By: Diane Benjamin Since BlnNews has a LOT of new readers, allow me to briefly recap the lawsuit I filed against the City of Bloomington concerning the Coliseum. I filed a Freedom of Information request over a year ago for the concession reports from 2014 I also included a request for payroll records from 2014 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council meeting didn’t have much on the agenda last night. That usually means they are preparing big things for the next meeting. Your wallet isn’t safe. Public comment showed the deep divide between citizens and the Council. Think we are ignored by the people in Washington DC and Springfield? […]
Tari Renner made the Pantagraph top stories for 2015: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/plane-crash-mmna-among-top-news-stories-of/article_acfceb81-5fee-5731-96a1-a90e42aaadaa.html On BlnNews.com Tari was the number one most read story: http://blnnews.com/2015/02/11/tari-attacks-me-again-not-in-our-town/ Hopefully 2016 will be better. Happy New Year!
By: Diane Benjamin Last night Mayor Renner left the Council meeting – see video at 43:50. Shortly after Karen Schmidt announced that Tari had been feeling sick all night and wasn’t sure he would make it through the meeting. See the video here – just click play: . What that doesn’t explain is why Tari […]
By: Diane Benjamin Not by accident, since it’s close to Christmas and a lot of people won’t be paying attention: The horse race for your bucks starts at 5:00 tonight! Lane 1: City Employees . Lane 2: Storm Water Fund Lane 3: City throwing away more money to dismiss […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve heard reports from numerous citizens that attended Tari’s “Open House” Friday night. Tari claimed the City is suing the Coliseum. Meanwhile, Alderman Hauman is telling citizens the new CIAM contract will look much different. Maybe Tari is trying to pass off my lawsuit as his own. Tari? Evidently Tari and […]
Update: Gorman is an IWU graduate and employee. Is IWU a prerequisite? Diversity? How many IWU people are now in government? Renner, Black, Schmidt, Robustelli, ? By: Diane Benjamin Monday night Tari plans to appoint Michael Gorman to the McLean County Regional Planning Commission. This is the Commission responsible for Bring It Bloomington and bike […]
By: Diane Benjamin This fiscal year Bloomington began issuing monthly financial recaps. See this link: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=9043. September is the last statement posted, yes this is December. The chart below is from pages 11 and 12 of the September report. Enterprise Funds are not included since they are not part of the General Fund. (Solid […]
By: Diane Benjamin All the tax and spending increases since Renner became mayor he blames on one thing: inflation. See this report from the City website: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8145 Total spending for 2009 through 2014 is listed. Click it to make it more readable. Since 2015 has not been added, I looked it up. Actual 2015: 144,183,767 […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s no surprise Coliseum financial reports and audits going back to when it opened in 2007 are not on the City of Bloomington website. It’s easy to see why. Luckily, I have copies of what CIAM reported. For the partial year of 2007, total revenue was $3,469,708 For 2008, total revenue was […]
By: Diane Benjamin In case you forgot, Gabriella Calhoun is the young lady from the Denny’s incident that happened in 2013. Her case also led to the discovery of racists comments made by Sgt Shumaker that had been buried by the City. Sgt Shumaker wasn’t fired, he just got a letter in his file that […]
By: Diane Benjamin Steve Vogel announced in the Pantagraph today that Alderman Lower is expected to run for Mayor against Steve’s buddy, Tari. Remember his daughter was Renner’s campaign manager twice. Since Vogel didn’t add that to his story, I need to make sure you know the truth. Now it’s clear why Tari Junior (Scott […]
By: Diane Benjamin May 2014. Aldermen Lower and Stearns had a list of proposed cuts. Renner would not let them speak! Instead, Renner read a prepared statement. Watch the video: Little Scotty did an interview this week on WJBC: http://cdn.stationcaster.com/stations/wjbc/media/mpeg/Bloomington_Ald__Scott_Black_with_Terry_James__11_19_15-1447963935.mp3 Scotty happily bashed Alderman Lower, the WJBC host was happy to join in. I’ve never […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Tari became Mayor the citizens of Bloomington have been taxed to death: 4% Amusement Tax Utility Tax increase 4 cent a gallon gas tax 1% Sales tax increase Solid Waste Increase Other increases? Tari claims inflation is causing the budget woes. How about some facts! Some citizens have been pouring over […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nora Dukowitz was hired by the City of Bloomington to be the Communications Manger. Why Bloomington needed one is still a mystery. Hales claimed in this Pantagraph article that Nora would play a critical role in outreach to citizens, he also stated she would use social media to engage citizens: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/city-hires-communications-manager/article_f4bfe4e6-ec94-5cf7-a2c7-5c8a58a36771.html I […]
By: Diane Benjamin The citizens elect Aldermen to represent them. We could talk all day about who they really represent, but how can they represent the people when they don’t attend Council meetings? Last Monday Aldermen Sage and Black were absent. No mention of the empty seats – 2 of 9. The roll was […]
By: Diane Benjamin Name a problem we face today not caused by government. Bad roads, invasion by illegals, minimal economic growth, flat incomes, high taxes, unfunded liabilities, unfunded mandates. Another endless list. Tari’s mug is in today’s paper saying Springfield has to fix problems caused by local government. If the City never allowed employees to […]
By: Diane Benjamin I doubt you noticed, but I haven’t written about last Monday’s Council meeting. I still can’t convey the outrage I feel properly, but I will give it a shot. A number of items shocked me, it’s hard to believe the people claiming to represent you didn’t just immigrate from a communist country. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Open Meetings Act is law to prevent government officials from colluding among themselves where citizens can’t see the process of reaching decisions. Here is the opening text of the law: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=84&ChapterID=2 (5 ILCS 120/1) (from Ch. 102, par. 41) Sec. 1. Policy. It is the public policy of this State that […]
By: Diane Benjamin Alderman Schmidt was given a few minutes at the end of last night’s meeting to discuss proposed cuts by the Budget Task Force. She is the one who held her own meeting a few weeks ago and she drove the conversation last night. Tari put the Task Force together, but since the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington held a Council work session last night to hear plans for downtown. David Sage was absent. Do you have a right to know why your elected representative wasn’t there? 9 people are going to decide the future of Bloomington, if any can’t attend a vital meeting, and you can’t hear […]
By: Diane Benjamin This morning Tari was interviewed on WJBC. Listen here: http://cdn.stationcaster.com/stations/wjbc/media/mpeg/Tari_Renner__Bloomington_mayor-1445262152.mp3 Tari claims he doesn’t know all the details of the presentations to the Council tonight by two developers. He also claims Bloomington is “on the move” and that’s why developers are interested in downtown. Tari has been proclaiming since he was elected […]
By: Diane Benjamin Article #3000! Surprise! Yet another way to ignore what people say. Remember the Citizen Summit – it’s been completely ignored. Needs over wants. Fix the roads. I think the citizens were perfectly clear! A reader emailed me about an automated survey call he received, sponsor was Public Policy Polling. Questions asked were: […]
By: Diane Benjamin The vote to raise the Sales Tax was rushed through the Bloomington City Council on purpose. Normal wanted more money, so Tari fixed the vote for Chris Koos. The reason given was the County’s year-end – they had to have their 1/4% fast. Instead of voting on just the 1/4% increase requested […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Council meeting last night was short. The video is below. Public Comment starts at 4:05. I hear most of the Council was busy doing other things instead of listening to the speakers. There are some CAN’T MISS comments, including Judy Stearns, Alton Franklin, Gary Lambert, and Joe Walden. We always hear […]
By: Diane Benjamin I realized something this morning. I’m a 2nd generation American! There was only one generation of my family born in America before me. All of my grandparents immigrated here as children. Their families FLED to this country for refuge from European wars. I never knew my dad’s parents (long story), but I […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll for Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9193 Page 89 ADMIN City Council Expens Illinois Municipal League $ 310.00 IML Registration for Mayor & D.Hales ADMIN City Council Expens Illinois Municipal League $ 310.00 IML Registration – Alderman Mwilambwe ADMIN City Council Expens Illinois Municipal League $ (95.00) IML Registration Refund – […]
By: Diane Benjamin One of my readers sent the Sheep story to the Council. Tari responded with this email: From: Tari Renner <trenner@cityblm.org> To: Kevin Gerrard <redacted> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2015 6:39 AM Subject: Re: Fw: [New post] Big crowd, but SHEEP LOSE Kevin,You should tell your colleague that, as usual, she has her […]
By: Diane Benjamin Watch one minute of the video below from Monday night. Start at 1:49. Poor Tari, two kids in college. Yes, us parent who have PAID for college feel your pain. But, Tari has no pain! His kids can attend IWU for free! Even support staff can now send their kids to IWU […]
By: Diane Benjamin Congrats to the citizens of Bloomington who showed up at last night’s Council meeting. I hear the room was packed – all the way back to the windows. I occasionally heard some soft applause when an alderman stood up for you. Aldermen David Sage and Karen Schmidt were DYING for a way […]
By: Diane Benjamin Budget Task Force report: 4 meeting focused on cuts 1 meeting focused on Revenue The ONLY cuts discussed were cuts that have been discussed for YEARS: Make schools pay for the Resource Officer Make downtown pay for the Police Hire Back program – David Hales was charged with doing this years ago. […]
By: Diane Benjamin David Hales gives frequent interviews on WJBC, I’ve posted links to many of them. I remember one of his lines about the budget – but I’m not going to re-listen to find it. He claimed any cuts to the budget now are cuts to “muscle”, not fat. Of course he was lying […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll to be approved Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=9118 Contracted and Purchased Legal: CLARK BAIRD SMITH LLP CHECK TOTAL 15,122.10. ANCEL GLINK DIAMOND BU CHECK TOTAL 750.00 HEYL ROYSTER VOELKER & CHECK TOTAL 675.00 HINSHAW & CULBERTSON L CHECK TOTAL 2,340.00 MEYER CAPEL A PROFESSI CHECK TOTAL 587.50 SORLING NORTHRUP HANNA […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nobody gets fired. David Hales isn’t held responsible. It was just an accident that Wire Transfers weren’t brought to the Council for approval for YEARS. Nobody’s fault, just slipped through the cracks. Monday night THIS Council is asked to approve Wire Transfers from 2013, 2014, and 2015. They all weren’t members of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Another taxpayer asked IMRF for information about the City of Bloomington’s policy allowing pensions spiking. Remember this cost you more than $1.2 MILLION dollars. See the email below FROM IMRF. The RED and BLUE are from me. From: John Krupa <jkrupa@imrf.org> To: (redacted) Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 10:53 AM Subject: […]
By: Diane Benjamin The agenda for the Saturday Council retreat has been posted. They plan to spend the first 3 HOURS in a secret meeting to discuss this section of the law: Closed Session: Self-Evaluation of practices and procedures or professional ethics, when meeting with a representative of a statewide association of which the public […]
By: Diane Benjamin The citizens of Bloomington have a right to be angry. Renner appointed his own hacks to study the budget while David Hales tells them what to consider (certainly not the Admin budget!). The library wants to build while traffic is decreasing. Hales throws your money out the window so employees get higher […]
By: Diane Benjamin Pretend a big corporation has a CEO and a Board of Directors headed by a guy who tells the CEO what to do. Most on the Board believes anything they are told and never look for facts themselves. The Board fails to realize they have a responsibility to the stockholders, they happily […]
By: Diane Benjamin Friday the bird-cage liner did their weekly version of Cheers and Jeers. Make sure you are sitting down. Ready? They CHEERED the Bloomington Budget Task Force! Evidently they have changed the paper to the local comedy show. Hey Editor – How about asking Tari Renner and David Hales why a group of […]
Update: The City just sent their daily propaganda. The title of the Coliseum loss story: Coliseum 1st Quarter Economic Impact Are the citizens sick of being lied to yet? By: Diane Benjamin Both the Pantagraph and WJBC have stories today about another BIG loss at the Coliseum. Obviously the City sent them a press […]
