By: Diane Benjamin The City held a Citizens Summit. Participants sent a strong message: Fund essential services first – not wants! The City surveyed citizens. Citizens sent the same message: Citizens’ Priority Survey Results Citizens reiterated the same to the Council during public comment last night. Watch starting at 4:55 Following, Tari gave his State […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderwoman Stearns announced this morning on Cities 92.9 that she will not be seeking a 3rd term on the Council. The taxpayers of Bloomington will be losing their biggest advocate. I occasionally hear “Judy just votes NO to everything”. That’s not true, but she does oppose spending your money on Wants instead […]
by: Diane Benjamin Grants, grants, grants. Every level of government in Illinois is looking for grants. They are more than happy to take State or Federal money, complete with the strings attached. Indiana Gov Pence just refused $10,000,000 from the Feds: http://www.pulaskipost.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3356:pence-wont-seek-federal-dollars-to-expand-pre-k&catid=31:election He realizes giving the Federal Government more years to indoctrinate kids is bad […]
by: Diane Benjamin Alton has spent many hours at Council meetings. He has spoken many times during public comment. That is exactly why Renner would never appoint him. Franklin isn’t a potted plant. Stacking the Council because Renner has an agenda for the City is the master plan. Franklin would care more about citizens and […]
by: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington management now wants YOU to know nothing about the Coliseum. Luckily there is a lot of evidence they can’t hide. The Smokehouse grill will not be opening for lunch after closing for the summer. The calendar of events is on the Coliseum website. Very few events are scheduled […]
by: Diane Benjamin I’m sure you remember Professor Mayor Renner’s attack on Alderwoman Stearns during the budget discussions: . At the June 9 Council meeting Starcom came up again. Even though the money for the upgrades was included in the budget, the Council still had to vote to spend it. Yes, the spending was in […]
by: Diane Benjamin Steve Vogel was heavily involved in raising money for the original Vietnam-Korea monument in Miller Park. He was on WJBC at the time and he used the power of the media to raise a lot of money – enough to pay for the monument. He did a wonderful job making sure our […]
by: Diane Benjamin Since Mayor Renner completely controls the Pantagraph, today a Starcom story appeared. In case you forgot, Mayor Renner viciously attacked Alderwoman Stearns Monday night for even suggesting the program should be looked at. The Pantagraph did a nice job covering for the City, no mention of interviewing Alderman Lower about his comments […]
by: Diane Benjamin Maybe Mayor Renner thought he could take Alderwoman Stearns out last night because the media has given him very little push back. It was irresponsible for Cities 92.9 to run Renners degrading comments about Stearns and StarCom for 2 days without fact-checking the Mayor. After all, he is a well documented liar. […]
by: Diane Benjamin The most surprising part of last nights Townhall, besides the COMPLETELY packed room, was the number of people who think government knows how to spend their money better than they do. Around 40 people thought another $7 a month in Utility Taxes wasn’t a big deal. They almost demanded more taxes, but […]
By: Diane Benjamin This week both Mayor Renner and Alderwoman Stearns were interviewed on WGLT. The 2 points of view are very different. Listen to both, then comment below. Mayor Renner: http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2014/03/09381_03-31rennerqa_web_154436.shtml Alderwoman Stearns: http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2014/04/09397_04-01stearnsqaWEB_102634.shtml
by: Diane Benjamin Alderman Rob Fazzini spelled out exactly where Bloomington stands financially at the Budget Workshop on Saturday. Start watching at 3:08:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTvdmisMbPA&list=UUS8WR70NFd2XMmFYRDHEGEw While Rob did a great job spelling out how bad the city finances look, I don’t agree with Rob’s philosophy of borrowing more money to get out of the mess prior Councils […]
by: Diane Benjamin All of the following information was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the Attorney General’s Public Access Office. In November, when Alderwoman Stearns walked out of an Executive Session because she thought the discussion violated the Open Meetings Act, Mayor Renner all but called her accusations a joke. Let’s review. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari’s job as Mayor at City Council Meetings: The word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be “in the chair”, the person is also referred to as “the chair.” Parliamentary […]
by Diane Benjamin The opinions voiced by Alderman Stearns and Purcell were completely ignored by all other members of the City Council tonight. Steve Purcell stated he would be a NO vote to seat Mathy because the process of choosing him was unfair to Kevin Lower who actually got petitions signed and has been out campaigning for months. He […]
by Diane Benjamin According to an editorial in Sunday’s Pantagraph, 58% of voters surveyed think Illinois is more corrupt than other states. They sited some culprits – 2 ex-governors in prison and voter fraud across the state, but they miss the obvious – who is in bed with the politicians? Media. According to the survey, 41% […]
by Diane Benjamin Located by the entry to the Bloomington City Council Chambers there are two flags: US flag AND a UN Flag. The US Flag is NOT correctly displayed because the UN Flag is the same height! The City Council has been asked at least twice to remove the UN Flag. It is offensive […]
Some correspondence requested under the Freedom of Information Act was denied by the City of Bloomington. A complaint has been filed with the State’s Attorney’s Office in Springfield with the Public Access Officer. What are they trying to hide? The denial listed “personal information” as the reason. We are not interested in phone numbers and […]
