By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://bloomingtonil.portal.civicclerk.com/event/4112/files/agenda/9284 Up to $50,000 for an audit of your sales tax mental health spending? Since the money has been stockpiling instead of being spent, $50,000? Money is meaningless to government because they aren’t spending their own. Why doesn’t this include 2025? . The only item on the regular agenda is: . […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/32213 Some city employees are still spiking pensions. They rack up leave/sick days, cash out a lump sum at retirement, and use it to substantially boost their pensions. State law changed in 2012 to let IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund) bill local governments for those spiked pensions—ones the governments never funded extra […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://bloomingtonil.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1021/files/agenda/6725 Justin Boyd is getting a Proclamation for serving 9 years on the Planning Commission. The documentation doesn’t say if he’s leaving or if he’s just being celebrated. My question: Is Bloomington better now because of his ‘Planning” than it was 9 years ago? Guess what’s back! . TEN YEARS ago […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/26488/637588526176300000 Wasn’t Sick Leave Buy Back abolished? Buy local? Not when Amazon can deliver office and cleaning supplies with a mouse click. This is what the City spent in one month: Even administration participated: Remember when the Coliseum was sold as it would pay for itself? https://blnnews.com/2017/01/28/coliseum-who-to-blame/ Hint: It […]
By: Diane Benjamin Someday SLBB is going to end. It cost you MILLIONS because employees were allowed to spike their pensions which meant additional funds had to be paid into the retirement system. Add that to the MILLIONS spent on a never used fire station and more spent on a never used water tower. Add […]
By: Diane Benjamin A little history: A lot of department spending at the City of Bloomington is done by PCard. Since December isn’t a month with conferences to attend and employees are more likely to take time off, it shouldn’t be a surprise PCard spending is lower than usual: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23757 https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23995 January: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=24210 February: So […]
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 From the Consent Agenda: https://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1063&Inline=True There is no such thing as 100% Green Energy – the label just makes it cost more. Read Book 1 of the budget here: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=24029 I wonder if Mike Matejka knows Jenn Carrillo attacks law enforcement for doing their job. Is that fine with Not In […]
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 Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23995 Agenda: https://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1059&Inline=True Congrats taxpayers! No employees are receiving Sick Leave Buy Back payments this time to spike their pensions. Don’t get excited though, you will be paying again: See PDF page 89 of the agenda. Denise Balagna will be receiving an extra $205.78 per month Joyce McKeon will […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23816 Celebrate! More pension spoking: Just a reminder of how much you pay for empty buses every month: Save these for when the reports gets posted, it will be a long time: Amelia Buragas isn’t on the Council – why is she getting a free trip from taxpayers? See PDF page 88 […]
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 A few of them that stood out: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23453 Bloomington taxpayers: If you had voted to abolish the Bloomington Election Commission you wouldn’t be paying this now: Community Relations? Is the tweet from the same Candacy Taylor? Payment #3 for improvements to the Coliseum. How many in total? How many more years does […]
By: Diane Benjamin Payments for tonight: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23165 Who did they pay moving expenses for in Administration? More traveling at your expense! The cost of auditing, don’t forget – they aren’t looking for fraud. Can’t announce a new season without a party! I wonder if there is a course in “Right Fit”? What’s happening at the […]
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 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22163 Does the message of MLK matter anymore? Is anybody judged on the content of the their character? Empire TIF payouts: Coliseum continues to bleed taxpayers, is the 3rd one to cover operation losses? Legal fees sent to Springfield is at least down a little: Nothing is on the calendar for 6/20, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Dan Brady: It took until last night to connect with Dan Brady about HB 2040. See this story: https://blnnews.com/2019/05/06/illinois-gop-a-minority-on-purpose/ He told me he didn’t hear any opposition to the bill, one of the reasons he voted YES. Evidently we aren’t a Representative Republic where the elected reflect the values of the people […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda and documentation: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21652 The agenda is slammed with final spending from the budget that expires 4/30/19 and spending from the new budget just passed. Either this never made the news or I missed it, a fire at Lake Bloomington destroyed two vehicles that are being replaced. The fire was in March […]
By: Diane Benjamin City of Bloomington AFSCME Local 699 ratified a new contract yesterday that eliminates Sick Leave Buy Back. The City Council will approve it Monday. Congrats to both sides! For once the City did not hire a Chicago lawyer to negotiate for them. That made a contract easier to achieve and saved both […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is what the failure by the Bloomington City Council to change the Sick Leave Buy Back policy has cost you. Penalties began to be charged in 2012, they are assessed for allowing employees to spike their pensions with pay for unused days off. Received by FOIA from IMRF: (the final cost […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21517 5 more employees are spiking their pensions- Sick Leave Buy Back: The $1,600 charged by the EDC (not including travel) so Tari could attend One Voice didn’t cover the expenses: Did you know when you use a credit card the merchant gets charged a fee for processing? Fees vary, hopefully somebody […]
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 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20987 More pensions spiking: (the penalties will come late) Coliseum continues to fleece: Employee partying, but called Community Relations. Were you invited? Springfield Law firm MONTHLY charges: I have no idea what this is, but Nov-Jan wasn’t paid until February? Is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and payroll for Bloomington Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20474 I wonder who taxpayers will be handing gift cards to: Green Top’s taxpayer 3 month subsidy: Celebrate! Four more employees spiked their already high unaffordable pensions so they get an even more unaffordable retirement at your expense: Agenda: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20488 Likely without discussion […]
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 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 Bills and Payroll for 6/11/2018 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18004 More Pension Spiking! 1200 hours of paid time @ $44.85 per hour. The second one doesn’t list the hours. More vote-buying with your money. They call it Community Relations to sound nice. Is Code Enforcement being outsourced now? Anybody want to FOIA? Huge Petty Cash at the BCPA has […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington knew the law had changed on pension spiking in 2012. They changed the policy for NEW hires, but not for existing employees. Here’s the recap: The IMRF retirement fund was tired of paying for spiked pensions because of Sick Leave Buy Back payments that inflated ending salaries. Since […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll for Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=14766 Below are payments to employees labeled Sick Leave Buy Back (SLBB). I don’t know what MO before the first one stands for. We won’t know what penalties the City will be forced to pay (for not changing this policy that allows pension spiking) until they […]
By: Diane Benjamin Sick Leave Buy Back will cost Bloomington taxpayers for decades. New employees are no longer eligible as of (I think) 2013. All other employees could be getting paid for unused sick leave when they retire. The City is too chicken to tell employees it isn’t fair for them to get a benefit […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Sick Leave Buy Back policy continues to kick Bloomington taxpayers. Hales gets a huge raise without fixing the abuse. Yes David Sage and crew, the Budget Task Force was a joke! It’s way to difficult for your elected “public servants” to look overpaid employees in the eye and tell them […]
