By: Diane Benjamin Watch this short campaign video Tari made in 2013 while running for office. Very close to the end he claims infrastructure can be improved without raising taxes. Funny how he stumbled over the proper words though. Since Tari became Mayor, $10,000,000 has been borrowed for roads with plans to borrow A LOT […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m sure you’ve seen Bloomington’s symbol: What the symbol means is listed on the City website and in the presentation for Tuesday night. It isn’t new, no Tari didn’t change or create the definition: According to dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/progressive 1) Favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Monday night the Council is holding a Work Session to hear the results of the Fee study. See the packet information here: Fee Study Enterprise Funds were created to raise taxes. Solid waste pickup was included in the taxes you already paid just 10 short years ago. Monday night the Council will […]
This item got pulled from the consent agenda for discussion. Hales claimed Springfield exempted insurance companies from utility taxes. That doesn’t explain why State Farm is named but Country Financial isn’t. Both are in Bloomington and both are insurance companies. Lets say Hales is right. Call the Brady bunch and change it! It’s still […]
By: Diane Benjamin I was contacted over a year ago by a company who saw some of my posts on the Coliseum. YES – there are professional arena managers, your government chose not to talk to any of them. The current Coliseum management continues to under perform based on what citizens were told when the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today I was in court again with my case against the City of Bloomington concerning the Coliseum. This time the City declared they won’t fight my rights to the documents, but they don’t have them. The lawyer for CIAM must not know Executive Sessions (the City’s secret meetings) are supposed to be […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since BlnNews has a LOT of new readers, allow me to briefly recap the lawsuit I filed against the City of Bloomington concerning the Coliseum. I filed a Freedom of Information request over a year ago for the concession reports from 2014 I also included a request for payroll records from 2014 […]
By: Diane Benjamin David Hales’ NOVEMBER City Manager’s report is finally on-line: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=8106 Zoo attendance is down again, but Revenue is up. Before the report gets to why, readers have to endure glowing reviews. When prices are raised and a tax is added, it’s not surprising Revenues are higher. I wonder how many people came […]
By: Diane Benjamin I don’t know which of these is bigger – you decide. My lawsuit against the City of Bloomington pertaining to payroll and concessions at the Coliseum goes to trial February 5th. Today I issued a subpoena for: David Hales Bloomington City Manager I have a long list of questions he needs to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council only has ONE employee: David Hales. He gets huge raises around this time of year. Tonight the Council is discussing “personnel” in Executive Session. Since Hales is in charge of making all other personnel decisions, will the Council hand Hales another raise? Last year Hales was paid $229,615.36 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Is David Hales hiring even more staff, or did somebody leave? They prefer a Master’s Degree in “Controlling the population”. See this link: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?recordid=426&page=22 Expect the new hire to NOT be local. The International City Managers Association is probably forwarding candidates right now. Huge moving expenses will follow.
By: Diane Benjamin Below are the points I find interesting. You can read the entire report here: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=8106 BCPA: That’s 218 people per event! (Hint: if you don’t want facts distorted, frame them differently) ___________________________ Police: Another problem that’s been discussed for years! Page 15 ___________________________ Zoo – Page 24 Revenue from admissions was up […]
By: Diane Benjamin This fiscal year Bloomington began issuing monthly financial recaps. See this link: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=9043. September is the last statement posted, yes this is December. The chart below is from pages 11 and 12 of the September report. Enterprise Funds are not included since they are not part of the General Fund. (Solid […]
By: Diane Benjamin In case you forgot, Gabriella Calhoun is the young lady from the Denny’s incident that happened in 2013. Her case also led to the discovery of racists comments made by Sgt Shumaker that had been buried by the City. Sgt Shumaker wasn’t fired, he just got a letter in his file that […]
By: Diane Benjamin The October City Manager’s report is now on-line: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9452 Miller Park Zoo Revenue from admissions was up 13.3% for the current fiscal year. Last year, the revenue from admissions broke the all-time record for the Zoo in a fiscal year. This represents the fourth consecutive year the all-time attendance revenue record was […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Saturday edition of the retreat has been cancelled. Tomorrow, expect a Pantagraph article saying the City decided to delay the meeting because they didn’t have everything ready. Truth is immaterial. The truth is: Somebody forgot to post it. Today’s Pantagraph story about the two-day retreat didn’t write itself. Renner is quoted […]
Don’t miss the follow-up story: http://blnnews.com/2015/11/19/so-who-is-getting-fired/ By: Diane Benjamin Part one of the November Council retreat is tonight at 5:30. At the 11/9 Council meeting, David Hales announced the second half would be on Saturday November 21st at 8:00am. According to the Open Meetings Act law, an agenda must be posted 48 hours in advance, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nora Dukowitz was hired by the City of Bloomington to be the Communications Manger. Why Bloomington needed one is still a mystery. Hales claimed in this Pantagraph article that Nora would play a critical role in outreach to citizens, he also stated she would use social media to engage citizens: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/city-hires-communications-manager/article_f4bfe4e6-ec94-5cf7-a2c7-5c8a58a36771.html I […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this pic? Read this email from Tari From: Tari Renner <trenner@cityblm.org> Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 6:54 PM Subject: Re: COB Suspend Meetings To: Bloom Ington <Redacted> Cc: City Council and Mayor <citycouncil@cityblm.org>, “Don.Knapp@mcleancountyil.gov” <Don.Knapp@mcleancountyil.gov>, jason.chambers@mcleancountyil.gov, JJones@atg.state.il.us, Jeff Jurgens <jjurgens@cityblm.org> Just to be clear to everyone. These were stopped over […]
By: Diane Benjamin David Hales City Manager report for September is now on-line: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9344 Interesting notes: 1) Attendance for the BCPA was 7,369 for September on-site events, activities, meeting, etc. The Facility usage was 47 on-site functions. (Page 31) . 7,369 divided by 47 events = 157 people per event. . Doesn’t the BCPA lose […]
By: Diane Benjamin I doubt you noticed, but I haven’t written about last Monday’s Council meeting. I still can’t convey the outrage I feel properly, but I will give it a shot. A number of items shocked me, it’s hard to believe the people claiming to represent you didn’t just immigrate from a communist country. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Schmidt was given a few minutes at the end of last night’s meeting to discuss proposed cuts by the Budget Task Force. She is the one who held her own meeting a few weeks ago and she drove the conversation last night. Tari put the Task Force together, but since the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Developers have been fleecing taxpayers, while the City of Bloomington watched, for decades. Monday night a new crop of guys in need in business will make their cases for your money. The Council is drooling over their ability to rule from the top down. What citizens want is immaterial. Why don’t developers […]
By: Diane Benjamin I have to try the bird-cage liner approach for a minute, only because all this stuff doesn’t fit together: Cheers To Alderman Hauman for offering to lead the next retreat instead of paying Lynn Montei huge bucks. The Council still has to make it official next Monday. Little jeers to some Council […]
By: Diane Benjamin Evidently his P-Card was broken: DAVID HALES INV 10/12/2015 CHICAGO 9/15 128075 Admin Pro Develp 84.25 Invoice Net 84.25 CHECK TOTAL 84.25 DAVID HALES INV 10/12/2015 SEATTLE 9/15 128076 Admin Pro Develp 304.00 Invoice Net 304.00 CHECK TOTAL 304.00 Bills and Payroll: Page 22 http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9246 Seattle just happens to be where the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Page 9: August City Manager’s Monthly Report (copy that I downloaded) link to on-line version: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9220 Revenue from the Miller Park Zoo gate admission was up 12.5% for the current fiscal year compared to last year‘s revenue. Last year, the revenue raised from admissions broke the all time record for the Zoo […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City Manager wasn’t at the Council meeting last night. I suspect he was here, since he goes every year: The ICMA Annual Conference is the largest annual event in the world for local government managers and staff. The conference is being held in Seattle. (ICMA = International City/County Managers Association) Are […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll for Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9193 Page 89 ADMIN City Council Expens Illinois Municipal League $ 310.00 IML Registration for Mayor & D.Hales ADMIN City Council Expens Illinois Municipal League $ 310.00 IML Registration – Alderman Mwilambwe ADMIN City Council Expens Illinois Municipal League $ (95.00) IML Registration Refund – […]
By: Diane Benjamin Even though Bloomington’s Springfield attorney (Jeff Jurgens) knew on August 24th that stopping pensions spiking wasn’t a violation of the Illinois Constitution, the policy still hasn’t been changed. See his email and IMRF response here: http://blnnews.com/2015/09/18/who-knew-and-did-nothing-imrf/ The agenda for Monday is on-line, nothing about stopping the rip off of taxpayers that is […]
By: Diane Benjamin City Manager David Hales was on WJBC this morning: http://cdn.stationcaster.com/stations/wjbc/media/mpeg/David_Hales__Bloomington_City_Manager-1442925320.mp3 At least Scott Laughlin watched the meeting! Where did Hales lie? Listen at 16:40. Scott asked Hales if he was happy with the Coliseum management. Hales loves them and went on to say they achieved BREAK EVEN in operations! That was your […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below are from a big pile of information I received from IMRF under the Freedom of Information Act. They all pertain to pensions spiking that David Hales allowed to keep happening and is still allowed today. Remember this when your taxes get raised Monday! I may be posting more, I haven’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin David Hales on WJBC 9/15 : http://cdn.stationcaster.com/stations/wjbc/media/mpeg/David_Hales__Bloomington_City_Manager-1442324001.mp3 Hales was asked about the comments made by Alton Franklin Monday night calling for him to be fired over the pension spiking which cost Bloomington taxpayers more than $1.2 million. Obviously Hales is the source of Alderman Buragas’s information, her email sounds just like him. […]
By: Diane Benjamin David Hales gives frequent interviews on WJBC, I’ve posted links to many of them. I remember one of his lines about the budget – but I’m not going to re-listen to find it. He claimed any cuts to the budget now are cuts to “muscle”, not fat. Of course he was lying […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nobody gets fired. David Hales isn’t held responsible. It was just an accident that Wire Transfers weren’t brought to the Council for approval for YEARS. Nobody’s fault, just slipped through the cracks. Monday night THIS Council is asked to approve Wire Transfers from 2013, 2014, and 2015. They all weren’t members of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Another taxpayer asked IMRF for information about the City of Bloomington’s policy allowing pensions spiking. Remember this cost you more than $1.2 MILLION dollars. See the email below FROM IMRF. The RED and BLUE are from me. From: John Krupa <jkrupa@imrf.org> To: (redacted) Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 10:53 AM Subject: […]
By: Diane Benjamin The agenda for the Saturday Council retreat has been posted. They plan to spend the first 3 HOURS in a secret meeting to discuss this section of the law: Closed Session: Self-Evaluation of practices and procedures or professional ethics, when meeting with a representative of a statewide association of which the public […]
By: Diane Benjamin Obviously the LAWYER on the Bloomington City Council believes David Hales instead of looking at the facts. Amelia stated this during the last Council meeting, I had hopes you would figure out the truth by now. No such luck. She sent the following email to a Bloomington resident this morning: (mis-spelled words […]
By: Diane Benjamin Just to make this perfectly clear: David Hales could have avoided spending $1.2 Million + JUST by changing when employees got their accumulated sick days pay. If they had been paid the day they left City employment, their pensions would not have been spiked and therefore IMRF would NOT have sent them […]
By: Diane Benjamin The David Hales saga continues, make sure you read this story first: http://blnnews.com/2015/09/08/what-did-hales-know-plenty/ From the City of Bloomington website: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=262 (b) The Council shall approve for payment all expenses and liabilities of the City of Bloomington. Seem pretty clear to you? Need a definition of “shall”? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shall (directive, mandatory, expected) The City […]
By: Diane Benjamin A LOT more information on pensions spiking is coming. Citizens deserve better than Bloomington throwing away $1.2 Million when it could have been avoided. This won’t be the last post, but I have to lay out what I know slowly so you can understand the facts. First, let’s review. For DECADES employees […]
