Tag: public comment policy

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

WGLT: Mis or Dis information?

By: Diane Benjamin Maybe the League of Women Voters can investigate since they think they are the arbiter of truth: https://blnnews.com/2024/04/01/league-of-women-voters-squash-the-1st-amendment/ See this WGLT story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-04-12/mclean-county-clerk-addresses-disability-voting-incident-at-county-board-meeting Skip down to the Amendments sections: The Board didn’t vote to “relax” anything. They didn’t “waive” anything. The Attorney General ruled Public Comment policy that was in effect was: […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Tri-Valley will change Public Comment Policy

By: Diane Benjamin See the entire agenda here: https://go.boarddocs.com/il/trivalley3/Board.nsf/vpublic?open McLean County was going to allow a whole 15 minutes for public comment at meetings. So generous of them considering the County is huge and the population is over 170,000 people. Tri-Valley School District is miniscule in comparison. Below is what Tri-Valley has on the agenda […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Update: What happened at the County Rules Committee meeting?

Audio is now available – over 2 hours. I may or may not listen. The problem with audio is listeners might not be able to tell who is talking. There are three Public Comments at the beginning you need to hear. The first 30 minutes resembles “Who’s On First”. https://mcleancountyil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/10027 By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/05/weaponizing-the-county-board/ The Rules Committee met […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Weaponizing the County Board

By: Diane Benjamin Members of the McLean County Democrat Party on the County Board are proposing new rules for meetings and members. The new Public Comment policy allows citizens to sign up at least 15 minutes before meetings. However, the allotted time is still only 15 minutes, which is ridiculous for a county as large as […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Tri-Valley update to Public Comment Policy

By: Diane Benjamin As I stated in this story Erika Reynolds, State’s Attorney had not responded to my two requests: https://blnnews.com/2024/01/31/tri-valley-lost-my-trust/ She did last night. I not only emailed her directly, but I also sent two emails to the General address listed on the County website. (stateattny@mcleancountyil.gov) From Erika: Wed, Jan 31 at 6:44 PM I am sorry for […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Tri-Valley lost my trust

By: Diane Benjamin I lost trust in Tri-Valley a few years ago when they paid off some bonds and then put another bond issue for the same amount on the ballot. Evidently TV taxpayers don’t ever want to see their property taxes decrease because they approved it. In the next few years they are plotting to do it […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Guilty! County violated the Open Meetings Act

By: Diane Benjamin Public Access issued a ruling yesterday finding the County Board Executive Committee violated the Open Meetings Act on November 13th when they didn’t let Jackie Beyer speak. The County policy demanding people sign up 24 hours in advance to speak violates OMA. The County tried to claim that even though the written policy on […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Town of Normal last night

By: Diane Benjamin There was 1 Public Comment at the beginning of the meeting – Karl Sila. 1:45. Another person was prevented from speaking by Normal’s tyrannical policy until the end of the meeting. When it was finally her turn she wasn’t there. Liz Burton was called at 1:34:35. Normal should be ashamed of themselves […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Koos buddies can break the rules

By: Diane Benjamin h/t a citizen of Normal The video below starts where Chris Koos is introducing Julie Hile at 2:20:30. He instructs her that she has 3 minutes to speak. Hile starts talking at 2:20:48, she finishes at 2:25:30. Chris Koos: That’s way over 3 minutes. You didn’t stop her, therefore YOU have changed […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Proving yet again Normal doesn’t want to hear from citizens . . . .

Monday night the Town of Normal is finally “fixing” their Public Comment Policy. The Town is making sure it as difficult as possible for citizens: PDSF page 105: https://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/12612/Council-Packet–PDF Right now citizens aren’t allowed to talk about anything not on the agenda. That was obviously illegal and the Town knew it. Instead of just having […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal: The 7:00 meeting Part 1

By: Diane Benjamin Normal met for almost 4 hours last night. See the 6:00 pm Work Session story here: https://blnnews.com/2020/09/09/stealing-more-from-you-the-town-of-normal/ I’m going to start with the END of the regular meeting since I might have been one of the few still awake watching it. Chris Koos is attempting to fix his image since he was […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

UPDATE:  Normal’s illegal code

The Open Meetings Act applicable section was amended effective 1/1/2013.  That’s more than 7 years ago! _____________________ By:  Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal under the current leadership prefers to make up their own laws.  The most obvious example is their illegal public comment policy. Here’s another one: http://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/7697/Chapter-03—Council-Meetings-and-Ordinances?bidId= What does the Open Meetings Act […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

The saga of Monday’s Normal meeting continues

By:  Diane Benjamin Story #3 has links to stories #1 and #2:  https://blnnews.com/2020/07/07/trifecta-koos-now-lies/ The meeting was over 3 hours, this story means I’ve made it to the 8 minute mark!  Progress. 3 people spoke at Public Comment, two talked about the new soccer complex.  Doug Fansler spoke on more than 1 topic, the first being […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

More proof Normal knows they are violating the law

By:  Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal has waged war on it’s citizens.  Besides burying you in debt they want to make sure you can’t talk about it. They know their Public Comment policy is illegal. See this story 9/5/2019:  https://blnnews.com/2019/09/05/normals-illegal-public-comment-policy-2/ The Town knew LONG before the above – March 16, 2017! More than 3 […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Bloomington on Zoom!

By:  Diane Benjamin Citizens were spared from a long line of people wanting the City to fork over your money.  Most of public comment was emailed, those were forwarded to the Aldermen but not read out loud.  One of the comments was called in, the form aid would take is never mentioned.  Stan Nord also […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

The Normal circus last night – Part 1

By:  Diane Benjamin The Town posted the Work Session and the Council meeting together.  Since you likely don’t have 4 hours to spare to watch both, I will start with the Council meeting.  The 7 pm meeting starts at 2:05. Since Public Comment was outstanding, begin there.  Craig Stimpert was up first.  He was following […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal: Public Comment policy not there yet

By:  Diane Benjamin http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3307 Monday night the Normal Council will be asked to amend their Public Comment policy.  The original policy was written in 2011.  They were forced to change it in 2014 and 2017.  When government is FORCED to change, it tells citizens:  We don’t care about your opinions, we are only changing it […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

AG Investigating Town of Normal AGAIN

BY;;  Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal continues to have an illegal public comment policy.  Normal was forced to change the policy in 2017 when the Attorney General told them they can not have a policy that allows a citizen to only speak every 45 days.  Instead of slapping the Town’s entire policy into oblivion, […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Unit 5: You work for those paying the bills!

By:  Diane Benjamin The next School Board meeting is January 10th, 7:00 pm at Chiddix Junior High, 300 S Walnut St, in Normal.   Website See the Unit 5 Public Comment policy HERE Public Comment at every meeting of a Public Body is LAW.  It’s called the Open Meetings Act.  If you read Unit 5’s Public Comment policy […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

BREAK Normal’s Attitude!

By:  Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal doesn’t want citizens showing up at meetings like they do in Bloomington.  That is the reason their Public Comment policy requires citizens to sign up 2 hours before a meeting, not just walk in a fill out a card. Remember the November 6, 2017 meeting where your property […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal issues a GAG order

By:  Diane Benjamin Last December I wrote about Normal”s Public Comment policy:  https://blnnews.com/2016/12/06/normals-illegal-public-comment-policy/ At least two citizens of Normal filed Requests for Review with Lisa Madigan’s Public Access office asking her to rule on their policy.  I asked one of them if I could print both what the Town of Normal claimed and his response.  […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

County Public Comment STILL illegal

By:  Diane Benjamin The County Public Comment policy is hard to find on their website – so below is the entire text.  The first thing it stresses is non-members should be speaking in Committee Meetings instead of in front of the whole Board.  If Public Comment policy exists for Committee meetings, I can’t find it.  […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Normal’s illegal public comment policy

By:  Diane Benjamin This is a link to Town of Normal policy:  http://il-normal.civicplus.com/854/Addressing-the-Council The Attorney General’s office needs to hear from a lot of you today.  The policy is illegal and violates the Open Meetings Act.  The AG is required by law to resolve all Requests of Review within 60 days.  The ONLY way to […]