By: Diane Benjamin I keep forgetting to mention the City has a new website. It is much more functional, content remains to be seen. The last one was impossible to search quickly for the information wanted. See 2:19:56. Bloomington already has it’s second Deputy City Manager. Corporate Council Jeff Jurgens is taking the job. Tim […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since I was in (unrepresented) west Normal yesterday I drove west on College to see the Normal fire hydrants installed next to Bloomington’s for myself: The current Council (minus one) believes everything they are told. This project was sold as “critical” in the marathon one day budget discussion. The Council was also […]
By: Diane Benjamin Is the Bloomington City Council finally waking up? Do they realize they have no wide-spread support for their downtown spending when the roads are still crap? Alderman Bray pulled a revised Council schedule from the Consent Agenda in order to cancel next Monday’s Committee of the Whole session. Renner doesn’t understand that […]
By: Diane Benjamin We used to get lots of interesting information in the City Manager’s monthly reports. The City Manager quit doing them because the reports showed information the City didn’t want you to know – like monthly tax receipts and library traffic. The financial statements the City just got around to releasing from almost […]
By: Diane Benjamin TIF districts are like Greek to most citizens. If you don’t understand them, government will continue to redistribute money and call it Economic Development. TIF’s made easy: Government sets a Tax Increment Finance area. All government bodies in the area have to agree to forgo tax increases due to increasing property values. […]
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 The below is from last years financial statements. It is reflected on two pages (197 and 198) making it impossible to read, so I retyped the info. Original link: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=12330 The financial statements were from 4/30/2016, so the 2016 data won’t be available for a LONG time. Traffic at the library is […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the Monday Bloomington City Council meeting the City will claim that property taxes are not being raised. The two charts below show the library wanting a $0.03 increase and the City recommending a $1.02 decrease. (http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11609 PDF pages 171 and 182) Both charts show magic! The library shows the Old […]
By: Diane Benjamin Some regimes hold their populations hostage at gun point, other do it with debt. Normal is using debt for your entertainment. The Town must not appreciate their public safety personnel. If you missed it, police and fire pensions are seriously underfunded while the staff has plenty of room to collect their retirements. […]
Anybody know if Nora sends this out? By: Diane Benjamin The bigger government gets, the worse job they do. Accountability becomes lower and lower because they feel invincible. Since they play with your money, being correct isn’t a priority. Enter the City of Bloomington. David Hales has issued his December City Manager’s report. It contains […]
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 Traffic at Bloomington’s library continues to decline, yet plans to expand continue. Why? The answer can be found in NORMAL’s Master plan for Uptown: If you haven’t read Normal’s new plan, here’s a link: Uptown 2.0 Plan (It downloads a PDF instead of linking you to a webpage) The document is the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Hales released the report earlier than usual. See it here: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8754 The library continues to report LESS people using it and LESS items being circulated. See pages 45-46 However, the march to build continues. Do you realize it’s YOUR money Bloomington? See page 33. Evidently Tax Receipts were really bad in May. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The David Hales April report is now on-line: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8632 Visitors to the library continue to be lower than prior years, but they want to expand! If they build it you will come! I’m sure you realize you are saving a lot of money with lower fuel prices, but so is the City! The […]
By: Diane Benjamin From City Manager David Hales’ February report: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8404 Page 51 The green line is the current year. Please tell Tari the number of visitors is decreasing. Ask him to explain why the library needs an addition!
I hear Normal wants a new library. Just who allowed all the buildings around the current one, thus not allowing any room for expansion? People think walking 1/2 block from a parking garage (as reported by the Pantagraph) is too far? Wonder how all the other businesses in Uptown are managing. Maybe they aren’t […]
