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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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. […]
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 […]
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