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 City of Bloomington has been found guilty of more violations, but this makes 3 that I either filed or was closely involved in the filing. This time it’s the library: Of course there isn’t a penalty assessed even though law specifies penalties are available. Laws only matter if us peons are […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve contacted the States Attorney’s office several times about public corruption cases. I recently received this email from one of their interns: Got that? Seems pretty clear – the States Attorney’s office doesn’t do investigations! Now see this Pantagraph story about the tragic deaths yesterday: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/police-chief-fatal-fire-appears-intentionally-set/article_77246b93-85ee-5e69-a96b-6de3fbc09d18.html Excerpt from the story: Maybe Jason […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s getting harder and harder to see that ANY laws matter, at least for government. Officials can twist facts, feign illness, and violate the law knowing nobody is going to prosecute. The Town of Normal Council is doing their part Tuesday night: I don’t know if this “planning session” has taken […]
Did Tari Know a large crowd was coming? It matters. By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Police Department was told loud and clear last night they were a huge problem. I wonder how many officers today are questioning why they are willing to die on the job to protect and serve people who despise them. I […]
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 Remember the two illegal meetings held by the library board because they weren’t posted 48 hours in advance? https://blnnews.com/2017/06/20/followup-illegal-meetings/ Keep in mind I notified both the Sheriff and the State’s Attorney’s office prior to the meetings, they did nothing to stop the crime of violating the Open Meetings Act. Law for government […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the agenda for the Town Council HERE One required item at every meeting of every public body is missing: Public Comment. The Town Public Comment policy is still illegal because it requires signing up 2 hours in advance and speaking only to items on the agenda. Since the agenda must be posted 48 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday I did not receive a response from the State’s Attorney or the Sheriff. The illegal joint meeting between the Council and the Library Board took place. Bloomington attorney Jeff Jurgens admitted in an email the two meetings now posted on the Library Board website were not posted 48 hours in advance. […]
I’ve said over and over laws are broken here because nobody will prosecute. Tonight’s illegal meeting will take place and so will the illegal meeting the library has scheduled for tomorrow. The Sheriff doesn’t care – he hasn’t responded to my email. The States Attorney’s office doesn’t care either – Knapp hasn’t responded to […]
Evidently someone at the library is pretending this was posted: I have a picture of the library website on my phone from this morning with a date and time stamp showing the first two meetings were not posted. Today’s meeting is illegal and so is tomorrow’s. 48 hours people! Do I need to bring the […]
By: Diane Benjamin BN Advantage was formed in 2015. Their mission is to get all the players together for collaboration on economic development strategy. The Bloomington Council approved the formation in October 2015, see this doc: BN Advantage I’m sure other area governments passed the same type resolution. Temporarily forget the fact that government doesn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Village of Hudson failed to post the agenda for tonight’s meeting on their website 48 hours in advance. It was finally posted to the website sometime yesterday. Problem: The Agenda that was posted on the door of the Water Departments is different than the one now posted on the Village website!. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2017/06/02/b-n-is-getting-the-delphi-treatment/ (It won’t be the only one!) The Bloomington Normal Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is trying to get out of complying with the Open Meetings Act. What does the Open Meetings Act say? OMA applies to all “public bodies”: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=84&ChapterID=2 I’d love to know what grounds they […]
By: Diane Benjamin If Connect does hold their scheduled meeting tomorrow, it won’t be legal. The agenda must be posted 48 hours in advance according to the Open Meetings Act. Nothing has been posted. Click here and verify the packet for 5/23 meeting is not listed: http://www.connect-transit.com/about/trustees/packet.asp Leave a comment below, I may need witnesses. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois Open Meetings Act Law: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=84&ChapterID=2 Monday night the Bloomington City Council is approving minutes dated between 1998 and 2009. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12450 Not approving minutes as required by law isn’t just something the City did a long time ago. Here is another example from April 11, 2016: September 21, 2015 just happens to […]
By: Diane Benjamin I would have loved to post comments from the forums held for the Council of both Bloomington and Normal, but there wasn’t any insight gained. Spending an hour listening the questions and answers doesn’t give the candidates much time to reveal themselves. Some are purposely hiding their agenda to get elected. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin For months Normal Mayor Chris Koos has been pretending with the help of media that changing the Town’s Public Comment Policy is his idea. It wasn’t! Today the Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion that slaps him around on numerous counts. (Did the AG suddenly start doing their job? Maybe!) Craig Stimpert […]
By: Diane Benjamin Every ONCE in awhile Springfield does something right. Bill HR3626 is on its seconding reading (it take 3 before a vote) to clarify the text of the Open Meetings Act. Illinois law is always written vague, seemingly on purpose. HR3626 states that citizens can not be limited to speaking (Public Comment) only […]
By: Diane Benjamin Is the Metro Zone fight between Bloomington and Normal REAL, or a campaign stunt? I’m leaning toward real. Side Note: Normal’s budget for 2016-2017 was more than $120 MILLION. The estimated $1.2 million Normal would lose from Metro Zone represents 1% of their total budget. The Normal Town Council had no problem […]
By: Diane Benjamin Complying with the law doesn’t matter when citizens “interfere” with government’s ability to do whatever they want! Normal is the perfect example. The entire Council, Mayor, and City Manager are pretending they asked the Attorney General to rule on their policy. They didn’t. TWO citizens want Lisa Madigan’s Public Access office to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Connect Transit Board met yesterday. They skipped meeting in December, so this meeting covered November and December’s activity. See the Board Packet here: http://www.connect-transit.com/documents/January%2024,%202017%20Regular%20Board%20Meeting%20Binder2.pdf The Board did a couple of things right: Page 20: Page 27: This travel expense law was passed to control spending in non-Home Rule units of […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader sent me screen shots of a conversation County Board member David Selzer was having on Facebook about moving the County Board meetings to 7:00 at night. If he hadn’t deleted the conversation, I probably wouldn’t be posting it here. Evidently Selzer knew he was wrong. More than one person was […]
By: Diane Benjamin In the last two weeks I have been contacted by many people in small towns surrounding Bloomington-Normal. They are tired of being abused by their government while information on spending is hidden. The latest to contact me is Danvers. The citizens have a new FACEBOOK page to spread information since Danvers doesn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Back in 2014 one of the guys that filed challenges to petitions for candidates in Bloomington knew the Bloomington Election Commission wasn’t following the law as required by the Open Meetings Act. Bruce Meeks filed a Request for Review with Lisa Madigan’s Public Access Office. In February 2014 the Attorney General decided […]
By: Diane Benjamin Back in June the Village of Stanford Board approved a contract to tear down a house after a presentation by a relative of two board members. The presentation and vote were not on the agenda, so that vote was illegal. See two stories: HERE On the agenda under Legal – Mark McGrath […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader sent an email to Paul Shannon at the Bloomington Election Commission detailing Bloomington’s Public Comment policy. He asked Paul why the Election Commission doesn’t have the same policy. This was Shannon’s reply: We are not funded through the city of Bloomington, but operate from funding with an intergovernmental agreement between […]
By: Diane Benjamin The integrity of elections matter. The reason for filing petitions to run for public office is to show support from voters. If any part of the petitions are falsified, signed by citizens not registered to vote, or not properly notarized the election becomes a joke. The Bloomington Election Commission is required to […]
December 7, 2016 BLOOMINGTON, IL. (ECWd) – We have already pointed out two recent examples of the Bloomington Election Commission violating the Open Meetings Act, and have also found another one – from 2014. The Commission admitted in a letter to the Attorney General’s office that it had violated the Open Meetings Act in February 2014 by […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Open Meetings Act was created to make sure citizens are informed about actions their government takes. Imagine what would happen if all government actions took place in secret and you got the bill for whatever they dreamed up! The Edgar County Watchdogs wrote an easy to understand version of the Open […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is the video shot by John Kraft of Edgar County Watchdogs at the meeting to hear the protest to Renner’s petitions. John kept the video running after the meeting was recessed. At 6:48 Jason Chambers, State’s Attorney, announced he was not going to intervene because his office would be responsible for […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this previous story: https://blnnews.com/2016/11/03/stanford-still-being-suspicious/ The presentation by Brad Hinch for demolition of the property at 310 N Kathleen Street took place at the meeting held on 6/16/16. The vote to hire Hinch took place later in the same meeting: http://stanfordil.org/id514.html That vote was illegal! According to the Illinois Open Meetings Act, […]
By: Diane Benjamin I won’t have to file another lawsuit for the transcript of the Executive Session that Judy Stearns walked out of. I now have it, parts are redacted. A link is at the end of this article. The meeting was held November 15, 2013. First, everybody in this meeting, except facilitator Lynn Montei, […]
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 Somebody at the City finally read the Open Meetings Act LAW! This note is included on the Agenda for Monday night: David Hales has an ongoing problem approving minutes. Last March I had to file a Freedom of Information Act for the minutes of the meeting held 9/21/15. What happened at that […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari was on WJBC again this morning: Tari Renner Bloomington Mayor 8-10-16 Starting around 12:40 Tari discusses the Liquor Commission yet again. Kudos to Scott Laughlin for questioning some of Tari’s statements. Tari is trying to justify the Open Meetings Act violations by using State Law. He seems to forget Bloomington is […]
By: Diane Benjamin This item was pulled from the agenda by Tari Renner before Public Comment. He said he would explain later. Watch the video below – just hit PLAY. The packet for the meeting has this explanation of the change: That’s important because the Boards and Commissions post agendas and minutes and are required […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Liquor Commission under Steve Stockton had 5 members. Under Tari Renner it only has three people, including himself. Tari controls the commission with one compliant person on the board who agrees with anything Tari wants. Rumors abound that Tari is going to BE the Liquor Commission from now on, nobody else […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday I posted the 2nd email Tari Renner sent to Judy Stearns, but I didn’t post Judy’s response. See this post: https://blnnews.com/2016/07/13/renner-emails-judy-again/ The original email exchange started here: https://blnnews.com/2016/07/13/renner-hauman-running-scared/ As a review, here is Tari’s 2nd email: Here is Judy’s response: The next Council meeting could get interesting! Maybe Tari can explain […]
By: Diane Benjamin My next lawsuit is going to be for the AUDIO of the Executive Session where the Attorney General ruled the Open Meetings Act was violated. I will demand the judge listen to the entire audio to insure the City doesn’t redact items that shouldn’t be redacted. Why? Stay with me: See the […]
