By: Diane Benjamin One more thing happened at Monday’s Normal Town Council meeting that you need to see. First, some background. Both Bloomington and Normal have decided in recent years to write minutes that don’t reflect exactly what happens at meetings. If citizens want to research something that happened a year ago and don’t know […]
By: Diane Benjamin In the past month I had to file a FOIA request for the missing Sister Cities Committee minutes: https://blnnews.com/2018/04/18/cut-sister-cities/ I also had to file for the minutes missing from the Police Safety and Community Relations Board (PSCRB): https://blnnews.com/2018/05/17/pscrb-update-police-review-board/ The March and April Liquor Commission minutes are also missing: Tari needs to tell […]
By: Diane Benjamin Sister Cities is spending A LOT of money as I wrote in this story: https://blnnews.com/2018/04/18/cut-sister-cities/ Following the law is too difficult for them however. Sister Cities does not have a schedule of 2018 meetings posted and they have no minutes posted since last June. http://www.bnsistercities.org/about/#committee I filed a FOIA request for all […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember the February 12th meeting when alderman comments had Karen Schmidt accusing Tari Renner of disparaging public remarks about the 5 alderman blocking his Welcoming Ordinance? Remember Alderman Bray pulled the minutes at the February 26th meeting because they didn’t accurately summarize the comments made? https://blnnews.com/2018/02/27/bloomington-council-festivities/ The February 12th meeting minutes are still […]
By: Diane Benjamin Laws don’t seem to matter to our Public Servants unless they are forced to follow them. Maybe that’s human nature, kind of like everybody is speeding so I might as well too. But this offense meant there was no written record of what happened at meetings. The offender was the McLean County […]
By: Diane Benjamin The 10 year agreement with CIAM to manage the Coliseum contained numerous paragraphs granting the City rights to everything happening at the Coliseum. Tari Renner, David Hales, and the Council either never read the agreement or are lying because they failed to protect taxpayers from John Butler and company. See the agreement […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Open Meetings Act is pretty simple. It was written to keep government from hiding their actions from the people paying the bills. This is the 1st paragraph: Part of the OMA pertains to meeting documentation: Evidently the County skipped this section, at least with the Zoning Board of Appeals. From […]
By: Diane Benjamin From the Packet: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12448 The minutes from the last Council meeting are up for approval. This statement is included. I hope it’s just worded poorly because an investigation happening is the ONLY public information. The minutes from the Budget Workshop are also up for approval. Remember, the meeting was held at the […]
Were these minutes ever approved by the Council? By: Diane Benjamin On February 20, 2015, the Bloomington City Council held a special meeting to CENSURE Tari Renner for his vile comments made on this site. The minutes have been missing ever since, a Freedom of Information Request had to be sent to obtain them. Luckily, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Being a citizen watchdog has two purposes: Report what the media is refusing to report Make sure laws are followed Bloomington is showing again Monday night that laws don’t matter. On the agenda for the “Special Meeting ” at 5:00 pm is approving the minutes from the August 8th meeting. http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11077 See […]
By: Diane Benjamin On tonight’s City Council agenda (from the packet): CONSENT AGENDA ITEM: 7A FOR COUNCIL: August 24, 2015 SUBJECT: Consideration of approving the Council Proceedings of August 10, 2015. RECOMMENDATION/MOTION: That the reading of the minutes of the previous Council Proceedings of August 10, 2015, be dispensed with and the minutes approved as […]
