By: Diane Benjamin The PIN # of the property taxpayers are demolishing on W Jackson was corrected, otherwise the property wasn’t discussed. The contractor is required to pay prevailing wage since public money is being used. You evidently gave a present to the labor unions and the property owners. Congrats. For all the anti-religion people […]
By: Diane Benjamin Celebrate now Bloomington – your water bills will increase. The City did a study and you just aren’t paying enough as compared to other area municipalities. See 43:30 on the video below. Water rates haven’t increased since 2012, everything else the City charges on your bill goes up 3% automatically every year. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Jelani Day’s mom spoke at Public Comment last night via phone. Carmen Bolden-Day still has no answers more than a year after her son disappeared and was later found in the Illinois River. Carmen claimed she hasn’t been able to talk to investigators since February. She also talked about the handling of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Sheila Montney asked about the condition of Holiday Pool during discussions last night. That pool has the reached the end of it’s life too, Parks & Rec keeps holding it together. That won’t work forever. Both pools could have easily been replaced for what Bloomington is spending on a water park. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight’s packet: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1162&Inline=True Take a trip down memory lane to 2017: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/9854/636130888246430000 That link is to the proposed 2017 budget. PDF page 19 shows the General Fund including the percent held in reserves. The City planned to collect and spend $104,794,506. The RESERVES percent of the General Fund was 12.87%. Jump to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The entire Bloomington City Council meeting lasted only 56 minutes, almost half of it was public comment. There was a long line of people speaking against the license plate reading cameras that were on the Consent Agenda. That item was the only one pulled for further discussion. Mayor Mboka announced at the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Public Safety and Community Relations Board (PSCRB) in conjunction with Not In Our Town conducted a survey concerning the Bloomington police and what citizens want in the next police chief. The PSCRB held a meeting Thursday, the survey was discussed. Mike Matejka (who voted yes to building the Coliseum when he […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you forgot the demands of the local Black Lives Matter group, see them here: https://blnnews.com/2021/03/12/open-season-on-police/ Demands include de-funding the police 50% by 2023. Jeff Crabill took the opportunity last night to oppose the re-appointment of Surena Fish to the Public Safety and Community Review Board (PSCRB) because she dared to oppose […]
By: Diane Benjamin Consider: Alderman Jenn Carrillo wanted a “discussion” on defunding the police at the last Council meeting while presenting no evidence other than it’s trendy. Carrillo obviously hasn’t seen the crime statistics in cities that have taken money from the police. You can see here: https://washingtonwatch.org/democrat-run-cities-that-voted-to-defund-the-police-now-face-soaring-violent-crime-rates/ Other far left groups in Bloomington are […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin 45:10 Jamie Mathy reported Tari Renner was absent because of emergency dental work. Mboka conducted the meeting as mayor pro-tem. Maybe Tari will recover enough to prosecute more local businesses today that dared to ignore Pritzker. They must not be the “right fit”, kneeling and losing your business is required for that. […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hope the next mayor eliminates most if not all proclamations. Tari wasted a lot of time last night reading 3. Two of them were to declare the month of October something important. He made these pronouncements 5 days before October will end. Guess they weren’t important enough to announce earlier. Public […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to my millennial interpreter, this means happy and sad at the same time. The symbol is all over Uptown, there are also letters said to be a slur on police. Below are just a few examples: h/t: Two readers Maybe the Marxist teacher running for Bloomington City Council can provide further […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington is pandering to the far left radicals. Since regular people with common sense are not speaking up, they think everybody agrees with de-funding the police. (Figure out why the Police Chief retired?) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/discussion-on-divestinvest-of-police-funding-tickets-115500841125 While the City Council continues to hide behind computer screens because of illegal edicts from […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Public Safety and Community Relations Board met yesterday. Since “diversity” has it’s roots in DIVIDE, this board is the perfect example of what that means: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW-u2Zh6e8Y One white community member and THREE minority members. One member was absent, Jeff Woodard – also minority: Monday night Tari is making an appointment […]
By: Diane Benjamin Police reports: The Art and Camille Taylor incident These reports were received by the Edgar County Watchdogs, they forwarded them to me. If you missed all the previous stories these reports have the same information as the body cam videos. This story has links to all the previous stories and videos: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/24/in-support-of-art-and-camille-taylor-3-0-the-entire-police-interview/ […]
By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/17/racism-claimed-where-non-existed/ In spite of the title – this story is not “In Support of Art and Camille Taylor”. Below is the heavily redacted video released by the City of Bloomington of the incident described in the previous story. Why is it vital to know what really happened? Art […]
By: Diane Benjamin The third Monday of the month is hell because both Councils meet. Last night was over 4 hours I will never get back! Highlights from Bloomington: Yes folks, this is the spending plan for the next 20 years – for just water. I don’t think the never used water tower was included […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington Committee of the Whole tonight: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1080&Inline=True It looks like Mboka Mwilambwe doesn’t know the city is spending money taxpayers had to work for so the City can steal way too much of it. He wants to give employees another paid vacation day! I looked at 2 of the latest union contracts […]
By: Diane Benjamin The left is famous for “never enough”. Whatever goals they achieve they want more. The local police were supposedly so bad a civilian police review board (PSCRB) had to be established. It took forever before they investigated one complaint – they determined the police did nothing wrong. They had meetings, printed flyers […]
By: Diane Benjamin Monday night the City Council got a long report from multiple City employees on what is happening downtown this summer. Your large garbage pickup got changed to twice a year, downtown will see garbage and recycling picked up 7 days a week. The streets will be swept twice a week. The Way […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council is holding a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday. On the Agenda is: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21582 The circus continues with this next: This Board has heard ONE case since it was created, they found the police did nothing wrong. (Their investigation is a secret however) Do the residents around Orchard […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is a short video of an interview with a Dallas Police Officer. He claims across the country police have been forced to not do their job in fear of citizen panels instituted to oversee what they do. He wants to know how untrained panels can judge actions taken by the police […]
By: Diane Benjamin We know Bloomington’s Police Review Board (PSCRB) has been in existence for a year, held lots of meetings, prepared information for citizens, and has yet to hear one complaint. Anybody think it was set up as a “feel good” board and never intended to hear complaints? Now we will see if Normal’s Historic […]
By: Karen Miller On July 12, WGLT posted an article entitled “Year later, Some Want More Distance between Civilian Board and Police”. http://wglt.org/post/year-later-some-want-more-distance-between-civilian-board-and-police The Pubic Safety and Community Relations Board (PSCRB) was formed to serve as a citizen advisory committee to the Chief of Police and the City Manager, providing different perspectives on police […]
By: Diane Benjamin The majority of the meeting was spent talking about TIF districts. The City of Bloomington currently has two: Empire Corridor which is a massive area along Empire street, and Downtown Southwest. The City is trying to get approval from the other taxing bodies for two more: The old Junior High building area […]
By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2018/05/09/setting-wedges/ The majority of the minutes are now listed on the website for the Police Safety and Community Relations Board. They first met in December 2017, no minutes are available from that meeting. If you want to see the January 2018 minutes, you have to read the February packet. […]
See bottom of story for update. By: Diane Benjamin Remember when City hall was packed with people wanting citizens to oversee the Police? Remember this new Board supposedly only had the power to review cases after all other remedy within the Police Department was exhausted? The Public Safety Community Review Board was the first wedge […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15932 City Council Monday night: Remember the Police Review Board the local activist wanted? (Public Safety Community Relations Board) I understood this Board was created so after citizens exhausted all other avenues within the police department, they would have another place to go with complaints about the police. This Board has no […]
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 […]
