By: Diane Benjamin I really hope the Bloomington City Council realizes how foolish they were tolerating David Hales management of the City for over 8 years. Keep in mind they heaped praise on him and lavish raises while Council meetings dragged on and on with little being accomplished. Last night’s Council meeting was 45 minutes […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Attorney General’s Public Access office is investigating the Town of Normal for a meeting they held on January 18th. No agenda was posted for this meeting. That is a violation of the Open Meetings Act because the public was not notified this meeting was going to take place. The only information […]
By: Diane Benjamin The ruling by the Attorney General’s Public Access office against the City of Bloomington is completely meaningless. Read the entire ruling here: 17-004 The only penalty for the Bloomington City Council violating the Open Meetings Act by holding an illegal Executive Session is: The tape of the meeting must be released The […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the Council meeting two weeks ago, where City Manager David Hales got a raise, Alderman David Sage promised a speech praising him at the next meeting. That meeting was very lengthily, so he wanted to delay his accolades. Since every vote was unanimous Monday night, the meeting was short. Sage took […]
By: Diane Benjamin I filed yet another Request for Review with the Attorney General’s office asking them to investigated the Executive Session where the Council decided to disband Metro Zone. The conversations should have taken place in public, not behind closed doors. The City claimed “Probably Litigation” as the excuse for holding a secret meeting […]
A special 3 minute meeting was just called for later this week. Put approval on that agenda Tari! By: Diane Benjamin The last time the City Council looked at their Secret Meeting minutes, as required by law, they refused to release the old City Manager Tom Hamilton’s performance reviews. In other words, people still […]
Tari, It’s wonderful that the Illinois Policy Institute rated Bloomington’s website 100% on their 10 point scale. It’s great that citizens can see information without filing FOIA requests. But that’s just a website Tari, and only 10 things IPI thinks are important. You now have the opportunity to prove you are really transparent. (Of course, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Monday night: That’s a 2.3% increase. Yep, the structural deficit worsens because government employees get what the people paying the bills don’t. Last year Hales earned $239,274.54 when benefits are added to his base pay. http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=5443 I wonder what the vote was. Considering many recent Closed Sessions (Secret Meetings) have featured “personal” […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s a secret in one of their Secret Meetings (Executive Session): Funny how these meetings are so secret, the minutes can’t be released ever. Maybe the new mayor will release them.
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council only has ONE employee: David Hales. He gets huge raises around this time of year. Tonight the Council is discussing “personnel” in Executive Session. Since Hales is in charge of making all other personnel decisions, will the Council hand Hales another raise? Last year Hales was paid $229,615.36 […]
By: Diane Benjamin It should be clear by now that Bloomington doesn’t want taxpayers to know what they do. I didn’t file a lawsuit because Renner is transparent. The City didn’t hire a communications director to communicate, Nora is paid to filter and spin information. Now there is more proof – h/t JS. At the […]
by: Diane Benjamin Last November the Bloomington City Council held a 2 day retreat that included an Executive Session – a SECRET MEETING for discussing very specific items that shouldn’t be discussed in public. I want to stress SPECIFIC items. The list of legal discussion items are in this story: I’ve written about this […]
