By: Diane Benjamin I have looked at numbers for many weeks and I’m not close to answers. I’m going to print what I know anyway. From Open The Books: Why did salaries increase substantially in 2020 and go down in 2021? I FOIA’d these salaries from IMRF: Three of the 6 show less income in […]
By: Diane Benjamin FYI: Committee of the Whole meeting information from 8/15/2022 is missing from the City website. Tonight: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/5a24c4d2-a62d-11ec-8a90-0050569183fa-36dc0a47-f3e1-4a7f-ab53-55227cac04fe-1660859356.pdf The mayor continues to reappoint the same people to Boards and Commissions, tonight the Transportation Commission. As a comment here stated – Renner is still running the City. Spending more of the free money that […]
By: Diane Benjamin On the 7/25/2022 Bloomington Bills and Payroll report was an Accelerated Payment to IMRF for $5,568.15. Since the Sick Leave Buy Back policy was FINALLY phased out, I FOIA’d information on this payment. This is the explanation I received from the City of Bloomington: Their note doesn’t explain what I received from […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/28152/637939229937530000 If using accumulated sick time to spike a pension was eliminated, what is this? This is spiking pension(s). Why the Bloomington Election Commission needs eliminated, the elected County Clerk should run all elections instead of unelected bureaucrats: Packet: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/5a20b9c4-a62d-11ec-8a90-0050569183fa-36dc0a47-f3e1-4a7f-ab53-55227cac04fe-1658440789.pdf PDF page 95: Looks like a Public Hearing on […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal is taking MLK Day off, the Council meeting is Tuesday night. https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4204 Were you invited? Get your gift card? Pam Reece keeps paying the ridiculous rent at 1 Uptown Circle 2 years after the council told her to fix it: Chemberly Cummings continues to feed kids at your expense: Think Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Buying a Rivian? How are you going to charge it? According to this story Rivian will connect you with a company called Qmerit: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/qmerit-ev-charger-installations-homes-141700627.html You can sign up and pay seamlessly on line to get a charging system installed in your home! How much will it cost? https://www.qmeritcharging.com/owner-faqs Installation: $750 to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=24286 PDF pages 47 – 58 show tons of REFUNDS. Most aren’t large but added together are likely pretty big. If someone wants to total them, let me know. Most are from the Ice Center and Parks and Rec. More Pension Spiking: Since MLK’s vision of America is now […]
By: Diane Benjamin Three people spoke at public comment in Bloomington last night, hear them beginning at 11:40. Gary Lambert spoke about credit card fees and the automatic increases to charges from Bloomington for services. He also mentioned the zoo snack bar, He would like to know how much money is being generated and if […]
By: Diane Benjamin No bills were approved at the last council meeting since it was held off-schedule for the holidays. Monday night $14,244,476.43 is up for approval. https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23691 As always, there was extensive travel. A lot of it is in the PCard spending, see PDF page 271 and following. 2020 starts where previous years […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1051&Inline=True Does the highlighted name look familiar? https://blnnews.com/2019/11/04/bloomington-fireman-5-gets-off/ You might have missed the Edgar County Watchdogs version: https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2019/11/illinois-state-university-police-let-fireman-off-of-alleged-dui-due-to-his-employment/ The BCPA staff uses this building instead of the the BCPA offices. No event reports have been posted for the BCPA since my last FOIA. Citizens have no idea what happens in […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22247 Tari and the employees had fun: Add the previous Hawaii expenses of $1,968.00, and Tari’s trip cost $3,892.50. https://blnnews.com/2019/04/18/off-to-hawaii/ This is what the Pantagraph reported: Pantagraph.com twin-city-mayors-focus-on-transit-climate-at-conference The cost of the CONFERENCE was $950.00. The paper didn’t include that part. What did taxpayers get? The bill? Remember the FREE entertainment […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday Alderman Jenn Carrillo posted a video on her Alderman Facebook page instructing illegals on what to do if ICE comes to their house or business. She claims she has been advocating for illegals for 10 years. She must think illegals all speak Spanish, she used both Spanish and English. Jenn is […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21959 Tari Renner’s list of proclamations will take longer than the business portion of the meeting. Public Comment will be interesting because Citizens to Ensure Fair Transit will be back. The Connect Transit budget is scheduled to take effect on July 1st with both towns having oversight. It has yet to be […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3274 Lots of travel and food! Note the funeral flowers – nice but not an expense government should be using your money for. Accountants take credit cards? Most send an INVOICE! Pension Spiking: Was this event free? More waste:
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and payroll for Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21241 6 more employees will be spiking their pensions: This is the penalty for the last group who spiked theirs: The legal budget must be running out of money, this is less than a normal month. I filed a FOIA request for the […]
By: Diane Benjamin If the residents of Bloomington still haven’t figured out the Council doesn’t represent you, watch last night’s meeting. The schmoozing was over the top with accolades for each other for everything but breathing. There were a few slaps in the face to citizens. The first one was made by City Manager Tim […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21131 The BCPA hasn’t posted an event report since my last FOIA. Transparency isn’t part of their game! Most artist fees are $5000 or less, not this one. Do I really need to FOIA every report to get them on the website? Looks like throwing parties for themselves. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll for Monday: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20735 Two more employees are spiking their pensions – this is the penalty charged to taxpayers When VenuWorks took over management of the Coliseum they wanted to remodel at taxpayer expense. The City borrowed the money from them for the remodel. These are […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20301 Ending Sick Leave Buy Back and the penalties that go with allowing employees to spike their pensions is not going to end anytime soon. What the Council passed recently was a dog and pony show designed to make you believe they heard your outrage. Monday night you will […]
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 336 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20206 Sick Leave Buy Back and the resulting pension spiking is finally being addressed (years late) Monday night. The law changed in 2012 to allow IMRF to penalize municipalities who practice pension spiking. Without doing another FOIA to IMRF, I believe the penalties Bloomington has paid are nearing $2,000,000. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20080 Celebrate: More employees getting a higher pension by spiking: SLBB is Sick Leave Buy Back – a penalty for allowing this will be coming I don’t know why they went to Indianapolis, the question is: Did they have to send FIVE? ↓ Agenda: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20090 Seriously? A liquor license for Game Time […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3047 The financial statements for the year ended 3/31/2018 are being released tonight. Six month old data isn’t ideal and would never be tolerated in the private sector, but at least Normal didn’t hold the information the way Bloomington did last year. Since Bloomington’s year-end was April 30th, their financial statements should […]
By: Diane Benjamin Spiking pensions in Bloomington has cost taxpayers over $2,000,000 since 2012. Spiking a pension means collecting more in retirement than employees are entitled to. Your government “gifts” them more retirement at taxpayer expense. The IMRF retirement system started charging for spiking when they realized the pension funds would not remain viable if […]
By: Diane Benjamin These projects will be approved Monday: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18366 Lake Bloomington Water Treatment plant roof: $323,139.65 Water Main replacement: $385,075 Professional Services to prepare for another water main replacement: $30,876.50 If the Council claims the Water Department funds are diminishing and therefore they have to raise rates: In 2013 $400,000 was “borrowed” from the water fund for […]
By: Diane Benjamin If the new City Manager is able to sell his house in Decatur, maybe he can take David Hales’s house off his hands. It is still for sale, reduced AGAIN to $245,000. It started at $279,900 last November. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5-Conway-Cir-Bloomington-IL-61704/76972678_zpid/?fullpage=true Tari’s favorite non-profit, Illinois Policy Institute, wrote about Bloomington’s new City Manager, it’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18132 More pension spiking: Connect Transit gets paid late for April: GreenTop got their tax rebate: Not sure about this one – City Sponsoring something at ISU? Springfield Legal got paid More of your money to non-profits: If referendum approves ending BEC, will this be compatible with County: Just the flight to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington has done nothing to stop employees from “spiking” their pensions. Besides collecting a higher pension for life at taxpayer expense, taxpayers are forced to pay penalties to cover the increased cost. The “spiking” comes from accumulating unused sick days. Bloomington has changed the policy for new hires, but they refuse to […]
By: Diane Benjamin I haven’t looked at the entire Bills and Payroll yet – it just got posted late this afternoon. See the very last page: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=17440 They threw away $135,015 on spiked pensions: . . The City of Bloomington government exists only to scam YOU. . . . . .
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16002 This is a wire transfer – no other information is available. Most likely it’s property downtown. The City is giving away more of your money: Remember when I reported on huge phone bills: https://blnnews.com/2018/02/23/they-had-to-have-bought-all-new-phones/ Sprint charges weren’t included in that story. The City has Verizon, Frontier, and now Sprint. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington changed the pension spiking policy for all new hires after they became liable for the increased cost – that was in 2012. The policy has not been changed for existing employees. Why should any person be entitled to a pension they didn’t earn? Employees are getting paid months before they retire for […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington does not act in the best interests of the citizens paying the bills. They act in the best interest of whatever votes can be bought, especially employees. The City will not be ending pension spiking any time soon because Tari doesn’t want to. In 2012 they ended the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The taxpayers of Bloomington have been abused by their chicken government. I’m talking about pension spiking. It’s bad enough taxpayers with no pensions are forced to pay for the retirements of highly paid city employees. It’s worse when they are allowed to increase their retirements at your expense when it’s easily avoidable. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight’s Bloomington Council packet contains this statement on PDF page 4: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12802 Now jump to the Bills and Payroll for tonight: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12794 PDF page 107 The City if THROWING away money by allowing employees to spike their pensions! This payment of $64,859.95 brings the total to $1,877,252.40 since the law was changed in […]
By: Diane Benjamin I will be on Cities 92.9 today at 3:30 with Ben Yount to discuss the future of BlnNews. Now for last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting: Bring in the CLOWNS! Oops, they were already there! Starting at 1:05, and ending 45 minutes later, the Council droned on about spending $300,000 at The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner’s claims to now be protecting the taxpayers of Bloomington in the Metro Zone flap are a joke. Why? Besides the fact that 5 Aldermen put Metro Zone on the agenda, not Renner – what happened to the letters Tari received at Rosie’s from citizens about their health insurance costs? We […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday the Pantagraph did a story about County union employee salary increases: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/mclean-county-highway-workers-get-raises/article_e1a807b1-6dcc-535b-83dd-f39b4b00079f.html This paragraph is in the story: Two problems: The City of Bloomington has been hit by at least 24 penalties amounting to around $1.6 million. (it could be more by now) That’s not “several”. Second, the County negotiated with […]
By: Diane Benjamin The daily rag has a new story about pension spiking at the City of Bloomington. In an effort to deflect from the City’s unethical practice of allowing employees to spike their pensions with unused sick days, they even call the practice legal. It is legal because Bloomington’s Mayor, City Manager, and Council […]
By: Diane Benjamin Luckily IMRF actually cares about transparency. Yesterday I filed a request for all the Accelerated Payments charged to the City of Bloomington because they are to chicken to change the Sick Leave Buy Back policy. Instead of the precious government employees being told the golden goose got cooked, employees are told it’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin See Bills and Payroll for Monday night – the LAST page: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=9535 Remember how Bloomington was exposed in the Chicago Tribune paying massive penalties for allowing employees to SPIKE their pensions? https://blnnews.com/2015/08/26/imrf-what-did-hales-know-and-when/ Remember when the Budget Task Force recommended fixing the problem but never did? Well, it just cost you another $122,735.32! […]
By: Diane Benjamin Even though Bloomington’s Springfield attorney (Jeff Jurgens) knew on August 24th that stopping pensions spiking wasn’t a violation of the Illinois Constitution, the policy still hasn’t been changed. See his email and IMRF response here: https://blnnews.com/2015/09/18/who-knew-and-did-nothing-imrf/ The agenda for Monday is on-line, nothing about stopping the rip off of taxpayers that is […]
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