the City of Bloomignton introduced VenuWorks? Remember how VenuWorks was going to be ultra transparent? The City of Bloomington has a web page just to recap events at the Coliseum: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=10697 The last event posted is from September. The big concert last weekend isn’t posted. Thunder Hockey games aren’t posted. […]
By: Diane Benjamin A ruling that makes no sense was sent to me via email late yesterday. It contradicts everything that happened at the previous status hearing, but it’s still all good. The ONLY sad part is it looks like the City will not be paying my court costs, close to $400. Some of that […]
By: Diane Benjamin This FOIA request was filed by a citizen: USCC = US Cellular Coliseum Note: Denied in full Now see the reason the City of Bloomington used to deny the request: Law enforcement doesn’t mean “court case”. So, what is the City saying? Note: The request was for information from 2014 and 2015. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Hales has posted his September City Managers report. http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11567 This is on page 2: Open the page and try the link! Where does it take you? ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ NO monthly financial reports, just old data from 4/30/16. Celebrate now: The City of Bloomington is hiding tax receipt information! Remember […]
(Jim announced last night he is not running for reelection. Petitions are due 11/21 – info here: http://www.becvote.org/wordpress/) Dear Jim, Here’s the problem: The citizens feel like their government is stalking them like a famished predator. They have good reasons: Amusement Tax, Utilities tax, Gas Tax, Sales Tax, Garbage fee increases, Liquor fee increases More […]
By: Diane Benjamin Information is harder to compare now that the Hales’ City Manager Reports are history. Instead of transparency, he posts bits and piece of data and I have to put it together. I imagine soon the bits and pieces will disappear because tax increases are much easier when government claims they need more […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part #2 – see part #1 here: https://blnnews.com/2016/09/19/coliseum-david-hales-failed-taxpayers/ The Renner/Hales talking points are they didn’t know what was going on at the Coliseum until VenuWorks took over. They should have known! Keep in mind the City was negotiating a new contract with CIAM – it was CIAM that backed out. The City […]
See part #2 here: https://blnnews.com/2016/09/19/more-on-the-contract-hales-failed-to-enforce/ By: Diane Benjamin Mayor Renner claims the Management Agreement the City had with CIAM was bad. It was bad, but it was made worse by the David Hales NOT enforcing parts of the contract he easily could have, but choose not to. The complicit Mayor and Council contributed to a […]
By: Diane Benjamin When I filed the lawsuit for concession information from the Coliseum I expected to receive a report PER EVENT like the one below. This is an actual report from the Coliseum that I received from a whistle-blower. No, am I not saying who – so don’t ask. This is a tough report […]
This is another story where Hales claims the Coliseum had CLEAN audits: http://ilnews.org/9870/financial-probe-of-coliseums-former-manager-may-involve-concession-money/ They weren’t clean, concessions were NEVER audited, and Hales refused to protect taxpayer money. _____________________________________________________ By: Diane Benjamin According to this September 12th Pantagraph article, City Manager David Hales claims the Coliseum audits have always received a clean opinion: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/state-police-city-investigating-coliseum-operations/article_6e1ae325-da35-5573-845a-454e9b4c8031.html David Hales […]
