By: Diane Benjamin Illinois doesn’t care about passing illegal laws. They play sue me if you don’t like it, their oath of office is meaningless. HB 3337 is attempting to make Normal legal by changing the rules that ONLY apply to them. Equal justice under the law doesn’t apply to the citizens of Normal. It […]
By: Diane Benjamin More on this story: https://blnnews.com/2023/03/11/sharon-chung-screws-normal-taxpayers/. Normal declared war on it’s citizens and uses their money to take them out! The above story shows the people who supported Chung’s bill to legalize Normal’s illegal operation. Since you knew nothing about this bill you couldn’t object. The only reason we know about it now […]
By: Diane Benjamin This pic from the Illinois Municipal League says everything you need to know about them: https://www.iml.org/notices IML refuses to post required information on their website! Yes, they are hiding. They don’t file tax returns either even though their employees receive large pensions: https://blnnews.com/2016/03/29/the-iml-scam/ IML exists to represent government in Springfield, they don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Previous stories for reference: https://blnnews.com/2022/01/05/see-anybody-with-a-disability/ https://blnnews.com/2022/01/05/are-koos-and-mccarthy-profiting/ https://blnnews.com/2022/01/05/some-people-will-fall-for-anything/ I wonder of Brian Day, Normal’s attorney, has a copy of this book? Normal pays the Illinois Municipal League a lot of money every year, if he doesn’t have a copy he should. Does the Town hand out copies of this 216 page book to […]
By: Diane Benjamin On April 22nd the Illinois House passed HB 2523 116 to 0. For once every Democrat and every Republican agreed: https://ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/102/house/10200HB2523_04222021_027000T.pdf What is HB 2523? This bill amends the language in the original bill that created the Police Officers Pension Investment Fund. Remember when pension funds were consolidated to hopefully perform better? […]
By: Diane Benjamin The only big controversy at the 7:00 meeting was this item: See PDF page 46 for details: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3974 Stan Nord pulled this item from the Consent Agenda because this spending was not bid as required by code. In other words, Normal has been a member of the MICA pool for decades, therefore […]
By: Diane Benjamin Vowing to uphold both the Constitution of the United States and the State of Illinois is beyond the left. Tari Renner proved that again at the emergency Liquor Commission meeting yesterday. See the short video clip as reported by Cities 92.9: https://www.cities929.com/2020/11/21/bloomington-mayor-renner-whines-at-liquor-commission-hearing-about-the-states-attorney/?fbclid=IwAR3IAg490VjyNCDqMzrrp8xgykB7fmsDgfxZdlbgmHMyl4m6kPGO9oEyrO0 Tari expect State Attorney Don Knapp to enforce Pritzker Executive […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal Mayor Chris Koos was nominated by Sen Dick Durbin to the Amtrak Board of Directors. Amtrak and Koos are a perfect fit. It does mean that Koos can no longer participate in discussions about building an underpass since all decisions involve Amtrak. See PDF page 5: http://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/12829/2017-Purchasing-Policy-Manual-x?bidId= Amtrak will be paying […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chemberly Cummings didn’t bother to attend, of course nobody said why. That led to some problems later with only 6 voting members. A tie vote would have meant an item failed. Numerous items were pulled from the Omnibus agenda – all these things used to sail through and were never questioned before […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night Stan Nord proved again why he was elected. His comments weren’t until the end of the Council meeting: 1:49:05. The Town of Normal has leases that do not benefit taxpayers. One of these leases is set to automatically renew in December. I believe he was talking about Wild Country, they […]
By: Diane Benjamin If the City Code doesn’t apply to the City, it doesn’t apply to you either. Right? https://blnnews.com/2019/10/13/bloomington-violates-their-own-code/ If they do meet tonight, here’s what’s on the agenda: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1039&Inline=True The City has already budgeted $100,489.40 for repairs to Oneil Pool. Tonight they are adding $24,900 for sidewalk repairs around the pool. This will […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: https://www.pjstar.com/news/20190923/pekin-city-council-approves-3-cannabis-sales-tax Excerpts: The Pekin City Council approved an ordinance imposing a 3% sales tax on cannabis sales during Monday’s meeting. The tax will be in addition to other local sales taxes collected by the city. “Collection of municipal sales taxes on the sale of cannabis would not start until September 2020,” […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written many stories about the Illinois Municipal League. This organization works for cities, not the people paying their bills. This is their latest plan: It all sounds wonderful until you look at the facts. All of these funding numbers come from the Comptroller’s website, the latest numbers for Bloomington and Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written about the Illinois Municipal league numerous times. If you don’t know much about them, start with this story from 2016: https://blnnews.com/2016/03/29/the-iml-scam/ IML is holding their annual conference in Chicago in September. Many local people will be attending at a cost of at least $310 each. From Bloomington, Tari Renner, Julie […]
By: Diane Benjamin It isn’t a surprise Illinois government wants to tell employers how to run their businesses. Illinois is not participating in the prosperity much of the rest of the country is experiencing because of Illinois government. Now with the legalization of cannabis, drug testing employees could get them sued. Employees have rights to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Illinois governor is pretending suckering citizens into changing Illinois from a flat tax to a progressive tax will solve all the state’s problems. It won’t come close, it will hasten Illinois’ decline as more people flee the state. The ones fleeing will be the producers, the ones that hire other people […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written many times about the Illinois Municipal League. This story is from March of 2016: https://blnnews.com/2016/03/29/the-iml-scam/ A reader sends me the frequent newsletters sent by IML to government officials. The latest proves they are pro-government, anti-transparency, and anti-citizens. Both Bloomington and Normal love to spend tax dollars attending their events. […]
By: Diane Benjamin HB 0875 is working its way through the Illinois House. SB 0170 is working its way through the Senate. Both bills want the Treasurer is create a Financially Distressed Cities Fund. Both bills ignore Illinois can’t pay its bills. Both also ignore why cities are financially distressed. The biggest driver is pensions that can […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bill and Payroll for 10-18-2018 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20190 Since the auditing bill is being approved, the financial statements are done. Of course, they aren’t being released yet. Coliseum continues to bleed taxpayers: More PCard fraud-should be easy to see where it happened: TRAVEL: ICMA (City Manager) $866.04 +685.00 and $777.61 last month = total […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal Town Council tonight: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2745 More proof the Chamber of Commerce is working AGAINST citizens: This is the trip to explore building a sports complex here. Even if it brings tourism dollars to hotels, restaurants, and retail, these are LOW WAGE jobs. Guess who is going to pay for it! One person can’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2017/07/30/do-we-have-a-prosecutor/ https://blnnews.com/2017/07/31/tari-responds/ The City of Bloomington pays a small fortune to be members of the IML (Illinois Municipal League) and attend their conferences. Tari and Jeff Jurgens even spoke last year about the “new media and watchdogs”. I’m sure they have seen this the below. It isn’t me accusing Tari […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night the Normal Town Council defied the Attorney General’s letter and made only minor changes to their Public Comment Policy. They relied on the opinion of their City Attorney Brian Day who formerly worked for the Illinois Municipal League. First, you need to understand what the IML is. See this story: […]
By: Diane Benjamin A few weeks ago City Attorney Jeff Jurgens and Mayor Renner gave a talk at the Illinois Municipal League Conference. The topic was new media. I, of course, made sure I knew someone who would be in the room. The Edgar County Watchdogs and I were discussed at length. This is not […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Illinois Municipal League has a conference in September. The IML is an organization that hasn’t filed tax returns in decades, their top employees got themselves State pensions even though they aren’t State employees, and they lobby Springfield for local governments – and against the citizens paying the bills. See these two […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll for Monday night: Page 113 http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11064 ADMIN City Council Exp IL Municipal League $ 310.00 07/13/16 IML Reg ‐ D.Hauman ADMIN City Council Exp IL Municipal League $ 165.00 07/13/16 IML Reg ‐ M. Mwilambwe ADMIN City Council Exp IL Municipal League $ 310.00 07/19/16 IML Reg ‐ […]
By: Diane Benjamin This story expands the previous post: https://blnnews.com/2016/06/27/tari-sees-objects-ripe-for-fleece/ I have emails from Aldermen Diana Hauman and Jim Fruin, Mayor Renner, and JAMES. I believe that JAMES is James Jordan, member of the Liquor Commission. I have MANY emails written by Jim Fruin over the past few years – none of them say JAMES. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner and David Hales love to tout the greatness of the Illinois Municipal League. From the IML website: The Illinois Municipal League is the formal voice for Illinois municipalities. The League was founded in 1913 and has worked continuously for the benefit of municipalities, promoting competence and integrity in administration of […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9312 Page 91 ADMIN Council Exp Hilton Hotels Chicago $ 319.55 IML Lodging for MayorADMIN Council Exp Hansen Center $ 14.90 Business lunch for Mayor & M.Lee ADMIN Council Exp Kelly’s Bakery And Cafe $ 18.51 Business breakfast for Mayor & Ald Fruin ADMIN Council Exp Hansen Center $ 19.84 Business lunch […]
