$51 million in reserves, raise taxes anyway

By: Diane Benjamin $51,000,000 is expected to be in the City coffers at year end. They have big plans to spend your money, none of that money can be used to pay for essential spending like Public Safety pensions. Your taxes are going up to fund them. The vote last night was temporary, the final […]

Bloomington’s short meeting

By: Diane Benjamin The regular agenda had NOTHING on it, the Consent Agenda was passed without any discussion. Since the City doesn’t want controversy at meetings, the two on one meetings held before the Council meets are used to pacify objectors. The video of the meeting is slightly over an hour, half of that was […]

Is Public Works sending a message?

By: Diane Benjamin The streets and sidewalks presentation from Monday night is now online: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/29386 PDF page 2 states Bloomington has 842 Lane Miles (streets). Below is the same graphic I posted earlier, except this one is readable – PDF page 12: From 1995 to 2022 Bloomington resurfaced a total of 359.6 lane miles. 27 […]

Also at Bloomington last night: Streets and Sidewalks

By: Diane Benjamin The report presented last night is supposed to be on-line, so far I don’t see it. Instead of posting reports before meetings, staff likes showing slides that are frequently barely readable on the screen. The presentation was very comprehensive! If you want to know about the roads and sidewalks, watch the whole […]

Bloomington festivities last night: Zoning doesn’t matter

By: Diane Benjamin Thank you Nick Becker for asking why the Bloomington Election Commission exists and why this redundancy needs to continue. See 1:57:45. Donna Boelen was acting mayor last night. She claimed she couldn’t vote, I remember other acting mayors voting in Bloomington. She is still an alderman so not voting meant her Ward […]

Bloomington: What you need to know from Monday

By: Diane Benjamin Note to Jamie Mathy: Future Councils are not bound by actions of past Councils. The Tari Renner “ramp” pension funding plan means zero if it can’t be afforded. Tari knew he wouldn’t be around to find at least $10 million more a year in the future. Renner already locked the Council into […]

Wrapping up Bloomington Last Monday

By: Diane Benjamin See 1:12:00 Tim Gleason tells the Council they can’t discuss the 2nd dispensary location because the city might get sued. You will never know the details of who is behind this location or hear if any ways have been found to detect drivers under the influence. Discussion was shut down by a […]

Part 1 of Bloomington last night

By: Diane Benjamin One Public Comment was exceptional last night. Gary Lambert speaks pretty often, always showing lots of common sense. Gary responded to something Mayor Mboka wrote in the Pantagraph wanting the State to quite keeping more of the local tax money than they used to. Gary threw that letter back in his face […]

Crabill wants reparations

By: Diane Benjamin This is a must watch video, it shows what representatives you get when everybody else is too busy to run for office: Jeff wants people who never had slaves to compensate people who never were slaves. His attitude towards blacks makes it sound like they aren’t capable of succeeding because of continuing […]

Mboka pretends he’s Renner

By: Diane Benjamin One of the policies instituted by Tari Renner was limiting discussion at Council meetings. Pre-Tari there were no limits, Agendas are now issued with the amount of time the Council will spend on each item. Why are your elected representatives not allowed to talk as long as they want? The Council represents […]

I can finally write about the meeting!

By: Diane Benjamin Let’s start with the City finally releasing the financial statements: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/27129/637709284831130000 This note was written by the auditors: Proving yet again laws are immaterial, November 22, 2021 is past SIX MONTHS. The City has now used the same auditor for 6 years. Since the audits aren’t looking for fraud, using the same […]

The rest of Bloomington

By: Diane Benjamin I wonder how many of the people with sewage in their basements bothered to vote in past local elections. I’m betting many didn’t because turnout is despicable. City Councils are the ones who destroy you the fastest, think Coliseum, BCPA, a never used fire station, and a water tower built to short […]

Bloomington Monday night

By: Diane Benjamin The interim Police Chief, Greg Scott, presented the departments annual report as did Eric West the Fire Chief. Both the police and fire have trouble staffing their departments. Highlights from the Police report: Selling on Facebook Marketplace has resulted in robberies. Cameras film the parking lot in front of the Police Station. […]

Bloomington: Start at the end

By: Diane Benjamin There are kots of other things to cover from the Bloomington City Council meeting last night, but start with comments at the end of the meeting. Mayor elect Mboka Mwilambwe proved he won’t tolerate Jenn Carrillo’s activism against other Council members. No mention was made prior to Mboka’s comments at the end […]

It’s on!

By: Diane Benjamin If you raced to the polls for national elections and proudly wore your I Voted sticker, your vote barely mattered. Your vote does matter in local elections! Many races today will be won by less than 100 votes. Turnout will be the only deciding factor. The elites and socialists are hoping you […]

Is Lawler a chicken or just uninformed?

By: Diane Benjamin Ward 5 candidate Patrick Lawler was supposed to participate in a debate tonight. Instead he posted this: Let’s deconstruct! Patrick isn’t interested in listening to Republicans. “Regardless of what party” is a load of crap or he would be there tonight. Patrick obviously only gets news that lied about the former President. […]

More info on local candidates:

If you want to hear from the candidates themselves, below are two places to find interviews with questions you would ask. These aren’t interviews with questions the old media asks. POD BN interviewed Ward 5 candidates Patrick Lawler and Nick Becker. They also have two of the 5 Ward 7 candidates: Kelby Cumpston and Mollie […]

To Lawler facts are immaterial + Ward 3

By: Diane Benjamin Two guys are running for alderman in Ward 5: Patrick Lawler and Nick Becker. Lawler is running with the local socialists and sides with the two already on the Council: As all Progressives, do Lawler now wants to “move Bloomington forward”, in other words twist and bend existing norms to fit his […]

Ward 5 Candidate: Nick Becker

Nick is running against Jenn Carrillo buddy Patrick Lawler.