By: Diane Benjamin Tri-Valley held a school board meeting on January 18th. I attended the December meeting: https://blnnews.com/2022/12/20/tri-valley-zero-transparency/ All I asked of them is post all information the school board members see before meetings. They failed again! The agenda was posted, noting else. The Board has retreat schedule for January 31st. The agenda is posted, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Back in 2018 Tri-Valley got voters to approve a referendum: https://blnnews.com/2018/01/29/tri-valley-referendum/ The property tax rate would have gone down because bonds were paid off. Work was essential at the High School, some classrooms had been created with temporary walls. Instead of asking for money just to fix essentials, Tri-Valley asked for the […]
By: Diane Benjamin No recent reports have been posted to the website, I had to FOIA them again. Why is the City of Bloomington hiding this information? https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1993 Better sit down. Two events made money, overall loss however: $17,431.46 No events happened in June, July, and August. The City switches to billing taxpayers for downtown […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25362 I thought there was a deadline for City of Bloomington employees to retire if they wanted to spike their pensions, but evidently it’s still happening: These two employees will receive much higher pension benefits merely because nobody at the City stopped them. This fleece has cost Bloomington taxpayers MILLIONS of dollars […]
Renner’s open house will be by phone today: I can’t imagine what you could ask Tari, – oh maybe why the BCPA is not transparent? Wasn’t Renner Mayor Transparency? https://blnnews.com/2020/03/20/bcpa-resorts-to-deception/ How about telling Tari to scrap the $738,000 STUDY for O’Neil Park! They can no longer afford it!
The budget was posted hours after this story: Normal’s budget just got posted By: Diane Benjamin https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3566 Monday: Citizens get a whole 5 minutes to comment on the proposed budget! Bigger problem: The budget is not on-line! This is the notice: If you want to see how Normal is going to spend your money, you have […]
By: Diane Benjamin See yesterday’s story: https://blnnews.com/2020/01/20/ever-heard-of-the-public-building-commission/ Frist, there is State Law governing Public Building Commissions – it was enacted in 1955: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=683&ChapterID=11 Excerpts: They are separate from other government agencies They have to keep minutes, receipts and disbursement records They are subject to an annual audit They can sign contracts and borrow money I have […]
Jim Soeldner sent this link to a 2017 Pantagraph story describing the Public Building Commission. https://www.pantagraph.com/building-blocks-pbc-marks-years-of-construction-projects Evidently they have been violating the Open Meetings Act for years. By: Diane Benjamin I bet you thought the County was building the addition to the Law and Justice Center. Remember when your sales tax was raised to fund […]
By: Diane Benjamin Follow up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2019/02/02/bcpa-reports-mirror-coliseum/ Facts: The BCPA belongs to the citizens of Bloomington – not the City The BCPA is a WANT, not a need The BCPA has zero transparency unless I FOIA reports The BCPA doesn’t come close to breaking even NONE of the February event reports have been […]
By: Diane Benjamin Operations of the BCPA and the Creativity Center are looking a lot like a private club for the well-connected. Zero transparency existed with shows until I FOIA’d the recaps, all of them have not been posted. The last event report posted is from November. Obviously unless I FOIA the information nobody will […]
By: Diane Benjamin I filed a FOIA request for a recap of the Naked Magicians Show held at the BCPA. My request was denied because the report is on-line, I was directed there instead. Here’s where it gets funny for me, likely tragic for Bloomington taxpayers. http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1555 These are the only shows listed, no event […]
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