By: Diane Benjamin Normal doesn’t bid the cost of comprehensive insurance because they are a member of MICA who supposedly bids it for them. See this story from last year: https://blnnews.com/2022/07/22/more-on-normals-mica-problem/ Normal has never bid coverage themselves, so how do they know they can’t get it cheaper? Normal has been using MICA since 1985. Evidently […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Notice who is missing from this lawsuit: Village of Normal isn’t party to the referendum appeal! 2) Remember Normal’s use of MICA to purchase insurance and paying far money that Bloomington does? Remember staff doing the accounting for vendor MICA? https://blnnews.com/2022/07/22/more-on-normals-mica-problem/ Well, just like CIRBN employees are no longer Village employees, […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hope you listened to at least parts of Kathleen’s interview from this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/08/01/kathleen-lorenz/ Since she explained over and over that she is data-driven and has an analytical engineers mind, I asked her two questions: Kathleen, I listened to your interview twice only because I was in the car. I’m […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you missed these two stories, read them now: https://blnnews.com/2022/07/07/normal-and-the-mica-fleece/ and https://blnnews.com/2022/07/14/normals-mica-vrs-bloomingtons-gallagher/ Brief recap: Normal has purchased comprehensive insurance through MICA for decades, they don’t bid this insurance because they claim MICA does Normal’s Finance director is on MICA’s Executive Committee Normal does accounting work for MICA The cost for Normal’s insurance […]
By: Diane Benjamin Or, Normal could have a really lousy FOIA retrieval system. Or, Normal doesn’t keep good records. Or, Normal is hiding information. Or, Normal just does things this way because that’s the way they’ve been done for decades – it’s a secret. Start with my FOIA pertaining to Normal doing the accounting work […]
By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to these two stories: https://blnnews.com/2022/06/14/need-accounting-services-hire-the-town-of-normal/ and https://blnnews.com/2022/07/07/normal-and-the-mica-fleece/ What we know: Normal has purchased comprehensive insurance through MICA for decades, they don’t bid this insurance because they claim MICA does Normal’s Finance director is on MICA’s Executive Committee Normal does accounting work for MICA The cost for Normal this year is $1,945,934 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this story? https://blnnews.com/2022/06/14/need-accounting-services-hire-the-town-of-normal/ MICA is Municipal Insurance Cooperative Agency. Normal’s Finance Director Andrew Huhn is on the Executive Committee. Normal is also doing their accounting while not bidding insurance purchased through them. The MICA website at best is lame, it doesn’t say if MICA is a non-profit or a corporation: https://affinity.marsh.com/mica/home.html. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember when CIRBN employees were considered Town of Normal employees with all the same benefits? https://blnnews.com/2021/01/15/can-you-tell-elections-are-coming/ When “professional staff” is your best buddy, all kinds of perks are available! Another “arrangement” you are supposed to ignore: This one involves the Town purchasing insurance from MICA – no bid contract. Review this story […]
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 See this previous story: https://blnnews.com/2019/02/07/normals-1000-memorial/ It does appear to be a memorial as requested in the obituary of the lady who died. She wasn’t local and I haven’t found any connection to Normal. Since the documents say this expense will be reimbursed by MICA, I filed one last FOIA. It was paid […]
