By: Diane Benjamin Since the Illinois Attorney General can’t get his website functional, elected officials need a course in what is legal and what isn’t to discuss in private Executive Sessions. See AG’s website message here, evidently 6 months isn’t enough time to fix what his office failed to protect: https://illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/downformaintenancepacmessage.html The only elected official […]
By: Diane Benjamin It has been obvious for a long time the Town of Normal government exists for itself, not the citizens paying their bills. The last thing Koos and company want is pesky citizens messing up their plans. Chris Koos has stated Council meetings are “business meetings”, he leaves out the part about being […]
Normal claims they have a right to redact the names of FOIA Requesters: Normal did not include PAC documents and only binding opinions are published. Since a PAC Binding resolution Year and Number wasn’t cited, that claim is illegitimate. The court case cited is from 2004. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/il-court-of-appeals/1165157.html The case was in Chicago and covers different […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Freedom of Information Act was created to insure citizens can obtain information about the government THEY pay for. All documents belong to citizens, not government. There are a few exemptions to what can be withheld, but every FOIA request starts with the assumption documents are available to anybody who asks for […]
I can tell you it’s a FOIA request. You will find out soon who, what, and how much was spent..
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight the Normal Council will be meeting for just a few minutes. The only highlight is selling 2 garbage trucks to the City of Kewanee for $260,000. Normal already bought replacements. It is really tough to keep track of all the Uptown History and how much taxpayers money has been invested, so […]
See this story too: https://blnnews.com/2018/04/10/downs-fire-another-side-to-the-story/ By: Diane Benjamin Two of the three Trustees attended the meeting. The chairman decided not to show up – Mark Casada. Candidates for open positions were allowed to make their case and answer a few questions. At least one candidate didn’t attend, his application letter was read by one of the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner is a master at campaigning, it’s the governing part the citizens have a problem with. When he ran for reelection he repeated the same talking points over and over and never varied from the script. Truth didn’t matter, only the talking points. The uniformed fell for it. The first time […]
By: Diane Benjamin I did finally receive my FOIA for the General Ledger entries to the Sister Cities accounts. Travel expenses is sometimes in “Travel” and sometimes in “Community Relations”. The accounts are full of transfers and memo entries that make it difficult to determine what is happening. The Sister Cities program is supported by […]
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 Tari’s campaign speech is probably memorized by everybody now. Repeat things often enough some people might believe them. No, transparency doesn’t exist at City Hall. I dare anybody to file a FOIA request and actually get the information they filed for. The windows are NOT “wide open” as Tari claims. Here is […]
By: Diane Benjamin It isn’t up to government to decide what documents might interest citizens, all documents belong to the citizens. The new City website is up and running, I still haven’t heard why the City has a new website or when the Council approved it, but a lot of the information is missing! Starting […]
